Bits I Bought in NYC

I spent 4 nights and about 4.5 days in New York, NY, crashing with my dear brother (you know, family day weekend and all). I mostly had intentions of seeing friends, eating and generally wandering the city as I used to. I had a couple items in mind that I wanted to check out, so here are some of the bits I came back with. 

Custom lipstick from Bite Beauty Lip Lab

I remember reading about Canadian brand Bite Beauty's custom-colour-making Lip Lab a little while ago, and then I saw Lesa whipping up a custom blend on Insta, and I made a mental note to check it out next time I was going to be in the city. My flight back to Toronto was pushed back substantially, so I had extra time to poke around. I made my way to Prince Street to partake in this experience and had a delightful time creating a custom lip colour. I decided to stick to a colour that I would wear more often than not, so a fairly neutral-leaning-ever-so-slightly-warm shade was born after two rounds of mixing and trying on the blends with my lip lab tech. The options include picking out a formulation (Matte? Sheer? and so forth and so on!), tweaking the colour to your liking, adding a scent via essential oils and deciding what type of lipstick cap you prefer (an odd but interesting choice to make).

My lip lab tech mixed too much of my custom colour, so I wound up with two bullets for the price of one. Custom lipsticks start at $36 each and go up depending on the formula you choose. I walked away with a flesh-toned sheer luminous creme lipstick scented with mango and mint essential oils. If you're never able to find a colour that pleases you, definitely stop by for a bullet or few as unique as your taste.

Tatcha Camelia Nourishing Lip Balm

This jar untouched was so pretty, but I couldn't even slow my roll enough to snap a pic of it before completely messing up the gold leaf of this lip balm. I'm so not blogger-minded in that regard! Oh well! What I can express is that this balm is reeeeeeally pretty (immaculate packaging, y'all), and is loaded with camellia oil. I recently fell hard for this type of oil after realizing it's the magic ingredient in Shu Uemura's Moisture Velvet range, as well as Shu Uemura's Essence Absolue hair oil. Those products are the only things that hydrate my hair, so I was more than willing to try this balm, and I'm quite pleased with it. There's a square of gold leaf on top of this balm that lends a hint of shimmer when applied to the lips, but once it's gone, you're looking at a pretty emollient formula.

Vaseline Rosy Lips

Once I saw this pop up on US blogs, I knew I'd make a point of hunting it down. I first asked the PR team for Vaseline if this was going to launch in the Canadian market any time soon, and after I received confirmation that it wouldn't in the foreseeable future, I began plotting. I hit several Duane Reades and didn't spot it, so then I carried on to Walgreens in Times Square, because desperate times call for desperate measures! I found a bunch, bought 3 (2 for friends - my hoarding mentality is more selective than that!) and have enjoyed the hint of tint and floral scent that this formula has. People have their views on petroleum jelly, but I cannot deny the way it keeps lips moisturized, even in heinous weather (and I spent three days outside for about 12 hours a day, and I barely reapplied - fantastic!). 

Aesop Moroccan Neroli Shaving Duet

Aesop has expanded aggressively in the US market (the brand originally hails from Australia!), with Manhattan proper being its primary focus. They have stores all over the city, all quite interesting and made from recycled or renewable materials, like old copies of The New York Times. When I lived in the city, I was an avid user of the Moroccan Neroli Shaving Serum. It's a lightweight gel texture that offers low-foam slip, allowing a razor to glide through with absolute ease. I admittedly grabbed this duo for my boyfriend to make up for a really foiled vday gift (Sidebar rant: Dear J.Crew, how did you completely mess up the execution of monogramming a scarf? Not one letter was correct!!!). The shave serum is accompanied by a soothing aftershave lotion, which is lightweight, hydrating and quite comforting to the skin thanks to shea butter and olive fruit, and a slew of other beneficial ingredients that Aesop just loves throwing into the mix (witch hazel. orange flower oil aka NEROLI, glycerin, ginger root extract)! You can find the Aesop range at Holt Renfrew Yorkdale if you're not keen on ecomm or heading stateside any time soon.

Laura Mercier Ambre Vanillé Eau Gourmande

I don't even know what the classification of "Eau Gourmande" is. Is that a thing? Do I just know nothing about fragrance concentrations?! Doubtful, but I need to go on record and say this was a wildcard buy for me. I'm not that into gourmand scents, and I truly haaaaate vanilla fragrances. Anyone who likes to smell like a cupcake is dead to me, and the success of scents like Aquolina Pink Sugar ASTOUND me. Suffice it to say, this scent does not smell that sugary. It's sweet, but it isn't cloying to me personally. The amber element sucked me in. I originally was drawn to the hand cream in this scent, then just started using the hand cream when I wanted to smell this, and well, logic eventually prevailed! YAY!

Slather'em On: LIP BALMS

Let me push the banal envelope and whine about the arctic temperature for a moment: JESUS CHRIST, IT IS COLD OUT THERE. And to me, that basically means abandon all lip colours and focus on proper balms that protect lips instead of drain them of moisture *glares at matte lipsticks*. I was reading through the comments section of a lip balm free-for-all post on IntoTheGloss and thought I could throw my two cents down (I'm giggling because we no longer have the penny)....! The temperature has been somewhere around the -40C mark more than a few times in the past week, so I thought it may be handy to go over some lip balms and products that may be worth your while if you're trying to nurse them back from a cracked or peeling state. Let's get right into it!

La Mer Lip Balm 

Okay, I admit this one is more luxurious than anything else, and it won't do too much for you in harsh weather, but I first bought this in the early 2000s and have repurchased it several times since. I've never been one to care about flavours of lip products because I don't lick my lips (yes, I'm superior to you like that - let's be real, it never was a habit for me and it just further dehydrates your lips due to the acidic nature of saliva, so...), but this one tastes pleasant for others, so I like to be considerate in that way, and it's pretty much the smoothest lip balm ever when applied on freshly exfoliated lips. It's known for containing the famous La Mer broth that is in the other La Mer skincare products. Famous broth aside, La Mer Lip Balm is pretty pricey ($60, at Holt Renfrew), but if you're in the mood for a small indulgence, let it be this one.
[Note: I exfoliate my lips every single night with a slightly dampened face towel and then apply lip balm. I started this ritual in high school and have stuck with it since and it helps immensely with both eliminating flakey, dead skin and lip balm absorption]

Bite Beauty Agave Lip Mask

Finally, a suitable and petroleum-free alternative to Vaseline, Aquaphor and the like! This thick, emollient balm is meant to be a leave-on "mask" for your lips, but really it's a balm that you can wear any time you jolly well please (I'm sorry, I just finished rewatching Seasons 1 through 3 of Downton)! It contains jojoba oil, lanolin, and the antioxidant that Bite Beauty is most known for, resveratrol (commonly found in red wine). This stuff is so soothing and comfortable, it's just what's needed for this heinous weather we've all been trudging through. The price point is rather fair. One downer: it's in one of those classic metal tubes so getting every bit out might be an absolute nightmare, but enough people have ranted about it that I anticipate a repackaging situation at some point... I hope. A solid bet for your money ($30, at Sephora), packaging aside.  

Elizabeth Arden Lip Protectant Stick SPF 15

I believe I grabbed one of these in a cutesie tube that had a cartoon drawing of the classic Elizabeth Arden Red Door on it at Duty Free in EWR on one of my various visits home a couple years ago and have been rather happy that I did. This lip balm ($23, at The Bay) is essentially a stick version of the heralded Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream, known as such because it was alleged by a customer that the cream healed her son's scrapes in 8 hours. The formula contains petrolatum (wah!), vitamin E, salicylic acid and other emollients. The lip balm in particular also contains SPF, making it a fine option for any day there's a fresh snowfall (fun fact: snow reflects light like crazy SO WEAR SUNSCREEN EVERY DAY, even in the winter). If you know the smell of the 8 Hour Cream, then you can probably conclude what this balm smells like ... herbal, at best, but man, it does a damn good job of soothing irritated lips.

Nivea Lip Butter

I have been a long-time user of Nivea lip products... probably more so when they were still Labello lip products and then bought out by Nivea, but whatever, I'm no stranger to the stick balms. You know, the light blue hydrating, the darker blue classic, all the wacky ones they've conjured up in the last couple years (chamomile? mint & minerals?)... I've tried them all! I've even gone as far as ordering weird fruity flavours from Asia via Amazon (it was one of those orders where I guess I kind of fell into an Amazon blackhole, but I'm pretty sure that's *all* Amazon orders, am I right?). When I saw a tin lip butter ($3.60, well.ca) was emerging from Nivea, I was rather enthused. Naturally, the Canadian market somehow got the shaft and only received two of the 4 SKUs that launched in US and UK markets. Typical! Either way, I went for the original and I'm quite pleased with it. While I'm admittedly skeptical of any balm with a whitish hue since I have pigmented lips and well, simple math: pigmented lips + whitish balm = gross greyish cast of colour, but that wasn't the case with this balm. This buttery stuff absorbed, and the formula is rich with almond oil and shea butter, so actual hydration is a thing that occurs here! Huzzah!



Disclosure: This post contains product(s) sent from the company or their PR team for editorial consideration. For more information, please click here.

Happy 2014 + 2013 Favourites

Hello, dear friends. It's been a minute since I posted anything new, and I maintain it's because the holiday season was far more blur-like than it's ever been before. I spent the majority of December working away rather diligently, and have spent the last few days curled into a ball, so allow me to apologize for leaving anyone who actually looks at this blog in the lurch for about a month.

That being said, let me blab on about some favourite products that were really significant standouts in the 2013.

Chanel Les Beiges 

When Chanel Les Beiges initially launched, I was admittedly a bit confused about what the point of the product was. Was it a bronzer? Was it used to contour? Was it a setting powder? Someone told me to use it as a blush -- was that serious? Did it just add a bit of warmth to the skin? How did the numbering system work in correspondence to the other Chanel shades, and why did it always seem darker than the usual shade I wore (shown in Shade 40, which is my standard Chanel shade)? I had a slew of inquiries and not too many answers, so I just started playing with it and discovered that different shades can serve different purposes. Shade 40 is a great contour shade for East Indian women, and I have actually managed to hit major pan on this compact. Me. I hit pan. On a beauty product. Those of you who know me know that this happens very rarely and that it's a momentous occasion and testament to how much I love a product. I use Chanel Les Beiges daily and find that I look like a corpse if I don't. Superb stuff, will absolutely replenish when I'm done with this one! 

Chanel Retractable Kabuki Brush

This past year was very much an exploration of brush necessities and I was seriously enamoured by this retractable kabuki brush as soon as I felt it. You've probably never felt anything so soft and silky against your skin that also happened to be a makeup brush. It is unbelievable. The brush also happens to lay powder products down beautifully, so this one is an all-around winner.

Laura Mercier Matte Eye Color in "Truffle"

I fell pretty hard for one shade from the Laura Mercier Artist's Palette For Eyes, dubbed "Truffle", and it's luckily a permanent shade that is available for purchase on its own. I used this warm chocolate taupe shade as a crease colour, but since I have slightly hooded eyes, I apply this shade lightly with a fluffy brush to the area slightly above my crease while looking straight forward into a mirror so that it's visible when my eyes are open, blending it in to avoid a harsh line, obviously. Long story short: this shade is great and I'll probably use it for years to come. I love the warmth of it, and it's a great transition shade if you're into that concept for between a smokier shadow and your brow shade. Superb!

Bite Beauty Cashmere Lip Cream in "Rioja"

 

This may look like your run-of-the-mill lip colour, but this cream-to-powder formula is wacky in a really fantastic way. When I first pulled this wand out, I didn't understand the consistency of this lip cream, because it was drier than anything else I've ever seen, but don't let that put you off. The formula contains different waxes and butters that have varied melting and absorption temperatures and rates, meaning it keeps lips from falling prey to dehydration, and the pigments leave a powdery matte finish with the most out of control pigmentation imaginable. I enjoy this formula for a different kind of lip product experience. Yes, that's a serious sentence I just wrote. I mean it though!

MAKE UP FOR EVER #158 Double Ended Sculpting Brush

 

MUFE put a considerable amount of time, research and design efforts into their newest brush range, and this brush is such a joy to use every day. The brush heads are 100% synthetic, which is awesome for anyone who is concerned with avoiding animal byproducts, or for anyone who is sensitive to natural bristles. These synthetic hairs are made to mimic natural bristles with two types: straight and wavy hairs. The angled end is perfect for contouring, while the more rounded end is great for blush or highlighter application. If you haven't felt any of these brushes in person, I urge you to get to a Sephora to do so, because they're really excellent quality. 

Dior Huile Abricot Daily Nutritive Serum

Cuticle care is something traditionally addressed with cuticle oil, but can we all just pause to lament the greasy marks cuticle oil leaves on everything? I'm mostly referring to my poor, smudgy smartphone screen. It's downright hindering to apply cuticle oil and then have to sit still while it absorbs while dribbling down your hands all over the damn place. This serum gel formula from Dior is pretty much the best thing to happen to cuticle care this past year. The brush-on applicator makes it super convenient to pinpoint where you apply it, and it doesn't make a mess at all. Never want to be without this stuff!

I had a lovely NYE, and hope you did too! 

I want to wish y'all a happy and healthy new year to come in 2014! Hopefully will be writing much more in the next little while!

Disclosure: This post contains product(s) sent from the company or their PR team for editorial consideration. For more information, please click here.