lips Archives - Page 6 of 8 - Curiously Carmen

NARS Lipstick – Sephora Birthday Gift

October 14, 2015

My birthday falls on one of the last few days of the year — how unfortunate, right?! I was always the last of my friends to get a driver’s license, be of legal age, and of course, receive my Sephora beauty insider gift.

Over the past few years, the disappointment has weaned off and it doesn’t really bug me anymore. I’ve come to really appreciate my birthday time. After all, I never have to worry about having to study for an exam because it’s winter break, worry about work because it’s a holiday, people are in a great mood because of the holiday season, and I get beautiful holiday decorations!

I was in Sephora in January, and after completing my purchase, the lady at the counter handed me a small NARS box. ‘Here’s your birthday gift!’ She was nice enough to give it then, so I didn’t have to wait an entire year before finally receiving mine! Thank you, Sephora lady!
Admittedly, I forgot about the sample as I usually stick with my one lipstick, and had also bought a couple around that time. It wasn’t until last month during a family dinner, when I noticed my cousin’s strikingly bold red lip. I asked her what she was wearing, and she told me it was the NARS birthday lipstick from Sephora.

After that, I finally decided to open mine to see how it would look on me!
The lighter, rose pink shade is the satin lip pencil in rikugien, and has a hint of shimmer to it. I found that this shade was pretty light and neutral, and would be good for those who want a natural look. Or, it would be suitable if you already have a lot of dramatic eye makeup on, as you typically want to avoid your eyes and lips competing for attention.

I find that light pinkish shades don’t go well with my skin tone. It makes me look sickly pale, LOL! Which is why I liked the hint of shimmer, it didn’t make me look like I was sick. It does have a satin-y look to it so the name is very well suited for the colour.

Meanwhile, the darker shade is the velvet matte lip pencil in cruella. I am a big fan of darker shades, so personally, I liked this one more. However, it is definitely really bold and attention grabbing so you have to wear it with confidence!

Overall, I’ve heard nothing but positive opinions on these two Sephora birthday gifts and I can definitely vouch for them too. The quality is great, they are long lasting, and do not dry out your lips. For a free product, this is really great and would be a product that I wouldn’t mind spending money on either.

Have you received your Sephora birthday gift yet this year? What did you think of it?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

ACI Beauty Fall/Holiday 2015 Media Preview – Part 2/2

August 23, 2015

In early August, I was invited to the ACI Beauty event to experience their Fall/Holiday 2015 collection! I already mentioned this in part 1, but just in case you haven’t read that yet, ACI Beauty is one of the biggest beauty distributors in Canada. ACI Beauty works with many reputable beauty companies to help their products get on the shelves for us beauty lovers.

At the event, we were guided throughout some of their newest products for next season. Welcome to part 2/2!

I have seen some CLEAN products in Sephora before, but never had the chance to learn or test them out until that day. We got to smell some of the perfumes that day, and I enjoyed all of the different scents. If you’re someone who likes light and neutral scents, then this is the line for you.

I had a few friends that came over and played with the samples, and all of them said that the perfumes smelled like ‘clean laundry’.

I currently keep one of the rollerball minis in my purse,the light blue one in the middle of the box named ‘cool cotton’. It smells very refreshing and wakes me up a bit when I first put it on. The size is very convenient, and good to use on-the-go.

I also found that the CLEAN products are very gender neutral, maybe it’s just moi?? By that, I mean they don’t have a distinct ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ scent – it just smells like very clean soap! Although these products are catered towards women, I think that men would be able to wear this as well.

This product was highly raved about with the ACI ladies, they use this almost every day at home!

The Bliss triple oxygen instant energizing mask initially goes on your skin as a gel, but slowly turns into a foam as you rub it on your face. The foam expands on your face depending on much dirt or oil you have, so the foam size can vary each day. It also has a very nice grapefruit smell to it.

I posted this on my Instagram already, but am I ever in love with this Paul and Joe lipstick! This lipstick is part of Paul and Joe’s Fall 2015 ‘Cafe Parisien’ line.

To make this cute cat lipstick, Paul and Joe uses a Japanese candy-making technique called Kintaro-ame, which depends on two separate tubes – one columnar and one cat-shaped. This ensures that the cute cat faces remain visible until the lipstick is used up, so you don’t have to worry about the cute cat print going away!

Also on the topic of lipstick, here are the new shades for Anna Sui. I called these the ‘shooting star’ lipstick because of the way the lipstick is shaped inside the tube! The colours are very rich and make a good transition for the Fall season.

The Anna Sui loose powder, which comes in a new beautiful design, is pictured in the back. It comes with a fluffy purple puff, and looks so classic and elegant. I could picture a princess using this powder on her vanity table. Beside it is the Anna Sui BB Cream.

I showed this picture in my Anna Sui nail colour review post already, but here are the new nail colours and a new bottle design! It features a birdie on the top of the brush, while the bottle has an intricate ball gown design to it.

All of the Anna Sui nail products also have an amazing scent to them! The one I received smelled like lemons, and other scents include rose and lychee.

I also really adored the mini ‘latte’ eyeshadow pods that Paul & Joe had, featured on the left. The swirl and creaminess of the colours, coupled with a cute little foam tip brush is reminiscent of that a perfect, smooth latte on a chilly afternoon. I am a big fan of champagne/gold shades, so the eyeshadow pod is right up my alley.

Also featured are the pressed powder pods, which are purchased separately from the packaging. Beside the pressed powder pods are the moisturizing foundation and makeup primer.

The last station we were introduced to was Bliss’s regular collection (not the holiday gift set collection as featured in part 1). For myself, the most interesting product here was the ingrown eliminating pads, I am very curious to see if they will help with my ingrown hairs.

I mentioned this above already, but try to get a chance to try their body butter and soap, which are pictured in the back! The smell is absolutely amazing and will make you feel happy =)

I also did a review of the Bliss fabulous gel to oil cleanser, pictured in the middle beside the Fat Girl Slim products. You can read that post here.

I had a great time at the ACI Beauty event, thank you for having me. I learned about a plethora of new products and am very excited to try them out! Keep your eyes posted for upcoming reviews on some of the products that I have mentioned here.

Which product was your favourite from this post? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

ACI Beauty Fall/Holiday 2015 Media Preview – Part 1/2

August 18, 2015

Following Stila’s fall media preview event, I had the pleasure of attending the ACI Beauty fall collection preview event as well. After doing some research, I found out that ACI Beauty is one of the biggest beauty distributors in Canada and work with big beauty brands such as Anna Sui, Ardell, Bliss, Ceramic Glaze, Clean, Paul & Joe, Stila, and more.

As a result, I was able to see a variety of different products from all the brands that ACI works with. I left the event with a lot more knowledge about these different brands, and am excited to see the 2015 Fall/Holiday collection in stores.

All the different brands were beautifully placed inside the room, I will be discussing the products in the order that they were presented to us in by the wonderful ACI ladies.

The first product we were introduced to were the new holiday collection line from Bliss. The gift sets come in different sizes, which is convenient if you are just looking for a stocking stuffer or a larger present. You can either get a set of lotion or skincare products, which are the two bigger boxes.

We sampled the grapefruit body butter, shown in the big blue box in the middle, which smelled amazing.

I’ve only recently seen Paul & Joe products on social media and other beauty blogs, but this was the first time I’ve seen their products in person. I am absolutely smitten by Paul & Joe’s packaging. It is a mix of classic elegance, with a touch of cuteness.

Pictured here is a makeup bag, with all the contents spread out. This would make a good gift to someone over the holidays, or a great way to be introduced to the brand as it comes with a few of their different products.

All of us beauty bloggers were in awe with the elegant and innovate packaging for their eyeshadow samples. I’ve never seen them be presented like this before so it was definitely really cool. There is a definite cat theme going on this season – this is for all you cat lovers out there! Meow =)

The next table featured some of the Fall 2015 Anna Sui products. Starting on the left is the limited edition miniature fragrance gift set. The fragrance set includes the new perfume, ‘Romantica’ along with other returning favourites. All of the bottles are so beautiful!

Beside the fragrance set is the limited edition moisturizing set. This comes with nail care oil, rose hand cream, and moisturizing balm.

On top of these two is the customizable makeup box, available exclusively at Hudson’s Bay. It comes free with any cosmetic purchase of $80 and you are able to choose from Anna Sui favourites.

All of these products will be available in stores in October 2015!

Following, we were introduced to Cargo Cosmetic’s eyeshadow palette. I love the darker shades of this palette, and it feels very romantic to me. This palette would be great for holiday parties – look at all the shimmery gold tones! The pinks would look nice as a office day time look as well.

Behind the palette are some Fall 2015 nail colours from Ceramic Glaze. Just like Cargo’s eyeshadow palette, the rich and darker shades would pair very well with an evening party dress for holiday parties. I can’t believe I am talking about the holiday season already! =P

Ending off part 1, we were also introduced to Paul and Joe’s bath & body collection as well! There are two bath & body collections – Arlequin and Columbine. Both smelled very luxurious and feminine – I would love to take a bath with these bath salts!

Which products are you most excited for?

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for part 2 of the ACI Beauty Fall/Holiday 2015 Media Preview!

-Carmen

Press samples featured, all opinions are my own.

Valentines Day Makeup 2015

February 19, 2015

Hi everyone,

I apologize for the late post, I have been quite busy outside my blog. I’m really looking forward to having a night to myself where I can peacefully blog without having a million other things to do!

unnamed (1) — Drove to this beautiful viewpoint after Valentines dinner =)

What did you all do for Valentines Day? I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. I spent the day with the boyfriend, we had a good day enjoying our city =) As the weather gets warmer and better, I always get amazed at how lovely and beautiful Vancouver is. It happens every single year and I’ve lived here my whole life, and wouldn’t have it any other way. There’s so much to see, explore, and eat in this beautiful city!

Anyways, since this is my makeup blog, I guess I should stop talking about Vancouver and move on to what you’re all here to read =)

Here is all the makeup I used that day. Usually, I only wear eyeliner and fill in my eyebrows. I like to let my skin breathe!

For my eyes, I wanted something a bit sparkly since I don’t normally wear sparkly eyes. I used my Urban Decay eyeshadow pot in Space Cowboy and Naked 3 palette. Space Cowboy came with my 2014 Sephora Glitz and Glam party bag, and indeed it is a great product to use on a night out!

I created a thicker, winged eyeliner look as well, but I filled in my eyebrows the usual way: Anastasia Brow Gel & the ELF eyebrow set!

Also, I wore contacts! I haven’t worn contacts for almost two months… my eyes get so uncomfortable with contacts after four hours. I envy those who can wear contacts for 12 hours straight.

For the face makeup, I primed my skin with The Face Shop’s pore balm that I just realized I forgot to take a picture of, sorry! But you can read my review of it here =) I have been loving it so far even though it smells a bit medicated, it really does smooth out the appearance of your face. My concealer is also from The Face Shop and you can also read a review here.

To set my foundation, I used the Maybelline Mineral Powder which is probably one of my drugstore favourites of all time. I recently re-discovered this foundation and haven’t looked back! The first time I bought this, it came with a really horrible and stiff brush which looked really cakey and gross on your skin. When using my own regular brush, it’s a really good finishing powder and makes your face look smoother.

SONY DSC — Should have worn lipstick before taking this picture >.< Just ignore my lips!

Finishing off, I used my Lancome Blush Subtil set lightly over my cheeks. I find that this blush, or this shade in particular, gives you a very youthful, rosy, and cute look. It’s also very light, so it might be a bit hard to see here.

Wow, I just noticed how colour-less my lips look…ugh. We had just finished eating dinner and I didn’t think to reapply lipstick for this picture, whoops. Anyways, I’m wore the Chanel Rouge Coco lipstick line in 80 – Etole. It’s a nice, neutral shade. I like it because it looks suitable with many makeup looks.

Anyways, my bunny Benji is going crazy, running and jumping around in circles so I should probably call it a post and play with him (You can probably see him over on the right, in my Instagram preview hehe). I had a fun time writing this post and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed putting it on! Happy late Valentines to all my readers once again =)

Hope to talk soon!

-Carmen

Black Friday Sephora Mini Haul!

December 1, 2014

It’s funny that I’m doing this post, because I wasn’t planning or even wanting to go Black Friday/Black Friday weekend shopping. My friend and I had planned a girls day out, and only on Thursday did we realize that we accidentally planned it on Black Friday weekend. Ahhh! I really did not want to step inside a mall during Black Friday weekend, dealing with crowds and swarms of people fighting each other to get the cheapest prices. Anyways, since we had been planning our shopping trip for a few weeks, we didn’t want to reschedule so decided to just suck it up, and pray for the best. If it got cray cray, we figured we would just leave and find something else to do LOL.
I am happy to say though, that it didn’t turn out as crazy as we thought it would be. We went shopping on Saturday instead of the actual Black Friday, which probably really helped. Most of the stuff I bought was at Sephora (no surprise there hah), so I’ll just be focusing on what I bought there. Please keep in mind that I didn’t try any of these products fully yet, I may write a detailed review on some of these products after I’ve used them for longer.

Walking into Sephora, the first thing that caught my eyes at on the Black Friday exclusive shelf was the Kat Von D Lip Love Set. Admittedly, I tried to buy this from the safety of my laptop on Friday but just as I was about to check out my purchases, all of the items I wanted were sold out! So you can imagine my happiness when I found this in store, I grabbed one right away! This set is a Sephora exclusive and limited edition. I’ve always wanted to try Kat Von D lip products because I absolutely love their tattoo liner. It came in a lip gloss and lip stick duo, with pre-selected shades. Right after we left Sephora, I tried on the lip gloss. My first impression was that it was very pigmented, and the shade was a lot brighter and lighter than it looked in the tube. For the first few seconds, my friend and I were absolutely horrified at how bright it was but after applying it all over my lips, it didn’t look as bad and I actually ended up really liking the colour on my skin LOL. It stayed on for a few hours until I took it off at dinner. At $12CA for both, the lip love set was an amazing deal and I’m glad I was able to pick one up.

Just like the KVD lip love set, I was also hoping to buy this online on Friday, but it was sold out by the time I went to the online check out. Lesson learned, do your online shopping quick during huge sales. I’ve been looking for a new face wash, and read pretty good reviews on this. This was the Bliss fabulous foaming face wash, a 2-in-1 cleanser & exfoliator. From first glance, the formula looked very thick and gel-like. A lot of reviews that I read said that this does an amazing job of removing face make up immediately, and that was exactly what I was looking for. An amazing cleanser that will remove foundation right away, because let’s face it- after a long night out, there is nothing better than changing into cozy pajamas and letting your skin breathe and be makeup free. I know that when you sleep with makeup on, or get makeup trapped in your pillow cases (so gross), it is really bad for your skin so I don’t take any chances when I’m already susceptible to breaking out. Which is why I also don’t wear foundation on a daily basis. This was half price for their Black Friday sale, I got it for $12CA!

As I was about to leave the Black Friday shelf, the Buxom Power Players set caught my eye. Darnit, haha! Considering that it came with a full sized Buxom sculpted lash mascara, which retailed for $24 Canadian, AND a waterproof eyeliner, for $12 Canadian, I knew that it was a sale opportunity that I could simply not pass up. My friend gave me a gel pot liner from Buxom last year, which I really liked. I’m hoping that I’ll like these two products as well.

Time just disappears when I’m in Sephora, and before us girls knew it, almost one hour had passed by… we decided to finally go and pay for our things, but we had another tempting obstacle to overcome… the last minute product shelves they have while you’re waiting in line to pay. I was really wanting a darker lip colour ever since my possibly haunted experience with the Too Faced melted lip stick, and the colour in the Make Up Forever Redefining Red caught my eye. The duo also came with a colourless lip liner, known as their lip line perfector and claimed to prevent lipstick from smudging. And at $17 for two MUFE products, I thought it was a good deal.

As a bonus, I also received my birthday gift from Sephora! It was also MUFE, but with their mascara and other lipstick instead. I forgot to pick my gift up last year, which I’m still mad at myself for, so I’m glad that the cashier was able to give it to me even though my birthday isn’t for awhile. Since I’m a late December baby, did anyone pick this up already? How did you like it?

I am quite happy that I bought all these products on sale. And before you judge, let me just say this. If there wasn’t a sale, I probably wouldn’t have bought anything. Most the time I go into Sephora, I browse and end up walking out without anything. It may not look like it because my blog focuses on a lot of purchased beauty products, but I only buy products that are on sale and know are a good value for what you receive. You only see half the picture, and don’t know what else goes on which is completely okay because I like to keep some things personal. I usually don’t buy this much in one visit, but I wanted to take advantage of their sale because deals this great don’t come around often. I don’t want you guys to think that I have a habit of consistently blowing money for no apparent reason, because I am quite the opposite. I think carefully about my choices before I buy and am conscious of how much I spend (which is one of the reasons why I spend so long in Sephora, debating if I should actually get the products or not haha!). I know, and can distinguish when I can or should spend money, versus times that I shouldn’t. Okay that’s all, thanks for reading that blurb 🙂

-Carmen