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!

Sephora Favourites: Give me some lip 2012

I purchased this lip sampler set a while back and finally got around to trying them all out.

Laura Mercier Lip Glacé in Baby Doll - pretty decent wear, it lasted 3+ hours after some tea and coffee. I thought this was pretty impressive for a lipgloss. I am surprised that this product has a light sweet scent that is barely noticeable. This is awesome since it doesn't clash with other lip products I use under it :) I also like the colour of the gloss as it has just a hint of pink with some shimmer. Subtle, but very cute. The product is very thick and I think its applicator is perfect for it simply because I prefer dotting some products on and let my lips do the rest. I don't like 'brushing' on lipglosses because I feel like I have less control on how much product I use and I don't like wiping the products on the edge of the tube, it's too messy looking. Hmm... I know I sound like I'm praising this product, but I just don't have a bad things to say about it yet... I might find something... but for now, I'm loving this :)

Tarte LipSurgence Natural Matte Lip Tint in Hope - I really wanted to try this product out, but I saw beeswax as an ingredient for the Tarte Lip Tint and hesitated... So I was glad that when I checked this specific colour and I found out that it did not contain beeswax :) Happy! The colour is very lovely and natural. It is a matte warm pink that is great for work and is beautiful under the LM lip glacé. It has a minty scent which I am not crazy about, but it goes away after some time. On its own the product is very drying, so I need to apply a balm before using it. This product lasts a very long time and does stain your lips.

Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment in Sugar Rosé - Love the colour, love the fresh citrus scent. Even though this had beeswax, it did not cause my lips to peel, then again, I do apply either a layer of Vaseline or LM lip silk under it. I wonder if it might have cause a barrier to prevent a reaction? In any case, I've used it a few times and I like the lovely flushed looking lips I saw. It's nice that Sephora gave this out as a birthday present last year and that I managed to grab a set.

Hourglass Extreme Sheen High Shine Lip Gloss in Child - This is a sheer gloss, with little to no pigmentation. I've applied this gloss over nude lipsticks and it didn't really make a difference. However, when applied over a matte lipstick or lip stain, this product gives the lip a very lovely slight gloss finish and I want to say makes the colour look a lot more 3D. This product is scented, reminding me of Garden cookies (from HK.) I like the non-sticky feeling of this gloss, as well as the application of the product. The applicator is also something that I quite enjoy, it is a flat brush with a flexible/bendable tip/sponge. I enjoy using this product more now that I use it on top of a more dry matte lipstick that is not nude.

Sephora Collection Glossy Gloss in Precious Pink - I won't be reviewing this product, since I am giving it away. This is described as a very sheer pink with an iridescent shimmer. I have used the Sephora gloss before and thought they were ok. This colour looks pretty enough in the packaging.

Bite Beauty Lip Shine in Vintage - I'm on the fence about trying this one. I haven't been too curious about this brand since its products contain beeswax, and I don't really want to fall in love with products that I know I shouldn't. It is described as a sheer mauve. Please let me know if you've tried this product and if it's worth me risking the lip issue. Thanks!

Swatches:

With Flash from left to right: Laura Mercier Lip Glacé in Baby Doll, Tarte LipSurgence Natural Matte Lip Tint in Hope, Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment in Sugar Rosé, Hourglass Extreme Sheen High Shine Lip Gloss in Child and Bite Beauty Lip Shine in Vintage.

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Week 1: Lippies

I looked at my makeup collection one day and realized that a large majority of my collection remained unloved, so, as a reminder to myself I will post on a weekly basis, 5 different products from one category that I use between Monday to Friday and see how long I can keep this up.

For the first week, I chose to start off with lipsticks. Here are the products that I used:

Left to right with flash: Tarte's Hope and Laura Mercier's Baby Doll, YSL Sweet Fig, Dior Beige Casual, Dior Red Carpet, Lancome Rose Pitimini

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Monday - Tarte LipSurgence Natural Matte Lip Tint in Hope and Laura Mercier Lip Glacé in Baby Doll

• It's always a merp day Monday, so I decide to put a little bit more effort on my lips and used a lip tint and gloss combo. I find Tarte's Matte lip tint too drying so I added the Laura Mercier gloss on top to give it a bit more shine. I'm not a big fan of the minty scent of the lip tint but it eventually goes away~ 

Tuesday - YSL Volupté Sheer Candy #7 Sweet Fig

• Love the smell of this lipstick as well as the neutral colour. I would never have guessed that the colour of this lipstick would be so sheer. 

Wednesday - Dior Addict Lipstick #222 Beige Casual

• I decided to wear darker eye makeup, so this nude colour was perfect for the eyes :) 

Thursday - Dior Addict Lipstick #963 Red Carpet

• Love this bold blue-red, too bad the bright colour does not last long, as I had to reapply frequently to get the vivid colour. I do want to mention I drank lots of liquid this week because of a stubborn cold that just won't go away. I do want to mention that this lipstick does stain so even though it fades quickly, there is always a hint of the violet red on your lips.

Friday - Lancome Rouge in Love #353M Rose Pitimini

• This colour lasted me a good 4 hours before reapplication is needed. The formula is a bit drying but it's nothing a lip balm base can't fix. I still love the rockets popsicle smell of this lippy.

yay! 6 different products used this week~ I guess this is more like a rotation of the week post. :) Let hope I can keep this up. Next week... Eyeshadows!

So, quick question, do you want to see swatches of these products on the lip? If so, please let me know :)

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 ;)

FOTD: January 26, 2012 + mini mascara comparison

It's been a while since I did a FOTD~ It's a lazy day for me since my face is completely naked (hence all the blemishes~) I did however apply a blush to add some colour to my cheeks. What do you think?

I went crazy! My lips are misbehaving again, so I was ecstatic when the picture turned out ok.. haha..

Products used:
Smashbox eye shadow palette in Monarch
Smashbox limitless liquid liner pen in dark brown
Tarte Amazonian clay 12-hour blush in Blissful <-- currently my fave blush!
Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter in Tutti Fruitti
Nars Larger than life volumizing mascara in black(on right lash) and MAC Plush Lash in Brownette (on left lash)... I wanted to do a quick comparison and here are my findings:

• The color of the two mascara looked virtually identical. 
• Lashes with Nars mascara is softer than those with the MAC mascara, although the MAC ones were not that hard. 
• Formula for MAC mascara was more volumizing than that of Nars which actually felt more like a lenghtening mascara. The lashes with MAC mascara looked fuller and more dense, whereas lashes with Nars were longer and more spidery
•  Lastly, not my finding, but ze man-friend told me that the Nars actually held the curls better than MAC did... how can I miss that?

Would like to apologize for no close up pictures, the ones that I took did not turn out well... I blame both camera and my short Asian lashes! 

Hope you enjoy my randomness~ Until next time!