I know that this brush is meant for putting on foundation, but I use it for putting on my blush. It’s the perfect size for dipping into my favourite Bobbi Brown blush and then tapping on to my cheeks. I use it in almost all my videos where I do my makeup.
All the Make Up For Ever brushes are vegan, and they are really soft and fluffy. I actually prefer them to most other brushes that I’ve tried.
$63 at Sephora or where Make Up For Ever is sold.
Face oils are so popular right now and they’re awesome even if you have oily skin (which I do). They are great for sealing in moisture and hydration and I really love using them at all times of the year. You can even put them on under sunscreen which gives your skin a really nice dewy glow.
The key ingredient in Fresh’s Seaberry oil is Sea Buckthorn Oil which is really rich in omegas. Combined with grape seed oil and sweet almond oil, this makes for a really nice rich oil that helps protect skin from dryness.
You can see that the bottle I have is quite small – it’s 15ml instead of the usual 50ml – and that’s because I got it in a gift set over Christmas.
You can get the full size at Sephora and wherever else Fresh products are sold.
$70 for 50mL.
This is the moisturizer you’re going to want for the summer months. The Vichy Ideal Body Serum-Milk has a lovely light consistency, and is a beautiful lotion that seems to absorb into your body within minutes. 
It also has some shimmer in it – so it makes your skin look like it’s glowing. It’s no so much that it’s going to get on your clothes, and honestly, if I put this lotion on at night, the shimmer is gone by the morning, but I still do like the shimmer.
It leaves skin feeling soft and smooth thanks to the fact that it absorbs so quickly, and isn’t at all greasy. It’s the ideal lotion for putting on in the morning before getting dressed because it will make it easier to pull your clothes on.
Pick it up in drugstores. $25.95.
You can also find it online.
I get asked a lot about Bare Escentuals. I think it’s because this San Francisco-based company has been around for a while and there’s a lot of marketing around it.
I myself have not had great experience with it. You have to blend the foundation to make your own colour and that’s a process that I find kind of tedious. When I tried to match a colour to my skin, I couldn’t get anything perfect and I thought that was a shame considering that there are tons of lines out there that make foundation my colour and I don’t see myself as hard to match (and regular readers should know – I’ve reviewed and tried tons of foundations and the only way that I can really try them is if I can wear them for atleast a week and for me to do that, I have to find a foundation in my colour).
I do like the Bare Escentuals blotting powder. It works and it’s pretty sheer.
If you can find a Bare Escentuals foundation in your colour, then great, try it out, but don’t look to me – I can’t endorse it.
Love it when a new fragrance actually references an original. Romance Always Yours by Ralph Lauren does exactly that and smells amazing. While the original Romance was light and slightly fruity, 10 years later, Truly Yours is more mature because it starts with fruity notes and adds a musky base which you can smell all the way throughout the fragrance.
This fragrance came out in 2009 and I still like it because it smells nostalgic to me.
You can find many iterations of the Ralph Lauren Romance perfume online.
Had this little poll up on my Insta last week, and the answers were interesting: do people like chemical or mineral sunscreen? I thought for sure everyone would choose mineral… there seems to be a push from brands to release a mineral sunscreen, but who is really using them.
Some brands I have tried are a little whitish… some need to mixed with foundation or concealer, and some are best worn under makeup instead of on their own. So it’s actually no surprise that people are into whatever sunscreen looks and feels good on their skin, mineral or otherwise.
Care to weigh in?
I’m going to start by saying that the packaging on this serum had Lactic Acid written on it in really big letters, but no mention of what percentage of lactic acid was in the bottle, which is not as transparent as I would like. Furthermore, Lactic Acid is lower down on the ingredient list and the first 3 ingredients are water, propylene glycol, and glycerin, which means that this serum is going to be hydrating more than anything else.
Anyway. All that aside, I’ve added it to my skincare routine with the idea that I actually do need a hydrating serum for the morning.
And, you guys. I don’t hate this one. I actually love it. I don’t know if the lactic acid is enough to actually make my skin brighter, but it’s hydrating and it’s making my skin not so oily during the day. I’m layering it with the Diorskin Nude Air serum foundation, and the results are incredible, especially for the first 8 hours of the day.
$120 at Dior counters.
OMG, so the name of this serum bugs me. Phyto-Retinol? It’s just so misleading. There is no retinol in this serum, and the main active ingredient is Bakuchiol in a squalane formula that’s ultra-moisturizing. Now, Bakuchiol has been studied a bit and the evidence suggests that 1% of a bakuchiol formula can have the same effect as retinol for reducing wrinkles if used twice a day.
That’s great news for people who find that retinol is too harsh for their skin because Bakuchiol is more gentle and it’s a vegan product. The problem is that bakuchiol doesn’t have the same effects as retinol on acne and skin tone, and so to use the name Phyto-Retinol in the name of a product that doesn’t have retinol in it is so misleading. It’s capitalizing on the popularity of retinol without actually including that ingredient in the formula.
They should just change the name because this is actually a nice serum, and I loved using it. I love squalane even on my oily skin because it prevents it from getting dry. I also love bakuchiol because it makes my skin so bouncy. I put this serum on at night and then woke up to brighter bouncy skin every single day that I used it. It worked great and I would recommend it for every skin type.
Available at Sephora, $95.
If sometimes you want to scrub your brushes clean but don’t know how to, then a brush palette can be a real help. It’s a silicone pad and you put soap in it and then swirl your brushes around. The little knobs really get into your brush and help get the dirt out. A packet of the palette comes with a brush cleanser sample!
The palette is made out of silicone, so it doesn’t retain any colour and washes totally clean. I let it dry on the counter before I put it away.
The Brush Cleansing Gel is nice and light, and washes everything out of your brushes. I love using it and I just had to use it in my brushes once.
The Brush Cleansing Palette is available for $26.99 and the Brush Cleansing Gel is $9.
I am currently addicted to this lip balm in a big way. I don’t think I’ve liked a gloss or balm like this one in a really long time, and I love this so much that I’ve been using it non-stop recently!
What am I talking about? Dior Addict Lip Glow which first launched in 2009 and is now a mainstay in their product line up. People really love the lip glows, so much so that Dior also has a lip oil that’s out now too.
It’s one of those products that changes colours adjusting to your own lips, and it gives my lips a super healthy pink colour that looks like my own lips after eating a raspberry popsicle. The balm gives shine to your lips but that eventually wears away just leaving a stain-like pink behind. It’s really quite enchanting.
Word to the wise though – the more of the balm you apply, the deeper the pink gets until it’s almost reddish pink and that might not be the colour that you want to wear.
You can find the Lip Glow everywhere Dior’s products are sold. It also has SPF 10 and retails for $42.
