August Empties

Did not finish too many products up in August. 

Bath & Body Works Island Margarita 3-Wick Candle has got to be one of my top favorite scented candles of all times. This must be my third tub finished. It has the perfect summer drink scent and not too sweet. 

Neutrogena Oil Free Eye Makeup Remover is my staple makeup remover. It removes the most stubborn waterproof eye makeup. Gentle enough and does not sting my eyes which is super important to me as I wear contact lens.

Dior's Creme de rose is one of the best lip balm I have ever tried. This is my first one and I have already bought a second one. I didn't want to fall into the hype of this expensive high-end lip balm but finally caved in and so glad I got this. All winter long, this is my lip savior. Probably first winter that my lips felt so moisturized. 

Graftobian Corrector Palette is my under eye area's best friend. I have dark circles and I only used 2 shades of this palette. I mix the darkest shade(a more orange shade) and a salmon shade to cover up my under eye area. I bought this online last year and I use this every day and this last more than 1.5 years. Already bought my second one and put it to good use already.

Maybelline Dream Lumi Concealer is a nice highlighter concealer. Great to brighten up the under eye area. It has a twist up brush applicator which I am not too crazy about as it is hard to control the amount of product dispensed. 

L'Oreal Telescopic Shocking Extension Waterproof Mascara has become my favorite drug store mascara to replace my previous favorite: Maybelline's Falsies. It gives more natural but yet still lengthen my lashes. Holds my curls much better and I am happy to say my lashes stay curled up all day long.

Mario Badescu Hyaluronic Eye Cream is one of the sample products sent. It is a medium weight eye cream and I apply that only at night time. Very moisturizing but a bit thick to my liking. Other than moisturizing properties, I didn't find anything extra special about this eye cream. 

What have you finished this month? I love seeing what others finished up. Leave me a link below with your post.

Food in the city

Eating out a lot when I am home in Toronto this week. So many restaurants to choose from in the big city.

Ramen at Koi Sakana

Weekend Afternoon Tea Buffet @Essence of Unionville

I love desserts and what a great way to spend a weekend afternoon enjoying the tea buffet at Hilton Suite(Warden/Hwy 7, Markham). A great variety of finger sandwiches, macarons, cakes, scones etc. 

Panera Bread

My absolute favorite salad is back at Panera Bread. It is the Strawberry Poppyseed Chicken Salad. It is available in the summertime and I probably have my fair share of indulging in this yummy salad this week. I had the 1/2 order of salad with a Thai Chicken flatbread sandwich.

My must-have when I'm having Chinese food is the sweet and sour pork and deep fried lobster. So yummy.

Burrito @ Mucho Burrito

Who doesn't like a good burrito? I paid my first visit to Mucho Burrito in Aurora. I had the Barbacoa(shredded beef) burrito, loaded with cheese, brown rice, black bean, salsa & my must-have: guacamole. 

Steak Burrito @Chipotle

I prefer the burrito at Chipotle. They are very similar in price. At Chipotle, you don't get to pick a size so if you have a small appetite, for sure, you won't be able to finish the whole thing. I am quite far away from Chipotle unfortunately so my next best choice would have to be Burrito Mucho.

Hope everyone is having a great long weekend. Happy Labor Day!

August Favorites

I haven't done a monthly favorite for a while since I usually stick with products a couple of months at a time. Since I have done some re-organizing of my makeup products, I have re-discovered a few items I have forgotten.

Let's talk about my re-discovered products first:

Chanel Aqua Lumiere is the perfect summer foundation. It is light-weight and still gives enough coverage. I forgot how much I love this before and haven't got around to use it for so long.

Too Faced Chocolate Solei  bronzer is my go-to bronzer for the most part this month. It is such a nice soft brown shade. Easy to apply as a contour and an overall bronzer. Not to mention the yummy chocolate scent.

I just got the Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Rose Gold earlier this month and have been using this non-stop daily(see my post for swatches and review). I like to pair it with Benefit Rockateur blush which is also a rose-gold toned blush. 

Another Benefit Product I love this month is Benefit Gimme Brow. It is such an easy product to use on brows on rushed mornings. It gives texture and I like to fill the beginning of the brows with this to give more shape and texture to make my brows fuller. 

Dug out my YSL Rouge Volupte Shine lipstick in Orange Impertinent from my lipstick collection and forgot how much I adore this lipstick. It is such a pretty coral orange shade which looks awesome in medium skin-toned gals like me. 

Last but not least is Kat Von D Tattoo Liner.  Just love how easy it is to do winged lines these days which I thought was impossible for beginners like me. It is pigmented and true black. Lasting power is amazing on my eyes, even on hot humid days. I did have to re-apply a couple of times when it was super humid out. But overall, super impressed with this liner and I love this so much that I already bought a backup.

What have you been loving this month? Have you tried any of the products I love?

My Freebies from SDM

I am back to Toronto for the last bit of the short summer we have in Canada. It is Shoppers Drug Mart Bonus Redemption weekend also. For those of you who are not familiar with Shoppers Drug Mart, it is a drug store here in Canada which offers a reward program. When you have accumulated enough points, you could redeem points for whatever you like in the store. Shoppers Drug Mart in the city carries much more prestigious brands than in the town where I live. So I decided to take advantage of that and redeem my points and get a few products which are not available in my town.

La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo Set

Chanel Rouge Coco Shine lipstick

Origins High Potency Night-A-Mins Oil free Moisturizer

I have been using the La Roche Posay Effaclar A.I which is the target corrector for blemishes for years and love it. Decided to pick up this set which contains the Effaclar gel, duo and Anthelios(sunscreen). It is the same price as just getting the Effaclar Duo so might as well pick up the set to try the foaming gel as well. Heard so much great reviews about the duo. This can be applied all over the face as a base after your moisturizer to help control blemishes, clear pores and also help with diminishing blemishes pigmentation which I am most looking forward to trying.

Origins High Potency Night-A-Mins is my night moisturizer for a while and really enjoying it. I prefer the oil-free version as the regular version is just a bit too sticky for me.

The Chanel lipstick is totally a splurge for me. I haven't tried their Rouge Coco Shine formula lipstick before and the shade I got is 94 Confident.

I believe this is a limited edition for the fall collection. I love sheer moisturizing lipstick to just throw in my purse for touch up. When I see this shade, I know I have to take it home with me. It is my favorite mauve, plum shade which is perfect for everyday and goes with pretty much everything.

NYX Eyebrow Gel

NYX just released a new eyebrow gel and the hype is that it is highly-pigmented and keep brows in shape for hours. Also it is very affordable at US $7.

We, Canadians, are always late in getting the new beauty products and I, of course, got mine off ebay.

NYX Eyebrow Gel

There are 5 shades available and the shade I picked is EBG04 Espresso

the eyebrow gel comes in a squeeze tube packaging. Very similar to the Makeup Forever Aqua Gel which comes in more shades available but at CAD $24.

Espresso is a dark brown shade. Let me tell you, the swatch above is from a 1/4 of pea-sized product. So, really you only need the tiniest bit to do both brows.

How I apply is to squeeze a tiny bit of product onto the back of my hand. Then I use an angled brow brush to apply. I think this shade matches my brow quite nicely. Not too dark and it just has a bit of deep brown in it. 

I am very impressed with the product. It is super highly-pigmented and it is perfect for the hot summer months as this is waterproof and doesn't smudge. It does set fast so I usually do one brow at a time and move on to the next. 

This is so affordable at US $7 and I'm sure when it arrives in Canada, it would be around CAD $10 but still a very good deal for a nice eyebrow product.

What is your current favorite eyebrow product?

August TopBox

I opted for the regular box for August TopBox. I also picked the satchel packaging instead of the regular tube box to minimize cardboard waste.

4 decent-sized products this month and I'm very happy about this:

Barefoot Venus Macadamia Oil Hand Cream 60ml

LAQA & Co. Bees Knees Sheer Lip Lube Pencil

Belvada Cosmetics Nail Polish Remover 28 pads

Clinique Repairwear Laser Focus Wrinkle Correcting Eye Cream 5 ml

Out of the 4 products, the only brand I have heard of is Clinique. It is a repairwear laser focus wrinkle correcting eye cream which I also have a sample size of but haven't tried yet. I always like to test out new eye cream so I don't mind at all.

Barefoot Venus Macadamia Oil Hand Cream is quite nice. I haven't tried any Macadamia Oil hand cream product. Only for hair. This has a very nice scent to it which contains macadamia nut oil, sesame seed oil and wheat germ oil. Not super oily and greasy.

LAQA & Co. Sheer Lip Lube Pencil is also very nice. It is a glossy lip balm with peppermint shea butter and a hint of mint. The shade is very pretty. A coral pink. It is not very sheer as the name suggested and looking forward to trying it on my lips.

Last but not least is Belvada Cosmetics Nail Polish Remover. This comes with 28 pads and it is lemon-scented and acetone-free. 

Quite happy with what I received this month's TopBox. What box did you pick this month?

Lip Product Samples Galore from Sephora

I admit I always get sucked into making Sephora online purchases just to get the special promotions they have.

A couple of weeks ago, Sephora had a promo with lip samples and it only took me a few minutes to quickly do an order online.

Urban Decay Revolution, Givenchy Le Rouge, Marc Jacob & YSL Gloss Volupte

Doesn't this look awesome? 4 high end designer lip product samples. 

I have been wanting to try the YSL Gloss Volupte and the shades offered are so pretty. It also comes with a little applicator. 

The Marc Jacob is a Lip Lock Moisture Balm and it is a deluxe sample size. I am a lip balm junkie and can't wait to try.

Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in Rose Gold

Ever since I got the Becca Beach Tint Shimmer Souffle(see my review post and post), I am totally impressed with Becca products and want to try their famous shimmering skin perfector.

Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in Rose Gold (here)

There are 4 shades available: Opal, Moonstone, Rose Gold & Topaz. All of my highlighters are the champagne golden shades and the two beach tint shimmer souffle I have is infused with Opal and Moonstone(Lychee & Watermelon). So it is quite an easy choice for me to pick the rose gold shade.

The product in the pan may look a bit deep in color in pictures.

But when it is swatched, it is a true rose gold shade. This rose gold shade was introduced in their 2013 fall limited collection. It had a raised pattern in the pan for their limited collection. But now that it is permanent, it is just the regular packaging.

This highlighter is finely-milled and very pigmented. I like that I could easily pair this with any blush. Just like their beach shimmer tint souffle, you only need a very light hand for application. 

I apply it on top of my cheeks with Benefit Rockateur blush which is also a rose gold-toned. The highlighter is visible but yet not right in your face telling the whole world that you're wearing highlighter. I am very happy with the shade I picked and it is perfect for medium skin-toned gals. 

Have you tried any Becca products?

Ikea Alex Drawers Dupe

My makeup collection is steadily growing and I desperately need more storage to "house" my goodies.

Ikea Alex drawers are very popular among bloggers and youtubers. I like the 9 drawers but think it is just a bit too much. I don't want to encourage my "hoarding"habit any more than I am doing currently.

Found a good dupe from Michael's.

Recollections 5 drawer rolling letterpress(Michael's)

Alex drawers from Ikea

When I was searching it online a few days ago in the US website, it says it is out of stock. Currently, Michael's is having 40% off their storage sale. In U.S. it is approximately $45. In Canada, regular price is $119.95 and with the 40% off, it is $71.97.

It is a pretty decent drawer set for my purpose.

If you are looking for storage for your makeup, check this out.

Do I Need Anymore Nude Lipsticks?

I didn't realize I have this many nude lipsticks. I was never into nude lippies until recently when I realized the right nude shade would not make me look sick.

They all look very similar but I ASSURE you that they are not. Do I sound like a hoarder trying to justify? haha

My latest addition to my nude lipstick collection is this L'oreal Collection Privee Jennifer's Nude. The packaging is extremely sleek and chick. Black matte tube really makes this collection look luxurious.

Are you a nude lipstick gal?