Birthday Swap with Joyce, my Birthday Twin!

~ stashy

It’s NOT my birthday yet, but neither Joyce nor myself could wait to post this, so we’re showing our swap a week and one day before our actual birthdays. 😉 Yes, Joyce of Local Girl Foreign Land and I share a birthday!  It’s next Tuesday July 11th! 😀  Here’s a glimpse at what Joyce sent:

😍 I’m so excited to dig into everything! Let’s have a closer look:

Firstly, this idea was drummed up back in February – I had this crazy idea for the two of us to swap / gift each other birthday presents – this gave us five full months to plan! 😀  Joyce lives in Paris, France while I live in Toronto, Canada so this was an opportunity for us to try out items that may not otherwise be readily available locally.  I sent my usual list of questions to her to gauge what type of items she would like to receive, and I also provided her my responses. What’s challenging with French brands is that many of them are available in Canada already!  But Joyce managed to score new-to-me items:

• Diadermine Lift+ Hydratant Jour Cream
• Diadermine PH5 Hydratant Protecteur Soin de Jour
Both of these are day creams but one contains SPF (but it doesn’t indicate what factor).  I’ve never heard of this brand before until Joyce alerted me of it!  The packaging reminds me a bit of L’Oreal. I can’t wait to try them. 😀

• Monoprix Masque Auto-Chauffant
• Monoprix Masque Hydratant
That purple mask translated to “auto heat up mask”! I haven’t used one of those heat up masks in years – they’re so fun. I noted that these are both “Fabriqué Au Corée du Sud” (made in South Korea, which is interesting they needed to distinguish that… I mean, have you ever come across anything exported from North Korea?!)  Monoprix is a French department store (I think similar to Mark & Spencers where they sell clothing, food and household items) and this is their own brand of skincare.

• Le Petit Marseillais Deodorant Bille Extra Doux Lait de Vanille
• Le Petit Marseillais Lip Balm Nourrissant
• Le Petit Marseillais Savon 72% Extra Pur à L’huile D’olive
Interesting about this brand – prior to a couple of months ago, I had not heard of it but I started seeing the body washes appearing on shelves here and then blogs started to showcase them (see my pal Maria of BestDayBlogger’s post here). So far, we only have the body washes available here which is a limited offering of Le Petit Marseillais’ full line up. I’m very excited to try them all!

• Secrets de Provence Shampoing Solide
• Melvita 3 Honey Nectar Balm
A solid shampoo! I’ve only ever tried LUSH’s Godiva Shampoo bar, which I quite liked. I’m looking forward to trying this! And Melvita is a brand that I’ve heard a lot about – they do have a Canadian website but I wished I could play and test the products in person before committing. I’m a lip balm addict so I welcome this to my stash – this would make a great nighttime balm, methinks.

• A313 (Avibon) Vitamin A Cream
I specifically asked for this item! I had googled “French pharmacy must haves” and came across this article – most of the items shown on the list are readily available in Canadian drugstores, but I’d never heard of Avibon before but there were reams of reviews on how effective it is (made famous by Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP apparently). Vitamin A is also known as retinol – fingers crossed that my skin will like this!

It’s so strange that all the labeling are solely in French – being in Canada, we’re used to seeing both French on packaging, alongside English.  I found myself turning the boxes over to see the English side but there are none! 😛

• Sleek Highlighting Palette in Cleopatra’s Kiss
Remember when Joyce was my guest writer and reviewed the Solstice version of this palette? I’ve had my eye on this ever since!

• Kiko Long Lasting Eyeshadow Stick in 05 Rosy Brown and 38 Golden Taupe
• Kiko Water Eyeshadow in 228 Taupe and 219 Flamingo Pink
Ever since getting a taste of Kiko cosmetics, I’ve been pining for more.  I heard about the Long Lasting Eyeshadow Sticks from Maaike over at Floating in Dreams and I had to try them! My ultimate weakness are eye makeup products and I’m itching to slap all of these onto my eyeballs right now! 😀

• L’oreal Nude Magique Cushion Foundation in 03 Vanilla (EU version)
• Byterry Precision Waterproof Khol 15
Haha, I laughed so hard when I found the L’Oreal Lumi Cushion Foundation in the parcel! Here’s what Joyce said, “because you hate it 😛 I really want you to try this though…” 😆 If you don’t know, I did a whole rant on cushion compacts. And now I count THREE cushion compacts in my collection – including the Physicians Formula one I recently received – how did this happen?! 😮 But, I will try this L’Oreal one – apparently the EU version is different! (the North American version is called True Match Lumi and the casing is gold) Joyce included the ByTerry eyeliner as an extra. 🙂

• Etude House Slim Air Puff
• Etude House Double Lasting foundation in Vanilla, Petal, and Beige
• Etude House Face Blur SPF33 PA++
• Primavista Long Keep Base UV
More extras!  The Air Puff is to use with my cushion compacts. 😛 The Etude House foundation sample is to see if I’ll like it since I wrote about wanting to try it here.  And that Primavista primer is one that she recommended to me but I could not get in Japan because it was sold out everywhere! She also included the cute “My Little Box” drawstring pouch for me! Joyce does an unboxing of all of her MLB on a monthly basis here.

• La Mere Poulard Sables biscuits
• Franprix Pralines aux Amandes Extra
Sweet snacks! I am so proud of myself that I haven’t dug into these yet. I’m attempting to wait until my actual birthday to open them…

All the loot:

Funny story: Joyce’s parcel arrived to me about a week earlier than mine to her, so I waited patiently… I did not open the box until mine arrived to her! Joyce messaged me as soon as she received my parcel and we did a LIVE unboxing together! We sent little videos back and forth to each other, hehe. Want to see what I sent to Joyce? Head over to her blog here for the details!  Also, get to know Joyce here, she was a guest on Cat’s podcast back in March. 😀 You can’t imagine how excited I am to try everything! Thank you Joyce!!!

Have you tried any of the items I received?

76 thoughts on “Birthday Swap with Joyce, my Birthday Twin!”

  4. Aaw this is such a fun idea! The heat up face masks look great. The Mevita lip balm sounds lovely as a night balm too. I’ve not tried any of the skincare, but we get L’Oreal, Kiko etc over here and Sleek highlighters are great. Very pigmented. Xx

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  9. Ops, I’m late to the party~~~ I am not the first to comment 😦 I have visitors in town. Running around all day~~~

    YEY!!! I am so excited that you like the items~~~ 😀 That Melvita 3 honey balm, they have “3 rose” as well. Between these 2, they’re like the iconic product from their house. They’re also quite popular over here with their roll on essential oil sort of skin care.

    So glad that you’ve spotted the “made in South Korea” thing. Actually most of the packet sort of masks over here are made in South Korea or China. Couldn’t find anything, so I thought I’d send you a local French brand 😀

    The regular slogan for L’oreal rhymes with my reason. I should get bonus points for my poetic-ness 😛

    I still feel shameful and feel that your selection of goodies is so superior!!! I do have to blame that so many of our brands over here is already in Canada!!!

    Your stripe bag has inspired me to send you something very Parisian…

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    1. I wasn’t the first to comment on yours either but I blame the time difference! 😉
      Haha re: L’Oreal slogan. 😆
      Oh you stop being sily about superior selection. I don’t think that’s the case at all! Oooh there is a part 2 of this swap? No one told me! 😛

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  10. That’s so cool. Advance happy birthday to you both! ❤ I looooove the The Ordinary items that you sent her. Haha. This seem like such a fun idea. Enjoy your new goodies 🙂

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    2. I should mention that I went to The Ordinary store and bought those items for her and DIDN’T BUY ANYTHING FOR MYSELF because I was still on No-Buy! * Pats self on the back *

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  11. hehe Mine is on the 9th so Happy Birthday to Joyce both of us 😉 We are the July babies ❤
    By the way, I thought she give you a donut XD I was curious why there is a shower lady on the donut package XD

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    1. Ooh another Cancer baby! 🙂 Yay! Any plans for your birthday?
      Haha that shampoo solid is donut shaped so it’s meant to be hanging for it to dry thoroughly! 😛

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  13. Happy pre-birthday to you!
    Ahh such great items, I love the Kiko water shadows (be careful though they crumble easily), and also the shadow sticks.
    Interesting about that A313 cream, I’ve never heard of it either, don’t think it’s available here – I’m gonna look it up now!
    Looking forward to seeing your thoughts on everything, I’m hoping as well as Canada we may be able to take a trip to Paris next year if we can find some flights/eurostar at a reasonable price, it’s so expensive considering it’s just 2 hours away!

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    1. Thanks!
      Good to know about the water shadows. I thought they would be similar to the MAC Extra Dimension shadows – looking forward to seeing how they compare.
      The A313 cream used to be called Avibon – keep an eye out for either of those names.
      Isn’t going to Paris like a skip and a hop for you?! 😛 Like going to the next town over. It takes us 2 hours to fly to the next province!

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  17. I have one of the Kiko water eyeshadows and love it! Anytime I have a chance to shop at Kiko I pick up some of their products and keep falling in love! And they’re just pretty to look at 😊 happy early birthday!

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  18. Oh gosh! I feel like when I go to France I’m going to be so overwhelmed with all the sweets and beauty products! These are some cool things! I always get disappointed when I flip over Asian products/snacks and expect to see the English translation next to it and there aren’t any lol!

    I won’t have internet on your birthday (yay moving day!) so HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY!

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    1. Definitely go to Paris armed with a shopping list or else it will be overwhelming! There are loads of must-have French beauty lists online – you can’t go wrong with a few pharmacy favarouites! 🙂 When we went to Japan, we downloaded the Google Translate app so we could tell what we were -potentially- eating!
      Good luck with your move!! 🙂

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      1. Thank you! And oh my gosh my boyfriend wants to go to Japan and all I’m thinking about is ALL THAT SUSHI AND UDON but it would help to know what we’re looking at lol!

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  20. This is such a cute swap idea! Happy early birthday to you both! The Sleek highlighting palette looks so beautiful. The KIKO shades are so you except Flamingo Pink, I’m excited to see swatches of that! The little extras and gift bag are adorable – everyone always includes little extras the other recipient doesn’t know about 😉

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    1. Thank you Chanelle! 🙂
      The Flamingo Pink shade is a little bit out of my comfort zone but I really love how bright it is! If anything, I could possibly use it as a blush?
      The extras are so special and thoughtful! 😀

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  21. Such an awesome beauty box swap! I don’t know over half of the goodies, so this is really interesting but I guess that’s the whole point of the swap. 😂 We have a Kiko store here, and I have heard good things about their eyeshadow sticks but have yet to try.

    Let me know how you feel about the L’Oreal cushion…cos personally I didn’t like it but for some time, it was quite the rave here in the UK.

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    1. Will definitely try out that L’Oreal Cushion and report back. Although Joyce did advise it is probably better suited for cooler months so it might not be until Autumn that I try it!
      I love trying different beauty products from around the world! So fun. 🙂

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  23. Awesome stuff!
    You’re showered with cushion products, aren’t you?

    Btw, I was sure your birthday was tomoz, but it seems like I remembered it wrong. But I won’t forget it from now on because you share the same birthday with two cool tennis players – Caro Wozniacki and Mona Barthel!

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    1. I feel like my rant on cushion products was an open invitation to prove me wrong. 😛
      Oooh I had no idea I had so many birthday twins! 😀 The other way to remember it is that it’s the eleventh day of seventh month. If mixed up, then we can celebrate Nov 7th! 😆

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    1. I keep eyeing the Le Petit Marseillais shower gel in peach – I’ve smelled it so many times but haven’t bought it because I have so many unopened shower gels in my stash…

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  28. Awesome Birthday score!! You know I love the little treats. I’ve never tried a cushion compact and probably never will but I would love to know what you think of it.
    What a great idea, I need a birthday buddy…..9/3 anyone? Haha

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