EXPERIENCE | Miraj Hammam Spa by Caudalie The Cocoon Body Wrap

Cocoon body wrap was complimentary in exchange for my honest review.

I never would have thought to find myself back in Toronto after my last visit in August of last year because it really is quite a journey from Vancouver though we all talk about the trek like it's just a trip to the grocery store. Many of you know that I was in #The6ix for GenBeauty and lemme tell ya, I booked that flight so fast and spontaneously that I felt like a crazy person. I DON'T like to fly, but the thought of meeting so many of my favourite Toronto bloggers and PR peeps was enough for me to haul my Vancouver ass out there!

NAILS | Dior Vernis Polka Dots Manicure Kits in #001 Pastilles and #002 Confettis #ManiMonday

Post contains affiliate links.

When I saw the Dior Polka Dots Colour & Dots Manicure Kits* ($38.00 CDN) in the Summer Milky Dots Collection, I thought, "Hallelujah!" I have always believed that polka dots dress up ANY manicure and it was one of the first nail art techniques I ever attempted. These new manicure kits come in three different nail colour duos containing the classiest-looking mini dotting tool I have ever seen! Today, I will show two of these kits which I have used to create today's spicy-lookin' dotticure!

NAILS | BCD NAIL ART CHALLENGE WEEK 11 - The Blue Skittlette #BCDNAILS

This week's BCD Nail Art Challenge was a bit of a well, challenge for me as skittle nails are not my forte. Skittle essentially refers to the having a different nail design on each nail, but with a unifying colour scheme or theme. I am SO NOT GOOD AT THIS, but seeing as how the new OPI Alice Through the Looking Glass collection was out, I thought I'd try to cook something up with a few of the new shades!

MAKEUP LOOK | Colourful Smoky Eye with Avon mark. On The Dot Matte Eye Color Compact Review & Swatches

I don't know how you guys feel about Avon, but lemme tell ya, it has definitely changed since I was a little girl. With the introduction of Avon's mark. line, I have definitely been paying a lot more attention to Avon because there are a TON of cute makeup products, accessories and shoes (I have two pairs and a bag)! Makeup will be the theme for today though as I recently received the On The Dot Matte Eye Color Compact ($18.00 CDN) to try. Matte shadows are next to impossible for me to decipher at times. If there is no glitter I'm totally lost. It's like I have a derivative of colour blindness, but with glitter.

MAKEUP | MAC Studio Waterweight SPF 30 Foundation Review with Swatches of NC 20, NW 22, NW 45, NC 35 & NC 37

Affiliate links present.

Last year in July, I attended a MAC Cosmetics preview showcasing some pretty amazing products for the Fall season one of which was the MAC Studio Waterweight SPF 30 Foundation ($40.00 CDN). Last year was all about serum-like foundations that were so light that only a dropper was needed to deliver the product. When I tried the prototype of this foundation on my hand, I was floored and could not wait until its release!

SKINCARE | The Face Shop Bebe Lip Mask Review

Sheet masks are jam. The 80 sheet masks that I have in my possession are prime examples of my weakness so when I see masks for other parts of the body, my skincare antennae go crazy! I am a sucker for eye masks, gel masks for sore legs and of course the lip mask. I don't use lip masks often because lip balm is usually more than enough, but who can resist this cherubic little girl on the package of The Face Mask's Bebe Lip Mask ($3.00 CDN)?! Look at her pouty, full lips! I want those lips!

NAILS | BCD NAIL ART CHALLENGE WEEK 10 - Literal Money on Ma Nails! #BCDNAILS

Two weeks behind, but back at it with the BCD Nail Art Challenge! The theme for Week 10 was "Money"and though I was convinced I had this in the bag before I left for Toronto last week, the original design I had in mind is going to require a bit more time so I will have to save it for later. I hadn't meant to take the theme quite so literally, but I can honestly say that gluing coins to my nails had never occurred to me until this challenge!

EXPERIENCE | Pop-In with Aesop x Nordstrom Vancouver

Did you know that Vancouver has a stand-alone Aesop store in Gastown? Not a lot of Vancouverites did when I spoke with the consultants manning the temporary Pop-In Aesop shop at Nordstrom this month. I can't tell when in my skincare love affair I had heard of this Australian-based brand, but every time I walked past the store in Gastown I'd tell myself that one day I would spoil myself! 

HAIR | Orofluido Zen Control Shampoo, Conditioner and Elixir Review

I never used to have a beauty ritual for my hair, but now that my hair is both very long and coloured, it is essential that I take care of it or it will become unmanageable. Back in December of last year, I received a package from a brand called Orofluido, under the Revlon Professional umbrella of brands with a basis in ancient beauty secrets from Asia. I really wasn't sure what to think, but because the Zen Control line appears to be targeted at women of Asian decent (it's really for anyone with dry, frizzy, coarse and brittle hair), I figured I'd step up and lend my Asian mane to the review process!

SKINCARE | Tatcha Luminous Dewy Skin Mist Review

I picked up my very first Tatcha item back in 2013 and right away fell in love with Victoria's story and Tatcha's philosophy which is rooted in Japanese skin principles. At the time, Tatcha was only available online for Canadians, but it was only in the last year that I started seeing Tatcha on the Sephora Canada website. I have hopes that eventually the entire line will be available for us (sans the SPF items of course) because paying duty and shipping from the US gets painful. If you have not tried Tatcha before, a good place to start is in the cleanser/toner step as the serums and moisturizers are quite a step up in price.

NAILS | Red Carpet Manicure LED Gel Polish in My Main Beach and Black Stretch Limo #ManiMonday

Though it looks like I have abandoned the bloggy while l have been away, I am staying in tonight after a great and crazy weekend at GenBeauty to make sure that I still have a Mani Monday post for you because I am ridiculously behind on everything else! I hope you have been following me on Snapchat and Instagram because there is a ridiculous amount of GenBeauty spam on those two channels as we speak! Since I knew I would be traveling and BUSY, I figured it was the perfect time to wear my favourite curable gel polishes because I wanted my nails to be absolutely flawless the week I was in Toronto. Red Carpet Manicure has a huge library of colours and there are some brights for the spring and summer season which I happily dove into!

UPDATE | Jayne is Traveling!

It only dawned on me this morning in my Toronto hotel room that I had not updated the blog since Mani Monday! GASP! I have been so busy with work and barely had enough time to pack for my trip that it never dawned on me to get some posts ready for the week and for that I do apologize. I will be back home in Vancouver on Wednesday where hopefully life will return to normal, but in the meantime follow me on Snapchat (@cosmeticproof) and Instagram for updates on GenBeauty and my other blogging adventures while I am in the big city of Toronto!

Hopefully I will see some of you at GenBeauty!

NAILS | Beyond the Nail Mint Microglitter Swatch #ManiMonday

This post almost didn't make it as Sunday was spent at a friend's son's birthday party which was all afternoon and combined with running errands with my husband in the evening, I pretty much fell asleep watching "Friends" on Netflix. I also still needed to pack for my visit to Toronto for GenBeauty(!!) so I was quite torn on how to spend my remaining waking hours. The fact that I have not missed a Mani Monday since November was what kept me going and even though this is just a simple swatch, I made sure it was a good one! I have talked about the Canadian company Beyond the Nail before on Cosmetic Proof and when it comes to indie polish companies, they will rank in my top 10 for both quality and customer service! 

MOTHER'S DAY | Spoil Mom with a Spa Experience from BVSpa by Bon Vital!

I have WAY too many bath and body products so it was slightly amusing when my mom came over for dinner the other day and asked if I had any bath products that I thought she would like. Right there was the newly arrived package of BVSpa just sitting there on the dining table (yes, now I have resorted to using the dining table as a place of beauty instead of partaking in meals)!

New to Canada and available now at Shoppers Drug Mart locations across Canada, BVSpa is a curated luxury spa experience create by Bon Vital, a company in Ohio specializing in massage and aromatherapy products for the skin for almost 30 years. Though I have not heard of the brand, Shoppers tends to have a number of brands that are almost unsung heroes and over the years I have made some wonderful personal discoveries. The BVSpa collection includes everything you will need for a total at home spa treatment such as moisturizing body scrubs, lotions, butters all free of parabens, sulfates and phthlates. Did I mention that everything in the line is $11.99? That's right!

NAILS | BCD NAIL ART CHALLENGE WEEK 9 - Rilakkuma Nail Art #BCDNAILS

Sorry guys! Still running a bit behind with this challenge as I haven't felt all that motivated to do my nails other than painting them, but I am determined to keep this up! Challenges like these are amazing for stimulating creativity especially when you have other people participating with you. Week 9 of the BCD Nail Challenge was "Nude" so I decided to choose the "most nude" of all the Sanrio characters to base my next manicure on! Rilakkuma is the stuffed bear from the Sanrio-X world and is just one of the cutest and most cozy-looking characters.

SKINCARE | Tata Harper Volumizing Lip & Cheek Tint in Very Charming and Very Vivacious Review with Swatches

Tata Harper is a skincare company, but when they make a colour product, I pretty much have to have it since much of the same care that is taken to create a skincare product is put into something even as tiny as the Volumizing Lip & Cheek Tints ($50.00 CDN). I didn't actually get a chance to pick these up until after I had left TH because I was far more interested in their skincare, but they started to grow on me because I used the tints to touch up clients after mini facials and really loved how they looked on other people.

The Lip & Cheek Tints are one of the few products in the entire Tata Harper line that are vegetarian instead of vegan as they are made with beeswax. In total, there are six tints, some of which were not available in Canada at the time, but of the ones that were, Very Charming, a classic petal pink, and Very Vivacious, a rusty coral, were my favourites.
  

EXPERIENCE | Laser Hair Removal with NuAGE Laser & Skin Care Review and How It Works!

I received these treatments in exchange for my honest review.

In January of this year I embarked on something that has honestly always terrified me - laser hair removal. On the recommendation of fellow Vancouver blogger, Chelsea from Olive & Ivy, I decided to have my first laser hair removal experience with NuAGE Laser and hopefully stop worrying about shaving for good!

Located on Thurlow Street in the Coal Harbour area of downtown Vancouver, NuAGE Laser is located within The Salon Beauty Bar so you literally can also get your hair, nails and a facial done all in the same place!

NAILS | *New* Longwear Nail Colour Chanel #508 Shantung Swatch #ManiMonday

Oh dear God. My first Chanel nail lacquer is on my fingernails and all I want to do is hold and angle my hand in a way that shows off this stunning shade. I was stuck in traffic yesterday and I am pretty sure the car next to me knows all about #508 Shantung ($32.00 CDN) as I strategically held the steering wheel for maximum nail viewing.

For this Spring and Summer season, Chanel has launched 16 new Le Vernis shades that are longwearing, 5-free and include ceramides for added nail strength. As an avid collector of nail polish, I always start with classic shades when I first dive into a brand and when I think of Chanel, I immediately gravitate to what they are best known for - iconic and classic shades like red.

HAIR | Remington T|Studio™ PROtect Straightener Review with Before and After Hair!

I don't know about you, but have gone through quite a number of straighteners in my life. I started using a straightener when I was 17, but it straightened "safely" with steam. Sure, it worked for the most part, but when it came to frizziness, forget about it. Steam just didn't cut it. I bought my trusty GHD flat iron last year during the Sephora VIB sale more for curling my hair than straightening it and though the GHD does a good job of giving me slick straight hair, I usually take extra care to add in some sort of oil or other conditioning treatment afterwards so that my hair doesn't snap like straw.

Last year at the London Drugs event, we witnessed the debut of an incredibly cool new hair straightener from Remington called the T|Studio PROtect. Ioulia from the Real Housewives of Vancouver was the spokesmodel that night and I must admit that I fangirled a little bit when I asked to take a photo with her. The other thing I noticed was how nice her hair looked even though it had been continually curled and straightened for most of the evening!