Honestly, I thought I was in love with the Zoya Smoke collection because it’s all creams, but I actually love its sister collection “Mirrors” too. The colours are so wearable and pretty though they’re slightly too colourful compared to the nudes we’ve been seeing this season.
All the same: Nimue is a lovely steely lilac that’s fresh and frosty. Super pretty.
This month, Balenciaga’s new perfume, L’Essence, hits counters. Walk by any department store and you’ll see the posters for it, so this is definitely a scent that’s got lots of marketing to go with it.
The main note in the scent is Violet Leaves, and the violet note is definitely one that’s popular these days. Tom Ford’s new scent is called Violet Blonde, so look for more mainstream fragrances with this note in the coming year.
This is supposed to be a stronger version than last year’s Balenciaga scent, but it’s not really stronger, Rather, it captures the true nature of the original scent. It is a departure that never strays far, always on the same road, really. That said, I did like the original better than this one.
The scent is a mixture of green and floral notes that are cold and refreshing. I’ve heard of this scent being described as being “metallic” in nature, and I totally agree. There is a metal note in it. Kind of like pressing a spoon against your nose. This is a scent that reminds me of masculine colognes, so if you like more masculine scents, this one is for you. It’s masculine without the astringent quality that most colognes have. It’s still long lasting and packs a punch, so I liked that. I had considerable sillage from this, and could smell it on me the whole day. Besides the violet leaves, the notes also include vetiver (which is definitely a more masculine note), and patchouli in the drydown.
Pick it up at your local Holt Renfrew or at The Bay.
If you’re more of a cream eyeliner kind of gal, then YSL has you covered there too. Their cream eyeliner is just as good as the pen, except that this will give you more control. I personally prefer the finish I can get, but it takes more time, so I usually reach for the pen. That said, the pen is probably better for on the go, while the cream is better for when you’re at home.
This liner is truly smudge proof, flake proof, and goes on so smoothly.
$34, this comes in 6 shades. Available now at Holt Renfrew, and everywhere else in November.
New to the YSL counter is what the beauty writers are calling the “shocking” mascara, because it has the word shocking in its name, and it packs a punch!
This is YSL’s best mascara to date. It’s definitely the best one that I have tried, even though it’s not perfect. Read on…
What I love about this mascara is that it is a really rich black colour that’s completely matte. It just makes the lashes really pop! It’s also a mascara that lasts the whole day without any fading or smudging which is awesome.
I did find that the mascara flakes a little, especially towards the end of the day, but for the most part, the flaking wasn’t that noticeable.
I also had a hard time using the brush at first. This is because it picks up a lot of mascara from the tube, and thus, it will apply slightly clumpy. My suggestion is to wipe the brush first and then apply. I just wipe it a few times on the edge of the mascara tube’s lip and that’s enough to fix the clumping problem.
The mascara has Volume in its name, and it definitely does layer well and provides lots of volume. The mascara also seemed to curl my lashes a bit, and I love that! They just look pretty, voluminous, and uniformly covered.
The mascara is $36 and comes in lots of different variations of black: cherry black, sea black, and my fav is deep black. Pick it up at Holt Renfrew right now, and Murale and The Bay this November.
Over a year ago, I wrote about Lumixyl Brightening Cream which used a peptide to help women get rid of hyperpigmentation.
Now, a year and a half later, Lumixyl has come out with a whole system to help women get clear skin and have it stay clear!
The Lumixyl Brightening System includes a cleanser, the original peptide cream, a sunblock, but best of all, it contains a 20% glycolic acid solution. If you’ve been shopping for glycolic acid at the drugstore, you know that the maximum percentage you can get is about 12%, and I didn’t know that you could get anything higher than that.
It turns out, that if you visit a dermatologist’s office, if deemed necessary, you can get a higher percentage of glycolic acid so that you can get rid of hyperpigmentation more rapidly.
The peptide cream contains Decapeptide-12 which helps inhibit the production of melanin more efficaciously than hydroquinone – it reduces melanin synthesis by as much as 40 percent compared to treatments with hydroquinone, which reduced production by only 7 percent in the same study. These results are one reason Lumixyl is considered by many to be the first real alternative to Hydroquinone.
I have been using the system for about 8 weeks now and I’ve definitely noticed a difference. My skin is more clear and the hyperpigmentation that I had is slowly fading. I notice because I seem to need less and less makeup to cover it up.
My favourite product is the Glycopeel 20 Exfoliating Lotion because it’s like a boot camp for my skin turnover. Because the glycolic acid in this is so strong, they recommend that you ease into using this product. Start by using it every other day and see how your skin does. I did notice that I had some peeling when I started using this product, but after a while, that stopped and my skin just got used to the glycolic acid. I used the system only at night because I wanted to use a sunscreen lotion during the day.
Glycolic acid works by making skin turnover more quick, and that means that you have new clear skin exposed more quickly. Because this new skin is so sensitive, you need to use an spf with it, and that’s why the Lumixyl system includes an spf 30 sunscreen.
The entire skin brightening system does work because it has all the right ingredients – peptides, a resurfacer, and sunblock. However, a full-sized kit of the Lumixyl Skin Brightening System costs about $300 and that might be a lot for some people. If you are interested in the system, I would suggest getting just the Glycopeel 20 Rapid Exfoliating Lotion for $65 because this is the one product that you can’t find it drugstores. It is worth the money, and is cheaper than an HQ containing Obagi product which might give you the same results but with some side effects.
To find Lumixyl at a dermatologist near you, check out the Lumixyl website.
This is the best collection that Clinique has come out with all year, and I love it because it takes one of Clinique’s best lip colours – notably the Almost Lipstick in Black Honey – and gives us a fantastic collection that coordinates perfectly with the lipstick.
The collection includes a Color Surge Eye Quad in Black Honey. For some reason, the Color Surge eyeshadows work really well for those with oily eyelids. These are the only eyeshadows that last the whole entire day for me, and so I love them. This quad has a matte shade that is perfect as a base, a soft taupe pink shimmer shadow, a matte burgundy for the crease, and then a shade that I can only describe as Black Honey to use as a shimmery eyeliner around the eye.
The collection also has an ombre blush called the Gradient Powder Blush. It’s easy to dip a small blush brush into and use as a cheek colour or as a contour, since the darkest part of this blush does go on quite dark. Although it’s usable and a great concept, I only use this blush if I have time on my hands to really play with my blush. For everyday, I’d rather just grab a one-colour blush and use that. Still, this is a pretty colour that’s very wearable.
My favourite product though, is the Black Honey Dual-Ended Almost Lipstick and Long Last Lipcolour. Finally Black Honey on the go in a variety of formulas. This is Limited Edition so if you’re a fan of Black Honey, pick it up before it’s all gone.You can layer the lipstick to get a dark lip or to have one that looks like it’s prettily flushed. The dark version goes well with the lighter-coloured eyeshadows so it’s easy to use this fall. I know that as the weather gets colder I’m definitely reaching for these kinds of colours.
Pick up the Black Honey collection at your local Clinique counter.
The trend this fall is fragrances that remind you of the smell of freshly showered skin. Something about this season is all about wanting a sense of warmth in fragrance.
The fragrance that has captured this perfectly this season is Sensuous Nude by Estee Lauder. This is the new flanker to Sensuous and hits on all the good notes for a fragrance. It is long-lasting, has great sillage, but isn’t overpowering, overbearing, or cloying. It’s like someone who has lots of personality but only speaks when there’s something important to say.
This scent is a good flanker, because it reminds you of Sensuous without being the same. It’s quieter, and different, but still has the same notes of woods and caramel.
However, while the sweet note was a lot more present in Sensuous, it’s not as prevalent in Sensuous Nude. Sensuous Nude is mostly powdery, slightly salty, with hints of jasmine in the top notes and the salt and musk in the dry down. As you might guess, because it’s so quiet, it is highly wearable but gives satisfaction to the wearer, because I swear, I can smell this all day when I wear it on my arm and I love that. If you want a laid back and wearable scent this fall and winter, pick this up.
Pick it up at your local Estee Lauder counter.
Lancome’s newest scent is a flanker to its popular Tresor. Tresor in Love is supposed to amplify the floral rose notes in the original and give you a romantic fragrance (as the name suggests).
Sadly, the rose just didn’t show up. I guess I should have known: the press material mentions a “candied rose of love” which I thought would be more of a sugary sweet rose rather than one that’s masked.
Tresor in Love starts off with a dose of berries and fruit that just don’t sit well in a fragrance with Love in its name. The drydown is rose, jasmine, and cedar, and pleasant though it is, the drydown for me was too long of a wait. I wanted to start off with the good notes or with notes that smelled more fresh than the fruit in this scent. Gourmand overtones are obviously not what I love anyway, and so this scent was a disappointment to me.
Pick it up at Lancome counters. 30 mL for $58.
Ok, I realize that my feature nail is so muted that hardly anyone would even notice that I did something different, but I just wanted to try an easy version of the popular trend.
I used Petra and Jana because the colours coordinate with each other so well.
Jana is the mauve and Petra is the eggplant. Petra goes on darker than it seems in the bottle. The glass of the bottle makes the colour seem lighter than it actually is.
Both are from the Zoya Smoke collection. I have a thing for creams, so it’s a collection that I love.
File this under Fall accessories.
This September, Chloe presents Shirley. A plain silver locket holds Chloe Love perfume. The solid perfume has notes of rose and is delicate yet feminine. 
$75 at department stores.
