Sunday 31 July 2016

Marc Jacobs - Fragrance Master


MARC JACOBS



Although I've never owned an actual Marc Jacobs perfume I know what they all smell like and have received samples upon samples of them. You know when you go into the Bay or any other department store and you walk around spraying all the perfume on those little test strips well you can also ask the beauty advisors for samples and they will give you a tiny little vial of the scent. I'm not ashamed to say that I am that person.

If I could afford the splurge I would own almost every single Marc Jacobs perfume that's been released. 90% of the ones I've tried are all quite floral based. My favorite one as of late is the Marc Jacobs Decadence and look at that bottle! *drools* Designed to look like an iconic Marc Jacobs bag this one smells more musky than the others but it makes it a more sexy scent than the others, one you could wear to a night out on the town with the ladies or your significant other. I fell head over heels with this for the absolutely stunning design and scent and am definitely going to be saving for this one.

Did I mention he has the cutest bottle designs? There is not one that wouldn't look gorgeous sitting on top of your vanity! Honey is one of my favorite looks wise! Marc Jacobs to me has really nailed everything when it comes to fragrance, his scents are beautiful, his bottles are fabulous and seeing as he's a designer of course the price tag is expected to be a little steep but I think if you can afford it go for it. Everyone has to treat themselves once in a while right?

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Bri



Saturday 30 July 2016

Lusting after....High End Fragrances

Fragrance

I feel like I need to invest some money into more high-end perfumes. From my previous post you know that I can't bring myself to spend dollars upon dollars on something I find quite frivolous unless I will wear it into the ground. I created this wish list of high end perfumes I am lusting over at the moment.

YSL Black Opium: This has notes that I've never seen really seen in other fragrances including coffee accord and although you may not think it works great alongside the floral scents it does and I think it makes it more powerful overall. The bottle would look glamorous on the vanity not to mention, I love the black and pick color scheme along with the sparkle finish of the bottle.

Viktor&Rolf Flowerbomb: Like it's male counterpart (which I didn't know was for men, oops) the bottle looks like a grenade which I thought was an incredibly cool concept. I did receive a sample of this way back when with a Sephora order and I'm a sucker for floral scents and I will definitely splurge for this! There is nothing but an explosion of floral notes;
Notes:
Sambac Jasmine, Centifolia Rose, Cattleya Orchid, Ballerina Freesia, Patchouli.


Elizabeth James Nirvana Black and White:I've always loved the Olsen twins. For me they are one of the greatest style icons and do not dress like any other which is what style is all about. They paved the road for the menswear trend in my eyes and can seemingly pull of anything! I was excited when I heard they had released new fragrances meant to embody the line between feminine and masculine.
Nirvana Black has three notes;  vanilla, sandalwood and violet. Simple but pleasurable.
Nirvana White, the more musky of the two. I've read mixed reviews for this one and I have not tried either yet I'm just inclined to buy them as like I said above the Olsen's are a big icon to me. Of course I will be trying both before I buy. Reading the reviews on the White I'm not sure how I'll feel but I already know I love the notes included in the black so there is no doubt in my mind that I will be saving for that.

Which fragrances are you coveting?

<3 p="">Bri

Friday 29 July 2016

Simple Pleasures - Baths


Baths are such a luxury and I often forgot that. 
I recently stopped by Lush as I was craving a bath. Let's face it baths really aren't that fantastic without some bath bombs, bubbles, wine and music. I picked up one of the new products the Lava Lamp bath bomb  
On the Lush website it say's it will be in stores soon but I picked up mine in store! 
 The purple orbs are cocoa butter balls and you can definitely feel the lather of moisture it releases as it fizzles. This is made up of a triple citrus threat including sicilian mandarins, tangerines and orange flower. The smell of this is amazing, citrus is in my top five favorite scents but when this was put in the bath the scent retired quicker than I hoped.
I didn't find that the orbs melted quickly enough to really make the water look like a lava lamp. I wish the orb amount was doubled as I think it would of made a world of difference! 

It was so relaxing to just lay in the bath forget all my worries.

What are your favorite Lush products?

Friday 22 July 2016

CURRENTLY SAMPLING....PERFUME


Perfume samples are one of my favorite things

They last for quite a long time if they're  a strong scent which the above are and I have a hard time paying a large amount of money unless I fall head over heels for a scent sso it's nice to try before you buy.

I've had these for a while the only reason they haven't been completely used up yet is because I have a lot of body sprays that I use on a daily rotation so I put these to the side and kind of forgot about them for a while.

I received all of these with different Sephora orders, the scents are;

Marc Jacobs Mod Noir and Decadence 
Viktor&Rolf Spicebomb

Mod Noir {The airy floral fragrance opens with a field of lush, dewy greens, which give way to freshly cut gardenias floating atop sparkling water. Creamy musks leave a sensual dry down on the skin.- Sephora Description} - The notes are Greens, Gardenia, Creamy Musks.

Mod Noir is nice but I wouldn't purchase it for myself as I didn't love it. It smelled more musky to me than anything and the hint of florals was very very subtle. For $110 CAD I wouldn't get enough wear out of this to justify purchasing it.


Spicebomb {An explosive encounter between two accords with detonating tones: the first, explosive, fuses zesty, fresh notes while the cold spices leave their icy bite. The second, addictive, combines a middle note of incandescent spices with a wholly masculine combination of leather and tobacco as well as the brute force of vetiver. - Sephora} - The notes;
Bergamot, Grapefruit, Cinnamon Leaf, Pink Pepper, Lavandin, Chilli, Saffron, Elemi, Vetiver, Balsam Fir, Tobacco Accord, White Leather Accord.}

I'm not going to lie and pretend like I knew this was a men's scent because I didn't...and I have worn it on myself and I actually really love the smell. Knowing that it's a men's scent won't change the fact that I'll continue to wear it! Wear whatever you like, everything can be unisex if you want it to be. The bottle is really interesting too as it's designed to look like a grenade! There is a lot of different notes with a lot of variety which gives this that explosive smell.

Decadence { A sensual, luxurious, and woody fragrance, Decadence embodies the spirit of irreverent glamour. The fragrance opens with sultry top notes of Italian plum, iris flower, and saffron. The heart combines luxurious notes of Bulgarian rose, jasmine sambac, and orris. The indulgent dry down reveals the base notes of vetiver, papyrus woods, and liquid amber. - Sephora} - The notes; Italian Plum, Iris Flower, Saffron, Bulgarian Rose, Jasmine Sambac, Orris, Vetiver, Papyrus Woods, Liquid Amber.

Say hello to glamour in a bottle. This is by far one of the most gorgeous perfumes my olfactory senses have come across and the bottle would look beautiful on the vanity as it's a designed to look like a Marc Jacobs bag, it even includes a strap to carry it around. My fiance described this as musky and he is not wrong it's got a heavy muskiness to but not to the point where it completely over powers the other notes so it still smells feminine. I'd describe the scent as one that is sexy and sultry. A little spritz on each wrist is more than enough as it can be easy to over do it with this one. This will one day be part of my collection as everything about it is to die for.

What are your favorite scents? 
 - please comment if you read, I really would love to connect with more people! 

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Bri   

 



 

Wednesday 20 July 2016

Too Faced - Le Grand Palais


Hey everyone!
This post was very delayed and by that I mean this palette came out in Christmas of 2015 and I'm only writing it about now...
 Why, you ask?
 I just didn't get much use out of it until recently but I still wanted to share my thoughts with you guys.

Too Faced is known for their impeccable shadows. I have a few other Too Faced palettes that I adore and use all the time. So naturally when I saw this come out at Christmas, despite all the mixed reviews on it I thought hey why not? and went ahead and purchased it as a gift to myself. Being a Holiday Release this was limited edition and a Sephora exclusive and it retailed for $75 CAD which I don't think is outrageous as you get a considerable amount of product in the palette itself as well as three deluxe sized samples, including a "Better Than Sex" mascara, "Melted Peony" liquified lipstick and the Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer.

The only Too Faced products I had tried before this palette previously were other eye shadow palettes so I really enjoyed getting the sample products as a way to test some other products from the brand. This may be the unpopular opinion but I hated the Better Than Sex Mascara the brush was almost bigger than my eye itself and I found it hard to scrape all the excess off of it which left me with extremely clumpy and goopy lashes, I don't understand they hype around that product at all. The liquid lipstick I adored although I think for a holiday palette though they could have chosen a more winter appropriate shade. Melted Peony to me is not a color I'd rock in the snow but I have been getting lots of use out of it this summer. I've been using a primer from Coastal Scents so I only used the Shadow Insurance once but I was blown away by how vibrant it made the shadows and there was not even the tiniest bit of creasing either after eight hours!

On to the actual palette...

Too Faced aced the outer packaging on this, love the little box its housed in and the decoration including the Sephora bag and Too faced Chocolate bar palette! As with all Too Faced products I've come across the packaging on this is super cute! My only gripe with the packaging is that the palette is in a cardboard case and instead of using the side with no products for a mirror they decided to just use it as decoration. There is more than enough space for a mirror and decoration I just don't understand why they didn't utilizie it better, I mean this could have been a perfect travel palette if a mirror was included.



Including the larger pans there are 18 eye shadows, 2 blushes, a highlight and a bronzer. A large quantity of product but is the quality there?


{left to right: White Christmas, Satin Sheets and Vintage Lace}

White Christmas: Very powdery with little pigmentation. You really have to build this one up for any color payoff.

Satin Sheets: This shadow is included in the Too Faced Boudoir palette which I also own. The lighting in this shot makes it look very white but it's not. It's a very sheer slightly shimmery pale pink champagne color. The swatch didn't do this color justice I really love this shade, no it's not pigmented but the shimmer really makes it an eye catching shade.

Vintage Lace: A yellow toned base shade. It's quite powdery but the pigment is pretty good.


{left to right - Delightful, Moon On Their Wings, Cobblestone, City Lights & Dreamlight}

Delightful: Pale pink, lots of shimmer. This one took a lot to build up but felt very buttery to the touch and had little to no fall out. Makes a great highlighting shade!

Moon On Their Wings: Shimmer finish, light gold. Again a very buttery shade but not a lot of pigment just a lot of shimmer. 

Cobblestone: Gorgeous, gorgeous matte crease shade. I love this color, I've been using this almost daily as my go to. It's buttery and blends beautifully! It's highly pigmented though so be sure to not use too much too quickly.

City Lights: Another perfect matte shade. I used this on my crease today and is perfect just like Cobblestone. The mattes in this palette are amazing. I honestly wish Too Faced would sell singles because I would buy this and Cobblestone over and over again!

Dreamlight: This shade looks almost matte in the swatch but it does have a slight hint of shimmer to it. Very pigmented and little fallout. 
 

{left to right - String of Lights, Yule Log, Wish List, Arc De Triomphe, Belle Femme}

String of Lights:  This is one of the worst shades of all. Patchy, zero pigmentation. This swatch took about 15 layers. This was just a complete waste in my opinion.

Yule Log: This looks black but I assure you it's not. In the pan it's a dark brown with flecks of gold shimmer throughout which look non existent above. This was patchy and i feel like you really had to push to get it to transfer to the skin.

Wish List: My favorite in the palette. A marvelous gold and I'm a sucker for a golds. Pigmented, buttery and blendable. Perfect gold in my eyes.

Arc De Triomphe: A shimmery rose gold. I used this as an inner highlight today and on the eyes it definitely leans more golden. This one had quite a bit of fallout but is a very pretty shade and is easily buildable for more pigment.

Belle Femme: A dark brown matte. This one was a tad more patchy then the other two matte shades but is still a great matte. Great for darkening the crease.


{left to right: Stiletto, Eiffel. Midnight in Paris, Champs Elysees, Party Dress}

Stiletto: A matte extremely patchy black. For a black I was expecting a much deeper shade than what I got. Not impressed.

Eiffel: A shimmery forest green. I love this color just wish it was a tad more pigmented because its so beautiful. Again was very patchy.

Midnight in Paris: A blue glitter. I say glitter instead of shimmer because even in the swatch you can see CHUNKS of glitter. There are more chunks of glitter than there is eye shadow which  is not what I was expecting when looking in the pan. This is right up there with String Of Lights as the worst shade in the palette.

Champs Elysees: A purple shimmer shade. I used this wet on my eyes today and it looked terrific when I first applied it. It was vibrant and glittery but after not even a couple of hours it had almost completely vanished. I might try using a different primer next time to see how it holds up.

Party Dress: A pink shimmer. This one again like Midnight In Paris has some larger chunks of glitter but overall it's not terrible. Good pigment albeit a little patchy.

There's a great range of shades in this palette with three very well done mattes and a few shimmer shades that I really liked. Most of the eye shadows were nothing special though but the super glittery shades do look much better when used wet.


 {swatched wet}

Midnight in Paris even used wet is still patchy and chunky. This honestly was such a horrible shade it's almost unusable. Eiffel has much more pigment when applied wet and looks stunning!
The Face Products
 

{left to right: Stardust, Skyline, Flush and Sun Bunny}

Stardust: Very pigmented coral/pink blush. This applied like a dream and is super blendable.

Skyline: Classic barbie pink, easy to use too much product with this one as its extremely pigmented. I'm very fair so have to be very careful when using this one.

Flush: Light golden champagne. I didn't really like this highlight. It' much more subtle and I like a very in your face highlight but if you're one for subtlety this may be up your alley. Has very little shimmer but still adds a lovely glow to the skin.

Sun Bunny: This feels just like butter and is so pigmented. Being fair skinned this was too orange for me and made me look very muddy but I do think it's a lovely color and for darker skinned folks would look amazing!

I don't regret buying this palette but I understand the mixed reviews. It's disappointing when there are a few amazing shades in a palette and the rest are just mediocre especially when splashing out more than fifty dollars on one item.

Did anyone else get this? Thoughts?

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Bri
 

Monday 18 July 2016

The Balm Nude Tude Fake?

Hi everyone! 
It's been a while I know, I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me!

I had heard about the Balms "Nude Tude" palette for a long time but only recently purchased it within the past year. The disappointing truth was that I got a fake. I didn't order this directly from The Balm's website which was my first mistake and I should have known better but I proceeded to order it anyways knowing full well there was an extremely high risk of it being fake. Luckily I only paid thirteen dollars for it so it didn't break the bank nor did I feel as bad as I could have. 

I even spent time researching the fakes so that I could tell before hand but photos do lie my friends. 
I don't have the real palette to compare but I wanted to post this for others who may be thinking they can find it elsewhere for cheaper. Please take it from me, if you want this palette purchase it from the Balm directly as there are so many fakes out there and people will charge full price if not more if they think you'll go for it. I would have been so angry had I paid full price and found out later that it was fake.


So as you can see I used the whole pan up of Silly as it was my brow color and I wasn't originally planning to do a post on this so I never took blog photos previously. The colors are chalky and hardly pigmented. The swatches below took about ten swipes each to build up any color.




{Top - Bottom: Sassy, Stubborn, Selfish, Sophisticated, Sexy, Serious, Snobby, Stand-Offish, Sultry, Seductive, Silly (originally named Schitzo) and Sleek} 
As you can see "Snobby and Stand-Offish" offer little to no pigment even after building it up. 

Another dead giveaway for me that this was a fake palette was that the brush it came with was just about too long for the spot it was in and it broke in half without me using it even once. If that's not poor quality I don't know what is.

 When I researched the fake vs. the real palette here's some of the things I read/saw that did not match my fake but could be in others;

Real: Tan packaging
Fake: Grey packaging

Real: QR code in top right corner
Fake: No barcode - mine did have a QR code which I did try to scan but it would just constantly keep scanning over it and nothing would happen so the fake may have one as well.

Real: Fair skinned girls (my fake had fair skinned girls)
Fake: Orange looking skin 

I wish I had the real palette to compare and I most likely will buy it, so I may come back and edit this post in the near future. ;)

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Bri