Face of the Day – Burberry Complete Eye Palette in Plum Pink No.6

I did a review of the Burberry Complete Eye Palette in Plum Pink some time last month. Finally i had some time to do a proper FOTD with it recently, and i would like to share with you some pictures that i took.

Thanks for looking!

Review – Urban Decay Naked Skin

Today’s review is a new foundation from Urban Decay – the Naked Skin Weightless Ultra Definition Liquid Makeup. This is the first foundation i’ve tried with a HD formula. Retailing at S$62 (30ml), I took the opportunity to buy this during the recent Sephora member’s sale with 20% discount.

I was matched to Shade 4.0, which is a medium-light shade, with golden olive undertones. (If you need an equivalent, i’m a MAC NC25)

The packaging is simple and aesthetically pleasing. It comes with an attractive metallic chrome cap, but it is definitely a fingerprint magnet. It also has mixing balls inside the bottle, and you can hear them when you shake the bottle (which is recommended before usage).

With a pump dispenser, it’s extremely easy to dispense the liquid foundation and control the amount needed.

From the swatch above, you can see that it has a watery, and very lightweight texture. It provides a light to medium, yet buildable coverage.  If you prefer a sheer, semi-matte satin finish, you will like this.

The finish looks pretty good after application, though it doesn’t quite give me that brightened complexion as with the Shu Uemura Face Architect Smooth Fit Fluid Foundation. In terms of sebum control, its performance is so-so. I’d definitely recommend setting powder for this foundation. After about 4 to 5 hours, you don’t see that smooth satin finish and a touch-up is needed especially if you tend to get oily around the T-zone areas.

I tend to avoid using this during the weekdays for work, simply because it isn’t long-wearing and i hate to have to touch-up during the day. I do enjoy wearing this on the weekend for an afternoon out though. It is weightless and feels comfortable on my skin.

Here’s a FOTD featuring the Naked Skin foundation and a EOTD using the Sleek Glory Palette. Thanks for looking!

Disclaimer: All opinions expressed on this blog are my own, and have not been influenced by PR companies or advertisers. Products featured/reviewed are purchased with my own money, unless otherwise stated.

Review – Sleek Makeup Blush in Rose Gold + FOTD

I believe most of you would know by now how much i’ve been enjoying my Sleek Makeup Original i-Divine Eyeshadow Palette. So much so that i was dying to try out another Sleek Makeup product. I’ve seen some positive reviews about their blushes and was particularly taken with the Rose Gold, seeing that the swatches of it were very beautiful and indeed something i would like to have as a staple in my growing stash.

I bought it off Shopping District for S$12.50, if you’re wondering where i got it from. It is also available on the Luxola website, at a different price. Anyway, the payment process was simple and straightforward and shipping took about 4 working days.

Here’s what the packaging looks like and a swatch of the blush color. It contains 8g of product, designed and developed in the U.K, produced in Taiwan. A face of the day (FOTD) will follow at the end of this review, showing you how i’ve used this product and what it looks like on me.

My thoughts:
-  It is really of the nicest shimmery peachy pink blush that i’ve come across.
- Pls excuse my poor swatch above, the picture does not capture the full glory of its color. It is definitely not just a flat peachy tone with gold shimmer in it. In fact, it has got more dimension in there which you just have to see in person to fully appreciate its beauty.
- At first touch, the powder is really smooth and finely-milled
- Highly pigmented, you would want to use a light hand for application on your face. Or rather, i usually like a hint of color on my cheeks for a more natural look. Depending on how you like to wear your blusher, you can definitely add more.
- I picked up a subtle rose scent from the product which is very pleasant. I don’t usually like scents on my lip products, but i don’t mind a subtle one for blushers. (No, i’m not biased! ;p)
- All in all, i think there’s great quality here at an affordable price. I love the color, it applies smoothly and gives me that subtle sheen that’s always welcome

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

And here’s the FOTD that i would like to share with you. I’ve used pink and gold eyeshadow to complement the look, and a frosty pink lipstick to complete it. What do you think?

Thanks for looking

Face of The Day: Orange & Navy

Hi everyone, i’d like to share with you today’s face of the day. I was experimenting with a stark orange and dark navy from my Sleek and NYX palettes just to see how it would turn out after blending the 2 colors together. If you’re interested, the colors marked with an ‘X‘ are the ones that i used for this look.

NYX Caribbean Collection (I Dream of St. Lucia)

Sleek Makeup Original i-Divine Eyeshadow Palette

I applied the orange all over the lid and blended it out above the crease towards the brow bone. After which i used a crease brush to dab some of the dark navy on the outer V near the lash line and blended it over my crease (right where my eye socket is). Finally, i used a blending brush to blend everything out and to erase visible lines of where the color starts. I finished it off with my trusty Maybelline black felt tip eyeliner and 1 thick coat of mascara.

As for the lips, i applied a matte nude lipstick and then dabbed some Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Peach Parfait over to achieve this pinkish nude lip.

And here’s what it turned out like! The colors aren’t so apparent in the pictures when i look straight into the camera due to my eye shape and cos my crease is hooded. But in real life, the colors are more obvious and vibrant. Another combination i’m loving

What do you think? Thanks for looking!

Review – NYX Caribbean Collection + ELF Waterproof Eyeliner Pen

The other day, i was in town to run an errand and decided to drop by Far East Plaza after. I came across a flea event at the atrium and found that Smoochiezz was having a stall there. If you’ve never heard of them before, they are actually an online seller of mostly cosmetic and nail polish products. I’ve ordered some nail polish online from them on a previous occasion and delivery was fast. They had lots for sale at this event, and i was busy taking my time to browse and swatch. So far, i’ve had a decent experience with NYX and ELF products and i’m quite the satisfied user. So i picked up a few things which were on sale for slightly cheaper than the prices online.

Today, i will be doing a review on the NYX Caribbean Collection Eyeshadow Palette (which i bought during the flea event) and the ELF Waterproof Eyeliner Pen (which was part of my recent ELF haul from Gmarket). Accompanying these reviews will be a Face-of-the-Day as well to show you how i’ve used these products to put together a nice look for Spring.

NYX Caribbean Collection Eyeshadow Palette ( I Dream of St. Lucia)

My thoughts:
- Priced at $11, it comes in a light, plastic black casing housing 5 eyeshadow pans.
- The casing doesn’t feel very sturdy to me. But unless you are intending to jet set around the world with it, it shouldn’t be an issue.
- It has a good selection of bright colors in one single palette which is great for creating Spring looks.
- The color payoff is more than decent, and holds well when applied on top of my Urban Decay Primer Potion.
- Hardly noticed any fall out during application which was a pleasant surprise, and the colors applied nice & smooth.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

ELF Waterproof Eyeliner Pen in Coffee

My thoughts:
- It is easy to use, with a nice grip on the pen.
- The color is quite intense as you can see in the above picture with just a single line drawn on the back of my hand.
- However, the color is less intense when drawn on the eyelid for some reason. I need to go over it 2 or 3 times. But no biggie, cos i usually need to thicken the line when drawing anyway.
- The felt tip is slightly hard and sharp as compared to my Maybelline felt tip liner which causes no pain at all.
- And last but not least, the most important point i would like to make is that it is NOT waterproof as it claims to be. So in other words, it only fares slightly better than the KATE eyeliner i reviewed earlier. (see link)
- The only way to get around this is to dab brown eyeshadow over the line and smoke it out. That should make it wear longer.

Rating:  3.5 out of 5 stars

And here is my ‘Face of The Day’ using mainly the following products:
- Maybelline Pure Liquid Mineral Foundation
- Bobbi Brown Illuminating Finishing Powder Foundation
- NYX Caribbean Collection Eyeshadow Palette
- ELF Waterproof Eyeliner Pen in Coffee
- Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Peach Parfait

Using the green & orange eyeshadow colors from the palette, i applied the green all over the lid first blending it slightly above the crease. I then used a crease brush to apply the orange lightly on the outer v bringing it further out into the crease to create some dimension. After blending it all out, I also used a smudge brush to lightly sweep the green on my outer lower lash line to finish the look.

*As these pictures were taken in natural lighting without flash, the colors may not be as apparent as they are in real life.

I hope this was useful to you. Thanks for looking!

Review – Maybelline Pure Liquid Mineral Foundation SPF18

Today, i would like to do a review on the Maybelline Pure Liquid Mineral Foundation with SPF18 (25ml) which i picked up from Watsons a while back for S$20 something dollars. (Sorry, can’t recall)

I’m almost ashamed to admit that this is the very first liquid foundation that i have ever purchased (not counting BB cream). I guess i’ve always been skeptical about foundation. For some reason, i’m very afraid to look like i have tons of layers on my face and especially fearful of that face/neck mis-match issue. Perhaps i’ve seen too many walking horror stories when i walk along the streets.

But that is all a thing of the past. Though i have no personal experience with other liquid foundations for comparison, this product has working well for me so far. I have combination skin, with an oily T-zone. So far, i don’t find myself having to blot excessively throughout the day. I only touch-up lightly with a finishing powder once in the day. I also like the pump bottle, it is neat and easy to control exactly how much product i need. Not much is needed really, i don’t have major acne or scarring that i need to cover up, so just a bit to even out the skin tone and some redness around the nose and mouth area.

Some who have used this product might complain that the coverage is too light especially if a completely flawless base is what they’re after. However, that’s fine by me because all i need is just that, something light. The texture is smooth, if a bit runny. Again, in my opinion that’s ok cos it’s been very easy to blend into my skin. I’ve used a BB cream before where the texture was more thick, and i found it really hard to work with and to blend in nicely. I only wish it had a higher SPF. The moisturizer i’m using from Avene for sensitive skin already has SPF25, so if this foundation had a higher SPF, it would be perfect.

I actually bought this product without doing any prior research or reading any reviews. I gave it a chance and it hasn’t disappointed me so far. And since this is my first time experimenting with a liquid foundation, i wasn’t sure if i’d like it or not or if it would cause my skin to break out in hives (i have sensitive skin!). Hence, i decided to try out an affordable drugstore brand. I have been reading reviews on lots of liquid foundations recently, and the high-end brand ones are very tempting. Maybe next time, or when I’m halfway through this bottle

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Here’s a Face of The Day where i’m using the Maybelline Pure Liquid Mineral Foundation as a base, with a soft blue & green on my eyes from the SLEEK eyeshadow palette.

I have green eyeshadow applied over my eyeliner to make it pop a little.

And here below, I have green applied on my lower lash line in the pic below, just to see the difference. I think this looks better

Thanks for looking!

Face of The Day: Shimmer Green

Green has been a color i’ve been wanting to try for some time now, but i wasn’t so sure it would suit me.

Needed to try anyhow. So here we go, using my new mineral eyeshadow palette from SLEEK.

As usual, i had on my Stila tinted moisturizer with SPF 15 for the undereye area, Urban Decay primer potion and illuminating finishing powder from Bobbi Brown. I used a brush to fill in my brows with a dark brown, a slightly peachy pink blush from MAC and a matt lipstick (free with some magazine!). Finished the eyes off with 2 coats of mascara from Maybelline. (i love drugstore make up! Most of them deserve more credit than they are given and they are wallet-friendly too.)

Here, I was going for an intense olive green eye with gold on the outer corners to create that smokey effect.
On hindsight, perhaps i should have used a darker eyeliner for the upper lash line with a cat eye for a more defined look. Here i used the BadGal eyeliner in Charcoal from Benefit.

Overall, i’m quite happy with the final result. I feel i can pretty much carry off this smokey green eye look, which has proven to be quite versatile.

If you have any tips/tricks or feedback for me, please feel free to leave a comment

Thanks for looking!

Face of The Day: Purple Rain

Here’s my new mineral eyeshadow palette from SLEEK that i got from Luxola. They were having a 20% sale the other day with free delivery, and what better time to get it?!?! So happy! I needed a palette that had some of those blues, pinks and greens to add on to my current collection. So far, SLEEK has been great and affordable too. Now I’m only regretting not getting other SLEEK products too. Darn! Hope they have another sale soon LOL!

With my newly acquired palatte, I decided to try doing a FOTD featuring purple/pink eyes and touch of frosty pink gloss for the lips, and here’s what it looks like. I’m not wearing any base here, just used a tinted moisturizer from Stila on the underye area, Urban Decay eyelid primer over the lids and used a brush to apply illuminating finishing powder from Bobbi Brown all over my face.

I’m really loving this palette, the texture of the colors are smooth, the colors quite buildable and easy to blend. Not too much fall out too.

Thanks for looking

Face of The Day: Getting Naked with Urban Decay

I know this is so last century’s news especially since NAKED2 has been out for some time now. But I’ve heard a lot of good things and seen many ‘LOTDs’ & ‘EOTDs’ created with Naked on several beauty blogs and websites. The more i heard and saw, the more i knew I had to get my hands on one.

So I’ve had the legendary Naked Palatte for just a while, and now that i do have time on my hands, i started to play around with it. I love the luxe velvety finish of its packaging with the gold lettering. Being a make-up newbie and all, i needed to get down & dirty with it so we are better acquainted ;p

At one glance, you know this palatte is made up of mostly neutral/warm colors, great for those smoldering smokey eye looks that are still ever so popular. When you see it for yourself, you’ll understand why it’s one of the most sought-after and best selling eyeshadow palettes around and why some makeup gurus claim it is their Holy Grail of eyeshadows. With 12 gorgeous shades, it is basic yet versatile, allowing one to create several looks depending on how creative you are. From what i’ve read, many other palattes have come and gone with the seasons, but it seems like the Naked series is here to stay.

Here’s a closer look at the colors and the textures. The shimmers are really pretty. But, these shadows tend to have quite a bit of fall out. So i had to brush off the remnants from underneath my eyes after i was done shading and blending.

I swatched my favorite colors. (L to R: SIN, SIDECAR, HALFBAKED, SMOG, TOASTED)
Here, i actually layered on quite a bit to achieve this color intensity.

This was my attempt at a bronze-y eye. I used VIRGIN, SIN & HALFBAKED to create this look.
With a lighter hand used, you can see that the color intensity is not really as what’s shown when i swatched it above. I think this might be a more everyday or office-appropriate version that you can wear. Beautiful, yet easy on the eye.

Thanks for looking