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Curiously Carmen

Cetaphil DermaControl Review & Giveaway (Ended)

January 18, 2015

Hi everyone!

I am so excited to be holding my first giveaway! My blog is turning one soon (January 30th, to be exact) and I wanted to do something here to celebrate it. Perfect timing to do this giveaway, so thanks to Canadian Beauty Bloggers & Cetaphil for the opportunity! Cetaphil will always hold a special place in my heart as it was the first face cleanser I’ve used, so there was a bit of nostalgia while writing this post.

Please keep in mind this is my first giveaway, I am welcome to suggestions on how I can improve it.

Keep reading on this product and how to win!

Cetaphil both use this one

The Cetaphil DermaControl line is specifically formulated for oily, combination or blemish-prone skin… right up my alley (unfortunately? haha!). The special ingredient in this is zinc, which apparently absorbs oil really well and provides a shine-free, matte finish. Let’s see how it does!

I was a bit hesitant as to how effective it would be, but as I mentioned before, I used to be a big fan of Cetaphil in my puberty days and knew that their products were always great. For the sake of this review, I went back to basics and used only these two products for a week, before mixing these products in with my other skincare favourites!

Cetaphil foam wash swatch

First up, was the oil control foam wash. The scent was slightly medicinal, and had a light and airy feel to it. I agree that it was very gentle and would be suitable for those with sensitive skin!

My skin did not feel dry after using this product, and felt moisturized! I felt like this was a good everyday wash if you don’t wear heavy foundation. Otherwise, I don’t think it will be enough to take off heavy face makeup.

Cetaphil swatch moisturizer

After using the cleanser, I followed up with the oil control moisturizer. I liked how the moisturizer was lightweight and non-greasy. Just like the cleanser, the moisturizer did not have any fragrance or perfume to it. It smelled a bit like sunscreen due to the SPF 30, but wasn’t as thick as sunscreen.

I used this every morning for a week while going to work to establish a regular routine. I chose to do this when I was back in the office as I noticed that my skin tends to get oily around 1pm. If my skin was not very oily in the afternoon while I was work, I knew that the cleanser and moisturizer had done its job!

Cetaphil foam wash back
Back of the Cetaphil Derma Control foam cleanser!

For the first day I used this, my skin was amazingly not oily by the time 1 pm rolled around! I was quite surprised, as I had gotten used to having to blot my face but I didn’t have to. For the rest of the day, my skin did not get oily or shiny! But I thought maybe this was beginners luck… nope!

For the next week using this product, I am happy to say that it these two products did an amazing job at combating my oily skin. I love how these two products are very gentle and mess free to use! I’m not sure how well this product works for non oily/blemish prone skin, but I can say without doubt that this product will do a great job at making you oil and shine free for hours and hours!

Cetaphil moisturizer back
Back of the Cetaphil Derma Control Moisturizer!

Oh Cetaphil, how much I’ve missed you. Sometimes it’s great to go back to basics and your beauty roots. I’m glad that I did too. Thank you Canadian Beauty Bloggers and Cetaphil for giving me this opportunity! Click on their names to read more =)

How to enter:

  • Comment on this post below and let me know:
    • The first skincare brand used
    • And how old you were!
  • Go on Instagram (@curiouslycarmen) and like my giveaway photo, and comment with the first skincare brand used and at what age
  • You don’t have to do both, but it will increase your chance of winning!
  • This information is not used for marketing purposes, I’m just curious and want a fun/personable way to host this giveaway, as Cetaphil was the first brand I personally tried!

Giveaway fine print:

  • Prizes: One travel sized Cetaphil DermaControl Oil Control Foam Wash & One travel sized Cetaphil DermaControl Oil Control Moisturizer SPF 30 (Same as the two products I just wrote on!)
  • Open to Canadian residents only
  • Must be of legal age in your province or territory of residence
  • Winner will be contacted by e-mail and announced on February 1, 2015 (So be sure to leave a valid email when commenting. If entered through Instagram, I will contact you via private message!)
  • If you are the winner (yay!), you will need to provide me with your mailing address and phone number as well
  • Questions: Leave a comment or email me at [email protected] / leave me a message on Instagram

Thanks for reading and best of luck!

-Carmen

An InLinkz Link-up


Filed Under: body, face Tagged: beauty, beauty blogger, blemish prone skin, canada, cetaphil, clear skin, combination skin, face wash, facial, foam wash, free, giveaway, lotion, makeup, makeup blogger, moisturizer, oily skin, skin care, skin routine, skin type, skincare, smooth skin

Amie Natural Skincare Products Review

September 27, 2014

I was approached from UK based Amie skincare line to review some of their skin loving beauty products! I was quite excited as they have just released their products into the Canadian beauty market last month, selling them exclusively at Shoppers Drug Mart.

To give you a brief history behind this brand, Amie was founded by an ex-Estee Lauder executive, who created these products in hopes to help her daughter’s puberty-troubled skin. As a result, Amie products are made for consumers with sensitive skin, whether it is dry, oily, prone to breakouts, whatever. There are also no harsh or irritating ingredients in any of their products, and are made from an average of 95% natural ingredients.  I also have “swatches” of each product at the end of this post so keep on reading!
unnamedMy products arrived in this cute, plastic travel bag. Immediately, I fell in love with the cute and colourful packaging! I was also able to smell the lovely scents of the products after opening the bag. Judging from how good the products smelled when I didn’t even open them, I was quite excited to actually try them out.

I also ended up bringing the plastic bag on a weekend getaway, and kept the bag in the shower the whole time. I loved how it was waterproof and very durable. The smudge on the white part of the bag was from my foundation, which accidentally leaked on the roadtrip – not a packaging fault from the company!
unnamed (1) I had recently finished my favourite matte seaweed moisturizer from The Body Shop, and was looking to either re-purchase it or try a new product. Perfect timing! This is Amie’s matte finish moisturizer ($12 Canadian), which claimed to control oiliness and shine, while softening and hydrating skin. Out of all the Amie products, I liked this one the most as it really did combat the oiliness in my face for over 10 hours and left my skin looking dewy! I didn’t have to dab the oil off my face at work. I suggest this product if you suffer from oily skin like moi.
unnamed (2)This is Amie’s deep cleansing mask ($12 Canadian), which claimed to purify pores, and combat both oiliness and blemishes. I must warn you that this product burned my skin at initial contact, due to the strong peppermint in this. I was actually worried that I was having an allergic reaction to this product, but my face eventually calmed down after 5-7 minutes of applying this. Afterwards, my skin felt really cool and light (again, due to the peppermint probably), and really refreshed. I would recommend this if you want to brighten up your skin, if it looks a bit duller than usual.
unnamed (3)Up next is the radiant dawn exfoliating daily wash ($10 Canadian), which claimed to deep clean pores and exfoliate skin, leaving a clear and radiant complexion behind. I really enjoyed the scent of this product, and it had a gel texture with tiny microbeads. It was very gentle on my skin, and for that reason I didn’t feel that it deep cleaned my pores. I loved the smell of this first thing in the morning, it felt really refreshing and really woke me up. Overall, a decent daily  face wash but probably not suitable for deep cleaning pores.
unnamed (4)The last product I received was the hydrating daily moisturizer ($12 Canadian). Since my skin is more oily, I preferred the matte finish moisturizer that I talked about above more, as this one did leave my skin feeling a bit more oily. I would recommend using this if you have a normal skin type, and just need a simple, everyday moisturizer.
unnamed (5) As promised, here are some “swatches” of the product.  I wanted to give you guys an idea of the texture and consistency of the products. The matte finish moisturizer had the thickest consistency. The deep cleansing mask had more of a paste-y texture to it, and was not as wet or easily spreadable. The exfoliating daily wash was very gel-like, with tiny, non abrasive micro beads in it. This one had an amazing smell 🙂 Lastly, the hydrating daily moisturizer was your standard moisturizing cream.

Pros:

  • Free from parabens, sulphates, mineral oils, animal extracts
  • Catered towards sensitive skin and works well with combating oily skin
  • Vegan and vegetarian friendly
  • Great, light smelling scent

Cons:

  • May be hard to find at Shoppers Drug Mart; I searched some of my local stores online and they did not carry it
  • Products are a lot cheaper in UK than Canada
  • Amie website is a bit confusing to use, some products are missing descriptions

All in all, I really enjoyed all the Amie products and don’t really have anything negative to say about them. They are all definitely affordable, and the packaging is so cute. For the amount of natural ingredients each product has in them, and how gentle it is on skin, Amie products are definitely worth a try!

Check them out at Amie skincare or Shoppers Drug Mart! 

-Carmen

The products in this post were sent to me free of charge from Amie, and I was not paid to write this post. Everything in this post is my personal opinion and was not altered by the request of the company. 


Filed Under: face, makeup, skincare Tagged: amie, beauty blog, beauty blogger, beauty guru, beauty review, canadian beauty, makeup, matte skin, moisturizer, natural, natural skincare, non gmo, oil free skin, organic, paraben free, shoppers drug mart, skin mask, skincare, skincare routine, UK beauty

Summer 2014 Favourite Moisturizers

August 30, 2014

This idea came to me suddenly a hour ago, and I am in the mood to write tonight 🙂 I have had a busy week and wasn’t able to blog as much as I hoped, but I’m glad I have this long weekend to wind down and take some time to myself. Lately, my skin has been quite dry so I have been relying on my lotions a lot. I have developed a devotion to certain lotions and wanted to share them with you today! Some of these are second or third time purchases that I have been using for a long time, while others I have just started to love. Let’s get started!
photo 1 (2)These are the main moisturizers I use in my daily routine. Anyone have the same products and love them as much as I do? 😀 When my skin gets dry, it also gets really itchy at the same time, so all of these have been amazing at getting rid of the itch and quenching my skin (well, apart from the lip moisturizers haha).  Let’s divide these moisturizers into separate categories and go into further detail with each!

BODY
photo 2 (1)
1) St. Ives Daily Hydration Body Lotion:  Out of all my current favourite moisturizers, I would not have expected to like it as much as I do. My mom bought this as opposed to our usual Vaseline body moisturizer, and I didn’t really think much about it. But I love how fast absorbing and non greasy it is. This lotion also has a very neutral but clean and crisp scent to it that I think would be suitable for males as well.
2) The Body Shop Body Whip in Mango: I’m not too sure why they changed their brand of body lotions to body whip, it kinda sounds strange to me. Anyways, I am in love with the smell of this lotion, as with most Body Shop scents. Again, this moisturizer is very absorbent and leaves my body smelling like mangoes. It’s also very lightweight, and a little goes a long way. I alternate between the two, and honestly, it just depends on which room I’m in when I feel like my skin is getting dry. The St. Ives lotion is stored in our washroom, while TBS one is in my room.

 Face
photo 3
The Body Shop Seaweed Mattifying Day Cream: You guys, I have fallen in love with this facial moisturizer. I recently just finished my first jar, and wasn’t planning on buying another one because I love trying new products. However, as I was in between facial creams, I realized how much I missed this one. Initially, there is a cooling sensation when you apply this, which is great first thing in the morning as it wakes you up. Secondly, it does a great job at combating oil and making sure your face does not dry out the whole day. This lotion is best suited for those people like me who have combination skin type.

Hands:
photo 5
Crabtree & Evelyn Pomegranate Body Lotion: I also received this as a gift two years ago, but never actually used it because I had a lot of other lotions to use and I didn’t want to “waste” this product as I know that it is pricier than most lotions I buy. Anyways, I started to use it two weeks ago and I really like it.  It t has a mix of fruity and floral notes which I loooove. The scent lasts on your skin the whole day, even after washing your hands! This is actually a body lotion, but I treat it like a hand lotion because of the size.
Lips:
photo 41) Vaseline: If you don’t know how amazing Vaseline is, this classic video of supermodel/ex-talk show host Tyra Banks going absolutely crazy on her studio audience can explain its wonders. I remember watching this on TV as a pre-teen and not being able to find words to describe her crazy and hilarious sudden outburst on Vaseline. OH MY GOD I just re-watched this video and was almost dying of laughter.
Image2) EOS Lip balm: I used this a lot back in high school, but I stopped cause I didn’t like the sphere design and dust kept getting trapped inside. I still don’t like the sphere design because it’s not practical, but you have to admit that it does look pretty cool aesthetically speaking. I have the melon one, and I love the smell and taste of it.  The EOS balm keeps my lips hydrated longer than most lip balms I have used (apart from Vaseline of course).

Well, there you have it! I love all of these moisturizers for a variety of reasons, from their lightweight, non greasy formulas to their fantastic scent. Which moisturizers are YOUR favourite? Let me know in the comments down below 🙂

-Carmen


Filed Under: body, face, skincare, Uncategorized Tagged: beauty blogger, beauty guru, beauty review, body routine, cream, face routine, fashion blogger, favourite products, girl talk, lotion, makeup blogger, moisturizer, product review, the body shop, vaseline

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