Author Archives: Mary S.

Holiday Beauty Collaboration

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Holiday Beauty Collaboration

Today’s St. Nicholas Day, and I’d like to welcome you to the dynamic trio! 😉

This is my first official collaboration, and I’m thrilled to show you what we each came up with for holiday-inspired looks!

We didn’t set too many restrictions because we wanted to keep it open-ended and let our creativity drive the results.

I am honoured to be able to collaborate with Jessica and Rob because both of them have inspired me for a long time, and I admire how they stay true to themselves.

For our Holiday Beauty Collaboration:

  • Jessica expertly blended several colours for an eye look that makes you look twice
  • Rob created a festive manicure with a cute candy-cane accent nail
  • I did freehand nail-art featuring an elf suit, Christmas braid, Santa suit, and Mrs. Claus suit

In this blog post, you’ll see more photos of the Christmas nail art I painted, as well as the exact colours I used.

Also, be sure to check out Jessica’s and Rob’s Instagram accounts to see more photos of their artistry at work! 🙂

Christmas Nails Nail Art

In case you’re looking for some holiday and/or nail-art tutorials, you may want to view some of the ones I posted on the blog earlier:

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Laboratoire Dr Renaud Skincare

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Laboratoire Dr Renaud Skincare

A few days ago, I asked readers via a Twitter poll to let me know what kind of beauty reviews they were most interested in. It didn’t come as any surprise that the vast majority (86%) voted for nail-polish reviews! 😉 However, 7% said skincare, and 7% said makeup.

Since most of my reviews tend to focus on nail products, I thought that today, I’d switch it up a bit and focus on high-quality Laboratoire Dr Renaud Skincare!

You won’t find these skincare products at the drugstore. Laboratoire Dr Renaud skincare is available exclusively at more than 1,000 aesthetician salons and spas across Canada.

I’m a big believer in not skimping on good skincare because it’s the foundation for any beauty routine. When PR introduced me to Laboratoire Dr Renaud skincare, I was intrigued because I’ve never tried anything from this brand. Also, I haven’t experimented with some of these types of products before, such as peel pads and loose powder with SPF 50!

In addition to the products I photographed above, they also sent me their new anti-fatigue tissue mask and eye-contour patches (not shown in the above photograph, but presented later in this post).

Here are some interesting facts about Laboratoire Dr Renaud that I learned:

  • The company was founded in France in 1947 by Dr. Louis Raymond Renaud (the first dermatologist to undertake skincare product research)
  • In 1963, it became a Canadian company based in Montreal
  • They research, develop, and manufacture all of their products in their Montreal facility
  • Their products are not tested on animals
  • Their products are free of parabens, synthetic colourants, fragrance, and mineral oil
  • Isabelle Villeneuve, the Director of Research and Development and Global Strategic Projects, has been with the company for 20 years. She heads their research team that consists of all women – it’s very rare in the field. (Scroll to the bottom of this blog post for the Q and A with her.)
  • Laboratoire Dr Renaud’s philosophy is to combine the best of nature and science. They have a huge range of products to address every skin concern for every age, and the brand has professional treatments.

In the rest of this post, I share with you some quick photos of a few skincare items, as well as more information on each product.

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Pretty Serious Cute Cuticles Cupcake Cuticle Oil Review

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Cuticle Oil for Dry CuticlesWhen the mercury drops and the air gets chilly, my cuticles tend to feel and look parched. It also doesn’t help matters any that after washing my hands, I don’t usually slather on lotion regularly.

I purchased the Pretty Serious Cute Cuticles Cupcake Cuticle Oil many months ago to help me through those (literally) rough times. 😉

Perhaps my inner child is showing, but I mainly was attracted specifically to this Pretty Serious cuticle oil because it promised to not only nourish cuticles, but it also is supposed to smell like cupcakes. Hehe, if that isn’t a reason to try a new cuticle oil, I don’t know what is!

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OPI Starlight Collection Swatches, Bottle Shots & Surprises

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OPI Starlight Collection

In exactly 3.865 seconds, this nail-polish addict tore open the OPI-branded cardboard box that arrived in the mail!

The package included not only the entire 18 nail polishes in the OPI Starlight Collection for Holiday 2015, but also some exciting and quite unexpected goodies! (Hint: Swarovski jewelry and something to appeal to my sweet tooth.)

Although I pulled a Tazmanian Devil when ripping open the box out of sheer enthusiasm, I made sure to photograph the contents, so that we can share the fun experience together!

You may have already seen or purchased some of these shades, but for those who are still on the fence or who are trying to whittle down the choices, I’m hoping that you’ll find my photos (and nailphile comments) to be helpful and/or entertaining.

Today’s post features individual bottle shots, so you can see each colour better, as well as swatches to give you a good idea of the saturation and finish. Additionally, I show you the beautiful collector’s box that they came in.

Get comfy, grab your bag of popcorn, and enjoy the show!

Let’s open up this oyster, and admire the pearl!

Side note: I feel bad for oysters who are bred solely to create pearls. They are purposely irritated, however, it’s inspiring how they make the best of the situation and turn the grain of sand into a treasure to behold. We can extract a deep life philosophy here of oysters teaching humans how to deal with problems.

It makes me think about when I sometimes get an annoying grain of sand in my shoe. Imagine if I left it there instead of dumping it out. Maybe after many years, it would turn into a pearl. Haha, I’m just being silly! (Don’t worry, the nail-polish fumes haven’t gone to my head. Well…at least I don’t think so.)

(Note: No oysters were harmed in the creation of this blog post. The only thing that may suffer is a nailphile’s wallet. Hehe!)

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Pretty Serious Darkling Squishy Swatches & Review

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Pretty Serious Darkling Squishy Swatches & Review

Pretty Serious Darkling Squishy from the Well Meaning But Ultimately Quite Awkward Pet Names Collection is what I wanted NARS Zulu to be. (You may remember that review that I did in 2010 when NARS re-released their cult classic dark green nail polish.)

Green is my favourite colour, not just when it comes to nail polish. (Heck, I even painted an accent wall in my home a lima-bean green because that’s how much I love it!)

Like the anti-hero in a story who saves the day, Pretty Serious Darkling Squishy is a winner in my book without trying too hard.

It’s deep and just shy of verging on looking like a near black in some lighting. Most times, however, it appears like a midnight green on me.

Hmm…it was only when I uploaded my photos to my computer and viewed them that I realized I didn’t quite get all the red nail polish off my cuticles before painting my nails green! (In person, it wasn’t nearly as noticeable as when my nails are blown up to larger-than-life proportions.) Nevertheless, I enjoyed this manicure, and this is the type of green that makes me (and my nails) very happy! 😉

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Beauty Vote on Twitter: What Beauty Reviews Interest You the Most?

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This is a quick blog post for tonight to let you know that I just posted a new poll on Twitter. (I’m so happy to see that Twitter now allows me to include more than two options.)

Simply log into your Twitter account, and vote for the option that appeals to you most before time runs out. Then, come back to see the results!

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Pretty Serious The Singing Seed Swatches & Review (Layered Over OPI Amore at the Grand Canal)

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Pretty Serious The Singing Seed Swatch Swatches

When I was a kid, I couldn’t resist shaking jingle bells when I was in craft stores. It would sometimes annoy my mom because I had the urge to not just ring one bell, but as many as I could get my grubby little hands on.

(I blame the classic Christmas film, It’s a Wonderful Life. Once I learned that every time a bell rings and an angel gets its wings, I wanted to ring all the bells, so that none of the angels would have to wait for their wings!) 😉

It’s that time of year when festive manicures are coming out in full force! With Christmas just a few weeks away, it’s time to start busting out the glitz and traditional combination of red and green.

I was already wearing OPI Amore at the Grand Canal from the Venice Collection, and the moment I laid eyes on Pretty Serious The Singing Seed, it was like the money-maker high E above middle C that launched Christina Aguilera’s singing career – it felt right in every way!

Pretty Serious The Singing Seed is a glitter topper that features short gold bar glitter, as well as green and gold glitter. It’s the ideal complement for any holiday reds that you already have in your nail wardrobe, taking them from everyday classic to Christmas classic with just a single coat.

P.S. I hope that my U.S. readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday and are having a fun and safe Black Friday today. (Here in Canada, we also have Black Friday deals! I’m going to keep my eyes peeled like a banana for something good. I’ve been thinking about upgrading my washer and dryer.)

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