Monday, February 20, 2012

Review: Bath & Body Works Triple Moisture Body Cream (in Carried Away)

Not too long ago the first Bath & Body Works I'd seen in my neck of the woods opened in the same mall I work at. I'm not really a body lotion junkie like some girls - in fact I stopped in because I actually needed to buy new body lotion since I was almost out - how many girls can say that!? Most people I know (including myself in the past) have about five or more bottles on the go at a time. But I made myself finish them first before buying more and I'm glad I waited til this moment!

Since I had never tried anything from the company before, I decided to take advantage of the promo they had (not sure if it was a regular thing or a temporary sale) with 3 minis for $10. That's the first thing that struck me about this store actually - how afforable everything was! Mini lotions were $6 (or 3 for $10) and full sized ones were $12! Totally reasonable prices so I was really happy to see that.

For my trio of minis I picked two body lotions - a slightly thinner consistency lotion which was recommended to me by the sales associate when I mentioned I liked the scents of a couple creams but thought they might be too strong - apparently the lotion versions don't have as heavy a scent as their cream counterparts. Makes sense right? For the lotions I got Pink Chiffon and Bali Mango. And then for the Triple Moisture Body Cream I got Carried Away!



I'm teeerrible at identifying fragrance notes, so all I can really tell you about the scent is that it's flowery, and girly. But that's not really why I'm writing this review anyways - I'm writing it to rave about the amazing texture of this cream!

You know the feeling your face has after you apply primer? That really soft, smooth, almost powdery finish that glides like silk?

Yup, that's what my whole body felt like after applying this cream. It was amazing and unlike any other cream I've ever tried. It's been half an hour since I applied this (and applied tanning lotion over top) and my skin still feels the same way.

There is NO doubt in my mind that I will be buying more of this formula. I'm excited to try out the body lotions and see if they approximate this feeling too - I'm not sure if they will since they are an admittedly thinner, less rich formula, but I'm sure they're still excellent quality.

For this price and these results, Bath & Body Works has won me over with their Triple Moisture Body Cream formula!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Etsy shop update - three new sets!

Hey everyone! I'm sitting here inside trying to play my music louder than the rain that's pounding on the windows outside - good old Raincouver is living up to it's name today for sure!

To combat the rainy day blues I decided to post up some of the new sets of nails I've been creating for my Etsy shop! There are three so far but more are in the works!

There's the leopard/zebra hybrid nail - you may recognize this one from one of my past NOTD's!

























A new design based on a single nail I did on a nail wheel but decided to turn into a mixed mani format, I love how this one turned out!

























My favourite classic rows of hearts design (originally inspired by the super talented Rebecca at rebecca likes nails) in white on lavender.

























Check them out in my store right here! Thanks for looking! :)

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Review: Gosh Bronzing Powder

I've been on a long hunt for the perfect bronzer. I found many that may very well have fit the bill, but there was always a catch - they cost way more than I wanted to pay! Benefit Hoola is around $35, and Nars Laguna is $40 - both bronzers I considered buying many times, but couldn't justify the cost of. And most drugstore bronzers either tended to be way too shimmery, too orange or the texture of the powder wasn't smooth enough.

But the other day, that all changed.... I was browsing around in Shopper's Drug Mart and took a peek at the Gosh display, which I don't do all that often - and their bronzer caught my eye, because at first glance it actually looked... brown! Not orange!! Luckily they had a tester out so I swatched it and fell in love immediately. The texture is soft and smooth and the powder is very pigmented. It has a satin finish so it looks natural on the skin without being sparkly. The colour is perfect - a soft, warm brown. Oh, and the price? $20! It's more than most drugstore bronzers are, but far superior in quality, and I prefer the colour and texture to the higher end bronzers I've tested in Sephora.

Here's some photos of the packaging. It's fairly basic, no mirror - which doesn't bug me since the only makeup I touch up throughout the day are things like concealer, liner and mascara. The clasp seems to close quite securely, it doesn't feel flimsy at all.












































































Here is a swatch on the back of my hand, taken in daylight.

 And last but not least, my Valentine's Day makeup! I'm wearing the bronzer as light contour along the sides of my nose, under my cheekbones and my jawline! I suppose that also makes this a bit of a FOTD post. :)





































NOTD Feb 14/12 - Happy Valentine's Day!

My official Valentine's Day mani this year! I was inspired by a mani I saw on my Tumblr dashboard, and modified it a bit! So happy! The boy got me an insanely extravagant spa package, and we're going out for Japanese for dinner! <3

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

NOTD Feb 7/12

Another Valentine's Day nail art! I think this is my favourite holiday so far to do nail art for!

Friday, February 03, 2012

NOTD Feb 3/12

The idea for the accent nail in this design came to me while I was playing around with a sample wheel, but I knew I wanted to make the mani a little different... the idea to do the dots with just a small black accent heart for the other nails actually came to me as I was falling asleep last night! I'm in love with it and I think it's cool because it's a little different than most Valentine's Day motifs... a little more graphic. I call it pop-art Valentine's!

Earring storage!

Fairly unrelated to most of what I post here, but I had to show off my new earring storage method!

I'm the worst kind of procrastinator there is... case in point, for the last 3-4 years my method of storage for my earrings has been... in a ziploc bag. I kept meaning to buy something pretty to hang them on but never got around to it or never just happened to stumble across the right thing. Luckily though, I saw this beauty a few months ago at Claire's, where it just so happens my cousin works.... a quick text later and this was my future Christmas present! It was too perfect - a "K" like my name (Kayleigh) and wall hanging, because counter space is at a premium in my bathroom.









































Love it so much! <3 Beside this, I have three simple nails hung on an angle that hold my necklaces, like so:



































One day (maybe in another 3-4 years? LOL!) I should get some pretty hooks, but for now this is totally functional!

How do you store your jewelry?

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Review: NYX HD High Definition Eye Shadow Base

A while ago I was scraping down to the last of my bottle of UDPP and I realized I really needed some new eye primer! I was in Save-On grabbing some things and I saw a display with the NYX eye primers and decided I may as well give them a try since they were around half the price of Urban Decay's offerings!


























Happily I can report there isn't much difference between this and more high end brands, at least not for me! The texture is very similar to other eye primers, the only difference being that I find this is a little bit "wetter" and needs a little longer to set before you put eyeshadow on top - but we're talking a matter of no more than 30 seconds here, nothing crazy. Other than that I find it performs just as well as UDPP for increasing the colour impact of your eyeshadows and making them last longer!

I'd recommend you check this out if your're looking for a more inexpensive eye primer option - Cherry Culture sells it for only about $6-$7.