Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Empties – November 2014 through January 2015

February 6, 2015Empties, MiscellaneousAveeno, Benefit, Chella, Dr. Brandt, essence, Estee Lauder, Fortune Cookie Soap, MAC, Make Up For Ever, Neutrogena, Olay, Real Techniques, Revlon, The Body Shop, Urban Decay, VaselineChelle

Garbage time!

Having never used a brow gel, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But uh… it’s really just gel.. for your brows. Revolutionary. I don’t have unruly brows (hell, I barely have brows at all) so this was essentially pointless on me. I used up the Chella Eyebrow Defining Gel and it was perfectly adequate, but I doubt I’m the best test subject for this kind of product.

Purchase? Nah.

This was super disappointing. Make Up For Ever‘s Aqua Liner in 13 Black was super shiny which caused it to collect eyeshadow from the rest of my lid. It picked up pigment from the eyeshadow on my lid. It was beyond infuriating and drove me absolutely mental. Never again will I buy a shiny liquid liner. Ugh.

Repurchase? GOD NO

MAC‘s Prep + Prime for lips – a must have for me. I finish one of these every 3-6 months because I wear it whenever I wear lipstick. It holds my lip product in place and prevents bleeding outside my lip line that not even lip liner can stop. Must have!

Repurchase? Already have two more open! One at work and one at home.

Real Techniques‘ Miracle Complexion Sponge is my preferred way to apply foundation. I can barely stand to use brushes now because this thing is so amazing. I’d actually been using this one since March of last year and was worried that perhaps it had gone mouldy in the middle (since I’d heard some people complain that had that happen with their Beauty Blenders) despite regular washings. So I cut it open one day and low and behold, it’s perfectly fine. So if you clean your sponges regularly enough, I wouldn’t worry too much about it going rotten on the inside, even if you’ve been using it for about 9 months.

Repurchase? Already have! I picked one up at IMATS 2014.

I’ve had MAC‘s Lip Conditioner in Petting Pink for quite a while before I finally used it up. It was a bit goopy and never really stayed on my lips that long. I didn’t find it actually moisturized all that much since it wore off so fast.

Repurchase? Nah. Pass.

essence Get BIG! Lashes, Benefit They’re Real!, Estee Lauder Sumptuous Infinite, Urban Decay Perversion

essence Get Big! Lashes (pr sample) – Great product, but I never really fell in love with it for whatever reason. The curve of the brush made it easy to apply to my lashes and it definitely made them quite black.
Purchase? Nah.

Benefit They’re Real – I love this mascara! It makes my lashes look enormous since the volume it builds is incredible. HOWEVER, this stuff dries up way too fast. For a thirty dollar mascara I’m pretty pissed off that it’s near un-useable after a month and a half. BUT for that month and a half, my lashes looked amazing.
Repurchase? On the fence.

Estee Lauder Sumptuous Infinite (sample size) – This one surprised me. I was expecting an old style bristle brush, but it was actually a rubberized wand with really nicely spaced out bristles. It applied mascara evenly and separated my lashes perfectly.
Purchase? Maybe. I’m put off by the price of high end mascaras, but I really did love this one.

Urban Decay Perversion (sample size) – Another amazing one! Not as separating as some mascaras, but the volume on this was one was especially nice. This one small sample size actually lasted me a really long time (longer than the Benefit one!)
Purchase? Same as the Estee Lauder one. Nice to use, but damn that price is really a put off.

Revlon Colorstay Top Coat was… a top coat. Man, I don’t notice any difference with top coats really. Like what’s the difference between a top coat and a clear nail polish? I sure as hell don’t notice one!

Repurchase? Nope.

A well loved eye makeup remover, but not my favourite as I prefer oil-based removers.

Repurchase? Nah, gone back to my favourite Marcelle one.

This was interesting. I’m not a big fan of primers, so I’m mostly trying to finish up what small samples I have to get them out of my collection. However, Dr. Brandt‘s Pores No More primer was a lot of fun to use. It smells like tea tree oil (and was therefore quite refreshing on my skin) and smoothed on my face like butter. It’s tinted slightly darker than my own skin colour (roughly MAC NW20), so it helped darken up some of my lighter foundations. I have no need for a primer, but this was fun to try out nonetheless.

Purchase? Nah.

Olay Fresh Effects – Bead Me Up and Shine, Shine, Go Away

Olay Bead Me Up! Exfoliating Cleanser – Totally sucked in by the awesome packaging on these. The scrub is nice, but not especially abrasive. Smelled nice, worked just fine.

Olay Shine, Shine, Go Away! Shine Minimizing Cleanser – Yeah, I’m not convinced this reduced any shine on my face at all. I did love the product though – it was a cool grey colour and smelled really fresh.

Repurchase? Maybe (to both). I don’t have sensitive skin so I like trying out new products all the time, but I’m sure I’ll eventually repurchase these.

Aveeno Skin Relief Body Wash – I *love* the smell of this. To me it smells intoxicatingly like almonds and cherries (not the cough medicine kind of cherry smell). It’s also gentle on the skin, especially during the winter months when my skin can feel dry and itchy.

Repurchase? This is probably my tenth bottle of this stuff, and I already have another one in the linen closet ready for use!

All of the Fortune Cookie Soap items are not going to be repurchased by me as they are primarily seasonal scents. Mini reviews below.

Personal Space Air Freshener in Flying Monkeys – This was no good at all. It would scent a room for about 10 seconds, then totally dissipated and it definitely didn’t take any bad smells with it.

Lip Scrub in Blow Me! – Delicious! Tasted like bazooka gum with a bit of Fun Dip. Did its job and was fun to use.

Deep Conditioner in Christmas Bonus – This was WONDERFUL. The pepperminty, white chocolate scent was amazing and it made my hair feel fantastic.

Whipped Cream in Wicked, Good – Lovely, but a bit too much of the rich pumpkin scent. The scent would’ve worked better as a candle.

Whipped Soap in Fried Pussycat – Smelled nice and was fun to use. Not sure it’s a cost effective way to make or use soap though.

Hair Oil in Hair Flip – I used this on the ends of my hair and while I didn’t notice a change in the quality of my ends, it sure did make my hair smell nice.

This was my “leave at work” moisturizer. I’ve bought Vaseline‘s Cocoa Radiant moisturizer many times over the years. It can be a bit greasy, but it’s because it’s so thick. Heavily moisturizing and smells great.

Repurchase? Definitely.

The Body Shop Frosted Cranberry Shower Gel

You really can’t go wrong with The Body Shop‘s shower gels. This one in Frosted Cranberry smells like a fruity alcoholic drink. It was a small size (it was in my Christmas stocking), but it gave me about 5-10 uses out of it.

Finally! /throws out the garbage

The Makeup Addict Tag

February 4, 2015Miscellaneous, TagsChelle

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I was reading Jenn’s blog, A Beautiful Zen, last week and she posted a fun tag that I wanted to dive head first into. So here’s a peek into my addiction!

1. Which product do you still keep buying more of despite having plenty in your collection?

Eyeshadow. I’ve managed to curtail myself on blush as I’ve finally realized that no matter what the shade of blush is, there’s only so much you apply to your skin, so therefore a zillion shades of blush make zero sense since most of them end up looking the same anyway just due to the sheer wash that’s generally applied to the cheeks. HOWEVER, there’s nothing stopping me on eyeshadow. I will not stop till I have every shade and every finish of every single colour out there!

The bulk of my palettes… They’ve long outgrown their home.

2. What’s the one product you can’t live without?

I feel like it’s what everyone says, but mascara. Mascara’s the one thing I feel really amps up my apperance.

3. Favorite makeup brand?

I have two, for a variety of reasons.

The first one is Makeup Geek because I cannot believe what this woman has managed to achieve. Her eyeshadows are of unbelievable quality and I can’t wait to see the rest of her line.

That being said, since MUG doesn’t have a full line up of products out there, I feel the need to name another brand that does. And for me, my favourite all encompassing brand is currently Too Faced. They’ve knocked it out of the park this past year with their lipstick revamp and their Melted lipsticks. I’m also madly in love with a lot of their palettes, so they’re definitely taking the cake for me lately.

4. How big is your makeup collection?

How exactly do you define “big” anyway? I have more than anyone really needs (or even wants at times) but it’s my passion and everyone spends their money on SOMETHING important to them! So it’s large, but it’s not enormous. Yet.

5. And how do you store it?

I received a table from two friends who were no longer using it in their apartment. It has two drawers in it which store the bulk of my face products. I also use shelving that’s been drilled into the wall.

The drawers house my highlighters, bronzers, blushes, pigments, lashes and any other random things I haven’t got the space for on top of the desk.

6. How many items of makeup have you got in your handbag at the moment?

Zero, because I don’t carry a purse.

7. If you could raid another blogger’s stash, who would it be?

Something tells me Jen’s (Scarlet Beauty) stash is going to be amazing to see. (Seriously, just go visit her Instagram for daily makeup porn.)

I’d also love to see another Jen‘s stash because she keeps hauling things like Cle de Peau and Burberry!

And Kalyn‘s. Because she buys things in its entirety (NYX Wicked Lippies, NYX Macarons) and chooses colours I don’t normally gravitate towards.

8. How long does your usual makeup routine take and how many products do you use?

Since I go to work more often than not, I would say my usual routine takes about 30-45 minutes and I use about 12 products (2 eye bases, 4 eyeshadows, mascara, gel liner, brows, bronzer, blush, highlighter). If it’s on the weekend, all bets are off and I spend 60-90 minutes getting ready and probably use over 20+ products.

9. Have you ever bought makeup knowing you wouldn’t use it?

No, never. I use everything.

10. Tag a few other makeup addicts to do this tag!

I’m not sure how much everyone actually takes part in tags, but I’ll go with the following as I don’t think I’ve tagged them before:

Jen of Vibrant, Vivacious, Veracious Beauty Blog
Zoe of Writing Whimsy
Amy of New Key Beauty

January 2015 Favourites

February 2, 2015Favourites, MiscellaneousMAC, Too FacedChelle

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I feel like I spent most of January waiting for the days where we’d have more daylight. I’m traditionally someone who really enjoys days with very little light: I like leaving for work in the morning when it’s dark and I like coming home when the sun has already set (roughly 5ish in the winter here). However, since I have no artificial lighting source at home to take pictures for this blog, I’ve found myself longing for more sunlight in my days! It was only towards the end of the month that it became light enough outside shortly before I left for work and for a little time after I got home, so I’ve been able to start taking photos throughout the week again of my makeup.

All that to say… the lack of sunlight killed a lot of my drive to do much with my makeup throughout the bulk of the month. (Cuz if I can’t photograph it, what’s the point, right? ;)) So here’s the few favourites I had this month:

I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone talk about this pencil before. MAC‘s Phone Number eyeliner is a dark grey with some sense of shimmer to it. It’s not shimmery really, but I sure wouldn’t ever call it matte either. I’m not much of a pencil eyeliner person, but I’ve taken to using this on the outer half of my lower lash line and then patting some eyeshadow on top. It helps to lock in the eyeshadow and makes the colour appear a teensy bit deeper.

MAC‘s Club is in my Use Up 2015 pile, and it’s the one I’ve most enjoyed using. Club is a red-brown with green reflect to it. I sometimes struggle to get the green to show up, but it really depends on how the light hits the product (or what colours you pair it with). I’ve been using this shade in conjunction with…

Too Faced‘s Glamour Dust Glitter Pigment in Glampire. Together, these two shades have become my “get out the door NOW” look. I used to resort to really basic, boring neutrals when I had to get out the door fast, but this is the exact same number of products and a much more impactful look. Since Glampire has the same sort of tones as Club, just with MORE GLITTER, it makes this a foolproof look.

I essentially lifted this combination/idea from one of MakeupbyTiffanyD’s videos a long time ago. Of course, hers is more subtle and mine’s more like “let me just apply this glitter everywhere”.

So yeah, two shades, seems to match everything I wear AND it’s glittery. Really hard to go wrong there!

Has your January been exciting or boring? Have you tried out new things or resorted to old favourites? Tell me!

2014 Favourites

January 28, 2015Favourites, MiscellaneousAnastasia, Hourglass, Laura Mercier, Makeup Geek, NYC, Too FacedChelle

201501_2014favourites1

I’m sure you’re so over everyone’s 2014 yearly favourites by this point. WELL TOO BAD. Cuz now you’re getting mine. 🙂

2014 was the year I discovered Too Faced‘s Melted liquid lipstick. And it was love at first sight. I first started off with just Candy and Berry (pictured above), but when I realized how much I loved them, I just started to amass them ad nauseam. I had friends giving them to me, my husband, and of course, I picked some up myself. Out of all of them though, Melted Candy and Melted Berry are my absolute favourites. Candy looks like absolute neon insanity on my lips (which makes it AMAZING in my book) and Berry has been my winter alternative to a red lip this year. In fact, I actually lost my original Melted Candy(GYAHHHHHH) and went out and repurchased it immediately. If that doesn’t say “must have”, then I don’t know what does.

I mean, they’re long lasting, insane colour payoff and it dries down matte. What’s NOT to love? By the end of 2014 I ended up with eight of them in my collection. And I still. want. more.

So it seems like 2014 is actually just the year of Too Faced lip products. While I loved their entire La Creme line (it smells like sweet lemon, isn’t that unique?), my favourite shade was Coral Fire. I was told a few times that it could be an “every day shade” for me which surprised me since there’s a lot of colour packed into that tube. I love, love, LOVE this shade. I think Too Faced qualifies it as a red, but it really is a pink coral that looks fantastic on me during the warmer months.

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I realize this palette was limited edition from the holiday 2013 season, but too dang bad. I *loved* this thing. Laura Mercier‘s 2013 Artist Palette came out of left field and smacked me upside the head like a load of bricks. I’d never, ever used anything by Laura Mercier before and I was just astounded at how soft and blendable these shades are. There isn’t a single dud in this palette. I even took it on a true test of faith and travelled with it for over a week. The number of amazing looks I came up with this palette was amazing. And thatBamboo shade? It is EVERYTHING.

201501_2014favourites_lauramercier2013artistpalette_swatches

Once I got pissed off with my Physicians Formula Bronze Booster, I switched to this one by NYC. Fire Island Tan was used almost religiously for nine months straight… and that’s how little pan I’ve hit. It’s impressive for a drugstore item to have such ridiculous longevity, but as a makeup lover I’m kind of like “oh my god WHEN DOES IT END?!” The swatch photo is obviously quite a heavy application, and no one (I hope) would ever wear it that heavily on their face. While there is some orange to that shade, I never felt like I looked like a fake and bake kind of person.

My love for Makeup Geek shadows knows no bounds, but there are two shades that I went to repeatedly over the last year. Creme Brulee is a shade that finally taught me how to blend out other shades. It’s incredible how much adding a little bit of an orangey-brown in my crease works to soften up darker eyeshadow looks. I always thought it was a ridiculous step when I saw other people doing it, but when I finally tried it out myself I couldn’t believe how well it helped make eyeshadow looks look more professional.

The other shade that stole my heart was Bitten. Bitten is an incredibly reddened-purple shade. Of all of the shades in my Makeup Geek collection, this is my absolute favourite. I used this often in my crease and it worked well with lighter shades on the lid, or, my favourite, using a glitter on the lid and blending it out with Bitten. I also found that this paired beautifully with my Too Faced Melted Berry lipstick.

Alright, getting down to the wire here. A boring product, maybe, but Anastasia‘s Dipbrow Pomade in Blonde was a game changer for me. I’m quite fair and I have very little in the way of eyebrows. It’s not that I overpluck, it’s just that they’re NOT THERE. What little hairs that do grow where the tail of my eyebrow is supposed to be, well.. they’re really just pale blonde baby hairs.

So when I say I need help with my eyebrows, I mean it. If I don’t fill in and FINISH my eyebrows, I basically look ridiculous.

Here’s an example:

Like seriously… WHERE ARE MY EYEBROWS?

As you can see, if I don’t fill them in, I look like I’ve practically shaved them all off!

ANYWAY. What was my point? My point is that eyebrow pencils and eyeshadow never added enough texture. Because I don’t have much in the way of eyebrows too begin with, I needed something like the Dipbrow Pomade in order to actually create the illusion of texture to my brows. It was tricky figuring out how to use it at first, but when I did it was like a lightbulb went off. Now I too can have brows and not look like a fool!

I’ll never understand how the blush on the left, in all its coral deliciousness, ends up looking straight up pink on my skin (see the swatch), but whatever, it works. Hourglass’ Diffused Heat is my “I have no idea what matches my eye look” blush. I can reach for this one and know that it’ll look good on me no matter what. I realize the swatch makes it look like nothing special, but this powder looks rather radiant on my cheeks. While I was never sold on the Ambient Lighting Powders, the blushes are a completely different story and I’d encourage you to check them out. Even if the price point is a verging on insanity.

My best loved products of 2014 are products I’m still using today and I expect to continue loving through 2015. Now I just need to pick up all the news shades that Too Faced have added to their Melted line up…

Guest Post: Natalie’s 2015 Beauty Resolutions

January 21, 2015MiscellaneousChelle

Well, howdy friends! Nice to see you all again. In case you don’t remember me (how could you?!) I’m Natalie and I blog over at Ivory Avenue. I’m back again this month as part of the CBB Monthly Guest Posting, and this time I’ll be talking about my beauty resolutions for 2015.

I’ll be honest: beauty resolutions are tricky.

Clean makeup brushes monthly
I put this one first because I think it’s going to be the hardest one to stick to. I feel like we all feel that we’re terrible at cleaning our makeup brushes on a regular basis, but it’s seriously an issue. Do you know how much bacteria is in there? A gross amount. And then you put it on your face! Apparently even washing makeup brushes once a month is enough, so that’s my goal. I can totally do this, right?

Stick to a skincare routine
I’ve only recently even had a skincare routine, and I loved it! I loved the consistency and how great my skin felt. Unfortunately, I kind of fell off that bandwagon over the holidays as I was travelling and couldn’t bring all of my skincare with me. I really want to get back to a regular routine, and actually stick to it for longer than a month.

Use high end products more regularly
I don’t know if it’s just me, but I have a seriously hard time using up expensive makeup and beauty items. It’s so silly because obviously it’ll go bad eventually, but I just can’t get myself to use them on a regular basis. I think it’s because it’s such a treat to myself that using it often would make it less of a treat. Silly, right? Anyways – hopefully I’ll start using these products on a more regular basis and actually enjoy using them, not just staring at them.

Rotate makeup & be adventurous
I think we too often fall into a makeup rut. I too often grab the same lipstick or same blush, even though I have so many other options. I may start doing those 30 day challenges where you use a new lipstick or blush every day for 30 days to help. It makes me sad to think of the products I have that are going untouched and unloved!

Buy less makeup
Well, this is a hard one isn’t it? Zoe and I actually decided last October to do a no-buy for 2015. I have, unfortunately, already broken this. And yes, I’m going to justify it: Bourjois is so much cheaper in the UK, and it was buy one, get one 50% off! I only bought two things, but still, I broke the no-buy. I’m going to pretend that didn’t happen though, and continue on nonetheless. Even if I buy something here and there, it’ll be far less than I would normally have bought.

What are your beauty resolutions for the New Year?

Chelle’s Aside: Thanks for sharing your beauty resolutions for the year Natalie! When I saw that you listed clean your makeup brushes more regularly I was like “ughhhh why didn’t *I* think of that?” And I want to see all your ventures into trying out your entire collection!