REP Beauty: Blush (Review)

Good morning everyone! Today I have another REP Beauty post for you, this time on their Blushing Blush. As you may know from my last post REP Beauty is a Canadian brand out of Edmonton, Alberta that offers a great range of high quality beauty products. This blush is another item that I received from REP.

The shade I received in the blush is Romance. This is a light, pure pink with intense icy shimmer. I was so excited with the colour, as I love a light pink blush, but was a little disappointed when I noticed the amount of shimmer in the product. Not only is there a "sheen" shimmer but there is also much larger pieces of shimmer, almost along the lines of a glitter. I am one to steer clear of any glitter, I don't even like a lot of shimmer in my eyeshadows or lipglosses most of the time so I don't find myself getting much wear out of this blush. 

It was hard to get a photo to show the true amount of shimmer in the product, but if you enlarge you may be able to see. Although I personally don't get a lot of wear out of this blush the formulation is excellent. The colour pay of is great, not too much pigment and not too little, and the texture is better than any blush I've ever felt. It is soft and creamy feeling and applies with no streaking at all. Whenever I wear or swatch this blush it stays true for so much longer than I expect. Like with shimmer eyeshadows, I expect the colour to wear off and the shimmer to remain but that is not the case with any of REP Beauty's products. The colour stays just as long as the shimmer and that is quite a while. When I do reach for this blush I use it at night and usually as more of a highlighter or lightly layered over another blush. It looks really nice at night but definitely would not be daytime appropriate. 

The quality and texture of this blush is enough for me to try another shade - hopefully one with less shimmer. I am definitely not discouraged by the shimmer in this particular shade and would highly recommend purchasing the Blushing Blushes. These sell for $14.50 which is very reasonable for the amount and quality. Again, REP Beauty products are available for purchase on their website.

REP Beauty's Website

Don't forget to follow their blog and follow them on twitter while you are there! Have any of you tried REP Beauty products? Will you? Let me know in the comments!

Disclosure: I won these products in a giveaway. All opinions on the product are my own and I did not receive any compensation for this post. 

REP Beauty: Eye Shadows (Review)

Hello everyone! Today I have a review post that I'm very excited about. Back in February I came across this new brand REP Beauty. They are a Canadian company out of Edmonton, Alberta that offers an amazing range of high quality products right in my (previous) own backyard. I entered a Valentine's day contest where you had to share your worst Valentine's Day experience (please don't make me repeat it again haha) and I won - proves how bad my story was! Included in my prize pack were three eyeshadows, two frost and one matte, that I will be reviewing today.

I will admit I don't wear eyeshadow on a daily basis. I usually just throw on some black eyeliner and top it off with black mascara. Simple, and to the point. That being said I've been venturing into eyeshadow lately and forcing myself to wear it more regularly and these shadows have really stood out in my collection.

The first photo in the post is of J'Taime and the second photo is the same in an opened compact. I initially (in the catelogue photo) thought this shade would be much more pink-toned but it leans much more towards a coppery, reddish-pink with gold shimmer. REP Beauty offers its shadows in frost or matte formulations, this one falling into the frost category. 

The next shade I received is Frost Bite - a true white with intense shimmer. I find myself using this one a lot to highlight the inner corner of my eyes and sometimes as an all-over wash of shimmer. This is also part of the frost collection. 

The last shadow shade I received is part of the Matte collection and is in a much bigger pot compared to the frost shades - although the gram weight is the same at 3 grams. This is a true matte shadow with great colour pay off that doesn't look chalky at all. The shade I got is Smoke Signal and is an ashy grey. I expected it to be hard to blend and tricky to work with like a lot of other matte shadows I own but I was pleasantly surprised to find it easy to blend and easy to wear (no creasing or fading). 

As you can see from the swatches the pigmentation in these shadows is great - frost & matte alike. I applied these to my hand with my finger. From left to right is Smoke Signal (Matte), Frost Bite (Frost and J'Taime (Frost). The shimmer in the frost shades is very intense. Usually I find frost shades to fade, only leaving the shimmer behind but these shadows stay true throughout the day (I still suggest using an eye primer or concealer as a base for any shadow). 

Here is a look I created using all three shadows for date I had last night. I blended them out really well as I'm still not completely comfortable with a lot of eyeshadow. I also added a coat of LashBlast mascara by Cover Girl in Blackest Black. 

Overall, these shadows give great colour pay-off, great staying power and a really pretty finish, both from the Matte and Frost formulations. The packaging is classic, glossy black with a flip top lid (Frost) and glossy black with a screw-off lid (Matte). The price is also very reasonable for the quality and quantity at $12.75 for both formulations. REP Beauty offers a huge range of colours and I hope to try many more of them. As of right now, REP Beauty is available online for purchase. Please check them out and support a great Canadian company with really great beauty products. Stay tuned for more REP Beauty product reviews. 

REP Beauty Website

Don't forget to follow them on Twitter and subscribe to their blog while you are visiting the site!

Disclosure: I won these products in a giveaway. All opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation. 

Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation (Review)

Good morning everyone! Today I have a review post for you on Rimmel's Match Perfection Foundation. There are a lot of these "skin matching" foundations floating around the market lately: Cover Girl's Tru Blend, Maybelline's Fit Me, L'Oreal's True Match and of course, Rimmel's version. I am a permanent skeptic when it comes to foundations, I generally always find something wrong with them but keep trying out the latest formulas hoping to find my "perfect match". 

I first picked up this foundation when I was visiting my dad in Phoenix, Arizona in February. I was excited to see it because it wasn't yet available in Canada so I was fast to scoop it up. Since February I have gone through 3 (yes 3!) bottles of this foundation. I can honestly say this is the first foundation I have EVER repurchased, and there is good reason. 

Rimmel's Match Perfection Foundation has a lot of great things going for it. First off, I have found that I'm always able to find a good match in colour with any Rimmel foundation. Although I find their shades vary wildly depending on the formula, I'm usually able to find a good shade for me. They don't seem to lend to the orange side and are generally neutral in base which works great for me. The Match Perfection line has an even better range of shades and a light consistency but medium coverage formula. That was one thing that really surprised me about this foundation, the consistency is liquidy and disappears in the skin but the coverage is quite impressive without looking (or feeling) heavy or cakey. 

This foundation is also moisturizing and provides a natural, dewy finish. I have relatively oily/combination skin and this formula doesn't break me out or leave me with excess oil. Having said that, after I apply this with my fingers (I've found that it works best for this formulation) I use a blotting paper to soak up excess oil before applying my MAC Blot Powder. Doing so helps it stay all day on my oilier skin, although I found it has great staying power anyway. 

I couldn't ask for much more in a foundation; great staying power, a perfect match with my skin tone, a flattering dewy finish and amazing coverage without looking like it. I will continue to repurchase this amazing foundation (until I get bored and want to try something new - you all know what I mean!). 

My Shade is True Ivory. 

New Skincare for a New Climate.

Hello again everyone, I've missed you all! I've had a few big changes in my life since I last posted (months ago, terrible me!) and one of them was moving Provinces. I recently (in May) relocated back to my home town in British Columbia where the climate is much different than Calgary, where I had been living for the past 3 years. This is proving to be hard on my skin so I've been on the hunt to find what my skin needs now and share what has been working for me in the recent months.

First, a little background on the climate I've come from and am now living in. Calgary was extremely dry and generally cold. Where I live now in British Columbia is also relatively dry (as I am in a technical desert region) but still no where near comparable to Calgary, as I am now back living near a large lake. In Calgary I suffered with very dehydrated skin that was also exceedingly oily. Sounds like a contradiction, but is very common. I would't apply moisturizer for fear of creating more oil on my skin leading to more breakouts but I didn't realize that my skin was creating more oil because it was so dehydrated. After finally figuring out what my skin needed, I moved to a completely different climate. Here in BC my skin has been very balanced over the summer months. The humidity is ideal and I have not suffered with much excess oil or breakouts. The only thing that seems to aggravate my skin recently is air conditioning, which can dry out my lips and skin. 

As the weather here is still in the mid 30's (Celsius) I have yet to switch to a "fall routine". But for these summer months I have found a few products that I couldn't have lived a day without. Here is a list of those great summer finds:

Cleanser

Marcelle Hydra-C Self-Foaming Cleanser

Clarisonic Mia

Treatment

Neutrogena 3-in-1 Hydrating Acne Treatment

Fusion Beauty Illumifill Line Filling Luminizer

Exfoliants/Masks

Colbert MD Microdermabrasion Pads

Alba Organics Papaya Enzyme Mask

100% Pure Brightening Scrub/Mask

Eye Cream

Morning: 100% Pure Coffee Bean Caffeine Eye Cream

Night: Bliss All Around Eye Cream

Moisturizer

Morning: Clean & Clear Pore Perfecting Moisturizer SPF 15

Night: 100% Pure Red Wine Resveratrol Nourishing Cream

Sunscreen

Neutrogena Water Light SPF 60

Lips

C.O. Bigelow My Favourite Night Balm

Korres Lip Butter

Fusion Beauty LipFusion

Lush Lip Scrub

So there you have it. Some of my year round favourites as well as some great summer finds! I know my routine will be changing soon to compensate for the cooler and drier fall weather so there will be more skin care updates to come!

Where have I been?

Hey everyone!

Many apologies for being AWOL for so many months. There have been a lot of changes going on and need for some R&R. I hope all has been well with everyone and I look forward to getting back into my regular posting!