Birchbox Canada--January 2016

Hi everyone! Hope you week was well. This is my first  Birchbox unboxing on my blog, there will be one every month. There will now be a lot of text considering I did not get to type a post on Wednesday, sorry if there is an excess amount of information. Here we go!

This was my first Birchbox, I was searching for a beauty subscription service to join. I actually signed up for Ipsy, but I ended up cancelling it before I got my first bag. I watched many Youtube videos comparing Ipsy and Birchbox, and almost every video I watched, Birchbox would be the winner. Another main factor was the fact Ipsy was in USD, I live in Canada and the exchange rate if very poor. So an Ipsy bag would cost me around $20+. I thought it was way too much to pay for samples. Birchbox is great because they have a Canadian site, which is in Canadian dollars. It is $14.95 a month that includes shipping, and you receive 5 samples a month. It is great because you can cancel anytime and you will not be charged for cancelling. 

Just a little bit about Birchbox before we get on with the post. Birchbox is a skincare, haircare, beauty, subscription service. When you sign up you fill out a profile to make sure you are getting products tailored to your hair and skin type. You can also specify that you only want a few perfume samples a year, I know people don't want to have that in their box every month. I am one of those people. 

Birchbox is also great because every month if you review your 5 samples you get 50 points, and once you have earned 100 points it is redeemed for $10. It is great because after two months you have $10 to spend on their site. You can also earn points by purchasing items on their site. Each $1 sent equals 1 point. 

I am excited to continue writing these posts. Let's get into what I got this month!

These stickers are for personalizing the front of you box, saying what you would like 2016 to be. 

This card tells you what is in your box, and extra information. The prices are for the full size product, not the samples in your box, unless you did receive a full size, of course. 

The contents of my box. 

Dr. Jart+ Water Fuse Water-Full Hydrogel Mask

When I opened this box I was excited to see that this mask had a $25 value! I was quite happy, because it is the value of my box and then some. I use this mask the other day when I was sick, and it was quite nice. They recommend you place it in the refrigerator, so I did, and it was awesome! I will start putting all my sheet masks in the fridge. It was so soothing and relaxing. This mask claims to be a hydrating mask, but I found it did not live up to its claims. It was slightly hydrating, but not as much as I expected it to be. I really like the gel texture of it, but I would not say this mask was worth purchasing for $25. 

Number 4™ Super Comb Prep & Protect

This is a leave in conditioner that also protects your hair from UV rays. I used this only once so far and it was nice. It smells really good, and I felt my hair did feel really nice once dry. But I would make note that you do not want to spray this in your roots if your hair is on the oily side like me. I found that my hair got oily quicker than usual. This is a great product for the ends of your hair. 

Whish Three Whishes Body Butter

I received mine in the Lavender scent and it is incredible! It smells so good. This scent is not on the site right now, I'm assuming that it is just sold out, because it was on the site a week ago. It is such  nice scent, but I find the body butter is average. The feel is like many others, so I would have a hard time spending $26 on a body butter. 

Too Cool For School DINOPLATZ HIGHLIGHTER

As you can see from the swatch below this is a beautiful highlight colour. The shade I received is Baby Pink Clam. I love the rose gold tone to it. For a liquid highlighter it lasts a long time on the skin. I probably won't be buying this anytime soon, but maybe in the future when I have used up my other liquid highlighters. 

TONYMOLY Delight Tony Tint

I have been wanting to try a lip stain for a long time. But I could not find one that was affordable. I was very excited to see this in my box. It is a very pigmented lip stain, but I find you can also pat it on with your finger for a lighter stain. The full size is only $6, which I think it fair price for a lip stain. There is quite a bit of product in this sample, so purchasing a full size will not be necessary anytime soon.  

Thanks for reading! Have a good week and I will talk to you Wednesday. 

-Ashley 

You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @makeupcuisine.

All photos taken with my Canon T5i.

Business enquiries email me at makeupcuisine@hotmail.com.

Boxing Day Haul

Hi everyone, I hope you week has been well. Sorry this is coming late, but I decided that I would post this anyways. Let's get into it!

My brother bought these headphones on Black Friday, they are Philips In-Ear Sound Isolating Bluetooth Headphones with Mic. I used his once and I really enjoyed the wireless feature, they are awesome because you can listen to music on your phone and walk around almost your whole house, and still be listening to your music. I love it when I am doing housework or cleaning my room and there is no cord getting in my way. I also really like it for watching videos in my bed because I can easily prop my phone up. 

This shirt is hard to photograph, what you are seeing in this photo is the back of the shirt. This shirt is from Garage it is the Strappy Back Tunic, you can see a better picture on their website. I really like it because I feel it adds a twist to a plain black long sleeve top. 

Lush always has a great sale on Boxing Day, it is buy on get one free. If you want to get the really good stuff you would have to show up as soon as the store opened. But I did not have that kind of commitment this year, but I was still able to snag some good stuff. Me and my mom spilt the Snow Fairy gift set deal, I got one and she got one. I also purchased one Yog Nog bath bomb and got the second one for free. 

Thanks for reading! 

-Ashley 

You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @makeupcuisine.

All photos taken with my Canon T5i.

Business enquiries email me at makeupcuisine@hotmail.com.

Best of Beauty 2015

Happy 2016! I hope January is going well for you, and you are keeping your resolutions. I already broke my goal, I said I would post every Wednesday, and as you can see there was no post yesterday. But I am going to keep on trying. I am not giving up, and it is okay to make mistakes. 

Keep reading through till the end to see why I loved all these products in 2015. 

This is the year I have started to build my collection a little, and I have been really interested in makeup and different makeup techniques. I have enjoyed exploring different products, watching youtube video, and diving into the blog world.

Let's start with my favourite bronzer it is Benefits Hoola Bronzer. I love this bronzer it is the perfect color it is great for bronzing and contouring. It is warm enough, but has a slight cool undertone that makes it perfect.

My next favourite is the L'Oréal Paris Infallible Fixing Makeup Spray, this is such a great setting spray it makes your makeup last longer. The L'Oréal spray is very comparable to the Urban Decay makeup setting spray. They are so comparable because Urban Decay is owned by L'Oréal, because of this they seem to be almost the same product, I have used both, and I would say save your money and buy the L'Oréal spray.

I really love the Real Techniques Blush Brush this year, it was my favourite face brush this year. I loved it from bronzer, it was the perfect shape and size. It is also great for blush it was a great multi-tasker, I also love it for powder. If you can only afford one brush I would purchase this one.

My favourite blush of the year was the Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush-Exposed this is such a beautiful shade, it is a dusty rose. I love the color it gives on the cheek and the sculpted look.

I have to say this is one of the best foundation ever, I love the Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Foundation. It has the perfect shade for me, I am shade #52. The coverage is light-medium which is exactly what I am looking for. It is very hydrating, which makes it perfect for the winter months, it gives the skin a great glow. I would highly recommend if you have dry skin like me.

Naked Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette, I love this palette mostly for the shade faint, it is the perfect color for doing my brows. It is so smooth so it is very easy and fast to get an even application on my brows. I do like using the other colors and faint for creating simple everyday neutral eyeshadow looks.

I love the N° 28 Primer Serum Travel Size by Hourglass. This little travel size is expensive but it has has lasted me a long time, you only need a very small amount to cover your face. This primer is the best primer ever for dry skin it adds so much moisture and gives a very nice healthy glow to the skin. This makes all my foundations looks great and apply evenly. I really only use this primer in the fall winter months, so you save money because you do not use it all year round. i tend to use a cheaper one in the spring and summer, or I do not wear a primer at all.

Simple Eye Makeup Remover is the best eye makeup remover if you have very sensitive eye area, I have tried many removers and they all burn my skin, this one is very gentle and it works effectively.

To end it all off is the Batiste Dry Shampoo XXL Volume, this is one of my favourite dry shampoos/texturizing sprays.  It gives so much volume like the label says, it is great when you are wanting a lot of volume in a bun or ponytail, I have to say you have to use it sparingly if you are wanting to wear your hair down, just because it gives so much volume at the roots.

Thanks for reading, and I hope your 2015 was great, and your 2016 will be even better!

-Ashley 

You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @makeupcuisine.

All photos taken with my Canon T5i.

Business enquiries email me at makeupcuisine@hotmail.com.

The Ultimate Purse

Hi everyone, I decided I would write a post on my favourite/best purse. I got this one recently, but it quickly has become my favourite purse. I love the color of this purse, and the leather will age beautifully over time.

This is the Fossil Sydney Satchel I was able to snag the beauty on-sale and had a gift card, so I decided to picked it up. The initial reason I was drawn to this bag was, I new it would be large enough to house my DSLR camera, and everything else I like to keep in my purse. 

You can see that this purse is deep and holds a lot, and there is still plenty of room to fit more. I appreciate that the zipper goes all the way down the bag. It makes it very easy to fit larger items like my camera. If you are looking for a new purse I would highly recommend this one

Thanks for reading everyone! 

-Ashley

You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @makeupcuisine.

All photos taken with my Canon T5i.

Business enquiries email me at makeupcuisine@hotmail.com.

What I Got For Christmas

Hello everyone, first off I just want to say what every other blogger probably says when they write this post, so I am going to be like everyone else for a moment. I want to say that I am not make this blog post to brag about what I got, or to make other people feel bad. I had a few people request this post, so I decided I would write it. I was really blessed this Christmas in all the gifts I received, and I am very grateful, especially for the fun times I had with my family and friends during Christmas. I hope you had a good Christmas and New Years, and I hope your week is going well. After that spiel let's get into it!

I received the Soleil Tan De Chanel, I have heard lots about this in the beauty/Youtube world. It is a cream bronzer base, I have been loving this. I wear it under my foundation and it gives you a healthy bronzed glow. 

I have started collecting Pandora rings. It all started when me and my mom got each other matching rings for each others birthday's. This is the third one that has been added to my collection. This is the Forever Love Ring, it is super cute, and I got it in a size that would fit my middle finger. I like wearing a lot of rings on my hands. 

This is the Mirance Touque from Aldo. I love the light grey color with the white furry pom pom. Touques are essential for the cold Canadian winters.

I really like this gift set, there are 6 sample mascaras and one sample eyeliner inside. Once you have tried and used all the samples, there is a card you can use to redeem a full size of the mascara you liked the most. I think this is a genius idea and it was really good value. My mom purchased this at Shoppers Drugmart, I am not sure if you can still purchase this set. 

This is awesome, it is a speaker that is waterproof and floats. I have used it in my bathtub and by floating in the water it creates great acoustics. 

Every year mom gets me and my brother pyjamas so this year she got me these, the pants are from Superstore and the shirt is from Walmart. They are both really soft, comfortable, and baggy (which is essential in pyjamas). 

This gift is one of those items you don't think you really need, but once you have it you never want to take it off. It is the comfiest thing ever, it is a robe from The Gap. The inside is so soft and I wear it everyday. This robe is like wearing blanket, the inside is so soft. 

I have always loved Lush products and this year I received the Father Christmas Gift Set. This set is filled with all bath bombs as you can see in the picture below. All the bath bombs in the set are apart of the Christmas bath bombs that come back each year. I really like this set because they all smell so good, I really like them all, there re no duds.  

The first time I saw this mug in Starbucks I was completely drawn to it. I don't know why, but I love it it, it is random, funny, and cute. The color of pink is really cute with the little yellow bananas. 

These cute initial earrings are really small, they are cute and dainty to wear. They are subtle to wear, and I really like wearing small studs. 

Thanks for reading! As you can see quite a few of my gifts were centered around comfort. As a university student I am always thinking about comfort. 

On a different note, ***I am announcing that I will be posting every Wednesday.*** I may also post some Sundays depending on my school schedule. If you want to be notified when I have posted you can sign up with your email, or follow my Twitter, Instagram, and Bloglovin' @makeupcuisine. 

All photos taken with my Canon T5i. 

Business enquires at makeupcuisine@hotmail.com.

Talk to you soon!

-Ashley