It’s that time of the year when my skin starts to dry out and I reach for facial oils to help boost the moisture in my skin, so I thought I’d test out the Indeed LaboratoriesSqualane Facial Oil this time ’round.
What the heck is Squalane you ask? Good question, because before I started typing this out I had no idea either. It sounds like an object I had to calculate the size of in high school math… but it’s actually derived from sugarcane. Bet you didn’t see that one coming!
This intensely hydrating plant-derived, 100% pure squalane is sustainably sourced from sugarcane. Squalane oil is hydrating, soothing, non-comedogenic, non-irritating and suitable for all skin types (from dry to sensitive to oily and acne-prone). It diminishes the production of excess oil and has powerful anti-aging and anti-inflammatory properties.
Indeed Laboratories Squalane Facial Oil
The brand suggests using 1-2 drops on freshly cleansed skin, morning and night. In practice, you’ll need to use more than 2 drops to cover your whole face. I use about half of the dispensing dropper and rub the product onto my face. It feels lightweight and not thick, which is a huge blessing as I hate the feel of super thick oils that just sort of sit on top of the skin. The Squalane oil does absorb at a relatively fast rate, but you’ll still feel a hint of it after a few hours which is why I don’t recommend wearing it underneath your makeup. This is strictly a night oil for me, and rest assured that you won’t see the oil on your pillow case either.
I’ve found this oil to be hydrating in the longterm too. Sure, it feels great right away, but I’ve noticed a difference in the hydrating effects over the course of the next few days as well which is great. It’s also not an expensive facial oil too – the Indeed LaboratoriesSqualane Facial Oil only $19.99 CAD at Shoppers Drug Mart! Considering most oils will set you back about double that, I love seeing a great product priced so reasonably!
The product featured in this post was sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.
I’m a bit late with my seasonal posting of QUO‘s fall collection, so let’s just dive right into it!
QUO Fall 2018 Collection
QUO does packaging extremely well. Their palettes are always compact and beautifully designed – the cases feel solid and they’ve always got enormous mirrors on the inside. The lipsticks themselves even have a bit of a new design too – these matte lipsticks actually have a snap closure at the bottom. To get at your lipstick, push the bottom of the bullet up, and the lipstick will snap back out of the packaging. I really, really like this design – I feel like it’s super secure because your lid won’t be falling off at any point if your lipstick is rattling around in your bag.
QUO Fall 2018 Collection – Eyeshadow Palettes in Lunar Rainbow and Fire Clay
With the Fall 2018 collection, QUO has launched two new eyeshadow palettes – Lunar Rainbow (*love* that name!) and Fire Clay. For $20 CAD each, you’re getting 12 eyeshadows and a dual ended brush. I always think brushes in palettes are garbage, and I really wish brands would just stop providing them – so please QUO – stop with the brushes! As for the shadows themselves, QUO can be a bit hit or miss with their eye palettes and these two were no exception.
QUO Fall 2018 Collection – Eyeshadow Palette in Fire Clay – swatched
Visually, Fire Clay was the most appealing palette to me out of the two. This palette fits right into the warm, neutral loving era of makeup that we seem to be forever stuck in (which I’m still fully enjoying by the way!). This palette definitely focuses more on warm browns with oranges and golds. I like that they’ve provided several lighter shades as well so you’re not stuck using just one.
Wearing Fire Clay
Fire Clay makes for a really beautiful eye look, but it’s definitely more subtle than I had expected, and sadly it’s down to the pigmentation. In a swatch, the oranges come across super strong and vibrant, but in practice I found that the shades just sort of dissolved on my eyes. I used the brightest orange shade on my lid here and it doesn’t look remotely like the swatch! Additionally, I used the darkest brown in the outer corner, and it was fine at first, but I found it faded significantly within an hour of wearing it. I don’t normally have fading issues with my eyeshadows, so when I notice it, it’s a huge warning sign for me sadly. So while the Fire Clay eye look is pretty overall, I found it to be far more subtle than what the eyeshadows lead me to believe based on the swatches.
QUO Fall 2018 Collection – Eyeshadow Palette in Lunar Rainbow – swatched
Moving on to Lunar Rainbow. This palette really surprised me when I swatched it! QUO has a tendency to stick to flat out neutral, so I was impressed to see some vibrant teals and a golden olive shade in the mix.
Wearing Lunar Rainbow
And this palette definitely worked much, much better on my eyes. I loved that golden olive shade (inner third of my eye), and the darker teals were really, really pretty. I had a few blending issues around my lower lash line (which is half the shadow’s fault and half my fault for having to rush out the door to work!) but overall I was much more pleased with Lunar Rainbow in comparison to how I felt about Fire Clay. These colours are much more true to pan/swatch, and I didn’t notice any fading.
QUO Fall 2018 Collection – Face Palettes in Sweet Magnolia and Dragon Bite
QUO Face Palettes are always excellent, and these Fall 2018 ones are no exception. There’s something about the powder quality that blends smoothly and evenly – the colours always end up being absolutely beautiful on the skin.
QUO Fall 2018 Collection – Face Palettes in Sweet Magnolia and Dragon Bite – swatched
However, my largest complaint with their face palettes is that while they’re really good, they tend to get repetitive season over season. The “lighter” face palette (Sweet Magnolia) always has a cool-toned pink blush with a pinky-toned highlighter, and the “darker” face palette (Dragon Bite) always has a coral blush with a more golden highlighter. While both palettes work nicely on me, and I always, always love the quality, I would like to see a little bit more variety in their releases.
Wearing Dragon Bite
The bronzing shades in the Dragon Bitepalette is slightly more intense than I would normally go for, so I just make sure to apply it lightly (I used the less shimmery bronzer all over my face along the perimeter, and then used the more shimmery, deeper one at the very backs of my cheekbones). As for the blush and highlighter – I mean they’re frigging stunning. I love those shades so, so much and they worked really well with the Fire Clay eyeshadow palette on my eyes.
Wearing Sweet Magnolia
Sweet Magnolia is one of those staple QUO palettes for me as the colouring always works on my skin tone. Despite me preferring coral blushes because I find them prettier to look at in the pan, it has to be said that pink tends to go great with every look and the highlighter matches it nicely.
QUO Fall 2018 Collection – Matte Lipsticks
To finish up the QUO Fall 2018 collection, we have the new Matte Lipsticks in three shades. I love the opening mechanism on these lipsticks (push the bottom to release the lipstick). I think they take the cake over even the magnetic closure ones for me!
QUO Fall 2018 – Matte Lipsticks in Seduce, Date Night and Addict – swatched
Although there’s only three shades in the collection, they do a great job of providing options that suit the palettes. The pigmentation on the lipsticks is predominantly opaque – the only one that had slight translucency was Addict but that’s because it has a purple base and those shades are prone to pigmentation issues. I find that the formula glides on smoothly, but I did encounter a bit of gathering issues around the inner rim of my mouth after about an hour or so. This is easily smoothed out with your fingertip though. I would also suggest applying these with a lip brush to get a crisp line.
Wearing Seduce
Seduce is a really easy colour to wear. I always forget how nice these kinds of shades look on me as I tend to go for more vibrant colours overall. I love how easily this paired with a warm eyeshadow look, but I feel like it would go equally well with a cool-toned one as well.
Wearing Date Night
Date Nightis *lovely*! I included it in my recent post on 5 Red(ish Lipsticks for the Colder Months because it’s a really stunning shade that suits the fall season perfectly. It’s a brick red with some burnt orange thrown into the mix.
Wearing Addict
Deep purple lipsticks have patchiness issues – we all know this, and I feel like I’ve tried out a lot of deep purples lately that continue to have really bad patchy problems on my lips. So I was really impressed when QUO‘s Addict shade went on my lips with little to no issue in comparison to the other ones I’ve tried recently. There is some translucency in certain areas, but it did apply and stay on my lips much nicer than others I’ve dabbled with in the last few months.
Final Thoughts
The QUOFace Palettes are always excellent products so I’d suggest picking one of those up if you didn’t already have one of their face palettes (due to the repeated shades). The eyeshadows palettes were a bit all over the place – for me Fire Clay is sadly a pass because the colours just didn’t come out as vibrantly as I had hoped. I love Lunar Rainbow‘s depth of tone, so I’d suggest that one over Fire Clay for sure. The Matte Lipsticks are lovely too, and I really love the shade selection they’ve put out with this launch.
QUO can be purchased in stores at Shoppers Drug Mart, or on their online retail platform too.
Products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.
There are a lot of brands trying to capture the magic of the Stila Glitter & Glow Liquid Eyeshadows… but none of them are drugstore brands. So imagine my surprise and delight when I realized Hard Candy had a new product called Glitterazzi!
Hard Candy Glitterazzi Liquid Sparklers
The Hard CandyGlitterazzi Liquid Sparklers are defined by the brand as a glitter top coat for eyes, lips or cheeks. They can be worn alone (and definitely have enough pigment to do so) or layered on top of other products to enhance their duochrome effect (all three I tried are either pearlescent with changing colour reflects, or truly duochromatic).
The brand also indicates that they’re longwearing and, interestingly, that they feel lightweight and *dry*. I was intrigued to read that as most brands don’t point that out. I think most of us EXPECT our liquid shadows to dry down, but that isn’t always the case. I was happy to discover that these do in fact completely dry down to a foiled yet slightly textured-appearing base. These are the CLOSEST liquid eyeshadows I have ever encountered at the drugstore that are damn near crease-proof. I experienced no creasing on one shade, extremely minor creasing on another, and slight creasing on the last shade. I’m exceptionally prone to creasing even with regular eyeshadows, so this was an extremely impressive display by these products and I’d venture to say that they wouldn’t crease on someone with normal eyelids (and by normal, I mean anyone that can use a single eyeshadow primer and have no issues with powder eyeshadows).
Hard Candy Glitterazzi Liquid Sparklers
The Glitterazzi applicator is a standard paddle-foot applicator with a decent amount of flex. It works well *enough* to apply the shadow to your lid, but I found I struggled a little bit with fading the colour out from my lid out to my outer corner. A brush may help to disperse the colour a bit better.
Hard Candy Glitterazzi Liquid Sparklers – swatched
As you can see in the swatch the colours are more pigmented than a product of this nature would suggest, and the shades have a ton of dimension. There’s actually so much reflect that my auto-focus struggled a bit to get decent eye shots (sorry in advance for below!).
Twinkle is a stunning lavender with teal reflect.
Aurora is mostly a pale white, but it has hints of pink and purple shimmer in the base.
Star is wild – it’s a nude/slight rose base with gold shimmers. So pretty!
Wearing Twinkle
Twinkle was definitely more pigmented than I was expecting. I love how it shifts from lavender to teal. I had the faintest whisper of creasing with this shade after having worn it for 8 hours.
Wearing Aurora
Aurora was definitely the most sheer on application in comparison to the swatch. I applied it over a pale lavender eyeshadow and I would say that mostly sparks of pink showed up depending on how the light hit my eye. This one didn’t crease on me at all.
Wearing Star
Star was easily my favourite shade. It looks gold/champagne in the look above, but in person it was shooting off gold, silver or pink depending on the light.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I’m incredibly impressed with the Hard CandyGlitterazzi Liquid Sparklers. I know I mentioned some minor creasing, but I truly expected so much more with this kind of product (especially given that it’s drug store). I tried out three shades in this post, but Hard Candy has four additional shades in case you’re looking for something a little bit different. I’d also say that these are more of a shimmer topcoat than they are a glittery ones, and that’s simply because the glitter specks are smaller and end up giving your eye a bit more of a foiled look. If you want to create more of a softer glitter look, try dabbing your fingertip on the applicator and then lightly tapping it on to your eye (or wherever you’re putting it) for a more dispersed look. I applied it straight from the tube in the looks above and it definitely gave a more solid and opaque shimmer look than a glittery one.
TL;DR – These are the most impressive liquid shimmer/glitter eyeshadows I’ve seen at the drugstore and I’m extremely impressed. Well done, Hard Candy!
