Daiso Face Net

While I was in Asia, I had the chance to stop by Daiso and picked up quite a few random beauty tools. One of my most used purchases is the face net. Daiso carries quite a few options in terms of size, with a larger size having the capacity to produce more foam. I picked a combo pack of one medium and one small - shown below is the medium size from the package:




Here's how it works in four steps:

1. Dampen the face net, then dispense some face wash on the net on the palm of your hand.
2. Work the product into the net in a scrubbing motion.
3. Once there is lots of lather or enough for your liking, squeeze the lather into your palm by pulling the net through your index and middle fingers.
4. Apply and have fun :)

Overall, I felt the net really helped create foam more easily from a smaller amount of product. I used it with the Marcelle Essentials Foaming Gel cleanser, and ended up cutting the product I used by almost half. It differs depending on your product though, I couldn't cut as much product with the Green Beaver Grapefruit cleanser for example, probably because it's not meant to foam much to begin with.

Also I've heard that using this foaming method is meant to reduce the need for you to rub your face while cleansing thus reducing the odds of wrinkles. For me it doesn't help though, because my face tends to get dry and flaky so I exfoliate more often even when I'm using the net. I would say I use it more for the luxurious feeling of the foam :)

August with Annabelle

Hey guys! It's been a while, I have lots to catch up on in the blogosphere, and to update on as well. Firstly, I finished grad school, and spent the last 2 months visiting my family in Asia, as well as traveling to some other areas (Hong Kong, Beijing).

Surprisingly, I didn't shop as much as I would have in the past. Trying to be more disciplined about my collection and not buy something that I will only use once. I went through my traincase the other day, and there are just too many things I have that fall into that category.

But anyway, I think these days I'm definitely more discerning about what I like and don't like, which is good for you readers since it means more thorough reviews than ever! :)


Today I wanted to share with you 2 products from the Annabelle Summer collection, the Biggy Bronzer and Hawaiian Hues eyeshadow palette. Both retail for $12.95.

The Biggy Bronzer is just as its name says, quite big ;)



I am loving the wave pattern on the surface. This is not just a flat pattern but the powder surface itself is actually curved, a nice touch of luxe-ness in my opinion.




The powder is very finely milled and gives an amazing glow to my cheekbones. It's not an "out there" type of glow but a subtle sheen.

The colours are a gradient of pinkish brown shades. They are subtle enough that they should flatter any skin undertone. Considering my skin has a fairly pronounced yellow undertone it worked well.






Considering how subtle the shades are, I think it would serve as a highlighter for those with darker skintones. On me, it adds some colour if I use a normal brush with the darker stripes, but in this picture I had used a fan duo fibre brush just to get a highlighting effect.

Overall, I would recommend the biggy Bronzer as a solid addition to anyone if they lack a Bronzer or one in the more pinkish end of the spectrum.




The Hawaiian Hues palette has a nice collection of summer shades, ranging from copper and neutrals to summer brights.




I am not too keen on the packaging for the palette, as it was more of a generic plastic common to most drugstore products. Each eyeshadow strip was also quite thin, and if you like using your own eyeshadow brushes instead of the provided applicators, then it may be tricky to swirl your brush in the pan to pick up colour.




Swatches in the same order as the palette, from left to right:







Some colours are done better than others. The colours I found with good pigment and texture are the copper, brown, silver-grey. The rest, especially the yellow shade on the right were more powdery, coarser textured, and only had mediocre colour payoff.


Overall, I felt that the Hawaiian Hues palette was somewhat lacking in quality colours. If you are just starting out in makeup and want to play around with a wide variety of colours, this could be worth a look, but you may outgrow it fast as you become more adventurous with bright colours (or realize that you just prefer neutrals).

Mini Blog Sale: MAC, Cle de Peau, Nars, Guerlain etc

I was doing a bit of spring cleaning and decided to clear out some items that deserve a new home. This will be a limited time sale as I am away on vacation starting May 9th so I can only ship items from now until then.


MAC Products



MAC Graphic Garden palette
$25
Used 2x

MAC Ungaro cream color base in Crushed Bouganvillea (sheer berry red)
$15
Used 2x

MAC Lipstick in Peachstock (permanent colour but in Liberty of London packaging)
$12
Used 1x




SOLD MAC DSquared Greasepaint Stick in V (violet)
$10
95% left

MAC Shadestick in Cakeshop (shimmering pewter)
$10
Brand new



Other Products




SOLD Cle de Peau Eye Colour quad in 14 (white, silver, grey, black). Forgot to take picture of the interior colours but you can see another pic of colours here
$30
Used 5x

Guerlain Terracotta Kohl in Brun Dore
$15
Used 1x

Too Faced Eyeshadow Duo Ooh & Aah (black/silver)
$9
Brand new




SOLD Nars Blush in Dolce Vita
$15
Used 1x

Make Up For Ever HD blush in #6
$15
Used 1x


Make Up For Ever HD blush in #14
$15
Used 1x




Face Atelier Ultra Foundation Pro in Sand, 20mL size
$20
Used 1x

Korres Guava lipstick in 17 Pink
$10
Brand new

Clinique Almost Lipstick in Black Honey
$8
90% left


How it works:

• Prices are in USD (or CAD for Canadians if preferred)
• For US and international destinations: Shipping is $9 per item, but combined shipping is available as long as items do not exceed a certain weight.
• For Canadian destinations: Shipping is a flat $10 regardless of how many items are purchased.
• All items will be shipped with Canada Post. No tracking is available except for Canadian destinations.
• If you are interested in any items email me at watercoloursky [at] gmail [dot] com with your Paypal email, and I will send you an invoice. 
• I can ship items only until May 9th (when I go on vacation) so let me know if you are interested in anything as soon as possible!

Thanks for looking! :)

Butter London Spring 2012: Bossy Boots, Slapper

I always thought Butter London was a strange name for nail polish. The image of yellow, fresh churned butter + a location seems miles away from colour for your nails.

But then I received two polishes from Nail Polish Canada that really turned the lightbulb on. Meet Bossy Boots and Slapper, from the 2012 Spring collection:



Bossy Boots is a pistachio green with a creme finish that seems to be everywhere this year. Another way to describe the colour is a matcha green.




Applying the colour is literally like butter. The formula seems to level out on its own even on one of my nails which had some ridges that couldn't be buffed away.









Slapper is one of those beautiful but hard to photograph accurately colours. In person, it is a bright green with teal tones, but in photos, whether I used my iphone or camera, the colour keeps showing up as being more blue-turquoise. Just keep in mind that it is a greener colour than what appears in the picture.





The closest I could get to capturing the green tone were the next two pictures:





Both colours were applied with two coats, and then topped with Seche Vite topcoat. Overall, I really liked the Butter London formulation! There are 3 other colours in the collection which you can see on Nail Polish Canada's page, and also do check out MacNunu's review of the collection!

Annabelle Smudgeliner in Plummed

Annabelle Smudgeliners...a lot has been said about them, all positive. Having finally had the chance to review Plummed, I have nothing to contradict others either.

Once you take the product out of the box you will notice it has a different packaging from other drugstore gel liners.






The uniqueness of the Smudgeliner is that the brush comes off the pot cap and assembles to form an almost-full-size brush (see Marcelle pencil liner for size reference:





Brush close-up. The brush is gentle on the eyelid, and has the right about of give and flexibility. However the one I had did have a few misaligned fibres, which made it a bit more challenging to draw a fine line with.




Here are the ingredients for Plummed:




A swatch of Plummed. It shows up as a blackened warm purple, tending more black in low lighting and more purple when angled a certain way.




As a liner it looks more like an off black than purple, but I feel the purple tones serve to accentuate brown eyes still, just very subtly. It is a lot less harsh than straight black.




Just for fun, a size comparison vs other liners. From L-R, Annabelle Smudgeliner, Kanebo Kate, Maybelline Studio, MAC Fluidline, L'Oreal HIP.



Out of the above, the Smudgeliner is truly the tinest of them all!


Annabelle Plummed vs Kate Gel Liner in PU-1



I had a similar colour from my Japanese makeup collection from Kate, so I swatched both to see if ther was a difference. The Kate gel liner contains more black in it and is also drier than the Smudgeliner, which has a wet, creamy texture which serves well as a cream shadow base.

In terms of wear, the liner stayed on for me all day as long as I had my eyelids primed with Urban Decay Primer Potion. There was no smudging or migration of colour. I haven't tried this yet but the product would make a great eyeshadow base for dark, smoky looks since the texture is creamy yet dries fairly quick.

Overall, I felt that the Smudgeliners are worth trying if you like having an all-in-one type of product that can act as a liner, eyeshadow base, and comes with its own brush. Some may be put off by its small size, but if you are me, who isn't faithful to only one gel liner, the pot is more than enough to last a long time.