Tag: Review

Perfume, the essential of the morning routine!

Published on by Lee2 Comments

Happy Friday! Can’t believe we’re almost done with 2022 already. We are hoping things slow down a bit so we can enjoy more of the year 2022!

Putting on fragrance is part of our morning routine. Even when we never left the house during quarantine. haha, we were super excited to try out Dossier fragrances. They are inspired by luxury designer scents but have a much more affordable price point.

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We decided to try one inspired by Marc Jacobs’ Daisy, called FLORAL VIOLET. We still had some in a sample-size bottle of Daisy so we could compare the two. We put a spritz on each wrist. In the bottle, they smell different but once they dry on your skin, they smell identical.

It’s somehow both creamy and powdery at the same time, sweet without being too sweet, and simply gorgeous. This is perfect for any teenager; the scent isn’t too strong and isn’t too mature for the young ones. It’s a beautiful vanilla/violet that doesn’t overload the senses. It’s somehow both creamy and powdery at the same time, sweet without being too sweet, and simply gorgeous.

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The other perfume we tried is the CITRUS GREEN APPLE, inspired by D&G’s Light Blue. We haven’t had it in a few years, but it smells exactly how we remember the D&G’s Light Blue in the bottle and on. This scent reminds you of summer in Italy or Spain all year long. The scent is fresh, airy, and sweet and you automatically smell the citrus. It is many people’s faves.

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WHAT WE LOVE about Dossier

🍏 First off, their whole line is vegan, cruelty-free, paraben, and UV-filter-free!

🍏 The bottle is 100% recyclable and sustainable aside from the pump

🍏 The magnetized cover is genius, it’s so easy to remove!

🍏 They also have a unique risk-free system where you can try and then decide if you want to keep the perfume. Returns are refunded and donated to charity, which is awesome, so they don’t go to waste! 

🍏 They have a wide variety of fragrances for men and women inspired by luxury/iconic scents

🍏 The bottle is sleek, aesthetically pleasing, and just very Instagram-worthy.

🍏 We LOVE how they name their perfumes and how they smell like inspired scents.

🍏 SO AFFORDABLE 👍

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Use Code Lee10 for an additional 10% off Dosser. co. Dossier has a welcome offer up to 20% on the website plus, free shipping on 3 or more items! So, in total, you will be getting up to 30% off by using the discount code Lee10 at checkout. We don’t know about you but that sounds like a win to us! Each fragrance comes with a sample size perfect for on the go too!

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Hope you all have a great weekend and a good school year!
*Thank you to Dossier for gifting these fragrances. As always, thoughts & opinions are BeautyLeeBar own.

R.E.M Beauty by Ariana Grande: ‘Out of Body’ Collection

Published on by LeeLeave a comment

R.E.M beauty is stepping into complexion products. The fourth collection ‘Out of Body’ features 60 shades of a skincare-infused, multi-tasking sweetener concealer supercharged with R.E.M’s proprietary essence for clinically proven results. The collection also features a blending sponge, face primer, and blotting paper sheets to control oil. The array of concealer shades and accompanying products of the ‘Out of Body’ collection will be available to purchase today July 28th on the R.E.M beauty website. 

Source: @rembeauty on Instagram

OUT-OF-BODY COLLECTION:

The ‘Dream Cloud Blender’ is a latex-free blender that is carefully sculpted to fit the contours of your face. The domed point gets into the creases around your eyes and nose while the rounded bottom can be used to softly blend out your concealer.

‘Dream Cloud Blender’
Source: @rembeauty on Instagram

Grande chose the cloud-like foam texture because it was just right: not too soft and not too dense. The sponge is infused with antioxidant-rich Ashwagandha for an extra boost. A bonus is the blender works wet or dry, with liquid or powder products.

‘Lunar Magic Blurring Primer
Source: @rembeauty on Instagram

The ‘Lunar Magic Blurring Primer’ is a long-wearing primer formulated with hydra-blur essence, which was previously found in the ‘Full Nights Sleep Cooling Under-eye Balm’ to cool, even, and hydrate your complexion. The primer also includes soothing micro-algae, anti-pollution ectoine, and brightening vitamin C-rich Jeju lemon. These ingredients will blur, smooth, and improve makeup wear for up to eight hours.

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‘Satin Sheets Blotting Paper’
Source: @rembeauty on Instagram

The ‘Satin Sheets Blotting Papers’ are black bamboo charcoal-infused blotting papers that quickly diminish shine, soak up excess oil, and purify pores. The slim packaging makes it easy to fit into any bag and is accessible to use when needed!

‘Sweetener
Concealer’ Source: @rembeauty on Instagram

The ‘Sweetener Concealer’ is perfectly designed for a smooth, lightweight application. The creamy formula can be layered to your desired level of coverage for a soft matte, veil-like finish. The goal with this product is to allow you to completely customize your look! The concealer is infused with R.E.M’s hydra-smooth essence. It is powered by skin-loving ingredients including hyaluronic acid, Ashwagandha, and Vitamin C. The ‘Sweetener Concealer’ will leave the skin looking sweeter than before.

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Primp-Tip: For the best application, apply with the new latex-free dream cloud blender sponge and lunar magic blurring primer for a seamless, streak-free finish.

Source: @rembeauty Instagram

‘Sweetener Concealer’ is available in 60 different shadows to ensure you will be able to find your perfect match. Two artistry shades are also included in shades black, and white to lighten or darken a shade.

Source: @rembeauty Instagram

sweet how-to

01 finding your shade for all-over concealing: choose a shade closest to your skin tone. identify your shade level (fair-rich) & undertone. shades progress in-depth as you go from 1-10 within your shade level.

02 for spot concealing: use a concealer the same shade as your foundation. to conceal a pesky blemish, dab some concealer on top and wait 2 minutes before blending it out.

03 for brightening: choose a shade at least 1-2 shades lighter than your skin tone or use fair 1 for the ultimate, bright white highlight.

04 for correcting: choose a color correcting shade within the lineup. a pink-toned concealer helps conceal blue and purple tones in lighter skin and covers up dark spots and dark circles under the eyes. an orange-red concealer helps cancel out dark areas on darker-toned skin. a yellow concealer neutralizes redness around the mouth and the nose and brightens the undereye area. top with a skin tone shade to even out complexion.

05 for contouring: choose a shade at least 2-3 shades deeper than your skin tone.

06 to lighten a shade: mix in our true white: fair 1

07 to use rich 10, the blue-black shade: use to deepen the tan to rich shades and make them cooler, correct what you need, and contour the richest skin tones. a little goes a long way, so use sparingly and add as needed.

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And because, being in the industry, Ariana has all of the tricks of the trade, the r.e.m. beauty fact sheet also shares all the “sweet tips” you’d want to know to find the best concealer shades for all-over, brightening, contouring or correcting, as well as a few pointers for raising your makeup game.

PRIMP TIPS FROM ARI

  1. After filling in your brows, apply a small amount of concealer underneath the brow to create a well-defined arch line.
  2. Use to sharpen your winged liner. With a small brush, clean up the bottom of your wing liner with long strokes.
  3. A tiny bit of light concealer in your eye’s inner corner appears more awake.
  4. Clean up your lip lines and take a bit of concealer in the same shade as your foundation on a lip brush. Carefully outline your lips to create sharp lines.
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The ‘Out of Body’ collection launches today July 28th on rembeauty.com. The collection will soon be available in your local Ulta stores. You can keep up to date with the collection through R.E.M Beauty’s Instagram.

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We are excited to see what Grande and R.E.M Beauty explore further into complexion products. Will you purchase any products from the collection? Leave a comment down below!

VERSED SKINCARE – WHAT’S WORTH THE MONEY

Published on by LeeLeave a comment

We feel like Versed Skincare has taken over social media. We see so many posts about their products. One of our favorite parts of this brand is they have affordable skincare! All of their products are very reasonably priced! We have recently had the chance to try out a few of their products, and we are here to give you our opinion on what’s worth your money!

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Acne Calming Cream Cleanser | $16.99

We feel that cleansers are mostly all the same. It’s on your skin for such a short amount of time that they aren’t going to make a drastic change to your skin. But since we started using this cleanser, we have noticed a difference in breakouts. We have been breaking out a lot less since we used this every night. If you struggle with acne, you’re going to love this cleanser! We also have found this does a good job of taking off your makeup as well!

This face wash is made with 1.5% Salicylic Acid which will help you get rid of any breakouts. The other main ingredients are Blue Tansy and Apple Fruit Extract. The Apple Fruit Extract is a very gentle exfoliant, and the Blue Tansy has anti-inflammatory properties and gives it the blue color!

Originally some of us editors were using Cerave Hydrating Facial Cleanser, but we found that it was drying our skin and irritating it which was causing us to break out more. We switched to this cleanser and will never go back. The formula leaves the skin feeling fresh, and we can see noticeable improvement! We use this product every so often to address minor breakouts we have. At the first sight of a pimple, we will use this product morning and night to treat and stop the breakout from getting worse! This product is so gentle yet effective! We love using it with a facial brush tool as well!

If you have acne-prone skin and are looking for a new face wash, we recommend picking this up. We love how it makes our skin feel, and how it helps with our breakouts, and we love that it is on the affordable end!

Weekend Glow Daily Brightening Toner | $17.99

This is the perfect toner for anyone that is struggling with dark spots or pesky marks left from breakouts. The weekend glow toner is made with a four-acid complex including Lactic Acid, Glycolic Acid, Azelaic Acid, and Kojic Acid. It also has bearberry extract and Vitamin C to help brighten your skin. We love that it is gentle enough to be used daily! We rotate this with other chemical exfoliants throughout the week, so we use it about 3 nights a week. We think this is our favorite out of everything we have tried from Versed.

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Be careful with this toner since it is similar to witch hazel and a lot of customers have said this caused them to break out even worse than before. It has a slight smell for a second then it disappears once dried down.

Using this after the Acne Calming Cream Cleanser is the perfect combo! So, if you are someone that struggles with hyperpigmentation or dark spots this is going to be the toner for you!

The Shortcut Overnight Facial | $19.99

This overnight facial cream is made with Lactic and Glycolic Acid and Vitamin A to help exfoliate and brighten your skin. You apply this on your face 1-3 times a week at night and leave it on all night. It absorbs right into your skin, so you don’t feel like you are sleeping with a sticky mask on all night. We truly love the idea of this product, because it is kind of a two-in-one. You get your chemical exfoliant and your moisturizer all in one.

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The blend of lactic and glycolic acid works together to break down dead skin cells. Vitamin A is one of the most powerful and proven ingredients for aging skin. Vitamin A exfoliates, brightens, and hydrates while skin-conditioning allantoin, rosehip, and vitamin E keep the skin calm. It’s pH-balanced, non-drying, and non-irritating—basically, it’s a non-scary treatment that won’t leave you red or flaky (just bright and refreshed). It’s even gentle enough to use on back-to-back nights, and it absorbs into your skin just like a lotion, residue-free so your pillows are safe too.

This overnight facial works on sensitive skin as well. It does make your skin feel soft the next day, but this is a product you’ll have to use consistently for a few months to notice a difference.

Mood Lighting Luminizing Glow Drops | $17.99

This was by far the product we were most excited to try out because we love anything that is going to give us a glow. But we honestly weren’t super impressed by these. It is supposed to give you a natural glow, something that can be great for summer bare face or use with makeup!

We did give the LUMINIZING GLOW DROPS to our friends, and they love it. However, we do like that this is a serum, so it has ingredients like Peptides, Blackberry Extract, and Vitamin E. We just found we didn’t get the glow we were expecting from this, we had to use quite a bit of product to notice a difference. We started to break out and that is a no-no for us! It does feel nice on the skin and does give a very subtle glow, but we still find ourselves reaching for the Glow Recipe Dew Drops more.

Virtually weightless, each glow drop pumps up hydration levels and plumps up elasticity for noticeably smoother skin. How? The peptide polyglutamic acid—a.k.a. hyaluronic acid‘s more powerful relative that can hold 4000x its weight in moisture—works alongside antioxidant-rich blackberry extract to strengthen skin’s barrier.

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This comes in two different shades – Sheer Bronzed and Sheer Golden. We did get both shades since we all are not the same skin color.

You can use these by mixing them with your foundation, wearing them as the last step in your skincare routine, or mixing it in with your moisturizer. Our favorite way is using it as a highlighter on our cheekbones!

Just because we didn’t love these doesn’t mean that they won’t work for you. We are just someone that loves a more noticeable dewy finish. So, if you are more on the subtle side.

Silk Slip Lip Oil | $9.99

We thought this was going to be tied with the Acne Calming Cream Cleanser as one of our favorite products! First off, the pink packaging just gets us! Second, it is the most hydrating lip oil, and it makes your lips look amazing! We wanted this to be one of the main beauty essentials that we always keep on us!

We honestly did enjoy this product for the most part. Our lips were always hydrated when applying, but the only thing we did not like was that they would dry a bit sticky. Also, after a while, the product produced this awful odor which was odd. We even repurchased because we thought maybe we got a bad batch. Very disappointing and a waste of money. Looking online we are not the only one with this issue, so they seem to have a problem with the formula going bad quickly. Hopefully, they fix this ASAP!

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They chose ingredients that will help hydrate your lips instead of leaving them feeling dry a few minutes later like most lip balms. They said your lips will stay soft and hydrated with a subtle, healthy sheen (not a glossy shine). Most important, you can still feel the moisture on your lips even after the oil is fully absorbed. 

SILK SLIP CONDITIONING LIP OIL contains Camellia Oil, Jojoba Oil, Vitamin E, Sunflower Seed Oil, and Sesame Oil. And I feel that this does live up to the hydrating claim completely. It has a great smell and doesn’t leave a weird taste in your mouth.

They also have tinted lip oils that we dying to try along with other products that we already ordered to try!

Have you tried anything from Versed Skincare? If so let us know your favorites in the comments! Some were better than others, but that is how it’s going to be with skincare. But overall, we are genuinely so impressed with their skincare, and we will be picking up some more to test out!

THE BEST PERFUME DUPES – DOSSIER PERFUME

Published on by Lee4 Comments

Today we are introducing you to Dossier, a fragrance company that creates clean, non-toxic, and ethical fragrances inspired by designer favorites, starting at only $29. They believe that everyone should be able to afford luxury perfumes. They make their perfumes affordable by removing the designer label.

All their perfumes are Colorant & UV Filter Free, vegan, cruelty-free, Paraben & Phthalate-free, and made with 100% clean ingredients that are made in Grasse, France (the perfume capital of the world). The company itself is based in New York City.

We have been using Dossier perfumes for years now and can honestly attest to the high quality of their fragrances and packaging which is why we are confident that you’ll love this brand too. 

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WHAT IS A DOSSIER?

“Dossier was founded out of a desire to make premium fragrances accessible to everyone. As scent enthusiasts ourselves, it became impossible for us to turn a blind eye to the price markups traditionally seen in the industry. Whether it be marking up scents because of celebrity endorsement fees or pricey packaging, we realized perfumes were being sold for way more than they cost to make.”

So basically, Dossier is a company that uses the same scent notes as high-end perfumes, without any price markups. So, anyone can smell amazing and feel great because you didn’t break the bank.

They have fragrances, for women and men. The dossier has unisex perfumes as well.

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HOW IT WORKS.

You can go to the Dossier website and take a quiz; this quiz will help pick the perfect scent for you after you answer a few questions that only takes 1 minute. Or if you have a luxury scent that you know you love, but don’t want to pay the high price, you can search the name of that scent on the website’s search bar. If they have a scent that is inspired by your search, they will show you.

PACKAGING.

The packaging for Dossier perfumes is very simplistic and modern. It is a simple clear bottle with a white-label, the label has the name of the fragrance as well as the fragrance notes. It has a simple spray nozzle with a magnetic cap. Part of how they can keep their prices so low is the cost of packaging is much less than luxury perfumes.

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Each scent comes in a cute little box that has a card with all the information about the perfume, along with the sample and the bottle. We know that it seems risky to buy perfumes online, so they send you a sample size perfume with each one you order. You can use that to make your final decision on whether you like the scent or not. You can return any unopened perfume for 30 days no questions asked. Customer service is amazing, and we never have any issues with them.

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Our EXPERIENCE.

We were very impressed with the quality of these perfumes. Normally when we use our more expensive perfumes, we have to reapply throughout the day but with Dossier, the perfumes last longer. We gifted our subscribers with some dossier perfume, and they said they lasted all day as well! They said they couldn’t stop getting compliments which made us very happy with our choices. The original and the DUPES of Dossier fragrances are 100% the same, the only difference is you are not spending $200 on one perfume when it comes to Dossier.

The only thing we don’t love is the spray nozzle because if it breaks you can’t replace the nozzle part or open the bottle to transfer the scented liquid into another container which is upsetting. But that doesn’t stop us from buying them. We just wanted to add that little note because we know a lot of people come to us for our honest reviews.

FRAGRANCES WE ARE LOVING NOW.

Musky Musk // This is inspired by Juliette Has a Gun, Not a Perfume. (Retails for $135)

Top Notes: /

Middle Notes: Cetalox, Iso E Super

Base Notes: Habanolide, Musks

Ambery Saffron // Inspired by MFK’s Baccarat Rouge 540 (Retails for $325)

Top Notes: Saffron, Orange Blossom

Middle Notes: Jasmine, Plum, Cedarwood

Base Notes: Oakmoss, Fir Balsam, Amber

Woody Sandalwood // Inspired by Le Labo Fragrances’ Santal 33 (Retails for $198)

Top Notes: Violet Leaves, Cardamom

Middle Notes: Orris, Ambrox, Cedarwood, Cypriol

Base Notes: Musk, Sandalwood, Amber

Ambery Cherry // Inspired by Tom Fords Lost Cherry (Retails for $375)

Top Notes: Cherry, Almond, Cinnamon

Middle Notes: Cloves, Rose, Jasmine, Plum

Base Notes: Peru Balsam, Tonka Bean, Vanilla

Floral Honeysuckle // Inspired by Gucci’s Bloom perfume (Retails for $108)

Top Notes: Green Leaves, Orange, Honeysuckle

Middle Notes: Jasmine Sambac, Tuberose

Base Notes: Orris, Sandalwood, Vanilla

Woody Oakmoss // Inspired by Iconic Coco CHANEL Mademoiselle perfume (Retails for $116)

Top Notes: Bergamot, Orange, Peach

Middle Notes: Jasmine, Rose, Patchouli

Base Notes: Oakmoss, Vanilla, Vetiver

Woody Sage // Inspired by Jo Malone Wood Sage & Sea Salt cologne (Retails for $100)

Top Notes: Fig Tree, Grapefruit

Middle Notes: Marine Notes, Ambrette

Base Notes: Clary Sage, Amberwood

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FINAL THOUGHTS. 

This is a no-brainer to us! The dossier website is amazing, and the scents are amazing. They are so spot on to original scents without the hefty price tag, so you can buy up a bunch of these and switch up your scent all the time. The website is easy to use, and they always seem to be running some kind of deal. When you click on one scent, they suggest fragrances that can create your dreamy blends. Seriously get yourself some of these with our code Lee10, you won’t regret it!

Have you tried Dossier? If so, what are your thoughts on their products? Let us know your answers in the comments section of this blog post below.