Givenchy’s Gypsophila

Posted on April 29, 2017 by Henna

If you’re going shopping this weekend, then maybe you’ll want to check out Givenchy’s latest Gypsophila collection.  There are two products from that collection which are too pretty to pass up.

The first is the Prism Libre ($69) in Shade #1.  The outside is a beautiful black box.

Inside is a mix of four colour-correcting powders and a imitation leather customized puff.

The powder is very finely milled – and of course it goes on translucent but is very brightening.  The colours are pastel and beautiful.

The powder is great for setting makeup or even on top of sunscreen.  It instantly brightens and evens out the skin making it matte.  It’s long-lasting.  It lasts almost an entire day on my oily skin as long as the weather isn’t too humid.

I apply them with a powder brush instead of the puff that it comes with.   There’s less of a chance of messing up my makeup.  Blush and bronzer blend beautifully on top.

My other favourite product is the Poudre Bonne Mine, Floral Edition, 02 Douce Saison ($78).  It’s a beautiful bronzer that’s huge.  It’s matte so it works well as a contour or to add colour to the entire face.

These are available on Sephora.ca.

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Fragrant Friday: New Eau Contemporaine from Simons

Posted on April 28, 2017 by Henna

The best thing on the shopping horizon in Calgary this year has been the opening of Simons, a hip contemporary shopping experience that melds brand names with H&M-type basics.  It’s like The Bay meets Target, and it’s not huge but different enough from other Calgary stores which makes it worth coming back to.

The department store has just launched Eau Contemporaine which is their fragrance collection with Ruby Brown, a Montreal-based perfume house.  The perfume comes in three scents: Silk, Cotton, and Linen.

I have Silk, a floral woody scent with notes of grapefruit, rose, white tea, and bergamot.  The scent is clean and fresh and reminds me of a soapy floral.  I can smell the grapefruit and bergamot right away, and a white floral scent with a hint of tea.  It’s super easy to wear and unoffensive.  It’s light but still long-lasting like laundry detergent.

The perfumes are available at Simons.ca and in Simons stores across Canada.  $50 for 50ml.

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Paula’s Choice Resist 1% Retinol Booster

Posted on April 28, 2017 by Henna

I’m love skincare products with active ingredients, and over the past year I’ve become a huge fan of Retinol, especially in a 1% or higher concentration.  Yes, I had lots of peeling and dry skin at first, but I’ve now gotten to the point that I can use it every day and if I notice that my skin is getting dry, I just use some coconut oil instead of the retinol for one night and everything seems to be just fine. 

My latest find is Paula’s Choice Resist 1% Retinol Booster.  Containing 1% retinol, this is called a “booster” because you can add it to your regular skincare to add a dose of retinol to it.  Of course, if you mix it with something then the level of retinol is going down, but it’s a great way to introduce retinol into your routine if it’s not already in there.  It’s also a good way to still add some moisture into your skin with the retinol.

Truth be told, I use a big pump of this on its own and I love it.  It’s a watery formula, rather than a creamy one, so it’s not overly moisturizing, but it absorbs into your skin very quickly and you’re good to go.  There’s no scent and no tingling or stinging with this, but after a couple of weeks of use, you should see some results – that’s how effective retinol is. 

Retinol helps exfoliate the skin more quickly, and by doing that, it makes skin smoother, more even-toned, less wrinkled, and even more firm.  If you’re over the age of 30 and you’ve been noticing changes in your skin, this might be the product to add so that you can take care of that.  Better exfoliation can also result in fewer acne break-outs, but I find that when I use retinol, I still need to use actual anti-acne products on their own once in a while. 

If you’re interested, read about my first experience with Retinol and what you can expect when you use it for the first time.

Paula’s Choice is available online only.  The Resist 1% Retinol Booster is $52.

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Sunscreen that Does It All

Posted on April 28, 2017 by Henna

I wrote a little while ago, about a great brand called Reversa that’s now available in Canada. 

One of my favourite products by them has got to be their sunscreen, which is formulated with Glycolic Acid. It’s the Reversa Anti-Wrinkle Cream, and it has SPF 30 mixed with 8% Glycolic Acid.

Have you ever had that moment where you really want to layer all these treatments for your skin, but then it’s putting on so much and you still have to do foundation or atleast concealer on top of it all?  Yeah, I’ve been there, and that’s why I love Reversa’s sunscreen.   It’s a gentle treatment and sun cream in one, so you’ll be gently exfoliating your skin but also protecting it at the same time.  

The 8% Glycolic Acid is pretty gentle – I didn’t notice any drying or peeling or anything because of it, and it’s in a base that seems moisturizing so you can use this without worrying too much that your skin is going to react to it.  

Pick this up at Shoppers Drug Mart stores or online for $46.

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How I Get My Skin to Stay Matte – a new use for Neutrogena’s Acne Mask

Posted on April 27, 2017 by Henna

Matte skin – it doesn’t matter whether it’s “in” or not, that’ll be the one thing that someone with oily skin (ie, ME) will always want.  Yes, glowing skin looks healthy, but it’s not cute when your makeup slides off your face, and you feel that you look messy.

So I’ve discovered that Neutrogena’s Rapid Clear Daily Leave On Mask is actually really drying to my skin, thanks to the benzoyl peroxide in it.  The benzoyl peroxide helps get rid of your acne, but if you’ve ever used it, you know that it can make your skin dry too – enough that when I use it morning and night, I need a serious moisturizer to go with it. 

But, I’ve also discovered that the Daily Leave On Mask makes a perfect primer without drying my skin.  So here’s how I use it:

I use my regular skincare – serum and sunscreen these days – and then I put this mask on top so it’s not directly against my skin but it’s still mattifying.  I apply foundation on top, and voila!  Throughout the day, it just stays on and doesn’t get greasy, because the Neutrogena mask seems to absorb or prevent all grease.  It’s actually kind of magical, and definitely something I would use on a special occasion so that my skin doesn’t photograph oily.  

Anybody else have a good trick for keeping oily skin looking fresh?

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I’m Back!

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Henna

So… long story short, it’s been weeks and weeks of computer problems that have prevented me from getting on and doing even the most basic things. My fan started making the most intense whirring noise, so loud that you could hear it on Facetime, so loud that it gave me a headache to listen to it for too long. I took it to the Apple store, and they said they couldn’t do anything – a piece of quinoa was stuck in it… uhhh, these people obviously didn’t know about my low-carb diet. No quinoa and definitely not near the computer.

So I finally got it checked again, got the fan replaced, and now everything is hunky dory.

Sorry for the lack of updates. I’m back.

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It’s My Birthday and My Invites

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Henna

Guess what? It’s my birthday today!  Normally, I like buying perfume on special occasions, but I don’t know what I’m in the mood for right now, so I haven’t gotten anything.  An update on that soon, but any suggestions would be appreciated!

Let me talk for a minute about invitations, which I use frequently enough for my childrens’ birthday parties.  There are a plethora of invite sites out there now, but the one that I’m using more often than not is Paperless Post. If you check out the website, you’ll see that it’s a little different looking than most other invite sites – it has a clean layout and looks chic.  

In fact, it’s made that way because it offeres something other than your standard invitations – you can get invites that are “designer”.  There are invitations designed by the Kate Spade brand, by Oscar de la Renta, and even by the Rifle Paper company.  There are invites that you can order paper copies of – perhaps to send to people who don’t check their emails very often, or even just as a memento of a special occasion.  All the standard holidays are there: birthdays, anniversaries, save-the-date cards, and more.  

Check it out and tell me what you think!

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Drybar Sparkling Soda

Posted on March 27, 2017 by Henna

I love me a good shine spray – they’re perfect for taming frizz and giving hair a dose of moisture.  If I want staying power then I use a hairspray, but most days I just need a bit of TLC, and so I’ve been turning to Drybar’s Sparkling Soda shine mist ($35).  It’s light-weight but still makes your hair very shiny.

Sparkling Soda has moisturizing ingredients such as beeswax, castor oil, and glycerine, but the formula is such that it’s not at all sticky or tacky.  It’s great for really smoothing hair and taming it down. 

Of course, one of the best thing about all Drybar products is their scent, and Sparkling Soda is no exception – it’s scented with a warm blend of vanilla, amber, and coconut and is the equivalent of putting perfume into your hair too. I love that because it makes my hair smell nice any time that there’s movement.

Pick it up at Sephora and Norstrom stores.

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New Just in Time for Summer: Almay Healthy Glow Makeup and Self Tanner

Posted on March 24, 2017 by Henna

With blizzards on the East Coast and strange weather on the West Coast, it’s hard to tell that spring is around the corner, but it really is!

Just in time on the counter is Almay’s Healthy Glow Makeup and Self Tanner.  In the summer, because of my skincare products (exfoliators and scrubs), my face is lighter than the rest of my body.  Self Tanners formulated for the body are usually so moisturizing that they don’t always work well on the face.  They can be apt to clog pores and make skin greasier than it needs to be. 

Almay’s new product is a foundation and self-tanner in one.  This foundation is really an all-in-one because it also has spf 20 in it.  It has light – medium coverage and really works well at evening out skin tone while gradually making it more tan.  Now, the self-tanner is so gradual and the foundation light enough that there’s a good chance that even if your skin gets a tad darker, the foundation will still match.  I tried this in medium, and I’m usually a medium in most foundations, and it worked well even though the self-tanner made me a bit darker.  It made me a darker side of medium, but not too much. 

Because of the self-tanner, I actually don’t like to use this foundation every day.  I don’t want to be using self-tanner daily, but I love using it on the weekends or 3 times a week.

Pick it up at drugstores and mass merchandisers now.

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New Vichy Idealia Peeling

Posted on March 22, 2017 by Henna

If you’ve wanted to add a Glycolic Acid product into your skincare routine, but were always too worried about its potency, then Vichy’s new Idealia Peeling essence is for you. 

First of all, this is not a toner.  Toners are meant to take off excess residue on your skin and leave it a little cleaner than before.  Idealia Peeling won’t do that.  Because it’s an essence, it’s meant to be applied to the skin and left on there.  There’s no harsh alcohol, but you’re still applying it with a cotton pad.  I prefer to put a couple of drops on my hand, and press them into my face.  

Idealia Peeling is formulated with glycolic acid in a moisturizing base, so it leaves skin more clear but it’s also a does of something extra before you apply a thicker/heavier moisturizer to your skin. 

It’s perfect for skin that needs a bit of a glow – it’ll exfoliate but not so much that your skin will get dry or flaky. 

Pick it up at Shoppers Drug Mart or online.

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