All The Things I Can't Live Without...

Being in a temperate country with four seasons does weird things to you.

Like I found myself wanting a bronzer real badly. It has never happened before, I was never a bronzer girl. I far preferred having healthy flushed cheeks over contoured cheekbones, but something about the approaching autumn just flipped a different switch in me. Hence, my first cometics haul in Montreal started with me searching for a good and affordable matte bronzer.

I believed I bought all of this in Jean Coutu, one of the drugstores in Montreal. Not from one store though, cos I visited several outlets that day. Another drugstore is Pharmaprix (or Shopper's Drug Mart in places outside Quebec). The funny thing about these drugstores is that their offer items vary from store to store, so even if 5 outlets are Jean Coutu stores, they will have different items on sale.

You probably can tell I found my bronzer. Here's Rimmel's Natural Bronzer in "Sunlight".

I got it quite cheaply, it was on offer for about CAD$4 (S$5). It's not bad, being matte and so affordable, but not fantastic because it's a bit too light for me and slightly orangey. But I work around that and I'm still using it everyday now. There's hardly a dent in it, I'm never gonna finish 14g of bronzer!

And even though I probably don't need these, I got some more mascaras! Cos these are the much-raved mascaras, and being a mascara freak, I've gotta try them. Loreal's Voluminous in "Carbon Black" and Covergirl's Lash Blast Fusion in "Very Black". They were on offer too, CAD$6 or $7 (S$8 or S$9) a piece.

Revlon lip products! Omg, they were going for sooo cheap in the States and Canada, that it makes Revlon products in SG look grossly overpriced.

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in "Rose Dew" and Super Lustrous Lipgloss in "Pink Afterglow".

They were going for CAD$3 (S$4) each, yeah, WTF-cheap right? I went back to the store to exchange "Pink Afterglow" for "Coral Reef", as I wanted a more pigmented lipgloss. The exchange policy is fantastic there, I just said I had a similar shade of lipgloss and they allowed me to switch it!

Revlon's Colorburst Lipstick in "Soft Rose" and Colorburst Lipgloss in "Peony".

They were going for CAD$5 (S$6.5) the weekend I was doing this haul, lucky me! I love the colour of "Soft Rose" and the texture of the lipstick is wonderful and so comfortable on the lips!

I wanted to try lip stains, so I got this Covergirl set that was on clearance for CAD$8 (S$10).

I really liked the lipstain and was happily using it..until one day, the cap came off inside my purse and all the product leaked out. -__- That was the end of the lipstain, and I had to scrub my purse. Ha ha, lesson learnt - never place any marker-like products in your purse! The lipgloss was meh, I passed it to my little sister.

Here are the pictures of the lip products (excluding "Pink Afterglow" since I didn't open it to do the exchange, and the lipstain because... well, it looked like an ordinary red marker).

And hand swatches!

Left to right: Rimmel's bronzer in "Sunlight", Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in "Rose Dew", Revlon Colorburst Lipstick in "Soft Rose", Revlon Colorburst Lipgloss in "Peony" and the Covergirl WetSlicks Lipgloss (I've got no idea what the shade name is). The star above is a swatch of the lipstain.

Here are some of the lip swatches:

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in "Rose Dew"

Revlon Colorburst Lipstick in "Soft Rose" (I LOVE this colour!!!)

Revlon Colorburst Lipgloss in "Peony"

Covergirl's Lipstain (again, I don't know the nade of the shade)

Moving on, I also purchased an eyeliner set from Annabelle, which is a canadian cosmetics brand. It came with a lapis blue pencil kohl liner and a gorgeous sparkly blue glitter liner. I used a $1 off coupon wit this, so this set cost only CAD$7 (S$9+).

The glitter liner has got blue, green and pink sparkles in it, how pretty~

Next, my very first Physicians Formula (PF) items! Again I got the set, cos it's a lot cheaper than buying the items individually. I think I got this for CAD$22 (S$30), which is really reasonable for 3 eyeliners and an eyeshadow palette.

I've heard so many good things about Physicians Formula eyeshadows that I had to get at least one palette! The eyeliners may look average, but after using them for 4 months, they are my HOLY GRAIL eyeliners! No kidding.

Product pictures of the e/s palette and the eyeliners:

I kinda got two black eyeliners instead of the brown that I was suppose to get in the "brown eyes" set (you can tell the other black liner came from a "green eyes" set), but I've no complains about the switch cos this black eyeliner is my Go-To, I-Will-Die-If-I-Ran-Out-Of-It eyeliner.

From top to bottom: PF sparkly purple and black liners from the "brown eyes" set, PF sparkly black liner from the "green eyes" set and Annabelle's Kohl liner in "Blue".

Hand swatch of the liners:

Top to bottom: Annabelle's glitter eyeliner, Annabelle's Kohl Liner, PF sparkly purple liner, PF sparkly black liners.

Hand swatch of the PF eyeshadow palette:

All in all, I spent about CAD$60+ that day (I bought a few other necessities as well, like shampoo) which converts to about S$80. Not bad for such a big haul! But that's only the first and there's more to come, lol!

It was totally on impulse! Ha ha ha ha, I swear! I wasn't going to do anything to my hair until my trip to Canada, but after watching the korean girl band f(x)'s hot summer auburn hair, I immediately went to buy a box of DIY hair dye.

I used this...

... and 1 hour later, I emerged with red hair. *cue hair picture spam*

This was my matching red LOTD that I wore to work the next day, I was feeling the red dude!!!

Close-up of the eyes:

The shimmery taupe shade you see near the lash line is the new Bare Escentuals High Shine Eyecolor in "Glisten".

Also, I was sporting both the Lash Definition and Volumizing mascaras from the brand. The mascaras have been released quite a while back, but the High Shine Eyecolors and the Pretty Amazing Lipcolor are new items that arrived in our Sephora just last week.

On my lips, I was wearing the Pretty Amazing Lipcolor in "Courage". It's a really amazing fiery coral shade, so complementary with my skintone and my hair colour!

And a final goodbye pic from me, cos I simply loved how this turned out, heh. :)

My hair is getting quite long and it's almost time for me to get it cut! Thanks for reading~

A few weeks back, an acquaintance of mine flew to U.S and so I troubled her to get some stuff that I've been lemming for from their local drugstore. In the end, she only managed to get me 2 items from my list but I'm definitely not complaining cos it beats joining a spree and waiting. Here are the 2 items she got me!

1) Neutrogena Triple Moisture Hair Mask

I've been hearing so many raves on this product from our US counterparts, that it really works and it makes your hair silky smooth and tangle-free and that it's one of the best hair masks around. Sadly, it's only sold in the US and perhaps in Aussie (many Neutrogena products are only available there, SG is rather sad not to bring them in) so I knew this was my chance to get my friend to buy it.

I've tried it once so far, and I'd say it works. Of course, I'll continue to use it and monitor its effectivity but for that one time, it's pretty impressive. My hair did feel much smoother and tangle-free. It also felt more hydrated, the ends didn't seem that rough anymore. But the smell! Oh. My. Gawd. It is AMAZING! It smells all coconut-ty and honey-ey and musky and... *rambles on*

Yeah, the smell is a definite plus point. Probably because it states in the description that the mask contains meadowfoam seed and sweet almond extracts...and of course, fragrance.

2) Revlon Matte Lipstick in Nude Attitude

Hey hey hey~ This was in my drugstore wish list that I came up with a while back and I finally got it! I just don't understand why SG doesn't bring in this colour.

Lip swatches!

Both swatches are with indoor settings. Looks perfectly matte here and as you can probably see, the lipstick does settle into the crevices of my lips. I'm sure most matte lipsticks actually do that.

These 2 are taken facing strong sunlight, that's why you see a slight shimmer. One thing I noticed is that there's actually a bit of a mauve-pinkish sheen to the lipstick if you at it look closely under strong sunlight. I think it's more obvious in the 1st swatch under sunlight, at the edges of my lips. It seems weird for a matte lipstick, but from afar you can't see this at all.

A full-faced pic~

Sorry for the dead-fish eyes and the sallow complexion. I didn't bother putting on any makeup for this shot; if it could be helped, I would rather not put up a full-faced picture because I look positively haggard right now. School was vicious last week - I had a presentation, then lab reports to submit and group meetings to attend. School hours stretched up to 10 hours a day and sleep only came up to 5 hours a night. Plus, last night I didn't get enough sleep, my body was too pumped up on the adrenaline and stress I've been facing.

BUT! The reason I took this pic was to show you guys the full look with the lipstick on. It goes on pretty natural with my skin tone as it has got a pinker undertone, unlike NYX's Circe which has such strong yellow undertones and it virtually wipes my lips out and makes me look like one of the walking dead. I always had to put on a coloured lipgloss with Circe, but for Nude Attitude, I can wear it alone. So if Circe makes you look too dead, do try this lipstick out.

As for how moisturizing and long-lasting it is, it feels pretty ok to me. Not as moisturizing and creamy as most people reported it to be, but it wouldn't  dry your lips out like most matte lipsticks would. When I wore it in my school's air-conditioned library, it did feel a bit dry and powdery, but I've realized that my lips chapped less. The lasting power is very good though, as for most matte lipsticks. I guess the powdery finish actually helps the lipstick to stay on for up to 6 hours without fading (even when I snacked a little when wearing it).

Yep, that's my (very long) 2 cents worth. I got the lipstick for around S$7.30 and the hair mask for S$12.50. All in all, a very worth-it purchase. Thanks for reading!