Category Archives: Reviews

Lise Watier Rouge Intense Suprême Lipsticks (Review & Swatches)

March 8, 2017Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesLise WatierChelle

Lise Watier Rouge Intense Suprême

I don’t know what it is, but it wasn’t until I got into blogging that I started to get more and more exposed to Canadian makeup. And, having been born and raised in this country, it feels really weird to say that. Considering I can tell you a lot about brands that are available only in the UK, or only in the USA, it’s definitely strange that I can’t talk more in depth about some of my own homegrown brands. Maybe it’s because those seem foreign to me, and therefore more interesting?

So since I’ve not tried a heck of a lot of Canadian cosmetics, I feel like I’m constantly having my eyes opened to what’s available to me in my own backyard! I’m not going to beat around the bush with this review – Lise Watier has totally stunned me with how good these lipsticks are, so I want to take this time to tell you why I love them so much!

The Rouge Intense Suprême lipsticks are touted as having rich, intense colour in one swipe (totally accurate), incredible hold (ALSO accurate) and are hydrating and nourishing (yes, and yes!). Never before have I see a brand claim something so accurately in their product description and actually hold true on all claims!

These lipsticks come housed in reflective gunmetal case with a magnetic cap. No snapping into place here, these lipstick click into place and stay put once the magnet gets a hold of the other side!

Lise Watier Rouge Intense Suprême Lipsticks - swatches — Lise Watier Rouge Intense Suprême Lipsticks – swatches

And these buggers are PIGMENTED AF. They glide on like a dream – creamy and moisturizing – with barely any pressure on your lips. They stay somewhat glossy, kind of like a thick cream, but settle down a bit over time.

I’ve mentioned before, but I’m not a huge fan of wearing lipstick – in practice I find it a bit of a hassle: I’m constantly worried about it getting on my teeth, bleeding outside of my lip line, or basically just smearing everywhere. While there’s no tacky quality to the Rouge Intense Suprême lipsticks that I usually associate with a good stay-in-place lipstick, these actually stay hydrating but firmly in place on your lips. Every time I checked my teeth in the mirror at my desk at work, the lipstick hadn’t freaking budged from random movement (such as drinking out of a straw, or talking to people). Keep in mind though, although these stay in place, they are not transfer-proof.

Also worth mentioning is that they have a very light fruity scent in the tube, but there is no discernible taste on my lips.

Lise Watier Rouge Intense Suprême Lipsticks – Face Swatches

Lise Watier Rouge Intense Suprême in Arielle

Arielle is verging on too pale of a pink for my own tastes, but I can see how a lot of others would find this a very easy and comfortable colour to wear. It’s the kind of colour that will match practically every eye look.

Lise Watier Rouge Intense Suprême in Olivia

For me, Olivia is the kind of shade I’ll wear as an everyday shade when I don’t know what to grab for. It’s a beautiful deeper rose-pink.

Lise Watier Rouge Intense Suprême in Jasmine

AND HOLY FREAKING GOD – THIS ONE IS EVERYTHING! Jasmine is everything I ever needed in a lipstick colour! I found myself in constant awe of this colour when I put it on.

Final Thoughts

I have zero negatives to say about the Lise Watier Rouge Intense Suprême lipsticks. They are intensely pigmented and yet stay put. They are hands down one of the most comfortable lipsticks I have ever put on my lips! (They’re in the same vein as the Revlon Super Lustrous lipsticks which are some of my all time favourites.) At no point did my lips feel uncomfortable while wearing product (a common problem for me with lipsticks) and I actually feel like they moisturized my lips as well since I had no desire to apply balm after I removed them. In short – these are incredible!

The Lise Watier Rouge Intense Suprême lipsticks can be purchased on beautyboutique.ca for $27 CAD each (and there are plenty of other shades as well!).

This products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration.

Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit (Review & Swatches)

March 6, 2017Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesAnastasiaChelle

Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit

While I’m not done with highlighting as a trend, I feel like I am personally done with limited edition highlighting kits – ESPECIALLY when they sell out so damn fast and then no one has a chance to get their hands on it ever again. And let’s face it… the ABH Glow Kits fly so fast off the shelves it’s a wonder we even get to talk about them before they’re gone! However, they fly off the shelves for good reason: they’re DAMN good products!

So for that reason, I wasn’t going to buy the Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit – because I just didn’t need it. I’ve picked up a ton of ABH Glow Kits over the last year or so and I love them intensely – I use them constantly! But at a certain point, you’ve just had enough, you know? Like, there’s only so many shades of highlighter (especially in the champagne vein) that you can use before they all start to look the same.

So when my dear friend Julie of Swatch and Review offered to loan me this particular Glow Kit for review, half of me was like “ugh, why bother? I don’t need more highlighters and this doesn’t look unique” and the other side of me was like “oh dear god please do not fall in love with this so much that I want to buy one for myself”.

Anyway, my personal inner monologue aside, let’s take a look at the palette: the Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit is excessively warm, which seems to be a general trend with powdered products lately. You get six pans at 4.5 grams each – which is more than enough product, especially given the amount of variety you’re faced with!

One thing worth noting is that some of these pans do contain glitter in them. 143 for sure has glitter, and I think it was Daydream that had it as well. I know not everyone is a fan of glitter pieces in their highlighter, so I wanted to make sure that got mentioned.

Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit - swatches — Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit – swatches

Swatched out, I was surprised how similar all the colours looked. While I was supremely enchanted by the look of Kitty Kat, it’s really not that different from Forever Young beside it. Glo Getter and 143 also look surprisingly similar in swatches as well. The most unique shade in this assortment is definitely Daydream in my eyes – I’ve been hunting for an orange-tinged highlighter to round out my collection (I swear I have every other shade of the rainbow) and I can’t think of anything that’s similar.

Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit – Face Swatches

Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit - Kitty Kat — Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit – Kitty Kat

Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit - Forever Young — Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit – Forever Young

Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit - Daydream — Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit – Daydream

Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit - Forever Lit — Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit – Forever Lit

Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit - Glo Getter — Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit – Glo Getter

Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit - 143 — Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit – 143

Final Thoughts

Some would venture to say that the ABH x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit is too deep for pale folk, but I feel like each and every shade of this palette works on my NW20 skin tone. If you’re paler than me, you may struggle with Glo Getter and 143, as I feel I’m right on the verge of those shades being a touch too deep for me. However, considering that when you look at this palette the overall shade range seems deeper than normal, I’m surprised and impressed that they did work out on my skintone.

Is this palette necessary in your life? I don’t know – I’m kind of struggling with my thoughts on this one. The palette itself is beautiful, and I love how each and every shade looks on my skin. The effect is ethereal, luminous and glowing and there isn’t a shade in here I wouldn’t wear on the daily. However… I also feel like a lot of the shades are very, very similar and don’t reflect enough variety for my own tastes. I also feel like I’ve got a metric ton of highlighters in my collection that make this palette somewhat unnecessary to own in addition to what I already have.

That being said, if you like the look of this palette and/or you’re a fan of Nicole Guerriero, I don’t think you can go wrong buying this palette. The quality is excellent and the overall effect is glorious. For me though, this didn’t fill enough gaps in my highlighter collection to necessitate buying it (although I’m damn glad I got to try it out. Thanks Julie! Sidenote, she also reviewed this palette today too, so be sure to check out her review here for her take on it!).

Let me know what your take on this palette is! I’m especially curious to hear from people who are looking to bulk up their highlighter collection – do you think this would be a great addition to your collection?

The Anastasia Beverly Hills x Nicole Guerriero Glow Kit is a limited edition item and can be purchased on sephora.ca for $52 CAD and on sephora.com for $40 USD.

This post contains affiliate links.

Urban Decay Moondust Eyeshadows (Review & Swatches)

February 22, 2017Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesUrban DecayChelle

The Urban Decay Moondust shadows were introduced… oh man, how long ago was it now? Two years ago? Maybe three? Anyway, they’ve been around for a little while, but I never picked one up because the price was exorbitant (I really struggle with forking over $25 for an eyeshadow when I could get a palette with ten times the number of shadows for only double the price). BUT, I was gifted four of the Moondust shadows at the Urban Decay Square One launch party in Mississauga (vlog of that here!) and I was REALLY excited to try these out. Even cooler was these four shades were Urban Decay store/online exclusives!

Sadly, upon trying them, my excitement vanished into thin air. I was so, so sad at the results I got with these shadows that I debated not even posting about them at all. But, a negative review IS helpful to consumers, even if hurts my soul to do so about a brand I’ve loved immensely over the years.

I. Just. Don’t. Like. These.

I know a lot of people do, but I’m one of the unlucky few that doesn’t. The Moondust shadows I tried out are beautiful shades: Chem Trail is the kind of subtle pewter glitter that’s so fun to add to a look. Interstellar is a beautiful pale gold. Vortex is a super pigmented mossy green. And Crux is an INSANE blue-green mix that looks incredible in the pan.

Urban Decay Moondust swatches - Chem Trail, Interstellar, Vortex and Crux — Urban Decay Moondust swatches – Chem Trail, Interstellar, Vortex and Crux

On the lids… they just fall apart for me. (Apologies for the lack of eye looks, but I tried two different looks, hated them both and kind of figured I’d never post about them so I never bothered to take pictures.) They do apply decently – I had no issues with the application… but over the course of the day the glitter particles smear EVERYWHERE. Even worse is that those glitter particles are embedded with coloured pigmented which just makes a bloody mess. I ended up with silver sparkles and blue pigment all along the tops of my cheekbones as the pigment just dropped off my lids throughout the day. I freaking LOVE glitter, so it’s a bit of a struggle for me to say that I looked wretched with glitter everywhere because it’s something I never, ever thought I’d say.

It’s pretty rare for me to walk away from an eyeshadow – usually I can make the colours or the pigment work in some way (and truthfully, the only other time I’ve really done this is with the Morphe 35B palette), but I don’t want to work with these eyeshadows anymore. It’s too much hassle and I can’t rely on them to not make me look like I doused my face in glitter.

So, sad to say, but I’m done with these – despite how beautiful they look in the pot, I know that I will 100% not be reaching for these at all. If you do decide to use these, I’d suggest trying a glitter adhesive of some sort which is not something I did (I did try them wet – which had no impact on fallout). That being said, I don’t think Urban Decay even makes a glitter adhesive, so it’s not like they thought it would be necessary to use one with these eyeshadows either. 🙁

The products in this post were given to me at a PR event for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.

Beautycounter Desert Sunrise Collection (Review & Swatches)

February 15, 2017Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesBeautycounterChelle

Beautycounter Desert Sunrise collection

Beautycounter is an entirely new to me brand. In fact, the only thing I even knew about them was that they made some kind of skincare and that Stephanie Nicole had mentioned them buying up one of her favourite facial cleansers. That’s REALLY not a lot to go on, so I was essentially diving head first without looking into this brand!

Beautycounter produces makeup alongside skincare, but their backstory is not dissimilar to a lot of other brand creators out there who are suddenly becoming more conscientious about what they’re putting on their faces. Beautycounter was on a mission to get safer products out there to everyone. They even house a “Never List” on their web site that tells you a shortened version of all the chemicals they were never dump in their products.

Beautycounter Desert Sunrise collection lip glosses

Moving on to the actual reviews! First up are the lip glosses. These are part of the Desert Sunrise collection release, but I believe they’re being added to their permanent range of glosses as they’re now listed as “new shades”.

They are lightly vanilla scented (very similar to MAC’s lipglasses) and have the most unique applicator I’ve seen to date: it’s a triangular doefoot applicator with a slot in the middle of it. I like the rounded-point tip as it makes it very easy to get around your cupid’s bow, and the slot in the middle actually helps to collect the excess product you may have gotten onto the wand. It basically gets pushed through to the other side so that you can get them flip the applicator over and do your bottom lip with the remaining product.

Beautycounter lip gloss swatches - Coralbell and Beeblossom — Beautycounter lip gloss swatches – Coralbell and Beeblossom

Of course, the two shades in the collection, Coralbell and Beeblossom, are right up my alley.

Coralbell is a glorious peachy-coral-apricot shade that comes off as a cream finish. I think I detect microglitter in there in the swatch, but it is not noticeable on the lips.
Beeblossom is a stunning true peach with gold glitter.

Coralbell has the most pigment out of the two shades I tried. It will require a little bit more fussing to make sure you have an even coat.

Beeblossom is the easier shade to wear since it has a bit more translucency to it.

The Desert Sunrise palette is beautiful to behold: it comes with three hefty sized blushes (and that red shade is everrrrything to me!), as well as six eyeshadows (two of which are new shades to the brand – Khaki and Bark). Unlike the lip glosses, this is a limited edition palette, so keep that in mind if this selection of colours really piques your interest.

Beautycounter Desert Sunrise palette - eyeshadow swatches — Beautycounter Desert Sunrise palette – eyeshadow swatches

The shades in the palette range from a satin finish to a lightly shimmery one. There’s no glitter on sight which is good news for those of you who are allergic to it! 😉

Beautycounter Desert Sunrise palette - blush swatches — Beautycounter Desert Sunrise palette – blush swatches

The blushes were the real stunners of this palette for me. I am IN LOVE with that Flamingo shade, and the pink shade makes for a great every day colour as well as the bronzey-pink which does wonders to liven up my cheekbones.

Beautycounter Desert Sunrise Makeup Look

Wearing the Desert Sunrise eyeshadows, Coralbell lip gloss and Bloom blush — Wearing the Desert Sunrise eyeshadows, Coralbell lip gloss and Flamingo blush

Beautycounter Desert Sunrise eyeshadow look

On my eyes I have Champagne all over the lid, Pinot on the outer corner and a mix of Dove and Bark through my crease. To highlight my inner corner and brow bone, I used Pearl, and then lined my lower lash line with Khaki.

Final Thoughts

One of the things I haven’t mentioned up until now is the cost of these items. I found the price points kind of shocking since they’re rivalling some high end brands at Sephora: the lip glosses retail for $36 CAD and the palette is $75 CAD. While I can get behind the lip gloss packaging okay enough, I’m struggling with the palette. It’s entirely made up for cardboard with no mirror. For that price tag, I would expect to see a mirror in there!

Moving on to the quality of the products… The lip glosses are glorious! They’re creamy and non-sticky. They smell wonderful and apply easily. My personal favourite was Beeblossom just because it was an easy to wear shade that didn’t require you to really make sure your lips were done “properly”. They are glosses, so the longevity isn’t anything amazing, but they do wear off nicely which is something I always appreciate.

The eyeshadow palette is smooth and easy to use – the colours blended together very, very nicely without much effort. The only thing I found a disappointing for me personally is that shades came off very muted. This may be appealing to some people though since not everyone is looking for in your face colour with every single palette! The end result IS pretty, but I like a little more impact in my eyeshadow. Those blushes though? They are INCREDIBLE! I love the texture, the finish and the shades so, so much!

The products featured in this post were sent to me for review.

Too Faced Creamy Peach Oil Lip Gloss – Full Collection (Review & Swatches)

February 13, 2017Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesToo FacedChelle

Too Faced Sweet Peach Creamy Peach Oil Lip Gloss

Continuing on down the path of exciting Too Faced releases, I’ve got the newly launched Sweet Peach Creamy Peach Oil Lip Glosses!

Each tube comes with 4ml/0.14fluid ounce of product in a gorgeous colour coded tube and outer packaging. One of the most enticing things about this Sweet Peach launch is that these lip glosses smell and taste like artificial peaches. It’s a juicy, sweet, candy-like kind of artificial scent. Some people may find it overpowering (I think), but I’m in love with it!

If you’re like me and saw “Peach Oil” and assumed these would be a very sheer finish with an oily consistency… then let me correct you right away. These are fundamentally lip glosses infused with peach oil, coconut oil and vitamin E to soften and moisturize lips. And they are saturated AF with pigment! No sheer lip glosses to be found here – these pack one hell of a pigment punch!

As I’ve already mentioned, the tube handles are colour-coded to match the product inside. A lovely touch that I really feel like all brands should be doing.

Too Faced always goes just the right amount of over the top for their packaging too: the Sweet Peach emoji dude is sitting pretty on top of all of the lip glosses as a little bubble sticker. They actually come off pretty nicely, so you could stick that happy little guy anywhere if you so desire.

Too Faced Creamy Peach Oil Lip Gloss - swatches — Too Faced Creamy Peach Oil Lip Gloss – swatches

As you can see from the swatches, these lip glosses pack a lot of peachy goodness pigment! The top row has your basic set of peachy nudes for those who aren’t looking for a ton of colour in their gloss, whereas the bottom row gives you more of an assortment of shades with a peachy-pink, a solid coral, an orange and in-your-face peach-red.

Too Faced Sweet Peach Creamy Peach Oil Lip Gloss Lip Swatches

Before we get into the lip swatches, I have to put out an enormous thank you to Kristelle of Crystal Candy Makeup. I was super frustrated with how my face shots turned out (the green background ended up tinting my skin very green) and she offered to help me out by colour correcting them (I had tried and failed!). She said I didn’t need to thank her, but a job well done (and unexpected!) always deserves praise. Thank you Kristelle. 🙂

Wearing Papa Don't Peach — Wearing Papa Don’t Peach

Wearing Poppin' Peach — Wearing Poppin’ Peach

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking for that peachy, healthy glow in a comfortable to wear lip gloss, you really don’t need to look much further than the Too Faced Creamy Peach Oil Lip Glosses. They’re not tacky or gloppy, so you needn’t worry about gross strings of lip gloss collecting anywhere on your lips. I do find some of the paler shades a touchstreaky (namely Peach Fuzz and Peach-sicle), but I’d suggest not going in with a lot of the product and you won’t have to worry about the streaks. As these are a non-tacky lip gloss, you can’t expect serious longevity with these, but I find they last just fine for about 90 minutes before I want to touch them up. They do wear off nicely though so you don’t have to be worried about some weird ring around the edge of your lips either.

Honestly, these are just a no-brainer for me. Easy to wear. Comfortable. Smell and taste good. Peach shades as far as the eye can see! My personal favourite shades are Papa Don’t Peach, Tickle-Me Peach and Peach Tease.

The Too Faced Creamy Peach Oil Lip Glosses can be purchased at sephora.ca for $24 CAD each or on sephora.com for $19 USD. If you’re an Ulta shopper, you can also snag them there as well!

The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration.