31 May 2012

I Don't Want To Fucking Burn - Lovechild Bonus!

Recently, I did a two-part sun protection series on my personal line-up of both face and body products.
I've since found a Summer lip balm:  NIVEA a kiss of protection
  • SPF 30
  • waterproof (lick-proof)
  • no sunscreen smell
  • goes on clear (no white sunscreen wax)
  • creamy but not thick (non crusty)
  • super moisturizing
  • super long lasting
Otherwise from my Lip Ice (R mentioned it a while back), I swear by my Nivea hydrocare lip balm.  This sun protection one is basically identical to the hydrocare, even the smell and texture.  It takes a little longer than the hydrocare to sink in, but I don't mind because it's got SPF 30.  (Lip Ice has SPF 15).
At $2.29 CAD, it's a must for anyone who is out in the sun a lot.
(I was just at my second home, London Drugs, and it's currently on sale for $1.99 CAD)

♥ M

P. S.   Welcome back to the clubby, R.
P. P. S.   That UD brush is a piece of shit.  That, is all.

29 May 2012

R returns with a haul (Sephora, Urban Decay, Nails Inc., Burberry, NARS)

It's me again, R.

Since my last post, Sephora's "promotions" have compelled me to buy a lot of useless shit that I don't need.  They had the $15 (or was it $10?  Don't remember...) voucher a few months back, then they had the whole 15% off shebang a few months later, and now tons of Summer collections are coming out to taunt us and challenge our willpower.

Well, I'm here to tell you that I am weak.

So, over the last few months, I've accumulated what can be lamely and uncreatively characterized as a collective haul.  I replaced my glass nail file ($10 CAD) for the second time (once it hits the floor, it splits in half and there's no salvaging it).  I much prefer glass nail files over the paper/foam variety and *especially* over metal ones (shudder).  On this same trip, I got the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Shadow Blending Brush ($19 CAD).

I got it in the hope of applying crease colours in a more precise manner, as my hooded eyelids provide little a canvas.  I actually haven't even used it yet.  Perhaps that speaks to the necessity of this purchase.

Then a few months later was the big Sephora/Pantone Universe collaboration that inspired the 15% off event.  Yes, I did go to Sephora quite early to avoid fighting off makeup-crazed fiends like myself.  I wasn't quite successful in that regard, but I did get manage to buy more shit-I-don't-need and acquire the sample pack and Sephora umbrella.  I believe M already detailed the contents of the swag in her haul, so I shan't repeat them.  However, I did use the Bumble and Bumble Thickening Shampoo and Conditioner and I have to admit that I felt a (significant?) difference in the texture of my hair.  Alas, I was begrudgingly impressed.  Still, how can anyone who isn't a gajillionaire justify a 30-dollar shampoo and conditioner (EACH)?!  I cringe at even 5-dollar shampoos.  Oh, and I must mention that I don't really like the scents.  It's not offensive or anything, but it smells a little cleaning-producty.  It almost smells like men's shaving gel, which I usually enjoy.  But, I enjoy them on ma man, not on ma hurr.  You know what, scratch that.  It just smells like alcohol/chemicals.

Anyway, in that same transaction, I purchased the Sephora Nail Colour Remover.  I don't know why it's so difficult to locate, but even the Sephora "sales associates" (whose service and overall product knowledge always leaves me wanting, to say the least) did not seem to know about its existence.  This one girl tried to tell me it's only available as an in-store sample.  Lol.  The bottle sitting on my bathroom counter begs to differ.  But, I digress.  Remember I hauled this in Vegas?  Well, I'm in love.  It's heads, toes, knees, and elbows better than the much-hyped Zoya nail polish remover.  Unfortunately, it's impossible to find in the larger size, and it seems to be on the brink of discontinuation, especially given how they're pushing their new Instant Nail Polish Remover/Express Nail Polish Remover.  I also got the Nails Inc. Neon and Nude Collection ($30 CAD).
Love the box.  Not gonna lie.  It was part of the reason I made the purchase.
This kind of shows truer to the colour.
 I couldn't wait to try the neons out.  Here's a picture with a manicure inspired by Lorraine in this video.

The coral and pink were gorgeously bright, but the yellow-orange one (not pictured) was angry at my skintone.  It just looked wrong--almost to the point where people may think I'm jaundiced.  I haven't actually tried out the nudes because they are not exactly nude enough (against my skintone) to be work-appropriate, and when I'm on days off, I like to have bright, bold, loud, in-your-face, colourful, WTF, explosive--you get the idea--nails.  The fact that these are miniature bottles means that the brushes are also significantly smaller.  My personal preference is for larger, flared out brushes, as opposed to dinky, thin ones.  The viscosity of the polish (compared to other popular brands) also excaberate my dislike for thin brushes.  Nevertheless, the neons serve their purpose in getting my heart a-racin'.  I'm still looking for Color Club's selection of neons.  They have NEON neons, but they aren't sold where I live.  Sad face.

And finally, I caved and got the Naked Palette.  I ain't linkin that shit because y'all know what it is, how it looks like, how it feels, how much it costs, and all that jazz.  I said jazz.  Not jizz.  Admittedly, it is a very nice palette to have, especially for you US folks, as it's 10 bucks cheaper to purchase.  It really is a steal.  I've only been using the leftmost two shades, Virgin and Sin, so far, and lining my eyes with a bright colour from my Coastal Scents 88 Palette.  (ie. Sin all over the lids, Mac's Soft Brown on the crease, Virgin under the brows, and dip my damp, angled eyeliner brush on one of the 88 colours.  I love the aqua colours.)  In fact, Coastal Scents' eyeshadows have been the only ones that haven't been ruined after making love contact with water.  My Mac eyeshadow was destroyed after dipping a damp brush in, and my Nars eyeshadow (which the Sales Associate insisted was MADE for wet application) also did not fare well.  Anyway, no regrets about gettin' Naked.

And finally, about a month ago, M and I had a reunion of sorts.  It had been awhile since we'd seen each other, so we decided to go on joint shopping venture.  After much buzz about Burberry's Pale Barley eyeshadow, we wanted to check it out for ourselves.  Now, we've both individually made stops at the Burberry counter before.  She had a particularly bad experience the first time around, and waged war against the SA.  For me, I just didn't want to get attacked by a commission-hungry SA.  So, finally, we decided that together, we can ward of the vultures (By the way, it seems like every time I go to the Burberry counter, they tell me about some one-time exclusive event that I must hurry up and sign up for.  Kinda makes me question their selling points as (1) they tell me about it like, every time I go and (2) if you're telling ME about it, it ain't exclusive in any way, shape, or form.)  Anway, after checking out Pale Barley and Midnight Brown and Trench, and all that savoury shit, we decided that Rosewood was just too gorgeous to pass up.



We each bought one for our greedy selves at $33 CAD.  Good lord that's expensive.  Oh well.  I love how luxuriously weighty it is and that the surface area is large enough for you to generously swoosh your brush around.  In comparison, Chanel's offerings of single eyeshadows tend to feel relatively less luxurious, and it's just so goddamn glittery.  AND the surface area is quite small, so when you swoosh your brush around, eyeshadow gets all over the compact.  Anyway, that's another topic for another time.

Also on this trip, I acquired NARS's Ramatuelle Eyeshadow Trio ($55 CAD).






Fuckin' running through hills singing to the soundtrack of the Sound of Music about this one, man.   I was kinda sad when MessyWands said that she could have done without it, but I have no regrets at all.  I must mention that I am not a big Nars fan to begin with.  I think it's really expensive (lol, I know.  Hypocritical much?) for what it is, as their eyeshadows tend to be too chalky in my opinion.  Nevertheless, I've seen many a reviews before I made the purchase, and I feel like this trio looks gorgeous on ANY skin tone.  It's just...a breath of fresh air.  I frickin love it.  I actually fantasize about putting it on.  Yeah, it's getting to that point.

By the way, I just wanted to express my gratitude to M for putting up with my overall laziness.  She even defended my honour by pointing out that I've been quite busy with my move and everything.
Here's proof.
I mean, sure that took up a chunk of my time, and I work a lot, but there are times where I just sit and vegetate to a tv show or youtube video or whatever--time that could have been spent being an equal contributor to the blog.  Not that M is free-time Freddie herself.  I mean, she's doing this on top of school, work, and life.  Anyway, hugs and dry humps for M.

- R

27 May 2012

BACK IN STOCK: La Roche-Posay Anthelios Ultra-Fluid Lotion SPF60

 Since my previous facial sun protection post, I've had the chance to use the La Roche-Posay Anthelios Shake Sunscreen Lotion numerous times and love it!  It is my new HG face sunscreen.

When I tried to buy a backup bottle from London Drugs and Shoppers Drug Mart, it was sold out EVERYWHERE!  I think I went to most of the store locations within my neighbouring cities, and everyone was backordered.  Who knew it was the hottest thing?!

Anyway, I tweeted last week, but they're back in stock at both London Drugs and Shoppers Drug Mart for my fellow Canadians.  This sells for $26 CAD.
If you buy it at London Drugs, you can use this coupon and save $10 CAD!
♥ M

22 May 2012

Party in the USA (Haul)

 The Cosmetics Company Outlet
Clinique Even better Clinical Dark Spot Corrector - $39.75 USD ($63 CAD in Canada! WTF)

I'll keep me posted on whether it works.

 Walmart
Neutrogena Healthy Skin (40 Nude) - $11.97 USD (You can't find this in Canada, boo)
Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser (150 Neutralizer) - $7.94 USD ($11.99 CAD in Canada)
Burt's Bees Radiance Eye Cream - $17.97 USD ($24.99 CAD in Canada)

I'll keep you posted on whether Healthy Skin and the Concealer live up to their hype.
I'm giving the eye cream a try too.

 Walmart
Wet n' Wild eye shadow (Brulee) - $1.97 USD ($2.99 CAD in Canada)

Finally, got it.
It's impossible to find one that isn't shattered to bits in Canada.

L'Occitane Outlet
Cherry Princess Body Silk & Solid Perfume pack - $13.60 USD (Not available in Canada)
Cherry Blossom Hand Cream - $10 USD ($12 CAD in Canada; mini travel sizes not available anymore?)
and the samples I got.

Woohoo, found more Cherry Princess stuff!  They're completely sold out in Canada.
These "Body Silks" are super liquidy, which is awesome, cuz I can use them as hand lotion.
I stocked up on another two tubes of the Cherry Blossom hand lotions, because all their hand lotions are in the twist-plastic tubes now.  The new tubes have a new formulation, so the consistency is thinner.

As you can tell, we get screwed over in Canada...
seriously, the price differences are ridiculous
especially when our dollar has been on par with the American dollar for quite a while now.

♥ M

17 May 2012

I Don't Want To Fucking Burn (Part II) - Body Sun Protection

This is the follow-up post to my two-part Sun Protection series.  Part II will focus on the body.
(Read Part I, which focuses on the face:  click!)

Here's the body lineup:

I love this cooling body mist sunscreen!  It feels amazing to apply, especially if your skin is already warm from the day - it's super refreshing!  This is my #1 choice in body sunscreen whenever I vacation in the tropics.  It's a little bit greasy, but I don't mind it because it seems to reflect the sunrays.  What I really like is it doesn't spray white.  The liquid is clear and sticks well to the skin, even on wet skin!  Only downfall is that it's water-resistant, not waterproof, so it's good for everyday use in the summer when there's more sweating (yum, hahaha), but not a good choice for pools.  It's $9.99 USD / $15 CAD.  This is a HG for me.

Ok, clearly, I am a sunscreen nut... so when I saw SPF 100+, I almost died from happiness lol.
It's non-greasy and waterproof, which is awesome!  It's exactly the same as the cooling mist, just without the cooling feeling during application.  Same thang about the water-resistant and not waterproof.  I got this for $9 USD at Walmart.

This one has the strongest sunscreen smell, and a slightly thicker consistency in its spray.  I'm not really sure how I feel about that just yet... This is the rookie of the lineup.  I just bought this last year because it was only $6 USD at Walmart (I've been die-hard Neutrogena for 5+ years).  I only got to try this a couple of times at the end of last summer, so I don't think I can do a solid review on it, but I added it in because I really love its spray.  Stupid, I know, but it's a twist-click-open sprayer, not a separate-cap-er like the Neutrogena!  That's sooo convenient!  I have a tendency to drop the cap and watch it roll off.

In Part I, I mentioned about about I was super choked up by the discontinuation of my Neutrogena After-Sun lover... well, I've found something that's almost (99.99%) identical to it!
Recall that I ROAST up in the sun... I know, people blahblahblah about how they roast up... but I don't go sun-baking!  Seriously, there's no first degree burning for me - it just goes straight to second degree as the minimum... hence this obsession.  So, after I become a lobster in complete pain, I would cake on Neutrogena After-Sun.  I just spread it on me like icing... mostly because any sort of slight contact with my skin would be painful beyond belief... thus, any sort of rubbing in is out of question, duh.  The Neutrogena would instantly soak into my skin and cool down my skin's redness and pain.  The redness would instantly turn from tomato red to a deep pink.  I don't know what was in it but it was crack for me - probably did have crack and had to be "discontinued."

Anyway, this Burt's Bees After Sun does the same thing for me, PLUS it's 99.5% natural (no crack)!  Instead of the baby powder smell of the Neutrogena one, this has a fresh, earthy smell (I think the 0.01% lacking to the Neutrogena is partly weighed on missing the baby powder smell).  Its effects aren't as instantaneous as the Neutrogena - probably, more like within half an hour instead of seconds, which is still amazing.  It's a very light formula as you can see from my swatch, and has a less artificial cooling sensation than the Neutrogena.  I've got three backups of this in my reserves, and will probably stock up on a couple more for the summer when I go down to the states this weekend.  Walmart in the states has them for $9.99 USD, while London Drugs and Shoppers Drug Mart robs us at $15 CAD in Canada.

Goes without saying that this is a HG for me.

♥ M

15 May 2012

I Don't Want To Fucking Burn (Part I) - Face Sun Protection

Now that the sun's coming out more and longer, I'm pulling out my collection of sun care reserves.
I'm not joking about reserves - I've got at least two backups of all of these.  Ever since my favourite Neutrogena After-Sun Lotion got discontinued/disappeared after one season, I will never risk it again!

I have super super super thin and light skin, so I burn very easily.  A little bit of sun exposure and my skin will be red and hot.  No sun protection, and I'm a tomato.  My skin also doesn't tan... it just burns and peels, reptile style.  (Read the backstory on my sensitive/combination/hormonal acne-prone skin here:  click!)

I use a ridiculous variety of products so I'm breaking it down to face and body.
Here's the face lineup:

La Roche-Posay is the newest addition, and I can definitely see this as being the prom queen of all.
I got this during London Drugs' 15% off all La Roche-Posay products deal last month.  It's $26 CAD at regular price.  It is water-based so you have to shake it like mad.  It is very liquidy, and blends very smoothly as a thin lotion formula.  The formula dries quickly and actually disappears within your skin.

I'm always super sceptical of sun products that claim to dry matte, but it's never completely matte.  So, naturally, I had scepticism "bullshit" all over my face when the beauty counter manager at London Drugs was telling me about it.  She squirted a generous amount on the back of my hand and I rubbed it in.  After a couple of minutes, it had the same familiar "matte" look and I kinda scoffed in the woman's face.  BUT, after 5 minutes, it was as if I had nothing on my hand!  OMFG!  It's not just matte, but you cannot tell that you're wearing any sun protection product!  There's no sunscreen scent and your skin is completely smooth to the touch without any glow.  Ok, I'm gonna stop - I'm sounding like a fucking infomercial.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to reach for this one all the time, because it's so lightweight and actually matte.  I'll probably replace my Clinique lotion with this during the Summer.

What makes it even more of a plus is it's paraben-free.

These two bottles are the exact same thing.  The one in the package is just the repackaged version of the one on the right.  It is VERY close to the La Roche-Posay one, except it's a smidge thicker in consistency and the sunscreen scent is definitely there.  It isn't "invisible" like the La Roche-Posay one, but the "matte-ish" shine is the most minimal that I've seen out of all the other popular drugstore brands out there.  If you're not crazy and obsessive like me, then go for this one at Walmart for $9.99 USD.
I'm not completely sure, but I think this one may be replaced by the UltraSheer Water-Light.  Read on about the Water-Light one.

Here's a comparison between the La Roche-Posay (L) and Neutrogena UltraSheer (R).
As you can see, there's significant difference in the consistency.

Neutrogena UltraSheer Water-Light is slightly more watery than the regular UltraSheer.  I think it might be the water-based version of the UltraSheer?  Might be pulling shit out of my ass again, I don't know...  But it's definitely closer to the La Roche-Posay than the UltraSheer one.  Obviously, I prefer this Water-Light one over the regular UltraSheer, so yay!
I don't know what I'm talking about... I sound like jibberish.  Just try it out for yourself.  It's $9.99 USD at Walmart.  Canada charges at least $15 CAD.  It doesn't fucking sparkle like the La Roche-Posay one, but for more than half the price, it's comparable.
You can see that it's definitely more watery than the UltraSheer, but not as thin as the La Roche-Posay:

I put this UltraSheer Face in as part of the face section simply because it's labelled that way, but it's wayyy too thick and shiny for my face.  When I say way too thick, I mean relative to the products mentioned above.  The formula is thinner than regular sunscreen.  I can see that it's good for someone who has drier skin or wants a thicker consistency.  I just happen use it as a body product.
I bought this from Walmart for $9.99 USD.  Once again, Canada charges at least $15 CAD.

Isn't this the cutest thing?  It looks like a deodorant for babies, haha.
It actually has a dry, waxy consistency like a deodorant too!  I like using this for my ears, around my eyes, and to touch up.  It's especially good for the eye socket area, because it doesn't melt or run - no tears!
I think I got this for $6 USD at Walmart or Target.

♥ M