Beauty Tip Thursday | Current Favorite Beauty Hacks

The beauty world can be an amazing place, but it can also be time consuming and confusing and (of course) expensive! I formed this list of 5 of my favorite beauty hacks that I use on a regular basis to save myself some time and effort during my beauty routine. I rounded up these 5 because they are literally my most used, but I have many more little tips and tricks that I could share, just let me know in the comments if you would like to see more of these beauty hack posts for Beauty Tip Thursday!

1. Voluminous Ponytail - If you have problems with your ponytail maintaining volume throughout the day just use this trick. Tease and pull the top section of your hair into a half up style and secure with an elastic. Gather the remaining hair and incorporate it into the ponytail with a second elastic. BOOM! All day volume! 

2. Lipstick - Make lipstick last longer by dabbing lips with a tissue after applying your lip color, then dust a translucent powder over your lips. This trick will help your lip color last longer and can easily make any lip color matte. 

3. Dull/Dry Hair - Make your own leave in conditioner by simply mixing a touch of your regular conditioner with water in a spray bottle.

4. Clumpy Mascara - Add a touch of saline contact solution to your dry or clumpy mascara to revive it. *Note : mascara should be discarded every 3 months so this trick should only be applied to mascaras less than 3 months old. 

5. Perfume - If you find your favorite scent doesn't last as long as you would like, apply vaseline to your pulse points prior to your perfume. This makes the scent last longer by preventing the perfume from being absorbed as quickly as it normally would. 

There you have it! Five of my favorite beauty hacks that I use regularly! Let me know if you would like to see more posts like this. Also let me know if you have any cool beauty hacks in the comments! 

Beauty Favorites | January 2015

I don't know what it is about January but I always seem to be caught off guard at the end of it thinking - where did the month even go? All of a sudden its January 27th and I'm finding myself rushing to gather my monthly favorites together so I can finally get one of these posts up at the end of the actual month I'm talking about (lets cross our fingers I make it happen more than once!). Without further delay, lets get into these favorites, and start also making our way through the shortest (and most gloomy in my opinion) month of the year. 

First off, I found myself reaching for these couple face makeup items pretty much every single day this month except for the days I wore no makeup at all. Loreal True Match foundation was always a favorite of mine, and after repurchasing it a couple months back I've found it back in my everyday makeup bag from the depths of my makeup drawers. Perfectly paired with the foundation was my Benefit Erase Paste which does a double duty of blemish and under eye concealing. I've been pretty constant on my bronzer and concealer this month as well - Nars Laguna Bronzer paired with the Rimmel blush in Pink Rose have been my dream combo. 

As for the rest of my makeup I've been keeping it pretty simple as well. I've really been enjoying a more simple eye look with lots of mascara - the one I haven't been able to keep my hands off of is Loreal Miss Manga which I did a full review of this month as well. As for lips I have to say a shout out to one of my favorite bloggers and fellow Canadians Estee (Essie Button), as I saw in her Best Beauty Products of 2014 video that she mentioned the Revlon Balm Stain in Honey was a favorite of hers. Lets just say any lip product specifically that Estee calls her favorite of the entire year has got to be purchased, like.. yesterday.

(Top to bottom) Nars Laguna, Rimmel Pink Rose, Revlon Honey 

There you have it guys! A very small but to the point January Beauty Favorites! Comment down below with some of the products you've enjoyed this month! 

Five Things | Go To Drugstore Foundations

Foundation is one of those very individual things, and I know everyone has a different preference - dewy, natural, matte, light/full coverage etc - and everyone also has different skin types, which makes it difficult to wear certain types of foundation. I tried to choose a variety for this post so that there is something for pretty well everyone. As I've said in many a post before, my skin is combination. All these foundations work well for me, it just depends on what finish or coverage level I'm looking for on any given day. 

The first two I grabbed are both similar in that they leave a more dewy finish to the skin - not in the 'I just left the gym' kind of way though. Maybelline Fit Me is a wonderful one for a nice medium coverage, and leaves the skin looking dewy, but not oily. It does have an spf built in which is great for protection your skin, but should be avoided if you're planning on getting your picture taken - white cast is bad news! Rimmel Wake Me Up is my other favorite drugstore foundation in the glowy catagory. This has a very, very fine shimmer to it which reflects the light giving you a lovely 'lit from within' look. It's medium coverage, and I especially love this foundation for this time of year because of the glow, and the fact that it gives any dry areas on my face a little extra moisture. 

If you're not so much into the dewy look, these next three will be more your style. If you're after the most matte face possible, Rimmel Stay Matte is right up your alley. This is probably the most mattifying foundation I've ever tried - if your curious about the finer details, you can read my full review of it here. Loreal True Match foundation is much more a middle of the road type of foundation. I would call it medium to full coverage, and because it is oil free I feel it does a good job of keeping oily areas at bay, but does not have the extreme matte effect of the Rimmel Stay Matte.

My last pick, and my most favorite as of lately goes out to Covergirl Ready Set Gorgeous. I've raved about this for about two straight months now - I've done a full review that you can read here - but to sum it up, it's a long wearing foundation with medium to full coverage that keeps your skin looking matte and flawless all day. The price point of this (about 6-8$CAD) for the quality is simply astounding. I think it's safe to say I'll continue to be raving about this for many months to come.

Throw a comment below on some of your favorite drugstore foundations! 

Beating Winter Blues With Champagne Shades

I love a good glow in my makeup all year round, but I seem to be craving that lit from within look even more during this gloomy time of year. We're right into the thick of the winter right now, and it's not our skins best friend. The dry weather and short days tend to make skin dull and lack luster - my solution is to pull out the champagne tones. 

(Top to bottom) CG Champagne, MAC Naked Lunch, Hard Candy Tiki Bronzer

(Top to bottom) Benefit Watts Up, Smashbox light luminizer, NYX cottage cheese, 

Rimmel bullet proof beige 

My first and most obvious choice - note the name - is the Covergirl Eye Enhancers eyeshadow in Champagne. So soft and buttery, it makes for the most amazing inner corner highlight that will truly make your eyes pop. Naked Lunch from MAC is also one of my favorite powder eyeshadows for bringing extra brightness to my eyes - the bonus is it isn't a heavy glitter shade so it never looks over the top. As for cheeks my go to powder product is the Hard Candy So Baked Bronzer in Tiki. It's labeled as a bronzer but for that purpose I think it would be impossible to pull off. It is however one of the best drugstore highlighting products I've ever found. 

If you're more of a cream product type of person, especially in terms of face highlighters, then Benefit Watts Up is the perfect product. In a stick form it makes for super easy application and adds the most wonderfully natural glow to the skin without looking like you actually applied a highlighting product. Smashbox Artificial Light Luminizing Powder - what a mouth full - is yes, technically, a "powder", however I kind of find it to be an in between kind of product. The applicator dispenses small amounts of this creamy powder that adds such a beautiful glow to the cheeks or eyes. Just a tip, I dispense it onto the back of my hand and then use a brush to apply it to where I want it - applying it straight from the container can get a little tedious. 

My final two picks are both eyeshadow sticks, and seriously, who doesn't love a good eyeshadow stick - so easy to use and convenient. The NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in cottage cheese - the name leaves little to be desired - is a stunner. It's shimmery white with undertones of gold. Finally the Rimmel Scandaleyes eyeshadow stick in bulletproof beige, which I must add is waterproof, adds a gorgeous light golden glow to the lids. I love wearing this both alone and as a base to make other shadows really pop. 

Five Things | Perfect Mac Starter Eyeshadows

In terms of eyeshadows you've really got to love some MAC, am I right? The thing with this is that their large selection - the large range of colors and finishes, can be amazing for a seasoned MUA, but for a beginner approaching a counter can be more than a little intimidating. Hopefully some of the apprehension can be taken care of with this run down of my five favorites which are perfect for beginners. The only requirement is that you have to love neutrals - neutrals are my jam if you didn't already realize - and have a decent makeup brush for eyeshadow application. 

My first and probably most well known of the bunch is Naked Lunch. This beauty is probably one of my first true loves from MAC - I've hit pan! It's just so easy to wear. It can be a light wash of color, or it can be the beginning of a more glamorous and dramatic eye. If I'm not just wearing this on its own (which I do quite a lot), I love pairing it with Espresso. This is a warm, matte cocoa shade that makes for the perfect crease color - it's soft enough to not look over the top. It also makes for a great brow shade depending on your natural tones. It blends like a dream which is why I find myself reaching for it with many of my brown smokey looks - you wont get any chalkiness here!

The next two shades I picked also have a lovely relationship with Naked Lunch - they both look amazing when used as a crease color. Cork is a matte golden brown shade, and much like Espresso, one of my go to crease shades for any type of neutral smokey eye. Also like Espresso, it is so smooth, blendable and not chalky or powdery at all. If you want something that is still neutral but more on the taupe end of things then Quarry is an amazing option. Out of my selection of five this is the third and final matte I chose. This is a soft plum brown that I enjoy wearing both in the crease with something like NL, or on its own swept over the lid as a nice simple wash of color - trust me it's a stunner!

Finally, where on earth would a neutral lover be without a good bronze option? Mulch is a brown with undertones of red and bronze pearl. It has a velvet finish which basically just means all the shine glamour without the risk of glitter fallout. This is another shade that can easily be thrown all over the lid and blended out into the crease - it looks like you did way more work than you actually did. It also looks stunning when built up with other colors to create a great smokey eye look. Any way you want to rock this is the right way in my opinion. 

So there you have it, five shadows that can easily be mixed and matched to create everything from an everyday wash of color to a dramatic evening smokey eye. What would your go to favorite five from MAC be? Let me know below!