DO WANT makeup

I know I got lucky in a few departments, like a metabolism that laughs in the face of any and all combinations of junk food and salt I consume on a regular basis. But if you ask me the one thing that gives me the most grief, it’s my effing hair—it’s straight, it’s fine, and nothing short of a metric asston of hairspray will get it to hold any hint of a curl for more than an hour.

Here’s a summary so far of my experiences, peppered with some quickie reviews.

I’ve seen it pulled off nicely (i.e. looks pretty natural) and not-so-nicely—when it looks like an obvious backcomb job because a) they were sloppy about cleaning up the top layer of hair and you can see the mess underneath, or b) they get overzealous and get this unnatural-looking architectural structure on the backs of their heads.

I dislike this method of creating volume because it damages your hair and uses up a lot of hairspray. Plus it just doesn’t feel nice—for me or Andy, who plays with my hair sometimes. Handful of tangled hair? Surprise!

Apparently, volumizing shampoos don’t work—not any better than a clarifying shampoo, anyway. I wish I had read that Beauty Brains article sooner.

• Live Clean Clean Air smells incredibly good but did nothing for me in the volume department.
• Same with John Frieda Brilliant Brunette (the volumizing one, now replaced with a new formula).
• I just started using Kiss My Face Big Body, which I had bought prior to reading that article. So far, it’s been the biggest disappointment yet, with my hair flatter than ever.

I’m still clinging to one last shred of hope though. Some friends have had good experiences with Nioxin so I really want to believe it will do something for me.

PS: I skip conditioner completely. It definitely weighs down my hair and I don’t need its detangling powers.

Haven’t had any luck so far. Since I suck at styling my hair, I usually give a product several tries in different ways before writing it off. What inevitably happens after working the product through damp hair flipped upside down, and blow drying with hot, then with cold, it looks nice and pretty and full of life and then maybe after half an hour tops, it dies. Sunsilk Daring Mousse at least left my hair feeling very soft afterwards, and the scent is very mild. Samy Fat Hair Thickening Creme gave me similarly disappointing results, but was worse because its creme texture could gunk up my hair in pieces if I wasn’t careful about how I distributed it.

I suck at this. Working on it.

The best way I’ve found so far to get some lift in my hair is velcro rollers after working mousse into damp hair and blow drying. I don’t actually put all of my hair up with them, only some strategic top layers: two of the bigger ones in the back, one on each side and one in my bangs. I leave them in while I do my makeup and get some decent-lasting volume out of them.

So that wraps up what little I know so far. Have any product or technique suggestions for me?

The scenario:

You’re browsing the website of a cosmetic company and check out a particular line of eyeshadows. You click on one of the little coloured boxes and up comes a pretty swatch picture. You click on a different coloured box and the colour of the swatch is different but heyyy.. the shape of the swatch is the same, the telltale sign that the company took a picture of one swatch and digitally altered it to represent the colours of the other shades.

Am I just being.. well, perfectionist/crazy me, or does this irk anybody else? I’m sure whoever was in charge saw to it that the final swatch image is a perfect reflection of the real colour but I get all miffed regardless. It just feels lazy to me.

• RSVP (sparkling champagne, sheerish girly pink
• Tattle Tale (butter cream), lovely for highlighting the brow area, inner corner, or lower lashline
• Skinny Jeans (pretty pewter—although swatches suggest it’s closer to olive)
• Stiletto (aubergine)

Check out the gorgeous swatches at Temptalia.

Sephora: $24 CAD

Shoppers Drug Mart Beauty Boutique, Benefit

[image from Benefit]

David, Jenelle, and I hit up the beach at White Rock to enjoy the sun before the moody Vancouver weather changed. So I tried to go for a brighter, summery look on my eyes using only Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Shadow & Liner in Pop Green Eyes.

• Neutrogena UltraSheer Dry-Touch Sunblock SPF 70
• Neutrogena Instensified Day Moisturizer SPF 15
• Rimmel Recover concealer in 200 Soft Beige
• GOSH X-Ceptional Wear foundation in 14 Sand (applied with a very light hand)
• PF Powder Palette Multi-Colored Face Powder in Highlighter
• PF Shimmer Strips Custom Bronzer in Waikiki Strip
• NYC Color Wheel Mosaic Face Powder in Rose Glow

• PF Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Shadow in Pop Green Eyes (lightest green, all over)
• PF Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Shadow in Pop Green Eyes (lightest teal, crease)
• PF Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Shadow in Pop Green Eyes (darker teal, upper liner wet & lower lashline dry)
• Rimmel Lycra Lash mascara
• Wet n Wild Arch Envy in Brunette (wax only)

• Jack Black Intense Lip Therapy SPF 25 in Natural Mint

It happened to be very, very low tide when we got there. David said the landmass in the distance is US territory (Peace Arch, maybe?)

Hello, hello. I decided to suck up my lack of a mouse and just get ‘er done.

A lot of my FOTDs show me wearing Rimmel Lycra Lash, so I thought I should give up the details. Lycra Lash Extender mascara incorporates the elastic synthetic fiber Lycra; Rimmel promises that it will “stretch and extend” while holding a curl for 14 hours without smearing or smudging. These sleek black tubes of mascara come in 001 Black (today’s mascara) and 002 Brown.

Read More →

I haven’t been posting lately because my laptop is no longer reading my mouse and the idea of editing pictures with my pad is just ugh. I am, however, taking lots of pictures for posts in the meantime.

I’m changing up today’s Wishlist Wednesday with a wish for a pretty maxi dress instead of skin care or makeup products.

What’s on your wishlist—makeup, clothing, or otherwise?

Guess By Marciano (online & in stores): $166.99 CAD

[image from Guess By Marciano website]

Awkward. I didn’t realize I posted this instead of saving it to drafts.

In a previous post, I reviewed the Braun Silk-epil Soft Perfection epilator and talked a bit about epilators in general—the shaver-like device that tweezes out multiple hairs at once instead of cutting them. (PS I still believe that using my epilator consistently has slowed down the growth of hair.)

Anyway this post is to give you pointers on what I’ve learned from using mine. There might be some overlap with the first epilator post but I wanted to throw in every tip or trick in here.

Epilate with dry, clean skin. I usually epilate after a shower to ensure that my skin is clean of any lotions or deodorants that would mess with the tweezers of my epilator, and also because the warmth from the water opens up your pores, making the hair removal easier (source). The skin also needs to be thoroughly dried. Sometimes I’m in a rush and try to get away with epilating with very slightly damp skin, but the epilating is just not as smooth.

Use your free hand to pull your skin taut. This isn’t always a must, but more if I’m having a problem epilating smoothly, such as areas with looser skin (elbows, knees). Pulling the skin will hopefully create a smoother surface on which to epilate.

Pull the skin towards areas with smoother surface. Again, this is more for areas where the skin is looser. The bumpiness of my knees makes it tricky to epilate, so I pull the skin more towards the side so I have a semi-flat surface to work my epilator.

Slow down. If you find that your epilator is not doing a good job removing hair, the simple solution could just be to run the epilator over your skin a little slower. This way, the tweezers have more time to catch the hairs.

Exfoliate!!11!1 This is important no matter what type of hair removal you use. It helps prevent ingrown hairs, those nasty bumps that appear when your hair starts growing in sideways or curling backwards. I use exfoliating gloves that you can pick up at any drugstore. Exfoliating regularly has also significantly reduced my keratosis pilaris alba—bumps on my skin caused by excess keratin trapping my hair follicles (pretty much ingrown hairs that appear even if you don’t use any kind of hair removal).

Don’t be lazy. Sometimes when I epilate my underarms (i.e. a sensitive area), there is one stubborn hair that is long enough to epilate but just won’t come out. At this point, I know I have two choices: a) run the epilator over and over again on the area in a vain attempt to catch that single hair; b) grab a pair of tweezers and pluck that shit out. From experience, I know that (a) will eventually cause an uncomfortable chafe-y feeling—my underarm feels super sensitive and any friction hurts—the rest of the day. I’m an idiot and sometimes do it anyway because I don’t want to walk all the way over to my vanity and get my tweezers. Doing (b), it hurts a lot momentarily when I tweeze the hair, but I’m happy and hair-free afterwards.

Epilate in multiple directions. If you’re having problems removing hair, don’t be afraid to come at those stubborn hairs from every direction: diagonally, against the hair, in the direction of the hair, from the side, etc. I do this often with my legs.

Hope that helps. Any other tips to share?

Let’s not kid ourselves. We both knew this would show up on a Wishlist Wednesday sooner or later.

The number of positive reviews for Clarisonic tools is overwhelming. Although I think my skin is in fairly good condition in terms of tone and texture, you can’t blame a girl for wanting to reach a little farther. Plus, I could use a little extra muscle for removing my makeup at night.

[image from Sephora]

Sephora, other Clarisonic retailers: $149 USD

(This is a Canada restricted purchase at the Sephora website, so I don’t know its Canadian retail value. It is available in Canadian Sephoras though.)

Canadian girls, you’ve probably seen the Joe Fresh line at Superstore and other Loblaws grocery stores. Joe Fresh started as a line of affordable clothing designed by Joseph Mimran (of Club Monaco). It has since branched out into equally-affordable cosmetics, including nail polish, foundation, eyeshadow, and lip colour. I went to check it out a few months ago and pick up the super-cute cheek tint. Randomly, the sales associate working the beauty counter also gave me the lip gloss in Candy for free! It’s a colour I probably never would have picked out for myself because as its name suggests, it’s a Barbie-candy-pink. However, as it turns out, it’s surprisingly wearable.

This is another short review due to a straightforward product, so it’s easy reading today here at Do Want.

Read More →

You may remember this product from posts such as South-of-the-Border Drugstore Haul!

Eos stands for Evolution of Smooth, a fitting name for a company that offers lip balms and shaving creams (lotions are coming later this year). The Eos Smooth Sphere balm comes in Summer Fruit, Sweet Mint, Lemon Drop with SPF 15, and today’s Honeysuckle Honeydew. Probably the most interesting/novel thing about this lip balm is that it’s round rather than the tube or stick. Did this make it a better product?

I don’t buy into the whole “natural” and “organic” products wave.

Honestly, this is going to be a pretty short review. In terms of consistency and moisturization, it’s a standard lip balm in novel packaging. It does a good job of protecting lips, but it’s not above-and-beyond.

A million years ago, I had a Fruits & Passion lip balm in Honeydew Melon (long discontinued!). I was in love with its fresh melon smell; whenever I find honeydew-scented products, I always hope I can recapture that scent but no success so far. I find that honeydew lip products often have this non-honeydew, sort of synthetic smell. This product is no exception. The scent is mild and nothing that reminds me of nomful fruit or flowers (I don’t care for it, frankly).

You don’t have to worry about this guy rolling off your table. The bottom is flattened, so it’s quite stable. I didn’t photograph it, but there’s a small, flattened area on one side for your thumb so you can hold it more comfortably.

This isn’t anywhere near as portable as a normal tube of lip balm. I can’t imagine it fitting too well in a cute wristlet or clutch. On the plus side, if you throw it in a roomy purse, its bulkiness would make it easier to find when you’re reaching around blindly for it later on.

Fun fact: Eos can also refer to, among many other things, a genus of parrots and a type of blood cell.

• interesting packaging
• reliable moisturizing ability
• easy to apply

• not an amazing, must-have product
• may become more difficult to apply as shape changes/gets worn down with use
• lacking in delicious scent
• spherical shape makes it less portable

As I mentioned, it’s pretty good, but not effing awesome. This is a product I would smooth on if my lips were already in good condition. If my lips are in need of serious help, I reach for something more along the lines of Jack Black Lip Therapy.

Walgreens, Eos

1. So I was a naughty beauty blogger and forgot to post a Wishlist Wednesday. We will resume our regularly scheduled consumerism next week.

2. I have put in a Formstack box over there

<—————————-

Use it to:

a) tell me what kind of products or posts you would like to see

b) suggest some sweet makeup tips and tricks to improve my FOTDs

c) say hi

d) send me hate mail

Or basically say whatever else you want.

Leave an email address/Twitter username/etc. if you would like a direct response. (Hate mailers: you should probably leave this out.)

3. Fellow Tumblr-ers: I have also made it so that clicking on the title will bring you to the permalink page of the post (this was not part of the default layout) so that you can, on the razor-thin chance that you want to, heart/love a post.

Because we all love pretty shiny pictures, please now enjoy this photograph of a hedgehog pretending to be a bonbon.

(via All Creatures, click the picture to go to the original post)

Shoppers Drug Mart was having a 40% off sale on Quo brushes and Physicians Formula. I love the Physicians Formula Multi-Colored Face Powder and Shimmer Strips Bronzer I bought recently, so I was super excited about picking up more PF.

I know this seems like a really dinky haul by most standards, but it’s big-ish for me. I have this ridiculous thing where somehow it seems worse to spend $40 in one go than to spend $10 on four separate occasions, so I usually buy my makeup item by item.

Physicians Formula Pop! Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Shadow & Liner for green eyes, Quo Eye Smudger brush, Quo Crease Shadow brush, Rimmel Lasting Finish lipstick in Just So, Hersheys Cookies & Cream, Arizona green tea. The beauty advisor also threw in samples for Lise Watier Neiges eau de toilette, Smashbox Photo Finish Light foundation primer, and Burberry Sport eau de toilette.

Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips Eye Enhancing mascara comes with a full mail-in rebate. I was on the fence, but after checking out the good reviews (the mascara itself being good, rather than its eye-enhancing abilities) I might have to take up Physicians Formula’s offer. Also considering picking up the Organic Wear Tinted Moisturizer. I’m on a PF obsession!

Also ran by Save On Foods for NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in Horseradish and Round lipstick in Topaz. Of all places, the last place I expected to find NYX was at Save On Foods (with testers!) In Vancouver, I haven’t seen it in Shoppers, London Drugs, or any other of my normal drugstore go-tos. It’s funny standing in checkout holding my eyeshadow pencil and lipstick because I don’t want to put it on the conveyor belt.

Super cute striped Billabong hoodie: it has very long sleeves which is perfect for long-armed freaks like me.

Quatchi and Mukmuk keychain plushies, Mukmuk luggage tag: they’re so cute but you really have to sort through the plushies because not all of them are well-made. If you aren’t familiar with them, they are part of the Vancouver Olympics mascot team and inspired by West Coast native legends (Quatchi is a sasquatch, Mukmuk is a marmot—a real animal—and kind of a “mascot sidekick” because he doesn’t appear on all the merchandise like the others). Mukmuk is Andy’s favourite because it’s fat and “shaped like a potato.”

In my last FOTD I promised no browns, so I picked my next-next-favourite eyeshadow colour, green.

Forgot to curl my lashes, whoops.

• Neutrogena Intensified Day Cream
• Monistat Anti-Chafing Gel (primer)
• Rimmel Recover concealer in 200 Soft Beige
• GOSH X-Ceptional Wear foundation in 14 Sand
• Physicians Formula Powder Palette Multi-Colored Face Powder in Highlighter
• Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips Custom Bronzer in Waikiki Strip
• NYC Color Wheel Mosaic Face Powder in Rose Glow

• Rimmel Recover concealer in 200 Soft Beige (as primer)
• Annabelle Eyecolour Creme in Coffee Talk (all over, inner corner highlight)
• Faces Sparkle Dust eyeshadow stack in light green (all over)
• Urban Decay eyeshadow in Graffiti (crease, outer third)
• Urban Decay eyeshadow in Honey (inner 1/4, lower lashline)
• Marcelle Waterproof Eyeliner in Espresso (top lashline)
• CoverGirl LashBlast mascara
• Quo 3 in 1 Brow Pencil in Dark (wax end)

• Korres Lip Butter in Pomegranate

Although I love the wax end of my Quo 3 in 1 brow pencil (it’s so good at taming and keeping in place my brows), lately when I use it the skin under my eyebrows later becomes red and angry-looking. There is nothing else to indicate irritation (bumps, itchiness, etc) other than this redness. Maybe I’ve just had the pencil for too long and I need to grab a new one?

Andy and I went to a sale for 2010 Olympic merchandise. A guy working there complimented me on my “eyeliner” (I’m pretty sure he meant my green UD Graffiti shadow, but I just said thanks.)