Beauty, Daily, Photos, Reviews

Make Up For Ever goody bag

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Look at my eyes in that photo above. I posted a photo of my crazy lashes on instagram (@spiffykerms) and everyone commented asking me if I was wearing falsies. I wasn’t. Quite frankly I am somewhat afraid of gluing something so close to my eyes. With my luck, I’d have one eye glued shut, and the other false eyelash somewhere up on my eyebrow. Now, that would be a sight hey?

That’s where my Make Up For Ever obsession comes from. Their Smoky Lash mascara which you can get at any Sephora stores.

I got a goody bag which was given to me after attending the Make Up For Ever event with Madonna’s make up artist. Remember that? No? Here’s the re-cap in case you missed it.

I’ve decided to focus this blog post on two of my most favorite things in the goody bag.

Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream in shade 05. You can use this on your lips or cheeks. I have no idea how to apply it properly to make it look good on my lips, so I just keep it for my cheeks.

Then, Make Up For Ever Uplight, which is a face luminizer gel.

It doesn’t look like I used a lot. But that’s because the first few times I pushed my index finger in the cream pot a little too hard, got a lot of product and ended up putting it on my face. Thankfully it was the weekend and I didn’t have any place to go. So I walked around our apartment with these too-bright glowy cheeks for the day.

I learned that less is more, especially with this product.

Lindsey, the Make Up For Ever rep I’ve been dealing with (and finally met!), says that this is one of her favorite Make Up For Ever products and that it’s so very underrated! I so agree.

Same goes for the Uplight Face Luminizer gel.

Why do I try to pile it on, before testing it out on a small patch on my cheek? Again. It was the weekend, most likely the same day — it was like flashlights beaming from my cheeks that day. I was home alone, not to worry. Scott was away that weekend in the states for a race. I have no shame.

I now know how to apply these. You have to make sure it’s subtle. It’s why it’s in a small container. Because you use much less than you think you need, and that way it’ll last you years!! Y. E. A. R. S. I’m not lying. I don’t know how I’m going to get through this pot of blush/lip thing

My next on things to try from Make Up For Ever:

5 Camouflage cream palette (a bunch of concealers)

Have you ever tried anything by Make Up For Ever?

What is your favorite make up brand?

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Beauty, Daily, Hair, Photos

New hairdo

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I got my hair cut and colored on yesterday evening after work. I honestly haven’t let anyone dye my hair after my mad experience back in February 2011. In fact my hair stylist and I broke up. Since then I’ve been going to this great master stylist who has been trimming my hair since, so I could grow it out to my ideal length.

The bad thing is, he charges  $70+ to do my hair, and all I’ve been getting out of it was a “dusting” cut. Literally cutting off the minimum to clean up my ends every 14 weeks. Dude I can’t afford that, nor do I wish to pay it if I was rich.  Last time I got it cut by master-stylist-dude was back in July when I showed you some before/after photos in that blog post.

My coworker L, always has great hair color even though her hair is a completely different color than mine (her’s is blonde). Speaking of which, I went blonde for about a day a few years ago. Big mistake.

L recommended her hair stylist who is very inexpensive but does great hair. I’ve seen the results, so I was confident going into my appointment. A few nights building up to me getting my hair done, I had a nightmare about this new stylist! Isn’t that insane? I dreamed that she cut my hair all off, and left one of those 80’s rats-tail by the side of my hair… and it was bright red. What a weird dream. Guess I honestly was really worried, haha!

I know people have said that hair grows back, you shouldn’t get attached. Blah de blah blah. But seriously? It’s my hair, I am attached and I get disappointed very easily.

I decided, in order to avoid disappointment, I was going to get very specific with this new hair girl. I arrived, and took off my rain coat, and brought in the printed out looks I’ve loved, and looked I’ve hated too, just so she would get a little hint of that I’m interested in. I mean, no ones a mind reader, right? I wanted my hair to have a slight change, nothing crazy since I hadn’t dyed my hair in 1.5 years so I forgot what it’d be like with a bit of color on me. This is the outcome:

Before and After photos. Sometimes it’s hard to believe how bad your hair really did look, until the after pics. I didn’t wash it the morning of, and just straightened it. Looks so dishevelled.

From the photos, and I suppose in “real life” you can’t exactly tell a huge difference. But the ends are now the same color as everywhere else, and I’m happy.

I’d definitely go back to her. Even if she does have her hair salon in a sketch basement.

How often do you get hair cut?

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Beauty, Daily, Health, Photos, Reviews

Luxury organic skin care by GRATiAE

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One of the many benefits of having a blog, is getting to try out products that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise tried, or purchased. This review, being one of them. Primarily because of the cost of the product ($59.99), but don’t let that deter you from reading about it, or even going out yourself and purchasing it.

As always, I give my full 100% honest opinion. I’m hoping that everyone reading this truly appreciates my reviews. I put it all out there on the line. The blunt, honest truth whether it be good, or not so good. Thankfully, this one gets an A+ in my books.

I go through a ton of body exfoliators and lotions. Due to the nature of my already dry skin, I’m prone to it being itchy or flaky if I don’t exfoliate on a regular basis. Plus, who doesn’t want to have smooth skin all the time? Especially if you’re like me and are semi-addicted to self-tanning. You don’t want to have patchy dry skin while your tan is fading off.

A little background on GRATiAE. It’s a Canadian premium skin-care company that offers certified organic products. They take minerals from the water and combines them with Sea of Galilee native flora and organic essential oils. Love how they adopted the name GRATiAE, as it originally came from the Roman empire who named the spring GRATIAE, meaning The Three Graces, after the goddess of charm, beauty and fertility in Roman Mythology.

To be quite honest, I don’t read labels to make sure that they’re organic, before putting them onto my skin. But the short ingredient list on these products definitely make me appreciate it. I mean, I don’t intend to put unknown chemicals into my skin with body lotions, but it happens with generic brands. Speaking of which, which body lotion/scrub do you use on a regular basis? 

The Passion Fruit & Ginger GRATiAE body butter soaked into my skin but left my body feeling very moisturized for plenty of hours later. It felt rich but not too thick and the scent? Oh man, it literally smelled like a pina colada which smells great but tastes gross, haha.

Passion Fruit & Lime GRATiAE exfoliating body scrub.

The scrub itself was a dry almost salt-like consistency. I found that the body scrub did its job, on wet skin while in the shower and it wasn’t difficult to work with. Some scrubs end up rolling up into a little ball and doing nothing while I’m in the shower. This one was effective, and left me feeling very moisturized after. Had somewhat of a “greasy” after-touch.

Both products shown above retails for $59.99. A little steep, but that’s what you get for a luxury product. Will I re-purchase these products once I run out? Probably not. Only reason, is that they’re quite pricy and a wee bit out of my price range. If they lower the cost, I would reconsider for sure.

I also got a few mini samples of the lifting facial serum, and lifting moisture cream. Nice little moisturizers for sure. I usually use a serum at night before bed, and then moisturizers in the morning.

The packaging is in this luxurious looking tubs, ready to be whipped up on my body after a nice hot soothing shower. Unfortunately right now they’re only in Alberta, and Nova Scotia but you can view on their facebook page a full list of GRATiAE retail locations.

You can find GRATiAE on twitter, and on Facebook!

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