Category Archives: Reviews

My Foundation Collection (Drugstore & High End)

June 17, 2015Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesBoots No7, Bourjois, Illamasqua, It Cosmetics, Neutrogena, RevlonChelle

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One of my most popular posts was my Drugstore Foundation Roundup from 2013. At the time, I only owned drugstore foundations so it was a fairly inexpensive collection. I’ve now branched out a bit more and have a few new foundations to share.

I know colour matching can be difficult , so here’s a little information about my skin:

At MAC, I’m in the NW20/NC20 colour range.
My skin is mostly normal. I get a bit dry during the winter and a bit oily during the summer, but I’m never dry like the Sahara nor do I ever turn into a greasepit.
My veins appear blue, which means I have a cool undertone.
I wear foundation for aesthetic purposes, not to cover up blemishes. I do not have problems with acne. I also don’t wear foundation on a daily basis as I find it can make my skin itchy. (Make Up For Ever’s Smooth Primer helps prevent this.)
The inside of my arm (where the shades have been swatched) is infinitely lighter than my face.
My face is also not the same colour as my neck (which is lighter), so I don’t even bother trying to match the two since it make me look like I’ve got a pasty face.

Enjoy the comparison swatches and short reviews! There’s a full comparison swatch of every foundation at the very bottom of this post.

First up are my Revlon Colorstays. This used to be my absolute favourite foundation, but then they went ahead and changed the formula. The ones that smelled like paint thinner and had an SPF of 6 (the bottle on the left is the old formula) were amazing. The stuff would cover anything and everything and it looked better and better as the day went on. With the new formula, I don’t find the coverage is as longwearing nor does it wear as well throughout the day and that’s been very disappointing.

Revlon Colorstay in 150 Buff, 200 Nude and 220 Natural Beige

150 Buff and 200 Nude are in the Combination/Oily variety, whereas 220 Natural Beige is Normal/Dry Skin. If I’m honest, I don’t notice much of a difference between the two varieties.

Neutrogena Healthy Skin Liquid Makeup in 30 Buff

Neutrogena Healthy Skin Liquid Makeup is a recent addition to my collection and I got a shade that’s really only going to suit me in the middle of summer when I’m quite tan. Right now it’s wearable, but I have to blend it down my neck quite a bit. To me, this feels very lightweight and is easy to blend into the skin.

Definitely too dark for me right now though!

Boots No7 foundations: Instant Radiance and Stay Perfect

Oh Boots No7, I love you so, so much. I feel their colour matching technology (that gun thing they put on your face) is incredible and seems to nail my skin colour every time.

On the left is Instant Radiance in Cool Vanilla. This is my absolutely FAVOURITE foundation. It’s exactly the kind of coverage I enjoy (light to medium with a somewhat dewy finish) and it feels fantastic. Cool Vanilla works for me when it’s late spring into summer.

On the right is Stay Perfect in Deeply Ivory. This is my late summer into fall foundation. It’s way, WAY too dark for me right now, but it blends in seamlessly when I’ve got more of a tan. The only reason I didn’t pick up another Instant Radiance in this shade is that the Boots at Heathrow didn’t have Instant Radiance on hand. However, Stay Perfect is a gloriously matte foundation that works wonders at keeping me from looking sweaty.

Boots No7: Instant Radiance in Cool Vanilla and Stay Perfect in Deeply Ivory

Cool Vanilla is quite pink toned and Deeply Ivory looks (frighteningly) orange, but I assure you it really is a good suit for my tanned skin.

I’ve done a recent review on Bourjois‘ Healthy Mix Serum foundation so I’ll keep this short. I don’t know a single person that doesn’t like this foundation. It’s a soft (I guess that’s the gel?) liquid foundation that smells absolutely incredible and feels wonderful on the skin. It has a light to medium coverage. They’re considered drug store in the UK/Ireland, but they’re high end here in Canada. Absolutely worth the price tag though.

Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum in 51 Light Vanilla and 52 Vanilla

I will say that the Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum foundations do lean yellow and there aren’t an awful lot of shades. If they do suit your skin colouring though, get them!

Illamasqua‘s Skin Base was a panic purchase when I found out that the brand was leaving North America. The texture is very thick, surprisingly so, and yet it doesn’t feel thick on the skin. I have no idea how they managed to do that, but somehow it works. The name is apt too; Skin Base. It does feel like a second layer of skin and probably one of my more comfortable to wear foundations.

I have shade 6.5 and it does lean a bit orangey/yellow on me.

Last up are my it Cosmetics CC+ Creams with SPF 50+. They are hyped out the wazoo on YouTube, so I *had* to try them out. I picked up the shade Fair when I was in the US in April because Light was so incredibly dark. Of course, then I realized Fair was too pale and gotLight as well when I got back to Canada. Right now I’m in between both shades, so I mix them together to get the right tone. (Seriously, can you believe how dark Light is? I was astounded.) I love that there’s a huge amount of SPF in these, but I haven’t tested them enough to see how they perform through sweaty days.

I feel these ones have far more neutral colouring than my other foundations which is really, really nice.

All my foundations swatched – click to enlarge

Revlon Colorstay in 150 Buff
Revlon Colorstay in 200 Nude
Revlon Colorstay in 220 Natural Beige
Neutrogena Healthy Skin in 30 Buff
Boots No7 Instant Radiance in Cool Vanilla
Boots No7 Stay Perfect in Deeply Ivory
Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum in 51 Light Vanilla
Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum in 52 Vanilla
Illamasqua Skin Base in 6.5
it Cosmetics CC+ in Fair
it Cosmetics CC+ in Light

My Favourites

I feel you really can’t go wrong with the Boots No7 line or Bourjois‘ Healthy Mix Serums. They’re my favourite foundations to wear by far! How about you? Any top picks? Or anything in this list that you love or hate?

Charlotte Tilbury Launches in Canada (Review, Swatches & Look)

June 16, 2015Makeup, Reviews, Swatches, TutorialsCharlotte TilburyChelle

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June 2015 saw the launch of Charlotte Tilbury products in Canada and my god was I ever excited. If you’ve been lurking around the internet for a while, you may have seenCharlotte Tilbury products popping up on blogs and YouTube since late 2013. It first started in the UK, then spread to the USA. Now, finally, Canadians can pick up her products without ordering from overseas! For the month of June, all sales on charlottetilbury.com/ca/ will have free shipping!

There’s zero disputing her products are exceptionally highend. The price tags alone were enough to curb my spending and I ended up purchasing only two products (however, my mental list of what I “need” continues to grow longer and longer…). I hope you enjoy reading about what I’ve picked up. There’s also a full look at the bottom of this post that features both products.

Charlotte Tilbury – Filmstar Bronze & Glow ($80 CAD)

The one thing I knew I wanted without a shadow of a doubt from Charlotte Tilbury‘s line was the Filmstar Bronze & Glow. At $80 CAD, this is by far the most expensive single item I own in my makeup collection. (Hilariously, given the current exchange rate, this is actually cheaper to buy in Canada than in the UK! So that means… it was a total steal right? ) The packaging feels and acts luxurious – it opens and snaps shut with a solid click. It’s slightly weighted, but this is a plastic compact and not a metal one. And it’s just stunning to look at. This is the kind of item you want to proudly display on your vanity.

Charlotte Tilbury – Filmstar Bronze & Glow

Inside the compact are two shades intended to sculpt and highlight your face. There’s also an enormous mirror on the inside which is massively appreciated.

Charlotte Tilbury – Filmstar Bronze & Glow swatches

The Sculpt shade has an orange tinge to it, and there’s some shimmer. I would recommend using this as a bronzer instead of a contour because it does wonders to give you a sunkissed glow. (As a note, I’ve seen it look far cooler toned on other blogs, but when I tried it out it definitely came out more warm.)

The Highlight shade is a fairly standard gold shade that will give a beautiful sheen to the high points of your face.

Neither product has particles of glitter, they are both infused with a sheen. It’s also worth noting that these are incredibly pigmented and buttery soft. I made the mistake of jabbing my brush into the Sculpt shade the first time I used it and I picked up WAY too much product. Go gentle and sweep lightly into the product to pick some up!

Charlotte Tilbury – The Vintage Vamp ($64 CAD)

Just look at that stunning quad. I mean come on… doesn’t that just look and feel fancy?

Three of the shades are buttery soft ranging from satin to shimmer. The fourth shade, the gold, is basically a glitter topcoat. It’s described by Charlotte as a “Pop” shade – intended to glitter up your look and make it more nighttime appropriate. (If that matters to you that is, I’d wear it during the day regardless.) The Pop shade is definitely chunky and a bit awkward to work with. I couldn’t decide if using a brush or my finger was best.

Charlotte Tilbury – The Vintage Vamp swatches

I do feel the Enhance and Smoke shades are far too similar to each other. They look completely identical on the eye. However, they are both lovely shades and ones I’ll get an immense amount of use out of, so it’s not really a downer for me. However, if you’re looking for more definition, the two deeper shades in this quad won’t offer much difference in depth between the two of them.

Wearing The Vintage Vamp eyeshadow quad and Filmstar Bronze & Glow

Here’s the look I came up with! There’s no denying that this is a sultry look, and I’m impressed with how easy it was to create. I wasn’t sure how well the champagne-pink shade would work with the gold topcoat, but I’m happy to report that it seemed to meld together seamlessly. These aren’t necessarily colours I would think to throw together in a look, so I’m glad they put them together for me as it forced me to try something different.

We may be on the brink of summer here in Toronto, but I love how autumnal this made me feel. The dark berry lips with the intense eyes is something I would wear regardless of the season. Heck, I think I’ve even already figured out what my Christmas makeup is going to be this year! (As ridiculous as that is to say in June!)

The shot above shows a bit more of the Sculpt and Highlight shades from the Filmstarpalette as well. The highlight is gorgeous, although not too intense. The Sculpt shade is heavily applied at the backs of my cheekbones and I like how it transitions my blush to back of my cheekbone.

Read on for full details on how to achieve this look.

Eyes

Enhance shade all over the lid.
Smoke shade on the outer corner and pulled through the crease. This shade is also used to line the entire lower lash line.
Prime shade on the brow bone (lightly) and on the inner tearduct (heavily).
Pop shade applied to the inner half of the lid on top of the Enhance shade.

I used MAC‘s Blacktrack fluidline to create the wing and Marc Jacobs‘ Highligher Gel Crayon in Blacquer to tightline both waterlines. I applied CoverGirl‘s Clump Crushermascara to my lashes and threw on a pair of Ardell Demi Wispies false lashes as well.

Rest of the Face

Foundation: Boots No7 Instant Radiance in Cool Vanilla
Bronzer: Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow (Sculpt)
Blush: Clinique Cola Pop
Highlighter: Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow (Highlight)
Lips: Too Faced Melted Berry

If you’re in Toronto, Charlotte herself will be at Holt Renfrew on Bloor on June 24, 2015 between 6 and 8 pm. I’ll be there with bells on!

Review: SST Cosmetics

June 15, 2015Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesSST CosmeticsChelle

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SST Cosmetics is a a brand that I’d never heard of before they reached out to me to try their products. Based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (woohoo Canada!), SST Cosmetics was created by Sharon Sharpe-Titus (SST) who “created a sophisticated, high fashion line with a focus on quality ingredients free of harsh chemicals that brings together exceptional colours and elegant textures to help you put your best face forward. SST is a cosmetic brand that has a conscience for the integrity of the skin.”

I was sent a lipgloss and an eyeshadow duo from their Spring 2015 line to try out. I have mixed thoughts on the products, so let’s get into the review!

SST Cosmetics High Shine Lip Polish in Vital ($23.94 CAD)

Let’s start off with the good! This is their High Shine Lip Polish in Vital. It’s a medium pink (although their web site says soft plum…) that is “infused with Jojoba seed oil, Vitamin E for moisture and Sweet Almond Oil for firmer lips”. This smells almost bang on like a MAC lipglass, although it’s not as sticky, and the scent does dissipate after a while.

Vital is the kind of shade that suits just about everyone and it’s quickly become a shade that I grab for when I have no idea what kind of lip colour to use to match my eye makeup (I use Bite Beauty’s Fig or MAC’s Brave, in the same way).

SST Cosmetics High Shine Lip Polish in Vital

Vital sits on my lips beautifully and is easy to apply. There’s no lip gloss strings when I open my mouth and there’s no risk of this gloss bleeding outside my lip lines either. This lip gloss is a total thumbs up!

SST Cosmetics Silky Eyeshadow Combo in Meek ($25.95)

The second product I received to try out is the eyeshadow duo Meek. It comes with a shimmery champagne and a matte cream. It has quite pale shade in it – ones that are conducive with a lid colour or highlighting. Their web site indicates that the shadows are made from: “Simple ingredients, [with] lasting results. Our Combo shadow gives you the best of both worlds, a matte or a shimmer in soft highlighting shades.”

SST Cosmetics Silky Eyeshadow Combo in Meek

They’re both fairly safe (aka neutral) colours, and can be conveniently be used as all over lid colours or the cream shade can be used to highlight my browbone. The shimmery shade is too dark for me to use as a highlighting shade.

The champagne shade is all over my lid and the cream shade is on my brow bone.

Which is exactly what I did in the shot above! The outer corner shade was not part of the duo – I brought in an additional eyeshadow to give my makeup some depth.

The eyeshadow essentially crumbled after a few uses.

Unfortunately, there’s something about this eyeshadow formula that is so powdery that it just ended up crumbling on me in the pan. I first noticed it when I dipped my brush into the product and the layers underneath the top layer seemed to move around. When I snapped the lid shut a few times, the deal was sealed and the powder started to flake and crack. The entire champagne side of the product completely broke away. Considering this is a 26 dollar eyeshadow, I think that’s ridiculous. I have five dollar eyeshadows (hello Makeup Geek!) that do not behave like this.

Final Verdict

The high shine lip polish was the total winner for me out of these two products. I love the shade, I love the texture and I love the feel of it. The eyeshadow duo, on the other hand, is a total pass. The price tag is too high for an item that basically fell apart on first contact.

SST Cosmetics can be purchased at several salons in the Western provinces of Canada. They can also be purchased via their web site at www.sstsignatureseries.com.

The products featured in this post were provided for consideration.

Makeup Geek Foiled Eyeshadows – Full Expansion Set (Review, Swatches & Giveaway)

June 8, 2015Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesMakeup GeekChelle

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I can fully accept it at this point – if Makeup Geek releases new shadows, I’m pretty much going to run out and buy them immediately. And that’s exactly what happened with the recently released expansion set for the foiled shadows. In fact, I got so excited I accidentally ordered TWO sets! So, while my bank account wasn’t too proud of my whoopsie, one of you guys is going to win a whole set of them!

The initial launch of Makeup Geek’s Foiled Shadows line included a full rainbow of colours. It was a great way to produce a product line that would appeal to everyone since it ranged from your everyday taupe shades to several vibrant fun colours. This time ’round, Makeup Geek was able to flesh out that lineup by offering more variety and nuance in their shade selection. There are still several brights, but there’s also quite a few paler shades that will appeal to the masses.

As I said in my original review, these shadows have a “soft, smooshy texture that’s supposed to give an effect similar to foiling your own eyeshadow onto your eyes” and these are only very minutely different. The pigmentation remains the same, but it feels like the shadows are packed harder into the pans. This was likely due to some breakage problems they were having during shipping, so they started compacting the shades a bit more. It doesn’t generally affect how you apply it to your lids, but you may find you need to wiggle your brush a bit more into the pans to get the amount of product you want.

In general, I find the latest additions to be quite geared towards pastel or pale shades with a lot of them being silver-toned. While the silvery/pastel shades are lovely, what really drew me in are the vibrant purple, orange and yellow shades. These colours are absolutely beautiful on the lids and are a joy to play with. You cannot beat these shadows for blendability and pigmentation – they really are the best on the market.

Makeup Geek Foiled Eyeshadow Swatches – Expansion Set

Makeup Geek Foiled Shadow in Starry Eyed

Starry Eyed is the first shadow in the group that really made me go “jeebus, what am I going to do with a pale pink?” But it comes off really, REALLY pale – enough so that you can mostly rely on this shade to pair up nicely with any deeper outer corner colour. I’m surprised with how much I like it.

Whimsical is the rose champagne colour of the bunch. I know a lot of people out there are going to love this one since it makes a perfect lid colour.

Makeup Geek Foiled Shadow in Fortune Teller

Fortune Teller is one of my favourites out of the lot. It’s a bright yellow-gold with an orange tinge – just gorgeous. Works amazing for an inner corner highlight shade too.

I originally thought Untamed would be similar to Flamethrower, but this one is a lot more orange whereas Flamethrower is more copper. Orange is one my favourite shades to use, so this was essentially love at first swatch!

High Wire is a silver with a blue edge. If I’m honest, this is the shade I really don’t know what to do with. I overdid myself years ago with MAC’s Electra and I’ve never really gone back to silver shadows since then…

Fantasy is a pale, pastel grass green. Not had the opportunity to use this one yet in a look, but I can imagine putting this on the lid with a navy in the outer corner.

Pegasus as a shade is a light teal. Usually I find shades like this to be low in pigmentation, but there’s completely solid coverage with this one.

Daydreamer is another one of those silvery-toned shades. This is a pale lilac, making it an easy gateway colour for those looking to wear more colour in their looks.

Masquerade is what Caitlin Rose was not – this shade is more pigmented and more saturated. I also see a bit of a reddish edge to the purple which makes it even more amazing.

Charmed is a silver with a green edge. Slightly patina-like.

Here’s a few looks I’ve come up with in the last few weeks using some of these shades:

Wearing Makeup Geek Foiled Shadow in Fortune Teller, Untamed and Masquerade

Wearing Makeup Geek Foiled Shadow in Starry Eyed (inner half of the lid)

Wearing Makeup Geek Foiled Shadow in Untamed (inner half of the lid)

Giveaway

So, because I accidentally bought two sets of foiled shadows, I thought I’d give the second one away to a lucky reader! The winner will win all ten of the newly released Makeup Geek Foiled Shadows Expansion Set.

Details

Open internationally!
Giveaway runs for three weeks starting today until June 29, 2015.
One winner will receive all ten of the recentlyreleased Makeup Geek Foiled Shadows Expansion Set.
Please be aware that all entries will be double checked to ensure fairness.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: essence Lash Princess Mascara

June 5, 2015Makeup, ReviewsessenceChelle

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At the beginning of May, I was at the ridiculously gorgeous Happily Ever Essence Event at Casa Loma to launch essence‘s Spring/Summer 2015 lineup. We were gifted a generous bag of goodies from that lineup and one of the most intriguing items was the Lash Princess mascara.

It’s hard to resist when something is new and different! And at this stage in the game, it’s fairly hard to get creative with mascaras while still being functional. Lash Princess‘ tube is designed to look like a princess’ dress. The corseting down the back is ridiculously adorable, but it’s actually functional! The whole “dress” is upraised and grippy, which makes it easier to hold the wand while applying it to your lashes. It’s a simple little touch, but a neat one.

The wand is also interesting. The press release describes it as being “cobra-shaped”, and I see it, but I wouldn’t have thought of that unless they’d told me! On first impression, it was just… weird. Interesting, but weird. While the wand may seem oddly shaped, it did hug the curves of my lashes unbelievably well.

Here’s how it looks on my lashes:

Impressive right??! Lash Princess mascara retails for around $4-5 and it totally, and completely, does the job. It built up my lashes, extended them and thickened them. I experience very, VERY minimal flaking throughout an entire day which is excellent since I am very much prone to mascara flakeage.

I’m usually a one coat mascara type woman, but the shot above is with two coats to illustrate what it would look like since the average person does apply two coats of mascara. This is the point where I start to feel it’s more thick than defined, but it’s certainly not causing massive chunks of lashes to stick together which is highly appreciated. (You know… the “I’ve got four whole eyelashes” look?)

And here it is on a fully done up eye. I have blonde lashes, so this is mighty impressive that I even managed to get the roots so dark.

Final Verdict

Lash Princess mascara by essence is a total win. For a four dollar drugstore mascara, you cannot go wrong with this one. It gave me great volume and darkness to my otherwise blonde and rather transparent lashes. Flaking was minimal and the formula holds up throughout the entire day (I’ve worn this over 16 hours without issue). It’s also more of a wet formula, which is also to my liking.

The only slight downside for me is that it’s not a completely soft texture once it’s applied to your lashes – it *will* feel a bit crunchy, but that’s really only if you’re in the habit of touching your eyelashes throughout the day! Aside from that though, this is absolutely worth the pocket change it’ll cost you to pick it up!

The product featured in this review was provided by PR for consideration.