Hello! I hope that everyone's christmas was good. I can't believe that in 2 days (well, more like 1 day), we'll be starting a new year! I always look forward to a New Year. I don't know...call me naive, call me silly, but I'm always hoping that it'll be better than the last. I think that the main reason why I look forward to the new year is because I look forward to making new memories, meeting new people, learning new things. As geeky as it sounds, that's what I am - a geek at heart! I don't love the turning another year old bit, but that's fine....as long as I look young, I'm good with it!
So....I've done a couple of reviews on TWO of the THREE beauty boxes available here in Canada, but guess what I just found out??? There's going to be a fourth!!!! From what I've read, it's going to be GLOSSYBOX. Yes, this is the same one as the one that is offered in the UK and Ireland. They haven't launched the site or anything yet...and there isn't actually a lot of information out there, so being the googling person I am, I googled it. And sure enough, it took me the glossy box UK website. Then i had a genius moment...hey, why don't I remove the UK part of the address and throw in .ca? Voila!!!! Glossy Box Canada!!!! Since the website isn't functional because they aren't ready launch, they are offering to put you in the VIP line for when news comes out of their launch. All you have to do is enter your email address. Apparently, it's launching in the states also. Click here -> Glossy Box US. I'm assuming that they are legit...I haven't started receiving any spam mail yet in my inbox! :P I'm very excited and can't wait to sign up because from what I read, it seems like Glossy box is one of the "older" of the UK boxes (I think that there's something like 6-7 companies that offer beauty boxes). One thing that I hope doesn't happen is a charge for shipping and handling, because unless the products never miss the mark, I can't see myself being able to justify the price that I would possibly be paying, seeing how all the other beauty boxes have the shipping and handling built in. BUT!!!! I am assuming and digressing. As soon as I hear more information about their launch and the possible brands that they will be carrying, I'll be sure to update you all!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
EDIT: Upon further research, Glossy box apparently serves many european countries and not just UK and Ireland. :)
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Happy Holidays!
Hey everyone, I just wanted to drop a quick line to say Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays! I'm not much of a profound type of speaker, but I just hope that everyone has a great holiday!
I meant to post a review of Fairy Drops mascara, but i couldn't find my keyboard. Yes, my desk is that much of disaster zone. Besides, those mac keyboards are tiny! Oh, for those that read this blog for the gaming aspect - have no fear, I do not game on my mac. I scoff.
Much Love!
I meant to post a review of Fairy Drops mascara, but i couldn't find my keyboard. Yes, my desk is that much of disaster zone. Besides, those mac keyboards are tiny! Oh, for those that read this blog for the gaming aspect - have no fear, I do not game on my mac. I scoff.
Much Love!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
December Glymm Box
AMG!!!! Three posts in one day! What is this world coming to. Be prepared people!!! This is a long one. Before I start though, I did subscribe to all three, but I will not be getting my Top Box until March (in time for my birthday!!!!). Something about being sold out until then. If you were to subscribe to Top Box today, I believe that they are sold out until May. I also believe that Loose Button (or maybe it was Glymm) is sold out until February. Don't ask me how this happens because I've been thinking about it since!
First Item I pulled out was the Caudalie Premier Cru Eye Cream (sorry, not a good picture). Full size is 15 ml ($95). My sample was 1ml (approx. $6). I'm very eager to try it because I have very dark circles under my eyes. Smells floral-y like most of their products. It's supposed to help target visible signs of aging, dissolves the appearance of lines and wrinkles, dark circles and puffiness. Maybe I'll try it tonight - it's a very pricey product...but I guess well worth it if it works!
Second Item : AHAVA Mineral Hand Cream. Full Size is 3.4oz for $20. My sample is 0.68 flow (approx. $4) It contains dead sea minerals that hydrate and restore moisture. And what a better place to test this than here! As soon as the temperature drops, the dryness sucks all the moisture out of the air. It's awful! It smells like the spa. Or smells that I would associate with the spa! I love it!! And it's not too oily - it absorbs straight into the skin. Definitely going to use this!!! 
Third : Yves Saint Laurent La Parisienne parfum. Full Size is 3oz for $85, my sample is 0.25floz (approx. $7). It's a pretty good size, but it's not a spritzer which I definitely prefer because I'm lazy. I like it. I know that most of the blogs say that it's a "mature" scent. I disagree. It's quite floral, which I don't normally like, but there are hints of luxury...something feminine....which make it just perfect! I'm going to wear it! So there!
Fourth : SULA Beauty - Natural Lip Gloss (in First Kiss). Full Size 0.5floz for $8. My sample is 0.167floz (approx $2.60). It's this crazy cotton candy pink and it smells like cotton candy too!!!! It's totally delish!!!
Last item(s) : In every Glymm box, they include jelly bellies in a cute little glass jar. Each month will have a different colour scheme. December being the main Xmas month, the jelly beans in this months box are red and white. I think that the white ones are supposed to be marshmallows and the red ones are supposed to be cranberries? I think that they should have used cinnamon. :) Also included is a $10 gift card to be used in Glymm's Beauty Boutique. It's good until the end of January. YAY!!!
Glymm is a monthly subscription only beauty box for $10 a month. Oh wait, i lied, they also have yearly. And you get points for each month that you are subbed. 10 per month or 100 right off the bat for a yearly sub. For every 100 points, you get $10 off to use in their Beauty Boutique, which carries brands and products that are featured in past (and also not) beauty boxes. I chose the monthly one because you can cancel at any time. They do have an online store in which you can purchase products from the brands that they feature and that you receive in your box.
This is my first Glymm box and it's CUTE!!!! It comes in a pink carton and pink box! It's just like loose button, it's got a bunch of cards explaining the products in your box and the products themselves are wrapped in tissue paper. There are about 4-5 samples...and with every box there will be a jar of jelly belly jelly beans! They are colour coordinated according to the month/season. Let's get started!!!!
First Item I pulled out was the Caudalie Premier Cru Eye Cream (sorry, not a good picture). Full size is 15 ml ($95). My sample was 1ml (approx. $6). I'm very eager to try it because I have very dark circles under my eyes. Smells floral-y like most of their products. It's supposed to help target visible signs of aging, dissolves the appearance of lines and wrinkles, dark circles and puffiness. Maybe I'll try it tonight - it's a very pricey product...but I guess well worth it if it works! 
Second Item : AHAVA Mineral Hand Cream. Full Size is 3.4oz for $20. My sample is 0.68 flow (approx. $4) It contains dead sea minerals that hydrate and restore moisture. And what a better place to test this than here! As soon as the temperature drops, the dryness sucks all the moisture out of the air. It's awful! It smells like the spa. Or smells that I would associate with the spa! I love it!! And it's not too oily - it absorbs straight into the skin. Definitely going to use this!!! 
Third : Yves Saint Laurent La Parisienne parfum. Full Size is 3oz for $85, my sample is 0.25floz (approx. $7). It's a pretty good size, but it's not a spritzer which I definitely prefer because I'm lazy. I like it. I know that most of the blogs say that it's a "mature" scent. I disagree. It's quite floral, which I don't normally like, but there are hints of luxury...something feminine....which make it just perfect! I'm going to wear it! So there! 
Fourth : SULA Beauty - Natural Lip Gloss (in First Kiss). Full Size 0.5floz for $8. My sample is 0.167floz (approx $2.60). It's this crazy cotton candy pink and it smells like cotton candy too!!!! It's totally delish!!! 
Fifth : Lise Watier Flash Lift Raidance Vial. There is no mention on the card for this item, so I'm assuming that this is just a special bonus, or perhaps it fell into my box while it was being package. Who knows! LOL! Anyways, upon doing a little research (okay, okay, I googled it!) it's $27 for 7 vials. So I have 1 vial at the price of approx. $4. It's supposed give instant radiance, erases the signs of fatigue, and smoothes the appearance of wrinkles.
Last item(s) : In every Glymm box, they include jelly bellies in a cute little glass jar. Each month will have a different colour scheme. December being the main Xmas month, the jelly beans in this months box are red and white. I think that the white ones are supposed to be marshmallows and the red ones are supposed to be cranberries? I think that they should have used cinnamon. :) Also included is a $10 gift card to be used in Glymm's Beauty Boutique. It's good until the end of January. YAY!!!Overall, for this month, I'm more impressed by Glymm's box than Luxe Box. I think mainly for the reason that in nearly every youtube vid I saw on the Luxe Box, it came with China Glaze nail polish. I didn't get one. Now, I also heard that Luxe Box "upgrades" the boxes if you have anything higher than monthly subscription. If this is true, then I'm not impressed. We all pay the same amount of money for the box. All because I reserve the right to cancel because the product may suck doesn't mean that you should make me want to cancel.
December Luxe Box from Loose Button
I can't tell you how excited I am to FINALLY have something like this in Canada. I think that there are about three companies that offer this type service. Forgive me if there are more. Please let me know! I'm loving these things!!!!! For months now, I've been totally jealous of my american friends and their "BirchBox". Bitchbox is what it should be called! Just joking! Anyways, so how these things work, is that for a monthly fee, they send you a box of anywhere between 4-5 Deluxe beauty samples (though, after opening my first one, I'm not convinced that they are all d-lux. Sometimes, you will get the full sized sample. The three that I have subscribed to are as follows: Luxe Box, Glymm Box, and Top Box.
Luxe Box is put together by this company called Loose Button. It is $12 a month, with longer subscription options. There's monthly, quarterly, and yearly. Yearly being the best bang for your buck because you save $12. You don't have to worry about resubbing each month or quarter because it will automatically do it for you. I choose monthly for all of them - in case they disappoint me - I don't want to be stuck with a yearly thing. Loose Button has quite a few brands in which they include samples of. The range anywhere between the pricey to the more common. Oh, also, every month before they send out the boxes, they let you choose (they say that you've been exclusively selected, but I'm not so sure!) your choice between two deluxe samples. This month was DDF or a Keratase hair product. I didn't check my email fast enough, so boo! I didn't get to choose.
Once you receive the box, it looks like this :
Luxe Box is put together by this company called Loose Button. It is $12 a month, with longer subscription options. There's monthly, quarterly, and yearly. Yearly being the best bang for your buck because you save $12. You don't have to worry about resubbing each month or quarter because it will automatically do it for you. I choose monthly for all of them - in case they disappoint me - I don't want to be stuck with a yearly thing. Loose Button has quite a few brands in which they include samples of. The range anywhere between the pricey to the more common. Oh, also, every month before they send out the boxes, they let you choose (they say that you've been exclusively selected, but I'm not so sure!) your choice between two deluxe samples. This month was DDF or a Keratase hair product. I didn't check my email fast enough, so boo! I didn't get to choose.
It slides left or right to open. Once you open the box, there are bunch of cards. One explaining the philosophy behind the boxes, the products featured in the box and the full size products. The products are tissue wrapped (as one) and sitting on crinkled paper. There's a personalized sticker that says "Made For (your name here)". Very posh!!!! In hind sight, I should have taken more pictures - I promise I will next month! (Or heck, next box!!!).
First product I pulled out was DDF Advanced Firming Cream. Full size is 48g for $140. My sample was 14g. So it's a sizeable sample. It smells like pizza. HA! I haven't decided if I'm going to keep it or give it to my mom. I have very few wrinkles.
Second item I pulled out was a Yves Rocher Italian Mandarin Shower Gel. Full Size is 400ml for $12. My sample was 50ml. I don't really use shower gel, so I'll probably give this away. But OMG! It smells fantastic. Just like fresh mandarin oranges. Yummy.
Third item was a Lise Watier Plumpissimo Le Gloss. Full Size is 6.2ml ($20). My sample was 1.5ml. UGH! Lip Gloss. It's a beautiful neutral color - I may actually wear it. It's has some gold flecks of shimmer. Very subtle.
Fourth and perhaps you can count it like a Fifth item were a his and hers Paco Rabanne Black XS for her and Black XS for him. They aren't really for me or my husband. They are very woodsy and musky smelling. The description on the package says that there are notes of Floral...well....no. The sample size probably weren't any bigger than what you would get from a department store.
Overall, I'm not super impressed with my first Luxe Box. BUT...i have heard that with each box, they have gotten better and better. Hopefully, I'll like next month's better.
Currently, Loosebutton does not sell the items that they send out. I think that they going to eventually set up a store, but for now, I haven't heard anything.
Check them out: www.loosebutton.com.
Revlon Lip Butters
Alrighty! My first beauty review, let's see how this goes!
As I said in my previous post, I'm not a huge lipstick/etc fan. I'm just a plain jane chapstick kind of girl. So, of course, when I heard about these Lip Butters, I was pretty intrigued. Rexall Drug Store (Canadian Drug Store) had a huge promotion going on in their beauty department - buy two, get one free. I picked up three (in order from top to bottom): Sweet Tart - a fun, bright pink colour. Very pigmented. All it took was swipe to get the swatch. Cotton Candy - a light airy pink that isn't as pigmented. It took about three swipes to get the swatch to show up. Cupcake - a very frosty, light pink. It took nearly six swipes to get the slightest colour to show. The consistency on my lips reminded very much of lip gloss - which I find too thick and goopy. I love the smell - I can't describe it. It's like candy. But not too sweet. They are very moisturizing, but it has a tendency to move - like lip gloss. I do have to admit, I didn't wear any lip liner, as I didn't think that had to. One thing that I do need to say is that it doesn't move as much as lip gloss, which causes me constantly wipe the edges of my mouth like I'm constantly drooling. It's a great idea for when you're out, as lipstick itself isn't the greatest moisturizer in the world, so now you can have both colour and moisturizer. It's got a little bit of a glossy sheen to it to, so you don't have to worry about your gloss! I'm still going to give it a go for a little bit and hopefully I'll get used to it. But I can say this, I can see why so many people love the product!
As I said in my previous post, I'm not a huge lipstick/etc fan. I'm just a plain jane chapstick kind of girl. So, of course, when I heard about these Lip Butters, I was pretty intrigued. Rexall Drug Store (Canadian Drug Store) had a huge promotion going on in their beauty department - buy two, get one free. I picked up three (in order from top to bottom): Sweet Tart - a fun, bright pink colour. Very pigmented. All it took was swipe to get the swatch. Cotton Candy - a light airy pink that isn't as pigmented. It took about three swipes to get the swatch to show up. Cupcake - a very frosty, light pink. It took nearly six swipes to get the slightest colour to show. The consistency on my lips reminded very much of lip gloss - which I find too thick and goopy. I love the smell - I can't describe it. It's like candy. But not too sweet. They are very moisturizing, but it has a tendency to move - like lip gloss. I do have to admit, I didn't wear any lip liner, as I didn't think that had to. One thing that I do need to say is that it doesn't move as much as lip gloss, which causes me constantly wipe the edges of my mouth like I'm constantly drooling. It's a great idea for when you're out, as lipstick itself isn't the greatest moisturizer in the world, so now you can have both colour and moisturizer. It's got a little bit of a glossy sheen to it to, so you don't have to worry about your gloss! I'm still going to give it a go for a little bit and hopefully I'll get used to it. But I can say this, I can see why so many people love the product!
I do apologize for the not so great pictures. I'm playing around with the lighting in my area (I have a feeling that I'm going to have to move out of the office for the pictures) and with the type of camera...but it's looking like I'm going to have to pull out the great big camera for these pictures. But i did my best with some quick editing! Hope you like. Please feel free to ask questions!
Sunday, December 18, 2011
End of the Year! Finally!
Whew. I haven't posted in a while. Maybe it's a good thing - haven't had much to bitch about I suppose. No, that's not true. I guess I've turned to real people bitching as opposed to online bitching. Why not bitch to friends who will response with things, "damn, you're so right, girlfriend!". Okay, maybe not. Anyways, I just wanted to say hi before the end of year...and to let you all know that I've been rethinking the direction of my blog. Now, I love gaming and beauty. I know, totally weird right. I actually had a really close girlfriend of mine comment about it. She said that I was probably one of the weirdest people she knows - I can go from talking about CoD to nail polish without taking a breath. Maybe it's true. Or maybe I have ADD. Anyways, I'm hoping to talk actually about gaming and do some beauty reviews. I love to shop - which may be a little hindered over the next 6 months (more on that later)...but I will do my best! I already know of some things that I want to blog about - I just have to find a good set up where I can take my pictures! Well, at least for my beauty stuff.
Being shopping handicapped for a little bit. Well, we had bought our current car about 6 years ago for about $10000 - Nissan Pathfinder (those babies aren't cheap!). Anyways, it was already about 4 years old. 6 years later, we're facing a $8000 maintenance bill. Just general stuff. My husband has been trying (and patiently so!) to explain to me what needs to be done. A couple of things that I knew about - windshield and tires need replacing, something about the case or box that the transmission sits in needs replacing...our dashboard light goes out intermittently (which is like a $1300 repair in itself. Seriously - $66 part, but the rest is labor). Brakes need replacing, shocks need replacing...ugh! So...we've decided to instead of spending $8000 for a $10000 car, we are now going to buy a new car - but we probably need to replace in about 6 months. YIPES! Anxiety!
BUT.....fear not my friends, I've already pre purchased a bunch of stuff that I can definitely blog about Revlon Lip Butters - which seems to be the hottest things around right now - we'll see about that. Which is kind of funny because I'm not a huge lipstick/etc type of girl. I'm a plain jane chapstick type. Beauty Boxes - to which I can currently subscribed to three of them (I think that there are only three offered in Canada - if there are more, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!!! Topbox.ca (I will not get my first box until about March...can't really figure out why but whatever. Glymm.com (soon to arrive!!! In time for Xmas!) and loose button.com - their box is called LuxeBox. It said that it was supposed to ship 14th-16th but I have yet to receive any kind of shipping information. Weird. Anyways, those are monthly subscriptions, so it'll at least force me blog at least once a month about those suckers...and give my thoughts.
Yes, that is all.
Being shopping handicapped for a little bit. Well, we had bought our current car about 6 years ago for about $10000 - Nissan Pathfinder (those babies aren't cheap!). Anyways, it was already about 4 years old. 6 years later, we're facing a $8000 maintenance bill. Just general stuff. My husband has been trying (and patiently so!) to explain to me what needs to be done. A couple of things that I knew about - windshield and tires need replacing, something about the case or box that the transmission sits in needs replacing...our dashboard light goes out intermittently (which is like a $1300 repair in itself. Seriously - $66 part, but the rest is labor). Brakes need replacing, shocks need replacing...ugh! So...we've decided to instead of spending $8000 for a $10000 car, we are now going to buy a new car - but we probably need to replace in about 6 months. YIPES! Anxiety!
BUT.....fear not my friends, I've already pre purchased a bunch of stuff that I can definitely blog about Revlon Lip Butters - which seems to be the hottest things around right now - we'll see about that. Which is kind of funny because I'm not a huge lipstick/etc type of girl. I'm a plain jane chapstick type. Beauty Boxes - to which I can currently subscribed to three of them (I think that there are only three offered in Canada - if there are more, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!!! Topbox.ca (I will not get my first box until about March...can't really figure out why but whatever. Glymm.com (soon to arrive!!! In time for Xmas!) and loose button.com - their box is called LuxeBox. It said that it was supposed to ship 14th-16th but I have yet to receive any kind of shipping information. Weird. Anyways, those are monthly subscriptions, so it'll at least force me blog at least once a month about those suckers...and give my thoughts.
Yes, that is all.
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