Creating a Super Dewy Fresh face with a hint of sun with products from STILA

I've been liking the fresh faced look lately, which is natural dewy skin with a hint of colour. I went searching for a tinted moisturizer with illuminating qualities. I found Stila Illuminating tinted moisturizer. I'm in shade #02.


This is a wonderful tinted moisturizer, it gives the face an overall understated glow. To demonstrate, here is a picture of me bare faced, with only some sunblock on my face:

1. Take a dime sized Illuminating tinted moisturizer:

2. Here's a pic of my face after the moisturizer under the same lighting, you will see how this tinted moisturizer gives you a overall brightening effect and some coverage on the face:

3. Dust some translucent powder in the T zone

4. Apply some Bourjois Bronzing powder all over the face. Which is my current favorite bronzing powder. It is matte, light, honey coloured and smells like chocolate.

5. Apply Stila One Step Prime colour in Bronze Babeon the cheeks and lips.

6. lightly powder in brows with a your fav brow powder, I used Anastasia duo brow powder in Brunette.

7. Apply a shadow on the eyes that is one shade lighter than your skin colour, I used MAC blanc type.

8. Apply eyeliner. I used a eyeliner pen by Kat Von D called Tattoo Liner in the shade Trooper(black). This is a great eyeliner that is pigmented, easy to use and long lasting.

8. Apply your favorite mascara.

There's the finished face under the same lighting.

This is a super easy and quick look to do. Took me less than 10 mins, yet it is fresh and brightening.

I definitely think this tinted moisturizer is an great one.

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Til the next time...

Seriously Waterproof Eyeshadow - Makeup Forever Aqua Creams

Make Up For Ever(MUFE) founder Dany Sanz has spent most of her career developing products to meet the high-performance needs of show-business clients. Think Moulin Rouge show girls that perform shows back to back, their makeup must endure heat, sweat, and it must be intensely pigmented to be visible to an live audience. I’ve always loved MUFE for their long lasting products and vivid colour selection.

They have done it again with a recent launch of Aqua Creams.

What it is:
An ultra-pigmented, long-lasting waterproof cream.

What it does:
These little pots of wonder are highly pigmented creams for eyes, lips, face and body. They are designed to be waterproof and is made for extreme conditions, think synchronized swimmers. Once they dry and set, they are waterproof, transfer-proof, and crease-proof. Basically, they’re going to stay on until you use an oil based cleanser to remove them.

Some of the colours are designated “lips and cheeks”; the rest are designated “eyes and cheeks.” They can be applied individually, mixed together, or used under powder (or lipgloss).

How I like them:

I’ve purchased Shade 1 and Shade 15. I’ve gotten samples of some of the blush/lip shades. It’s not a lie that these are waterproof, I’ve tested this by splashing water on them. I’m pretty certain you can take a dip in the pool and still have perfect shadow after.

The eye shadows that I purchased stayed on all day without an eyeshadow base even though I have fairly oily lids.

In general they dry fairly quickly compared to other cream based shadows/blushes I’ve tried in the past, so you must work quickly to blend the colours. The formula for some of the colours do run drier than others, so test out the colours first if you can.

They are $22 each and can be purchased at Sephora.

These are swatches of the shades I purchased:

This is a super natural look I created with Shade 15

Here's a slightly heavier look with Shade 15 as a base and the Urban Decay Naked Palette:

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Til the Next Time...

Urban Decay NAKED Palette - LOVE LOVE LOVE

This is going to be a short and sweet post with lots of pics.

I love this palette, the eye shadows are wonderfully pigmented, the colour selection is amazing, The texture is smooth and silky and it's such a bargain for the price.

This palette is a permanent palette by Urban Decay at Sephora that features 12 full sized eye shadows that have a distinctly urban look, yet works for everyone. It also contains a double-eneded 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencil in Zero (black) and Whisky (warm brown), as well as a travel size eyeshadow Primer Potion. It is only $52 for this palette. Regular Urban Decay single eye shadows costs $21 and this palette has 12 shadows.

Here's the Palette with its beautiful Velvet package:

Here are the eye shadows:

Swatches under natural light

Swatches with Flash

Swatches of the eyeliners


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WOW, Red lips that won't smudge.

L'oreal Paris - Infallible lip colour compact

I would love to wear a red lip look once in a while, and channel that China doll look, but no matter what, the colour comes off, and it's just plain ugly when its a faded red lip look.

I watched the following video by one of my favorite makeup gurus on Youtube. My first thought was, "no way, it can't be that kiss/smudge/eat/drink proof". If you watch it, you will see how she rubs her lips and this lip product stays put.




My second thought was, "I gotta try this." Unfortunately, we don't have the particular colour (Beyonce from the STARS collection) that Kandee used in her video. As far as I know, it's not available in the Canada at the moment. The Infallible STARS collection also features colours that are inspired by Kate Hudson, Eva Longoria, Linda Evangelista etc. We only carry the regular Infallible lipcolour collection here in Toronto.

This lipcolour is $11.99 at Walmart and Shopper's. I checked out the colours available from the regular line and I wasn't impressed with the selection. However, there was one red colour that I did like. It was in the shade CRIMSON.

Here's a picture of it:


I applied 2 coats and then the topcoat



Crimson colour with MAC Dazzleglass in Date night, the dazzle glass has blue purple tones in it, which turns the red lip colour to a cooler red tone. Cooler reds help make the teeth appear whiter.

You must follow the instructions and let the lip colour completely dry before applying the topcoat. It also means you must correct any mistakes before the product is completely dry.

I don't love the feel of this lip product on my lips because it feels very dry. With the conditioning top coat applied, it feels a little better. I think this product is great for a BOLD lip colour. For the nudes/beiges/light pinks I'd still rather use regular lipsticks/glosses, but for a PERFECT red pout that will honestly last all day, this product is a HUGE must.

I rubbed my lips, I kissed my hubby, I went out for diner, I ate, and I drank. The colour lasted and lasted and lasted. Its amazing!

It's in fact so amazing that it can be quite difficult to take off. :) To remove it, you can't just simply rub it off with a piece of tissue. You must use an oil based makeup remover. The Sephora brand waterproof eye makeup remover works well. I'm also happy to say that my favorite Ponds cold cream that I use to remove makeup and clean my face every night was able to remove the lip colour with some gentle scrubbing with fingers. Olive oil on a cotton pad also does the trick.

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Til the Next time...

Roomba iRobot Vacuum Cleaning Robot - The LAZY girls best friend

Roomba iRobot Vacuum Cleaning Robot - The LAZY girl's best friend

I don't like to clean, I do it because I must. I thought about hiring a cleaner, but doing 12 hour shift work means I have lots of time off. More specifically, I'm off 23 days out of every 42 days. Although working 12 hours shifts, a mix of days and nights, can be hard on the body, I can't really complain since there is also plenty of time to recover. So, with all the time off, I just couldn't justify hiring a cleaner and watch someone clean my space while I blog on blogspot. hahaha

What's my solution? I got a SMART Vacuum Cleaning Robot, I bought a ROOMBA. I waited for it to go on sale at Canadian Tire (don't remember the price) and got the iRobot Roomba® 530 model about a year ago. They have more advance models now.

This is my best cleaning buddy now - say bye bye to The Broom. It is fuss free, smart, and cleans like a charm with minimal maintence. All the maintenance it needs is to clean the brushes once in a while. Its good on hard wood floor, tiles and carpet.

To use it, you just simply charge it and press CLEAN. It makes this cute sound and rolls out of the charging base and starts to vacuum. It knows to turn when it hits obstructions, it knows to stop at staircases, and it's small enough to fit under the bed (it is such a pain to clean under the bed). It comes with 2 little gadgets to set up an invisible wall to keep it out of unwanted areas. After its finished cleaning your floors, it knows to return to its base and recharge itself. How perfect is that!

It was fascinating to watch it clean the first few times. Yes, I followed it around the house the first time I used it instead of blogging. Now, I set it out to vacuum and I'm free to dust, do laundry, do the dishes or do whatever. Thanks to the Roomba, I now have so much more time for everything else!

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Til the next time...

TRESemme Fresh Start DRY shampoo

Powdered shampoos are designed to work without water. It has been around since the 70′s and was traditionally sold in a shaker, but recently it is available in a more convenient spray bottle. I remember reading about them few years ago and slowly different brands started producing their own version. However, I remember that when I looked into some brands that sells dry shampoo, the price was just too much. Although the idea of washing my hair without water was new and intriguing, because of the price, I just told myself to wash my hair instead of spending something like $30 for a bottle of dry shampoo.

The other day I was reading the latest Lou Lou magazine and saw their "dry shampoo test for you" article. They compared 6 different kinds of dry shampoo. Some of the brands are KMS, Bumble and Bumble, Rene Furterer etc. All of them are $15 and more except for one, the TREsemme one, it is ONLY $6.49. It also scored well on the lou lou magazine test. They tested the shampoo's ability to absorb oil, boosts shine and refreshes scent. The TREsemme one scored 8/10, 2 points lost in the absorb oil part of the test. The Brand that score 10/10 was Kevin Murphy Fresh Hair Dry Cleaning Spray at select salons, however this one is $22.

I've always liked TRESemme products, they are effective and well priced. I've been an loyal user of their heat tamer hair protecting spray, which protects the hair from heat damage.

Needless to say, I wanted to try this product out. I went to Walmart and found the dry shampoo there. After a few uses, I definitely like it, it added life to my hair between washes, and the fragrance is also very pleasant, it would be good to mask any odors in the hair between washes. This is an awesome product to carry in your gym bag, if there is no time to shower, spray a little of this, you'd walk around with fresh locks again. This product is not meant to replace washing hair with water and regular shampoo, but it does extend the time between washes.

It is actually a great styling product as well, you can spray some onto a comb and comb it onto the roots to create a root lifting effect to even freshly washed hair.

Thats all for now and thanks for reading

Til the next time ...

Products That I Regret Buying

Disclaimer: These are only my opinions, based on my experiences.


This is the "Save Your Money" list. I wish someone would have told me not to get these products. However, just because these products are not my favorites, doesn't mean that they won't work for you. On that note, if you've used it and love it, do tell me how you are using it and why you love it. Most of time, every product has its pros and cons, you just have to know how to use it to get the product to work for you.

Nars Skin - Hydrating freshening lotion

Kinda got talked into buying this one when I was told it would exfoliate and hydrate the skin. After trying it out, my skin doesn't feel any different after one or many applications.

Benefit - That Gal brightening face primer

Sounded like a great idea. The primer is a soft pink colour and it smells great, but I didn't find that my makeup stayed on any longer after using this. My complexion didn't look any brighter either.

Shiseido - The Makeup Sheer Enhancer Base

This came in a silvery colour with a thicker consistency in a glass pour bottle (no pump). I thought it would have been a great hilight colour, but the thick texture made the product difficult to work with. First, it was hard to even get it out of its glass bottle, like getting fresh ketchup out of the glass bottle. Second, it didn't really make the skin glow, but instead, it gave it an unnatural tin foil-like colour. Maybe I can try mixing it into my foundation and see what happens.

Marcelle - Wet & Dry Eye Shadow Quad

The colours are chalky, not pigmented, and the finishing is not smooth and silky.

Bare Escentuals BareMineral Eye Shadows in Soule, Tiger's eye and Cashmere

The colours are great, but everytime I open the lids on these shadows, I make a mess. The shadows pool around the lid and spills everywhere whenever it is opened. As a result, I just don't seem to reach for them. I wish they came in little jars like MAC pigments, and not the sifter containers they come in.

Physician's Formula - Cream to Powder Blush

The formula was not soft and blendable, colours are not pigmented.

Too faced - Glamour to go Palette

This is small and compact, but didn't I like the finishes on the shadows or the pigmentation of the blush and lipcolours.

Lush Caca Noir Mama Henna Hair Dye

Lush makes some wonderful products, but this is not one of them. I thought this would make my hair shiny and darken the faded black on the ends that were once hilighted and dyed over with black.

I followed all the instructions, and all I got was that herbal henna smell on my hair for a few days - not silky shiny hair.

Thats all I can think of for now. Do share the products that you regret purchasing.

Thanks for reading

Til the Next time...