SKINCARE | Etude House Calming Cheek Patch

LOL. That is really how I need to start off this final skincare review for the month because this product was just kind of silly and I was highly amused the whole time I was wearing it. I have now gone into the sheet mask zone of true "skintertainment" with the Etude House Calming Cheek Patch (~$2 USD). These gelatinous patches promise to brighten, firm, moisturize and calm red and irritated cheeks. There are also other "patches" in this series for laugh lines and other parts of the face. Let's find out if these cheek masks worked!

MAKEUP | MAKE UP FOR EVER Step 1 Skin Equalizer Eye & Lip Primer

I was not expecting MAKE UP FOR EVER to come out with this. When I first saw this slender tube, I honestly thought it was a deluxe sample of the Step 1 Skin Equalizer Face Primer, but it was in fact the new Step 1 Skin Equalizer Eye & Lip Primer* (10mL/$29.00 CDN)! Yes, it is intended as BOTH a lip and eye primer! I mean, I have had separate primers for these parts of my face, but definitely not a product that works as a 2 in 1! This latest innovation promises to "smooth and fill and intensify colour for creaseless 24 hour wear" so let's see how it held up this week!

NAILS | Two Timing the Purples #ManiMonday

I am pretty happy right now because I am currently on staycation! I had 7 vacation days that I needed to use up by the end of the fiscal year and the timing was just perfect because I was about ready to kill people by the end of last week. I had my Sage diffuser running on overtime and then the adaptor broke and I was going mental with just spraying aromatherapy spray above my head. Thankfully, I stopped by one of the Sage stores to ask about buying an adaptor to which the sales associate responded with "Oh, I think I have an extra one in the back!" She gave me one for free and I bought three more essential oil blends: Exhale, Quick Study and Immune. All blends that are VERY appropriate for the workplace. Can't have anyone falling asleep!

SKINCARE | Elizavecca Milkypiggy Bio-Cellulose Goggles Eye Lock In Aqua Mask

I have a bit of a weakness when it comes to pigs and I think it might be because I was born in the Year of the Pig. I am specifically a "Wood Pig" and have been told to stay away from Dragons because "they will breathe fire on and destroy me" as stated by an Asian co-worker. I like it when people are blunt.

Two years ago, the Elizavecca Bubble Clay Mask (review) took YouTube by storm and when I finally got my hands on the mask myself it was clear why people were getting such a kick out of it! If you haven't tried it or at least watched OTHER people try it, you are in for some giggles! Ever since then, I have had my eye on Elizavecca and their piggy mascot. In my hunt for interesting sheet masks, I came across the Goggles Eye Lock in Aqua Mask on the Cosmetic Love website and pretty much fell for the packaging right there! And it's a bio-cellulose eye mask! Doesn't that sound absolutely dreamy?!

SKINCARE | Eliminate those Puffy Peepers with The Ordinary Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG

I rarely feature eye creams for review even though I use them all the time mainly because I don't often see a huge difference between them that is worth writing an entire blog post about. I have also become oddly sensitive in the eye area with many eye creams making my eyes water upon initial application and tend to develop milia. I have a feeling this has all been due to getting older as my skin goes through its estrogen-depleting changes, but that being said I have found that keeping my eye care routine as simple as possible has been the ticket. Enter my first review of The Ordinary! I have been using Ordinary products on and off since the beauty world rocking launch in the summer of 2016 and after going through a couple of different products, I am finally ready to start talking about my favourites starting with the Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG (30mL/$6.70 CDN)!

HAIR | Celebrating the Pantone Colour of the Year with L'Oreal Colorista Spray in #Purple 200

I will be honest that I only pay attention to the Pantone colour of the year from December to the end of January and then I'm ready for the reds and pinks of Valentine's Day, but this year I paid extra attention because purple is one of my all-time favourite colours. The purple family gets featured quite a bit on my nails, eyes and lips and even in my hair! I loved having blue and purple hair back in 2016, but dark hair has its limitations when it comes to the shade of purple you can have. When I saw the L'Oreal Colorista Sprays at the London Drugs Event back in the Fall, my first question to the dark haired rep at the booth was "Will this show up in dark hair?" to which he responded by turning his brunette head and showing me the blue that was on the side! At that moment, I knew I had to try these in allll the colours since they wash out in just a day so no need to worry about the commitment! 

NAILS | Water Droplet Manicure #ManiMonday

Apologies to those of you this month who have been reading and wondering why the hell I've only been chatting skincare and nails, but I'm really trying to stick the the CBB theme and use it as a good excuse of getting through my face masks! As I get older, skincare will only become more and more important, but rest assured that I will only be showcasing skincare that is fun, weird and stuff I enjoy!

Today's manicure is something I initially wanted to try with cured clear gel top coat, but THEN when I was putting together my Julep Maven Box, I had space for one little thing and I selected these water droplet nail stickers.

SKINCARE | For Beloved Girl Skin Renewal Mineral Cloud Silk Mask

My boss asked me the other day at our staff dinner "Do you basically wear a mask every night?" and I had to respond with "Yes, yes I do". I actually time sheet masking with NOT washing my hair because I have a bit of a ritual when it comes to my hair and trying to get everything done at night in one fell swoop is actually a bit stressful which is the opposite of what you are trying to accomplish when it comes to using a relaxing sheet mask!

Two years ago, Taiwanese brand For Beloved One officially launched in Canada through T&T supermarket with science-y skincare that made me quite happy. Last Spring, a little sister was born with the launch of For Beloved Girl - a collection of 6 cloud-silk masks targeting various skin concerns (focused away from anti-aging) for the younger 18-34 demographic at an affordable price point. I have all 6 masks to share with you, but I think it's less overwhelming to go through them one at a time. It's also easier for ME to keep track of any differences so let's start off with the Skin Renewal Mineral Cloud Silk Mask* (3 pcs/$12.99 CDN)! 

NAILS | Purple Glitter Gradient with Nicole by OPI

I have been seeing a couple of people post Nicole by OPI polishes and it reminded me of how much I missed this fun, often sparkly brand. They disappeared suddenly around 2014-2015, but I managed to keep up with collections and always grabbed a couple of shades when they went on sale along with a few collections through PR. One thing I loved about NOPI were the celebrity collaborations with everyone from Justin Bieber to Carrie Underwood to the Kardashians. The names of the polishes were always very tongue-in-cheek and the shades more adventurous than the usual OPI collections. I will slowly be making my way through the drawer of NOPIs that I have along with the Sephora by OPI polishes! 

MAKEUP | COVERGIRL Katy Kat Gloss aka A Crazy Cat Lady's Dream

I bought this because it had a cat on top. End review. Ha, I'm sure some of you would have been amused with such brevity! Many of you are crazy cat ladies like myself and when I saw these COVERGIRL Katy Kat Glosses with silver cat heads on top I just about lost my s***. Coming in 12 outlandish shades (for the most part), these high shine babies have been created in collaboration with Katy Perry that promise pigmentation and shine all with a smooth, hydrating feel. Most of the lip colours were just too strange for me to spend my money on, considering I have enough blues, greens and purples from NYX, so when they went on sale for Boxing Day at London Drugs I picked up the two most likely colours I would wear which were "Cateloupe" and "Purrple Paws". Good ones, right?

SKINCARE | Maskeraide Let's Face It Purifying Cleansing Stick with Red Beet

OMG guys, I feel like a lot of my Instastories feature the brand MaskerAide and I certainly do not feature this Canadian brand enough on the blog! In fact, I just used the Weather Warrior Sheet Mask during my "get away from the sick husband hotel stay" this past weekend and the smoothness I got in my skin without the use of silicones was amazing. We're not here today to talk about sheet masks though, but we are here to talk skincare because that's our topic of conversation at the CBB this month!

The newest innovation from MaskerAide is the Let's Face It Purifying Cleansing Stick* ($23.00 CDN) which is an oil-to-lather solid cleanser that not only cleanses the skin, but also removes makeup, nourishes and maintains the skin's pH level (I even have litmus proof!) using a blend of beet root, pink clay, rose petals and citrus oil. A stick cleanser is not something I have ever used, but I was definitely game to try it out!

NAILS | Making Mondays Better One Nail at a Time #ManiMonday

Guys, I'm tired. Some of you may have seen on my Instagram stories yesterday that I did a bit of a crazy thing on Saturday night and booked a night in a hotel. My husband caught the flu over Christmas while visiting family in Montreal and though he is through the worst of it, he has that nagging man cough that has kept me on the couch since Dec.30th and awake for most of the night. I am a very light sleeper by nature which doesn't help and after falling asleep at the bus stop on the way to work Friday, I decided enough was enough and booked the weekend at Le Soleil in downtown Vancouver. I was working the whole weekend anyway so I pretty much paid $145 for a nice bed and uninterrupted sleep. Hubby understood why I needed to do this which was good and though I felt really guilty for doing it, I had a couple of people mention to me what a great idea this was. There is no making up for the last two weeks, but last night was much needed!

SKINCARE | Julep Triple Quench Deep Hydration Sheet Mask System with "Melfie"

I have been doing my best to stay on track this month with the theme of skincare for the CBB which has really forced me to use the sheet masks that I have sitting around and of course all of the other wonderful bottles of skincare that are sitting around my office. I am finding things that I haven't even OPENED from 2 years ago that I'm sure have now lost their efficacy, but I cannot bring myself to chuck out. I just hate waste!

I swore I would not get more sheet masks until I finally made a dent in the collection I have, but when I saw Julep's new Triple Quench Deep Hydration Sheet Mask System ($12 USD), I was intrigued and subbed it into one of my Maven boxes instead of polish. I had been skipping the boxes for almost a year, but ever since they started moving into Asian skincare I have been paying more attention to the new products that come out with almost every month!

NAILS | Get Beautifully Strong Nails with Vitry Nail Repair Care

Can you tell I care a lot about my nails? We all have our beauty obsessions and mine is definitely skin and nails. Up until 2011, I never had long nails. They were constant nubbins and I really had to develop a routine of self-care to keep them long and healthy for nail art. One thing I have been struggling with for the past 2 years is splitting and breakage especially on my right hand as it is the dominant one. In these drier winter months, the nails on my left hand (my beautiful photo hand) have also started to fall prey to being easily broken and I have been rotating base coats and treatments to find the best solution and I have had some (so far) promising results with Vitry's Nail Repair Care* ($26.00 CDN). 

SKINCARE | Glamglow #GlitterMask GravityMud Firming Treatment

I am going to be the first to admit that I bought this NOT for the skincare benefits, but for the hype. The Glamglow #GlitterMask ($79.00CDN/50g) is skintertainment at its finest and when I saw this available online at Sephora, I snapped it up and was ready to both revel in the glitter and absurdity of this "serious" skincare mask. I have used all of Glamglow's masks and cleansers in deluxe sample format, but I have never purchased a product of theirs until now because well, you all know that I love skincare, masks and obviously glitter so allow me to take the $79 bullet for you to give you my personal low down!

NAILS | I Love Sephora #ManiMonday

This wasn't intentionally a tribute to Sephora, but when I added the red hearts it started looking much more familiar. I won't be seeing a Sephora bag for awhile as I am challenging myself to a no-buy beauty ban this month. I have never believed in no-buys, but a friend brought up trying it so now at least I have someone to hold me accountable if I fall off the wagon. God knows I don't "need" anything beauty-related as I am fully stocked on everything from skincare to makeup so may this be the month that I use things up, blog more and free up some space in the office!

SKINCARE | Multi-Masking with Avon Beauty Boost Face Masks

This month's CBB theme is skincare which I am LOVING because it is one of my favourite things to write about because I think of it as akin to "beauty biology". It requires testing on the LARGEST bodily organ which can react well or poorly to whatever you have been doing to it! Maybe I have only paying attention to skincare in the last decade, but I feel like it's a lot more FUN now. North American skincare is going the route of Asian "skintertainment" and I feel like there really is no excuse for NOT taking care of your skin when it has become this entertaining!

Multi-masking is a concept that first started emerging in North America about 3 years ago and honestly I never really did it. I still don't really do it much even though it makes total sense to do so! My chin is oily while my cheeks are sensitive and the areas around my nose and forehead are dry. This sounds like three different masks to me so when I saw that the Avon Beauty Boost Face Masks* ($30.00 CDN) had a bit of everything I knew I had found my solution! 

MAKEUP | SEPHORA COLLECTION #Lipstories Lipstick with Lip Swatches

Would you look at that? Jayne has a review up that's ON TIME for something that has just come out! Well, that's because I was so impressed by these that I wanted/needed to share with you guys like RIGHT now. These are brand new to the SEPHORA COLLECTION and yes the product name actually has a hashtag in it. The #Lipstories Lipsticks retail for just $10 each and come in 40 shades with three finishes: matte, cream and metallic. The tagline reads that "this is lipstick for real life, not just ring lights" which I sort of get, but not really because along with some fairly normal "real-life" shades, there are some that really only suit a camera makeup look or a work day at Sephora (no offense, but you all know what I mean). Marketing aside, I do love the underlying message of enjoying life and having an adventure all with these incredible shades on your lips because ladies and gents, they really are fantastic! 

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NAILS | Happy New Year! #ManiMonday

Well, people 2018 is here! I feel like people seem really excited about 2018 compared to 2017. I know that even my first post of 2017 was a bit of a downer talking about Trump and dry skin - two things that annoy me, but now it feels like 2018 is going to be better even though 2017 wasn't particularly bad for me. According to my "achievement jar" I got to do a lot of cool new things and I also took the initiative to travel twice for pleasure which is a good thing for me because I'm not a good traveler. Yes, I may have caught a stomach bug on one flight, but I survived! I have plans for Italy this year so I am hoping that I will feel comfortable enough to fly a longer distance without being heavily drugged.