Category Archives: Hauls

Ipsy – June 2014 Glam Bag

June 16, 2014Hauls, Makeup, ReviewsBe A Bombshell, Ipsy, Laneige, Marc Anthony, Nicka K, NYXChelle

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This month’s bag had its ups and downs for me. Let’s dig in and see what I got sent in my bag this month.

Laneige – BB Cushion SPF in three foundation shades

This was a really interesting product. I’ve never heard of anything like Laneige‘s BB Cushion. The package itself comes with three shades of foundation (Light, Medium and Dark) as well as a sponge pad (that I only realized was a puff after I had applied this stuff to my face with one of my brushes). The product is essentially a bb foundation with SPF pre-soaked into a sponge. I wasn’t really sure how to use it, so I ended up stabbing my brush into the sponge to pick up the product. This worked, but it also pushed a lot of the product to the bottom of the little sample. (Which isn’t a problem, I just pulled the sponge out and swiped at the bottom to get more product.) I got two uses out of this sample (I used the Light shade, which was a hair or two too pale for me right now but it wasn’t super obvious). I used it, and it was pleasant to apply, but I don’t really feel like it did a whole heck of a lot. It seems to have evened out my freckles a bit, but the coverage isn’t spectacular so I’d honestly just prefer no foundation to wearing something so light. Worth noting though… this stuff smells really, really good!

Left – no foundation. Right – Laneige BB Cushion in Light

So this is basically a salt spray for your hair to encourage beachy waves/curls to stay in your hair. My hair has a bit of body to it if it’s left to air dry, so I had hoped this would hold some of the waves in place. Marc Anthony‘s Dream Waves Beach Spray smells like coconuts, so basically it smells like every other beach-y hair product out there. It sort of worked to make my hair piece-y (see below), but despite my hand scrunching while my hair dried, it really never held in full on waves. In fact, the ends of my hair look especially ratty and when my hair had dried, the ends felt completely crunchy and stiff. Not a huge fan of that. It might be fine to actually use on the beach after getting out of the water (or at the pool), but for someone who had just gotten out of the shower, this was a very quick way to make my hair feel dirty again. So I wasn’t overly pleased about that!

Left – Damp hair with the spray in. Right – air dried hair with the spray in.

This product is amazing! Nicka K is a brand I’m completely unfamiliar with, but this liquid eyeliner was simply stunning. I received their shimmer eyeliner in Green and this was budge proof and waterproof. Even moreso than the MUFE Aqualiner I have. I couldn’t believe how much I had to rub at this to even remove any kind of colour off my hand. It also held up all throughout a workday. Highly, HIGHLY recommend this liner.

I have nothing good to say about this one so I’ll just be specific with my negativity. Be A Bombshell’s mascara is garbage. I hate the brush – it makes it hard to deposit product onto my lashes. My brush was bent oddly which didn’t help either. It clumped up awkwardly on my lashes, particularly in the outer corners making it look patchy. And the products actually smells really, really bad. This is going straight in the garbage.

NYX‘s butter glosses are my absolute favourite glosses, so I love that they sent these out in the bags. They’re creamy, non-tacky, and come in some absolutely wonderful colours. Unfortunately, I already own this particular shade (Apple Strudel) so I’ve really got no use for this one. So for that reason I’m giving this one away! It’s completely unused and unopened (the shots above were done using my own one) and I will mail it to you anywhere in the world if you win. Contest open till June 30th @ 8:00 a.m..

Ipsy June 2014 Breakdown (all prices in USD)

Laneige BB Cushion SPF 50 (full size is $34 for 0.5 oz, it was really hard to judge the size of this product, but I got two uses out of the one small packet and there are two additional shades, so I’m going to go with $5 overall value since I have no real idea as to how long a full size of this product would last)

Marc Anthony Dream Waves Beach Spray (1.52 oz @ $3.18, full size is $8.79 for 4.2 oz)

Nicka K Shimmer Eyeliner in Green ($4.99, full size)

Be A Bombshell Lash Out mascara in Intense Black ($15, full size)

NYX Butter Gloss in Apple Strudel ($5, full size)

BAG TOTAL = $33.17

My Thoughts

This bag was kind of a bust for me. The BB Cushion product was interesting, but in the end kind of useless. The Beach Spray really didn’t do much other than make my hair kind of crunchy, although I’ve only tried it once and will definitely try using it in different ways. The mascara is just flat out awful and going straight into the garbage (I can’t even begin to believe that it’s worth the $15 full price they charge on their site). The NYX butter gloss is excellent, but of course I already own it. The real winner out of this group is the shimmery green eyeliner. For such an inexpensive product I cannot believe how well this one works.

What I Bought This Month – May 2014 Haul

May 30, 2014HaulsBioderma, Dermal Therapy, Embryolisse, Hard Candy, Julep, MAC, NYC, OlayChelle

I actually hadn’t picked up any beauty products this month until the very last week and then suddenly I had a whole stockpile!

While MAC‘s summer collection didn’t have a whole heck of a lot of bright colours, I knew I still wanted to pick up a few products because holy hell is that packaging ever beautiful! The first item I picked up was the cremesheen finish lipstick in Mystical. The colour is slightly more brown than I had expected, but it’s a very easy, every day colour for me. Slightly more fall-oriented than spring or summer, but still really beautiful.

I wanted to give MAC‘s extra dimension products another shot because everyone seems to love them and I’ve always been kind of “meh” about them. I have the skinfinish in Whisper of Gilt, but I’ve always found the product to be very hard and stiff in the pan, which requires using a rather stiff brush to actually get any product out of the pan. Turns out the blush is really no different! Like the lipstick, Sea Me, Hear Me is far more of a deep fall colour (I really didn’t understand this collection, despite the packaging being spectacular) and it looks nice on my cheeks, but I really need to use a stiff brush to get it out of the pan!

Hard Candy Ombre Lipstick – Cheerful (~$6 CAD)

Hard Candy Cheeks and Balances – Cheeky Pink (~$8 CAD)

This works slightly better than the lip product, but not a whole heck of a lot. Hard Candy‘sCheeky Pink “Cheeks and Balances” is supposed to be a cheek colour and highlighter in one. It goes on stripey (obviously) and you really need to blend it out with a finger or two. It can be a bit greasy, but I’ve only tested it out so far without wearing it for any extended amount of time. It’s a bit too finicky to keep the actual colours separated once you blend them, so it’s easier to just smush the product together as you swipe it on your cheeks. It’s quite frosty overall (even the darker pink colour), so apply lightly and build up if you need to.

Julep polishes in (l-r): Michelle, Angela, Missy, Paris, Hilary (free)

Embryolisse – Hydra-Masque (~€15 CAD) — Bioderma – Crealine H2O (~€12)

Fortune Cookie Soap – Summer Soap Box 2014

May 28, 2014Hauls, ReviewsFortune Cookie SoapChelle

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Fortune Cookie Soap‘s 2014 Summer Soap Box is candy EVERYTHING. If you’ve got a sweet tooth, you’ll basically want to eat everything that’s inside your box. (Luckily, they’ve even thrown in a piece of gum and a sucker – likely to avoid you munching down on your bath products.)

The smell of this box was glorious. As soon as I opened the flap I was in candy heaven.

Here’s a closer look at some of the products.

Solid Sugar Scrub in Rock Your Socks Off

The first item I tried out was the Rock Your Socks Off solid sugar scrub. The cube is on the small size, but I still cracked it in half and saved the second half for another shower. The scent is full on grape candy – that artificial grape scent combined with cups and cups of sugar. The sugar broke apart easily with a little bit of water (I wouldn’t try to scrub this on dry skin) and broke down quickly. Loved the smell, but I’d kind of prefer the sugar scrub to be a bit more liquid – that’s a personal preference though.

Microdermabrasion Facial Scrub in Lemon Drop It Like It’s Hot

Next up was the microdermabrasion scrub. I made the mistake of actually using two microdermabrasion scrubs that day (one in the morning and one at night), but suffered no side effects. The scent in the box, and the only one they appear to have on their web site, is Lemon Drop It Like It’s Hot. As the name suggests, it’s lemon-y with a hint of orange. The particles in this scrub are a little bit more coarse than some of the higher end ones I’ve used, but I actually thing it’s kind of helpful since it’ll scrub more intensely if you mush it around your face. Mixed amongst the small particles were a few larger ones – I’m not sure if this is intended, or if a few of the crystals just happened to stick together, but either way it definitely added an interesting texture to the wash. With a price tag that is significantly less than most microdermabrasions, I’d definitely suggest trying this out if you’re interested in the concept but not the high cost associated with other brands.

The Blow Me! Talkin’ Smack Lip Scrub is a bazooka gum with a hint of Fun Dip flavoured lip scrub that isn’t too tightly packed together in the container. It’s about standard for a lip scrub really, so if the scent appeals to you and you like the price, this is worth picking up. It left my lips feeling tingly and fresh (and doesn’t taste bad either!).

I love glitter. Like seriously love it. Glitter in a convenient spray bottle is just pure unadulterated pleasure for me. I have a few other scented glitter sprays from Bath & Body Works, but I am ALWAYS happy to have more of them. Their Sparkle Me in The Sweet Spotis quite literally a sweet scented glitter spray bottle of glory. It has more of a sweet fruit scent and it’s fairly light. I wore it to work yesterday (yep, sprayed myself head to toe in it) and the glitter particles (tiny and not chunky) stayed put all day and no one complained that I smelled like TOO much of anything. Winnar!

OCD Hand Sanitizer in Lollipop Your Cherry

I’ve personally never really latched on to the “I need to sanitize my hands after I touch everything under the sun” regime that most people seem to follow these days, so receiving another hand sanitizer (they had one in last quarter’s box) after I haven’t even used up the one from last time is a little on the boring side. HOWEVER, I know there are a lot of people out there that feel like they practically bathe in hand sanitizer every day, so I’m sure these are for you germaphobes. FCS’ OCD Hand Sanitizer in Lollipop Your Cherry thankfully smells more like real cherries than the horrific artificial smells-and-tastes-like-cough-medicine flavour that usually passes as “cherry-scented”. At the end of the day, it’ll sanitize your hands and it’ll smell good while doing so.

Ooo a wax tart! I wasn’t even aware FCS had these. As the name suggests, Sweet Dreamsicle smells like creamsicles. I’ve popped it into my bathroom warmer, but it hasn’t had a chance to actually melt out yet so I can’t comment as to the throw of the scent. It did smell lovely when I sniffed it though!

Whipped Cream in Captain’s Berried Booty

I love their Whipped Creams, but this scent just isn’t for me. Captain’s Berried Booty(loooove the name) smells like cardboard fruit loops. I was going to smear in on my legs to test the scent for wear time, but the one little dab I got on my hands was enough to steer me away from using it. The bloody thing lasted for hours and I barely got anything on me! If you like fruity-scented cereals, you’ll love this. Me however? I’m avoiding this one!

And the piece de resistance – their namesake soap. Lick Your Lips fortune cookie soap smells like it looks: like peppermint ice cream with chocolate in it. This is really lovely and the soap itself is, as always, beyond adorable.

My favourite products for this box were the microdermabrasion scrub and the sparkle me spray. Those are two products that I know for sure I’ll use all the way through and enjoy them thoroughly. Scent-wise though, my picks would be Lick Your Lips and Lemon Drop It Like It’s Hot, purely based on personal sniffer preferences.

As I’ve said before, their shipping to Canada is way too high for me to even consider ordering anything from them to my Canadian address. (Oddly, the shipping to Canada for their soap box is less than half the price of even a regular order from them…) So with that being said, I do have a $10 off coupon code for the first person that leaves a message for me on this blog post (and actually wants it!). There are zero strings attached to this – I just don’t want the coupon code to go to waste since I won’t be placing at order this time around. So if you want to place an order with Fortune Cookie Soap, snag $10 off while you can! There’s also no minimum purchase required with this code either. Enjoy!

Ipsy – May 2014 Glam Bag

May 14, 2014Haulsderma e, Eva NYC, Hang Ten, Ipsy, Pacifica, RevlonChelle

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Another month, another Ipsy bag! I really like the bag this month – I’m a sucker for anything green and leafy. It’s also a cloth bag this time so that’s… moderately interesting? (Honestly I really have no idea what to do with all of these bags.)

Let’s dive right in.

Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in Elusive (full size)

This was definitely the most exciting thing in my bag. The chubby stick lip craze that seems to have swept the beauty world for the last year or two was just something I never really got into. My first exposure was the Revlon Balm Stains and I was not a fan of those. Those ones fade really funny, slide around on my lips and they feel really waxy/hard to apply.

That being said, everyone keept going on about the matte balms, but I held off on buying them because I didn’t need/want anymore. So I was definitely happy to get this for “free” in my bag. The colour is a bit tame, but obviously this makes it easier to please everyone who may get this colour.

And I have to say… this is awesome. Revlon‘s matte balm in Elusive is a damn showstopper. It goes on smooth, dries down to an almost transferproof finish (not right away though, you may want to blot a little to get it that way) and it stays PUT. I tried this without a primer because I was feeling lazy and it definitely lasted several hours. It even lasted through a semi-greasy lunch until I swiped at my mouth with a napkin to tidy up and it all came off then. The other side of this is now I want EVERY SHADE.

Hang Ten Classic Sport – SPF 50 (trial size)

I don’t really have much to say about Hang Ten‘s Classic Sport since it’s a sunscreen and I haven’t had the opportunity to use it yet, but unlike a lot of people who got this in their bag, I’m more than happy to test this out. I usually stick to SPF 30 but I’ll try this out when I play soccer throughout the summer and see how it holds up compared to my usualCoppertone Sport sunscreen. I also like that it comes with a safety seal on the tube and that it’s not even remotely close to expiring which I know has been a concern with beauty box samples before.

Eva NYC – Therapy Session Hair Mask (trial size)

Eva NYC is a brand I’m completely unfamiliar with. The instructions for their Therapy Session Hair Mask say that it can either be used as a deep conditioning mask, or an every day conditioner. Now, I’m not really sure what the heck the difference is since I leave conditioner in my hair for about five minutes every time I shower anyway. It left my hair feeling no different than any other conditioner so I didn’t feel like it was particularly special.

I’ve known of the brand Pacifica for years, but had never tried their products. As far as I’m aware, they’re well known for their lotions and butters, so I didn’t really know what to expect from this eyeshadow duo. It doesn’t help that they don’t seem to sell single or duo eyeshadows on their site – they’re all in palettes.

Anyway, this duo (#2?) turned out to be a dud in my opinion.

The white-gold shade is really patchy and chunky. The purple takes a lot of swipes and packing in order to get any kind of decent colour pay-off. In the end, the pictures really look better than I felt it looked in person, but by the end of the day the whole thing had faded and I didn’t even think it was that pigmented to begin with. So I basically went from a soft smudged out look (unintentionally, I just could not get enough colour to come off on my lids) and ended up with a faded out muddle of a look by the end of the day. Boo.

derma e – Microdermabrasion Scrub (trial size)

I was a bit surprised to get another microdermabrasion scrub in my bag since I got one just last month (however, I was so pleased with my previous sample that I sure wasn’t going to turn my nose up at this one!). I didn’t have anything in particular to use this derma e on so I just used it on my upper arms in the shower since I have a few random dry spots there. It felt exactly the same as the Dr. Brandt Microdermabrasion scrub, although this one smelled rather lime-y (a positive for me!).

Ipsy May 2014 Breakdown
(all prices in USD)

Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in Elusive ($8.99, full size)
Eva NYC Therapy Sessions Hair Mask (60 ml @ $4.80, full size is $40 for 500 ml)
Pacifica Natural Beauty Duo #2 (they don’t sell single or even duo eyeshadows on their web site, so I’m taking a complete price guess here based on their palette price ~$10)
Hang Ten Classic Sport SPF50 (30 ml @ $2.20, full size is $12.99 for 177 ml)
derma e Microdermabrasion Scrub (28g @ $16.25, full size is $32.50 for 56g)

BAG TOTAL = $42.24

My Thoughts

I’m a little indifferent to this bag. I’ll certainly use the hair conditioner, sunscreen and microdermabrasion scrub up, but they’re not really things I would get super excited about. The eyeshadow is something I’m really happy to try out, it’s just a shame that the pigmentation is a bit of a dud.

The Revlon matte balm is an amazing product though – I’m really happy that was included in this bag because my disappointment with their balm stains had turned me off chubby lip pens entirely.

Anything you love or hated in your bag?

What I Bought This Month – April 2014 Haul

April 28, 2014HaulsBite Beauty, CoverGirl, Estee Lauder, Lavanila, OPIChelle

This month is definitely way less exciting than last month’s haul, but there’s a few goodies in here regardless.

Snatched this up at Winners for an incredibly low price. I’m getting low on the glitter polish I use for my toe nails and thought I’d give this one a shot. Although I normally use rainbow disco glitter polish for my toes, I thought I’d give OPI‘s The Glittering Night a shot just to change it up a bit.

CoverGirl Clump Crusher water resistant ($4.99 CAD)

Another score from Winners (it can really be hit or miss there sometimes) – CoverGirl‘s Clump Crusher is a favourite of mine and the current mascara I’m using is starting to get a bit old.

Sephora’s 15% sale coupon is pretty much what spurred me to pick up anything at all of significance. It’s a terrible mentality to get in, but the whole “well I’m going to buy it eventually anyway, I might as well save money” idea does creep in.

Perfume is always an expensive purchase, and it can be very risky when buying a new scent you’re not overly familiar or comfortable with. I had heard plenty about Lavanila‘s perfumes but had never wanted to dump the money on them. I’m also almost exclusively an aquatic perfume person so I wasn’t sure how well this one was going to sit with me. All this to say… despite my skepticism, after trying a few of their scents, I settled on the Vanilla Grapefruit one. There’s a slight kick to the vanilla scent that makes it really, really beautiful. And I have to say I have become absolutely obsessed with this fragrance despite it being something I would not normally go for. Lavanila claims their fragrances are all natural and there must be something true to that because this is the only perfume I have ever worn where I didn’t have to “adapt” to it. And by adapt, I mean I usually go through a headache phase with every new perfume I try – it usually lasts about a week before my sniffer gets used to the scent and the headaches go away. This perfume didn’t cause me any of that grief and I find myself slightly intoxicated by the scent of it. The wear time is better than anything else I currently own too – it’ll last through the entire workday and into the evening as well. I love this so much that I’m definitely going to look into their other scents at some point.

This is another splurge item and I was really happy to use that 15% off. Bite Beauty is much raved about so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Massive points for packaging, the bullet and tube are just beautiful. I did, unfortunately, manage to break the bullet the first time I used it, so I returned it and got a replacement for the shade Fig. I’m curious to see if I break this replacement. At $28, this lipstick should be able to stay intact!

Estee Lauder – Sumptuous Infinite mascara (free)

The sales person at Sephora gave me a deluxe sample size of Estee Lauder‘s Sumptuous Infinite mascara with the rest of my Sephora order. I’m happy for the freebie, but I wish they’d give out something other than mascaras all the time!