August Top Box!

I am so impressed again with Top Box! I'm LOVING everything I received for August! If you're looking for a good Canadian based subscription box, I definitely suggest checking out Top Box. It's $12 CAD a month, with free shipping. They offer specialty boxes in addition to their monthly boxes that you can purchase separately. I've bought 2 specialty boxes in the past and I loved them! You get a mix of full sized items and travel size, and the price you pay is a steal compared to the actual value of the box. They are offering a Chatelaine box right now for $19 CAD you get 8 items plus a 12 month free subscription to Chatelaine magazine, and the box ships for free. (check it out here) You also have the option to pick different boxes every month. I've swapped out my regular box for others a few times, and you have the option every month to set a wish list and choose from different boxes, if you don't like any of the options you can always choose to have the regular box sent to you. I'm overall very happy with this subscription service, they are always offering different brands, and more often than not, you get high end samples. 

My August Items:

• Kerastase Elixir Ultime Oleo-Complexe
• Vivierskin C E Peptides
• Orlane Paris Vitality Radiance Mask
• NYX Cosmetics Butter Gloss in Creme Brulee 
• I also got a bonus item: Tresemme Perfectly Undone Waves Sea Foam

Kerastase:

Versatile beautifying treatment for damaged hair, with Oleo-Complexe and Immortal Moringa. Pre-Cleanse: Apply to brushed hair and rinse out before applying shampoo to remove impurities. 125mL. $55 Find a professional salon at Kerastase.ca 

The leaflet this came in says: "The exceptional combination of camellia, argan, maize, and pracaxi oils make hair nourished, protected and enhanced, leaving it feeling light, soft, and supple with incredible shine. For all hair types." I always like getting hair care products to try, so I'm pretty excited to try this out.

Vivierskin:

Formulated with pharmaceutical grade Vitamin C (L-Ascorbic Acid USP), Vitamin E, and a unique peptide combination, this patented serum helps damaged skin look and feel younger. This ultimate serum helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and helps reduce further signs of aging. This anti-aging serum is ideal for all skin types. 30mL. $157 Find a clinic near you at VivierPharma.com This says it brings damaged skin back into balance and reduces the appearance of enviornmental damage, leaving skin looking visibly refreshed. I'm interested in trying this out, but I don't think I would ever purchase it myself because of the hefty price tag, it would have to make me look 5-10 years younger or something magical to make me shell out almost $160...

Orlane Paris:

A real "beauty breakfast" for the skin, this mask is true intensive care for improved radiance, vitality, and softness of the skin. 75mL. $55 Available at Orlane.com. Their website says:A healthy complexion and skin glowing with vitality and radiance is exactly what the new OLIGO program promises. With their hypoallergenic formula, these targeted treatments are intended for all women, regardless of their age, and are designed to suit all skin types, even the most sensitive. 

NYX Cosmetics:

Buttery soft and silky smooth our scrumptious new Butter Lip Gloss tastes as sweet as a sugar cookie- and makes your lips look downright luscious. Swipe it on alone or over your favorite lipstick for creamy sheer to medium coverage that melts onto your lips and is never sticky. 8mL. $7.99 Available at Shoppers Drug Mart, Sephora, Murale, London Drugs, and NYX Cosmetics.com

I love these! I already had 3 and I was so excited to get another shade! Butter Glosses have become one of my favorite lip glosses and I really want them all ha ha!

Tresemme:

Create beautiful air-light waves with soft, natural-looking finish. This ultra-light sea foam, with sea kelp extract, helps create natrual-looking waves. 150mL. $5.99-9.99 Available at Well.ca, Amazon.ca, Walmart, and London Drugs. 

That's all for today lovelies!

What have you been loving in August?

xoxoxo

Collective Makeup Haul!

This post has been a long time coming! I've been eagerly waiting to share my haul with you all for quite some time now! No more waiting! These items have been gathering in small increments since about January? I don't buy makeup very frequently these days, because I haven't been wearing it very often anymore. I want to break that habit, because I really do love makeup, and I love trying new products, and experimenting with different looks and styles. I also want to do more reviews, so jumping back into the makeup game so to speak is an all around good idea, and what better place to start than with a haul? Some of these items are repurchases and some are new (to me) products I wanted to try. I was slightly hesitant about posting this, because it may seem like an unnecessary amount of makeup to some, and I feel like people who love and collect makeup get a lot of flak for sharing. Makeup is a hobby to me as is blogging and they go hand in hand, I wouldn't have much to write about in the beauty or makeup category if I never jumped out of my box and tried new things. ANYWAY! With the formalities out of the way let's get into this haul! (Side note: If anyone is interested in a review of any of these products feel free to let me know!)

I'll start out with foundation:

• Maybelline Dream Wonder Fluid-Touch in the shade 10 Porcelain Ivory
• L'Oreal Paris Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream in the shade 810 Fair
• Revlon Colorstay for Normal/Dry Skin in the shade 110 Ivory
• Rimmel Stay Matte Liquid Mousse Foundation in 010 Light Porcelain
• Revlon Colorstay Whipped in 110 Ivory

Foundation for me has always been a hit or miss kind of thing. I have super fair skin, and I have pink undertones, so I can't always just take the lightest shade a line offers. I like all of these foundations, and they all match my complexion well. They all have different levels of coverage, finish and texture. My favorites so far are the Rimmel Stay Matte and the Maybelline Dream Wonder for fuller coverage and the L'oreal BB Cream for light coverage. I'm on the fence about the Revlon foundations, I'll have to play around with different ways to apply it.

Miscellaneous Items (Eye liner, primer, color corrector, eye brow products):

• Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil in Perversion
• Maybelline Master Graphic Eyeliner Pen in Striking Black
• NYC Kohl Brow/ Eyeliner Pencil in 927 Taupe
• Maybelline Brow Drama Sculpting Brow Mascara in Blonde
• Cover Girl CC Cream Eye Rehab Concealer in 310 Fair
• Benefit Stay Flawless 15 Hour Primer
• NYX HD Concealer in CW 12 Green

I had a sample of the UD pencil and the Benefit primer from my beauty subscriptions, and I fell in love so much that I just had to splurge! Definitely good buys! I'm always on the lookout for new brow items, and I heard a lot of good things about the NYC pencil, so I wanted to give it a try. The Maybelline Brow Drama was new around the time I picked it up, I saw it on tv and decided to try it. I use it when I want a more natural makeup look, mostly when I go for minimal makeup, and I like it quite a lot. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who has more sparse brows that require more time filling in, this is more like a tinted gel than a brow filler. The Cover Girl concealer is great for under eye circles and dark undereyes. I use it when I look super tired and it perks me right up ha ha! I tend to get a lot of redness because my skin is so fair, it's quite noticeable, and sometimes foundation isn't enough, so I picked up this green concealer by NYX and it does a pretty good job at neutralizing the redness on my face.

Mascara:

• Maybelline Lash Sensational
• L'oreal Voluminous Million Lashes
• Bare Minerals Lash Domination
• L'Oreal Miss Manga Voluminous

I love trying different mascara, and because of that I find that my favorite changes all the time! My current favorite is the Lash Domination from Bare Minerals, my sister sent me a photo of her lashes after using said mascara and I just HAD to have it! It was more of a splurge for me, and the most expensive of the mascaras pictured, but I get such full and voluminous lashes and no clumps! My second favorite of the group is the voluminous millions and it was also a repurchase for me. I had purchased the miss manga when it first came out solely for the super kawaii packaging, and unfortunately, at the time I could only get it in water proof. I still decided to try it out, and I liked it a lot so I sought out and bought it again, only this time I got the regular formula. I have only tried the lash sensational once, and I had mixed feelings about it, however, I hear a lot of people raving about it at the moment, so I'll have to give it another go!

Nail Polish:

• Sinful Colors: Island Coral
• Essie: Vested Interest
• Zoya: Zanna
• Zoya: Rocky
• Zoya: Severine 
• Zoya: Anais
• Zoya: Charlot
• Zoya: Hudson
• Zoya: Lo
• Zoya: Prim

Zoya is definitely one of my favorite nail polish brands, I love their formula, their lasting power, opacity, and rainbow of colors they offer!

Lipstick:

• NYC: Ruby
• NYC Expert Last: Peach Fizz
• NYC Expert Last: Love My Latte
• NYX Butter Lip Gloss: Maple Blondie
• NYX Butter Lip Gloss: Strawberry Parfait
• Smash Box: Fig
• Smash Box: Posy Pink

I'm in love with the NYX butter glosses, I got one in my glam bag and decided to get a couple more. They're creamy and pigmented and they smell like candy! Eventually I would love to have their complete line of gloss and lipsticks! The NYC lipsticks are really affordable and I like the packaging. These also smell like candy, they apply very smoothly, aren't drying at all, are quite pigmented and last a fairly decent amount of time. I bought the Smash Box lipsticks on a whim randomly at Ulta, they came packaged together for something like $10.  They're really creamy and rich, I love fig! It's such a beautiful bold berry color that is perfect for fall and winter!

Eyeshadow:

• NYX Love in Paris: Parisian Chic
• NYX Love in Paris: Be Our Guest Maurice

I wanted to try out some NYX eyeshadows, and because I couldn't decide which single shadows I wanted, I went for a couple of palettes! These are pretty awesome for the price, and you get a ton of product. They're silky to the touch, glide on smoothly, are nicely pigmented and they blend really well with very little fall out. I am the self proclaimed queen of neutrals, and yet I find myself picking up the Be Our Guest Maurice palette a lot more! I love the different purple shadows, they really make my blue eyes pop! I definitely want to get some more eyeshadows from NYX in the future.

 

That's it! 

I think this is the biggest haul I've ever done ha!

Do you have any new makeup buys that you're in love with??

xoxoxo

My June And July Ipsy Glam Bags!

With my August glam bag right around the corner, I just wanted to quickly share the items I got from June and July! I have to say that I'm in love with my June and July Glam Bags! To me, these items scream summer! I didn't care much for the June bag its self, but I'm always more interested in the products rather than the actual bag they come in. As for my July bag, I love the design of the bag, it's a really fun and funky pattern and the quality of is really nice compared to my June bag, and I love most of the items I received. It's a cute idea, and I do put some of my previous bags to use, but a majority of them end up in a bag in my closet. I'm thinking of maybe giving them away or something, I haven't quite decided yet. To all of you reading this who have an ipsy subscription, what do you do with your bags? As always if you're not subscribed and you want to know what ipsy is all about, you can check them out here 

The theme for June was: Swim Into Beauty, and July's theme was: Summer Lovin'.

June:

• It Cosmetics Brow Power Universal Eyebrow Pencil
• Smash Box Photo Finish Primer
• Be Fine Cucumber Facial Mask
• TreStique Eyeshadow Crayon in Kona Coffee
• Formula X Nail Color in Power Source

July:

• Eva NYC Freshen Up Dry Shampoo 
• Pur~Lisse Pur~Bright Ultra Skin Brightening Serum
• Nicka K New York Eyeshadow Quad
• Teeez Read My Lips Lipstick in Killing Me Softly
• City Color HD Powder 

That's all for now lovelies!

What are your favorite summer products?

xoxoxo