April Luvs

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone is having a lovely Monday! Today was actually the start of a 3 day weekend for me so I’m a happy camper. As April is now coming to a close, I thought I’d share a few of my April favourites.

1. Essie Naturally Clean Purifying Nail Polish Remover

I picked up a bottle of this at Winners in the hopes that it would smell a little bit better than what I was currently using, but still work just as well. It’s a professional grade nail polish remover that smells pleasant and fresh, most likely due to the presence of eucalyptus oil. This polish remover actually works quite well because there is still acetone in it, but at least the scent is a lot nicer! For $5.99, I wish I had picked up a few extra bottles!

2. erborian Yuza Sorbet Moisturizer

Now, this stuff my fiance’s mother gave me as she travels to Europe a lot. This is a Korean skin care company that mainly distributes in France. I believe you can purchase their products online, but they’re a little expensive. On the website, this moisturizer is 42 euros which is about $55 not including shipping or customs charges. It will probably be shipped from Europe too so I’m just going to pray that my fiance’s mom goes again because I really liked this moisturizer! It has a gel-like consistency with little orange granules and also has a faint citrus scent. It’s fairly light and can be used as a makeup base. As you can see, I’m almost finished my supply! *cries*

3. Escents Headache Relief Roll-on

This is a roll-on made with peppermint and lavender essential oils. Escents is a great Canadian aromatherapy company that I believe began in Vancouver which probably explains why there are so many locations in BC and none that I can see in other areas of Canada (correct me if I’m wrong!). Anyway, I get headaches a lot and I’ve never been one to take a pill to make the pain go away unless I have something important to do so generally I will just take the headache stick and roll it on my temples, across my forehead, underneath my nose and across the back of my neck. The combination of the scent and cool numbing effect of the peppermint usually makes me feel less nauseated and lessens the pain. This is a must have product for me and I currently have three in various locations!

4. YSL Touche Eclat in #8

I know I might be a little biased when it comes to my views on this product because of the engagement ring connected to it, but I know I’m not the only one that really loves this product! I’ve already reviewed it here and it still stands as one of my favourite highlighting tools. I love the packaging, the ease of application and how it easy it is to blend into your skin. This is definitely a repurchase for me once I run out!

5. Physician’s Formula Eye Booster 2 in 1 Lash-Boosting Eyeliner

I love felt tip liners and for a drugstore brand I find the precision of this eyeliner to be amazing! The formula isn’t watery so there is no bleeding and/or feathering. This is great for creating a winged eye look. I’ve just picked up the Lancome Artliner so I’ll see how this compares.

I hope you enjoyed my favourites for the month! I can’t believe April is over! Time is flying!

Color Club–Raspberry Rush

Hi Luvs!

This is Raspberry Rush from Color Club’s Wicked Sweet series and it looks and smells absolutely divine! This is two coats with a top coat and more than a day later, still smells very much like raspberries! I even had clients sniffing my nails! The word that comes to mind when I look at this colour is “juicy”. It’s just so shiny and luscious-looking that I want nothing but to sink my teeth into it!

BeautyJoint Wallet Damage

Hi Girls!

This is just a quick post on my latest shopping adventure with BeautyJoint. I love getting nail polish and makeup from this site! It’s my resource for NYX products at good prices, which aren’t the easiest to get in BC. Beautyjoint also has a great selection of China Glaze nail polishes (even the Hunger Games collection!) that are quite well-priced. Personally, I just love being able to try out brands like Milani and L.A. Girl that are hard to find. I get so jealous of the US sometimes! When it comes to makeup, I don’t know what I would do if I lived around the corner from a CVS!

Anyway, onwards to the haul! I’ll be more thorough and do swatches later on each product. So, first up is the famous Milani Liquif’eye Eyeliner Pencil in Black. I have heard way too many good things on YouTube about this product to not give it a try!

 

Next, I picked up some Seche Restore, L.A. Colors Art Deco Striper in Red, L.A. Colors Scented Nail Polish Remover Pads in Lemon and Strawberry and L.A. Girl Glitter Addict in Uninhibited.

For the makeup part of the haul, I picked up three NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils in Sparkle Nude, Strawberry Milk and Purple Velvet, three NYX Slide On Eye Liners in Purple Blaze, Sunrise Blue and Esmeralda and finally two NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams in San Paolo and Amsterdam.

I fell in love with the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil when I received the colour Milk in my December Luxe Box. I find that they don’t really work well alone, but do work well as a coloured eye primer. And the Slide On Eye Liners…sigh…I’ve never been so in love with the smoothness of an eyeliner in my life! And that’s all folks!

Sally Hansen–White Veil

Hi Everyone!

I have been really excited to try these new Jewel Overcoats and the first one I picked up was White Veil. It has a clear base with pearly white (oooh!) and gold hex glitter. I couldn’t decide which colour to layer it over so I chose China Glaze IX and Kinetic Candy. Isn’t it such an awesome glitter?! What are everyone else’s weekend nails looking like?

April 2012 Glymm Box

Hello!

So, this looks like the last beauty box that I will be receiving this month as Glossybox and Luxe Box are slated to arrive at the beginning of March for me, but oh well, as long as I get a box I’m happy! Being out west, I always feel like my posts are always the last guests to arrive at a party, but these are one of my favourite posts to do! It’s like sharing with everyone what I’ve gotten for Christmas!

So, this month’s Glymm box has been met with less than stellar reactions and I suppose you can lump me into that category as well, but that’s alright, I still love Glymm just maybe not as much this month.

Here are the products I received this month:

Free Your Mane Sulfate-Free Hydrating Shampoo and Conditioner

Excitement Level: Ummm, I feel like I’ve been flooded with shampoo and conditioner samples lately. I don’t think I’ve even been using my regular shampoo this month, I’ve just been working on samples! I do like the colours on the packages though. The blue makes me happy.

Full Size: 300mL/$16.00

I Received: 14.8ml/$0.79 (shampoo and conditioner)

Lucia Soap No.1

Excitement Level: I always have a bar of soap in the shower just in case I’m too lazy to use a bath puff, so this was a nice sample for me. It smells very creamy and rich and reminds me of staying in a swanky hotel. I think I will enjoy this product.

Full Size: 8 soaps/$17.50

I Received: 1 soap/$2.19

Atelier Cologne in the Fragrance Orange Sanguine

Excitement Level: This smells so good! I love the smell of oranges so this perfume is definitely something I would wear. I know the sample was nothing too special, but I’ll give a thumbs up to the way it was packaged. It came with a postcard sealed in parchment paper which was cute. I also received two samples, did anyone else?

Full Size: Let’s go with 200mL/$165.00

I Received: Doesn’t say, so 2 x 2mL/$3.30

Mai Couture Social Gloss in G’Vinity

Excitement Level: What sort of name for a lipgloss is that? I keep wanting to say “virginity”. I use lip glosses all the time, so I will welcome this one into the ever-growing family, but it’s not exactly a colour I would wear. It’s very champagne in colour and gives my lips a frosty finish which I don’t really like.

Full Size: 5mL/$28.00

I Received: *FULL SIZE*

*Bonus* NuMe $100 Gift Certificate

I don’t think I will be using this gift certificate because I already own a good straightener and curler. I was about to use this for some of their other hair products and accessories, but unfortunately it only works if you buy an actual styling tool. All NuMe styling tools are over $100 so you will be paying a balance plus shipping of $15 to Canada, but if you are in the market for some good styling tools, this is a great deal.

Total Value of Glymm Box: $34.28 (without gift certificate)

Review–Body Shop Chocomania Body Scrub

Hi!

The Body Shop’s Chocomania collection was officially released on Valentine’s Day for those of us in Canada and as much of a chocolate that I am, there were only two items from this collection that agreed with my nose: Chocomania Body Scrub ($18) and the Chocomania Lip Butter ($6). Oddly enough, I didn’t like the idea of smelling like this for hours after taking a shower so that’s why the body butter didn’t make it into my basket.  

From the picture above, it really looks like you’re putting your hands into chocolate cake batter! It really does smell decadent, has some grit to it and is also very moisturizing. I find that I don’t even need to use a moisturizer after using it. The ONLY thing that I can say I didn’t like about the Chocomania Body Scrub is that while you’re using it, your bathtub looks like it’s covered in crap…it really gets everywhere and I have to make sure that I clean it all up so that my fiance doesn’t wonder what happened while I was in the shower…

What Chocomania products have you tried?

Crazy Cat Corner–Snow in a Shoebox

Hi Kitties!

For once, I have a picture of Snow who, like a lot of other kitties, loves a good shoebox for a nap! Sleep tight little furry one!

Color Club Yum Gum + Glitter Gal Silver 3D

Hi Gals!

It was partly sunny today so it really put me in the mood to try out one of my holos! I decided to layer two coats of Glitter Gal Silver 3D overtop of my previous mani of Color Club Yum Gum and it resulted in a pink linear holo mani! I took the first picture with flash because I love seeing holos in action!

Color Club – Yum Gum

Hi Beauties!

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m not really a neon yellow kind of gal so I happily moved on to another of the Wicked Sweet series, Yum Gum! This is a bright, creme neon pink that definitely smells like bubble gum even with a top coat on! I've had this colour on for more than 24 hours and it still smells like bubble gum! Yum Gum also has much better coverage than Get Your Lem-on with full opacity in two coats. 

Color Club Wicked Sweet Scented Nail Polish Minis

Hi all!

This collection is at least a year old at this point, but I picked up a mini set of four polishes from Color Club’s Wicked Sweet collection and you guessed it, Winners! This is my first set of scented nail polishes and I have to say, they actually smelled pretty good and each colour actually had its own fruity scent! What’s nice about scented nail polish is that it smells just a little healthier!



I’ve also included a swatch of Get Your Lem-on which of course is supposed to smell like lemons, but to me just smelled citrusy. This is three coats and it is still quite sheer. This is a neon yellow with a bit of a greenish shimmer to it. This isn’t my favourite, but it sure is interesting…

Review–Marcelle Hydra-C

Hello!

For the last few weeks, my eyes have been feeling really puffy in the mornings so I started looking into finding an eye roll-on stick with anti-puffing properties. I’ve been a fan of Marcelle ever since their BB Cream so I decided to try out the Marcelle Hydra-C Eye Roll-On for anti-puff and dark circles.

The key ingredient in these types of anti-puff products is caffeine because it acts as a vasoconstrictor aka it narrows your blood vessels. Puffiness is essentially inflammation so caffeine would certainly help. As someone who suffers from migraines this is why having a little bit of Coca Cola usually helps. The other factor that aids in de-puffing is the metallic rollerball because it’s cold. As we all know, being cold causes things to shrink :-)

The thing about this product that got my attention though was that there was vitamin C in it, but when you look at the list of ingredients, citric acid is actually the second to last ingredient, which makes me think that maybe vitamin C doesn’t have all that much to do with the efficacy of this product.



Product Info

• for all skin types
• hypoallergenic, paraben and perfume free
• metallic rollerball applicator
• consistency is a clear lightweight fluid
• $22.99/15mL

Does it work? Well, the area under my eyes definitely felt better immediately after applying Hydra-C and I do like the fact that I can apply it on top of makeup without destroying it. It did not leave a residue on my skin at all most likely because of the alcohol content that evaporates soon after application. The packaging is also convenient allowing you to just tuck it away in your purse for quick pick-me ups throughout the day. I’m not sure if I could see a vast difference in terms of before and after, but the physical relief was welcomed! Maybe I need to wait until I’m really puffy, like after crying or something and then I’ll apply Hydra-C again!

Shoppers 20x the Points Midnight Mini Spree!

Hello hello!

Last Saturday, Shoppers Drug Mart had their 20x the points on $50+ which I actually wasn’t going to go to because we had dinner plans, but when dinner ended at 11pm, I knew that the Shoppers by my place was still open for another hour so off I went! I was out of there by 11:45pm!


I picked up Oil of Morocco Argan Oil Shampoo and Conditioner which were on sale for $6.99 each. I wanted to see how these two compared to the Moroccanoil products I had used last month. The one thing I did notice was that the actual argan oil ingredient Argania Spinosa Kernel Oil is the 14th ingredient out of 28 so in terms of how much argan oil is actually in the product is probably negligible…I should have been a bit more discerning, but I was rushing to get out of Shoppers by midnight!

After years of thinking about it, I finally picked up Aquolina Pink Sugar (50mL) after years of eyeing it. I think it has been around for awhile right? The thing is, it was on sale for $17.77! I knew I couldn’t turn it down at that price! It’s a wonderful vanilla-based perfume that is very girly and sweet and smells like fruit. Speaking of a great deals, I also picked up some nail polish minis from Bourgois Paris in the set Paris Holiday. These guys were only $8.99!


The last two things I picked up were fairly mundane and boring, some Quo Brush Cleaner and a refill of my Clarins Multi-Active Day Early Wrinkle Correction Cream. Anyway, I don’t get to do late night makeup shopping sprees very often so I definitely got a kick out of this one! Maybe one day I’ll go to the 24 hour Shoppers and see what happens then ;-)

Nail Mail – The Glitter Gal Holo Haul!

Hi Everyone!

I just received my order of Glitter Gal nail polishes from Harlow and Co. and now I can’t wait until we finally have sun to wear these holos! I have been waiting for Light as a Feather 3D and Frappe 3D to be in stock for what feels like forever, but I’m sure it’s just been a few weeks in the normal, non-crazy nail polish world! Harlow and Co. provides free shipping on all orders $50 or more so I also picked up Copper 3D and 10 to Midnight ($14 USD each). I guess Glitter Gal updated their logo as well? Sorry, as evil as flash is, I had to use it to take the photos because it’s dreary and rainy today and let’s face it, to be truly amazed by a holo you need tons of light! 

See? Not so much fun without flash...

NerdLacquer – Cyance Friction

Hi!

Sorry, I meant to post yesterday, but I got too involved in Game 4 LA Kings vs Vancouver Canucks last night and I was just too tired to post! Combined with the fact that I had a TWO HOUR massage, the only thing I was good for was sleep! I’m happy our boys have staved elimination and live to see one more game!

Today I bring to you a colour that I think a lot of people really liked from my last NerdLacquer haul and it is just the most wonderful glitter teal! God, I love nail polish! It has copper and blue micro-glitter, square blue glitter and hexagonal copper glitter. I couldn’t seem to get any of the larger glitter chunks of my nails with just the polish brush. Maybe I’ll go fishing for glitter next time. Ack, just gorgeous! This is two coats plus topcoat.

Beauty Blender and ebeauty Birthday Makeup Bag!

Hi Gals!

It’s funny, I feel like the title of every post needs to have an exclamation mark at the end! I just get so excited about all of them! I know a couple people have already posted about ebeauty’s birthday promotion from the end of March, so I’m a little late, but it’s because I had to hide this one from the fiance ;-) I initially heard about this promo through Steph at Canadian Beauty Reviews and pretty much pounced on it right away!

In addition to purchasing the birthday makeup bag (for $15!), I finally was able to get a Beauty Blender with the cleaner for the wonderful sale price of $27 (original price $37). I have no idea why this makeup sponge is so goddamn expensive, but since it was on sale, I figured this was my best opportunity since the sponge on its own retails for $21!


The ebeauty Birthday Bag of amazingness consists of a cute makeup bag (I chose polka dots) and is filled to the brim with both full size and decent sample size products. Such a great price for $15 and shipping is free with orders over $25! I think everyone received the same things with only some variation in the nail polish colour.

In my ebeauty Birthday Bag I received:

Tan Towel Self Tan Towelette

Full Size: 20 towelettes/$38.99

I Received: 1 towelette/$1.95

Perricone MD Firming Neck Therapy

Full Size: 59mL/$108.00

I Received: 7.5mL/$13.73

Consonant Organic Ultra Firming Eye Cream

Full Size: 15mL/$36.00

I Received: *FULL SIZE*

Ojon Damage Reverse Restorative Shampoo

Full Size: 250mL/$27.00

I Received: 30mL/$3.24

 Ojon Damage Reverse Restorative Conditioner

Full Size: 250mL/$28.00

I Received: 30mL/$3.36

Mereadesso Beautiful Body Balm

Full Size: 200mL/$54.00

I Received: 30mL/$8.10

Mereadesso Face and Neck Toning Gel

Full Size: 50mL/$120.00

I Received: 7mL/$16.80

Stila Sheer Color Tinted Moisturizer

Full Size: 50mL/$45.00

I Received: 5mL/$4.50

Cargo Lash Activator Mascara

Full Size: 11mL/$35.00

I Received: *FULL SIZE*

Vasanti Tinted Lip Balm in Bahamas

Full Size: 3.5g/$15.00

I Received: *FULL SIZE*

Nail Tek Hydration Therapy in Twinkle Twinkle

Full Size: 0.5oz/$15.00

I Received: *FULL SIZE*

As a lot of people have already noted, for $15, the full sized products alone total $101! The total value of this awesome ebeauty birthday bag is a whopping $152.68! Woohoo! This was a happy birthday indeed!