P10P: Use Up That Makeup!

After much planning and plotting, I have finally made the decision to start a Project 10 Pan or P10P for short! For those of you who might not be familiar with makeup lingo, a P10P is a project that any makeup junkie can undertake in order to use up makeup products before committing to buying any new ones. Of course, the rules are somewhat flexible, such as how many products to use up, or what products you CAN buy during the "no-buy" period if you do run out.

For myself, I will limit myself to very special limited edition or clearance purchases that have to be justified, i.e. I won't be able to obtain this item ever again afterwards. I will also set for myself some "rewards" purchases that I will get if and only if I finish my P10P. I've divvied mine into two categories as follows:

Face + Body Care:
- Shiseido Pureness Mattifying Oil-Free Moisturizer
- 2 Bath & Body Works Travel Size Lotions
- English Leather Shower Gel (my aunt has given me lots, so no need to buy bath products!)
- 1 Bath & Body Works Full Size Shower Gel
- Bath & Body Works  (I'm a fan haha) Moisturizing Hand Soap

Makeup:
- Smashbox Tinted Moisturizer
- NARS Eye Primer
- Lancôme Blush Subtil Blush (sample size)
- L'Oréal Colour Riche Balm
- The Body Shop Lip Gloss

I'll be giving regular updates as to my empties once I finish an item. The only items I'll repurchase if I run out are makeup remover and moisturizer. Of course, we can't forget my list of rewards!

- Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush
- Murad Cleanser
- MUFE  Concealer

I have a bunch of other products to finish off, but we'll stick with these first!

Summer Haul #3!

Just in time for back to school, I spotted some great deals this week and I can't believe I am posting about my very favourite makeup brands on clearance because they are clearing out their inventories/ being discontinued! I absolutely love Annabelle eye products and tokidoki collectibles so without further ado, here is what I picked up today!

I picked up six Annabelle studio mono eyeshadows, which I love! They shouldn't discontinue this system because it's rare to find a good quality (and Canadian!) drugstore brand which does single eyeshadows like this. They are super smooth and have decent colour payoff, but they can be applied heavily for more colour. I will show my eyeshadows in detail in a future post!

The other is the cutest and softest kabuki brush from tokidoki! It was being cleared out for $11, PLUS it was the last one in stock! I'm glad I was able to snatch it, because I've heard stellar reviews about this powder brush and its excellent yet natural coverage. This is my first kabuki and I look forward to using it lots! Isn't the design just adorable?

Hopefully I will be able to show you all how I incorporate these new products into my daily makeup routine!

Review: L'Oréal Colour Riche Balm in Heavenly Berry

I'm back with another review on another great lippie? Haven't you noticed I love lippies and they're one of my fave types of makeup products out there? Haha. On the recommendation of one of my makeup junkie friends, I decided to try out the L'Oréal Colour Riche Balm because it's on sale this week and I know these have been on the market for a while already, so I've been able to read plenty of reviews and make my choice wisely.

The shade I chose was #318, Heavenly Berry. I'm normally not a fan of darker plum and berry shades, even in fall, but this balm comes across very sheer, so even these dark colours impart just a light dose of colour onto the lips. For me, it leaves just a light sheen on my lips, which is perfect! I was debating between this and Plush Plum, but decided to settle with this one because it's a lighter colour and it's not too cold...yet!

This product does have a vanilla scent that I like, a mix between candy and freshly baked cupcakes with frosting. It's not overpowering and disappears shortly after application. The balm itself applies well, gliding smoothly along my lips without that sticky drag that some glossy balms can have. The only gripe some people might have is the lid of the tube must align properly with the bottom in order to snap shut, but I'm a fan of having the label face forward, so I like this design! Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase!

Review: Annabelle Twist-Up Lip Crayon

For all you Canadian beauts out there, I'm sure you've heard of the revamped makeup display complete with new products from Marcelle and Annabelle! They are two great Canadian brands which, in my opinion, are often overshadowed by more renown drugstore makeup brands.

One of the newest items released with the promotion of their new releases (and Québecoise singer Marie-Mai is their new spokesperson to boot! She's so confident and fierce!) is the TWISTUP Retractable Lipstick Crayon which comes in 12 amazing shades for any kind of look. I bought the shade Divine and  I do think it's absolutely divine! It's an nice neutral pinky toned lipstick, and the pigmentation of this formula is absolutely amazing. It's superbly nice in the fact that it applies smoothly, and it doesn't take a few "starter" swipes to get the colour going. 

Another bonus: It's fully retractable so you never have to sharpen it! Regular lipstick application will keep the point nice and sharp, and I like that the product isn't so large that I risk going off my lips while I'm applying. The little band that is true to colour is great, and the name of the product is printed on the tube so you'll always remember what it is!

A tiny little disappointment I had was that this lip crayon comes out as a matte finish on my lips, because I had seen a previous review where it was pictured to be glossy! However, just a dab of clear or pinky gloss on top sets that straight, and it lasts for quite a while! I wore it for around 5 hours with minimal eating and drinking and it still looked nice. Most importantly, I didn't have an allergic reaction (I'm looking at you, Revlon Lip Butters!) and the removal of the lipstick was easy as well. 

I would definitely recommend checking out these new TWISTUP lipstick crayons! 

John Frieda & Garnier Fructis Haul!

This week, every single store in the area seems to be having a sale on hair care! Most of my favourite brands at either Shoppers Drug Mart or Loblaws are having great sales, mostly 50% off or greater! It just so happened that I am running low on a few products and was looking forward to stocking up anyways.

The first two products I got today are both from John Frieda. I have their Full Repair Protecting Root Lift Foam as well as the Secret Weapon Finishing Crème. I have tried additional products from both of these hair care lines and love them equally because they fulfill their promised results, and do that well for their drugstore price. Always get it on sale!

The second product I didn't plan on picking up, until I saw it was marked down from $6.99 to $2.99 and looked like a fairly good quality product, which is the Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine Frizz Control Deep Treatment. The Sleek & Shine line seems to have many similar products that all do virtually the same thing: tame frizzy hair and give it a healthy shine. I stood there comparing their products for quite some time, trying to take advantage of the sale! Admittedly, this was the priciest product there, with the greatest amount of product, so I have to say that definitely influenced my purchase decision!

Reviews to come soon! Can't wait to use these! Time to tame those frizzies!

Nailing It! Essie in Meet Me At Sunset

Summer is still in full swing (even though it's cloudy and the rain is brooding outside as I type this!) and what better way to get in a happy mood than to do your nails, right? Last night, I went with two of my friends to Shoppers Drug Mart and picked up these amazing Essie polishes and I just HAD to blog about them straight away! I'm only wearing one of them right now, but here's a picture of both of them! Pictured are, L to R, Angora Cardi and Meet Me At Sunset, both from Essie:

The one I'm currently wearing is Meet Me At Sunset. It was originally released with their Summer 2011 Braziliant collection, but I think it's made its way into their permanent line. Cute name aside, this polish is representative of the kind of colours I'm just recently getting into, such as corals and oranges. I don't really want to go full-on red with my nail colour, I'm not quite sure why! When I saw this orange-red creme, I gravitated towards it instantly. On my nails, it reminds me of the colour of a tomato and has a great, shiny finish. It only took me one coat of polish to achieve opacity, which means I save lots of time in application! It also dried the fastest of all the polishes I've ever tried, even compared to my other Essies!

I used one coat of Sally Hansen base+top coat, then one coat of Meet Me At Sunset, then a final layer of the same Sally Hansen top coat. It only took me 15 minutes to do these nails, and they were almost dry! I do recommend leaving them alone for at least half an hour afterwards, though, just to avoid ruining your fresh, new manicure!

I will definitely keep wearing this colour well into fall! After that, I think I will switch and try Angora Cardi! Loving my new Essies so far! :)

Review: Rimmel Natural Bronzer in Sun Light

It seems like forever since I've been in school...which it has! The last class I had was in March, which is all of practically half a year ago! Since then, I've just been working and enjoying summer as much as I can...and I don't plan on stopping, even when the weather gets cool again! Cue Rimmel's Natural Bronzer in Sun Light, which will continue to bring your cheeks that healthy flush of colour and accent your lovely (if perhaps nonexistent...this is my case!) contours! It looks great in photos and gives my face that precise depth without the shimmer that accompanies a lot of bronzing products these days.

Read on to find out why I love this product!

First of all, let me just put it out there that this is my VERY first bronzer! I got it after reading many positive reviews online, and let's face it, that embossed sun just looks so inviting! I like that the product also fits exactly inside my palm as I hold it, although I do agree with others that the packaging can be flimsy at times and could be improved. If it were a flip lid, that'd make it perfect! It is a matte shade that isn't too dark, so it can be layered darker in places to create shadows, such as next to the ear and hairline, up to the temples! It matches my skin well and doesn't look like I went into a tanning salon and completely lost track of time and toasted myself! The drugstore price and reliability of Rimmel cosmetics can't be beat! Hurray for a first-time purchase that paid off!

Makeup Hauls Galore!

Wow, lately I have been lemming over both products that I have looked over many times before, thinking about whether to buy them or not, as well as newer (to me, at least!) products that I am very excited about trying out. I hope many of them will become staples in my collection! (Can you believe I have never tried bronzer before? I used to be a bit skeptical because I didn't want to look overly tanned, yet I've learned how valuable bronzer can be in contouring and adding depth to the face!)

This is what I picked up at the mall today!

The first item isn't actually a purchase, but I picked it up at Sephora because I might buy this product in the future! It's a shade bookmark for Urban Decay's new NAKED Skin Foundation, and I checked in with the shade 5.0, right near the middle of their spectrum. I must have gotten darker this summer from all that commuting and walking about, because this is darker than usual for me!

From Sephora, I also got the benefit Watt's Up highlighter as a sample I redeemed from my 100-point perk choices. I was planning on saving points, as that's my natural habit, but I was actually swatching this earlier in store and I was really looking forward to buying it one day, when lo and behold, it was available as a pretty generous sample (2.5 grams!) Will look forward to using this to bring light to my tired face come school time!

What caught my eye in the ever-shrinking collection of tokidoki makeup is this lovely lip gloss that applies as sheer as clear can get, but adds a lot of shine: the Prisma Lip Gloss in Strawberry Latte! I've wanted this colour since a long time ago, and to finally get it to add the cute packaging to my collection (I'm rarely a sucker for packages...or so I think!) along with a great gloss is great! I love the blueberry scent to boot! 

From Wal-Mart, where getting makeup is a nightmare (behold the opened packages, scattered tubes, mismatched colours...you get my drift!) I managed to snag the last Rimmel Natural Bronzer in Sun Light, which is the one I've been looking at for a while. I am also planning on getting The Body Shop's Honey Bronzing Powder to compare, because I swatched that today and it was gorgeous on my skin! I hope this product will be a nice first matte bronzer for me, because I've heard this shade doesn't pack on too much colour for a bronzer. The fact that it was the last one made it feel extra special! There was seriously NOTHING left in the bronzer slots, just lots of loose powder. This was the only one left and with the safety seal tape intact, I didn't hesitate!

Finally...drumroll please, because I am about to present the most exciting item of all! Today I purchased a MAC Lipstick: See Sheer (Lustre) because I've been looking at it for the longest time and I've seen tons and tons of swatches of it. I tried it on myself today and it looks just simply gorgeous! Lustre finish lipsticks are one of my favourites because they have a sheen, but they're not overly frosty or shimmery and provide easily buildable colour that's great for any look! 

I will bring reviews of all these products slowly and surely! For now, I have a lot of products to work through, but if I see recommendations for new things, I am always on the lookout! (Note to self: Buy L'Oréal Caresse Sticks!)