I used to suffer a lot from split ends. After years of being fed up that my hair looked awful at the ends and also tended to get natty, I finally realized the trick of wearing your hair in a ponytail at night, and soon after that my hair was looking and feeling a lot better.
I would wear a scrunchy to bed, but even with that, I still found I had that dreaded kink in my hair the next morning. Since I would rather sleep in five more minutes rather than pull out the straightener, I have to admit that I soon learned to live with the kink on more than one occasion.
Now when it comes to hair ties, I feel like the most innovative product to hit the market recently are those spiral hair cords. I’ve seen them in salons, I’ve seen them in Sephora, as well as other boutiques, and I was always sceptical about them. I work out a lot, in addition to teaching fitness classes as well, and I truly didn’t believe that these hair ties could possibly hold my hair in place.
And then I tried them.
I got sent a care package of sorts from Vancouver brand Gummibands, who sells their hair cords coast to coast. I personally don’t see a big difference between these and the other more well-known versions, but since I like to support local, I do highly recommend them.
Gummiband hair cords are hypoallergenic, meaning that they do no not absorb water or sweat, so they don’t breed bacteria (a plus for those who love to work out), they are suitable on all hair types, they are gentle on hair, reducing breakage and styling damage (a major plus), and they are reusable for years. I did find mine tended to stretch out the more I wore them, however, if I just let it rest on a counter it did shrink back to size. Gummibands also recommends warming up the cord with hot air from a hair dryer or a hot water to return it to its original shape. If you are for some reason too harsh on the band and it does snap, they have a one-year full replacement warranty as well.
Gummibands comes in a variety of different colours (which I love), and retail for C$7.99 for four cords (use promo code BONUS44 to get two extra bands with your order!). By comparison, a pack of three Invisibobbles will put you back C$10 at Sephora. Also, Gummibands does offer free shipping across Canada as well, so this is totally a better deal.
I haven’t used any other brands of hair cords, but I personally really like these. Ever since I received them, these are the only hair ties I’ve been using, and I tie my hair up a lot. For working out, first I will ponytail the hair then bun it with another cord. For sleeping, I will just ponytail my hair wrapping it around twice so it’s still quite loose.
I have to admit, a friend of mine has been using these for awhile now and I was totally sceptical that it would hold my hair in place, especially while working out, but I’m a total believer right now.
Have you tried hair cords?
Please note, I received this product from PR. All opinions are my own.
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Although my favourite mascara is Too Faced’s Better Than Sex, I’ve always been a fan of drugstore versions as well. Just because it costs less doesn’t make it any worse than ones that cost a ton of money. I’ve always been impressed with Maybelline’s mascaras, so when they sent me their new one to try out, I couldn’t wait to pop it on and give it a try.
Officially launched yesterday in stores, Total Temptation mascara (SRP C$11.99) is part of a new line by the brand, also of the same name. Similar to their Gigi Hadid collection, the Total Temptation line comes housed in a matte coral packaging, similar to KKW Beauty. I did receive all three items from the collection, which also includes an eyebrow pencil and a shadow and highlight palette, but I wanted to do an entire post to the mascara since the New York-based brand calls it the hero of the collection.
The big draw of Total Temptation mascara is the coconut-scented bristle brush, which builds volume to give you soft, separated, and dense lashes. The formula is creamy and is infused with coconut extract, meaning it’s not rough on your lashes. The scent is enticing, but best of all, it really does give you nice, long lashes.
After hours of wear I didn’t find any flaking, which is great, however, like other Maybelline mascaras, I did find this one to be tough to remove as the product tends to cement on the lashes. Not an entirely bad thing considering that you know your lashes are going to stay in place all day, but I did have to go in with makeup remover a couple times to get it all off.
Overall, I really do like this mascara, both for the scent and how it makes my lashes look and feel. Is it better than L’Oreal Paris Lash Paradise? Lash Paradise is definitely a force to be reckoned with, and since it’s a dupe for my favourite mascara (Too Faced Better Than Sex), I would have to say no. I will say though that the combination of the two will give you amazing results. I actually paired the Too Faced version with this on top and my lashes looked amazing. I don’t have photos of that in this particular post, but when I do a post of the entire collection you’ll see the match made in heaven on there.
Overall I would recommend this mascara. Aside from the formula alone, I also can’t get over that cute Millennial pink with a hint of peach thrown in packaging.
Will you be picking up Maybelline’s Total Temptation mascara?
Please note, products provided by PR. All opinions are my own.
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Happy New Year!!! Since it’s a brand-new year, I thought I would start it off with a review of a new drugstore makeup line.
So I’ve always raved about the Kiss nails, including this past Monday (ImPRESS is owned by Kiss), but did you know that they have a full-blown makeup line as well?
Officially launching earlier this year, the Kiss Professional makeup line, available at London Drugs and Rexall, is a Korean-inspired makeup line endorsed and used by celebrity makeup artist Patrick Ta. The line consists of contour and strobing palettes, eyeliners, eyeshadows (palettes and single), and lots of lip goodies. I had previously tried out some of their eyeshadows and lip products but I was super excited to dive into the meat of the collection and really put it to work.
The packaging for the collection comes housed in glossy black containers, bearing much resemblance to NYX Cosmetics. I haven’t seen the full line in stores, however, the brand sent me enough goodies here to really get an overview of the brand.
First up was the Top Brow Brow Cream, a long-lasting cream brow product that is available in six shades. I applied this with an angled brow brush and found that I did have to dip my brush in the product a few times to really get the look I was going for. Kiss says that this is a highly-pigmented formula and is long-lasting. I do have other cream brow products and found those went on creamier than this one did, however, for the price (C$9.99 at London Drugs) you can’t beat that.
Next up is the Hexa Eyeshadow Palette (C$12.99), which is a neutral-toned palette with six shades in matte and shimmery finished. I did use a primer with this, however, Kiss says no primer is needed. This palette also comes in three other shades, but the one I got was Nude Brown. Colour-wise, there are some really nice shades in here, including a big shimmery champagne colour.
Overall, I wasn’t the most impressed with the colour payoff in here, I found the shades to be quite opaque and I had to go in a few times with my brush for it to show up. For C$12.99 you’re not breaking the bank with this one, however, there are so many good eyeshadow palettes out there by drugstore brands that I would skip this one and invest in another one instead.
Speaking of palettes, I was excited to dip my brushes into the Kiss Pro Contour Kit. Available in light and dark, this palette (C$17.99) has three blendable shades for shaping, bronzing, and highlighting. There’s a bronzer, a banana powder, and a highlighter in here to perfectly contour the face. It also comes with an angled brush to apply the product with. In terms of contour kits, this one is perfect to travel with since it contains everything you need to perfectly contour. The thing is, there is tons of fallout in here. I did use the brush it came with and a quick dip in the product left powder everywhere. If you look at my palette right now you would think I’ve used it 10 times, however, I tried it out once. It does give you nice colour and you can definitely achieve a nice contour in here, but I wish it wasn’t so delicate. For that price though, this is perfect to pick up for travel, just make sure you don’t put it on near something white.
Another standout palette is the Halo Strobing Palette (C$19.99), which is available in three different shades. Light, medium, and dark, this palette has three highlighters in here to give you an out-of-this-world glow. I received light and dark, the latter of which would not work with my skintone, but these guys are a refined powder highlighter containing finely milled powder that blends seamlessly into the skin. I don’t typically do any strobing, so I liked using this palette as a regular highlight for the tops of my cheekbones, cupid’s bow, and tip of my nose.
Out of everything, I think I like this palette the best. The powder in here didn’t get everywhere and I found it to be creamy and blendable. Although I don’t need three different highlights for one look, it’s always nice to have options and this highlighter does give you a beautiful glow.
To finish up the eye look, I threw on a winged liner and a matte lip. I used the Kiss Pro Dead Sexy eyeliner (C$12.99), which is a thick liquid liner. Since this is a chubby felt-lip liner, I found I had to keep redoing my wing since I kept laying down too much product. This is a long-lasting and waterproof formula that promotes a fine felt-tip applicator, however, compared to a normal liquid liner, I found this one to be hard to use. I personally don’t see the point of a chubby liquid liner. Why not just do it normal sized? The thicker it is, the harder it is to use. Although it was a nice dark black, I think I’ll stick with my normal-sized eyeliners, ones that are much thinner.
Finally, for the lips, they sent me a variety of different formulas to try out, but since I love matte liquid lipsticks, preferably in nudes, I naturally gravitated towards the Celeste Matte Liquid Lipstick in the colour Nude Cameo. These retail for C$9.99 and are available in eight shades. They apply like any other matte liquid lipsticks, as in you apply them wet, then they dry down to a matte formula that sticks to your lips. I do actually really like this formula, it is a bit thinner than what I’m used to, but it doesn’t feel as heavy.
Kiss Pro has a variety of different lip products in their arsenal, everything from stains to glosses, to regular ol’ lipsticks. Kiss Pro also has another matte liquid lipstick called Belle Soft Matte Lip Cream, which is a soft matte finish, with no smudging and non-drying. To me, these seem really similar, but Belle has 12 different shades in all spectrums of the rainbow (like blues).
So my final thoughts? I had high hopes for this line since I love their press-on nails and their lashes, however, depending on the product, some were great and others I would definitely skip. I only got a handful of products from the line, but it looks like they have everything. Since drugstore products are so good right now, it’s hard to come in new and try to compete with stuff that’s already out there. I have to say that I do like the selection of products that Kiss Pro offers, like the contour and strobing kits, I would say their main rival is definitely NYX, although I do think that NYX is a consistently better line. But hey, Kiss Pro is brand new, let’s give them a few years before we pass judgements, shall we?
Have you tried anything from Kiss Professional? What were your thoughts?
Please note, products provided by PR. All opinions are my own.
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