Canadian beauty brands

~ stashy

Happy Canada Day! canadian-flag-banana

In honour of Canada Day, today I’ll showcase some Canadian brands and a few items I own from each.
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Lise Watier (Shoppers Drug Mart, online)
LW made her name firstly through her signature perfume, Neiges (which I don’t particularly care for) but has since branched out to colour cosmetics and skincare.  I’ve grown fond of her lipsticks, eye shadows, and concealer.

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Annabelle (drugstores, online)
A Montreal-based brand that offers high quality products at drugstore prices. I love their eye shadows and blushes – they’re very reminiscent of MAC. In terms of a comparable US brand, I would say this is similar to Revlon.

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Marcelle (drugstores, online)
This is the sister brand of Annabelle – this line is geared toward a more mature audience (but not OLD, ykwim?) Their eye shadows and face products are amazing. I would say this is most similar to Almay, but way less sucky.

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Cargo Cosmetics (Rexall, online)
My first Cargo product was their lipgloss in “Machu Picchu” (they name all their colours based on places around the world), housed in their iconic silver tin, and it contained 2 colours inside. I have since moved onto their glorious blushes – one of my top 3 blush formulas of all time. Their eye shadows are also fabulous, and their blue_ray pressed powder is HG for me.  This is now a global brand; within Canada, the brand has been tossed around in terms of availability – it used to be sold at Sephora and Sears, but now it’s only at Rexall – or online.

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Vasanti (drugstores, online)
This brand focuses on foundation colours that are geared toward all skin tone ranges. Their Eye Wonder under eye cream is a bestseller which is on my wish list. I absolutely love their tinted lipsticks, and their Brighten Up exfoliator is one of my favourites.  This brand is becoming more readily available and I want to try more products from them.

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Cake Beauty (Sephora, specialty stores, online)
This is a skincare company that’s primarily famous for their sweet smelling hand cream. Their loose dry shampoo is one of my favourites since there’s a tinted option for brunettes.

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Quo (Shoppers Drug Mart, online)
This is the private label of our largest drugstore chain, and the early buzz on Quo was all about their buttery smooth powder eye shadows. It’s true, back then I’ve never felt any eye shadow as buttery as Quo’s. The quality has diminished somewhat over time (or have other brands improved their quality? Not sure) but I still do enjoy their products. Their brushes are quite good too.

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Joe Fresh Beauty (Joe Fresh stores, Loblaws)
From the same founder of Club Monaco, Joe Fresh is an accessible, fun brand with chic clean simple look (I think of it as Canadian Gap).  Currently sold at Loblaws grocery stores and some standalone Joe Fresh locations, but starting in 2016, it will be available at Shoppers Drug Mart (since Loblaws bought Shoppers).  I haven’t bought too much from this brand yet since the displays are always picked over, but I look forward to when it will be available at Shoppers which has a much wider distribution.

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NeoStrata | Reversa | Consonant Skincare
I’m just beginning to appreciate some homegrown skincare brands. I’ve enjoyed the items I’ve tried from each of these brands and I plan to try more!

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BITE Beauty (Sephora)
This brand took the beauty brand by storm when they launched at Sephora, even though it’s a fairly niche Canadian brand. They only do one thing: lip products. But boy, do they do it well! They use food grade ingredients so when I invariably consume some of my lipstick, it’s not a concern.  I only have a few BITE products but I want more.

Honourable mention:
MAC Cosmetics (MAC stores, The Bay, online)
Did you know that MAC started out as a Canadian brand? That’s right, it was started right here in Toronto!  It was sold to Estée Lauder in 1998 and they haven’t looked back since. It’s now a global brand but I’m not sure if everyone knows about its humble beginnings. It’s so famous, I don’t even need to include a picture! 😛

Any Canadian brands I’ve missed?  What are your favourite Canadian beauty brands?

56 thoughts on “Canadian beauty brands”

  1. I have only tried MAC out of any of these brands but I hear awesome things about these ones lately. I would love to try Lise Watier and I have a sample of the Marcelle BB Cream that I have yet to try. Happy Canada Day! 🙂 xo

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    1. Thank you! Yes Lise Watier is an amazing brand – I wish it was more accessible. I know they started shipping in the US since I’ve seen American bloggers talk about it. I hope you like that Marcelle BB cream! 🙂

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      1. You’re welcome! I haven’t quite gotten around to trying the BB Cream yet but will do soon! I should have used it today before I ventured out into the heat lol. 🙂

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      1. I don’t know most of these brands so any review would be nice but I’m interested in Bite, I’ve read great things about their products 😉

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    1. Thank you! 🙂 I’ve never tried Faces but I am always curious about their products when I walk by their kiosks in the malls. I read that their Metaliglow makes a really nice eye lid primer.

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  5. I didn’t know Cargo was a Canadian brand! The blu-ray powder was one of the first things I bought when I worked at Macy’s. I’m actually not sure if Cargo is sold in stores at Macy’s anymore…

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  6. I have a Lise Watier eye shadow quad and some lip liners from Annabelle that my lovely mum was kind enough to pick up for me on a trip to Canada last year. Would definitely love to try more from the brands as well as from Vasanti and Cake Beauty. 🙂 HAPPY CANADA DAY, sweetie! xo

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  7. I’ve been so hesitant to try Annabelle ( I may have owned an eyeliner way back in my middle school days), but I didn’t realize the quality was actually decent! And I’ve never seen this Vasanti brand anywhere here in BC before!

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  8. Who knew about MAC? That’s pretty cool! I’ve never tried any other brands here, but I’ve heard that Cargo powder is pretty awesome!

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      1. I’m obsessed with their monthly Lip Lab release. I just received their newest shade, Snapdragon. It’s sooooo pretty!! Hooray!
        Have you tried any of the monthly Lip Lab releases?

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  12. This is awesome to know so I can go to a drugstore when I’m in Montreal and buy some Canadian makeup goodies! I tried looking it up online but I didn’t really find much so I’m definitely going to check back on this when I go to Canada

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    1. Yes, you can definitely use this as a reference guide! I do that too when I’m travelling to help me stay FOCUSED, lol. I usually get so overwhelmed and distracted when I’m confronted by a wall of makeup, lol.

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        1. When are you planning on going to Montreal? I can do more thorough brand reviews of individual brands if you have any particular ones you’re more interested in! 🙂

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    1. Yes, lots of people aren’t aware Cargo is Canadian. I even applied for a summer job there once (didn’t get it, poop!) I’m actually wearing that Quo palette today! The quality is superb! The compact is very high end looking too. 😀

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    1. I’ve been wanting to try more from NeoStrata – what have you used that you loved?

      PS. It’s so fun to receive a random message on an older post – how did you stumble on this post that I made back in 2015? 😉

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