Jan 30, 2011

Favorites

Hello my dear readers! I just created a post for you guys stating my favorites by categories (face, eyes, lips, nails, hair, skincare and others) so if you're interested keep reading. By the way, don't be shy to follow me, I'd truly appreciate it!

FACE:

Overall Company:
Maybelline  

Foundation:
Covergirl Nature Luxe foundation in Bamboo

Concealer: Maybelline Dream Mousse Concealer in light 2-3.5

Powder: Maybelline Dream Matte Power in Light 4.

Primer: L'Oreal Paris Studio Secrets

Blush: MAC in Style and E.L.F in Candid Coral

Bronzer/Contour Powder: E.L.F Blush and Contouring Powder Duo (the bronzer) and the contour shade in the Coastal Scents Contour palette.

Highlighter: 
Too Face Pink Leopard Bronzer (I know its a bronzer but I hate it as a bronzer and use the light golden colour as a highlight, its amazing!)

Brush:
MAC 187 & Eco tools Blush Brush & Coastal Scents Flat Top brush in the pink set.

Jan 28, 2011

HAUL: Sephora, Bath and Body Works & Shoppers Drug Mart

Hello to all my readers!!
I went shopping today and I wanted to show you what I got! I didn't buy that much so I guess this is a small haul, but I hope you enjoy!!!

First I went to Bath & Body Works, where I bought the most! I'll start with the exciting stuff: I got myself a candle (which is currently burning right next to me! yuuum). B&BW came out with loads of new candles for spring and they're practically all tropical scented. There was a 2 for $30 promotion and since I didn't want to buy 2 candles my friend and I each got one and saved $10 each (everything is more expensive in Canada..). I smelt all the candles and I ended up being stuck on 3: Caribbean Escape, Passion Flower and Pink Sangria. I wish I could get all of them since they were all amazing. My friend got the Caribbean Escape and I got the Pink Sangria. Pink Sangria smells like pure raspberries (which I ADORE the smell of) and sort of like candy. If I were to get another candle I would probably get Passion Flower. It's a bit less of a sweet smell but it smells AMAZING!


 I was in line and saw a 5 for $5 sale on select hand sanitizers. I can't justify having 5 sanitizers if I'll probably never use them up, so once again my friend and I spill it, she got two and I got 3. The ones on sale were only Christmas ones and Halloween ones that they were trying to get ride of.  I love Twisted Peppermint and I've really been using that up so I got myself another one. The name says it all, it smells like peppermint. I also really regretted not getting anything from vanilla bean noel so I got one of those two. All the other scents were Halloween so I just picked out a random one that is suppose to smell like apples, and since I love apples I guess ill like it!
 

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Jan 27, 2011

40 Beauty Questions.

Hey girls! I'm doing these questions so you can learn a little more about me! Feel free to take these questions and complete them yourselves. If you do, leave me a link and I will go read it. Enjoy!!!

MAKE-UP:
-What foundation do you use?
I use the Covergirl NatureLuxe silk foundation. It feels exactly like a tinted moisturizer and that’s exactly what I hoped it would feel like since foundations provide too much coverage for me! I love it! (I know I`ve said I don’t like buying Covergirl products because they test on animals... they claim that this product was not tested on animals.)


-How about concealer?
I usually only use concealer for under my eyes, and I adore the Maybelline Dream Mousse Concealer. (Why is it not listed anymore on the Maybelline website?? :O.. I hope it's not discontinued!)


-Do you know your undertone color?
Yellow. It could suck because most drug store products come in pink tones..

-What do you think of fake eyelashes?
They look nice if you make them look believable unless it’s Halloween! I wish I was able to put them on, but I suck at that!

-Did you know that you are supposed to change your mascara every 3 months?
Yes I did. I use so much mascara it dries out within 2 months so that's not even a problem.

-What brand of mascara do you use?
I bounce through mascaras so much that there’s not a brand I “use”. Right now I just started the L’Oreal Telescopic Explosion mascara (The one with the little ball as applicator) and I`m not liking it very much so far. I think I`m going to go back to Voluminous and I really want to try the purple Covergirl one. Is that tested on animals?



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More makeup questions followed by skin care!

Jan 26, 2011

My Top 3 Neutral Palettes!

When it comes to eyeshadow I love wearing neutral colours. Although some people may find them boring, I find you can do so much with them.I have so many neutral eyeshadow palettes since it is practically all I wear, and these are my top 3 favorite ones I would recommend for you girls!

#3- CoverGirl - Shimmering Sands

Is a trio considered palette? I do not care if it is or not, I worship this trio more than I worship some of my most expensive palettes. If you are looking for the perfect everyday colours from the drugstore, these are them! If you want to use all of the colours to create a look I would suggest the middle colour as the lid colour, the darkest one is great for the crease or/and the outer corner, and the lightest colour is perfect as the inner corner or/and the brow bone highlight. If you simply want to use one colour, all of them work great as lid colours. this palette is so versatile which is pretty unbelievable considering there are only 3 colours. This winter, I went away on a one week vacation with this trio and it was more than enough for me, I lost no time putting make up because it provides a quick application and also provides many different looks. The best part? This little trio hardly takes up any space in your suitcase or purse.

Now, lets talk applicator. The trio comes with a dow foot applicator. I always take those out of my palettes and simply use my own make up brushes, but for some reason I seem to only use the dow foot applicator that came with it for this trio. I think it might be because both sides of the applicator have different shapes. I always use the pointy side for my lid colours and the curved side for my highlight colour.

The only down side this trio has is that CoverGirl has been known for testing on animals :(. Companies who do this break my heart, and I try to avoid them. When I bought this trio I was not aware of this yet. Seeing as it was one of my beginner make up products, I didn't really know a lot about the details of make up companies. If I were to finish this trio, would I go and buy it again? That would be a very hard situation for me. This is one of my go to eye shadows I use and I love love love this product, but I also don't want to support a company that tests on animals, so for the moment my answer is: I don't know. I guess I'll decide that when the time comes. Hopefully by then CoverGirl will finally open their eyes and have changed their testing methods like most of the other drugstore brands!

If it wasn't for the fact that CoverGirl tests on animals, this product would be in second place. I love this trio because it gives you so many different looks with three colours. I feel as if these colours could work so well on most skin tones, and since it is from the drugstore its is more than affordable.

#2- E.L.F. - Beautybook Neutral Eye Edition



One of my favorite beauty websites to browse through is EyesLipsFace.com. The company has so many products offered at inexpensive prices, you can find some great make up products from them for a 1-5 dollar range. The only problem I have with the company is that their products are either a hit or miss. & when you hit, you hit real good. This palette is definitely a hit, you can buy it for $5 at Target, but seeing as I live in Canada, I bought mine for about $7 at Zellers (yes, we Canadians get overpriced with EVERYTHING). This palette that contains 12 super pigmented colours. Even if this palette has a retail value of $30 I would buy it, just because it is of such great quality and you get so much for such a little price!

The main reason why this palette is in the top three is not only because it is so affordable, but because 4 of its colours can create one of my favorite looks (the picture does not even give it justice compare to what it would look like in natural light!):

The colours I used (pretty simple) are the 4 pans from the second row down. I use the second colour in the row on half my lid, the one on its right on the other half, the dark burgundy (yes, its a purple toned burgundy) at the end as my crease colour and the light beigeish white colour on the right as my inner tear duck and highlight colour. Right there, for 5-7 dollars, you get a beautiful pink wearable look. I am completely obsessed with these 4 colours & whenever I go out I for a supper or movie I will create this in less than 3 minutes and get so many compliments for such a simple and inexpensive procedure.

If E.L.F products are available near you or you are willing to purchase it online, go for it, you will not regret it! It is so inexpensive and has so much to offer. These are some of the most pigmented eye shadows I own. Also, I was looking on the E.L.F website and noticed that they stopped selling this exact beauty book. They are still selling their Beauty Encyclopedias, which are the exact same things as Beautybooks but they come with two creme eyeshadows instead of a mirror and the cover is different. If you get the Beauty Encyclopedia and you want the some product im talking about, it is named the Basic Eye Edition. The reason why I own the Beautybook is because that is all that is being sold in Canada, and if you specifically want it I still see them in stores although they are not on the website.

 #1- Too Faced - Natural Eye

Sadly, this is not as inexpensive as my top 3 and top 2. Although the price is way higher than those two, I can't get enough of this palette. I bought this palette at a Canadian Sephora for $44, but if you live in America it will only cost you $35 (again, overpriced...). First of all, the colour named "Silk Teddy" is probably one of the nicest colours that can be found in my make up collection. It is for sure going to be the first colour on which I will hit pan, and as soon as I do will be going straight to Sephora and buying myself the duo in which the colour can be found. "Silk Teddy" is a beautiiiful colour, but the palette would not win first place in my top 3 for a single colour. ALL the colours in this palette are beautiful, pigmented, wearable, durable and, did I mention beautiful? The finish of the eye shadows on my lid are perfect, there is seriously no other word for it.

I only bought this palette a couple of weeks ago, but I have been looking into buying it for months. The only thing holding me back from purchasing it for so long was that I believed that I was crazy enough to somehow get a hold of an Urban Decay Naked Palette, which I have literally been dreaming about for the past 5 months or so. Once I finally put it through my head that it was not going to happen in the near future, this Too Faced palette became my consolation prize. A really great consolation prize. I am quite glad that I wasn't able to get the Naked Palette because I would have probably never gotten this one. (I am still interested in the naked palette though...)

I would love to give you a specific look with this palette just like I did with my two previous ones, but the possibilities are, no jokes, endless. So far, every look I have made with the palette involved "Silk Teddy". I also love using "Push-up", I would consider it my second favorite colour (too bad the pan is MUCH smaller). Seeing as I find "Velvet Revolver" too light and "Sexpresso" too dark for my crease, I have been mixing both and creating the perfect crease colour. You can really play around with this palette!

The packaging of the palette has a little pull out drawer at the bottom of the box in which you can find a dow foot applicator with a liner brush on the other end. I have not used either yet, but I think the liner brush may be useful for under the eye! Inside the cover, you can find little cue cards with different looks for different occasions that can be created using the colours from the palette. I think the looks they provide are cute, but I personally rather create my own unique ones. I really can't think of a single negative thing to say about this palette. The only negative aspect is that I am so obsessed with it that I am probably going to use up this palette very fast and once I do I will run to Sephora and buy myself a new one!


 

Bath & Body Works: Valentine's Day


I adore shopping at Bath & Body Works, especially since they finally established themselves all over Canada making it is easily accessible for me! I am not the biggest fan of their signature collections, with the exception of sweet pea which I love! What makes me love this store is their collections that introduce limited edition smells for different seasons and holidays. 

Guess what! Valentine's Day collection has arrived in the stores. The most exciting part of the Valentine's Day collection is their EXTREMELY CUTE hand sanitizers. I only own two Bath and Body Works sanitizers; sweet pea and twisted peppermint (I am obsessed with peppermint smells), so you would not think I would be excited about them right? But I totally am!!!

They came up with 5 new bottles of sanitizer and the stickers on each one of them are adorable, girly, cute and colourful, perfect for Valentine's Day! I also think I am going to love every scent, which is rare since I am so picky!  

Starting from the left of the above picture, there is "I love the bling" which is rock candy scented (bling=diamond=rock... get it?), "I love boys" scented to berry crush (boy...crush), "I love you" scented to sweet pea (I love you my sweet pea... nickname), "I love cake" scented to Butterscotch (that one is pretty self explanatory) and finally "I love shoes" scented to stylish strawberry (basic again!!!).

I personally find it so cute that the name of the bottles and the name of the scents mesh  together, it definitely captivated me when I realized! I am probably just going to end up buying a bunch of them, maybe giving them as little Valentine's Day gifts to friends seeing as they are so adorable! 

Tell me which ones you find cutest, and if you've bought any; which is your favorite?

PRODUCT OF THE MOMENT : CLEANSER!

 You better believe me when I say I found the Holy Grail of Drugstore face cleansers.

Let me start by a summary of the few cleansers I've used in my life. I have used Morning Burst by Clean and Clear for the most part of high school. I simply used it because that is what my mom bought herself, so she automatically bought it for me when it was time for me to start cleansing. I was not very fond of it, and I truely hated cleansing so much because of it that I would refuse to cleanse. I remember how much my eyes burn after cleansing my face with it and the sensation of it on my skin was not the best. 

One day during my senior year of high school, I was at the drugstore and noticed Aveeno products that looked very natural. I had never owned anything from the brand at that time, but I ended up walking out of the store with their Ultra-Calming Foaming Cleanser. I bought it with the hopes that it would not burn my eyes like my previous cleanser, and the only time it did burn my eyes is if I, by mistake, opened my eyes while cleansing. The product did give a good feeling to my skin so I was content with it. Today, I like to use this cleanser in the shower!

Now, to the final cleanser that has changed my opinion of what cleansers should be forever! (drum roll please)... CETAPHIL Gentle Skin Cleanser for sensitive skin (normal to dry skin). To be honest, I cannot even think of a single negative aspect of this cleanser (and trust me, if there was something I did not like, I would be straightforward about it). So, a few weeks ago, I was strolling down the aisles of Costco, and out of some type of impulse, I picked the product up and threw it into my grocery cart. SERIOUSLY OUT OF IMPULSE. I did not know what I was putting in my cart and why I was putting it in my cart. The things Costco does to your brain... 

I knew Cetaphil was a skin product company. I knew what Cetaphil bottles looked like, but I was never really interested by the company to start buying their products. I think the reason why I never considered buying something from them is because of their plain boring bottles. As a student majoring in business, I know it is a very typical behaviour for "teenagers" to judge a product by its packaging. If the bottle what a bright colour with a modern logo, chances are I would own to product, or atleast have picked it up at a store to read the back of the bottle. Now I will stop giving this product a marketing analysis.

So, I got home, unpacked my (reusable) grocery bags and saw the Cetaphil bottle and said "Ohhh yeah, I bought this". Then I instantly regretted buying it because, you know, Costco sells everything either in bulk, or in huge formats. So at this point in time, I have a 1L bottle of this cleanser from a company I hardly know, and I really dont want to adventure myself in the horrible Costco return lineups. Finally, I decide I might aswell start using it if I ever want to finish this liter bottle, and put in my bathroom.

That night, I washed my face with the cleanser, probably with the lowest expectations ever. First observation: I obviously open my eyes in the middle of cleansing, my eyes are not burning what-so-ever. Second observation: the liquid spreads so nicely on my face that it sort of feels like I'm giving myself some sort of face massage. I remove the cleanser with luke warm water, pat my face with a towel and return in my room. My thoughts: the cleanser was not that bad after all. A few minutes later I touch my face and WOW, it SERIOUSLY felt like a babies butt. My entire face was soft, it was not dry, it was not oily, just perfect.

Considering I did not have the best experiences ever with cleansers in my life, this cleanser tops them by 1,000,000,001 times! This was definitely the BEST impulse purchase I have made in my life, and I am seriously looking into buying their moisturizer and a bunch of other Cetaphil products because if they are as good as the cleanser, I will be more than satisfied

Maybe those $50+ cleansers are better than Cetaphil, I do not know, I have not tried them. But if you are looking into a good inexpensive cleanser, I recommend this one, especially considering I go a whole liter for $19.99 at Costco. I know they have smaller sizes at Drugstores and Wal-Mart. If you try it, tell me how you feel about it, because after all we all have different skin types! 

Jan 25, 2011

O.P.I Texas Collection!!

O.P.I does it again! They are comping out with a brand new collection title "Texas". I have to give it to them; they create the most adorable and hilarious names for their nail polishes. GO MARKETING! I feel like I find myself buying some of their polishes simply because of the names. Hands down, my favorite name of the collection would be "Houston We Have a Purple". I laughed for about 5 minutes just thinking about how funny and bright that name is. Not only is the name amazing, so is the colour! Second place in the name category goes to "Too Hot Pink to Hold 'Em". I probably would not love it as much as I do if it wasn't for Lady Gaga!

Now, lets get to the real deal: the colours, because at the end of the day you are buying a nail polish for its colour right? That is if you are not an easy marketing target like I am! I feel as though if I really wanted to judge the colours properly I would have to see them and try them on myself. Since I sadly can't, atleast yet, I will talk about those that intrigue me the most from the pictures I have seen! The first colour that caught my attention at first glance was "Don't Mess With O.P.I". It's quite funny considering I have never been into the colour green, and it is definitely one of the least popular colours in my nail polish collection. This green looks like a beautiful forest green with a tone of white added to it. I actually think that if I do purchase this colour it might become one of my favorites.

Second colour? "San.Tan-tonio". recently I have been obsessed with those muddy browns, grays and beige colours. This colour fits perfectly within this category. I was totally bummed out when autumn ended and the muddy colours were out of season, but trust me, it did NOT stop me from wearing them! Although I enjoy following trends, I will follow my personal taste first!

"Austin-Tatious Turquois" is a beautiful colour, and if I had not purchased "Yodel Me On My Cell" from the Swiss Collection, I would probably be interested in buying it. Since both colours are way too similar to each other, it is not in my colours of interest :(. Now, number 3 would be "I Vant To Be A-Lone Star" since it is quite the unique colour. I always wanted to buy "Sweatheart" which is a pink-ish white, but I was never sure whether this colour would work on me. I am interested by "I Van To Be A-Lone Star" because it is a blue-ish white colour. What if one day I buy "Sweatheart" and love it? Then I'll regret not having bought this limited edition colour! I am very confused as to what I want to do about this one but it has definitely caught my attention!!

That was my top three. If I could, I would probably buy every colour, but lets just say my funds do not permit it. That's the problem with limited edition items, you want to buy everything because you are scared you'll never be able to get your hands on them again. That's why I get extremely excited when I hear about a new collection, whether it is MAC, O.P.I, or any other brand. This collection is full of great colours, and I don't think it would be possible for someone not to like at least one of these colours.

If you buy or like any colour, leave me a comment, I want to know your opinion and maybe you'll even influence me into getting the same colours as you do!