• First Impressions with Woodlot

    Hi Everyone!

    Update: Sadly, the brand closed its doors.

    Today, I have a first impressions review for Woodlot products. It’s a Canadian brand that was founded in 2014. They generously sent me three products from their collection: two soaps and a body lotion.

    woodlot amour nourishing body lotion

    Natural Recharge Soap

    A simple antidote to stress and fatigue. Soothing aromas of rosemary + peppermint.

    Ingredients: Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Avocado Oil, Sodium Hydroxide (Lye), Shea Butter, Cocoa Seed Butter, Peppermint Essential Oil + Rosemary Essential Oil

    This one smells really nice. I love the peppermint in it.

    Natural Wildwoods Soap

    Embrace the power of detoxifying bamboo charcoal. Blended with nourishing butters, soothing balsam oil, crisp fir oil, and warming clove oil, this cleansing bar is brimming with benefits.

    Ingredients: Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Avocado Oil, Sodium Hydroxide (Lye), Shea Butter, Cocoa Seed Butter, Activated Bamboo Charcoal, Balsam Essential Oil, Fir Essential Oil, Clove Essential Oil

    This one has a nice scent as well, but products with trees tend to smell more manly to me. The one thing I don’t love about this one is the activated charcoal. While it’s great that it detoxifies, it can get quite messy with the charcoal bleeding when it gets wet.

    RATING: 4/5

    While these are nice soaps, $10 is a bit expensive for one bar.

    Amour Nourishing Body Lotion

    Scents of floral palmarosa, fragrant rose damask, and spicy black pepper oil make this nourishing and lightweight lotion a romantic treat for your skin.

    Ingredients: Purified water, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil**, Ecomulse, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Coconut derived MCT Oil, Neodefend (botanical preservative), Glycerin, Xanthan Gum, Cymbopogon martini (Palmarosa) Essential Oil, Rosa damascena (Rose Damask) Essential Oil, Piper nigrum (Black Pepper) Essential Oil, Sodium Hydroxide (ph adjuster). **Organic ingredient

    This lotion made my hands feel very soft, but the black pepper is a little overwhelming for me. I don’t usually use scented lotions because I have sensitive skin and a sensitive nose. I get headaches from scented products easily.

    RATING: 3/5

    woodlot amour nourishing body lotion

    My favourite of the three is the Recharge soap. It smells so good (and I don’t usually like Rosemary), but the mint makes it refreshing.

    They gave me a discount code. Use the code JENCAT-XO at checkout to get 15% off!

    Have you heard of Woodlot?

    Love,

  • Review | Marcelle CC Concealer + Corrector

    Hi Everyone!

    20170808_151925.jpgI recently bought Marcelle’s CC Concealer + Corrector from Shoppers Drug Mart. I got the shade Light/Medium and it costs $12.95 CAD. I wanted to give a stick concealer a try, and I needed to spend $50 for free shipping, so I added it to my cart. It comes in a nice and sleek, white tube with a clear top. It was the winner of the 2015 Beauty Grand Prix by Elle for BEST CONCEALER UNDER $20. There are three reviews on the website giving it 5 stars saying that it’s hydrating and doesn’t crease. So I put the concealer to the test!

    Conceals dark circles and corrects dark spots, all in one step!

    Are the claims true?

    As a concealer, it conceals dark circles, undereye puffiness, age spots and redness. It did conceal dark circles, but I feel like there are other concealers that do a better job.

    As a corrector, it corrects and prevents the appearance of dark spots. I didn’t really try this to colour correct, but it did sort of conceal dark circles under my eyes. I only used it once, so I can’t say anything about preventing the appearance of dark spots. Unfortunately, it caused creasing under my eyes because it’s a dry formula.

    I’m very sensitive to smell when it comes to beauty products. I can’t use scented lotions or hand sanitizers unless they have a fresh, fruity smell (and even then, there are times I have to draw the line). I tend to just avoid scented creams if I can. I also don’t like if a foundation or any makeup has a chemical smell. All makeup will have some sort of chemical smell, but sometimes there’s makeup that I can’t even use because I don’t like the smell. Whenever I’m at Sephora looking for a new foundation or concealer, I always give it a sniff to see if I can stand it. I was immediately turned off by the smell of the CC Concealer + Corrector. It smells like plastic, but that’s what happens when you order something online without seeing it in person first. Even then, Shoppers and Rexall don’t always have testers for the products.

    In addition to the smell, the product looked kind of dry too, but appearances can be deceiving so I swatched it on my hand. Unfortunately, I was right, it didn’t run very smoothly against my skin (see below for pictures). I have Cover FX’s Correct Click Color Corrector, and it feels like a lipstick. It’s very smooth and blends nicely. The Marcelle concealer, on the other hand, feels gritty against your skin, I don’t know if I accidentally got some dirt in it, but I’ve wiped it a few times and it almost makes it look worse. I even swatched it on my parents to see if they felt it too and I wasn’t just imagining things. They agreed that it felt gritty. It almost feels like Tarte’s FRXXXTION Stick Exfoliating Cleanser (which I absolutely love, thanks to one of my best friend’s for introducing it to me). This is bad because this product is for the under eye area and that’s one of the most sensitive areas on your face. Regardless of the grittiness, I tried it out yesterday and noticed that it was creating creases under my eyes where I don’t have any.

    marcelle.PNG

    RATING: 0/5

    I give it a 0/5 because I didn’t like the smell or the fact that it was dry, but on top of that, I woke up this morning with a bit of a breakout. I basically exfoliated under my eyes yesterday and now my face is reacting to it. My mom said my eyes looked a bit puffy too, but that could be due to lack of sleep.

    Thoughts:  I’m an optimist, so I’d like to think that maybe there’s a chance I got an old one that dried out or it was faulty somehow, but this was a fail for me. I wouldn’t recommend this product especially with the fact that it’s for under your eyes and it feels so gritty. I don’t understand how this was rated the Best Concealer under $20 in 2015. Someone with oilier skin might like this product, but mine tends to be on the drier side. You could maybe mix this with an oil product to create a creamier consistency, but I am steering clear of stick foundations for the under eyes. I might give them a try for colour correcting though.

    Marcelle is a Canadian company, so I want to support it as a fellow Canadian. This product is a pass for me, but I like their Velvet Gel Waterproof Lip Liner in Rosy Nude and the Rouge Xpression Lipstick in 901 Amour (it won the 2016 Beauty Grand Prix for BEST LIPSTICK UNDER $12).

    I’ve heard good things about the Tarte Amazonian Clay Waterproof 12-Hour Concealer and I have a colour-correcting concealer from Cover FX that runs smoothly, so I would assume that the Cover Click Concealer + Foundation is the same formula. Both the Tarte and Cover FX Concealers are a little more expensive.

    My skin is more dry than oily (especially around my nose), so stick concealers aren’t the best for me, but the CC part of the Marcelle Concealer + Corrector interested me so I thought I would give it a try. I’ve heard rave reviews about the Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer and Tarte Shape Tape, so I might give those a try.

    What are your fave concealers?

    Love,

    jen