Real Techniques Blush Brush Review

Short post today...on the blush brush I can't stop using, so much so my other blush brushes have gone into early retirement for now...

It's the Real Techniques blush brush (if you're not yet familiar with the line, it's an affordable but high quality brush line made by Youtuber Samanthan Chapman).  This is an egg-shaped blush brush made from synthetic fibre, and is ohhhhhhh so soft on the face. It picks up powder easily despite it's fluffy softness and blends well too. My favorite method of application with this is actually just tapping the brush over my cheekbones rather than "brushing" as the egg-shape is perfect for depositing pigment in just-the-right shape.

No shedding of any hairs thus far either with all the washing I've done. This brush retails for $10 CDN, and you can buy it at various Walmarts or online retailers such as FTB Beauty.

Overall, high quality, easy to use, and cheap... what are you waiting for, go buy this already!

*Disclosure: I bought this brush with my own money and am not affliated with this company

Topbox Feb 2014 Unboxing and First Impressions

 

I'm a bit late on my unboxing post this month (in fact the March wishlist is already out...), but alas here we are!

 

The usual tube...

 

Everything was all wrapped in the tissue this time

 

And the stash...

 

I was excited to see an Essie polish. I have only used Essie Fill the Gap basecoat thus far, so am looking forward to trying this. It's a beautiful red that leans a bit on the blue-raspberry end of the spectrum.

 

I'm a lip balm hoarder, so am always happy to receive more lip balm! Epic Blend's ingredients are all fairly natural blend of oils and butters, and feels similar to what I use in my DIY lip balms (see tinted lip balm DIY here). I tried this out a couple of times, feels moisturizing enough so it will get a space in one of my purses. I actually put 1-2 lipbalms in each purse so I'm never caught without a lip balm due to my incredibly dry and sensitive lips. *high5* to whoever else does this!

 

Next, a lip and cheek product.

 

At first, I was excited because this looked very much like the Clinique chubby pencils, which are super moisturizing and pigmented and awesome all-round products (I need to do a review at some point).

 

But alas, it is not like a Clinique chubby pencil... The shade is quite pretty but the formula and pigmentation is horrendous on the lips. The pigment is very uneven and chalky and immediately clung to all my fine lines and dry areas. I made sure to exfoliate and pre-moisturize and tried it again but same thing occured. I'm shocked this product advertises as "moisturizing"! That it definitely is not... I tried this on my cheeks, and although the color is pretty, again the formula clung to my dry patches. Not cool... Because the color is so pretty though, I'm leaving this in my kit to give it one more try in the summer when I'm not so dry...but if it doesn't work out in the summer it's going in the trash.  

 

Despite the disappointment with the chubby pencil pretender, this product I'm genuinely very happy about. EA's 8 hr cream is a MUA favorite as it's incredibly versatile. I personally like it for my chapped lips and very dry patches on my face or hands, but it can also act as a high-shine dewy highlight.

 

 

8 hr cream on the back of my hand.

 

Here's the final round up...

 

And the product card with all the prices for interest. The lip balm is fine. The star of the show was the EA 8 hr cream. The dud of the box was the So Susan lip/cheek product, which I do not recommend you buy at any point. Even if it will work in the summer there's so many better products out there that will do what it does.

 

Let me know what you got in your box this month and what your thoughts were!

 

 

*Disclosure: I bought this box myself and am not affliated with any of these companies.

Kate Somerville Goat Milk Cream for Sensitive Skin - Review

A quick review today... of the new nighttime moisturizer I started using daily a week ago.  It's still early to notice ongoing benefits but I'm sharing an early review because there's some very good aspects of it even in the first week of use. I recommend!

It comes looking like a regular tub of moisturizer, except it has a new fangled pump system whereby you press on the whole large top and it squirts out the little hole in the middle. Then I just wipe up the cream with my fingers. Not sure how much better this is than the traditional pump, but hey, nice to have a change.

In terms of actual use, here is where it shines and why I'm recommending so early on. It's soft, smooth, absorbs quickly, no awful/irritating scent, and makes my skin look VERY supple and soft, with fine lines evened out and dry patches gone. Unfortunately the next morning after my usual 5-6 hours of sleep I wake up looking like my usual zombie self, which says to me there's unlikely to be any long-lasting effects from this cream, but dang I go to bed feeling good!  Regardless of lack of long-lasting effects thus far (I never actually believe in any long-lasting claims from skincare, afterall, the product is going on a dead layer of skin cells waiting to be shed), it just feels too good for me to wait on recommeding this. Go get it! Do keep note I'm reviewing this in the winter when my skin is very dry, so take it with a grain of salt if you're considering this in the summer or if you have oily skin as it may or may not end up too heavy for you.

You can buy this at Sephora for $55USD

*Disclosure: as usual, I have no affliations to this company and bought this product myself.

Let me know if you try this and how you like it!

Julep Maven Feb 2014 - Modern Beauty Review

 

I have been skipping Julep boxes for awhile, but this month caught my eye with its beauty products. I still remember how disappointed I was with the whole DD creme fiasco but this looked more promising so I went for it!

 

First off, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the brush. It's handle is weighted so feels great to use, and the brush itself is VERY thin, but also soft and stiff enough to easily draw a line with.

 

The box alsp came with one free nailpolish that everyone got as a gift in their box this months. I love glitters but ooh they so hard to remove so not sure when I will get to trying this one.

 

First up, the gel liner. I love gel liners for their flexibility of use, I can just change up my brush and get easily thin lines, bold lines, tightlines, waterlines, wings, you name it! It's also pro-kit friendly since it can be spatula-'ed (lol is this a word) out so as to not contaminate, which I find easier than having to sanitize my pencils/liquids afterwards.

 

Gel liners aren't without their problems though, and mostly for me, as a oily-lid gal, is the smudging that I'm so prone to. I usually just settle for "less" smudging as some can be horrendous, even the waterproof ones! (waterproof doesn't hold up against the oil my lids, even with primer/powder and all).  So I really was hoping just for "less" smudgyness and I'd have been happy, except I got blown away that I had NO smudging at the end of the day! I can't believe it, Julep has made my HG gel liner...  if you have oily lids have this problem as I do I highly recommend you get this.

 

One down side is that this product is super tiny, the pot being one of those tiny sample jars size, much smaller than other gel liners out there in Sephora world. Luckily I don't use much day to day since my "everyday" liner is simply tightlining, so I'll be ok, but if you use a lot more daily or for the pros out there who will be going through a lot this may not be $-friendly It's ($22, $17.60 for Mavens for a very tiny jar)

 

Also, if you are wanting a gel liner to smudge and create a smoky eye with, this is NOT what you're looking for. Because it's so smudgeproof, it sets very quickly and can flake if you try to smudge it, so I recommend it just be used to make a sharp line, and that you not try to blend it or smudge it out.  For the best liner to blend and smoke out, I prefer MUFE Aqua Black.

 

 

Next is the liquid eyeshadow. I chose the lightest shade as I planned to try and use as a highlight or alone on the lids just to perk my eyes up a bit. I tried it without a primer and it did not crease after 8 hrs, and only very little bit at end of the day. Unfortunately as with the liner, because it dries down quite fast and is so pigmented that I find it hard to blend out at the edges. Luckily this color is so light so it's not such a big deal, but I imagine with the darker shades the difficulty in the blending may be more obvious.  If you have a darker shade let me know what your experience has been!  I imagine though, for blending, you could put a similar colored powder shadow over the edge, so you could still make it work.

 

That's it for my review! Hope it was helpful and let me know what you thought of your Julep box this month!

John Frieda Full Repair Touch-Up Flyaway Tamer Review

A quick review today...of one of my HG hair products! Ever since I had my little girl and lost tons of hair, which then grew back haphazardly, I've had TONS of flyaways which are very hard to manage. I have tried hair spray on a brush, hand, gel, etc, but nothing really holds them down like THIS little thing that looks like mascara for your hair. It looks very similar to a clear brow gel, but works like nothing I have tried before (I have tried brow gel in my hair before, does not work...). I basically just brush this on as the last step on styling on those pesky flyaways, and they just stay down all day...and my hair looks smooth!  My only complaint though, is being a gel, it does flake at the end of the day if I brush my hair where I put the product on. It easily brushes out though if I continue so it's not a big deal.  Overall, love it love it and highly recommend you try it too!

Let me know your experience with this if you have tried it!

Battle of Luxury Lip Care: Hourglass Lip Treatment Oil vs 3LAB Perfect Lips

(photo from Sephora.com)

(photo from www.skin1.com)

vs. 





If one can buy lipbalms/chapsticks for mere dollars in drug stores, why spend so much for luxury lip care?! Well... there's people like me, who have very sensitive and easily chapped and peeling lips, who I think require a little more TLC! Oh heck who am I kidding, honestly, the high end products just "feel" nice. Packaging is nicer to use, and I do think they do slightly better for my lips than the $1 chapstick. How much is that worth the price tag... that is for you to decide. If you do decide to splurge, this post is my take on the 2 pricey lip care items I've been using consistently for the last couple of months.  Click on to read the full review!

Topbox January 2014 Unboxing

 

Yay 1st Topbox of 2014 is here!! The shipment date has now been moved to the 15th of the month, and I felt like I did my wishlist so long ago that I completely forgot what I "wished" for...but lo and behold...

 

(*Note: I've updated this post with brief reviews of the products I've been trying out)

 

The benefit box!

 

With the whole Chinese new year theme, nice...

 

My 1st peek inside...

 

What I pulled out first...

 

Turned out to be the fake up sample. I've been wanting to try this, so this is great, though I really wish it was a deluxe sample rather than this one-time use thing...

 

(*Update: This concealer is actually pretty darn good! It is moisturizing and does not stick to the dry patches I sometimes get under my eyes. It also holds up for a good 8 hrs or so without creasing. Unfortunately medium is a bit too yellow for me, but other than that, I will actually consider purchasing this product in a lighter shade)

 

I accidentally pulled out the product card next, tried not to read it...

 

And the goodies!

 

First up...(ok I really didn't count the fake-up sample as the first since it was so tiny).  I've been loving benefit's other infamous mascara, so this will be interesting to try for comparison.

*UPDATE: I've been trying this mascara for the past couple of weeks, with and without a mascara primer, lid primer, powder under my eyes, and all such combos. Why am I trying all these combos...because this mascara looks amazing on the lashes but smudges like mad in a few short hours, like reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally bad smudging. Sigh...I haven't been able to find a combo that makes this smudge less, so am giving up on it. I do have oily lids that smudges all things quite easily, so if you have dry lids I would still give this a try as it is amazing on the lashes: no clumps, volume and length, keeps curl, etc.)

 

Next, moisturizer! This I will totally make use of, a girl can't have too much moisturizers, especially in the winter (and with the -30C coming again next week to Toronto, sigh...)

 

(*Update: I've been using this daily for the past week and it is one of the best moisturizers I've ever used! Very moisturizing but doesn't feel sticky or oily and absorbs very quickly.)

 

Next, the infamous benetint. I tried this right away, it actually was not as pigmented as I expected, so I had to actually put quite a bit on both my cheeks and lips for it to show up at all, but it does give a nice natural "flush from within" look. One thing I didn't like (not unique to this) is just that tints in general I find very hard to wash off. It's just like staining your skin with a marker perhaps, takes some time to come off...  Overall, I still much prefer Face Atelier's Facade when I want that natural finish, because it's a much more pigmented product that is actually easier to blend, AND easier to wash off. 

 

And lastly, the infamous Porefessional primer, which I have been wanting to try but have been delayed with all the other new primers I've been trying lately (and hopefully one day will get to blogging about...). I love primers and use them for sure underneath foundations and BB creams (yes even though BBs advertise as primers, they still look and last better with a good primer) and some days even just go primer alone to even out my skin a bit and get some oil-control without powdering.

 

 

That's it, super quick unboxing post for this month. What did you get in yours?! Let me know in the comments and link to your blog I'd love to visit.