August 2015 Favourites




Since I was away in July I didn't have a July Favourites so this post will also serve as my Summer Favourites. It's going to be a big one. I'm including products that I used while I was travelling as well as products I got while I was in the UK (some other products from the UK I am still trying so you'll probably find them in another monthly favourites post).

Soap and Glory Solar Bronzer
This is a beautiful natural looking bronzer that makes me look really sunkissed and healthy. It has two different colours, a lighter more glowy side and a darker more matte side. The packaging is also really cute.
Sleek Face Contour Kit
This is actually the first contour kit I've owned so I wanted to try something a little less expensive. I'm actually really impressed with it. The contour isn't too orange so it looks really natural and the highlight is intense and beautiful. I actually like it a lot more than I ever thought I would.
Maybelline Fit Me Concealer
This might be my favourite drugstore concealer ever. It's so creamy and has a really high coverage but it blends out really well. People have talked about this concealer for ages and I can finally agree that it's worth the hype.
Soap and Glory Kick Ass Concealer
This months favourites is really concealer heavy, sorry. I picked this up when I was in the UK and was so thoroughly impressed. It has two shades, one more yellow toned and one that's more pink. It also includes a powder to set the concealers because they are thick and will crease without setting, however the coverage is amazing!
Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser
Last concealer, I promise. This is another drugstore concealer that I've heard so much about and I understand why. It is great at getting rid of under-eye circles, it's really lightweight and doesn't crease or feel cakey at all.
Smashbox Camera Ready BB Cream
This is what I used while I was on my holiday. It has an SPF of 35 so it kept me from getting burnt but it also feels really natural on my skin. It's a little dark for me during the rest of the year but with a bit of a summer tan, it's perfect.
Zoella Candy Cream Softening Body Lotion
I'm a fan of Zoe's youtube channel so I was anxious to pick up some of the products from her line while I was in the UK. This body lotion smells really nice and I like the bursting beads. It leaves my skin feeling nice and soft.
Teeez Read My Lips Lipstick in Killing me Softly
I got this lipstick in an Ipsy bag. It's a light coral colour. The formula is matte but it's comfortable and lasts pretty well. I wore this a lot on my trip so I thought it deserved a spot on my favourites list.
Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat in Pillow Talk
This is one expensive lip liner but I'm so happy with it. It's super long lasting and a really natural dusty rose/nude colour. Because it is so expensive I usually wear it on it's own to show off the colour. I'll wear it with just a little bit of lip balm to keep my lips from being too dry. 
Soap and Glory Archery 
This is a brow pencil and pen combined. The pen is good at filling in sparse areas and the pencil gives your brows good shape. It's also the perfect colour for me which is lucky because there wasn't a lot of options.
ByTerry Ombre Blackstar in Misty Rock (5)
Another huge splurge item but so worth it! This shadow pencil is so shimmery and blendable but once it dries into place it doesn't budge all day! I did an eyeshadow look with this, you can find it here.
L'Oreal Lumiere Shadow in 502 Quartz Fume 
I love the formulation and the wavy imprint on this shadow is just gorgeous. It a drier formula, not quite as creamy as other shadows but the pigmentation is amazing. It's also a nice taupe colour.
L'Oreal Nude Shadow in 201 Cafe Saint Germain
This is a beautiful champagne shadow but it's the formulation that is really impressive. It's really creamy. It feels more like a pressed pigment.
Seventeen Eye eye shadow in Rose Quarz
I absolutely love the colour of this shadow. It's a pinkish-purple. It's really pigmented and creamy, yet it was really inexpensive. I've been wearing these last 3 shadows together a lot in the last month.

What have you been loving this month?

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My Year with Ipsy: A Review




**Before I get started with this post I just want to make it perfectly clear that this is NOT a sponsored post. I have no affiliation with Ipsy and all the views in this post are my complete honest opinion. Also just a warning this is a text heavy post.

As many of you have seen with my monthly Ipsy bag posts, I have been subscribed to the Ipsy Glam bag subscription service for a year. I have cancelled my subscription and thought I would do an overall review of the service for those thinking about signing up. Just for a little background about the company. It was started by Youtuber Michelle Phan and the basic idea is that each month you receive a bag with 5 deluxe sample size products "semi" tailored to your style with an average bag value of $53. If you live in the U.S. the service costs $10 a month or $110 a year. Since I live in Canada I had to pay an extra $4.95 a month for shipping. The service is currently only available in Canada and the United States. You can get offers on other beauty products on their website https://www.ipsy.com/.
Before I share my thoughts I thought I'd break down the products and brands a little:
Overall I received 60 products
43% were full size products
20% were lip products
22% were eye products (5 eyeliners, 6 shadows, 2 mascara, 2 brow)
18% were skincare
11.5% were hair products
The rest of the products were made up of:
2 brushes and an eyelash curler
4 nail polishes
2 blushes
2 powders
1 concealer
1 primer
1 perfume 

Popular high end brands that I received products from included Tarte, Urban Decay, Smashbox, itCosmetics, Formula X and theBalm
Popular drugstore brands I received products from were Maybelline, NYX, essence, and Pixi
Brands that I received more than one product from are Pacifica, Hikari, Starlooks, NYX, Briogeo, City Color, Chella and eva nyc.

So I'll start with the things I liked about the service. Throughout the year I was exposed to a bunch of brands I had never heard of before but I have become a fan of through receiving products in my Ipsy Bag. For example Chella, Pacifica and Briogeo. Above are some of my all time favourite items I've received in my bag. All of these products have made their way into my daily use. The bags were on time every month and I never received anything that was broken or damaged. The actual bags that arrived always felt well made.

As for some of the things that I didn't like about the service, I was unimpressed with the waitlist that they put you on before you start the service. You can get off the waitlist by sharing something on Facebook which makes it seem like it's not so much a waitlist but a coersion to promote their business. If you choose not to share on Facebook, you should be off the waitlist in a month. The way the waitlist was set up did put me off a little bit.

Overall I was impressed with the service and I really enjoyed being an Ipsy subscriber for the last 12 months. While I have cancelled my account for now, maybe one day in the future I will renew it. I would recommend Ipsy for anyone who likes collecting makeup, trying new products or just receiving something fun in the mail once a month.

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If you want to revisit my my monthly Ipsy Bag posts click on the months below:

What I got for My 21st Birthday




 I was very lucky this year and I got a lot of really nice gifts. Because we have just come back from the UK, many of my gifts come from England.
I got this beautiful heart necklace from The Red Gecko in Brighton.
I also got the Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze and Glow Palette which I have wanted forever.
 From my best friend I got these 3 cute "good luck" bracelets. They come from a store in Banff.
 My big present this year was another lens for my camera. I have a Nikon D3100 which I use for all the pictures on my blog as well as other photography. The new lens I've got is for close up photography (which is my preferred style). It's an AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR for those wondering and I'm very happy with it!
As well as my new lens, I also got a beautiful London themed cosmetic bag from Milly Green.
From my brother I got a Rexall Gift card which will be put to good use buying makeup.
My final gift makes the 11 year old girl in me so excited. Growing up I was the biggest Harry Potter fan so on our trip we went to the Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studio Tour and in the gift shop there were the wands of all the characters. While there, I made mention to my mom that I would have died if I had a Hermione wand when I was younger. She sneakily picked one up for me and I couldn't have been more surprised when I opened my gifts. I'm very happy to have my own Harry Potter wand, even if my Harry Potter obsession has died down a little (but only a little).

I hope you like this Birthday post. I was very lucky this year. As always with posts like these I am not trying to brag, just indulging all the nosy blog readers like me out there who like to see what others got for their Birthday :)

My Birthday MOTD




Bonus Friday Post! Wednesday was my 21st Birthday and I was really happy with how my makeup turned out so I thought I would share it. 
 I used my brand new ByTerry Ombre Blackstar in Misty Rock. I put that all over my lid and then blended it out with a matte purple shadow. I used All Heart from my itCosmetics Naturally Pretty Palette. I then highlighted my inner corner and my browbone.
 I also used All Heart on my bottom lashline just lightly blended out with a pencil brush. I used my Stila Stay All Day Liquid Liner to draw a very thin line on my upper lashes and then I used a black pencil liner to tightline my upper lashes.
To finish I used a coat of Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara on my top and bottom lashes. I also used a few of the Tanya Burr Individual Lashes on the outer corner. And this was the finished look!
Remember to follow me on Instagram for more MOTD looks. Link in the sidebar.

August Ipsy Bag




My last Ipsy bag review! It's kind of sad really. I've enjoyed recieving these Ipsy bags the last 12 months but I will not be renewing my subscription. I'll soon be putting together a post reviewing the entire 12 months of the service- the good, the bad and whether I think it's worth your money to sign up. But for now here's my final August Ipsy Bag review!
The actual bag this month is not to my taste. It's plastic with a black and white design and a hot pink zipper. But like most of the other bags, it feels well made. As for the contents of the bag, this month was pretty average.

Briogeo Blossom & Bloom ginseng + biotin volumizer
Briogeo was one of the brands I got in my first Ipsy bag so it feels fitting that I received another item from them in my last bag. I really like their hair products and this one in particular smells amazing, very floral. I have a lot of volumizing sprays but my hair is so limp I can never have too many. I'm very happy with it. This is a mini but full size retails for $18.

Lord & Berry Nude Lipliner
This is a really great lipliner. It's long lasting and not too drying on the lips, however this is not nude on me. I am really fair so this is very brown on my lips but on people with a darker complexion this would be beautiful. This is a mini size but the full size retails for $18.

Starlooks Pro Luxe Longwear Eyeliner Pen
This is apparently a new product. The pen isn't the easiest for application as it's really stiff, but it's fairly long-lasting. It's not matte which is my preference but it still looks really good. This is a full size product and it retails for $19.

OZ Naturals Amino Herbal Hydration Mask
This is unlike the other hydration masks I've tried as you actually need to wash this one off. I will need to use it longer before I will be able to see the results, but so far I really like it and my skin seems more hydrated. This is a mini size but the full size retails for $21.99.

Hikari Salsa Lip Gloss
This bright red lip gloss is amazing! Definitely my favourite product in this month's bag. It so pigmented, shiny and long-lasting (it lasted through dinner!). It actually leaves a stain on my lips once the gloss is gone so it wears off evenly. It does have a really unpleasant smell when applying but the scent goes away quickly and it's tasteless. It's full size and retails for $13.

I've enjoyed writing these monthly Ipsy bag reviews and I hope you've enjoyed reading them. I'll have my overall Ipsy review coming up soon!

Also it's my Birthday today so my next post on Monday will be "What I got for my Birthday".

Massive UK Beauty Haul




So I just got back from my amazing UK holiday and I bought a few beauty items while I was there. Before I begin I have a few thoughts to share about my trip and my experience shopping for makeup in the UK. Keep in mind I'm still jet lagged so I hope this makes sense. 
I was gone for a month and my travels lead me to Ireland (Ring of Kerry and Dingle), Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Stirling, Lake Windemere in England, London and Brighton. I did all my shopping in Scotland and England but the conversion from the Canadian dollar to the pound is just over double so this was quite the expensive trip for me. I mostly shopped at Boots, Superdrug and Space NK. I loved how in drugstores in the UK you can actually try out the product before you buy it. I wish we had that here in Canada. It also seems like there are so many more drugstore (High Street) brands to choose from than we have in Canada. The products I bought were mostly based on recommendations from you guys or products I've often heard British youtubers praising. Let me know in the comments if you can guess which youtubers I watch based on my purchases :) I've already tried most of the products so I'm sorry that they look used, reviews will come soon!
So now what you've been waiting for... the HAUL!!

Eyeshadow
Kiko Long Lasting Stick in 38
L'Oreal Lumiere Eyeshadow in 502 Quartz Fume
L'Oreal Nude Eyeshadow in 201 Cafe Saint Germain 
Seventeen Eyeshadow in Rose Quarz 
Kiko Cream Crush eyeshadow in 05.
 (swatches in order as listed above)

Sleek
 Sleek Vintage Romance (14) Eyeshadow Palette
Sleek Blush by 3 in Pink Lemonade 
Sleek Face Contour Kit in Light

Eyeshadow Palettes
I <3 Makeup Naked Chocolate Palette
Collection Eyes Uncovered Nude Bronze Palette (as recommended by Parie Joshi)

 Bourjois
Bourjois Delice de Poudre Bronzing Powder (as recommended by Parie Joshi)
Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum
Bourjois Aqua Blush in 01 Nude

 Soap and Glory
Products recommended by Danielle from http://www.daniellesbeautyblog1.blogspot.co.uk/
Check out her blog, her recommendations were amazing!
Soap and Glory Kick Ass Concealer in Light
Soap and Glory Solar Power Bronzer
Soap and Glory Archery in Brownie Points

Barry M
Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Pomegranate
Barry M Silk Nail Paint in Orchid

 Face Products
 Max Factor Face Finity All Day Primer
Collection Lasting Perfection Ultimate Wear Concealer
Indeed Laboratories Hydraluron Serum

Youtuber Products
 Zoella Beauty Candy Cream 
 Zoella Beauty Fresh Fizz
 Zoella Beauty Fizz Bar
 Zoella Beauty Kissy Missy
Tanya Burr Individual Lashes
Real Techniques Bold Metals Flat Contour Brush

High End Products
Emma Hardie Amazing Face Moringa Cleansing Balm
Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray
By Terry Ombre Blackstar in Misty Rock
Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat in Pillow Talk

Let me know what you think about my purchases from my UK trip and if you have any of these products.

Naked 3 vs. La Palette Nude 2




I promised a while ago that I would do a post comparing the new(ish) L'Oreal La Palette Nude 2 with the Urban Decay Naked 3. Both are rosy themed palettes with combination of shimmery and matte shadows and a really pigmented formulation. The L'Oreal palette has a few more brown shades where as the UD palette sticks to the roses and taupes. The shimmery shadows in Naked 3 are also more creamy but have more fallout. I'm a pretty big fan of the matte shadows in both palettes. The Naked 3 palette has 2 more shades but it's about $30 more.

La Palette Nude 2
Naked 3
I honestly believe if you are a fan of rosey shades like me, these palettes complement each other; they're not exact dupes. 
Some of the matte shades from both palettes from darkest to lightest. 
Nooner, 3, Limit, 8, Strange

There were 3 dupes I was able to find in the palette. None of them are exact dupes but they are similar shades and formulations.
Burnout (lower) and 2 (upper)
 Darkside (lower) and 5 (upper)
Factory (lower) and 7 (upper)

Overall if you don't often wear rose eyeshadows then you wouldn't need both palettes. The L'Oreal is the cheaper option and in my opinion is just as good. But for any eyeshadow palette lovers there is enough difference in the palettes to justify having both in your collection. I actually love using them together to come up with different looks.

UK Makeup Wishlist




This is just a tiny collection of things that are on my wishlist for my trip to the UK. This list is mostly based on things I've heard British youtubers taking a lot about. There's obviously a lot more makeup on my list than just this but it's a start.
So in no particular order.

Tanya Burr Individual Lashes
Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum
Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray
By Terrry Ombre Blackstar
Zoella Fizz Bar
Soap & Glory Archery
Emma Hardie Cleansing Balm
Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer
Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze and Glow