Spotlighting Awesome Canadian Beauty Brands - FOTD, and Info!

Hello!!!

I had a huge realization the other day, and that is. I own a lot of Home grown beauty brand products! I am very proud of the fact I am Canadian. I love that i'm Canadian! And I realized I had NEVER done a spotlight on some of my favourite Canadian beauty brands/products!!!

So guess what we're looking at today!


Skincare:

My 2nd favourite skin care brand, let alone canadian brand, is Marcelle! They have AMAZING products for my sensitive acne prone skin! Their creams are moisturizing, and softening, I ADORE their makeup removing lotions. Their Eye makeup remover lotion is the only thing that doesn't sting my eyes!! I highly recommend checking this wonderful skin care and makeup brand out!

I also, REALLY love Vlinder Bath and Body, they are a Ontario (Stayner ON to be exact!) based bath and body brand. I own 3 of their lip balms. And ADORE THEM. My personal favourite scent is their Pumpkin Pie scented lipbalm. It's full of good ingredients, and it's the PERFECT lip balm for under drying lipsticks, as it's a waxier feel, not too thick, not slippery at all, but it is matte! So it's perfect!

Brushes:

These are ALL my QUO Brushes. And I HIGHLY recommend them. I have washed all of these multiple times, and I use some of them EVERY SINGLE DAY, and 99% of them do not shed, or have frizzy breakage. I used the paddle concealer brush, one of the paddle foundation brushes, the blush, the powder, and the angled liner brush every single day! I think my favourite type of QUO brushes are their angled liner brushes. As they are perfection for the brows!! They are stiff, and deposit the perfect amount of pigment,and are easy to do natural strokes!! The only brush that sheds, is the powder brush. When I pat my powder into my skin i'll get some breakage and small pieces of hair on my face. Usually one to three pieces! But as that's the only brush that sheds, I personally do not mind!

Makeup:

For base products, I love Marcelle's BB cream for a light coverage (Mostly to just even out my skin!) I also really like Marcelle's roller ball concealer. It feels so cooling in the summer, and it depuffs!

For heavy coverage, I like MAC Studio Fix Fluid. It's one of the best matches i'v ever found to my yellow, yellow, yellow skin tone!

I also, am on my THIRD compact of MAC Blot powder!! I love this powder so much!! It's matte, and helps set my base and make it last!!

For Cheek products, I go to QUO for bronzers, because they usually have golden or red undertones. And I find that super flattering on my skin! I also love their bronzers because they're shimmery. So I wear them as blushes, as highlights, etc. I also ADORE QUO's highlights. They are some of THE MOST intense highlights i'v ever used!!! Even I, queen of the highlight, feel I have to use a lighter hand with them!!

For blush, I LOVE Annabelle's blushes!! They are pigmented, smooth, and easy to blend out! I own 4 of them, and I love them all!! They come in different finishes, I have a matte one, I have a satiny one with a hint of pearl, and then this one pictured, which is full on shimmer!

For brows, I ADORE Annabelle!! They have amazing brow products!! I personally am a giant fan of their Brow to Go kit in Medium/Dark. I'm on my third compact. And I don't see myself changing it up any time soon!! I'll take my angled QUO brush, pat it into the darker powder, tap off the extra and then brush through my brows to add colour back to them!

For Brow Gel, which I use everyday, I'm a HUGE fan of MAC's waterproof brow set in the darkest shade they have, Brown Ebony. It keeps my brows in place all day, and on lazy days, it adds the perfect amount of pigment to my naturally full and thick brows!

For eyes, I'm ALL over the place!! I love Joe Fresh, (the white, peach, and brown trio up top is my favourite one!) because they do glitter shades REALLY well!

I also love QUO! They do some AMAZING greens, which makes ya girl VERY happy!!! And I love their baked pressed glitters in my inner corners to brighten!! So smooth and non chunky!

I also like a handful of MAC shadows. Of course the two I picked out to show you all, are two greens. Can you tell I was planning on doing a green eye look for y'all? Whoops!

The two MAC shadows I like the most, are Humid, and Sumptuous Olive.

For lips. I'm ALL about BITE beauty, and Joe Fresh!!! Those are my two TOP brands for lip products!! I love BITE for pigment, and vampy shades. And I love Joe Fresh for more every day shades. I love BITE's Amuse Bouche. And I ADORE Joe Fresh's Fresh Glass Lip gloss, their Lip Cremes (Which are SUPER Opaque, creamy finish, liquid lipsticks!)


My "Canadian Brand Only FOTD" :

For today's Canadian FOTD, I used:

Marcelle's BB cream applied to my skin with a paddle brush, I applied some of the BB Under eye Concealer to my under eyes and blended it out with a smaller paddle concealer brush. I set everything with my QUO Powder brush and MAC Blot Powder, I took a mix of Annabelle's #51 Blush (a shimmery cranberry shade) and QUO's Prismatic Face Palette's Bronzer (a shimmery golden brown) and applied that to my cheeks with QUO's blush brush.

I filled in my brows with Annabelle's Brow to Go kit in Medium Dark, then lightly ran MAC's Brow set in Brown Ebony through the front and tail of my brows.

For lips, I applied the Vlinder Pumpkin Pie lip balm, then squeezed out some of Joe Fresh's Fresh Glass in Glace Frais onto the back of my hand and smoothed that to my lips with a clean lip brush!

Eyes were super super quick and easy. I took the red toned satin bronzer from the one QUO face palette, and I buffed that into my crease for some depth and warmth. I then patted MAC Humid On the outer corners of my mobile lids, then I took a light shimmery mint shade from the QUO Minerals Matter Eco You eye quad, and patted that onto my inner half of my mobile lids. I took my 217 and buffed out everything, so there was no harsh lines, and everything was smooth. Then took a QUO pencil brush, and buffed a mix of MAC Sumptuous Olive, and MAC Humid under my lashline. Lastly for shadow, I took some of the yellow gold from the Joe Fresh Trio, and highlighted my inner corners and brow bones! I then applied some of my favourite Canadian falsies, and

We are done!

What do you think of this Canadian brand only look? And what do you think of these products? Would you be interested in trying them?

Monthly Favorites - February 2017

Hello!!! I want to try and do a quick favourites post each month, just to let you all know exactly what I'm reaching for, and what I'm using the most each month. I can't say if i'll get a favourites up EVERY month. But I'm going to try! :P

Let's start!

As you all know if you've checked my blog even once, this month I got the Modern Renaissance palette! And I'v worn it almost every single day since I got it on the 13th!!! The shadows are buttery, creamy, slightly powdery, but very pigmented!! I love that I can get multiple looks out of this one palette!

I picked up LUSH's Rosy Cheeks on the 11th (my birthday!) as a gift to myself, and I finished it last night! It's a lovely mask! Dare I say, my new favourite mask from lush? It's a clay based one, that dries down in about 10 minutes, but it's not SO dry my easily dehydrated skin felt tight and sore after. It actually felt TOTALLY different. My skin was bright, and soft after I rinsed this mask off!!

I was given BITE Beetroot for my birthday as well, And I'v worn it quite a bit this month!! It's a super creamy, moisturizing, soft, dark berry lipstick. I loves it!! I actually am really preferring the Amuse Bouch formula over the DC Luminous Creme formula! The Amuse Bouche formula seems to last longer, and it almost feels like it SETS. Very much so love!

NARS Sin, I got for christmas, And boy has this bad boy gotten some love!! It's a BEAUTIFUL Berry shade with golden shimmer ontop! It's super easy to blend, and it lasts all day on me! Perfect!

Tarte Birthday Suit Creamy matte lip paint, and I didn't get along at first!! In fact I thought it was grainy, and chalky looking on me. Turns out, I just needed to mix it, and wear the right eye/cheek look with it!! It feels comfortable, and lasts pretty darn well!!

Clinique High Impact Mascara and I are having a love affair right now!! I love the brush, it's thin, Nothing pisses me off more than a mascara brush that's bigger than my whole eye!!! It's a wet formula, and it gives me LASHES. I get the drama, and length I crave with this!!

I picked up this foundation as soon as it showed up in my local walmart!! (I was very interested, but sure as HELL was NOT paying $24.99 for it at shoppers!!!) And it was love at first application. This helps me touch up less, and it wears ALL day. I use less concealer with this. And overall it's love!! The only thing I don't like, is it's VERY pink. So I have to blend it down my neck/chest depending on my sweater/shirt. But that's my fault, as I'm pretty sure I'm actually the shade UP 305 which has a stronger yellow undertone!!

That's all for this month!! What were your favourites this month?

L'oreal Infallible Total Cover Foundation (304) Review

Ello!! Today we're doing a foundation review!!

I am currently, a MAC NC20 as i'm at my lightest. This shade is off. it is light enough, but it's pretty darn pink. I'm going to be purchasing the next shade up, because it swatches more yellow!!

This is my skin, primed and ready for foundation! I took these at 6am, while I was applying my foundation.

My biggest concerns with my skin are: Redness in my cheeks (here I have green primer on!) my undereyes and covering up my dark, dark, acne scarring on my cheeks!


This foundation is High Medium, to Light full coverage. I'm SUPER impressed with this formula.
I have oily skin, and this keeps me matte the longest. I DO have to blot, and I am oily by midnight when I remove my makeup, but I'm a oily gal, Im used to blotting and powdering.

 

This is JUST the foundation, I applied it all over, and did a layer and a half on my cheeks. But see how my undereyes are way more concealed, my skin looks even, and matte, My acne scarring is pretty darn covered. It's just slightly peeking out!

Here is my skin/face with concealer, powder, and blush on. I think it looks amazing!! And very flawless!!


I did this wear test for y'all yesterday, But I came home at 3am, a little under the influence
(I am in Canada. And here I am legal drinking age. Just to let any American readers know this, before you all worry LOL)
And when I got home I just took a makeup wipe, and wiped it off and then did my skin care routine.

But, It was totally worn off on my nose, and my inner cheeks. It looks splotchy? and like my pores were more visible which I think Is weird, because I have very non prominent pores.

Price: $24 at shoppers drug mart, and $16.99 at Walmart.
Pros: Great coverage! Very easy to spread and blend out. Keeps me matte!
Cons: Once my oils mix with the foundation on my nose, it just wipes/transfers off. No matter now much I apply powder and setting spray. This happens every time. Shade range is very pink toned. (Which could be a pro for some!)
Overal: 7.5/10

MAC Waterproof Brow Set (Brown Ebony) Review

Welcome!!

I figured, I mention this product enough it deserves a review!

I really do love this brow gel. It beats my old faithful Essence brow gel out of the WATER.!!

This keeps my brows in place, I like to brush the front of my brows, up straight, and on my right brow, the hair grows down in the middle of it (but it doesn't grow this way on my left? weird ammiright?) And this keeps the hairs exactly where I want them to be!

I also, don't follow the "brow rules" as this is the darkest shade MAC offers, and I think it's PERFECT. I don't do the "brunettes go a shade lighter on their brows" rule. I match to my brow hair. And I personally like the look of my brows!! 

This is the packaging, wand, and swatches. 

The wand is PERFECTION in my opinion. I have very large,  full, and dark brows (thank's Daddy!!) and the wand is tiny enough I can get it right in there and coat my hairs. 

This stuff is pigmented too!! I already have "great" brows so most days, my brow routine is just swiping this through them, to tint them. And i'm good to go. 

I am wearing JUST the brow gel in the top photo, you can see how it tints my brow hairs, and has them nice and fluffy!

In the bottom photo, I took a brow powder and filled in the front and the tail, then applied this brow gel to the whole thing!

Price: $24 (?)

Pros: Super quick, and easy. Very beginner friendly. Perfect colour match for me. They have lighter shades as well!! 

Cons: Will ONLY work for people with brows like myself, who already have thick and full brows. If you have very sparse and thin brows, this wont be the only thing you would use in the morning. 

Overall: 9.5/10

Nillionaire FOTD (In which I do way too many face of the day's)

Hey friends!! How are you?

Today I did a nice shimmery/glitter look, using Colourpop shadows! Ignore my hair in the photos, ahaha, It's second day hair, and it completely curled back up.

Skin care: I took a wet cloth, and pumped some non lathering cleanser it, then cleansed my face with that. Then patted dry, and put on Paula's Choice Resist Daily Mattifying Fluid SPF50 (it's a light lotion for oily/combo skin with SPF) then I patted on a dab of Origins Ginseng Eye Cream under each eye and focused it on the inner corners, and the outer corners. When that set into the skin, I then squeezed out a dollop of Paula's Choice Extra Care Non Greasy SPF50 Sunblock and worked that into my face focusing it on the high points of my face (my upper cheeks, the tip of my nose etc) 

Base: I then primed with the Estee Edit Pore Vanishing Stick, then tapped a small dot of Make Up For Ever's step 1 mattifying primer onto my nose. Once that had set, I took a paddle brush and smoothed and patted some orangey/peachy corrector under my eyes mostly in the inner corners. I then Took L'oreal Infalible Total Cover foundation and with clean, warm hands I worked that into my skin, focusing it on my cheeks. I used the shade 304 today, but I'm really the shade 305. As 304 is SUPER pink and peachy on my yellow skin! When the foundation set to a powdery finish, I took the same paddle brush, and dotted some Kat Von D lock it concealer under my eyes then patted that out. Next I took a smaller fluffy brush and patted translucent powder under my eyes to set. I switched to a bigger brush and then patted MAC Blot Powder all over to set! 

Cheeks: For Cheeks, Any American Readers are going to be disappointed! I used two Canadian only brands for my cheeks. I took my big fluffy blush brush, and patted/buffed the shimmery golden brown bronzer from the QUO Prismatic Face Palette. Then I took a fluffy highlighting brush, and I dipped into the Yellow Gold eye shadow from the Joe Fresh Eye Shadow Trio in Gold Rush, and I blended that along my cheek bones! 

Brows: I combed them with a spoolie to get rid of any foundation in them, then took an angled brow brush, and lightly tapped into my Annabelle Brows to Go kit, then brushed that through my brows, starting at the bottom and working up. When I was satisfied with the colour, I took my MAC brow set and combed through them lightly to set them into place. 

Eyes: I primed with Too Faced Shadow insurance, then set with ABH Tempera from lashline to brow bone, I took a large fluffy crease blush and buffed Warm Taupe into my crease and outer corner of my mobile lid. Then took a touch of Antique Bronze and buffed that in my outer crease, not as high as Warm Taupe. Then took the 217 and buffed out any harsh lines, doing little circles back and forth to make sure it was nice and soft. At this point I decided I needed some glitter! So I dipped into Colourpop's Nillionair and tapped that onto my mobile lids, and slightly up onto my hood. I wanted a TOUCH more sparkle, so I patted some of Colourpop's Glitter Sheer shadow in Paisley onto my lids and inner corners! I took a small, stiff pencil brush and ran some of Love Letter on my lower lashline. Two coats of mascara on my upper and lower lashes. Then I popped on my favourite falsies. And the eyes are done! 

Lips: I put Colourpop's LBB Lippy Stick on my lips, blotted, then put another layer on! 

And that's it!!! What do you think of this sparkly look?

Colourpop Pressed Eyeshadows Review/Swatches

Good Morning!!

I promised i'll start my reviews and swatches of my Colourpop collection. Today we are doing the BRAND NEW Pressed shadows!!

I only have four of them, but spoiler: I will be ordering more!

I have three shimmery/metallic shades, and one matte!!

 

As you can see, these are PIGMENTED! And soft!

From top to bottom we have:

Take it Slow - A light off white, champagne shade. It's metallic, and soft! and a lovely brow and inner corner highlight on me!
High Strung - My favourite of the four! It's SO creamy, and dense. It's super metallic, and shiney. It's a beautiful rose gold on my skin. I love it as a light shimery lid shade!
Come and Get It - This is a soft, creamy, metallic!! It can be worn buffed into the skin for a golden sheen, or worn heavier for more pigment and more of the pink base with shine through!
Bel Air - This is a super soft, and creamy matte. It's a light brown, perfect for a light crease, or a transition shade on my skin tone!

Pros: the matte is so amazing for a matte!! they're dense, and creamy, pigment for DAYS. Long wearing. No fallout!
Cons: The metallics might be too much for people who have fine lines and don't want them to be accentuated.
Price: $5 Each!
Overal: 10/10!! 

15% off ALL Paula's Choice Sets/Kits!!

I have a promo for my readers, and it's 15% off ALL in stock Paula's Choice Skin care Sets/Kits!!


paulaschoice.com/shop/campaign/kits-sets-exclusive/?p=AMPCKITS

I personally recommend:

RESIST BHA Exfoliant Set

RESIST Essential Kit For Normal To Dry Skin

And, 

RESIST Skin Resurfacing & Smoothing Set

Enjoy!!!

ELF Contour/Light Blush Pallet Review

Hello friends!!

The title of this post is kind of misleading, because I didn't know what to NAME this. ahaha.

Today, I'm reviewing My "custom" ELF cheek palette.

If you didn't know, You CAN pop the pans OUT in ELF's cheek pallets. So having owned the Light Blush palette and the Contour Palette, I'v made my own custom thing!

Clockwise, we have:

Cool brown matte contour shade - Very creamy and easy to pick up on a brush and blend out!
Pearly/lightly shimmery white highlight shade - super soft to the touch. It's silky! and not chunky at all.
Matte Plummy Pink - This is slightly powdery in the pan, so make sure to tap your brush. Very pigmented, and it lasts all day on me! One of my favourite shades for blushes.
Matte watermellon pink base, with Silver sparkles - I love this one!! It's a nice coraly/watermellon pink shade, with some silver sparkles. It blends so well, and lasts all day!


Price: $6 for each palette
Pros: Pigmented!! Very vibrant. Soft, silky. Lasts until I take it off at the end of the night.
Cons: Powdery, light skinned people may think they're too pigmented/overwhelming.
Overall: 9/10

My experience with ELF Cosmetic's Customer Service

Hey all!!

Today I wanted to share my experience with ELF's customer service!

I placed an order with ELF cosmetics on December 28th 2016

By January 13th 2017, I had NOT received a shipping conformation email yet.

January 14th 2017, I sent their customer service an email, and I sent in my order number. And asked if I should make a dispute with paypal, to get my money back.

January 14th 2017, the same day I received an email back, and they explained how sorry they were, and that they were swamped from their Boxing Day sale, and that they will ship my order ASAP.

January 15th 2017, I get the shipping conformation email from ELF! They ALSO sent me a email explaining that they were very sorry, and they were going to ship my $35 order to me, and give me a FULL REFUND. And I DID receive my full money back on my paypal account!

January 22nd 2017 My order shows up in my mailbox, and I excitedly ripped open my box, and it was full of stuff I didn't order. Because they took so long to ship it, they had run out of most of the items I ordered. It bothered my a SMIDGE. But I was very impressed that they replaced the stuff that was out of stock.

February 20th 2017, It's a STAT Holiday, here in Canada. But I went to answer my front door, and there was a package sitting there for me! I open it up, and it's a Box with ELF's Nourishing Night Cream, and a note saying how sorry ELF Cosmetics is that my order was so late, and that they care about their customers and want to make sure we are all happy!

I am VERY VERY impressed with how ELF handled this! They were professional the whole time, they answered my emails the same day, I wasn't at ALL expecting to receive this night cream for free, nor was I expecting my order to be fully refunded!!

I understand some other bloggers have had not as amazing service. This is just my personal experience, that I wanted to share with you all!

Yet ANOTHER Modern Renaissance FOTD / Purpley/Mauve FOTD.

Hello all!! Happy family day!! My family is spending the day together just chilling and watching tv together!!

I was itching for a purpley eye look, so here we are!

I started out with my skin care, I washed my face using a creamy non lathering cleanser. Then patted ELF Nourishing Night Cream onto my whole face (I'm testing this currently! It was sent to me by elf the other day, and there will be a post about it soon!) then I patted a bit of Origins Ginseng Eye Creme under my eyes. Once that had sunk into my skin and wasn't tacky to the touch, I massaged Paula's Choice Extra Care Non Greasy SPF50 Sunblock into my face and chest. That's all I have on my face/skin in this photo!

Base: I applied my primer cocktail I mixed up the other day and patted that into my skin. I then took a paddle brush and two pumps of ELF Flawless Finish Foundation and I patted that into my skin. After I blended that into my skin with the brush, I took my freshly washed fingers and further melted that into my skin! I took my clean finger and patted a creamy orange corrector from my MUFE Conceal and Correct palette and worked that under my eyes! I'v been using Kat Von D's lock it Foundation as my under eye concealer lately, I got a generous sample of L42 I THINK is the shade, It's a shade and a half lighter than my skin tone! I patted that under my eyes. Then I took a fluffy brush and I patted MAC Set powder into my skin, making sure everything is locked into place and set! I took a smaller fluffy brush and patted MAC Blot powder under my eyes, my apples of my cheeks/inner cheeks, my whole nose, and  my forehead, to control oil.

Cheeks: I wasn't sure what lip product I was going to use yet at this point. So I went with a shimmery warm bronze shade on the cheeks, patting it onto the apples and blending up! I took a fan brush and lightly blended MUFE ME512 along my cheek bones/apples of my cheeks, and the tip of my nose!

 

                                      

I couldn't get any good lighting for the eye shots (The sun sets around 4pm in my part of the world!!) So I apologize DEEPLY!!

Eyes: I started with Too Faced Shadow Insurance, and patted that from lashline to brow bone, To set and lock the primer into place I Patted Tempera (matte light whitey shade) from lashline to brow bone. I took a big fluffy crease brush and ran Warm Taupe (Cool ?taupey shade) into my crease and up onto my hood, After that I took the same fluffy crease brush and ran Buon Fresco on top of that. I took my 217 and buffed those two shades together to make a nice mauvey purpley warm shade. I picked my favourite purple cream shadow base, ELF Smudge pot in Wine Not (Creamy winey purple with a silvery sheen/shimmer) and patted that all over my mobile lids. Before It set, I took my 217 and buffed it up into the crease, and got rid of any harsh line! I took Crush (Glittery browny taupe!) from the Tartelette Tease palette and patted that on top of the cream base, and it turned into a super shiny, metallic, dewy lid! Once my lids were done, I took a slightly smaller crease brush and dipped into Antique Bronze (Lightly shimmery Bronze shade) and darkened up my outer corners, I really patted Antique Bronze onto my outer corner of my mobile lids to add depth!! I took a pencil brush, and ran Buon Fresco Along my whole lower lashline, then dipped into antique bronze and added that to JUST the outer parts of my lower lashline! Then I applied a light coat of mascara (Really just to straighten the curl of my natural lashes, and to slightly darken them) to my upper lashes, then I applied my favourite pair of falsies, and did two layers mascara to my bottom lashes. For the finishing touches, I applied warm brown liner to my waterlines, highlighted my inner corners and brow bones with Vermeer (shimmery pinky white) 

Brows: I combed my brows with a spoolie to get rid of any foundation in them, then I took a angled eye liner brush and lined the bottom of my brows, then slowly filled in from bottom to top. Lastly I combed through them with my MAC Waterproof brow set to lock them into place!!

Lips: I applied lip balm at the start when doing my skin care, and whatever was left at this point I just patted into my lips, then decided on BITE Beauty's Luminous Creme Lipstick in Mulberry, and I free handed that onto my lips straight from the bullet!

And that's it, for today's look!!