All posts by Chelle
Holiday 2019: Benefit Brow Superstars in Shade 2
Benefit definitely knows how to do the holidays, and their holiday 2019 Brow Superstars definitely doesn’t disappoint! I mean just look at this thing! It’s a tophat! And it’s filled with full size products!
The Brow Superstars Set comes in three different shades (2, 3 & 4) and contains six full size products at a seriously reduced price tag. The retail value of the whole set is $192 CAD if you were to buy them individually, but the set altogether is going for $79 CAD which is absolutely wild.
If you’re a fan of Benefit‘s brow products and use even only about three of these on the regular, then this becomes an amazing deal. It also gives you the opportunity to try out additional products in the same colour range
Swatched out you can see the difference between all six products. The only one that looks slightly off to me is Gimme Brow which looks a touch warmer, and Browtones which looks a bit cooler than all the rest of them. Excluding, of course, the Brow Setter which is just a clear brow gel.
I’m very familiar with Precisely, My Brow, so I already know that I like the product a lot. What was interesting was trying out 3D Browtones which is what I layered on top of Precise, My Brow. It’s pegged as a product to add highlights and dimension, which is why it’s a little bit more reflective than the other products (in the swatches above). Don’t worry though, it doesn’t make your brows look reflective! I found it added a touch of dimension to my brows, but overall it’s Precisely, My Brow that definitely did all of the heavy lifting.
Ka-Brow was a new to me product that I was curious to try. Unfortunately, I found the application of the product to be a bit stiff because the product itself seemed a bit dried out in the bottle. I like the overall effect, but I think next time I’d add a bit of INGLOT Duraline to soften up the formula.
Okay WOW. Gimme Brow was the one that impressed me the most. I used it over top of some of my regular brow products and I LOVED the effect of it. It add a bit of oomph to my brows and helped me to brush them upwards (and held them in place) which really helped to add more volume to my brows. LOVE this one!
Goof Proof is intended for easy, fast filling of your brows. It has a diamond shape, and I definitely need to learn to play with the angles a bit better (my tail is a shambles here!), but it was definitely lightning quick to get my eyebrows filled in!
Final Thoughts
At the price point that Benefit is offering this set, it’s a hell of a good package. Especially if you’re someone (or you know someone) who really likes to change up how they do their brows day to day. I also like that it gives someone the opportunity to try something new out too. Although I was familiar with Precisely, My Brow – I didn’t have a lot of experience with the other products, but now I’ve found a new favourite in that Gimme Brow! The only item I won’t really get use out of is the clear brow gel just because I need the bulk that Gimme Brow adds, and the clear brow gel would only set my (non existent) brow hairs in place. The only slightly irksome thing about this collection is that they’ve only released it in three colours. And while I’m sure the shades they chose are their most popular brow colours, it would’ve been nice to see their full range available. That being said… shade 2 definitely worked for me and I was happy to play around with the set and I know I’m going to be using the bulk of these products up!
The Benefit Brow Superstars set is currently on sale at Sephora.ca for $66 CAD or at ulta.com (also on sale!) for $49 USD.
The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.
Skincare Saturday: Lush Christmas 2019
Lush‘s Christmas collection is always incredibly massive, and while I have my usual staples (that Shoot For The Stars bath bomb is incredible and I stock up every year), it’s always fun to try out some of their new offerings!
I knew right off the bat that I was going to love the Satsuma soap, and it really did not disappoint. I cracked mine in two (the middle section is made up of a softer soap that binds the two halves together) and put half of it in my shower immediately. I’m a sucker for anything orange scented, and this one did not disappoint – it smells refreshing and wonderful and I love using it in the mornings when I’m showering to wake me up with that burst of citrus.
The Happy shower gel on the other hand… is definitely not a scent for me. I’ve heard a lot of people raving about it, but the combination of neroli, lemon and orange oils didn’t appeal to me that much – in fact, it’s rather revolting. Which is really sad, because the product itself lathers well and it looks beautiful! It’s this beautiful greeny-blue product shot through with glitter! But don’t worry, the glitter doesn’t stick to your skin.
Editing Chelle 2019/12/17: I was so confused by how bad this smelled to me in the shower, that I went in to Lush today to get it another sniff on site. The one in the store smelled COMPLETELY different, and very appealing. I spoke with one of the sales reps there and they told me it’s entirely possible that I got a bad batch, even if it was sent by PR (they said it may even be more likely since those batches would’ve been made first), and told me to bring in my PR sample for an exchange at their store. That’s INCREDIBLE customer service – especially for a product I didn’t even purchase to begin with. It hadn’t been my intent to get the product exchanged, I only wanted to know more about how it was possible I got one that had potentially gone rancid. I’ll be taking in my PR sample for an exchange for new Happy shower gel.
I was really excited to try out the Cookie Dough shower scrub because I’m a total sucker for cookie dough *anything*. The scent was a bit different than I was expecting – more of a chocolatey-type dough with the scent of the almond and hazelnut oils really coming through. It smells wonderful though, and I love how the scrub felt really thick in my hands, but spread onto my body really nicely.
I’ve always wanted to try one of these! This is the Santa’s On His Way bath oil tablet and you use it by melting it into your bath water. You can likely just drop the whole thing in, but I found the little rope at the top was great for hanging it from the faucet while the water poured over it and into the tub. The oil tablet softens the water, turns it pink, and has a wonderful tangerine scent. I used the whole tablet for this bath, but I’d probably split it up next time and have it last over two baths.
Polar Bear Plunge bubble bar, like all of Lush‘s bubble bars, is really lovely. I get massive amounts of bubbles with only the smallest amount of product (also helps that I have a jacuzzi tub that really pumps up the bubble volume), and this little guy will last me easily 10-12 baths. The scent is very minty and reminds me of the gum my mom always buys (lol). Lush says it’s peppermint scented, but I definitely get more of a true mint scent.
Chris the Camel bath bomb is the only product I wasn’t able to try, but he’s next on my list to use. This one is a bit heavier scented – it’s chockful of spicy black pepper, cinnamon and cloves. AND? It’s got tiny little gold stars sprinkled into it which are going to look really neat in the tub!
And lastly, I tried out the Rudolph bath bomb, and WOW – the colour explosion on that made my smile so much. I removed the little paper horns (they easily pulled out, but they did break the top a little bit), and then dumped it in my tub and watched the pink and orange colours swirl together. I couldn’t quite put my nose on the scent – it was kind of soft and sweet with a touch of flowers? Lush says it’s scented like marzipan, but I really couldn’t even tell you what marzipan really smells like!
Every year I look forward to Lush‘s Christmas offerings – not only to pick up my returning favourites (if they ever discontinue Shoot for the Stars I’m going to be so, SO sad) but also to discover some new ones. Out of what I tried here, my favourites were definitely the Cookie Dough scrub and the Satsuma soap.
So now it’s your turn! Tell me what Christmas items you love by Lush – I want to check out even more!
The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration.
Ami Hearts Beauty x Amy Loves Makeup – Alma Palette – Review, Swatches & 5 Looks
Revlon So Fierce! Vinyl Eyeliners (Review & Swatches)
Do you remember a point in time when drugstore pencil eyeliners absolutely sucked? We’re talking hard as rock liners that basically scratched your lid when you tried to draw them on your eye? Ones that were so bloody hard you had to hold it up to a lightbulb in order to heat up the product enough so that you could actually have a hope in hell of drawing it on your eye without gouging out your eyeball? I sure do! And boy, oh boy – pencil eyeliners have come a LONG way since then!
And these Revlon So Fierce! Vinyl Eyeliners are some of the best I have used. We’ve come a long way, baby – and it feels good!
The Revlon So Fierce! liners have a gel-like consistency. They glide on the eyes with ease, and I promise you that you won’t have to tug on your eye to get the colour on there! The liners do have a vinyl-like shine to them (as their name would suggest), but I don’t find it INCREDIBLY shiny. We’re not talking like… super shiny here. There’s only a hint of a shine.
The colours are opaque right off the bat too! So not only are you getting an easy colour deposit, but you’re also getting a TON of colour to go with it. I found that I was able to smudge these out if I moved very, very quickly after applying it. They will set relatively quickly, so you need to move fast! The upside to that being that once you get them in place, they’re not going to transfer anywhere. And since I’v egot hooded lids, I was super appreciative of that. I will often find that a pencil liner will transfer to my upper lid – which is one of the reasons I’ve avoided wearing pencil liner on my upper lash line. With these? No issue! They stayed put!
Final Thoughts
Wow! I wasn’t expecting the Revlon So Fierce! Vinyl Eyeliners to be THIS good. I’d kind of given up on using pencil liners a long while ago because they just transferred far too much to my upper crease area. I’ve been opting to wear most pencils on my water line instead… until now! These glide on and stay put, and that’s exactly what I need in a pencil liner for my upper lash line.
I’m impressed with the colour selection too – you’re not just getting your basic black and brown, but also a wonderful grey, a deep maroon and even some fun blues in the mix. (There is a brighter blue in the collection too, but I didn’t receive that particular shade.)
In short, these are freaking fabulous!
The Revlon So Fierce! Vinyl Eyeliners can be purchased at ulta.com for $8.99 USD each or on shoppersdrugmart.ca for $10.99 CAD each.
The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.