HAIR | ghd Helios Professional Hairdryer

In every sector of the beauty world, there are the brands and products that are so luxurious there are  angels constantly singing around them and ghd is one of those brands. My first experience with ghd was 5 years ago with their limited edition, 1" Periwinkle Professional Styler. After having gone through a number of cheap hair straighteners around the $50 mark, I started looking into ones that were better quality and ghd was the first brand that popped up. It also helped that at the time, I was working as a freelancer in Sephora so I was always checking out the ghd styling tools as they were right next to the brand I was working for. I used to think the key to having nice-looking hair was all in the flat iron, but it turns out having a hair dryer that does most of the heavy lifting from the start can save you a lot of time in the styling step!

 PR gifted

NAILS | Inspired by Omorovicza Packaging #CBBxManiMonday

I got probably the hardest combination I could have rolled in this last week of "Nail Art Roulette" - "Sunset x Inspired by Packaging". I mean, what am I supposed to do with that? I was a bit clueless as to what to do so I scoured by beauty products to see if there was ANYTHING that could work and if that didn't work, I was going to check out kitchen cleaning products but luckily, I DID find something when I was opening up a tube of Omorovicza Moor Cream Cleanser. Look at that pattern! It ended up looking more like a mod nail art design than sunset, but I used sunset colours so I will count this as a win! 

Polishes provided by PR

SHEET MASK | Consonant HydrExtreme Charcoal Sheet Mask

Ooh, it has been a long time since I have talked about Toronto-based skincare brand Consonant, but they are always in the back of my mind as a steady skincare constant. Though their award-winning Natural Foaming Face Wash is still one of my favourite cleansers, my abundance of skincare and cleansers this has led me to a long absence from this brand until I realized they had a SHEET MASK. Those two magic words are like my "skincare panty-drop" so I immediately picked up a pack from Sephora when I found out they carried the brand. The HydrExtreme serum is a massive cult favourite that is made with only TWO ingredients: a proprietary blend of Cassia Angustifolia Seed Extract and Vegetable Glycerine which supposedly outperforms hyaluronic acid. I have not tried this serum (yet!) as it is a pricey one, but it is on my list for later this year. The HydrExtreme Charcoal Sheet Mask is infused with this very blend and is the first charcoal mask I've tried that smells REALLY good!

Purchased by me

SKINCARE | Ole Henriksen Banana Bright Vitamin C Serum

I didn't think I would do more than my Instagram review of the new Ole Henriksen Banana Bright Vitamin C Serum, but over the 7 weeks of use I came to really enjoy how versatile this serum was. In general, I don't give into the hype of "trendy" skincare brands and while I get excited just like any other skincare lover when a flashy brand releases a new product, I look beyond what other influencers say as I am finding that more and more people just say "OMG, thank you Brand X for this amazing product" and are "so grateful" without actually doing some critical thinking. Either they are afraid that they won't receive PR anymore or merely read the marketing jargon that's given to them or better yet, don't realize that they are already 90% sold on the product because it looks pretty on their Instagram feed. Taking all this into account, I was VERY excited when I was selected to review this for Influenster back in March because the ingredients list was a lot more impressive than I thought it would be! This was a REAL vitamin C serum that also had PHAs and I was READY.

 Product provided by Influenster

NAILS | Neon Gradient #CBBxManiMonday

Sorry, I am a little late with this one, but I have been trying to get a bunch of things done on my "Sunday" off which have included renewing my Driver's License, getting special cat food from the vet, locating some Japanese Curry mix (the Glico kind because that's the BEST kind) and then baking my muffins and doing meal prep for the week. Then I got caught up in this whole Susan Yara/Naturium business (so sad Susan, so sad) and then it was time for a nap!

 PR gifted

SHEET MASK | JM Solution Lacto Saccharomyces Golden Rice Mask

So, I had a bit of a sore throat this week and although it wasn't one of the key symptoms of COVID, I had to stay in one day from work just to keep an eye on things and after much saltwater gargling, propolis spraying and just sleeping, I awoke the next morning to a normal-feeling throat. In pre-COVID times, I wouldn't have thought twice about going into work, but now we are checking temperatures, asking "how are you feeling questions" and making an extra effort to keep ourselves and others healthy even if it may just be a simple cold or allergies. We've also been eating a ton of vegetables and fruit since going into Quarantine and with such minimal exposure to people (neither my husband or I have been using public transit), the only way either of us will get sick is from stress or something truly random that we catch from outside. I haven't had a cold or flu in over a year so fingers crossed that everyone stays healthy for the rest of the year!

 Purchased by me