Makeup on Celebrities

 Lauren Alaina here won something important at an awards show the other night. The poor thing's face does not match the rest of her body!

Her dress is pretty. Too bad about the mismatched skin. Maybe it was the lighting on the red carpet because she looked better in another shot I found:

You can tell the lighting is totally different because her dress looks like a more buttery yellow in this inside shot, whereas in the red carpet shot it's a brighter yellow.

Next time I hope her makeup artist bronzes her face more!

Avocado Oil

by Megs

Move over, Argan Oil, there is a new oil in town! And by "move over," I mean "make room because I love you both the same."

Argan Oil is my serum and night cream in one. But I did a little research on avocado oil and it is also extremely beneficial for your skin. It supports skin's natural elasticity. Awesome! My skin is not droopy, or saggy, or wrinkly. But I look at my 3 and a half year old's skin and think "Yep, this is what every beauty fiend is trying to achieve the look of! That is why the "beauty industry" is a mult-billion dollar one." My skin is never going to look like my toddler's skin. It just isn't, but if I take care of it, it can stay fresh and youthful looking for much longer...I hope!

Like Argan Oil, avocado oil (why is one capitalised and the other isn't? I don't know! It annoys me!) is not full of difficult to pronounce ingredients. It has just one ingredient - avocado oil. At night, after I smooth on my Argan Oil and let it absorb for a bit, I smooth on my avocado oil and let it absorb for a bit.

It is not only good for skin! It is also good for your hair! I oiled my hair last weekend. I have to admit, I was skeptical. I mean, I wash my hair to keep it from being oily. Isn't oiling it counterproductive? Not necessarily!  I mean, as long as you wash out the oil you'll get the moisturising benefits of it without the greasy look. I have extremely fine, delicate hair. It breaks off very easily, particularly in a dry, northern BC winter. After putting avocado oil in my hair and leaving it for about 15 minutes, then washing it out, then drying it (half air-drying, half blow-drying) my super-fine, breakable hair was flexible! It felt moisturised and my rampant flyaways were noticeably (to me) reduced. This is a new treatment I plan to add to my weekly beauty routine. I hope the more I do it, the more flexible my hair becomes and the less it breaks.

I bought Now Foods Avocado Oil from well.ca (because I love well.ca!) and unlike so many beauty products, you get a lot for a little! $7.49 for 118 mL. You use so little, it will last and last.

Full disclosure: I really don't like taking photos for this blog because I'm not very good at it. But I feel like finding photos online instead of taking them myself is kinda cheating. I kinda cheated this time because my own bottle of avocado oil is all oily & not as pretty as the one pictured.

Live Clean Daily Moisturiser

 by Min

I was so excited when I heard that Live Clean (which I usually accidentally pronounce as "live" as in "man alive") was coming out with a skin care line.  They are such an affordable and safe brand and I love their paraben and phthalate free shampoos and conditioners that smell just wonderful. The first product from their skincare line I bought was the Soothing Daily Moisturizer.  My sensitive skin was immediately tempted by the word "soothing" and it was a steal at $19 for 150ml.  That’s a whole lot of moisturiser! So I bought one for myself and one for an exchange that I was going to do. I was immediately disappointed because the texture is so thin.

Then I noticed a funny smell.  It was the smell of old, wet cloths. You know, that smell of humidity when your clothes have been sitting damp in the dryer for a week? (Not that I do that!) I thought that it must have been my towel.  The next day, I changed the towel (that didn't smell bad) and tried it again. That smell! I double checked my towel and it smelled fine.  A terrible, sinking feeling came over me as I re-opened the bottle and took a whiff. Yep, it was the moisturiser. I was so disappointed.  I am so disappointed.  I was looking forward to using this Canadian brand that I have enjoyed so far. Also, I had sent one for the exchange that I was doing and I hope that she didn't get the same problem.

I would not normally do anything but I feel that I have been robbed, not only of my money but of my Live Clean joy.  I called the company and I’m hoping that it’s just a bad batch. I’m still waiting to hear what they have to say. What about other Live Clean products? What are your experiences?

Korres Provitamin B5 and Rice Bran Mascara

By Megs

Doesn't it just sound like an awesome product? It has provitamin B5 and rice bran! It's not just any old mascara! It's healthy mascara! I was led to it by one of my fave beauty blogs, clumpsofmascara.com. Brittany reviewed another Korres mascara called Korres Volcanic Minerals Volumizing Mascara. That review made me want to try Korres mascara. When I hit up the Sephora site, the Provitamin B5 and Rice Bran one was a little duo pack. Fun! So I bought it. I still love the name. I still love the idea of the vitamins and the rice bran! Do I love the mascara? Wellllllll, I wanted to. It is resoundingly OK. I have decent lashes - they're not the longest or the fullest or the...lashiest. But they're decent, and I'm happy with them. This Korres mascara is just fine on them. If I felt like my lashes needed all the length and volume that advertisers beat us over the head with, I would be really disappointed in this mascara. It coats my lashes. It doesn't add length for miles, or oodles of volume. It just coats them, makes them a bit blacker. I don't love this mascara, but I don't hate it either. I'll use it until it is gone, or expires (who am I kidding? I'll use it way past expiration!) and then I'll try something else. Maybe the Volcanic Minerals mascara...I probably should have just gone with that one in the first place!

Prodigy Hourglass Lipgloss

By Min

I don’t wear lip gloss or lipstick and my favorite lip product will probably always be the pot of blue Blistex Medex . One day, I had a passing thought that I should wear some sort of lip product in order to make my overall presentation of myself more polished.  My dry-looking lips were not doing anyone a favour - especially me!  So I asked Megan to find me a lip gloss and she found Prodigy Hourglass, $30. A little steep for a product that I usually don’t use but what the hell, a little extravagance once in a while doesn’t hurt anyone...really.  It comes in a funky looking package that fits inside your palm. I picked nude because I didn’t want to risk getting a colour that I would ultimately not end up wearing.  The first day that I wore it at work, everyone noticed.  I guess lips really can garner attention, wanted or otherwise. I like it because it’s not sticky and it doesn’t smell like fake candy or pineapples or chocolate.  The applicator is a bit awkward but I like the subtle colour. I don’t use it everyday because of the price and it also gets easily lost in my bag which makes it easy to forget. 

smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer

by Megs

A good friend of mine did my makeup for my wedding. Beforehand, we went shopping and spent an obscene amount of money on makeup. That was my introduction to smashbox primer. If you have never been introduced to smashbox primer, take charge and go meet it. Because you will become besties with it and never want to live without it. I promise. It feels so good, so smooth. I have tried other primers like Cover FX (Canadian!) which I found to be too greasy for me, and Korres Quercetin & Oak Age-Reversing Primer, which I wanted to love. (Doesn't it sound amazing? I love the "Oak Age-Reversing" title.) But it was too lotion-y and not primer-y enough for me. I wear smashbox primer, BB cream and foundation. That may sound like a lot but I believe that the more layers there are on my face, the more protection it is getting and also, my skin tone doesn't look even enough for me without all 3. I am getting low on smashbox primer, which is why I borrowed a photo from smashbox's site instead of taking a pic of my own tube. I will definitely always re-purchase my smashbox primer. It really does smooth everything out and make it easier to apply the next layer, be it BB cream, foundation or whatever you use. At $44 cad a tube, it's not cheap, but you only need a smaller-than-pea-sized bloblet for your face so a tube will last you awhile. 

I kind of want to try the More Than Primer Dark Spot Correcting but it costs a bit more. I don't know if I want to take that gamble when I already love the regular primer so much. 

Smashbox Photo Finish Color Correcting primer

By Min

When I received this product from Megs (who else?!), I wondered what it was. Since I don’t use foundation, I thought it was an odd present. But now I realize why she would get it for me.  First of all, the smashbox Photo Finish Color Correcting $38 is a foundation primer.  Its very green colour helps diminish redness and evens out skin. The other colours such as lavender are for Asian skin tones and the apricot is to conceal eye-bags, sunspots and veins. Gosh, I really think I need them all! Anyway, it has a really nice feel and goes on silky smooth.  Once the foundation is on, the primer is supposed to help it set and stay in place.  I only wear a BB (beauty balm) under my eyes and cheeks. But the BB glides on like nobody’s business. It is really seamless and looks way better than the BB by itself. Apparently you can also use it by itself but I find that it's not fantastic on its own. I say it works best as a primer but maybe that’s because I have a lot of redness on my cheeks. I was really skeptical about this product but as soon as I used it, I changed my mind.