Just a heads up, Sephora is running their annual Beauty Insiders appreciation event again. This year there will be a closed door shopping event. You can RSVP here (for Canadians) by Aug 3rd.

Canada's RSVP page

Essentially, if you're a VIB Rouge, you get to go shopping with other rouges (and their +1s) behind closed doors, meaning no peasants. You'll get 4x the points on everything purchased, brand ambassadors will be there to promote their lines and teach you how to use their products, and you get a gift bag at the end of it (your +1 will also get a gift bag if they are at least a BI and purchase something).

The last VIB Rouge event I attended last year was also a closed door shopping event (I was at the Toronto Bloor location). I showed up a bit late (I left work early to attend but couldn't leave too early just to go shopping), gave my name to the Sephora workers standing at the door, and they let me in. There were free drinks (water, juice, and coffee I believe), and free desserts. They also had a Benefit promotion going on; the brand ambassador was handing out free brow wax cards to interested shoppers. Generally, I'm not a huge fan of the Bloor location; it lacks a wide variety of selection, and it's further away from where I live. As someone who can pick between the Bloor and Eaton Centre locations, Eaton Centre's Sephora is much better and bigger. I chose to go to the Bloor location because it's closer to my workplace and I had to attend a meeting afterwards at school, meaning it was just more convenient for me to go to that location over the Eaton Centre one.

If you do choose to go, pick a location that is either a) convenient for you to go to, or b) has a wide selection. My friend and I debated between going to our local mall (a mere 5-10 minute drive), or to one of the Sephoras downtown. Our local mall has a smaller selection, and our high school classmate works there, but the Sephora downtown is nicer and has more higher end goods. In the end, we chose to go downtown.

These events are often quite measly and offer little incentive to go. Nothing is discounted, and unless you have a list of things to buy, there really isn't any point to going when you can do all your shopping online and still get 4x the points. But as my friend and I are both currently unemployed and on summer vacation, we figured we might as well go because why not.

If you are in the Vancouver area and going, I'll be at the Robson location! Let me know in the comments below if you are going to attend this event :)

P.S. You could also sign up for the American version of this event, but it'll be on Aug 2nd, from 9-11am.

I'm back with a foundation review! This time it's the Chanel Perfection Lumière Velvet Foundation (retails for $52CAD). I have the shade Beige 30. Chanel also has "rose" shades available too, if you are on the pinker side (my friend bought this foundation in the Beige 20 Rose, for example).

Now the one that is available on Chanel has SPF15 in it, but the one I have does NOT have SPF in it at all. When I bought it in stores, the SPF label was blacked out, so I'm assuming the batch that I bought from either had faulty SPF issues, or Chanel was testing something out. 

I'm also testing the Maybelline Baby Skin Instant Pore Eraser Primer as well in this post. 

I got mines in Canada, so it has French on it, whereas if you bought yours in the States, you'll just have the English subname on it.

It is worth noting that I normally do not put primer on. I don't feel the need for it, my makeup/foundation holds up pretty well without it (my foundation doesn't slide off my face), and it's just money wasted (for me at least). I got this primer while it was on sale (I don't like purchasing drugstore items for full price).

So prior to any face makeup, this is what I look like:

Excuse the weird lighting... I couldn't get a photo to look nice and ended up with this

As you can see, I have slight discolouration on my cheeks (that are more noticeable/visible in real life) and some pores all over the face. I also just realized through this photo that my face and neck are two different shades...

Primer applied on my left side

The primer made my face feel more "smooth" and less bumpy. I can't tell if it did a good job of hiding my pores or not as mines are not very large to begin with. But this primer felt smooth. Smooth to the point it was slippery. It also had a fake glossy kind of texture to it. I've tried a sample of the Smashbox primer before (the most basic one, I can't remember the name of it) and it did not have the same or similar texture. The half of my face that I put the primer on, actually felt as smooth as baby's skin (so Maybelline picked the right name for this product lol).

Foundation applied on my left side

You can see immediately that the foundation evens out my discolouration and looks to be an alright match for my skintone based on this photo.

But from this angle, we can see that Beige 30 is unfortunately, not the right shade for me as it does not blend into my neck. It is also too pink for me. As this is just the regular Beige 30 shade, I'm thinking that Chanel's foundation shades all run slightly more pink undertoned than any other foundations I've tried.

I also find that this foundation likes to pick up on my dry spots and cling to them. All the whiteheads on my nose as well... this foundation clings to them really badly. I appreciate the matte-ness of this foundation, but it's just slightly too drying for my skin.

As for the primer, I found no visible difference between using it and not using it.

At night (12am-ish)

Excuse the horrible lighting. This was around 12am, so I was only left with the yellow light in my room and my flash wouldn't go off for some reason. It's difficult to tell in this photo, but my foundation did not slip and slide off on either sides. The left side still felt baby skin smooth whereas the right side felt like my usual skin.

The Chanel foundation is thin, but is buildable for heavier coverage. If I rub my face (which I did many times that day) I don't feel foundation coming off onto my fingers. However, its undertone is pink, and my undertone is yellow. It also clings to dry spots and made my skin feel more dry. For a high-end foundation though, I feel that the $52 price tag is quite reasonable. The YSL Le Teint is $62CAD and the Armani Maestro foundation is $66CAD. Keep in mind as well, Chanel prices rise every year.

Verdict: Not for me. The pink undertones don't match my yellow undertones and it's also quite drying to my skin. The range of shades for this foundation are also quite limited. As for the primer... it's not a necessary step for me, so I think I'll just be skipping this until I reach an age or point in my skin's life where my foundation starts slipping off all the time.

I'm hoping to try the new MUFE foundation soon, as I can't be wearing this foundation everyday and looking like a mismatched pink loompa.

I finally had some time to go down to a salon and get rid of my black roots while getting a new colour on my hair! I'm always excited to play with my hair and regularly change my up hair colour every time I dye it. 

This was my inspiration:

Just keep in mind, even with a picture reference, it may be difficult to achieve the exact same hair colour as everyone has a different base colour for their hair. Hair dyes also don't go on the same for everyone either!

The salon I went to posted a B&A onto their instagram:

My hair colour before this was silver/granny grey, but it washed out as usual. Cool tones are really difficult to maintain and they usually fade into a sort of blonde colour. The picture reference I brought in had purple silver tones, but I walked out of the salon with blue grey tones with a hint of purple here and there, which is totally cool with me, as my main goal was to just get rid of my roots and to have a new hair colour. 

For those of y'all wanting to take the plunge into fun summer colours, just keep in mind that most of the hair colours that are popular nowadays require several rounds of bleaching (if you have dark hair colours) and I'd advise you to go early in the morning and clear out your schedule for several hours. Bleaching can take a while if you're starting with a dark or red base. To get from my previous pink hair to the granny grey, I sat in the salon chair for over 8 hours, just to get the red base out.

So this is what I look like now! Excuse the snapchat quality. Huge thanks to Axis hair salon and Elissa for doing such an amazing job. If you're in the Vancouver area and are looking to dye your hair, I highly recommend Elissa from Axis Hair Salon. She knows what she's doing. Prices are reasonable as well. 

Some general hair tips for those of you who have taken the plunge and want to make your colour last longer:

1. Don't wash your hair too often. The less you wash your hair, the longer your hair colour will stay. 
2. Wash with cold water! Warm/hot water can strip away your colours faster
3. Use a sulfate-free shampoo. Sulfate is damaging to your hair colour and will strip your colour even faster.
4. If you want to keep the cool tones, use a purple shampoo.
5. Remember to use hair masks and treatment products! Bleached hair can feel and look damaged, so you'd obviously want to keep the damage on the low. 

And that's it for now! I'm currently recovering from a wisdom teeth extraction, so there won't be any review posts for a while.

Axis hair salon did not sponsor me; I just wanted to touch upon who did my hair.

I'm finally back! After coming back from my 6 weeks vacation, I didn't feel any motivation to update even though I have tons of things to review and test. But I finally got off my ass, and here we are.

This is Skinfood's Steam Milk Mask Cream. It comes in the same standard jar packaging as their usual wash-off masks, but with the addition of the most adorable milk carton packaging.

Skinfood's description:

A steamed milk-infused cream that immediately melts into skin, transforming dry skin into a soft, firm, smooth texture, like a facial mask does.

I forgot how much this costs in stores, but it retails for about $11USD on Amazon.

I got mines in Hong Kong, so the ingredient list is in both English and Korean. As a general note, my skin rarely reacts to products, so I usually don't care for the ingredient list, but I provided for those who may have allergies or sensitive skin.

The product itself is a thick white cream. Skinfood says to put the cream on after your night routine, so I went and did that. I was surprised by its thickness as it is a "mask cream", so I assumed that it would be as thick as my night moisturizer. It's much much thicker. It doesn't immediately set into your face, so you go to bed with a face full of white cream. The thickness of this mask cream made it difficult to get an even layer, so I just kinda spread it onto the spots where I felt like I needed more moisture (skipped my forehead because of my bangs). I would definitely recommend using a spatula to spread out this mask cream to achieve a more even layer.

Waking up in the morning, I was surprised to find that it had all sunken into my face and that none of the white cream was left (I slept from about ~2am-9am). I went to wash my face and my face felt very moisturized. There wasn't a lot of excess cream left on my face that I could feel from washing my face.

The smell of this mask cream reminds me of... cream. Generic hand/face cream scent from Aveeno or the other basic/drugstore products that claim they're "unscented". I'm not sure what milk is supposed to smell like, as there as so many different milk brands out there and I'm not actually a fan of milk.

I recommend this products to those of you who are looking for an instant moisturizer (ideal for nights before big events or are suffering from the harsh effects of the winter weather, for example) or cannot be bothered with a moisturizer that's specifically for night time.

None of the links provided are referral. I bought this product with my own money in Hong Kong.