Blog – Page 12

impulse beauty buys

I’m going to go ahead and blame my impulse beauty product buys on the blogs that I read and I read a lot of blogs… I mean a lot. This morning my Bloglovin feed was at almost 1000 unread posts…talk about overload! So I’m sure you can only imagine what that means for my bank account. My go-to blog read is Man Repeller; Leandra’s quirky style and laid back approach to beauty is something I look forward to in her posts. When my focus landed on the title “Henna Lips” followed by an image of a bright green lipstick I couldn’t be stopped – I clicked “read more.” In a nutshell, the lipstick tints your lips a specific shade of pink according to your body’s pH level – (nerd alert) oh the science of beauty! Above you can see it turned a bright pink on me and Kristina but stayed that raspberry colour on Stefanie, not quite what I was hoping for but I mean for the low price of $3.82 plus shipping on my trusty sidekick, eBay, how could I resist? I, of course, enviously hoped the lipstick would give me the same pretty berry color that Leandra experienced but part of the fun of these inventive lip balms is that you never know how it looks until you try it! Don’t be alarmed by the cheap looking packaging, surprisingly I found it more moisturizing than the Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain (say that 5 times fast) that has become a staple in my makeup bag. I also just realized that I already broke one of my 25 goals for year 25: Number 4 -not do any impulse buying. In my defense, you try looking at a bright green lipstick that turns pink on your lips and walk away with your wallet intact…

the anti-beauty subscription box

Janna •

Stefanie and I both subscribed to the monthly beauty box last year called “Glymm”, which recently folded as a business. It promised 4-5 deluxe luxury beauty samples for a $10 monthly fee. After a few months I noticed the few samples I was getting were getting smaller – samples I would not label as luxurious or deluxe, so I canceled my subscription. Shortly after, Stefanie also cancelled her subscription. Being the beauty junky I am, I then signed up for a few more boxes that were available in Canada in the hopes that at least one of them would have monthly samples I would enjoy using. More bang for my buck, if you will. I signed up for Glossy Box Canada, Loose Button and Topbox, which were around $12 for each box every month. One day I did the math on how much I spent on all the boxes and it totaled almost $150. Now that made me stop short. I thought back over all the samples I had recieved and I couldn’t recall any samples (at all!) that made the money I had spent worth it. So I cancelled all my subscriptions and decided instead, starting in July, to put $20 a month in a jar in my house. After 3 months I can break into my suedo-piggy bank and buy a luxury beauty product. That $60 luxury beauty item usually had me keeping a death grip on my cash, as it seems a bit excessive. I’ve decided to let go a little on my grip because essentially I was throwing away that money on tiny samples I didn’t want/use over the course the past few months. Here are a few beauty items that have been on my wish list for some time now N° 28 Lip Treatment Oil ($49) DiorSkin Shimmer Star in Rose Diamond ($45) BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector SPF 25+ in Opal ($50) Kevyn Aucoin Celestial Veil Powder ($46) RMS beauty lip2cheek in Smile ($40) Hourglass Aura Lip & Cheek Stain Duo in Petal ($58) *all products are in CAD and are purchasable if you live in Canada

we pledge to be canadian

Janna •

MUA: Janna Huget Finding beauty products in Canada that are mentioned all the time in American blogs and websites should not require Nancy Drew like advanced detective skills. The disappointment and frustration that comes with the not so friendly “USA shipping only” declaration after putting multiple items into an online shopping bag is all too familiar to me. The same feelings follow when I’ve deligently researched and read product reviews and gotten all excited about finding the product in my local drugstore only to disover it isn’t available in Canada. My current dissapointing search for the famed NYX blush in Taupe, that is has been hailed as a godsend for pale beauties like myself, has proved utterly fruitless – in Canada that is. To help stop the pain and suffering of our fellow blog-followers, Stefanie and I have decided to showcase products on this blog that are purchasable if you live in Canada. We think it’s pretty important to feature Canadian brands in different articles with our honest (and hopefully helpful!) opinions as makeup and hair professionals. On a daily basis we get questions tossed our way about different tips and tricks so we wanted a place to share all of our combined knowledge with you! xx

lipstick palette DIY

Janna •

Making your own lipstick palette sounds way harder than it actually turned out to be. Yes, you can buy pre-made lip palettes like the ones MAC Cosmetics sells, but if you are as I was, stuck with the palettes on back order for over a month, sometimes a girl has to take action into her own hands. I even tried to buy the lip palettes from the MAC Pro store in New York when I was there in April but they were completely sold out. These palettes may be a bit much for an everyday lipstick lover but for Stefanie and myself as freelance makeup artists this lipstick palette makes life so much easier as you aren’t spending valuable time searching for lipsticks and sanitizing each lipstick one by one, not to mention all the space you save in your makeup kit. Step 1: gather supplies needed- empty palette, 24 well insert, label maker (we use this one), matches, candle, knife and spoon Step 2: get together all the lipstick you want to melt down Step 3: cut off a 3/4″ piece of the lipstick Step 4: hold the lipstick on the spoon over the flame until melted – caution it does get really hot Step 5: pour liquid into the well Step 6: continue to fill palette then let sit to solidify again Step 7: create labels for the back of the palette with the lipstick names 30 min later you have a finished lipstick palette!

flora and fauna

Janna •

If someone was to ask you “hey, do you want to travel to work on a photo shoot and hang out with some pretty epic people” would you really say no? So of course I said yes to the amazing opportunity to travel to Vancouver, BC with Nicole Ashley and Stefanie in April to work on a promotional video that was being filmed. It was 3 days of tireless work but the images and memories were more than worth it. These are a few of the photos that were taken in freezing rain in the middle of Stanley Park. If there was a hipster paradise I am sure I was living in it for these shots. Model: Jasmine Harquail Hair and Make up: Stefanie Carlson Wardrobe Created & Styled by: Janna Huget Jewelry: Stella & Dot © nicole ashley photography www.nicoleashley.ca [bloglovin-follow-button]