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    A beauty blogger’s best friend

    Product: Veet Ready To Use Wax Strips for Face and Bikini

    What they say:

    … Veet Facial and Bikini Wax Strips are designed to reach the delicate, smaller areas, targeting those hard-to-reach areas of your face as well as touch-ups around the body. Just smooth a strip onto your skin, remove with one swift movement and sweep over a Perfect Finish Wipe to remove any traces of wax residue. You’ll come away with skin that’s silky smooth for up to four weeks.

    Our strips are designed for hair as short as 2mm, so you never have to wait for your hair to get “long enough” to wax. Just wax and go!

    In the box: 20 wax strips, 4 Perfect Finish wipes, and an instruction leaflet. That’s six “face” and four “bikini” sheets (but, once you pull them apart, you have two strips per sheet.) The bikini ones are larger, about double the width of the face strips, but both can be trimmed before you pull them apart if needed!Why they’re great: Compared to traditional wax, these are incredibly easy to use. It literally takes under five minutes to wax away 90% of your pesky upper lip hair (I just get the rest with tweezers.) And trust me – as a beauty blogger, this is a necessity. It might not be visible to the normal eye, but once that macro function is on, you better not have any peach fuzz up there! Though not flawless, these strips are so convenient that it’s worth it.

    Unfortunately, these are also much more expensive and wasteful than normal (pot) wax, and as I said, don’t get everything. But taking time and effort into consideration, plus the fact that going into a salon to get waxed costs about $20, just for brows? Definitely worth it. Assuming you use this kit four times, that’s a difference of about $7 to $80!!

    Click to enlarge and tip your head to the side to read.
    Try not to break anything in your neck while you’re at it!

    Other stuff: The strips come with “Perfect Finish” wipes – basically, stiff wipes that get the wax off your skin. They’re a bit harsh, but they smell alright and the oil comes off with a quick cleansing. And here’s the left-field piece of information of the day: the bikini strips, once trimmed, are great for waxing your jawline/sideburns. Dark-haired girls… you know what I’m taking about! It’s just peach fuzz, and not noticable, but once once side has fuzz and one doesn’t, you really seee the difference. Jaw definition and a brighter complexion, here I come!The verdict? I love these. I’d like to try different companies, but the supermarket that I pick them up at is always out of everything else. (We tend to do our shopping quite late in the day… as in, eight o’clock at night kind of late.) These are great, even for beginners. And yes, the waxing does sting for a minute or two, but it is so worth it!

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    Tell everyone – I’ve found the meaning of life.

    Everyone run and hide – the swine flu is going to get you!!

    Well, no, not really. But I’ll take anything that can serve as an excuse for buying a new hand sanitizer. That, clearly, is the meaning of life… new cleaning products. This is what OCD is like, kids. Maybe running and hiding isn’t such a bad plan!

    Product: X3 clean‘s new spray hand sanitizer.Why it’s so freaking awesome: Well, for starters, it’s alcohol-free and therefore non-drying. Then we get into the awesome packaging (isn’t that cute?!) with it’s kickass lid-free sealing method (see photos below). From there, you find out that it’s completely scent free and unlike most other hand sanitizers, it doesn’t taste bad.Yes, I licked my hand after using it. Just a little, though. Not like [*LICK*!] but more of a suspicious [pokes tongue with finger].

    For about $2, this little guy is perfect for throwing into your purse – plus, at 8mL, it’s small enough to get through airport security! I know I’ll have mine with me all summer long, especially as I’ll be travelling. Trust me, if you’re in a foreign city and there is no sink to be found, this will be damn handy before you try to eat your snack.X3 Clean mainly makes foaming sanitizers, which is to say, the same stuff but it comes out as a foam rather than a liquid! The larger sizes are all foams rather than sprays. From the 75mL “personal size” foamer or 250mL “countertop” to the 1L “dispenser cartridge” (think public bathroom) and 4L refill… they’ve got pretty much everyone covered.

    Also: do you prefer the black backdrop or the normal white? Feedback would be very greatly appreciated!!

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    Dammit, I can’t even go an emo-weekend without posting

    I solved the problem. The problem.

    What do you do when your sample jar of something dries out?


    The answer is painstakingly simple: spray it with water. I’m not even kidding – it’s taken the makeup community so freaking long to figure out how to save dried out UDPP, dried out paints, and the answer’s been right in front of us.

    For months – months! – I’ve been keeping my sample jar of Mario Badescu Drying Cream moist by spraying it with water every week or so and letting the mask-like product sit in the puddle of water overnight. It looks disgusting, as the water turns all gross and drying-cream-coloured. But, when I wake up the next morning, it’s moist and fresh again.

    So I finally figured out I could do this for other things. Namely, my drying-out UDPP. Two spritzes of water and three hours of sitting later and it’s practically butter.

    Seriously, I could throw myself off a building right now. But if I did, then who would use my now-moist products? Exactly! So I have to stay alive!

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    Shortest hiatus in the history of… ever.

    I’ll be offline until Monday, ladies – expect to see a post up at six, as always! I’m 95% sure that there is some residual nerve damage from last summer’s heart operation, and I’m not exactly in the mood to review products or put on makeup.

    (Actually, pair that with the two-to-three hours of sleep I’ve been getting per night and I’m not exactly in the mood to do anything but jump in front of a car.)

    (Maybe I will just eat some cold watermelon chunks instead.)

    (But not too cold because my teeth are too sensitive.)

    (God dammit, how am I even still alive?!)

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    Tessa Thursdays: Beachy Lustre

    Today: The new Lustre Drops from MAC Style Warriors.

    Has anyone checked out the new(ish) Style Warrior collection yet? I absolutely HAD to see it a couple weeks back, and begged my favourite SA to let me take a peek. I have to say, it was gorgeous back then, and I only just got to go and buy the items last week! I love the Beauty Powder Blush, but the bronzers were a little too orange-y for me. The Lustre Drops, however, are LOVE. So is the eyeshadow in Night Manoeuvres.

    I picked up Pink Rebel, a gorgeous peachy-pink with superfine golden shimmer. Bronze Hero was way too dark for me, and Sun Rush a little too golden. However, this means that these Lustre Drops have a color for every skintone! Lighter, warmer toned beauties will like Sun Rush, and darker skintones will like Bronze Hero. The SA applied it with the mini skunk brush (188) and blended with a cosmetic sponge. It looked amazing! Just a touch of shimmer, with a barely-there hint of peachy pink. I can see myself wearing it for the summer, with a touch of lipbalm & mascara. The perfect summery I-just-came-from-the-beach look. Pair with beachy hair (the one time I don’t have to straighten! Just a spritz of BB Surf Spray & I’m done) and sunglasses.

    There is no discernable smell, and the finish is superlight. It doesn’t feel tacky and doesn’t sink into your face. One of the many reasons I love it is that I can put it on for a day at the beach and won’t have to worry about it streaking or coming off – the lasting power is fairly good, and I don’t have to reapply throughout the day (though it does wear quite a bit).

    I have to say, though, you don’t get a lot of product for $22.50. You only use a little bit, but Clinique’s Up-Lighting Liquid Illuminator is $29.00 for a much bigger bottle!

    Overall: A gorgeous highlighter for summer, although the price is a bit steep. As for me, I’m going to check out the Clinique!

    Have a great week,

    Tess

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    First base

    I don’t have much to say about MAC’s Cream Colour Bases – to be quite frank, I find them vaguely boring. Yes, there are a few gorgeous ones, and yes, they’re great… but all in all, they’re a little utilitarian.As eye bases, applied thinly, they work like any other eye primer. Not as good as UDPP, for instance, but still much better than nothing. (Don’t even try to apply these thickly. All you’ll get is creasing!) However, because they must be applied so thinly, it’s almost impossible to get any major colour out of them.

    As cheek products, they do shine – Pearl in particular is a very popular hilighter! The other frost shades make great hilighters as well, depending on the skintone and the look. The cremes are wonderful as creme blushes, layered under powder for that extra “pop”.
    The verdict? These are great “staple” items, but I don’t get excited over them for some strange reason. They do what they should, are packaged well, and maintain creaminess for a very long time, but unless you manage to score just the right shade for you – they’re a bit of a yawn.

    Single photos are in the post below this one – I didn’t want this to be too long!
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    *ahem*

    Epic. Want.

    Namely, the Blink, Winks & Brows set.No, seriously. Is anyone up for splitting this with me? I haven’t anyone in Edmonton who would go halfsies with me on one, but I’m really interested in some of the samples! I really want the UDPP and TFSI, as well as the Bi-Facil and Stila Smudge Pot – but I have no interest in the Sephora liner, Anastasia products, Cosmedine eye cream, or Smashbox products!

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    Take it on the road

    (note: this is old, from when I was still using Nivea Soft and Olay Total Effects! I soon found out I was allergic to the latter. Ugh — I hate revamping my skincare routine!)

    For: a roadtrip, a DIY facial at a friend’s place, a one-night stand. (Oh yes, the latter is so likely planned.)

    Start with your daytime and nighttime moisturisers and an empty (clean!) contact lens case.
    Scrape up product from a tub with a cosmetic spatula, in a wheel. Sure, you could just scoop it up – but then you’re left with a whole lot of ugly.
    If you’ve got a pump- or squeeze- style container, pump or squeeze some into the other side. Drop the case gently from about an inch off the table to help it settle!

    Finally, attach the darker lid to the night cream, or draw on some sort of symbol to signify which is which – perhaps a moon with some stars?

    That’s all! In no time flat, you have moisturiser that can get through airport security, won’t leak, is much lighter (and smaller!) than bottles or tubs, and that will last you about a week, depending on what you use and how much.

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