Beauty

Sunkissed after sunset – date night with my number one

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Thought I’d tell you a little bit about our Valentine’s Day, and it just so happens that Clarins and McDonald’s were part of it — ha! Clarins and McDonald’s, doesn’t really roll off the tongue does it? Sure, many people turn up their noses at me when I say I love McDonald’s, but our love for McDonald’s is r.e.a.l. Hence the name of this post sunkissed after sunset, a date night with my No.1 this Valentine’s Day.

This is my excited face. Excited for McDonald’s. 

Don’t be throwin’ any shade at me, but Valentine’s Day at McDonald’s has been our tradition since we were in the first year of our relationship. Long time readers understand that we couldn’t possibly break the rules 12 years in. And Clarins is a product I used to look all dolled up for the evening of fine dining, ha!

Let’s get to it! Here’s the full list of products I’ll be using.

Clarins Face Contouring PaletteClarins Face Contouring Palette|$42. (The Clarins Face Contouring Palette is another great gift thanks to the Octoly website where you can sign up for free product from Octoly if you have 10k+ on Instagram / 1K on YouTube.)

Left| a beige highlighter illuminates and creates depth
Middle| a bronzey deep shade to use for contouring, sculpting, and defining
Right| soft rose blush creates a healthy-looking glow

You know what? Thinking back on it, I’m pretty sure this is the first Clarins makeup product I’ve ever tried, apart from their self-tanner (which I used on my wedding day, fun fact!). I don’t use that self-tanner anymore because it doesn’t have a colour guide and I almost always missed a spot when self-tanning using their product.

I love doing these step-by-step tutorials, because it helps a lot of my readers out who are kinda new to makeup. As always I love to keep things natural looking, but definitely with an added sunkissed look. I amped it up on Valentine’s Day giving a sunkissed after sunset healthy look to the skin. Follow along with me, and I’ll show you exactly where I placed what products, and then give you a final look down below!

B’ys ya first gotta prep the face and hydrate it up. Otherwise the foundation and everything on top will be all cakey and gross. At least, in my experience with my weird dry skin. So, I’m using my ol’ faithfuls. Never stray from my Bobbi Brown Extra Eye repair cream + Philosophy Hope In A Jar moisturizer combo. It’s gold.

Once it all sinks in, I wet a sponge (looks like a BeautyBlender, it’s not – I got it in a swag bag from an event a while back) and apply my foundation with it, for a healthy radiance look to the skin. I wanna glow, baby, so I’ve reached for a lightweight foundation Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in 053 Dark Beige. I also never stray from my favourite concealer Cle de Peau in Beige.

Ah my favourite two steps, adding dimension and a bitta colour to the cheeks. I dotted on Burberry lip and cheek bloom  ›  No. 09 Poppy then set it with the powder blush in the Clarins palette. Then I went to town on the bronzer shade buffing it in with my fave brush for bronzer, the Dior Brush Backstage Brushes Kabuki. I love looking tan, lol.

Since thicker brows are in, I have decided to continue filling them in and making them look prior to the days of waxing and plucking the heck out of them .Dior Diorshow Brow Styler inUniversal Brown is terrific for that, and the ultimate match for my lil’ brow hairs. For mascara I have been using theBobbi Brown Smokey Eye Mascara since right before Christmas. I don’t want it to ever dry out, and I would love it if Sephora (or other places) sold all-the-brands of travel sized mascaras. I think they last just as long, and half the price. Maybe that’s why they don’t do it… lol

Top it off with some gloss (because I was eatin’ McDonalds and definitely didn’t want my lipstick to fade all weird!) with Burberry Kisses Gloss in Tangerine No. 77!

The final look! Easy peasey right? :) 

Although late posting it, I hope everyone had a nice Valentine’s Day :)

Face|

1| Philosophy  ›  Hope In A Jar moisturizer
2| Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation  ›  053 Dark Beige
3| Cle de Peau concealer  ›  Beige
4| Clarins  ›  Face Contouring Palette
5| Dior Brush  ›  Backstage Brushes Kabuki
6| Burberry lip and cheek bloom  ›  No. 09 Poppy

Eyes|

7| Bobbi Brown  ›  Extra Eye repair cream
8| Dior Diorshow Brow Styler  ›  Universal Brown
9| Bobbi Brown  ›  Smokey Mascara

Lips|

10| Burberry Kisses Gloss  ›  Tangerine No. 77

 

Shop the look!


Disclaimer: I received this product complimentary from Clarins . All opinions are 100% my own #gifted #honestreview #octolyfamily

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Beauty

Custom Lipsticks at BITE Lip Lab San Francisco

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Bite Lip Lab on Fillmore, San FranciscoI would say my first introduction to the brand BITE Beauty was a pretty fantastic one. Having knowing about the brand, but never trying their products I was invited to create my own custom lipstick at the 4th, and brand new BITE Lip Lab in San Francisco on Fillmore Street.

As soon as I received the e-mail invite I knew immediately what kind of lipstick shade I wanted to create for myself. I have a Burberry gloss in a colour that I think is the perfect nude shade for my complexion, and I love it so much I wanted to make it in a lipstick form.

While the event happened a few weeks ago in the stormy weather (with tons of landslides, eek!) I’m Canadian and I’m going to admit that driving through the rain in Sunny California was just as bad as a mild Canadian snowstorm. Driving to The City (what the fancy folk call San Francisco) took twice as long, calling the roads treacherous was an understatement. California highways are not built for rain. Ya can say I was white-knucklin’er the entire way trying not to hydroplane too often. I made it, and I was early enough to snag free parking on a side street. Unheard of!

Bite Beauty Lip Lab San FranciscoAs soon as I stepped inside from the gloomy weather outside, I was greeted by many smiling faces, and Canadians too! Susanne Langmuir, founder of BITE is a Torontonian and came down for the event — definitely cool to meet her in person.

How to make your own lipstickWhen you arrive at a Bite Beauty Lip Lab, you’ll work with a Lip Lab Artist and have your choice of the following services:

CUSTOM LIPSTICK
1 lipstick | $55 -Or- 2 lipsticks| $80

a] choose a shade from 200 lip pigments
b] pick a finish: glossy sheer, matte creme, amuse bouche
c] pick an all-natural scent: 9 scent to choose from

–

BESPOKE LIPSTICK
2 lipsticks | $150

a] Work with your Lip Lab Artist to create a unique lipstick colour of your choice
b] pick a finish
c] pick an all-natural scent

Katie, a BITE Lip Lab Artist sat down with me and we got to work on my custom lipstick! I prepped my lips before starting, and applied their Agave Sugar Lip Scrub followed up with the Agave Lip Balm. They gifted us those two in a goodie bag in addition to their popular seller, Lip Mask.

Mixing Lipsticks at Bite Lip Lab

I was so prepared you guys. I sat down in front of their ‘new neutrals’ set of pigments as I knew that I wanted to venture into that realm of colours. Because I work with many lipstick colours as a beauty blogger, I already know what shades suit me and what don’t. I found my peachy-nude shade on the second go, and was ready to select the finish and create the lipstick then-and-there. What I wasn’t expecting was to choose a matte finish, assuming it would be drying for my lips. Not this one by BITE though, it was a matte creme and felt so comfortable on. I also got to pick an all-natural scent for my custom lipstick. I ended up mixing coconut and mint together for my nude lipstick! An odd paring, right? But it smells fantastic. Here’s the colour on me! 

Bite Beauty Custom Lipstick in 411MSince I found my perfect shade so quickly, we decided to play around with more colours. If I was going to made a second colour, it would hands-down, be this orange-red shade. I love a good orange-red and although definitely an outstanding bold colour, I think it pairs well against my teeth and skintone, Ha! Not humble-sounding at all, am I?

Most noteworthy, the entire experience at BITE Lip Lab is pretty impressive. From picking out your custom shade, to watching it get mixed with a finish + scent of your choice, then have it be frozen-in-time to a solid in 7 minutes, then carefully applying the bare naked lipstick colour to the plastic bullet. So fun! Therefore, I suggest a lipstick lover to do it at least once in your life, especially if you’re one of those ladies who had a favourite lipstick that ended up getting discontinued. This is the way to bring that long-lost shade back to in your life by choosing the Bespoke Lipstick service.

Products mentioned:

 

BITE Beauty Lip Lab
2142 Fillmore Street
San Francisco, CA
628.444.3770
Hours: Monday – Saturday 11 – 7 / Sunday 11 – 6
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Daily

Sudio oozing perfect minimalistic vibes

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Got some new rad wireless bluetooth headphones (white regent with interchangeable caps to customize!!) from Sudio Sweden. The code ‘spiffykerms’ can get you 15% off a pair!

Oozing perfect minimalistic vibes, I showed you premium pair of wireless Sudio earphones in December. I had the pleasure to work with the brand again to show you the headphone style. Getting straight to the point I will be completely honest and tell you I much prefer the earphones to the headphones — and I wouldn’t normally choose earbuds over a set of over-the-ear headphones, but the headphones although probably better than being too loose, is a bit too snug feeling on my ears. It squeezes them, and the domes don’t completely cover the ears, thus a squishing feeling. I’d much prefer them to be larger in size, even if it would look a bit dorky. I prefer comfort. Perhaps it would be nice for the designers to look into making different sizes for future models.

I will admit, my husband didn’t seem to mind the snug fit of the headphones. He took ownership of my Sudio earphones and brings them to work daily and came back without me asking an opinion of it, saying they were surprisingly excellent sound quality. More recently, I asked him to bring the headphones in one day to see how they felt when wearing for long periods of time. I tried it for four hours tuning out the world, cleaning my house (as I do every Monday!) and although squeezed for the first bit, I didn’t get a headache or sore ears, and neither did Mr. Spiffykerms.

The ear caps are interchangeable, and I picked some blue palm tree leaves to add to mine since… yar Canadian over here is obsessed with palm trees.

Music is a huge part of my day, especially as a blogger working from home it can definitely get lonely and quiet without something playing in the background. Alfie’s barking out the window at the neighbours definitely does not count. Ha! By the way, how do you listen to music? Often I tune into Google Music and select a station that way. On the flip side, I’m one of the weird people who don’t like to listen to music while they run. I like to be fully aware of my surroundings when running on the streets, as I often run alone. One, I would never wear huge over-the-ear headphones when I workout (think of the sweat build-up in the headphones, ew!) and the earphones pop-out when I run, anyway. I hate fumbling and fighting with any ear phones to stay in when I’m moving about.

So who are these headphones truly for? If you work in a communal space like many of the Bay Area jobs are around here, and want to listen to your own music, pop these bluetooth headphones on. Maybe you’re an avid traveller/commuter and are always on the go — these would be pretty great for you too. I wouldn’t suggest you wear these while driving. Has anyone else seen super bizarre sightings like that? Isn’t your car stereo good enough? I’ve seen so many people driving with earbuds in, or headphones. So strange!

Personally I find it’s hard to describe how they sound the sound quality is pretty great, but it’s no noise-cancelling $300 headphones, nor are they a cheap pair of headphones that sound like they’re from the dollar store. I’m diggin’ em though. Interested in a pair? Head on over to Sudio Sweden, and the code ‘spiffykerms’ can get you 15% off a pair!

Disclaimer: Sudio sent product for review.

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