Product Review: Fresh Vitamin Nectar Vibrancy-Boosting Face Mask

Pandemic living hasn't been kind to my skin, what with all the mask-wearing, over-working, and up-and-down stress and hormone levels. No wonder I've been dealing with more breakouts than usual! Fortunately, using my topical skin prescription twice daily as prescribed helped a lot, as did streamlining my skincare and minimizing potential irritants. The happy result is that the frequency and severity of new breakouts have decreased dramatically in the last few months, so much so that I'm now focusing my full attention on fading the hyperpigmentation and scarring left behind by old blemishes. I've been applying SPF and niacinamide serum daily, and twice weekly I exfoliate and apply the Fresh Vitamin Nectar Vibrancy-Boosting Face Mask ($35 to $83 for various sizes, purchased by me).

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Lazy Girl Approved: Garnier Serum Cream SPF 30

Lazy Girl Approved highlights long-lasting, goof-proof, fuss-free products that can fit into the most minimalist of regimens. If you consider yourself a low-maintenance beauty lover, these product reviews are for you!

Pre-pandemic, one of my favourite evening activities was lining up my entire nighttime skincare routine on the coffee table and doing it bit by bit while watching Netflix. It felt like such a treat to have this moment of stillness and homebody coziness between work, barre, and chores. But now that we're over a year into staying home so much, what was once a pleasurable routine has become kind of a drag. I've been looking for ways to streamline my morning and evening skincare routines wherever possible, embracing skinimalism and multi-purpose products like Garnier Green Labs Brightening Serum Cream SPF 30 - Pinea-C ($22.99, available at London Drugs, purchased by me).

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Drugstore Delight: Derma E Hydrating Eye Cream

Another quick Drugstore Delight spotlight to close out my product reviews for the year! Truth be told, this pandemic funk + thinking about work + staying home all the time + not wearing makeup = not a lot of mental bandwidth left to think about beauty. Instead of testing lots of things, in the past couple of months I've switched up my skincare once, tried a new-to-me body butter...and used up two tubes of Derma E Hydrating Eye Cream ($23 at London Drugs). The fact that I haven't deviated from it for months on end should tell you how good it is.

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Drugstore Delight: Weleda Skin Food Body Butter

Beauty blogging tends to focus on the new and the buzzworthy. Weleda isn't new (they've been around since 1921), but their longevity, their status as a natural beauty pioneer, and their upcoming 100th anniversary should be buzzworthy. My friend Anya swears by Weleda Skin Food as a winter staple, which was what inspired me to pick up Weleda Skin Food Body Butter (approx. $22, available at London Drugs) when my last body moisturizer ran out.

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In-Depth Review: My WonderSkincare.ca Experience

How many times have you had a skin issue during this pandemic and wished for a virtual face-to-face with an expert, right from the comfort and safety of your own home? Newly launched Wonder Skincare does just that. The brainchild of experienced medical aesthetician Sarah Kurmis, this Ontario-based online business offers online consultations and product recommendations, and is a one-stop shop for well-known medi-spa brands like SkinCeuticals and Colorescience. I was recently invited by Wonder Skincare to try their end-to-end virtual consultation and online retail experience firsthand. So how did it go? All the details after the jump!

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Product Review: AG Hair Natural Collection

While WFH and riding out summer's heat waves sans air conditioning, I've been air-drying my hair whenever possible, and reaching for the AG Hair Natural To Go Kit ($29.95) to keep it from turning into a frizzy mess. Full disclosure: I received this gifted PR sample ages ago—so long ago, in fact, that AG has since changed the mix of products in their Natural To Go Kit. (The newer version includes the same shampoo and conditioner, but different styling products.) This kit may have languished in my beauty stash for eons, but good products speak for themselves no matter when you get around to testing them and these AG haircare products are incredible.

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Empties: August 2020

Ugh, this year. Before I recap the empty products I've used this summer, I need to get something off my chest. When the pandemic started, I have to admit, the bizarre novelty of the situation didn't faze me. Asking an introverted homebody to spend even more time at home? Okay! I still had my job and could WFH; I could do barre classes over Zoom; and my husband and I were spending more time together than ever. I found ways to fill my time, from reading more books and discovering new TV shows to trying different recipes. But as time wore on and the novelty faded, between the perpetual stress of 2020 humming in the background, and the work burnout I alluded to in previous posts, I've been pretty depressed this summer.

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Product Review: Mamonde Rose Skincare

In mid-July we were lucky enough to go to Tofino, where we stayed at the Wickaninnish Inn and celebrated Lawrence's birthday in style. Long walks on the beach, a couples hot stone massage at the spa, a romantic dinner and brunch at The Pointe and room service in between...it was exactly the restful and luxurious reset we craved. (The trip highlights are saved on my Instagram if you want a peek!)

When it was time to pack skincare for the trip, I reached for the Mamonde Rose Trial Kit ($22). This trio of mini K-beauty skincare goodies seems tailor-made for summer weather thanks to lightweight textures and rose-infused scents. I'd originally bought the kit for my workout bag, but with the pandemic and my barre studio closing, I stopped using the products in mid-March and hadn't had a chance to revisit these products until now.

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Drugstore Delight: Summer Skincare

When I pictured my 2020 summer, I did not foresee so many long WFH days and so little travel or vacation time, nor did I anticipate how tired and burnt out I'd feel. It seems as if all my brain bandwidth has gone towards work and just getting through the days and not much else. To save myself from daily decision-making fatigue, I've defaulted to variations on the same lounge-at-home outfits (Roots sweatshorts with a tee, or a loose and flowy T-shirt dress), and I've forgone experimenting with tons of new skincare. Instead, I've opted to add just a few products to my routine that are making my summertime complexion happy. Think lightweight textures, SPF protection, and an antioxidant boost. The best part? These products are affordable and accessible Drugstore Delights.

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Empties: June 2020

I meant to post this empties round-up in May, but, well, life happened. In total, there are 26+ products from a mix of Korean, natural, drugstore, luxury and French beauty brands. As you can imagine, most of them are skin and body care, including plenty of moisturizers, sheet masks and hand lotion. Ready?

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Drugstore Delight: Avene Cleansing Foam

I've tried my share of cleansing waters, jellies, balms and oils, but there is something atavistically satisfying about a foaming face wash. Maybe it's the way the texture taps into nostalgic comfort and familiarity? Something about a sudsy face cleanser reminds me of younger and more carefree days, tickling the same pleasure centres in my lizard brain as teen rom-coms and Disney movies and Oreos. It just feels good and I can't explain why. Evidently the skincare geniuses at Avene felt the same way, because instead of making a jelly-like cleanser for sensitive skin, they gave us Avene Cleansing Foam ($23 at London Drugs).

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Product Review: Megababe Deodorant

What does self-care look like while in quarantine? For me, it has been sweaty Bar Method classes via Zoom, followed by a refreshing shower that feels oh so good and a few swipes of Megababe Rosy Pits Daily Deodorant ($14). In my quest to try different natural deodorants, I picked up this new-to-me product during my last trip to Seattle, before COVID-19. Megababe Rosy Pits has since become one of my favourite body care essentials.

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Drugstore Delight: Garnier Bio

With the economic turmoil happening right now and non-essential businesses being closed, drugstore beauty products have really come to the fore. I've always loved a good Drugstore Delight, but going forward (at least for the next little while) I'll focus on even more of them. After all, they're relatively affordable, easy to purchase at your local grocery or pharmacy, and they're a great way of adding a few moments of self-care and normalcy to stressful days. First up? The natural Garnier Bio skincare range, which just launched earlier this year. Garnier kindly sent me a box of samples a couple of months ago, so I'd already incorporated the products into my routine for long-term testing before the lockdown began.

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Lazy Girl Approved: Dermalogica Rapid Reveal Peel

Lazy Girl Approved highlights long-lasting, goof-proof, fuss-free products that can fit into the most minimalist of regimens. If you consider yourself a low-maintenance beauty lover, these product reviews are for you!

Did you know that you could be over-exfoliating or under-exfoliating? That was my main takeaway after attending an exfoliation masterclass hosted by my longtime facialist, Kathryn Sawers of Collective Skincare. If you take a closer look at your skincare routine, you might be surprised by all the sources of exfoliation there are. Scrubs provide physical exfoliation, while many of the cleansers, toners, and moisturizers that promise to "renew" skin and improve tone and texture contain acids that act as chemical exfoliants. And then there's retinol, which is (you guessed it) also an exfoliant. All of this is enough to trigger skin irritation at worst or serious consumer confusion at best. So what would a Lazy Girl to do? She'd turn to a quick, easy-to-use product like the Dermalogica Rapid Reveal Peel ($12 for a single tube, or $116 for the kit at Varnish) that's guaranteed to work.

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5 Face Masks To Try For Your Next #SelfCare Session

Happy first week of March! Here at Solo Lisa headquarters, I haven't been that focused on blogging lately. A new CEO and a new boss at work mean I have loads of projects on the go; consequently, my brain bandwidth is usually maxed out by the time I get home and all I'm good for is curling up with a good book and doing a face mask. The masks featured in this post, most of which are gifted PR samples, have taken up permanent residence in my bathroom cabinet. They have a slight edge over sheet masks in some ways: They usually don't take as much time to work their magic (ideal when I'm in peak Lazy Girl mood); they don't generate as much single-use waste; and they allow me to multi-mask, addressing different concerns in different areas.

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Empties: February 2020

After the bewildering number of empties in December and January, February seems so tame by comparison. There are only 12 in today's post and 2 are duplicates. Most of them are affordable drugstore and naturals-heavy brands, with a couple of purchases from last year's trip to Paris thrown in. I realized as I was compiling this post that many of these products have never been featured on the blog before, and only a few are gifted PR samples, so going forward I'm going to be a lot clearer about labeling everything in the mix. Now, let's get to it, shall we?

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Drugstore Delight: Not Your Mother's Naturals Scalp Scrub

Are you a fan of scalp scrubs or do you think they're a gimmicky and unnecessary product? I was in the latter camp until just recently when I noticed that no matter how thoroughly I shampooed my hair, my roots were limp and my scalp didn't feel clean. The feeling persisted even when I switched shampoos and conditioners. That's why I picked up Not Your Mother's Naturals Activated Bamboo Charcoal & Purple Moonstone Restore & Reclaim Scalp Scrub ($8.99) during my last cross-border Ulta pilgrimage. I was already a big fan of NYM's hair masks (they smell amazing, the formulas are mostly natural, they're affordable and get the job done) so I figured their scalp scrub was worth a try.

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4 Facial Oils To Revive Winter Skin

Facial oils make a lovely addition to any skincare regimen, and not just during the winter! I've been rotating between the ones featured in today's post all season long. Facial oils can give regular moisturizers a skin-softening boost, layer over hyaluronic acid and serums to better lock in hydration, or provide plenty of slip for facial rollers and gua sha tools.

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Drugstore Delight: Nivea Pure & Natural Body Milk

One of the quickest, most dramatic changes you can make towards a more natural beauty routine is switching to a natural body lotion. The skin covering your body amounts to a larger surface area than your face, and unlike something that can be rinsed away like soap, body lotion absorbs and stays. Since I decided to green up my beauty routine I've really enjoyed the natural body lotions and body butters I've tested, and there are a handful of affordable and effective options I keep returning to. (Rocky Mountain Soap Company, I'm looking at you.) But I don't love the fact that I have to go out of my way to specialty stores or websites when I run out, often paying $15-30 for what amounts to very little product volume-wise. It sometimes makes me nostalgic for more innocent days when I waltzed into any drugstore and picked up the biggest pump bottle of whatever was on sale and smelled good.

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Empties: January 2020

After my last Empties post in which I reviewed 2 months' worth of empty beauty products, I thought this month's round-up would be relatively small. What I didn't anticipate was the deluge of snow Vancouver got (resulting in major sheet mask usage), or how a bunch of almost empty products would all run out at once.

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