Happy 1st day of February! Continuing with the next item in Project Focus 10, today we’ll look at the Nars Light Reflecting Loose Setting Powder:
This product retails for $44 for a 10g jar. In Canada, it’s available at Sephora, Hudson’s Bay or Holt Renfrew. I purchased mine from Sephora.
It was only a matter of time before I placed a Sephora order! Initially I was lured onto Sephora for the final day of the Double Points offer on skincare – I wanted to get the Clinique Moisture Surge Face Spray. But then a few other nagging bits from my Lemmings list urged me to get other things…
I just couldn’t wait until April for the VIB sale to get the Surratt Beauty – I had every intention to wait, but my resolve has been weakened by Hauluary. 😛
One thing I will say is, holy, there’s so much packaging with these items, this is what the above items look like removed from their cartons:
Even the eyeliner came in its own box – ridiculous!
New year, new collaboration! This is another brainchild of miss Ingrid (aka Curly.Spring.Blossom) who approached me with a 10 week long blog series called Project Focus 10. The idea of this series is to focus on beauty products to try to either use them up, or give them more attention:
• 10 weeks
• 10 beauty products we have never reviewed, that we want to focus on or hit pan
• 10 different product categories
There are 4 of us doing this collab so that means we’ll be showcasing 40 products! How awesome is that? 🙂
Today is the introduction to the 10 products! Mine are:
I saw this topic on Styled by Lauren so I wanted to do my own list too. Since so many of you are listing your Sephora VIB sale shopping lists, I’ll kind of join in with this post even though I won’t be partaking in the VIB sale this time around (*sob*). Next year I’ll be able to indulge in getting these items from brands I want to try more of:
Charlotte Tilbury
The obvious choice. Since this brand’s launch (and debut in Canada in June this year), it’s been a hot brand in the makeup world. I got my grubby little hands on a lipstick via a gift card for my birthday, and I’m itching to try more from the line, namely the Colour Chameleon eye shadow pencil in Dark Pearl, an eye shadow quad, and possibly a blusher.
Surratt Beauty
This brand launched at Sephora this year and I’ve been anxious to try something from it. The first thing I have to get my paws on is their Relevée Lash Curler. I’ve perused the displays and it appears that most of the products are made in Japan – the line does have a Japanese aesthetic to it. I want to try their Artistique Blushes and Eyeshadows – which all fit into custom palettes, I’m a sucker for custom palettes!
On this Labour Day holiday, I thought I would examine where in the world our cosmetics are made. It’s something that I always take note whenever I buy a product – I like to turn over the compact or box to find that fine print: made in xx / fabriqué au xx. For me personally, of the typical cosmetics producing countries, here’s how I rank them in terms of quality, from high to low: Disclaimer: this post in no way is a reflection of all qualities of products made in each country. I understand that there are high and low quality products made in every country. This is a generalized overview, and as such, there will be exceptions.
France – most notable for perfumes and skincare. Certain brands exclusively produce in France, staying true to their origin, such as Guerlain, Chanel, and Bourjois. I feel that these brands focus on controlling both the heritage and integrity of their products. There are also excellent pharmacy skincare brands like Nuxe, Avene and Bioderma – luckily in Canada we have easy access to these brands!
Interestingly, I noticed that my Benefit Boxed Powder Blush changed from “Made in USA” (in the shade Dallas) to “Made in France” (Hervana) and 4g less product!
This is the first time I’m posting a wish list type of entry, but I’ve chosen to title it “Lemmings” instead. The reason for this is because most, if not all, of my wish list items have been brought to my attention due to other people’s posts about them. The meaning of “Lemmings” is from a 90’s video game whereby the little creatures would all fall off a cliff if not guided properly – they simply follow the leader. Essentially, a lemming is when other people buy something, and you have to go buy it too…
Similar to when your mother used to say, “If everyone jumps off the London bridge, would you jump off too?” In the makeup world, the answer is YES.
Most people have maybe 1 or 2 foundations (perhaps a winter shade and one for summer), a couple of concealers (under eye dark circles vs covering blemishes), and a face powder. That’s normal. Why I have amassed this many foundations / powders / concealers (or as I call them, base products), I have no excuse for. I couldn’t even fit everything I own into one frame so here’s a portion of what I’ll be showing today:
I figure I would just lump all my base products including highlighters and bronzers into one post instead of them separating out.
Remember, this is a no judgement zone. 😉
I’ve never done a monthly favourites because I fear that my picks will become too repetitive month after month, since my favourites don’t change drastically. Maybe it won’t be a monthly affair but let’s see how it goes. Before I get to my July favourites, I just want to acknowledge that today is my 200 day of No-Buy (aside from my birthday purchases, which is completely pardoned in No-Buy-land) – yay:
Onto the July favourites:
I went to Sephora with the intention of picking up my “free” birthday present. And maybe if they had the Surratt Relevée Lash Curler, I would pick it up, cause, you know:
The Surratt curler wasn’t in stock but the “Hot Now” display was screaming out at me – they were featuring the new hakuho-do + Sephora Pro brushes with the red lacquered handles:
Continue reading
Here’s the motherlode. I’ve mentioned many times that I have a lot of eye shadows – over 600 – it is the most abundant makeup category that I own. I just love eye shadows and it’s the area of my face that I spend the most time applying makeup. I’ll keep this introduction brief and just let the pictures do the talking.
It took me over 2 hours just to sort and photograph the whole eye shadow collection and probably another 4 to edit everything. Usual disclaimer: this isn’t meant to show off. It was actually quite a beneficial exercise for me to display all my eye shadows visually. Warning: photo heavy post! (50 images)
stash matters 