Rain Coates Beauty

Giveaway #2 – Balenciaga Rosabotanica Perfume

Make sure to read my previous post about the new Youtube updates, and how small bloggers like myself will be affected – and also how these giveaways are my way of thanking everyone for helping to support me! Thank you so much to everyone who entered my previous giveaway!

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My second giveaway is a 100ml bottle of the Balenciaga Rosabotanica perfume. This fragrance is perfect for floral lovers! It’s fresh and floral, inspired by rose with a slight spicy twist. It has notes of blue hyacinth, fig leaf, pettigrain, rose, grapefruit, pink pepper, cedar, amber, patchouli, and more.

This is such a unique fragrance, and is surprisingly super lightweight on the skin! It lasts all day, without feeling or smelling overpowering like it may seem from the bottle.

To enter, all you have to do is:

Be subscribed to my YouTube channel
Be following me on Instagram
Comment on this post or on my Instagram post letting me know you’ve entered!

This giveaway is open worldwide! I will be contacting the winner personally.

If you’re a small blogger like me and will be affected by this change, leave your channel name in the comments so we can help each other out!

Stay tuned for my next giveaway!

Giveaway #1 – Lancome La Nuit Tresor & Grandiose Mascara

Giveaway now closed

I’m sure many of you have heard of the new Youtube update – which will demonetize and lose the YouTube Partnership features for anyone with less than 1000 subscribers.

I went into full detail in my previous post, which you can read here.
For a microblogger like myself trying to turn this into a career, this is really frustrating and disheartening. It means we will have to work even harder to be able to access basic features that we used to automatically have. It means we won’t be able to earn any income until we reach the threshold and reapply.

In the midst of this, I realized now is the perfect time to give away the products that have been sitting there neglected and unused – giveaways I’ve been meaning to do for months now. A perk of working in the cosmetic industry is you get quite a bit of free product – product I just don’t use or need. I would much rather give these products to those who will truly be able to use and love them.

This is a small way for me to show my appreciation for all of you who have supported me, and those new to my channel. I’m so close to 1000 followers and keeping my Youtube Partnership – if you’d like to help me out, these giveaways are the best way I can say thank you!

Throughout the next month, I will be giving away ALL these goodies and more to you lovely people! All I ask in return is that you’re subscribed to me on YouTube and Instagram.

The first giveaway is 2 full-sized, brand new (of course!) Lancome products.

Lancome La Nuit Tresor L’eau De Parfum Caresse 50mL (a sweet, fruity floral gourmand scent, with pink pepper, Damascus rose, jasmine, almond blossom, tonka, and vanilla)
Lancome Grandiose Limited Edition Blue Mascara

Again, to enter all you have to do is:

Be subscribed to my YouTube channel
Be following me on Instagram

This giveaway is open worldwide until Wednesday January 24th! I will be contacting the winner personally.

If you’re a small blogger like me and will be affected by this change, leave your channel name in the comments so we can help each other out!

Stay tuned for my next giveaway!

YouTube’s New Update: What Does This Mean For Smaller Accounts?

*Read to the end for details on my upcoming giveaways!*

YouTube recently announced upcoming changes to the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). In YouTube’s apparent attempt to crack down on the “bad actors” and spam accounts “from harming the inspiring and original creators around the world who make their living on YouTube,” YouTube will be increasing the requirements needed to monetize your account – in other words, you will now need at least 4000 hours of watch time in a 12 month period, and 1000 subscribers.

YouTube claims this will help them to better determine who positively contributes to the YouTube creator community, and who is posting inappropriate/spam content and taking revenue away from the serious creators.

This change was reportedly sparked by the recent Jake Paul scandal in which he despicably posted a vlog including footage of him in Aokigahara Forest (a forest notoriously known as the “Suicide Forest.) This footage included him and his friends joking, laughing, and filming the dead body of a suicide victim. You can read about that here. This caused an uproar amongst the internet, content creators, and social media influencers. Thousands of people made responses and contacted YouTube requesting retribution for Logan Paul, especially in regards to this new YouTube update.

YouTube said they would be updating their policies to better reflect their values and maintain integrity. While that is respectable in theory, the way they did it is absolutely ridiculous. Not only was Logan Paul not suspended from YouTube or had his videos demonetized, he actually gained a huge amount of followers – not to mention revenue. Basically, problematic public figures like Logan Paul won’t be affected by these changes, because he has such a huge following. Instead, microbloggers like myself are the ones who will be negatively affected by this.

“Microbloggers” refers to bloggers or content creators with a smaller following -typically a few thousand followers or less.

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These changes mean that in less than 30 days, I will lose access to all the monetization features and Youtube Partner Program features – unless I reach 1000 followers.

I’ve always believed creating content shouldn’t be just about followers. I’ve always felt weird or in-genuine asking people to follow me. I make content because I love to do it, and hope that one day enough people will see and (hopefully) enjoy what I post so that I can turn this into a career. Writing, photography, makeup, and creating videos are my greatest passions. To be able to turn my passion into a career I love is the ultimate dream.

Sadly, this dream is now much less attainable. While the revenue I’ve generated previously has been very minimal, it was slowly growing and I was finally starting to feel like my hard work might pay off and bring me a step closer to my goal – a feeling which I’m sure many other bloggers can relate to.

While I can see the positive effects from this change, it isn’t without negative effects. Unfortunately this means small bloggers like myself will have to work even harder to gain exposure in hopes of generating any income, as we now won’t be able to generate any revenue unless we reach the new requirements.

So what are us small bloggers to do? Keep working our butts off, of course! Don’t let these changes dishearten and deter you from striving towards your goal. Now more than ever, it’s so important for us small bloggers to support one another – share each other’s posts, follow each other, and help promote one another.

In an attempt to prevent myself from losing my YouTube partnership, I’ve decided that now is a perfect time to give back. To do the giveaways I’ve been meaning to do for months but never got around to. A perk of working in the beauty industry is I get a lot of free product – product which I’ll never use and quite frankly just don’t need. I’d much rather give these products to someone who needs them and will enjoy them!

During the next month, I will be doing 4 different giveaways! To enter, all you have to do is be subscribed to me on YouTube and following me on Instagram! I’ll post the full details in my next post – make sure to stay tuned for that!

Morphe Me Subscription – January 2018 Brush Review

I’m so excited to be sharing the first Morphe Me package of 2018! I’ve been subscribed to this monthly brush package for over a year now, and while I definitely don’t need any more brushes, I just can’t bring myself to cancel the subscription. It’s such a great value, and I’m a serious brush-junkie.

To ring in the new year, this month’s brush package includes 3 different face brushes from the gorgeous Gunmetal collection. These brushes also feature Morphe’s sleek new logo font.

G39 Deluxe Foundation: synthetic bristles. This smaller, slightly dense brush offers a unique shape that is neither dense nor fluffy, but a great middle ground. ideal for blending out foundation and concealer. It’s not round or puffy, but thicker and fluffier than your standard flat paddle-style foundation brush. Flat paddle brushes tend to just wipe foundation on the skin, leaving a streaky finish. The G39 is a much better alternative, as it diffuses liquid products really well, especially if you’re seeking a soft and natural finish! This is my favourite brush from this month’s package.

G5 Pointed Powder: synthetic bristles. This fluffy brush has a rounded, tapered end. The fluffiness makes this ideal for powder, but the size and tapered edge mean it can be used all over the face! It’s great for setting concealer under the eyes, setting foundation, or applying blush to the cheeks. I personally love a brush like this to blend away the excess powder used when baking your contour. They’ve launched a few brushes that are similar in shape, however I have none in my collection with this exact size, fluffiness, or tapered top. It initially looks similar to the E3 and the Real Techniques brush, however these 2 are larger, less dense, and not as tapered.

G42 1” Flat Contour: this thin brush has a flat top, and is a perfect shape for contouring to sculpt out your features – especially the nose area. Personally, I find a shape like this to be a tad too small and precise for contouring my cheeks, but it works perfectly for the nose. This is the big brother to the G41 (which came in the May 2017 Brush package!) The G41 is tiny compared to this one; the G42 is large, a bit thicker, and has slightly longer bristles. I use a brush like this to contour my nose every day – and this might just become my new favourite!

All of the brushes are extremely soft, and the Gun Metal collection feels very sleek and luxurious. To check out the previous Gun Metal brushes included in the Morphe Me subscription, you can read my review here!

Another new feature Morphe has added is the ability to skip certain brushes from each month and swap them for a different one! You can read more about that here.

If you’re thinking about joining the subscription, you get a free brush if you join through my link here!

Morphe Me Subcription – September Brush Review

Morphe Me Brush Subscription – August 2017 Review

December 2017 On Instagram

2017 is a wrap! I can’t say I’m too sad to see it go, as it was certainly a trying year for the world. Though by this point, I’m sure you’re sick of posts talking about how unfortunate of a year it was.

I’d much rather focus on the positive aspects, and wrap it up with an optimistic hope of what 2018 may bring! I’m currently trying to harness all of my creative energy into getting back into blogging and YouTube. I don’t know about you other content creators out there, but I found it hard to find and channel inspiration throughout much of 2017. Even my Instagram suffered, and I posted much less frequently than I had hoped. That’s my first goal of 2018: to post more on Instagram and my blog!

Here’s a recap of my December on Instagram:

I hope you all had a happy and fun holiday season, and I wish you the best for 2018!

Let’s be friends on Instagram! You can find me here, or as “raincoatesbeauty” on the app!

Tarte Limited-Edition Blush Bazaar Amazonian Clay Blush Palette

Tarte recently launched this holiday season’s limited edition blush palette – 8 shades of blushes and 2 highlighters for $57 CAD!

The breakdown:

$57 CAD
8 blushes (0.084 oz/ 2.4 g each)
2 highlighters (0.084 oz/ 2.4 g each)

It features Tarte’s Amazonian clay blush formula – one of my personal favourite blush formulas on the market – in a double-sided palette with an array of tones.

Continue reading “Tarte Limited-Edition Blush Bazaar Amazonian Clay Blush Palette” →

Sephora 2017 VIB Rouge Sale – Wishlist

It’s that eagerly anticipated time of the year – the Sephora holiday sale! If you’re a VIB Rouge member, you’ve likely already received your sale cards in the mail or eMail.

The holiday season is typically the most launch-heavy season, with endless amounts of gift sets, limited edition packaging, and holiday products. With so many exciting launches, it can be hard to decide what to buy.
For this year’s holiday sale, I cultivated a list of the most recent/noteworthy launches, along with value sets I definitely think are worth the price. These are all products I personally have my eye on – and all are from cruelty free brands (because it’s 2017, and testing on animals is cruel and unnecessary.)

Continue reading “Sephora 2017 VIB Rouge Sale – Wishlist” →

London 2017

I spent a week in London back in April, and it was even more beautiful than I hoped. I was so amazed at how much contrast could exist in a city. From the Tower of London with its cobblestone paths and history to SoHo with its rich urban culture, there was always something interesting and beautiful to see. I really wanted my travel video to capture that, so I tried to include clips of all the things I found beautiful and interesting – you can see London through my eyes.

I hope you enjoy, and I can’t wait to go back!

Morphe Me Subscription – October Brush Review

This post was supposed to be up on October 14th, but sadly I failed to realize the post didn’t automatically publish properly while I was in Disneyworld. Oh well, better late than never, right?

October’s Morphe Me brush package features an exclusive, limited edition pink brush set to help bring awareness to Breast Cancer research. It features 5 gorgeous pink brushes – 2 for face, and 3 for eyes.

PK14 Tapered Powder
PK4 Contour Blush
PK45 Angle Brow
PK36 Tapered Blending
PK524 Oval Shadow

PK14 Tapered Powder: (natural hair bristles) this large, fluffy brush has a tapered tip and long bristles. It’s not very dense, making it great for powder products such as loose powder, blush, or a natural contour. Despite it’s fluffiness, the shape of the brush allows you to build up product as much as you’d like. I personally love a brush like this to apply blush, and that’s what I’ve been using it for everyday!

PK4 Contour Blush: (natural hair bristles) this brush has a slanted, tapered edge and is a great midpoint between fluffy and dense. It’s dense enough that it picks up and deposits powder products such as blush very easily, but fluffy enough that it also blends the product seamlessly into the skin without leaving patches or streaks. A shape like this is great to apply blush or contour, because its slanted edge fits right into the natural contour of the cheek!

PK45 Angle Brow: I personally believe you can never have enough brow or liner brushes. Unless you’re a normal person (unlike me.) This brush is thin and angled, making it ideal for creating nice sharp lines. You could use this to shape and fill the brows with powder or cream – lately I’ve been using it with my Wunderbrow! It also works great with a pomade style product like the Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow. A brush with this shape works really well for eyeliner – I always use a brush like this with a small amount of a dark brown shadow to create a natural looking eyeliner!

PK36 Tapered Blending: (natural bristles) this is another crease blending brush – which by now, I don’t really need any more of, however it does mean I don’t have to clean mine as often. I mean, what? This fluffy brush has long bristles and a tapered tip, so it fits perfectly into the crease to blend. I use a brush like this everytime I do makeup, no matter how simple or intense the makeup look. It’s my go-to type of brush for beginning any eye look – I always use it to blend a neutral transition shade into the crease area.

PK524 Oval Shadow: (natural bristles) this is the best friend to any blending brush. A flat brush like this paired with a fluffier blending brush like the PK36 creates the perfect duo for a simple makeup look. Compared to the PK36 which is better for larger blending, the PK524 is better for depositing colour or blending it in a more precise area.

My favourite part of this month’s brushes, however, happens to be the packaging. Limited edition pink handles with a gold heel and gold writing? I pretty much want to display these on my vanity forever because they’re so gorgeous.

If you’re thinking of joining the Morphe Me brush subscription ($30+ worth of brushes every month for $20 USD and free shipping!) you get a free brush when you join here!

You have until the 22nd of each month to order, but if you join after and want a previous months brushes you can redeem your points for them!

If you’re thinking about joining the subscription, you get a free brush if you join through my link here!

Check out my previous posts:

September 2017 On Instagram

Doing My Boyfriends Makeup

Morphe Me Subcription – September Brush Review

September 2017 On Instagram

Fall is already passing by at the speed of light. While I always wish September lasted longer, I couldn’t be happier about it being October. Halloween to Christmas is my absolute favourite time of the year – Not to mention I leave for Disneyworld with Claudia in 6 days!

Here’s what my month looked like on Instagram!

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You can find me here, or as “raincoatesbeauty” on the app!

Doing My Boyfriends Makeup

So I somehow convinced my boyfriend to let me do his makeup. On camera…and publish it on the World Wide Web. Naturally, I had to go all in. Gold smokey eye, big fake lashes, contour, and a bright red lip. Since today is National Boyfriend Day, I figured it was the perfect day to share it with you!
He was such a good sport – in fact, he was more still and patient than many of the clients I’ve worked on.

Make sure to give the video a thumbs up if you want him to do my makeup next!

The key products used were the Jaclyn Hill x Morphe eyeshadow palette, the new Lise Watier Teint Velours foundation and powder, the Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Skin Twinkle Vol. II palette, and the new limited edition Tarte Blush Bazaar palette! All products are listed in the video!

Previous post:

Morphe Me Subcription – September Brush Review

I cannot believe it’s already mid September! While I’m in definite shock and disbelief at how quickly time is passing, a new month always excites me as it means new Morphe Me brushes!

This month’s package is inspired by ending Summer with a “splash” – with allusions to the ocean and The Little Mermaid.

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It comes with 4 brushes – 1 face and 3 eye brushes.

E6 Flat Buffer
M576 Pointed Blender
M577 Jumbo Crease
M578 Pencil Crease

E6 Flat Buffer: This mid-sized, flat topped foundation brush has synthetic bristles, making it great for liquid or powder. It’s somewhat dense, so you could easily build light to medium coverage with this. A brush like this is great for buffing product into the skin with circular motions. I love using a brush with this type of a shape to buff mineral or loose powder-foundations into the skin. The bristles are super soft and don’t feel scratchy on the skin. You could also use this to blend/soften your contour! I also love using a brush like this to press powder onto the skin (pushing rather than buffing) to add extra coverage to problem areas during a breakout. It helps set your concealer and amp up your coverage!

M576 Pointed Blender: This fluffy crease blending brush is made with Sable bristles and has an elongated teardrop shape. The fluffiness paired with the tapered, pointed tip makes it great for blending shadows into your crease or softening colours. It’s not dense, so it really will work better to blend colour than to deposit colour. I use a brush with a shape like this every single day – usually taking a neutral brown (or any neutral colour thats a couple shades darker than your skin tone) and gently buff this along my crease. This adds definition and allows you to enhance or alter your eye shape!

M577 Jumbo Crease: this big, dense brush has Sable bristles and a pointed tip. This is a great brush to have if you like doing cut creases, smokey eyes, or just want something precise yet larger to blend and build up shading in your outer corner/crease area. If your eyes are smaller or more deep set you may prefer a brush on the smaller size. The density of this brush makes it better for depositing and lightly blending colour, rather than diffusing and softening colour.

M578 Pencil Crease: I consider this the little sister to the M577. It also has Sable bristles and is similar in shape, but much smaller. It’s great for a precise cut crease, or is a fantastic option if you have smaller or deep set eyes. It’s very soft, so also works well to shade around the lower lash line, apply a highlight to the inner corner, or any other precision work you may desire!

Overall, I think this is a great set for those needing some basic eye brushes. I do love all of them, and needed another face buffing brush, however my collection has now grown so large that I don’t really need more crease blending brushes.

If you’re thinking about joining the subscription, you get a free brush if you join through my link here!

Be subscribed to my YouTube channel

Be following me on Instagram

Comment on this post or on my Instagram post letting me know you’ve entered!

*Giveaway now closed*

Again, to enter all you have to do is:

Be subscribed to my YouTube channel

Be following me on Instagram

Giveaway now closed