New Soap and Glory Products

Soap and Glory scrub and moisturizer

If you’re looking for new skincare products for your regimen, Soap and Glory has just the ticket.  The British brand has come out with new packaging for their facial scrub and two new moisturizers.  One moisturizer is more hydrating and the other is formulated specially for oily skin because it helps absorb excess oils.  I love the old-school toothpaste like packaging which looks fresh and clean on my vanity.

My favourite product is the Scrub Your Nose In It Scrub.  It’s got super fine beads in it and they’ve even tinted it light blue so that it looks kind of like toothpaste.  It’s got a slightly minty feel to it which leaves my skin feeling clean and refreshed, and because the beads are so fine, it’s gentle enough to use every day.

Pick them up at the drugstore.

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Melted Kisses and Sweet Cheeks from Too Faced

We love Christmas gift sets because they’re the perfect way to introduce our friends to new products.

too Faced Sweet cheeks and Melted KissesTake this Too Faced Melted Kisses and Sweet Cheeks set. It has three mini Melted liquid lipsticks and three mini Sweet Cheeks blushes. The lipsticks and blushes have become cult favourites – the Melted liquid lipsticks were one of the first to usher in the highly pigmented liquid lipstick trend that’s going on right now! Everyone from Anastasia Beverly Hills to Lise Watier is following with their own versions but the Melted lipsticks created the niche.

What I love about this set is that the lipsticks and blushes come in coordinating pairs, which makes them perfect for beginner makeup users or for pros. Plus, if you find a colour that you really love, you can then go out and purchase the full-sized version of the set!

The set is beautifully gift boxed which makes for easy wrapping!

$45 (but a $75 value!) and only at Sephora.

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A Wellness Gift from Escents

Today, we continue to focus on unique gifts, and this one is suitable as a hostess gift or to give to someone at work so they can put it in their office.
Escents Aroma Diffuser
It’s the Escents Aura Ceramic Aroma Diffuser. A humidifier, lamp, and aromatherapy diffuser in one, this Aroma Diffuser is very pretty and has a calming effect on anyone that sees it. The lamp changes colours, or can be set to any colour you want. If you want something less distracting, there’s also an option to turn the lamp off and just have a nice cool mist of air come from the diffuser.

Because this diffuser is meant to provide aromatherapy, it does so without any heat – that way any essential oils that you place in the diffuser don’t get effected by any heat.

The diffuser is said to provide aromatherapy for up to 500 sq. ft. of space, but I’ve found that it scents my whole house if I leave it on for a longer period of time. Because you’re placing drops of essential oils into the diffuser, along with some water, it’s very easy to control how strong you want your scent, and the stronger your scent, the further the aromatherapy seems to travel in the air. It has the capacity for 100 ml of water and with that it can run for 5-6 hours – that’s a big chunk of the day!

Pick it up at Escents stores or online. $85.

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Spongelle – The Perfect Gift for Travelers

SpongelleI’m forever on the lookout for really unique gifts, and this year, I’ve struck gold at Caryl Baker Visage. They have Spongellé: a unique line of already soapy sponges that carry enough product for 14 showers. All you do is wet the flower-shaped sponge in the shower, squeeze to create some creamy lather and then buff on to your body. Just hang it in your shower to dry, and it’s good to go the next day.

This is the perfect gift for someone who loves to travel and always carries their own soap with them: this way they’re only carrying one product instead of both the sponge and a separate soap.

The Spongellé comes in lots of different scents: Bulgarian Rose, French Lavender, Coconut Verbena, Papaya Yuzu, and Ginger Bergamot.

Each Flower Box sponge is packaged in its own box with a hanging ribbon, so this would also make for a great Christmas ornament.

Only $16 at Caryl Baker Visage.

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Exceptional Lip Color: Maybelline Lip Studio Color Blur Lip Pencil.

I’m totally into lipsticks now instead of lip glosses, because I’m loving the staying power of lipsticks, and if you’re into long-wearing products, then you have to check out Maybelline’s new Lip Studio Color Blur Lip Pencil.  It beats any and every comparable product available at the drugstore and the department store!

maybelline color blurThe Color Blur pencils are creamy matte sticks that are intensely pigmented.  For that reason, you can apply them all over like traditional lipsticks, or you can apply them sparingly and then blur with the silicone smudger that’s on the end of the lippie.

I like the blurred look, but I really love the all over matte look.  Because these have so much pigment, it’s easy to apply a full coverage coat at home but be left with a stain at the end of the day.  No matter what color I’ve used, they’ve lasted through a full meal and a cup of coffee, so the pigmentation and staying power on these is very impressive.

As with all matte lip colors, these don’t work well on very dry lips and will accentuate very dry spots, but they are so pigmented that you can apply lip balm underneath without really compromising the staying power of the colour.

These are seriously my favourite lip product right now – I always love a nice matte lip.  I’ve got these in some bright colours but they come in neutrals as well.

Available at drugstores. for $11.99.

Oh and color in the middle is Plum Please which is a perfect dark berry for the season. The bright pink is Pink Insanity which is so bright that it’s almost neon. They’re my two favourite colours and I’ve been alternating between them this fall.

Also, L’Oreal has Le Mattes right now and it’s not the same. It looks the same, but the pencil is significantly less pigmented. 🙂

Posted in Fall 2015 | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fall Lips: Clarins Rouge Joli Lipstick

This fall, Clarins Rouge Joli Moisturizing Long-Wearing Lipstick ($27) hits all the high notes when it comes to the fall lip.  They have a natural-looking nude shade, as well as a lovely deep berry that’s perfect for a more dramatic lip.  They also come with four lip pencils in coordinating nude shades so that there’s a perfect nude shade for every skin tone.

The lip liners are super smooth and easy to wear.  I love that they come in so many nude colours because a good nude is hard to find.

Clarins Nude Lipliner Pencils

The colours are Nude Fair, Nude Beige, Nude Rose and Nude Mocha.

The lipsticks are very pigmented but really are moisturizing and feel comfortable on the lips.  The finish is on the satin/glossy side but these lipsticks still cling to the lips and last for a few hours or until you eat a meal.

Clarins Joli Rouge Lipstick

I tried the Rosy Nude lipstick and the Soft Plum both of which wore so smoothly and gave great coverage with one swipe.

Check out the collection at the Clarins counter now.

 

Posted in Fall 2015 | Tagged | 2 Comments

Decleor Skincare: Decleor Aroma Nutrition

When you review skincare products as much as I do, there are certain things you look for in products that are high end.  Of course, you check out the ingredient list and look for premium ingredients such as natural oils and waxes and not just mineral oil.  But then there’s what you look for when you actually use the product.  You want it to smell good, and you want the scent to last but not be too strong.  A scrub has to exfoliate and moisturize yet the grains need to wash away easily and cleanly.  Moisturizers must contain shea or cocoa butter and not be sticky on the skin.

And guess what?

Decleor delivers on all of these!

Decleor aroma nutritionTheir new body care line, Aroma Nutrition, marries fine perfume and good skin care.  All the products are thoughtfully scented with the intention that the scent will do just as good for the body as the actual application of the product.

The product line has the 1000 Grain Body Exfoliator ($49), the Skin Softening Dry Oil ($59), and the Aroma Nutrition Nourishing Rich Body Cream ($59) – and I like them in that order.

The 1000 Grain Body Exfoliator is unreal – it contains finely milled natural grains to scrub the skin, and because this is a product to be used in the shower, presumably first thing in the morning, it is scented with the uplifting smell of grapefruit.  It comes out of the bottle as a gel, then turns into an oil when you apply it on the skin, and then emulsifies with the water and washes away clean (kind of like a cleansing gel or balm).  It leaves skin smooth but also hydrated!

The Dry Oil comes in a spray bottle for easy application and smells like frankincense in a sweet almond oil base.  The scent is light and easy to wear, and the oil feels like nothing on the skin making it a treat to use again and again.

The Rich Body Cream is actually super rich and the most strongly scented of the trio, and that’s actually something that I didn’t like.  The scent is so strong that I didn’t enjoy wearing this all over my body.  That said, the cream is great at hydrating the skin and making it feel soft and smooth, so if you really dig the scent, this might be for you!

I really love the scent of frankincense is known to promote calmness and that’s why it’s been a mainstay in incense – the slightly woody and warm scent is intoxicating and instantly transporting, and it’s well used in the Decleor products and sets them apart from others that are out there.

 

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Obsessed With: Dior J’Adore Touche de Parfum

So I haven’t really written a perfume review in a long long time, because I’ve been trying to use less scents, and honestly, there hasn’t been anything spectacular that’s really caught my eye.

Until now.

This holiday season, Dior has come out with J’Adore Touche de Parfum which is a new scented oil meant to be layered with your regular J’Adore perfume.

Dior Jadore de ParfumRose.

Jasmine.

Sandalwood.

Musk.

This perfume has my name all over it, and it’s no surprise that I like to wear a dab of this without another perfume added to it, I think that it smells so good on its own!  It really does only contain the four notes I mentioned, and I smell a lot of sandalwood in this one.  It’s what gives it a very dry, musty kind of base and keeps it from being warm.  Warm scents don’t work with me – they just become annoyingly cloyingly warm, so I love that this is cool and dry and can be warmed up by wearing with another scent.

The Touche de Parfum comes in a bottle that has a stopper lid.  You unscrew the stopper and just dab it wherever you’d like to apply the perfume.  Because you’re only applying a little drop, it’s very easy to customize how much of this you’re wearing and so it’s easy to prevent it being too strong.  I like that you have to unscrew the dropper, because most dropper lids you have to pull straight up and often that leads to perfume flying everywhere.  That doesn’t happen here!

This is absolutely my new favourite way to wear perfume and I find I’ve been reaching for it daily ever since I got it!

If you’re a fan of the notes I mentioned and would like to try a new form of perfume, pick this up in stores now.

$112.

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Too Faced Born This Way Foundation Review

Too Faced Born This Way FoundationThis is the most hyped foundation on Instagram, and with good reason: it provides good coverage, comes in natural-looking colours, and looks natural on your skin.

But here’s the catch: it’s very similar to Make Up For Ever’s new Ultra HD Foundation.  I only realized this because I was squirting both foundations on the back of my hands to see the colours that I have, and when I rubbed them into my skin, I realized that actually they seemed to blend and settle exactly the same way.

They’re both light, medium-coverage foundation.  I say medium coverage and not full coverage, because I can still see my freckles peeking through the foundation after I apply it.  It doesn’t layer that well because it’s so dewy so I don’t apply a ton of it on my face but there’s enough coverage to significantly blend away dark circles under the eye, and take care of evening out the skin tone.

Finally, the way to go, as always, is to find a colour that closely matches your skin tone.  The Make Up For Ever foundation comes in more colours, but even then there are some unique shades in Too Faced Born This Way foundation and so you may find that you like it a bit better.  Note that the packaging is very similar and both foundations don’t have any sunscreen so they really do look real on the skin and photograph very well.  I think if you can find a good color match, you’ll have likely found a holy-grail foundation.

Because both have a dewy finish, they might not lend well for oily skins, and there will be some melting that happens as the day progresses, but I’ve found that a little bit of powder goes a long way with these, and really helps the staying power!

Pick up the Born This Way foundation at Sephora stores.  $49.

For the record: I’m still wearing Make Up For Ever’s Ultra HD just because the colour match is so phenomenal (and I’m color Y375 which was one of their new colours that they created this year).

Posted in Fall 2015 | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Lypsyl Lipbalm review

Ask and ye shall receive.  I had no idea that people were so into lip balm reviews so here’s one more!

Lypsyl lip balmThis week, I’ve been using Lypsyl lip balm.. and drum roll please…..

It blows Eos and Softlips Luxe out of the water!   My lips are so soft and smooth and I could actually notice the difference after the first day of use.

And get this: it’s under $2 at the drugstore.

Doesn’t that beat it all?

Ok, but there’s some bad news to go with the good: this lip balm has petroleum jelly and paraffin in it so if you’re looking for something more natural this will not be it.  It also doesn’t claim to be organic, paraben-free, etc, but if you have really dry lips then I think it’s the only way to go.  It also has beeswax and coconut oil in it, and they really play up the beeswax although I think it’s the petroleum jelly that does most of the work.

The lip balm goes on so smooth and leaves a silky layer of hydration on the lips.  It’s not thick like the Softlips luxe lip balm is, and it has no taste like the Eos lip balms.  You kind of forget that it’s there, but your lips feel so good after having it on for a while.

Pick it up at drugstores. I guess this is the most effective lip balm that I’ve tried, but I would have to say that the Eos lip balm is still a favourite because I lean towards more natural ingredients.  But I’ll be using the Lypsyl for the next little while and I’ll even be using it on my kids because it’s so effective and quick and if they don’t get rid of dry lips immediately there’s lots of picking going on, which is just gross and a great way to pick up germs.

This comes in regular, cherry flavour (which is not tinted but just smells like cherry), and sensitive (which has no flavour or colouring).

 

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