Category Archives: Reviews

Inglot (re)Opens in Toronto

October 22, 2014Makeup, ReviewsINGLOTChelle

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At long last! Toronto is finally seeing the return of Inglot! Beauty lovers can finally get their hands on Inglot‘s huge range of colours and products.

Seriously doesn’t this just feel slightly pornographic? No? Just me then?

You’ll notice I say re-opened. Inglot actually had a few locations in Toronto several years ago but the company never really got off the ground in this city. It turns out that Inglot, although primarily owned and operated in Poland, does actually operate their external locations as a franchise.

I had the good fortune to speak to Toronto’s store manager Jason, and he kindly gave me the latest information on Toronto’s fresh new Inglot store that opened on September 20, 2014. The shop is in an absolutely phenomenal location (19 Dundas Square), so much so that they had to beat out some seriously prominent franchises (Starbucks!) from that particular retail location. Being right beside the Eaton Centre will potentially bring in a lot of shoppers and tourists into the store since the square has good visibility.

The Toronto location has now become the only Inglot location in all of Canada since the Montreal location closed down a few months ago. There are plans to open more Toronto locations in the future, but right now they need to make sure that the one at Dundas Square gets off to a solid start.

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Jason said that they were surprised with how quickly some of their products were selling out. Their red gel liner has turned out to be super popular and they’re already having to order new product in. (It’s one of my personal favourites.) Their other best sellers have been their black gel liner (no brainer there!) and their breathable nail polishes.

One thing I was incredibly surprised to hear was that all of Inglot‘s products are fresh made. None of them are sitting in a warehouse anywhere waiting to be shipped to the store. When a store runs out of product, they need to order it in from Poland where the products are then made by the batch and shipped directly to the store that ordered it. On average, between production and shipping time, any new products that are put on a shelf in an Inglot store are actually fresh made within 7 days! I was particularly impressed to hear this since it means you’re unlikely to get stale products.

The shop is well-lit and airy. It’s a giant playroom for makeup junkies with huge windows and makeup laid out like finger paints. Inglot has always had a store layout that has made me salivate. I’m glad that I no longer need to pick up my much-beloved cosmetics while on vacation in other countries (so far the list stands at the US, England and Ireland!) and can walk the ten minutes to this shop to pick up my goodies.

I’m mostly well-versed in their eyeshadows and gel liners. These are products that I keep coming back to and will continue to keep snapping up. Inglot is wonderful for having some completely unique colours in not only shimmery formats (which everyone seems to have) but also in a matte formula! It’s really nice to be able to pick up vibrant matte shades that aren’t just neutral.

I hope the eye candy was enough to give you the urge to check out Inglot when you get a chance. Aside from visiting their physical location, you can check them out on the following platforms:

Softlips CUBES – Review + Giveaway

September 19, 2014Makeup, ReviewsSoftlipsChelle

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I’ve been aware of Softlips for a long time – my best friend in high school used them religiously. She loved the shape of the slim lip balm stick and how it felt slathered on her lips. I wasn’t a huge lip product person back then, if anything I wore whatever no-name brand chapstick my grandmother happened to give me in my Christmas stocking (FYI, wrote that out as STALKING first).

So when Softlips e-mailed me and offered to send me their brand new CUBE product, a totally different shape from their slim lip line, I was intrigued. The CUBE can’t help but share a striking resemblance to eos‘ rounded lip balm spheres. Having tried the eos balms a few years back, I have to say I wasn’t impressed. They were waxy and unpleasant smelling, to the point where I actually returned one of their lipbalms to Shoppers Drugmart. (I think I’m just about the only person that feels this way.)

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All that to say, I was curious to see if Softlips would be better, equal, or worse to the eos balms. And I have to say, I’m hugely impressed. Unlike their spherical counterparts, these balms don’t leave me with a nasty residue on my lips. The taste and feel is really wonderful, and when I apply them before bed, I’ll wake up the next morning and still find a thin layer of the product on my lips.

The Vanilla Bean flavour is by far my favourite out of the two I received. Vanilla-scented anything is something I really love, and this product does not disappoint! I’ve found myself reaching for this over my other lip balms just because it’s so easy to use.

If fruity-scented items is more your style, you may be more interested in the Berry Bliss option. It’s not to my personal tastes, but I’ve had a few friends sniff it and say they quite liked the scent.

Thankfully, these balms are clear. They don’t leave a white-cast to your lips that can occasionally occur with other brands (*ahem* Nivea), so you don’t need to worry about putting this on in public without a mirror. There’s also a lot to be said for the cute, rounded shape of the balm – it makes application easy, and the shape of the product is pretty interesting enough to feel like you’re using something unique.

Final verdict? I approve. These may not fit into your pocket like a traditional lip balm would, but the flavours are really quite appealing. If you’ve tried these, I’d be interested to hear your opinions on them!

Softlips Giveaway!

Softlips was kind enough to sponsor a giveaway to my readers. Please see below for details!

One lucky winner will win a $50 CAD giveaway prize including:

1 Softlips CUBE lip moisturizer in Berry Bliss
1 Softlips CUBE lip moisturizer in Vanilla Bean
1 Clutch Purse with zipper chain wristlet
1 Purse Mirror

Details

Open to residents of Canada (you must have a Canadian address that we can ship to).
Giveaway runs from September 19th until October 3rd.
Winner will receive a $50 prize pack, no purchase necessary.
Be aware that all entries will be double checked to ensure fairness.

The products featured in this review were sent to me for consideration.

Ipsy – August 2014 Glam Bag

August 20, 2014Hauls, Makeup, ReviewsAbsolute!, Coastal Scents, Dr. Brandt, Ipsy, Lord & Berry, Urban DecayChelle

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Everyone’s already talked about how the bag of the month looks like a deflated beach ball… So now that I’ve stolen everyone elses’ much smarter observation than my own, let’s move on to the contents of the actual bag!

The theme was back to school, but as with all Ipsy bags, the theme never really seems to make any sense. I mean it’s all makeup at the end of the day… we wear this stuff year ’round!

The big hitting product this month was Urban Decay‘s brand new Perversion mascara. People were absolutely freaking out over the size of this sample on the Ipsy threads, but when I go back and compare it to previous deluxe size samples of mascara I’ve received through Ipsy before, it’s near identical in volume. Most deluxe size samples are between 0.1 and 0.2 fluid ounces (this one is 0.1 fluid ounce). There is nothing wrong with this sample – heck you can even tell they stuffed the tube because the darn thing makes a squelching sound every time I open it. If anything, I think UD just really knew how to package this sucker.

ANYWAY. On to the actual mascara. Plain and simple: I love it. It has a natural, “normal” brush and it coats my lashes wonderfully. It’s smooth, thick and wetter than most mascara formulas, which is something I like in particular. This one is a winner, and I may very well buy the full size when I finish this one.

Dr. Brandt – Pores No More pore refiner primer

I had amazing results with Dr. Brandt‘s microdermabrasion scrub, but unfortunately a primer just isn’t necessary for me. It smells heavily of tea tree oil, which is really nice (if you like the scent, of course!). It has a silicone feel on the skin, which I quite like, but I couldn’t tell you if this does what it’s supposed to do because I never notice a difference with my foundation whether I use primer or not.

LORD & BERRY Black SILK mini kajal kohl liner

This is a black liner that does absolutely nothing. There’s nothing remotely enticing about this product. Lord & Berry say it’s a kohl kajal, but the damn thing is so stiff that it’s hard to get colour pay off (as you can see in my eye shot above). It was difficult to even get that much on my lid. I tried tightlining with it and I swear it smudged off within 30 seconds. I’ve no use for this liner at all.

This one wigs me out. Absolute‘s You’re The Balm in Grape looks, feels and smells like a very cheap product. It’s a relatively clear, gelatinous balm with multicoloured sparkles mixed in. Normally the glitter would fill me with glee, but since it goes on the lips rather gritty, I really just feel like I’m wearing a Wet n Wild sparkly balm from the 90s. I’ve only tried it once and was too disgusted to try it again. It’s sitting in a corner on my makeup desk, waiting for the moment that I gather the courage to try it again…

These Coastal Scents blushes aren’t too bad actually. The pans are really tiny and I made the mistake of accidentally cracking the product on one of them while trying to get it out of the plastic packaging. It can be a bit difficult to get your blush brush into these products though since the pans are so bloody small. The colours, however, go on my cheeks rather nicely and have lasted throughout and entire work day, so that’s a huge bonus for a relatively inexpensive products.

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Ipsy August 2014 Breakdown (all prices in USD)

Urban Decay Perversion mascara (0.1 fl oz @ $5.50, full size is $22 for 0.4 oz)
Dr. Brandt Pores No More pore refiner primer (0.25 fl oz @ $11.25, full size is $45 for 1 fl oz)
Absolute You’re the Balm Lip Balm in Grape ($2.99, full size)
Coastal Scents Forever Blush Sample Duo (2.5g @ $2, full size is $7.95 for 10g)
Lord & Berry Black SILK Kajal Kohl-Liner (0.6g @ $7.50, full size is $15 for… double the size? – just a guess, I can’t find sizing info anywhere)

BAG VALUE = $29.24

My Thoughts

Kalyn basically summed up my thoughts in her own post on this month’s Ipsy bag, but in essence… aside from the mascara, this bag bored me. After such an amazing last month, this bag was just an absolute downer. It was so offputting that I’m considering whether or not want to stay subscribed to Ipsy. I think I’m at this point where I’m realizing that some of this is really just unnecessary products that I use, but never really fall in love with. I’ll see how next month goes and then make a solid decision.

Ipsy – July 2014 Glam Bag

July 16, 2014Hauls, Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesbareMinerals, Elizabeth Mott, Ipsy, Marrakesh, Pür Minerals, purlisseChelle

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I’m going to blow the surprise right here, right now.

This bag was amazing. Hands down the best one I’ve had yet. There isn’t a single product in here I won’t use (aside from that hideous, HIDEOUS pink froofy makeup bag that everything came in) and every single one of the products performed way, WAY beyond my expectations. Here’s what I got:

bareMinerals READY eyeshadow 2.0 in The Inspiration

The most exciting product to me was the bareMinerals eyeshadow duo in The Inspiration in a baby-sized palette. The light pink shade is Muse and the purple shade, which has some lovely gold sparkle in it, is Passion. Having never tried any bareMinerals products before, I was super pumped to try these out. And man oh man, did they ever live up to their hype. These went on my eyelids like a dream and the colours were perfect combination to stick in a duo together. After the amazingness of this duo, I will *definitely* be looking into more bareMineralsproducts in the near future.

*GASP* I love this product so much. I’ve always oogled Benefit‘s lip and cheek tints, but never took the plunge, so I was downright squealing when I got the Elizabeth Mott version of it in my bag. And this product seems to work equally well on both my lips and my cheeks. I believe Cherry is their own colour so far, and it’s a stunner. It smells faintly of cherries, but not that horrific cough medicine scent that I usually associate with artificial cherry scented things.

Elizabeth Mott Tints & Sass in Cherry on the cheeks

Much to my surprise, this lasted throughout the entire work day on my cheeks. The colour is just the colour I want for summer too – slightly pinky-red, so it looks like I’ve been running around and got slightly sunburned. I will say that it seems to eat a bit at my foundation since it’s a liquid product, so be aware when you’re applying not to be too rigorous with your blending. (I blended it in with a Real Techniques Expert Face brush.)

Elizabeth Mott Tints & Sass in Cherry on the lips

On my lips it comes out slightly more pink, but still… *amazing*! The colour is beautiful and settled onto my lips beautifully. It’s slightly drying, but that’s to be expected of a stain. It does look rather natural, as most stains do on me, so I find this really easy to wear.

I’m so pleased that this worked out so well on both areas it’s supposed to work on. Usually you hear about dual-location stains as really only being any good for one area, not for both.

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Another winner! I wasn’t expecting to like this (never mind love it) after the disaster that was the Be A Bombshell mascara from last month. Pur Minerals is a brand I’ve seen often at Shoppers Drug Mart, but never really looked into their products in depth.

First off, the brush wasn’t something I thought I’d enjoy. It’s bulky, rubberized and the mascara kind of clumped around the wand. And then I put it on my lashes and I shut right the hell up with my complaints. This sweeps on easily and coats all my lashes. It lengthens them. Thickens them. And from some angles I look like I’m wearing false lashes. AND it’s truly waterproof. Getting this off was hard work, but I appreciate that because when I need something to be waterproof, I need it to not. freaking. budge. And this definitely did not budge. No flakes throughout the day either, which is something I’m prone to. When I run out of this, and finish up all the other mascaras I have kicking around, I will definitely look into picking this up. (Side note: The top of the packaging has that bubbled on wet look that MAC just made famous with their Alluring Aquatics summer collection this year. Just thought that was really neat!)

Pur~lisse Pur~Protect Essential Daily Moisturizer

This product confuses me. It’s labelled on some sites as a moisturizer and as a sunscreen on others. Pur~lisse‘s Pur~Protect smells heavily of sunscreen (it does have 30 spf after all), so I feel like I’d use it more as a sunscreen than a moisturizer. However, I did use it as my only moisturizer under foundation yesterday and my face didn’t feel especially dry. I’m always happy to receive sunscreens, particularly ones for the face, so even if I don’t use it as a moisturizer I’m still happy with it. (Plus, this is an expensive product on its own in the full size tube.)

Marrakesh Endz is an argan and hemp oil therapy (but really, it’s a cream product) split end mender and preventer. I don’t truly believe that it can mend split ends (hair is dead after all, and if it’s split at the ends it’s sure as hell not going to re-grow back together again), but I do think it can help my split ends “feel” better.

At the moment I have some really “crackly” ends to my hair. I only get a haircut about once a year and something happened to my hair about two years ago that made it go really crispy (wish I knew what the heck it was). Most of the crispy-ness has thankfully grown out by now, but the last inch or two of my hair still has this horrible straw-like texture to it that I really need to get cut off. All that to say… this stuff actually helped make the ends feel better. Less crunchy, as it were. I think it’s a purely artificial feeling, but hey, I’m not complaining!

The smell isn’t bad either. It’s quite pleasant – the usual argan smell mixed with… cinnamon maybe?

Ipsy July 2014 Breakdown (all prices in USD)

bareMinerals READY Eyeshadow 2.0 in The Inspiration ($7.40 for 1g , full size is $20 for 2.7g)
Elizabeth Mott Tints & Sass in Cherry (full size, $22.99)
pur~lisse pur~protect essential daily moisturizer with 30 spf ($13.63 for 15ml, full size is $55 for 50ml)
Marrakesh Hair Care – Endz (smaller bottle size, $5.99)
Pür Minerals Big Look Waterproof Mascara ($13.60 for 3.4g, full size is $20 for 5g)

BAG TOTAL = $63.61

My Thoughts

This was the highest value bag from Ipsy so far, and the only one I’ve had to break $60 worth in goodies. As I said at the start, this one was an absolute winner of a bag. Get any of the products if they look like they’re up your alley and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

Ipsy – June 2014 Glam Bag

June 16, 2014Hauls, Makeup, ReviewsBe A Bombshell, Ipsy, Laneige, Marc Anthony, Nicka K, NYXChelle

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This month’s bag had its ups and downs for me. Let’s dig in and see what I got sent in my bag this month.

Laneige – BB Cushion SPF in three foundation shades

This was a really interesting product. I’ve never heard of anything like Laneige‘s BB Cushion. The package itself comes with three shades of foundation (Light, Medium and Dark) as well as a sponge pad (that I only realized was a puff after I had applied this stuff to my face with one of my brushes). The product is essentially a bb foundation with SPF pre-soaked into a sponge. I wasn’t really sure how to use it, so I ended up stabbing my brush into the sponge to pick up the product. This worked, but it also pushed a lot of the product to the bottom of the little sample. (Which isn’t a problem, I just pulled the sponge out and swiped at the bottom to get more product.) I got two uses out of this sample (I used the Light shade, which was a hair or two too pale for me right now but it wasn’t super obvious). I used it, and it was pleasant to apply, but I don’t really feel like it did a whole heck of a lot. It seems to have evened out my freckles a bit, but the coverage isn’t spectacular so I’d honestly just prefer no foundation to wearing something so light. Worth noting though… this stuff smells really, really good!

Left – no foundation. Right – Laneige BB Cushion in Light

So this is basically a salt spray for your hair to encourage beachy waves/curls to stay in your hair. My hair has a bit of body to it if it’s left to air dry, so I had hoped this would hold some of the waves in place. Marc Anthony‘s Dream Waves Beach Spray smells like coconuts, so basically it smells like every other beach-y hair product out there. It sort of worked to make my hair piece-y (see below), but despite my hand scrunching while my hair dried, it really never held in full on waves. In fact, the ends of my hair look especially ratty and when my hair had dried, the ends felt completely crunchy and stiff. Not a huge fan of that. It might be fine to actually use on the beach after getting out of the water (or at the pool), but for someone who had just gotten out of the shower, this was a very quick way to make my hair feel dirty again. So I wasn’t overly pleased about that!

Left – Damp hair with the spray in. Right – air dried hair with the spray in.

This product is amazing! Nicka K is a brand I’m completely unfamiliar with, but this liquid eyeliner was simply stunning. I received their shimmer eyeliner in Green and this was budge proof and waterproof. Even moreso than the MUFE Aqualiner I have. I couldn’t believe how much I had to rub at this to even remove any kind of colour off my hand. It also held up all throughout a workday. Highly, HIGHLY recommend this liner.

I have nothing good to say about this one so I’ll just be specific with my negativity. Be A Bombshell’s mascara is garbage. I hate the brush – it makes it hard to deposit product onto my lashes. My brush was bent oddly which didn’t help either. It clumped up awkwardly on my lashes, particularly in the outer corners making it look patchy. And the products actually smells really, really bad. This is going straight in the garbage.

NYX‘s butter glosses are my absolute favourite glosses, so I love that they sent these out in the bags. They’re creamy, non-tacky, and come in some absolutely wonderful colours. Unfortunately, I already own this particular shade (Apple Strudel) so I’ve really got no use for this one. So for that reason I’m giving this one away! It’s completely unused and unopened (the shots above were done using my own one) and I will mail it to you anywhere in the world if you win. Contest open till June 30th @ 8:00 a.m..

Ipsy June 2014 Breakdown (all prices in USD)

Laneige BB Cushion SPF 50 (full size is $34 for 0.5 oz, it was really hard to judge the size of this product, but I got two uses out of the one small packet and there are two additional shades, so I’m going to go with $5 overall value since I have no real idea as to how long a full size of this product would last)

Marc Anthony Dream Waves Beach Spray (1.52 oz @ $3.18, full size is $8.79 for 4.2 oz)

Nicka K Shimmer Eyeliner in Green ($4.99, full size)

Be A Bombshell Lash Out mascara in Intense Black ($15, full size)

NYX Butter Gloss in Apple Strudel ($5, full size)

BAG TOTAL = $33.17

My Thoughts

This bag was kind of a bust for me. The BB Cushion product was interesting, but in the end kind of useless. The Beach Spray really didn’t do much other than make my hair kind of crunchy, although I’ve only tried it once and will definitely try using it in different ways. The mascara is just flat out awful and going straight into the garbage (I can’t even begin to believe that it’s worth the $15 full price they charge on their site). The NYX butter gloss is excellent, but of course I already own it. The real winner out of this group is the shimmery green eyeliner. For such an inexpensive product I cannot believe how well this one works.