If you’re looking for a slightly glowy moisturizing sunscreen, this one is for you! Aveeno Positively Radiant Daily Moisturizer with SPF 30. I’ve finished a bottle of this earlier in the summer and I’m a huge fan of it. 6 pumps was about 1/4 tsp. This always feels like a lot but you could apply it in 2 rounds or you can apply the lot of it and then kind of let it set. Don’t judge your sunscreen by how it looks right away. Let it set and that’s when the magic happens.
New Physician’s Formula The Breakfast Club collection is here. I had to wonder who the target audience is for this… or is this a movie that basically everyone has watched at some point or another?
I did really enjoy these lipsticks.
These are creamy, smooth, and pleasant to wear. Affordable too. Will you be getting any?
Sent to me by Foope Fragrances. This is their “cop it or drop it” kit where you can try the testers and decide whether you’ll keep a bottle or not. Whatever you’re not keeping, you send back to the brand. What do you think?
Bulgari Jasmin Noir, a damp woody jasmine-gardenia. Mildly indolic (it’ll remind you a bit of moth balls, but not much!), and an earthiness that’s hard not to love. Easy and calm in a bottle.
This is pretty light and easy-to-wear. I put on many sprays and added more then I wanted a refresh because it was a damp and muggy day, and humidity just kills perfume like nothing else. I tend to stick to one fragrance a day unless I’m sampling and today it was this. The dampness of it reminded me of Carnal Flower too.
Have you smelled this one? It’s so underrated, and still easy to find.
From the Blu line from Italian perfume brand Acqua di Parma.
Went to the museum in Toronto and wore Acqua di Parma’s Chinotto di Liguria. The bitterness of Chinotto keeps this interesting even if it does disappear pretty quickly. Cardamom stood out today, slightly sweet and almost yummy, but the soapy musky dry down stays fresh and interesting for hours.
This is so much more than a summer spritzer in a bottle.
Also, I saw some old perfume bottles, but reading about ancient perfume is so much more interesting.
Body smells like Glossier Body Hero cream, and hair smells like Yardley Lily of the Valley, so actually they both smell pretty much the same.
Actually, who knows, because Glossier says that this smells like a mix of orange blossom and neroli, but I would disagree with that. Someone in the comments says it smells like jasmine and gardenia (yes, maybe), and someone on Reddit mentioned Lily of the Valley so I’ll go with that.
At $27 for this bottle, I’d honestly rather spend half the money for double the amount of Nivea, and that with a pump too. I only bought this body lotion because I was hoping that it smelled like the hand cream, which most definitely does have a neroli note in it. If you go through the reviews and search by “scent”, there’s many people who think this smells like “old lady” which I’m guessing is what people use to describe a pretty generic floral scent, which is what this is.
If that sounds like something you’d like (or don’t mind), then you’ll be happy to know that in terms of texture and performance, the lotion gets a 10/10. It’s smooth and goes on without friction. It’s also pillowy and lush, not greasy and absorbs quickly. There’s a tiny bit of shimmer which I tried to photograph but it wasn’t getting picked up on camera. Actually, the shimmer is subtle and just makes your skin look glowy.
If you’ve never ordered from Glossier, here’s a code to get 10% off (aff link): https://re.glossier.com/aedd3afb
Megan Markle said in a 2015 interview that one of her favourite perfumes was Oribe Cote d’Azur, so I’m sure that made it pretty popular. Last year, Oribe relaunched it, and added 2 more perfumes, Desertland and Valley of Flowers, to its lineup. Cote d’Azur seems to be a crowd favourite, so it’s the one I tried first. I’m finding that one or two sprays is plenty and there’s lots of sillage and projection. Longevity is pretty much the whole day.
Cote d’Azur opens with a gorgeous blend of citruses including bergamot and lemon, and it really reminded me of Light Blue, but instead of being a blue scent, this has a warm ambery drydown that’s a lot like Byredo Gypsy Water, In fact, Jerome Epinette, who’s one of the two perfumers credited with making Côte d’Azur has made many Byredo perfumes but not Gypsy Water. Still, if it’s the same huge perfume company making both scents, you could see how successful or beloved amber accord might be borrowed.
In case you haven’t smelled Gypsy Water, the beautiful drydown is amber and vetiver so it’s fresh and warm at the same time, that reminds me of warm rain. It’s positively addictive and I can see why people love this perfume so much. When I sprayed all three on paper, Cote d’Azur wasn’t the one that spoke to me the most, but I do love it on skin.
The one that spoke to me was Desertland because it’s a herbal vetiver perfume. Lavender gives it a dryness and juniper and pine keep it fresh. The drydown is very similar to Cote d’Azur and side by side after a few hours, there was very little difference between the two. It’s almost like both of them were built on the same base.
Valley of Flowers was my least favourite. It uses a generic-smelling floral accord, that’s a little too sharp, too piercing. The drydown still had a steel edge to it that wasn’t warm like the others.
You can purchase the Oribe sample set and the perfumes from the Oribe website. I would say that if you like the smell of the shampoo, then Cote d’azur is a very safe blind-buy. If you like Gypsy Water, then you will like the dry down.
My friend Nick says that I’m the only one on Instagram who always talks about sunscreen, and some people call me the “sunsqueen” but I’m just going to keep talking about it because there’s so much nonsense out there and I don’t think the average consumer is aware of the guidelines. In Canada, sunscreen is regulated as a drug as it is in some other countries as well. This means that there’s a recommended dosage in order to get adequate sun protection. Also, sunscreen bottles should have dosage on them. The end.
I used the Cerave sunscreen (gifted) and I love it. The texture is skin-like, it’s not greasy but you do need 6 pumps to make sure your face is protected.
Creamy dreamy Boscia Tsubaki Swirl moisturizer. Part gel and part cream, moisturizing but with a matte finish. Summer staple. Perfect for mixing with foundation or concealer for light but there coverage.
I mixed with my Charlotte Tilbury foundation but a concealer would work too.
PR.
I’ve done so much sampling over the last little while, and my nose keeps coming back to this decant of L’Air du Desert Marocain by Tauer perfumes. Micro Perfumes now ships to Canada and they offered me a chance to pick out any decant from their selection. There’s a lot of the mainstream stuff, including high-end brands like Tom Ford, but I went for something niche that I wouldn’t be able to go smell in a store.
This one fit, and I chose it even though this particular perfume wasn’t really on my radar.
What can I say about L’air du Desert Marocain that hasn’t already be said? It opens with a dry lavender spiced with coriander and cumin… I got a lot of geranium as I wore it but the base is a warm amber and cedar. It’s so strong and so many things in one that I kept sniffing my wrist when I wore it and although my decant is still mostly full, I have a strong impression of this perfume in my head. I can smell it even when I’m not wearing it, and I’ve gotten a few compliments when I’ve worn it too. I’m sure this will be beautiful in the winter so I’m looking forward to wearing it in the cooler weather, which I’m sure is around the corner.
Check out MicroPerfumes – they sell full-sized bottles too and if you like something that you’ve tried, you can get the bottle from them as well.
Have you ordered decants before? Let me know what you think!
