Beauty Vixen: toronto

2024 First Quarter Recap

By Jill Oliver-Fox Thursday, April 11, 2024 personal, recap, roundup, toronto

Hi everyone.

I haven't done a recap since I quit my job to start school in January, I didn't feel I had a lot to recap for a while. I put it off and I put it off some more. Now, I feel Jan-Feb-March makes a good quarterly round-up. So let's take a look at how my year has been going.

January

January was interesting, I didn't have to go back to work and I had some time to myself. This also happened in the new year of 2021, because of a lockdown. I got a bit of stuff done around the home, but as always, never as much as I would like.

I messed around in my office trying to set up a good workplace since school was completely online. As a result, I moved a lot of stuff out of my office and into the spare bedroom, and I also tossed a lot of skincare and gave my niece a bunch of makeup and other goodies.

I got to spend some time with my friend Jenn as we went to Fresh to eat. I got an Impossible burger. I don't know why I hate regular hamburgers, but the Impossible one tastes good to me.

Bradley and I went on a ton of walks. January was very mild for the time of year, and then it got a bit snowy in February. For the most part, it has been great walking weather. Our biggest dilemma is finding interesting routes to walk as a lot of the paths we like to walk are under construction for the next two years.

School started the second week of January and I had a lot of hiccups. I have never done online school before and wasn't sure how it would go. I didn't understand the school's method of doing the classes and it was just confusing. To make things worse two of the classes didn't have textbooks available through the school, so I had to order an ebook version from the USA for the same cost but would expire after 180 days. This actually really pissed me off, the school just forgot to order the books for the students and left us high and dry.

Once I got the hang of things everything seemed to go well. I did not enjoy doing group projects, it was made worse being online. I just do not understand why they put us through this in school.

I did a Target haul through Shippsy. I am probably going to dedicate a whole post to Shippsy because I love it so much. Basically, I get a USA shipping address and I order items there. When the time comes, Shippsy deals with the customs and takes it to a warehouse where I pick it up. It's super cheap and convent.

We mainly got candy and food, but I also got these cute birds and some skincare.

February

We did a Food Share order and got so much great produce for so cheap. I learned shortly after they were shutting down the service, so we only got one more box after this one. But all this was under $30.

I went for Family Day to the AGO with my aunt and brother's family. We saw the Kaws and Keith Herring exhibits.

Richard and I went with my aunt to the Canadian Opera Company's production of The Cunning Little Vixen. Never has an opera had my name written all over it like this one. It was vibrant and funny and just overall a stunning visual performance.

Best of all I got to go with my aunt, who got us seats at the Royal Box. This is these are the best seats in the house. Like really, I am not exaggerating, they are the best seats at The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. My aunt actually helped build it back in the early '00s. In fact here is a podcast where she talks about it, Key Change: Episode 6.

After the opera, Rich and I went to Eatly for Winterlicous. We got some yummy food that was great for rounding out the fantastic night.

March

March was a lot less interesting, with lots of walks, and more meals out at local places around us. I mainly spent my time doing schoolwork and taking care of our friend's dog, Sophie. Here is a little Bradly photo dump and Rich looking at menus at various restaurants.

We got some good news at the end of the month, and I wanted to celebrate, so I ordered a Ninja Creami 11-in-1. I have not stopped using it, but look at this pretty fruit bowl I made.

I hope you enjoyed my recap. I really hope you had a good first quarter of the year. I am looking forward to the spring and all the fun things it has to offer.

My Trip To The Toronto Bite Lip Lab

By Jill Oliver-Fox Tuesday, November 12, 2019 around toronto, bespoke, bite, bite beauty, bite lip lab, custom lipstick, lip lab, review, toronto

Last Christmas I was lucky enough to receive a gift card for the Toronto Bite Lip Lab from a co-worker. Located at Queen St. just west of Bathurst, it is the home of Bite Cosmetics that lets you create your own custom Bite lipsticks.

I had a wonderful artist helping me named Natalya. She started by asking me if I wanted to do their Bespoke or A La Carte lip services. I discussed that my gift card was for two A La Carte lipsticks, but I wasn't sure if I should splurge on the upgrade. We decided that since I was looking for two specific colours I should get the Bespoke, so I did.

I brought along two lipsticks that I wear a lot, cost a lot and would enjoy something like them that I could use daily and feel a tad less guilty about. They were Tom Ford Boys & Girls lipsticks in the shades, Bradley and Richard, a muted warm peach-brown and rich pinky mauve respectively. Now, these Tom Fords are tiny little lipsticks that cost $44 + tax each, so I figured I would probably end up flying through them if I didn't find something similar that I liked just as much soon.

Before we began mixing, I was given some of Bite's lip scrub to scrub my lips and some of their lip mask to hydrate.

We first started with trying to get something that resembled Bradley, essentially a pinky or peach nude that would look good on my skin tone. The first thing that then happened was a cellophane sheet came out with grids on it. The artist then applies a shade from many concentrates that they have to a select number of cubes on the sheet. The colour and its amount get written down and this happens a few more times until the artist feels they have the correct mixture for your shade. They then mix them together in the middle and a small amount of your desired base (I chose satin) gets mixed in and you have a chance to try it on.

a snap of my final mixes. The shades I chose have hearts next to them. Sorry about the quality, using my cell phone camera.

I did not like the first attempt at all, which was fine, the artist and I discussed what it was I thought it needed and mixed some more shades and tried again. Surprisingly, the second shade was spot on. I just adored and decided to go with that. The process went really quickly because I wasn't trying to exactly match my existing lipstick and because I had a good idea of what I wanted it to look like. We then started with the second lipstick. I decided I wanted something more oranged nude, kind of a spicy shade. This one took three tries!

While the artist writes up my custom recipe for my lipsticks I was asked to smell some flavours and decided on which ones I would like to use for my lipsticks. I chose mint and citrus for mine.

My mixtures got made into little jars, melted and then spun in a centrifuge. Then once mixed they were poured into a mould and put on an anti-griddle (like at cold stone creamery). We then waited and I chose the names for the lipsticks. I went with B-Rad for the Bradley type lipstick (my dog Bradley's nickname is B-Rad) and Vixen for the spicer fall shade.

My lipsticks got engraved and come in the same magnetic packaging with a flat cap as Bites Multiple Sticks.

Overall I really loved the process. I got two custom lipsticks I think really suit my skin tone and because they are shades I really like I know I will use them a lot. I always find I get nudes that are too brown or too pink or heck too pale, so getting a pinky one made that suites me is one of the best things I could hope for. As for Vixen, I love that it is spicy and just a tad bit orange with makes it great for the fall.

I also got a cute little mini lip kit which has a mini scrub, lip mask and primer because I got two Bespoke lipsticks made. The lipsticks and the kit were wrapped up incredibly nice in their own boxes, bite lipstick tissue paper and a gift bag.

In the end, these cost $150 for both and the kit, making them $75 + tax each. It wasn't a cheap time, but I did get to spend close to an hour making something just for me and got two great lipsticks out of it. I would definitely do this again, in fact I plan on taking my aunt when she gets low on her favourite discontinued lipstick shade.

My finished lipsticks.

My entire purchase ( I also got a lipstick from the store).

Have you ever visited a Bite Lip Lab? What shade of lipstick would you make if you went to one?

DECIEM Distillery District Store Pro Event and Haul

By Jill Oliver-Fox Thursday, August 17, 2017 chemistry, deciem, distillery district, event, haul, hylamide, niod, skin care, the ordinary, toronto

IMATS Toronto 2016

By Jill Oliver-Fox Tuesday, May 02, 2017 Benefit, haul, imats, imats haul, imats toronto, royal and langnickel, toronto

IMATS Toronto came and went, I went, I saw, I hauled and now I am showing you all what I got (admitingly really late, but that is ok right? 2017 Imats is around the corner so it can get you all herring to go for that).

This year I found there seemed to be less at the show, while the same size as before, I just felt there was less booths and less products.

This year marks the first year booths like Buxom and Bare Minerals were there, but by the time I went Sunday most of what they had to offer was gone.

Benefit was back, and this time with 40% off. I got lots of goodies, but not for myself, for my co-workers (mainly because last year I finally got all their blushes and there was nothing left for me to get).

NARS had their own booth this year, not just in the Hudson's Bay counter booth.

Kat Von D had a booth with a crazy crazy line and a thrown you could sit in.

Lime Crime was there, crazy line as well.

NYX had a booth again, also with a long line. Nothing at this booth you couldn't get at their free standing store (at the same prices) or Shoppers Drug Mart or Rexall. So really not getting the hype or line here.

Morphe was back and this time I heard they had to cut off the line because it was 4+ hours to get to look at brushes.

Many booths were just plain out of stuff...so my haul was kind of small this time.

Tehran Spray Sealer: I always wanted to try this so a mini bottle I got.

Lash Case: This adorable case holds three sets of lashes, so you can always reuse your lashes and not wonder where to stash them.

Royal and Langnickle: Once again brushes are my big purchase. I got this brush set for a co-worker because I loved mine so much last year, and then got another for myself.

I love the little box you get as well as the quality of the brushes, just fantastic. I also got a kabuki and two purple brushes and a Moda Set for a friend (I love mine from last year and they were only $12)