Today’s post is the first update on my Project Pan, which I started at the beginning of January. I’ve decided to space out my check-ins and do them every two months, so my next update will be in April, and then the last one in June.
While I want to get as much use out of these products as possible, my approach to this Project Pan was to pace myself. I knew, particularly with makeup, that I would go crazy if I had to wear the same things day in and day out for six months straight, so I came up with a schedule that would allow me to switch up my products while still getting use out of my Project Pan items. I usually wear makeup 6 days a week, Monday through Saturday, so I promised myself that I would use my Project Pan makeup 5 days a week, and then I could switch it up with another product on the sixth day. This has been working out pretty well, I think!
Today’s post is an exciting one for me – my very first haul from ColourPop! I’m so late to the game as people have been using their products for years, but I’ve always held off on buying from them because 1) The exchange rate wasn’t working in my favour, 2) I hate paying for duties and pretty much try to avoid it at all costs. I decided to bite the bullet this year and just go for it, considering our Canadian won’t be improving anytime soon so I may be waiting for years to try the brand. Read on to see my experience ordering from this brand, and of course what products I picked out!
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, but today I wanted to share with you what is probably my last wedding DIY project that I did for my wedding last year. We’re talking about how to make a gold leaf globe, which we used as our wedding guestbook.
Although there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having a traditional guestbook, I knew that we would probably look at it once after the wedding, and then stow it away in a closet, totally forgotten. Instead of that, I wanted something we could display as part of our home decor after the wedding was over. I found a few ideas on Pinterest, but ultimately decided on a gold leaf globe.
I was rather nervous to work with gold leaf, because it looked difficult and messy. It wasn’t the best DIY project that I completed for the wedding, but overall it turned out fine. There are already a lot of tutorials online showing you how to make these globes, but like with my previous DIY glitter table numbers post I shared last year, I also have some tips to offer.
Hello again! I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day, regardless of how you spent it! I wanted to continue with my Valentine’s Day theme and share with you 8 products that I absolutely love, but that I never hear anyone talk about. Is this topic a bit of a stretch for Valentine’s Day? Maybe. But just roll with it, please? A lot of products are hyped up, some for good reason. For me, I feel like these items don’t get the hype they deserve!
MAKEUP
Shiseido Perfect Rouge Lipstick
Everyone talks about the MAC lipsticks, Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche lipsticks, and the Urban Decay Vice lipsticks…but no one talks about the Shiseido Perfect Rouge lipsticks! The formula of these are so stellar – pigmented and creamy, but so lightweight with a bit of shine shine. It feels like you’re wearing a lip balm, only with the coverage of a lipstick. I only own one of these in a full size and a bunch of deluxe samples from GWPs I’ve received over the years, but they all perform beautifully.
Today’s review is another pink product in celebration of Valentine’s Day: Huda Beauty’s Lip Strobe. This is my first foray into Huda Beauty; when the brand first launched, I had never heard of the influencer Huda Kattan. I’m usually not interested in products from influencers and have never really been enticed by anything from this brand, but regardless of my interests, it’s still a massive achievement for an influencer to reach such a big following that they can start their own makeup line.
Despite not really looking into Huda Beauty, I bought the Lip Strobe on a whim during the Sephora VIB sale in November. I’ve been solely wearing creme and matte lipsticks for a year or two, so I was in the mood to change it up with something shimmery. It’s been a few years since I’ve worn lip gloss and I’ve never been a big fan to begin with (too sticky!), so I wasn’t sure how I would feel about it.
The Basics
I purchased this during the VIB sale so I did get it on sale, but the full price is $23 CAD. It can be purchased at Sephora and the Huda Beauty website, which ships internationally. The Lip Strobes are made in Italy and come in 12 shades, varying from a pearl to a deep violet. Some of the shades are meant to be sheerer, while others are mostly opaque.
The shade I purchased is called Angelic, which is described as “a light peach rosé with gold reflections”. I would say this gives a medium opacity – not sheer, but doesn’t fully cover my natural lip colour either.
A swatch of the Huda Beauty Lip Strobe in the shade Angelic
Some are beautifully iridescent, infused with pearls, and others are packed with rich pigments or have subtle, glimmering glitters.
Gives lips a sculpted and volumized gleam that’s visible from every angle.
Non-sticky, cushion-like texture make wear more comfortable than ever
The precision, heart-shaped flock glides on generously for an even coat.
According to the website, these can be worn alone or as a lip topper over a matte liquid lipstick. The “signature” way of using this is to apply it over a matte lipstick, and then blotting it so you get a more metallic look without the shine of the gloss. I’ll be testing out the various ways to wear this further down in the post!
The Packaging
The Lip Strobe comes in a rectangular box in a transparent sleeve so that you can see the lip gloss tube inside. A lip graphic is printed on the sleeve so that looks like the tube is held between the lips. The box is holographic, which catches my eye right away!
The lipgloss tube itself is a pretty standard square-shaped tube with a black cap, although coupled with the Huda Beauty logo no the front, it does have a nice, clean look to it. Unlike the usual doe-foot applicator, the lip gloss has an applicator which the brand calls “heart-shaped”; it’s the same shape as the applicator in the Kat Von D Lock-It Concealer Crème that I reviewed a few weeks back. I mentioned in that post that I really liked the shape for applying concealer, and I like it equally for lipgloss. One swipe gives you coverage for the entire section of your lip!
The Formula
One of my main concerns was that it was going to be a very tacky lip topper, as a lot of shimmery lipglosses tend to be. I particularly dislike the ones that cause a string of lipgloss to stick between your top and bottom lips whenever you open your mouth – ugh, gross! The texture of the Lip Strobe is quite thick and a bit goopy, and it does have a bit of stickiness to it. Based on the texture, I thought this would be super sticky, but it’s actually nothing you wouldn’t expect from a lip gloss. It’s definitely not sticky to the point where it will cause the lipgloss string, but your hair will likely stick to it on a windy day.
Another worry of mine was that the shimmer particles would feel grainy on my lips, particularly after the lip gloss wears off. This is a frequent problem with shimmery glosses, and one of my beauty pet peeves! I was pleasantly surprised that this shade in particular did not have this issue, whether when it was freshly applied or as the gloss started fading. It also doesn’t leave behind glitter particles on my lips as it fades. To be fair, I’m not sure how the other shades compare in terms of the amount of glitter in each shade, so I can’t vouch that the other colours will not leave glitter behind. Overall, it wears similarly to what you would expect out of a typical lipgloss. It sits comfortably on the lips and lasts for about 4-5 hours and comes off when you’re eating.
This lipgloss has quite a strong, sweet vanilla scent. It’s not unique to the Lip Strobe at all, but is the same scent I’ve experienced in other lipglosses before and actually associate the smell with lipgloss. I’m not the biggest fan of the scent, but it seems to disappear once it’s applied, so I’m also not too bothered by it.
Huda Beauty Lip Strobe in Angelic on its own
Angelic looks a lot pink-peach swatched than applied on my lips. Although you can’t tell in the photo because it’s a close-up of my lips, this shade looks horrendous on me by itself – almost silvery on me and makes me look like the Tin Man. That’s not so much an issue with the lip gloss; it just so happens that it just doesn’t suit my skin tone. The formula also settles into some of the deeper lip lines, although the average person would not be able to tell from afar. The shade scared me a little, but I had high hopes it would look more flattering with a lipstick underneath.
I don’t own a matte liquid lipstick from Huda Beauty, but I think it’s reasonable to assume that they’ll work with a matte lipstick from any brand. For this blog post, I’ve paired it with several different shades from Anastasia Beverly Hills, including a nude, a brick red, a magenta, and a grey-brown. The first photo is of the liquid lipstick by itself, then with the gloss on top, then with the gloss blotted off.
Top to Bottom: ABH Liquid Lipstick in Hudson on its own, ABH Hudson with Huda Beauty Angelic Lip Strobe, ABH Hudson with Huda Beauty Angelic Lip Strobe blotted
Top to Bottom: ABH Liquid Lipstick in Dazed on its own, ABH Dazed with Huda Beauty Angelic Lip Strobe, ABH Dazed with Huda Beauty Angelic Lip Strobe blotted
Top to Bottom: ABH Liquid Lipstick in Sugar Plum on its own, ABH Sugar Plum with Huda Beauty Angelic Lip Strobe, ABH Sugar Plum with Huda Beauty Angelic Lip Strobe blotted
Top to Bottom: ABH Liquid Lipstick in Bittersweet on its own, ABH Bittersweet with Huda Beauty Angelic Lip Strobe, ABH Bittersweet with Huda Beauty Angelic Lip Strobe blotted
You can see that the Lip Strobe changes not only the finish of the liquid lipstick, but also the colour itself. I can see why Huda recommends blotting the lip topper. The lip gloss applied on top of the lipstick looks very shiny and shimmery – exactly what you would expect from adding a lip gloss on top of a lipstick. However, when the lip gloss is blotted off, it turns your lip colour into an interesting metallic finish. Here’s a more in-depth review of the four shades:
ABH Hudson – Obviously, the Huda lip topper gives the matte liquid lipstick a shine, but you can’t really see much shimmer or metallic finish at all when it’s paired with such a light shade.
ABH Dazed – With this deeper shade, you can see the shimmer shine through, although I wish the photos did a better job capturing the metallic sheen of the liquid lipstick with the Lip Strobe blotted – it was essentially a metallic brick-red with golden shimmers. Adding the lip topper also made the shade warmer due to the golden shimmers in the gloss.
ABH Sugar Plum – Sugar Plum isn’t a completely flat matte shade to begin with, but has a blue shift running through it. It looks very metallic once blotted, but one thing that I noticed with this lipstick that didn’t happen with the others was that the blotting took enough of the liquid lipstick off my top lip that you could see my natural lip colour peeping through.
ABH Bittersweet – Interestingly enough, I felt like the shimmer and metallic finish was the most apparent with this lipstick shade, maybe because it’s such a deep shade.
The Summary
Pros:
-Formula is not overly sticky
-Does not fade patchily or leave glitter behind as gloss fades
-Can use it two ways – as a gloss or blotted for a metallic look
-Comfortable to wear
Cons:
-Expensive
-Sinks in to lip lines
-Scented (although may not bother some people)
These Lip Strobes are nice to have if you own a lot of liquid lipsticks and want to add a bit of variety into your lip looks without buying a ton of other lip products – you can just add this gloss on top of all your liquid lipstick shades for a different look. I’m not sure how unique these Lip Strobes are, though. Lip toppers have been around forever – can toppers from other brands be used in the same way where you blot it off for a metallic finish? I would be genuinely be interested in seeing if other lip toppers can be used to achieve the same look.
Overall, I really love the effect of these and am pleasantly surprised with this impulse purchase. They wear well and don’t feel sticky or gritty on the lips. I don’t think I’d need 10 of these or anything, but it would be cool to try one with a purple or magenta shimmer, or one with an iridescent shimmer, just for a different look to Angelic.
Lately I’ve been tagged in a bunch of award posts, so today I’m copying Always Cleia, who lumped all of her awards into one giant post.
Since I’m doing so many of them all at once, I’m not writing questions for every award or tagging people individually for each award. I’ve tagged a bunch of people at the bottom, so if you’ve tagged (or even if you aren’t), feel free to answer all of these below using any of the 30 questions I’ve come up with, or none of them! Questions are at the very end.
This is probably the longest post I’ve ever written, and I found it very difficult to talk about myself, so grab a coffee or tea and sit tight!
In honour of Valentine’s Day, I am reviewing pink products for the next two weeks! After using this palette exclusively for almost two months, I think I’m ready to review the Too Faced Sweet Peach palette. This palette has been out for two years already so it’s been reviewed by everyone and their grandmas, BUT the reason for having a blog is getting my own opinions of beauty products out there, so I DO WHAT I WANT!
I feel like I need to start a new series: “P&I Gets Sucked into Cute Packaging Again – Did This Product Actually Work?” but with a better name. Most of you might know that this palette got a ridiculous amount of hype when it came out for the first time in spring of 2016, mostly due to the packaging, the peach scent, and because it was limited edition. To be fair, I did not actually buy this only because of the hype it received back then. I went to university with a girl who wore the prettiest shimmery duochrome coral-peach eye shadow every day. I never asked her what colour it was (I always thought it might be MAC’s Expensive Pink), but I feel like I’ve always been on a low-key search of a shimmery peach shade since. This palette has those shimmery peach shades!
Lately, I’ve been thinking of starting a new series called Thursday Chats, where each post focuses on different issues within the beauty community. I first discovered makeup videos about 10 years ago, when I was in university and stumbled upon a (now OG) beauty guru doing makeup on YouTube. Since then, watching videos and reading blogs about makeup has become a hobby ever since. Two and a half years ago, I decided to join the beauty community even further by starting my own blog. Blogging and making beauty YouTube videos has changed significantly in the last few years, and I would love to have a discussion to see what everyone’s else’s opinions on some of these things are.
I thought I’d start the series off with what is probably the hottest topic in the beauty community these days: PR packages. Let me be clear about something right off the bat: while I don’t really receive much (if at all) PR myself, I have absolutely no problem with other bloggers receiving them. Unless a blogger makes a lot of money off of their blog and/or is somewhat well off to begin with, it’s impossible to continuously buy new releases to review without slowly depleting your savings. It’s a win/win situation: PR samples are a great way for bloggers to get new releases without having to spend as much of their own money, while the brands get marketing for their products.
While I think that PR samples certainly have their place and function within the community, I see them as a good thing with unintended consequences:
Polished and Inspired 