Empties: Live Clean, Vichy, Talika, XO Treatment Room, Kerastase

  TextThings I’m done with, and let’s go in order of most-liked to worst.

XO Treatment Room Pink Perfection Peptide oil. I loved this. It was light but moisturizing and made my skin so soft. Sometimes I even mixed it into a heavier moisturizer to lighten it up a bit. This smelled like strawberry candy.

Kerastase Discipline Smoothing Milk. This was a sample (obviously) and it went on my wishlist. It actually takes your hair and you can use it on wet or dry hair. Kerastase products are heavily scented but I love them. I like my hair to smell good and I liked the smell of this.

Vichy  Aloe Vera Mask. Smells like a spa, like lavender and herbs. Aromatic. Inhale deeply and relax while this is on. It’s self-care more than anything else.

Live Clean Cannabis Conditioner. This took forever to finish because I hated the smell. It smells like soil so your hair smells terrible after you use it. Do not recommend.

Talika Lipocils mascara. Life’s too short for smudgy mascara.

Have you tried any of these?

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Most Worn Perfumes This Year

TextPerfume diary: most worn January and February. March is here, so this is a little late, but I finally moved some things around over the weekend. I’m always organizing and reorganizing and hoping to move things so I reach for them and give them a good wear. That being said, I never plan what I’m going to wear in advance and it’s always what the mood is at that time. Anyone else? Anyway…

Chanel Paris-Venise. This arrived in January and I love wearing it. It’s a powdery vanilla that really works for cool weather especially if you don’t want anything too heavy. Honestly,I’ve worn it so much and I think I’m going to put it into the box and put it away for a while. This made my mornings and put me in such a good mood everyday. I love the fine mist, and the sweet lemon first thing in the morning. But it doesn’t last long, and by lunch, I’d find that it was basically a skin scent. I still love it and lasting power has no bearing on how good a fragrance is. It’s just the way it is. It’s fine. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Vintage Guerlain Samsara EDT. This is a heavy fragrance, and definitely not as worn as the Chanel because it’s so dense. I love it, and I want to get other versions of Samsara to try. If you’ve experienced them, let me know your favourite and why in the comments.

L’Artisan Parfumeur Coeur de Vetiver Sacre. I love this one too, it’s a bit of a tea scent, and it’s better in the summer so that’s when I’m going to wear it, so putting it away for a while.

Chronotope Perfumes Buen Camino. Lavender and immortelle make me adore this scent. I can wear a lot of this and not get sick of it.

Kayali Invite Only Amber 23. This is like a popular version of Serge Lutens Chergui, but with tobacco and a good puff of powder. Honestly, if you want a feminine sweet tobacco fragrance, try this one, it’s from Sephora so easy to order and sometimes it just hits the spot. This is my little 10ml mini. Isn’t she cute?

Anyway, I am going to put some of these away and change up this lineup a little. Actually the Chanel and the L’Artisan are going away and I’ll add something else in their place.

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Givenchy III Perfume

TextI got it from my momma…Literally…I was going through a box from the back of a drawer over Christmas and found this empty bottle of Givenchy III… at first I couldn’t believe she held on to it…but also, it’s totally something I would do, so I’ll hold on to it for her. I can still smell an 80’s floral chypre when I put my nose up to the bottle and it turns out that this is easily found on eBay… very likely this little bottle came as part of a gift set…I’m officially team keep the empty bottle. What team are you on?

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Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady Review

Just can’t let it go…

Spicy rose is what I smell and taste like today. Refreshing and delicious at the same time. I let it go but it came back to me…Maybe for right now, it’s just meant to be… a forever perfume if there ever was one. But Portrait of a Lady needs to stop being on all the top 10 rose perfumes list.

Anyone expecting a fresh garden rose will be disappointed. It’s a dry herbal rose blended with pepper, cinnamon, and clove, at once homely and exotic. The spicy rose blended with patchouli, sandalwood, and a bit of incense the kind of perfume I can never get sick of.

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Fenty Skin Pre-Show Glow Review

Remember those scrubby gloves you used in the shower or that scrubby cloth? Well the new Fenty SkinPre-Show glow comes with that and they recommend you use it once or twice a week gently in your skin.

I don’t know how I feel about that but I will update. I’ve got the mini version.

The update is that this actually didn’t bother my skin as much as I thought it would, but I do like to wash it regularly and so usually use this glycolic acid treatment with my regular reusable cotton wipes.  It has worked at getting rid of some texture on my skin which I really like.

The liquid in this is kind of thick but that means that it doesn’t run off the cloth and stays on.  I do like that.

I think that there are a lot of options out there for a good glycolic acid, and this is one of them!

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Hair Oils I’ve Tried

TextA roundup of all the hair oils I tried in the past few weeks. Honestly, I’m sure I have the same hair as always, but probably more grey than anything else.

A lot of these oils are so expensive – over $50 and when I used them, I really thought that it might be better to get a cheap oil and just put the rest of the money towards a nice perfume.

Of all of these, my least favourite oil was the Balmyard one. I found that it made my hair crispy, even after I washed it off, so I think that blend of oils is film-forming. The Ouai oil has silicone in it, so it’s not really a true oil, but it’s the best for frizz. The Aesop oil is good for a nice head massage. Sahajan – well that’s my favourite. The UMA Oil was good because it washed out clean and that’s a priority for me. The castor oil is from Amazon.

Obviously, I didn’t use any of these long enough to be able to see a real difference in terms of growth or hair health. For that, I would need to use each oil for at least 3 months, and I’d need to develop a consistent way of measuring change. I’m not doing that, and I don’t think any of these oils advertise life-changing hair development. That being said, the ritual of giving your scalp a nice massage cannot be appreciated enough, and if you’re locked down like we all are right now, a little ritual like this one might just be the thing that saves you.

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L’Artisan Parfumeur Coeur de Vetiver Sacre

TextPerfume today is L’Artisan Parfumeur Vetiver Coeur Sacre. Are old bottles > new bottles? I like the old ones… wish I had held on to more of them. Anyway, I needed something chill, I was expecting the worst but it was a completely normal day and I’m so thankful for that.

This perfume is a nice tall glass of unsweetened iced green tea. Normally, I wouldn’t wear it in the winter but I wanted to surprise myself and I need a refresh.

But this is the perfect summer scent because it’s light and you can refresh often, and I kind of like that in the summer. Putting it away for now and pulling it out in a couple of months.

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Dior Eau Noire

An Indian-seeming scent if there ever was one: DiorEau Noire.

TextIt’s a celebration but also super understated and elegant.

When I have such a strong connection from a scent to something I know well, I wonder if the perfumer knew or had any idea. It’s such an intense connection that I can’t shake it, and I love it.

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Zoologist Camel Review

TextCozy vibes with Zoologist Camel. I am going through my 10ml pretty quickly and enjoy this scent so much. Don’t be put off by the name. It doesn’t smell like a camel, more like where the camel is taking you to. Maybe a sunset gathering in the desert, to sit on a blanket, eat date cake with your friends, feel the warmth inside and out.

It’s getting cooler here day by day, but we’ve had the longest fall I’ve ever experienced in all the time I’ve been in Calgary. Still, it’s negative temperatures at night now, so the snow isn’t far away.

How are you staying warm?

You can find Zoologist fragrances on their website.

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Aveeno Restorative Skin Therapy Itch Relief Balm Review

I’m a little windswept, the sunrise, and Aveeno Restorative Skin Therapy Itch Relief Balm (gifted in the past, rebought now). It has a really mild numbing ingredient in it. The numbing is supposed to stop the itching and I find that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. The itchiness is sometimes in your own head, right?What keeps me coming back is that the balm is thick but not greasy. You’re not going to feel a heaviness on your skin when you use this. Of course, unscented because that’s what irritated skin needs. The tube is small so maybe you’re just supposed to use this on certain areas but the texture is so nice that it’s tempting to use it all over.

Of course, it also has soothing oat extract in it, so that’s great for anyone who finds that calming to their skin.

I get it online.

 

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