Biotherm biopur pore reducer

This is a moisturizer I’ve finished recently and have put off reviewing for a while because my opinion on skin care products takes a while to develop. At first I’m excited to try it out and it seems amazing but if I still like it by the time the bottle is empty, then I know its a great product. If I remember correctly I believe this was $45 for 50ml, I got some samples of other Biotherm creams with it. 

It claims to  “refining the skin's texture”, tighten pores and keep the skin matte with PORE INSIDE™ technology and ingredients such as a natural soap, astringent Copper, oil-regulating Zinc, and mattifying Starch. They instruct to use this as a day and night moisturizer and it contains no SPF.

The ingredient list on the website isn’t complete so here is the list of everything that’s in it.

Generally this cream was OK, it’s lightweight enough that I could layer sunscreen (Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Sunscreen) and foundation on top of it and it didn’t make my face shiny (although my face’s natural oil will make it shiny in a few hours) but the fancy technology and ingredients it claims to have didn’t do much better than Neutrogena’s Oil Free Fresh Moisture Moisturizer. No “oil regulation”, no smaller looking pores. For $45 it contains a lot of the same ingredients that $10 drugstore moisturizers have such as, salicylic acid, glycerin, aqua (water – as its first ingredient), sodium hydroxide, aluminum starch octenylsuccinate, fragrance (it had a light scent)  and witch hazel. The ingredients are similar and the effects are similar. It does have better packaging, the pump dispenser is great and its in a glass bottle.

In all, a nice moisturizer, not a fantastic one, but not one that I want to get more of now that the bottle’s empty. I’ll be looking for moisturizer with more antioxidants next. 

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haul + update

Last week was an exciting week for me, it was my birthday and I got hired for my very first job (well, legitimate one anyways) and an old friend came into town for a visit. I also cut my own hair for the first time with two haircutting tools purchased from Daiso. I didn’t realize it until now, but I bought a lot of goodies too. I went to a cosmetics outlet I read about on mallvibes (here), the shop smelled horrible and the prices weren't much lower than you`d find normally at most drugstores but I found a few things I wanted.
1. Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Foundation $8 (reg $12.99) – I don`t have mature skin but I was looking for a medium-full coverage foundation and this one has good reviews on mua. The shade I got is 150 Classic Ivory, 2 shades darker than the lightest they make but this shade was the lightest I could find in the shop. They do say that its better to go darker than to go lighter. A foundation that`s too light can make you look pasty and ghostly but I always thought they could `brighten up` your face to give you a glow. 
1. Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Double Face Perfector (concealer + highlighter) $8 (reg $10.99) – Heard rave reviews of this, can`t wait to give it a go!
3. Neutrogena Oil Free Fresh Moisture $5 (reg $9.99)  -  my second time buying this product. I rarely repurchase products but I have liked this one, its light weight and has been keeping my skin smooth for the past year.

my year old tube compared to the new one

  Sunscreen, guess where I got this! At Dollarama! This was $2 at Dollarama and its still sold at places like Zellers and Superstore for around $10. I was pretty sceptical to get this because I`ve heard that some dollar stores take the packaging of a product and fill it with something different but still sell it as whatever the packaging says. Dollarama is a large retailer though and I don`t think they`d do that. This sunscreen seems great so far regardless.

Water proof mascaras! Because their supposed to hold a curl better and I`m tired of getting smudges on my lower lash line. I`ve opened `the Falsies`so far and am disappoint so far to be honest.

First box of ice cream for the summer. Got it two weeks ago and its almost empty already!

 
I`m now using Aussi hair care, no particular reason, just ran out of shampoo (was Herbal Essences) and conditioner (was Aveeno). Really love this stuff so far. Makes hair super soft, smooth, shiny and smells good!  
 
Daiso haul, I actually have a lot of Daiso hauls to fill you guys in with. This one has an umbrella (haven`t used yet), hair cutter (LOVE IT, used it to cut my hair last week), haircutting scissors (used it a bit, don`t really like it) and a pill remover (mom loves it). Everything was $2 and more opinions on them soon.

I miss doing posts like this! Its what made blogging fun in the first place. Thank you all for still reading this blog even though I hardly update anymore, hello! to my new readers, I promise I`ll put up more posts for you to read more often!

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Jane be pure mineral lip balm

Overall: 4/5
Shade: White Pearl 01

This lip balm smells amazing, its scent is my favourite thing about it! It smells like vanilla and isn't overwhelmingly sweet.  It smells “pure”. I’d love it if someone would make this scent into a body spray or perfume, its exactly how I want to smell like! The lip balm itself is really soft, if you’ve ever tried a Burt's Bees lip balm you’d know how hard they are and how they go on very thin. This one slides on a lot easier and goes on thicker. Its smoother and feels a bit greasy.  Its twist tube packaging isn’t the best for for the product’s consistency, it tends to melt and so when you twist it, it doesn’t get more product out. If you live in an area with a warm climate, this melts really easily and will probably turn into a mess for you. The packaging is also really easy to take/fall apart, I think this would have been much better in a mini jar. Although the balm has colour, its very sheer and doesn’t make a noticeable difference. I like this lip balm, but its not a must and I don’t think I’d repurchase it because there are just so many others to try.

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l’oreal voluminous mascara

Overall Rating: 9/10

This is a very hyped mascara that’s been around for quite a while now and known to be a lot of people’s HG mascara and I can see why. It’s inexpensive, its accessible and it has classy packaging. It adds volume and length better than most mascaras I’ve tried but it’s not as thickening as I’ve heard it to be. When I first used this I was pretty disappointed and I thought I might have bought a defective one because it seemed already quite dry. (However it didn’t flake so I think that I got a normal one.) The best mascara I’ve ever tried for fat lashes is Lancome Fatale, it did clump but it got me really thick lashes.  This mascara reminds me a lot of Prestige’s My Blackest Lashes (reviewed here), My Blackest Lashes was wetter but got the same volume as Voluminous gives me and neither holds a curl (I have medium length, straight, stubborn black lashes). This one does curl my lashes slight when I apply  it but it doesn’t last.  Also a problem I’ve been having with most non-waterproof mascaras in general is that it tends to smudge onto the outer corners of my under eye. When I yawn my eyes water and some of that water accumulates into the ends of my eye, touches the lashes and viola, a black streak. This one seems to smudge more severely, maybe just because the formula’s thicker but next time I’m getting the waterproof version. Even so, I still think this mascara is perfect for volumizing the lashes without clumping for an everyday look.

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stila lip glaze

Shade: Grapefruit 07
Overall Rating: 6.5/10

I’m not an avid lip-gloss wearer and this hasn’t changed me into one. These I believe are one of Stila’s most popular products, the twist dispenser and brush applicator  have made it a lot of people’s favourites but don’t appeal to me. Product gets stuck in the bristles of the plastic brush and if you don’t use this very often like me (if you like to switch lip glosses day to day or don’t wear gloss daily) the old gloss stays on the brush and starts to clot. The next time you use it you’ll have to deal with the  glob of  thickened old product before the new gloss pushes through.  This wastes product and if you can see in the first photo, there isn’t a lot of gloss to begin with.

The twist applicator pushes product out, good so that gloss doesn’t get stuck on the rims but I expect that its not going to be able to get that last bit out. With normal lip glosses you can put the tube in some hot water to melt the product off the sides so you can use it but I don’t think that method would work with this.  

The gloss itself is sheer, has a hint of shimmer after application and is pretty! Its a nice lip gloss, the packaging design makes it stand out from most, but this isn’t a HG for me. If you want to try out this kind of packaging there’s also E.L.F.’s Hypershine lip glosses that are $1 at Target in the US. 

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