MAC makeover & Korean food

I went for a makeover from MAC about 2 weeks ago (V-day). Unfortunately I arrived a bit late so the lady didn't really have much time to work on me, and they were also super busy as it was the first weekend of the Hello Kitty launch .

At first she started off with showing me 2 super quick looks that could be done with the HK Too Dolly palette on each eye, at my request. I wasn't too impressed with those mostly because I didn't like the placement of the colours. The payoff sucked too because she wasn't using a primer (and never did in the end). So in the end I just requested a simple smoky eye (and no lipstick because I knew I'd eat it off before I even got to take pictures).






What she used:

• Yogurt (matte pink) from Too Dolly quad all over lid
• Stately Black (grey) on outer corner and blended into crease
• more Stately Black to line top lid, and outer corners of the bottom lashes.
• some mascara...don't know which. She did not curl lashes though.
• MSF Natural in Medium
• Tahitian Sand Beauty Powder on cheeks to "give a glow".

Then I added Fun & Games blush and Cutester lipstick. Those two products btw are super sheer - great for work makeup, but they both barely show up in pictures below. Fun & Games blush is a warm sheer peach. Cutester lipstick is a sheer coral peach, but on me it gives just a touch of shine. Also used some Emote blush to contour.



Haha, I know I look totally thrilled the makeover results in the above picture but it wasn't that. My expression was mostly due to fatigue from less than 4 hours sleep.








I must say I loved her blending skills. All she really used for the crease shade was the 217 and 222. I can't blend dark colours with for the life of me, which was also why I wanted her to do a smoky look. The outer corners could be extended a bit more, but overall I thought she did a good job. Before I'd always heard horror stories about makeovers gone bad because the MAs did not know how to do Asian eyes, but my experience was quite pleasant.

I noticed though that MSF in Medium is too pink for me. It may not show in photos but if you were to see me in real life the difference is obvious. A pity because it seems like a nice product. I don't think there is a yellow toned version of Medium, is there?


Later that day we went out for Korean food. Originally I had planned to go to Rodney's Oyster Bar because the bf loves oysters. However that night it was super cold so we ended up hitting Koreatown instead for hearty food. Seriously though, Koreans know how to make good winter food :P All the soupy spicy foods really keep you warm.

We ordered this beef bulgolgi combo - which I don't even know what the exact menu name was.



Raw seasoned beef slices & onion awaiting their fate:








It came with a spicy seafood tofu stew as well:




All in all, a very filling and satisfying end to the day :)

Some FYI's

Sephora is giving you the chance to pick 5 samples of your own choice (instead of the usual 3) with any online order up til March 3rd. (Source: Dealsea) Don't forget to go through Ebates if you do... and if you do go through Ebates, please let them know I referred you (watercoloursky[at]gmail.com or use my referral link) and they would give us signup bonuses :)

And more specifically...

Canadians: Annabelle is having a giveaway of six Le Gloss sticks of your choice, to 5 randomly chosen people who register with their site by March 9th. If you're already registered then you're automatically entered.

Ontarians: Money is scarce these days...but if you're a student between 15 and 29 years old and you are thinking of starting your own business during summer, you can apply to Summer Company. Its an initiative by the Ontario government that will give you up to $3000 if you're successful. Details here.

Urban Decay 24/7 VIP & MUFE Aqua Eyes Travel sets

Urban Decay's VIP set




Shades & Ingredients

Zero (zealous black), Lucky (brilliant deep copper), Covet (peacock green), Electric (bright aquamarine), Lust (plush purple).



Swatches



Product Observations
Colours: Pigmented, vibrant
Texture: Creamy, smooth
Ease of use: Very convenient size and easy to apply
Price: $29
Size: 5 x 0.03 oz


Make Up For Ever's Aqua Eyes set



Shades & Ingredients


Swatches



Product Observations
Colours: Pigmented, coloured shades are very vibrant
Texture: Creamy, smooth
Ease of use: Very convenient size and easy to apply
Price: $35
Size: 5 x 0.025 oz


Both products seem very similar in terms of being easy to use and quality of the product. The ingredients even seem almost the same! The order of ingredients is slightly different though, so that may account for the minor differences I noticed.

The main thing I found is that the MUFE liners last longer than the UD liners. UD Zero would smudge on my upper lid quite quickly while the MUFE equivalent barely smudged at all. On my lower lashlines both will smudge though (so no difference there). Sorry I was unable to do actual side by side comparisons of the two (because I returned the UD set) but Fuzkittie has done an excellent review and detailed comparison with lots of pictures of the full sized liners - click here.

Both products are very soft, but I noticed that UD's pencil tips tend to wear out faster than MUFE's. It was also harder to do precise lines (eg. winging) with UD compared to MUFE.

However on a cost basis UD seems to have the advantage. The size of the UD liners is more value for money though as you get slightly more product, and at a cheaper price compared with MUFE liners:

UD liner in Yeyo (from the Velvet Rope set) vs MUFE liners.


Therefore if you wanted to give these as a present, UD would be the better choice. The MUFE pencils look really tiny in real life, so it just doesn't look as good when the receipient opens up their gift :P

The length of MUFE pencils also makes it tricky to work with if you have larger hands. I have pretty small hands and still found them a bit inconvenient compared to UD.

Colour selection wise, I personally liked MUFE because of the dark navy blue shade provided. I didn't like UD Covet (peacock green) because it looked way too bright for me to ever use it. However UD does have a wider range of colours.

Minor gripe: The caps of the MUFE liners are ridiculously hard to remove ! They were capped on really tightly. I enlisted the help of the bf and they still wouldn't budge, until he used some dishwashing gloves to get enough grip to yank them off.

Pros and Cons
UD Pros: Wide colour range, size and packaging is nicer for gifts
UD Cons: Smudges easily, needs frequent sharpening due to very soft tip
MUFE Pros: Stays put better than UD, colour selection is more practical
MUFE Cons: Tiny size, hard to remove caps, less product but more expensive


Overall
I think MUFE has the better formulation, but UD is the more economical choice. But if you really want a pencil liner that doesn't smudge I say either use a eyeliner sealant, or go for MAC's Technakohls :P Those are the only pencil liners I've found so far that don't smudge even on the lower lashine.

Kate Super Sharp liner vs Kiss Me Heroine Make liner

I know, I haven't been a very good blogger lately...been busy with some things at work and home but hopefully its getting better soon. Lots of photos to share from the weekend - I went for a quick makeover at MAC over the weekend, V-day dinner, and I'm also lagging on posting about some new products I got recently :)

For today I'm just reviewing two Japanese brand liquid liners: Kate Super Sharp Liner in BK-1 and Kiss Me Heroine Make liner in Black.





They are both pen-style felt tip liners, but the Kate liner (left) has a slightly shorter tip than the Kiss Me one (right).




There's not a whole lot of difference between the two in terms of lining your eyes. Both are equally easy to use, as the felt tip allows for a lot of control. The Kate liner allows you to draw a thinner line though, which I think is due to the shorter tip (allowing for more control).

Kate liner


Kiss Me liner


Different angles but looks pretty similar in the pics...just that Kate is easier to do thinner lines and Kiss Me can do thicker lines better.


The removal process though is what differentiates the two. I tested them with some water to see if they were waterproof, and also checked how easy they were to remove with DHC Cleansing oil, and Mandom Cleansing Express Moist.

The two lines on the left are Kate, and the two on the right are Kiss Me Heroine Make. I basically swiped across the lines with a little bit of each cleanser.

Water (room temperature, just to test waterproofness)


DHC oil


Mandom Cleansing Express Moist


Some more rubbing and some more Mandom cleanser.




What I notice from the above tests is that the Kate tends to smudge and smear as you remove it, while the Kiss Me liner comes off in little bits. Also with the Mandom cleanser, even when I rubbbed the area to help remove the product, the Kate liner did not remove completely but left a greyish residue on the area.

You can also see that the Kiss Me liner is quite waterproof unlike Kate with room temperature water. However if you do want to remove the Kiss Me liner it comes off easily once you use warm water with a little bit of rubbing.

Overall I still prefer Kiss Me Heroine Make liner because of how durable it is with water. I also much prefer how it is easy to remove (and forgiving when you're correcting mistakes). If I were to correct any mistakes made with the Kate liner, its hard to remove even with a Q tip without smudging the line. With the Kiss Me liner whatever I want to remove comes off easily with just warm water and a Q-tip.


Speaking of Kate, I've been lemming over Kate's new eyeshadow palettes ever since seeing this ad:



I love the smoky eye look in the pics however the palette colours in the picture don't look intense enough to create the same look the model's wearing. I'd probably need to use an additional eyeshadow in black to make it dramatic enough. Anyway I've been waiting to see some reviews on the palettes but so far haven't seen any posts on it from other bloggers...I wonder why? If you have pictures or have seen any online let me know!

Paul and Joe Disney collection

The collection consists of 4 items: two face powders, a lip gloss, and hand cream.







1. Face Powder (Flower)
Baby pink colour with fine sparkles. Swatches smoothly with moderate to sheer pigmentation. The pearls are a uniform pink colour unlike the stock picture...that was the only disappointing part about the product.




2. Face Powder (Bambi)
Warm peach colour with fine sparkles. Texture doesn't seem as nice as the pink powder, it was harder to get it to swatch evenly and smoothly. Pigmentation is also on the sheer side. The pearls are a uniform brownish peach colour in the container, but the colour when applied is lighter.




Face powder swatches

The colour shows up better in this picture but doesn't show the sparkles/shimmer in the product:


Here you can see the sparkles more clearly:



3. Milky Lip Treatment (Marie from the Aristocrats)
Pale milky pink, semi-sheer. Slightly sticky but not that much. Even though its called a treatment I find it feels more like gloss than a lipbalm or cream.






4. Protective Hand Cream (Lady)
Orange scented, feels more like lotion - the texture is thinner than what I would've expected from a product that is called a cream.




Overall: I love the packaging! If you are a collector you should get the whole set as they are unbelievably cuter in person :) However everything is pretty dupeable in terms of shades so there isn't anything that is an absolute must have. Also, I found the product shades to be better suited for paler skintones. If you just want to try an item I'd recommend the pink face powder as that feels the nicest in terms of product quality.

Where to buy: The cheapest price I've seen for them online is on Asos but there is no tracking number. These can also be found at Gooddealer at a higher price, but the benefit is that Gooddealer uses registered mail.

MAC Hello Kitty: Tips for Canadians

If you're in Canada...and you plan to haul at least CAD$50 from the Hello Kitty collection, get your stuff from MAC stores not counters.

Why? Because you'll get a free tote bag with your purchase! Found this info from Melissa & PinkPearl on Specktra. It seems this may actually be exclusive to Canadian stores and online orders only. I called a few locations and found that this is only for MAC stores only, not for The Bay counters.

Also, all MAC locations and counters have their makeover events from Feb 12 - 14 with a CAD$50 purchase. How it works is you call ahead (like now!) to make an appointment, and you can choose the items you want afterwards to make up that CAD$50.

Btw, if you really want to get your hands on Hello Kitty and you know what you want, try calling your location to see if they will put it on hold for you. The places I called said different things so it seems it just depends where you go.

Finally, if you want to know the Canadian retail prices here they are.

P.S. If you want to order online but don't have enough to meet the $75 minimum for free shipping, you can still get a free shipping code for any value purchase if you do a Live Chat with a makeup artist online - just click on "Live Chat" and ask whatever question you have. They'll give you the code at the end of your session. I think there's also another free shipping code "CREMETEAM" but not sure if that works for Canadians.

MAC Hello Kitty pictures and haul

Before the preview started:

After the preview started. Notice anything wrong with this picture?



Yep.
.
.
.
shield your eyes...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.


Can I say gross? laughable? so not cute? I don't think this was what Hello Kitty intended! But well props to the dude who was wearing the suit...I don't know why the store came up with that idea :/


Anyway, in terms of hauling, I stuck to my plan, although I was severely tempted by the Too Dolly quad. There was an MA who looked absolutely stunning with those colours. She had a gorgeous caramel coloured complexion, and the bright pink and mint green in Too Dolly quad complimented her skintone perfectly. Sigh...if bright pinks looked that good on me I'd buy the quad because of her!

Here's what I got:

• Hello Kitty brush set & holder
• Lipstick in Strayin (frost, warm pink colour)
• Beauty Powder Blush in Tippy (bright pink)
• Beauty Powder in Pretty Baby (very pale peach-pink)

The eyeshadow quads and cheek products had pink glitter all over the shiny black packaging. The lipsticks and brushes didn't have the glitter though, but I wish they did. Those were just black shiny packaging (not the usual matte black though).

Some product closeups




Brushes were standard SE size, similar to the Holiday collection brushes. Quality is about the same as previous SE brushes, so if you don't like SE brushes skip these.




Guess thats it for now. I'm still considering returning the brush set and getting another lipstick instead. I wish the lip shades worked better for me though! Most are too sheer, or too cool toned. I wasn't impressed with the other products because they just weren't colours I could wear regularly.

MAC Hello Kitty collection swatches!

Eyeshadow quads

Top: Too Dolly palette (all shades soft and pigmented, except dark shade which is glittery & hard)
Bottom: Lucky Tom palette (all shades were soft and pigmented)

No flash


Flash



Blushes & Beauty Powders

Top: Tippy blush (pigmented - love :P)
Bottom: Pretty Baby beauty powder (sheer, hard to show up on my NC25 skin)



Left: Fun & Games blush (moderate pigmentation, not as bright as Tippy)
Right: Tahitian Sand beauty powder (pale peach, very sheer again)


With flash



Lipsticks

Top: Most Popular, Cutester, Fashion Mews
Bottom: Big Bow, Fresh Brew, Strayin

No flash


Flash



Lipglosses

(sorry the top row of glosses got rubbed off a bit. They were rather sheer to begin with though)

Top: [ not sure which is which at this point...will update if I figure it out ]
Bottom: Sweet Strawberry, Nice to be Nice, Mimmy

No flash


Flash



For official colour descriptions and names please refer to Specktra.

Official colour photos available from Temptalia.