Canadian Beauty

New Urban Decay Naked Skin Ultra Definition Powder Foundation

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Henna

Urban Decay is totally becoming my favourite brand of makeup. Previously, too bold or brash for my tastes, lately they’ve held on to their bold roots, but they’ve also managed to introduce lots of core products that work for everyone. The Naked palettes were a great example of that – finally, all neutral/nude colours that many people could get use. The Naked on the Run palette continues to be on my vanity and in frequent rotation in my routine, and now there’s the Urban Decay Ultra Definition Powder Foundation.

Truly, this powder foundation is unlike any other out there, and I’ve tried tons. The Urban Decay powder foundation is super silky to the touch and light as air. It looks like skin on the face, and you can only see that it’s foundation when you look at it up close. If you want more coverage, you can apply the foundation with a wet sponge and it goes on just like liquid foundation, but dries to its original powdery finish.

What’s even better is that the foundation comes in 14 colours and are labelled as cool, neutral, or warm. It’s genius and it makes it to easy to find your colour. Mine is warm, of course, and I was happy to find that Medium Light Warm matches my skin so closely without being orange or yellow.

My favourite way to use this foundation is dry, and I have to say that it’s the perfect one to keep in my purse because I can apply it on the go, and even use my fingers to use it as a spot concealer. It’s weightless, and does look skin-like without getting to be cakey. It absorbs oil and feels smooth as the day wears on. Apply a setting spray after first putting it on your skin, and then you’ll definitely have something that doesn’t look too powdery.

Posted in Spring 2015 | Tagged Foundation, Urban Decay | Leave a comment

Bobbi Brown Hot Nudes Collection

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Henna

Bobbi Brown’s latest collection is inspired by the warm weather and shades of Florida. Think bright colours but easy nude eyes that need just a hint of shimmer or a slick of black eyeliner paired with a pop of colour on the cheeks and lips.

The collection includes three new colours of the Art Sticks (I still need to try those!) and they come in Hot Pink, Hot Berry, and Hot Orange ($30 each).

The Sheer Lip Colours are the highlight of the collection, I think. They come in three basic colours: orange, berry, and pink and make bright lips easy to wear. Be prepared to wear the pigment with some confidence: these “sheer” colours are sill super pigmented and one swipe is enough to give you enough of a punch of colour. ($30 each)

Also check out the Hot Nude Cheek Palettes – they are perfect for those times that you wanted a range of coordinating cheek colours to play with but all in one palette. There’s Pink,Calypso, and Berry. Each has two matte sahdes and one shimmer shade in it. ($52 each)

Here’s mine in Pink. Surprisingly, my favourite shade in the palettes is the shimmer, even though I normally stay away from shimmer shades. These are different: they are so sheer, and the shimmer is totally wearable. They’re also gold-tinged so they kind of wear like bronzers instead of true shimmer blushes.

I did find the darker shade to be a little unwearable for anyone that’s medium-toned. It’s just too dark and super pigmented so it’s hard to blend down as well.

Obviously, the Hot Nudes Eye Palette ($76) is amazing. It’s a nice blend of matte base colours, metallic lid colours, a sheer shimmery brown for the crease, two intense sparkle colours, and one sheer shimmer (almost matte, though!) black that works to add intensity if you need it. The metallic colours are on the light side, especially because the shimmer is silvery, but that’s the idea with this nude palette.

Posted in Spring 2015 | Tagged Bobbi Brown | Leave a comment

Clinique’s Basic Contour and Highlight

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Henna

Clinique too launched a contour and highlight duo recently. Created in their iconic Chubby Stick packaging, this is the contour and highlight meant to be applied on the go because you don’t need to use any brushes with it. The stick packaging means that you can literally swipe on the contour or highlight, and blend it in with your fingers.

At $24 each, it’s kind of nice that you can buy each stick separately depending on whether you really need it in your makeup bag or not. The highlight only comes in one colour and it’s a cool-toned peach/pink shimmer. The contour comes in a natural-enough matte brown shade that might not work for very fair skin tones.

Try them before you buy. Available at Clinique counters now.

Posted in Summer 2015 | Tagged Clinique, Contour | Leave a comment

Finally Got It: Make Up For Ever Pro Sculpting Duo

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Henna

There’s been some backlash against contouring recently. The Globe and Mail published this email past weekend about how contouring has gone mainstream when it used to just be reserved for the stage, and how difficult it can be to make contouring look truly “natural”.

I have to admit: I contour every day, and I know sometimes I’ve over-done it and it doesn’t look totally as natural as it should. But it looks amazing in pictures and on camera, and from far, so it’s still something that I try to do carefully. The trend isn’t going away; though there’s backlash against it, the “trend” will just become the “new normal” like liquid eyeliner.

Make Up for Ever’s new Pro Sculpting duo gives you a highlight colour and a contouring colour in one easy-to-carry palette. The contour colour has just a tiny bit of shimmer, while the highlight colour is very shimmery. The palettes come in two colours: one for cool skin-tones (the shimmer is on the pink side that’s cool-toned) and another for skin tones that are warmer (the shimmer is golden).

The formula is gel-powder that is like MAC’s Extra Dimension formula or Estee Lauder’s gel-powder formula. It’s lightly cushiony to the touch and blends very nicely as long as you use a clean brush to apply it.

I found the highlighting powder to be a little too shimmery for me – it wears almost like a metallic eyeshadow, and I’d prefer wearing it on my lids. I like it on my cheek bones or brow bones if I’m going out, but skip it most days. The contour colour is on-point, and one that I’m going to enjoy wearing, although it’s missing the hint of taupe that makes a shadow look truly natural. Used properly it makes angles of the face really pop.

Get it at Sephora for $45.

Posted in Spring 2015 | Tagged Contour, Make Up For Ever | Leave a comment

Live Clean Exotic Nectar Replenishing Body Lotion

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Henna

I’m kind of having a Live Clean moment right now. First, I loved their hand soap, and now I’m using the body lotion in the same great Argan Oil-infused line.

This is the prefect lotion to transition into the warmer months. It’s light on the hands but still fortified with glycerine, grape-seed oil, and olive oil to leave your skin nice and moisturized without any greasiness or residue. The lotion sinks in quickly but goes beyond the basic body lotion because it makes skin feel so nice.

Pick it up at drugstores for $6.50.

Posted in For the Body | Tagged Live Clean | 1 Comment

Sothys Escale Estivale Collection

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Henna

I haven’t tried a lot of makeup by Parisian brand Sothy’s, because I see that they’re geared more towards skincare which I haven’t been sold on (it might take a facial for me to see the benefits!).

But now I’ve checked out their Spring 2015 collection, Escale Estivale, and I’m impressed. The packaging is black and luxe (heavy mirrored compacts) and the powders are finely-milled and go on so smoothly.

The Escale Estivale collection is old-school spring-summer beauty. Hints of colour, with bronze and pinks that are easy to wear.

The bronzing powder ($59) seems golden brown, but the gold is actually just an overlay and can be used or wiped off. The brown underneath is true to skin-tones and works on the high points of the face to make it looked sun-kissed. Because it’s so brown (yet sheet) it’s not great used as contour, but works as a true bronzer. The golden shimmer didn’t work for me, but the bronzer works so well as a touch of summer.

The eyeshadows ($36 each) are in a vanilla and bronze-taupe shimmer, the blush is a coral-pink, and the nail polishes ($18.50) are in orange and hot pink but in a glaze formula that’s slightly transparent when you apply just one coat.

My favourite products are the lipsticks ($31.50). One colour is 140 beige Garibaldi and 141 corail Vivienne. The Beige is more like a pink-beige, and the coral is super sheer so it works with the pink of your lips and just looks amazing. These lipsticks are so moisturizing and go on just like butter on the lips. They melt with the heat of your lips and are shiny and wearable because they’re slightly transparent. The final effect is a juicy one and super pretty and the moisture factor is just what I love in a lipstick. It just makes me want to use the lipstick more and more, which means that my lips always look pretty and feel moisturized.

Sothys is only available at Sothys beauty consultant locations. This collection is on counters this month. If you want to find it near you, call 1 800 361 3004.

Posted in Spring 2015 | Tagged Sothys | Leave a comment

New Clarins Everlasting Foundation SPF 15

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Henna

Clarins new foundation lasts and lasts, but unlike a lot of long-wearing foundations it’s different in that it has an amazingly smooth silky soft feel. It goes on thin and sets to an almost skin-like texture quite quickly.

The foundation also comes in 10 colours so that there are options for almost every skin-tone. I got 110 Honey which dispenses as a lovely warm golden shade, but unfortunately blended out as having a pinkish/grey cast that might have been due to the SPF in the foundation.

If you head to the Clarins counter, be sure to try the foundation on just a small portion of your face and then head out into sunlight to see if it’s a match.

$41 at Clarins counters.

Posted in Spring 2015 | Tagged Clarins, Foundation | 1 Comment

New Marc Jacobs Beauty New Nudes Sheer Lip Gel

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Henna

The no-makeup makeup look this spring requires that you not only have your contour and highlight on point, but that you also have the perfect lip colour that’s natural looking. This is where the New Marc Jacobs Nudes collection comes in.

Seven shades of their Lip Gel offer a neutral shade that’s perfect for everyone. The lip gels contain Monoi butter and have a lovely vanilla scent (but no taste). The packaging is sleek and gorgeous – it’s a lipstick that looks so pretty being pulled out of your purse.

$38 each at Sephora.

Posted in Spring 2015 | Tagged Marc Jacobs, Sephora | Leave a comment

Nirvana Black and White perfume compacts by Elizabeth and James

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Henna

If you’ve ready my most recent perfume review, you may remember that I bought a perfume oil and had mixed feelings about it. I love working with an oil because it means that it really works with your body chemistry, but I missing being able to spray it all over the place with abandon… which probably isn’t a good thing anyway especially for those that live with me!

In any case, when I saw that the Elizabeth and James Nirvana perfumes now came in a solid compact, I had to get my hands on them and try them because they’re going to be awesome for travel and for stashing in a makeup bag! And I’m right.

So Nirvana White and Nirvana Black now come in compact solids each of which is a heavy gold-lined rectangle that’s smaller than a credit card. It’s a cute art-deco type accessory that looks just as cute sitting on your vanity as it will when you pull it out of your bag to freshen up in the middle of the day or night. The Solid Compacts feel like collector items because of their heft, and mimic the same black/white and gold packaging of the original Nirvana fragrances.

Rub your fingers on top of the waxy oily solid and dab wherever you please: the wrist, inside of the elbows, behind your ears, and into your scalp to smell like the heady mix that is these fragrances.

Nirvana Black is more woody and definitely more my style. It’s got some musk and apparently some vanilla but its sweetness doesn’t make much of an appearance.

Nirvana White is a blend of Peony, Muguet, and Musk. On me, it smells much warmer and sweeter without having any obvious sweet notes, so it’s not really my thing. It’s definitely the one to pick up if you enjoy more feminine fragrances, but if you like your scents more unisex then Nirvana Black is the one to try.

The perfume solids are good quality – the scent lasts and lasts, and they don’t seem to wear away quite as quickly as a spray might which is awesome. The face that they’re oil-based means that they blend into your skin and really work with your body chemistry so that you end up with a scent that’s all your own.

The solids are limited edition and $58 each at Sephora. If solids aren’t your thing, then I highly recommend the Perfume Oils! They are in small-ish bottles with a dropper dispenser so you can apply them one drop at a time on your skin. In this form, Nirvana Black and Nirvana White also blend well together so you could wear a drop of each, although both of them seem to have a lot of musk in them which means that you will get a lot of musk in the final product. The perfume oils are $42 each. It might seem like a small about of product for the solid and/or the oil, however you need just a little bit to get the benefit of the scent, and it’s likely that these will last a long time.

Posted in Perfumes | Tagged elizabeth and james, Sephora | Leave a comment

Urban Decay Sheer Revolution Lipsticks

Posted on March 24, 2015 by Henna

Urban Decay has also just released a new lipstick called Sheer Revolution. Actually, these lipsticks are not so sheer. They aren’t highly pigmented, but I would say that they’re in the middle range when it comes to pigment. One coat of the lipstick lets you sort of still see your lips, while another coat provides opaque coverage.

I have the colour Sheer Ladyflower which is a kind of bright fuchsia pink. For daytime, it’s best to wear just one coat, while two work for night-time wear. The pigment is long-lasting, however the lipstick does wear off with regular eating and drinking.

Pick them up for $26 at Sephora.

Posted in Spring 2015 | Tagged lipstick, Urban Decay | Leave a comment