Review: Nars Pore Refining Primer

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! 恭喜發財! Happy year of the horse (:

To those that celebrate, I hope you had a great dinner with your family and loved ones! Chinese New Year actually used to be kind of lonely here in Canada for me, because most of my relatives were in Taiwan. But now, most of them have immigrated here, so there is more to look forward to during CNY!

I thought I'd start off the new year reviewing my current go-to primer. The Nars (oil-free) Pore Refining Primer. Who wouldn't want a hydrating primer that will keep your makeup on all day? For somebody with such dehydrated skin like me, we usually don't like oil-free, but trust me, this controls oil, but definitely still feels like it's providing me with enough hydration!

I don't usually wear foundation, only concealer, bb cream and some powder to set. But this primer literally keeps the makeup on my face all day, and I only need to touch up or reapply when I've blown my nose or physically wiped off my makeup. If I don't touch my face, I never have to worry about touching any shine or oil that has broken through.

During application, you can immediately feel the relaxing and cooling feel of the light/oil-free primer. The gentle smell of lavender adds the perfect touch to your morning makeup routine.

Now for those that like to get a little more technical, here are the main ingredients in the primer.

1. Glycerin

This is used in many skincare products to attract moisture onto your skin, which helps to get rid of any dry areas and flaking skin. It was definitely a huge problem I had, and I had to go through many skincare regimes and foundation routines to find the most suitable one for myself. My makeup usually looked horrible because the dryness on my skin would accentuate the foundation around my forehead, and it just looked so bad. So for me, this helped my foundation/concealer stay on and fill in my lines without looking like it is just floating on top of my face!

2. Lentill Seed Extract

Lentill seed extract is an antioxidant that has anti aging benefits. If we are going to be having a base to help our foundation apply better, why not have something that will help prevent aging and help firm and lift the skin as well. An all in one product is always a plus!

3. Lavender 

Asides from camomile, lavender is another type of flower that helps to calm down any inflammation, redness or irritation. Keeping down redness will help even out the skin tone so that the colour of your foundation shows up better. Especially if you are in a department store trying to look for a foundation colour, if you have a lot of redness around your face, the shade matched could be inaccurate.

4. Silicone (Dimethicone) 

Most face primers are silicone based, because it helps to smooth out the skin, blurring out pores and fine lines. It does this by filling out the lines so that foundation can be applied smoothly. You never want your foundation to sit in the fine lines and accentuate them.

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So seeing all the wonderful benefits of this primer, I even recommend it to people who don't wear foundation. Wear this primer as a base to help protect your skin, calm and control oil throughout the day.


This primer retails for $38 CAD, and can be purchased in Vancouver at any Sephora (or their online website: click), Holt Renfrew, The Bay and Murale.

Here is a picture of my simple makeup at CNY Dinner using the Nars primer as the base~

Have a good day everyone! And again, Happy Chinese New Year!!

It's a no makeup makeup look + pop of red lips!

Being in raincouver, it really does become a problem when you're trying to figure out with what to wear. Some days it may be blazing hot, and then it suddenly becomes winter weather pouring rain the next day. It makes your wardrobe so difficult, and when I leave the house I am not afraid to wear shorts on a sunny day, because it may start raining in the afternoon. I am also afraid of wearing a jacket on a rainy day because it may suddenly become like 30 degrees when it reaches the afternoon. What do I do!!!

I guess my solution has just become to wear light, and bring a cardigan. They're easy to carry, if it gets to hot, and when it's a little chilly, they'll keep me at least warm enough.
Today being a gloomy day, aka your typical Vancouver weather, I really wasn't in the mood to put on makeup. But, being a fashion student, and working in the cosmetics industry, it really isn't that easy to go out with my naked face anymore. Instead I decided to be trendy and do my no makeup makeup look ha! With, of course my favourite classic red lippy.

I've always loved Bite lipsticks, but the one I used for the first time (and love love loved!) is the exclusive one that only the one and only VIB Rouges from Sephora receive in their little congratulations kit. Obviously I've spent over $1000 in the last year... its only August ....what will happen to me in December???

Oh please excuse my beautiful roots, they will be touched up next Friday, and hopefully with an exciting new tone of blonde as well, yay :D 

So today, it literally took me about less than 10 minutes to do my makeup, and this is what I did.

1. SPF of course! Can't leave the house without that. Even when the days are yucky and cloudy, the sun still peaks through, and still damaging for our fragile skin. Especially that my skin has just been recovering lately from my acne outburst from the last few months. Read my post about how I treated my longly irritated and nasty acne here. Today I used my SPF 50 from Estee Lauder. It's super moisturizing and really nice for sensitive skins. It kind of has a bit of a green hint to it because cucumber is one of its ingredients, so it gives it a nice fresh smell instead of the yucky usual sunscreen smell. 

2. Next on the list, I applied my favourite Benefit Stay Flawless 15 hour wear primer that magnets your foundation or any complexion products right on to your face. It's perfect for that summer beach day where you don't want all your foundation to just sweat off. Even if you go to Asia, or those extremely humid locations for your vacay, you're going to want this primer to keep your makeup in tact. Even though Vancouver weather is pretty dry, I just like to have this on so that I don't have to keep touching it up throughout the day. I usually don't anyways... so if there is a product to prevent me from having to touch up my makeup, I need it! The plus size for buying it is also the extremely cute packaging that goes with Benefit's foundation collection. 

3. I don't have a picture of this one, because I actually took a sample of it home from Sephora. So always hearing all the rave about the Nars Sheer Glow foundation, I never cared to try it until now. I have to say, it really is an amazing foundation. It gives a light to medium coverage that is so natural, it really gives you that no makeup makeup kind of look. The consistency of the foundation is very liquidy, and doesn't give you the sticky feeling after you apply it at all. Of course, I like the healthy glow and dewy kind of finish, so the Sheer Glow line suited me well. If you're the type of person who doesn't like that nice shine, they have a second line of foundation called the Sheer Matte. Try that instead, you'll probably like that a lot better. The good thing is that even though it gives a matte finish, it won't dry out your skin, so don't worry about that!
I applied the foundation using Sephora's Pro Finish brush in #55. This brush gives your skin a nice airbrushed finish, and if you wanted a bit of a heavier finish, you can go ahead and use the classic flat foundation brush instead.

4. The Bite lipstick from the VIB Rouge packet is this cute little mini size! So for those who are not familiar with Bite products, they are absolutely phenomenal, and you should definitely try it if you are a lipstick lover, and haven't tried it yet. Why should you try it you ask! Well! I'll be glad to answer that curious question of yours. It is a completely natural and cruelty free lipstick that uses colours from natural fruits. In other words, its a lipstick that is healthy for you to eat. That's very important for a lipstick, because how much of the lipstick do you apply that ends up on your food or in your mouth when you lick your lips? Yupp, that's right, if the makeup product is something that you are constantly eating, you really want to find something that you can actually eat, and not just always swallowing a bunch of chemicals and artificial colours. Did I mention that they're super pigmented and last alllll day??

5. To add a bit of colour to my face, since I used a very bold lip colour, I don't want to leave out my cheeks, otherwise I'll look super flushed and sick and pale. Here, I'm using the blush and bronzer trio from Nars, I'm only using the Laguna Bronzer. It's a really nice and light milky brown that doesn't add too much definition to my fair skin. It has a tiny bit of shimmer, but is not so visible once you apply it on to your skin. 

To apply, I used the E.L.F slanted bronzer brush. I like using this one because it gives me a lot of control, as the shape of the brush goes perfectly along under my cheekbones. 

6. Lastly, I can't forget my eyebrows! I'll look like a zombie or something if I don't have them on, and people will run away from me if they see me.... Anyways, I'm using the Anastasia brow powder duo in the colour blonde. Most of Anastasia's brow products are either waterproof or are super longwear, so if you have no eyebrows or little eyebrows like me, I really recommend their eyebrow line, because they LITERALLY stay on all day. Unless you roll around in bed with your face in your pillow...then I guess you should use brown gel instead haha. 

So anyways, this is my final result, a nice natural school day kind of makeup that is appropriate for those lazy bums that want to add a bit of glamour to your day, but not having too much on. If you're someone who is used to having bold makeup, I dare you to try this! I believe that every girl should have a red lipstick as part of their accessories. 

Thank you for reading, and I hope wherever you are that it's not raining like Vancouver... unless you're here, then I guess you have to suffer with me... Bye!

-Carol

#nowplaying: City of Dreams - Alesso 

summer is getting close... time for a review on Nars' new creamy concealer (:

Hi everyone!

I've been so busy with final projects, school, and especially work, I haven't been able to do a new review. Work literally has been super hectic since there was an event! I even had to get called into work on school days (which I usually don't do) cuz the days would just be way too long. Well, I did that, and was about to over time to 10 hours yesterday, but thank god the day started to slow down, so I didn't have to stay.

So the summer weather is starting to show up, and I am more than excited! Except because of my one year program, I don't really get a summer this year ><''. Oh well, at the least the sun will accompany me to school every day :D I already whipped out my maxi dress yesterday...

and my makeup too :) I absolutely love Tarte lipsticks, they're the only lipsticks that don't make my lips look completely disgusting (cuz of my super flaky and dry lips). So if you have chapped lips like mine, Tarte would be my number one recommendation! Not to mention, this infrared rouge is the thing for Spring 2013.

Alright so enough about me, its time to look at Nars' new creamy concealer!! I have been waiting for it for the longest time, and I finally got it yesterday! Obviously, the makeup addict I am... I had to put it on right when I got home... and I have to say, it is absolutely amazing! This concealer is an awesome makeup and skin care in one. 

What is so good about it?

1. I have a combination skin, and it was able to give a nice matte finish without powder. (Give it about 20 seconds to dry)

2. It was super moisturizing, and made it extremely easy to apply without having difficulties to blend it out. So in my opinion, I definitely loved it much more than the original concealer. 

3. Extremely long wear and did not crease. (I had it on for a full shift at work from 9:30 a.m - 6 p.m, and I still had it on till about 8 p.m)

4. Does not accentuate your fine lines around your eye area, and fills them in. 

5. Has a medium - full coverage, and will hide your dark circles with only a few dabs of the product.

How does it do its job?

1. It includes an ingredient called Silica. This is what helps to reduce the wrinkles and fine lines around the eye area in time. 

2. Titanium Dioxide (sunscreen). When you are treating any part of your body or face, it is always important to protect it also from sun damage. Sunscreen is the best antioxidant and anti aging product there is, because most of the damage in our skin... whether it be sun damage or dark spots, most of them are caused by the sun. Asides from protecting your skin, this is also what will help even out your skin tone.  

3. Bark Extract. Is what will help increase the hydration around the eye area

This is what it looked like right when I applied it using the concealer in shade custard. (Left eye with concealer, right eye without). I don't know why my nose was so red this morning... 

I used it on some of my pimple scars, and it hid it pretty well. But that's only because it was pretty light already. If you're somebody who only has minimal imperfections on your face, you could use this as a concealer for your acne or scars as well. But if you're somebody who needs a full coverage concealer for acne, I recommend using either Makeup Forever's Full cover concealer, or Kat Von D's lock it foundation and tattoo concealer. 

I give this concealer a 10/10! Because what's better than something that will heal AND cover? 

Thank you so much for reading.

I hope you will love this product as much as I do!! 

Have a good day, and I wish everyone's day to be filled with sunshine!

-Carol 

#nowplaying:  Can't hold us - Macklemore