UK beauty Archives - Curiously Carmen

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.

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.

Amie Natural Skincare Products Review

September 27, 2014

I was approached from UK based Amie skincare line to review some of their skin loving beauty products! I was quite excited as they have just released their products into the Canadian beauty market last month, selling them exclusively at Shoppers Drug Mart.

To give you a brief history behind this brand, Amie was founded by an ex-Estee Lauder executive, who created these products in hopes to help her daughter’s puberty-troubled skin. As a result, Amie products are made for consumers with sensitive skin, whether it is dry, oily, prone to breakouts, whatever. There are also no harsh or irritating ingredients in any of their products, and are made from an average of 95% natural ingredients. I also have “swatches” of each product at the end of this post so keep on reading!
My products arrived in this cute, plastic travel bag. Immediately, I fell in love with the cute and colourful packaging! I was also able to smell the lovely scents of the products after opening the bag. Judging from how good the products smelled when I didn’t even open them, I was quite excited to actually try them out.

I also ended up bringing the plastic bag on a weekend getaway, and kept the bag in the shower the whole time. I loved how it was waterproof and very durable. The smudge on the white part of the bag was from my foundation, which accidentally leaked on the roadtrip – not a packaging fault from the company!
I had recently finished my favourite matte seaweed moisturizer from The Body Shop, and was looking to either re-purchase it or try a new product. Perfect timing! This is Amie’s matte finish moisturizer ($12 Canadian), which claimed to control oiliness and shine, while softening and hydrating skin. Out of all the Amie products, I liked this one the most as it really did combat the oiliness in my face for over 10 hours and left my skin looking dewy! I didn’t have to dab the oil off my face at work. I suggest this product if you suffer from oily skin like moi.
This is Amie’s deep cleansing mask ($12 Canadian), which claimed to purify pores, and combat both oiliness and blemishes. I must warn you that this product burned my skin at initial contact, due to the strong peppermint in this. I was actually worried that I was having an allergic reaction to this product, but my face eventually calmed down after 5-7 minutes of applying this. Afterwards, my skin felt really cool and light (again, due to the peppermint probably), and really refreshed. I would recommend this if you want to brighten up your skin, if it looks a bit duller than usual.
Up next is the radiant dawn exfoliating daily wash ($10 Canadian), which claimed to deep clean pores and exfoliate skin, leaving a clear and radiant complexion behind. I really enjoyed the scent of this product, and it had a gel texture with tiny microbeads. It was very gentle on my skin, and for that reason I didn’t feel that it deep cleaned my pores. I loved the smell of this first thing in the morning, it felt really refreshing and really woke me up. Overall, a decent daily face wash but probably not suitable for deep cleaning pores.
The last product I received was the hydrating daily moisturizer ($12 Canadian). Since my skin is more oily, I preferred the matte finish moisturizer that I talked about above more, as this one did leave my skin feeling a bit more oily. I would recommend using this if you have a normal skin type, and just need a simple, everyday moisturizer.
As promised, here are some “swatches” of the product. I wanted to give you guys an idea of the texture and consistency of the products. The matte finish moisturizer had the thickest consistency. The deep cleansing mask had more of a paste-y texture to it, and was not as wet or easily spreadable. The exfoliating daily wash was very gel-like, with tiny, non abrasive micro beads in it. This one had an amazing smell Lastly, the hydrating daily moisturizer was your standard moisturizing cream.

Pros:

Free from parabens, sulphates, mineral oils, animal extracts
Catered towards sensitive skin and works well with combating oily skin
Vegan and vegetarian friendly
Great, light smelling scent

Cons:

May be hard to find at Shoppers Drug Mart; I searched some of my local stores online and they did not carry it
Products are a lot cheaper in UK than Canada
Amie website is a bit confusing to use, some products are missing descriptions

All in all, I really enjoyed all the Amie products and don’t really have anything negative to say about them. They are all definitely affordable, and the packaging is so cute. For the amount of natural ingredients each product has in them, and how gentle it is on skin, Amie products are definitely worth a try!

Check them out at Amie skincare or Shoppers Drug Mart!

-Carmen

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

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

Lush Herbalism cleanser review

July 29, 2014

I talked about this briefly in my June 2014 favourites post , but I have been loving this cleanser so much lately that I just decided to write a completely separate post! Back in May, I picked up this sample while I was at my local Lush store with a friend. Initially, I didn’t like this product at all but it grew on me.

I hated the texture of it, how I had to add water to the mixture before applying it on my face, and how messy it was to use! But after a week of putting up with the messiness, I noticed that my skin tone improved and I wasn’t as oily if I used this product the day before. After carefully rationing my sample so that I could maximize the use (LOL we’re all guilty of that, don’t even lie! haha) and careful consideration (sadly I don’t make much money at my part time job and I’m on a student budget), I decided to purchase the full size a month later.
I believe I bought the 100 g pot, which was $14. I’m used to buying drug store cleansers, so this was pricier than I was used to. But since I tried it before, I knew that it would be worth the price!
**Read more: Lush Cosmetic Warrior fresh face mask **
The texture of the cleanser was something I have not seen before. I took a closeup, because I’m not too sure how to describe it. It is a bit moist and flaky, and a tad bit grainy. I read on another review that you aren’t supposed to get this cleanser wet, or it can start to go bad since it contains natural ingredients.

However, I got my sample size pot wet by accident and I haven’t seen it go bad yet (had it for a bit over 2 months now).
Ingredients (as listed on site): Ground Almonds, Kaolin , Glycerine ,Chlorophyllin Water (Aqua) , Nettle, Rosemary, Rice Vinegar Extract, Rice Bran, Gardenia Extract, Rose Absolute,Chamomile Oil, Sage Oil, Fragrance | After reading the ingredients, it makes sense why there is a grainy texture to the cleanser- probably the ground almonds and/or rice bran. I love being able to read the ingredients list and know exactly what most of the ingredients are /how it is derived.

Steps: As mentioned above, I initially hated the cleansing process with this cleanser. It comes in a moist-ish type of packed clay tub.
Step 1: Take a pea sized amount with your fingers, and put it in your palm.
Step 2: Take a dab of water and gently drop it into the cleanser, so that it resembles a traditional cleanser. This part can be a bit messy, so be sure to do it over the sink. Then, you transfer the mixture onto your skin and wash. Applying this onto your face can be messy too, as the watery liquid can possibly run down your arm or neck/ aka everywhere it was not meant to be.

Pros:
-Keeps skin oil free, does not over dry
-Controls breakouts really well; I use this more often when I feel my skin breaking out and it usually does a great job in combatting the breakouts or making them not as bad
-Leaves skin feeling very soft and smooth (it is a gentle exfoliant as well)
-I would recommend this if you have oily, acne-prone skin

Cons:
-Messy!!!
-May be hard to adjust to at first
-Pricier than drugstore cleansers
-Since it is made with natural ingredients, they suggest finishing the tub within three months of purchase incase they go bad
-Unpleasant, herbal, earthy smell

Thanks for reading! Leave me a comment and tell me what you think about this product!
-Carmen