BODY | Boscia Bodycare Routine

Press samples

I have been on a bit of a Boscia kick ever since the event I attended online two weeks ago! I always feel like these beauty events renew your curiosity and love for a brand or certain products. It also helps when you get co-founder of Boscia, Lan Belinky, to teach you about every single product and how best to use them! For fun, I went back through my old blog posts to see when I started using Boscia and how often, and you know what? I started using Boscia 10 YEARS ago beginning with their Blotting Linens, BB Cream (THE BEST, but now discontinued) and their cleansing oil. Back in the day, I knew them more as a Western brand with Asian beauty roots which was kind of perfect for me as I was still navigating through the world of beauty and skincare. Fast forward to now where Boscia is killing it with updated eye-catching packaging and a bunch of new products not just for the skin, but for the body too!

SKINCARE | Hot and Icy with the Boscia Thermal Black Charcoal and Cryosea Firming Icy-Cold Cleansers

Products provided by PR

I have been in a very involved relationship with my cleansers the last couple of months. I don't often review cleansers mainly because there isn't much variety in terms of what I can say about them, but that doesn't stop me from shopping through my stash and hand-selecting what kind of texture or scent I feel like experiencing! Recently, I started taking my double cleansing REAL serious and have been joyfully testing out various duos of oil cleanser + second cleanser! An interesting cleanser duo that has entered my rotation are the Boscia Thermal Black Charcoal and Cryosea Firming Icy-Cold Cleansers!

Holidays at Sephora | Gift Sets from Boscia, Kat Von D and Atelier Cologne OH MY!

I'm not very good at holiday gift guides because I always want to talk about one thing at a time, but as much as I wanted to devote a single post to each one of these glorious gift sets, my work schedule is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. I am not disciplined enough to get up at 6am to blog and with hubby away in Montreal seeing his family, I have been having trouble sleeping. Someone told me to go and pick up a body pillow since I am missing the presence of a body in the bed. Cat sandwiches just don't cut it.

I thought these gift sets were pretty cute and made me really happy when I received them so I thought I would share the love!

Boscia | Tsubaki Deep Hydrating Sleeping Mask

I love face masks. Not to sound promiscuous, but if I get to sleep with one I’m even more excited at the prospect of waking up with sensational skin! Boscia(pronounced BO-SHAH) products have slowly been making their way into my skincare and beauty regime starting with the Boscia BB Cream, Makeup Breakup Cool Cleansing Oil and now the Tsubaki Deep Hydrating Sleeping Mask ($42 CDN) made with Boscia’s signature blend of tsubaki oil (camellia oil), wakame (Japanese sea kelp), and rice bran oil to hydrate, smooth and protect all while you sleep!

Like most sleeping masks, the consistency is quite thick and has a slightly tacky finish. There is also little to no scent.

Final Verdict: There is one main purpose to this sleeping mask and it is HYDRATION, but another wonderful thing is that there are bonus anti-aging benefits to this mask thanks to numerous antioxidants present in tsubaki oil and Japanese sea algae. Rice bran oil is rich in essential fatty acids and Vitamin E and boosts skin’s regenerative properties leading to an improvement in overall skin texture. It also has anti-inflammatory properties, so if you’re like me and tend to get a little red as it the weather gets drier, this is a sleeping mask worth trying.

I counted the hours it took for the mask to fully absorb into my face it was around 4 hours, BUT my skin felt wonderful when I woke up in the morning. Baby soft and still hydrated, it was worth the wait. If you apply this mask just prior to sleeping, you will experience a bit of tackiness. This mask was so hydrating that my skincare routine became: cleanser, toner, serum, sleeping mask. Sometimes I layer a sleeping mask ON TOP of my moisturizer, but that was not necessary at all! For anyone just wanting to try a travel size sample of this sleeping mask, Sephora has the Tsubaki Cleanse and Hydrate Trio ($25 CDN) that has this mask plus a mini Konjac sponge and cleansing oil! Such a great price!

Have you tried anything from Boscia yet?

PR sample sent for review.

Jayne’s August Favourites

I actually had quite a number of favourites for August, but I feel like if I list too many it gets somewhat confusing as each item loses its “pedestal-like” status as a “favourite”. I have some gems that I have definitely been consistently reaching for over the last month and possibly even now in September so they must be pretty awesome.

July 2014 Favourites

I cheated a little on my favourites this year as I skipped June partially due to being really busy at work and also because I just didn’t have anything THAT interesting to share with you. I’d like to think that after two months I have a few products that are worth a mention and who knows, maybe they’ll make it to your favourites lists as well!

May 2014 Favourites

Well, look at that. I actually have REAL favourites for once! I finally decided to enjoy some makeup and make note of things I have been loving which I constantly forget to do. Hopefully, you will find some favourites among MY favourites!

Sephora Sinnage | Regrets, Debts and Makeup Sets

I joke, I would never go into debt for makeup and it scares me to think that there are some people who do! The title just sounded so snappy that I couldn’t resist! I purchased the first set of items when there was a VIB Celebration Bag as a Gift with Purchase and ended up doing another purchase online shortly before my wedding as I was afraid I would run out of my favourite MUFE foundation! I am now waiting for VIB week so that I can do my last round of sinnage for 2013!

Sephora | Round #1

August Empties!

I think I was just wondering around my shelves of product unable to stick to one thing which has resulted in the fewest number of empties to date! Then again, some are better than none right? So, let’s get started!

June Favourites!

We are now officially full swing into summer and I can finally bring out my more summery makeup colours to celebrate! June was mainly about makeup products for me, it’s funny how each month differs in product assortment. I didn’t have a lot of lip products this month because of the weird allergy on my lips I was battling with, but it forced me to discover other products that DIDN’T go on my lips! I hope you guys enjoy!

1. Origins Incredible Spreadable Smoothing Ginger Body Scrub

This smells just like ginger candy! It’s sweet and almost edible, but has a wonderful grit to it. I like my body scrubs to have fairly large crystals as that is the only way I feel like my body is getting any exfoliation at all. The crystals are packed quite densely and dissolve as you rub. What is great is that this scrub is gentle enough to be used daily.

2. NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss in Beige

As you can see, this colour is far from beige as it is a gorgeous pink with a medium tint to it. It smells like cherries and gives your lips an incredible shine. I have been layering this over lipstick, but can also be worn alone for a healthy pink sheen. This lip gloss is also smooth and non-sticky which is nice, but as a result does not last long and must be reapplied about every two hours.

3. Nivea Lip Butter in Raspberry Rose

I got this in a swap from the UK (which I promise I’ll post soon because I got some awesome goodies!) and it smells like raspberries and cream! It’s very moisturizing and has been one of the few things I have been wearing on my lips since I was suffering from my stress-induced lip allergy throughout the month of June. It goes on virtually colourless and is very smooth on the lips.

4. China Glaze Nail Lacquer in Too Yacht to Handle

This is just such a beautiful teal, perfect for summer! The formula is wonderfully opaque in two coats and goes on much brighter in person than in the bottle. This is a colour I feel I will keep turning to again and again this season.

5. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat

I have read about this product for years, but never bothered to try it until last month and it’s great! I actually don’t notice too much of a difference between this and the Out the Door top coat and is much easier to find! I also like the width of the brush. This is a keeper for me!

6. Benefit Sugarbomb Blush

Now that I have a little bit more colour from running errands in the sun, I find that I can get away with less pink and more bronze-pink for colour. Sugarbomb has made its way into most of our makeup bags so I’m sure you all know WHY this is a favourite of mine! It has the perfect combination of pinks and browns that look wonderful on any skin tone.

7. Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze

I feel like this is an oldie, but a goodie. This is my favourite colour out of the whole collection and lasts all day even without primer for me! It’s such a pretty shimmery neutral brown that I use it for work often. It’s also very blendable and creamy for an eye shadow that lasts an 8 hour work day!

8. Pandora’s Makeup Box Eye Shadow in Nugget

I got this colour a few months ago, but it wasn’t exactly a “cold weather” colour. Now that I am unearthing my summer makeup, wearing a gold eye shadow seems like part of the summer uniform! The pigmentation of this eye shadow is good and is soft and blendable.

9. Boscia Vanilla Scented Blotting Papers

I actually have my blotting papers in a reusable holder which is why you can’t see the original packaging. These blotting papers have a faint vanilla scent and in my opinion, work like any other blotting papers so it really is the scent that I am loving!

And that’s a wrap for June! 

April 2013 Glossybox | Olympian Edition

I vowed that I would NOT let this post wait until June! I’m so sorry for being late! As mentioned in the title, this is a Glossybox curated or rather endorsed by former Olympian Tracy Little. I couldn’t find her name associated with a medal though, so I don’t know if the Glossybox card is entirely accurate. And interestingly enough, Tracy Little has now retired and is now a Marketing and Communications Manager for a pole dancing company! Sorry, moving on April’s Glossybox!

Wanna See What Was In The Shopping Channel Holiday Surprise Box?

It feels like forever ago that I ordered this and I still have everything in this very box because of the build up of products that happened over the holidays. I keep blaming “the holidays” for my deep-seeded beauty acquisition issues, but if I’m still using that excuse in March, one of you please stage some sort of intervention!

My Last Sephora Splurge for Awhile…

I was $22 away from becoming a VIB so these are the “fruits of my labours”! With the season of Christmas and gluttony behind me, I’m still looking at my huge basket of beauty Christmas goodies and trying to figure out where to put everything. I really don’t want to have move into a new place to accommodate all of my beauty acquisitions so I’d ideally like to wait until the Spring to buy anything from Sephora again. Let’s see if I can do it!

eBeauty.ca (Very Reasonable!) Mini Haul

 

Thanks to a heads up from Margo at City Girl, I decided to take advantage of ebeauty’s 20% coupon for this month. I was a good girl and only got things I had really been pining for.

Atelier Cologne in Orange Sanguine 30mL ($55)

Ever since I received a sample of this in April’s Glymm Box I have been in love, but it is a pricier perfume and not readily available in a lot of department stores or the Shopper’s Beauty Boutique. You can find this fragrance on the Glymm website, but the 30mL bottle is $5 more and I’d rather use my last Glymm points on Butter London polishes. Wouldn’t you? If you haven’t guessed already, this smells like oranges! Blood oranges to be more precise. What’s nice about the bottle is that the pump is removable for splash or spray use. The label on the bottle is actually covering a very long plastic tube that you can use to dab the fragrance on your skin. The other interesting thing is that there was a little card inside the box that said there were refills available and that all I had to do was email and they would send me a metal funnel. I just don’t know where I’d get the refills from!

LaVanila – The Healthy Deodorant in Vanilla Grapefruit

I love the Vanilla Grapefruit fragrance so I thought the deodorant would be just as appealing…it wasn’t…it smelled like neither to me actually, but the scent overall was still quite pleasant. I currently use a salt-based deodorant which I love because there is no scent or any scary ingredients so I’m really excited to start using this to see how it works for me.

Boscia Vanilla Blotting Linens

I actually didn’t think I would be able to smell the vanilla, but you really can! These will make a great addition to my purse for touch-ups during the day and I have a feeling I am going to love these! The blotting linens are a great size and more than enough for the entire face!

Did anyone else take advantage of ebeauty’s promotion?