Nancy, Author at spiffykerms.com

Dior Sculpting Blush (2 colours!)

April 13, 2016 4 Comments

Like many brands, Dior is getting in on the contouring, sculpting action too. And rightfully so! It’s the way I love to apply my makeup on a daily basis, sculpting my face and playing around with it all to create different looks.

Dior Diorblush Sculpting Powders in Pink Shape (left) and Coral Shape (right), it also comes in two contour shades (see Julie’s review of the brown contour shade here). While I’m not comfortable with highlighting my skin yet, as much as I love a nice glow to the face, I appreciate that Dior made the blush side of the compact much larger than the highlighting side.

Gliding on smooth, opaque and with perfect blend-ability, these two sculpting blush-highlighter duo’s are easy to wear and apply. As you can see, they even come with a mini sculpting brush, which I don’t mind using with it (for the most part I throw out a lot of the brushes that come with compacts, but not this one!).

See them in action, on my face.

Before and after using blush. On the right picture,Â CoralÂ shape is applied on the left, and PinkÂ Shape is on the right. When I have my self-tan applied, I love using the Coral, and when I’m a bit pale, I opt for the Pink!

Up close ‘n personal swatches:

Pink shape blush on cheek.

Coral shape blush on cheek. Blushes were applied heavily so it’d pick up on camera!

Dior Diorblush Sculpting Powders in Pink Shape andÂ in CoralÂ Shape.

And if you want to get real crazy around these parts to even out your cheek swatches, apply them together instead of removing your makeup and reapplying. Hah â€” IÂ mean it works, right? My pal Zoe said it perfectly in her review of the two blushes, that the two gives natural looks to the skin and would work great on skin of any age.

Dior Diorblush Sculpting powders ($43USD / $54CDN) are available at Dior counters.

Beauty

Bioderma for sensitive skin

April 12, 2016 2 Comments

I’m all about the Bioderma products for the past couple of years. Their incredibly popular micellar water is still hard to purchase here in the USA, but it’s readily available at stores in Canada. In fact, the micellar waters were included in part of my SpiffyClaus event back in late December.

While I was home from December to mid-February, I received a parcel in the mail from them and only had a chance to try the items out a handful of times (because there wasn’t enough room in my luggage to cart a couple of litres of bath products back to California with me), so I left it with my Mom and she’s been using it ever since. But I can review what I’ve tried, since I had written a few notes down, before leaving Newfoundland! Here we go :)

Bioderma Atoderm Shower GelÂ (dry sensitive skin) $19.95 CDN: You can see from the sample I have in my hand, it’s a clear liquid consistency, and has a creamy foam texture when latered onto the skin with your loofa.Â I loved that it came in a pump bottle, since a lot of shower gels have a squeezey tube you have to fumble with in the shower. It’s a huge 1L container too, so it’s going to last you ages.

Bioderma Atoderm PPÂ balm $29.95 CDN: More like a lotion than a thick balm, it was pleasant to apply all over the body after getting a warm shower on a bitter cold Canadian winters day. My skin was still acting up with the whole hive-situation back in Canada, so this was nice and soothing to apply, since it didn’t have a scent and it wasn’t too thick or irritating on my skin.

Bioderma Sensibo H2o makeup wipes: I’m a huge fan of makeup wipes, and actually went through 2 packages of them while I was home in Newfoundland. They were a bit more dry than I was expecting. And as most of you know I don’t wear a ton of eye makeup or heavy foundation, so this did the job â€” but I wish they could add a bit more moisture to the wipes.

Bioderma moisturizing stick (damaged and dehydrated lips) $6.95 CDN: I have been buying this lip balm for a couple of years (the bioderma one shown here, and the one from Avene are my two favourite lip balms, ever). I didn’t open this one because I have a few in rotation at the moment, so this one stayed home with my Mom.

If you have sensitive skin, try out Bioderma products since theyÂ are hypoallergenic and paraben-free.

Products were sent from Bioderma for review. Opinions are my own. I have been using Bioderma for years prior to working them!

Coffee shop, Daily

Exploring Coffee Shops: Social Policy

April 11, 2016 No Comments

At justÂ about two weeks old, I randomly came across the new Bellano coffee shop called Social PolicyÂ in downtown San Jose this morning. It’s a gorgeous clean lined and beautiful design inside with the most perfect lighting for capturing photos of the place. I couldn’t stop getting up from my seat to snap photos.

Not many people sitting around drinking their morning fixÂ since it’s so new. I can only assume it’s due to people not knowing it’s open yet.Â I had a chat with the guy working there, and he said thatÂ this location was previously a spot called Black Bird Tavern. Having not been too familiar with downtown San Jose, I was never in that tavern before it closed down to become Social Policy.

Bellano has always focused on coffee but Social Policy has branched out and is serving up pastries and snacks, and I’ve been told they’re working on opening up a kitchen to serve more food than baked goods.

I often like to take some me-time for an hour or so a few times a week, to turn off my phone (putting it in airplane mode) and enjoy my quiet time at coffee shops. I people watch, mainly â€” and it’s especially interesting to do so, here in the Bay Area. I can only imagine what sort of new deals are going down with the big wigs, or ideas people are coming up with.

It was a cool experience drinking my morning latte there today, the staff were neighbourlyÂ and chattyÂ with me. I’ll definitely be back, especially that time of morning watching the commuters on the VTA train right outside the front door.