summer

The (Kind-Of) Beauty Bargain: Bourjois Cream Blush in 04 Sweet Cherry

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Hiiiiii I’m here hoping you’re doing as well as can be expected on his June tuesday and here bringing you another one of these budget beauty posts in a relatively short span of time. I do admit that it is rather difficult to call this a bargain in these parts as the Bourjois Cream Blush in 04 Sweet Cherry retails for $20 Canadian in these parts but they are less expensive than MAC and don’t cost considerably more than the more expensive drugstore brands (L’Oreal, Physicians Formula etc.) and if the darkest shade is anything to go by, they are a fantastic formulation in their own right. In terms of details shmetails, there are four shades in the “cream to powder” range housed in these compact pots with 0.08 oz of product and they do have quite a perfume-y scent to them.

Sweet Cherry is a subtly warm-toned slightly dirty rosy mauve shade that gives that natural-looking rosiness to the face along with seamless definition. In the picture above it’s the only product on my cheeks in terms of colour, if you’re interested. Although it seems to be marketed as a cream formula that loses its creaminess as it sets, I wouldn’t necessarily agree and for me and my dull dehydrated skin this is a good thing — the lightweight mousse-y cream formula is easier to work with than traditional cream formulas but it doesn’t lose the gorgeous finish of a true cream, leaving the cheeks luminous but without any shimmer or glitter. The cream blush has surprising longevity on the cheeks by itself and has impressive buildable pigmentation that allows them to give off colour without being overwhelming. And look, I managed to take an in-focus swatch picture on my new camera – yay:

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Although I’m someone who is intrigued by the radiance and texture-smoothing properties offered by these cream-textured blushes, I tend to find them more difficult as they can be more difficult to apply than their powder counterparts but this formula is an exception for me and makes me want to pick up the rest of the range. When it comes down to it, unless you’re of a dark skintone where it’s unlikely that any of these shades will show up without looking chalky, I highly recommend giving these a go if you’re interested in a creamy formulation of blush!

Have you tried any of these? What’s your favourite cream blush?
Maggie, x.

 

 

Weekly Medley #19

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(1) the weekly product highlight (2) yesterday I upgraded my blog and have begun to make a few changes (3) the pre-birthday-supper face (5) soaking up the sun in short-shorts (4) I speed-read another book in the guilty pleasure series of mine (5) there’s nothing that compares to lounging outdoors in the heat with a book in hand (6) another post in my skincare series (7) another gorgeous day

This week was marked by Saturday’s one year anniversary of the blog here – it feels so strange to write that as it seems like yesterday – and today was actually my twentieth birthday, as well. This week was nothing particularly noteworthy to be honest but the constant gorgeous sunny weather had me pleasantly surprised and frequently lounging outdoors, reading and planning posts in my little book of blogging. More than that it was actually hot which is not exactly standard here on the east coast before later June but I’ve been enjoying it

Although I have only used the product once since picking it up, the Herbal Essences Naked Moisture Cleansing Conditioner has impressed me enough to deserve mention as a weekly love. I picked it up on impulse on a rare trip to Target as it seems to be the only place where its stocked near me and it was economical, priced at six dollars for its 500 mL container that actually came with a pump. With a nice minty herbal scent, the cleansing conditioner was hydrating but lightweight, catering to those with finer easily-weighed-down hair than those that I had tried before. For me, the only real negative to the product is that it contains the silicone that builds up in the hair titled dimethicone but at the very least it’s nowhere near the top of the ingredient list. In a nutshell, this provided nice curl formation and gentle cleansing with no limpness occurring either.

In honour of having my blog for an entire year, I decided to take the plunge and upgrade my blog to “premium status” or whatever, getting my own domain (and consequently having to change my blog title because the ‘beautylit’ was actually taken but I’m not opposed to the new name), more customization options and all that jazz. There will be a few more changes going on in the next little while but I’m sure you can see that I also switched up the layout quite a bit here. I’ve had the itch to do this for months but I talked myself out of it time and time again so I’m glad that I finally went for it. I’m sure you know the drill in regards to my indecisive nature by now.

There are few things in life (beauty included) that I enjoy as much as lounging lazily and reading a good book so the fact that this week consisted of loads of this, I’m pretty satisfied. Although I actually read three or four books, I thought I would give you the highlights. I read the brand-new City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare and pretty much devoured it which is unsurprising considering that this series has been the fuss-free guilty pleasure series for years. I also am still enjoying Middlemarch and have made significant progress on the less than brief novel.

How was your week?

Maggie, x.

 

The Daily Face #15: Warm-Weather Makeup

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Contrary to the general pattern as of late, today was a gorgeous warm sunny day – but not so warm that makeup would be a no-go, of course. I’ve gotten into a bit of a different daily routine – but not too different, you know me… – with slightly different daily staples and I thought I would share the warm-weather centric makeup.

When it’s been warm and sunny, I’ve been reaching for the authentic Skin 79 Snail Nutrition BB Cream, as it offers good coverage with some added radiance and great sun protection – without using chemical sunscreens that make my skin burn and all that jazz. My skin has been pretty good so I went straight onto under-eye brightening with the magical Bobbi Brown Corrector in Light to Medium Bisque. Because sunscreen-heavy products tend to produce somewhat of a sheen, I made sure to dust the MAC Studio Careblend Pressed Powder through my t-zone.

Despite rambling on about more traditional bronzers frequently in posts as of late, the slightly warm-toned MAC Harmonyhas reigned supreme for adding for adding colour and shape and in the last week or two, I’ve been reaching for the L’Oreal True Match Blush in N3-4 Innocent Flushthat I previously dismissed as lacking longevity and any sort of novelty; while it’s not going to knock out MAC Stereo Rose etc. as my favourite coral blush with that golden sheen, I had misjudged this one as it does have good longevity, pigmentation and texture. As of late, I’ve also consistently been going for highlighter, namely the long-since unavailable MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Semi-Precious Pearl. Because I tend to find that the BB Cream can sit on my skin slightly unevenly, I misted my face with the Nyx Dewy Finish Makeup Setting Spray – I’m undecided on my final verdict on this setting spray, if you were wondering.

I’m now convinced that the L’Oreal Superliner Brow Artist in Blonde is certainly worth of praise – it seems a little dark for it’s name as it works for my medium-brown hair but the ashy-toned pencil-wax duo, paired with the mini-brush creates easy but naturally-defined brows. I suspect you’ll hear more on this on a later post… Because shadows need a base or primer of some sort, I grabbed for the ever-popular Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad To The Bronze but the real star of the show is the Dior Grege Quint that I picked up a few weeks ago (and featured it in a haul-type post) and have hardly put down since. I’ve ignored this quint in the past despite knowing the great quality of these shadows as the offerings looked neutral and boring but that could hardly be farther from the truth – the shades are surprisingly versatile for daily use with their variety of finishes. The sheeny grey shade was patted onto the outer-half of the lid, the ivory was applied to the inner corner region to lighten it up and the dark matte chocolate brown was blended into the outer corner and further used as liner. Since finding the L’Oreal brow pencil, my MAC 266 has been freed-up and I’ve fallen in love with using the brush with shadow as slightly-smoky liner. For mascara I’ve been consistently reaching for the Revlon Bold Lacquer Mascarathat I recently picked up as it provides easy adequate volume a la Benefit BadGal Lash and is not an absolute bitch to remove.

I’ve been feeling a coral lip lately, especially with the grey-toned shadow and because my lips are kind of in rough shape at the moment, I went for the hydrating and forgiving MAC Lipstick in Dreaming Dahliathat of course is no longer available for it was part of the MAC A Fantasy of Flowers Collection.

Thoughts on this ‘look’? What have you been reaching for lately?

Maggie, x.

The Daily Face #13: The No-Fuss Sheer-but-Bold Lip

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I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that today is one of those muggy and gross standard Spring days considering the gorgeously warm days that we have had as of late but I wasn’t put off by the weather and went for this kind of spring-summer/warm-weather transitional makeup look with not much colour and intensity going on the face or eyes and a kind of but not really sheer healthy pop of colour on the lips. When I set out to put my makeup on early this morning, I was determined not to write this post but rather put up a round-up of some recent acquisitions of mine but after using them in combination with some older standard loves, I couldn’t resist putting up a daily face post first. So, I’m warning you that there will be a lengthier post on a number of the products used here in the next little while. In other words, many of these products will be elaborated on in upcoming posts this week, if you’re curious about them.

FACE: Rimmel Stay Matte Liquid Mousse Foundation in 103 True Ivory ($7-9 CDN), MUFE 5 Camoflage Cream Palette in 1 ($45  CDN), Bobbi Brown Corrector in Light to Medium Bisque ($30 CDN), MAC Harmony Powder Blush ($25 CDN), Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush in Ethereal Glow ($41 CDN)
EYES: Maybelline Color Tattoo in Barely Branded ($9 CDN), Dior 5 Coleurs Quint in Grege ($61 CDN), L’Oreal Lineur Intense in Carbon Black ($9-10 CDN), L’Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes Excess Mascara ($10-11 CDN), MAC Coquette eyeshadow ($12/18 CDN)
LIPS: Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment in Cherry ($26 CDN)

There are two products used – not including brushes because I’m lazy – that I do not appear to have photographed but only one I did so purposefully. Because I keep my daily brow shade of choice, MAC Coquette out of the photograph and I completely forgot to photograph my eyeshadow base, the Maybelline Color Tattoo in Barely Branded but I assure you it was used, nevertheless.

The foundation is definitely a new one for me and not one that I expected picking up but after receiving a sample of the Rimmel foundation in a close-enough shade, I found that I quite liked the formula despite it’s mattifying claims and fulfilled the desire I had in the last little while to try a heavier-coverage foundation that’s not quite so glowy. All I can say is that the shade range sucks for darker skins and it runs differently than the Wake Me Up in terms of undertones; I’m wearing shade 4/6 despite my paleness if that’s an indicator… And it’s not that matte and drying as I expected but for me that’s a good thing, however I was tempted to go for a spray of the oft-neglected Nyx Dewy Finish Makeup Setting Spray. But it has impressed me considerably. I whipped out the concealer palette for just one last reminder of last week’s chin-jawline breakout situation and went for the hyped but rightfully-so Bobbi Brown Corrector underneath my eyes. For adding shape and colour, I went with a new stand-by and an older one — the new Hourglass Ethereal Glow and good ol’ MAC Harmony to add some subtle-but-effective shape and rosy glow to the face in the most undetectable way.

The eyes were first primed as they always are but then I filled in my brows standardly – I’m not sure why I do my brows before the rest of my makeup but somehow it’s become part of the routine as such. Other than the base, I made use of all of the shades of my recently-acquired and fabulous Dior Grege Quint on the eyes: the pigmented ivory shimmery shade went on the inner corners to brighten, the lighter taupe sheeny shade went on the lids, the warm brown satin-matte shade went into the crease as the perfect transition colour, the sheeny grey was buffed out into the crease from the outer corners and the deep chocolate brown satin shade was applied into the outer corners and lightly underneath the lashline. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the versatility of these shadows and you know by their amazing formula that never causes fallout and lasts for ages; Grege might look boring – and I may have previously passed it as such – but it’s one of those high-quality staples, I reckon, that contains both matte/satin and shimmery shades that fit into the neutral family. The mascara and liquid liner were both from L’Oreal, an old favourite and a new favourite, and I’m sure many of you can guess which is which. P.S. If you haven’t been successful, it will be clearer when my monthly favourites post comes up in the near future. Obviously there was a subtle kitten flick involved but it works for me and I’ve learned how to do it with minimal effort so it’s a win-win situation.

Although it’s almost a toss up between the lip and the gorgeous shadows, I have to say that the lip was the main part of this otherwise subdued neutral makeup look. I went for the hardly-sheer Fresh Cherry Lip Treatment to add that hint of colour to the lips that doesn’t look overdone in the least.

What are your thoughts on this “daily face”? What have you been reaching for as of late?

Maggie, x.

 

P.S. The blotchiness on my neck/chest in parts may or may not be due to the unfortunate interplay between eczema patches and a self-tanner attempt – there will be more on this pronto. And the title is sort of an oxymoron but I hope you’ll know what I mean…

Skincare – My Routine and Thoughts

Me without makeup. If anyone was curious the breakouts on my forehead were Cetaphil-induced. My skin looks a wee bit better than this most of the time now!
Me without makeup. If anyone was curious the breakouts on my forehead were Cetaphil-induced. My skin looks a wee bit better than this most of the time now!

I was going to wait to do this video until my skin improved and my routine was flawless – like every product would have to be holy grail status – but realistically I’m never going to be using an absolutely flawless routine, nor will I ever have perfect skin (or anything close to it) and I’m the happiest with my skin that I’ve ever been (and I’ve tried a bunch of different things for my skin) so I figured I’d share. I’ve found since using these products that my overall skin clarity increased and my skin appears brightened and most of all it has become notably less irritated.

My skin tends to be rather complicated; it’s rather acne-prone (I always have a few spots on my face), extremely sensitive, and is prone to very dry patches. Although my skin is dry and dehydrated (particularly on my cheeks and sometimes on my forehead and normal to dry on my chin, nose and around my hairline), I tend to clogged pores – those little bumps that sometimes will resolve by turning into painful pimples or otherwise will just stay there. Also if I don’t use the gentlest of products, my cheeks and nose get quite red and my face becomes tight, extremely flaky, burny and itchy. My pale skin also tends to look rather dull and is prone to flaking when dehydrated. Because my rather problematic skin doesn’t simply fall into one of the traditional skin types and faces a multitude of problematic conditions, I think these thoughts, routine and products that I use could benefit people of different skin types.

In my opinion, there are five basic categories of skincare that we should have in our routines but the routines themselves will vastly differ because of our individual skin needs will be different and in my opinion, the best routine will be centered around how your skin actually is rather than how you wish it would be. These five categories are as follows: cleansing, moisturizing, exfoliating, sun-protecting and treating.

Morning routine
Morning Routine
Morning Routine

1. I cleanse my face with Neutrogena Ultra Gentle Cleanser, which is an affordable gentle cleanser with a lotion consistency that does not strip the skin whatsoever but also does not remove makeup well at all. I rinse this off with cool water with my hands to be as gentle as possible. I talk about it in more depth here –

2. I gently exfoliate with Clinique Mild Clarifying Lotion, which is an extremely gentle exfoliating toner with BHA (salicylic acid) – meaning that it can exfoliate your skin (even inside the pore) without being abrasive like a scrub would and is also more effective because the product is left on the skin. [Note: I am not usually a huge fan of Clinique products (I tried the 3 step skincare system and it was an absolute disaster) but I adore this product.] It is one of the rare exfoliating toners that is effective without costing an insane quantity of money or containing irritants such as alcohol and the like. It’s somewhere between $10-15 in the States, I believe, and in Canada it costs $16 for 200 mLs.

3. The moisturizer I use in the morning is Caudalie Vinosource Moisturizing Sorbet, which is a lightweight moisturizer marketed at sensitive skin. I think this is an excellent moisturizer — it is one of the rare ones with a good texture that does not make my skin burn or turn red, I find it quite soothing actually — and the ingredients are not too bad. There are no drying alcohols (hallelujah) but still are some antioxidants in a squeezy tube that does not render the ingredients useless. My only irritation with this product is why in the world would they put fragrance in a moisturizer for sensitive skin – arghhhh. All in all it is a quite nice moisturizer for sensitive skin. It costs $39 CDN I believe for 40 mLs.

4. As we’ve all heard a million times, sun-protection is really important so I use Avene High Protection Cream. I have discovered that I tend to be sensitive to chemical sunscreens (they make my skin burn, turn red and develop unsightly bump-pimple things that take forever to go and turn into hardened bumps) so I did some research and decided to try this purely physical sunscreen. It offers really great protection for my fair skin (broad spectrum spf 50) and it is water resistant, although it leaves a rather unattractive whitish pink cast. It does not irritate mt skin in the least and retails in the 20-30 dollars CDN range for 50 mLs.

Morning Routine
Night Routine

Night Routine

1. I begin by removing my makeup on both my eyes and my face with Bioderma Sensibio H20 Micelle Solution and cotton pads. I talk about it more here –

2. I wash my face again with Neutrogena Extra Gentle Cleanser. I think that it is very important to cleanse twice (gently!) at night because there is nothing worse than remaining makeup on your skin in terms of causing acne and the like.

3. Then I move on to my treatment. I use  Stievamycin Gel every one or two days, depending on my skins current state (sensitivity and severity of blemishes). The amount I use is dependent on how my skin is at the moment. The Stievamycin Gel, a is only available if you have a prescription from your doctor and in my experience is very effective, particularly on stubborn blemishes but is very sensitizing. The product contains 0.025% tretinoin (which is a topical retinoid/ vitamin a derivative that exfoliates the outer-surface of the skin to reduce the formation of blemishes) and 4% erythromycin gel (which is an antibiotic that kills the bacteria that cause acne). My only irritation with this product is that it is formulated with an alcohol-gel base and my skin does not tolerate alcohol well, however this product is so effective that I keep on using it!

5. I like to wait at least ten minutes before applying my moisturizer, as to avoid diluting the effect of the active ingredients in the treatments I use. I’ve been using Bee By the Sea Sea Buckthorn and Honey Nourishing Face Cream,  which is a very gentle and hydrating cream that takes a while to absorb into the skin. I do not necessarily think that you must use a night cream at night and a day cream during the day – I just am using this because I have it and it helps compensate for the sensitizing treatments I put my skin through. It is very soothing, all of its fragrance coming from the sweet almond oil and rich in coconut and olive oil. It is a no-frills moisturizer filled with ingredients that work to hydrate  skin. It costs $30 CDN at health stores and beabythesea.ca. This is a godsend for irritated skin!

I’m thinking about continuing with a skincare series as I think it is so important. X

Any thoughts?

FOTD- Day to Night with Urban Decay Naked Palette

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In the last few weeks I’ve been trying to be creative and make more use of my neglected Naked palette. The thing is I tend to find the palette too shimmery and too warm to be a palette to use for a bunch of different whole looks but I’ve been managing to create a few that I’ve liked. This one has by far been my favourite as I think it’s really pretty without being overdone, defined and versatile. This is the kind of makeup that I find suits casual days to going-out nights. It’s nothing spectacular, I just thought that I would share! 🙂

The look :)
The look 🙂
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my lip colour is off … whoops 🙂

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If you don’t have the colours I have, I’ll try to give some alternatives at the end; there’s nothing I hate more than a look I like but own none of the colours for.

Eyes:

1. I primed my eyes with Primer Potion and then I used the brush that comes in the Naked Palette to pat a good amount of Sin on the inner half of the lid and Toasted on the outer half and then blended the edges together.

2. So I sort of cheated a little – I used one shadow not in the Naked Palette. I used the darker shade of Nars Kalahari (the right side) in the crease with a fluffy blending brush.

3. I filled in my brows lightly with Buck on an angled brush.

5. I applied Hustle into the outer-v and then blended outwards with my MAC 239.

6. Using my angled liner brush again, I applied Hustle underneath my eye in the outer corner.

7. I lined my upper lashes with same brush using Darkhouse and smudged it. I also applied some on my MAC 239 brush and used it to darken the outer v.

8. I highlighted the browbone and brightened the inner corner with Virgin.

9. I used L’Oreal Voluminous mascara on my upper lashes.

I’m sorry but I maybe sort of used the same cheek and lip products as in the other look … but at least its proof of their excellence? 🙂

10. I used Rimmel Wake Me Up in 100 for my foundation which I really like the colour match for my skin, the glow it provides, its lasting power and that it’s not too noticeable.

11. I put the second-lightest colour of Make Up For Ever 5 Concealer Cream Palette – my shade is 1- underneath my eyes and onto rather pronounced blemishes.

12. I used Rimmel Natural Glow Bronzer in 021 on my cheekbones, forhead, temples, nose and blended it into my neck to bronze my face up slightly with a large blush brush.

13. I placed MAC Stereo Rose MSF on my cheeks with the same brush, blending it into the bronzer. I know this is LE, but I’ll talk about other options below 🙂

14. I put the tiniest bit of Benefit’s Girl Meets Pearl highlighter on the tops of my cheekbones.

15. With my finger, I dabbed some Bobbi Brown Rose Pot Rouge onto my lips.

This sounds long but it wasn’t and was rather quick and easy!

Alternative List

UD Sin – MAC Naked Lunch, MAC All That Glitters for darker skintones

UD Virgin – MAC Shroom, MAC Dazzlelight is a golden alternative

UD Toasted – MAC Sable is slightly darker, MAC All That Glitters is slightly lighter

Nars Kalahari (Darker Shade)  – I can’t think of anything extremely similar but UD Buck could be used in its place (if you’re warmer), MAC Charcoal Brown or Espresso – these are both matte although Kalahari has a sheen

UD Hustle – MAC Satin Taupe is similar

UD Darkhorse – Any brown darker than Hustle would work, I’ve heard Nars Cordura is similar, MAC Handwritten is similar without the shimmer but ever-so-slightly warmer, MAC Embark and Smut are also similar and they have some sheen to them

MAC Stereo Rose – MAC Springsheen is peachier, MAC Orgasm is pinker and lighter (without the bronze-ness) and Milani Coralina is slightly pinker and Rose d’Oro slightly more orange-leaning coral

Any thoughts? 🙂