loreal glam bronze mono

Stash Shopping #5

When you get easily overwhelmed by too much choice and have a larger than moderate sized makeup stash as I do, periodically rotating through products to use on a daily basis can be extremely helpful to ensure that you’re switching things up and using different products. It’s particularly helpful to do this rotation at the beginning of each new season, as to switch products up to match the change and avoid buying unnecessary shiny objects. Here we go.

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Revlon Colourstay Moisture Stain in Milan Moment

Last summer I was all about this slightly sheer tangerine balmy staining lip product, but I put it away after the summer was clearly over as it’s a shade that suits the spring and summer the most. I adore the easy brightening shade precisely because of how low fuss and comfortable the cushiony product is.

MAC Sheertone Powder Blush in Tenderling

I long ago reached the point that I could say I needed another blush like a need a whole in my head but that hasn’t stopped me from buying more so it’s easy for me to forget blushes that I have in my collection, even ones that I adore such as this one. I tend to gravitate towards my brighter, more exciting and sheeny blushes so although I love this matte neutral warm-pink leaning shade, I tend to ignore it in favor of more immediately illuminating options.

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Stereo Rose

Although I raved about this hyped limited-edition sheeny coral blush recently and I find it flattering even when I’m paler, I have to admit that I have scarcely been digging out this blush to wear during the winter seasons. Now that I’ve gotten a bit more colour – with sunscreen of course! – and have been gravitating towards more quintessentially summery makeup, I’ve dug out this luminous corally hue and have been loving it. I will warn that it’s not for everyone and it can look sunburn-esque on cooler skin tones, or particularly fair ladies.

L’Oreal Glam Bronze Mono in Universal Sun

Although my face is still fair thanks to my meticulous sunscreen application daily, I seem to have acquired a bit of a tan on my body so I’ve reached the point where I find warmer and deeper bronzers flattering and nice to unify the colour of my complexion and my body; last summer, I discovered the fabulously smooth bronzer with red undertones and I’m excited to pull it out again, after finding it difficult to use in cooler weather. Unfortunately, however, I haven’t spotted any of these bronzers in stores in Canada since last summer, although I know they remain available overseas.

Essie Nail Lacquer in Van D’Go

I might have taken a step back from nail polish in the last three weeks or so to let my nails grow and breathe (not literally, though), but I am excited that we’ve reached the time of year where we can comfortably dig out these bright summery hues. I’m perhaps the most excited to pull out this jelly polish that can only be described as a coral leaning salmon pink hue, particularly for the toes. It’s a pink that I can actually get on board with and I find it flattering with even a little bit of colour – whether natural or self-tanner-brought.

Have you rediscovered anything lately?
Maggie, x.

 

 

The Cold Edit

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Shortly after getting back into the swing of things and heading back to the university routine, I noticed that I was feeling irrationally exhausted and just kind of dazed; fast forward three days of yawning, laziness, fatigue and later on sneezing and congestion and I figured out that a cold was the culprit of things. Thinking back to it, I should have thought about things as soon as the chronic dehydration came in and many areas of my body began to instantly start peeling. Anyways, things are definitely changed up on the beauty front when you’re feeling as gross and groggy as I am and I thought I would chronicle them for you all. Am I the only one feeling under the weather?

I could have gone on for days in the skincare category and I’m not sure whether or not I’m exaggerating here but regardless, these two products that I limited myself to are essentials. I definitely add in my By Nature Organic Rosehip Oil when I feel any sort of illness coming on because it definitely delivers on the hydration and soothing front and my skin becomes dehydrated and irritated as soon as I’m hit with some sort of illness. Recently, I’ve tried out using the oil as a serum, prior to moisturizer and this really gives the skin an extra boost — and a much appreciated one at that. Being an oil, it also helps to combat the dull skin that becomes constant whenever I’m feeling like I am at the moment. I mention my problematically chapped lips frequently but they do get even worse with the dreaded cold and carrying around a balm that is both very nourishing and easy to apply out and about is essential; for me, the ideal choice is the Nuxe Reve de Miel Lip Moisturizing Stick, which is a lovely new addition to my whole skincare regime.

I’m going to be honest here and speak the truth that I’m less likely to get up early to brave the shower in the mornings quite as much as I should so a little bit of perfume to ensure things are smelling fresh and nice tends to be a welcome step. I’m definitely not typically a body spray girl but the Victoria’s Secret Pink Warm & Cozy Body Spray has blown me away as a warm vanilla-themed scent that instantly makes you smell nice and feel relaxed and cozy in the most low-key of ways. The next product could have been included in skincare because its sold as such but I don’t tend to count these spray cans of glorified water as skincare, however I love reaching for the Vichy Thermal Spa Water to help the makeup sit on my dull and dehydrated skin the most seamlessly — plus, the whole spritzing action feels pretty great, too!

Primer is not something that I can find myself reaching for daily because I can’t necessarily always view the step as worthwhile but on sick skin the Annabelle Colour Control Instant Perfecting Luminous Finish Base can make a big difference in the nicest of way; the hydrating opalescent liquid both delivers on the glow-giving front and helps the foundation to sit nicely over drier skin. In very much of a similar vein, the Bourjois 10-Hour Sleep Effect Foundation is a staple for me. The rather affordable foundation is quite possibly the foundation that makes my skin look the most luminous and it glides over dry patches the best out of any that I own. The Bobbi Brown Corrector in Light to Medium Bisque is something that I rely on regularly for camouflaging my dark circles without much effort but when I’m sick it’s doubly as important and when I experiment with anything else, it tends to be rather disastrous.

I’m a bronzer girl through and through but it’s dull days like these where it can make the most of a difference and as you might expect, the one I’ve been showing love is my favourite L’Oreal Glam Bronze Mono in Universal Sun. In the million times that I’ve mentioned this, I’ve repeated this fact constantly but the lovely deeper red-toned bronzer has the nicest texture and formula and it had to be said. There’s another cheek product that I’m afraid I must declare my love for again here because it just adds life back to the face with minimal effort involved and that product is the satiny Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush in Ethereal Glow.

I’m also aware that an eyeliner is a weird choice here but being someone who doesn’t like their makeup without eyeliner being involved but cannot standwearing heavy or intense liner (and eye makeup in general) when I’m feeling as such — honestly, if it’s too much, I will start to feel drained when I look in the mirror and instantly remove my entire face. Anyway, this bronzy liner, the Marc Jacobs Beauty Hi(Liner) in Brown(Out) strikes the perfect balance of adding adequate definition while not being effortful or overly dramatic and it has the most magical formula to boot, gliding on and staying on like a dream. As nice and energizing that wearing some colour on your lips can be, I tend to favour something much lower maintenance but still flattering and brightening, so I tend to reach for the naturally rosy Annabelle Lip Liner in Demure and a neutral rosy lipstick to wear on top. I would be temped to forever go for my beloved MAC Patisserie, but I’ve found that colours that are a little deeper, in the rosy mauve family can be nice for a change when in those forgiving sheerer formulas like today’s pick, the L’Oreal Collection Privee Lipstick in Eva’s Nude.

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I thought it would be nice to provide links for these products below and a few of them are of the affiliate variety, as a disclaimer, except for the foundation and blush that I couldn’t locate online.

The Products

L’Oreal Collection Privee Colour Riche Lipstick in Eva’s Nude ($10.99) | Annabelle Lipliner in Demure ($5.95) | Marc Jacobs Beauty Highliner Gel Eye Crayon in Brown(Out) ($30) | Bobbi Brown Corrector in Light to Medium Bisque ($30) | Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush in Ethereal Glow ($41) | Annabelle Colour Control Luminous Finish Instant Perfecting Base ($16.95) | Vichy Thermal Spa Water ($11.95) | PINK Warm & Cozy Body Mist ($18) |  Nuxe Rêve de Miel® Lip Moisturizing Stick($7) | By Nature Organic Rosehip Oil ($22-26)

What beauty products do you reach for when you’re feeling under the weather?

Maggie, x.

 

 

 

The Five Summer Essentials

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There are numerous ways in which I struggle with the whole task of narrowing things down but with a frighteningly long time of thinking and deliberation, I have found myself able to narrow my absolute favourite beauty products of the summer to a mere 5. Whether you’re willing to admit it or not, the summer is quickly coming to a close and therefore a roundup post strikes me as appropriate. Honestly though, don’t expect a post with products you haven’t seen featured here before — these are my staples after all. Before I bore you all to tears, I’ll try to move on to the products.

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Skin79 Snail Nutrition BB Cream

Slowly but surely, I fell in love with my first BB Cream this summer and although I’m not one to buy into the hype of these all-in-one skincare-makeup hybrids, I actually have to agree that this one kind of does it all. With it’s soothing and hydrating abilities — it contains a good amount of moisturizers and ingredients such as niacinimide –, this makeup product actually has visibly improved my skin. Although I do use a multitiude of other products along with this one, I actually do find it somewhat brightening on the skin and this makes sense with its ingredient list and the high sunscreen content never irritates my skin but is extremely protective. This isn’t a product that you can quickly slap onto the skin without giving it a thought and expect it to look stunning, however. With it’s thick texture and high sunscreen content, it really has to be worked into the skin but once it is, it looks almost undetectable on the skin while providing medium but buildable coverage with a glowy finish. I’ve found myself wearing this on days when I hardly wear any makeup because of its ease of use and skincare benefits but it’s also one that I go for when I’m doing a full face. In other words, it’s a versatile product. Review here.

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Chanel Perfection Lumiere Velvet Smooth-Effect Makeup

Since picking up the latest foundation release from Chanel at the very beginning of June as a birthday present to myself, I’ve been adoring this foundation and often discussing my love for it around these part;this love has not since faded and it was my most worn traditional foundation through these summer months. I haven’t done a formal review but I still feel the same way (if not slightly stronger towards it) as I did in my much earlier acquisitions post here. In a nutshell, this velvety foundation manages to give that luminosity to the skin that few foundations can match while being less ‘shiny’ or ‘dewy’ and more of a satin-like finish that is suitable for oilier skins while providing good medium coverage and looking and feeling like bare skin. I only wish there wasn’t so much added fragrance and alcohol in the product. Oh, and I’m the palest shade (10) but it’s not that pale, if you’re wondering.

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L’Oreal Glam Bronze Mono in 04 Universal Sun

Like the Chanel foundation above, I fell in love with this product instantly and haven’t wavered in that love since but fortunately it’s more than a little bit more of an affordable product. I don’t even want to count how many times that I’ve raved about my love for this product because I have more than a slight inkling that such a count would be rather high in a slightly embarrassing way. Anyway, this is a slightly deeper soft-matte bronzer that has those natural warm red undertones to mimick natural colour but it’s most impressive feature is its creamy, finely milled and smooth-textured formula. Review here.

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MAC Pro Longwear Waterproof Brow Set in Quiet Brunette

Considering the depth of my love for this tinted brow gel, I’m somewhat shocked that I haven’t actually dedicated a full post to this product. Regardless, this is a brow product that has impressed me with it’s amazing longevity (that lasts through swimming etc.), effect and ease of use; it’s much easier and time-effective to apply than a pencil or brow powder, has a slightly more natural look that also seems to mimick the texture of brow hairs and is the perfect slightly grey-toned light brown shade for my medium brown hair.

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Revlon Colorstay Moisture Stain in Milan Moment

The last in this quint of products strikes me as remarkable for it is neither atrociously expensive or has been talked to death by me in recent months but it’s a favourite, nevertheless. The formula of this liquid lip-stain is really unique as it’s lightweight and non-sticky with a hydrating balmy texture — this also allows for it to glide comfortably over lips with even the driest of patches — and it manages to leave a stain behind, as well. The sheer tangerine shade has been a great everyday shade to slightly brighten up my lips without adding anything too drastic and it can only be faulted for the slightly uneven/patchy way that it applies at first. More on this here.

Have you tried any of these staples of mine? Also, what were your staples?
Maggie, x.

Five of the Best Beauty Bargains

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Rather than introducing you to yet another affordable beauty product that I hold in high regard as of now, I thought that I would give a roundup of the affordable products that I’ve been relying on and valuing heavily at the moment. I can’t promise that what I say about these products and the products themselves won’t have appeared around here times before, however. Isn’t a little repetition a good thing?

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L’Oreal Glam Bronze Mono in 04 Universal Sun ($15 CDN)– full post here

I can’t even. Honestly this newer bronzer release has blown me away and I haven’t been able to stray from the smooth-textured blend able soft-matte bronzer for long since picking it up. The formula is pigmented but easy to work with and doesn’t sit on the skin stiffly and unnaturally like most powders do and rather glides on creamily. These come in a variety of shades but I’ve only tried this medium-toned warm bronzer with reddish undertones and I love the colour for adding natural bronziness to my face whilst being able to add a bit of shadow to the cheekbones because it’s not orange-y in the slightest. I swear this bronzer is easy to use and builds like a dream and will never betray you by looking chalky or muddy. I’ll stop now… You’re welcome.

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Neutrogena Extra Gentle Cleanser ($9-11 CDN)

This is definitely one of the unsung heroes of my personal assortment of beauty products, both in the sense that I don’t feel that others rave about the prowess of the product enough and that I don’t give it the credit it deserves on a frequent basis. It’s basically the gentlest cream cleanser in existence that not only doesn’t include detergents and therefore doesn’t strip or irritate the skin but also nourishes the skin. It’s only downside is that it’s not one that removes makeup well in the slightest. However, it’s a great second cleanser or morning cleanser that easily rinses clean.

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Annabelle Smoothliner in Black ($6-7 CDN)

Even without putting the wallet-friendly price into consideration, this is among the very best liners that I’ve ever tried and it’s my favourite for using on the top waterline because it does not transfer to the lower lashline or budge. However, it’s not absolutely perfect because the creamy texture ensures that it needs to be sharpened frequently (if not, it comes out really unevenly) and therefore the product goes quickly. With this aside, the waterproof formula is creamy rather than waxy and stays put for ages. The shade is a richly pigmented black and it also can be smudged nicely as long as you work quickly. In short, I love this liner and will repurchase it after I use it up which shouldn’t be too far into the future.

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DSC_0205From the top: L’Oreal Universal Sun, Maybelline Deep Bronze, Maybelline Pink Rose

Maybelline Master Hi-Light Light-Boosting Blush/Bronzer in 20 Pink Rose/ 60 Deep Bronze ($14-16 CDN) – full post here

I’ve raved about the Deep Bronze shade time and time again as a gorgeous rosy copper blush (rather than its intended use) and that love has not wavered in the slightest and since having such success with that shade, I picked up the true rosy pink shade (Pink Rose) and have been enjoying that shade as well. They’re not the cheapest but the texture and formula of these powders is so gorgeous that they are truly a bargain; the shimmer is so fine that it reads like a glowy sheen, the pigmentation is on-point and lasts as such and they blend seamlessly into the skin like the most finely-milled of products. I highly recommend trying at least one of these.

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Rimmel Colour Rush Intense Colour Balm in Lady Marmalade ($7-8 CDN)

This is definitely the newest product (to me) of the bunch but I’ve worn it a good amount and it has been so impressive; it may just be my favourite of the balm pencils, at the drugstore at least. The true pinky-coral hue doesn’t lean so warm that it tends to pull out the yellow in the teeth and goes over dry patches like a champ, actually hydrating along the way with the balm quality but it also served so stain my lips after wearing it for an hour or two — the colour lasted for six hours through a snack and a small meal. It seems to both be comfortable to wear and effortless while still providing on the longevity front, at least if you leave it on the lips for long enough to set.

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What’s your favourite budget buy at the moment?
Maggie, x.

Weekly Medley #24

Recently Updated16(1) Saturday’s face (2) My forth edition of  my The Beauty Bargain post (3) Outtake from yesterday’s style post (4) The trusted trio (5) The weekly blogging/youtube discovery (5) This week’s obligatory selfie (6) A look into my good pal Laura’s staples (7) A somewhat inaccurate depiction of the hurricane

 

Another week has passed, another three standout products have emerged. This week has been hot and humid, again, until Saturday when we got hit with the hurricane, some lost power and it was windy as anything. It almost getting to the point that the hurricane/wind situation was favourable because it meant that it wasn’t muggy and ridiculous. I’m not the kind of girl that can be a productive human being in the heat so it was nice to be able to wear full length pants without sweating up a storm, even while lounging in front of my fan. Weather and all that jazz aside, the beginning of the week was busy for me in a nice way – I was a nice functional social human being but an exhausted one at that.

I would be tempted to say that this was a shopping-heavy week as I did come out with a good (but not insane) number of purchases, but in truth it happened on Monday (one day) within a few hours. However, I don’t regret it at all. It being the pieces I picked up at American Eagle and Club Monaco, a few drugstore beauty bits that added up, three products from MAC that I provided an overview of here and the two beauty bits that I had been lusting after for ages from Sephora. It’s really not as bad as it sounds; I hadn’t been to the actual mall where MAC, Sephora and all that jazz is in ages so I did the damage that would usually be spread out among three trips into one.

For what felt like the 493489nd time, my lips were chronically dry, sore and somewhat chapped, at the beginning of the week and to sort it out, I used my Cicaplast Baume once or twice for reparative purposes but then went in consistently with my recent acquisition, the affordable Nivea Shea Butter and Vanilla Balm; after a few days, things were looking far less flaky and with this balm they’ve continued to improve. It appears that something I was using in the past few weeks wasn’t agreeing with my lips and the EOS balms weren’t exactly helping matters – retract what I said about it being the ideal balm for under lipsticks. With pot packaging, the thicker balm seems to hydrate instantly (once you open the jar that is) but tends to leave an unattractive white cast so it’s not one for aimless reapplication. In other words, I’ve been really loving it this week.

I seem to be following the pattern of picking three product yet again but I swear that it was accidental; the second two were both products that I’ve talked about in posts this week but they were results of that shopping trip. I declared my love for the L’Oreal Glam Bronze Mono in Universal Sun in my latest edition of The Beauty Bargain this week, despite having picked up a different shade than I intended to. The formula of the velvet-matte bronzer is luxurious and impressive on all fronts and the red-hued shade leans quite warm but really adds that natural bronze look to the face. I’ve even been foregoing blush whilst wearing a more wider application of this bronzer but it’s definitely not the ideal contour in my opinion and it won’t suit my fair skin in the cooler months.

I’ve not been as vocal about it around these parts but I’ve fallen equally in love with the MAC Pro Longwear Waterproof Brow Set in Quiet Brunette (discussed here slightly); I’ve been intrigued by the idea of a tinted brow gel for some added brow definition with some crazy hair-taming power for a while but every shade seems much too warm for my weirdly ashy brows and when I asked about this one, I wasn’t expecting much and I got more than I was asking for. The formula is waterproof and the small brush is easy to use and adds the illusion of thickness in the hairs and this shade is amazing – it doesn’t look particularly ashy in the container but it suits my medium toned brows to perfection on its own in a subtler way. It also takes like a minute to do my brows with it and that is rather appealing.

A few days back, I accidentally found myself searching the popular beauty page on Bloglovin’ and it ended up being a happy accident because I found myself clicking on a new blog and a fabulous one at that, whose writer also makes lovely videos too – that blog would be Beauty Life Michelle, a fabulous Irish gal living in Australia. She’s entertaining to read and watch and I found myself enjoying her Everyday Makeup For Pale Skin video tremendously.

What were your weekly highlights?
Maggie, x.