Dior Kingdom Of Colors

Dior-KOC-headerYou might notice my hair is almost like a black-brown in these photos. I contacted my old hair stylist in Canada, asking what she used on my hair in the past so I ordered all the products off Amazon, and dyed my hair on Sunday. What I failed to ask my stylist was how long to leave the product on my hair (since everyone’s hair is different, the directions aren’t always what you should follow). I applied the colour to the roots then directly on my ends hence the darkness, where as next time I am to not apply it to my ends until the last 5 minutes. And next time I won’t get this stark black-brown hair colour. Live and learn!

Since many expressed their liking to the style of photos I did for the last Beauty Talk Tuesday, I have decided to keep it up. Dior has a new collection out called Kingdom Of Colors, so using one of the palettes out of the collection, I thought I’d create a ‘look’ for you, and as always I prefer the more natural look. This one palette I am using from the collection is an all-in-one sort of deal. I used it for blush, eye shadow, eyeliner, and even lip color. Let’s get right into it!

Dior-Skincare1. Dior Capture Total Le Serum: Applying a serum to my face to keep my skin hydrated all day long.
2. Bobbi Brown Extra Eye Repair: I finally finished my bottle of philosophy eye cream, and now onto another favourite by Bobbi Brown. This one is fantastic for sensitive/dry under eyes.
3. Philosophy Hope In A Jar (Original): Love the whipped consistency of this face cream.

Dior-foundation1. Diorskin Nude Air foundation (shade: 020): A brand new foundation by Dior that helps create a healthy glow. It’s a liquidy product so you have to be careful not to let it run off your hands (if you apply it to the back of your hand before dabbing your brush into it like me). It blends into the skin seamlessly creating a natural everyday look. I would say it offers light-medium coverage and feels lightweight on the skin. Not heavy like other foundations.
2. Cle de Peau concealer (shade: beige): One of my most expensive makeup purchases to date. But I will continue to repurchase this concealer. As always, I apply in a triangle shape to brighten the under eye.
3. Diorskin Nude Air Powder: I’m not entirely sure what this did to my skin, but I applied it anyway. Supposedly its a healthy glow invisible powder.

Dior-bronzer-blush1. Diorskin Nude Air Tan Powder: This bronzer is well loved, but you need to use a light hand otherwise it can leave an orange cast onto the skin. With any makeup, you should blend out any harsh lines after applying.
2. Dior Kingdom Of Colors palette (blush): See the asterisk * for which product I used. A coral blush is always something I gravitate towards, and this palette definitely has it.
3. Dior Backstage Eye Prime (shade: 002): Priming my eyelids for eye shadow.

Dior-eyes1. Dior Kingdom Of Colors palette (eye shadow): Take the purple shadow and apply all over the eyelid. Then use the bronzer to add depth to the crease of the eye. Finally brighten up the eye using one of the whiter shades in the palette and apply to the tear duct ara.
2. Dior Kingdom Of Colors palette (eyeliner): To make lashes look fuller, I used the Dior cream eyeliner in the palette.
3. Clinique High Impact Mascara & Tweezerman Eyelash Curler: Curl the lashes, and apply generous coats of mascara.

Dior-lips-and-nails1. Dior Kingdom Of Colors palette (lipstick): Using the only shade of lipstick in the palette, use the brush to apply the berry pink shade to the lips.
2. Dior Kingdom Of Colors palette (lipgloss): I went for the clear gloss to add some shine to my lips without adding extra colour.
3. Dior Vernis (shade: Lady): To finish off the look, I added a polish from the Dior Spring collection.

The final look:Dior-Kingdom-of-Colors

Disclaimer: Dior products were sent for review. I never receive paid compensation for a blog post. Opinions are my own. 

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I have a secret to tell you

GetOutAndGoI’ve been keeping a not so secret secret from you. I usually like to tell you guys in order to keep myself accountable. But this time, I’ve let my husband in on it, and we’re in it together. How cheesy does that freakin’ sound?

It might not be majorly exciting to you, but we’ve been running 3-4 miles (5-6km) together up to 3 times a week, and I have been looking forward to the weekends when we can run together. Other days I head out solo — which I find good, you need that every once in a while. But boy the time does not go by fast when I’m running with no music, and no one to chat to. Times like these, I remember my running buddy in Canada, Tanya, or Coach Steve who coached me for a few months a few winters ago. I always like to think of what we’d talk about together, or what they’d say to me when I was having trouble keeping up.

Alfie-runningMy husband has been amping up his mileage and speed, as he is training for the Boston Marathon this April. Where as I have absolutely no interest in running more than an hour. Alfie has been going with us once a week (we don’t like to take him any more than that), here we are about to go for our Valentines Day run and he’s rearin’ to go.

Me and Staples are in on this campaign together called #GetOutAndGo, because as you may or may not know February is American Heart Month. We want to encourage you to get your heart rate up at least for 30 minutes each day! I’m a bit slack on the every day part though. I was given a Garmin and a few other running accessories that I’ve been playing with the past few weeks and although I’ve had a long history of love/hate with regards to running, I can finally know my pace when I run outside.

I do have to tell you that I’m not as fast as I thought I was, especially since I hadn’t been regularly running in 2014. For the first half of our run, I can comfortably maintain anywhere between 8:40-9:40/min mile. Ideally I would love to keep that pace up for the entire run, but then I get winded, and need walking breaks. Hence the average minute mile pace being close to 11:00/min miles.  I’m all self-competitive like that. I also like to play games with my brain, and sprint as fast as I can to stop lights, it’s exciting to see how speedy my legs can be.

308kmI love a clunky watch on my pinner wrists, so I didn’t mind sporting it, however I did watch it like a hawk on my runs. I can see how people become addicted to their pace, wearing one of these. My runs used to be “stop whenever you want“, and “slow it down to speed walking pace.“ Now I’m all “I AM THIS SLOW? Let’s speed’erup man!” Again, self-competitive talk it’s all in my head. I complain a lot on my runs to try and get some empathy from the husband. Which, if you know him — clearly doesn’t work. HAHAHA.

Luckily for us, the weather is perfect this time of year in California to run in the early evenings here. January and now into February, I’ve been tracking the progress and writing down each of my runs in my agenda, to keep me motivated to keep at it. Views like this doesn’t hurt either.

Running-routeOh running. Nobody said it would be easy. But it’s well worth it. Most times I hate it, but that feeling after the run? Euphoric. As I blog about climbing, yoga, running, and The Guy’s Ironman triathlon training, I’m trying to promote a healthy lifestyle and to stay on course. I’m not sure I’ll be blogging about my running adventures all the time, since I’m no pro. But if you want to read some of my favourite Canadian running bloggers who keep me motivated to run on my own when The Guy is at work, check out Krysten, Christina and Jessica.

Hike-with-alfieSo you won’t be seeing me in any races anytime soon. But I’ll continue to join my husband on his shorter training runs or going on hikes with our little Pom! Stay active my friends, and #GetOutAndGo.

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POM Friday . 14

Alfie is pretty good at sounding cute when he begs, therefore seems to always usually get what he wants.

We never feed him table scraps, so luckily he doesn’t beg for those. Remember the pizzle/bully stick I bought him? It’s almost gone. Usually we rotate his treats, or take them away if we feel like he’s had enough time with it. Those bully sticks are expensive man! Between $4-$6 a pop. If we let him, he’d chew on that thing for a good hour. It’s a great distraction for him when I need to do chores. But sometimes he begs for those things himself.

Here he is, whimpering on the edge of the couch, knowing darn well where we place his bones. Notice his serious face in the first few photos, haha.Alfies-serious-face

Begging-for-bones

gentle-dog

pizzle-stick

chewing

 

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