SNAPSHOTS: Ripley's Aquarium

This is a different kind of post for me, but a few weeks ago I visited the Ripley's Aquarium in Toronto for my first time and I thought I'd share some photos I took! I had been wanting to the Ripley's Aquarium since it first opened last year and I'm so glad I finally went! I went when my friend from Ohio was visiting and it was such a fun way to spend an afternoon. There was so much to see (and take photos of) and I would definitely recommend going if you live in the area and haven't gone! My personal favourite part were the jellyfish!

Julep Maven Box | July 2014

Yes, I know it's a little late to be posting my July Julep Maven box, and I considered just not posting about it, but I ended up really loving everything in this month's box, so better late than never right?! The theme of this month's box is the Poolside Collection. I got the Classic With a Twist box which included the Bare Body Milk, and two nail polishes in the shades Vicki and Kelsey. Both polishes are a creme finish, which is my favourite nail polish finish. 

Vicki is a bright warm pink. The formula of this polish is wonderful, and applies opaque in only 1 coat! I've also been wearing this on my fingers and toes for a while now and it's quite chip-resistant! Kelsey is a bright peach creme and it's such a nice alternative to a nude polish. The Bare Body Milk is a wonderful and moisturizing body lotion. It's thinner than most body lotions I've used but it still is highly moisturizing and doesn't leave my skin feeling sticky.

Overall this has been one of my favourite Julep boxes to date! I really loved all the products I recieved!

Sign up for Julep Maven and get your first box free here!

OPI Coca Cola Collection Swatches

On my recent trip to America I picked up this OPI set of the Coca Cola collection! I had my eye on quite a few shades from this collection so I thought this set would be a great way to try out most of the collection! The collection has 9 shades and I got minis of 8 of the polishes in this set, along with OPI's Nail Envy and Top Coat. In the swatches I applied two coats of each polish. The cremes in this collection are the stand-out polishes to me as they all swatched beautifully and are just wonderful colours. Another impressive shade is My Signature Is "DC", the silver foil polish. Overall my favourites from the line are Coca-Cola Red, Sorry I'm Fizzy Today, and Get Cherried Away.

Have you bought any polishes from this collection? Tell me your favourites in the comments below!

Big USA Beauty Haul! (Ulta, Sephora, Target, B&BW, etc.!)

Hi everyone! So the week of July 14-21 I was in America visiting a friend and we ended up doing quite a bit of shopping. I also got to go to Ulta for my first time (we went to 3 actually) which was so exciting for me!! I thought I'd share the beauty things (plus a few extra items) that I bought!

I'll start off with the things I bought at Ulta! One of the things I knew I 100% wanted to buy on my trip was the Lorac Pro Palette. Lorac used to be sold in Sephora stores (and in Canada) but now Lorac is only at Ulta I believe, so I finally got to buy it! I was tempted to buy the new Lorac Pro 2 Palette but I restrained myself. At Ulta they were selling a 2-pack of travel-sized bottles of Urban Decay De-Slick Setting Spray and since I had never tried a setting spray but wanted to, my friend and I split on the 2-pack so we each got a little bottle of it. Something else I wanted and ended up buying at Ulta was the Urban Decay Naked Flushed Palette in Streak. I own the Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in the shade Streak so I thought it'd be nice to get the corresponding cheek palette and I've really been enjoying it so far! I also got some nail polish at Ulta. I really wanted to try quite a few shades from the new OPI Coca Cola collection so I ended up buying the OPI 10 Pack of Style of the Coca Cola Collection. This pack includes 8 of the shades from the collection, as well as OPI's base coat and top coat. Another couple of polishes I bought which I found in the clearance section were Urban Decay Nail Polish in Blackheart and OPI I Sing in Color from the Gwen Stefani line.

Now, onto my Sephora purchases! A new product I wanted to keep my eye out for in Sephora was the Kat Von D Studded Kiss lipstick range. I ended up finding 5 or 6 of the shades on a display for sale and ended up buying one! I got the Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick in Backstage Bambi. This lipstick is gorgeous but I'll be doing a separate post all about it! At Sephora I also found the Sephora Formula X The Twenty-Two Nail Polish set which includes 22 mini bottles of the Formula X polishes! As a nail polish junkie I couldn't resist this at over 50% off. I also hadn't tried the Formula X polishes yet so this is such a great way to try a bunch of them!

The rest of the items here are from a few different places. At Target I bought a new ELF Eyebrow Kit in Medium as it's my favourite product to use on my brows and I'm nearly out of the current one I'm using. I also found this cork ampersand at Target and as a design nerd and ampersand collector I couldn't resist it! At a CCO we went to on our first day of shopping I found this MAC Nail Polish in Double Trouble from the Spring 2013 Archie's Girls collection. I was so excited to find something from this collection!! We of course also went to Bath & Body Works and I had a gift card to spend there so I bought two 3-wick candles in the scents Coastal Sun and Turquoise Waters. One thing I forgot to photograph (because it was already in my bathroom) was a bottle of It's a 10 Miracle Leave-In Product which I picked up at Nordstrom Rack. And last but not least, on our layover back to Toronto we were at Laguardia Airport in New York and I had to get an I <3 NY mug!

I hope you enjoyed looking at/reading about all the items I picked up! I'm considering making a post with some photos of my trip so let me know if that's something you might want to see!

July Favourites 2014

Hey guys! I've had quite a month. About half-way through the month I travelled to Ohio to visit my internet best friend and after a week there we both came back to Canada where she stayed with me for a week! So needless to say I went two weeks without blogging. But I have a bunch of posts lined up for August already so I'll be back in the swing of things! This month I don't have a ton of beauty favourites but I thought I'd share with you some things I've loved throughout July!

Fujifilm Instax Mini 7s Camera / I've had this instant camera since last summer but I had only used it a couple of times. I ended up using it a few times during the month and it was just fun to use! I definitely plan on getting more use out of this because I love the cute instant photos it takes!

Julep Vicki / I got this nail polish in my July Julep Maven box (post coming soon!) and it's just the most beautiful bright pink creme. I've had this colour on my toes for over a week now and it has barely chipped which I'm really impressed by! And I painted it on my finger nails today and most of my nails were fully opaque with just 1 coat! 

MAC Kelly Yum Yum Lipstick / This has been my go-to bright lip colour for the month of July. It's such a beautiful vibrant fuchsia! Also I love the lilac packaging.

Tarte Aqualillies Waterproof Eye & Cheek Palette / This is a palette I got last summer as part of the Aqualillies for Tarte collection and it has honestly been a favourite for this entire summer so far. It has a full-sized Amazonian Clay blush, a bronzer, a highlight, and 6 eye shadows that are all perfect for summer. I brought this on my trip as well since it's a great all-in-one travel palette! Tarte actually has just released another palette in this format for Fall 2014 and I definitely want to get my hands on it!

Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette / I have talked about this palette on my blog so many times before but it's honestly my most-used eye shadow palette. This is the only other eye shadow I brought on my trip besides the Tarte palette and I probably used just this palette for 5 of the 7 days. It's just perfect in every way!

ELF Shine Eraser / These are just oil blotting sheets I got in an ELF order a while back. Over the past few weeks I've been spending a lot of long days outside and these are great to blot away any oil that's going on in my T-zone! Especially in the summer I want to refrain from applying any more powder to my face to get rid of oily spots, so these blotting sheets have been fantastic!!

Boostcase / This is a battery charging case for my iPhone I picked up before I went on my trip! It holds an extra 150% battery for your phone and it comes with a simple iPhone case to keep on your phone that the battery case attaches to whenever you want to boost your battery! This has been a lifesaver for the past few weeks and now I can't imagine not having it!

Those are all my favourites for the month of July! What were some of your favourites?