beauty review Archives - Page 3 of 7

Bliss Fabulous Foaming Face Wash

January 11, 2015

Harroooo everyone! =)

About a month ago, I told you all about my Black Friday Sephora mini haul. One of the items I bought during the sale, which I briefly mentioned in that post, was the Bliss fabulous foaming face wash, a 2 in 1 cleanser and exfoliator.

It was one of those items where I wasn’t planning on buying it, but I saw that it was on sale for 50% off and had great reviews. I took too long deciding whether or not to buy it, and when I went to checkout, I found it was sold out along with all the other products I wanted =(

But when I went to Sephora in person the following day, I was happy to find that they had plenty in store, for the same sale price! I got it for $12 canadian, usually it is $24.

Because Sephora is always better at marketing a product than I am, here is what they say- “Bliss Fabulous Foaming Face Wash harnesses the power of botanical soothing technology and super soft exfoliating beads to deliver a simply sensational skincare solution. This bestselling, oil-free purifier instantly dissolves excess oil and makeup and lifts away dead cells, leaving skin clean, nourished, and fresh.”

Maybe because I read so many great reviews on this product, I was expecting more than it delivered. Some people claimed that this product instantly melted away their entire face makeup, so I was really excited to try it because having difficulty removing makeup when you just want to go sleep is a pain!

I tried this a few times when I had full coverage makeup on, it did not remove all my makeup easily. It also did not come off instantly, I had to scrub. It also said that it is an exfoliator, but I see this as a cleanser because it doesn’t do a great job in exfoliating.

I think this face wash would be good on a daily basis, but if you are wearing full coverage, I would recommend something else. My Lush Herbalism cleanser does an amazing job at taking off makeup, clearing breakouts, making my skin tone even, etc… it is truly a magical product. Actually, even my $3 St. Ives Apricot Scrub does a better job at exfoliating and taking off my makeup LOL!

I really liked the light scent it had, it was very refreshing. The gel formula also had a bit of a cooling sensation. This did not dry out my face at all, and felt really moisturized after usage.

For $24 regular price, I don’t think I would buy it again because it’s not worth the price to me. There are products out there that are definitely better at removing makeup, and for a better price as well. However, I am glad that I tried it and I’ll probably finish the bottle eventually because it’s not a bad product. I just had higher hopes for it! =)

What are your favourite face washes? Let me know in the comments down below!

-Carmen

Marc Jacobs Highliner Gel Eye Crayon

January 6, 2015

Hi everyone!

After buying Sephora’s Draw the Line 2014 set and using most of the products for two months now, I decided it was finally time to talk about them! One of the products included in this year’s set was the Marc Jacob’s Highliner gel eye crayon, which retails for $30 Canadian (full sized product) at Sephora. The set only included the sample size, which was half the size of the full but I still thought it was a good deal with the set!

Funny story, I wasn’t actually planning on using this until I had finished one of the other pencil liners in the set. Of course, I accidentally misplaced that one somewhere and the rest of the pencil liners I had weren’t that great, so I decided on opening this one.

It seems like gel liners are all the rage right now, and for great reason too! I remember the first time I tried gel liner, it was one of the gel pots from MAC back in high school. Ever since then, I’ve loved gel liners for how smooth it glides on your eyelid and the intensity of the colour. Gel liners are more pigmented due to the way that it is formulated.

Combining the gel and crayon eyeliner into one, the Marc Jacobs highliner was born!

I can’t think of a single negative thing about this product except for the cost, maybe. At first use, I loved how smooth and easy it was to apply, and how pigmented and intense the colour was. It also does not smudge the whole day and night, and is waterproof.

In fact, this eyeliner is all that I’ve been using lately since it seems I’m always in a rush in the mornings now. It takes me 15 seconds to quickly tight line my eyes, and what results is an intense and striking black that lasts all day! Any makeup product that is easy and fast to apply, and long lasting, is good to me.

One thing I don’t like about pencil products is having to look for my sharpener. This product comes with a built in sharpener so you don’t have to worry about it becoming dull. It also comes with a twist up bottom!

I’ve also been looking for a replacement gold liner since my favourite gold shade of the Sephora + Pantone has been discontinued (how sad), I might give the champagne shade a try next time I’m in Sephora. But at $30 a pop, it does not come cheap =( However, I’ve come to realize that I much prefer high quality eyeliners that are worth the investment, than a cheap one which smudges or does not last the whole day- the annoyance and retouching up is not worth it. Which means I need to carefully manage my money (aka no more useless sugary drinks or random snacks)!

What are your thoughts on gel liner? Have you tried the Marc Jacobs highliner before and what did you think of it?

Thanks for reading!
-Carmen

Amie Eye Makeup Remover

December 15, 2014

I am baaaackkkk with another Amie product post! I have been using The Body Shop’s Chamomile eye make up remover for around one year now. I used to like it a lot but I found that over the past few months, it started to irritate and sting my eyes a bit. I’ve been trying to find a different one to use, so when Amie contacted me again to try their eye make Bright Eyes Eye Makeup Remover, it couldn’t have came at a better time.

I’ve probably mentioned this before, but one thing that I love about Amie products are that they are made with almost all natural ingredients. In particular, the makeup remover is 98.9% natural. Just like my Body Shop chamomile makeup remover, this also contains chamomile. It is also free from parabens, sulphates, mineral oils, petrochemicals, and animal extracts (making it suitable for vegetarians and vegans). The product itself is a blue liquid, and has a watery consistency – it is not thick or gel-like.

When I first opened the product, I noticed that it had a scent that I didn’t really like. It didn’t smell like chemicals, I’m not really sure how to describe the smell… just that I didn’t like it. As per normal, I dabbed a few drops of this on to a cotton pad and wiped it over my eyes. My eyeliner came off immediately, but there were still little mascara flakes around my eyes that I had to wipe again. It also stung a little, but not as much as my usual makeup remover. I wonder if my eyes are just sensitive… both of these products shouldn’t sting and are already really gentle.

On days where I wore eyeshadow primer and eyeshadow, I found that it was harder to remove. It took probably three or four wipes to completely take off my eye makeup when wearing eyeshadow and primer.

Because of this, I think that this makeup remover is suitable for someone who wears minimal amount or is just starting to wear eye makeup. It is okay to use on a daily basis but I wouldn’t use this to remove makeup if I was wearing a lot that night. I wouldn’t recommend using this product if you use a lot of eye makeup.

Fun and random fact, do you like the Christmas tree decoration in the picture? My grandma used to make a bunch of cute beaded ornaments like this, and I thought it would be nice to include it in a picture. Especially since I’ve been making my recent beauty posts more festive looking! Thanks grandma! (Even though she won’t be reading this post…haha)

Do you have any good makeup remover suggestions? Please let me know in the comments!

-Carmen

This product was sent free of charge in exchange for a product review. Opinions are my own and are not altered by the requests of Amie.

Christmas Holiday Nails!

December 7, 2014

Christmas radio playlist on repeat, planning holiday parties for work, and some Home Alone movie nights later, it is safe to say that I am getting into the holiday spirit. Last night, when I was sick at home and watching Home Alone 2 (it never gets old), I had the sudden urge to repaint my nails. Then, I realized that I should paint them in the holiday spirit!
Here is what I ended up with! Pretty simple and classic, but with a holiday twist. Depending on what angle you look at them, it can look a bit more sparkly or not 🙂 Random fact about me, whenever I watch movies, I can’t just sit still and watch the movie… I always have to be doing something, which is why I painted my nails. I’ll also be working overtime tomorrow at my company’s holiday party for our members, so might as well have pretty nails at the registration table and show some holiday spirit.
I applied two coats of Revlon’s Colourstay in #130-Velvet Rope. It was my first time using it, I thought it was very pigmented and had a really deep, rich, and red colour. One coat would have been sufficient, but I normally do two coats of colour. I found that the drying time of this polish was a bit longer than I was used to, but I was just watching a movie as I was painting so I didn’t really mind.
I could have stopped there, but I love glittery and sparkly things and thought that sparkle polish would really add a Christmas twist and holiday magic to it. I used the Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear in #305-Shine On. I’ve always had great experiences with Sally Hansen polishes, it’s my favourite drug store nail polish as it doesn’t chip easily, easy application, has great pigment/colours, and is very affordable.

Originally, I was debating if I should just paint the tips of my nails or just one nail for accent, but I decided to paint all of them because I love the sparkly look. The sparkles reminded me of tiny snowflakes, or little stars in the night sky. I always used to paint my nails a deep, dark blue or black, and use glitter polish on top to look like the sky so this is just a Christmas version of that. Something about the starry night sky is just so pretty to me and if I could capture a bit of that on my nails, I don’t mind at all.

I’m already thinking of the next holiday themed nails! Maybe I’ll share that too. What are your favourite holiday themed designs to do?

-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