I never bought into the whole mineral makeup fad, partly because I don’t normally wear foundation anyway. All I need is a translucent finishing powder to give my skin a nice glow and polished look. I bought this from Shoppers Drug Mart for CAD$26.00 before my trip to Disney, hoping it to be my go-to one-step makeup. It was nicely priced, and talc free, and promised to be ‘the look of love in a compact’. What can go wrong?

I was never a lipstick person to begin with, and most of the lipsticks I had all dried my lips after an hour or two, even if they claim not to. I also don’t want to ingest lead or other chemicals in my body, the lips being the perfect place to do it, so I wanted my lip products to be as natural as they can be. Most importantly, now that I am a mom, I don’t have the luxury of taking out my fancy schmancy lipsticks to reapply after a meal or in the middle of an outing – I need something to be so user friendly that I won’t need a mirror, and I need that something to be easily carried. A tinted lip balm – which I had been using – is the perfect solution.

I cannot remember in the past 15+ years, since I started to take care of my skin and learned to do my own makeup, that I didn’t love Bobbi Brown. I love how real she is, and how real she makes all the celebrities look, not with some crazy, unwearable colours, but neutral, wearable shades for every skin tone and age. But I have never tried Bobbi Brown skincare – I always feel that companies that specialize in makeup, or skincare, just can’t seem to do both equally well. Many companies fall into this category, and I never really thought I would try Bobbi Brown skincare until now.

I bought this from Sephora when I fell in love with it at first sight. I have been lemming for some nice cruelty-free eyeshadows for a while, and after checking where they are made, I discovered that a lot of them are now made in China. Smashbox has some made in China too, so I checked but this was made in the USA, so it was a go!

While I loved the Marcelle Pressed Powder in Translucent Medium, it was a little darker than my skin tone and being winter (Canadian winter, no less), I wanted something a little less drying, which means something talc free. I bought Origins All and Nothing loose powder after reading so many good reviews about it everywhere (4.2 out of 5 rating on makeupalley.com). I love Origins so I had high expectations for this.

Since I had stopped using animal tested cosmetics, I had been using more Clinique makeup products. Since it is fragrance free and hypoallergenic, I find that I don’t react as much anymore, especially when it comes to eye products!

A lot of drug store hair care products are tested on animals, and after being disappointed with some of the natural brands’ styling products, I turned to The Body Shop, my go-to cruelty free brand that has affordable but good products.

Since I have pledged to be cruelty free on PETA, I have rediscovered some of the brands I didn’t always use before. The Body Shop, for example. I like their campaigns (just wish they didn’t sell to L’Oreal, one of the worst animal testing offenders) and what they stand for, but I rarely really used their products until very recently.

Happy New Year to all my dear readers!

I love Caudalie. It’s one of the nicest smelling brands and doesn’t test on animals, and they grow their own grapes to be used in their products. Everything about them is what the cosmetics industry should be.

I got this for my birthday and have been using it for over two months. This is my first time using Peter Thomas Roth; I had wanted and needed a retinol serum and unfortunately Leaf & Rusher discontinued theirs, I ended up trying a whole new brand.

My husband bought this at the LAX airport when he went to California on business last year. It was a special edition, no longer available on L’Occitane.ca or L’Occitane.com. What a shame because this is pretty nice stuff!

I got a handful of these samples with purchase from essentialdayspa.com, one of my favorite places to shop. I got more than in the picture, actually, 10 packets in total, and 5 will last more than a month. I have been using this for over a month now, so even though I have samples, they are enough to do a full review.

It was hard for me to try a new eyeliner since I loved Make Up For Ever’s Aqua Eyes, my favorite waterproof eyeliners I had been using for the past year and a half (I have two shades). I couldn’t verify whether Make Up For Ever tests on animals, and after reading rave reviews about Urban Decay’s 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil, I decided to give it a try since Urban Decay is cruelty free.

I have been using Origins A Perfect World™ SPF 25 for two months, and I have to say, this is the most pleasant sunscreen I have ever used!

I bought this a year ago, but didn’t start using it until two months ago. It was an expensive purchase; but I had loved the Very Previous Regenerating Concentrate (same price), and I needed a brightening serum to remove my freckles. Both were dry oil type serums, and my skin being so dry, I needed something emollient that won’t easily evaporate.

Sometimes good things come from places you don’t expect. Take Marcelle’s Pressed Powder, for example. After the fiasco with Revlon’s PhotoReady Translucent Finisher, I had become wary of any more drug store cosmetics. I generally don’t mind so much about the point makeup (eyeshadows, mascaras, lipsticks, etc.) from some of the drug store brands; but when it comes to base makeup, it has to be good.

Have you ever researched a product’s user reviews, read mostly negative ones, but thought maybe it would work for you despite the bad reviews anyway? And believe me, I had really wanted to like this – Revlon is listed as a cruelty free brand on PETA, and the very affordable price. What could go wrong?

This is one of the most highly recommended and best reviewed eye creams on the market. It has mostly positive reviews; and because I have really sensitive eyes and don’t like fragranced eye products, I opted for this after my Yonka Phyto Contour ran out.

They were the first to come out with ‘body butters’, and years later, after using many different ones, The Body Shop’s Body Butters are still the best.

I bought this for my 36th birthday. What better gift than something that will give me some eyebrows?

An interesting name! Missing is the word ‘makeup’ after ‘eye’. This is my second bottle, and of course, before I found out that Laneige tests on animals. I bought this about eight months ago from kgoodshop on ebay – the price is the same buying at Amore stores here too, except we pay taxes here. While Lancome’s Bifacil is a cult favorite as far as eye makeup removers go, I find that at almost half the price, Laneige’s Lip & Eye Remover Waterproof is just as good – if not better.

The Body Shop has lots of good deals at this time of the year! I got this at almost half price with my membership card and current discounts. I was looking for a blue-based red lip gloss, and after trying out almost everything available, #15 Cherry Glimmer is the only one that fits the bill.

Being a sucker for anything rose-scented, my husband bought this for me at a L’Occitane flagship store when we were in Vancouver. This is a 4-rose fragrance:

This is one of the few products I actually repurchase. This is my second tube, but for some reason, it worked better the first time.