Archives July 2022

just a few months ago, I’d never met another blogger but then I met fivezero!  And just this past weekend, I met three a lot more bloggers!  I met Jodi of A Brash Attitude and Cat of MyLipAddiction, and then polished and Inspired!!!  And of course, we did some makeup shopping!  Here’s my collective haul:

Nothing is a lot more fun than shopping for makeup with other makeup addicts!

Jodi was in town to attend the Generation appeal by Ipsy event and although neither cat or I were attending, we thought it was the best opportunity to have a meetup!  It was such a windy day – we ended up at a second cup coffee shop to chit chat and some lattes before we headed out to do some shopping.  We gabbed for a long while!  Then we chose it was time to hit the streets of Toronto to SHOP!  We ended up at the NYX store and Marshalls and these came home with me:

NYX Avant Pop! shadow palette in Nouveau elegant ($19) – I was so delighted to see this in stock! It’s always out of stock online and I had no hope in finding it in the store. thrilled to try this out!

China Glaze nail polish in Sorry I’m Latte ($5.99) – this is from the Spring House of Colour collection and I found this at Marshalls! I was showing Jodi and cat the places I stalk for my Winners / Marshalls finds. regrettably there weren’t a lot there during this particular visit.

We also stopped into Saje and Urban Outfitters but I didn’t get anything from there (although the 2 for $8 nail polishes at UO looked tempting). We probably did a lot more talking than shopping, in all honesty!  It was a ton of fun!

Then, the following day, polished and inspired (known as P&I going forward…) and I met up at the Eaton Centre to do some damage.  She was in town on holiday with her fiancé – I was pleased that our schedules aligned and we were able to meet up.  And of course, we met up at the Sephora!  She was interested in seeing Surratt in person – I still want a lot more of their blushes!  First though, she came bearing gifts! So sweet, and she really shouldn’t have!  I received:

Hourglass Ambient lighting Powder in dim Light – she knew I’d been lusting after this and this travel size is best to try out! I was thinking of taking this with me on my trip but I chose it’s too precious to risk it.

Zoya nail polish in Meadow – such a “me” shade! I’m slowly building my Zoya collection back up, it seems!

Soap & Glory Sugar Crush Body Buttercream – I’ve never smelled this before and I was pleasantly shocked to find it’s a sweet citrus smell. I was expecting it to smell like their Hand Food hand cream which I wasn’t a fan of but, this I LOVE. So refreshing – I can’t wait to slather this on (or eat it)!

Thank you for the goodies, P&I!

The main makeup places that we wanted to hit up were H&M Beauty, Muji, and Yves Rocher (we did also wander over to Inglot but they weren’t open). I ended up succumbing to the get one get one 50% deal on cosmetics at H&M:

Overnight Lip Rescue – I heard good things about this and after the fiasco with the BITE appeal Agave Lip Mask, I chose to give this a shot.

Nail polish in Intergalactic ($6.99) – I absolutely blame P&I for enabling this nail polish purchase!

Then I grabbed a few basics at The face Shop:

Real Nature sheet masks in White Tea and Calendula – I’ve never seen these masks at the FaceShop before. Interested to try the calendula one especially

Silky & Soft Cotton Pads – I was fascinated by these cotton pads – they are like little maxi pads! There are even slots where your fingers go.

It was remarkable to meet up with all these bloggers! In flesh and blood! If you think they’re amazing people online, that’s just a tiny peek into how amazing they are in real life!  I’m so pleased we had the opportunity to meet up!  And nope, no pics of us. We’re keeping the mystery.

If you’re not following my meetup pals, then you’re missing out:
♥  Jodi of A Brash Attitude
♥  Cat of MyLipAddiction
♥  Polished and Inspired

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My December 2016 GoalsHappy December!  Now that I’m done project Pan, I have to be sincere with you – I’ve been feeling a little stressed and lot guilty about the pile of makeup that have been waiting to be photographed, tested, and reviewed. ever considering that the floodgates opened this year for makeup buying, I’ve…
December 1, 2016In “Beauty”

May & June 2016 Low-Buy AccountabilitySince I skipped May’s accountability post, I’m lumping both months together.  Let’s recap, in April, I was able to carry over $122.48. My combined budget for may and June was $100. So in total, I had $222.48 to play with. Let’s see how I did.  First, let’s get the elephant in…
July 6, 2016In “Beauty”

Random makeup haul: Shoppers, Rexall, Faces, etcBy now you’re sick of my hauls, right?  I’m sorry, but you realize January was NO HOLDS BARRED month, and I just came off a yearlong dry spell, so every makeup item looked mighty tempting.  This is the LAST of the January hauls (until I receive the items I ordered…
February 9, 2016In “Beauty”

Roar!

Did you hear that…? It was the call of the jungle, a call that Tabs answered quite often.

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To the unassuming passerby, Tabs may have looked just like a regular old housecat, but inside he had the heart of a lion. He fancied himself as the King of the Jungle.

There were a few occurrences — some may call them skirmishes — where he had a power play with a lion or two on set, but thankfully because of my remarkable negotiation skills, I was able to take things down a few notches, and no limbs or claws were lost.

Just so you know, working with the big cats of the wild will make a woman out of you! I was forever changed, especially with the scuffle he had with a cheetah during a MAC campaign… I still have all my fingers, yea!

Rosie

I’ve been trying to inspire Rosie to unleash her inner jungle cat, so today I put her in a trendy cheetah collar with a complementary flower and some leaves because she is a girly-girl after all.

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I was expecting claws out, some roars here and there, maybe some growls, but instead she wanted to contemplate the changing landscape around her. spring is starting to show around these parts, and you know Rosie; she’s got several science experiments going in her head at any given moment.

Your friendly neighborhood appeal addict,

Karen

I felt like I did less shopping and browsing in March just simply due to being busier… but now providing everything out, I did in fact, do a lot of shopping!

I’ll be providing all of the appeal related items I gotten in March, but only actual makeup items will be counted toward my budget.  First makeup item I gotten in March was the Body shop Fresh nude foundation $25:

I’ve worn this a few times now and it’s quite nice. I’ll do a review after I’ve given it a a lot more thorough test.

MAC:

MAC Bamboo & mystery pro palette refill $8 each for total of $16:
I found out these 2 shades on my wish list are being discontinued but thankfully at the same time MAC minimized their price for the eye shadow pan refills from $12 each to $8. That’s a 33% price reduction – it makes you wonder how much money they were making before, hrm?

MAC Charlotte Olympia Collection good Old Days nail Lacquer $15.50
Aaaand, I succumbed to the limited edition temptation! When I saw this post by Eugenia, I was sold! I toyed with either the white or the classic red polish (or ahem, both) but my decision was made for me at the MAC store as the red was sold out. I actually snagged the last bottle of this shade. Base on online photos, I thought the bottle would be tiny but it’s actually quite tall – I put a full size bottles of Essie (Cabana Boy) and OPI (Chiffon My Mind) for comparison.

Sephora:

Bobbi brown beach roller ball perfume
This was influenced by an IG post by Dominique of style Domination. It honestly smells a mixture of Coppertone sunscreen and Off! bug repellent, but somehow it works. I’ll devote an entry on this!

Shu Uemura eye lash curler
I used to have this and gave it away. considering that getting the Surratt lash curler, I got it in my head that I need make a solid comparison between that and the cult classic Shu. So here’s a rare case of me getting stuff just for the blog! another one of my friends will get this lash curler once I’m made with it – you lucky dawg.

Drugstore:

Garnier SkinActive Micellar Water
Finally, I got this to try out. There was a 25% off sale so I got this for around $8. I hope it’s as good as all the rave reviews say it is!

Quo round Compact Sponge 
These are my much-loved compact sponges so I scooped a bunch up when I identified them on clearance for $1 per pack (normally they’re $5 each). I don’t believe they are being discontinued but this particular buyers location was just clearing space for some Joe Fresh stuff.

Bonne Bell Lip Smackers in Dr Pepper (influenced by ClassicMaggie) and chocolate Mint
I must have stuck to just the Dr Pepper flavour but I was lured into the chocolate Mint by the “1970’s Groovy” retro text on the package. I thought the balm colour would be a brown shade but it’s actually a light mint which essentially applies clear. Boo. Dr Pepper is awesome though!

Random:

Oxy 5 Acne Vanishing treatment Benzoyl Peroxide lotion 2.5%
I found this for $3 at Dollarama and just in time because I’m nearly out of my current blemish treatment. It’s so tough to find Benzoyl Peroxide treatment with only 2.5% – a lot of of them are 5% which would burn my skin. happy I scored this! Expiry date is Feb 2017.

Inhibitif Body Serum
I’ve been curious about this hair reduction product for my underarms. It launched here in Canada with big hoo-ha and then disappeared. I was pleased to see this at Winners. I debated getting the smaller size bottle but I observed that whoever ticketed them switched the prices around so the 120ml was $10 whereas this 240ml bottle was only $6. I like to take advantage of mislabeled items!

Body stuff:

L’Occitane Solidarity rose Balm for international Women’s Day
L’Occitane Shea Butter Hand cream & crucial (got the crucial for complimentary with the purchase of a full size hand cream – you use it to squeeze out the very last bits of product!)

I went inside L’Occitane purely to get the rose Balm in support of international Women’s Day initiatives, and to get a birthday gift for a friend’s birthday. I walked out with a hand cream for myself, and a gwp for spending over a certain amount! The gwp includes precious Cleansing Foam, Neroli & Orchidee Body Milk, Immortelle Divine Cream, 2 packettes of Huile de Jeunesse Divine – and a sweet little cosmetic pouch.

LUSH Bouncy Bunny Shower Jelly
I haven’t opened mine up yet but I assure you there’s a cute little bunny crammed inside that container. Can’t wait to use this! (Also, I went into lush with the intent of getting another fresh face mask but on that particular day, every single one of their fresh masks were out of stock! I haven’t had a chance to go back yet.)

Bath & Body works Waikiki beach schtuff
Basically I had to get my hands on everything new from this line. I’d stocked up on a lot of body lotion and shower gels last year already so I didn’t need any of those.  From this year’s collection I bought: 3 wick candle (x2), hand soap (massive 394ml bottles x3), Wallflower bulbs (x3) and lip gloss (I found a lot more of them at another location yay! x3).

Total makeup purchases: $56.50

My March makeup allowance with the roll-over was $59.24. I just made it, phew! $2.74 to be applied to April.  Full steam ahead for this month! I’ve allocated $250 (now $252.74) to spend… that sounds like a lot but it will be depleted so swiftly with the upcoming VIB sale. I’ve got to be smart with my spending. I’ll post my wish list / shopping cart for your opinion before I make my purchase!

Have you tried any of the items I got in March?

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Project pan 12 Collab: autumn 2016 EditionHappy labour Day!  Hope you’re enjoying the long weekend!  And welcome to another collab with the Canuck gang! We are once again, trying to chip away at some appeal products in our stash. this time we are choosing 12 items to try to pan / empty. The length of this…
September 5, 2016In “Beauty”

Hauluary 2018 – Post-Holiday SalesI know, I know. I just posted about makeup decluttering and here I am, showing stuff I’m adding to my hoard.  never did I once say that I wasn’t shopping anymore! (I was just making room? 😆 ) And, I didn’t go as crazy this year with post-holiday sales. This…
January 22, 2018In “Beauty”

August 2016 Low-Buy AccountabilityThe first “real” month of my self-imposed No-Buy, due to my overspending back in may / June. In August, I did pick up a few bits from the drugstore, and Winners, where else? I’ve been surprisingly not too tempted by new launches even with all the fall sneak peeks and…
September 2, 2016In “Beauty”

I purposely left this one last for the job pan update, since this was somewhat different from the rest of the products in that I opened a brand new product at the onset of the project, in an attempt to pan it in 12 weeks.

A deal with powder is one of those products that I utilize daily, as well as I was curious exactly how much product I can go with in 3 months.

The Cargo HD pressed Powder is one of my top 5 pressed powders – the shade #20 utilized to be always offered out so I stocked up on a few of them. After this is finished, I have one more in my stash.

I keep in mind when this powder was very first introduced – it was most likely one of the very first beauty products to tout “HD” in its name because of the emergence of HD TVs. I recalled reading exactly how this powder was favoured by newscasters since exactly how great it makes them look on HD TVs. Nowadays, every other product phone calls itself HD – I believe the HD name has lost it caché.  I likewise don’t hear much about Cargo in the beauty world anymore – I believe mainly because of its lower distribution since its exit out of Sephora.

What I like about this powder is exactly how it makes the skin look airbrushed – blurring fine lines, pores – without looking powdery or “made up”. It provides a medium coverage, blends seamlessly into my skin, as well as preserves a skin-like texture. The primary drawback is that this powder isn’t the very best at radiate manage – that’s why I prefer this powder during the cooler months when my t-zone has a tendency to be less oily.

I’ve been diligently utilizing this powder Every.Single.Day. since the begin of job Pan. It turns out, I truly don’t utilize that much powder! This is what it appears like after 3 months of use:

No pan in sight!  There’s a slight dip in the pan you can at the sides, however I quote it will be one more 3 months at least, up until I see any type of sliver of pan in the center.

I utilize a bit fluffy synthetic kabuki clean with this pressed powder – the one shown is from “Essential Beauty” (cheapo one I discovered at Winners years ago).  Recently I likewise like utilizing an oval “toothbrush brush” to smooth over the surface as well as pat onto areas of my deal with with tighter angles like around the nose (this clean shown is from Cailyn, likewise discovered at Winners, back in August). I don’t bring this compact in my handbag since I discover the packaging to be bulky. as well as although it contains a nice mirror, the compact doesn’t enable space for a sponge, so you would have to bring a sponge or a clean separately.

The component listing is quite short:

Talc, Nylon-12, Octyldodecyl Stearoyl Stearate, Zinc Stearate, Caprylyl Glycol, Silver Oxide. may contain (+/-): Mica (Ci 77019), Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891), Iron Oxides (Ci 77491, Ci 77492, Ci 77499), Ultramarines (Ci 77007), D&C Black 2 (Ci 77266).

The Cargo HD pressed Powder contains 8g of product as well as is made in Canada. It is sold at choose Rexall as well as London medication stores in Canada. In the US, Cargo is sold at Ulta, Walgreens, as well as Kohl’s.

Pros:
• Ultra fine powder
• natural finish, not powdery
• Blurs lines as well as pores
• great colour match

Cons:
• Not high oil control
• Compact not fantastic to bring in purse

Stash worthiness: 9/10

And what the heck! The weight went up this week? I weighed this thing ten TIMES as well as it still weighed 0.001 more than last week. This joke isn’t funny!

As usual, the only product that went down in weight was the Body shop Fresh nude Foundation:

Please inspect out my job pan pals for their updates:
• Ingrid of Curly.Spring.Blossom
• Jodi of A Brash Attitude
• Chanelle of Chanelle Hayleyyy

And this is the last job pan item, as well as we’ll be publishing our final summaries this Wednesday.

What’s your favourite deal with powder?

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Project pan 12 Collab: autumn 2016 EditionHappy labour Day!  Hope you’re enjoying the long weekend!  And welcome to one more collab with the Canuck gang! We are when again, trying to chip away at some beauty products in our stash. this time around we are selecting 12 products to try to pan / empty. The length of this…
September 5, 2016In “Beauty”

Project pan 12 Collab: The ENDWhat an legendary journey! When I very first agreed to do job Pan, I believed it was going to be FUN. Oh exactly how wrong I was. This is the tune that went with my head (sang to the tune of “The tune That never Ends”): This is the Collab that never…
November 30, 2016In “Beauty”

PP12: NYX Powder blush in Taupe PB11Happy Halloween! I hope you get sufficiently spooked today as well as likewise eat enough candies for a nice sugar high. 😛 Today’s job pan product is the NYX Powder blush in Taupe #PB11: It was not by accident that this product is featured today – if you’re in a pinch for ghoulish looking hollowed out cheeks…
October 31, 2016In “Beauty”

Yet another Targetgate™ item up for review, the Sonia Kashuk eye on neutral shimmer 03 eye shadow palette ($20 Target).  I originally was on the hunt for the all matte version of this palette but considering that they were all sold out, I settled for the shimmer one.  The palette consists of 12 individual shadows of 0.8g each for a total of 9.6g.  The shades range from a light champagne to a deep smokey charcoal.  The palette is aptly named as the neutral palette as it has a blend of warm and cool shades but overall, the palette is neutral.

Warning: do not use on lip area. (Click to enlarge for ingredient list)
The palette came completely shrink wrapped but for some reason there’s a smudge mark on the middle pan, top row.

The top 2 rows consist mostly of light to medium neutral shades.  My much-loved of this grouping are the lower 3, especially #4 and #6.  Both are smooth and pigmented, and individually, can work as a single shadow eye look.

But my favourites out of this whole palette are contained in the bottom portion – #8 through #11 are my kind of taupey shades (#9 hubada hubada!)   These all apply well onto the lids and blend beautifully.  A couple of the shades (#8 and #10) are a touch chalkier with less pigmentation relative to the rest, but they’re not horrible by any means.

I’m honestly very shocked at how much I like this palette – I wore it straight for a week to test it, but even after the mandated trial week was over, I found myself still reaching for this palette.  Aside from not having any mattes, it’s still a versatile palette for casual looks (top rows) or creating dramatic smokey look (bottom rows).  The shadows are good quality – they wore well through the day with minor fading but no creasing – I would compare the quality to that of Inglot or NYX.

Pros:
• inexpensive ($2.08 per gram)
• pigmented
• smooth formula, easy to blend
• versatile colours
• slim palette, approx 4 1/2″ x 3″ x 3/8″

Cons:
• all shimmers (and it’s clearly stated in the palette name, nothing a matte transition shade can’t fix)
• some fading after 8 hour wear (on top of eye shadow primer / base)

Stash worthiness: 8/10

Update! Just as I’m updating this entry in preparation to schedule the post, I drop this palette on the floor while being my clumsy self and this is the aftermath:

Warning: this palette may not be suitable for clumsy people or traveling on safari. See how dedicated I am to testing ALL aspects of a product for review?  Drop test included.  You’re welcome. *cries* RIP not so lucky #7.

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The Eye shadow TagImmediately after I did The Lipstick Tag, I thought – hey, why isn’t there an Eye shadow Tag?  I’m not really a lipstick girl, but I love me some eye shadows!  I’ve seen a best palette identify on YouTube but I’m not really a palette gal either, so I decided…
May 28, 2015In “Beauty”

Carli Bybel palette by BH CosmeticsI received the BH Cosmetics Carli Bybel 14 color Eyeshadow & Highlighter palette through a giveaway from MyStyleInsideOut: I’ve been wearing this and playing around with different combinations for about a month now. here are my thoughts. I’m going to admit this ideal off the bat: I’ve never heard of…
August 15, 2016In “Beauty”

Lise Watier simply Nudes Eyeshadow PaletteI rushed to get this review up because I just couldn’t hold off on testing this puppy out and sharing my thoughts.  The Lise Watier Simply Nudes 12-Colour Eyeshadow palette is from the variations de Nude Spring 2016 collection: I’ve neglected my project focus 10 palette (the Smashbox double Exposure) so I…
February 25, 2016In “Beauty”