Tag: sephora

Thursday Favourites: November 7th

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Dior Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara and Tarte Light, Camera, Lashes! 4-in-1 Mascara

Happy Thursday everyone!

One thing I’ll admit may be a bit weird about my makeup habits is that I cycle through mascaras. I have three favourites, but I never purchase the same one after I’ve just used it up — and I kind of just decide based on what I like about each one and my needs when I’m repurchasing. I do branch out every so often, but honestly I always find myself regretting it. I’m going to share a post on my other favourite (waterproof) mascara in the near future — but this week, I’m going to be discussing the Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara by Dior and Tarte’s Lights Camera, Lashes 4-in-1 Mascara.

I’m hoping that by comparing these two products, not only can I show you what exactly it is about them that’s so great, but also how they differ. With mascaras, although it can be clear when they’re either good or bad, it can sometimes be hard to differentiate much past that. However, when you compare two products side by side, the differences become a lot clearer.

First off, I’ll be discussing the last mascara I used — Tarte’s Lights, Camera, Lashes. First off, the benefits: Tarte notes on their Sephora page that this mascara “This product is ophthalmologist and dermatologist-tested, safe for contact lens wearers, hypoallergenic, vegan, and formulated without mineral oil, triclosan, and gluten,” — which is already off to a great start.

This product, additionally, is both fantastic for volumizing and lengthening lashes. This mascara makes my lashes look incredibly long and thick — making this the perfect mascara for when you’re not wearing lashes. One of my favourite features is that it also conditions your lashes — so it helps keep them healthy and grow them out longer. (Seriously, I notice my lashes get longer when I use this product!).

My other favourite mascara is the Diorshow Iconic Overcurl. This product is fantastic for incredibly natural, curled lashes — and never clumps up. On the Sephora page, Dior notes that in market research users noticed 31-53% increase in volume and 33-111% increase in curl in their lashes with use. However, what I love best about this mascara is how completely natural it looks. Honestly, its as if you woke up with perfect lashes and didn’t apply mascara at all.

In terms of which one I go for upon repurchasing mascara, I personally find that Tarte’s product is better for when my lashes are a little sparse, in need of growing out and adding on all the extra volume I could ever ask for from a mascara. Dior, on the other hand, is best particularly for when my lashes are already looking healthy.

As well, Dior is FANTASTIC for applying with false lashes, as it doesn’t ever clump up or make your lashes look too thick. I find that this really helps with keeping false lashes looking fresh, natural, and blended with your real lashes. After all, the goal with false lashes is to have them look as real as possible!

Overall, both of these products are just amazing and I’ve sworn by them for years now. If you’re looking for lots of volume, lengthening, and soft, healthy lashes — check out Tarte’s Lights, Camera, Lashes Mascara here! If natural, long and curled lashes are what you need right now, check out Dior’s Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara here!

I hope you’re all having a great week! Tune in this Sunday to hear all about my trip home to Toronto, and next Thursday for my latest product review!

Much love,

Meredith

Thursday Favourites: Halloween Edition!

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Best Halloween Makeup

Hey y’all!

This week I’m taking this post in a bit of a different direction — as it’s Halloween, I want to discuss ALL my favourite costume makeup! I’ve always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with crazy coloured makeup; I’m always so drawn to it when I see it in stores, but seldom buy any because I know I’m not going to have a lot of opportunities to wear it.

While I’m trying to branch out a bit, I almost never wear anything other than neutral, peach, smoky or gold eyeshadows save for Halloween, costume parties and music festivals. Still, it’s hard not to be tempted by bright bold palettes and shimmery duo-chrome eyeshadows every time you set foot in Sephora.

So, this week I wanted to share with you guys all the craziest coloured makeup I’ve ever bought that I consider to be the best of the best! That way, if you’re looking for a last minute palette to help create tonights look, or just LOVE crazy coloured makeup looks and are looking for something new, hopefully you’ll be able to find something for you from my list!

NYX Ultimate Brights Palette

NYX Ultimate Brights Palette

One of the biggest problems with colourful makeup is it’s hard to find a palette that covers the whole spectrum of colours without breaking the bank. It’s important to have something that covers every colour you’d ever need to ensure you can always blend out any look accurately. However, it seems wasteful to drop a whole lot of money building a palette of individual pots for this, as well, many colourful palettes offered at Sephora are expensive and only cover a certain range. This palette is AMAZING because it has so many colour options, as well as having an affordable price. The colours are bright and beautiful — they aren’t the most pigmented, but blend fairly well and can build up to look as bright as you need them to. If you’re looking for a good basic colour palette to cover all your needs, be sure to check this one out!

Check out this product here!

Huda Beauty Neon Obsessions Palettes

Huda Beauty Neon Obsession Palettes in Pink and Green

Okay. I am OBSESSED with these palettes (Get it?). Seriously though, even though I had no need to buy these, I knew I had to get my hands on them the moment I saw them. Huda Beauty eyeshadows are so smooth and pigmented, they blend flawlessly and always look fantastic. These neon palettes come perfectly fitted with colour combos that will help you nail ANY neon look, whether it’s for a Halloween costume or just a bold statement on a night out.

Check out this product here!

Anastasia Beverly Hills Single Pot Shadows

ABH Single Pot Shadows

These shadows are expensive, but oh-so worth it. Not only do they have SO many high quality options, but you can mix and match to create your perfect combo. Plus, they have duo chrome colours (!!!) which are one of my absolute favourite kinds of eyeshadow. These can really add that perfect colour and finishing touch to any crazy, colourful eyeshadow look. They’re so high quality, for crazy colours or natural smoky shades, you really can’t go wrong.

Check out this product here!

Chunky Glitter

Last but not least, chunky glitter is a MUST in your costume makeup collection. Not only does it instantly amp up any look — it has so many uses! My personal favourite is creating glitter freckles, but chunky glitter can also be added to your hair, highlight, collarbones, or even eyes and lips (given that it’s makeup grade and safe). A huge bonus on top of all that is that it can be super inexpensive. I own so much glitter, and most of it I got off Amazon, but if you’re looking for plain craft glitter you can find it in just about any Michaels or related craft store.

Check out this product here! (Or simply search Moon Glitter on Amazon for more options!).

I hope you all have a fantastic Halloween, whether you’re planning to go out, have a night with your family, trick or treat, watch horror movies or just have a nice fall-themed self-care night. If you’re dressing up, I’d love to hear all your creative costume ideas (or if you took inspo from my last-minute Halloween costume ideas, I’d love to see how they turned out!). I hope you’re all ready for November, and fingers crossed you achieve all your goals for the upcoming month!

Happy Halloween!

Meredith

Tuesday Favourites: October 15th

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La Biosthétique Expert Treatment Protection Cheveux Complexe Express Care Volume and Ouai Leave-In Conditioner

Hey y’all!

Quick update — when I started this weekly segment, I simple chose Tuesday because that was the day I wrote my first review on. At the time, I scheduled my other blog posts around this — Sunday’s made the most sense for a weekly post, with a post on Thursday as well to even out the week’s schedule. Since then, however, I took a step back and limited myself to two posts a week — something that has really been working for me and I’m likely going to stick with.

So, now, I’m looking for some feedback. While it feels strange to change the day of a weekly segment I’ve had since the start of my blog, I also feel it would make a lot more sense to move this segment to Thursday and have my posts be spread more evenly throughout the week. What do you guys think? Have my reviews impacted you at all? Do you have a preferred topic — makeup, skincare or haircare? Are you still enjoying this segment, or would you like to see something new? Or, alternatively, would you rather I put all my effort towards one great post a week and abandon this segment entirely? I’d really love to hear from you guys about what’s working for you and what isn’t, and I’ll be sure to update depending on the feedback you guys give me! If you’re really loving the posts and still want one every Tuesday, let me know! Otherwise, I’ll continue the segment on Thursdays from now on (or whatever else your feedback and advice suggests is best!).

Anyways, let’s get into this weeks review. This Tuesday, I decided to discuss some of my hair favourites — the La Biosthetique Expert Treatment Protection Cheveux Complexe Express Care Volume spray and the Ouai Leave-In Conditioner!

As I’ve discussed before, I used to bleach my hair and still have problems to this day with the bleached portion being uber dry and damaged. It takes a lot of effort to care for bleached hair, and for years the products I used just weren’t cutting it. My hair was so dry and frizzy, nothing seemed to help.

With enough time (and a lot of trial and error) however, I found a combination of products that helped my hair grow in healthy and stay healthy, even with all the processing my hair had been through. Since i’ve returned to being brunette, luckily, my hair has already started to grow in more healthy naturally, but these products still do an amazing job of taking care of my bleached-out ends.

The first product, from La Biosthetique, is a leave-in treatment meant to help restructure, strengthen, and moisturize hair. I love this treatment because its so easy — you just spray it into your roots before drying your hair and massage it down to your ends and voila! Since i’ve began using this product, not only has my grown-out, bleached hair become stronger and more resilient, but my hair growing in is so much stronger and healthier than my hair has ever been before, even before I started bleaching it.

The second product, Ouai’s Leave-In Conditioner, is pretty self-explanitory from the name. However, what I love about this specific product is how light-weight it is — it doesn’t leave any residue at all, and doesn’t weigh down the ends of your hair one bit. I was nervous to try this product initially for these exact reasons; I had received this product in a FabFitFun box and had never heard of the brand before. I should have known better, because FabFitFun has honestly never let me down, and neither does this product. I spray a little in my ends before blow-drying, and it helps keep them shiny and moisturized despite how damaged they are.

That’s it for this weeks review! If either of these products sound like just what you’ve been looking for, be sure to check out La Biosthetique’s Leave-In Treatment here and Ouai’s Leave-In Conditioner here!

Thanks for reading y’all! I hope you’re enjoying these segments, and I really would appreciate any feedback you could give, big or small, in the comments below so I can tailor these posts to your best interests!

Stay tuned for this Sunday’s post, and to keep updated on what I choose for the future of this segment!

Lots of Love,

Meredith

Tuesday Favourites: October 8th

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Fenty Beauty Contour Stick

Hey friends!

This week I’m going to share with you a product I recently bought and instantly fell in love with: The Fenty Beauty Contour Stick!

I was honestly a bit on the fence about this product when I bought it — not only had I not contoured in years, I had never used cream contour. I was rather daunted by it, and super uninformed. I thought that the matte look of this product wasn’t what I was looking for, as I’m not a huge fan of matte skin products. (Or matte anything, really. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know how down I am for glowy, dewey looks).

However, this product turned out to be just what I was looking for! It contours beautifully — it has a great cool shade that mimics shadows naturally and doesn’t come off looking too orange or grey. I do find it a bit challenging to blend into my foundation with a blender, but so long as i touch up my foundation on top there’s no issues whatsoever.

If you feel daunted by how dark the shade is, don’t be! I was too at first, as I am incredibly pale. However, this product still looks natural on me and would certainly look fantastic on darker skin tones as well.

So for the first time in years, I’m finally able to create a sharp, contoured look for myself; my features look SO sharp and I get to avoid any fake-contour lines and blending errors. If you’re looking to try a creme stick to sculpt out your features, look no further!

If this sounds like the product for you, be sure to check it out at Sephora here!

Have a great day, lovelies!

Xo,

Meredith

Tuesday Favourites: September 24th (October 1st!)

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Lilly Lashes in “Hollywood”

Hey friends!

Okay so a little disclaimer, this was the post I had intended to make last week. I had it completely written out and everything, but hadn’t scheduled it, and was too busy at work to post it. I know it’s probably a little weird to post this in this context since obviously it’s no longer my birthday, but I still wanted to share! So without further ado, enjoy!

For this week I wanted to choose a very special product, because for me it’s a very special Tuesday — today is my 23rd birthday! I really wanted to share with you guys my all time favourite product, so I really put a lot of thought into what I would share with you guys this week. After a while, I started to realize that it was waaaaay too hard to find the perfect product, especially since I’m committed to only sharing the best with you guys, so really all of these products are special.

Around the time that I was writing this post, I shared a poll on my twitter account asking my followers which makeup product they could absolutely not live without. For me, it was easy — while I do LOVE highlighter with all my heart, I cannot go out feeling as I’m looking my best without lashes. I’ve tried many mascaras in my lifetime, but none of them blew me away to the extent that I felt that I could go without lashes. For me, falsies are the most important step to creating a polished, finished makeup look.

So this week, I’ll be sharing one of my all-time fave lash brands with you — Lilly Lashes! As you guys may remember from my last Tuesday Favourite lash post, I generally like a more natural look to my falsies. While the Sephora lashes look 100% natural, these lashes certainly look a lot more extreme — which can be exactly what you need for certain makeup looks.

I love pairing these especially with winged eyeliner, as it not only keeps the lashes from looking too extreme, but the lashes themselves are long enough you can still see them perfectly from a distance, even with heavy liner. They make a great bold look, and pair especially well with heavier makeup looks. (Edit: I ended up wearing these on my birthday and got endless comments from my coworkers about how fabulous they looked, so they really are fantastic!).

So, if the natural look isn’t really your thing, or you’re looking to try something a little more bold, give these lashes a shot! Not only are they beautiful, but they last forever so long as you care for them properly.

If you want to check this product out, you can find it on Sephora here!

Lots of love guys, thank you so much for reading!

Xo,

Meredith