Pretty In Bronze

 Hello,

It's been a long time since I've done a blog post and believe me when I say that it was not the plan. I haven't been able to wear makeup in a while now, and I haven't even been able to use most of my skincare either. I have a weird eczema (I think) situation going on with one spot on my nose that has been out of control. 

It started a few months back and got worse when I poked at it, but eventually calmed down. It's never gone away completely, but it was just flat, didn't itch, but looked pink. I thought it was acne at first, but I was very wrong about that. A few weeks back the spot was no longer flat and a tiny bump formed, soon turning into several bumps that all connected and suddenly that spot was red and angry. It was so bad that I had to wear a bandaid to hide it for video calls. The bandaid looked ridiculous and I had multiple co-workers message me to ask if my nose was ok, or if I'd gotten work done on my nose, but it was still better than having the Rudolph like spot on the bridge of my nose.

The bandaid worked for about three days before my skin reacted badly to the adhesive. I had blotches on both sides of the spot that were itchy and raised (it looked like contact dermatitis) so I had to put an end to hiding the spot, even though I could clearly see it in my peripheral vision.

What the spot looked like for most of February + irritation on the sides of my nose from the bandaids

My doctor isn't seeing patients aside for pregnancy-related appointments due to the pandemic. Because of this I resorted to doing online doctors appointments, but when I finally booked one, it lasted three minutes with me having to convince the doctor to go on camera to look at my nose. It didn't matter because she'd prescribed me antibiotics for cold sores before even looking at it and hung up before I could ask if she thought a warm compress could help. Of course the antibiotics did nothing, because the spot on my nose is most likely eczema. The cream I normally use did help, but it's been weeks since the flare up and it still hasn't fully gone away.

Before the flare up I tried using skincare, but everything would make the spot really red. I can't even wash my face with my cleanser or apply a moisturizer all over without it being irritated. I'm at a loss at this point and really want to see a dermatologist, but I need a doctor in order to do that and that isn't looking very plausible in the near future. When it finally calms down I'll go back to using skincare so I can hopefully find a good routine that won't irritate my apparently super-sensitive skin.

After a few weeks of applying my prescribe steroid cream for eczema MULTIPLE times a day (I'm talking three to five times a day) and not using any product aside from water on my face, the spot started to fade from the middle.

Slowly starting to heal from the middle outwards.

I'm hopeful, but still very annoyed because this spot is super noticeable and obviously not just acne. If you've ever experienced this, please let me know what I can do to make sure this dosn't happen again, or at least how to make it go away much quicker!

See you soon!

 Happy New Year and welcome to my first blog post of 2021!

2020 was the year that I wore the least makeup since I was seventeen-years-old. I'm not just talking about the amount of makeup going on my face at once, but also the frequency in which I wore it in. I did purchase a decent amount of makeup in relation to the past few years since it was also the year of my wedding and I wasn't going to skimp out on something that'll live forever in pictures, but overall I mainly repurchased things of filled the few gaps in my collection.

My wedding day reaffirmed to me which beauty items I own that are truly my favourites so I thought I'd dedicate a post to makeup since that's how this blog started. I won't be following any type of structure (so some categories may be missing and some may contain multiples) and I will only be sharing products that I consider favourites of the last year. Most of the links will be affiliate links that will give me a few cents if you decide to make a purchase, but won't cost you anything at all. One affiliate code will be included as well!

Eyes + Brows

After years of not purchasing an eyeshadow palette (I don't include ones I received for free in PR) I finally decided to fill the gaps in my eyeshadow collection.

RawBeautyKristi AKA my favourite YouTuber for the past few years did her first collaboration ever with PÜR Cosmetics and created a double-sided eyeshadow palette. Thankfully I pre-ordered for the second launch and received my palette in late September. I could easily live off of this palette, my custom Makeup Geek palette (I talk more about this in my wedding makeup blog post) and the last palette of this post forever and be perfectly content as long as they kept magically refilling.

Too Faced Chocolate Gold eyeshadow palette - This is my last favourite of 2020. I'm pretty sure this is no longer available, but I sometimes see it for sale so I'm not 100% sure. I talked about this briefly in my wedding makeup blog post, but I did a dedicated blog post for swatches and a mini-review so check that out for more information! 

ESQIDO False Lashes - 'Heart and Soul' is my favourite lash style that I own from ESQIDO and what I wore on my wedding day as well. I've had these for years and they're still going strong since I'm careful when removing and cleaning them. These were sent to me and if you use my affiliate code 'amys' you'll get 15% off your order!

 L'Oreal Lash Paradise - There isn't much to say here to be honest. The brush, formula and application is all amazing. It's black, doesn't clump my lashes together and makes them look really nice and long. It's not impossible to remove, which is also always a plus for me!

Anastasia Beverly Hills Dip Brow Pomade -  Dark brown - best tone and with Inglot duraline it'll last you forever

Face (Base)

Nars Sheer Glow foundation - I've mentioned this  countless times on my YouTube channel and Instagram page, but I've never reviewed it on this blog before! This is my favourite foundation formula out there. The coverage is good, but not too high that it looks cakey and the shade (Punjab) is perfect for the summer. Several years ago when I went outside more and gave my skin a chance to tan the shade 'Stromboli' was better, but now I no longer lay out in the sun for the purpose of tanning and spend most of my time indoors, so Punjab works well for me. This was my wedding foundation so I bought it for that purpose along with a pump because foundations are truly better when they have one. I don't have a perfect winter shade (Ceylan is the closest undertone wise, but way too light), but if i did it would replace the next foundation on the list.

Lancôme Teint Idole Ultra Wear Foundation -  This is pretty high coverage, but it works well in the winter and when my skin is acting up. I mix it with a bit of beauty oil so it applies a bit more sheer since I'm not a fan of super high coverage and the matte finish. The shade is as close to perfect for my winter skin-tone as I've ever seen. It's beautiful, but NARS is still #1 and I hope they expand their light shades to include more yellow undertones. I did a review blog post on this foundation as well as a first-impressions full-day wear test on this and other products in the line if you want to learn more!

RCMA No Makeup Powder - This is still amazing and for a lighter, more natural finish. It lasts forever and even though the price has gone up quite a bit, it's still very affordable for the amount that you get.

Hourglass Veil Translucent Setting Powder - I used this on my wedding day and it looked beautiful. It's super thin and luxurious (the packaging is also really nice). This is so similar to the RCMA, just slightly thinner and the packaging is way nicer. If you're on a budget, stick with the RCMA, but if you're buying a translucent powder for a special event (like your wedding) I would splurge a bit on the hourglass because it does look the slightest bit better, but the experience of using feels a lot more pampering for some reason.

Under Eyes 

Too Faced Multi-Use Sculpting concealer - I have the shades Vanilla and Swan and these on their own and together cover my skin-tones throughout the seasons. These are HUGE (about 1.5 the regular amount) so I can justify the high price tag of $40. I always go a few shades lighter for concealer so for me it works well. I used both on my wedding day and now that it's winter I exclusively use a tiny bit of Swan under my eyes and lightly under foundation to cover dark spots. This concealer was also featured in the full-day wear test from two years ago (as well as the chocolate gold palette) so that's a good video to watch if you want to see a lot of these products in action.

Revlon Candid Antioxidant Concealer - This is fairly light coverage, but I love both shades I have. They're SO yellow, which is all I've ever wanted in a concealer. It blends out beautifully and doesn't look cakey whatsoever. It's not very affordable considering it's 'drugstore' since that means it's normally around $10 nowadays, but if you don't want to deal with a high coverage concealer, this is worth it!

Becca Undereye Brightening Corrector - I got the light/medium shade Colour corrector - After watching tutorials on how to use this (spoiler alert: barely use any at all) I fell in love. I also used this on my wedding day and I use it any time I'm wearing a full face of makeup. Originally this was only going to be for special events, but since I don't buy makeup often and this makes such a huge difference in making me look healthy and awake since it reflects light in a way that hides my darker under eyes, I've decided to use it any time I wear more than just the absolute basic face of makeup. 

Lipstick

MAC 'Cosmo' - This has been my #1 favourite lipstick of all time since I first bought it back in 2014, on the day my husband officially asked me to be his girlfriend. The medium pinky brown colour looks amazing with my yellow undertone and the formula is really comfortable. I also wore this on my wedding day which shouldn't be shocking to anyone who follows my Instagram page or YouTube channel due to a million mentions over the past six years. This is the 'Amplified' formula, which is definitely my favourite.

Rimmel London 'Notting Hill Nude' - This is definitely my second favourite of all time. It's very similar to the MAC 'Amplified' formula, but just a bit thinner. It's the same undertone as 'Cosmo', but the colour itself is more brown-nude so it all depends on what colour I'm feeling more like on a specific day. I'm almost out of this so I really need to get a new one if it still exists. I'll be really sad if it's been discontinued so I really should have a look sooner than later. 

Anastasia Beverly Hills 'Pure Hollywood' -  This one is a liquid lipstick, which I rarely wear anymore, but if I'm going to throw something onto my lips, especially if I'll have to wear a mask at some point, this is the only lipstick I grab for. The colour is perfect and the formula isn't too drying, but will not come off once you blot (I just kiss the back of my hand a few times after it's dry).

Face (The rest of it)

NYX Bare With Me Setting Spray - This is technically also a priming spray, but I find it doesn't really do anything for that. This works great to set my face and make me feel less dry. It doesn't give me any type of dewy or luminous finish, but it certainly makes the makeup look a bit more natural and helps make it look like my skin is showing through a bit, including my natural sheen. 

Lancôme Fix it Forget it Setting Spray  - I spray this on days that I feel like I'm looking really oily (depends on the time of month) or if I used something too shiny on my skin while applying makeup. This helps make the makeup look a bit less cakey (not quite as good as MAC fix +, but decent) while keeping my forehead and chin from getting shiny. It also helps my makeup stay in place, which is helpful with masks since they love to rub off makeup from my nose or chin. While I've used this a lot and it's a favourite for 2020, I do think I'll pass on it once it's gone and give MAC another try just to make sure I don't like that one better.

Milani 'Luminoso' Blush - Another long-standing favourite of mine that I wore on my wedding day. The tone is perfect, the application is great and the sheen is also really nice for not making my cheeks look dry. It works well with my skin-tone, no matter the time of year, and just makes me look healthy without making my face look red and defeating the purpose of putting foundation on in the first place. This is also a drugstore product so I highly recommend picking it up!

The Balm 'Mary-Lou Manizer' Highlighter - This has always made the top of my highlighter list and 2020 is no exception. At this point it's pretty much useless to link back to mentions of it because there are so many, so I'll let you know again that I wore this on my wedding day!

That's it for my 2020 makeup favourites! I'm not sure if I'll do any other posts since my skincare and haircare favourites haven't changed and if you scroll for one or two pages you'll see what I used for my wedding and that sums it up.

2020 wasn't a great year aside from getting married (it actually sucked quite a bit aside from the wedding) so let's hope that 2021 will be better. If you can, stay at home and stay safe!

See you soon!

Hello!

Welcome to the second-last post in my mini wedding series! All that's left is my roundup of the wedding itself (and likely some mention of things that didn't warrant their own post).

My wedding hair was something, like almost everything else, I'd planned for years. I had pins amongst pins of inspiration pictures and watched way too many videos on how to do your own wedding hair. It would be simple: Curl my hair like I always do for special events, and have one of my bridesmaids help me do a twist with a small section from the front of hair so my face could be better seen. Other than that, I'd just need help making sure my celestial hair pins from an Amazon shop named CINRA weren't lopsided.

My hair during the ceremony and the beautiful celestial pins!

The front looks a bit messy, but not too bad!

A twist would've made putting the pins in much easier.

In my previous post all about my wedding makeup I mentioned that I had less than an hour and a half to do my hair and makeup for the wedding. This made me forget a few steps and while the makeup turned out great, I have regrets with the hair. Below is the type of effortless smooth wave I wanted.

Instead, I completely forgot to brush through the curls once they were set to separate them and my hair ended up being very piecy. I didn't realize this until two days after the wedding when we got a sneak peak at the wedding pictures. Thankfully my bridesmaids helped me re-curl a few pieces right before the ceremony started (we'd done photos before the actual wedding) so I found that the hair looked a lot better for the actual ceremony. 

My hair on the way to the park for photos. Clearly rushed.

Re-Curling my hair 15 minutes before the Ceremony.

Gabi pinning everything in place.

Other than doing the Moroccan Keratin Most Effective Brazilian Keratin Hair Treatment  at home a week before the wedding, and washing and straightening my the night before, the only other product I used was the Pantene Pro-V Anti-Humidity hair spray (strongest hold), which doesn't appear to exist anymore. It would've worked way better had I brushed through my curls. No wonder why they kept falling out quickly—they were being weighed down by giant ringlets.

The good news is that my hair didn't look bad. I'm also very grateful that my hair is my biggest regret for the wedding. Considering we got married during a global pandemic (that suddenly got worse in Ontario once school started up a few days after our wedding) my hair not looking exactly how I'd imagined it to is a very small first-world problem. 

After getting all of the pictures back, I'm actually ok with how the hair turned out! Obviously I still wish I'd done a better job with it and spent more time making sure I did every step, but in the end it looks decent and I didn't have any extensions in. Plus, everyone at the wedding knows I'm capable and the pictures are for us to enjoy. Even in this series, most pictures are extremely cropped and a lot of them are cellphone photos.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this series and look forward to the final instalment, an overview of the wedding day and how we managed to make our covid wedding happen!

See you soon!

Hello!

I'm back with another wedding-day related blog post. This one is all about the makeup I wore and my process in applying it. I'll also be talking about regrets, products I forgot at home, and products I ended up not using last minute. 

Disclaimer: I attempted to link everything in this post, however, most of the links are affiliate (mainly because Magiclinks lets me paste a bunch of products in one go and it creates them for me in bulk). While I can make money if you buy clicking my link, I will say that in my history (years) of using this tool, I've made a whopping 20 cents total! A lot of the links are not affiliate links, but are from random websites because some of these products are old, or aren't available outside of their brand websites.

I messed up by not leaving more time for me to get ready prior to the wedding. I had an hour and fifteen minutes to do my hair AND makeup. That's insane for me considering it takes me two hours to do those on any normal day that I decide I want to look nice. This is my wedding day I'm talking about here and I had much less than that.

Upon jumping out of the shower and being freshly moisturized and with my nighttime skincare routine done (yes I did my nighttime one to look extra moisturized) I sat in my chair and got to work. I had planned on starting with my eyes to ensure my base looked flawless, but in my haste to get ready in time, I jumped right in with my base.

Base Products:

• Smashbox photo finish foundation primer (sample size)
• Becca undereye brightening corrector in Light/Medium
• Nars Sheer Glow foundation in the colour Punjab (Medium 1) - With the pump.
• Too Faced Born This Way (Multi-Use Sculpting Concealer) in the colours Vanilla (matches me) and Swan (a bit to brighten the under eyes, much lighter than me, works better in the winter).
• Smashbox photo finish foundation primer (sample size)
• Hourglass Veil translucent setting powder

The base probably took me under five minutes to complete due to me practicing my makeup several times leading up to the wedding. The only thing that was annoying was that my cystic acne on my chin was acting up and nothing would stick to it. I powdered and attempted adding more concealer, but that only did a bit. One little circle refused to comply. At least there's photoshop for that!

For the second step I moved onto the face shaping products:

Too Faced Sweetheart Bronzer - Sweet Tea (baked bronzer)

Milani blush in Luminoso 

The Balm highlighter in Mary-Lou Manizer 

This was one of my smallest categories, mainly because I forgot to use two products. These three have been my staples for years and I have yet to find makeup I like better than these products so it should come as no surprise that I used them. As for what I forgot, they're both from the KVD Vegan Beauty Shade + Light palette.  I'd planned on using the light yellow "Lyric" powder for under my eyes, and the contouring colour in "Sombre". Thanks to the Becca under eye corrector, my under eyes looked pretty good and the Too Faced bronzer did the trick, but I do wish I had a bit more of shape going on for photography purposes.

• Anastasia Beverly Hills (ABH) Dipbrow Pomade in Medium Brown
• ABH double ended eyebrow brush  #12
• Inglot Cosmetics Duraline

Brows—my smallest category yet! I plucked my eyebrows well the night before the wedding (along with my half moustache and unibrow) so I didn't need to worry about this one too much. The only two products (technically three) I used were from the same brand and long time favourites of mine. The third product, Duraline, deserves a spot in the post since without it, my dipbrow pomade wouldn't have worked. This stuff seriously works on dried out products like this, or pot eyeliners. It's also apparently great for using eyeshadows as eyeliners (though I've never tried.) The one product I forgot to use was my Essence Make me Brow Mascara, but I didn't need it since I had freshly plucked eyebrows. I mainly use that when my brows are wild and free to tame them, or when I'm using on its own.

Makeup Geek (MG) custom palette single shadows & Too Faced Chocolate Gold palette (TF)

• MG Banana split all over the lid
• MG So Pale on the brow bone and inner area of the eye (not inner corner)
• MG Had me at Yellow as the transition shade and for blending out the darker colour
• TF So Boujee with previous shade to blend outwards and have more dimension
• MG Mocha outer third of the lid and blended out well
• TF Gold Dipped as the shimmer shade - Neutral gold
• The same Mary-Lou Manizer Highlighter for inner corner and under the brow bone (just a little bit)

Eyes—Definitely my biggest category, simply because I used a bunch of different eyeshadows from each palette. In reality I only used two palettes so I guess that's not really a lot. I did forget to bring one loose shimmer eyeshadow, which didn't make a big difference for the final look thankfully. Like everything else I forgot, it'll be later in the post.

• Esqido Unysin (synthetic) lashes - Heart & Soul (use code amys for 15% off!)
• Covergirl Clump Crusher Mascara
• Duo Lash Glue - brush-on adhesive with vitamins (goes on blue, dries invisible)
• MAC cosmetics fluidline eyeliner in Blacktrack (tightlining and between lashes)

Lashes. So important for wedding photos and especially important for me since I forgot to put on bottom mascara for the engagement photoshoot. You'd think because of that I'd remember to pack the mascara I bought specifically for the wedding. So much regret there because my other mascara would've done a much nicer job making my bottom lashes look long and black. My eyes are also super watery so it was so hard to get the glue to stick, but thankfully the false lashes cooperated with the lash glue for the most part so they didn't pop off during the ceremony.

• MAC Amplified Lipstick in Cosmo as main lipstick & 
• MAC Frost Lipstick in Angel in the middle for dimension. 

These lipsticks actually mean a lot to me. I bought Cosmo on the day that Steven and I officially became boyfriend and girlfriend (though we already knew we were together for a few weeks). Angel was part of my one-year anniversary gift that Steven got me. I love these colours together and Steven always knows when I wear Angel (he seriously loves it) so I figured it'd be perfect to wear on our wedding day. Once the ceremony was over, I did only bring Cosmo with me because my lips were dry at that point, and while Angel isn't your typical frost lipstick, it isn't quite as flattering on dry lips the same way Cosmo is.

• Juicy Couture Gold Couture perfume - My favourite perfume. I only wear it for special events since perfumes irritate me.
• Lancome fix it Forget it setting spray - Mattifying and long lasting. Focused on my t-zone.
• Nyx bare with me prime, set refresh. Helped with priming and it also acted like MAC fix + (not as good, but did the trick) and made me look extra fresh and dewy!

Zoeva brush set I used the brushes from.

• BH Cosmetiscs: no names but: large powder brush (translucent powder) and small fan brush for highlight. Small flat but tapered brush - eyeliner tight-lining and in lashes
• Royal Landnickle Moda Pro pointed blush brush: Bronzer all over my face
• Zoeva 127 luxe sheer cheek: Blush
• ABH brush - Linked in the brow section
• Elizabeth Mott all over shadow brush - Shimmer + to blend out after using finger
• Zoeva 228 Luxe crease - Blending brush. 
• Sonya Kashuk pencil brush - Lower lashline
• Revlon tweezers - (Not pictured) for applying lashes

Most of my brushes are super old so I don't have any links for them. The Zoeva brush set is the only one I can still find online and they've seriously expanded their collection since then so I highly recommend checking them out. I brought a lot more brushes with me. Like A LOT. Of course because I was in such a rush, I didn't fuss around and only used one blending brush. In the end it didn't make a huge difference and it definitely made cleanup easier. The blue Zoeva brush is from a 70's look I did the next weekend for one of my bridesmaid's outdoor rollerskating birthday party. It's the same brush I used, but obviously I wasn't wearing blue eyeshadow for my wedding day.

Eyeshadow swatch, but also a sneaky ring pic.

 These are all of the products I forgot at home and wouldn't have been able to use.

• L'Oreal Lash Paradise mascara - Mystic Black 
• Mica Beauty Cosmetics shimmer powder - #72 Earth 
• Essence I heart / love stage eyeshadow primer base

The mascara was definitely my biggest regret. My lower lashes would've looked amazing if I'd brought it with me. They didn't look bad, but this mascara is on another level. The eyeshadow would've been nice, but that Too Faced palette is amazing for the shimmers so I just used my finger and it was just as beautiful. You also can't really notice my eyeshadow in the pictures, or even in the swatch photo above so it wasn't a big loss.

 I was very careful to remove every bit of makeup from my hands before putting on my dress though. As for the primer base, it probably would've made the eyeshadow pop even more, but it didn't make a huge difference since I brought a bit of concealer all over my eye area so at least the veins were cancelled out.

Here are some more photos where you can kind of see my makeup. If you're worried about your makeup for your wedding day, just note that you can't see the makeup in detail since that isn't the focus so me forgetting that eyeshadow didn't make a big difference at all! Most of these are super zoomed in so the quality isn't great, but that's the beauty of photos vs reality! My imperfections were definitely more visible in person.

Mary-Lou Manizer coming through in the super zoomed in pic.

You can see my falsies attempting to pop off, but the brows look good.

Makeup in progress. Check out that contoured cheekbone!

That's it for this post! This may just be the longest blog post I've ever made, so if your'e reading this THANK YOU! It makes me happy that my blog readership has grown, despite my inconsistent posting. I still have a few wedding related blog posts coming, but after that I'll return to my infrequent lifestyle and beauty related posts.

See you soon!