Sparkled Beauty

Now that we discussed The Body Shop Camomile Sumptuous cleansing butter, we also need to explore its higher end friend - Clinique Take the Day Off cleansing balm.

I will admit it took me a long while to purchase this product because I was very happy with The Body Shop cleansing butter. For curiosity, and for the blog, I did venture out. And the verdict is I don't like it as much.

Mind you, there is nothing wrong with Clinique Take the Day Off. The basics are very similar to The Body Shop's version - a lightweight makeup remover that goes from balm to oil upon application, dissolves face and eye makeup (emphasizing on those with sunscreen) and then rinses off completely.

Ingredients: Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Caprylic/ Capric Triglyceride, Sorbeth-30 Tetraoleate, Polyethylene, PEG-5 Glyceryl Trisostearate, Water, Tocopherol, Phenoxyethanol.

In a nutshell, Take the Day Off has Safflower Seed oil instead of Olive Fruit oil in The Body Shop cleansing butter, without shea butter and fragrance.

Now I find removing makeup is just as relaxing and fun as putting it on, and scent plays an important role in that process, to me. A scent-free cleansing balm would be perfect for those with sensitive skin, but not for me.

Second reason I prefer The Body Shop cleansing butter: size and price.

Take the Day Off is 3.8oz/ 125ml (almost one and a half times bigger) and costs $36, twice as much as The Body Shop cleansing butter or 4 times if I get it 50% off, plus its thicker plastic jar is not as travel friendly as the thin metal jar with The Body Shop.

To conclude, I will stick with The Body Shop cleansing butter once I finish Take the Day Off, but I hope I give you options for the cleansing balm that suits your skin needs.

Last Summer, I collected 6 of Clinique Pop Lip Colours + Primer. This Spring, the brand releases a Kiss Boom Pop set at Sephora with deluxe sizes of 3 shades I didn't already have, so I caved again!

Cute pink box with 3 cute mini lipsticks (left), pictured next to a full size for comparison (right) - perfect to gift someone or yourself.

Since I already reviewed the line in the original post (linked above), I am only going to show you the swatches for this set.

07 Passion Pop is an orange-toned red, my favorite in the trio. 09 Sweet Pop, a bright pink, and its blue-toned and bolder version - 11 Wow Pop - are cute and girly, easy to wear.

I like the idea of mini lipsticks where we get to try more shades without spending too much. The set is 3x0.08oz/ 2.3g (slightly less than 2 full sizes of 0.13oz) but only costs $2 more than the $21 retail of a full size. Told you it is a great gift!

If you have spent enough time on YT, you probably heard about NARS Velvet lip liner in El Agua and how hard it is to find.

I share the struggle, trust me. I found it, but being a good blogger, I have been around town in the last month or so looking for its dupes.

So here we are today. Let me tell you where to find El Agua (in Canada) and its supposed "minions", accompanied by comparison swatches.

First off, the original - NARS El Agua, $28 (0.01oz/ 0.5g).

It is a thin automatic (pointed) pencil liner. The only place I was able to find it in Canada is the Bay website. My store does not carry the brand but check yours in case they have it too.

Described as a lavender rose colour, this colour is definitely on trend, I can see and am happy to have it. Do take care applying it, cause the pencil is quite easy to break off under pressure.

On to the possible dupes, starting from the most affordable version.

This is Elf Studio Matte lip color in Tea Rose, $3 (0.05oz/ 1.4g). Elf website runs sales quite often but there is shipping charge to Canada.

I found Tea Rose at Old Navy (of all places lol) for $6. Superstore also carries limited selection of the brand.

Still can't beat the price tag for that much product, especially with the chubby and twistup format. The product is creamy, easy to apply but does not have long lasting power.

Next, ColourPop Lippie Stix in Lumiere, a dusty mauve pink, $5 (0.0352oz/ 1g).

Similar packaging format as Elf with a bit less product, ColourPop Lippie Stix, however, has  a slanted and wider tip (see below). Again, very affordable price but shipping to Canada does cost extra.

I find the quality and lasting power are similar to Elf as well, with a much better colour range and finish.

Lastly, Clinique Quickliner for Lips in Sky Violet, $20 (0.01oz/ 0.3g), the same size as El Agua.

Clinique is probably the easiest to find among all 4 brands, anywhere with a Clinque counter really (Shoppers, the Bay, Sears, etc.)

Described as a light violet but Sky Violet seems more pink than El Agua (also see below). The packaging and quality are similar to NARS as well but for some reason, mine doesn't swivel back down.

Here are all 4 side by side.

Swatches, in the same order - El Agua, Tea Rose, Lumiere and Sky Violet. Not really dupes in all cases, sadly.

Sky Violet is the closest to El Agua but without that purple tint (despite the name). Tea Rose is too muted and Lumiere is too red.

All 4 will earn their spots in the stash but the hunt for dupes continue. I also heard NARS Audacious lipstick in Dominique is also a possible dupe but it is even harder to find and costs more than El Agua.

Have you found an El Agua dupe anywhere?

To finish up Clinique week, we are talking eyeshadows today.

This is Clinique All About Shadow 8-pan palette in Wear Everywhere Greys, which I had my eyes on for a while but just bought recently.

The appearance is great: shiny and slim packaging, big mirror and a plastic sleeve to protect the eyeshadows. It'd be nice to have a brush instead of the dual ended sponge applicator, but it is not a deal breaker.

The colours in this palette seem to be a bit too "basic" at first, but appear to have more of a kick once swatched (see below). Looks do fool you eh?

As always, I swatched these eyeshadows with a damp brush and did not come across any fallout. The colours need some building up but are easy to blend and wear well with a base without creasing.

The first 4 shades: Seashell Pink (matte), High Tea (matte, new), Mushroom (shimmer, new) and Gray Matters (matte, new). The matte finish does alter a bit with the damp brush, just a note.

The next 4 shades: Sugar Cane (soft shimmer, also in the A Black Honey Affair palette), Silver Lining (shimmer), Stormy (soft shimmer, new) and Stroke of Midnight (matte).

You can guess I found a few favorites - High Tea and Gray Matters to name. If you are not into this colour family, there are a few more Wear Everywhere palettes from Clinique to check out.

The palette has 0.41oz/ 11.7g, retails $40.

You know what is up next, following yesterday's post, don't you? :)

Unlike the Cheek Pops, Clinique Pop Lip colour + primer line also showed up at Shoppers, so I redeemed points for some, after getting 2 with the Sephora VIB sale.

Let me just say this to start. These lipsticks are great, moisturizing, easy to wear with a good range of 16 shades (0.13oz, $21 a pop). They are, to me, a mid range version of Revlon lip butters, with more pigmented and natural looking finish, and go on smoother.

From the lineup, I got:
- 02 Bare Pop (low shimmer mid tone nude)
- 03 Cola Pop (rich chocolate brown cream)
- 04 Beige Pop (pinkish nude cream)
- 13 Love Pop (mid tone shimmer raspberry)
- 14 Plum Pop (neutral plum cream)
- 16 Grape Pop (neutral blue purple cream).

Again, Grape Pop was an obvious choice, the only purple toned shade in the line. Nude shades were too, as I am slowly building the little stash of everyday work lipsticks.

A quick closeup on the bullet colours, with more flash to give you an idea how different bullet colours can look, depending on lighting.

Good thing is the stores do have testers for these so you know which shades to get. The colours on the tube are not necessarily accurate.

As it turns out, the 2 nude shades - Bare Pop and Beige Pop - are quite close, with Beige Pop being more muted. On my lips though, they show up very similar. You don't need both!

On the other hand, Cola Pop is pigmented and bold. Cola is the shade to get at Clinique, both in the lip and the cheek versions, it seems.

You might argue here that Love Pop and Plum Pop are also similar, but they show up differently on my lips. Love Pop is more shiny too.

I naturally love Grape Pop. It is the newbie/ introductory shade to start if you want to try purple lips. Subtle, but still is purple.

Overall, all the shades I chose are my everyday colours and they have been in good rotation. I do recommend them. Maybe start with one shade to try first to see how it fares before exploring for more.

It's officially June, and guess what the temperature here today?

High of 10 (50F), and it's even worse tomorrow, plus rain all the way through 2 days and a half. Wanna move here already? :)

After a little break last week and a busy weekend, I am slowly back with Clinique week!

As soon as the 8 new Clinique Cheek Pops (0.12oz, $24 each) surfaced at Sephora and other stores (except Shoppers, which I am not sure why), I started collecting them. Ended up with 4: 07 Cola Pop, 13 Rosy Pop, 14 Heather Pop and 15 Pansy Pop.

That flower pattern on the surface would never get old to me, and the clear packaging definitely helps the appeal.

Cola Pop and Pansy Pop are unique, in my opinion, so they are obvious choices. The line is permanent though, no rush to stock up :)

I also wanted darker pinks that would possibly show up on my skin tone. Rosy Pop (top right) and Heather Pop (bottom left) fit the bill. Nude Pop sounds good in theory but I think it would just get lost on my cheeks.

Here are the 4 shades swatched with my finger swirled on the surface a few times. They show up more sheer (but buildable) with a blush brush on the cheeks of course, and last a long time too.

Turns out Heather Pop is the muted version of Rosy Pop. You don't need both. You definitely need Cola Pop, the most pigmented shade of them all. And if you have a thing for cool toned pinks, Pansy Pop is waiting :)

Yay, I just got myself a MAC Viva Glam V. It was a bit of a struggle but I decided to go with the good old V that you all probably already owned. I don't normally shop at MAC, as you probably heard from me before, but I figured with $10 off, the deal wasn't bad at all.

I was originally going to get a Style Warriors lipstick, as I liked the packaging. Thought it'd be nice to own something different in my stash. I tried on Brave New Bronze lipstick and Style Warrior lipglass but they didn't show very well on my lips. My friend recommended the V before, so I tried it on. Got the approval of the bf and Squirt and certainly the MA, so it went home with me. Like the packaging and the good cause behind the Viva Glam line.

It was funny as we didn't leave the apartment until 2:30 and I wondered whether they gave out all the vouchers - as the promotion was supposed to be for the first 100 customers only. But the place wasn't any busier than any other Saturday and the MAC cashier had a bunch of vouchers lying around. The little jar that they used to put the turned in lipsticks in had about 5-7 items in it. I guess the Bay didn't get the words out enough.

I took my time to test out some Clinique Color Surge Butter Shine lipsticks as well, as I heard they were very moisturizing. I narrowed it down to 2 shades but couldn't decide whether they looked good on me or not. I don't know what it is with trying out lipsticks at the counter, I just couldn't get it right. The bf and Squirt already went to the Disney Store to entertain themselves, and I was happy with the V, so I didn't get anything else.

One thing I was glad to see at the cosmetics section was the reps used Beauty So Clean to clean all the products and brushes before letting me to test them out. I was more comfortable to play around when I knew the products are properly sanitized.

Have a nice weekend, ladies!

Photo credit: Clinique.ca