January 2014 Ipsy Glam Bag Review

January's Ipsy Bag had us ringing in the New Year with 19 reasons why 2014 will be amazing. Everyone's bag came with an assortment of five sample products from a possible 19 different products. The theme of this month's bag was more skin care oriented than past bags, but I was lucky enough to receive a couple makeup products in mine. I subscribe to Ipsy because it continually send out more makeup then other subscriptions on the market. Here is hoping that next month provides more of a makeup selection.

If you would like to sign up for your own Ipsy Bag, I would love if you would use my referral link by clicking here. Ipsy cost $10USD or $14.95CDN per month and you are guaranteed 5 samples a month that can be either full size or sample size.

Willa Naturals Lavender Face Towelettes 

These cloths reminded me of the LA Fresh makeup removing cloths. These were thin, small cloths, not big enough to cleanse my whole face with one cloth. They did remove my makeup fairly well, however, waterproof/long wearing makeup was too much for these cloths. They have an earthy lavender scent which isn't my favourite, and I found them to be on the drier side. I would purchase these.

Alterna Caviar Anti-Aging Dry Shampoo

This dry shampoo comes is a white powder, that has a slight perfumed scent. It did absorb oil, but not any better then drugstore dry shampoos that I have used before. Because my hair is so dark, I found that this product left a white cast in my hair, and it was very messy to work with. I think the mess was due to the packaging of the sample. I would not purchase.

Marula Pure Marula Oil

This is a tiny sample, but a little goes a long way with this oil. It has a woodsy, earthy scent. The scent actually reminded me of walking down the lumber aisle at The Home Depot. It absorbs fairly quickly into my skin, but leaves a greasy look and feel. I probably wont use this on my face, but on my hands or other dry areas of my body for extra moisture. I would not purchase.

Mica Tinted Lip Balm in Fiesta

This is my favourite product of the bag! This is a highly pigmented lipstick (not balm), that goes on smooth and dries to a semi-matte finish, that lasts all day. It starts out as a bright berry pink and fades to a light pink stain as the day goes on. It is a little drying, but with a balm under or over it, you are good to go. I would purchase.

Elizabeth Mott Smooth Shadow Eye Pencil in Penny

This creamy, pigmented pencil works well as both an eyeliner and cream eyeshadow. The colour reminds me of Maybelline's Colour Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze. The product is very long lasting and takes quite a bit of cleansing to remove the product once it sets. The only thing I don't like about this pencil is that it's made of plastic and I have to sharpen that plastic to use it. I would purchase.

Dollarama Beauty Finds!

Hey girls I'm here today to show you some of the awesome beauty products I have been seeing at Dollarama over the last month. It seems that more and more name brand products are turning up at Dollarama for prices that cannot be beat.

Keep in mind that all Dollarama's receive different products, so yours may not have the same brands as mine.

In my last haul post I showed that I bought some Revlon and L'Oreal palettes and Kozmic Colours nail polishes. What have you been finding out your local Dollarama??

 

A battery operated nail dryer. I thought this compact fan was so cute, but because I use Seche Vite I didn't feel like I needed this.

So far every Dollarama in my city I've been too has an assortment of these Revlon Nail Strips.

I've now seen the complete line of Revlon's Shatter Nail Polishes at various stores. I'm wondering why such a new product has already found its way here.

Lots and lots of Wet n Wild and Kozmic Colours single polishes.

Wet n Wild Lipsticks. They only had this one colour though.

I've seen reviews of this product on a few beauty blogs I follow. A five pack was on sale for only $1! I didn't pick it up, but I'm thinking I should have.

Seeing this product kind of made me laugh. People have been joking and saying that Glossybox should be sponsored by Dollarama because of all the discontinued/older collection products they have been sending out. Maybe they have been sponsored by Dollarama all this time cause I found full size Wella hair products in a few of my city's stores!

I was surprised to see a Hard Candy product at Dollarama. Maybe all the products they are discontinuing this year will end up here. It would be cool to get some Hard Candy Boxed Powders at a discounted price.

I Don't Haul...I Hoard! - January & February 2013

So I tried really really hard to not buy anything makeup or beauty related because I put myself on a no-buy for 2013. However, I found some great products at great deals so I broke my no-buy and picked up a few things. I spent less then $35 on everything here which I am super proud of myself because usually I would spend $30 every week on beauty products!

I am still keeping myself on a no-buy for the rest of the year while I try and use up products that I already have. If you want to follow along on my no-buy check out the 2013 Inventory tab at the top of my blog!

If you would like for me to do a review of anything here let me know!

I was so shocked to see these Revlon Nail Strips at Dollarama! Usually you find discontinued collections at Dollarama, but I have just recently been seeing these Nail Polish strips at Walmart/Zehrs. They had many different designs but I preferred the silver and purple glitter gradient. I got these for 1/3 of the normal retail price.

Kozmic Colours are Dollarama brand polishes you could say. But for me they have high quality staying power and colour payoff! These for pastel spring colours came in a pack together for only $3!

I was able to try some of the Revlon double sided nail polishes through Revlon Selects so when I saw the Shatter Polishes at Dollarama I quickly picked them up. I am hoping to have a review on these soon. They were $3 a piece which I think is 1/3 of the retail price.

After seeing these all over the beauty blogging community I knew I had to try them out! I had a $1 off coupon that I used towards these.

I had a $2 off coupon so I picked up this mascara. I've heard mixed reviews so I'm hoping that I like this.

This palette was another Dollarama find. It was only $3!

As you can see another Dollarama find! I picked this up on a whim because I obviously have a problem lol

Swatched: The Color Workshop Lip Crayons & Gloss

Jumbo Lip Pencils have become the next big thing in the beauty world. Revlon, Clinique, Nars, Covergirl, etc...they all have their versions. I picked up this Jumbo Lip Pencil set from The Color Workshop on Boxing Day at Walmart for only $4.50! It comes with 5 pencils and 2 lip glosses in an assortment pinks and reds and one purple.

I really didn't have very high hopes about the quality of these pencils because they are not from a high quality brand. However, the colour payoff is impressive and they stay on the lips for such a long time. The pencils are sorta glossy/sorta matte and the glosses are smooth and non-sticky. There are no names on these products, so I photographed them in the same order as the swatches.

I am really tempted now to run out and buy some other brands jumbo lip crayons, but that will have to wait until my no-buy is done. I would love to know which brands and colours of lip crayons are your favourite. Leave them in a comment below so I can add them to my Buy Later List.

UPDATE - Since writing this post I have seen these sets on Sale at multiple Shoppers Drug Marts for $4.99.


These are swatches of the 2 glosses that came with the kit.

#RevlonSelects Eyeshadow & Lipstick Review

Here is the second part of my Revlon Selects Review. I was finally able to play around with the Eyeshadow Palette and Suede Lipstick over the holidays. I received these products from Revlon Canada in exchange for a review. You can find my review of the nail products here.

First I'll talk about the Revlon Photoready Primer + Shadow Palette in 501 Metropolitan. The palette is set up like an eye, showing you which colour to use on the lid, in the crease, and on the brow bone. Below the eye you get a rectangle of "primer" and a gold glittery topcoat.

Now I put primer in quotations because this doesn't have the consistency of a normal eyeshadow primer and I found that it doesn't really work like one either. I used this as my only primer one day and the colours were fading by lunch time. I now just use this light pink shimmery primer as an all over wash of colour on days when I am wearing minimal makeup. I find that it really brings a nice light to the eyes.

The gold glitter topcoat is really nice and when used wet looks gorgeous on the lid. However, unless you are using this shadow wet then be prepared for tons of fallout. My face looked like a disco ball all day because they glitter continued to fall off my eye throughout the whole day.

The other three eyeshadows are really nice but, I don't like the order that Revlon put them in. When used in the intended order you get a smokey eye look every time. The sliver crease shade just doesn't work for me as a crease shade and the brow bone highlight is too dark of a pink to be a proper highlight shade. Even though the order of the shades don't work for me the pigmentation and colour payoff of the shadows are great and I will continue to use them.

I really like the packaging of this palette. I like that there is a window so you can see the eyeshadows that are inside but, I don't like the shape of the shadows. The narrow size of the crease and brow bone pans make it hard to get the brush in there to get the shadow out. I would have liked to see a simple shape to the pans, like in the Almay 3 shadow palettes.

Overall this is very good palette and I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

The next makeup product we received in our sample box was the Revlon Colorstay Ultimate Suede Lipstick in 035 Backstage. I was so excited to get this colour as it looks like the perfect wine/berry toned red. To me this is such a perfect Fall/Winter colour.

Packaging wise I really like this lipstick. It has a clear lid so you can see what the colour is and the plastic case colouring is a perfect match to the lipstick. I also like how the lipstick twists down below the rim of the packaging so that there is no chance of you nicking the product when taking the lid off or putting it back on.

The formula of this lipstick is different from the other ones in my collection. It goes on really glossy and patchy. You have to put many coats to get an even application that fully covers yours lips. And because it is so glossy I always need to put this on in a mirror and clean up the edges of my lips cause it just slips and slides everywhere.

It stays glossy for a few minutes and then once it starts drying it becomes really sticky, something I dislike. Once it is dry on your lips it feels tight and dry and it can also make your lips look really dry as well. I would not recommend using this lipstick on days when your lips are already dry and/or cracked cause it will only emphasize that.

Once this lipstick is dry I find that it stays on for a very long time. Eventually, it starts to flake off and at that point I try and rub it all off because it does not look pretty when half of your dark, noticeable lipstick has worn off. This lipstick does leave a light noticeable stain to your lips and when it gets to this point I like to put a lip balm or gloss over top.

I definitely prefer this lipstick when it looks glossy as apposed to when it has dried to its suede finish. I probably wouldn't purchase anymore of these lipsticks, as I do not like the finish. I would give this 2.5 stars out of 5.

1 layer

2 layers

3 layers

Natural light

Artificial light

 

 

If you received a Revlon Selects package what did you like/dislike about these two products? Would you be willing to purchase more with your own money?

 

 

 

GlossyBox October 2012

So after cancelling in July and not receiving a box in August, when I saw that people were getting a full size NYX palette in September I quickly re-signed up. I didn't do a post on my September box because I got it so late. I decided to stay signed up for this month because I was getting it at the $15 price still. I cancelled again, however, for  November because I want to make sure that they are consistently sending out great boxes before I commit to spending $21 a month on samples.

This months box was, in my opinion, amazing. We got almost $80 worth of stuff for only $15, and 50 lucky people got a $50 piece of jewellery in their box. I wasn't one of the lucky 50 but I still love everything I received. This months box came with a product card that was in both English and French, as well as, a coupon for shaving gel, 10% off Caroline Neron jewellery, and a information booklet about Jouviance products.

Now onto the actual products/samples in this months Breast Cancer Awareness Box.

SEBASTIAN PROFESSIONAL TRILLIANCE SHAMPOO & CONDITIONER

Sample Value - 50mL/$3.16 & $3.32

Full Size - 250mL/$15.79 & 250mL/$16.59

On The Card - Cleanses and polishes the hair surface to enable greater light reflection, creating gorgeous natural shine.

My Thoughts - I'm glad that these are bigger samples and not foil packets but I am kind of getting tired of getting shampoo and conditioner samples in beauty boxes. These samples have a perfume scent and are supposed to give my hair more shine. I am excited to see if this will work.

MODELCO FLIPSTICK LIP DUO

Sample Value - $38.75

Full Size - $38.75

On The Card - SHINE Ultra Lip Gloss can be worn alone or layered over LIPSTICK Lip Couture for hours of unbeatable shine in a shade of perfect October pink!

My Thoughts - This product shade was made exclusively for GlossyBox members in the perfect pink in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month. I screamed when I saw this product because it is so cute yet functional. It has a mirror on the tube for application on the go and the colours are just amazing. The light pink gloss with silver and gold shimmer smells like candy. And the lipstick is such a me colour. I would never pay $38.75 for a lip duo so I am so glad it was included in this months box.

JOUVIANCE REJUVENATING ANTI-AGING CREAM NORMAL TO DRY SKIN TREATMENT

Sample Value - 5mL/$9.35

Full Size - 50mL/$93.50

On The Card - Extremely luxurious face cream, gently formulated to hydrate and increase the firmness of your skin.

My Thoughts - I don't need an anti-aging cream just yet but I always love face cream samples cause they last a long time and give you more time before having to buy a full size. However, this sample tube is practically empty I had to squeeze the enitre tube down in order to get a little bit out.

ZOYA

Colour - Loretta

Sample Value - $8

Full Size - $8

On The Card - We hand-picked four of the prettiest pinks to represent the diverse women affected by breast cancer all over the world. Toxin Free!

My Thoughts - I love getting nail polish in boxes and I'm glad that we got another Zoya polish because I loved the last one that I got. As you can tell by the swatch (which is actually 2 coats) this is an extremely sheer pink shade. I think that it will be perfect for a french manicure or when I want a nude nail.

GILLETTE VENUS

Sample Value - $16.99

Full Size - $16.99

On The Card - Venus & Olay: Boost your shave and help lock-in skin's moisture with the top-of-the-line in disposable razors.

My Thoughts - I love getting razors in boxes and for free from companies because razors are so expensive. This one looks like it is going to be super moisturizing so I am excited to try it out.

Overall Value of October's Box - $79.57!