Category Archives: Skincare

Skincare Saturday: Aveeno Shower Routine

November 4, 2017Reviews, SkincareAveenoChelle

Aveeno Shower Routine

This post is sponsored by iHerb.

Aveeno is always a failsafe brand for me, so it’s no surprise that their products are constantly in rotation in my bathrooms. Whether I’m using a toner, applying a moisturizer, washing my face or having a shower, it’s safe to say that Aveeno is involved *somewhere* in my routine year ’round!

Aveeno Nourish + Strengthen Shampoo and Conditioner

I’ll be focusing on an Aveeno–specific shower routine for today’s post so you get an idea of what products I love from them. On this particular day, I happened to have come back from running a half marathon, so I was not only weary, but also in desperate need to use products that I was supremely comfortable with (because running 21.1 kilometers is not only physically stressful, but emotionally as well!).

Sudsing up my hair with some Aveeno shampoo

After hopping in the shower and letting the hot water warm up my body and soothe the aches of running long distance, the first thing I do is soak my hair and plop on some shampoo, suds it up, rinse it out and apply some conditioner. While I don’t have fragile hair in general, I still wash my hair daily so I prefer something with a strengthener in it which is what the Aveeno Nourish + Strengthen range provides. Both the shampoo and conditioner work in tandem to make sure my hair is strong and can hold us to heat styling on the regular.

My favourite part of showering is getting super clean and scrubbing away any of the grime and sweat from my day. And of course, having run for 2+ hours, I was super salty and sweaty so I was extra desperate to get all fresh and clean. Aveeno has more than a few body washes, but I’ve been rotating between the Daily Moisturizing Body Wash and the Positively Nourishing White Peach and Ginger Body Wash. While I love the White Peach and Ginger for a revitalizing scent boost (which is especially good in the mornings!), on this day I was needing something to soothe my senses so I opted for the Moisturizing Body Wash. Both body washes lather up well with a poof and smell wonderful on my skin.

Aveeno Positively Nourishing Comforting Whipped Souffle

Once out of the shower, it’s time to put some moisture back in my skin that has potentially been scrubbed away. Aveeno‘s Positively Nourishing Comforting Whipped Souffle moisturizer packs a hell of a moisturizing punch for my skin. Not only does it feel great but it also sinks in quickly which means I’m not fighting to pull on my clothes after my shower. You know that feeling… super sticky greased up moisturizer skin trying to pull on pants? Yeah, it’s not fun, and thankfully there’s none of that with this one!

I ordered these Aveeno products via iHerb – both shipping and delivery were quick and efficient. They send out your order the day of! And that’s not just on products I’ve ordered via sponsored posts either – I’ve ordered products that I needed outside of posts like this and the shipping notices have gone out without hours of me placing an order. That’s easily one of the things I appreciate most about iHerb – fast shipping alongside low prices!

iHerb in particular carries over 80 Aveeno products (see some of the other ones they carry in this previous Aveeno-centric post of mine) and they can ship to over 160 countries. They also have customer support in 10 different languages as well.

If you’re a new customer to iHerb, you can get $5 off your Aveeno order of $20 or more by signing up here!

Skincare Saturday: Embryolisse – Now Available at Shoppers Drug Mart!

October 21, 2017Reviews, SkincareEmbryolisseChelle

Embryolisse now in Canada at Shoppers Drug Mart!

Embryolisse is one of the brands that I always asked my mom to bring back from her vacations to France. I didn’t care what she brought back (although I often told her the Lait-Crème Concentré was my favourite) just so long as she gave me some new products to try by them!

So imagine how happy I was when I received an e-mail letting me know that Embryolisse would be available at Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada starting in September! No longer did I have to wait for my parents or brother to come back from Europe with my Embryolisse goodies!

There’s a lot to check out by them, but let me make some recommendations:

Lait-Crème Concentré: Made infamous by the pixiwoo sisters, this nourishing moisturizer is suitable for all skin types. While I use this to moisturize, it can also be used to remove your makeup and as a cleanser! This is hands down my most repurchased high-end moisturizer – I’ve gone through probably about ten tubes of this. It’s super hydrating and doesn’t take forever to sink into your skin. ENORMOUS favourite (which you can tell, because this was the only moisturizer I brought with me on my trip to Bali and Australia in September!).
Hydra-Masque (not pictured above): I already have a full review of this moisturizing mask on my blog from 2015 (read that here), but in short, this is a dry skin saviour. It’s packed full of hyaluronic acid, natural plant oils and vitamins A, E and F to help regenerate the skin’s barrier.
Émulsion Hydra-Mat: I’ve never been one for a mattifying moisturizer, but it was sent to me so I gave it a shot. My mind was BLOWN! This is a lightweight moisturizer that feels hydrating but leaves a velvety finish on my skin that actually helped my foundation. It took about 1-2 hours longer for the oils in my skin to come through in the foundation on a regular day of makeup wear. I was amazed!
Lotion Micellaire: I always have micelle solution in my skincare rotation and this one is just as excellent as all the others I’ve tried. You can use this to tone your face, but I prefer to use this as the last step in my makeup removing routine. I never find these can remove ALL of the makeup on my face in one pass, so I prefer to use an oil-based cleanser to break everything down, and then I’ll run a cotton pad soaked in this product and clean up everything was left behind. You don’t have to rinse your face after using this, so it’s a wonderful last step for me!
Eclat du Regard: Oh wow! I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one since it’s labelled as an “express cooling and refreshing eye care” product. But this little baby stick is filled with the softest, most buttery textured eye cream I’ve ever felt. It goes on your skin like butter, but melts in rather quickly so you’re not left with some kind of residue. You can apparently use it under makeup, but I liked to use it before going to bed at night.

So that’s my roundup! So far I only see the Lait-Crème Concentré listed on beautyboutique.ca but there should be more coming soon. Let me know if you’ve tried out Embryolisse before and what your thoughts are!

The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.

Skincare Saturday: Lush Halloween

October 14, 2017SkincareLushChelle

Lush Halloween

Nothing excites me more in skincare than a Halloween collection by Lush! Every year they expand their range of products and I get giddy just thinking about it – the Halloweeny bubble bars, the brightly coloured bath bombs… hell, even the soaps get me excited (yes, really!)!

A Lushoween staple, the Pumpkin Bath Bomb never disappoints!

Drop this in your bath and it’ll spin and fizz – colouring the water a bright orange shade that’s perfect for getting in the Halloween spirit!

Just a heads up though – Lush lists this on their site as smelling like “spicy-sweet pumpkin pie perfume full of exotic pimento, sweet vanilla and cozy, warming cinnamon”, and it really, *really* does not smell like that. I ain’t mad about it, but the Pumpkin Bath Bomb is definitely citrus scented and will make you feel like you’re surrounded by orange trees. I’m a huge fan of citrus, so I loved it!

Lush Halloween - Pink Pumpkin Bubble Bar — Lush Halloween – Pink Pumpkin Bubble Bar

If you’d rather foam up your bath, check out the Pink Pumpkin Bubble Bar! Break off a chunk (you don’t have to use the whole thing in one go) and crumble it under the tap as you pour your bath. It’ll turn your bathwater a bright pink with white bubbles and a few of the little flakes will float around on the surface of the water (if you can manage to see through all the foam!). This one has more of a floral scent with notes of geranium, bergamot and jasmine.

Lush Halloween - Magic Wand Soap — Lush Halloween – Magic Wand Soap

I know soap usually leaves people pretty bored, but lately I’ve been ignoring my shower gels in favour of bar soap! A few years ago I used to feel that Lush‘s soaps disappeared a bit too quickly, however something’s changed because I’ve more recently found my Lush soaps outlasting some of my other bar soaps! The Magic Wand soap is labelled as a pomegranate scented soap, but I mostly just get a sweet but fruity smell with no real discernible particular fruit scent out of it.

Lush Halloween - Bewitched Bubble Bar — Lush Halloween – Bewitched Bubble Bar

The only product I haven’t had an opportunity to use because I just can’t bring myself to try it out yet is the Bewitched bubble bar. And can you blame me??? It’s a black cat face!

Lush Halloween - Bewitched Bubble Bar with Kolme! — Lush Halloween – Bewitched Bubble Bar with Kolme!

I’ll probably save this one for the weekend right before Halloween so I can feel extra spoopy in the black water I’m expecting out of Bewitched! Of our two black cats, Kolme has the more yellow eyes, so I couldn’t resist trying to get a photo of her with the bubble bar. Although I love the smell of it (it’s berry scented), Kolme gave it a good few whacks with her paw after this shot was taken to let us know that perhaps the scent wasn’t entirely up her alley. 😉

One thing’s for sure, Lushoween did not disappoint me! Rae of The Notice recently reviewed this collection as well, and while I always love her commentary on products, she made a really good point about Lush that I need to repeat because it’s something that holds so true:

The best thing about covering a Lush collection is that it’s so. Damn. Easy. It usually takes me 1-4 months to turn around a review, but with Lush, I can get it done in a day.

Why? Because, for the most part, their products are just variations on a concept. If you love their bubble bars, you’re going to love ALL their bubble bars, provided that you like each scent. If you love their bath bombs, you’re going to love ALL their bath bombs, with varying degrees of initial squee.

I read those words and realized just how accurate of a statement that is – Lush is never going to let me down – it’s just up to me to pick the scents I want to use by them! So rest assured that if you’re buying Lush, you’re getting quality products every single time.

Let me know if you’re picking up anything from Lush’s Halloween launch! Although I reviewed four in this post, there’s a heck of a lot more products in the collection!

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

Skincare Saturday: Diving into Autumn with Live Clean + Giveaway!

October 7, 2017SkincareLive CleanChelle

Although we’ve also had some unseasonably warm temperatures in September and October, Toronto is *finally* starting to cool down and I can feel my heart singing with the cooler temperatures! (Seriously, summer begone! I’m done with you!)

With the cooler temps, it’s time to wrap ourselves in hydrating products and warm, refreshing scents, and what better way to do that than with products that are easily found at the drugstore, do their job well AND are inexpensive? Live Clean has you covered on all those angles!

This a roundup of some of Live Clean‘s most effective and best selling products that will help keep you clean, exfoliated and moisturized as we head into the drier months. Let’s dig in:

Exotic Nectar Argan Oil Restorative Shampoo and Conditioner: I don’t know what it is about this particular formula or scent, but I LOVE it. I’m not traditionally someone who likes the smell of argan oil – I generally find it too heavy and clingy in my nose. However, this particular shampoo and conditioner has none of that cloying scent I’ve come to dislike! I was also pleasantly surprised at how light my hair felt after using these products – because they’re labelled as moisturizing, that usually tends to weigh my hair down. Not the case at all!
As my hair grows longer and longer (I really only get it cut once a year), I find myself with a knotted mess after I’ve towel dried my hair. It’s a disaster when I try to run a comb through it, so a leave-in conditioner spray or detangler is a huge must. The Exotic Nectar Argan Oil Leave-in Conditioner Spray works like a charm and lets my brush glide through my hair as opposed to the usual “snag and tear” method that I usually resort to.
Let’s not forget your face though – get it all scrubbed up and exfoliated with the Fresh Face Smoothing Facial Scrub. I love, love, LOVE the texture on this one. Not too gritty, not too few scrubby bits and just the right feeling!
And when you need to get moisturized up before hitting the sack, slather on some Fresh Face Nourishing Night Cream which is blissfully not too thick and gunky and cover your body with the Coconut Milk Moisturizing Body Lotion (which, of course, smells freaking incredible).

Of course, there’s a lot to love about Live Clean aside from cute packaging and lovely scents! Their products are:

98% plant and natural based ingredients
SLS and silicone free
Petrolatum, paraben and pthlatate free
DEA free
Phosphate free
Dye free
Vegetarian formulas
Never tested on animals
Hypoallergenic
Biodegradable ingredients
Packaging recyclable

That’s a lot of awesomeness wrapped into a product, isn’t it??

Live Clean Autumn Giveaway

The people at Live Clean are amazingly generous and often reach out about doing giveaways. I can never say no because their products are wonderful and I love spreading the word about the brand. One person will win the following:

Live Clean Argan Oil Restorative Shampoo
Live Clean Argan Oil Restorative Conditioner
Live Clean Exotic Nectar Argan Oil Leave-in Conditioner Spray
Live Clean Coconut Milk Moisturizing Body Lotion
Live Clean Fresh Face Smoothing Facial Scrub
Live Clean Fresh Face Nourishing Night Cream

Giveaway Rules

This giveaway is open to Canada only!
This giveaway starts on October 7, 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

Skincare Saturday: Lierac Skincare Review

September 30, 2017Reviews, SkincareLieracChelle

Lierac Laboratories

Lierac is a brand I’d heard nothing about, but was pleased to find that they have an ENORMOUS skincare range with a lot of options for everyone. I was sent a ton of items from their Hydragenist range (for my dry-combination skin) to test out, and I’ve got some thoughts, so let’s dive in!

The first part in your morning skincare routine suggested by Lierac is using the Hydragenist Morning Moisturizing Mist ($45 CAD). The mist is intended to rehydrate and replump your skin (as is the whole range, really) once you’ve woken up. The idea behind it is that it can erase pillow marks while replumping your skin. I think that’s cute, but I’m not generally covered in pillow marks, so I couldn’t tell you if it removed them. What I can tell you is that this is one of the most uniquely textured face mists I’ve ever tried. It’s intensely hydrating, which I wasn’t expecting given that it’s a face mist. The texture of it is like a liquid gel – you spray it on your face and then you’ll need to massage it in. For me, while this ended up being a nice refresher in the morning, I didn’t love it as part of my morning routine (honestly, it was a bit TOO hydrating and I don’t feel the need to use it before my morning shower either), but I did love it later in the evening combined with something else (I’ll get to that later).

The next step was to use the Lait Micellaire ($29 CAD) to cleanse my face. While this does incorporate some makeup removal aspects, I’ve only ever used this as a face wash. And my face washes don’t need to remove my makeup as far as I’m concerned (I’ve got oils for that!) so I was really pleased with how gentle this felt on my skin. I’m a fan of milky cleansers anyway, and this Lait Micellaire combined with a konjac sponge was really, really nice at scrubbing away the sleepies on my face in the morning.

Lierac Laboratories - Lotion Gélifiée, Hydragenist Moisturizing Cream and Moisturizing Serum — Lierac Laboratories – Lotion Gélifiée, Hydragenist Moisturizing Cream and Moisturizing Serum

With my butt out of the shower, it’s time to keep going with the other aspects of getting my skin prepped and ready for makeup.

The Lotion Gélifiée (which is your toner) is very similar in texture to the Morning Moisturizing Mist, only slightly thicker overall. I started out by applying it to a cotton round to apply to my face… but gave up on that quickly once I realized the texture was more akin to a serum than a toner. Overall, this one isn’t one of the products I’m that enamoured with. It goes on okay-ish, but I felt like it did more to dry out my skin than hydrate it. Which kind of makes sense given that this product is intended to tighten your pores.

You can, however, skip the Lotion and go straight to the Hydragenist Moisturizing Serum, which I felt was better for my skin overall. This felt like a dream on my skin – quite relaxing and smoothing. Personally, if you’re picking and choosing from this range, I’d opt for the Serum over the Lotion!

The last step is, of course, moisturizer. And I gotta say, the Hydragenist Moisturizing Cream ($70 CAD) is no freaking joke. This cream is targeted towards people with dry to very dry skin so you know it’s going to be extra hydrating. For me though, this was too much in the mornings. It’s a LOVELY cream and it does the job, but for my dry to combination skin this was overkill in the mornings. I instead opted to wearing this at night alongside the Moisturizing Mist. I’d squirt a few pumps of the mist onto my face at night, massage it in, and then follow it up with the Moisturizing Cream and wear it as an overnight face mask. I think this’ll work for EXCEPTIONALLY dehydrated skin on a day to day basis, but for me this was something that was a tad too heavy for day to day wear.

Lierac Laboratories - Moisturizing Rescue Mask — Lierac Laboratories – Moisturizing Rescue Mask

And lastly, if you need a quick hydrating boost to your skin, look no further than the Moisturizing Rescue Mask ($47 CAD). This one was very similar to the moisturizer, except you get it done faster by wearing this for about 20 minutes or so. I used this immediately once I got back from our 24 hour travel time from our trip to Australia and I didn’t suffer from the dried out skin issues that I usually do the few days after I’ve been off a plane. Success!

This whole range by Lierac is scented with rose, jasmine and gardenia. Hilariously, I don’t like ANY of those scents, but each of the notes is not so pervasive that they stand out. For whatever reason, once they’re all combined, it’s just a “nice” scent. Not overpowering and not cloying, which I highly appreciate.

Top picks for me?

Moisturizing Rescue Mask – that thing is a total winner and a skin saviour as far as I’m concerned!
Lait Micellaire – super nice face wash. Love this one!

Let me know if you’ve heard of Lierac before and if you’ve tested out their products – I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Lierac can be purchased on beautyboutique.ca and on lierac.ca.

The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post may contain affiliate links.