Review: Clarins Rouge Eclat Lipstick

I've been hearing a lot of great things about the new Clarins Rouge Eclat Lipsticks.

These satin finish, age defying lipsticks are replacing their old Rouge Prodige line. And in my opinion, it's for the better. They have beautiful gold packaging that makes me want to display it on my vanity.

I am trying out the colour #11 Passion Red. ($27 CAD)

The colour payoff of these lipsticks are wonderful. They are highly pigmented and super smooth going on the lips. They are a satin finish, they almost look glossy but are not wet like a gloss.

After a few hours, you will have a stain but will need to re-apply if you want the strong colour it gives.

Above I have swatched it three times. The first is one swipe, the second two swipes and the third is three swipes of the lipstick. As I said earlier, the colour payoff is wonderful.

These lipsticks are great because after wearing them you do not get flakey lips.
That being said, they will transfer to glasses, cups or your boyfriend's face. (note below)

So here it is on the lips!

Before Rouge Eclat

First coat

Second coat

If you're looking for a lipstick to be able to wear even when your lips are chapped, then I would highly recommend Rouge Eclat for you! It has a beautiful shade selection with 15 colours to choose from!

Here's me being dramatic:

Let me know which ones you want to try!

As always, thanks for reading. Please subscribe to my blog to see other reviews, tutorials, and anything else!

-ellewar

Romantic Valentine's Day Look

I felt obligated as a beauty blogger to create a look for Valentine's Day.

Whether you're married, engaged, "it's complicated," or just celebrating with some girlfriends - it's nice to feel pretty on what's considered the most romantic day of the year. (lol)

So I threw a little look together, hope you like it!

You'll need a shimmering light pink base, a lighter shimmery white colour, pink blush, gray eyeliner or shadow, mascara and a lipstick colour of your choice.

I started out with my face already prepped with Revlon Nearly Naked foundation ($14.99 CAD)

I had a difficult time taking pictures with the lighting I had and the particular colours I used, so I will try my best to write an easy and detailed explanation.

For the eyes I started with a pink shimmering base, I used the middle colour from Maybelline's Eyestudio palette in #15 Rose Revolution and put it all over the lid of my eyes. Unfortunately I can't find it on their website, so I believe it's been discontinued. You can use any light pink shimmering colour though.

Then I took a light shimmering white colour and placed it on the inner third of my eye, into the tear duct area and underneath the inner third of my lower lash line. You can pop some of this on your brow bone as well!

Next I took a hot pink blush by Nars, you can use a bright pink eyeshadow if you'd like, and I placed this through the outer crease of my eyelid.

If you don't know how to find your crease, take your finger or a brush and feel where the top of your eyeball is. Follow the hollow of your eyeball with some shadow, and that's your crease!

Next I took a gray eyeliner and placed it from the middle of my eye to the outer corner. I did this on both the top and bottom because it will create the appearance of larger eyes. I used gray because it's a lot softer than black and won't look as harsh. 

I used Gris Noir by Lancome ($26 CAD) 

Take your finger or a small smudger brush and make the lines less harsh. Then, take a small brush and take some of your hot pink colour and add a slight hint of it underneath the gray liner on the lower lash line. 

You never want to put pink directly beside your eyeball because that will make your eyes look red. 

If you ever add pink, you want it to be a secondary colour and not the main focus.

Take a clean blending brush and swipe this over your shadow if your lines are too harsh.

Next, curl your lashes and add some mascara! 

Your eyes should look something like this! 

Very simple, but very cute.

Next pop some pink blush on your cheeks. I used Essence #10 Adorable ($2.99 CAD) 

Then take a colour of your choice, I'm using Mac's Lovelorn ($20 CAD) on my lips.

That's basically it! I put some powder on my t-zone area but didn't powder my cheeks.

Keep it simple. I didn't add a crazy amount of colour anywhere, and I didn't add fake lashes.

If you are going on a date, you want to try to be a little more subtle with makeup in my opinion. Unless you wear a lot of makeup on a regular basis.

Here's the final look!

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you try it out if you're interested!

Let me know of any other tutorials you'd like to see me do!

Would you guys like to see a tutorial of Rihanna's look from the Grammys?

Let me know by commenting below!

-ellewar

Review: Clarins BB Cream

I was so grateful to be able to try the new Clarins BB cream that has yet to hit stores! (Thanks Clarins!)
I love trying out new products, and I especially love Clarins products.

If you're not sure what BB Creams are, you can head over to my blog post and read about them right here.

The packaging is a beautiful red colour with a gold twist off cover.
The retail price is $43 CAD and with an SPF 25, this BB Cream is one of the better deals in the high end market. Compared to Smashbox ($50 CAD) and Estee Lauder ($50 CAD)
In Canada, it will be available in 2 shades. 01 Light and 02 Dark. I have 01 Light.

The cream itself stays true to the balm texture of a classic BB Cream, and it has a beautiful smell.
The colour of the cream however, is too dark for me, and it's not like I am the palest of pale.

To put the product on, I recommend warming it up between the fingers and spreading it from the middle of the face, outwards.

The cream spread onto my face beautifully and I had no trouble evening it out.
If the shade was lighter this would have definitely been a new favourite product of mine! Hopefully once summer arrives I'll be able to wear this all the time!

Here is the before and after. As you can tell my skintone is more even, but it's too dark!

I think it's a great product, but the shade selection could have been better considering the demographic.
For women who aren't so pale, this would be a wonderful product!

I look forward to using it in the summer time!

As always, thanks for reading! Please feel free to subscribe to my blog!
If you have any requests or questions, please comment below!

-ellewar

A few of my Drugstore Favourites

Being the makeup collector that I am, I come across a lot of products not worth the money. Here are a few affordable products that I certainly think are worth the money and some that I reach for on a daily basis.

Favourite products definitely vary from person to person - so keep in mind that this is just my opinion.

Here are a few, but not all, of my cosmetic drugstore favourites.

Below are Revlon Lip Butters ($10.99 CAD) .. They are wonderful when you want to add a bit of colour to the lip without wearing a full blown lip colour. They are very moisturizing and come in 20 different shades. I will say that there is not a lot of product in the tube, so they do run out fast. The colours I have are 090 Sweet Tart (the pink one) and 035 Candy Apple.

I also love the shades Raspberry Pie and Red Velvet. Try them out if you want to get into wearing lipstick, but just aren't ready yet.

Now, if you're looking for the opposite of Lip Butters you might want to try out the Covergirl Lip Perfection lipstick ($10.99 CAD). These are highly pigmented, longwearing lipsticks and I love them! They're not lipsticks you can just put on without a mirror, and they stain quite well so avoid getting them on other parts of your body.

I have them in the shades Euphoria (burgundy shade, which is a dupe for Mac's Rebel) and Hot (red shade). Hot has become a go to red colour for me because of how long it lasts on the lips. Definitely great lipsticks to take for a night out!

Next are the Maybelline Color Tattoo 24hr eyeshadows ($9.99 CAD)
I love wearing these alone when I don't feel like putting effort into my makeup, or underneath eyeshadows as a base.

The shade below is called 25 Bad to the Bronze. Although they don't last for 24 hours, they definitely last me about 8.

Basically an every day staple for me is the L'Oreal Infallible Lacquer Liner 24H ($12.99 CAD). I wear this almost every day because it glides on amazingly well. If you're not sure how to apply gel liner you can check out my post here.

It also comes with a fancy brush!

This, along with the Maybelline gel liner, are comparable to Bobbi Brown and to Mac. I'll save the $15 thanks!

Next is the Maybelline the Falsies Volume Express ($9.99 CAD, but I got it on sale for $3.99)

This mascara is one of my all time favourites. I always have a back up of it in my make up vanity, and right now I'm waiting for my other mascara to be finished so that I can use this one :)

It lasts on the lashes all day, doesn't chip down and it holds a curl amazingly well! 

Below is the Covergirl Liquiline Blast Liner ($12.99). Obviously mine has seen better days, but it's awesome when you're in a rush and want to pop on a little liner. It glides on smoothly and doesn't print on the top of my lids (which is a huge problem for me.)

This one is the shade 420 Brown Blaze (lol) and it's a perfect liner for every day. It has a great little smudger on the end too! It lasts much longer than other drug store liners I've tried.

Next is my beloved Rimmel Stay Matte powder ($7.99 CAD) in the shade 001 Transparent.
This is my go to powder because it does exactly what I want it to do. It keeps me shine free for most of the day and it doesn't add colour to my face.

You can purchase a translucent powder from almost every company, but in my opinion I'm not going to shell out the money for something twice the price that does about the same, if not worse.

Next are these Quo lashes ($7.99 CAD), let's be clear, just these ones (style 814.) I am not a huge fan of the Quo lashes but the shape of these particular ones are beautiful. They are very doll-like and add a very glamorous look to your eyes. They are a pretty good dupe for Benefit's Big Spender lashes (if you don't want to spend the 20-something-dollars for those.)

A go-to eyeshadow palette of mine is definitely 249 Vanity by Wet n Wild ($5.99 CAD)

I love it because I get great use out of the top two colours and it has a fantastic maroon colour in it that is definitely ~on trend~ right now. I reach for this when I travel because there aren't many other colours I would use for an every day look.

Some brushes that I use every single day without fail are the elf cosmetic brushes. I bought a 14-piece elf brush set from Winners for about $16.99 CAD and I never looked back. These brushes are comparable quality to Sigma make up brushes and even to Mac.

I reach for the Complexion and Blush brushes every day because they have never shed a hair on my face. I highly recommend these brushes for beginners and for pros.

The Essence lash & brow gel is my favourite brow gel. Especially because it's $1.99 CAD and does the same thing as an expensive brow gel. I use it to keep my brows in place all day. I don't think I will ever bother to try out another eye gel.

One of my favourite drug store nail polishes are the Revlon Colorstay longwear enamels ($8.99 CAD) because they are really long wearing! They come in a wide variety of colours and they last about 5 days on my nails without chipping. 

Below is the shade 040 Provence.

Lastly on my list is the Quo brush cleaner ($6.99 CAD) - it keeps my brushes clean in between washing, I don't feel the need to buy a $20 brush cleaner that does the same thing. It does the job, it's inexpensive and it lasts a long time.

Thank you SO much for reading! Please let me know below if there is anything you want me to write about! And please subscribe to my blog, if you have a gmail account it's super easy!

Comment below and tell me your drugstore favourites!!

-ellewar

(Keep your eyes peeled for a giveaway in the near future! You have to be a subscriber to enter!)

How to: Full Coverage Foundation

Sometimes our skin acts up and we can get things like acne scarring or discolouration that we just don't want to look at.

So what to we do about it? We cover it up. With foundation.

Often times it's really obvious when people wear a more full coverage foundation, but usually that's because the colour is too dark.

It's important when you're choosing a foundation, especially if it's heavier, that the colour is as close as possible to your skin tone. If it has to be darker or lighter ALWAYS go with lighter, you can put colour back in your skin with bronzer and blush, but no matter how much you blend a dark foundation down your neck - it still looks too dark.

So, how can you do this? Let's start:

No makeup on this face, you want your face to be moisturized and ready to go.

Start off with some primer to help keep your makeup in place, I'm using Smashbox Photo Finish dark spot correcting primer ($48 CAD)

You'll need about a pea size amount. If you're unfamiliar with primers, check out my post on them here

After you apply that all over your face, it's on to foundation. I used Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation ($43.50 CAD) in the shade 1W2 Linen 18.

Start with a small amount to be sure not to waste any. Apply from the middle of your face towards your ears and down towards your neck.

To be honest I usually just dab a foundation brush in the foundation on my hand and start in the middle of my face and bring the foundation outwards.

After you apply your foundation all over, it's time to conceal any uneven skin tone that's still showing through. I'm using my trusty Boi-ing by Benefit ($26 CAD) in the shade 02. I applied it under my eyes, to the red areas around my nose and on a few spots still showing through.

You're going to want to set everything in place with a powder to help keep away any oils that may build up. I'm using Rimmel Stay Matte powder ($7.99 CAD) in 001 Transparent.

That's it! Finish applying the rest of your make up and you're finished! 

I hope this answers any questions you have about full coverage foundation, and I hope you try it out!

Thanks so much for reading! Let me know if there's anything you'd like to see me blog about!

-ellewar

Review: Lancome Hypnose STAR Mascara

I have always been a fan of Lancome mascara, one thing about it that I especially love is how well it lasts on the lashes.

Their newest mascara, STAR ($33 CAD) also lasts quite well on the lashes.

It has a very attractive packaging, and although the outside has a sparkle to it - the mascara itself definitely does not.

It only comes in Black, which is typical when Lancome releases a new mascara.

STAR, intrigued me because of it's brush.
It has a thick side, which is wonderful for volume, and a skinny side which contributes to length.

When applying it, it's best to use the thick side at the base of your lashes, and once you shimmy up about half way, turn the brush to it's thinner side to create a curl and then to add length to the lashes!

I prefer wearing this mascara with a full eye makeup because it is dramatic. But for the purpose of this review, I just wanted to show the lashes.

Here is Hypnose STAR:

Bare lashes

Curled lashes

A coat of STAR

Overall I really like this mascara because of how easy it is to put on. Above is only one coat, and I find with many mascaras it takes quite a bit of quirking with the brush to get a desired lash look.

It doesn't chip, it holds a curl well, and it lasts basically all day.

If you're buying a Lancome mascara, you're going to shell out $30 CAD at LEAST.

Just remember the next time you're at a drug store that L'Oreal and Lancome are sister companies.

(Actually, Lancome is made by L'Oreal.)

Hope you enjoyed this review. Let me know if there's a product you'd like to see reviewed, or a makeup look you'd like to see (could be anything from every day, to a celebrity look!)

Thanks so much for reading!

-ellewar