I know I am late to the game with the Makeup Forever Ultra HD Invisible Cover foundation. I did try the original HD foundation a few years ago and wasn’t a fan. It clung to my dry skin and texture so bad, I wasn’t in a hurry to run out and buy the new Ultra HD formulation. But I got  a sample in Topbox a few months back and well it set me in such a tizzy, I had to go get a full sized pronto.

Makeup Forever revamped its cult favorite HD foundation with the Ultra HD Invisible Cover foundation. The Ultra HD is made to look invisible to 4K technology and the naked eye. The Ultra HD Invisible Cover foundation comes in almost the same bottle as the HD; glass bottle, silver trim (vs black), black pump and cap. I love that the cap snaps back on really snuggly. There is something so satisfying hearing that snap when you put the cap back on. Is that just me? Plus I still get the giddies when a foundation has a pump. This should just be mandatory!

Texture-wise the Ultra HD formula is quite different from the original. The Ultra HD is much thinner and liquidy. Makeup Forever has 40 shades of the Ultra HD Invisible Cover to choose from. 40! It was a little overwhelming so I went in to Sephora to be colour matched to Y245 which is a pretty good match for me. All colours are identified with a R (red) or a Y (yellow) indicating the undertone. I didn’t notice any discernible scent to the Ultra HD at all.

The thinner consistency of the Ultra HD Invisible Cover foundation makes application so easy. It takes two pumps for me to cover my face. I used both a sponge and a RT buffing brush to apply. Both worked great with this foundation. The coverage is medium at most. I could still see some of the melasma around my mouth and freckles on my nose showing through. So if you are like me, melasma and freckles, concealing will be a must.

The finish is a demi-matte. It was so lightweight and left my skin feeling hydrated, I couldn’t tell I had foundation on. It also didn’t enhance my pores but it didn’t completely blur them out either. Nor did it sink it any of my fine lines (hello forehead). It just leaves your skin looking like skin just better.

The Ultra HD lasted maybe 7 hours for me before it wore off in a few places. Mainly above my eyebrows. I tend to scratch at them during the day. I notice I do that when I am at work. They call it my WTF face. It seems to happen a lot. I do set my concealed areas (under eyes and nose) with a loose setting powder which definitely helped the longevity factor. Thankfully, I don’t really get dewy during the day but I can thank my dry skin for that.

$52 is lot for me to spend on a foundation. So I have to love it before I commit to it. And I love the way the Ultra HD Invisible Cover foundation looks on my skin. Love it. It keeps my skin looking hydrated (but not dewy) and is so lightweight that I find it a great foundation for someone with dry skin. It blurs out most imperfections and doesn’t cling to dry areas and it doesn’t make my shitty textured skin look worse. I have had so many compliments on how nice my skin looked in the last two weeks, it make me a believer. Would I buy it again? You betcha!

The Makeup Forever Ultra HD Invisible Cover foundation is available exclusively at sephora.com ($52 CDN/$43 USD).

During the International Women’s Day Sales, I picked up a few items from Annabelle Cosmetics. Annabelle was having a 40% off and free shipping event, so how could I resist?

My initial purpose was to grab a new Romance Twist Up Retractable Lipstick. I love that lippy.  But I ended up perusing the new products for Spring 2017 and of course I found myself picking up a few items.

As I mentioned I had to get another Annabelle Twist Up Retractable Lipstick in Romance. I totally fell in love with this creamy shade a couple years ago and I NEEDED another. Romance is a nude mauve pink and it is my go to shade.  I absolutely love the formula in these crayon lipsticks. They are hydrating and do not dry my lips out and do not enhance any dry patches on my lips.  The Twist Ups are a winter favorite and one is always rolling around in my makeup bag.

I absolutely love retractable eyeliners. They are so easy and unmessy to use. Annabelle actually has a great selection of some retractable liners and they do them so well. I wanted to really try the gel formula of the Skinny Gel Eyeliner- Black Onyx ($8.95 CDN). This pencil thin gel liner is so creamy smooth and really black. It has a very tiny nib so it makes getting in between the lashes easy.  But I really like Black Onyx on my waterline. The formula lasted all day in my waterline with only minor fading after10 hours.  That is one of the best results I have ever had. Love.

I seem to go through matte vanilla shadows quite fast as I use them for an all over base shade almost every day so it was an easy choice to get the matte single shadow in Ivory ($5.95 CDN). This shade is a pretty pale nude with slight pink undertone. It blends easily and brightens my eye. I do use this as my starting base shade all over the eye to ‘set’ any primer with.

I also had to try out one of the Chrome eyeshadows  ($8.95 CDN) and a Skinny Palette ($9.95 CDN) . I was so impressed with the Chrome eyeshadow in Rose Gold and the Skinny Palette in New Eve Goldy Browns  ($9.95 CDN) that I am going to do a separate review for them. Maybe an eye look?

Have you tried anything new from Annabelle Cosmetics?

For March, Topbox had an awesomely great selection of privé boxes to choose from; YSL primer and lipstick, Ofra turquoise eyeliners, MaskerAide mask packs, Manna Kadar blush, baremineral glosses and the Bella Aura skincare pack.  I wanted them all! It was so hard to decide. Aaiiieee!!!!

But I finally settled on the Bella Aura because I sincerely wanted to try out these products. I already tried the Bella Aura Antioxidant Booster and loved it. It made my skin feel so soft.  I think I love the idea that Bella Aura’s products are pure and natural emulsions (argan, fig, nigella and neroli essential oils) plus it is made in Canada!
In this Bella Aura Skincare box, I received the:

Full size: 30ml/$120
Our Multi-Functional Instant Lifting Eye Contour significantly reduces the appearance of multiple signs of aging.  It rejuvenates the eye area to look 6 years younger within 4 weeks.  
I am excited to try this! My eyes are so bad right now. Lack of sleep is really kicking me in the ass. I need help.

Full size: 30ml/$90 
Our Multi-Functional Daily Moisture Repair provides better hydration properties than Glycerin or Hyaluronic Acid. It contains our Kamilah blend combined with breakthrough technology of the active Swiss botanical ingredients. 
I am always looking for a great daily moisturizer, especially one that is super hydrating. Normally I really like 30SPF in my daily moisturizer but adding SPF ahead is not a huge issue if this performs well.

Wet face with warm water, pump a few drops of cleanser on fingertips and massage into skin for 30 to 60 seconds in small, circular motions.
I thought that the Night Cellular Renewal was in this set but I was mistaken.  I have a Daily Repair Moisturizer from last month`s Topbox as well. Oh well I will use it and love it! Now all I need to try is the Night Cellular Renewal to have tried all the products. Maybe I should do a review on how these are on dry dehaydrated (and extremely tired) skin?

These products are all available at www.bellaaura.com.
If you are interested in a Topbox yourself for $12/mth go to Topbox.ca and sign up.

Kamilah means perfect

I was perusing through the new makeup in Shoppers Drug Mart during my lunch hour and saw that Essence had a new eyeshadow primer, Essence I Love Colour Intensifying Eyeshadow Base $3.99. What attracted me to this primer was that it was a pink base. I am almost out my current primer so it was great happenstance when I came across this one.

The texture of the Essence I Love Colour Intensifying Eyeshadow Base is thin and smooth. Not at all dry or silicon-y feeling. It blends out quite well, dries smooth and has a nice light pink concealing effect on the lids almost a brightening effect. My shadow lasted pretty well all day, with no creasing or wearing off. I did experience some fading after a long day but by this time I had it on for over 9-10 hours.  I find the Essence I Love Colour Intensifying Eyeshadow Base on par with more expensive eye primers (Hey you Primer Potion) just not as thick. Good job Essence!

It even made some shadows that don’t show up well (on their own) pop. Below is an example. Without primer I have a hard time making these shadows show up on my eyes. I always need to use a base with them.

I am glad I picked up Essence I Love Colour Intensifying Eyeshadow Base on a whim. It makes my shadow pop, my wallet happy and no makeup guilts for spending $20+ on an eye primer. I recommend trying it out!

..bought makeup from the dollar store? How did it work out? Did you like it? I do once in while. I always have to look to see what the new stock is. It is never consistent which makes it fun. Sometimes I see OPI, L'Oreal. You just never what's going to be there.
Normally I stay away from eyeshadow and skin care as my experience has usually been negative. But there are other beauty related items that may intrigue you.


Today's budget beauty find is all about lashes. I am always surprised and excited when I come across Ardell lashes in Dollarama but they are generally of the super dramatic variety that I would never get much use out of.  Let down. But Dollarama also carries the Mariposa multipacks.

These are like the 5 pair multipacks you can get from ebay for $2-$5. At Dollarama, the Mariposa multipacks are $3.00. That is pretty cheap! No credit cards or waiting a month for your order.

These ones are the Sapphire Lash 012 Star Struck (made in PRC). They come in a super cheap plastic package, held together with a few pieces of tape. The lashes themselves are very light and natural and the lash band is very thin and black. They actually remind me of the Ardell Lashlites lashes. The size was perfect for me so I didn't have to cut them. These do come with a little vial of lash glue but I am a goof when it comes to applying lash glue. It gets everywhere! I can only use the brush on Duo Lash Glue so I didn't even bother to try out the Mariposa glue.

The one issue I had with these lashes was that they had a really sticky adhesive on the back of them that stayed on the lashes when you pulled them off the package. I had to use another pair of tweezers to pull that adhesive off which came off in tiny little pieces. The second set of lashes I used I got lazy and just left the adhesive on. My eye didn’t fall out or get irritated but this is probably something you don't want to do on the regular. The last multipack that I had from Dollarama did not have this issue. 

All in all, these were very natural lashes that gave me length and didn't look like I was wearing falsies.

I also grabbed a pack of Ardell Naturals 110 in Wine ($3.00). There was a few black pairs there but they were half lashes, coloured or has rhinestones on them, The 110 Wines were the most 'natural' lashes that I saw in the Ardell brand. I figure I will just add a couple coats of mascara to hide the wine colour.

I normally don't wear lashes on the daily as application takes me awhile plus I wear glasses a lot and hate when the lashes are too long and swipe against my glasses when I blink. But these Mariposa Star Struck lashes were the perfect length for me.

If you want to pick up some cheap and decent false lashes, take a look in the cosmetic aisle next time you are at Dollarama.

*product was provided for review

Nexxus has introduced a new collection that combats the damage of city living. The City Shield collection offers a reinvigorating veil of protection against environmental damage, helps control frizz, makes your hair manageable and gives a natural-looking healthy shine.

The  collection includes;

Gently cleanses urban-stressed hair and is refreshingly fragrant so you can enjoy nourished hair that feels great and retains its natural movement. Formulated with Wheat protein, the rich formula of Nexxus City Shield shampoo for dry, frizzy hair helps rehydrate and control hair of all types – capturing natural movement while protecting hair from urban aggressors

I loved the scent of this shampoo. From the bottle it was a bit strong but while on the hair, I found it refreshing and awakening. It lathers like crazy. I felt like it took a lot of rinsing to get the shampoo residue out of my hair

Smoothes and nourishes hair while restoring a protective barrier that helps to shield it from damage caused by the urnab environment. Using wheat protein for hair, the formula of this Nexxus conditioner for dry hair is designed to help moisturize hair, improve manageability and reduce frizz - all the while protecting your hair fro external aggressors and retaining plenty of natural movement.

I found this conditioner quickly detangled and moisturized my hair. I had no problem at all getting my wide tooth comb through afterwards. My hair had fabulous shine the next day when I was brushing it out and virtually NO FRIZZ! Goal achieved!

Shields straight and fine hair from city-life damage while also providing soft hold for your style. Hair is left protected and nourished, formulated with lotus extract to achieve a manageable style that lasts throughout the day 

For me this is more a styling product rather than a leave-in conditioner. The first time I applied a quarter sized amount of product. It left my hair detangle but once I had fully air dried my hair, it felt very texturized. Very much like I had spritzed dry shampoo on my hair. I have conflicting feelings whether I like or hate that. My hair had body and was so easy to style but the ends of my hair were left pretty dry. So you will need to add an oil to the ends of your hair if you have dry hair like me. The next time I used it, I used less product and the textured feeling was considerably less. So a dime sized amount is all you really need. My hair did still look shiny the next day and frizz and static were significantly reduced.  I had volume on the top of head which I normally have to work to get but a quick brush and flip and I had volume. So there goes the conflict.

Nexxus has some great products. I personally love the Therappe and Humectress shampoo and conditioner. While the City Shield line left my hair pretty much frizz-free, it’s not my most favorite Nexxus product.   The DD crème gave my tresses some great body and I was easily able to style my hair but I felt like it left a lot of build up in my hair.  

Have you tried the City Shield collection yet?