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Estée Lauder Spring/Summer 2015 Preview Event

March 27, 2015

Hi readers!

Back in August, I had the pleasure of attending my first Estée Lauder media preview event. I was thrilled when they invited me back to their Spring/Summer 2015 preview event this month!

The format of the media preview event this season was a bit different, but I still enjoyed it. Here are some of the highlights, plus some products that I am looking forward to in the upcoming season!

Bronze Goddess shimmer collection: Want to achieve that tanned, golden, bronze look with a hint of shimmer this season? My favourite from this line would have to be the shimmery body spray, seen in the back left. An Estee Lauder spokesperson showed us how to apply this product by gently dabbing it onto your skin to achieve a glowing sheen.

I love this line because it reminds me of a tropical vacation… if I had these products, I would bring them on my next tropical excursion!

Up next, a pretty array of lipstick and nail polish shades for this season! I am a huge fan of coral and pinks, so these products are wonderful to me! My favourite would have to be the coral nail polish in the front.
Next up, my FAVOURITE Estee Lauder products… their perfumes! I’ve never encountered an Estee Lauder perfume scent that I did not like, so I was quite excited to see how these smelled. Of course, they did not disappoint.

The AERIN line, launched last season from Estee Lauder’s granddaughter Aerin Lauder, has the most amazing scents so I’m glad they came out with a few more this time around.
This was definitely an interesting product that captivated my eye. It is their new finishing mineral powder.

It looks like a regular, mineral, loose powder foundation but upon application, it feels like pure silk. It is unbelievably soft and has a nice, smooth finish to it.
We also previewed the new Courreges x Estee Lauder line, which the attendees were really excited about. Andre Courreges is a French fashion designer, known for his modern and futuristic design.

This preview session definitely did not disappoint. I’m super excited to see the new AERIN perfumes and finishing powder foundation on the shelves!

What were your favourite products that I talked about? Let me know in the comments down below!

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

If I had a million dollars… (Fall 2014 Beauty Wishlist)

November 21, 2014

It’s holiday season again, my favourite time to buy and stock up on makeup products. Every time this year, I love going into Sephora and seeing what type of holiday gift sets or products they have. Of course, this year is no different and there are so many beautiful products already released/being released. I just wanted to share my top three dreamy picks this holiday season so we can all marvel and stare longingly at their beauty while wishing we all had these. I probably won’t be buying all of these because I don’t have that much money, but a girl can dream and virtually share their beauty….

3. La Belle Carousel – Too Faced

I first saw this in my one too many visits to Sephora and fell in love with the packaging. To be honest, when I first saw this, I didn’t even know what type of products were in here… I was just very captivated by the packaging and the way it was marketed. I loved the romantic and classical look of the packaging…and come on, who doesn’t like carousels? Too Faced made the packaging so dreamy and beautiful. Upon further glance and investigation, I found out that it contains a variety of stunning eyeshadow shades, bronzers, blushes, and their Better Than Sex mascara.

Realistically speaking, I wonder if it is hard to re-package it to its original carousel shape after opening. Because of this reason, the carousel doesn’t seem too practical but it is certainly perfect to marvel at. But at $59 Canadian, you pay a hefty price for something that is just a pretty, novelty piece of decoration. Even if you used it everyday, I highly doubt that you’ll have the time and patience to restore it to its original beauty and should probably stick with their regular makeup palettes. Which is why when I rationally think about it, I know I’m better off without it and probably won’t get it… but it is so pretty to look at!

2. Naked on the Run – Urban Decay

Number two on my list is the new Naked palette, Naked on the Run by Urban Decay. Each holiday season, Urban Decay releases a makeup palette and this year, it is the Naked on the Run. I guess they got tired of releasing Naked 1, Naked 2, Naked 3…haha! It hasn’t even been released yet but every time Urban Decay posts a picture of this on Instagram, my face looks like the heart eyes emoji. I love the shades and vibrancy in my Naked palettes, and I’m sure these will not disappoint as well. I also love their eyeliner, and have yet to open the perversion mascara. This palette would be perfect to bring around as it holds an eyeliner, mascara, lipstick, eye shadow, blush, and bronzer! This product is more practical than the carousel. Can’t wait for the release!

1. Modern Muse – Estee Lauder

To be honest, I fell in love with Estee Lauder’s new Aerin fragrance first but after I was told that it was only sold in one exclusive location in all of Vancouver, I walked around the Estee Lauder counter and saw this. I remember being introduced to this at the 2014 fall media preview event but it didn’t have that much of an effect on me as the Aerin fragrance did, I still really liked the scent of Modern Muse though. Fast forward two months, we were united again and as I sprayed the tester on the piece of fancy cardstock paper, I found myself slowly forgetting about the Aerin fragrance and liking this one a lot. It is described as “lush floral woody” and I would be lying if I said I knew what that smelled like. In my own words instead, it had a very light, floral scent to it that I could see myself wearing quite often. My favourite part of the scent was the jasmine notes in it. I love jasmine tea more than any other green tea, so naturally I was drawn to the strong jasmine and flowery smell. I’ve been thinking about getting is for a few weeks now, and I’m probably going to buy this very soon because I can’t stop thinking about it.

There you have it! The top three beauty products I am currently lusting over right now. I probably won’t be getting the Too Faced carousel because it’s pretty impractical, it’s just nice to look at! What are your top 3 wants right now?

-Carmen

Estee Lauder Fall/Winter 2014 Media Preview Event (Part 2/2!)

September 16, 2014

As I was mentioning in part 1, I decided to split this post up because it would just be way too long for one post. If you’re just reading this now, these two posts are a review of the Estee Lauder Fall/Winter 2014 Media Preview Event that I went to two weeks ago. I also mentioned in the first post that these two posts will just be a simple overview of the products, as I did not get a chance to try these products well enough to formulate an opinion or review 🙂 However, I was able to bring home many of their already released products as you will see.

Out of all the products I was introduced to that day, my favourite would have to be the sculpting foundation brush on the top left, designed exclusively for Estee Lauder. I read about this brush before, but I finally got to see it in real life and hold it! The middle section of the brush is curved, and will effortlessly hug the contours of the face for effortless sculpting and definition. I feel like this brush will definitely be a saviour for beginner contourers like myself. In front of the sculpting brush, is their new perfectionist youth-infusing foundation. It contains their best selling serum, along with advanced ingredients that will create a more “youthful” appearance to the skin. There are microscopic priming beads that instantly fill lines while blurring imperfections- sounds like real life photoshop to me!

Moving on to the top right is Estee Lauder’s new Re-Nutriv Ultra Radiance Foundation. I was drawn to this one because it contains gemstones such as sapphires, rubies, and jade. To add to the elegance, it includes a blend of Gold and South Sea Pearls. These magnificent gemstones and pearls complement each other as they interact with light to create unique, vibrant colours. Unfortunately one small bottle costs $100, but a girl can dream right?

On the bottom left was the Modern Muse perfume, which smelled lovely as well. It is a blend of “sophisticated florals and succulent fruitiness juxtaposed against deep sultry woods”. Wow, I want to be able to write as beautifully as the person who wrote Estee Lauder’s PR book (which I am reading for reference right now cause I forgot what the scent was exactly, haha)
At the end of our tour, we were given an option to do the “3 minute mini makeover”, with an Estee Lauder makeup artist. There were four looks that you were able to choose from. As I mentioned in my first post, I am still trying to master the art of contouring so I opted for the contouring option.

Here is what I went home with. Thank you so much, Estee Lauder. I was in so much shock, I was definitely not expecting any gifts, let alone this many. I am super ecstatic to try all of these products out and will be doing reviews on them for sure, so keep your eyes peeled.

I am so grateful to be given this opportunity to attend such a great and organized event, thanks to Estee Lauder and the PR team. Everyone working was so kind, welcoming, and talented in what they do. I have a newfound appreciation towards this brand because of this event. Every time I walk by an Estee Lauder booth, I am reminded of the wonderful team of people behind it and I am so grateful and glad that I caught a glimpse of that at the event.

The products in this post were sent to me free of charge from Estee Lauder, 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.

-Carmen

Estee Lauder Perfectionist Foundation Review

September 10, 2014

One of the products I received from the Estee Lauder Fall/Winter 2014 Media Preview was their perfectionist, youth infusing foundation. I mentioned this briefly in my media preview post, but I finally had the opportunity to try it out.

Honestly, the name “youth infusing” sounds a bit strange to me. In my opinion, I don’t think maturing skin is anything to be ashamed about. There is nothing wrong with aging- it is a natural process, and I think it’s beautiful, as it is a part of human life. Just because someone is sixty years old, I don’t think that it makes them less beautiful than a 20 year old. I do know that they are referring to the skin’s physical appearance, but there is a beauty and art in wisdom too.
Wow sorry, I definitely did not mean to go off on a tangent about maturing skin! Do you agree though?

What it claims:

This foundation contains Estee Lauder’s best selling perfectionist [cp+r] serume, which helps to repair the looks of lines and wrinkles, makes skin looking more radiant, glowing, and noticeably younger
The advanced optical ingredients softly highlights and defines to enhance facial features which will brighten skin
Contains priming beads which instantly fill lines and blurs imperfections to create flawless looking skin
Is lightweight, ultra comfortable with a satin-finish, so skin feels luxuriously soft to the touch

Since I received this as a gift, I was unable to select my shade. I received the shade “fresco”, number 2C3. Fortunately, this shade was suitable for me and did not make me look unnaturally dark or too pale! The foundation also contains their IntuiTone pigment technology, which guarantees true-to-life shade matching by working with skin’s natural undertones, so that might be part of why the shade matched so well right away. This retails for $50 CA.

Application: I used two pumps of this foundation on my face, and blended it with my brush. Immediately, I noticed that the foundation felt very lightweight, as it claimed to do. Since it does have a lightweight feel, I found that the coverage was lighter than I liked. Normally, I wear medium-heavy coverage but I would say this is a light coverage.

I considered applying a different foundation on top to see how well it blended, but I decided that I rather see how much lasting power this has throughout the night. My face felt pretty smooth and non sticky after this foundation. Another thing that I liked about this foundation was that it had no chemical or harsh scent. I’ve bought a few foundations that have a weird chemical scent, which is a bit off putting.
Here is the finished product! I have on the foundation, with light bronzer and blush. What do you think? I thought that for a lightweight, light coverage foundation, this foundation did the job pretty well. I really liked the feel of it on my skin.

Lasting: I wore this foundation for around four hours. I was planning on going to an event that night, but a couple of things happened and I didn’t end up going. For the time I did wear this foundation, I found that my appearance did not become dull. It was also very easy to wash off, which I appreciated.

Pros:

Lightweight formula makes it very comfortable to wear!
Makes skin appear radiant and softer, would recommend using this foundation if you know you’ll be taking many pictures cause your skin will look very smooth and healthy 🙂
For a light coverage foundation, it covered my imperfections/scars/etc amazingly well
Very easy to blend and remove
Includes a IntuiTone pigment technology that guarantees true to life shade matching by working with skin’s natural undertones
Includes SPF 25

Cons:

Very sturdy packaging, but the glass bottle means that you will have to be careful not to drop this
Directed more towards a more mature consumer, as this foundation focuses a lot on blurring fine lines and wrinkles

Bottom line, I do really enjoy this foundation mainly due to how lightweight it feels, but covers my imperfections very well. It also made my skin appear more radiant, smooth, and soft!

What are your thoughts on this foundation? Do you prefer light/medium/or full coverage foundation? I would love to hear your comments!

Yay!

Sample provided for review. Opinions are own.

Thanks for reading!
-Carmen

Lancome Hypnose Star Mascara Review

September 8, 2014

The Lancome Hypnose Star mascara came with my Sephora glitz and glam makeup sampler kit last Christmas. To be honest, I haven’t really used it much until now because I have waaayy too many mascaras and I don’t normally wear mascara.

My lashes seem to have a problem with mascara, because no matter how popular, expensive, or fantastic a mascara is, my lashes just won’t behave! No matter the formula, they will almost always clump up and not lengthen or volumize like it’s supposed to.

On a rare occasion however, my lashes DO cooperate with me and my mascara looks wonderful! If you have any idea how to fix this, PLEASE let me know! I’ve tried switching multiple mascaras, trying different eyelash curlers, heating my eyelash curlers… etc. It’s just too much hassle to put on mascara daily when it fails 70% of the time. Anyways, I’ll let the picture of my lashes before and after speak for itself. Keep reading!
My love for this mascara came suddenly and unexpectedly. I was getting ready to go out, and mindlessly grabbed the first mascara that was within arms reach. To be honest, I had no idea where I got this mascara from until I searched it on the internet, and found out that it was featured in the Sephora glitz and glam set. Oops 🙂
The mascara wand features a cone tip, which I haven’t seen before. This tip made it easier to reach the shorter lashes.
This was after two coats, I’ll let the picture speak for itself! I noticed that my eyelashes looked a lot longer, really well separated, and still natural! Amazing. Compared to the Benefit- They’re real! mascara, I would say they both have similar effects in that it makes your lashes look really natural and long.

I’ve tried to search online what ingredients are in this mascara, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere! Lancome seems to have different variations of their Hynose mascara, but this one was not listed on their site or on Sephora. I’ve come to realize that makeup sampler sets are really the way to go. It’s a lower cost way to discover many new products at once! Plus, they usually come in sample sizes so even if you don’t agree with the product, it’s a small size anyways. I also discovered the Too Faced 3 Way Lashlining Tool in this same bag too. Sephora normally sells their sample sets during the holiday season, so I definitely will be keeping my eyes peeled! It’s so exciting because the products in the sets change every year!
Pros:

Really great at lengthening lashes
Does not clump
Cone tip makes it easy to reach the shorter lashes on the side
Ideal for dramatic makeup looks or a substitute for falsies (Yep, it’s that good)

Cons

Pricey compared to drug store products
This exact one is not waterproof, however other mascaras in that line may be

I wish I could tell you guys how much this retails for, but since I got it in a sample kit AND I can’t seem to find the same product online anywhere, I can’t 🙁 The other mascaras in the Hypnose line range from $30-35, so I assume it will be around there. The sample kit was $50, so you’re already getting a great deal. The Too Faced Lash Liner tool was already almost $30 too. See, more reason to purchase sample sets from Sephora! 😉

I hope you guys enjoyed this review and thanks so much for reading! What are your favourite mascaras?

-Carmen