Flawless is uncovered at Cover FX!

Cover FX is a brand you may or may not have heard of before - those in the know are devoted to it and last week Christelle and I made our way to their first ever blogger event.  It wasn't easy getting Christelle to go as they advertised they were serving "mocktails" which sounded suspiciously to Christelle like there would be no booze in them.  I lied to get her there by saying it was the Canadian way of saying that they were double shot cocktails - she's so gullible!

The set up was lovely -  flowers and cupcakes everywhere and lots of products meant for our testing pleasure!  After watching Christelle eat a piece of cheese the size of her head and drip (non-alcoholic ha ha) punch on her white sweater, it was time for the presentation!  Co-creators Jenny Frankel and Lee Graff were on hand to fill us in on the creation of the line.  We watched several amazing transformations as serious rosacea, dark circles and even tattoos disappeared before our very eyes - this Cover FX stuff doesn't mess around!  Then they set us free to play with the products ourselves - after a lot of cajoling, Christelle agreed to let me try out the set below on her.  We used the B series trio and it turned out amazing on her!  The trick is to use short dabbing strokes to apply and blend - not long sweeping ones like you do with a regular foundation.  Even Christelle had to admit that it looked good (and she hates to compliment me).  She wore it the next day and someone from my office saw her in the elevator and mentioned to me that he thought Christelle has great skin.  Thanks to Cover FX she does!

And here's the amazing product that helped achive all these wonders - The Big Cover Up which is a 7 piece kit that includes:  Skinprep FX Nourishing Foundation Primer and Anti-Aging Serum 15ml, Cover FX Total Coverage Cream Foundation (3 shades - 12g), Setting FX Translucent Setting Powder 6.5g, #130 Professional Foundation Brush and a How- to Instructional DVD featuring Lee Graff.  All for $75!  What the cream foundation does is achieve total coverage of minor to major complexion imperfections and covers complexion concerns such as blemishes, redness and sun damage.  There are 4 colour series so you pick the one that best matches your undertone.  Apply the medium shade of the colour trios and blend with the lighter and/or darker shade to customize your skin tone.  Lighten to highlight and darken to contour.
B Series - shades of golden brown to ebony
C Series - shades with primarily pink undertones
E Series - shades with a balance of pink and yellow
M Series - shades with yellow and/or olive undertones

Here is the how-to for applying the 3 shades:

 

If you prefer, you can buy the colours individually, and with over 30 shades, it's easy to find one to match.  Cover FX is available in lots of different formulations so even if you don't like a cream there are lots of other options including liquid, powder, mineral powder and even tints.

You can check Cover FX out in Canada at Shoppers Drug Mart, The Bay and Sephora.  In the USA at Sephora, Nordstroms and Naimie's and in the UK at Harvey Nichols.

 

- Lisamarie -

Wella does New York Fashion Week with style!

New York Fashion Week is over but the memory of the hair lives on and inquiring minds want to know how the runway looks at DKNY and Cynthia Rowley were created.  Never ones to keep something from me when asked nicely,  lead colourist,  Eva Scrivo and the Wella professionals that crafted the runway looks were kind enough to share their secrets.

CYNTHIA ROWLEY
The Look: A sleek, natural ponytail accented with the striking contrast of an artificial colored hair extension placed off center for an added tuft of textured fringe.

The Hair Color: Wella Professionals Koleston Perfect Special Mix shades were used to completely saturate the natural hair extensions with rich, vibrant, jewel-toned shades of the collection. The sophisticated nuances of the Special Mix collection allow for creativity without limits – turning any color fantasy into a reality on the runway or in real life. The multi-dimensional tones and layers reveal sensuous colors in a range of shades, while embedded with an element of surprise.

The Products:

• System Professional Ultimation: Strong-hold hairspray with long-lasting hold and maximum shine

 

Step-by-Step Styling 

1. Section hair off and working from back of the head to the front, prepare hair with System Professional Ultimation hair spray for added texture and shine. 

2. Create texture within each section by using a combination of a curling iron and crimping iron for non-uniform waviness. 

3. Place Wella colored hair pieces that have been crimped within sections of the natural hair so that the extensions blend in seamlessly. 

4. Pull the hair back into a soft ponytail at the nape of the neck with the ends flowing naturally, while allowing the streaks of color to show through for added dimension.

DKNY
The Look: A refined side-swept ponytail projects a sexy equestrian vibe with a subtly strong, yet not too masculine look.

The Hair Color: Using Wella Professionals’ new Blondor collection to achieve the palest of blondes, and both the Koleston Perfect permanent and Color Touch demi-permanent collections to create a gorgeous palette of naturals, handpainted extensions were created within the natural color palette of the models’ hair. The range reflects beautiful dimension in a variety of hues - from medium brown to a beautiful spectrum of blonde shades.

The Products:

• System Professional Volumagic: Natural hold styling foam for long-lasting volume
• System Professional Hypercurl: Provides texture and definition to curl patterns

Step-by-Step Styling 

1. Prepare damp hair with System Professional Volumagic and blow dry with a large round brush, creating a soft wave and giving direction for the side part. 

2. Rake hands through hair to loosen the waves, pulling to the side of the part and fasten the low side ponytail. 

3. Leave hair on the opposite side of the ponytail loose around the face to balance the asymmetry of the look. 

4. Lightly smooth System Professional Hypercurl on the length of the ponytail for separation and added texture.

This post so makes me want to grow my hair out!

- Lisamarie -

New and notable at Shoppers Drug Mart! Revlon, Biotherm, Annabelle and Clarins

Revlon's Spring 2010 collection is in the store and it's super pretty!  It features light washes of pastels mingled with lush, tropical florals in the very first collection by Revlon's Global Artistic Director, Gucci Westman.
The collection includes:  4 new nail polish - $6.49:  peach petal, lilac pastale, minted and gray suede, 2 lipglosses - $10.49: peach petal and pink pop and a beautiful 12 hour eye shadow quad - $15.99 in shades of blue, brown pink and coral.

Biotherm Celluli Laser D.Code - $79 - 200ml - You already know how much I love my Celluli Laser so how thrilled am I to see it new and improved!  This is advanced anti-cellulite care for genetic and behavioural cellulite.  You may or may not know that cellulite is not only the result of our unbalances in lifestyle (diet, exercise, stress) but also a genetic thing.  All I know is it's an annoying thing and being the cellulite cream junkie that I am, I am so testing this cream out!  I will back to you in a few weeks with a review!

Biotherm Age Fitness Elastic - $64 - 30ml - re-elastifying anti-ageing care with shape memory technology.  This is a double sided bottle with a bounce back cream on one side and a tensing serum on the other.  The pump dispenses them both at the same time so you get half of each one.  The box says it transforms skin leaving it more elastic so that it no longer marks the signs of ageing.  Sign me up for some of that!

 Annabelle has 2 new shadow trios - $8.49 - blue hue and grafix.  I love me a blue eyeshadow and the colours in this one are really nice!  I did a fabulous and vibrant smokey eye with the dark blue or if you like something more traditional the grey trio also has the perfect shades for a smokey eye.  I do find with any eyeshadow that the lasting results are so much better if you use a good primer underneath!

There are also 5 new volumizing lip glosses:  iced spice, metro mango, cherryoke, sweet tweet and vivid volume - all colours looked good enough to eat!

Clarins Everlasting Foundation SPF 15 - $41 - 30ml - The signage says it lasts for 15 hours which would be amazing if true!  Anyone have this foundation and can give us an idea of it's staying power?  It comes in 6 shades in a light to medium range.

Until next week, happy shopping and I would love to hear about any of your great finds!

- Lisamarie -

Lise Watier Youthful... Day After Day Challenge - Day 2! Contest!

Day 2 - LIFESTYLE - Laughter!

The theme of the day is laughter!  Rent a comedy, watch stupid stuff on YouTube, share jokes with your friends or co-workers!

I'm still laughing over last night's The Bachelor when Jake's sister in law made the comment to Vienna that Vienna and Tenly were very different and Vienna replied "Yes, I'm not a robot".  What's going to make you laugh today?

- Lisamarie -

If you are confused about what this is or how to enter, you can go here to see the original post!

Clarins makes perfect cleansers for my Clarisonic!

So I've been keeping a beauty secret from you all - I finally broke down and got myself a Clarisonic!  Right after Christmas actually - I wanted to give it a good test run before posting anything so keep an eye out for that in the next couple of weeks.

My biggest challenge with my Clarisonic has been the cleanser issue.  They give you a few of their sample sized cleansers with the kit but I wasn't liking the way liquid cleansers were working with it - I would either pour the cleanser directly onto the brush - in which case I felt like most it it was disappearing to the bottom and not ending up on my face, or I would wet my face, rub the cleaner into my face and then use the brush - the problem there was I couldn't open my eyes to see what was going on or the cleanser would drip into my eyes - see how complicated my life is!

Clarins to the rescue - both the cleansers that I like best with my Clarisonic are by Clarins - I suppose it makes sense considering how close their names are...  First off is their new Gentle Beauty Soap - $15 -  for face and body.  I must admit that I haven't used a face soap in many many years so I wasn't sure how I would like it but I really do!  It has a nice light fruity scent that I really enjoy.  All I have to do is wet my Clarisonic brush and rub it around on the top of the soap about 5 times which gives me the perfect amount of soap to clean my face.  My only complaint is that I wish it came in some sort of plastic case, it just comes wrapped in a piece of wax paper which was destroyed by water pretty quickly so I ended up moving it to a round tupperwear container because it's also the wrong shape to fit in any soap dish known to man.

My second fabulous Clarins find is Pure Melt Cleansing Gel - $36 - 125ml - If you are undecided about what kind of cleanser you want to use you will love this one!  You rub it onto your dry skin as a gel, it melts into an oil and when it's wet, it becomes a milk!  And because you don't wet your face first before applying, this is perfect for my Clarisonic - no dripping! and it's my cleanser of choice for when I'm wearing a lot of makeup because it does an amazing job of getting it all off!  It's labeled suitable for all skin types although I don't know that very oily skin types would appreciate it as much!

Is there a Clarins cleanser that I'm missing and must try?  Please share!

- Lisamarie -

Lise Watier Résist-Âge - Youthful...Day After Day Challenge and Contest!

With the launch of new products in the Résist-Âge lineup, Lise Watier hopes to encourage women to take a more holistic approach to the health of their skin.  Women are invited to participate in the "Youthful... day after day" challenge, which combines the daily use of Résist-Âge products with interesting challenges to help adopt better lifestyle habits.

Because Résist-Âge skincare products show proven results after 28 days, the "Youthful... day after day" challenge also lasts 28 days, from March 1 to 28, 2010.  Each day, participants are asked to tackle a challenge relating to one of the four chosen themes:  nutrition, physical activity, lifestyle or spontaneous fun.  The challenges are light-hearted and entertaining- small acts that break up the daily routine, such as listening to a favourite song, putting on bright-red lipstick or adding a green vegetable to a meal.

The Résist-Âge skincare products are available now and once you purchase one you can go here to enter the code from inside your package and sign up for the challenge on the Lise Watier website.  You will be able to select your preferred notification method for the daily challenge: by e-mail, text message or Twitter.  A prize of $1,000 worth of Lise Watier products will be drawn every week from challenge participants (4 prizes in all).


The Résist-Âge Youth-Extender day Fluid and Résist-Âge Reenergizing Night Creme were developed for a savvy blend of powerful ingedients unearthed from the latest findings in the cosmetological industry.  They are specifically designed for women in their thirties who are concerned about the early signs of aging skin.

I am taking the 28 day challenge and hope you will take it with me.  I will be posting my results on day 29 (March 29th)  and at that time will also be giving away a full sized day and night cream to one lucky reader! Value of $110!


So here's the deal, because I think the daily challenges are so cool, I will be posting them everyday at 12:30pm EST.  Come read the challenge everyday and you can enter everyday, just reply to that day's post - but you must enter each days post on that day or your entry won't be counted. Including an e-mail address would be extra helpful and you can write it like this - info(at)beautycrazed(dot)ca - so the bots can't find you but we can!  Or if you prefer not to leave a public post, it's also fine to e-mail us - info@beautycrazed.ca, please put "Lise Watier Contest" in the subject line.

We're going to do something new this time too, if you tweet the post you will get an extra entry, be sure to mention the tweet and include the link in your post reply.

This means if you visit us everyday and also tweet each post you will get 56 entries!

To be eligible for the draw, you must join Beauty Crazed as a follower if you aren't one already.  You can either do it through Google or through Networked Blogs on Facebook - you can find both signups on the right hand side of the Beauty Crazed site. Winner to be decided by random drawing and you have until March 28th at 11:59pm to enter.

28 days of challenges and Beauty Crazed, what could be better!?  Good luck to everyone!

So here's the Challenge for Day 1 - NUTRITION - Eat green tonight!  Add a green vegetable to your evening meal.  

I'm going to have some broccoli with my pasta tonight - what green veggie are you going to have?

It's no longer Day 1 so don't post here anymore, you should leave your entry on today's post which goes up each day at 12:30pm EST.  Links follow  (each day corresponds to the same date in March - day 2 is March 2nd etc):  Please note that even if the link isn't live here it is still on the blog everyday at 12:30pm EST so go look for it!  I sometimes don't get these links updated right away, especially on the weekend. 

Day 2  Day 3  Day 4  Day 5  Day 6  Day 7  Day 8  Day 9  Day 10  Day 11  Day 12  Day 13  Day 14  Day 15  Day 16  Day 17  Day 18  Day 19  Day 20  Day 21  Day 22  Day 23  Day 24  Day 25  Day 26  Day 27  Day 28  Day 29- Review and Winner!

- Lisamarie -

Quo brings Renaissance Flare for Spring 2010!

Quo is such a fun line so I delighted to see that their spring collection was out when I stopped by Shoppers yesterday.  You will still get my regular "new and notable at Shoppers" post, but I thought this collection was so cute (and extensive) that it deserved a post of it's own!

Renaissance Eye Quad - $20 - The colourful, metallic cases are very reminiscent of MAC's Royal Assets Holiday 2007 collection (if you don't remember it, go here to see a pic).  There are four quads:  Da Vinci - shades of brown and tan, Angelico - silvery greens and purples, Michelangelo - beautiful blues and Raphael - lively pinks and purples.  The pigmentation is great and I don't find Quo eyeshadows at all flakey - so for the price, you really can't beat these quads!

 

All-Over Colour Stick - $15 - multi-purpose makeup stick that can be used to add colour to the face, cheeks, eyes and lips.  It has a colour stick on one end and a brush for blending on the other.  Comes in 3 colours:  Charm - subtle pink blush, Jinx -  playful bronze and Venus - shimmery-brown.

 

Jumbo Lip-Gloss Stick - $12 - I love a lipgloss stick!  I find them so much easier to apply precisely and much less sticky.  This one is lightweight yet creamy and contains plant-derived ingredients.  It's also mineral oil and paraben free.  In 6 shades:  pink petal - translucent pink, nectar - coral, lavish - cherry red,  daiquiri - burgundy, currant - plum red and ginger twist - burnt peach.

Sheer Lipliner - $12 - In 6 colours: bloom - rose, mulberry - terra cotta, brandy - warm brown, bitter sweet - crimson red, delicious - deep burgundy and amber twist - copper brown.

  

Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil - $12 - You know how much I love sparkle and these make it so easy to add it! I usually find with powder sparkle eyeshadows and loose pigments that the sprakle ends up eyewhere but the oil gel form that these are cuts out the fallout.  I'm also happy to know that all the ingredients are plant-derived and contain no preservatives.  They come in 6 colours:  crystal - silver, onyx - intense black, opal - smoky blue, peridot - jewel green, rose quartz - soft pink and amber - subtle bronze.

Pump Up the Volume Mascara - $14 - the black and brown ones will now be part of the regular line, the turquoise and amethyst was or may not remain, which would be a shame because I am in love with the turquoise!

What are you lusting for in the Quo spring line?  I'm thinking I need the turquoise mascara, the nectar gloss stick so I can keep up with the orange colour trend, the peridot eyeshadow pencil because I love to glitter and all of the quads - for starters of course!

- Lisamarie -

Dsquared2's Milan Fashion Show: It's Black, Red and Hot!

Dean and Dan of Dsquared2 presented a hot fall 2010 collection in Milan. Thigh-high boots, leather, and mean bitch make up, paired with tailored coats and mini dresses, really spoke to me. I could see myself wearing most of this collection, granted I would need to magically grow a pair of modelesque legs. It's sexy, it's dark and I loved it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

  

 

-Christelle-