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Curiously Carmen

Jowaé- New Beauty Brand Introduction

October 23, 2018

I am happy to share a new brand on my blog today, by the name of Jowaé (pronounced cho-wha-e). They are part of the French based beauty company, Alès Groupe, and influenced by the science behind Korean beauty products hence the Korean sounding name.

I have been trying their products for a couple weeks now after finding its reviews on tashanicolewright.com, and will be slowly rolling out individual product reviews of my own! This post will be a quick introduction to all of the products currently available in Canada.

From left to right-

Purifying cleanser gel: Suitable for those with combination to oily skin. It has notes of jasmine, mandarin orange, and mint. It also contains purifying and smoothing sacred lotus extract, and lipoaminoacid which neutralises bacteria to minimize breakouts and infections.

Soothing cleansing milk: This contains the lovely benefits of peony, vegetable glycerin, sunflower oil, and jojoba oil to help clean and moisturize your face. It is a gentle and creamy cleanser.

Wrinkle smoothing light cream: The highlight of this cream is the red ginseng. Growing up Chinese, I was always told to have ginseng chicken broth soup for the tremendous amount of health benefits, and now it is being used in skincare too. Ginseng helps collagen production and protects cells from UV damage.

Hand & nail cream: Currently the only hand cream that Jowae carries in Canada. The packaging reminds me of chamomile, but it is actually made with camellia oil.

Youth concentrate complexion correction: If you have dark spots, this is the product for you! It contains twice as concentrated lumiphenols, which is an antioxidate, as well as white tea.

Wrinkle smoothing rich cream: This product is from the same family as the wrinkle smoothing light cream. The only difference is that this one has a thicker consistency. I would recommend this as a night time moisturizer, and then the light cream as a morning moisturizer.

Wrinkle smoothing eye serum: This product is from the same family as the wrinkle smoothing light cream, and also contains red ginseng.

Hydrating water mist: The favourite product of the night! The water mist contains refreshing Sakura blossom that is immediately absorbed by the skin. It is suitable for use after makeup application too.

Moisturizing light cream: Admittedly, I have been using this product the most because of how much I love the fragrance! It contains Sakura blossom just like the hydrating water mist. There is also a hint of jasmine. The two combined help wake me up in the morning and keep my skin moisturized and soft throughout the day!

Revitalizing moisturizing lotion: Last but not the least, their body cream! It contains bamboo water as the featured ingredient. The body cream absorbs quickly and says that it will not leave a sticky residue after.


Now, you’re probably wondering where you can find JOWAE products! They are currently exclusively available at Shoppers Drug Mart. Everything is reasonably mid priced, averaging around $25-$30 a product.

Stay tuned for some individual product reviews!


Filed Under: Beauty, body, skincare

ACI Beauty Preview Fall 2018 – Part 2/2

September 27, 2018

Here is part 2/2 of the ACI Beauty Preview for Fall 2018! This time, we previewed Stila, Korres, and St. Tropez.

You can read part 1 for the cult favourites of each brand above, as well as one of the new releases from Korres! This post will continue on with the products from Korres, Stila and St. Tropez.

The second major release for Korres is their Pure Olive Oil line! This line was originally only available in Greece, but it was so popular that they decided to expand! As of now, there are only 3 Shoppers Drug Mart locations in North America that offer this line – one of them is in Vancouver, and 2 are in Calgary. They are available online at the Shoppers Beauty Boutique though.

For their Pure Olive Oil line, there are 3 aspects: hair, bath & body, and skincare.

The Pure Olive Oil hair line features conditioner, shampoo, and hair masks which all help to hydrate your hair with the use of olive oil. These products are more catered towards dry and damaged hair and will give a healthy, bouncy shine to your hair!

Their body line features bar soap, creams, and a body oil. I found the body oil to be interesting because oils are usually dispensed in a dropper as it is too dense to be sprayed. Their body oil is called a ‘dry body oil’ because you can spray it. The consistency when you apply is still slippery and oily, but absorbs fast.

Lastly, we have the Pure Olive Oil skincare! While the Wild Rose line focuses more on brightening your skin, the Pure Olive Oil line focuses on intense hydration. We tried a bit of the day and night creams, and the night cream in particular was very rich! The night cream could also be used only 2-3x a week for an intensely hydrating sleeping mask.

Moving on to Stila, Heaven’s Dew Glimmer has a new formulation, making it softer and weightless than ever before. It features a glossy illumination, with a gleaming, wet-like finish but without the tackiness​. This would be nice to wear on its own for some sparkle, or over a highlighter.

The second main feature of Stila was the vivid & vibrant eye shadow duo! Each contains a sparkle and coordinating metallic foil-finish shade. They are less pigmented and pack a lighter punch than the intensely pigmented liquid eye shadow. 

St. Tropez did not have any new launches this season, but we went over some of their existing products. Starting from the far left, in the metallic green/blue bottle, is the Extra Dark Mousse. It offers the quickest and darkest self tan.

Next to the Extra Dark Mousse, the small gold tube is the Gradual Tan Tinted Everyday Moisturizer + Primer. It gives a sheer bronze glow to your face and will gradually develop if used daily.

The Gradual Tan One Minute Pre-Shower Tanning Mousse is to be applied dry, one minute before your shower. You then rinse it off in the shower and a gradual tan will reveal after approximately 8 hours.

The Self Tan Purity Bronzing Water is a hydrating water spray that helps lock in your spray tan. It also includes the deeply moisturizing hyaluronic acid!


 

 


Filed Under: Beauty, events, makeup

ACI Beauty Preview Fall 2018 – Part 1/2

September 24, 2018

It’s time for my semi-annual ACI Beauty Preview post! In case you don’t know, ACI Beauty is a Canadian distributor for brands such as Stila, Korres, St Tropez, Ardell, CLEAN, Paul & Joe, etc. This post will feature products from Korres, Stila and St. Tropez.

I always look forward to seeing what new product launches they will have in the Fall and Spring!

This season had a section on cult faves, aka products from each brand that made them famous. Aka, their OG products – hence the nostalgaic decor! Recognize any of these nostalgic items? 🙂

For St. Tropez, we have the bronzing mousse. They have mastered the art of the at-home spray tan, especially when it comes to the scent. I am not familiar with spray tans but I have heard most spray tans do not have a great smell. St Tropez ensures that their tans smell great so that it is not off putting.

For Stila, we have a variety of different cult favourites including the Stay All Day liner, One Stop Correct primer, certain shades of eyeshadows, and the liquid eyeshadow! My own personal favourite also includes the Stay All Day foundation.

Lastly, for cult faves, the two products from Korres was the Golden Krocus Elixir and the Black Pine Eye Serum. The Golden Krocus Elixir can be described as a very rich, liquid gold product. And with that name, I would certainly not question it! The Black Pine Eye Serum has a push cap and helps to fill in fine lines and plump up the eye area. It can also be used as an eye primer to smooth everything out.

I have tried neither of them so I can not really offer my own opinion on them.

Moving on now to the new releases! There are a bunch of new releases from Korres, but I will only talk about one line in this post. I don’t like super long posts so I will make another post on the  other new Korres, Stila and St. Tropez releases after this.

The Korres Wild Rose oil is one that I have raved about multiple times here. This season, they have released the Wild Rose 15% Brightening Serum which is basically an improved version of the original Wild Rose… I mean, the Wild Rose oil was already amazing at brightening up your skin, so I can’t imagine how it can get any better. The vitamin c oil helps brighten skin and with regular use, you will notice a difference.

Another new launch in the Wild Rose line is the Korres Wild Rose Foaming Cleanser. It also contains the same vitamin c as the oils above, which will further assist in brightening your skin. The cleanser is gentle and moisturizing yet is able to remove waterproof makeup easily. I have been using it for a few days, so stay tuned for a review!

This post is getting lengthy so I will end it here! Stay tuned for part 2 where I share another Korres line launch, and the new Stila and St. Tropez releases!


Filed Under: Beauty, events, makeup

Beauty: SNP Snail Soothing Gel

June 26, 2018

After discovering Mizon’s snail cream, I was curious to see if other brands of snail products would work just as well. I came across the SNP Snail Soothing Gel when I was shopping at H-Mart, which is a Korean supermarket. They had a beauty section and was advertising this gel. It was only around $8 for a tub so I thought why not? Even if it sucks, it was only $8.

What it says: (Taken from Sasa.com):

SNP 99% Snail Soothing Gel contains snail mucus filtrate that quickly relieves rough and sensitive skin irritated by external stimulation and creates a protective film for healthy skin.

Application: When I opened it, I did not like the scent of it at all. It smelled a bit plastic-y and I recognized this particular scent from other creams in the past. Not off to a good start.

The texture was gel based, and was cooling when I put it on my face. It absorbed very quickly into my skin, but I didn’t feel any difference in my skin texture or it becoming softer. It was as if I had never put it on. But I know I did because the scent lingered around for a few hours which was off putting.

Maybe I just had too high of an expectation after trying the Mizon one, but this was very disappointing and didn’t come close. I think it would be suitable for perhaps a sunburn because it is a cooling gel.

Nay.

Availability: Hmart
Price: $8 CAD approximately


Filed Under: Beauty, skincare

Beauty: ACI Beauty Preview Spring 2018(Part 2/2)

May 6, 2018

Hi hi! Continuing along for the ACI Beauty Spring 2018 event, here is part 2/2!

One of Paul & Joe’s most popular products is their cat shaped lipstick, which we have been for the past couple of preview events. They have switched it up for spring 2018 and put a flower design instead of a cat. The formulation is still the same and if you see a cat themed lipstick case, that is after the founder, Sophie Albou’s own cat!

Moving on are these super thin and travel friendly cheek/eyeshadow ‘records’. They are designed after vinyl records and last about 30 uses. I like how they are super thin and compact, about the thickness of a credit card.

CLEAN also has some new fragrance releases this spring! We were introduced to CLEAN’s Ultimate Beach Day at a previous launch. This time, they have released an Ultimate Beach Night to go with this theme. It reminds me of a tropical and fun vacation… if I think hard enough, I’m in Mexico, right? 😉

CLEAN is also big on encouraging customers to create and layer their own scents. This is their new 6 piece CLEAN Reserve Hygge collection. The word Hygge is a Norwegian word for a mood of coziness, wellness, contentment, etc. The word has since been adapted into Western culture as a term synonymous with self care. Each of the caps are made of real wood, so the design of each cap is unique.

Last but not least, Ardell is launching magnetic lashes! I haven’t seen these before and I was very curious as to how they worked. The main difference is that they do not require any glue. Each eye takes two pieces of falsies, which have magnets. You put one piece on top of your lashes, and one on the bottom so they clip together. I had a demo after the event and the Ardell rep made it look easy to apply, but we shall see when I try at home myself. I suspect that there will be trial and error. I wore them for the rest of the evening afterwards and they were so easy and mess free to remove!


Filed Under: Beauty, events, makeup

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Hi and welcome to Curiously Carmen! I am Carmen, the girl behind the blog. You can read more about me here!

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