Month: June 2015

Transition Eye Shadow Shades

~ stashy ~ 47 Comments

When I finally understood the concept of a transition eye shadow, it upped my eye shadow blending game by tenfold.  A transition eye shadow shade is one that is typically matte and slightly darker than your natural skin tone – this helps to blend the lid colour into the brow area. Most days now, I just pop on a shimmery neutral shade [taupe!] on the lid up to the crease, then I blend the edges with a transitional shade – something like this:
transitioneyeshadow2
My blending skills are better than my photoshop skills.

It looks like I spent a lot of time with my eye look but in fact, it took less than 5 minutes. I’ve depotted some of my most used transition colours into a small z-palette so I can have a range to choose from each morning:
transitioneyeshadow4
I would group my transition shades into neutral, warm and cool categories. I’m around NC25 so these would be suitable for skin tones that are similar.

Continue reading →

150 Day No-Buy and YDSMBSM

~ stashy ~ 46 Comments

Weird title for a post, huh.

Firstly: yay, it’s Day 150 of my No-Buy!  Only 186 more days to go… (for those of you who don’t know, I’m on a yearlong No-Buy, but I had to restart it in Jan because I broke my No-Buy with a Target haul.  My No-Buy ends on Dec 31st.)
nobuyachievement150days
Now, what does YDSMBSM mean?  It stands for:
You Don’t Save Money By Spending Money.

It’s something my frugal bf says to me in response to when I try to justify my latest purchase, “I got such a good deal on it, it was 50% off!”  To which he’d say, “You Don’t Save Money By Spending Money.  You still spent money to save that 50%.   If you didn’t buy it at all, then you would have saved 100%.”  Party pooper.  But he did have a point. 😛

Here’s a bunch of crap deals that I bought last year because I found them in the clearance section:
YDSMBSM2
What did I need an orange eye shadow for?  And a hot pink lipstick? I’ve NEVER EVER even worn that lipstick!

Continue reading →

Exfoliating cotton rounds

~ stashy ~ 34 Comments

The final day of “Radiant Skin” Week, I’m reviewing another type of exfoliation for the face: physical / manual exfoliation.  Any manipulation of the skin surface: rubbing, scratching (ouch!), massaging all have an exfoliating effect.  When combined with an abrasive object or product, the surface dead skin sloughs off, revealing softer more radiant skin.  Most people are familiar with face scrubs – usually a cream-based product embedded with grainy abrasive particles (alert: please do not buy any scrubs containing plastic microbeads [polyethylene]!  The microbeads get flushed down the sink and choke our wildlife! I learned about this from mirrorthelove – you can find out more information here)

My skin can’t tolerate too many scrubs – it gets irritated easily, according to my esthetician, I have “thin skin”? – so I tend to limit my usage of them.  I do however, enjoy a milder physical exfoliation using exfoliating cotton rounds:
exfoliatingcotton2
I went on the hunt for the Up&Up brand (Target’s private label) Exfoliating Cotton Rounds after watching an empties video by Missglamorazzi (Ingrid Nilsen!) in which she raved about it. I was intrigued because it looked like a more gentle way to exfoliate the face. And since finding it at Target, I haven’t looked back! This is hands down, my favourite way to physically exfoliate my skin on a weekly basis. My skin is left smooth and glowing after I use this (you may recall that I stocked up on these when Target Canada closed shop):
exfoliatingcotton3

Continue reading →

Face Highlighters

~ stashy ~ 48 Comments

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not an expert on highlighters. I hardly ever use the few that I own, and I have just the bare basics.  But I like the idea of highlighting – that luminous glow, the cliché “lit from within” appearance.  I feel that all the steps I’ve taken up to the point of a finished face (exfoliation, hydration) have helped to keep some natural radiance on my face so the extra step of applying a highlighter seems redundant.  But, like a good makeup addict that I am, I still dutifully purchased highlighters.  I chose 3 to share today:
highlighters3
• VS Makeup Illuminating Face Powder in All or Nothing
• theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer®
• Shiseido Luminizing Face Color in High Beam White WT905

Continue reading →

Facial mists

~ stashy ~ 55 Comments

Continuing with this week’s topic of “radiant skin”, today we’ll be talking about water.  To achieve radiant skin, It’s essential to keep the skin hydrated inside and out – and the easiest way of course, is water.

Yes, another zoolander reference. 😛
facialmists2
Yes, drinking water is good for starters – but beyond drinking 8 glasses of water blah blah blah, water in the form of facial mists can be used on your skin before, during and after applying skincare and makeup:
• Before: I spray a hydrating mist on my skin just before I apply my hyaluronic acid serum so that the hyaluronic acid has moisture to bind to.
• During: I will sometimes spray water onto my foundation brush to make my foundation more dewy.  If using a Beauty Blender type sponge, I use water to soak the sponge to make the application flawless.
• After: I spray a setting spray to reduce the powdery appearance of finishing powder, and also sometimes during the day I will mist my face with a spray to refresh my makeup

Continue reading →

Salux beauty skin cloth

~ stashy ~ 16 Comments

When someone touches my arm in passing and blurts out, “omg your SKIN, it’s SO soft!” I’m a bit embarrassed and surprised – I mean, I really have no frame of reference to the degree of skin softness on other people. This invariably leads to said person asking someone else to touch my skin to verify that it is indeed SO soft, which leads to petting time at the zoo…

I can’t pinpoint exactly why my skin is “SO soft” but I can attribute it to a few things:
•  Genetics 60%
•  Skincare products (soaps, shower gels, lotion, body butter) 25%
•  Salux cloth 15%

Salux2
What is this Salux cloth?  It’s like the cherry on the cake!

Continue reading →

Allergic to the “E” Challenge Tag

~ stashy ~ 23 Comments

This tag is so evil!

👿

I was tagged by R Cubed to do this – what is this, you ask?

Rules:

  1. Write a paragraph (sounds easy, right?) without any word containing the letter “e” (still easy?).
  2. By reading this, you are already signed up.
  3. Select at least 5 bloggers to do this challenge. They must complete it within 24 hours or else it is considered as failure.
  4. If you fail or pass, suffer in the Page of Lame.
  5. If you win, wallow in the Page of Fame.

And since I don’t want o be in the Page of Lame, here goes!

Continue reading →

Chemical exfoliants

~ stashy ~ 19 Comments

Since it’s officially summer, this week’s focus will be on “radiant skin” and I’ll be covering topics relating to achieving clear and glowy skin.  First, we’ll look at chemical exfoliants.

Don’t let the word “chemical” scare you, this is just to distinguish between the physical / manual type (scrubs, cloths, loofahs) and the ones that solely use non-abrasive ingredients to exfoliate the skin.
chemicalexfoliants2
The 2 key categories of chemical exfoliants are BHA (beta hydroxy acid) and AHA (alpha hydroxy acid).  A trick I use to help myself remember which is for what purpose is: BHA = blemishes, and AHA = anti-aging.  Typically, BHA works better for oily skin types whereas AHA benefit drier skin.

Continue reading →

It’s Summer Solstice, let’s talk about sunscreens

~ stashy ~ 23 Comments

Happy Summer Solstice!  Aka the longest day of the year, aka official first day of summer.  And I want to remind everyone to wear their sunscreen today, and every day! 🙂
sunscreens2
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ll know what I’m an advocate of sunscreen.  No other anti-aging skincare is as effective as sunscreen.

There are 2 general categories of sunscreens: 1) chemical and 2) physical (or sometimes referred to as mineral).  I personally prefer physical sunscreen (combinations of titanium dioxide [TiO2] and zinc oxide [ZnO]), for a number of reasons:
• much more photostable than chemical sunscreens
• less likely to cause skin reactions
• combined, TiO2 and ZnO covers the entire spectrum of UVB and UVA rays (and you want to protect well against both: UVB causes sunburns but UVA causes aging)

Continue reading →

Shiseido skincare reviews

~ stashy ~ 43 Comments

First, let me insert my usual disclaimer here that I’m no expert on skincare – I’m just a skincare enthusiast.  I’m also by no means a guru on all things Shiseido – there are just my experiences with these products.  I’ve been using skincare from this brand starting about 5 years ago.  I would categorize the brand as high-end but not luxury, with the skincare above the $50 price point and mostly below $100 each.  Shiseido is sold primarily through department stores and inside special beauty boutiques in some drugstores.  All of the products shown are made in Japan.  The line has some nice moisturizers and cleansers that I’ve repurchased – but like all brands, there are good and bad products within the range.
shiseido_skincare2
I thought I’d provide a quick overview of some of the products that I’ve tried.  I’ve categorized the items into Love, Like, and Loathe.

Continue reading →