Category Archives: Makeup

Holiday 2017: Hard Candy Sets + Giveaway!

December 18, 2017MakeupHard CandyChelle

Hard Candy Holiday 2017

Hard Candy is one of those brands that releases an incredible amount of products in a variety of sets for the holiday season. They’ve even gone so far as to a dive into some skincare products this year as well! If you need an inexpensive but fun gift, a stocking stuffer, or just a little addon to another gift you’re giving, you can bet that Hard Candy will have you covered!

Hard Candy - Bath Bomb Tree — Hard Candy – Bath Bomb Tree

One of the movie intriguing things launched by Hard Candy this year was the Bath Bomb Tree ($14.97 CAD). I’ve never seen Hard Candy do bath stuff like this before so I’m super into trying this out. With 16 bath bombs in the shape of a tree? You really can’t beat how cute this is!

Need a reasonably priced makeup starter kit for a newbie to makeup? The Hard Candy Glam Kit Supreme ($19.97) comes with a whopping 48 eyeshadows, 10 eyeliners and a sharpener. There’s a decent mix of neutrals with some brights in there (in both the eyeshadows and liners!) so you’ve giving them the option to play with colour which is something that always makes me happy!

Hard Candy - Best Of Kit — Hard Candy – Best Of Kit

If you’re looking for something a little less eyes-focused and a bit more well-rounded, then the Best of Kit ($19.97) is for you! There are minis of some of my favourite products in here: the Tiki “bronzer” (it’s actually a highlighter) and the blush/bronzer/highlighter trio. There’s a glamouflage concealer (which has quite the cult following on YouTube), an eyeshadow primer, face primer, setting spray, eyeshadow palette, pencil liner with sharpened, beauty sponge, gloss, mascara and a cream shadow. This definitely covers a LOT of bases in one shot!

Hard Candy also does a ton of smaller items, sometimes in sets, and sometimes just by themselves, which make great little addons to other presents.

Tiki bronzer: THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER. I’ve had a full size of Tiki forever in my makeup collection and it’s one of my absolute favourite highlighters. Get thing tiny little baby mini for only $1.47 CAD!
Highlight & Contour Face Sticks: $3 CAD gives someone the opportunity to try out contouring without breaking the bank.
Seize the Sparkle nail polish set: Also comes with a makeup bag for $4.97 CAD.

Hard Candy - Lip Gloss Ornament — Hard Candy – Lip Gloss Ornament

They also do cute little ornamental items such as this lip gloss duo for $3 CAD. I love me a good pattern or swirl in a product, so these candy cane-esque twirls in the gloss are too cute to resist.

Of course, it’s not just these sets that are reasonably priced by Hard Candy – they’ve got a massive collection of items that are all placed in a completely reasonable price point.

Hard Candy Giveaway

The team at Hard Candy reached out and wanted to do a holiday giveaway alongside this post! One person will win the following:

Hard Candy 12 Days of Eye
Hard Candy Glossing All The Way
Hard Candy Fizz Smoothie
Hard Candy Blush + Bronzer Kit
Hard Candy Glam Kit Supreme

Giveaway Rules

This giveaway is open to Canada only!
This giveaway starts on December 18, 2017 and runs for one week.
Please be aware that all entries will be double checked to ensure fairness.
One winner will win the Prize Pack pictured and described above.
The winners will have 48 hours to respond to my e-mail. If they fail to respond within that time frame, I will pick another prize winner. (And so on.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Swatch Sunday: Too Faced Chocolate Gold

December 17, 2017Makeup, SwatchesToo FacedChelle

Too Faced Chocolate Gold

Yesssss!!!! Say hello to the Too Faced Chocolate Gold palette! Created, in my eyes, as the antithesis to the White Chocolate Bar palette, this one is chockfull of rich, vibrant jewel tones centered around a golden theme.

While I haven ‘t used the palette on my face yet (I was rushing to get swatches up and I’m about to film a try on with this palette – so watch out for that on my YouTube channel as it’ll be up this week), what I can tell you is that these shadows feel more like foiled shadows. They’re almost wet looking on the skin and there’s a density to them that was unexpected but so appreciated. The palette also comes with four absolutely vital matte shades (a brow bone highlight, a transition shade, a deeper brown and a black) amongst all the shimmers.

Too Faced Chocolate Gold Swatches

Too Faced - Money Bags — Too Faced – Money Bags

Too Faced - Love & Cocoa — Too Faced – Love & Cocoa

Too Faced - Holla For A Dolla — Too Faced – Holla For A Dolla

Too Faced - Old Money — Too Faced – Old Money

Too Faced - Gold Dipped — Too Faced – Gold Dipped

Too Faced - New Money — Too Faced – New Money

Too Faced - Livin' Lavish — Too Faced – Livin’ Lavish

Too Faced - Rich Girl — Too Faced – Rich Girl

Too Faced - Drippin' Diamonds — Too Faced – Drippin’ Diamonds

Too Faced - Cocoa Truffle — Too Faced – Cocoa Truffle

Too Faced - Classy & Sassy — Too Faced – Classy & Sassy

Too Faced - Rollin' In Dough — Too Faced – Rollin’ In Dough

Too Faced - Decadent — Too Faced – Decadent

Too Faced - So Boujee — Too Faced – So Boujee

The Too Faced Chocolate Gold palette can be purchased on sephora.ca for $59 CAD or on sephora.com for $49 USD.

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

Holiday 2017: QUO Illuminating Palette (Review, Swatches & Face Shots)

December 15, 2017Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesQUOChelle

QUO Holiday 2017 Illuminating Palette

One of the items I was most excited to try from QUO‘s Holiday 2017 range (you can see a ton from that launch in this video where I do a PR haul) was the Illuminating Palette!

With three highlighters, a blush and two bronzers, this seemed like such a great deal for $22 CAD! The pans are huge, so there’s more than enough space to get your face brushes in there. The only thing that kind of threw me off was that this is said to be an illuminating palette, so I actually thought these were all highlighters till I flipped it over and read the instructions that indicated there was a blush, bronzer, etc.

QUO Holiday 2017 Illuminating Palette - swatches — QUO Holiday 2017 Illuminating Palette – swatches

Swatched out, I’d actually go ahead and say that aside from the coral-pink blush shade, the rest of the colours really are highlighters. The deeper shades – the bronzers – are fundamentally too shimmery and a touch too orange to be used as a bronzer.

Face Swatches

I’ve swatched these on my face in the order in which they appear in the palette – left to right, top row then bottom row. All swatches are on my cheek/cheekbone and done extremely heavily – about five layers for the highlighters and bronzers. The blush was done lightly.

Quo - Illuminating Palette - Highlighter 1 — Quo – Illuminating Palette – Highlighter 1

More of a pearlescent-white sheen, Highlighter #1 was the most reflective in direct lighting.

Quo - Illuminating Palette - Highlighter 2 — Quo – Illuminating Palette – Highlighter 2

Highlighter #2 leans more pink, but loses a lot of of sheen on the face.

Quo - Illuminating Palette - Blush — Quo – Illuminating Palette – Blush

The Blush is GORGEOUS! Super stunning colour with excellent payoff and easy to blend.

Quo - Illuminating Palette - Highlighter 3 — Quo – Illuminating Palette – Highlighter 3

Highlighter #3 is a beige-cream highlighter that provide a faint hint of sheen.

Quo - Illuminating Palette - Bronzer 1 — Quo – Illuminating Palette – Bronzer 1

Bronzer #1 delivers a muted orange-gold sheen.

Quo - Illuminating Palette - Bronzer 2 — Quo – Illuminating Palette – Bronzer 2

Bronzer #2 is a touch deeper than Bronzer #1, but the colour tone is roughly the same.

Final Thoughts

Sadly, the QUO Illuminating Palette isn’t for me (or for very many others, I imagine). I found the powders just didn’t give me what I was looking for in a highlighter (not enough sheen) or bronzer (*definitely* not the right tone). The only shade I truly loved was the blush, but that’s not enough of a reason for me to want to buy this palette. The highlighters provide a very soft subtle sheen, but I found it was often gone by the end of the day. The “bronzers” are not bronzers – they’re basically warm-toned semi-shimmery highlighters. On me, the colouring of them wasn’t great, and they definitely would not work on deeper skintones as a bronzer – maybe as a highlighter?

Hard pass on this one I’m afraid. Womp womp.

The QUO Illuminating Palette can be found at Shoppers Drug Mart for $22 CAD.

The product featured in this post was sent to me for consideration.

Holiday 2017: Too Faced Best Year Ever (Review & Looks)

December 11, 2017Makeup, ReviewsToo FacedChelle

Too Faced Best Year Ever

You guys, I feel like I’m on the constant Too Faced hustle! They just put out so many products for the holidays that it’s hard to keep up! For today, we’re focusing on the Too Faced Best Year Ever holiday set – a three pack of Too Faced goodness housed in a cute makeup bag.

Although the Too Faced holiday 2017 collection was very much planner focused, this is the only set that does not come with one. I’m not much of a physical planner person, so that works out for me! This set comes with a Glamour Guide, three palettes with seven shades housed inside, a deluxe size sample of their Better Than Sex mascara, and a makeup bag that says “I have way more makeup at home” (#accurate) to hold everything inside. The makeup bag is a wonderful size and doesn’t feel cheap – I love how much it can hold!

Too Faced Best Year Ever - three palettes and a mini Better Than Sex mascara — Too Faced Best Year Ever – three palettes and a mini Better Than Sex mascara

I swatched all three palettes yesterday for your viewing pleasure, so click on over to that post if you want to see the swatchees.

Out of all three holiday sets themed around “Best Year Ever“, this is the one that is the most neutral leaning. It has some additions of pink, but overall this is definitely a more nude/natural friendly set.

Too Faced Best Year Ever - I Believe In Pink — Too Faced Best Year Ever – I Believe In Pink

The first palette I dug into was the I Believe In Pink palette. All six eyeshadow shades lean towards the pink side of things (although one of the top shades is more cream then the more pink-leaning one beside it). It always has a really bright, hot pink blush to complement the colours.

I Believe In Pink Palette

Too Faced Best Year Ever - I Believe In Pink eye look — Too Faced Best Year Ever – I Believe In Pink eye look

Too Faced Best Year Ever - I Believe In Pink full face — Too Faced Best Year Ever – I Believe In Pink full face

This palette will definitely get you a very pink eyeshadow look, but it’s beautiful! At first I was nervous about the blush pairing, but I found it worked out really well in practice. Since it’s such a bright shade, definitely go easy with it!

Natural Beauty Palette

Too Faced Best Year Ever - Natural Beauty — Too Faced Best Year Ever – Natural Beauty

The more neutral palette in the set is the Natural Beauty one (makes sense, right?). Instead of a blush, this one has more of a bronzer shade, although since it’s a face product, it could easily double as blush as well. (Really, any powder product can!)

Too Faced Best Year Ever - Natural Beauty eye look — Too Faced Best Year Ever – Natural Beauty eye look

On the eyes, you get your very basic, yet easy to wear neutral eye. The shade, Oh, Deer!, is an especially beautiful shade that I loved in my crease. I wasn’t as in love with the bronzer shade (Warm My Heart) because I felt it was a bit too warm leaning and almost too pigmented for a bronzer.

Super Fun Night Palette

Too Faced Best Year Ever - Super Fun Night — Too Faced Best Year Ever – Super Fun Night

The last palette turned out to be my absolute favourite. This one is Super Fun Night, and while I had thought the shades were awfully neutral overall, I was so, SO pleased with how my eye look came out!

Too Faced Best Year Ever - Super Fun Night eye look — Too Faced Best Year Ever – Super Fun Night eye look

Sleighhh Girl is a beautiful almost-patina lid shade – I wasn’t expecting that at all from looking at the pan! Tipsy is an interesting bronze… it almost leans kinda green? The pairing of the pink crease was also completely different from what I normally go for, but I really love how it all came together!

If you’re curious about the liner, it’s Hey Mr. DJ from Too Faced‘s Glitter Pop eyeliner range. Full review on that collection over here!

Final Thoughts

Because of the neutral-ness of the Too Faced Best Year Ever set, I was not expecting to like it as much as I did. All three palettes had wonderful colour combinations that I loved so, so much. They were easy to put together eye look without needing to resort to bringing in another palette to help you complete the look. Quality was also EXCELLENT – they were easy to blend and quite pigmented. I found layering shades wasn’t problematic at all, and even when blending in another shade on top, the original colour didn’t lose its integrity.

In short? This is definitely a good buy!

The Too Faced Best Year Ever set can be purchased on sephora.ca for $62 CAD or on sephora.com for $49 USD.

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

Swatch Sunday: Too Faced Best Year Ever

December 10, 2017Makeup, SwatchesToo FacedChelle

Too Faced Best Year Ever set

Another set from Too Faced’s Holiday 2017 collection! This set, Best Year Ever, houses three palettes in a makeup bag. While this is just a swatch post, my full review and looks can be found in this post.

Fundamentally, all three palettes are very neutral, leaning pink.

Too Faced Best Year Ever Swatches

Too Faced - Lucky Star — Too Faced – Lucky Star

Too Faced - Cozy Cashmere — Too Faced – Cozy Cashmere

Too Faced - Oh What Fun — Too Faced – Oh What Fun

Too Faced - Sleighhh Girl — Too Faced – Sleighhh Girl

Too Faced - No Peeking — Too Faced – No Peeking

Too Faced - Dashing Through The Glow — Too Faced – Dashing Through The Glow

Too Faced - Natural Beauty — Too Faced – Natural Beauty

Too Faced - Angelic — Too Faced – Angelic

Too Faced - 5 Golden Rings — Too Faced – 5 Golden Rings

Too Faced - Oh, Deer! — Too Faced – Oh, Deer!

Too Faced - Pretty Pecan — Too Faced – Pretty Pecan

Too Faced - Sleigh My Name — Too Faced – Sleigh My Name

Too Faced - BAEthoven — Too Faced – BAEthoven

Too Faced - Warm My Heart — Too Faced – Warm My Heart

Too Faced - I Believe In Pink — Too Faced – I Believe In Pink

Too Faced - Snowgirl — Too Faced – Snowgirl

Too Faced - Mink Pink — Too Faced – Mink Pink

Too Faced - Pink Rink — Too Faced – Pink Rink

Too Faced - Pink Christmas — Too Faced – Pink Christmas

Too Faced - Spoiled Rotten — Too Faced – Spoiled Rotten

Too Faced - Wish For It — Too Faced – Wish For It

Too Faced - Pink Poinsettia — Too Faced – Pink Poinsettia

The Too Faced Best Year Ever set can be purchased on sephora.ca for $62 CAD or on sephora.com for $49 USD.

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