ALIXIRS

I'm fairly new to the liquid lipstick game, and decided to try out Hourglass' based on the beautiful shade "Icon" which is a blue-toned red, shown here on the right. Since i'm new to the game, I picked up the travel size of Canvas and Icon.

These travel size liquid lipsticks are teeny tiny. They're probably to bigger than my thumb. Each tube contains 0.03oz or 1g of product for $12 CAD.

The texture is a soft lip creme that tries down quickly but doesn't feel drying on the lips. Both of these colours applied smoothly but Icon was more liquidy and opaque. Unfortunately for me, Canvas, which is a dusty pink, showed up rather bright and slightly clownish on my skin. 

Both of these shades lasted 4+ hours on me with minimal drinking and eating. My lips felt comfortable throughout and not dry at all. I would definitely be keeping Icon, but Canvas is a shade I might be returning as it simply doesn't work with my complexion. 

xoxo,

alixirs

Laura Mercier Matte Radiance Baked Powder in Highlight 01 comes with 7.5g or 0.26oz of product. On the skin it's a warmish champaign colour which adds a little drama to your everyday highlight. It's very finely milled and applies beautifully with a finger or brush.

The Sleek Face Contour Kit in Light comes with a highlight and contour. The highlight is the one I use more. It's the most intense highlighter out of these four, and probably the least finely milled. It's also the most affordable of the four, and is very close to the Laura Mercier one except more intense and on the white-pinkish side. This product comes with 14g of product (highlight+contour).

MAC MSF in Perfect Topping was a limited edition shade. The veining in the product makes each one unique. Perfect Topping is the warmest of the four with a peachy undertone which works well as an everyday highlighter. Similar shades in the range include Lightscapade, which is lighter and whiter, and Soft and Gentle, which is more of a golden champagne.

MAC MSF comes with  10 g or 0.35 oz of product. 

Hourglass recently launched their Ambient Strobing Lighting powders and I was delighted to see Incandescent light among them. (shown above in the middle of the Ambient Lighting Palette). When this palette first launched this shade immediately became a favourite, though I had to use it sparingly as the palette itself cost $67 CAD at the time and each shade of powder inside was only 3.3g. This powder is my favourite for every day. It's one of those highlighting shades that has little to no sparkle, but just brightens up the skin. It's definitely appropriate for wearing at work, even in the most conservative of offices.

Above and below are some swatches, from top to bottom: Laura Mercier Matte Radiance, Hourglass Ambient Strobe Lighting powder in Incandescent, Sleek Contour highlight in Light, and MAC Mineralized Skinfinish in Perfect Topping

xoxo,

alixirs

(B40 on the left and BR20 on the right)

I first bought this foundation in a Beijing airport in the shade BR20. Unfortunately, it was too light and pink for my skin (NC20 in MAC). For some reason the packaging on that bottle had a black band of color on the bottom glass portion, as shown. The bottle on the left was bought at Sephora recently in the shade B40. Ideally, my colour would be somewhere in between, like B30. I usually take 1 full pump of B40 and mix in half a pump of BR20.

The packaging is definitely one of its selling points, the glass  bottle with gold cap looks timeless and luxurious. The pump makes it very easy to control the amount of product you dispense.

Swatched here are BR20 on the bottom and B40 on the top. They don't look too different here but you can definitely see the differences in the pictures below. 

The coverage is about light-medium, more towards the medium size. It's definitely not matte. On my dry skin it gives a dewey, skin-like finish. It lasts a decent amount of time, about 6-8 hours on me.

This is a great everyday foundation for me. It has good coverage and decent lasting power. The price tag is pretty high at $62CAD, so i'd only repurchase when there's a sale at Sephora.

First empties! ( For the blog)

L'oreal Gentle Makeup Remover Eyes & Lips is my  go-to eye makeup remover. I find that nothing but waterproof mascara holds a curl on my lashes, so an oil-based eye makeup remover is a must. I've probably purchased 5-6 of these over the years. I switched from the Neutrogena makeup remover to this as I found the Neutrogena had a very large spout/opening which meant any time I accidentally knocked it over a lot of product would spill out. This L'oreal one has a very small opening which is much more user-friendly.

The Sana Nameraka Foaming Face Wash Anti-aging version is also a must-have! Foams up beautifully and cleans the face without drying the skin.

My daily SPF : Allie UV Mineral Moist NEO. This 90g baby lasted me well over 6 months with daily use on the face and neck.

A spur of the moment purchase of Balea Body Wash in Pomegranate & Mango purchased purely because of the smell. Very fruity and great scent for a waking up in the morning.

I've purchased the original Sana Nameraka Foaming Facial Cleanser to compare. I don't see a huge difference so far, and both do a great job.

Last is the Tarte Maracuja Oil. I use 3 drops of this added to my moisturizer everyday at night, and it really helps with dry areas. This is a small bottle which came with a holiday set, but I've already repurchased a larger bottle during the VIB sale. 

xoxo,

alixirs

I got this Malin + Goetz Mojito lip balm in an ipsy bag a while back. This is a full sized lip balm at 7g and retails for $12 USD.

The product is not the most moisturizing lip balm, but the squeeze tube makes it very easy to apply on the go without having to dip your fingers into a jar.

By far the best selling point for me personally is the scent: it's slightly minty and mildly lime-like. It's very subtle and not at all overwhelming. Love it!

xoxo,

alixirs

Here's what I hauled from the December $25 off $50 sale at Sephora!

YvesSaintLaurent Le Teint Touche Eclat in B40

Of course, reaching VIB rouge for another year, Sephora reminds you how you've spent way too much money with this VIB Rouge gift.

It's tiny and adorable. A lovely shade of red. Marc Jacobs Le Marc Lip Creme in So Rouge.

December's Ipsy bag comes in a nifty ( albeit slightly poorly constructed) red quilted bag which I can't decide if I love or hate. In any case, on to the goodies!

This bag came with 5 products:

Tarte Smooth Operator Amazonian Clay Finishing powder 2.2g

Be a Bombshell eye liner in wild child ( black) .25g

Pacifica Natural Minerals Power of Love Powerful Color Natural Lipstick 2g

Lather Honey Moisture Mask with Propolis extract 14g

Skinn Dimitri James Sugar Lips Polishing scrub 20ml or 0.7oz

The Lather honey moisture mask  is intended to relieve "environmentally-stressed skin". If that's the case then I'm just the person to try this out! The weather in Toronto is usually very cold. Despite an unusually mild winter this year, my skin is still rather dry and chapped. 

Opening up the jar there's a plastic stopper which keeps the product from leaking out.

The product itself is a thick cream and smells like real honey!

Next is the Skinn Sugar Lips. The last lip scrub I tried was from Lush and was their Mint Julep which I adored. This scrub smells like an artificial strawberry scent, which isn't bad, but I definitely prefer the mint-chocolate scent of the Mint Julep by Lush. 

The size of the product is generous and I'm excited to try it out!

Tarte's Smooth Operator finishing powder is a transparent powder which is used to set your makeup.

I was probably the most excited to see the Pacifica lipstick.

The shade is actually a very wearable nudish pink that is very much a My Lips But Better "MLBB" shade on me.

Unfortunately the pigmentation on the eye liner was underwhelming, and with oily lids like mine I expect they'll slide right off.

Overall, I think this month's Ipsy bag's is one of the best so I've received. What do you think?

xoxo,

alixirs