Canada Day Nails!

I thought I would share my nails of the week with you! My sister is up visiting me, and she came up with a really neat idea to do Canada Day themed nails. They turned out really cute and were so simple!

Items she used:

• Pink Armor Nail Gel
• Recollections Extra Fine Glitter in the colour Garnet
• Kiss Nail Art Paint in 02 White
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Nail Polish in Red Carpet
• Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Nail Polish in 110 Clear'd For Takeoff
• Parchment Paper
• Maple Leaf Hole Punch

First off she took a small square of parchment paper and poured some of the red nail polish in an even circle on to it, and let it dry over night. Then she peeled off the dry nail polish from the paper and carefully punched out the maple leaf shapes using the hole punch. 

Then she applied the Pink Armor Nail Gel as a base coat and let it dry. Next she applied a second coat to each nail one at a time and carefully dipped the wet nail  into the glitter. She then carefully blew off the excess and let those dry. 

To apply the maple leaf, she first painted the accent nail white and let it dry completely. Then placed the maple leaf on the nail in the desired position and painted over the entire nail with the Pink Armor Nail Gel. 

After the nails were dry, she applied 2 layers of the Clear Nail Polish and that's it!

I loved how they came out!

That's all for now!

I hope all the Canadians out there have a wonderful Canada Day!

Until next time lovelies!

xoxoxo

New Essence Cosmetics Goodies!

Hello lovelies! I just wanted to share some of the new makeup goodies I picked up recently! I bought 4 makeup items and 2 nail polishes from Essence. I have said before that Essence is slowly becoming my favourite affordable makeup brand and that definitely hasn't changed! Every thing that I've bought from their brand has been exceptional and you can't go wrong with their prices! Perhaps one day I'll own everything ha ha! Any way on to the goodies!

• Colour and Go Nail Polish in 105 Party Princess
• Colour and Go Nail Polish in 147 Miss Universe
• All About Matt! Fixing Compact Powder
• Sun Club All in One Bronzing Highlighter for Blondes/Lighter Skin
• Stay Matt Lip Cream in 01 Velvet Rose
• I Heart Extreme Volume Mascara

Party Princess is on the right and Miss Universe is on the right.

This is a translucent finishing/fixing powder and it's made for all skin tones. There is some shimmer in it, but I haven't noticed it on my face. I used this to set my foundation and also to blend in my bronzer and blush, it works really well and doesn't fade them out.

I LOVE the Sun Club Bronzer that I have by Essence, so I am really excited to try out this highlighter and bronzer combination.

This lip cream is such a pretty pinky nude colour.

I am LOVING this mascara! I used 2 coats on each eye and my lashes POPPED! 

Bronzer and highlighter powder. I tried to swatch all the colours, I don't think it worked too well ha ha! 

The lip cream, it looks almost coral to me...

That's all for now!

Have you picked up any goodies recently??

xoxoxo

New Subscription! (Top Box)

I've been looking around for a while, trying to decide which subscription service I should get next and I thought I'd give Top Box a go. I was on the waiting list since March I think? I was pretty excited to try it out, because it looked like they sent out good sized sample items and had a good selection of brands. Another thing that appealed to me was the fact that this is a subscription service made for Canadians! They started up in 2011 and are located here in Toronto, which I was excited about, because some of the other services out there (like Birch Box and Glossy Box just to name a few.. [although Glossy Box had a Canadian service, they don't any longer.]) don't ship to Canada and this is exclusively for Canada. It's unfortunate that there aren't more beauty services and things available for Canadians, I've been here for just over 7 years and I've noticed how many things that we have back in the states are not available up here.. Also makeup is so much more expensive... Anyway I received my first box today and while I love the concept and the packaging, I was less than impressed with the items I was given. I paid $12 CAD plus tax for this subscription, (which you only get 4 samples) and I pay about $14 or so for Ipsy (I usually always get 5 decent sized items) and the difference feels like night and day. Top Box claims to give "deluxe" sample sizes, but I hardly feel a 3 ml sun screen that looks half empty is a deluxe sample. I'm going to give Top Box another month and after that we'll see where I go from there. I am interested in the limited edition boxes they offer, I may buy one of them (they go for about $40 each) and make a post about it at a later date. We'll see...


Here's what I got this month:

• BH Cosmetics California Palette Eyeshadow Trio 
• La Roche- Posay SPF 60 Sun Sensitive Skin Cream
• Benefit Posie Balm tinted lip balm
• Professional Kinetics Nail Colors in Top of the Wave

That's all for now lovelies!

If you are subscribed to Top Box let me know what you think about it!

xoxoxo

My June Ipsy Glam Bag!

Hello again! I feel like it's been too long since my last post.. My apologies, life has been crazy busy lately and I feel like things are finally starting to fall into place! I got my bag yesterday, but I hardly touched it because I was out running around doing things all day. I was pretty happy with my items this month and I just love the design of this bag! (It was created as a collaboration by Ipsy and fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff and it's just so summery!) The June theme is Pretty in Paradise. As always you can check Ipsy out here.

Without further adieu, here are the items I received this month!

• Be a Bombshell Lash Out Mascara
• Marc Anthony Dream Waves Beach Spray
• NYX Butter Gloss in Eclair
• Jesse's Girl Waterproof Liquid Eye Liner
• Olehenriksen Truth to go Wipes

This is the only product I've tried so far and I LOVE IT! Everyone who raves about these glosses are so on point! This gloss is so creamy and not sticky at all, it lasted on my lips for a couple hours and it smells like cupcakes! I need them all! ha ha!

On the left is the Butter Gloss and on the right is the liquid eye liner.

That's all for now lovelies!

What was your favourite item this month?

xoxoxo

Favourites Of The Month! (Part Two[May 2014])

Welcome back and as always here's part two of the list:

• Clothes
• App
• Book
• Game
• Hair Style
• Activity
• Movie
• Coffee/Tea
• Accessories
• Miscellaneous

Clothes:

I found myself reaching for basic v-neck tops and flow-y type tanks in May. Nothing too special, but with the weather heating up they are essential and an easy choice.

App:

My favourite App for May had to have been the Next Issue app. This app is for the US and Canada only as far as I can tell, which is unfortunate because it's a pretty awesome app! Next Issue is an app that lets you read hundreds of magazines all from your i-device! At $9.99 CAD a month it's definitely a steal considering how expensive subscriptions to single publications cost. You can try it free for 30 days and if you decide it's not for you, then you can cancel your subscription. I'm LOVING it! I had magazines piling up in my house and every month I'd have a new stack to read through, (at one point I had a few months worth and it was getting out of hand and making me really stressed out) now I can read them all from my i-Pad and not have to worry about any clutter!

Book:

My favourite book is similar to my last book favourite, it's the third book in the Women's Murder Club Series by James Patterson. I can't seem to put these books down! Just when you think you've figured the entire case out, there's a plot twist! I really recommend this series to anyone who likes cop drama/thriller/mystery type books.

Game:

My favourite game might look like the same as a previous favourite, but it's actually a different game. (they're just on the same disc) I sort of put down Final Fantasy X for the time being.. (there are some last side quest type of things I need to do before I beat the game, but they were REALLY starting to frustrate, me so I had to back away for a while ha ha) I decided I might as well start up Final Fantasy X-2 in the mean time. I've always leaned more towards X-2 for some reason, it's more upbeat and fun, not to say that I don't love X, because I definitely do! X-2 takes place a few years after X, and Yuna after saving the world decides that she wants to take on her own adventure and becomes a sphere hunter in hopes of finding clues about Tidus. There are new dress spheres and abilities in the HD Remaster version and I still can't get over the amazing graphics!

Hair Style:

My hair is at the point where I just want it up and out of the way, but I'm still on the fence about cutting it... If it didn't tangle at the slightest movement I would never even think about cutting it all off. Anyway, my go to hair style has just been any type of bun/topknot so its out of my way but still looking decent.

Activity:

I haven't done anything super exciting or really noteworthy in May, (in my opinion at least) I've gone out and I've been shopping and all of that sort of stuff, but my favourite thing was just driving around. I love having the windows rolled down and some loud upbeat music playing all while the sun is shinning. Nothing really beats that, it makes for the perfect beginning to summer!

Movie:

I've been wanting to watch The Call ever since I saw the preview for it, unfortunately I don't go to the movies very often these days... It finally came out on OnDemand so my hubby and I decided to watch it at home. I really loved it! It's about a 911 dispatcher who gets a call from a girl about someone trying to break into her house, the guy kidnaps the girl and her body is later found. A while later another girl calls and says she's been kidnapped and the dispatcher is the same person who took the previous call. She tries frantically to save this girl from a similar fate and I have to say, Halle Berry is amazing in this movie and she really kicks some ass! It was a really good movie and I definitely recommend it!

Coffee/Tea:

I was sick around the beginning of May I believe and so I was drinking mostly Earl Grey tea. After I got over my cold, I decided to continue drinking tea instead of coffee. I'm not really sure why, I kind of just felt like tea rather than coffee. I've also been drinking Iced Passion Tea from Starbucks more recently, it's one of my favourites for summer.

Accessories:

Just a couple of my favourite earrings.

Miscellaneous:

My random favourite is my Brita water bottle. I've really been up-ing my water intake and it's was causing a ton of recycling and drinking from plastic water bottles isn't the best and blah blah blah. I was at Target one day and I randomly went down the aisle with the Brita filters and water pitchers. There's not much space in our fridge for a pitcher or container, so I decided to try out a water bottle. It has it's own filter in the straw and it filters your water as you drink. I've really been loving it and I'm a little disappointed that I didn't think about getting something like this sooner. The one I got cost me about $17, but it's well worth it and has paid for its self long ago. Now I can just fill my bottle up from the tap, no recycling, no chemicals and everything gets filtered out.

That concludes my favourites from the month of May!

What were some of your favourite things?

xoxoxo

Favourites Of The Month! (Part One [May 2014])

I can't believe it's finally June! For me the month of May seemed to drag out, but I think that's because I'm so stoked for the Summer! I've got a few fun activities planned, so I definitely can't wait to get things in gear!
Let's jump into my favourites for the month of May!

As usual here's part one of the list:

• Songs
• TV Show
• Food/Snack
• Makeup
• Perfume
• Body 
• Hair
• Nail Polish
• Shoes

Songs:
I haven't been listening to any particular songs in May, but I have been listening to a few bands more so than others:

• Red
• Chevelle
• Egypt Central
• Skillet

TV Show:

I don't really watch much regular television any more.. If I watch TV, it's usually a DVD or something from Netflix. During May I've been re-watching Roseanne on DVD. I grew up watching this show and I always liked it, because it's really different from the other sitcoms on TV. Usually you see a wealthy family with a big house and all that jazz, There are some out there twists especially more towards the end of the series, but mostly Roseanne was about an average family (The Conners) and their day to day lives, just trying to raise their children and make ends meet in a blue collar town. They're also funny and dysfunctional but they really love each other and on some level I can totally relate to them. I've probably seen every episode a million times, but it never gets old to me.

Food/Snack:
I've been on a more healthy kick lately, as far as snacks go anyway ha ha! I've been loving raw veggies, I'll have carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, and bell peppers as a daily snack. I've also been into apples, oranges and bananas. 

Makeup:

I wanted to venture back into Bronzers especially because its almost summer time, so I decided to try out some of the ones I already have again. I am loving the Essence Sun Club Bronzing Powder for blondes/lighter skin! It's a matt powder, so if you don't like shimmer or have acne prone skin this is for you. I've also been loving the BH Cosmetics Bombshell Bronze bronzer in Starlet. This one does have shimmer in it, which I don't mind at all. Both of these bronzers are the perfect shade for my fair complexion and I don't look muddy or orange. They're super affordable and you get a ton of product. The Essence bronzer smells like coconut, but I haven't noticed any scent when I apply it or while I'm wearing it. The Bombshell Bronze bronzer has no scent. I like that both are build-able and blend amazingly! I feel like both give me a nice sun kissed look. 

I haven't really been exploring much in the way of lip products, I was really into this ELF Lipstick in Classy though. It's a pretty berry colour and it smells like candy! It's smooth and creamy and lasts a decent amount of time before I need to reapply. I like the bright pop of colour this gives me, and I feel like it's a good lip pick all year round. I guess I've been on a berry kick, because my favourite lip gloss for May was also a berry colour. The lipgloss I've been into is by Essence, its the XXXL Shine lipgloss in True love. This also smells like candy ha ha. These lip glosses are awesome, they are so rich and pigmented, they glide on and aren't sticky at all.

I've only used the eyeshadows from the BH Cosmetics San Francisco palette so far, and I love them! They're a mix of dark smokey colours and cooler colours, all of which remind me of the Bay for sure. This palette has a combination of shimmer and matt colours that range from browns to purples to blues and greens. Definitely a great colour palette that compliments my blue eyes.

Last is the Daisy blush duo by BH Cosmetics, I've been using this in place of my Guava blush from The Body Shop and I don't think I like this one better, but it's definitely a close second. It's a lovely almost coral pink colour. I don't use the other colour in this duo, there's no real reason as to why not, I just prefer the pink on it's own. The pink side has no shimmer, and it's a cheerful pop of pink that compliments my bronzer and it blends effortlessly. It wears all day without any fading, not to mention how affordable it is which is definitely a plus! 

Bronzers and blush

Lipstick and lip gloss

Eyeshadows

Perfume:

When it comes to the warmer months I'm definitely into the more fruity scents. I've talked about these before, they are two of my favourite summer time scents. Sweet and Flirty from the Pink line I feel has more of a floral kick to it than Pure Seduction, but the floral and fruity combine so nicely and give off a really light and yummy smell.

Body:

I hauled the pomegranate cleanser and toner in my last post, but I've been using them for about 2 weeks now and I am definitely loving them! They make my skin feel so soft and so clean! I was amazed the first time I used the toner and saw dirt on the cotton round after I was done using it, I always thought that my makeup wipes got everything off but I was wrong. My skin is looking much nicer these days ha ha! Since it's just about time for summer, I needed to break out the sunscreen again! (I usually use a moisturizer with SPF in it during the other seasons.) My favourite body sunscreen is the Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration Sunscreen in SPF 30, what I love about this sunscreen besides the protection aspects, is the scent! It smells so tropical and lovely, not like sunscreen at all and it not only keeps my skin feeling super soft and hydrated but the scent lasts all day too! I wanted a separate sunscreen for my face, because I really don't like using the regular ones... They tend to feel really greasy.. Also I wanted something with more SPF since the skin on the face is more delicate than the rest of the body. I picked up this Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Face Sunscreen with SPF 45. It has a subtle scent, it's very light weight, isn't greasy feeling, it also dries quickly and makes my skin feel soft. This sunscreen has UVA/UVB protection, is non-comedogenic, is oil free and is photo stable. I love it so far, but I'm thinking of getting a spray version to apply over makeup because you have to reapply sunscreen at least every 2 hours, more if you're sweating, swimming, etc. 

Hair:

These have been my go to products for a good while now, and since the weather is heating up and because we get a LOT of humidity here in Toronto, I need some heavy duty moisture rich hair products to keep my hair from turning into a giant frizz ball! This L'oreal Total Repair 5 Hair Mask is by far the best deep conditioner that I've tried to date! I'll try other conditioners, but I will always come back to this one! This conditioner paired with the Organix Coconut Oil spray really helps to tame the frizz and keeps my hair feeling soft and hydrated. I generally use the oil on my dry hair when it's feeling a little rough, I haven't used it on wet hair yet, so I can't attest to how well it works, because I like to use my Organix Coconut Milk Serum on wet hair.

Nail Polish:

With summer quickly approaching, I have been lusting after super bright and neon colours! I hauled one of these nail polishes in my last post, but I've had it since April. It's called Crazy Love by Pure Ice and is a metallic sort of fuchsia pink. It gives off a really glossy finish and it's super bright! I've really been loving it this month and last. The other one I've been loving is 109 Off to Miami! by Essence. I really like coral in general, but I really feel like it makes for the perfect summer colour! This is definitely a neon type coral and it has more hints of orange than pink. Both of these nail polishes last me nearly a week and they glide on so smoothly, I can also get away with just a single coat if I wanted. 

Shoes:

I've been loving flats and more recently flip flops! Yey for the warmer weather! These grey and black plaid print flats have been my favourites this month.

That's part one of my May favourites!

Stay tuned for part 2!

xoxoxo