theNotice: a beauty blog

The product: SEPHORA COLLECTION Creamy Body Wash Caps

One of the coolest new products in travel beauty are the Sephora Collection Creamy Body Wash Caps — little single-serving shower gels. They’re quite novel, and perfect for things like weekend trips: a few caps will fit easily into your carry-on without breaking the 100 mL limit.

You don’t have to leave the city to have an excuse to try out the caps, though! Sephora has put them out in 14 different scents, from Blueberry, to Green Tea, to Lemon Verbena or Chocolate. There’s actually more scents available in the caps than in the full-size Creamy Body Wash, but they’re a great way to try out the full-size versions without the 140 ml commitment, too.

Better still is that they’re perfectly scent-sealed — meaning you can throw a handful (of different scents, even) into your luggage without having to worry that everything else is going to end up smelling like some sort of chocolatey-floral tropical-fruit-punch monster.

I had first mentioned these on theNotice here, when I went over some of the products available at Sephora France. It’s great to see that they’ve finally landed in North America, though their Cube Effervescents (fizzing bath cubes) have yet to show up in stores!

The verdict?

Okay, so these clearly aren’t suited for daily use — but I think they’re a bit brilliant, really. At just $1 each, they’re perfect for trying out a new scent, throwing into your luggage, or adding to a goodie bag.

I go scent-free in the shower almost all of the time, but sometimes it’s nice to mix things up with a bit of fragrance, you know? I’d never go through an entire bottle of scented body wash (I’ve tried; it never works) so these are perfect for those rare times when I want something with a tasty, lingering scent.

(I’m not kidding about the tasty: that really is the best way to describe some of these!)

Keep reading! »

Earlier this week, a good friend of mine (aka She of the Glorious Cheekbones, or “Xiao,” for short) asked me to tell her about the ingredients in the Tatcha Radiant Deep Brightening Serum. I’m no skincare expert, but I do end up doing a lot of skincare research just for interest’s sake, so I thought I’d share the breakdown with all of you, too.

To start off, here’s the full ingredients list: 

Water, Glycerine, Propanediol, Alcohol, Cyclopentasiloxane, Squalane (Olive Extract), Isocetyl Stearate, Inositol (Rice Bran), Phenoxyethanol, Oryza Stavia Germ Oil (Rice Bran), Polyglyceryl-2 Triisostearate, Polyglyceryl-10 Isostearate, Ethylhexylglycerine, Glyceryl Stearate, Behenyl Alcohol, Sericin (Silk), Arginine, Carbomer, Xanthan Gum, Biosaccharide Gum-1, Sodium Hyaluronate, Zizyphus Extract (Jujuba Fruit), Glycyrrhiza Glabra Root Extract (Licorice Root), Scutellaria Baicalensis Root Extract (Baical Skullcap), Ctearyl Alcohol, Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate, Sorbitan Stearate, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Hydrogenated Lecithin, Red Algae Extract, Camellia Sinesis Leaf Extract (Green Tea), Fragrance.

[Italicized ingredients are of natural origin.]

What you need to know about ingredients lists

As I’m sure you all know, the FDA dictates that all ingredients be listed in order of predominance, with the notable exclusion of:

a) Any ingredients that are also drugs (eg. chemical sunscreens), which are listed first;

b) Colour additives, which can be listed at the end in any order;

c) “Trade secrets,” which can be listed as simply “and other ingredients,” and finally;

d) Any ingredient making up less than 1% of the finished product, which can be listed in any order amongst themselves.

Because of this, I’m going to focus on the first handful of ingredients, and touch on the rest only briefly — just in case you were wondering why I haven’t broken down all 32 ingredients for you!

The base

Water

Okay, this one’s obvious. Most skincare products do start out with water (aqua/eau, whatever you care to call it); starting out your product with water doesn’t make it a “cheap dilution.” Dilution? Well, yes, but it’s always nice not to burn your skin off with overly-concentrated ingredients!

Remember, when it comes to skincare, more isn’t always better. It’s all about a balance: you don’t want a product that’s too diluted, but you don’t want one that’s too concentrated, either.

Glycerine

Another common ingredient. My worry with glycerine is always that, while a good, cost-effective humectant (think of humectants as skin conditioning agents for locking in moisture), it can give a suffocating, sticky finish if you use too much — which I definitely find is the case with this serum. (I’d recommend starting off with just two or three small drops for your entire face if you want a soft finish, rather than a sticky one.)

Effective or not, I’m a little disappointed to see so much glycerine in a product that retails for $150 a bottle, to be honest — it’s hard to fork over that much when you know the largest components of a product are dirt-cheap!

Propanediol

Um, this is awkward.  1,2- or 1,3-propanediol? Anyhow; this is probably around as a humectant and/or viscosity-controlling agent; group it in as “supporting character” rather than “story arc.” There have been some concerns raised over this one with regards to skin irritation, so do keep an eye out for any unusual redness or sensitivity, especially in your eye area.

What’s with all the extracts? Keep reading »

The product: Burt’s Bees Refreshing Lip Balm with Pink Grapefruit

It’s not okay to eat your lip balm, Rae. It’s not okay. It’s not okay. It’s not okay.

But oh, how I want to! Burts’ (surprisingly tasteless) Refreshing Lip Balm smells incredible – completely evocative of a fresh, juicy pink grapefruit, a bit tart rather than syrupy-sweet. It would be an entirely convincing scent (save for the fact that nature rarely produces anything just this perfectly scented), and the balm itself carries absolutely no synthetic or waxy undertones.

New this April at The Bay (in Canada) and Burts’ online site, Burt’s Refreshing Lip Balm with Pink Grapefruit is 100% natural; free of petrochemicals, phtalates, and parabens. The not-tested-on-animals formula contains key ingredients of beeswax, sunflower oil, coconut oil, and pink grapefruit seed oils (rich in Vitamins C and E).

It moisturizes as well as the rest of the Burt’s Bees stick balm lineup, which is to say: it’s far from terrible, but still not enough for my super-dry lips. If you’re a fan of Burts’ Replenishing (pomegranate), Rejuvenating (acai), or Nourishing (mango) lip balms, though, then you’ll like this one, to – they’re all based on a sunflower seed & coconut oil formula.

Strangely, I find Burts’ un-tinted “fruity” balms to be less hydrating than their tinted ones - the latter tout a formula that’s mainly coconut and vegetable oil, without the sunflower seed oil.

The full ingredients 

The verdict?

Burt, my dear, you and your bees had me at “pink grapefruit.” It’s the one citrus scent that I’m a complete sucker for, whether it’s in a scrub, moisturizer, or delicious buttercream frosting, and finding it in the most recent Burt’s launch was like a Summer dream come true.

Despite not being hydrating enough for me to wear it on its own or as an intensive lip balm, I have still found myself reaching for this over the past little while. It’s alarmingly fresh, and with a price tag that’s less than a latté, you can’t really go wrong. 

At long last – I’ve finally gotten my act together! As promised, here are full-face swatches (honestly, though, what are those called?! I hardly think they can be referred to as “swatches” at this point) of Marcelle and Garnier’s BB creams.

So, without further adieu…

Bare, freshly-cleansed skin!

Marcelle BB Cream Beauty Balm in Light to Medium

For my skintone, Marcelle’s Light to Medium was a good match – darker than I am, but not by too much. I really liked the neutral tone of the product, which did a great job of cancelling out both redness and sallowness, resulting in an overall illusion of evenness and “perfect skin.” (The satin finish is great, too, which also adds to the illusion.)

I was particularly impressed with the way it tackled my undereye circles and the redness I have in my eye area – I probably wouldn’t leave the house without concealer, just on principle, but I’d feel comfortable having forgotten to conceal if I was wearing this.

Wearing Marcelle’s BB Cream (both images)

Left: bare skin / Right: wearing Marcelle’s BB Cream

The weird little box in the left corner is a colour sampling of my skintone – the left side being bare, and the right, with BB cream. For consistency, I grabbed the colours from the same spot on my cheek in both photos. (Freckle-mapping for the win!)

As you can tell from the colour swatches, Marcelle’s BB adds depth of tone to my skin, and has a clever mix of yellow/greyish pigments to neutralize redness.

Garnier BB Cream Miracle Skin Perfector in Medium/Dark

I was less impressed with Garnier’s product, but I wanted to share photos for a very specific reason – I think it would be great as a Prtty Peaushun-like product (but, y’know, for your face.) As mentioned in the review, I was sent Medium/Dark, which really isn’t a match for me. However, it turned out to be great for faking a darker skintone, with results that are still very “real skin.”

As a BB cream in and of itself, though, I was less impressed – I found it left me overly dewy, a bit sticky, and while it did a good job of adding warmth, it failed to counteract redness.

Wearing Garnier’s BB Cream

Left: bare skin / Right: wearing Garnier’s BB Cream

A breakdown (with scribbles!) »

Buy it here. Read more here. Check out other BB creams here.

Review and swatches upcoming; please bear with me, here!

Just in time to get your hands on the first-ever Canadian BB cream, Marcelle is doing free shipping with all orders over $25.00 (before taxes). To make up the extra few dollars, may I recommend their Waterproof Eyeliners, Face Powder, Pressed Powder, and Rouge Xpression lipsticks? ;)

The ingredients

Aqua/Water/Eau,  Cyclopentasiloxane, Octyldodecanol, Dimethicone, Glycerin, Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Cyclohexasiloxane,  Isopropyl Myristate,  Bis-Peg/Ppg-14/14 Dimethicone, Aluminum Starch Octenylsuccinate,  Xylitylglucoside,  Cetyl Peg/Ppg-10/1 Dimethicone, Polyglyceryl-4 Isostearate, Hexyl Laurate, Silica, Sodium Chloride, Isododecane,  Acrylates/Dimethicone Copolymer, Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Anhydroxylitol, Xylitol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Lauroyl Lysine,  Hydrolyzed Hyaluronic Acid, Triethoxycaprylylsilane, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Camellia Oleifera Leaf Extract, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower/Leaf Extract, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Propylene Carbonate, Trihydroxystearin, Talc, Butylene Glycol,  Propylene Glycol, Diazolidinyl Urea, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate, Phenoxyethanol, Titanium Dioxide, Mica, Iron Oxides.

This product is paraben-free, perfume-free, and hypoallergenic. Please note that it is not silicone-free; however, I’ll do my best to review it anyways.

Marcelle BB cream is available in both Light to Medium and Medium to Dark shades. The airless tube-pump contains 1.5 oz / 45 mL of product, and retails for $22.95 starting today.