Wednesday, 12 September 2018

Esqido Mink Lashes: First Impression & Review | PR


Hey everyone, long time no chat. I thought I'd kick things off again after a while of taking a break from my blog with a quick first impression and review of Esqido Mink Lashes. Esqido was nice enough to contact me and send me a pair of lashes of my choice as well as their lash glue. I took a bit of a hot minute to test both out and I'm excited to share my opinions!

The lashes that I picked out were these ones; big, fluffy, and just my style when it comes to falsies. I also received their eyelash glue, which you can find here.

It's been months since I received them and I've had a lot of time to test out their wearability and re-wearability, as well as a lot of time to test out their lash glue both on the lashes I received and on other pairs from other brands. Since I received them, I moved cross-country and changed jobs, so I've been extremely busy. I actually re-purchased two sets of the Companion glue recently, as well as another pair of lashes, so, spoiler alert: I'm a fan! Here are my thoughts on what I received overall:


The Lash Selection
The Lashes on Esqido range in price from anywhere between $28.00 and $32.00, which honestly for someone who has been buying Ardell [read: drugstore] lashes from the get-go, is a bit steep. I tend to stick to cheaper-quality lashes as I wear lashes daily and I've never been able to justify spending more than $10.00 on a single pair. If Esqido hadn't contacted me I probably wouldn't have purchased a pair for myself.

Now that I've tried them, I can say that the quality justifies the price. Obviously, when you spend more on a high quality lash, you're getting more out of them (as long as you take care of them) than you would a cheap pair. I've worn these about 10-15 times over the last few months and they still look brand new. The shape has held up, the lashes are still fluffy, and they haven't lost their luster.

They've got a wide selection of lashes from fluffy to natural and I actually like most of them. I'm quite picky with lashes because I've got almond eyes and I find that certain lashes emphasize aspects of my eyeshape that I don't like; but I would realistically wear about 80% of the lashes on the site. Of course, being me, I picked a big fluffy lash to try out so I can only comment on how that looked on me. Recently I purchased a more toned-down pair of lashes and I love them as well. They're very fluffy and they maintain their quality consistently.

Pictured above: The lashes, applied using the Esqido eyelash adhesive.


The Quality & The Thoughts
I really liked the lashes! They were extremely beautiful and actually a lot fluffier on my eyes than they looked in the packaging. I was pretty surprised. I felt like I could bat my eyes and take flight. The band on them is a little longer on both corners than the lash itself, which really helps to keep them on all day, but I did find the band a little long for my eye. That's pretty typical I've found with lashes as it's better for them to be a touch too big than too small, so I'm sure trimming them would be no issue.

Every time I've worn these, it's been from morning to evening and I've not felt the edges lifting at all, which could both be a reflection on the quality of the lash itself, and the glue- which brings me to the next part of the review: the glue!



The Lash Glue
Let me just stay that the Revlon Precision Lash Glue was my ride-or-die for years and I was heartbroken when it became discontinued. I've tried so many lash glues over the years and found that so many of them irritated my eyes and/or didn't do a good enough job of keeping my lashes on throughout the day. Nothing drives me up the wall more than looking in the mirror a few hours into my day and noticing that the corner of my eyelashes are raised.

When the Revlon Lash Glue became discontinued, I started using the Duo Eyelash Adhesive (which retails for anywhere between $8.00 - $12.00 depending on where you shop) and it has come close to filling my heart with as much joy and happiness as the Revlon glue did. Understandably, I was mildly skeptical about the glue before I tried it because I feel very hate-or-love with lash glues and if they're not a total win they're an absolute loss for me.

I was extremely pleasantly surprised with the Esqido Companion Eyelash Glue and I would 100% purchase it again. It retails on their website for $10.00 which is a very reasonable amount and doesn't stray far from what I'm used to paying for a standard eyelash glue. I really like the brush-tip applicator on the glue as it helps with precision application onto the lash strip. I prefer brush-tips to squeeze tubes because I find they're cleaner, neater, and I end up wasting less product with a brush-tip. Squeeze tubes always splurt (gross word, sorry) out more than I intend to use. Overall the glue is a huge thumbs up from me!! At the point I'm writing this, I have already gone through one whole tube and purchased two more tubes. As with most glues with the brush-tip applicator, the opening did get kind of globby and sticky near the end of its lifespan, but I've never run into a lash glue that didn't do that. I was able to use the glue literally until the last drop and scraped the edges of the tube before finally tossing it.


Overall Thoughts
I like these lashes and the glue a lot! I'm very impressed and pleased. The glue dried clear and kept my lashes on all day, the lashes were fluffy and beautiful and flattered my eyes, the packaging was bougie AF and I didn't even want to open the package when it came; so, overall, huge win.

I will say that I'm more likely to repurchase the lash glue than I am another pair of lashes. I still find the lashes a bit pricy for me, but the glue is a good price and doesn't hurt the bank much at all. The glue absolutely won me over and I'm happy about it. If you don't mind shelling out a tad for some really nice high-quality lashes, I would definitely recommend Esqido. The shipping was fast and the quality of them is high. I'm going to continue to save my lashes for "occasions" so I don't wear them out too quickly. I may purchase another more natural pair so that I have one of each.

Huge thanks to Esqido for contacting me and sending me a few things to try. I've gotten a new favourite lash glue out of it, and hopefully I've given a good review to anyone who may have been on the fence about trying out a pair of mink lashes. I've already purchased another pair of lashes since these were sent to me and I'm a happy shopper. Worth the money.

Cheers!

Tuesday, 13 October 2015

Nars Velvet Matte & Satin Lip Pencils: Review


I posted a photo on my Instagram recently of me wearing the Nars Matte Lip Pencil in the shade 'Cruella' and I was really in love! When I went to Sephora to pick up the Laura Mercier Silk Crème Foundation, I spent my birthday month gift on the sample sized pencils and I have to admit, I wasn't sure if I'd like them, but I was extremely surprised by how much I did. 

Tuesday, 6 October 2015

Laura Mercier Silk Crème Foundation: A Rambly Review


Lately I’ve been on the hunt for a high-end foundation that would become my holy grail. I don’t know what it is, but my skin hasn’t been my skin lately. Normally I can attribute skin issues to a change in routine (which my skin seems to hate) or a lack of exfoliating, but if anything my life these past few months should render my skin flawless. For some reason, it’s been dry in places and oily-as-balls other places and nothing seems to be remedying it. No foundation has been working for me these days, and I’m not sure if I’m just being picky and expecting the impossible, but I’ve been buying and trying product after product and nothing has wowed me yet. So I decided to try the Laura Mercier Silk Crème Foundation.

Sunday, 27 September 2015

New L'Oréal Extraordinaire Gel-Laque Nail Polish Review


In my recent quest to find a new nail polish, I stopped by Walmart before work earlier on last week and picked up a L'Oréal shade. I was ready to grab this polish along with my usual OPI clear coat, until I realized the colour I had in my hand was part of a 3-step nail routine. I then found L'Oréal's steps 1&2 in a gold box for the same price I would've bought my OPI clear coat for, so I decided I would try it out (even though I find those at-home gel nail sets very gimmicky). The colour I had picked up was called "Beauty Never Fades" and it is a deep blood-red shade. Perfect for fall but if you know me at all, you know I wear dark berries and reds year-round. 

Wednesday, 9 September 2015

Color Oops: Removing Black Hair Dye Experience & Review


Ever since I was about 15, I've been dyeing my hair using box dyes maybe twice a year. Not to an extreme or anything--just going from ashy light brown to a dark auburn shade. I would dye it, it would fade, and then about five-six months later, I would repeat the process. Yesterday, however, I decided to try something slightly darker as I've noticed not as much change the past year in my usual go-to dye. I am/was under the impression they changed the formulas and colours around a little.

Monday, 7 September 2015

Why I Cancelled my Ipsy Bubscription After a Year


Near the beginning of this year, I wrote a detailed review of Ipsy from the perspective of a Canadian (who ends up paying more than double the advertised amount because of her location). If you read my original review, you'd know that at the time I wrote it I was already thinking the price I'd been paying (about $20) hadn't been worth the products received at all. I thought I would keep going anyway and see if that changed, as my tastes do, but unfortunately I still feel the same way. I've been receiving Ipsy bags for just about a year now--I believe I first subscribed around October of 2014--and I decided it was finally time I cancel my subscription. 

Sunday, 6 September 2015

L'Oréal Infallible Pro-Matte Foundation: Review


I know, I know... I'm late on the bandwagon. I finally decided to pick this foundation up the other day because I've heard great review after great review and I figured it was time I try it out. I ran out of my go-to foundation,
Lancome Teint Idole Ultra 24-H /cries, and I don't want to replace it because it's a little pricey. I've been trying to discover drugstore foundations to give holy-grail status but it's been a challenge because my skin is hard to please.