Beauty

The first of many Holiday Gift Guides | Beauty Lovers

1 Comment

Ah, the first of many Holiday Gift Guides comin’ atcha from all those blogs you read.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m on top of the Christmas shopping this year and I probably have one or two things left to pick up, and then I’m DONE. Donezo! No stressing! To be honest, I don’t really care for much of anything (for myself) this year for Christmas. It’s definitely going to be different without my Dad around, and then celebrating Christmas in a brand new home. But that doesn’t mean Christmas traditions won’t carry on. My Mom and I still plan on driving over to our neighbours house on Christmas morning in our PJs hangin’ with the Wade-o’sss. That’s one of the things I definitely look forward to when I’m home in Newfoundland. Not only that, my Mom’s new place will be closer to my in-law’s place — not that St. John’s is big by any means, but… hey, it’ll be closer none-the-less.

Jumping into a Holiday Gift Guide now for the beauty lovers. So many sets are available at Sephora and other stores, it’s a great time to pick them up and gift-away. Here are some goodies I’ve been picking up for people, PR brands have sent over (will be marked so you’ll know) and products that I’ve purchased from the Sephora 20% VIB sale.

Philosophy

Philosophy Pure GracePure Grace Foaming Bath and Shower Gel| $44CDN/$38USD I took advantage of the Sephora VIB sale and picked up a huge bottle with a pump, of the Pure Grace Foaming Bath and Shower Gel for in-shower. The ‘regular’ 160z philosophy bottles tend to last me for a few months so I would say that this huge 32oz will last me ages. Plus not to mention the scent is amazing — and looks nice in the shower, ha!

philosophy hope in a jar
Hope in a Jar moisturizer| $79CDN/$69USD Hope In A Jar: My go-to daily facial moisturizer for over four years. I haven’t found anything else that I love as much as this moisturizer. They now have 2 different variations of the hope in a jar, I prefer the original as opposed to the renewed hope in a jar which is a bit different in consistency and I feel like it doesn’t give me as much dew/glow to the skin as the original. OG if you will, ha!

Fresh
Fresh Beauty sets will be available in December at Sephora! 

FreshZodiac Oval Soap Collection| $18CDN/$15USD Although these soaps are expensive perhaps you can pick it up for one of those friends or family members that enjoy the thought of receiving a product they can use that is astrology related. There are 12 zodiac themed soaps with four iconic scents in classy and sleek packaging. I’m a Taurus, and kinda dig reading about what my sign says about me on the Fresh website. The zodiac oval soap collection is for a limited time only, so make sure you pick up those products before it’s too late!

Mini Mask SpaMini mask spa| $115CDN/$93USD It’s time to indulge your skin this Christmas, as gorgeous as it looks, it’s just as effective too. Don’t let the travel-friendly sizes of these masks fool you into thinking it won’t last long, you get FOUR masks, and a little truly does go a long way. Inside the box you’ll receive travel-sized items of 5 of the bestselling masks: Sugar Face Polish, Rose Face Mask, Black Tea Firming Overnight Mask, Black Tea Instant Perfecting Mask, and the Umbrian Clay Purifying Mask. Each product obviously does different things for your skin. Separate them and gift them individually, keep them for yourself so you can multi-mask for your specific needs, or give this gift-set to one! (Very generous of you! lol). It’s up to you.

Fresh Rose skincare ritualsRose skincare rituals: daily essentials| $78CDN/$67USD Pamper your skin, have a girls-night-in, or gift these to one of your besties. I guarantee they’ll thank you for months on end! This is a collection of Fresh skin care favourites that cleanse, mask, and moisturize.

Burt’s Bees
Burt’s Bee’s Holiday Gift Collection has everything for under $25.00 — which are now available as of November in leading drug stores, grocery stores and mass retailers.

Bit-Of-Burts-BeesA bit of Burt’s Bees| $5.49CDN/$4.99USD This is a classic lip balm and hand salve duo. Perfect for anyone who loves Burt’s Bees products and wants to keep their hands and lips moisturized. I know just the perfect person for this gift set!

Hive-FavouritesHive Favourites| $5.49CDN/$4.99USD A great little gift for a stocking-stuffer, or to a co-worker. The gift pack contains a tube of classic Beeswax Lip Balm and a tube of Milk and Honey Body Lotion. The lotion has blends of milk, honey, coconut and grape seed oils, giving it a gorgeous scent that isn’t greasy once applied — in fact it absorbs really quickly into the skin.

Face-EssentialsFace Essentials| $22.99CDN/$14.99USD This kit contains 4 of Burt’s Bees popular products with white tea cleansing facial towelettes, soap bark and chamomile deep cleansing cream, a peach and willow bark deep pore scrub, and the coconut and pear moisturizing lip balm. And it’s already gift-able in the limited edition packaging!

ColourPop x Hello Kitty
The new limited edition and cruelty free collection of cosmetics launched exclusively at ColourPop just in time for Hello Kitty’s birthday which was on November 1!

ColourPop-x-Hello-KittyLippie Stix| $5USD Why did I wait so long to try out ColourPop?! They collaborated with Hello Kitty to launch this adorable limited edition collection. I tried my first lippie stix and I need to do a full-review on these. It seriously felt like nothing on my lips, but the colour intensity was unreal and it lasted hours without smuding or budging. Whoa. I also have a few extras of these (plus some extra gloss) so I’ll be doing another giveaway coming soon!

ColourPop Ultra Glossy Lip, Metallic Lip + Satin Lip| $6USD These are so inexpensive, and with a gorgeous formula. Stay tuned for a giveaway and a video about these soon!

Dior

Dior jelly sleeping maskHydra Life Jelly Sleeping Mask| $85CDN/$69USD Come winter your skin is bound to get drier, I know mine is. I’ve gone through the travel-sized pods of something similar from Dior (the Hydra Life Beauty Awakening Rehydrating Mask Capsules), and found my oily/dehydrated skin felt instantly more hydrated and moisturized in the morning. I went into Bloomingdales in San Francisco last week and the lady at the Dior counter suggested I pick up the sleeping mask since it would suit my skin needs better. And so, I did. Boy it’s fantastic.

Dior HydraHydra Life Beauty Awakening Rehydrating Mask Capsules| $55CDN/$42USD Okay, because I mentioned it above I wanted to include it in this gift guide. A little indulgent, yes, but well worth the money! Each pod is individually sealed, and can last up to three ‘masks’. I used it as an overnight mask to reap all the benefits but it can also be washed off as a regular mask if you wanted. I brought it along with me on so many trips this past summer (Oregon for instance!). I LOVE how it made my skin feel in the a.m.

M·A·C

MAC-Nutcracker-collectionNutcracker Sweet Eye Compacts| $39.50USD. I purchased my first holiday eyeshadow kit from M·A·C back in 2009. I honestly still have the palette for keepsake purposes, but M·A·C eyeshadows are undoubtedly one of the best out there. These easy to wear neutrals from the nutcracker collection are simply gorgeous. It also comes with a dual-ended travel sized brush for easy application. Pair this on top of my favourite eyeshadow primer, the M·A·C paints (I have the one in bare canvas).

Nutcracker Sweet Nude Mineralized Kit| $39.50USD. The products aren’t shown in the photo above (only the makeup bag) because I wanted to do another individual post about the M·A·C Nutcracker collection! Get excited, I love how this one is designed!

Shop the products I talked about, below!

Disclaimer: These products were sent for review: Hello Kitty + ColourPop, MAC, Bit Of Burt’s Bees, and the Fresh Beauty items.

Continue Reading

Beauty, Daily, Photos, Reviews

Burt’s Bees take2

1 Comment

I’ve used up my entire bottle of Burt’s Bees face cream that I reviewed here, and gave a few other goodies to my Mom, when I went back home to Newfoundland. I know she doesn’t mind receiving opened tubes of things I’ve tested a few times. I have to share the wealth, right? I mean, I certainly cannot use all the products that I have!

Regardless if Autumn is on its inevitable way, I still want to have glowy summer kissed skin. Initially I had wanted to try out the Burt’s Bee’s Radiant Body Lotion since I’ve heard a few people on YouTube talk about how great it makes the legs look. But, since I’ll be wearing pants in the next few weeks I have no one to show off my shiny legs to, ha! So, I’ve decided to go ahead and try out the Burt’s Bees Radiant FACE lotion… made with (get this) Royal Jelly.  Doesn’t that just made you think of whale blubber or something? I didn’t know what the heck it was, until I saw the backside of the box it came in.

It actually has some interesting history. Check out what Royal Jelly really is:

I received this set of three Radiance back in July. So of course, I wanted to test them out before I gave a review of the products. Which can take months to do so, right? I can’t give a full review after just using it once or twice. Plus my Mom isn’t getting her hands on these products. I actually requested that I try them out, so I knew in advance that I would already like them. 2 out of the 3, that is.

Back to the stuff with the Royal Jelly. The day cream I’ve been using it once a day, every day since I received it. I’m about one third through the bottle. Not bad. I just make sure my hands are freshly washed before I dunk my index finger in to grab a gloop of it to put on my face.

It pairs well under both my Laura Mericer moisturizing foundation, and the Bobbi Brown Luminous foundation (both which you can see more in depth in my makeup routine — which needs to be updated because I don’t use BB cream anymore). I noticed some moisturizers don’t work well with my foundations and actually look like my skin is coming off (it’s the makeup that “rolls up” when I apply it. It’s the strangest thing. Think eraser rubbings. That’s what comes off on my face with certain moisturizers after I apply my makeup).

Day lotion:

It left a very noticeable white cast on my face after I applied this. I didn’t like it. Basically, it was like taking sunscreen and giving it a good go over on your face, and not applying any moisturizer on after that. I felt like something was missing. The moisturizer! I didn’t like this product and it’s still sitting on the shelf. This one will be going to my Mom, when I fly home next week. It even came with directions, that didn’t work:

Next, the face wash:

It’s really hard to compare any face wash to my absolute favorite Philosophy — Purity Cleanser. With the Philosophy, I can get it in my eyes and scrub lightly or hard and it doesn’t irritate my eyes. The first time I used the Burt’s Bees Radiance Facial Cleanser, I got a bit in my eye. It was scented (as is Purity) and it hurt a bit, but didn’t sting. It’s a nice gentle cleanser and it’s been on my bathroom sink for a few months, sharing rent with the Purity cleanser. So I must be liking it somewhat, otherwise it’d be chucked away in the back room somewhere.

Also when I use this cleanser, it doesn’t make my skin tight after using it. Which is a huge bonus. A lot of cleansers dry my skin out really quickly to the point it’s almost painful to smile! How rude.

Would I go out and purchase these products after I finished up with them? Yes to two of them. Day lotion is definitely out for me. But the others are a definite re-purchase, because they’re so natural and gentle on the skin.

What is your favorite moisturizer, or cleanser? Also, what skin type do you have? I love hearing what people use.

Continue Reading

Daily, Photos, Reviews

Burt’s Bees – Sensitive Skin Care line

3 Comments

How fun does that arrangement look? I’ve recently tried out some new (to me) products by Burt’s Bees, so here I am reviewing them for you guys today.

Do you like these sort of blog posts? Should I do one product at a time, or keep what I’m doing — one brand at a time?

Burt’s Bees Sensitive Skin facial cleanser.

This facial cleanser left a light moisturizer feel to my face after I used it, I almost didn’t feel the need to put anything else on my face. But since I do have tight dry skin after cleansing, I did apply a face cream afterwards. I’ve been using it in rotation of my Marcelle, or Philosophy cleansers.

I also have never used a thicker cream like cleanser before.  One thing that I did not like, was that it took three tries to remove all of my mascara off. So that was definitely an issue for me.

Burt’s Bees Energizing Body Bar in Mango & Orange.

This is a big bar of soap! What can I say about a soap though? I’m not sure I would purchase this for myself for a second time, because I use a loofa in the shower and prefer liquid soap myself. But the bar lathered up nicely in my face cloth, and again left me feeling clean without making my skin feel tight.

Burt’s Bees Sensitive Skin daily moisturizing cream. This moisturizer has been in our bathroom since I first opened it. No rotation of products for my face for this gal! It’s quite light on the face, so I wouldn’t use this during the winter time. It also drys quickly into the skin without leaving any sort of greasy film. It lasts all day long and I don’t have any dry skin patches on my face when I apply this. This one’s a keeper!

Burt’s Bees Body Butter & Sugar Scrub

Oh my word you guys, the scrub looks so disgusting but I think it’s actually my favorite out of the entire lot that I received. I’ve been using the scrub in conjunction with the body butter shown below, before I get ready for my self-tanning routine (seen here).

Oh gosh, this body butter was super difficult to open. They need to put a little lip on it more than what they currently have. I ended up getting it off in a ton of tiny little pieces.

As for body butter goes, I can’t say this will rank as my top favorites. It’s more of a cream consistency, and not as thick as I thought it was going to be. None the less, it’s a great cream with a nice mango & orange scent to it. The scent doesn’t linger all day, which is nice since I don’t want to always smell like my lotion.

Have you ever used any Burt’s Bees products? I’ve used their lip balms many times in the past but I’ve never used anything else. I’m excited to try out the Radience Body Lotion, as it’s gotten a ton of hype on YouTube about it. Basically it gives your skin a super gorgeous glow to it. Most people use it on their legs when they’re going out, or on the collar bone area for a nice sexy look!

Continue Reading