Garnier

Beauty: #SkinActiveRetreat with Garnier Canada

18 June, 2016 Nelia

A few weeks ago, I found myself in a limo full of bloggers, headed to Langdon Hall Hotel and Spa with Garnier Canada. On the agenda was a one-on-one consultation with Skin Expert Dr. Noah Wieder to design a personalized #MySkinActiveMatch skincare routine, fancy in-room facials, learning all about new Garnier SkinActive products, yoga, and so much more!

After making new friends and settling into our beautiful rooms, the girls and I were super excited about our consultations. After I mentioned my skin sensitivities (rosacea and dryness), my “prescription” included Garnier Clean Gentle Clarifying Cleansing Gel, Garnier SkinActive Moisture Rescue Actively Hydrating Daily Lotion, Garnier SkinActive Ultra-Lift Miracle Wake-Up Cream, Garnier SkinActive Micellar Water, and Garnier Skin Renew BB Cream. I was already a huge fan of both Garnier Micellar Water and BB Cream (So good! Try them both if you can!), but I was very excited to try the new moisturizers and a gentle cleansing gel.
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After using these for a few weeks now, I have a couple of favourites. Garnier SkinActive Ultra-Lift Miracle Wake-Up Cream is a dream moisturizer. Infused with 15% Hydra-Glycerin (a known humectant), Hyaluronic Acid and Antioxidant Complex of Wild Berry, Vitamins C & E, it “plumps skin reducing the signs of fatigue for fresh, youthful-looking skin”. You can use it day or night, but I prefer to apply it before going to sleep so that I wake up with dewy-looking and well-rested face.

Another product I loved is the Garnier SkinActive Moisture Rescue Actively Hydrating Daily Lotion. This moisturizer has SPF15 and helps protect and defend against moisture loss. I like to wear it during the day for extra sun protection, so if you always forget to apply sunscreen before going outside, this one is for you. I love how lightweight this moisturizer is; it sinks right into my skin and creates a perfectly smooth base for my makeup.

Both of these moisturizers worked really well on my sensitive skin and come in convenient pump bottles, to reduce the chance of contamination and break-outs. These are real winners, and if you have dehydrated skin, you really need to try them!

The rest of our retreat was spent on getting to know the fellow bloggers, attending various activities, and sneaking out to hang out by the pool, because the weather was too lovely to pass up. Luckily, Team Garnier thought of everything and left some Ombrelle Sport Endurance SPF 30 and SPF 50 waiting for us in our rooms. Ombrelle Sport Endurance sunscreen is amazing for several reasons – it’s water and sweat resistant for up to 80 minutes, protects from both the UVA and UVB rays, is oil-free, fragrance free, colorant free, and absorbs quickly and without the icky white residue. Since our retreat, I’ve used Ombrelle Sport Endurance sunscreen on several occasions, and haven’t been burnt once…hopefully I am not jinxing myself, but so far, as long as I’m diligent enough to re-apply every 2 hours, my skin feels happy instead of baked.

After a yoga session (outfitted by B Yoga), hanging out poolside, and a quick but delicious lunch, we all piled back into our limo, full of fun memories of our wonderful Langdon Hall #SkinActiveRetreat, and with bags full of Garnier treats. I am still testing out several other products I received on this trip and will be sure to shout-out my other faves on Snapchat (styleblogca) or Instagram (@styleblogca). Stay tuned!

In the meantime, let me know if you’ve tried any of the products I mentioned in this post. Would love to hear your thoughts!

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Beauty: Garnier Color Styler Review

12 May, 2015 Nelia

Ever since I had my hair bleached, I’ve been dying to try some fun colours on my light tresses. As a brunette, I haven’t been able to experiment much without damaging my hair, so let’s just say I was itching to try something new. Sadly, since my workplace is quite conservative, I couldn’t do anything permanently drastic – no matter what, my hair had to go back to normal by Monday morning. So when I saw Garnier Color Styler on sale at Shoppers, I was very excited to pick up all three colours on the shelf – pink pop, purple mania, and blue burst.

The box promised “intense wash-out color” that would last for 2-3 shampoos. After reading up on the product online, I discovered a lot of negative reviews – mainly complaints of dry, unbrushable hair, and a few mentions of colour that didn’t look like the one on the box. That certainly gave me pause…which is why I left the boxes under my sink for a few weeks, until last Friday when I was intensely bored…and you know what they say about idle hands.

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Beauty: Garnier Ultra-Lift Miracle Sleeping Cream Review

11 February, 2015 Aleyda

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What is the secret to beautiful youthful skin? Good news: the answer is fairly simple – sleep. In Asia, people believe that the optimal sleeping time aka “Golden Time” (the hours between 11pm and 2am) is the most important for skin regeneration, and a good night’s sleep is synonymous with good health and beauty. Bad news: studies have shown that women all over the world are sleeping less, while leading exceedingly stressful lifestyles. And since our skin naturally regenerates itself while we snooze, lack of sleep leads to weaker regeneration overtime. So what’s a girl to do if more zzzs is simply not an option?

Garnier to the rescue! The brand’s latest Ultra-Lift Miracle Sleeping Cream, inspired by sleeping packs from Asia, has 7 Active Ingredients that promise to help regenerate those skin cells quicker, hydrate the skin, and combat signs of fatigue and aging. Sounds pretty awesome, right? Well, I put those claims to a test.

Along with a few other Canadian beauty bloggers, I was invited to use the Garnier Ultra-Lift Miracle Sleeping Cream for 28 days, and I must admit that I was a little hesitant at first. With oily, acne-prone (very sensitive) skin, I am always extra cautious when it comes to trying new products that could cause me to break out, but the cream sounded too miraculous not to give it a whirl, and so I accepted the challenge.

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The cream itself has a thick, lush texture which literally melts into skin, absorbing quickly, while leaving it feeling hydrated. When I woke up the next morning I was relieved to see that my skin did not break out and in fact felt velvety and hydrated. After doing a little research I noticed that one of the key active ingredients is LHA, which acts like salicylic acid to combat bacteria and boost radiance. For acne-prone skin this is a definite plus!

Over the next few weeks I used my “Sleeping Cream” diligently, noticing major improvements just two weeks in! Lucky for me, wrinkles aren’t a real concern just yet, but I did feel like the hydration the cream provided was giving extra bounce to my skin, because it looked brighter and smoother each morning. I was very happy with the results, since I have never been able to use a night cream for fear of causing overproduction of oil in my skin. Not so with this product!

Along with the sleeping cream, I also got to try the Ultra-Lift Miracle Sleeping Cream Eye Cream. This smooth gel helps combat tired eyes by hydrating and smoothing the eye area while fighting dark circles. It’s the perfect pairing to the Ultra-Lift Miracle Sleeping Cream and will guarantee that you wake up looking rested! I really loved the texture of this eye cream, and the fact that it actually firmed my eye contour – it’s a keeper.

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Beauty: How to Maintain Platinum Hair

14 January, 2015 Nelia

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Ever since I bleached my hair, I’ve been getting a lot of sweet, and oftentimes demanding emails from readers that want to know EVERYTHING about going platinum. I already covered the part about bleaching dark brown hair platinum blonde (I do not recommend you to do this at home), and today, I’m going to share with you just what it takes to keep your bleached hair looking and feeling healthy. And while my hair may not be platinum anymore (it’s definitely a darker grey at the moment), at the end of the day, it’s still bleached hair, and it still demands a lot of maintenance. Below I share with you my (no longer) secret hair routine.

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Step 1: Coconut Oil
First, I slather my hair and scalp with coconut oil. Lots and lots of it – until my hair looks wet/greasy all over. I let it sit for about an hour (longer on the weekends). During this hour I do pretty much everything I would do normally – go to the gym, run errands, watch TV…the coconut oil doesn’t really drip anywhere, so you don’t have to be precious about it.

Step 2: Shampoo and Purple Conditioner
Once a sufficient amount of time has passed, I jump in the shower and shampoo my hair thoroughly but gently with cool water (it helps keep your cuticles sealed). I love Moroccanoil’s Smoothing Shampoo, because my hair feels extra silky after. Post-shampoo, I get as much water out of my hair as possible, run a bath, and settle in for some purple goop action. I like to leave purple conditioner in my hair for at least 20-30 minutes to make sure it does as much toning as possible, and seeing how most purple conditioners I’ve tried have a runny consistency, I don’t want to stand in the shower for half an hour waiting for the hot water to run out. So taking a bath is my solution (and an excuse to have some relaxing “me” time). I put lots of purple conditioner in my hair, making sure to saturate the strands from root to tip, and then I sit back and enjoy my bath. If you don’t want to see any amount of purple or grey in your hair, keep your purple conditioner in your hair for 5-10 minutes max…sometimes my hair does pick up a bit of a purpleish tinge to it, but I actually like it. You’ve been warned.

I’ve tried several different purple conditioner brands, and my faves are Davines Alchemic Conditioner, Aveda’s Blue Malva, and Clairol’s Shimmer Lights. Usually, I would just mix Silver Lights into any purple conditioner I was testing out in order to intensify the colour, but it worked best when paired with Aveda. Davines didn’t need much help, but seeing how expensive that stuff is, I’d say give Shimmer Lights a try. Also, both Davines and Shimmer Lights made my hair feel a lot more dry and tangled, while Aveda’s conditioner actually conditioned my hair, so my winning formula at the moment is: Davines + Blue Malva.

Oh, and I almost forgot about a recent fave! I found this super dark bluish purple conditioner at Shoppers, and it’s called Light Blue Shade. I’ve been mixing it with Davines and Blue Malva to get even more purple in my hair. It’s not very moisturizing, but it’s got a great colour pay off, and it’s not expensive either. If you live in Canada, and don’t have access to Clairol’s Shimmer Lights, this is a nice alternative.

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Beauty: Garnier Olia Haircolour Experience

13 March, 2013 Nelia

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After chopping my locks last September, I’ve been itching for another change. My hair was looking dull, lifeless, and in the words of le boyfriend – wiry. Yikes! So when I was offered to try Garnier’s new Olia haircolour, I jumped at the chance as it couldn’t have come at a better time!

I arrived at the L’Oreal Academy in Toronto ready to update my look for spring and learn about Olia. And though my colour experience wasn’t very traditional (every step of the way was filmed), after dying it, I am a total at-home haircolour convert!

Since I haven’t had much at-home colouring experience, Garnier’s Nina Farrauto kindly answered all of my pressing questions and calmed my nerves. Is my haircolour going to look like the picture on the box? Yup. What’s so different about Olia? It’s an ammonia-free and powered by oil, “which visibly improves the quality of hair to reverse roughness and dullness for more brilliant, dimensional colour and softer, shinier hair with bounce”. Will it make my hair look shinier and healthier? Yes and yes!

After my consultation, I picked my favourite shade (light ash brown) and began colouring. Mixing the colour was super easy: twist, squeeze, mix, shake…kind of like a cocktail…and it smelled great too! And the pretty (ergonomic) bottle made it quick and easy and added to the fancy factor of the kit. I also loved Olia’s no-drip formula — it was nice not having to constantly wipe my face and neck. Oh, and did I mention that it smelled fantastic?! The usual chemical odour was replaced with a fruity fragrance instead.

Thirty minutes later, with my hair rinsed and conditioned, I peeked at the mirror for the final reveal — and squealed with joy! My new hair was vibrant, shiny and healthy. And boy, was it soft! Someone even told me that it feels like a bunny! And weeks later, it’s just as soft.

Thanks to Garnier Olia, I went from dull and blah to shiny and vibrant in 30 minutes and for under $13! I’ve since recommended it to a few friends and family and have only heard great responses! So if you want to get rid of dullness, greys or just update your look, Olia won’t let you down.

So tell me, have you tried the new Garnier Olia haircolour yet? Share your hair stories in the comments!

Disclosure: This post was brought to you by Garnier via Glam Media Canada. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Garnier.

Beauty: #SkinActiveRetreat with Garnier Canada

Beauty: Garnier Color Styler Review

Beauty: Garnier Ultra-Lift Miracle Sleeping Cream Review

Beauty: How to Maintain Platinum Hair

Beauty: Garnier Olia Haircolour Experience

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