product review: Badger Lip Balm

This Winter has by far been the worst for my skin.  I've always had fairly dry skin but this season has been out of control.  I have tried seriously a ton of products from high end brands to all organic brands.

I hope to review many of the products I've tried to show what works for me and my dry, sensitive skin.

I have a small addiction to looking up the ratings on cosmeticsdatabase.com to see where my products stand in terms of the chemical ingredients and their risks.

This site brings me to many organic products including:

Badger - Lavender & Orange Lip Balm
$5.00 from Noah's Health Food Store

I have tried almost every single over the counter lip product you can think of, from Blistex to Poly Sporn, from Aveeno to Chapstick and every thing in between.  All of them seem to just mask the problem, seriouisly irritate my lips and make them worse, or get so dependent on it that it really doesn't help.

I got this lip balm from the Noah's near Yonge and Broadway for about $5.  This brand is certified organic, and this particular flavour has the following ingrediants:

*Aloe Vera Extract, Essential Oils of *Sweet Orange, *Lavender, & *Sicilian (Blood) Orange, and CO2 Extracts of Rosehip & *Seabuckthorn Berry.


I really love lavender and that's why I choose this smell, I can barely notice the orange to be honest but overall really like this lip balm. It's soothing and non irritating and so far has been the best i've come across.
 
It was rated a 0 on the cosmeitcs database along with many of it's other products.

weekend obsession

So my friend Kristen introduced me to the world of de-potting MAC eye shadows videos on you tube.  It didn't take very long for me to get to a MAC store to grab a pallete at a pro store downtown. 

I watched several videos and finally came up with a combination of a few to make my own process.

First I set myself up in front of the TV and laid out some paper towel, flat iron, mac eye shadow pots, 15 shadow MAC pallet, waxed paper, and a bead craft set.

From this kit I used the small bead rimmer on the left and the pink and orange plyers in the middle.

First I used the bead rimmer to pop out the inner pot/pan out of the main pot by jamming it into the corner until it popped out.

I set my flat iron to the lowest setting, probably takes a bit longer but I was too scared to burn anything.  I torn up some square pieces of waxed paper and placed them on the flat iron.  Then I put the inner pot on top of that.  It only took about 1-2 mins to get the bottom of the pot soft enough to poke out with the bobby pin.

I let the heated ones to cool and followed this process 14 times more, adding small round magnets from a local craft store under the pan.

Once I had melted the plastic inner pot from the pan, I did the same for all of the empty large pots to peel the lables off with small plyers and applied the label to the bottom of the magnet. 

At first, I tried the method of just cutting the inner pot and using alcohal to deperate the glue at the bottom.  I found that it really ruined the plastic of the pots and using the flat iron for heat was just easier.  Some also used a candle but that just didn't work for me either.

In this pattern 1 4 7 10 13

                      2 5 8 11 14

                      3 6 9 12 15

1 - Orb
2 - Naked Lunch
3 - I pressed a pigment into a pan, saved for another blog post :)
4 - Sleepy
5 - Da Bling
6 - Full Flame
7 - Paradisco
8 - Sushi Flower
9 - Cream de Violet
10 - Juxt
11 - Hipnotique
12 - Aquadisiac
13 - from Faces (Do they even exist anymore???)
14 - Embark
15 - Plumage

Surprisngly, I had more than 15 eye shadows, and had enough plasitc to get 2 free eye shadows. It got so addicting that I ended up buying another 15 eye shadow pallet AND a 6 blush pallete.

These aren't full yet so more pics to come!

C

Nail Colour

I really enjoy fun colours with sparkles lately. I got both of these from Shopper's and I wear the sparkles on top of a lot of other bright colours too....

I really like the brushes on the Insta-Dri polishes, they are square and rounder at the top and just makes things a bit easier.

Gosh - Magic Star

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Instant Iris

C

oh mm gee

http://www.flare.com/bridal/bridalfashion/photos/20104--love-bands-alternative-engagement-rings

little black dress

my favourite dress of the season! I bought it at a store called Poor Little Rich Girl near Yonge and Eglinton in Toronto.  Strapless, zips up the entire front and full of ruffles!!! I have been fortunate enough to wear it a few times this season....

*New Years Eve*: dress > poor little rich girl (Yonge & Eglinton), tights > Hue, flats > Jimmy Choo for H&M

*BMO Holiday Fundraiser for United Way*: booties > Zara

Sisterly Love

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!


This Christmas all the ladies in my life got Benefit makeup!! And on Christmas day we decided to play with it…

Paige – baby #3 – 22 years old


Paige was nice enough to let me take a before shot with no makeup:

…not that she needs it though!!!!

My goal was to show her some new techniques I learned at work just to enhance her look by evening out her skin tone and adding some glow!

I love the colours! This is what we used (unless otherwise said all products by Benefit):


Face:

Dear John Moisturizer

Boi-ing concealer in #2
Lemonaid upper eye concealer
Some kind of gorgeous foundation in light
Get even face powder in #2
Ooh la life eye de-puffer/brightener


Eyes:

Brow-zings eye brow filler in medium

Fancy pansy velvet eye shadow all over lids
High curtain show off glitter dust across the upper lid

High-brow eye pencil highlight

Eye brights eye pencil in inner corners

Black fluidline eye liner by MAC, smudged with a bit of fancy pansy eyeshadow

Bad gal Blue mascara



Cheeks:

Sugarbomb box-o-powder
High beam highlighter


Lips:

California Kissing smile brightening lip shine

I really liked the outcome and hope she did too! It's very different from her usual dark smokey look.



Abbey – baby #4 – 15 years old


She said she would kill me if I posted her before shot, even though like Paige does not need to wear barely any makeup!

For Abbey's look, she asked me to try out a smokey look, something she never does (mainly because she's only 15). Her incredibly long and thick eye lashes are truly amazing, and totally opposite of Kaytee and I.


Here is what we used:

Face:

Boi-ing eye concealer in #2

Bluff dust and your bluffing redness powder and concealer
Some kind of gorgeous foundation in light

Eyes:

High-brow highlighter

Eye brights highlighter

White tie eye shadow by MAC

Valet eye shadow by MAC in outer corner of eyes

Embark eye shadow by MAC in crease

Black fluidline eye liner by MAC

Black mascara

Cheeks:

Sugarbomb box-o-powder

High beam highlight

Lips:

A nude lipstick by MAC and life on the a list lip gloss by benefit


I really like the look on her but only for special occasions!


By the time I was done with abbey dinner was ready…..so we will have to stay tuned for a look for KT


Here is a pic of all of us at our Christmas dinner, so grown up!

**note: click on pics to enlarge them!

C xx

Holiday Dress Up

It's no secret that I love dressing up.  I'll use any excuse to wear a party dress and play with makeup!

This weekend Dan and I went to my Fulton family Christmas party.  I have a select few really fun party dresses and couldn't wait to bring out my FCUK lace and tutu-esque dress from last year.

I usually wear a random coloured clutch with dark dresses; this time I decided to wear a turquoise clutch from Aldo that Michelle gave to me as a gift years ago.   Turned out it matched the nail polish I was already wearing that Ari had recently given me for my birthday!  It's called Respect the World which is actually quite fitting for Ariana!

I wore suede and patent leather shoes with a very small heel, about an inch and a half.  Anything higher and you could probably see my bum a lot easier; this dress is super bouncy and flamboyant which is why I love it!

  



For my eye makeup I decided to do a golden smokey look...

Here is what I used in order:

1.  After moisturizing (including eye cream), I used Benefit Boi-ing concealer in #2 under my eyes.  Usually I   can use Erase paste which is a bit lighter but I like more coverage for evening looks.
2.  Then I used Benefit some kind of gorgeous in light using a bristled brush for a more airbrushed look.
3.  I used Benefit lemon-aid on my eyelids to even them up and also prime for eyeshadow.
4.  Then I used B's creaseless eye shadow in RSVP all over my lids
5.  I used MAC white tie in the inner half of my eye lid, and valet on the outer half; blended them together
6.  Then I took Sable Wrap and blended in in the crease of my eyes
7.  After putting on a couple more layers of those and blending them together, I used a black Rimmel eye liner and used MACs embark to smudge the lines
8.  Lastly, to finish my eyes I used Benefit bad gal lash in Plum which I lovvveee.
9. I then patted some Benefit high beam on the outer 'moons' of my eyes including above the eye brow.  Then I used a Benefit bluff puff and swirled it around in Sugarbomb, all over the apples of my checks and a bit towards the check bones. Finally, I used Benefit one hot minute, a light powder bronzer, on the upper parts of my checks and around my face.
10.  Finally, I used a bit of Benefit Posie tint, a pink lip stain, on my lips and some pink lip colour on top..something I don't usually do but it's Christmas :)


Sounds like a lot, but I really have a lot of fun playing with makeup :)  I also filled in my eyebrows which is something I'm trying to get better at.

Happy Holidays!

xx