Tag Archives: Skyn Iceland

2015 Gift Guide: Skincare

December 14, 2015SkincareAveeno, Bioderma, Bite Beauty, Jealous Body, Skyn Iceland, The Body ShopChelle

2015 Gift Guide: Skincare

Skincare is one of those things that everyone uses, but most people don’t like to have to spend the money on it since it’s never especially cheap. Here are my picks for skincare items that I’ve especially enjoyed over the last year or so and some that I’ve even been given as gifts too.

Jealous Body makes gorgeous coffee scrubs in a variety of scents/flavours that are intended to target particular body needs (oily, dry, etc.). My favourite is the original Coconut* (review here), but I’ve also tried out the Grapeseed + Macadamia* (pictured above) and Cocoa + Almond* ones as well (second review here!). Each scrub is $18.95 CAD and will last you about 4-5 scrubs. Bonus? They’re a Canadian brand!

Bioderma Crealine/Sensibio Micellar Water

One of my most used products is the Bioderma micellar water (Crealine/Sensibio). I keep this in my bathroom and on my makeup table in our bedroom because it gets so much use! It’s great for removing makeup at the end of the day (not waterproof stuff though!) and for cleaning up makeup mistakes. Or even just for refreshing your skin at the end of the day if you’re feeling kind of greasy after the gym. I use this stuff CONSTANTLY! It’s average retail price is around $20 USD for the large 500 ml bottle.

My mom always used to put a bottle of Aveeno moisturizer in my stocking and I was always grateful for it. Since the daily moisturizer is about $25 CAD, it’s not an especially cheap product! While Aveeno is my favourite facial moisturizer, you can always pick up something that the person you’re gifting that you know they already love. That way they’ll have a backup when they run out.

This one is a relatively new discovery for me and it’s been a skin saviour as the temperatures drop in Toronto. (That being said, it’s mild as all hell today and it’s the middle of December. WHERE IS MY SNOW??) skyn ICELAND‘s Arctic Face Oil* is a deeply concentrated oil that will resuscitate your dehydrated skin and keep it healthy and plump throughout the dry months. (Full review here.) It retails for $40 CAD.

Bite Beauty‘s Agave Lip Mask (pictured above in Maple) is a gloriously thick lip balm that will heal your chapped lips while also tasting delectable. While the $30 CAD price tag is no joke, this item is definitely a splurge for a lucky someone. Good things DO come in small packages!

The Body Shop Body Butter in Shea Butter

And how could I have an entire gift guide focused on skincare without pointing out the wonderful options from The Body Shop? Their body butters are a favourite of mine and I’ve been through many a scent (Shea Butter, Pink Grapefruit, Satsuma, Virgin Mojito, their older holiday vanilla and cranberry scents, etc.) in my time. My ultimate favourite is the Shea Butter one (pictured above) and I just recently picked up a fresh tub for myself! They retail for $20 CAD each.

The Body Shop Shower Gel in Pink Grapefruit

I also recently picked up an ENORMOUS bottle of Pink Grapefruit shower gel from The Body Shop. Like the body butters, I have been through countless bottles of their shower gel and never once have they disappointed me. While the Pink Grapefruit scent is my personal favourite, they also have Fijian Water Lotus which is another one currently sitting in my shower as well. The grapefruit is nice and zesty, whereas water lotus is more aquatic and calming.

I hope that gave you some ideas! Let me know what kind of skincare YOU like to receive. 🙂

Items marked with an asterisk were sent to me for consideration.

Skincare Saturday: skyn ICELAND Arctic Face Oil

November 21, 2015Reviews, SkincareSkyn IcelandChelle

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The older I get, the more I’ve learned to appreciate oil and what it can do for me. Particularly on the face! Sometimes a moisturizer, no matter how thick and nourishing, just isn’t enough to keep my face as hydrated as possible.

I’ve started using skyn ICELAND‘s Arctic Face Oil over the last few weeks. That sounds freaking amazing doesn’t it? ARCTIC. FACE. OIL. Like I’m suddenly splashing polar bear water on my face or gone skinny dipping beside some icebergs. (Just me?)

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I really couldn’t phrase this better myself, so here’s what skyn ICELAND has to say about their product:

Arctic Face Oil, composed of 99.9% Camelina Oil, is naturally sourced and cold-pressed to retain maximum nutrients. Extracted from the resilient Camelina Sativa plant, which thrives in sub-zero temperatures, it has a unique composition of 9 Essential Fatty Acids which enables it to survive in harsh weather. Most importantly, the Omega 3:6:9 ratio of this oil plays a critical role in normal skin function making this blend exceedingly curative and rejuvenating to skin. A natural antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, it also soothes, calms and protects skin.

The Arctic Face Oil comes in a 30ml/1 US fluid ounce glass bottle with a dropper top. This makes for fairly easy dispensing, although I will say that I feel the dropper only ever really gets 60% full. I basically use whatever I can squeeze into the dropper to cover my entire face whenever I’m wearing this product.

My Thoughts on the Arctic Face Oil

Although the scent of the oil isn’t enthralling (it’s not awful, just rather plainly oil-scented), this is a phenomenal way to infuse hydration into my face. I haven’t had to use it in conjunction with moisturizer because it’s THAT powerful. I tend to apply the Arctic Face Oil a few times a week after I’ve gotten home from work and taken my makeup off. I find this especially nice on days when I wore foundation and feel the need to rehydrate my skin. Although I have applied it before my makeup for the day and suffered no ill effects (for example, my makeup didn’t start sliding around my face even though I’d just applied oil to my face), I still prefer to apply it at night so it has more time to absorb into my skin without packing makeup on top of it.

I did find that although the oil didn’t sink completely into my skin immediately (which I honestly quite like), it also didn’t make me feel like a grease pit. It feels like your skin got plumped up from hydration. It’s a good feeling! So, if you’re looking for something to help soothe and heal your dried out skin this winter, skyn ICELAND‘s Arctic Face Oil may be something to consider. I know I’ll be using it constantly, that’s for sure!

This post features a product sample that was sent for consideration.

Ipsy – February 2014 Glam Bag

February 21, 2014HaulsIpsy, J. Cat Beauty, Pop Beauty, Skyn Iceland, Tini Beauty, ZoyaChelle

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Time for Ipsy‘s February glam bag! Gotta say, not keen on the super pink (and rather bland, I might add) bag, but to each their own. As a new subscriber though, I have to wonder what the heck does one do with all of the bags that you end up accumulating every month?

I haven’t tried these J. Cat eyelashes yet because I really only wear false lashes maybe once a month. They do, however, look very similar to the Ardell 102 Demis that I wear so I’ll be happy to try these out.

They look a tad bit thiner than the Ardells, but that’s fine by me as I’m not overly fussy in the fake eyelashes department.

Pop Beauty – Plump Pout in Fuchsia Freesia (4g for $7.50, full size is $16 for 8.5g)

There’s no doubt this is a beautiful colour. Pop Beauty‘s Fuchsia Freesia is a very vibrant fuchsia (duh) that goes on the lips fairly opaque. Unfortunately the lasting powder is on parr with other lipglosses and for that reason I’m just not that drawn to it. I haven’t got the patience to be fiddling around with my gloss every damn hour during the workday.

Pop Beauty – Plump Pout in Fuchsia Freesia

As you can see from the shot, it really is gorgeous. I just wish it stayed that way! The top right shot is right after I’d applied it. The bottom right is after an hour of wear time. It’s almost completely rubbed off and I wasn’t even eating or drinking anything! Way too high maintenance for me. I’ll end up bringing it to work and leaving it there for those days where I forget to pack a lipstick or something. It does have a weird burnt cinnamon/plastic taste and smell to it too, but not as bad as some things I’ve worn.

Tini Beauty Eyetini Cordial Cream Shadow + Base In One in Violette $18

I didn’t have much hopes for a cream shadow that I had to apply with a wand applicator, but this one surprised me. Tini Beauty is a company I’m completely unfamiliar with, so $18 for a cream shadow seems kind of steep. It is, however, quite beautiful on the eyes.

Tini Beauty Eyetini Cordial Cream Shadow + Base In One in Violette

The product does indicate that it has a built in primer, but since I always wear primer I can’t let you know how this holds up by itself. Shot on the left is the Eyetini alone over NARS‘ primer. And the shot on the right has MAC‘s Blackberry blended into the crease with nothing over the Eyetini itself. The texture of this product is very smooth on application (I even used the built in applicator and didn’t bother with another brush!), but it does dry to a very paper-like texture. It’s not necessarily bad, it’s just a bit odd. It feels a bit similar to a Maybelline Color Tattoo in that sense. When I wore this eye look, I didn’t put anything over the Eyetini and it wore for a solid 14 hours. I experienced minor creasing and a very slight bit of bunching/flaking. Overall though, two thumbs up on this product!

Face masks don’t really make my heart go pitter-patter, but it was in the bag (and apparently I’d filled out my profile to indicate I wanted masks… go figure) so I may as well give it a shot.Skyn Iceland‘s Fresh Start Mask did… nothing. Sure, it made my skin really uncomfortably hot in an oh-my-god-I-want-to-scratch-it-off kind of way, but did it actually really DO anything for me? Not that I can see.

I used it once a week as the instructions indicated (I got two uses out of the foil packets), and mixed them how they said to (“blue” clay first, then the gooey gel one on top”). And uh yeah. I did a face mask. It didn’t make my skin worse, or better. /shrug

I was eager to try Zoya for the first time! I have a friend who swears by them but I’d never owned a bottle before. Zoya describes Dot as a full coverage pink-petal cream.

Well.
No.

No, it is not full coverage. Or opaque. Have a look:

Aside from my painted cuticles and the random cat hair, you can see that it took four coats before I got opaque, streak-free colour. That’s without a base coat or top coat too. I don’t know about you, but if I have to apply six coats of nail polish to my nails, that stuff is never going to dry and it ends up going all mushy. Definitely not pleased with this one. For those people it does work for, this is at least part of Zoya‘s Spring 2014 collection so it’s a very recently released shade.

Ipsy February 2014 Breakdown

J. Cat Beauty Eyelashes – $3.99 USD (full size)
Pop Beauty Plump Pout in Fuchsia Freesia – 4g for $7.50 (full size is $16 for 8.5g)
Tini Beauty Eyetini Cordial Cream Shadow + Base In One in Violette – $18 (full size)
Skyn Iceland Fresh Start Mask – $6.50 (full size is 6 masks for $39 USD)
Zoya Dot Nail Polish – $9 (full size)

BOX TOTAL: $44.99

My Thoughts

It’s funny… while writing and editing this review, I can see that I was pretty displeased with a lot of these products. However, my lasting impression from the bag isn’t a bad one. I was happy to try out the stuff that was new to me, and even though it didn’t work out, or I didn’t notice much of a difference in my skin (looking at you Fresh Start Mask), I was still happy to give these products a shot.

The only real hit for me out of this bag was the cream shadow (love it) and I hope to like the eyelashes when I get around to trying them out.