Cirque du Soleil Perfume Is Here

July 4
This is a light-hearted fun day at the fairgrounds, the sun shining hot and bright, and you come home stuffed and feeling like you could sleep for a week. It’s winning useless toys, eating fresh donuts, and looking out at the tops of people’s faces while the Ferris wheel is stuck at the top. It’s the feeling of enjoying dangling your feet in your seat because it reminds you what it was like to be little. It’s the time of year you let yourself drink a pop even though you gave it up a decade ago. It’s the bottom of your shoes sticky from the parking lot pavement that’s suddenly turned into a fairground. When you go in to work the next day to sit under fluorescent lights and meet that deadline, the Cirque du Soleil perfume will remind you of the fun you had. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

I shouldn’t like this, but I do. And before you ask, yes, I bought it. Notes include caramel popcorn, candy apple, vanilla, and cotton candy. I bought it for the nostalgia, not necessarily to wear. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Also, someone pointed out to me that the bottle is reminiscent of the Je Reviens bottles by Worth, but lots of brands have made perfumes in this kind of ribbed bottle, like Gucci for example.

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Lagerfeld Classic Perfume Review

July 4
I smell like a goth cowboy. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

I’ve layered this Elizabeth and James Nirvana Black Body Oil with Lagerfeld Classic edt, and they go together perfectly. Black has a witchy patchouli and Lagerfeld classic smells like powdery woody incense. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

If you too want to smell like tobacco incense, cherry wood, and a bit of talcum powder, you should check out Lagerfeld Classic because it’s a cheapie. I inadvertently scented my house with it because today I thought I’d try that thing where you spray the perfume in the air and then walk through it. Three sprays, step forward, turn around, three more sprays, step forward. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

 

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MAC Glow Play Lip Balm in Grapely Admired

MAC Glow Play Lip Balm in Grapely Admired. Why does it look like a cherry colour on their website when its clearly a purple that goes on pinkish? I love this lip balm and would absolutely repurchase. It’s moisturizing and even after it’s worn off, there’s a subtle tint left on your lips.

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Etat Libre d’Orange Afternoon of a Faun

Sunday afternoons are for the Faun. Spicy rose that almost makes your mouth water, I think my favourite thing about this particular rose perfume is that it’s BIG and delicious. It fills the room and announces its presence.

I can see how this might not be for everyone. Not everyone loves rose or immortelle which here is quite peppery and also syrupy. I also heard that Ralf Schwieger had complete creative control when making this perfume, inspired by The Afternoon of Faun ballet.

That’s neither here nor there if you’ve never seen the ballet, but this is worth sampling if you like rose in perfume, and for me, @etatlibreorange continues to be a brand to sample.

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Nishane Fan Your Flames Perfume Review

July 4
So you want to smell like a coconut cream pie…It’s cold and rainy today in Calgary, so it was time to wear Nishane Fan Your Flames. The notes are right on the bottle, and this juice is an extrait so it lasts forever, and one little spray continues to follow me around on this gloomy day. The name of this perfume comes from a quote by Sufi poet, Rumi: “Set your life on fire, and seek those who fan your flames.” The scent is said to be inspired by Turkish Hookah. It wears heavy and dense, not smoky. It’s a desert, a cocktail, a signal that a night of excess is over.

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Sylfirm X at Xthetics Calgary

By this time, if you’re anywhere near interested in skincare, you’ve heard about Morpheus 8, which delivers radio frequency energy deeper within the skin via micro-needles. This leads to increased collagen production, which in turn, can lead to a more youthful appearance. Although the before and after results look promising, the technology has become so popular that it’s being offered by people who haven’t been trained on the device as thoroughly. The reported side effects are hyperpigmentation and fat loss in the face – not the results people were hoping for. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

An alternative exists in the form of Sylfirm X, from Xcitetech, which is licensed by Health Canada to provide radiofrequency microneedling and it’s approved for use around the delicate eye area which can be more prone to needing a lift. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

A few weeks ago, I went to Xthetics YYC to find out more. The great thing about Xthetics is that you first meet with a doctor to discuss your skin concerns, and then the doctor suggests the treatments that would work.  Dr. Maria showed me some before and afters from treatments they had done at Xthetics, so I was able to see some real results, and again, I’ll say that the results are impressive. After a treatment, it takes about 4 weeks for you to see the results of the collagen production in your skin, and the improvements just keep coming. Best results are experienced after 3 treatments, spaced 4 weeks apart.

Sylfirm X allows the user to change settings so that results are tailored to what the client wants, leading to fewer chances of un-wanted side effects. This means no fat loss in the face, but the technology can be used for fat-reduction too.  If you struggle with pigmentation issues such as melasma, loss of firmness, or even excess fat in areas where it’s unwanted, then the Sylfirm X treatment might be for you.   ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

There’s virtually no downtime – I had the treatment done on my neck and experienced negligible redness for an hour and then everything was back to normal. Gone is the scabbing and redness from the old-school method of micro-needling, and I’ll never go back to that when I know that something better exists.  After the treatment, there’s no blood, no open wounds at all because the needles cauterize the holes that they’ve just made as they come out of the skin.  This helps lessen the downtime – if you’ve ever had micro-needling, you know that there can sometimes be pinpricks of blood but there won’t be any with the Sylfirm X treatment.

The skin is then treated to exosomes which are taken out of the fridge and mixed on the spot.  These help heal skin topically.  You can’t use any actives for about a week and just treat your skin to the most gentle, basic skincare.  For me, this included spraying with Halederma and then putting some Cerave Healing Ointment on top, which my skin loves anyway.

If you have questions, drop them in the comments. I asked lots of questions so hopefully, I’ll be able to answer them. My initial treatment was gifted – I would have gotten it on my face but I went in a couple of days after my burn disaster so additional heat wouldn’t have been a good idea.

 

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Bon Parfumeur 304 Perfume Review

304 is the perfume launched this year by the brand Bon Parfumeur. This brand makes affordable and easy-to-wear perfumes. I haven’t sampled everything from the brand, but I visited their booth at Esxence and there’s nothing animalic or over-the-top from the brand. I appreciate that aesthetic and still, there are lot of interesting things to choose from. Bon Parfumeur isn’t a new brand either – they’ve been around for a while and you can find their perfumes at Harry Rosen and Simon’s in Canada. Because of their pared-back aesthetic, people sometimes mistake them for an in-house brand from those stores, but actually, the brand is independent and based in France. The perfumer for this scent is Anne Flipo and taps into the trend of clean musky perfumes.

August 16

Clean musks are having a moment – they’ve always been around, but I think after the overdose of lactonic sweets, people also want something super clean in their fragrance wardrobes. Clean musk should be affordable since you’re basically smelling like laundry. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Bon Parfumeur 304 gives that clean musk but adds some spicy top notes to make the scent more interesting. This is my preferred take on musk. 304 takes zesty ginger and toned-down cumin, setting off the clean musk in its base. This is perfect for hot sticky days when you want to smell fresh but not boring.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

 

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Geranium Pour Monsieur Every Summer

There’s a heat wave and I’m going to the dentist so of course I needed to wear the perfume made to smell like mouthwash: Geranium Pour Monsieur. I don’t want the mintiness of this in the winter, but in the summer it’s just right. Aspects of it remind me of the now discontinued Kryptomint, but this is more complex. It has cinnamon and cloves that add to the spiciness, the zippiness that mint would give, and benzoin and sandalwood to give it creaminess in the drydown.

Am I going to get a big bottle of this once my travel size runs out?

Definitely not.

But this is a fun one to wear for right now.

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Dior Poison – Summer Tuberose


Poison is what you need for summer nights and consider this a reminder that a great tuberose perfume exists at your local Dior counter.

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It Cosmetics Hello Sunshine Review and HaleDerma

August 15
I’ve had an accident that doesn’t allow me to wear much makeup these days (read on if you want to know about it) but before that, I did have a chance to try this It Cosmetics Hello Sunshine Invisible Hydrating Serum Lotion which was sent to me. I was intrigued because it was partly marketed as a primer/sunscreen duo. I was expecting a matte, oil-absorbing formula, which is what I’d want under makeup, but this is actually a moisturizing sunscreen but it does work remarkably well with makeup. Makeup glides on to your skin when you wear this sunscreen and melts into it. The final finish is glowy and healthy-looking. Don’t bother trying to mattify this because it won’t work, just rock your glossy skin as if you wanted it to look that way. Makeup will look flawless. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

 

But I’m not using this anymore – last week I got badly splashed with hot oil, suffering burns all over my arm and face. It’s a miracle the oil didn’t get my eye because it did get around my eye and the rest of my face. Incidentally, a couple of days later I had an appointment with Xthetics in Calgary about something unrelated, and the kind people there cleaned the burn on my face and sent me home with the Halederma hypochlorous acid spray – I’ve read about hypoclorous acid all over the place to treat eczema and other skin conditions, but it’s great for aiding would healing and I did have a pretty bad wound on my face. I’m spraying it on and patting gently to clean my burns. The burns on my face are healing quicker than I expected them to. I also reached for Biafine that I had picked up in Paris years ago, and you can see that it’s on its last legs. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

 

Other than that, I’m staying away from makeup and using mineral sunscreen until all this heals. I know there are some clever, helpful people following me – doctors, aestheticians, formulators – if you have any advice for me as my burns heal, please share it in the comments or via dm. Yes, I’ve seen a doctor and a nurse, so I’m doing the things they’ve told me to do.

 

As people have pointed out, if anyone knows about taking care of your skin, it’s me.

 

 

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