(Late) July & August Favourites – Beauty

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Beauty products I’ve been using & loving all month(s)!

Mary Kay concealer, Rimmel foundation, Smashbox eyeliner & highligher, MAC blush, Essence eyeshadow

Face I picked up a new foundation by Rimmel when I was in the US at the beginning of last month and I’ve worn it almost every day since. In the bottle, the colour looks so beige that it’s almost grey, but still is a good match for my skin.  I got a shade darker than I usually would have picked up just in case my skin would darker over the course of the summer.  The foundation has a decent coverage, that is buildable.    Lately, I’ve been blending it with the Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream to cancel out the beige in it.  I’d just like to point out that I don’t find it diminishes the look of pores, at all, at least on me. Continuing on with face makeup, a month or two ago I picked up a L’Oreal setting powder/foundation at the drugstore and I’ve been using it with my Rimmel Stay Matte powder (in 001) to set my foundation.

I also rediscovered a new concealer that I used years ago by Mary Kay.  This concealer is amazing, maybe the best I’ve used.  I’ve been using the shade Ivory but I think it might be a tad too yellow for my skin, so I’ll go a shade darker next time.  The upside to having a yellow concealer, though, is that it cancels out redness and brightens at the same time.

In terms of eye makeup, something I absolutely love is the Essence Colour & Shine eyeshadow in the colour Milky Way.  This shadow is has a very similar texture to MAC’s mineralize eyeshadows; they can be used dry or wet, though I find the pigmentation is bright even when used dry.  I use this shadow for my inner corners to brighten the eyes and along the lower lash line and I’ve often been using it alone on my lids.

A product I’ve used every day is my Smashbox Jet Set Waterproof Eyeliner in the colour Midnight Black and I deem this eyeliner rollercoaster and beach proof.  Typically when I’m out and about while wearing eyeliner, if it’s a windy day outside my eyeliner will be completely smudged or gone from my face but this gel eyeliner solves that problem completely!  Only downside is it is very expensive and you can find other cheaper alternatives at the drugstore. I’ve been using tons of blues and greens in my eye makeup lately, especially the ones in the Cargo Los Angeles palette.  And I’ve been pairing those with the Essence Milky Way shadow or with a gold like in MAC’s Sweet and Sour mineralize eyeshadow duo.

Cargo Color Pallete in “Los Angeles”

MAC mineralize eyeshadow duo in “Sweet & Sour.” CAD$24 @ MAC

My blush and highlighter favourites are MAC’s Lovecloud (from the Tres Cheek collection) and Smashbox’s color wheel.  I’ve worn the blush every single day this month and I use the highlighter, which isn’t too glowy or pigmented but still has a nice sheen, whenever I don’t wear shimmery eyeshadow because I find the two over powdering together.

I can’t forget to mention my absolute favourite and most used product this month which is a lipgloss from Bath and Body Works.  The Cinnamint  Mentha Lip Shine is one of the best mint-flavoured, all all-around best lipglosses, I’ve used.  I’m someone who loves mentha lip products and this one smells and tastes amazing and makes my lips feel fantastic, so much so that I’ve used up almost the whole tube. It is absolutely worth the $7.50 regular price, though I got it in one of the 2 for $5 sales a month ago and now can’t find it anywhere. *sadface*  Edit: I recently found them again at my local B&BW! 

Lastly, I’ll mention a hair favourite.  I’ve been using a sample of Lush’s R&B cream for over a month now and I definitely can say it’s one of my favourite hair products ever.  The R&B cream is a leave in moisturizer/conditioner that you can put in your hair wet or dry.  It has the most unusual scent I’ve ever smelled (turns out it’s avocado) which hated at first and love now.  I really think it makes my hair feel much cleaner and it looks way better after a longer amount of time. The smallest amount goes a long way and the only downside for me is the price as it costs around $20 for a 3.5oz container. I definitely suggest getting a sample before buying the full size if you’re in the market for a new leave-in conditioner!

Haul: Drugstore & Inglot makeup

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I bought things.

Clockwise: Lip glosses in Candy Bar & My Favorite Milkshake, Inglot Colour Play Mascara in electric blue, Essence coverstick in True Nude, Essence eyeliner pen in black, Essence eyeshadow in Milky Way

I’ve really been wanted a coloured mascara for the summer and unfortunately the one I had used last year by Maybelline (from the Great Lash line in the colour “Teal Appeal”) seems to have discontinued and I can’t find it anywhere.  I checked online and saw that Inglot came out with their own line of coloured mascaras, called Colour Play Mascara and though much pricier than the Maybelline one (I got it for $14), I wasn’t left with much alternative because I haven’t been able to find any in the drugstore.

I bought the one in the electric blue colour; the other colours are purple, navy blue and emerald green colour.  Full review to come soon.

I picked up a ton of makeup from Essence, which is a brand that I’ve featured on this blog already.  I got lip glosses in 02 My Favorite Milkshake and 03 Candy Bar, a Colour & Shine eyeshadow in Milky Way (which has a similar texture to MAC Mineralize eyeshadows), a black eyeliner pen and a concealer cover stick in 04 True Nude.  In the picture below, take a look at the Essence lip gloss brush.  It’s made this way so that it can fit perfectly on the lips, though at times I find too much product gets on it this way.  On the positive side, the glosses are super pigmented, smell and taste decent and have a pretty good staying power.

Essense lip gloss “Candy Bar”, Inglot mascara

The mascara is a gorgeous bright blue that unfortunately loses a bit of colour after it dries on the eyelashes.

Swatches:

Left to right: Colour play mascara, Candy Bar lip gloss, My Favourite Milkshake lip gloss, Milky Way eyeshadow, Colour pen

Lastly, I got an EOS lip balm in melon flavour (not pictured).  In one of my previous hauls I picked up the summer fruit flavor for $6 but I’m returning it because I found the melon one for a whopping $1.

Prices (CAD$)

Lip glosses – $2.99
Cover stick – $2.49
Eyeliner pen – $2.99
Eyeshadow -$3.99

Colour Play Mascara – $14

You can let me know in the comments if you have any good coloured mascaras, I’d love to try them!

Out of the box: Julep Maven “It Girl” unopening

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Thought I’d do a quick blog post about a subscription service I’ve recently tried out, Julep. Julep is nail polish brand that also has lines of polish remover and other beauty items like face and hand creams.  I saw a coupon code to try out a starter box for only one penny, instead of the regular $19.99 – (the coupon code is “PENNY”). The polishes, on their own, retail for $14 each.
 
Just keep in mind that when you sign up for your first box, you are subscribed to them meaning that every month, unless you cancel or skip the month you will be charged the $19.99.  Here’s what my box looked liked when I opened it.

My Maven box came with three polishes and two nail separators.

The polishes come in a compact black box.  Every box has a card showing the polishes, with a description of each.

Left to right: “Sasha”/ “Daisy”/ “Lily”

These colours, all creme finish, appear different in person than they do online; the first colour, Sasha looks more pink-peach in the photo above but depending on the light, can look more orange.  Daisy, the yellow colour looks more like a mustard yellow in person. Lily the fushia is pretty true to colour, and looks almost the same in photographs as in person.

Julep nail varnish in “Sasha”

While I find the polish a good quality, I’m not sure they’re worth the $14 each. The monthly subscription service is pretty original; I don’t know any others that specialize in nail polish but I think that spending $20/month every month just on nail polish just isn’t in my budget.

Mini haul: Chapters

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Went in to buy one thing and came out with a few more.

Stuff from Chapters (Indigo)

1. “Tunes for Two” robot headphone splitter – $7

I had gone in for one of these to bring with me on vacation in case me and my sister both wanted to watch a movie on the computer and we needed to listen with headphones.  And it’s also a keychain, super cute and was on sale. Yeyyy.

2. Knock Knock Purchases record notebook – $3

Found this on sale as well.  It’s a notebook to write down spending, which I usually do on an Excel doc on my computer but I thought this would be good for travel.

Couldn’t find it online but you can check out Knock Knock’s website here.

3. Snack & Stack “Lego” cutlery set – $15

Got this to give to one of my friends as a gift.  Apparently I’m friends with children, haha.  It was $21 regular price with 30% off.

Get it on Amazon or at Perpetual Kid

4. EOS lip balm “Summer Fruit” – $6

I plan on returning this without having tried it because I’m having post-purchase depression due to the fact that I looked it up and realized it’s about half price every where else.  I’ve heard great things about the EOS lip balms though, so I definitely plan on trying it at one point.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading

xx

Haul: Bath & Body Works collective haul

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These are some things I picked up during a few trips to B&BW.  Couldn’t not take advantage of their sales!  As usual, all prices in Canadian dollars.  Product descriptions at the end.  Please click on the image to see a better quality.

This is about three different trips to Bath & Body Works.

Items & prices:

Full-size bath gels – $4/ ea

Paris Amour, Pink Chiffon (my new fav scent!)

Mini gels – $2 each or 3 for $5

Pink Chiffon, Carried Away (also purchased Moonlight Path, not pictured)

Mini Candles – 2 for $5

Ice Cream Shop, Malibu Smash (smells amazing!!!)

Select chapsticks and lipglosses 3 for $5. 

Mentha Lipbalm stick

Cinnamint Mentha Lip Shine

Mentha Lip Buffer – I’ll be doing a mini review of this too in the upcoming weeks.

 

xx

Mini Haul: Drugstore & MAC

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Just some things I picked up at the drugstore and at MAC.

I needed a new mascara and saw this one on sale for around $4.  Though I usually wear black mascara, I figured the difference would be pretty subtle and a brown might be less harsh and look better in the summer.

Maybelline’s Great Lash mascara (in dark brown). Try to ignore the failure of a picture on the right- I thought I had had the brush in focus but apparently not.

I’m not sure if you can see, but that sticker on the L’Oreal pressed power does say “regular price: $18.99” which I find SO outrageous.  Anyway, I found it on sale for $4.59 and decided to give it a go, though I’m still using my all-time favourite powder, Stay Matte by Rimmel.  My main problem is that I think this powder is a shade too dark for my skin at the moment, but as I get more tanned this summer that shouldn’t stay a problem for too much longer.  An overall good powder, I don’t have any big complaints but I don’t like it as much as my Rimmel powder (:

Now, I’ll be the first to say that I’m not a MAC addict; in fact, this is my first purchase from MAC.  I’ve never really been drawn to their products until recently so here’s what I picked up.  Swatches below.

(Click to enlarge) MAC mineralize eyeshadow duo in “Sweet & Sour.” CAD$24 @ MAC

I got this because I wanted a gold eyeshadow, as I didn’t own one already and I loved the green paired with the gold.  I’m happy with the pigmentation but these do not have a strong staying power; after I took the swatch picture, I didn’t even need to use water to get the colour off my wrist.  I have worn the golden part of the eyeshadow already, and with a primer the eyeshadow stayed put for the most part (and I didn’t notice much fading).  They blend nicely.  Main complaint is that the glitter falls out on the face a bit, but you should be aware of that happening when going to buy one of these.  I do recommend it if you like the colour.  I figure $24 isn’t a terrible price if it’s something you’ll get a lot of use of.

Two swatches on the right are the eyeshadow WITHOUT water. (Two on the left are with.)

Thanks for reading.

xx

Nails of the Week

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Happy Apothecary Tapping Tips “Paint it Red” and NYC “Brown”

This was the first time I had ever painted my nails red, and I hated it at first but it’s definitely grown on me this past week.  I love the combo of the red with the “greige” paint on the pinky finger- for some reason the combination seems like it’d be fun for a Christmas or Valentine’s nail theme.

As for the polish, I really like the formulation of the Happy Apothecary nail polish (red one), which can be found at Aerie stores.  It’s stayed on about 4 days without any serious chipping- at that’s without a top coat (as I hadn’t planned on keeping them red).  I’d say it took about two coats for it to be completely opaque.

The NYC polish is good too; it’s a quick-dry polish, went on opaque and I haven’t had any serious chipping either.  This polish is around $2 at your local pharmacy or Walmart.  The Aerie polish was a gift, but you can get it online for around $5.

xx

CARGO Color Palette Los Angeles- Review & Swatches

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Cargo Color Palette in “Los Angeles”

These Color Palettes, which retail for $28 regular price on Cargo’s website, come in 10 different “cities” and all have four (unnamed) colours in each .   Los Angeles was the only one I saw at Winners on sale for $8 (!), but no matter because after having looked at the other colour combos online, this one is definitely my favourite (though I do like the look of Shanghai as well).  I’ve been meaning to add a vibrant green-aqua colour to my collection and this is the perfect one!

The eyeshadows don’t feel particularly “buttery” or smooth, but they do go on pretty dark and I’m happy with their pigmentation.  I find that they blend well enough but do have a bit of fallout though nothing too serious.

My favourite colour is probably the blue shade, though I’ve had a problem where I’ve tried to blend it with a gold shimmery eyeshadow and it turns more of a turquoise shade 🙁  But that’s the only problem I’ve had.

Overall, I’m happy with this palette, especially because of the low price I got it for.  I would say that it’s worth the full price ($28) because you’re getting a generous amount of product – about $7 per shadow (not bad!).  If you think that you would use these shades then I’d say go for it!

“Los Angeles” swatches (the colours do appear more vibrant in person)

Mini Haul: Pre-vacation

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Here’s what I got:

Sandals

ALdo

Image courtesy of Aldo.com

I consider these a flip flop/gladiator sandal hybrid, which isn’t something I’m typically into but I’ve been looking for a flat sandal to wear around on the go and the white and contrasting gold studs caught my eye right away.  Also I figure they’d be a nice alternative to a regular flip flop to wear on the beach. And, they were only $13.50 (!!!) at Aldo, marked down from $50!.  Couldn’t pass it up.  They come in five different colours, so I’d check it out.

I also got some sunglasses.  Check them out on Aldo’s website at the following links:

“Katsun” sunglasses from Aldo Accessories, “Laborde” sunglasses from Spring.

xx

Haul: Accessories from Ardene

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I wanted to get some accessories for my vacation this summer so I decided to take advantage of Ardene’s 5 for $10 sale.  Here’s what I got. (Click the picture below to expand.)

flip flops, bow necklace, skull-patterned scarf

1. Turquoise flip flops

Most of my bathing suits have the same blue in them so these are perfect.

2. White bow necklace

I’ve been looking around for a necklace with a bow on it so when I found this gem for $2 I was quite the happy camper.

3.Skull scarf

I saw this when walking past the store on my way to work and was of couse reminded of the Alexander McQueen scarf that looks pretttty similar to it (for a much higher price).

This was part of my June Favourites.

4. & 5. (not pictured)

Big floppy hats.  One in blue (mine) and one in beige for my sister.  Gotta keep that sun away.

xx

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