4 Summer Essentials: Avoid Looking Like A Hot Mess When It’s Hot as Balls Outside

I can only stand being outdoors for about half the year. Spring and Fall are my jam; Winter and Summer can go shit in their respective hats.

What’s not to love about Spring and Fall? The weather is perfect.  You can get away with going out in a cardigan or denim jacket, throw on a cute scarf and sunglasses and you’re good to go. Oh, and let’s not forget about ALL THE BOOTS!

Winter and Summer? I’m either getting all the moisture sucked out of me and constantly clutching my Carmex or on the complete opposite spectrum, I get to be constantly damp and feel like I’m living in Satan’s anus.

The latter is where I’m sitting today, but fret not, I’m going to share with you a few things that have helped me feel a little less like a puddle.

Avène Thermal Spring Water

Yeah yeah, I know. It’s fancy water in an aerosol can but I’ll be damned if I don’t love spraying my face with it all day. First of all, to anyone wondering, that’s no longer sweat that’s all over my face but ThErMaL SpRiNg WaTeR. Secondly and seriously though, I do find it to be quite hydrating and it is pretty refreshing to use throughout the day. I also like to use it before applying any serums or moisturizers to help them sink into my skin.

Revlon Kiss Balm

I love these! I have the Strawberry and Cherry ones and not only are they actually moisturizing, they’re not sticky, they leave a really nice and noticeable tint behind AND they’re SPF 20. Honestly, I can’t deal with lipstick in the summertime because I’m trying to use as few products as possible, it’s too damn hot to be fussing around with products! Don’t get me started on lip gloss in the summer, which practically slides off my mouth before I even leave the house. These lip balms are a perfect and they smell nice too.

Garnier Moisture Rescue Refreshing Gel-Cream 

This is what I use as a day time moisturizer and I especially love using it when I get out of my (ice cold) shower. It absorbs pretty quickly, it smells nice, and the texture is super light. Its name says “Gel-Cream” but it’s definitely all gel. The product description says it has grape water, apple water (is that even a thing?) and Vitamin E, but I swear it also has some kind of cooling properties because my face feels cold for a while after I use it and that’s all I’m looking for during a never-ending heat wave.  

The Body Shop – Body Sorbet in Satsuma

We all know that Satsuma is an addictive, heavenly citrus smell from the Body Shop, so let’s get that out of the way. This is a great body lotion and my go-to in the summer. The texture is so weird to me, but I love it. The texture feels somewhat matte, it’s hard to explain but trust me on this, and it absorbs almost instantaneously.

Can we sense a theme here? I don’t want anything sticky on my body when it’s 40 degrees and my body is sticky enough! ANYWAYS, I also love the fact that it comes in a tube and you don’t have to screw around with a slippery lid, sticking your hand in a bunch of lotion and getting it under your nails.

So, that’s it. Apart from my constant bitching about how hot it is outside and how I feel like I’m on fire, these are some of the things that have been making my life a little bit easier. If I had to recommend only one of these products to you, it would be the Revlon Kiss Balm because even when I’m sitting in front of my fan looking like a hot mess, I look like a GLAMOUROUS hot mess. Happy sweating!

Ojon Rare Blend Total Therapy Hair Oil | Review

I want to set the record straight - I'm not someone who's lucky. I honestly can't recall a time I've ever won ANYTHING (except for one time when I won $40 at a bingo with my Grandma) so you can imagine my surprise when I won the 'Ojon rare blend Total Therapy Oil' off of a well-known Youtuber's give-away. Out of 100,000+ entries, I was 1 of 5 winners! I was pretty excited, not only because I actually won something but also because I won somewhat of a luxury hair product at $39.00 and I NEVER drop any serious money on hair products. I hardly bat an eye at spending $25.00 on a lip gloss but hair products? No way.

The 'Ojon rare blend oil' describes itself as "So potent that just one precious drop of this multi-tasking wonder protects, nourishes to repair and transforms dull, dry or damaged hair to vibrant health. Hair instantly looks glossier, shinier; suddenly feels softer, silkier, more luxurious." - those are some mighty claims, huh?

The 'Rare Blend Oil' that I received is one of three that Ojon apparently makes and is marketed as the "Total Therapy" version. While mine has the yellow, white and red trifecta of colours, the other two also have different colours and uses. There's the 'Rejuvenating Therapy' (yellow, white, yellow) and the 'Moisture Therapy' (yellow, white, blue). I assume mine being the 'Total Therapy' version contains the benefits of all three? I can only make assumptions here since their descriptions are practically exactly the same.

So first of all, what is it with expensive liquid products not coming with a pump?! Foundations are notorious for this and you either end up wasting product because it spills out too fast (not to mention the risk of ruining your clothes...I hope I'm not alone on that one) or spending extra time trying to be careful not to have any aforementioned spillage and tipping out one drop at a time.

The Ojon is exactly like this, which is one of a main reasons I wasn't thrilled with it. I do feel bad complaining about something I got for free  but what can you do? Don't get me wrong, the tri-coloured oils look really cool in the sleek glass bottle and it's fun getting to shake them all up to get an orangey-pink hair goo. But that's pretty much where the fun ends. Carefully unscrewing the top and trying to dump a small amount of oil into your palm is no easy feat. More than once I've emptied too much in my palm and thought "Oh well, I'm sure it'll be fine" only to have my hair look worse than before I even washed it. I know that's nit-picky since ultimately the amount of oil being used each time is my own fault, but still.

Not wanting to waste a product that wasn't cheap (even thought it was technically free for me), I emptied the entire contents into another sleek glass bottle - this time with a pump! At last, I thought, I'll be able to cater the exact measurements of oil to my specifications, it'll be glorious! Not so.

It seems every time I tried to use the Ojon oil with my new fancy pump the results were roughly the same. Each time only slightly less oily, it didn't seem to matter that I was only using 1-2 drops of this stuff - Slickcity for miles.

Could it be that maybe the Ojon oil is just too rich for my hair? It's entirely possible. Perhaps someone with thicker or natural hair would really benefit from this product and I hope they do! But my sad limp hair can't wait to kiss Ojon goodbye. I've already bought a drug store replacement so hopefully you'll be hearing a more positive review about that one.

I didn't notice my hair to be any softer, silkier or luxurious. It was certainly shinier due to the oil but it wasn't in a good way.

All in all, Ojon's rare blend - Total Therapy Hair Oil gets a 2/10 for me.

Clinique Moisture Surge Overnight Mask | HG Status

So I'm bad at keeping up on blogs, what can I say?

What I CAN say is that I have a much needed review of the Clinique Moisture Surge Overnight Mask which I bought on Boxing Day 2013 and I'm still using it. I'm not even joking, this shit is for real, y'all. Plus it's not even like I use it once a week, I use it almost everyday.

Clinique deems this to be an "overnight mask" as the title suggests but it's really just a glorified moisturiser and boy is it glorious. For a long time I felt like I was doing reviews on things that I really didn't like but this time we've struck gold!

I don't have dry skin but I do believe my skin gets dehydrated fairly often and Clinique's Overnight Mask is a real life saver. I use this almost exclusively at night before I go to sleep and depending on what my skin feels like is how I determine how much of this I use. On regular days I'll use your average amount of moisturiser although in this case a little really does go a long way (hence why I'm still using the same tube almost 1.5 YEARS LATER!).
                                             

I sort of bought this product on a whim and after researching it (the "mask" definition confused me at first), not only does it have nearly 5 star reviews across the board and works for all skin types, I also discovered a little trick for when your skin is having an exceptional "blah" day. Well, perhaps its not a great trick but ANYWAY after you use the moisturiser like you normally would - give it a second to sink in - and then go in with a second layer patted over top. Normally doing something like this just leaves my face feeling gross but not with this stuff. It's like it works double-duty and the next morning my face feels like it just got the softest collagen injections known to man.

Like I said, I've been using this for well over a year and I wanted to mention that I've been using it consistently throughout the change of seasons and haven't noticed any differences as far as dryness or over-saturation goes. I feel like this is important because I HATE having to buy things depending on the season, I have to do this with my foundations and it annoys me to no end. But in the case of the Clinque Moisture Surge Overnight Mask, it really is a perfect all-rounder. 

Just to cover our basics, the size I have is 3.4 oz (which I believe is the biggest size?), is oil-free and retails for $39.00 on Sephora. At the same time I also bought the Clinique Take the Day Off Cleansing Balm which is also amazing.

So with all that said I give this product a definite 10/10. We've hit the holy grail, people!

Clarins Lotus Face Treatment Oil | Review

As long promised I said I would review the Clarins Lotus Face Treatment Oil; I've probably had a good 2 months to decide if I like it or not and the verdict is good! 

There's a couple of different ways you can use this depending on what your skin needs. First and foremost, like Estee Lauder's ANR, it's meant to be used at night leaving ample time to sink in while you sleep. 

I've been dabbling with both methods, the first being straight on it's own (I put 3 drops on my fingertips and massage them onto my face) and the second being mixing 2-3 drops in with your regular moisturizer. I've been doing the latter if I feel like my skin isn't too parched. 

The Lotus Face Oil is meant for oily to normal skin from my understanding and I suppose the whole theory behind it is that by putting oil onto your skin (Yes! Oil on the skin! What a concept!) make your skin produce LESS of its own natural oils - leaving you less shiny. 

That's a pretty big statement for Clarins to make. 

Has it resolved all of my shiny problems? No. Has is significantly reduced them? Yeah, definitely. Keep in mind, I also use a mattifying foundation but even still, I feel like the Lotus Face Oil makes a big difference. 

I've never tried anything like this before so I wasn't sure what to expect. One thing's for sure, as a straight up moisturizer, it's really good! I don't think there's ever been a time when my (oily, mind you) skin didn't feel "tight" and kind of dry. The Lotus Face Oil has totally remedied that, so that in itself is pretty satisfying. 

It also leaves your skin feeling reeeeally soft, so that's another plus. 

The bottle isn't enormous and at $50CND it seems pretty steep; BUT considering it's been 2 months and I've barely made a dent in it, I think it's safe to say you would only need to buy one bottle a year IF that. 

This is my first experience with Clarins products and so far I'm impressed! I think I might have to look into some of their other skincare products if they deliver the same results.