FOTD: TAN!

I love summer. 
It's such a good excuse to get out into the sun and be a bronze goddess. 
Over the past few weeks, I've managed to build up a pretty good tan so I can safely say now that bronzer has become a staple product in my everyday makeup routine. 
During the colder months when I'm more pale, I really only use bronzer to add some warmth to my face or to contour a bit. In summer, I put my bronzer everywhere! I always put sunscreen on my face, so in contrast to winter, my face now is actually lighter than the rest of my body (no orange face for me)
I've been really into using my Chanel's Soleil Tan de Chanel (or Bronze Universal, whatever you want to call it) cream bronzer to add an even bronzed tone all over my face. I use it lightly with a kabuki brush to give my complexion on even bronzed base
Here's the final result

And y'all know me, I used my newly bronzed visage as the perfect foundations for a summer makeup look.
Here are all the products I used to achieve this look: 

In typical ME fashion, I used a lot of products to get a fairly simple look. To me, it's all about having the most flawless base and then building up the extras (i.e. eyes, lips, cheeks) around that perfected complexion. One day, I swear, I'll have to do a FOTD using minimal products. I promise I can do it! 

Book Review: Fifty Shades of Grey

If I had to describe “FiftyShades of Grey” in 3 words they would be: So. Much. Sex.

Fifty Shades of Grey is thenewest “romance” series to sweep the universe. Many people are calling it “Twilight for adults.”

In all fairness, the basis forthe Fifty Shades series was Twilight. The author, E L James, wrote the series(initially titled “Master of the Universe”) as a piece of Twilight fanfictionand posted it on the internet.

Fanfiction is a lose term todescribe any piece of literature written about characters or setting written bynon-professionals, or fans, based on an original piece of work. Coincidentally,I found a quote from author Lev Grossman (author of “the Magicians” which wasalso featured in my last book haul):

Fanfiction is what literature might looklike if it were reinvented from scratch after a nuclear apocalypse by a band ofbrilliant pop-culture junkies trapped in a sealed bunker. They don't do it formoney. That's not what it's about. The writers write it and put it up onlinejust for the satisfaction. They're fans, but they're not silent, couch-boundconsumers of media. The culture talks to them, and they talk back to theculture in its own language.

—Lev Grossman, TIME, July 18, 2011

When I first heart about FiftyShades of Grey I thought it was going to be exactly like Twilight, vampiresand all, but for a more mature audience. Boy, was I wrong.

The premise of the story is that there is this girl, AnastasiaSteele, and she goes to do an interview for her University’s student newspaperon behalf of her roommate who is the editor in chief, Kate, who is sick. Thesubject of her interview is Christian Grey, the CEO of Grey Enterprises: he’s27-years-old, a billionaire, and totally hottie with some major issues.

Like Twilight, you instantly fall in love with the characters andwant them to be together. It’s a hopeless, erotically-charged, yet romanticlove story.

Their relationship isn’t realistically functional. Every issue intheir relationship is solved with sex. It’s literally based solely on sex. Nearlyevery chapter of the book depicted some kind of sex scene. “Foil packet” and“come” are the most overused words in the book. I’m not joking. There is a lotof very graphic sex scenes depicted in this book. There is just so much sex!

That being said, it’s a fun read. Nobody us reading this bookbecause it’s a good plot, or well written. Like Twilight, the story is totallyimplausible but still entertaining. It’s also a super easy read. I finished thefirst book in less than 2 days. If you’re uncomfortable with extremely graphicdescriptions of sex, I do not recommend it. But if you don’t mind reading asteamy and graphically sexual story, then I would definitely give this a go.

I do have some serious concern for this series though…

**SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT** 

**SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT SPOILERALERT SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT SPOILERALERT SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT SPOILERALERT SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT** **SPOILER ALERT SPOILERALERT SPOILER ALERT**

The relationship between Christian Grey and Anastasia Steeleprogresses to a sexual relationship VERY quickly, and then soon after to BDSMrelationship. I’m talking 2 days after meeting the guy she decides to lose hervirginity to him. I know that this series is not meant for teens, let alonechildren; but Fifty Shades of Grey” hasbeen plastered all over the media lately and EVERYONE is talking about thisbook. I was in my local bookstore the other day and I heard 10 and 11 year oldgirls talking about this series. That seriously worries me. Where StephenieMeyer, through Twilight, preaches thevirtues of abstinence, and waiting until marriage to engage in sexualintercourse, Fifty Shades of Grey practicallycondones sex with strangers. Probably one of the most worrisome statementthrough the novel is Christian’s dislike of condoms and the pressure he puts onAnastasia to take birth control pills. CONDOMS ARE NOT JUST TO PREVENTPREGNANCY! The author wrote this book with an intended adult audience; however,the type of morals and values she proposes through the characters is less thanexemplary. No matter what age you are, there should be no rightful reason tolose yourself at the demands of a commanding billionaire. One of Anastasia’smain worries over the course of the novel that she and her “vanilla” sexualappetite will not be enough to satisfy Christians’ sadistic sexual preferences.She changes many aspects of her life in so many ways to make herself feel moresatisfactory for Christian’s preferences and lifestyle. In the end, she justcan’t understand to deal with the fact that part of Christian’s sexualpreferences involve wanting to punish Anastasia and hit her, flog her,or whip her. After one particularly “violent” sexual encounter, Anastasia walksout on Christian, leaving the fate of their relationship unknown at the end ofthe first book.
Anastasia really is a pathetic character. In that respect, she does remind me a lot of Bella Swan. Christian Grey and Edward Cullen are the badass characters that inevitably steal the hearts of the readers. Anastasia is just so...blah. She really doesn't have any redeemable qualities, nor is she that interesting. She's described as pretty & attractive in the book, but other than that, I really don't know why so many guys want her. She's nice and all, but super naive and sheltered. The only awesome thing about Anastasia Steele is that she gets to bang Christian Grey. Simple as that.

The plot line is mediocre, predictable, and unoriginal. The sex makes this book a seriously entertaining read. Kinky!

I've already read the second book in the series, Fifty Shades Darker, so I'll be sure to post my review on that soon :)
I'm hooked.


xoxoDarlingBuds

Book Review: The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

I first featured this series in a recent Book Haul I did. I had heard about this book series through various Internet sources, it often being compared to The Hunger Games trilogy.

There are no spoilers in this review.


So click below to READ ON!

NOTD: Essie "Navigate Her"

This nail polish shade is a new-ish release from Essie. It came out with their "Navigate Her collection" - go figure. I featured this nail polish in my latest haul post. This polish looks really pretty in the bottle, like a lemon-line, chartreuse green. I wasn't very pleased with the way it looked when it was on my nails though. It looked more like a dirty green, if that makes any sense. It just wasn't a very flattering green shade on me


Oh well: you win some, you lose some.


xoxoDarlingBuds

A Collective Haul for Y'all

Shoppers Drug Mart had another points bonus on and I actually needed a few things (not pictured) so I did a bit more damage.

Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream - seriously a miracle product. You can use this anywhere you have any dry patches for extra refreshment. 
Hawaiian Tropic Dark Tanning Oil - I gotta be tan this summer, and this is a good starter. I use sunscreen on my face and shoulders, but the tanning oil goes everywhere else to make me nice and bronzed
Speaking of bronzed...
Physicians Formula Bronze Booster - another powder bronzer. My rimmel bronzer finally died (I dropped it and it shattered). This bronzer was super duper on sale (more than 50% off) so I decided to give it a try since I've heard good things
Biore Deep Pore cleansing strips - for those pesky blackheads. Biore's new packaging really threw me off, I was looking for the usually green and pink packaging. Not anymore!
Q-Tips - I prefer the life brand cotton buds, but Shoppers was all sold out. Q-Tips are seriously the best beauty tool: clean up eye makeup, clean up lipstick, sometimes I even use Q-Tips to apply liquid concealer. Definitely a product most people don't think about as super useful, but I could not live without them
Maybelline MEGA PLUSH mascara - a newbie mascara from the drugstore. I've been using this for a couple of days already; I also used this mascara in my latest FOTD. This mascara is already up for review (mascara problems)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


On a different day, I ended up making another trip to the drugstore to pick up a couple of necessity items. I strayed a little bit and also picked up these...

• Two essie nail polishes: Navigate Her (green) and A Crewed Interest (peachy-pink)
• The new Maybelline BB cream. I haven't had a chance to try this out yet, but I'll definitely let y'all know what I think about this
• Revlon PhotoReady Airbrush foundation. I've used this once already and my first impressions were not that great. The colour is super orange/yellow tinted and I had a lot of difficulty blending it out. On me, it clung to any dry patches or imperfections on the skin. It also has a really funky smell. I'm going to keep using it to see if I can make it work
• L'Oréal Perfect Blondissima hair bleach. I want to dye the ends of my hair bright blonde. I'm going to start off with this bleaching kit and then see if I need to top it off with a platinum blonde hair dye over top

I hope everything works out 


xoxoDarlingBuds


p.s. I think my new favourite word is "peachy-pink"

FOTD: New Products!

Featured in a recent haul, were a bunch of products from theBalm that I picked up from Hautelook. Using a bunch of products from that haul, I came up with this look:

As I mentioned above, a great deal of the products I used for this FOTD were from that Hautelook haul of theBalm. I got a good deal of the quality of the products from this FOTD and I've been using them more frequently as of late. I'll try and give y'all an idea of what I think of these products 

click below to read/see more

Lovely Undergrad: Lace + Spray Paint DIY Desk Lamp Makeover

photo from http://www.lovelyundergrad.com/

"Lovely Undergrad: Lace + Spray Paint DIY Desk Lamp Makeover: So I've had this little gray desk lamp from Target for a couple years now.  And frankly, it just wasn't doing anything for me any more...."


Lovely Undergrad is my favourite blog for any kind of home decor/DIY inspiration. Click through the link to see for yourself how simple and amazing this DIY is! Lovely Undergrad is a DIY genius! I am definitely going to try and recreate this project myself

Hautelook Haul: theBalm

Hautelook had a sale on "theBalm" a couple of weeks ago. Too many times has theBalm escaped my grasps, and a sale on Hautelook is just too good to pass up. Everything I got was seriously discounted!

I haven't had a chance to really try any of these products yet but I fully intend on doing some more in-depth reviews once I've gotten a better feel for the products

This is mostly a first impressions and swatches post

click below to read more (+ swatches)

NOTD: Rose Gold nails

Everyone and their mother seems to have a serious obsession with rose gold as of late. I myself own a rose gold Michael Kors watch, along with every other North American girl. There's a way to wear rose gold without spending hundreds of dollars on jewelry. Orly nail polish brand has a colour called "Rage" and it's bottled rose gold

I'm usually not a fan on metallic nails, but this is an exception. It's a super shimmery, metallic, almost reflective, rose gold shade. Love it!


xoxoDarlingBuds

Mascara of the Week #6

Maybelline Volum'Express The Mega Plush

The 6th mascara in my Mascara Problems series

there are just so many mascaras from Maybelline that need to be tested! This is the brand's newest mascara release. Right off the bat, I really love the colour of the packaging but who knows what the product on the inside is really like. 

I've been using this mascara for a few days already so I'm going to give it another week and then conduct my scrupulous review :P

until then...

xoxoDarlingBuds

Pantene Aqua Light REVIEW

This is a follow-up review to a previous post in which I was sent these hair products from a product review site called ChickAdvisor. 

I have been using these products for about the last month and I now feel comfortably delivering my review

First things first: I have fine hair, and a day or two after I was it, it starts to look greasy in the roots. The ends are split and rather dry. The Pantene Aqua Light line is supposed to deliver clean, nourished, weightless hair.  

Shampoo: it's a light-weight formula that did not weigh down my hair but also left it feeling very clean and healthy. After using this shampoo, but hair was totally weightless and had more volume than if I had used another shampoo. I usually try and look for "thickening" or "volumizing" shampoos, but I was pleasantly surprise by how much volume I could achieve in my hair just by using a "weightless" formula instead.The smell of this shampoo is nice, but I don't find that it lingers in my hair after it's dry, which could either be a good or bad thing depending on your own personal shampoo preferences. Overall, I really like this shampoo. I think it's a really great shampoo for me and my hair type: nourishing, yet weightless, just like the bottle says. Anyone with fine hair looking for a bit for oomph I think would really enjoy this product.

Conditioner: This conditioner lived up to its claims of leaving my hair feeling weightless and nourished. It didn't make my hair AS soft as other conditioners I've used in the mask, such as my Macadamia hair mask or Joico K-Pak conditioners (see What's in my Shower). As far as I'm concerned, this products did its job and deliveres on every note that it said it would. I've noticed that since using the shampoo in conjunction with the conditioner from the Aqua Light line, my hair hasn't been getting as greasy as quickly as it normally would have. This conditioner did not weigh my hair down at all, and still left my ends feeling pretty soft and healthy. I recommend this product for people who are searching for a lightweight hair conditioner that delivers on nourishing benefits as well. 

Conditioning Shake: I don't usually buy leave-in conditioners of any sort because my hair is fine enough as is it that I don't want to weigh it down with more product, but I gave this a try. I must say that I do like the fact that this is a 2-in-1 product, leave-in conditioning spray and heat protectant. The packaging too was nice and sturdy, and it wasn't awkward to spritz the product into my hair. Sometimes spritz bottles are too heavy or awkwardly shaped making it difficult to dispense the product, but this was one good.

However, before I even sprayed this on my hair, I unscrewed the lid and smelt the product and there was a definite scent of rubbing alcohol. Low and behold, the second ingredient listed is "alcohol denat." I have tried other hair products in the past with alcohol listed in the ingredients and those products always dry out my hair. This one was no exception. After spraying this on my hair followed by a blow-dry, my hair felt dry and straw-like. The moisture that was added to my hair from the awesome shampoo and conditioner from the pantene pro-v aqua light line was affected with this spray. I have tried this spray along with a different shampoo and conditioner combination and it still left my hair feeling dry. I would not recommend this leave in conditoner to people, especially not to people with fine hair. I will not repurchase


Overall, I really like the Pantene Aqua Light line, with the exception of course of the conditioniing shake. I will definitely be using these products throughout the summer, and a repurchase is inevitable. My hair will be lovely

xoxoDarlingBuds

NOTD: featuring my first ever Essence polish

 Essence Colour & Go nail polish in Modern Romance

This polish very nearly resembled the colour of my skin. I love the way it looked! It's a peachy-pink colour with a really subtle shimmery sheen. I wasn't expecting too much out of a $1.49 nail polish but I was pleasantly surprised how well these polishes applied and how long they wore.
Very pretty colour!


xoxoDarlingBuds 

May Lovelies

I'm sorry this is late, but better late than never, right?

LOVELIES

Baking at Midnight

Sometimes I get the urge to bake. More often than not, that urge hits me at midnight. So I'm starting a new series on this blog: Baking at Midnight. Sweet treats that I bake at midnight. It's pretty self explanatory

This isn't beauty or makeup related. This is real life, y'all.

On today's edition of Baking at Midnight: Scones.

I got the recipe from "The Joy of Cooking" cookbook.

The finished result!

I call them my "midnight scones" and they were super tasty! 
I like baking at midnight because when I wake up in the morning, I know that there will be fresh baked goods waiting for me for breakfast. These scones were a definite hit. 
*note: these photos were taken during the day - the only con about baking at midnight is that the lighting sucks!


Until next time...


xoxoDarlingBuds

My FAVE Makeup Setting Spray

Now that it's summer, I've become a bit a worry-wart when it comes to my makeup. I've been trying to use products that I know will last all day. When in doubt, I use this setting spray. 
A couple spritzes of this all over my already-done makeup helps it to last all day. Sometimes I don't even use a setting powder when I use this spray. 
For summer, this is definite staple in my makeup bag. 


xoxoDarlingBuds

tumblr

http://darlingbuds.tumblr.com/

Mascara of the Week #5: NYC High Definition Volumizing mascara

Week #5

Yet another post in my Mascara Problems series. My mascara week #4 post revolved around another mascara from the NYC brand: NYC High Definition SEPARATING mascara. I didn't particularly like that mascara. Knowing that I still had another NYC mascara to review, I decided to just do them one right after the other; get it over with. 
So here it goes...


click below to read/see more

Summer Nail Polish Picks

I don't know if you guys have noticed this but I really like nail polish...

SO in honour of nail polish, and I guess summer, I've compiled a list of sorts for my top nail polish picks for summer!

A lot of these nail polishes have already been featured before in some of my previous NOTD posts, so I'll provide links when possible so that you can see what they look like on

I couldn't just narrow it down to 10 colours, or whatever, so instead their in colour families. How fun!

click below to read/see more

FOTD: More like "the same makeup I have been wearing all week"

Is it a makeup rut if I've been following the same makeup routine for the past few weeks? Or does it just mean that something has finally contented me enough to not want to change it. Call is laziness, inspiration, perfection or whatever, but THIS is the makeup that I have been wearing...

Holla!

click below to read/see more

NOTD: featuring OPI

OPI's Cajun Shrimp is a really bright corally/red. Definitely brighter than a traditional red nail, but more vampy" than just painting your nails a typical coral or orange. I think this is a great colour for all seasons, and this is definitely a staple in my nail polish collection


xoxoDarlingBuds

Decor Envy: Lovely Bedroom

I love colour, but I also love the elegance and air of class that black and white gives. I'm coming to the realization that it's better to have all of the "main" pieces of furniture and statement pieces of a bedroom to be either black or white, and then add pieces of colour where it counts, but not in such abundance. Once again, Pinterest and one of my favourite blogs Lovely Undergrad has provided me with oodles of inspiration for bedroom decor. 

Don't you wish just one of these could be yours?


a girl can dream...


xoxoDarlingBuds

Uh Oh...I've done it again

Hue from MAC is one of my favourite lipsticks of all time; but, I hate the way it clings to any little dry patches on my lips. It's a glaze finish which is also a sheerer formula, another aspect I'm not too particularly fond of. I feel like it really just accentuates any flaw. So I went to MAC looking for a replacement, and I ended up coming out of the shop with 2 replacements! And then randomly, as if driven by some supernatural force, I ended up in Sephora...but I only bought one thing so that is a vast improvement! Yay me!

The MAC Lipsticks:

The pinky-nudey colour on the left is Creme Cup, and the peachy-nudey colour on the right is Creme d'Nude. Two colours which have coincidentally been on my MAC Want List for a while. When swatched side by side with Hue, they look sort of similar. Obviously Creme Cup plays up more on the pink tones in Hue, whereas Creme d'Nude leans more towards the peach and nude hues in Hue (ha, no shit).

I'll do a more in depth review and comparaison bientôt.

MUFE at Sephora

I have been eyeing this colour aqua cream shadow ever since I bought my first one way back in November. I couldn't decide between #15 and #13 at the time. I ended up buying #15 which as it turns out, is a total dupe for the Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze . Which leaves MUFE #13. A lovely champagne-beige colour. It's got shimmer, but not too much. I've seriously been loving cream shadows recently because they're easy to apply, they last all day, and they don't crease or smudge. 

MUFE Aqua Cream eye colour, #13

Such lovely new products! I've been such a haul-zilla lately! 

xoxoDarlingBuds