Brand Product Review: Ole Henriksen Skincare

My mom introduced me to the brand Ole Henriksen a couple years ago.  She purchased a sample trial kit and loved it so much that she convinced me to try it out (we have very similar skin – olive tone semi-acne prone combination skin).

I’ve tried MANY products from their line but decided to focus this post on the ones that I loved and repurchased and the ones I didn’t enjoy or find effective.  I have included links below directly to the Ole Henriksen website.

Please note, that they do not ship to Canada or internationally  however you can purchase many of the products at Sephora. 🙂

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My Sephora VIB Fall 2016 Sale Haul

It’s that time of year again….the SEPHORA VIB SALE!

Twice a year Sephora launches a brief 20% off sale for their VIB and VIB Rouge Beauty Insiders (ie. second and third tier loyalty members).   I took advantage of this sale and picked up a selection of my beauty essentials, new favourites, splurges, an anniversary gift, and a free point purchase.

In today’s blog, I decided to only include images and descriptions (from the Sephora website) instead of including my full reviews and/or swatches of each product, like I usually do.  I thought this would be a great opportunity to hear from you about which of the listed products you would like me to review, swatch, compare to competitors…etc (not to mention, prevent this post from being insanely long).

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The Power of Makeup: Perception vs Reality

NikkiTutorials created an amazing youtube video called “The Power of Makeup” where she only applied makeup to half her face, showing the power that makeup can have to transform her face.

Her message in the video was that, although we shouldn’t rely on makeup to feel beautiful, there is nothing wrong with wearing alot of makeup, having fun with makeup, and it making you feel more fabulous.

Although I love Nikki’s message and will definitely put up a future post around “makeup shaming” and showing how my glammed up makeup can transform my face (stay tuned!), her video inspired me to take the idea in a different direction…

The Power of Makeup 

When I remove my eye makeup at night, I often make the comment, semi-jokingly, to my fiance “goodbye big eyes!”.

When I think of the words “Power of Makeup” – I think about the power makeup has to make me feel more beautiful.  I believe that most women wear makeup to feel more physically attractive by bringing out our favourite features, minimizing our “imperfections”, and adding a pop of colour to our faces.

That being said, there have been times when I felt beautiful after trying out a new fun vibrant eyeshadow look (like Spring Laguna) but worried that it wasn’t “work appropriate”……but then, to my surprised, no one at work noticed anything different.  Was it not as bright or different as I perceived?

As I am not a formally trained makeup artist, I’ve often question – is my daily makeup routine actually making as big of a physical difference as I think…or is it all in my head?  Because I know that I have applied a contour, do I see a much thinner face?  Do I only notice my eyes popping because I know that I applied jewel toned eye shadow?  When I don’t wear makeup, do my eyes actually look noticeably smaller?

So, I wanted to see side-by-side if my typical every day makeup routine actually made me look noticeably different / “more beautiful” or did I perceive a difference because I knew I had applied makeup?

The Result

Power of Makeup

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