Unboxing BoxyCharm, September 2019

September 23, 2019September 22, 2019 littlebeautyloves12 Comments

Price: $21.00 USD (+$5.00 shipping to Canada)
Number of items: 4-5 full-size items

Boxycharm is a monthly subscription box of full-size makeup, skincare and beauty tools. The theme for this month is “all access”.

PRICES ARE IN USD, CONVERTED TO CAD AT THE END

Violet Voss Essentials Eyeshadow Palette
MSRP: $29.00 US

This palette was designed for everyday use in a stunning mix of warm and cool-toned shades. I like the range of shades and colours in this palette and I think you’d be able to create a variety of different looks.

Even though I have a lot of eye shadows I think this one is definitely unique to what I have. I like that there are everyday shades like cream and dusty rose but also fun colours like plum berry and gold. This would be a great palette for travel.

Dr. Brandr Hydro Biotic Recovery Sleeping Mask
MSRP: $52.00 US

Oh, how I love a good hydrating mask! I’m really looking forward to having this around especially during the upcoming wintertime. This mask locks in moisture overnight to reduce redness and soothe the signs of irritation.

Moda Pro By Royal & Langnickle 5 Piece Eye Kit
MSRP: $27.95 US

I am so happy that I received this set in Boxycharm. I received a crease brush from this collection in a previous BoxyCharm that I enjoyed and even reviewed on the blog. You can read my thoughts here.

These brushes are so soft and the quality is super good, especially for the price. I should check out their website to see what other items they offer. The brushes I received are perfect for creating a multitude of eye looks. I’m most excited for the smudger and crease brush since these are the type I use the most.

Laura Geller Baked Gelato Swirl Illuminator
MSRP: $26.00 US

What a beautiful highlight. Not only does this look so nice in the pan but it swatches like a dream. I’m really excited to start playing with this. The illuminator has a hybrid texture that applies like a powder but feels like a cream. It creates a translucent wash of colour that can be swept all over the face for a lit-from-within glow.

MAC Frost Lipstick in CB 96
MSRP: $18.50 US

This formula features smooth, medium buildable coverage, high pearl and a semi-lustrous finish. (Boxycharm.com)

Well, you’re telling me! In the tube this looks like a high frost orange but when I swatched it I got more of a peachy or pinky feel. This is such a gorgeous lipstick but I just know that I’m never going to wear it so I actually passed this on to my mom who was absolutely going to enjoy it more than I will.

My Thoughts

I was starting to get a bit bored with BoxyCharm but this box really hit it out of the park for me. I got a palette with colours I’m excited to use, an over night mask I need for winter, brushes I’m going to use regularly and an illuminator that I think is beautiful to wear as highlight! The only item I didn’t care for was the lipstick which I easily passed on to someone else. I’m super happy with this box and everything in it!

Total Value: $153.45 US ($203.05)

Did you get BoxyCharm this month? What did you get in your box and what are your thoughts?

Lots of Love,
Dal

Five Eye Brushes I use A Lot!

August 28, 2019August 28, 2019 littlebeautyloves5 Comments

I own quite a lot of brushes. I’m sure that is a statement that a lot of us can agree to! LOL!

I’m sure we’ve all gone through so many brushes, ones that we bought thinking they would be perfect only to end up switching them for something else. It took me a long time to build the collection I have and although I’m happy with them I’m always trying new ones to see how they might make my makeup application better or easier.

I decided for this post to pull out five eye brushes that I enjoy using and share them. I have a few posts on brushes in my collection that I’ve reviewed and you can read them here and here. I still use all those brushes but since my collection is large I figured why not share more!

Here are five eye brushes that I use a lot!

Quo Eye Shadow Smudger Brush

This is the first smudger style brush that I ever bought and I’ve purchased more smudger brushes ever since! I think Shoppers was having a sale on Quo brushes at the time so it was the perfect opportunity to grab one and see how I liked this style brush. I love using this to apply shadow to my lower and upper lash line because it gives a nice smokey effect.

The bristles on this brush are short and dense which helps keep everything close to the lash line but the brush itself is really soft. I like that I can get really close to my lash line to frame my eyes. I also like that the ends are rounded so that I can move the brush around the curve of my eyes.

Sephora Pro Featherweight Crease Brush

I use this brush a lot for my crease because I find that it’s soft but not so fluffy so it keeps product from blending out too much around my eyes. It keeps the look precise but still creates a seemless blend. I own a lot of blending brushes but I really like this one when I want to take time to blend out my eyeshadow.

What I love about this brush is that after so much use it continues to hold it’s shape. I love the domed tip which makes it really comfortable to use in the crease. I’m a bit bummed that this is no longer at Sephora and if I knew it was going to be discontinued I might have bought another one.

Artdeco Blending Brush

I featured this brush before on the blog in the post focusing on the brushes in my One Look, One Week Review Series. I mentioned that this brush is quite versatile and it continues to be a well loved and highly used brush. Recently, I’ve been using it a lot for cream shadows I have (ie. the Nudestix shadows) to blend out any rough edges. The brush is dense so it really blends out cream perfectly.

What I love about this brush is that one side is wide, while the other side is flat.

This allows me to use this to lightly blend out shadow in my crease using the flat side or to sweep shadow on my lid using the wider side. It’s even been used as a liner smudger and to blend shadow on my lower lid. It does everything I want a brush to do. Whenever I travel I take this brush with me because I can use it in a variety of ways. I plan on purchasing more of these types of brushes.

Inglot Large Eyeshadow Brush, 28 PO (I think?)

This brush has a special place in my heart because it was one of the first professional style brushes that I ever purchased and it’s held up all these years. I don’t think at the time Inglot had put the brush numbers on their brushes so I’m guessing it’s the 28PO based on their description online. I purchased this brush to help clean around the edges of my eyeshadow because it’s a super big and dense brush.

If ever my eyeshahow is starting to blend out a little too far on my eye and I want to blend out the colours I’ll take this brush to help clean it all up. The brush is also perfect as a shadow brush because it’s so big that I can definitly use it as a one sweep brush and be done with eyeshadow. I don’t use this too often because it is so big, but whenever I need a brush like this I’m also so happy I have it.

Luxie 111 Mini Flat Angled Brush

I received this brush in my November BoxyCharm as part of a four-pack brush set. I use all the brushes in that set but this one is one that I use most out of all of them and I use it specifically to apply eyeshadow to my lower lashes.

Because the brush is angled, it fits perfectly under my lower lashes and applies shadow really close to my lower lash. By being able to apply a thin shadow under my lashes I keep my shadow looking sleek. I really enjoy this brush. I don’t think I would have thought to purchase this on my own, but after receiving it and trying it out, it has really improved my eyeshadow application.

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These are some of my favourite eye shadow brushes. I plan to share more of my favourite brushes for my eyes and face on the blog since I have so many that I really like and I’m curious to know what are some of your favourite brushes too!

Let me know what brushes you use a lot for your eye shadow application.

Lots of Love,
Dal

Project Pan Monthly: July Roundup & August Items

August 6, 2019August 5, 2019 littlebeautyloves2 Comments

I have been keeping my makeup extremely minimal in July since it was a pretty warm month. There were some items in my July Project Pan that I used so much and then there were some items that I hardly touched at all! I think it’s partly because I didn’t anticipate it being as warm so I was really not in the mood to wear a lot of makeup that would melt off. I’ll break it down more in my July Roundup below. All in all, I used my items about 24/31 days.

In case you didn’t know, this is my Project Pan objective;

Project Pan Monthly

Each month I choose 4 items to use, sharing reviews of those products if they aren’t already on the blog. At the end of the month, I’ll share an update of how well I did and then list the items for the next month. The products are chosen from these categories;

One Eyeshadow Palette
One Lip Item (lipstick, lip balm, gloss, etc.)
One Face Item (foundation, highlighter, blush, bronzer)
One Random Item (can be another item from the categories above, or be something else like a mascara, liner, skin care, body care, fragrance, etc.)

July Roundup

Let’s start with the eye makeup items I chose for this month. It was so easy for me to use the three Nudestix products I have in the photo above because they were great as one and done shadows or applying two for a slightly more done up look. The bronze tones were prefect on my slightly tanned skin and went with a lot of my summer outfits.

When it came to the lip item, I used Pulse the most this month. I also used it quite a bit as a blush because it was a nice natural shade on me. As much as I wanted to use the dirty little secret lip liner it just wasn’t something that I was reaching for at all! I think it’s mostly because I was happy with Pulse on it’s own so I always forgot to add lip liner.

Now, as much as I thought the Clinique Powder was going to work perfectly for me in the summer, it just didn’t work on my dry skin. It actually made me feel really dry and itchy and I didn’t like that at all. Even though it was very warm my skin remained super dehydrated so this got immediately tossed to the side in my project pan. I’m tempted to toss this out only because having my skin feel itchy after applying it made me a little nervous about using it.

My August Items

This month I’ve chosen;

One Eyeshadow Palette – Smashbox CoverShot Palette in Ablaze (reviewed here)
One Lip Item – Laritzy Cosmetics Lip Stix in Wafer
One Face Item – Yves Rocher Flawless Skin Foundation
One Random Item – Sephora Blush in Apricot Sheen

I thought I’d stick with a warm palette for August as an ode to summer! I know warm toned orange/red/gold palettes like Ablaze are not as popular as they were two years ago but I still love these colours so I’m sure I’d get good use out of it. (If you want to see the inside of the palette, check out the link here since it seems I totally didn’t upload the photo of the open palette for this post). Same goes for the Sephora blush I’ve included for this month. I bought this blush on sale and I don’t think Sephora carries it anymore but it’s a gorgeous warm blush with little flecks of golden sparkle. It looks really pretty and dewy on and I think with the eye shadow palette it’ll look really good.

For this month’s lip item I decided to include the Laritzy Lip Stix I received in my Topbox. I enjoy the texture of this lip crayon. It’s very smooth and hydrating and the colour is a beautiful nude which will also work with a lot of the looks I want to create using the Ablaze palette. I’ve included my Yves Rocher Foundation since the colour is a bit darker which is working for my complexion now. I mostly use it around my eyes and the centre of my face for a very light amount of coverage.

Here’s hoping I get good use out of these items for August! I have already used these this 3 times since the start of the month so that’s really good so far!

How is your progress been for Project Pan this month? What are you hoping to use up for August?

Lots of Love,
Dal

Bye Bye Empties, July 2019

August 3, 2019August 2, 2019 littlebeautyloves5 Comments

Happy Saturday! I feel like I rarely post on the weekends but I finally got around to taking some photos so I figured why not! Also, happy Civic Long weekend to those who have Monday off! I love long weekends in the summer!

It had been a gorgeous July! The days were hot and beautiful and I enjoyed it so much. I’m really excited for August and enjoying more of this summer especially since there are a few things that happen around the city that I enjoy – Food Festivals, here I come! I didn’t use up too many products this month but I’ve also been changing up my skincare and makeup routine for the summer which meant that a lot of my usual products are on a break.

Now on to what I used up!

*Note: I’m on a no-buy this year. If I mention repurchasing an item, it just means that I really liked it and would buy again, just not in 2019.

Skincare

Victoria Secret Shea & Vitamin E Shower Gel. VS have some nice smelling shower gels and I really like them. The scent Cabana Breeze has an ocean/vacation scent and whenever I used it I would be taken back to my trip to Jamaica. They lather up quite a bit which makes taking a shower feel like a standing bath. I also love using them in my bubble bath because they do make so much thick bubbles! I would definitely repurchase these shower gels over and over again.

L’Occitane Almond Shower Gel. I used to be into this shower gel but after a while, I got bored with it. I really like super sudsy shower gels and this isn’t like that, or at least it stopped being that way after a while. It just doesn’t get super foamy. It’s weird but I almost feel like the formula started getting old and it wasn’t as nice as it was for the first couple of months I had this. I still enjoyed it for prepping my legs before shaving, but as a shower gel on its own, it lost its lustre for me. If you want to read my original review of this product you can here. I don’t think I’d repurchase this product.

NeoStrata Glycolic Renewal Smoothing Lotion. I included this product with a short review in a haul I had back in March 2018. You can read it here. Although I really enjoyed this product it’s been over a year that I’ve had it so I’m sure it’s time I just toss it out since I don’t think it’s as effective as it once was. I used this about half-way. I’m not sure I’d repurchase this.

Haircare

Head & Shoulders Conditioner in Smooth & Silky. Every few months I add another Head & Shoulders product into my empties. If there is one product that I repurchase over and over again it’s this. I really enjoy how well it cleans my hair.

Makeup

Essence Long Lasting Eye Pencil. This product got old before I used it up but it’s because I haven’t been using pencil liners for quite a while now. Lately, I’ve been using either eye shadow or my Nudestix Crayons to create a smokey liner on my eyes rather than a sharp line or wing. This guy is ok, it is a deep intense black and I like that it’s a twist up liner. I used this a lot in my waterline which is another reason I am throwing it out since I want to get into the habit of using new items for delicate areas such as my eyes. I won’t be repurchasing this anytime soon.

Cover FX PowerPlay Foundation (sample). I love picking up sample foundations to test out before I commit to a new foundation. I got about four applications from this foundation and I really liked how it looked. It feels really light on my face but provides a good amount of coverage. I would purchase a full-size of this.

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Like I mentioned above, I didn’t use up too many items for this month but I did clear out some things that were old or weren’t getting a lot of use in my collection of stuff.

What have you used up for July?

Lots of Love,
Dal

Review, Vasanti Cosmetics Brighten Up! Exfoliator

July 10, 2019July 10, 2019 littlebeautylovesLeave a comment

A few weeks ago I shared a review of the First Aid Beauty cleanser that I have been enjoying as my gentle daily cleanser. You can read it here. I mentioned that every few days or so I also use an exfoliating cleanser for a deep cleanse and today I’m going to be sharing that review. Currently, I’ve been using Vasanti Cosmetics Brighten-Up Exfoliator.

Vasanti Cosmetics reached out to me back in April to try out their Vasanti Brighten-Up Trio and I was very excited to test them out. I had used other items from Vasanti before and I’m always happy to support Canadian brands. I’ve been using the product ever since receiving them two months ago.

What It Is

An exfoliator with micro-crystals. This papaya and aloe enriched exfoliator will remove dead skin, reveal a radiant complexion and fight common skin concerns like dull skin, dark spots, acne scars, wrinkles & more. (vasanticosmetics.com)

Price

$29.00 CAD (70g) I use a very small pea-sized amount of this product so I think it’ll last me a while.

Application

I took this on vacation with me to use with the moisturizer and serum booster (more on them in a little bit). I still used an everyday cleanser but every third evening or so I would use this to wash my face. I lathered a pea-sized amount between my hands and gently massaged this over my face. Since this has micro crystals I always ensured that I was gently applying this. I also found that the more water I used to dilute the product the better it worked on my skin. More water helped to loosen the formula and convert the dense cleanser into a soft and liquid cream which helped glide the crystals over my face.

The texture of the crystals is very fine and sand like but if you aren’t careful I can definitely imagine it irritating the skin because the crystals are very gritty. This is also why I used it every few days rather than every day. I have always loved physical exfoliators but if you don’t then this product is definitely not for you. I also don’t think it would be good for sensitive skin. I don’t have sensitive skin, but I was still very careful with how I applied this product. Since I mostly use physical exfoliating cleansers, it’s how I’ve always been with those types of products.

I mostly focused around my nose since that’s where I find my skin needs the most attention. I would then massage this over my forehead and chin and spread whatever remained over my cheeks. I find that starting from the middle of my face and moving outwards is the best cleansing method for me.

Since this is a physical exfoliant, I always made sure I thoroughly rinsed my skin. Nothing is worse than putting on moisturizer with leftover crystals (ouch!). After rinsing my skin I applied the Boosting Serum and then the Moisturizer.

After a couple weeks, I started to notice a difference in my skin. It wasn’t as dull and looked a lot more clear. My nose area especially was clear. I usually have a hard time reducing the appearance of blackheads on my nose, but this really helped to diminish their appearance. My skin felt really soft and I found that it was much smoother. I hardly break out in the first place but it just felt like my skin was looking a lot more vibrant.

Glow-Boosting Serum and Amplify Moisturizer

While using the Brighten-Up Exfoliator I also made sure that I was testing out the Glow-Boosting Serum and Amplify Moisturizer, all are part of the Brighten-Up line. I think that the combination of the three really made a difference on my skin so I wanted to talk about them as well as they are part of my skin care routine.

Glow-Boosting Serum

The serum is supposed to help give you glowy skin. After cleansing, I would shake the bottle to the oil and serum together and place one or two drops on my hands and massage it over my skin. It has Arbutin which has anti-oxidant and anti-ageing ingredients to help reduce dark spots and shadows. It also has Abyssinian oil to hydrate the skin and aloe vera to soothe the skin. For my dry skin, this serum is a dream because it’s pretty moisturizing. Sometimes I just wear this and it’s enough for me. Serums that I’ve used in the past can be more gel-like so they quickly dry onto my skin but I don’t feel like they do much. This guy, however, leaves me feeling moisturized all day. It’s a pretty thick serum.

Amplify Moisturizer

I really like this as an everyday moisturizer and I use it with both my everyday cleanser as well as the Vasanti Exfoliator. This is infused with aloe, vitamin C, and arbutin from bearberry leaves to keep your skin hydrated and protected. It’s very light-weight too which is why I enjoy this for every day. Even during the day if my skin is feeling extra dry I will apply this to re-hydrate it. Since it’s really thin I don’t feel like I’m wearing a lot of products if I then add my sunscreen over it. It works very well on top of the Glow-Boosting Serum, so I do enjoy wearing these two products together.

My Thoughts

Since I love physical exfoliators I know that I’m probably going to repurchase this product myself when the time comes. I feel like I see a difference in my skin and I like that this has been working really well for me.

Have you tried this product? Do you use physical exfoliators?

Lots of Love,
Dal

Project Pan Monthly: May Roundup & June Items

June 7, 2019 littlebeautyloves13 Comments

Before it gets so much later into June I wanted to share my Project Pan Monthly update for May and share the items I’m going to focus on for June. I feel like except for the first week of May I was very consistent with using my items. I had used my items 24/31 days by the end of the month.

In case you didn’t know, this is my Project Pan objective;