Makeup & Beauty Monday: Banana Bright+ Vitamin CC Eye Sticks
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I’ve got a few work trips coming up and I’m looking for some new TSA-friendly makeup.
This hydrating CC eye stick will perk up tired eyes after a cross-country flight. Key ingredients include vitamin C for brightening, light-reflecting mineral pigments for illumination, and caffeine for nurturing your skin. It comes in three shades so you can find the one that works with your skin tone. It’s also a “Clean at Sephora” product so you know it works without lots of hard to pronounce ingredients.
Ole Henriksen’s Banana Bright + Vitamin CC Eye Stick is $34 at Sephora.
Sales of note for 2/7:
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Nordstrom – Winter Sale, up to 60% off! 7850 new markdowns for women
- Ann Taylor – Extra 25% off your $175+ purchase — and $30 of full-price pants and denim
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything + extra 15% off
- Boden – 15% off new season styles
- Eloquii – 60% off 100s of styles
- J.Crew – Extra 50% off all sale styles
- J.Crew Factory – 40% off everything including new arrivals + extra 20% off $125+
- Rothy’s – Final Few: Up to 40% off last-chance styles
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – 40% off one item + free shipping on $150+
Talk me out of rage-quitting my job. Last fall a Big Catastrophic Thing happened because of a management failure a couple of levels above me. I could not possibly have predicted Big Catastrophic Thing or mitigated the risk even if I’d known about it, but my team and I were on the hook for cleaning it up and it threw all of our other projects out of whack. It was a miserable, stressful situation that no one should ever be put in. Management promised they would fix the issue that caused Big Catastrophic Thing, but so far they have not. Now they are insisting I move forward with another project where Big Catastrophic Thing could recur. Instead of working to fix the problem, they are now trying to pin all the blame on me. Just thinking about it makes me feel sick. I am looking for a new job, but the search is going very slowly because I am pretty senior and very specialized, so specialized that no one outside my niche field would ever even look at my resume. We can afford to live if I quit and nothing happens to my husband’s job, but we can’t afford to save or pay for major necessary expenses that are coming soon. I have to hang on, right?
Kid birthday party logistics– we were going to have a low-key playground birthday party for our two year old this weekend. I live in the SEUS. It is normally warm enough for something outside at this time of year but can be rainy– though that is true for most of the year. I was expecting temps to be in the mid 60s or high 50s at the lowest, but the forecast now says the high is 46.. low the night before is in the 20s. Party is supposed to be in the morning. Forecast keeps changing, but the temp just keeps dropping. Do I reschedule the party? It’s not supposed to rain… but this just seems too cold. I also just kind of want to get this over with because the logistics of dealing with our families for something like this are exhausting… and this is just such a low-key party that it seems almost overkill to reschedule… Our house is not big enough to have a party, so if I moved it indoors, I would have to do some play place, which would be a much more intense party than what I was trying to do. Thoughts?
My 3 year old is an irrational sociopath in the way that 3 year olds can be. He has chapped lips that clearly are painful to him, but we cannot get chapstick or anything else near his lips. Here is what we tried: offering different kinds of chapstick/lip ointment, rationalizing with him, giving it to him to put on, letting him put it on us, giving him something oily to eat, buying chocolate flavored chapstick (this worked once but has since been unsuccessful), putting it on him anyway (he flips out and wipes it off, then he looks like the joker because he has blood on his cheeks from his lips), putting it on my lips and kissing him, and putting it on while he sleeps (this works but we need to do it more often and he doesn’t nap). What else can I try? We’re all suffering because he is so whiny.
My kid started out at our neighborhood school, then after COVID started was diagnosed as having autism and went to a much smaller public school across town. Now, approaching middle school, kiddo has not kept up with any of the neighborhood school kids. Likely no one’s fault — kids didn’t have cell phones prior to COVID, activities don’t overlap. Kids will be back at neighborhood middle school. Are they too old to try to reconnect them before school starts next fall? I still have the parents’ numbers but don’t naturally run across them. Or are they too old and just leave it alone? I feel bad that kid, who struggles to have acquaintences, will start at a new school where most kids have been tight since K and she will be the odd man out. Kids are really mean, especially to a kid with autism who presents differently but is fundamentally a great kid and very loyal.
Familiar story but spouse has Covid, got sick Friday afternoon and has been basement quarantining since then. Our thinking is it’s worth it to not have the kids miss 5-10 days of school, and I’ve had 6-12 month illnesses in the past and do not feel like risking repeating that if it’s not super hard to avoid it, but … so many decisions now!! How long do we keep this up? I guess I’m thinking 5 days then masking, but I’d also HATE to have done the hard part of quarantining him (kids are 4 and 7 and are not handling this well) and then have us get sick anyway on day 7 or 8. Ugh. What have you done?
5 year old daughter’s best friend is the queen bee of the class and seems to often tell my kid she won’t play with her and ignores her, other times they are thick as thieves. It almost feels like my daughter has to earn her affection. Have seen the two of them being controlling of a third child, as well. My daughter is stressed from this “friendship” and when we talk about telling people you don’t like when they say unkind things she quickly says well then queen bee will not be my friend. I witnessed this during a group gathering where my child was crying while this girl stood there smirking. Her mom intervened and said the right things about being kind. But yeah.
We are working on building confidence but jeez I just do not like this dynamic and as much as she says the kid is her BF- the relationship seems to be not great for my daughter.
Advice and commiseration? I did set up a meeting with teacher later this week.
Any tips for staying in a studio / hotel room with a 4 year old? We’re booking a week at the beach this summer but couldn’t get a bigger room this year.
We’re planning a trip to Maine for July. Tentatively planning on flying in to Boston and driving from there. Portland and Bar Harbor/Acadia NP on the list. Kids will be 3 and 6 at the time and are excellent travelers and road trippers. Would love your recommendations of what to see/do that’s kid friendly.
Advice on where to shop for my very tall 7 year old girl? She is tall and thin and only wants to wear dresses but they are always just a bit too short. If I size up, then they are long enough but too big overall. Target usually has dresses that are long enough but they don’t have a lot of variety in styles (kid doesn’t like maxi dresses, prefers at or just above the knee). Boden is too short, Zara has weird styles, Old Navy is too short, Gap is too big/short . . . suggestions? I’m really annoyed at the lack of options for dresses that don’t have weird cutouts at the waist or weird strap situations. A lot of styles for elementary age girls look like things teenagers should wear, not little kids. (And I promise I’m not a prude, I just don’t want my 7 year old to dress like a 17 yo).
Fun (?) post: what do you know now as a parent that you never expected before having kids?
Eg.
– I didn’t know/really understand what it would be like to have to provide meals for an entire family every single day for the rest of their lives. I feel like half my conversations with DH are around meals!
– living with 3 kids and a spouse is not unlike living in a frat house. 5 people, 5 personalities, dozens of preferences on food, entertainment, clothing, sports teams- it’s nuts. The older the kids get the weirder it is to me that I’m living with 4 other full on humans with their own interests. (Recent example: DH and I are not sports fans. My oldest, who happens to be a girl, is a crazed sports fan. I didn’t realize how much she pays attention until we swapped around streaming and had major issues! Whoops! I felt terrible!)
– laundry. Oh my god the laundry. It never ends. Once the clothes are done then we have to do sheets. “Do we ever NOT have to do laundry?” – my 10 year old.
– I know kids are expensive. I knew that before we had them. What I never realized was that I would have to proactively clothe them. The right size clothes and shoes every season for the rest of their lives. Like, never realized I’d spent every season buying a new wardrobe for at least one kid. I spent an entire day shopping and my kids still aren’t ready for spring! This one is a time thing, not a money thing.
– you really have to work to make time for extended family. All those holidays you had as a kid didn’t just happen. Someone had to host!
– every single holiday involves candy. I just bought leprechaun gold and already the Easter candy is out. I’m surprised there aren’t Memorial Day chocolates.
I know we talk about this all the time but man, everything for summer fills up so fast. Do people book AirBnB’s a year out?! I feel like I am behind already.
What are your kids into these days?
My son, after a solid year of Ninjago obsession, has abandoned Jay, Kai, and Sensei Wu, for How to Train Your Dragon. The audiobooks are voiced by David Tennant. Suddenly he’s making viking maps, and plotting how to get to London to see the Viking ship at the British museum.
what do your kids use to transport their wet bathing suits and towels from summer camp? do they use wet dry bags? are those just another thing to wash? and if they do use those, how many do you have? better off just using one of the random target plastic bags i have.
A tale of two play dates.
Kid #1: first time at our house but kids get along great. Listening to him play with my oldest, there was a lot of ‘wow, great job! That’s super cool! Oh awesome, can you teach me that?’
My kid has a great night and a happy, calm morning.
Kid #2: neighbor kid who begs to come over. Boys get along but… kid #2 must dictate how everyone plays and gets FURIOUS and tantrums if people don’t do what he wants to do. Listening to him do the same activity with my kid, I hear him taunting and teasing and being rude. I had to intervene because kid #2 was expecting my kid to watch him play on his game vs doing something together.
Afterwards, my kid is a rude, obnoxious jerk.
We talked a lot about how it felt and how it felt better when we lift people up vs. push them down. My kid regulated. But…. DANG. I was reminded why I hate having kid #2 over. (He’s also an indoor cat and tantrums when I try to get them to go play outside… so that’s great.)
I am especially proud of how on-theme (if not corny) the easter baskets for my tween/teen niblings have been over the past couple years. Thought I would share some of my favorite items:
TONYMOLY Bunny Solid Perfume Sticks
Socksmith Deviled Eggs Socks
Disney Thumper Rabbit Makeup Headband
Set of floral essential oils
Yes to Carrots face mask
the Creme shop bunny hand cream
Rabbit Rabbit trivia game
Tamagotchi