This has been the harshest winter I can remember, and my skin has been screaming out for moisture! I haven’t travelled anywhere without a bottle of lotion on my purse because I’m pretty sure my skin is as soft as an elephant’s this winter.

It seemed like a god-send when a package arrived in the mail with products from Sibu Beauty!

Sibu Beauty products are made with the Sea Buckthorn Berry which is known as the super fruit of the Himalayans. It’s rich with antioxidants, omegas 3, 6 and the very rare powerful Omega 7.

Their products are parabin-free and cruelty-free, and they also contain no dairy, wheat, gluten, sodium, yeast or preservatives. Sea buckthorn is sourced through fair trade agreements with local harvesters in Tibet.

First up I tried Sibu Beauty’s Sea Buckthorn Body Cream. It had a really nice and thick texture, so when I applied it to my skin it felt amazing.

The smell was really citrusy, but it must be what a sea buckthorn berry smells like! It smelled very refreshing.

Hours later I noticed my skin still felt moisturized with the cream which I don’t think I have ever noticed with a body cream before.

The cream also contains Shea butter which likely explains why it felt like the cream locked moisture into my skin.

Sea Buckthorn has been shown in many scientific and clinical studies to aid in the preservation of youthful texture and protection against sun damage. Sounds good to me!

When I get up in the morning, after a shower and before bed this has been my new go-to cream! It lasts well enough that I don’t need to reapply in between. And I feel less like I have elephant skin.

I also tried the Sibu Beauty Sea Buckthorn Beauty Mask. I am OBSESSED with this mask!

I tend to buy a lot of these types of masks, and then use them once or twice and then I completely forget about them. With this mask I saw results immediately so it’s officially part of my beauty regimen.

I don’t know that I have had instant results with a beauty product like this before! After applying the mask it said to leave it on for 5-7 minutes, which I did. It smelled very similar to the body cream which was nice. Once I wiped it away with a washcloth my skin really looked refreshed, and my skin tone was completely even. I have to be very cautious with what I apply to my face because I have Rosacea, and this product did not irritate my skin at all. This mask is recommended to be used once a week.

Hours later I still hadn’t applied makeup because I realy felt like I didn’t need to. My skin felt great! Seriously awesome results.

Overall I loved both of these products and I’m glad I was introduced to them.

For more information on Sibu Beauty and their products, visit www.sibubeauty.com.

If you read the blog often then you know last week I attended the Almay Good Beautiful Morning Event, and I left with some great tips and tricks on getting out the door fast, while taking a bit of time for myself.

I am one of those girls who can’t leave the house without mascara, so makeup is normally something I take the time to do before I leave the house.

Having a toddler running around really limits how straight that eyeliner is going on, or if I opt to add lipstick to my routine or not!

I decided to try out some Almay makeup essentials to see if they could cut down on my getting ready time in the morning. I decided to time myself as well to see how long it took me to be make-up ready with these Almay products. Normally I think on average it takes me 20 minutes to do my makeup in the morning.

A few of these products are multitaskers, so they were definitely made to be a time-saver!

My favourite product had to be the Almay Smart Shade Anti-Aging makeup. It has three skin tone-adjusting shades, and it adjusts to the natural tones of your skin! It starts out a grey tone, but once blended it transforms to your skin tone. Impressive, right? It helps protect your skin from the sun with broad spectrum SPF 20, which is amazing because it reduces the step of applying SPF (if you were doing it at all).

The Almay intense i-shadow smoky-i kit
Has three easy steps for the perfect smoky eye. My kit was for hazel eyes, and I have to admit I wouldn’t normally use the colors in the kit! I normally I stick to browns and beiges, so it was a big change for me, but also a good one. No thought had to go into which colors to choose – the colors were already chosen, and their application was outlined. Super easy!

These eyeshadow kits are available in 4 easy-to-use shade collections for brown, blue, hazel and green eyes.

The Almay one coat thickening mascara had a very thick and firm bristled brush, and it did live up to it’s claim of only needing one coat. I apply so many coats of mascara normally that it’s a little insane, so only needing one coat seemed really strange to me. Ok, maybe I did two coats (force of habit), but that was all I needed for a thicker lash look.

The Almay eyeliner had a really smooth line that I didn’t notice smudging during my day. It has a built-in sharpener as well to ensure the liner doesn’t dull.

The most surprising of this makeup was the Almay smart shade butter kiss lipstick. I hardly ever wear lipstick – I am totally a lip gloss girl. I really liked this lipstick because it felt like a lipgloss!

It moisturized my lips and went on very smooth. Great colors too!

I timed my makeup application start to finish, and in all it took me 12 minutes. Not bad considering it was my first time using all of these products! I was ready to head out for a crazy Saturday of a soccer practice for my son, then a long play date and lunch, and that night I added a bit more mascara and lipstick for a dinner out with my hubby.

I found all of these Almay products to be very easy to apply, and I really couldn’t get enough of the Almay smart shade anti-aging skin tone matching makeup! Loved this product!

For more information on Almay products, visit them at www.Almay.com.

I am a lover of dry shampoo. Anything that minimizes the time it takes to wash my hair, or avoid the process all together becomes one of my coveted beauty products.

I have tried quite a dry shampoos in my time, and have spent countless dollar’s on different brands, formulas, and expectations!

I am a new member of Chick Advisor’s Product Review Club, and they sent me a bottle of this Batiste Dry Shampoo Original and asked me to share my thoughts on the product.

Hands-down this is the best dry shampoo I have ever tried. It’s even unseated my previous Marc Anthony favourite – Marc Anthony 2nd Day Clear Dry Shampoo.

First of all, the sheer power of the spray that comes out of this can is almost alarming, but in a good way! It will actually blow your hair into the air better than a wind machine in a Beyonce video.

The Original Clean & Classic scent was strong at first, but faded in a few minutes. I actually liked the scent.

The reason I would consider this dry shampoo to be better than my previous favourite was that the day I tried it I had just got home from work with my second-day hair. That morning I had used my Marc Anthony dry shampoo, and my hair felt like it just needed to be washed or put away into a pony tail. I still needed to go out that night, but when I got home this bottle of Batiste Dry Shampoo was waiting for me. I gave my head a few sprays, and I completely changed my mind about the pony tail. My hair looked super refreshed and I was ready to go out! It actually made me want to throw out that old bottle of dry shampoo in place of this one.

Because the nozzle is so powerful I would recommend keeping the bottle quite a distance from your hair. I didn’t have any white residue from the dry shampoo, but that may be because I did keep it the recommended 30 cm away from my head when spraying.

This dry shampoo is my absolute favourite right now! It retails for around $8.99 a bottle, so it doesn’t break the bank either.

To see more Chick Advisor review’s on this product, visit their page here to see what everyone else thought of Batiste Dry Shampoo Original.

It’s got an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 on Chick Advisor, so I think everyone else who tried it loved it as well!

If you read the blog often, you know I am a big fan of trying new mascaras. I hate leaving the house without mascara on, and I love finding new favourite’s I can’t live without!

For the past couple weeks I have been using Wet n Wild’s MegaPlump Double Threat Mascara which is launching this February. Why is it called Double Threat? It’s a dual-ended mascara with a large brush on one end for the top lashes, and a super soft slim brush on the other end to define your lower lashes.

I really liked the small brush for the lower lashes. It was perfect to reach all of those tiny lashes that you just can’t grab with a big brush. Whenever I try to put mascara on those lower lashes, I inevitably get mascara all over my face just as I am finishing up my make up.

The smaller brush was also great for applying mascara to my upper lashes where I needed a touch-up.

This mascara didn’t seem to clump at all! It went on really smooth, and it really lengthened and separated my lashes.

First up, my before photo. Don’t be scared! It was early Sunday morning so I was looking a little tired. Maybe I should review the effects of beauty sleep and why it is essential! In this photo I had done my makeup minus mascara and gloss.

Now for my after photo – as you can see my lashes look long, clump free, and are nicely defined. A little lip gloss goes a long way too!

This mascara was easy to remove with a makeup remover, but did not smudge during the day at all.

Probably one of my favourite parts about this mascara was that it was buildable! After it dried I could still put more coats on and it didn’t clump. After wearing this mascara all day I could refresh this mascara with another coat before going out for the evening without ruining the base coat. Love that!

Plumping-wise it definitely made my lashes look more lush and fuller compared to when I didn’t have it on, but I didn’t think it made my lashes incredibly thick.

I haven’t stopped using this mascara yet so I’m a pretty big fan. This mascara’s suggested retail price is $5.99, and launches this month at mass market retailers in Canada.

For more details check out www.wnwbeauty.com!