Category Archives: Reviews

Skincare Saturday: The Body Shop Face Masks

The Body Shop Face Masks - Chinese Ginseng & Rice Clarifying Polishing Mask and the Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask

Few things feel as luxurious as a heavy glass tube of one of The Body Shop‘s face masks – which make them a perfect treat for your skin on a day you want to treat your skin.

The Body Shop Face Masks - Chinese Ginseng & Rice Clarifying Polishing Mask and the Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask
The Body Shop Face Masks – Chinese Ginseng & Rice Clarifying Polishing Mask and the Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask

The two masks I’ve been using off and on for the last few months are their Chinese Ginseng & Rice  Clarifying Polishing Mask and the Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask. I use one of those soft flexible masking brushes to apply them to my face (it’s basically a small spatula) after I’ve washed my face, and then wear them for roughly 15 minutes.

Wearing the Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask
Wearing the Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask

The Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask is 100% vegan and is infused with bamboo charcoal, green tea leaves and organic tea tree oil. It’ll draw out impurities and refine the appearance of pores for healthy-looking skin. It’s probably the most fun to wear (between the two in this post) just because it’s got little leafy bits in it and it changes colour from brown to dark brown as it dries on your face. It also tingles a little bit which I really appreciate in a skincare product because I like to know that SOMETHING is happening!

Wearing the Chinese Ginseng & Rice Clarifying Polishing Mask
Wearing the Chinese Ginseng & Rice Clarifying Polishing Mask

The Chinese Ginseng & Rice Clarifying Polishing Mask is inspired by Chinese traditions of blending ginseng extract, rice extract and sesame seed oil into a creamy exfoliating face mask. They do recommend using it 2-3 times a week, but I really don’t mask that often – for me it’s a once every two weeks kind of thing (which means I may not get the intended results). This is one of the more comfortable face masks to wear as it doesn’t dry down and there isn’t any stinging sensation on your face. It promises to improve your complexion by making it brighter-looking and more supple, and I do get a teensy bit of brightness out of this mask, but I really don’t use it as often as they suggest so I doubt I’m getting the full impact. Still… it’s fun to use for a little bit of at home pampering!

Do you have a favourite mask by The Body Shop? Let me know!

Products featured in this post were send to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.

Skincare Saturday: Live Clean’s Argan Oil Collection + Giveaway

I’ve tried a lot of Live Clean products in the last few years, and I think it’s safe to say that their Argan Oil range is the one that works the best for me all across the board!

Moroccan Argan Oil, which is famed for its high concentrations of natural Vitamin E and rich in essential fatty acids and antioxidants, is at the heart of the range, alongside organic botanicals of Grape Seed and Olive Oils that help protect the skin’s moisture barrier. Combine all of that with the wonderful scent – which isn’t too heavily argan oil scented, because I’m not actually a fan of the scent of pure argan oil! – and you’ve got yourself a killer product. The shampoo and conditioner in this range work the best on my hair out of all of Live Clean‘s shampoos and conditioners that I’ve tried. And although it’s not in this post, I use the leave in conditioner every day too!

And sometimes it’s nice just pairing all your scents together knowing that they all match, you know? Combining the body wash, with the lotion and using the hand soap in our guest bathroom means I end up smelling pretty consistently good throughout the day!

Not only are the products good, but the people at Live Clean are also incredible to work with, and offered to giveaway a set of these products to one of my Canadian readers as well! (And psst, the company was founded here in Canada 11 years ago and continues to be manufactured and developed here!)

One lucky person will win:

  • Live Clean Argan Oil Repenishing Body Wash
  • Live Clean Argan Oil Replenishing Body Lotion
  • Live Clean Exotic Nectar Argan Oil Replenishing Shampoo and Conditioner
  • Lie Clean Exotic Nectar Argan Oil Liquid Hand Soap

Giveaway Rules

  • This giveaway is open to Canadians only.
  • This giveaway starts on September 29, 2018 and runs for one week.
  • One winner will receive the prize pack pictured and described above.
  • Please be aware that all entries will be double checked to ensure fairness.
  • Once the winner has been contacted, they will have 48 hours to provide me with their mailing address. If the winner fails to respond within that time frame, I will pick another winner. (And so on.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Too Faced Peaches & Cream – Peach Lip Balm & Scrub Review

Too Faced Peaches & Cream - Peach Lip Balm & Scrub

Any addition to Too Faced‘s Peaches & Cream range gets me super excited.

Wait, let me rephrase…

ANY addition to Too Faced‘s range gets me super excited, but I’m always intrigued to see even more being added to the Peaches & Cream lineup!

Too Faced Peaches & Cream - Peach Lip Balm & Scrub
Too Faced Peaches & Cream – Peach Lip Balm & Scrub

Too Faced recently added seven new lipstick shades to their Peach Kiss lineup (see my video on them here), and with that launch they threw in some lip care saviours: a peach lip balm and a scrub!

Too Faced Peaches & Cream - Peach Lip Balm & Scrub
Too Faced Peaches & Cream – Peach Lip Balm & Scrub
Too Faced Peaches & Cream - Peach Lip Scrub
Too Faced Peaches & Cream – Peach Lip Scrub

The Peach Lip Scrub is as you would expect: a sugar scrub with a peach scent. What I didn’t expect was how much oil is in this base. There’s plenty of granules of sugar in the scrub, but it’s also jam packed with oil which means you need a lot less product than you may initially think. I made the mistake of grabbing one big heckin’ scoop with my finger the first time I used this, and quickly realized while spreading it over my lips that I had grabbed wayyyyy too much. This is quite a blessing with lip scrubs though – I don’t like to feel like I’m using glob after glob and potentially wasting the product (and your money). So use a little, because it goes a LONG way.

I was left with soft lips that had quite an oily feeling afterwards. Not oily in a bad way either – in the way where you kind of wonder if you even need to apply lip balm because there’s already so much moisture on your lips! Interestingly, I found the smell was not similar to their Peaches & Cream range, but more in line with the Sweet Peach scent (although not as strong).

Too Faced Peaches & Cream - Peach Lip Balm
Too Faced Peaches & Cream – Peach Lip Balm

If you’re not satisfied with the moisture from the Peach Lip Scrub, then you can follow it up with the equally deliciously scented Peach Mega Moisture Lip Balm. This has more of your traditional artificial peach lip balm scent – you know the one, we all had a lip balm like this at one point or another! The texture is quite smooth and glides on the lip easily without being a goopy mess, but you have to break the top layer seal first. There’s like a thicker coating on the top of the product, and once you break through that you’re left with soft, supple balm that’s easy to apply.

In practice, this is more of a daytime lip balm for me as I prefer something much, much heavier at night. The texture of this is thick enough to be grippy on the lips for a little bit of longevity, but fundamentally it’s too thin to be a lip mask used overnight. I have used it multiple times overnight however – and I was left with soft lips in the morning, but I found that it sank in completely every time. While some people may like that, I like a much thicker balm for overnight and prefer when there’s still a little bit lingering on my lips when I wake up the next morning. For me, this is a “keep at my desk” lip balm for easy application throughout the day.

The Too Faced Peaches & Cream Peach Lip Balm and Scrub can be purchased individually at sephora.ca for $21 CAD or on sephora.com for $17 USD.

The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.

Skincare Saturday: Pai Rosehip BioRegenerate Oil

Pai Rosehip BioRegenerate Oil

Pai is one of those skincare brands that I’ve heard talked about in hushed, revered tones, but not one I’ve ever gotten the chance to use – until now! With autumn and winter on the way, I was curious to try out Pai‘s Rosehip BioRegenerate Oil – an oil that is branded as being usable by everyone – dry, oily, young or mature – this oil has you covered.

Pai Rosehip BioRegenerate Oil
Pai Rosehip BioRegenerate Oil

As it’s been spring and summer for quite some time now (I’m done, SOOOO done with the heat – bring on the cooler weather!), I haven’t been needing a facial oil. But with the colder months I love to slather one on before going to bed at night. Pai‘s Rosehip BioRenerate Oil is specifically formulated for all skin types, with an emphasis on sensitive skin. I’m not sensitive at all, but it’s nice to see when it being labelled as such anyway. This oil claims to help refine the appearance of fine lines, promotes skin elasticity and smooths out the tone and texture of your skin.

Pai Rosehip BioRegenerate Oil
Pai Rosehip BioRegenerate Oil

Pai encourages you to use this 2-3 times per week in the evening (which I thought was unusual – I tend to use a face oil every night when I need it). I have to point out that this is DEFINITELY a night time oil – the orange colour you see in the bottle transfers to your face. It’s mostly translucent so you don’t walk around looking like a sweet potato at all times, but it definitely leaves an orange cast on your face.

On me this is a great facial oil as it intensively hydrates my face overnight and leaves me with a supple face in the morning. I can’t attest to the claim regarding fine lines as I’ve never experienced a life changing event in regards to their appearance on my face, but I can say that I enjoy this oil as part of my nighttime routine and I’ll definitely be using the whole bottle up throughout the colder months!

The Pai Rosehip BioRegenerate Oil can be purchased at shoppersdrugmart.ca for $40 CAD.

The product featured in this post was sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.

Skincare Saturday: The Body Shop’s Hemp Collection Turns 20!

The Body Shop - High on Hemp since 1998!

With marijuana becoming legal in Canada this coming fall, it’s no surprise that the hemp jokes are coming out fast and furious at this point. For example, The Body Shop‘s Hemp range is using the tagline “It’s so good for dry skin, they should make it illegal”, which I’ll admit gave me a good chuckle when I read it. The Body Shop‘s Hemp range has been around since 1998, so they’re celebrating a whopping 20 years of promoting hemp’s restorative powers on the skin.

When The Body Shop launched their Hemp range back in 1998, one of their stores in France was actually raided by the police! 
When The Body Shop launched their Hemp range back in 1998, one of their stores in France was actually raided by the police!

For those unaware (and frankly, I’m one of them – I don’t know a lot about cannabis by-products or even smoking myself so I had to do some research), hemp and marijuana come from the same cannabis plant. However, those that are grown for their fibres and seeds (such as those used in creams) are low in THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) which is  the chemical compound that gets you high when you smoke or ingest it.

The Body Shop - High on Hemp since 1998!
The Body Shop – High on Hemp since 1998!

Hemp seed oil forms the basis for The Body Shop‘s Hemp range – a product that is exceptionally good for dry skin. The Body Shop indicates that: “Hemp seed oil is made up of 80% essential fatty acids including omega 3, 6, and 9. [snip] Plant oils work with your sebum (the skin’s own oil) and natural moisturizing factor to enhance the skin’s barrier function. This reduces trans-epidermal water loss, which means skin is better hydrated. Hemp acts like an armour that seals in moisture and defends your skin against the elements”.

Thankfully (for me) the moisturizers and creams don’t smell like weed, but instead have a more herbal/medicinal scent. I asked my husband what he thought it smelled like and the first words out of his mouth were “Florida”, which made me laugh (and honestly, I didn’t really understand). When asked to elaborate, he said it smells like arborvitae trees. The products are super moisturizing… to the point where I feel they’re actually a tad heavy for the summer and more suited towards colder weather. That being said, if you’re in the garden constantly, and need something to restore your hands you may be deeply interested in their Hemp Hand Protectors.

Let me know if you’ve tried out The Body Shop‘s Hemp range and what you’ve thought of the products you’ve tried!

The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.