Rose Rose Shop Haul

I've been looking forward to receiving this package these past few weeks and was not disappointed when it finally arrived!

Look at all the packaging! I was happy that nothing broke!

So here is a list of products sorted by the brands. I would do swatches of all of them in a separate post, but I included some simply because I just couldn't wait. Enjoy!

The Face Shop:
Mini Pet Perfume Hand Cream in 03 White Floral - too cute for words, still in their original packaging!
Mini Pet Perfume Hand Cream in 04 Fruity Floral - this one too ^^
Face Blusher in 05 Pink Affair
Face Blusher in 06 Fuzzy Peach
Face Blusher in 07 Pink Peach
Face Blusher in 02 Gold Glow Highlighter
Eyes Shadow in 01 Purple Fog
Eyes Shadow in 02 Retro Blue
Eyes Shadow in 03 Peach Kissed
Eyes Shadow in 04 Brownie
Eyes Shadow in 12 Baby Pink
Eyes Shadow in 16 Beautiful Orange
Eyes Shadow in 18 Purple Dance
Eyes Shadow in 22 Cocoa Powder
Nail Polish Remover in 01 Rose - It is slightly rose scented and did its job well. For 80 cents, I can't really complain anything about it.

Etude House:
Drawing Eye Brow in 03 Brown
Drawing Eye Brow in 05 Gray - Very light packaging compared to my current HG Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting pencil (at a fraction of the cost!!), the grey is decently pigmented for brows, the brush on the end has hard bristles, which I'm not fond of.

Tony Moly:
Delight Mono Shadow Matte in 05 Brown Cookie - barely visible when swatched, but makes a great all-over eyelid colour.
Delight Mono Shadow Shimmer in 09 Browston - Lovely pigmentation, easy to blend, very wearable neutral

Browston and Brown Cookie

I've been wearing these two colours every day as it is perfect for work. I did not realize that they came without a case, but since there is a magnet on the back I just popped these two pans in an old mint container. The edge of the pans are also slightly higher than the typical pans and are hard to fit into a regular palette.

 no flash

with flash

Cat Chu Wink Gloss in 09 Fanta Orange - Big disappointment, I expected it to have great colour payoff, but was left rather underwhelmed. There is no colour, just a gloss with glitter. Booh!

It's SKIN Model Project Cake Eyebrow in 02 Mocha Brown and Natural Gray

Innisfree Eco Beauty Tool Natural Eyelashes

RoseRoseShop was also super generous and included 7 samples in my package :)

Beauty Haul from Atlanta

Remember July's no-buy? Well, it was so that I can shop to my hearts' content when I travelled to Atlanta early August, and this was my damage / splurge on make up products. 

At CCO, I picked up MAC's Veronica's Blush. I swatched it at the store and really liked it but decided against buying it because I wanted to think it over. The next day I went back and purchased it.

On the day I purchased the MAC blush, I visited an Ulta store for the first time and ended up with some RT brushes that I had not seen in Tdot (or when I did, it was not at the the price I wanted to pay.) I was so glad that they had both blush and powder brushes. At checkout, I also picked up this cute Bare Mineral Ready touch up veil in translucent, I thought that it would be awesome for on the go and it came with a tiny brush and clear makeup bag.

My last stop was at Sephora. Even though I have an overwhelming amount of eyeshadow palettes, I decided I needed to have the Urban Decay Naked Basic after hearing quite a few YT gurus raving about it. Alas, I now have all three UD Naked palettes.. Suckered~ I hope I won't regret it, as I have yet to test it out. I have my doubts that it would be able to replace the Naked 1 palette.  

My next two products, were the only products on my to-buy list. The Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder in Diffused Light and its powder brush. I enjoyed Dim Light so much that I wanted to try the rest of the lighting powder, Diffused Light was the next on my to try list. I've tried it and to be honest, am not liking it as much as Dim Light. I will continue testing out with various foundations and see if I will come to like the result, will update!

Dim Light (barely made a dent and have been using it almost everyday for the past 2 months) and Diffused Light

I did surprisingly less damage than expected, but I think it is partly due to the fact that I did not encounter any Chanel counters, else the Les Beiges powder, the Tan de Soleil bronzer and the CC cream would put me way over... Perhaps I can continue lemming over them and keep the money in my pocket a little longer~

Sephora Haul from VIB 15% off sale

Like most shopoholic, I find it a struggle to not invest in a good deal, especially since I've moved to a different area, with a different mall to shop at. The Sephora there is also bigger with more brand selection, such as shu uemura :)

I did not walk in with shu in mind, and I was actually not tempted to buy anything until I spotted the shu uemura section on my way out. After seeing Stylish&literate's post here I kind of convinced myself I should check them out. I did and this was my damage:

2 shu uemura blushes one in M soft coral (345) and M soft pink (336) these babies swatched so nicely, and has great pigmentation. If these are anything like their eyeshadows, then I'm sure the lasting powers will be awesome! Can't wait to try them out :)

The VIB tote and samples were nothing special, I only got 7 packet samples, but I did manage to claim my 100 point perk for the Stila Convertible Color in Peony. :) Ahh my blush craze phase~~ XD

Did you go crazy with your shopping this week?!

Week 3: Colouring Cheeks

My late post on blushes I used last week :) 

no flash, from left to right: Tarte Amazonian clay 12-hour blush in Exposed, TheBalm Down Boy blush/shadow, MAC Sheertone blush in Tenderling, Missha M show powder blusher in Heidi and Smashbox blush in Aperture

Monday: Tarte Amazonian clay 12-hour blush in Exposed

• I decided to try this blush because Jen frmheadtotoe had rave so much about it. I have to admit that when I first saw it in the pan I was hesistant. It looked so brown that I thought I had either the wrong colour, or that it was suppose to be a bronzer, however, once swatched, you see this lovely desert rose colour. I heart it very much, and was glad that this was one product I didn't miss out on.

Tuesday: The Balm Down Boy blush/shadow

• I purchased this blush because it was on sale on Hautelook without seeing any swatches or trying them out at the store. So I was pretty surprised at how light it looked in the pan and how bright it is when swatched. This is a very girly pink but when applied lightly is pretty lovely... I find that you can wear any bright blushes as long as you use a light hand...

Wednesday: MAC Sheertone blush in Tenderling

• This is a lovely flush of colour that reminds me of Tarte's exposed but lighter. I like it's sheerness for the simple fact that it is pretty hard to mess up because the colour is so light. I think it's a lovely everyday shade for office wear or if you want a more natural look, though I find that if you were darker skintone it wouldn't show as well. A side note, small rant: I got this from Beyond the Rack sale a while back and I don't think I'd ever order from them again! It turns out to be a much smaller 'bargain/discount' and it took forever to ship even though it is based in Canada, coming from Montreal! Does anyone else have this problem? Also, they ruined my packaging by put tape all over them~ UGH~ sticky stuff on packages = pet peeve!!

Thursday: Missha M show powder blusher in Heidi

• This blush is extremely sheer with small glitter that kind of bothered me because I know they are there. I bought it, thinking that maybe when my face is pasty white it'd show but it requires a lot of work, and at the end I wondered if the colour is coming from my face being rubbed so hard with the sponge applicator it came with. It was novel and now I just felt like I wasted money. Colour barely showed up on my arm. Does anyone know the trick to using this blush? I tried tapping it on my cheek too... didn't work XD

Friday: Smashbox blush in Apperture

• Being the geek that I am, I purchased this blush because the name reminded me of a game I played with my husband a few years back. I love this peach/tangy orange blush on my cheeks because it gives a lovely glow on my face. It's a bit scary on pan and in swatch, but this blush isn't as orange as you might think. It was another pleasant find for me :)

Even though I'm addicted to blushes, I don't really have much to say about them... I find that many of the colours I own is similar, the quality of the blushes also seems to be the same, I also haven't really notice a difference in lasting power.

Anyhoot, onto next week's category... Being the MU junkie that I am, I have a tiny obsession with concealers, so I hope you look forward to seeing some of them featured next week. Until then, tata!

Birthday Haul 2012 - Addicted to Dior

I spoiled myself rotten this year for my birthday :) I waited until Shopper's had their bonus point redemption to claim some products I wouldn't normally buy otherwise... Picked up two Dior skincare products and quite a few makeup products as well. Voici mon haul!

I splurged on skincare even though I know I shouldn't be trying out anything new for the next month... but the lovely smell and the nice hydrated feeling on the skin made it irresistible  I'm still in the process of testing out the products to make sure my face won't breakout (since their foundation breaks me out after a few hours of use...grr...) 

UPDATE: Both products caused me to break out. I had little pimples around my cheek/jawline as well as increased redness on my face. When I bought it back to Shopper's for an exchange the CSR told me it's my face getting use to the product... but at 65$ each, I don't feel like taking the risk to find out. Also, with the wedding less than a month away, I should not be irritating my skin!

Dior Hydra Life Youth Essential Concentrated Sorbet Essence and Pro-Youth Sorbet Crème

I went crazy with some lippies and a blush... So into nudes lately~~

From the Dior Addict collection I picked up 2 lipsticks, 222 Beige Casual and 530 Bobo, also a gloss in 257 Pink Trench

I also picked up a Rouge Dior lipstick in 314 Angelique Beige (swatched here)

Update: BOOO! I found out that the Rouge Dior formula contains beeswax after my lips started itching after I applied it. So sad because this was such a lovely colour on the lips. As always, I like natural and moisturized looking lips... This made my lips peel :(

Last but not least, I bought my first Dior blush in 533 Passion Fruit. This luxurious blush came with it's own pouch! 

So in total... I spent 140.13$ for 340$ worth of Dior products :) Tell me I did good~ haha...

Beyond the Rack Haul: MAC blushes

Not so impressed with what Beyond the Rack did to my boxes and plastic cover on my blushes, but I loved the colours I bought. :) 

From the top, clockwise: MAC Sheertone blushes in Sincere and Tenderling, MAC Mineralize blush in  Utterly Game, and Pet Me

Just to confuse myself, clockwise from the top: Tenderling, Utterly Game, Sincere and Pet Me

Easier in a line left to right: Pet Me, Tenderling, Utterly Game, and Sincere

Swatches will be up shortly! (no promises, but maybe tonight?) eventually...

Bourjois + Vichy = Treats from eM

Some new products to try out this week and Tarepanda decided to make an appearance :)

Vichy ProEven BB cream [review coming up] was the reason why I had to make another trip to SDM. I tried out the BB cream earlier and really enjoyed it, and I also wanted to make use of the SDM bonus points event. It isn't until I purchased it that I realized this is one of Vichy's new fall products. There is no reviews online for it yet... So I shall be the Guinea pig!!

The Vichy bb cream claims to:
- even out skin tone
- boost radiance
- conceal dark spots
- reduce the look of wrinkles
- hydrate for 24hours
** other features include: SPF 20 broad spectrum UVA/UVB protection, paraben-free and fragrance-free, hypoallergenic, and available in two shades: light to medium and medium to dark

Sounds promising, hopefully I will have better luck with this BB cream, since most Asian ones are too light for me and tends to break me out.

While I was there, I also picked up the Bourjois healthy balance unifying powder in 53 Beige Clair (Light beige) because of its silky texture (it also smells so sweet~~ *drools*) This powder is suppose to be hydrating, anti-shine and last up to 10hours. I haven't actually tested this product out yet, but the reviews on it seems to be good so I am hopeful! Last minute decision and I picked up a Bourjois blush in 34 Rose D'or.

Eyeshadow fanatic

I went to the Shiseido Warehouse sale this year... and my haul consist mainly of eyeshadows... for most of them $10 was too good a deal to pass... now... with the big hole in my wallet I wonder if it was such a good idea... and to top it all off the only thing I've used out of this bunch was the blush...

Seduced by NARS~

Nope... no self-control what-so-ever. Got the VIB gift from Nars email and I instantly knew I will be making a trip to Sephora... Death trap... seriously... 

To get the Nars goodies... you had to make a purchase of at least $35... So I got the Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-hour blush in Exposed and a Sephora trio eyeshadow/highlighter.

Here's the pretty bag...

... with a neat little intro card...

and the Nars goodies!

Inside the cute pouch was a mini Nars bronzing powder in Laguna, liquid illuminator in Orgasm and a smudge proof eyeshadow base. I wanted to try the bronzer but I didn't want to get the full size because I am still learning to contour properly... I also figured that if I give up on contouring I can use it as an e/s ;)

Asian Makeup~~

I went to Pacific mall on CNY weekend... Crazy right? Surprisingly, there were not too many people actually shopping (although finding a parking spot was nearly impossible...) I was there shopping with Auntie looking at random things, when I bumped into the following items that were hard to resist! (BTW this is my first time trying Asian makeup, so hopefully it works out!)

There was a nice little boutique opened by a Korean lady at Pmall D#38, that sold many Korean products! I fell in love with some Missha blushes and ended up purchasing two of them. I got M shimmer blending ball blusher in No. 2 Peach Glow, and M show powder blusher in Heidi. Both blushes smells like baby powder, which is not all that unpleasant. Peach Glow gives a very natural glow look that is subtle and beautiful, whereas Heidi gives a more youthful/playful look. Both blushes have fine glitter particles, however the ones in Heidi is more obvious. I haven't tried on either one except for at the store so I'm not sure their lasting power, however I found that they were decently pigmented on clear white skin but did not show as well on my hands. Will take pictures of them once I wear them out ^^

At Debbie's I had also picked up these cute peaches (one lipbalm and one body lotion.) They smell so delicious that I just want to take a bite out of my hand... ugh... not very pleasant imagery... haha... but seriously, they smell and look like they are edible! Moisturizing factor? who cares! They will make excellent ornament when I'm done! (ha!)

I also finally cave into these!

Yeps, its a piece of velcro that you are suppose to put it on your hair and keep your hair from falling into your face and interfering with your makeup/skincare routine... Unfortunately, I have very hard, thick hair and this does not seem to work very well on me :( Should have stuck to my self made velcro piece!

Last thing I got (but not from Debbie's) was an eyeliner by Koji. The CSR told me that it's one of the best waterproof/sweatproof eyeliner. I have high hope for this one, let's hope it lives up to expectation! I'll put swatches up as I use these new goodies :)

update ** swatches of eyeliner

As you can see, this eyeliner is capable of both thin and thick lines, however you need to have a steady hand. I find that the product does not budge immediately after it is applied, so if you make a mistake you cannot correct it easily. I will put up a comparison picture of the different eyeliners I'm using.. as soon as I take them ^_^

and btw... Happy Year of the Dragon, may your wishes come true! (^vv^)