Josie Maran Argan Oil Hair Serum

If you have read my blog post called Hair Help, you’ll know that I’ve been having a lot of issues with my hair. To put a long story short, I was experiencing stress related hair loss, and it really sucked. I’m very happy to report that it has finally stopped, and I’m back to heat styling my hair. It feels so amazing to run my hands through my hair and not have any come out. I feel like a new person! I wanted to talk about a product that I was using during my hair loss, and have loved and continued using post Telogen effluvium (the technical term for stress related hair loss).

Josie Maran Argan Oil Hair Serum – $15.00 CAD

I have the little mini size of this hair serum, my boyfriend surprised me with it because he knew I was having a really hard time with my hair. He’s the best. I have the trial size here, so it’s only half of an ounce, but there are bigger bottles available. I don’t even mind having the small bottle because a very small amount of product goes a very long way.

The pump is really lovely on the packaging, but I find it pumps out a little too much product for me, because I have medium length hair that’s super thin right now, if I use more than half a pump things tends to get oily and funky looking. I would suggest using about half of what you think you’d need. Now on to the actual product: this serum is really lovely. It’s thicker than your average oil, but still translucent and not nearly as thick as a lotion. The oil smells really nice as well. It’s got a nice light and fresh scent that has a hint of citrus. The serum sinks in quickly to damp hair, and keeps things moisturized and helps cut air drying time somewhat.

This product claims to have anti-frizz and high shine properties. I can attest to the shine factor, however I don’t think it does much in the anti-frizz department, which is ok with me as I’m mainly looking for moisture. I’ve used this serum when air drying my hair as well as using heat styling tools, and the effects are pretty much the same either way. The serum helps to add some moisture to the ends of my hair, and adds a nice fragrance and some shine.

Overall I do like this product, however I’m not sure it’s a holy grail product. I wouldn’t recommend running out and buying it immediately, but if you’re looking to give the ends of your hair a little TLC, or want to try a more natural hair care product, I think this would be a good place to start.

Talk soon,

Xx Brianna

Elf Blush Palette

Today’s post is a fun one. Blush is by far the most fun cosmetic to buy (in my little world, at least). And what’s more fun than a blush palette with 4 gorgeous blushes?! I was doing the usual spending an hour in the Real Canadian Superstore beauty section looking at their newly re-vamped brand list. The world has answered my hopes and dreams and FINALLY started carrying Milani and Wet n Wild, and a bigger ELF section. I picked up the ELF blush palette after seeing some buzz on the internet.

ELF Studio Blush Palette in Light – $8.00 CAD

Your eyes are not betraying you, that’s a blush palette that contains 4 blushes for only 8 bucks. Here in Canada we get royally screwed with dollar conversions. When our dollar is awesome things are still more expensive, when our dollar is the pits (like right now) things are even more expensive. Americans have it good, that’s all I’ll say. Anyways, tangent aside, 4 blushes for 8 dollars is still a great deal.

The palette contains 4 blushes: a cool toned bright matte pink, a warm terracotta matte brown, a warm matte pink, and a shimmery coral. The blush palette is a pretty decent size with a very nice sized mirror in the lid. What’s really cool about this palette is that each pan pops out, so you can mix and match with the other ELF palettes (foundation palette, contouring palette, etc). Each pan is very decently sized, and pops in and out pretty easily from the back. You could even stick on a magnet and add these blushes to a z-palette.

Texture wise, these blushes are really nice. Surprisingly nice. They’re soft, but not too soft, and don’t kick up any fall out when you tap your brush into the product. They’re just that perfect consistency where they give you nice colour pay off, but you don’t have to be insanely careful about applying them. The lasting power is also really lovely. I’ve applied each of these blushes to bare cheeks (unpowdered) and they’ve lasted me all day without any touch ups.

Swatched above are the blushes in clockwise order. You can see the first 3 shades which are all matte have really awesome pigmentation. The last one that has some shimmer particles running through it is the least pigmented of the 4, but it’s still a really gorgeous colour. Not going to lie I kept staring at that brown shade and thinking there’s no way that’s going on my cheeks. It runs really warm, I compared it to all my bronzers and it was significantly more warm toned, but I gave it a shot and I was very pleasantly surprised. Sometimes you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone, you know?

Below are photos of me wearing each blush, I’ve photographed them in the same order as the swatches above. (If you’re wondering why my hair looks jacked up in these photos, read here).

I had to colour correct the last photo just a smidge as the sun was straight BEAMING into my room and it was crazy orange, but the colour of the blush shows true. Overall I’m really loving this palette, especially for summer. I find myself reaching for it all the time, and I’m very very curious about the contouring palette.

Talk soon,

Xx Brianna

June 2015 Favorites

June is in the books, and I know I fell slightly silent on here for about two weeks. It was a combination of a bunch of things, mostly that the sun came out and I wanted to be at the beach instead of glued to my computer. It happens to all of us. But I’ve got the itch for blogging again, and I obviously continued to use beauty products throughout my mini hiatus, so let’s get into what I was loving this month.

I have to say, this month’s favorites is full of gems.

The Lush Cream Eyeshadow in the shade ‘Sophisticated’ has been absolutely fantastic for me this month. This is a gorgeous bronze-shimmer shadow that looks so effortless on the lid. I love this eyeshadow because it stays in place beautifully, it’s really subtle so I don’t feel like a clown in the office, and you just need this one shadow and your eye look is complete.

The Body Shop nail polish in the shade Rosy Cheeks is perfection for summer. I actually don’t find this polish to be rose hued at all, to me it’s a pink-coral that’s very bright on the nail. The polish is beautifully opaque in two coats, and lasts a solid week.

I snagged the Sonia Kashuk Eye on Neutral Palette well before Target peaced out of Canada, and I’m forever grateful I did. This is probably one of the best neutral matte palettes out there if you’re basic like me and shy away from all forms of colour. It has the most beautiful assortment of matte shades, I specifically love the shade on the bottom left all over the lid as a one and done shade. Big surprise here: I am lazy.

The Josie Maran Coconut Water Cheek Gelee, this one specifically is in the shade Pink Escape. I have 3 of these blushes and I am forever obsessed with them. They are so natural and easy to apply, they look beautiful and like you’ve just been out in the cold weather. One day, I swear I will own them all. I also really like these on the lips, they give a gorgeous natural flush to the lips, and they don’t dry anything out.

I have also been getting a lot of use out of my Body Shop Colour Crush Lipstick in Sunset Romance. Also known as the number 18 as the Body Shop has not gotten with the program and only puts the name on the wrapping that gets thrown out immediately. This lipstick is nice and sheer, and just gives a gorgeous hint of coral. I like this lipstick because I can easily apply it without a mirror, and it’s not a total full on colour, so I’m not completely intimidated by it.

I began my love affair with the Josie Maran Argan Oil Hair Serum this month. My boyfriend gifted me this travel size serum because I’ve been having some serious issues with my hair lately. A whole blog post is coming about the past two month nightmare that is my hair. This serum smells really lovely, and helps to tame away frizz, which my hair is very prone to when I don’t heat style it. This serum has never made my hair feel sticky or greasy, and a very, very small amount goes a very long way. I like to scrunch this into my hair on towel dried hair, and it leaves a gorgeous scent, and soft locks.

The Real Techniques Duo Fiber Brush has been all over my face this month. I have two of these, and I like to use one for powder, and one for bronzer. When the summer months hit, I find I want a really natural look, and these duo fiber brushes from Real Techniques do the trick. Plus they wash up beautifully, and are super soft.

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been hitting the beach a lot lately, and because of that none of my base products match my skin anymore. I ran out and picked up the Flower Beauty BB Cream in the shade BB2. This is a really nice BB Cream, however I have to say it’s more like a tinted moisturizer. This has a matte finish and light to medium coverage. The only thing I’m not crazy about is the blendability, this product sets pretty quickly, so I’d recommend working in one section of your face at a time.

I’ve been all about the Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes Mascara again. This mascara is just my holy grail and I don’t think I’ll ever find one that’s as good as this one. The only thing I’m not crazy about is the price, but this just gives me all the length, separation, and volume I could ever ask for. This is the one, please never get discontinued.

That’s it for the month of June! July is my birthday month so I always look forward to it. It’s also my last month at one of my jobs as I’ll be moving into full time at the other. This adult-no-more-student thing is still very strange.

Talk soon,

Xx Brianna