All posts by Chelle

Products I Want To Use Up In 2014 (and don’t intend to repurchase)

January 10, 2014MiscellaneousCoverGirl, Jack Black, MAC, MUA, Physicians Formula, RevlonChelle

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Last year, before I had this blog, I made a list of products I wanted to finish in 2013. I managed to finish about half of them which isn’t too bad! This year I thought I’d put fourteen products in a bin and do my best to use them up. The intent behind these products is that I won’t actually be repurchasing them after I’ve finished them up. It’s not so much that I dislike them (if they were really that bad, I’d just pitch them in the bin) but they’re just “okay” products. I like them enough, and use them, but I have other products I love more. Also, by forcing myself to use some of these products up, I end up discovering new ways to wear them. In essence, it makes me get creative! So let’s see what I’ve dumped in that “to finish up” bin!

CoverGirl CC Cream in 110 Classic Ivory and MUA Matte Foundation in Shade 1 Soft Sand

There’s nothing especially wrong with these products – they’re just not my top picks. On my winter skin, the CC Cream is actually too dark right now but the MUA one is just right. The packaging on the MUA one makes it very easy for travel… or so I thought. The cap on the product doesn’t actually latch on very well so it ends up overtwisting and not aligning properly. Very annoying. The CoverGirl CC Cream on the other hand is actually quite nice – it has a pleasing scent (I’m not sure everyone agrees about this) and I love that it has a pump…. but it’s just not my favourite. If I wear these regularly, I should be able to get through each in about a month or two.

I bought this because Christina @ Temptalia raves about this balm. To me, Jack Black’s lip balm feels no different than vaseline and I don’t actually feel like it has a lot of healing properties on rough, dry lips. I used to apply this product predominantly when I would go for a run. The reason behind this is I find my mouth/lip area gets very dry while running and wanted something soothing on my lips while I did my exercise. Unfortunately, this product seems to ball up/go tacky when my body warms up/starts sweating a bit so this actually became incredibly uncomfortable to wear while exercising. Instead, I’ve been wearing it as a protective layer throughout December while we’ve been experiencing freezing temperatures of -33C. I don’t feel it heals chapped lips, but the vaseline content of the product will certainly protect again snowy wind burn.

MAC lipglass in Strawberry MaltMAC lipglass in Strawberry Malt

I bought this Strawberry Malt lipglass early last year when the Archie’s Girls collection launched at MAC. The colour itself is gorgeous, but I find it fades really awkwardly on my lips and bleeds outside my lipline. Not attractive and it makes it far too fiddlesome for a gloss.

MAC eyeshadows in Brule, Shroom, Swish and Haux

If you’ve been reading any of my eyeshadow tutorials, you know that I use Brule almost every single time to highlight my brow bone. I use this product almost daily and I feel like I’m never going to finish this pan of it! The colour is nice, the blendability is fine, but I have other shades that are similar that I’d like to get through as well. The same applies to Shroom, which is essentially just a shimmery Brule.

Swish on the other hand… oh man, this colour needs to DIE. I bought this in my teens and it’s horrible – I don’t even know how I managed to hit so much pan on it! It’s a frosty pink shade that just looks, in my opinion as my older, wise self, just ridiculous. I’ve only come up with one combination this looks okay on, but I need more ideas if I’m going to make it through the rest of this pan!

The last shade is Haux – it’s a wonderful slightly rose-tinted, brown shade with a satin finish. It’s also my oldest eyeshadow – this guy right here is 18 years old. I’m not kidding. It needs to get finished up so I can move on with my life!

Physicians Formula Bronze Booster in Light/Medium

I think this is going to be the most challenging product to get through, but I wanted to include something that I had made almost no dent in. This bronzer is perfectly adequate – it blends nicely and the colouring is nice. I had bought it on a whim in late 2012 while I was in the US because I love Physicians Formula products, but they’re incredibly expensive in Canada (like $22 for a bronzer!). However, I have too many bronzers and I really need to put some out to pasture. I am slightly concerned that from past experiences, I have to use a single bronzer for an entire year before I finish it up – so this may become my daily bronzer. We’ll see how it goes.

Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain + Balm in Twilight

I love this colour (Twilight), I just don’t wear it enough. I’m a big fan of Revlon‘s lipstains (NOT their balm stains), they can apply slightly patchy, but with enough layers it generally tends to even out. Plus they feel, to me, incredibly comfortable on the lips. In general, I prefer these to lipsticks, but for lipstains to work, they usually have to be pretty dark colours, which is why I don’t have more of them – since they all tend to blend together (colourwise) after a while. This one can get REALLY dark after several applications which is why I tend not to favour this one. Still very pretty though.

Revlon ColorBurst Lipgloss in Sunset Peach

Revlon‘s Sunset Peach is an easy shade for me to wear throughout the summer and one I reach for often. I’m fairly certain I’m close to done with this shade as it’s looking quite patchy through the tube. My main reason for wanting to finish this one up is that while I think the packaging is quite pretty, the reality is that I don’t carry a purse (SHOCK, HORROR) and this tube is just too darn big for my pocket, which makes it incredibly unfriendly for carrying anywhere.

Revlon Lip Butters in Creamsicle, Cherry Tart and Red Velvet

I loved these Lip Butters by Revlon, but I’m over them. Creme Brulee is my favourite and I’ll continue to repurchase it, but I don’t feel I need all of the colours like I used to. Creamsicleactually looks rather ghastly on me and Red Velvet always just seems too dark (although I’ll often see it on other people and like it, so not sure what’s up with that!). While fiddling around with these colours and swatching them, I tried swatching Creamsicle over Red Velvet and they looked gorgeous together. Cherry Tarte, however, is beautiful on its own, but I have other shades I prefer.

So that’s it! I wonder how well I’ll manage to get through these products by the end of the year.

What’s On My Face – Early January

January 8, 2014Makeup, TutorialsChelle

I lost all the date from this post, but I still have the pictures!

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What’s In My Travel Makeup Bag – Christmas 2013

December 19, 2013Miscellaneous, VacationCoverGirl, Hard Candy, Jack Black, L'Oreal, MAC, Maybelline, NYX, Revlon, Tarte, Too Faced, Travelling, Urban DecayChelle

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On Saturday morning I’ll be flying to Ottawa for a week off work to celebrate Christmas with my family. Since I love looking in other people’s makeup bags, I thought I’d share with you what beauty goodies I’m bringing with me on the trip.

Too Faced – A Few of my Favorite Things palette

Now this is a bit controversial for me! Ever since I first got my hands on the Urban DecayNaked palette several years ago, it has been an absolute must have in every makeup bag I have ever brought with me on vacation. That being said, there are a lot of similar shades in the Too Faced palette, as well as several fun colours that give me a lot more options.

Plus, with two blushes and two bronzers, it makes this a very easy palette to take on vacation. While the palette is quite slim and layed out nicely, it’s also rather large, which makes it a bit cumbersome for some vacations so I wouldn’t necessarily bring it on an international vacation. However, for going back to Ottawa, this looks like it’ll be a fun palette to play with for the week.

Jack Black Lip Balm in Natural Mint, MAC Prep + Prime for Lips, MAC Brick Lip Pencil, MAC Russian Red lipstick, Revlon Cherries in the Snow lipstick and NYX Butter Gloss in Creme Brulee

My choice of lip products basically covers any type of makeup situation I could possibly need to cover while on vacation. The Jack Black lip balm isn’t particularly a favourite, but it’s an easy “go to” when I need something to take care of my lips if they get dry in the cold winter months. And since I’ll be doing a lot of snowboarding while on vacation, I’ll definitely need this while out on the mountain.

NYX‘s Butter Gloss in Creme Brulee is my absolute favourite gloss at the moment. It’s an easy shade to wear which makes it a very easy choice when I was packing up my makeup bag.

MAC Russian Red, Revlon Cherries in the Snow, NYX Creme Brulee

Of course I’m bringing along MAC‘s Prep + Prime for lips as I absolutely must have it if I’m going to be applying any kind of lipstick. MAC Russian Red lipstick and MAC Brick lip pencil are a combination that I use quite often around the holiday season. I just love this shade of red, and to me it just screams “Christmas”. And in case I don’t feel like wearing matte red lips, I’m also bringing along Revlon‘s Cherries in the Snow which is a very deep, vibrant pink shade.

MAC Blacktrack Fluidline, L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara (waterproof formula), Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original and MAC Omega eyeshadow

I do a lot of winged liner and lately my preference has been to use a gel liner – so for that I’m bringing along MAC‘s Blacktrack fluidline. The other eye products I’m bringing are items that I use daily: L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara in the waterproof formula, Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original to keep my eyeshadow from creasing and MAC Omega eyeshadow to fill in my eyebrows.

Hard Candy So Baked Bronzer in Tiki, Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush Exposed and Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush in Hot Tamale

Hard Candy‘s “bronzer” in Tiki wouldn’t be a bronzer on anyone’s skintone – instead it’s a beautiful highlight shade with a slight golden/yellow sheen. This highlighter isn’t particularly shiny or shimmery, so it’s an beautiful shade to wear on a daily basis.

The two blush compacts I’m taking are my usual vacation staples. Tarte‘s Exposed is my most used, most loved blush that goes with absolutely any eye look I create. Maybelline‘sHot Tamale cream blush is for when I want that extra brightness on the cheeks. I most like this shade for making my cheeks look like I’ve been outside in the cold weather.

Covergirl & Olay Tone Rehab 2 in 1 Foundation (CC Cream) in 110 Classic Ivory

I’m not planning on wearing a whole heck of a lot of foundation while on vacation, so this is mostly just for the days where I want to play with full face makeup. Covergirl‘s “CC Cream” helps even out my skin tone and since it has a pump, this was an easy choice.

MAC Turquatic is my most compact bottle of perfume and fits nicely into the makeup bag I’m bringing with me. I’ve been wearing this perfume for a few years now (it was replacement signature scent after Michael Kors stopped making the original Islandperfume). While I love the scent, I will say that the lasting power isn’t the best although that doesn’t stop me from re-purchasing this scent time after time.

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Miraculously, all of that makeup fits in this Too Faced makeup bag that came with the “A Few of my Favorite Things” palette. It’s a pretty tight fit though and unfortunately my makeup brushes won’t fit in there so I’ll probably throw them all in a small ziploc bag that I’m sure will end up buried at the bottom of my suitcase!

What’s On My Face – Volume 7

December 17, 2013Makeup, TutorialsArdell, Bourjois, INGLOT, Joe Fresh, MAC, MUA, NYX, Revlon, Sleek, Tarte, Too Faced, Urban Decay, Wet n WildChelle

Lately I found I had been wearing far too many neutral looks and I was boring myself with my makeup in the morning. Neutral colours are so easy and safe to play with… but they just don’t get me excited. When I wear something more vibrant on my eyes, I actually feel better. I can’t explain it any better than that really. Colour makes me happy!

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I *love* this one. It’s not particularly hard to achieve, I just think it’s the colour combination that I love so much. Excuse the derp face – I find if I smile in pictures, my eyes crinkle up too much to actually show what the shadows look like on a full face shot!

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Eyes:

Inglot AMC Shine 15 (shimmery orange) all over the inner two-thirds of the lid.
Inglot Matte 382 (matte red) on the outer third of the lid and blended slightly into the crease.
Urban Decay Naked in the crease to blend all the colours together.

MAC Brule was used to highlight my brow. And, of course, I used MAC Blacktrack fluidline to create the wing and applied L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara to my top lashes. For brows, I used MAC Omega.

Rest of the Face: Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum foundation in 52 Vanilla with Revlon‘sBronzed & Chic bronzer on the high points of my face. I used Tarte Charisma on my cheeks and since that blush has enough shimmer to it, I didn’t bother with a highlighter. On my lips is Benefit Ultra Plush Gloss in Coralista.

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I wore this one out to a (friend of a) friend’s Christmas party. Red, gold, false lashes. All the staples of holiday season makeup!

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Eyes: To make the white-gold eyeshadow show up better, I have to lay down a white base. For that I use NYX‘s Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in Milk. Make sure to keep the white base below the crease and also blend it out so you don’t have any harsh lines.

On the inner two-thirds of the lid, pack on the white-gold shade in MAC‘s Illusionary: Burning Ambition duo (limited edition from several years ago). And when I say pack it on, I mean, PACK it on. This stuff is fallout city and gets everywhere, but it’s really way too pretty to ignore.
Using the brown side of that same duo, apply it to the outer third of the lid and sweep it through the crease.
Using the white-gold shade again, use it to highlight your brow and to blend out the brown shade in the crease. This is a LOT of shimmer and it may even be overkill for some people. You’ll notice that the brow ends up being more gold, while the lid colour is has more of a white-cast due to the base that we put down.

I used MAC Dipdown fluidline to create the wing and applied L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara to my lashes. False eyelashes are Ardell Demis applied with Duo adhesive.

Lips: Since the eyes are so shimmery, I stuck with a matte red. I used MAC Brick lipliner to line and fill in my lips, then followed it up with MAC Russian Red lipstick.

Rest of the Face: Foundation is Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum in 52 Vanilla. I used Joe FreshSand bronzer to contour since it’s matte. On my cheeks is Tarte Exposed.

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With this one I just knew I wanted it to be bright! I also tend to get stuck in ruts and keep re-using the same colour combinations because I generally know they’ll work. While trying to break out of that rut, I ended up going with a fail-safe colour palette anyway. Whoops!

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Eyes:

From the MUA Pretty Pastels palette, I applied the second shade from the left on the bottom row all on the inner half of my lid. The shade looks rather peach in the pan, but as you can see, it came out almost white.
Using the Sleek Acid palette, I applied the first shade on the top row (a fuchsia pink) to the outer half of my lid and pulled it through the crease. Then, using the same palette;
I took the bright purple colour directly below the fuchsia and dabbed it right in the outer corner of my eye, on top of the fuchsia. You’ll need to blend some of the edges otherwise it’ll be pretty stark.
I then used Urban Decay Naked to very lightly blend out the bright fuchsia.

As per usual, I used MAC Brule to highlight my brow. Followed it up with MAC Blacktrack as my liner and L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara. MAC Omega was used to fill in my brows.

Lips: NYX Strawberry Parfait

Cheeks: Wet n Wild Heather Silk

Rest of the Face: My foundation is MUA‘s Matte Foundation in Shade 1 Soft Sand withRevlon‘s Photoready bronzer in Bronzed & Chic.

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No full face for this one because I was only messing around. I wanted to play around with my Too Faced A Few of my Favorite Things palette and then it kind of developed into this glitter bomb.

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I first used NYX‘s Jumbo Eyeshadow pencil in Black Bean and applied it all over the lid as a base. I then;

applied Too Faced Party Time on the inner half of my lid (this really needs some kind of coloured based or it’ll apply very, very sheer). I really packed this one on.
Too Faced Soiree was applied to the outer half of the lid and through the crease. I didn’t use a blending shade to fade this colour out, instead I very slowly blended it up through the crease. I also used this shade on my lower lashline.
I don’t usually number my liner in my diagrams, but there were a few steps involved with this one. I first created an inner and outer wing with Maybelline‘s black gel liner. With the inner half of the wing, I made sure to do it far out enough so that I could leave a gap near my inner tearduct and drew the line right back to my lower waterline, creating a small triangle. After the gel liner had set, I use Too Faced Glitter Glue and went over top of the liner. Once that became tacky, I used MAC Reflects Glitter in Transparent Teal and placed it on top of the liner.

I used MAC Feline Kohl Power pencil to line my upper and lower waterlines. I appliedL’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara heavily to my upper and lower lashes. The small crystal was from some set that I got at Michael’s a few years ago and I stuck it to inner corner of my eye with some Duo clear lash adhesive.

Products I’ve Hit Pan On

December 15, 2013Hit Pan, MiscellaneousMAC, Urban DecayChelle

What is it about “hitting pan” that makes us makeup freaks get all giggly and excited? I mean, are we THAT excited to finish the product up? Does seeing that silver pan really make us feel accomplished? (You know it does, don’t even kid yourself.) These are some of my favourite kinds of videos or blog posts, so I thought I’d share what products I’ve been diving deep into. Forewarning, a lot of it is MAC.

Omega is the only MAC eyeshadow I have still in a pot. I use it for my eyebrows every day, so having it in a pot makes it more convenient as opposed to pulling out a 15 pan eyeshadow palette every time I want to do my brows! I think the shadow is roughly a year old and as you can see it’s about halfway gone. I find this shade is perfect for my incredibly blonde eyebrows that are almost non-existent without some product on them.

Top left – If you’ve been reading any of my eyeshadow looks lately, you’ll know that I useBrule an awful lot. I’ve been trying to finish this one up so I can get on to the myriad of other off-white satin type shades I own. It’s a good shadow, but it’s so easily dupeable that I don’t find it particularly unique.

Top right – Shroom is a beautiful colour when I want to have a bit of sheen to highlight my brow. It’s also not particularly hard to duplicate.

Bottom left – I know a few of you are going to be cringing when I tell you just how old MACHaux is. It’s the very first MAC eyeshadow that I bought when I was 12 years old (which makes this shadow 18 years old!) I know what you’re thinking… hasn’t it expired yet? And I can guarantee you that it hasn’t. I did re-press the shadow recently with alcohol when it was starting to be difficult to access the shadow as it had run off to the edges of the pan and the alcohol not only disinfects it, but actually slightly softened up the powder. It’s a lovely, easy colour to wear, but since it’s going to take me more than 18 years to use up, I definitely won’t be repurchasing this one!

Bottom right – MAC‘s Cork is one of my lesser used shadows over the years, but I’ve clearly used it enough to hit the pan along the way! I tend to use it a lot with Ricepaper.

MAC – Parfait Amour, Swish, All That Glitters, Star Violet

Top left – Parfait Amour is one my most annoying shadows. It looks lovely in the pan with its purply-blue duochrome. It looks decent when swatched on my finger. And it looks TERRIBLE when I try to apply it to my eyelids with a brush. I don’t know if I just happened to get a dud, because everyone else seems to love the colour, but I have major problems making this one work (and clearly I’ve tried since I’ve hit pan!) To me it’s nothing but a chalky, unpigmented mess.

Top right – Swish is a colour that I look back on and wonder what the heck possessed me to buy a frosted, shimmery pink eyeshadow. I’m not even much of a pink person! The only way I’ve found to make this eyeshadow look suitable on me is to use it all over the lid withSketch on the outer corner and into the crease.

Bottom left – All That Glitters is a beautiful rose-gold shade that’s very, very easy to wear. My favourite shadows to match it with are Star Violet and Sketch. Definitely picking this one up again when I run out.

Bottom right – I bought Star Violet at the encouragement of an artist at MAC and I’ve loved it since. As I’ve mentioned just above, I love wearing Star Violet with All That Glitters and Sketch.

This one is a bit less obvious, but you can see the very edge of the terracotta pan on the right side of the product. Soft and Gentle is a beautiful highlight that be layered on quite strong to create one hell of a sheen. Since I own about five other highlighters, I’ll be surprised if I ever actually get a chance to finish one of them!

I fee like hitting pan on your Naked palette is a rite of passage in the beauty community.Virgin and Hustle are clearly my most used shades from the palette (although I do feel likeNaked and Buck are neverending shadows because I swear I use them as much as these two!). I quite prefer the sheen of Virgin when I compare it to MAC Shroom, although I know a lot of people feel they are dupes for on another, I personally don’t agree. To me, Virginhas a much softer, creamy side to it. Shroom is lovely, don’t get me wrong, but overall I prefer Virgin.

Getting really down there on these ones! Crystal Avalanche is a very shimmery, frosted white shadow that I tend to use a lot in conjunction with Print. (I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve been trying to replicate LL’s look from Freak Friday for the past ten years or so with this combination!) Print is a charcoal grey that can be a lot easier to wear, and blend, than a straight black.

Fade is a pale baby blue that I picked up many moons ago. I’ve since dropped it and re-pressed the shattered remains (hence the odd crosshatching on the shadow). It’s a smooth colour, slightly sheer… but wearing baby blue these days is not really an easy thing to do!

Moonlight Night is a pigment I pressed from a MAC Christmas collection several years ago. The colour itself is a very dark, almost black, teal pigment with bright teal microshimmer. Beautiful colour, but the shimmer does have a tendency to fall out quite a bit. Of course, since this is a pigment, I have a lot more sitting in a jar.

So those are all the products I’ve currently hit pan on! Have you hit pan on anything recently?