beauty blogger Archives - Page 11 of 16

Jealous Coffee and Coconut Body Scrub

March 18, 2015

Helloooo everyone!

I’ve always wanted to try out coffee scrubs, as I found out during my barista days that scrubbing coffee grinds all over your body has great benefits, including improved skin texture, better blood circulation, get rid of cellulite, plus much more!

Jealous Body Scrub is a new company based out of my beautiful hometown of Vancouver, Canada. For now, they only have one type of body scrub which is the coconut and coffee, but are working on coming out with other products. Their products are also all online based, and currently do not have any in-person stores.

Upon opening this, I was greeted with a strong smell of fresh coffee. Coffee is supposed to smell lovely, but after spending long shifts at a coffee shop and coming home smelling like stale coffee, you will slowly start to be numb to the “invigorating” smell of coffee and can find it quite “meh”. Let me know in the comments if you’ve been a barista before and if you understand what I’m talking about.

However, in this case, the coffee smelled really fresh so I didn’t mind the smell =)

Among coconut oil and ground premium coffee, Jealous body scrub also has vitamin e, raw brown sugar, sea salt, and minerals. As all of the ingredients are natural, it is recommended that customers finish this within six months to preserve freshness and quality.

Coffee grounds: Reduces the appearance of cellulite, eczema, stretch marks, age spots, varicose veins, psoriasis, and acne
Brown sugar & sea salt: Exfoliates and gets rid of dead skin cells
Cold pressed organic coconut oil: Moisturizes skin
Vitamin e: Protects and repairs skin

The steps of using this scrub is very easy!

1. Step into the shower
2. Rinse your body using soap, etc
3. Scoop a handful of Jealous and scrub it in a circular motion. (For a full body scrub, use 2-3 scoops!)
4. Wait 5-10 minutes for the miraculous effects to take place
5. Rinse!

Since this is made as an exfoliant, I have to warn you that the scrub is quite abrasive and harsh so be gentle when you are scrubbing this onto your body. Do not use it over injured skin or it will probably really hurt! For myself, I enjoyed the abrasiveness as I knew that meant my skin would be perfectly exfoliated and fresh when stepping out of the shower.

I’m giving you a warning now that this scrub will get very messy! While in the shower, I got some of it on the wall and on my shower curtain. Make sure you give the tub and walls a good rinse or spray or the next person using the tub will think you’re a disgusting, filthy creature who got “dirt” everywhere!

Now, the result?

AH-MAZING. Seriously, this stuff works wonders. My skin was exfoliated and felt rejuvenated afterwards. Due to the vitamin e and coconut oil, my skin was also very moisturized. Your skin feels like a newborn baby’s, it is that amazing.

Your skin also smells faintly of coffee afterwards. For me, that was odd since I’m used to constantly trying to get rid of the coffee smell after my barista shift.

There has been so much well-deserved hype for Jealous body scrub, I can’t wait to see what other products they will be launching! For once, getting jealous is a good thing. 😉 Check out their website here!

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Press product featured, all opinions are my own.

L’Oreal True Match Foundation

March 2, 2015

Hi everyone,

I’ve had the L’Oreal True Match foundation for awhile now, but didn’t really like it at first so it was kept at the back of my makeup storage. I decided to bring it out and give it another chance, here is how that went!
This foundation claims to be super blendable, and is the first of its kind as it matches your skin’s texture and tone.

Since I am more knowledgeable about makeup now, I decided to give it a try again but wearing a base and setting powder which might support and enhance this foundation.
I started off with The Face Shop’s beauty balm, which you can read about here. Then, I put on the foundation using my fingertips. As I mentioned earlier, the foundation was more watery than I expected but it blended very nicely. It became almost like a powdery, soft texture after you blend it out.

I then finished off with my Maybelline Mineral Powder foundation which I talked about last week, and my ELF blush. Yep, I was trying to use all drug store that day (on my skin at least, I don’t have any drugstore eyeliners).

With the addition of the primer and setting foundation, I liked the L’Oreal True Match a lot more. I’m glad that I gave it a second try! My foundation lasted the whole day, but that might have been with the help of the primer and setting foundation.

I was browsing around Shoppers Drug Mart on my lunch break, and my jaw almost dropped when I saw that they were selling this foundation for $20. That is pretty pricey for a drugstore foundation! Or maybe it’s because I haven’t looked at drugstore foundation for awhile and that’s the standard price now? Let me know how much you pay for your drugstore foundation down below =)
I probably won’t buy this again since there are a lot of other foundations I like much more, but I don’t mind using this up. I would recommend this product to those who are looking for a daily light coverage foundation.

Have you tried this product? What did you think of it?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Favourite Drugstore Facial Washes

February 21, 2015

Good afternoon everyone! (Or whatever time it is where you are!)

I’ll be talking about my favourite drugstore facial washes today. These two face washes never fail to disappoint me, and always do an amazing job taking off my makeup at the end of the night. I’ve tried higher end face washes, such as the Bliss Fabulous Foaming Wash which was pretty disappointing. It’s kind of sad that a $3 product removes makeup better than a $24 product does… and it’s 8x more cheaper!

My two current favourite drugstore washes are the Olay deep cleaning face wash and St. Ives apricot scrub. They are both great at deep cleaning and will remove all your face makeup, no matter how much you have on or how much primer you put on!
Starting with the St. Ives apricot scrub, I’ve been using this for many years now… probably even since high school. I just have nothing bad to say about this product. For $3, it is seriously amazing. It smells great, removes all your makeup, and acts as a great exfoliant. After using this, my skin always feels great, refreshed, and re-energized.

While I was writing this review, I decided to look up some other opinions on this scrub. Some people said that the exfoliant in the apricot scrub was too abrasive and rough on their skin. For me personally, I don’t mind but I don’t use this product daily. I use it on days where I have full foundation coverage on because it does a great job in breaking down the foundation, or days where I feel my skin feels extra oily.

My second favourite drugstore foundation that works wonders is the Olay deep cleansing face wash with witch hazel. My mom bought this and at first, I didn’t really like it because of the scent, but it does a great job at deep cleansing your skin. It has a thicker and creamier texture, and is a weird silvery/grey colour. This one is suitable to use daily as it is not an exfoliating scrub like the apricot scrub.

When I’m taking my foundation off, I first start with the apricot scrub since the naturally grainy texture in it really separates and breaks apart foundation. I gently rub my face in small circles to get all my makeup off. If I feel like going the extra step, I’ll use the Olay wash next which is more gentle. My skin seriously feels soft, refreshing, and is makeup free after these two quick steps.

These two full sized products combined will definitely not break the bank. I get the St. Ives apricot scrub at Wal-mart for $3, I can’t believe how cheap it is. Actually, it might even be $2.50 or $2.95… I can’t remember exactly. I believe the Olay wash is around $4.

You really don’t need to spend lots to have effective face washes! =)

Also, if you’re wondering, my daily cleanser is the Lush herbalism cleanser. While the Lush cleanser is just as effective as these two, it also costs more and I try to only use a little bit each day because of the price. With that said, I need more product when removing a full face of makeup, so I rather use the apricot scrub or Olay wash. You can read my detailed review on the herbalism cleanser here.

What are your favourite face washes? Have you tried any of these products and how did you like them?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Maybelline Mineral Powder Review

February 20, 2015

I miss writing drugstore makeup reviews so much! Did you miss reading them? =)

Most cases, I find that drugstore makeup isn’t as good as high end makeup… well obviously, that is a given as you pay what you get right? But there are some times where these cheaply priced products shine! (or not, if you’re choosing matte makeup..ha ha ha… get it…) This next product is one of those, in my opinion. I love using this product as a finishing powder and it has become a regular in my face makeup routine, on days where I actually wear foundation!

Announcing… the amazing Maybelline Mineral Power foundation! This has been around for quite a few years now, and you can probably find this at almost every drugstore. I know that I always see this product every time I’m at Target, Shoppers, London Drugs, or Wal-Mart.

Funny thing was that when I first bought this in high school, I really hated it and threw it out. Back then, the product had just been released and came with a free makeup brush. Except that makeup brush was absolutely terrible. Looking back, I realize how important a good makeup brush is because that one made your foundation go on uneven, looked cakey, and was very stiff so it felt a bit unpleasant putting it on.

Anyways, I re-discovered this product after my friend gave me hers. She had bought it and realized that it was the wrong shade, and couldn’t return it. I have the shade 3 – light.

mineral-power-powder-foundation_classic-ivory_pack-shot-crop — Picture from Maybelline.ca

Oh, nevermind, I think it still comes with the brush after checking Maybelline’s website. Has anyone else used this brush? I’m curious to see if it’s really that much of a crappy brush or if I just got a bad batch.

You can use this just by itself for a light coverage, but I prefer medium – heavy coverage so I use this as a finishing powder. I use The Face Shop’s pore balm which smooths the look of my skin, but this is really the cherry on top to a flawless and poreless face. The two combined along with my Urban Decay Naked foundation will never disappoint me.

One con that I should mention about this product is that it can get really messy when you’re applying it. It also doesn’t help that I used to carry this around in my luggage or make up bag, and it doesn’t contain a “stopper” so the foundation will spill out through the holes when it’s being moved. By the time you open it, a lot of the foundation has already fallen out and it can get messy.

Now, I try to just leave this at home or I know I’ll be faced with a messy counter the next time I use it.

Here is the back, which includes the information and further description if you’re interested! I’m not too sure how much this costs since my friend gave it to me and I can’t remember when I first bought it. I would say probably around $8-$10? Leave me a comment if you know and I’ll update this =)

This is the most recent picture I have wearing this foundation! I’m wearing The Face Shop pore balm, Urban Decay Naked foundation, and this to finish off as well as a Lancome blush.

If you have the same skin type as me (oily/combination) then I recommend trying this. I can’t say how it will work for other skin types! Keep an eye out for more drugstore makeup posts =)

Have you tried this product? What are your favourite drugstore foundations?

-Carmen

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