Archive for the ‘Beauty Reviews’ Category
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
I am back with my thoughts on another new beauty product. This week my review is going eco-friendly with products from organic beauty company Peacekeeper Cause-Metics.
Let me give you a little background on the company first, because they are pretty amazing. Not only do they have certified organic beauty products that aren’t tested on animals (which I love), but Peacekeeper donates profits to women’s health and human rights groups. This is the kind of company that I want to buy products from. They make you look good and feel good!
Let’s start with the bad news on the products. I wouldn’t recommend the nail polish to anyone. I loved the Paint Me Grateful metallic purple colour in the bottle, but it took over an hour to dry. That’s ridiculous! Maybe if I had time to wait for my nail to dry, but this Beauty Guinea Pig has lots of other products awaiting her attention. It is supposedly one of the safest nail polish in the world and is vegan, but it lacks quality.
The good news is the Peacekeeper lip products are fabulous. The Yum Balm lip gloss may not taste as good as the name implies, but it leaves my lips feeling soft and juicy. It’s a little gooey coming out, so squeeze gently. It has huge gloss power and shine, without too much colour. I wouldn’t suggest kissing anyone after because you may stick together!
The Organic Lip Balm is even better. I tried the delicious smelling “Perfect As Is” Lip Balm. When I read the label to see what gave it its sweet smell, I was shocked; I could actually pronounce all of the ingredients. Actually, I had most of the ingredients in my fridge. I figured out that it was the rosemary that was sending me into seventh heaven. Because it’s so natural, the lip balm is a little gritty, but it makes up for it with how soft it leaves your lips. This lip balm has turned me into a certified addict.
Tags: beauty review, eco-friendly, lip balm, lip gloss, nail polish, organic products, Peacekeeper, Peacekeeper beauty products, Yum Balm
Posted in Beauty Reviews, Makeup
Monday, August 30th, 2010
At Real Style Network’s beauty blog, we don’t only get reviews from our Beauty Guinea Pig, we also love recommendations from you!
A friend recommended we at the beauty blog tell all of our readers about the Olay Regenerist UV Defense Regenerating Lotion. This daily moisturizer is said to fight the signs of aging while protecting your skin from rays.
Her verdict: “I started using the Olay Lotion to smooth out my hands and arms actually. It’s one of the best moisturizers I’ve used to keep my hands smooth after a hard day of work. Because it also has an SPF 15 in it, I have started using the Olay moisturizer on my neck too. So many people forget to put sunscreen on their neck. With this beauty product I am protecting my skin and keeping it smooth.”
Send us your beauty finds at editorial@realstylenetwork.com.
Tags: beauty review, hand lotion, moisturizer, olay, olay moisturizer, Olay Regenerist, Olay Regenerist UV Defense Regenerating Lotion
Posted in Beauty Reviews, Skin Care
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
The Real Style Beauty Guinea Pig is back with a new hair care product review.
For the past few weeks, I have been testing out the new Got2b Smoothing Lustre Lotion on my unruly hair. This summer has been hell on my hair. Not only has it been humid, but I also have a new haircut that requires a lot more attention. Needless to say, I have racked up a cupboard full of smoothing lotions, defrizzers and styling creams.
When I started using the Got2b Smoothing Lustre Lotion my first reaction was this does nothing. I tried it on towel dried and dry hair to see the difference, but it all felt the same. My hair was just as smooth as it ever was. I didn’t see the difference. I chalked this down to another product that doesn’t do much and pushed it to the back of the cupboard.
Then it happened, I didn’t use the smoothing lotion. I am now eating my words. The Got2b product definitely does something. My hair didn’t have the soft smooth shine I had gotten used to. It was only when I didn’t use it that I noticed. Got2b gave my hair such a natural smooth look, that I figured I was having a good hair day.
While it didn’t stop flyaways and frizz for all that long, it did leave my hair feeling silky smooth.
So this is me apologizing Got2b, you have got something here.
Tags: beauty product review, beauty review, Got2b, Got2b hair care, Got2b product, Got2b review, Got2b Smoothing Lustre Lotion, Hair Care
Posted in Beauty Reviews
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
At Real Style Network’s beauty blog, we don’t only want to get reviews from our Beauty Guinea Pig, but we also love recommendations from friends, coworkers and readers.
A friend of one of our Real Style Beauty staffers put us on to the new Sally Hansen Color Quick Chrome Pens. She said she heard about the nail polish pens and was going to try it out. When she did she phoned us immediately to give us the scoop.
She actually called these nail polish applicators amazing. The nail polish pens claim to be easy to apply and quick to use and she absolutely agreed. She said using the pen was a breeze you just click and apply. While she said she did need two coats, it was so easy that it didn’t take any time at all. Her only complaint was that she had to be careful with the amount the pen dispensed because sometimes it left her nails feeling goopy with color.
The Sally Hasen Color Quick Chrome Pens are available in 8 colors now. We can wait to get our hands on one.
Tags: beauty review, Makeup, nail polish, sally hansen, Sally Hansen Color Quick Chrome Pens, sally hansen nail polish, sally hansen treatment pens
Posted in Beauty Reviews, Makeup
Thursday, August 19th, 2010
BGP (your resident Beauty Guinea Pig of course!) reporting for duty! I’m back to give you my take on this week’s hottest beauty products.
I finally got my hands on the new Nicole By OPI Gossip Girl nail polish collection. I am an admitted Gossip Girl fanatic, so anything to hold me over until the September return is good to me. The Nicole by OPI nail polish collection is all flash with metallic colours and lots of sparkle that will be perfect for fall.
The Too Rich For You dark metallic green was my favourite right away. Once I put it on I had a change of heart. It is extremely dark (far too dark for a day look in my opinion). It almost looked black when it wasn’t in direct light. I was channeling Jenny Humphrey’s bad girl persona in this nail polish.
Next up was Party In The Penthouse metallic blue. This is a dark shiny blue that is pretty and perfect for fall. I loved the slight sparkle in it. It was still dark, but not overly. It did remind me a lot of the Nicole By OPI summer blue, but just one step darker.
The sparkle Gossip Girl shades were the biggest surprise. The Scandal, Secrets & Sparkle silver nail polish is going to be a holiday favourite. The silver sparkles will work perfectly over any dark shade (I tried it over Too Rich For You for a complete Gossip Girl look).
Meanwhile the Nicole… Spotted green ended up becoming my surprise favourite. This green nail polish is pretty thick and feels a little like wearing glitter on your nails. Fabulous glitter! It made me feel like Serena van der Woodsen. It is so fun, flirty and girly. It is too green to wear over another darker colour like the silver sparkles, but who needs two colours when you have all that sparkle going on?
Tags: beauty review, fall nail polish, gossip girl, gossip girl beauty, Gossip Girl nail polish, nail polish, nail polish review, Nicole by OPI, Nicole by OPI nail polish, opi, OPI fall nail polish, opi Gossip Girl nail polish, opi nail polish, opi nails, opi polishes
Posted in Beauty Reviews, Makeup
Monday, August 16th, 2010
At Real Style Network’s beauty blog, we don’t only want to get reviews from our Beauty Guinea Pig, but we also love recommendations from friends, coworkers and readers.
Today, a trusted reader wanted us to share her excitement over the brand new Womanity fragrance by Thierry Mugler. This new fragrance from the fashion designer was just released and our reader seems to be already hooked.
Our beauty blog reader said: I was excited to hear that Thierry Mugler was releasing another fragrance. His Angel scent has been my signature fragrance since it came out. Now with Womanity, I have a new favourite perfume. As soon as I smelled it I could tell it was a Thierry Mugler fragrance. All of his scents are different, but have his trademark under notes. This smell is light and airy. It’s perfect for the end of summer. It’s very strong and lasts on you a long time. I love the sweet summery smell of Womanity. I can’t get enough.
Send us your beauty finds at editorial@realstylenetwork.com.
Tags: beauty review, Fragrance, fragrance review, thierry mugler, Thierry Mugler fragrance, Womanity, Womanity by Thierry Mugler
Posted in Beauty Reviews
Saturday, August 7th, 2010
As the resident Real Style Beauty Product tester or otherwise affectionately known as the Beauty Guinea Pig (BGP), I get to test out the hottest beauty products on the market and I LOVE it !
Today my beauty review is on MorocanOil Hair Glimmer Shine Spray! MoroccanOil is one of the hottest new hair care products around. Everyone is talking about it and all of the celebs are using it. So when their package arrived, I exercised my rights as the BGP and jumped at the chance to test the product on my wavy to curly, often frizzy, highlighted and very dry end of summer hair!
Since I have tried the original MoroccanOil before and loved it as it smoothed down and moisturized my hair without making it feel greasy, I was eager to try another one of their products! I tried out the MoroccanOil Glimmer Shine Spray to see if it was up to the same high standard.
The MorocanOil Glimmer Shine Spray claims to give your hair a brilliant shine, enhance your highlights and protect it from the elements.
I’m happy to report that The MoroccanOil spray does exactly what it claims. I was actually getting compliments on how shiny my hair looked. You can see the difference almost immediately.
Nevertheless there were some drawbacks. The hair care product did leave my hair feeling a little bit greasy and it did not stop flyaway hair or frizz. I still had to use all of my other regular products before this. So while it does do it’s job, it seems a little redundant. If MoroccanOil could combine the shine secrets with their others hair smoothing products then it would really be worth it. I haven’t tried the hair glimmer shine spray with the actual oil yet. I will follow up with an addendum to let you know if that combination did the trick or if it left the hair too oily!
Until later, BGP is over and out!
Tags: beauty review, Hair Care, hair care review, moroccanoil, Moroccanoil glimmer shine spray, moroccanoil hair, moroccanoil review
Posted in Beauty Reviews, Hair Care
Friday, August 6th, 2010
As a part of our Real Style Network beauty giveaway, we have tried a lot of new beauty products to make sure we are giving you the best. One of the beauty grabs we found was the new lipstick from The Body Shop, their Delipscious Sheer Lip Colour.
I tested out the Sheer Lip Colour in their Candy shade. When I put on the lip colour, I was surprised at how well the colour matched my own natural lip colour. The lip colour didn’t give me a bold look or even a splash of colour. Instead it naturally enhanced my lips without making it obvious that I was wearing any lipstick.
I found The Body Shop lip colour to be smooth and soft on my lips. I couldn’t help but keep rubbing my lips together to feel how soft they were. They felt kissable! I loved the faint hint of a Candy smell on the lip colour that I got when I applied it.
This isn’t a lipstick I would wear to an event, because it just doesn’t give enough colour. It is perfect for a day look or when you are going for the natural makeup appearance.
We are giving away The Body Shop’s Delipscious Sheer Lip Colour with our beauty giveaway. To get your own enter our contest now.
Tags: Beauty, beauty contest, beauty giveaway, beauty review, Delipscious Sheer Lip Colour, lipstick, lipstick review, Makeup, makeup review, the body shop, The Body Shop lip colour, the body shop makeup
Posted in Beauty Reviews, Makeup
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
For our latest beauty review, one of our Real Style Beauty testers took a chance with the Got2b Got2b Fat-tastic Instant Infusion Collagen Root Boosting Spray to give her hair care routine a lift. Our tester has fine, thin hair that sometimes needs a boost of volume to create the perfect hair style, so this product is right up her alley.
As soon as she went to use it she noticed one big issue with this Got2b product. There is little to no instructions on how to use the hair care product properly. All hair care products have a different application process whether it’s in wet hair, towel dry or dry to ensure you get the most out of it. The Got2b hair care product left our tester stumped and to her own devices.
Once she decided how to use the Root Boosting Spray, she was pleased with the results. Her hair got volume and lift without being left too crunchy.
She told us one of the biggest problems with most sprays claiming to give your hair volume is that the sprays are too heavy. Most sprays weight down her thin hair defeating the purpose. The Got2b hair spray is light and left her hair with volume and style.
If you are looking for a boost for your hair, she said she would definitely recommend this product to anyone who has the same flat hair problem as she does.
Tags: beauty review, Got2b, Got2b Fat-tastic Instant Infusion Collagen Root Boosting Spray, Got2b hair products, hair boost, Hair Care, hair care product, hair volume, volume
Posted in Beauty Reviews, Hair Care
Monday, August 2nd, 2010
While everyone is getting ready for fall beauty trends, the summer isn’t over just yet. We have been looking for a fun and bold summer nail polish to wake up the lazy days of August. So we were delighted to see the eye popping, summer shades from the Nicole By OPI nail polish line. We tried out clear, blue, yellow and green colours to see what would best suit our end of summer style .
We first tried the Nicole by OPI Brightener Plus. We could definitely see the difference in shine and brightness on our nails. The OPI nail polish leaves a nice shine that would suit someone who doesn’t actually like wearing nail polishes, but wants to look put together. On the flip side, those of us who love bright nail polish colours can use it as a base clear coat to boost the colour of our nails before we go bold.
Next we tried out the Nicole by OPI Sky’s The Limit blue. This is a sparkling blue that was probably our favourite of the three on our nails. With just one coat, you get a cute blue shimmer that would actually be really nice for a dash of nail polish colour. We went for another coat though to give ourselves a bright bold sparkling colour. This blue is nice because it’s not too dark. You could get away with it in the day, but it also has enough drama for an evening look.
Second we tried to the bright yellow gold of Yellow It’s Me. We knew this nail polish wasn’t going to work the minute it hit our nails. While the gold shimmer is nice in theory, you have to have the right skin tone for this to work. On a dark skin colour I bet this nail polish would pop. On our fair skin, it looks totally wrong. Using it as a top coat over another colour is also another option we might try out.
Finally we tried our favourite in the bottle the green Respect The World nail polish. Like the blue, this sparkling green is a lot of fun. You can get a light shine or a bold sparkle. The green has a little more punch in the colour than the blue.It almost has an emerald shine to it which is different from just a matte green.
Overall we love the shine of these Nicole by OPI nail polishes. They dry really fast too making this nail polish a breeze to apply without much trouble. We can’t wait for more shades from them especially the upcoming Gossip Girl collection that we are dying to get out hand on… or should we say get on our hands.
Tags: beauty review, nail polish review, new nail polish, Nicole by OPI, opi, opi nail polish, opi nails, summer nail polish
Posted in Beauty Reviews, Makeup
Sunday, August 1st, 2010
At Real Style Network, we love giving new Canadian companies a try. Since it seems like all the fun beauty stories comes from the UK, we get excited to find homegrown beauty. Body Food is a new natural beauty company creating all natural skin care products.
We tried the body Food All Natural Lotion in the office to see if it could outdo all of the other moisturizers. The Real Style Network office was split on the the lotion right from the moment we smelled it. The Citrus Blend scent was strong, but we couldn’t agree if it was too much. Some people loved the strong sweet lemon smell, while others thought it smelled more like dish soap than a skin care line.
The body Food moisturizer feels all natural. It is very thick, a little oily and even a little sticky a times. Because it’s so thick a little goes a very long way. The problem is if you don’t have extremely dry skin, this lotion is going to be too much. It made our skin feel greasy for too long. But if you had dry skin or used it on rough parts like the bottom of your feet it might be the perfect solution.
The body Food lotion is available now for $23.00 for a small and $40.00 for a large bottle. If you are in Toronto you can visit their stores in Liberty Village or Mississauga where you can smell all of their scents to find one you really like, because the scent is the key.
Tags: beauty review, body food, body food lotion, body food moisturizer, body lotion, canada beauty, canadian beauty, canadian skin care, lotion, moisturizer, moisturizers
Posted in Beauty Reviews, Skin Care
Saturday, July 31st, 2010
The slogan for the EOS Ultra Moisturizing Shave Cream starts “Can a shave cream make you smile?” When I first read that line I laughed, before using the EOS Shave Cream I didn’t think it could. I was wrong! Real Style Network was interested to try the EOS Shave Cream, because it actually wasn’t like all other shaving cream. You think there can’t be anything different, but EOS is changing the way we think about shaving.
The first big difference is that this is a cream. There is no foaming. We found the shave cream to be soft and smooth, like a moisturizer. The sweet pomegranate raspberry smell made it even harder to believe that this was for shaving.
It’s a little hard to see the cream once it’s applied to your legs in the shower. I almost instantly assumed that the EOS Shave Cream would clog up my razor and make shaving a pain. It washed off in the water just as easily as bubbly foam.
Now came the real test. EOS claims that you can use their shave cream to dry shave as well. As the queen of shaving on the go, this was a huge bonus for me. Think of the possibilities if it lives up to its claim. No more dry, itchy, bumpy legs from dry shaving. Ladies, the claims are true. You can use the EOS Ultra Moisturizing Shave Cream for dry shaving.
The shave cream still goes on thick like a moisturizer. My concerns of a clogged razor were more true to life here. The cream blocks up your razor quiet quickly, but give it a quick run under the tap and most of it will disappear. When you are done shaving rub in the excess to your legs and it’s like you have already moisturized. I purposely left one spot on legs dry to test the difference. I could instantly pinpoint the part of my leg without the soothing moisturizing of EOS’ shave cream.
For just $3.49 a bottle the EOS Ultra Moisturizing Shave Cream is making me eat my words and has me smiling away.
Tags: beauty review, eos, eos shave cream, eos ultra moisturizing shave cream, moisturizer, moisturizers, razor, shaving, shaving cream, Skin Care, skin care review
Posted in Beauty Reviews, Skin Care
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
For our latest beauty review, the girls in our Real Style Network office tried out the whole range of new Degree Natureffects Deodorant. We told you about this deodorant back when it launched, and finally have a chance to see if it lives up to the hype.
Degree released the Natureffects products in three natural scents, including honeysuckle and tea tree oil and the fruity orange flower and cranberry. They even went so far to work with Ann Gottlieb, who has created scents for Marc Jacobs and Dior. At first sniff we weren’t impressed. They smelled good, but not like deodorant. We found the smells were too overpowering for something we didn’t want to think about. We like our deodorant to smell pretty sure, but not to overpower our perfume. These scents would have been much better suited to a body spray, which they actually do have, but not in Canada.
One of our Real Style Beauty testers also found that the Degree Natureffects deodorant left marks on her clothing. That is a big downside for the deodorant, but she said she would still use it because it smelled good and did the job.
Overall though, the deodorants do work. So whether Degree changes the scent a little bit, you know it is still going to do its job.
If you want to try out the strong smelling Degree Natureffects you can pick it up at drugstores and other beauty retailers for around $3.99. For now you will have to travel to the US to get the body mist, a trip we just might be willing to make.
Tags: beauty review, Degree, Degree deodorant, Degree Natureffects, Degree Natureffects deodorant, deodorant, Skin Care
Posted in Beauty Reviews, Skin Care
Saturday, July 24th, 2010
Eos lip balm is a favourite of many of our readers, so we wanted to try out this beauty product for ourselves to see if it really was the amazing beauty find we heard it was.
At first look the Eos Lip Balm Smooth Sphere is possibly the cutest little beauty product we’ve ever seen. The little round case is unique and unexpected. Your friends are going to ask you what it is and if they can try it once they see you pull this little lip balm out of your purse.
The second unexpected part of the Eos Lip Balm is the smell. We tried out the new Lemon Drop SPF 15 lip balm and it smelled like dessert. Every time we put it to our lips we thought of lemon meringue pie. Delicious!
It smelled so good, we almost forgot about all of the great aspects of it. The EOS Lip Balm is 100% natural and 95% organic. The added SPF 15 to the lemon drop is perfect for the summer when you sometimes forget to protect your lips.
This is one beauty find that we at Real Style Network are glad we found.
Tags: Beauty find, beauty review, eos, eos lip balm, eos lip spheres, Makeup
Posted in Beauty Reviews, Makeup
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
Our curly haired girls on the Real Style Network beauty team are always on the hunt for the perfect straightener. Three of them got a chance to try the Straight & Curl 2 in 1 Ceramic Curling Iron from Rowenta Beauty to see if it was the one we had been looking for. This is the hair care company who did all of the great looks backstage at Toronto Fashion Week so we had high expectations. Here is our beauty review:
Before After
At first look, we were skeptical of the Rowenta Beauty iron. We didn’t think the straightener was up to the challenge of our thick hair. But the unique designer of a straighener plus curling iron made us excited for the possibilities.
Despite our fears, our hair came out just as smooth and straight as if we had done it at home. Even though the straightener is small, it does have enough power to be able to do your hair in the same amount of time. The heat is perfect to manage even the toughest curls. The addition of a curling iron on the end means that you can curl your ends easily to get a new look.
The Rowenta Beauty straightener’s biggest strengths are also it’s flaws though. Because of the curling iron on the outside, you cannot get a good grip on the straightener. Since it is small, the curling portion of the iron only allows you to grab a small portion of hair at a time. If you have thin hair that is ok, but for us girls with thick locks, we could be there all day.
In the end though for a straightener, it’s all about getting the job done. It may have been a little difficult to maneuver for a newcomer to the Rowenta Straightener, but her hair came out soft and straight.
Find out where to get your own Rowenta Straight & Curl on their website here.
Tags: Beauty find, beauty review, curling iron, Hair Care, hair care products, hair straightener, Rowenta Beauty, straightener
Posted in Beauty Reviews, Hair Care
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