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OMGNailStrips.com {Nail Strips Review!}

January 5, 2015

Hi everyone!

Hope everyone is having a good day so far. I am excited to share this post with you as I’ve always been curious about nail strips, and I know some of you might be as well =) OMGNailStrips.com is a website specializing in nail art stickers, with a wide range of nail sticker designs. Cutesy, festive, to grunge- OMG Nail Strips have it all.
For this post, I was able to choose two nail strip designs that I wanted. Originally, I had wanted a polka dot nail strip (no surprise there, hehe) but I was told it was sold out =(. I just tried to link that design, but I think they took it off their site. As a backup, I went with the strawberry design instead, which I was still really happy with and is sold for $8 USD. They arrived in the mail pretty fast, around 2-3 days from when I first placed the order.

The application process consisted of trial and error for me. I have a tendency to skim over instructions instead of carefully reading them, it’s just a bad habit that I have. Because of that, I don’t blame OMG Nail Strips for being unclear. Although I gave my friend a set to try, and she had trouble following the instructions as well.

One thing I found really odd about the nail strips were how HUGE the strips were. I think it’s because you can also use it on your toenails, and our toenails tend to be bigger than fingernails… I used the smallest stickers this time.

Here is the application process:
1) Ensure that your nails are clean and free of polish.
2) Find the size of nail stickers you’d like (I recommend the smallest one on the right, everything else is really big).
3) Before peeling, match it with the size of your nail and cut the sticker with manicure scissors if needed.
4) Unpeel the clear top coat and apply to nail, starting from the bottom. Ensure that there are no air bubbles! This was the part my friend and I had trouble with, we didn’t even notice there was a hard, clear coat until afterwards.
5) After it is on your nail, unpeel the white backing slowly.
6) Apply a top coat of clear nail polish.

This picture was taken two days after I applied the nail sticker, still looking pretty good! But the tip was beginning to chip a bit. If you’re wondering why the strawberry sticker is pink this time, it is because this is my left hand =)
After five days in total, I decided that it was time to part ways with the sticker, as you can see it was peeling off. The packaging said it would last up to ten days, but my nail polish tends to chip after 2-3 days so I knew that it wouldn’t last that long for me.
My friend tried the crow nail design, she wanted to get a Christmas themed sticker but we weren’t sure how long shipping would take. If we knew how fast it would be, she definitely would have ordered them! For my friend, hers lasted seven days before peeling.

Would I use nail strips again? Yes, definitely! I love how they are an easy and fun way to dress up your nails. Plus, there is no drying time and it also does not smudge. I know some people who don’t like nail strips because it’s hard to apply or it doesn’t fit their nail shape or something, but I find them fun to use and would not mind using them again =)

Check out OMGNailStrips.com here!

What is your opinion on nail strips? Thanks for reading and take care!

-Carmen

Press product featured, all opinions are my own.

Montagne Jeunesse Blemish Mud Mask (Part 2/3)

January 1, 2015

Hi everyone, Happy New Year! I hope you all had a blast celebrating New Years Eve last night!

A few days ago, I had written about how Obsessed Canada had sent me a few samples of the Montagne Jeunesse facial product that they carry online. If you didn’t read that post, Obsessed Canada and Nail Polish Canada are sister companies that cater to the Canadian beauty addict!

They offer a $3 flat rate shipping, and also free shipping over $25 Canadian. Both are also Canadian owned and operated, which means that shipping times will be a lot faster. My interaction with Obsessed Canada has also been positive- they have been very responsive and informative!

I had reviewed the mud pac (far right), today, I will be talking about the blemish mud pack! The blemish mud pac is composed of a blend of aloe vera, willow, rosemary, and witch hazel. All of these ingredients are amazing at combating and targeting acne. The most toughest acne battling warrior products out there are composed of those ingredients! I was quite surprised that tea tree oil was not listed though.
When I first opened the package, I noticed that there was an unpleasant earthy smell to this. The bad part is that it doesn’t smell great, but the good part is that you know that this product contains natural ingredients. Let’s face it, natural ingredients normally do not smell good compared to fragrances or perfumes made in laboratories =P I have a Lush product that doesn’t smell great either, but it does an amazing job at clearing your skin =).

Compared to the mud pac, I found this mask to dry extremely fast. I was only done covering half my face when I noticed it started drying, to the point where it hardened and I couldn’t move my face. After I was done applying, the mask was starting to really tighten up because it was dry. Compared to other face masks I used, this one felt the toughest on my skin and dried the fastest.

After 15 minutes, I rinsed it off but it took a good, thorough wash. I took this time to carefully wash away the mask and moved my fingers in circles around problem areas. When everything was finally off, my skin felt really refreshed and it was nice to be able to move my face again! My skin also felt softer. I noticed that it seemed a bit dry though.

Comparing this mask to the mud pac, I prefer the mud pac one more because I found that this one dried out my skin and hardened really fast. I also felt that the mud pac was more moisturizing and gentle on my skin. Is it a good thing to have a mask that dries really fast and gets really hard?

Have you tried this mask before? If yes, what did you think of it?

Here is the full catalogue of Montagne Jeunesse products that Obsessed Canada offers! I will be trying the honey mask soon so keep your eyes posted on that one =)

-Carmen

Press product featured, all opinions are my own.

Montagne Jeunesse Mud Pac Mask (Part 1/3)

December 29, 2014

For all my Canadian readers, I am very excited to introduce Nail Polish Canada and Obsessed Canada to you all! As Canadians, we know how much harder it is to get beauty products we want due to shipping restrictions, or high shipping fees.

I can’t even count how many times I’ve gotten so excited over a product, only to find out that they don’t ship to Canada (AHEM Urban Decay Black Friday sale… that was my biggest US shipping heartbreak to date) or the shipping fees cost more than the actual product.

With sister companies Nail Polish Canada and Obsessed Canada, they offer free Canadian shipping on orders over only $25 or a $3 flat rate, which are both pretty great deals. Nail Polish Canada has brands such as China Glaze, Deborahh Lippmann, Essie, OPI, Sally Hansen, and much more! They have offices located in both Toronto and Vancouver so you can expect fast shipping as well, regardless if you’re on the East or West coast!

When Obsessed Canada asked me to write some reviews of the Montagne Jeunesse products they carried, I gladly took their offer up! I’ve never heard of Montagne Jeunesse before, so after some brief research, I found out that they are an UK based company.

Out of all the Montagne Jeunesse products that Obsessed Canada carried, I picked the top three I wanted to try: Manuka Honey, Blemish Mud, and Mud Pac based on their product descriptions. Unfortunately, I have been quite busy so I haven’t been able to try all of them yet. This post will be on the mud pac only!

The blemish mud pac is best used weekly for deep cleansing. It is suitable for acne prone skin and has a blend of Dead Sea mud, lavender, and seaweed.

I was quite surprised at how much product there was in the package (20 grams), considering that it is a one time use product. In fact, there was so much leftover that I talked my boyfriend into doing the mask with me because I didn’t want to waste the product. Well, I could have sealed it up I guess, but I preferred to use all of it right away, while it was still freshly opened. Even after applying it on his face, we still a tad bit left over so we applied a tiny bit more on our faces and washed away the leftover.

Texture and consistency- taken from ACosmeticAffair.Blogpost.Com — Texture and consistency- taken from ACosmeticAffair.Blogspot.Com

The mask was very cooling, and the texture of the mask made it very easy to work with. The mask was very smooth and thick, and had a minty green colour to it as well as slight mint scent.

After leaving the mask on for 15 minutes, we removed our masks with warm water and dried with a towel. Immediately, I noticed that both of our skin were really soft and looked really refreshed. It worked really well for me and I felt that it did a great job with deep cleaning!

Stay tuned for part two of Montagne Jeunesse masks! In the meantime, check out Obsessed Canada and Nail Polish Canada, or read some of my other posts! You can also buy this at Obsessed Canada for $2 Canadian, with free shipping over $25!

-Carmen

Press product featured, all opinions are my own.

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.

ELF Geometric Eyeshadow Book

December 11, 2014

I find that many ELF products are a hit and miss. At insanely cheap prices, I don’t blame them either. In high school, I bought their liquid liner and it reeked so bad of chemical smell that I threw it out. Sometimes, you’ll be able to find amazing, great quality products for under $5 (maybe even under $3!) but other times, you’ll find that the price you paid reflects the quality of the product. Last year, ELF was having a huge online sale and I went absolutely crazy. I can’t remember exactly what the sale was, but I think I only paid $20 for $45-65 worth of product. In fact, I bought so much that I didn’t even open some of the products until now. One of those products was the their 36 Piece Geometric Eyeshadow Book.

Bear with the snowflakes, I’m sorry if you think it’s tacky but I love them! Once the holiday season is over, they will be gone so don’t worry :). Anyways, the packaging of this eyeshadow packaging is a bit flimsy, I wouldn’t carry this around openly in my bag. It would definitely be a product I leave at home because the book doesn’t have a clapse to close it. There is a magnetic piece to close, but I don’t think it would be that helpful in a purse with other items inside. It is also made out of a thicker cardboard material.
Here are the colours of the palette. You can tell which ones are my favourite, and which ones I have yet to touch =P There are a total of 36 different shades, but some of the shades are a bit smaller in size. I love this palette because of how many champagne and shimmery gold shades there are! It also comes with a mirror which is a bit handy. It comes with the standard mini sponge brushes, which I haven’t used yet.

Because I love golden/champagne tones so much, here is a close up on them! There are enough colours in here to create many looks! The colours on the palette were not edited, I just added some border effects. I found the colours to be pretty pigmented, and they were also very glittery and sparkly. The only thing I didn’t like was that there was a lot of fallout. I noticed after that my cheeks had a lot of sparkle on them after I applied this.

Anddd here is the finished look! 🙂 This look was my first time trying out this palette, and I was in a bit of a rush. Otherwise, I would have created a deeper smokey eye look! For the price that I paid, the pigment was pretty rich and vivid! Personally, eyeshadow doesn’t last a long time on my eyelids so I have to use my Urban Decay primer potion beforehand. Because of this, I’m not sure how long it will last without primer.

I also used the Dollywink liquid liner (thinking of writing on this too!) Lancome Hynose Star marsacara, Urban Decay Naked Skin foundation, Bare Minerals matte powder foundation, and Makeup Forever lipstick. I wore this out for four hours at a holiday party and it did not smudge with my primer on. It came off easily with my makeup remover.

Last weekend, I decided to try it out again! I had a cold and wanted my eyes to seem brighter. This time, I used both the ELF palette and Naked 2 palette. Again, I was satisfied with the application and pigment, but there was a lot of fallout.

I would recommend ELF palettes to those who are just starting out with makeup, and are unsure if they would like to invest in an expensive eyeshadow palette. For under $10, it’s a decent palette with great shades, the eyeshadow looks are almost endless too with 36 different colours to choose from. The only annoying thing about it is the fall out.

Also, I mentioned above about the first ELF product I bought that reeked really badly of chemicals… it is the eyeliner here. The horror!

-Carmen