Throw the term “youth” or “youthful” into any kind of skincare and women will gravitate towards it like moths to a flame. The Body Shop‘s Drops of Youth skin care collection “uses plant stem cell technology, along with other ingredients to achieve younger-looking skin. Enriched with Edelweiss, Sea Holly, and Criste Marine, these plant stem cells help to protect, firm, and renew skin, leaving skin refreshed and smooth”.
The Body Shop Drops of Youth – Youth Concentrate
So basically, this is for those of us looking to get a bit more bounce back into our aging skin. The Body Shop put it nicely, but this is definitely geared towards maturing skin!
The Body Shop Drops of Youth – Youth Concentrate
The Youth Concentrate “is a quick-absorbing, non-sticky concentrate, that leaves your skin feeling instantly softer”. It features a dropper like system which… for the life of me… I suck at using. Does anyone else have this problem? I can only get about half a dropper full every time I use one (and it’s not just this one… I have the same issue with foundation too!). The Youth Concentrate is like a very liquid gel formula that feels a little bit slippy on the skin.
The Body Shop Drops of Youth – Youth Cream
The Youth Cream “is a lightly air-whipped face cream that leaves a flawless, velvety-soft finish to the skin”. It definitely has that whipped cream consistency, but there’s a hint of gel-like formula to it. It’s far lighter feeling than more creams which is a huge bonus for those who don’t want something heavy on their skin.
Both products have a lightly organic scent that was inoffensive to my nose.
My Thoughts
The Youth Concentrate is neither here nor there for me as I didn’t feel like it did a whole lot on its own. It did sink into my skin very quickly and I wasn’t left with any kind of tacky residue on my skin which I highly appreciate. However, I can’t use the Youth Concentrate on its own because my skin just doesn’t feel hydrated enough with it. I found myself using the Youth Concentrate first, waiting a minute for it to dry, then applying the Youth Cream on top. Doing this made my skin feel refreshed and hydrated. I was also able to apply my makeup within ten minutes and haven’t suffered any kind of makeup meltoff like some overly hydrating creams can be.
The Youth Cream was definitely the winner out of these two products for me. I could use it alone or with the Youth Concentrate and it performed exactly the same. I love how the pot looks and feels solid and has a decent weight to it. I know a lot of people look for SPF in their moisturizer, but I prefer not to have one and apply my own whenever I need it, so for that reason I am REALLY happy that this one doesn’t haven’t SPF in it. Worth noting though: this is a lightweight formula, so for those with excessively dry skin, you may want to look at something a bit more moisturizing. My “reasonably” dry skin was just fine with the Youth Cream however!
I’m always a little thrown off when beauty brands bring hemp into the mix with their products. There’s something a little less than savory about seeing the tell-tale green leaves that usually signify a different kind of store down Yonge Street in Toronto (if you know what I mean).
“Hemp is hope, not dope”
The Body Shop went straight to the heart of that matter with their Hemp Rescue Balm as the inside of the tin packaging disclaims, quite loudly, “Hemp is hope, not dope”. Their Hemp Rescue Balm “instantly relieves rough, tight ultra-dry skin and soothes elbows, knees, knuckles and feet. [It has] a rich balm to oil texture and hemp seed oil packed full of essential fatty acids, your skin will be left feeling softer and more protected.” Once I read that, I was determined to use this on my nasty heels (which I have lamented about before).
The Body Shop Helm Rescue Balm
The balm has a bit of a tough texture on top, but once you break through that you’re left with the smooth balm underneath. It’s really a lovely texture – it’s smooth and emollient enough to sink into your skin (even my nasty ass heels), but not so slippery that it just wipes away when you walk around. And low and behold, it WORKS! This Hemp Rescue Balm has been keeping my heels in great shape and keeping the deep heel cracks at bay. I use this roughly every 2-3 nights before going to bed and I’ve been extremely happy with the results (especially since the last heel balm I used – by Dermacol – was doing NOTHING to help me out!). The scent is neither appealing nor unappealing to me, so that’s also a bonus.
So if you suffer from extremely rough patches of dry skin, or even cracked skin that needs healing (my husband’s been using it on his elbows, albeit not as regularly as me, and I have noticed a bit of a difference) you may want to give this one a shot!
Let’s start off with the only item I actually BOUGHT this month! Inglot‘s Duraline was a must have for me since my Inglot red gel liner turned gloppy on me. Duraline will soften up gel liners that have gone a little bit stale (or any other cream product). I’ve put off buying it for a while now, but when my red gel liner died, I knew it was time to invest. 🙂
So, that may have been the only item I bought this month, but I am very, very lucky to have a ton of beauty blogging friend in Toronto and we do swaps every few months. It gives me a chance to get rid of product that don’t work for me, and pick up ones that could potentially be love at first sight. So here’s the goodies I got from a swap:
Inglot – empty palettes
I realize these are empty Inglot palettes, but I am SO excited for that! I love Inglot‘s system of palettes, and I think the packaging is beautiful, but it annoys me to buy packaging every time I go to buy shadows. Now I’ve got three empty palettes I can fill with beautiful colours!
I love… Coconut & Cream
I do not need shower gel. At all. And yet, I always grab for it when I see it at a swap. Why? Maybe because I always considered shower gel as so unnecessarily expensive in stores that I really don’t want to pay for it again any time soon. I love shower gel, and this smells wonderful, but it’s gone to the back of my “to use” pile of shower gels. I’m sure I’ll get to it… at some point. lol
One of my favourite YouTubers (StrwberrySweet – mostly does Project Pans) panned one of these Josie Maran Argan Infinity Creamy Lip & Cheek Oil relatively recently, and I wanted to see what they were all about. My initial reaction is that I’m not super keen on the scent of them, but that it wore well and looked good!
Boscia – Intensifying Moisture Pack
This Boscia Intensifying Moisture Pack + is sitting in my medicine cabinet and while I’m writing this up I realize I haven’t even got a clue as to whether this is a facial cleanser or a moisturizer. Heh.
Benefit Air Patrol
I’ve harped on about my problems with eyeshadow primers before so I won’t bore you with the details other than to say I love trying new ones. Benefit‘s Air Patrol is adorable looking and I’m excited to see how this one holds up!
I love Aveeno‘s skincare products and I’ve been using them for the last… 14 years. Eek. Anyway, I haven’t tried out their Fresh Essentials range so I’m looking forward to using this one.
Vitabath – Sweet Pink Peppermint
More shower gel! I got sucked in by the scent of Vitabath‘s Sweet Pink Peppermint – it’s more of a Christmasy scent, so I’ll probably bust it out in November.
The Body Shop Satsuma Body Butter
MWAHAHAHAH!!!!! The Body Shop‘s Satsuma scent has been one of my favourite scents throughout my entire life and yet… my husband doesn’t like the scent of it. I haven’t repurchased it since I used my last big tub up of the body butter… but now I have another one. 😀
NYC Liquid Liner
NYC‘s Liquid Liner has been touted as one of the best matte black liquid liners at the drugstore and I hadn’t gotten around to picking it up! Initial reaction: DEFINITELY matte, DEFINITELY black… but I’m not in love with the way the tip of the brush is cut. Hmmm… maybe I’ll just cut it myself.
Misslyn nail polish in 756
No one wanted this Misslyn nail polish in 756… which was great for me since I wear this kind of silver disco polish on my toenails 24/7 so picked this one up since I’ve never tried a Misslyn polish before.
B Kamins Laboratories
I know NOTHING about this B Kamins brand… but the body lotion says “Maple” on it. It, however, smells nothing like maple, so I was totally duped. 😐
BH Cosmetics – Galaxy Chic
/GASP
BH Cosmetics – Galaxy Chic
I couldn’t believe someone brought this to the swap. I had lusted over this Galaxy Chic palette years ago when BH Cosmetics released it, but never bought it because like everything else in the makeup world… you become so inundated with products you end up buying some, and not others. The colours, the marbling, the names of the colours… everything about this palette makes me so, SO happy. I’ve used it twice now and love the shadows. Not a matte in sight though, so it’s not a standalone palette.
Maybelline Lash Sensational
A new mascara for me to try out: The MaybellineLash Sensational. I’ve still got a lot of mascara left in my currently opened tubes, so it’ll be a while before I bust into this one.
Etude House Vivid Popstick
I’m not too familiar with Etude House‘s makeup, so I was excited to see a few items by them. This is essentially one of those matte lipstick crayons. I like it, but I don’t love it.
Etude House – Color Lipsfit
Not tried this one yet… this is by Etude House as well and I think it’s just for lips.. but may be for cheeks as well. It’s still sitting in my “To Use” pile!
Coloured Raine – Electric Raine
Oh wow. Okay… I had heard about Coloured Rained via NikkieTutorials on YouTube, but never bought any. BUT THIS IS AMAZING! IT’s nowhere near as drying as the Colour Pop liquid lipsticks – instead this one is so much more comfortable on me lips. I may need more…
Clip – Lipnicure in Trouble Peach
Unfortunately, Clio‘s Lipnicure was a straight “into the garbage” item. It applied patchily and then just really poorly. To the point where I removed it mid-day at work and it was a disaster to remove. I threw it straight into the trash. 🙁
Too Faced La Creme in Loganberry
This one astonished me. Too Faced‘s Loganberry La Creme lipstick was discontinued about a year ago and I was never able to get my hands on it. Imagine my surprise that someone would want to get rid of it! YESSSS!
THEFACESHOP – Face Mask Aloe
A face mask via THEFACESHOP. This’ll be my first time using anything by THEFACESHOP.
Annabelle Brow-To-Go
A brow kit from Annabelle that has turned out to be wayyy too dark for me, but it has worked when I need to darken up my eyebrows to look more like someone else (see my The 100 Wanheda/Clarke tutorial).
Annabelle Brow Show
Another Annabelle brow product! Brow Show is light enough for me so this has actually been working out and it’s really easy to use. Not enjoying the huge size of the pencil, but the product is nice!
And we’re done! I’m doing pretty well conserving my money for IMATS New York, and these swaps are definitely helping me to keep products rotating in and out of my collection1
I’ve waited a loooong time to pick up The Body Shop‘s Honey Bronze Bronzing Powder (eesh what a redundant name). It’s been in more blogs and vlogs than I can even recall and it’s been haunting me for not owning it. But really, when you already own 15+ bronzers, why do you need another one??? So I held off buying it for months, maybe even years, until just this past holiday season when The Body Shop was having an unbelievable sale and I caved. (I was also shopping with some beauty blogger friends, and we’d had some wine… so you know how THAT goes!)
The Body Shop Honey Bronze Bronzing Powder in 01 Light Matte
I picked up the lightest shade in 01 Light Matte. Notice it says matte right in the name of the product? Love that aspect, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted this so badly. Although I love shimmery bronzers for certain occasions, I had found I was a bit overrun with them and needed ones that were actually matte. (On me, shimmery bronzers look a bit odd during the winter months – I far prefer them for the summer.)
The Body Shop Honey Bronze Bronzing Powder in 01 Light Matte
The Honey Bronzer Bronzing Powder has a honeycomb pattern on the powder (and we all know how much we love our embossed products, don’t we?), the case is sleek, compact and even has a honeycomb pattern embedded on the lid. The whole compact just feels really well put together which is something I can really appreciate. One thing to note though: while this product is enriched with Community Trade Honey from Ethiopia, it does not actually smell like honey. (Boo!)
The Body Shop Honey Bronze Bronzing Powder in 01 Light Matte – swatch
So while this may be their lightest shade, if you look on their web site, their range of colours is actually pretty impressive and there are intensely dark shades that look like they’ll be really fantastic for darker skin. 01 Light Matte is slightly warm, but I never feel like it looks too warm on my skin. It’s easy to blend and can be built up for extra intensity if desired.
Wearing 01 Light Matte
If you’d like to see the bronzer in action (applied on top of foundation), you can see that in one of my tutorials from last week – the Too Faced Chocolate Bon Bons/Valentine’s Day look over on YouTube (scroll to the 1:33 mark if you’re only interested in the bronzer).
Final Thoughts
Although I’m currently trying to finish up another one of my bronzers (I’m soooo close), this will absolutely become my go-to winter bronzer. The Body Shop‘s Honey Bronze Bronzing Powder feels dummy-proof to me, and I *need* that on winter days when I can barely see my face in the mirror because the sun hasn’t risen yet. I’ve yet to actually go truly overboard with this powder (unlike blush… holy smokes sometimes I show up at work, take a look in the mirror and I’m like “Hey there clown cheeks, how come I didn’t notice this at home???”) and I think that’s partially a factor on how well this blends out and how pale the colour is. For the snow queens out there who are scared of bronzer, you may want to check this one out – it might just be pale enough for you!
The Body Shop‘s Honey Bronze Bronzing Powder can be purchased on thebodyshop.ca for $20 CAD (or for wait for a sale and grab it at a cheaper price!).
