Hits & Misses

When you're in the habit of trying new things you're bound to discover some real gems, but not without bumping into a couple of duds along the way; I'm always a sucker for recommendations from other bloggers and for the cute mini versions of popular products that you'll find when you're queuing to pay at the shops.

Photo courtesy of: www.soapandglory.com

Product Name: Soap and Glory Trick & Treatment Concealer

Love: I loved that the one colour took the guess work out of figuring out what colour to buy (although this could prove tricky for others no doubt) and that it had a full coverage but easily blendable formula.

Hate: The formula was quite dry for an under eye concealer, considering under eye skin tends to be a bit drier and delicate than the rest of the face, I found that after a couple of hours it wasn't just settling into fine lines but it was also flaking right off my face.

Overall Rating: Miss.

Photo courtesy of: www.sephora.com

Product Name: Bliss Ingrown Eliminating Pads

Love: N/A

Hate: TMI WARNING! So I get really bad ingrown hairs in my bikini area, I'm talking really bad. Waxing is no fun, shaving is even worse and due to some tattoos laser is completely out of the question so when I heard great things about these I was so excited to have possibly found the solution to all my problems, alas that was not to be. I bought the smaller 10 to try them out and found they made absolutely no difference for me whatsoever, so for now I'm still on the hunt for a good in grown hairs solution, if you've got one let me know!

Overall Rating: Miss.

Photo courtesy of: www.sephora.com

Product Name: NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer

Love: FINALLY! An under eye concealer that actually works for me! Full coverage and so creamy and hydrating it doesn't crease or flake, no one has asked if I'm tired since I've picked up this bad boy which is massively impressive thanks to some sketchy genetics.

Hate: I mean the $32 price tag is less than desirable but since it's taken me so long to find an under eye concealer that does the job, I'm not about to complain.

Overall Rating: Huge Hit!

Photo courtesy of: www.sephora.com

Product Name: Bumble and Bumble Pret-a-Powder

Love: N/A

Hate:  So I went into Sephora looking for a new dry shampoo and the girls there were ranting and raving about the new Bumble and Bumble one and while the $31 price tag was significantly higher than the $8 I usually pay for my Batiste dry shampoo, I've loved everything of Bumble and Bumble's I've tried in the past so I figured I'd give it a try. It's the absolute worse. Fails as a dry shampoo - I started with just a little bit, did nothing, so I gradually added more and eventually wound up with a greasy mess full of powder. It added no volume, if anything it weighed my hair down, extremely unimpressed with this product.

Overall Rating: Massive Miss!

Photo courtesy of: www.firstaidbeauty.com

Product Name: First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream

Love: I've been putting off trying this for ages because I have so many hand creams and none of them seem to help my dry, itchy alligator hands, but I finally caved and bought this a couple weeks ago and I'm so in love! It's super hydrating without being greasy and has made the scaly rash on the backs of my hands disappear, thank god!

Hate: That I didn't try this sooner.

Overall Rating: Hit!

Photo courtesy of: www.ebay.com

Product Name: Tarte Maracuja Oil &Tarte Maracuja C-Brightner Eye Treatment

Love:  I picked up the mini set of these from Sephora because well, miniature and Tarte, need I say more? The Maracuja oil has since replaced my normal facial oil in the morning and I love it so much because it's super hydrating but sinks into the skin quickly so it doesn't affect the wear of your foundation.

Hate: Unfortunately the extreme amounts of Vitamin C in the C-Brighter Eye Treatment severely irritated my sensitive eyes so I can't attest to whether or not it really helps with dark circles but if you're a sensitive sort like me proceed with caution.

Overall Rating: I chucked the C-Brighter in the bin but went and bought the large Marajuca Oil, so a little hit and a little miss.

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What's My Age Again? Delarom Revitality Cream Review

I've been told all my life I seem quite mature for my age and I've always taken it as a compliment, until a couple of months ago I spotted it; this silent evil lurking in the dark behind foundation and under my moisturizer. It appeared in the shadows of the night one evening and installed itself on my forehead: yes, my very first wrinkle!! Ok, so maybe I'm being a little over dramatic, I'm not about to rush out and get botox - if that's your jam groovy but it's just not for me - and almost everyone I've asked says they have no idea what I'm talking about but I think they're just too nice to tell me I've been frowning too much lately - I blame my Kia of Death for that! I always thought crows feet or laugh lines were cute because they show you've spent your life smiling, but a giant forehead wrinkle at 22 was not my idea of aging gracefully.

Fast forward two months later to my romantic Paris getaway with the man, he's now standing patiently outside the pharmacy while I point at my forehead in despair to the girl behind the counter. She must get this a lot because she calmly held my hand, sat me down and got down to business. I should state I've always be wary of these creams that claim to cure wrinkles so I was a little anxious to invest some of my hard earned money into something I didn't totally believe in, but hey, if she said whatever crazy french voodoo in this bottle would work I wanted to believe her. After some discussion about my skin, my lifestyle and the end result I wanted we settled on Delarom Revitality Cream. It was more than I'd ever invested in any skin care item before but that forehead wrinkle had me in a "no fucks given" mood, pardon my french.

You may have noticed the funky new background in this photo, I got kinda bored of taking pictures on a white background, especially when the packaging is also white. So the painting in the background is by a talented local artist by the name of Bradley Gobeil, I chose it because this moisturizer totally makes me feel like fist pumping to infinity and beyond. If you like this picture check out the rest of his work on Instagram.

I was trying to figure out the best way to dish on this cream with out spending all day screaming "look at my forehead" to a bunch of people who can't see through a computer screen and since I didn't really think it would work I have no "before" photo to compare the two images for you guys, so let me give you a good ol' fashioned pro's and con's list and then leave it up to you guys to decide whether or not you want to take the plunge!

Con's:

• It is definitely a little bit more on the pricey side; I can't remember what I paid for it in Paris but this website has it listed for $107 which seems to be the average after a quick google search.
• Not super hydrating; this would be great if you had normal to oily skin but for someone like myself with dry skin I had to do some tweaking to make it work aka mix a little bit of my regular moisturizer with it on drier days. But now that we're out of the death grips of -30 weather I have been wearing it just on it's own for the last couple of weeks and it's been great!
• Not immediate results; clearly with any real "fix" it takes time to work it's voodoo but I'm a results driven person so it took some effort not to give up on it after a week of no noticeable change but around the 4 week mark is where I noticed drastic improvement.

Pro's:

• NO MORE FREAKING FOREHEAD WRINKLE!!!! And I mean none, unless I make that horrid frowny face that I'm sure gave me the wrinkles in the first place, I am back to looking like the fresh faced 21 year old I was before I bought a cursed death trap for a vehicle.
• It has an amazing smell; I can't place it but it's super light almost "clean" scent.
• The texture is great; not too runny or too thick and goopy. Not at all greasy and my make up applies wonderfully over top of it.
• Aside from the wrinkle disappearing, my skin looks great; it's tight and radiant, my pores are small, I haven't had more than a single spot for a "break out"

This is the first and so far only product I have tried from Delarom but I can see a bright future for our relationship if their other products are this wonderful!

Have you tried any Delarom Products before? What are your favourite "anti- aging" tricks and products? I'd love to hear in the comments below.