Month: January 2021

Amandine Sol Botanicals Dropped Its Sophomore Product, Dew Dream

We love savvy time-saving beauty heroes that double up (or better yet, triple up) on function. On Monday, Toronto-based all-natural skincare line Amandine Sol Botanicals dropped its second product, Dew Dream, a plant-powered essence-meets-toner-meets-serum that works to sooth, strengthen and hydrate the skin while also sloughing away dead skin cells. Star ingredients, many of which are sourced from founder Amandine Sol Azran’s family farm in Ontario, include anti-inflammatory calendula, chamomile and rose to calm the skin, free-radical fighting olive leaf, gingko bilboa and tea extracts to boost skin’s barrier, and a cocktail of honey, elderflower and jasmine to amp up skin’s glow. The formula is also infused with plumping hyaluronic acid that penetrates deeply to quench a water-depleted complexion. Another highlight? Dew Dream is gentle enough to be used on reactive skin

The pieces celebrate the first full moon of 2021.

Founded by Toronto-based yoga instructor Candice Mayers last Fall, Orijin – a jewellery brand with pieces that take inspiration from celestial moments to paper clips – just released a new set of pieces that celebrate today’s full moon (the first of the year).

The offering includes a made-to-order 10k gold ring, and a selection of silver items like studs in the shape of a crescent. The collection’s standout, though, is the Luna Mae pendant necklace; handmade in Ireland using an Ancient Egyptian technique called the “lost wax process”, it captures the contours of the moon’s surface and is named in homage of Mae C. Jemison, the first Black woman to travel to space.

Mayers plans on launching a new collection with every following full moon, and it’s no surprise

“When someone realizes you are a person [and not just a brand], it’s a lot harder to forget about you.”

This may come as a surprise to anyone who grew up on YouTube beauty gurus and Instagram makeup tutorials, but there was a time when the launch of a new beauty brand wasn’t a weekly occurrence. While we love keeping up with all of the newness in the industry, and reporting on the wide range of brands and products available for consumers to shop, we’d be remiss not to take a moment to appreciate the beauty brands — and brand founders — who have helped shape the industry into what it is today. There are, after all, only a select few beauty brands who have truly stood the test of time and remained relevant and innovative through the years.

One of those

Meet MOB Beauty, a Cosmetic Line Bringing Refills to Your Makeup Kit

It’s no secret that the beauty industry is guilty of unleashing an immense amount of landfill-bound plastic on the planet. So when four industry veterans — one of them being the legendary Victor Casale, founding chemist of MAC Cosmetics — joined forces to create MOB Beauty, the brand’s packaging was placed under the microscope in terms of its environmental impact. Officially launched to the world on January 21st, all of MOB Beauty’s packaging is made using post-consumer recycled materials that can either be home composted or easily tossed in the recycling bin. But the brand didn’t stop there when it came to reducing its footprint. MOB Beauty is built around the concept of customizable makeup palettes (the brand has two palette sizes to select

Earlier today, Dior showed its Men’s FW 2021 fashion show and we spoke to the luxury French fashion house’s creative and image director, Peter Philips, about this season’s beauty look. Following a quite dramatic neon eyeshadow moment at last year’s (Fall 2020) men’s show, dubbed “cyber-surfer” eye makeup, this season’s beauty look was decidedly more low-key.

“The overall look is very rich, with the wet hair [by hairstylist] Guido [Palau], and the hats and berets,” explains Philips of the Dior Men’s FW 2021 look. “So we went for natural [beauty]; no gimmicks or conceptual makeup this time. Just a beautiful, natural face.” Speaking of those luxe hats and berets, they’re part of a collab with renowned Scottish-born, Trinidad-based painter Peter Doig, who Dior Men’s Creative Director Kim Jones announced a collaboration