Collective Haul

This is a quick haul of the things I bought since my last haul (March). I haven't had much time to shop so there isn't THAT much. Enjoy!

BabyLiss Pro - Hot Rollers

Bought on flatironexperts.com. My mom bought them so we could share them together.They provide amazing volume and you can create different styles with different roller sizes.

Came with 30 clips. Normally it comes with 15 but flatironexperts.com added 15 extra ones!

The different size rollers

They also had a promotion going on that if you bought over a certain amount you got a free mini KQC straightener, a thermal shine spray and a straightener envelope (my mom kept that). I wasn't even aware of this promotion so I was surprised by in when I received the package.

Bath & Body Works - Candles

I also got 2 candles, which I actually received as a gift from a friend because I brought her to a hockey game. I got the fresh picked cherries and the peach bellini! They both smell amazing and are true to their names!

Benefit - Highbeam, Posietint, Benetint

I always wanted to try the Benefit Highbeam and their lip/cheek tints. Sephora had an exclusive set of a mini Highbeam, Posietint and Benetint, so I thought it would be a perfect occasion to try them all out. I love all the products, but I especially love Highbeam and I use it every day!

China Glaze - Crushed Candy (crackle)

China Glaze is practically impossible to find where I live ( I had to do some extreme research to find retailers) but they happened to sell China Glaze crackles on sale at Winners (the TJ Maxx of Canada). They had every colour but I decided on this one because I always wanted to try For Audrey and it is similar.

Essie - Tart Deco, Turquoise & Caicos, Borrowed & Blue, Van D'Go

I went a little bit Essie crazy recently. I have been appreciating the brand so much lately. I've done a Nail of the Day for each of these colours I think.

Forever 21 - Love & Beauty - White

I've been wanting to get a white for a long, and I wanted something inexpensive. I guess I paid for what I got because this is pretty sheer. I will be looking for a opaque white because it is a very trendy colour A.T.M.

Garnier - Skin Renew - Undereye Concealer 

The picture makes it look smaller than what it really is. I love this, the colour is lighter than my skin tone and really brightens my under-eye area. It isn't the most opaque concealer but it is build-able. It also noticeably helps in reducing the circles and discolouration.

Hard Candy - Concealer Palette

I thought the concept of this was pretty cool. I just find the formula doesn't really stay on. I guess I just have to try and play with it.

L'Oreal - Voluminous Curved Mascara

I truly worship this mascara, especially the one with the curved brush. It is the most voluminous mascara I have ever tried. The name described it perfectly. I buy it in black.

Rimmel London - Lipstick - Pink Blush

I've really been into lipsticks lately. This is a colour beyond my border, a baby pink! I regretted that I never bought the Viva Glam Gaga 1 lipstick, and I heard this was a very close dupe so I decided to try it. I actually had trouble finding this, either the stores didn't sell this specific colour or if they did, it would be sold out.

Skin79 - BB cream

I always wanted to try a BB cream, and I finally found a store in my city that sells them. I picked up this one because I heard such great things about it. I love it, and I found it really helped in evening out my skin tone. One thing is that there is only one colour and it is light. It blends with my skin, but I noticed that in the sunlight it tends to make me look very pale. Since were heading into summer I don't want to create that effect so I'm taking a little break, but I will be going back to it in the fall.

Urban Decay - 24/7 Eyeshadow Pencil - Sin

I have fallen in love with the colour Sin in the Urban Decay Naked palette so I was excited to try this out. If you have tried NYX jumbo eye pencils and they creased on you, this product could be a better alternative to them (though they are much more pricey.) A lot of people use these as a base, but I found it dries really fast, so I use it as quick eyeshadow.

Urban Decay - Primer Potion - Sin

Clearly I am obsessed with Sin. I bought this because my regular primer potion is practically finished and seeing as I always wear neutrals, I found this would be great for me. It gives a shimmery gold-ish base to your shadows. Beautiful!

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Marble Nails: China Glaze's Bahamian Escape & First Mate

 

WOW, I am very impressed by the results of these nails! I've tried marbling twice in the past, which both ended in extreme failures. Finally I have succeeded!

I really wanted to have blue nails, so I used a sky blue and a dark creme blue. In water marbling I've noticed that the best brand to use is China Glaze, it speeds into the water perfectly. I'd suggest to test out the colours you want to use before the process because sometimes polishes just don't want to work. 

If you don't know what water marbling is, I'd strongly suggest you check out a tutorial on Youtube, there are hundreds. I find actually seeing the entire process is so much more educative than looking at pictures. 

No, I wasn't able to create perfect marbling. Sometimes I would tape over a nail or create a dent, but nothing compared to the fails I've had in the past! I tried to retouch my nails to make them look normal. 

Now that I am actually able to do water marbling, I am looking forward to trying to use more than two colours in the nails.

 China Glaze - Bahamian Escape
From the Blues collection

 

 China Glaze - First Mate
From the Anchors Away Collection

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Nails of the Day: Zoya's Phoebe

POP goes the Zoya cherry! It is the first time I ever bought/used a Zoya polish. This is the colour "Phoebe" from their Mod Matte collection. 

I personally love matte nails and lips but I know a lot of people don't. If your love matte polishes like I do, you should definitely try out this colour. It's an extremely bright sky blue, which is a colour I've never really seen as a matte, but it is beautiful & unique.

I also love how they mattified the bottles for this collection of polishes, I really really like the finish of them. This is seriously going to be my matte colour of the summer

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Day 30 >> 30 Day Challenge

30 Day Challenge

Day 30 - Your favourite nail design

WOW! I can't believe this will be my last post for the 30 day challenge!

This one is pretty simple. The nail design I love creating the most is zebra prints. I find they are so simple to create if you own a nail art polish, and they are super duper cute.

Whenever I do zebra prints on my nails many people ask me how I do it. They think it must take so much effort. What they don't know is how simple it really is ( I'll keep that my little secret ;) ).

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Day 29 >> 30 Day Challenge

30 Day Challenge

Day 29 - Lip product you can't live without

eos lipbalms 

I love lipbalms so very much & I would consider them my favourite kind of lip product. Now, if I had to pick my favourite lipblam it would be the eos lipbalms. I think the concept & packaging is pretty awesome, but the actual product does great things for my lips aswell. It really moisturizes and smells amazing. I couldn't pick a favourite in all their scents so I picked 3. Summer Fruit, Honeysuckle Honeydew and Sweet Mint.

I first noticed this product at Shoppers Drugmart when I was waiting for medicine and was strolling down the aisles. Obviously I had to stop at the lipbalms, and as soon as a noticed the EOS they looked so unique and fun I had to buy one. I fell in love and went back the next week for more. There weren't anymore and I never saw any again at Shoppers Drugmart.. I went to maybe 10 different ones and I never found another one.

One day I was in my local mall and went into a random clothing store I'd never been to before. I noticed they had eos and my heart almost stopped. Now I own 5 different ones and love them all to pieces!

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Nails of the Day: China Glaze's Crushed Candy (crackle) & Joe's Oyster

I finally tried my China Glaze crackle polish for the first time today! I absolutely love the colour, and I heard it was very close to For Audrey (which I have been dieing to find/buy). 

A couple of days ago I applied Joe's Oyster polish which I am pretty sure is from their summer collection. It's a foil silver colour that reflects cooper tones. I also found that if you looked really closely in the sun (like in the last picture) there were some pink, green and blue reflections in the polish. 

I got tired of it today but I didn't really have time to change it completely so I simply applied the China Glaze Crackle. I find the colours really compliment each other nicely.

 

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Day 28 >> 30 Day Challenge

30 Day Challenge

Day 28 - Brand you wish you could purchase where you live

There are 2 brands I would love to be able to purchase where I live.

 

 Sonia Kashuk is sold at Target. In general I wish there were Targets where I live (Target will be entering the Canadian market in 2014, WOOT WOOT). I always hear such great things about the Sonia Kashuk products that I want to buy everything from the brand.

 

 

 Barry M is a British brand and I've heard a lot of good things about it. Especially their nail lacquers, and seeing as I am obsessed with nail polish I'd love trying it out!

 

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Day 27 >> 30 Day Challenge

 30 Day Challenge

Day 27 - Your favourite skincare line

I couldn't post this yesterday. I basically woke up, showered, left my house and just got home now. I guess it's still yesterday in other parts of the world! Anyways, for this challenge I will talk to you about my favourite skincare line.

Well, let me start by saying that I don't have a favourite skincare line. I'll be honest and say that skincare is not my strength. I cleanse and moisturize and that's it that's all. I don't spend much money on the skincare products I use. I've always been fortunate with good skin on my face whether I wash it or not (but I obviously do for hygienic reasons!) So instead I'll just show you the products I use to cleanse & moisturize.

CLEANSER

I use the Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser. I heard many great things about the brand and happened to need a new bottle cleanser of cleanser. I was at Costco one day and I saw a huge bottle of this for $19.99, so I was like, why not?

It's great for me, but I wouldn't be able to give a huge review on it cause I really don't have problematic skin. No product has ever broken me out (except in high school when I got a vaccine and I was allergic to something in it, so I was broken out for a year because the vaccine was effective for a year..).

When I finish this bottle (in like 5 years cause its so big) I am definitely going back to it because my skin is as soft as a baby's bum after I use it.

Moisturizer

 I'm pretty sure most of you have seen Nivea Creme before. I've read that it was the creme with the highest sales in the world. I like it and have been using it for a long time but sometimes I find it too thick for my face. I think this is the perfect creme to put on your entire body but not your face. If your legs feel dry, this will do wonders to them.

I'm actually thinking of trying a new moisturizer specifically for my face. The brand Yes to Carrots (& Cucumbers & Blueberries..) has recently started being sold in my region so I'm thinking of buying their facial moisturizer. Do you recommended it?

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Nails of the Day: Butter London's No More Waity, Katie

O-M-G. I cannot believe I own this nail polish. I had been dying for it. The few places that sell Butter London near me never had it. I finally ordered it on the company's online website (they have an American, a Canadian and an UK website). I can say that I was the happiest girl in Canada today when I tried it on for the first time.

Lets start off by saying that I was completely obsessed with the Royal Wedding. Once it happened, it hit me, I NEEDED this nail polish. That is when my real hunt started

Also, how unique is this colour? It's not like anything I've ever seen before. It is a beautiful grayish purple. I find that in the sunlight (like in the picture above), the purple is much more vibrant than it is indoors. Indoors it looks like a very gray purple (right now I am in my basement and it literally looks like a dark gray, no purple). I really love colours that change depending on the lighting, you don't get tired of them as fast because they look different depending on where you are. 

Now lets speak about the glitter in the polish. the glitter inside is silver, but with the polish on top of it, it looks like a purple toned silver. the glitter isn't big, but it is big enough to be considered glitter and not shimmer. It is not chunky either, when you touch your nail, there are not any bumps because of the glitter. I find it gives an effect that is not achievable by putting a coat of glitter on top of a polish, the fact that it is mixed inside just makes it so unique.

Last but not least, the opacity of the polish. I felt like the first coat was very sheer. After applying it I thought I would need 7 more coats to make it opaque. After the second, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was almost opaque. All I needed was third coat to top it off. I think the logic of the sheerness of this polish is so you can see the glitter underneath. If it wasn't so sheer, it wouldn't be the same.

I also wanted to mention that this polish dried extremely fast, which is great because I wanted to go to bed right after. I'm truly happy about this polish and the brand (it was my first Butter London polish ever!!) I am definitely going to buy more Butter London polishes because clearly this brand knows how to be original!

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Day 26 >> 30 Day Challenge

 30 Day Challenge

Day 26 - Item on your wishlist

I've got a pretty long wishlist, and you'll be surprised to find out that the item I want the most is a simple $6 nail polish: China Glaze's For Audrey. The day I own this nail polish will be a very memorable moment in my life.

Why do I want it so much? I love Tiffany's & Co, I love the Tiffany blue, so guess what! I want the Tiffany blue polish! China Glaze is not widely sold where I live. I know a couple retailers of the brand but they sadly don't sell this specific colour.

I know, you're thinking; why not just order it? I seriously would, but all the websites I find that sell China Glaze are sort of weird and I don't know if I want to be giving them my credit card number. The legit ones overprice on shipping (especially in Canada, once it was $30 for one polish, like COME ON!) so I rather not get ripped off for getting something shipped 1 hour over the American boarder. 

I will keep searching for this polish. If you know of a good website that sells this polish and doesn't overcharge for Canadian shipping, then I beg you to tell me what it is!

 

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Nails of the Day: Fun Multicoloured Nail Design

Tomorrow I have an exam for my summer class, so this post will a quick one! I've been so busy lately with my intensive summer class, trying to have a social life and trying keep some free time for myself.

I decided to be a little creative with my nails and create a cute nail designed that involved a lot of colours. This is what I ended up with and I can say I am pleased with the result. At first, I wanted to use neons, but then I realized it wasn't exactly summer yet so I used pastels. I'll save the neons for a month or so.

I have gotten so many compliments on my nails in the past two days that it's unbelievable. I can't deny that they are hard to miss because of how colourful they are.

Here are the colours I used:

• Essie - Borrowed & Blue
• Essie - Mint Candy Apple
• Essie - Van D Go
• Joe - Faded Violet
• Joe - Butter
• Color Club - Nail Art polish in Black

Tell me if your interested from a tutorial, I can't wait to create these again!

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Day 25 >> 30 Day Challenge

30 Day Challenge
Day 25 - Favourite Decoration Piece in your Bedroom

 My walls are apple green

 I went to Paris two years ago, and I came back with a love for this city. Immediately after I came back I started decorating my room with objects that were related to Paris. One day I was shopping and fell upon this 9 piece frame, it was love at first sight. I needed to own this. It wasn't inexpensive, so I asked my parents for this as a birthday gift, so guess what I go for my next birthday? Of course, this beautiful frame. 

Each square pieces of the frame are about 10 inches long on each side. Clearly, the frame doesn't consist of only Paris, but there is also London which is totally fine with me because I adore London as well. Every frame has a prominent colour, either red, blue or yellow. The rest of the picture is in black & white. I really love the concept and it fits perfectly into my room.

The only thing about this frame is that it is a pain in the butt to put up. You have to align every since frame. If one of them is too high or too to the right: Houston, we have a problem1

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Day 24 >> 30 Day Challenge

30 Day Challenge

Day 24 - Favourite Candle

 

This one was hard because I love all of my candles. I guess my most appreciated one is the Bath & Body Works Creamy Pumpkin, which came out with their last fall collection. If you didn't get a chance to smell it, Bath & Body Works are known for bringing back scents, so maybe you'll be able to purchase it in the future. 

I'm not a fan of the smell of pumpkins, and although the name of this candle might say otherwise, I really can't detect much of a pumpkin smell in it. It smells like a mix of caramel, vanilla & cinnamon. It's also a little spicy, so it's not one of those girly cupcake smells.

I love burning this candle when I'm about to have some visit at my house. In only a few minutes my house smells like a bakery, and I feel like it's a smell hardly anyone could hate (everyone, boys and girls, always compliments the amazing smell).

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Day 23 >> 30 Day Challenge

30 Day Challenge
Day 23 - Countries you've been

I'm pretty sure I created this specific category in the 30 Day Challenge. I didn't create it to brag about the places I've been, I'm just really passionate about traveling and if I had to write a blog about something else than make up it would be about the world!

I've been so fortunate to be able to have seen what I have seen in the world. I might not have seen as much as some people have, but I'm very thankful to have been able to visit around.

Keep on reading!!!

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Nails of the Day: French Tips

Today I decided to be a little classic and give myself some simple french tips. These are by no means perfect, I did them fast and it's not like I am an expert at this. I simply used some tape to ouline my tips and put a few coats of a white polish until it was completely opaque. 

The polish I used is from the Love & Beauty brand which can be purchased at Forever 21. It's not too opaque and took approximately 4 coats to get to what I got. I just needed a white polish and this one was inexpensive, so why not?

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Day 22 >> 30 Day Challenge

30 Day Challenge

Day 22 - Your favourite perfume

This was one of the first perfumes I ever splurged on with my own money. Trust me, before I splurged for this I looked for the perfect perfume, and found this one. All the other ones where given to me as a gift before this one. 

I'd say that this perfume is both playful and professional. There is hints of fruits and flowers perfectly blended, which is topped off by a natural vanilla scent.

It really sounds like a summer perfume, but I wouldn't be able to pick a perfect season for it, it is a year round perfume for me. 

 

Next perfumes on my list: Dior's Hypnotic Poison and Katy Perry's Purr!!!

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Nails of the Day: China Glaze's High Hopes

I actually bought this colour a while ago but never got around to using it. I've recently gotten into a very summery mood where I want to wear everything coral so I decided it was time to try it out!

I'll start off by honestly saying that the colour that is on my nails was not what I expected it to be when I bought it. When you look at the bottle, it looks likes a creme coral pink that is close to a red. I fell inlove with the bottle right away because it made me think of OPI's Tropical Punch, which is one of my all time favourite colours.

On the nails, the colour is so different. I do not see a hint of that creamy tint found in the bottle, and there is no pink what so ever. Id consider the actually colour as being very close to a fire coral. 

I actually like it, and I'm glad that I bought it. I feel like if the bottle was the true colour of the polish, I probably wouldn't have dared buying it, so it gave me the opportunity to find a new colour that I have never tried before. 

I really don't like red polishes/lipsticks/blushes because they don't flatter my skin tone what-so-ever. This is why I am never interested in red colours when it comes to nail polishes. Now that I know the fire coral colours do work on me, I really want to experiment with the colour and actually try out more products with this tone.

Thanks China Glaze!!!

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Day 21 >> 30 Day Challenge

30 Day Challenge

Day 21 - Photo of the weather

I actually went out of town for a night yesterday so I took a few pictures on my 3 hour drive home. No, I was not the one driving, so this is totally legal :P. 

When I first left, although it was cloudy and windy, there was no rain. It was cold outside, probably around 10 degrees Celsius. Very chilly considering a few days ago it was 25.. WHERE IS THE SUNNNN?

Then it started raining. Thanks god we weren't in a convertible. 
 

Finally, we drove by farm lands for basically 3 hours in between the city where I was and the city I live in. In the picture bellow, you can see what looks like a lake. It's supposed to be farm land, there was never a lake there. There's huge flood in the area. HUGE. It goes on for about 30 minutes of driving. I feel terrible because you can see houses in the middle of all this. Plus they really aren't lucky, it is supposed to rain for the next week. :( 

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Crazy About Corals - Cheeks

Oh, how I love blushes. Recently, I have been abnormally obsessed with blushes. It is one of my favourite beauty products to purchase. Whether they are creme or mouse or powder I love them! And I especially love coral blushes!

If you want to see my favourite coral blushes, READ MORE!!!!

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Day 20 >> 30 Day Challenge

30 Day Challenge

Day 20 — Your favourite mascara

I love this mascara so much. I adore trying out new mascaras, but I always come back to this one. I specifically like the curved brush mascara in black. I've tried the regular brush as well as the carbon black one and although they aren't bad, this one stays my all time favourite. 

It kind of gives a clumpy application, so if you don't like clumpy mascaras then don't try this one. No other mascara has ever given me the volume this one provides, expensive and inexpensive.

If you want to read more about mascaras I've tried CLICK HERE

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Nails of the Day: Essie's Borrowed & Blue

Essie recently came out with a new Wedding Collection. I wasn't really interested in the collection with the exception of this colour. I do own a couple other pastel blues, but this one really caught my eye. This one is much lighter than any pastel blue I own, making it unique to my collection. 

I really love this colour. It will be great to wear all spring and summer. I've always found Essie as the best brand when it comes to pastels. Essie is quickly becoming my favourite brand of nail polish (I still haven't decided if China Glaze or Essie wins).

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