IMATS Toronto Haul Video with Samantha Jane!
Hi everyone! Many of you have asked for Sam and I to film together, but honestly it’s hard to lock down our schedules in order to film a video for each of our channels. We had a bit of downtime between IMATS Toronto this past weekend, so we filmed our IMATS haul at Sam’s place for her channel. So if you ever wanted to see us in a video together… well… here you go!
I’ll have a vlog of IMATS Toronto up tomorrow (Tuesday) and then my monthly haul up on Thursday (which… some of the products will be repeated from the video above).
Enjoy!
Mary Kay Precision Brow Liners (Review & Swatches)
Mary Kay continues to be one of those brands that people don’t think much about (especially if you’re under the age of 50), but I assure you they put out some quality products (for example, they make my absolute favourite nail polish formula. Hands down, that is the best stuff I have ever tried.) So when I was sent some brow products to try out, I was keen to give them a go.
Mary Kay has just launched their Precision Brow Liners in 5 shades, two of which fit into the blonde category (Blonde and Dark Blonde) which I’ve been trying out for the last two weeks. Each retractable pencil comes with 0.085 grams of products which is on par with the ABH Brow Wiz, and a little bit short (0.005 grams to be precise) in comparison to the NYX Micro Brow. The pencils retail for $16 CAD or $14 USD. (Interestingly, the American Mary Kay site seems to have only four shades available – they’re missing Black-Brown.)
The blonde shades are much less ashy than I was expecting. Traditional blonde eyebrow pencils tend to lean more cool than warm, although I’d say that these seem neutral with a touch of warmth.
As you can see, I don’t have much brow to begin with, so I have to fill in a lot of areas and create an entire tail out of nothing.
I found that the pencils were quite soft, which made for easy application, but it could sometimes mean you didn’t get the sharpest point you wanted. I also found that the nib is slightly larger than your average micro-brow pencils, so this wouldn’t be quite as precise for creating individual hair strokes. Personally, I don’t have the patience to create individual strokes as I’m really just trying to block out a brow as quickly as possible because I’ve got so much ground to cover and fill in. So the fact that I can’t create individual hair lines with this pencil is irrelevant to me.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for a softer eyebrow pencil, you may want to look into the Mary Kay Precision Brow Liners. I love my NYX Micro Brow, but it does feel a bit sharp and hard on my brows, so I completely understand if people are wanting something a little bit softer. The longevity of the product was excellent too – they last through full workdays without any issue.
I was also pleasantly surprised with the colours. I didn’t think they would work that well because they weren’t grey enough, but that turned out not to be the case. I used the Dark Blonde shade to fill in the bottom of my brow, and the Blonde shade for the top half. I feel the two shades worked well together, although I definitely preferred the Dark Blonde for filling in larger gaps of missing hair.
The only thing I feel the pencils are missing is a spoolie. Almost all brow pencils now provide a spoolie at the other end, so I feel like it’s a necessary component in a brow pencil now.
The Mary Kay Brow Precision Liners can be purchased on marykay.ca for $16 CAD each or on marykay.com for $14 USD each.
The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.
VIDEO: Too Faced Then & Now 20th Anniversary Palette – Review, Swatches & 5 Looks
Holiday Makeup Releases: The Good, The Bad & The Boring
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! For holiday makeup releases that is! September marks the start of a four month build up to Christmas as all the beauty brands launch their holiday collections. And, no different than years past, I am SUPER freaking excited for it all!
I’m going to walk you through what I’m interested in, what I think is bad, and what’s downright boring. Let’s go!
The Good
Let’s start this off with the item that I am THE most excited to get this year – the Too Faced Gingerbread Spice palette! This only got previewed about two weeks ago and it’s already launched… but only in the US so far. I’ve been trying to get my hands on it in Canada, but Sephora doesn’t yet have stock just yet (and it’s killing me). The colours are freaking stunning (although I had thought the deep fuchsia was more of a red in the original photos I saw), and it’s supposed to smell like gingerbread! I love their Gingerbread Man Melted Matte from last year, so I’m so happy they’re going down the gingerbread path and making more things in that vein. I cannot WAIT to get my hands on it! (If you’re in the US, you can already pick this up at Sephora!)
I cannot get over Too Faced‘s holiday Melted Matte releases – they make me so happy! I have Melted Candy Cane from 2016, Gingebread Man from 2017 and now I MUST own all four shades in their “The Sweet Smell of Christmas” collection. Each one smells different! Pumpkin Spice! Sugar Cookie! Cinnamon Bears! Hot Buttered Rum! I’m also happy to report that these come in mini sizes. I’m at a point in my life where I no longer need a full size lip product, so this is perfect for me! Sadly, this isn’t available in Canada just yet (again… dying over here), but if you’re in the US you can snag this sweet set for only $25 USD! (BTW, I’m taking a pass on Gingerbread Girl Melted Matte just because I don’t really need another full size lip product, and I love my Gingerbread Man from last year – which they actually re-released this year!)
Do I need these Too Faced mini palettes? Surely not. Am I going to get them? More than likely! The Tickled Peach palette hopefully smells like the original Sweet Peach scent (my favourite!), and the Sugar Cookie one? I mean… how am I supposed to resist this??
WOW! I only just saw this Laura Mercier palette come out of nowhere in the last few days and I’m intrigued. Her formula of eyeshadows is one of the best on the market, but she tends to create muted shades that fit more into the neutral side of things. When I saw this Hidden Gems palette I was blown away – there’s some legit colour in there! I’m not totally convinced I NEED it yet (and there’s potentially too much shimmer), but I’m going to see what the price is at IMATS Toronto (coming up this weekend) and/or wait till the November Sephora sale to potentially pick it up. This palette is already out at Sephora if you’re interested though!
I do NOT need more highlighters, but I find it hard to turn down BECCA highlighters in itty bitty packaging (which is a far more reasonable amount of highlighter than the enormous ones we all keep buying). This is the BECCA Mini Macarons set, and by some miracle I don’t have a single one of these shades! The four piece set comes with Opal (yes, I’m the last person to own this shade), Vanilla Quartz, Rose Quartz and Prismatic Amethyst. For once a practical set without a repeated shade (for me) – dead pleased with this one!
Whoa Bobbi – where have you been hiding these shades? I’ve never EVER been intrigued by Bobbi Brown‘s makeup… until this launch. Just LOOK at those REDS! The Bobbi Brown Infra-Red palette speaks to me on a different level and I’m curious to try out the formula of their eyeshadows!
The Bad
I can barely believe I’m putting this Urban Decay Elements palette under “The Bad”, but here we are. At a surface level I should frigging excited about this – it’s a rainbow palette and I *love* rainbow palettes. But… and this is huge for me… there is not even close to enough matte shadows in here. This palette becomes nearly unusable by itself for me because of that and I find that very frustrating when the palette is so enormous to begin with. I think there’s two, maybe three mattes in there, and given how many shades are in the palette, that just isn’t enough. I loved the concept of it, the colours, even the awkward layout was kind of intriguing… but I’m becoming a bit more discerning with my makeup over time and the lack of mattes in this palette is making me put my foot down and say “no” to it.
What the fork happened here? Ugh. When BECCA sneak peaked the front of their Volcano Goddess palette I was SO EXCITED. Look at that beautiful rainbow of colour on the palette cover! I thought they were finally putting out a beautiful rainbow eyeshadow palette! And then a week or so later they released a picture of the inside and I’ve NEVER felt so deflated by a makeup product in my entire life. It’s pretty much a neutral palette with… a red-ish shade, and a blue. I can’t believe what a let down this item ended up being. How could they release that outer packaging knowing that the inside was going to be bland as all get out?I want absolutely nothing to do with it. 🙁
What the hell happened here, ABH? My god, it looks like this palette is practically in greyscale! It’s like they sucked the life out of the Soft Glam palette, accidentally dropped in a poppy-red shade they’d discarded from another palette, named it Sultry (?????) and called it a day. This is HORRIBLE. I rather think NOT, Anastasia.
The Boring
I’ve got a lot of Too Faced palettes, and many of them are holiday launches, but I’ve felt for a little while that they’ve started to become rather redundant and are more for makeup newbies than they are true makeup enthusiasts. The Too Faced Under The Christmas Tree set is basically a repetition of shades I already have from the brand so I don’t really need these sets anymore. They’re fun to look at, and great for a beginner in terms of variety, but as someone who has all of these shades already (in my like… 40 different Too Faced palettes) this set isn’t vital to me. (And the same thing applies to their Dream Queen set and the Beauty Day Dreamer set.
I’m still trying to process what to do with Kat Von D‘s revelation that she’s an anti-vaxxer and won’t vaccinate her child when they’re born. I think that’s absolutely fucking CRAZY not to do that… like it really is bat shit insane to think that you know better than a doctor. But does that make HER a bad person? Not necessarily. So while I’m currently struggling with this internal dilemma on whether or not I want to give money to someone who has vastly different morals than me (and I do really freaking love her products and still wear what I already own), I’m happy to report that her holiday 2018 collection is boring me to absolute tears. The Fetish eyeshadow palette is nothing noteworthy as I find the shades far too muted overall. I’m not interested in a blush palette from her, so that’s out of the question for me. The only thing that might’ve swayed me was if she released another set of mini liquid lipsticks like she’s done the past two years (see the 2017 lineup here and the 2016 lineup here), but this year she isn’t doing that – instead opting to release four full size shades in a pack. I’m grateful that I’m not interested in any of it so it gives me a bit more time to determine if I even want to continue to purchase from her anymore. (I’m mostly hopeful she’ll see the light about vaccinating and will do it in the end…)
Urban Decay really isn’t hitting the right notes for me lately. Their latest addition to the Naked line is Naked Cherry… and I’m just so disappointed in it. Concept-wise, I liked the idea. A cherry palette would be great! And heck, the packaging is pretty too. But the shadows? I’m getting flashbacks of Naked Heat and I don’t think there’s enough variety amongst the shades. Not to mention… THERE IS A SERIOUS LACK OF RED IN THERE. For a palette based on cherries, they could’ve done more than whack in some mulberry-pink tones. Where is the RED, Urban Decay? And don’t try to tell me Devilish and Young Love cut it… because they don’t. The promo shot above shows more red, but I’ve seen the palette open in many other photos and they are WAY more pink. This is like Naked 3 2.0 and I’m not having it.
Phew okay… that’s it (for now). Let me know what’s piqued your interest this holiday season!
Post contains affiliate links.