Come with me, will you, while we rummage through my trash!

Quite an amped up product in the beauty community. I bought this bottle of Bioderma last year and expected miracles out of it. What I got was basically an overhyped makeup remover that didn’t work on waterproof cosmetics as far as I could see. I ended up using this to clean up makeup mistakes and occasionally to remove oil residue from my face (read: after I’d used my other oil based makeup remover to actually remove my makeup). It does work very well for removing lip products, but the taste of this product is so bitter that it made me not want to use it to remove lipstick. For what it did for me, it wasn’t worth the cost. It’s definitely not a bad product, but it just didn’t work as efficiently as my usual makeup remover (Marcelle  Eye Makeup Remover – oil based).

You might be asking why does this pencil look so jacked up, especially since it hasn’t been sharpened all the way down to the very nub. Well, the pencil itself is about two years old, and the last time I used it it was becoming harder and harder to apply to my eye. In my infinite wisdom I thought I’d McGyver the crap out of the pencil – melt it down into a little pot and then nuke it in the microwave to soften it up.

This is not what happened.

In the end I succeeded in burning my fingers and burning the product (the actual pencil caught on fire, I kid you not). By the time I got anything out of the pencil, after having smeared most of it on my hands, I had a very hard lump of burnt eyeliner sitting in a tub. By the time it had cooled, the product was so rock hard that I gave up hope and threw it out. Sigh.

That being said? MAC‘s Undercurrent eyeliner is the best eyeliner I have ever owned. It took 2 or more  years to dry out, but it was a beautiful colour that almost melted onto the lids when applied. The teal colour of the pencil was shot through with glitter that didn’t flake off. I will definitely buy this particular liner again.

I love this lipglass. This is the second tube of C-Thru I’ve finished. There was a bit left, but the scent had started to go off and I didn’t want to risk wearing it any longer. On me, it gives a bit of a milky texture to the lips. It definitely sinks into my liplines and does a nice job of blanking out my lips – I’m aware this sounds utterly unappealing, but I really do like the pale look it gives my lips, particularly when I’m wearing a very intense dark eyeshadow look.

This stuff is AMAZING. I was continually having problems with lipsticks bleeding outside my lip line no matter what I did. Liner, blotting, powder blotting, lip liner brush, edging my lip line with concealer… you name it, I tried it. Frustrated, I finally asked someone at MAC for help and they pointed me towards their Prep + Prime for Lips. I was very skeptical, but I used it with Russian Red the next day and it didn’t budge. I now use it every time I wear lipstick and will never be without it!

As a tip, when I apply this, I apply it not only to my lips, but also slightly outside my lipline so that I fill in any fine lines around my lips that I may have. I also make sure to wait until the product feels tacky on my lips (about 60 seconds after application) and then I apply my lip colour. I find this works a lot better than applying lipstick right after I’ve applied the primer as it hasn’t been given a chance to go tacky yet.

I’m trying to think what I actually feel about this product and I’m kind of stumped. MAC Fix+ is okay, but it’s not amazing (I’m sure some people are shaking their heads sadly at me right now). I normally spritzed this on my face after I’d applied all my makeup to “soften things up”. Did it work? Maybe. But it also could make my skin look a little too dewy. I also used it to apply mineral eyeshadows or pigments and it will definitely intensify the colour of the shadows… but water does the exact same thing. A lot of people swear by this, but I personally haven’t repurchased it again.

Despite being into makeup as far back as I can remember, I had never used an eyeshadow primer until roughly 4 years ago. I couldn’t believe what I was missing out on! Suddenly my eyeshadow was no longer creasing by mid-day! Urban Decay’s Primer Potion was the first one I bought and still the only one I’ve used that I like. (I gave a MAC Paint Pot a shot, but that sucker creased on me pretty quickly.) I am curious to try out Too Faced‘s version, but I’ve been so happy with UD that I’ve been hesitant to even try. The tube above was probably my fourth tube and I already have another one already opened in my collection. For anyone interested, if I apply makeup 5-6 times a week, the tube will last me an entire year!

I had an odd relationship with this foundation. At first I hated Revlon Colorstay. It smelled like paint thinner, it felt awkward on my face (although it must be said that when I bought this, it was one of the first foundations I ever owned, so I was not accustomed to wearing foundation frequently) and I wasn’t really sure it was the right colour for my skin. And I’m still not sure it’s the right shade, but no one’s ever said to me it looked odd on my face. I eventually started to experiment with other foundations and stopped using this one… until I realized I still had a lot left in the bottle and I had better get to finishing it.

And suddenly, it was like the product was completely transformed. I suddenly LOVED Colorstay! The shade 220 Natural Beige was definitely not dark enough for the summer months on my tanned skin, but it was good for late spring and early fall as my tan started to fade. I loved the texture on my skin and I loved that it would hold up throughout an entire day. Compared to the other foundations I had started to experiment with, this was like pure gold!

I’ve since bought a lighter shade for the winter months but I’m not quite pale enough for it yet.

This Whipped Creme foundation on the other hand, vexed me. First of all, why is THIS foundation called “220 Nude” whereas the one I just finished above, the liquid version, is called 220 Natural Beige. WHY DOES THE SAME NUMBER HAVE A DIFFERENT SHADE NAME? And there *is* a Natural Beige in the Whipped Creme formula, but it’s number 240! It doesn’t make any sense and it’s just confusing for consumers.

I bought 220 Nude last year while visiting a friend (and attending her wedding!) in the US before the product was commercially available in Canada. After much internet research, I settled on this particular shade because I thought it was lighter than 220 – Natural Beige (in the normal liquid version of Colorstay). In the end, I think it’s actually a tad darker and I ended up wearing it throughout the summer. I’m not even sure why I bothered to finish the product, as I didn’t particularly enjoy it although it did have good lasting power. It just didn’t compared to the liquid version I loved so much I suppose. I’m glad I tried it, but I won’t be getting it again.

The sticker is gone from the product as I intended to reuse the jar for something else before I thought to throw it in my “Empties” bin, but this is L’Oreal‘s Magic Perfecting Base. It’s not exactly a primer, as it doesn’t actually say it is, but it is supposed to facilitating foundation application. This is one of those products where I really have to wonder if it actually helped with my application. Overall, I’d say no, BUT I did find that it seems to do a pretty good job of smoothing out my pores. I would apply it with my fingertips and smooth it over my skin and it really did feel nice to apply it. That being said, it’s an expensive product and it didn’t do enough to my skin to warrant repurchasing.

I *loved* this product. Physicians Formula Happy Booster Bronzer in Light was absolutely fantastic on my skin. It was a light tan shade with a slight (VERY slight) silver glow to it and it smelled of lavender. Since all of my other bronzers with shimmer in them are a decidedly golden shimmer, this felt very unique to me. I’m browsing Physicians Formula’s site right now and it doesn’t look like they carry this product anymore. 🙁

I received this as freebie from my mother who didn’t like it that much. I tried it once, twice, and then emptied the thing out of the container so I can return it to Lush later (for a free face mask). A Million Kisses tastes absolutely awful to me. The colour it gives the lips is quite pretty and I wish I could get over the scent/taste, but I can’t, and there’s no way I was going to ever finish that little tub.

This is my second tube of B&BW‘s Warm Vanilla Sugar in the Triple Moisture Body Cream version. I prefer this over the regular lotion that comes in a different bottle as that one feels too liquidy to me. This cream is thick and smooths into the skin nicely. The scent also has pretty good lasting power, so if you put clothes on right after you’ve applied this product, be aware that it will linger for quite a while – probably into the next day! Will definitely repurchase this at some point.

For me, this is a much better choice when compared to Lush‘s Honey I Washed The Kidssoap. It’s the exact same scent, but It’s Raining Men lasts a lot longer than that bar of soap does. I originally bought this smaller 250ml bottle so I could test it out and see how I feel about it. Well, the verdict is in, because the 500ml bottle is sitting in my shower caddy!

This bottle doesn’t look empty, but it has about a third of it left and it’s gone really clumpy and hard to apply. It’s Alive is a polish from China Glaze‘s Halloween 2011 collection and it was absolutely stunning. It would go on smoothly and the chunks of glitter were absolutely gorgeous. It’s a shame the product eventually clumped up, I would’ve like to have kept this another year!

It’s no secret – I always wear glitter nail polish on my toes. I prefer silver, or rainbow/disco ball glitter, and have been doing so since my mid-teens. I don’t stick to a particular brand, but I did end up with three bottles of this Crush brand one (bought it at a Boathouse store, I’ve never seen the brand anywhere else) and this is the last of the bunch. The bottle is actually completely used up, even if it doesn’t appear that way. Since I have no brand loyalty for glitter polish, I probably wouldn’t repurchase again just so I could try something new.

Not much to say about this other than that this is probably the 15th bottle I’ve owned. I buy Aveeno cleansers on a regular basis (any of them, they’re all excellent) and will continue to do so. They’re gentle on the skin and they smell nice. Winner.

I’ve seen people go on and on about these Simple Cleansing Facial Wipes as if they were the second coming. My verdict? They work and they don’t smell offensive. Are they my favouritest ones ever?!?! No, but I would repurchase them if they were on sale.

I actually have a bone to pick with this TRESemme heat protectant:

It weighs my hair down.

It doesn’t matter how much or how little I use, it ends up making my hair lay flat when I really didn’t want it to be doing that. It also definitely increased the greasiness of my hair which didn’t help my “lay flat” situation either. I’ll admit this is the first heat protectant I’ve ever used, but I’ve never had problems with dry, or damaged hair prior to using this, so I don’t even know what possessed me to buy this product in the first place. (Oh wait, I do know… everyone on YOUTUBE!) I know others seem to enjoy this product, so perhaps it really just wasn’t for me. But I have to ask… does anyone ACTUALLY notice a difference in their hair (in a positive manner) when they use a heat protectant spray? I sure didn’t notice my hair being any healthier than it was before. As a bonus though, it really does smell quite nice. But that’s not enough to make me repurchase this one.

Oh man, these are glorious. Is there anyone out there who doesn’t love Biore pore strips? I’ve been using these for about 15 years now and pulling these strips off my face never gets old. As a note, I use the ones made for the nose on my chin as well. I’ve found that the nose strips seem to have a stronger adhesive which makes the nose ones more successful at pulling out gunk from the pores on my chin as well as my nose. The strips made specifically for chins didn’t seem to have the same effect on me.

Phew! That was it! there was a lot more there than I had expected and I’m happy that I can finally actually throw out some of my trash!