Review: Eucerin Dry Skin Replenishing Face Creme 5% Urea Plus Lactate

Company: Eucerin
Animal Testing: Personal research suggests they do not perform any tests on animals
Product Name: Eucerin Dry Skin Replenishing Face Creme 5% Urea Plus Lactate
Amount of Product: 50 mL or 1.7 FL. OZ.
Price: Between $15 & $18

What The Product Claims: Eucerin Replenishing Face Creme 5% Urea replenishes dry and very dry, tight facial skin. It is suitable for use under makeup or after shaving. Non-comedogenic (doesn't clog pores). Contains no added fragrance or colorants to minimize the risk of skin irritation and allergies. The  light, non greasy texture absorbs quickly, The cream provides instant hydration and reduces skin tightness. The skin feels smooth and supple.

I started using this cream a few days ago, and with extremely sensitive skin, I was half expecting to get hives from this product, but I haven't and I definitely don't feel like I will any time soon (I can usually feel an allergic reaction from a mile away). I am on acne medication which makes my skin extremely dry, and have not been  able to find a product yet that both hydrates well and doesn't feel heavy or sticky on my face. Until I tried this.

This is an AMAZING moisturizer. I have very dry patches in the crease of my nose, my chin, and around my mouth. I put this stuff on at night before my acne medication, and my skin is smooth and plump with hydration in the morning, whereas usually I would wake up with dry patches being even more dry than during the day. I use a lighter moisturizer during the day to keep some oily spots on my skin at bay, and if i need extra moisture I will put this on the patches that need it. It feels very light on my skin and absorbs well within 30 seconds.

Get To The Point...

What's To Love:
-lightweight
-absorbs quickly
-moisturizes better than anything I've ever tried
-Not tested on animals!
-Pretty well priced for a moisturizer, especially in Canadian currency

What's To Not:
-Nothing, everything about this product is amazing and is done exactly what is promised

Final Thoughts
This product does everything that it claims and I will be repurchasing this until my dying day. Very glad I picked this up on a whim, and very glad it cooperates with my crazy combination sensitive dry oily skin.

If you would like to know more about the very strong benefits of Urea, I would suggest Googling it. There is a bunch of information about how amazing urea is for the skin and how it locks in moisture, and I don't want to write anything on here and be inaccurate causing confusion.

Inspiration: Go Ahead, Dear To Wear A Beautiful Bold Eye!

Nervous to go for a bold eye? Have amazing colours but don't really know what to do with them? Here are some amazing pictures I found that I thought would inspire some of you to go for it and wear an amazing bold eye and get everyone to stare in awe as they wonder "How did you do that!?"

Go ahead, dare to wear!





   

How To & Tips: Natural Makeup

Think you can't be a natural beauty? Think again! Almost everyone can look amazing and refreshing, even if you just rolled out of bed. Here's a few helpful tips to achieve a natural, flawless look.

Let's Start With Skin
First, prep your skin with a good wash, exfoliate if you need to, and always moisturize, even if you have oily skin. Let your moisturizer set for 5 minutes, and either grab your favourite tinted moisturizer or your favourite primer and apply (note; only use a primer if you are going to use a foundation, if you are going to use a tinted moisturizer there is no need for a primer). If you applied a tinted moisturizer, skip on to the next steps, if you applied a primer, keep on reading. After you let your primer set for 5-10 minutes, grab your favourite foundation, as long as it isn't fake or cakey looking, and apply with your fingertips. Applying foundation with your fingertips will give you the most natural application, almost like a second skin, because your fingers help warm the product up. (Warning: to avoid streaks, blend very well into the skin.) Let your foundation set for another 5-10 minutes and finish off with some mattifying powder. If you'd like, you can add a very sheer, natural blush, highlighter, and/or bronzer to your skin, but of course, keep it very natural looking. (For bronzer, try to avoid anything with sparkles or shimmer, real tans do not sparkle).

I would say that the skin is the most important thing for this look. Having a flawless canvas, so to speak, is going to really make everything you do from this point on look better. If you feel comfortable enough, you can skip the next steps and just go out with flawless skin, I encourage you to go for it.

Next Up, Eyes
Eyes will consist of only a few things; eyelash curler, mascara, and maybe some eyeliner and nude eyeshadow.
First, give your eyelashes a good curl. Get your curler as close to the root as you can without pinching your skin, and pump it 3 times. Next, apply a thin coat of brown or black mascara. (Tip: to get a very natural mascara application, wipe the wand on a facial tissue to remove excess product.) If you want, apply some white eyeliner to your bottom waterline, this will make your eyes appear bigger. To make your lash line look thicker, apply a brown or black eyeliner (depending on which colour of mascara you used) to your upper waterline.
If you wish, you can apply a matte, nude eyeshadow to your lids, but it isn't necessary.

Lips
For this look, I would suggest a natural colour in either a matte lipstick or a lipstain, or just a clear gloss. Other than that, don't go for much else on the lips.

And, You're Done!
If you need to, fill in your eyebrows, add any finishing touch like a highlight on the brow bone and inside corner of the eye, and you're all set!

Beginner's Makeup Tips: Eye Makeup

Tip 1: Always start with a good base. They make your eyeshadows go on more vibrant, keep them on all day and night, and help stop the eyeshadows from creasing. One of my favourites are MAC Cosmetic's Paint Pots. You can read my full review of them here. Some other ones that are popular are Urban Decay Primer Potion and Too Faced Shadow Insurance.

Tip 2: Make sure you test eyeshadows at the store to make sure they are pigmented, smooth, and easy to blend. Just open the container and rub your finger around in the shadow. What you're looking for is to see if the colour on your finger matches the colour in the container. This is called swatching. Another good idea is to then rub that finger on the back of your hand to see how easy it is to move around, and how much it fades out. Also, make sure you get eyeshadow colours that you love. If you don't love the colour, you will probably never wear it, and there goes at least $15 down the drain for no reason.

Tip 3: Invest in good brushes. Most makeup artists will probably agree that brushes can be more important than the makeup itself. Learn what kinds of brushes work best for certain things. Animal hair brushes will give you the best pigmentation and are softer, while synthetic brushes give more sheer application and are much more durable. Don't be shy when you go to makeup counters, ask any questions you have about the brushes there. I find the people who work at MAC (at least around where I live) are very knowledgeable about how their brushes are made. They know that the animals are shaved, not killed, for their real hair brushes, and they know how the animals there are treated. Don't shy away from animal hair brushes just because they are natural, not all real hair brushes are made by killing the animal, so just ask. Learn how to work with your brushes as well. It's one thing to have nice brushes, but it's another thing to know how to use them and clean them properly.

Tip 4: Practice makes perfect. The best way to learn basic eyeshadow and eyeliner techniques, and the way that I learned, is to watch endless videos on Youtube. Then, just copy what they're doing. Practice the techniques over and over again until you're comfortable with your brushes and your product. Don't feel discouraged when you mess up, it's no problem, even the most experienced and professional make up artists screw up from time to time. There is no shame.

Tip 5: Find out what compliments your eye shape and colour the best. Blue eyes are complimented by browns, green eyes are complimented by plums, and brown eyes can pretty much wear anything. Find out weather or not you have hooded eyes, almond eyes, big eyes, small eyes, wide set eyes, close set eyes, droopy eyes, etc.

Tip 6: Figure out what's easiest for you. Just because a certain technique or tip works for someone else, doesn't necessarily mean it will work for you. Everybody is different and everybody does things differently. Find your own rhythm, pattern, and style. Just because everyone wears cat eye eyeliner doesn't mean you have to wear it too if you don't like the way it looks on you.

Tip 7: Skip the spider eyelashes! You know, those clumpy, gross eyelashes that fuse together and just make you look sloppy and like you never take off your makeup. Like this. If you work hard blending, smudging, and building up your eyeshadow, why ruin it by doing this to your poor eyelashes? Just apply one or two coats of mascara and leave it at that. A tip to happy, pretty, wispy lashes like this, just take a face tissue and take the extra mascara off of your wand. You will notice that it almost just looks like you tinted your lashes a darker colour. It really helps you stand out in a very natural way.

Tip 8: Last but not least, remember to just have fun with it. If doing your makeup feels like a chore, you're doing it wrong. You should be having fun, not wanting to throw your brush across the room. Find your own style, play around with it, and do what you like.

Review: Chickaboom 88 Palette in Super & Shimmer

Company: Chickaboom Luxuries (a Canadian company!)
Animal Testing: Vegan friendly
Products: Shimmer Palette & Super Palette (click me to see!)
Amount of Product: Both palettes contain 88 different shades, and are all about the size of a nickel.
Price: $30 each

What The Product Claims: MICA first ingredients, no animal oils, and no TALC! Don't be fooled by cheap imitations. Chickaboom's newest and most amazing 88 eyeshadow palette with super blendable and highly pigmented shadows is finally here! The colour payoff is incredible. Whether you are a professional makeup artist or a self-proclaimed fashionista our palettes are designed to help you achieve any look. Smokey and smouldery; dazzlingly dramatic or the natural girl-next-door, Chickaboom b88m palettes take you there!
Not only is $30 for 88 completely different eyeshadow colours amazing, the quality of them is off the charts. Having these two palettes is so wonderful for me, and I am always getting compliments on my makeup, especially when I use the boldest colours. They have everything from matte browns to gold to turquoise and yellows. Any look you could ever imagine you can create with these two palettes.

There isn't much else I can say about these eyeshadows, the colour payoff is amazing, they are very blendable and super easy to work with. I started using these when I first started to become interested in cosmetics and I had a great time playing around with these palettes, and now that I'm more into it and know what I'm looking for, I still love these shadows. I would definitely recommend these to any beginner looking for a cheap palette to experiment with, or even someone just looking for good quality eyeshadows for little money.

Get To The Point...

What's To Love:
-Great colour payoff
-Super blendable
-Great colour selection
-Not tested on animals!
-Awesome idea for everyone from pro to beginner
-Canadian based company

What's To Not:
-It was a tad bit of a hastle to actually get shipped to me, as I wanted to pay with a cheque instead of credit card or through PayPal
-It took over a month to get to my house

Final Thoughts
Amazing product hands down, lots of colours to choose from, you can create any look you can imagine and with ease. Took a while to get to my house, even though they're Canada based and I only live about 4 or 5 provinces away, but in the end it was very worth it. I strongly recommend this to anyone.

Review: MAC Fix +

Company: MAC Cosmetics
Animal Testing: Well known to be cruelty free
Product Name: Fix Plus, Fix +
Amount of Product: 100 mL, 3.4 US FL OZ
Note: They have a smaller bottle available, which contains 30 mL, 1.0 US FL OZ
Price: $24
Note: The smaller bottle is around $12

What The Product Claims: An aqua spritz of vitamins and minerals, infused with a calm-the-skin blend of green tea, chamomile, cucumber, topped off with the fresh, natural, energizing scent of Sugi. Adds radiance, finishes makeup. Spray it on, skin drinks it up!

This product is absolutely awful for setting your makeup. It doesn't work, and unless you're looking for an extremely, extremely dewy, to the point of looking almost greasy look, this will not give you a good finish. I know it seems convenient, and thats why I bought it. I thought to myself Wow, I don't have to use powders all the time now, getting setting powder all over the floor and my clothes. But no, you are going to still need setting and matifying powder after using this.

That being said, this product doesn't belong in the garbage just yet. It actually has some great uses otherwise, so all of you ladies with dry skin, listen up!

I absolutely love spraying this on immediately after applying facial moisturizer. It really helps amplify the effectiveness of your moisturizer, and helps lock it in all day long.

Now, imagine yourself on a hot summer day at the beach, the sun beating down on you, you're just trying to tan but you're starting to sweat, and frankly, you don't really feel like getting into the water, so, just pull this out of your beach bag and give your face, arms, legs, and neck a spritz. It is so amazingly refreshing, you almost wont believe it. I think it might have to do with the cucumber, but I'm not positive. You can even use it after going for a walk or run outside, or when the heat just gets too much to handle.

I also really like the scent of this product. I have really sensitive skin and scents usually are not a good thing, but this scent is so light it doesn't even matter.

Get To The Point...

What's To Love:
-Refreshing
-Not tested on animals!
-Nice light scent
-Locks in moisture, even on very dry skin
-Lives up to most of it's claims

What's To Not:
-Does not set makeup
-Can give a greasy look if used wrong
-If too much is used, it can begin to feel sticky

Final Thoughts
This product, over all, is pretty good. If you are a dry skinned lady, I would suggest trying this. If you're looking for a refreshing spray for the heat and summer time, I would also suggest trying this. If you're looking for a convenient spray to set your makeup, I would strongly discourage you from using this, it does not do that what so ever.

Review: Macadamia Natural Oil Healing Oil Treatment

Company: Macadamia Natural Oil
Animal Testing: Cruelty free!
Product Name: Healing Oil Treatment
Amount of Product: 125 mL, 4.2 FL. OZ.
Price: As low as $20 to as high as $45

What The Product Claims: Macadamia Healing Oil Treatment instantly absorbs into the hair, weightlessly infusing moisture, health, softness, protection, control and shine.

If I could live the rest of my life with only 1 product, this would be it, hands down. My absolute holy grail product, could never live without it, miracle sent from heaven. And I will explain why.

I admit, like any girl I abuse my hair, but I'd say I abuse it about 10 times worse than anyone I know. I've been transitioning from jet black hair up to bleach blonde, so lately the bleach has been taking a real toll. I also blow dry, straighten, and tease (heavily) almost every day, so, yeah, I would say my hair has been through quite a lot over the years. I've tried different products such as shampoos and conditioners that haven't done much but provide a temporary fix.

This oil not only starts to work the first time you use it, it also helps provide long lasting damage protection. This oil also helps reduce blow drying time by up to 50% and has a built in heat protector! How amazing is that?

Just apply to your hair every day, damp or dry, and let it do it's thing. I also have the Macadamia Natural Oil Shampoo and the Deep Repair Masque, which are also absolutely amazing, but the Healing Oil I would say is at the top of my list.

Unfortunately, I used to be able to buy this for only $20 because my cousin was a hairdresser and could get it half price at the beauty supplier (She moved, but I'm on my way to getting my hairdressing license) so I now have to pay a full $45. It's painful to pay at times, but I really do believe it is worth it, also, i use half a pump and so the product lasts almost a full year for me. Even though my hair is quite short, just below my chin level as an angular bob, half a pump can work on hair down to just below shoulder length, anything longer should use a full pump for the best benefits.

This product, even if you have to splurge for it, is something I would recommend to every single woman out there, heck, I'll even recommend it to guys who care about their hair. I think it's definitely worth trying at least once or giving as a gift to a friend or family member who is into hair and/or beauty, or a deserving mother or sister. I'm sure they will appreciate it, I know it helps make me feel amazing.

Get To The Point...

What's To Love:
-Weightless
-Long lasting nourishment
-Not tested on animals!
-Great investment
-Reduces blow drying time up to 50%
-Improves shine
-Built in heat protector

What's To Not:
-The price, depending on where you buy it. ($45 at Shoppers Drug Mart where I live, may differ in different locations)

Final Thoughts
If you're looking for a new heat protector, to add shine, or just bring your hair back to life, this is the one thing I would recommend to you. No more trying a hundred different products to find something that works, this is a one time miracle, and if you don't completely fall in love with it, I'd suggest giving it time, and then stop using it for a while and see what state your hair reverts back to. I did that, and I could not believe how much the breakage and damage was amplified just from the absense of this one product. Try it, try it, try it!