Five Things Friday . 003

01. BAY AREA BLOGGERS|
I thought I’d start out this five-things-friday by sharing five local bay area bloggers/instagrammers I enjoy! Perhaps some of them are new-to-you, and you can check them out too!

Alyson from The Beauty Vanity · a friend of mine with a beautiful beauty site, and an even prettier instagram feed.
Grace from My Style and Grace · I met Grace at a blogger brunch a few months ago, she’s sweet is so stylish. Check out her outfits on instagram.
Joanne from GoFitJo · a fitness inspiration and a kind soul. Her instagram feed is pure goals.
Melissa from Savvy in San Francisco · she’s a darling, and always on top of the latest beauty launches. Her instagram beauty flatlays are magazine worthy.
Ariana Lauren from Fashion Born · From her interior style right down tot he clothes she wears, I love it all! I found her on instagram.

02. OCTOLY|
Octoly.com is a site where you can receive free beauty products in exchange for a post on Instagram or a YouTube video. Obviously there’s a catch and it’s only open to USA (sorry Canadian pals), and you have to have 5K on YT, and 10K followers on IG. But it’s SO awesome because my parcel that came yesterday, was a few Dior items! Sign up if you can.

03. EBATES|
Ebates is old news to many, but I recently signed up in April, and I’ve already made $9.00 in savings from shopping online and using the discount. You don’t even have to think about it because when you visit a website (and you have the ebates in your web-browser-bar thing) it automatically pops up like an ad (lol… great) and you can “activate your %% back now” and most times it’s between 1-4% but if it’s your birthday week, you get a whoppin’ 15% back on your purchases on a lot of stores! You can use my referral link to sign up if you wish. Not sure what I get out of it to be honest though…

04. TARGET TEES|
Weird angle/photo of me. Ignore the face, look at the tee. lol. Blush pink is a fantastic colour and I’ve been on the hunt for so many tops in that perfect-shade since I realized how …. flattering it looked on me. Target has a 3/4 length top that kind of resembles a baseball tee (sleeves are reversed in stripes). I picked it up yesterday for $12, buy it here. Sweet.

05. BIRTHDAY CONVERTIBLE|
My birthday was last Sunday, and all I wanted to do was just go for a simple adventure in the car I labeled as the “birthday convertible” aka, convertible life, the Mazda MX5 we had for the week. My husband and I drove down the PCH (pacific coast highway) and hung out at coffee shops, browsed a store in Santa Cruz, and literally spent the day crusin’ along. It was so fun and relaxing and honestly one of the best birthdays I’ve had. By the way, spot my phone case? I ended up switching over to an otterbox because I dropped my phone on the ground (with the google-pixel case on it!) and it still chipped on the two bottom corners. Ticked off I was. Anyway, this slim otterbox case is definitely bulkier than most, but if it keeps this Pixel safe’n sound and free of any more chips I’m a happy phone-owner lol.

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What’s new in the beauty world for Spring?

What’s new in the beauty world for Spring, you may ask? Well have I got some answers for you. I thought this would be something nice and different apart from the review-after-review-after…. ya’know? While some of these might have been released a while ago, they’re still new-to-me, and it’s Spring, so I thought the title was pretty catchy, right?

Sephora| The fine folks at Sephora sent me another box (!!!!) full of Spring goodies from the Sephora Collection line. Guys. I can’t even believe I got a shipment from my favourite makeup store, ever, ever. Sephora. They know about ME? That’s insane and I kinda love it. I’ll dedicate an entire post about the products, but I did want to mention they have the Sephora Pro brushes that come in a quilted zippered case (packaged so well, with tissue paper wrapped everywhere (delightful!). There’s 11 brushes in the kit, and retails for $175 (a $312 value) — it’s limited edition so if you want it, get your hands on it now.

Bobbi Brown| Art Sticks in liquid form! My blog pal Melissa from informed me that Bobbi had pencil art sticks, and this is their ‘second’ launch of the art sticks, this time in liquid form. . If you’ve been watching me on Snapchat or Instagram stories, I’ve told you about my love of the colour Naked Pink that I’ve been rockin’ ever since I busted out the PR parcel that came my way. See my lip swatch video and a blog post about these!

L’Oreal| I’m not sure I’ve ever talked about L’Oreal goodies on my blog, eep! The L’Oreal Infallible Paints Blush Kit is a fantastic bang for your buck. The four diverse (i.e. not all pink – spy my coveted corals?) shades in the palette are all powder and easily blendable making it easy to wear. Don’t be afraid of trying such saturated colours – apply with a light hand to achieve a natural blush of the cheeks. Or go to town and build up the colour to make those cheeks pop come summer time. See my friend (also from Newfoundland!) Samantha’s YouTube video about it.
ColourPop| Corals and peaches never seem to stray too far from my makeup collection. I much prefer a peach-toned blush with my skin tone and playing around with a glowing complexion. ColourPop launched their Nectar Collection not too long ago and I’m digging everything I’ve tried so far, and best yet — it’s super affordable. So you don’t need to stress about the price when all these brands are coming out with their newest launches.

Too Cool For School| This is a new-to-me brand, and I’ve only seen it at Sephora recently. It’s a Korean skincare line, and most (if not all?) of the products are made from egg white and egg yolk extracts. If you’re going to pick anything up from this, get the cleansers or masks. I feel like they could improve on their moisturizers. Although I wanted to love them, they’re a miss for me — they leave a film.

Pixi Beauty| This is another brand I’d suggest you look into now that it’s both available in the USA and Canada (it’s at Shoppers Drug Mart, folks!). I’d say Pixi products are most known for their glow mist or products with glycolic acid (a mild exfoliator that makes your skin hydrated and dewy). But they also have makeup, and makeup removers that are gentle on the most sensitive skin (i.e.: mine). I recently got a PR parcel from them with four of their makeup mist sprays, and while I wanted to share the love with the other sprays with my friends, I kept the hydrating milky mist, for my dehydrated skin (shown above). The products above are the ones I’m lovin’.

BECCA Cosmetics| Besides skincare, a bronzed complexion is my favourite when it comes to anything makeup related. I achieve that with using multiple colours from the new BECCA Sunlit Bronzer Collection, they’re gorgeous and have a slight hint of shimmer. Perfect bit of warmth on your skin come summer. See my blog post about BECCA Bronzers here.

Are you guys interested in these kinds of series? I can do them for future seasons, if it’s something you enjoy.

Disclaimer: Products were sent for review. 

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BECCA Cosmetics Sunlit Bronzer Collection

BECCA Cosmetics launched new line of gorgeous glowing products. The 5 shades of Sunlit Bronzers are described as neutral bronzers for every skin tone and retail for $38USD /$46CDN.

The Sunlit Bronzers launched last month on Ulta.com and BeccaCosmetics.com, and is now on Sephora.com and in stores.

I’ve always loved looking extra bronze and often sport a self-tan. Surprisingly, the two lighter shades don’t show up on me as well when I have self-tanner on, so I reach for the rest of the shades depending on the look I’m going for. On my birthday I wore a combo of Ipanema Sun all over where the sun would hit, and Maui Nights to bring redness to my forehead. It all makes sense in my head! ;) Scroll down to see the bronzers on. BECCA Cosmetics Sunlit Bronzer Collection

BECCA Cosmetics Sunlit Bronzer CollectionShown left to right: Bali Sands, Capri Coast, Bronzed Bondi, Ipanema Sun, Maui Nights.

BECCA Cosmetics Sunlit Bronzer Collection swatchesYou can see above, on the swatches on my arm that the bronzers applied more on the sheer side. Which makes it easier in my opinion for layering them to create a beached bronze look. The bronzers in the pan have a bit of shimmer which somewhat translates onto the skin, but nothing outrageous and sparkly.

Bali Sands| a soft golden beige. I’m positive this would work best for fair to light skintones.

Capri Coast| a warm golden brown. For light-medium skintones. This would be my bronzer shade when I’m not wearing self-tanner.

Bronzed Bondi| a medium amber. For medium skintones. This could work for both light and medium skintones. I used this as a ‘natural looking’ bronzer when I’m tan.

Ipanema Sun| a medium aburn brown. For medium-dark skintones. This is the shade I reach for to create that deep bronze glow to my skin (when I’m self-tan).

Maui Nights| a sienna kissed bronzed. For deep skintones. This has a lot of red tones in it than the other 4 shades in the collection, and I used this lightly on my forehead, as I mentioned above (for my birthday) and I loved the effect. As for the colour range, they all lean on the golden side than cooler tones.

BECCA Cosmetics Sunlit BronzersOverall I’m loving it, it’s the first powder complexion product I reviewed from BECCA, and the powders are soft and buttery as I’d imagine. Such a beautiful collection to add warmth to your skin this summer.

Wearing BECCA Cosmetics Sunlit Bronzer in Ipanema Sun, and Maui Nights. 

Shop the BECCA Cosmetics Sunlit Bronzer collection!

*Products were sent for review. 

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