Does your beauty routine feel a little stale? It’s time to do something about it. From tips for the perfect foundation application, to tricks for enhancing your skin care routine and even ideas to help you maintain a healthy glow from the inside out, our latest series has everything you need to create a strong beauty foundation.
CND Gilded Dreams is the winter 2014 collection from the company behind Shellac and Vinylux. The collection features three new nail polishes available in both formulas, and the collection is perfect for those looking for something shimmery for the holidays.
Grand Gala is a rose-gold shade that’s a duochrome. It looks like a pale neutral gold from further away, but has rose shimmer mixed in.
Chiffon Twirl is a sparkly shimmery light pink, and Dazzling Dance is an icy blue with pinkish purple duochrome and silver sparkles.
All the shades go on beautifully with no streaking and give almost-full coverage with two coats.
$11.90 per bottle of the Vinylux and it must be used with the top coat (which really works!). .
Now, if you’ve been to a salon and asked for some volume in your hair, chances are that they took out a little shaker bottle of powder, tapped some at your crown, and then rubbed it in before teasing your hair to create volume. I have a few of these shakers at home, and I find that the problem is always that I don’t know how much I’ve tapped into my hair. Now, I can get the same effect from a texturizing powder that comes in a spray bottle!
Part dry shampoo and part texturizer, Kerastase’s Volume in Powder spray (also known as VIP) is just what you need for the holidays. Unlike regular dry shampoo which is really just recommended for slightly oily and slightly dirty hair, VIP is good for all kinds of hair. It can absorb excess oil, but it also makes hair just a little dirty – perfect for teasing hair and adding volume to it.
The nice thing about VIP is that it has intense hold to it so if you add texture or height to your hair, it’s actually going to last!
Of course, this powder is completely invisible. I even tried to spray it in copious amounts into my hair and I couldn’t really see it. There was no whitish cast, so if you just use little puffs of it sparingly, you really won’t have to worry about brushing it through your hair like you have to with a dry shampoo.
My favourite way to use this is to flip my hair upside down, give it a bit of a spray, and then rub that in with my fingers. I get a bit of generalized volume all over.
This powder is definitely versatile – you can use it with you’ve done a blow-out, but it also works just as well to amp up a ponytail or bun and keep it in place.
$38 at Kerastase salons and online.
If you’re looking for intense hydration but need it to be light and not greasy, then you have to try L’Occitane’s new Comforting Cream. It has 5% Shea butter in it, but is non-greasy and absorbs within a couple of minutes to leave your skin with a satiny finish. It even works for skin that’s slightly oily to prevent it from getting dry despite the oil.
The texture is truly light and a treat to spread over the face.
I love mixing a pump of foundation into it and then smoothing it all over my skin and even rub the excess into my hands.
If you need more hydration, the original Ultra Rich cream with 25% Shea butter will be for you.
$30 at L’Occitane boutiques.
Part shimmer and part glitter, Urban Decay’s Naked Illuminated Powder is the best thing to use all over this holiday season. It comes in a huge compact and is dry enough to be used on skin that’s oily – in fact, it seems to last better on well-moisturized skin, where as if used with a dry foundation, it tends to wear off quite quickly.
To get the most use out of this powder, it’s best to use it with a huge brush and apply it everywhere. It will add a bit of shimmer and sparkle – on the face, it might stray or wipe off whereas on the body and applied liberally it just makes skin glow.
The powder came out last year in just the Luminous shade, but now also comes in Aura which is a little rosier. Aura is the colour that you see above.
$35 at Sephora, Sephora.ca, and Shoppers Drug Mart.
Every other highlighter that I’ve tried this season has been super pretty and shimmery, but this is the one that I’m reaching for again and again. The My Burberry Fresh Glow Luminous Highlighting Powder ($63 at Nordstrom and Holt Renfrew). It is a white-gold shimmer that’s so fine and looks completely natural in almost any light. Seriously, it’s the prettiest highlighter I’ve ever tried, and just like I’m still using my MAC bronzer from the summer, I’m going to be using this highlighting powder for a long time. 
It’s lightly fragranced with the My Burberry scent, but the scent fades when you apply the highlighter, and the shimmer is so fine and pretty that you forget about the scent.
I have the colour Gold No. 1. It’s a gold but super super pale.
And it comes with it’s own fan brush so that you can feather it on. It applies well with your fingers too – and with all highlighters, use lightly and then build up.
Totally worth every penny and part of the Burberry Winter Glow collection.
…is Glazed Apple… all new and super different from what you’ll usually smell at The Body Shop this season.
Glazed Apple is available in a host of Body Shop products (home fragrance spray, lip balm, body scrub) – but you have to try the body butter. Utterly smooth and creamy yet intensely moisturizing, this will leave your skin so utterly soft and scented with the tarte smell of apple. It’s $20 well spent on a rich winter moisturizer.
Also check out the Glazed Apple Bath Jelly ($12) – it’s weird but effective. It gives tons and tons of bubbles in the bath that seem to last a really long time. It’s a strange texture (like, really, it’s a jelly!), and a nice different limited edition product.
All available at The Body Shop boutiques or online.
We all have friends that seem to have extra delicate skin. You’ve heard them talk about their perpetually dry skin this time of year (it could be any time of year, really) and they’re always out to “get some new moisturizer”.
Treat them to Fresh’s Fresh Fix gift set, which is only out this time of year and is $23 (while you get $33 worth of product).
The set includes Fresh’s award-winning, highly-acclaimed, CanadianBeauty.com-favourite Fresh Soy Face Cleanser (seriously, it’s amazing!) and their equally amazing Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment Advanced Therapy which can be used on anything from lips to cuticles to dry noses at this time of year. The Lip Treatment even has spf in it so it’s perfect for skiing or swimming.
This little mini set is available at Sephora and is perfect as a stocking-stuffer or a holiday pick-me-up.
Check out this:
All glitter and gold, this is just the ticket for that person who needs that something special thing this time of year.
You can see from my hand, that the compact is small and from the outside, it looks almost like a watch. It’s supposed to be a bauble, a collectible, something you’re going to have around for a while.
The middle is where I swiped it with my finger – to find out that it’s not a fine shimmer but more of a glitter and shimmer in a yellow gold. I love it on my eyelids rather than to highlight my cheekbones. I really like it on the rest of my body or even in my hair.
$82 in stores now.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I love me some Essie nail polish.
The winter collection this year is extra special because it doesn’t have any of those run of the mill dark shades – even I can say that I’ve had enough of those and I was stoked to try this year’s collection.
The colours from left to right are:
Jump in my Jumpsuit
Double Breasted Jacket
Bump up the Pumps
Back in the Limo
Jiggle hi, Jiggle lo
Tuck it in my Tux
I’ll start with Tuck in my Tux because I love pale nudes. This was not my thing. It went on streaky and even after three coats, it just didn’t look great. It’s not an opaque shade either, and it doesn’t look good sheer. I had to cover it with glitter.
The glitter looks spectacular. It’s Essie Lux Effects in Rock at the Top.
Here’s a picture of it by itself alongside Summit of Style. These are totally worth investing in. They last a long time and look amazing.
Moving on: Jiggle hi and Jiggle lo. It’s not usually my thing but this one was a winner. It looks amazing. Lasts forever.
Finally, Bump up the Pumps which is a gorgeous shiny pigmented coral. I got tons of compliments on this one. And I put it on top of Back in the Limo which, again, was sheer and streaky. That one wasn’t a winner.
Overall, the more colourful the polishes, they better they are in this collection so check them out. Bump up the Pumps is my favourite and it will work in any weather and season.
In drugstores and salons now.
