Spring Look: Pink + Green

This will be a non-wordy, picture heavy entry as I'm trying to post this quickly before going to bed :)

Here is the spring look I did for Chyix2's Spring look contest!

Soft subtle pink, olive, and green eyes






Paired the colours with a pale pink blush and sheer pink-coral tinted lips:






I was basically aiming for a light, airy fresh look so everything used was sheer and shimmery. Also I used tinted moisturizer instead of mineral makeup for a lighter, more dewy look.

Here's what I used:



Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer in Nude
Giorgio Armani High Precision Retouch concealer #2
Everyday Minerals Intensive Light concealer
Silk Naturals Perfecting Powder

Jill Stuart Mix Blush compact in Lovely Tulip
MAC MSF in Perfect Topping
MAC Emote

Urban Decay Primer Potion
Light pink shade from Kate Line Spicy Eyes palette
Bright pink from the MAC Holiday '07 Cool Eyes palette
Olive gold Majolica Majorca eyeshadow
Light and dark greens from T'estimo Frame Impact palette
L'oreal HIP gel liner - dark brown
Too Faced Lash Injection Pinpoint mascara on top and bottom lashes


Eyeshadow shades used are as circled:




Here is the tutorial with step by step pics for eyeshadow application:

Start with a primed eye -I used Urban Decay Primer Potion and blended it all over the lid up to the browbone.




Apply a light pink shade on the inner corner of your eyelid (Lighting change because I moved to the washroom).




Apply a brighter pink shade on top of the inner corner, blending it out.




Use a light green shade on the outer corner of the eyelid.




Add a darker green shade to the outer corner in a sideways "V" shape




Add an olive green-gold shade to the center of the eyelid, it helps to blend the pink and green shades together.



Hmm...I stupidly covered it up with my watermark, but I also added a light beigey highlighting shade under the browbone to highlight.


Then take a soft, fluffy blending brush like this:



And use to blend the eyeshadow on the lid to soften any edges.




See it looks softer around the edges doesn't it?




Take a brown liner (looks softer and more natural than black for this look) and line the top lashes.




Voila lined eyes...



After that - curl your lashes, and apply mascara on top and bottom lashes.


Finished product again:






For cheeks I used a pale pink blush (Jill Stuart 07 Lovely Tulip), and topped it with a shimmery highlighter (MAC MSF Perfect Topping)




Used a sheer coral tint (MAC Popster TLC) for lips




And thats it! Nite guys~

Sephora Benefit order, NZ swap, & tag

Here's what I got from that Sephora order I made to make use of the Benefit gift with purchase:



But first, about the GWP - it was actually nicer than I had expected. It was a large cosmetic case that would have actually held all the stuff I ordered plus the GWP items :P

Cheesy Benefit girl-doll on the cover


Its huge and comes with brush pockets too to store brushes on the go! Perfect for a long haul trip.



The stuff inside: Badgal mascara in blue, Benefit Rush Hour, California Kissin' lipgloss, and a super retro-cheesy huge satin shower cap...hahaha




To get the GWP, I ordered the Benefit Girls Night In set (which is on sale online for $38 instead of $48 btw!)

It contains two cream shadows: Birthday Suit, Strut, and Benefit lipstick in Lady's Choice. It also included a brush and 3 fridge magnets but I can't locate the pics at the moment :/ I'll post more detailed pics and swatches when I do a review on the set.




The new Lorac In the Pink set, it comes in the black cosmetic bag in the top picture, and contains the following:

Pink Python palette (reminds me of the Snake Charmer palette!)
Lorac Visual Effects mascara
Eyeliner/shadow pencil in Pink Diamond
Mini Mocktail in Sex on the Beach





The colours are a little brighter than your usual Lorac palette, another reason why I wanted to try it. Also I think its a pretty good deal because this set was priced the same as a normal Lorac palette costs, but it includes 3 extra items and the cosmetic bag. It shows on Sephora that it is an online exclusive only.


Also ordered the Korres Love your lips set



I'm actually not sure if I want to keep this yet so I'm not opening it for now. Its a great deal for $38 but I do tend to neglect my lipglosses so maybe I should save the money for something else.


I also did a swap with Joanna for her Smashbox tokidoki quad. She included a TON of chocolates, so much that I felt bad for not including more in mine!



The above pic shows only 1/3 of the chocolates remaining...

As usual it was the packaging that drew me in:






Quick tag game from Chi (Chyix2) Audrie, and Katie!

What is your current obsession?
- Short hair! I want to do something drastic with my hair, and cut it short but I don't know where's a good place to get it done.

What is your weirdest obsession?
- I really can't think of any that are weird enough for this question! Maybe my obsession with Chris Martin (of Coldplay)? Haha :D

What are you wearing today?
- black Forever 21 tee and grey knee length shorts. It was too hot for anything else :P

What’s your favorite comfort food?
- chocolate, if I want something sweet, or oreo ice cream sandwiches / McD's cones if its hot. If I'm craving something savoury its cream of chicken soup with some pasta added to it :)

What would make today special?
- flowers :)

What would you like to learn to do?
- Cook amazingly well

What’s the last thing you bought?
- A whole bunch of makeup from Anna's blog sale

What are you listening to right now?
- an old rerun of CSI on TV

What is your favorite weather?
- Sunny and balmy but not humid. 15-20 degrees C is the best! My skin hates anything else.

What is your most challenging goal right now?
- Moving forward in my job

What do you think about the person who tagged you?
- I would love to meet all of them! I've only ever known them online through ABB and blogging, and they sound like they lead such interesting lives! :)

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would it be?
- Most likely Japan :)

What would you like to have in your hands at right now?
- Key to the above home and a winning lottery ticket :P

If you could swap lives with anyone for one day who would it be & why?
- Natalie Portman, she's gorgeous but still seems so down to earth.

If you would go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
- Hong Kong / Japan to shop, haha

Which language do you wanna learn?
- I used to want to learn French when I was younger, but these days I'd rather learn another Asian language - maybe Korean. Or if I could speak all the Chinese dialects that'd be pretty good too.

What do you look for in a friend?
- Someone loyal and dependable

Who do you want to meet in person?
- Bloggers!

What’s your favorite type of music?
- Soundtracks - eg the ones from Miyazaki's films and some animes.

What’s your dream job?
- Designing makeup :P I would love to be the people who come up with concepts, colours, and packaging for makeup collections.

Any favorite model?
- Gemma Ward

If you had $100 now what would you spend on it?
- Put it towards my vacation this year, if I find someplace to go

Things you wish you could change in the past?
- Listening to my parents too much when I was a kid....lol. I think things would've be a whole lot more exciting if I had been a bit more rebellious.

Fashion Pet Peeve?
- When people wear super short shorts and a skimpy tee all at the same time - its too much skin all at once and just looks trashy! And they usually wear it with rubber flip flops...

Do you admire anyone’s stye?
- Karla and Melissa, I love what they wear, wish I had the guts to do so!

Describe your personal style.
- Girly / tomboyish depending on my mood

What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?
- Chocolate + more chocolate

What’s your favorite makeup brand?
- I really don't have a single favourite because I love trying out different brands from high to low end. But the brand that probably gets most of my money is still MAC...

Do you get enough beauty sleep? yes or no? why?
- No, because I'm a night owl by nature but I have to get to work earlier than most.

Why did you start your (beauty) blog?
- I was getting a little bored at ABB at the time and needed a place to post whatever I wanted, so decided to have my own blog.

Joe Fresh Beauty: First impressions

This is for the Canadians :)

I had some time to kill today at a Loblaws Superstore (aka Great Canadian Superstore), so of course I had to check out their new makeup line, Joe Fresh Beauty :) Unfortunately I don't have pics of my own because I didn't have my camera with me, but here's what I thought of the stuff.

The products have a really nice clean look as most of them are packaged in either clear lucite or white packaging. Unfortunately, most of the items do not have testers (not in the store I visited) except for the lipsticks, and cheek tints so I didn't get to test out the other products.




The eyeshadows come in singles or trios, and have a nice variety of colours, but colour selection is nothing too exciting if you're already into MAC. The finishes look rather blah, so I wouldn't expect anything frosty or intensely rich. I do like the look of their powder blushes though ($6). I was quite tempted to try the Pink and Rose shade but I'll wait a bit...been hauling too much from other stores lately.

The cheek tints sounded exciting and looked great on the promo model but I was a bit disappointed. The colours are sheer and pretty but I found the texture a bit too oily for my taste. The packaging is on the flimsy side and actually looks like ELF's:




The lipsticks are the most exciting part in my opinion, for a drugstore brand they are seriously pigmented! They had cream, matte, and sheer lippies, but the cream and matte lines have awesome colour payoff, better than some of MAC's lippies. They have a super pigmented matte nude lipstick called Nude (lol), and one called Fuchscia and those two had so much colour with one swipe that I was impressed. I was almost going to buy the cream lipsticks in Coral and Strawberry...but I was being good :)

As Rae pointed out the cream lippies come in clear packaging that kinda looks like Shu Uemura lipsticks. However its rather flimsy when you see it in person. The inner plastic part holding the lipstick in all the testers felt loose when you wind up the lipstick, so its definitely not something you want to toss into your purse and carry around.




For a new line they sure have a complete collection of products + brushes. They even have felt tip pen style liners...



and felt tip lip stains!



When my current Japanese liners run out I'm going to try their liners, its only $6 after all. I also noticed a new one from Revlon, its nice that drugstore brands here are finally catching on to the felt tip liner trend.

Their brushes have clear handles, which remind me of Clinique's brushes. The prices are cheap but I think they should be priced cheaper to compete with the more established drugstore brands. For example, their slanted eyeliner brush was $8 to Annabelle's slanted brush (my HG) that costs only $6+ in the same store. That brush clearly says its made in China too and doesn't look as soft as Annabelle's so I don't see a reason for the price difference.

Still most of these products are priced reasonably - $4 eyeshadows, $6 blushes / lipsticks, $8 brushes. I am wondering about their return policy though since they do not have testers available. Loblaws does stand by their store brands usually so I wonder if the satisfaction guarantee extends to their makeup as well?

La Mer Fluid Foundation & blog sales

I purchased the La Mer Fluid Foundation a while back from Fuz's blog sale:




Official product description:

Engineered with weightless color and La Mer’s remarkable skincare benefits, this silken, lightweight fluid has the power to transform the complexion. Gemstones capture light energy to create a translucent color palette, optically erasing imperfections to reveal a naturally flawless complexion.

Created with a rare blue algae transformed through La Mer's exclusive bio-fermentation process, a Blue Algae Lift Ferment along with precious marine and plant actives immediately add radiance while working continuously to lift the skin, restoring a lasting firmness, clarity and brightness. Skin’s ability to renew itself is greatly enhanced as it is trained to sustain a smoother, softer, more resilient appearance. Flexible medium coverage brings skin a naturally luminous finish. Protects with SPF15.


Review:

It comes in a heavy glass pump bottle with a white cap. The shade I got was 01 Creme.

Texture is thick and creamy, it is definitely a foundation made for dry to normal skin. Oiler skintypes would find this too heavy. I noticed it also takes a while to dry down, which makes it difficult (in my opinion) to apply a setting powder. In fact I don't think it ever fully dries, because it always stains my powder/blush brush afterward...so I just use cream blushes instead of powder ones with this product.

Due to the creamy texture it provides a lot of coverage. However it also tends to feel and look a bit heavy on your skin. The product also tends to look very dewy, probably because of the thick texture, and because it never fully dries.

Its quite good at covering redness, but I noticed that it doesn't really hide or minimize my pores. As for the colour match of Creme, I find its a bit too dark - it makes my face slightly darker compared with my neck. Guess if I ever repurchase this product I'll go with Ivory, their lightest shade.

It does claim to have SPF 15. I think SPF in cosmetics is negligible since you aren't supposed to pile it on as much as moisturizer, so I'm not too excited by that.


Here's a look at the coverage of the foundation:

Before:


After:




I must emphasize though that even though it looks alright in photos, in real life the foundation definitely looks a bit heavy on my skin.

Pros:
Great coverage
Dewy look
Supposed to have skin care benefits

Cons:
Pricey (US retail price $85)
Difficult to apply powder products afterward
Can look oily on oilier skin types
Heavy look


Overall:
Its a fairly mediocre product - sure it covers well, but then it still gives a heavy look and just doesn't seem to dry! For the price, I'm sure there are cheaper alternatives that would do the job better without feeling overly heavy.

***

Blog sales/swaps:

I've updated my blog sale with a free shipping offer - spend at least $30 on 2 items or more and you'll get free shipping anywhere in the world :)

Also I've been perusing some other blog sales lately, its kind of a nice feeling knowing you got something for cheaper. Check out some more blog sales from other bloggers:

Mayaari
Audrie
Psychoexgirlfriend
Cris (swap only)
Jojos (swap only)
Chiara (sale or swap)
Fuzkittie
Portrait of a Lady
Autumn Masquerade
Lotus Palace

Happy shopping!

I Dream of Sugar palette

I picked up this Sugar palette a few months ago when it was on clearance at Sephora. I'd never given Sugar much thought before because the packaging does look rather juvenile and tacky, but since it was on clearance I had to try something :)

The palette is the I Dream of Sugar palette. Its a sturdy cardboard palette with two layers - a top layer of eyeshadows, and a bottom layer of blush, bronzer, and lipglosses. There are also 2 mirrors included.






Eyeshadows closeup & swatches:




The top row has the standard neutral colours, while the bottom row has lots of fun cool toned colours.




The pigmentation of these colours is not too bad, but they tend to look a bit chalky on the skin. Also they will definitely crease, so you definitely need a good primer underneath to prevent that and also to make the colours more vibrant.


Blush, bronzer, glosses closeup & swatches:




The glosses aren't that pigmented but they're pretty convenient to have on the go. Some colours have shimmer in them and some don't. I tried only the dark red shade so far and it definitely goes on sheerer than it looks in the pan.




The blush is my favourite thing in this palette, a very wearable warm peach toned pink with fine shimmer. The bronzer would be perfect to layer on top of the blush in summer, for a sunkissed look. Its too warm though to use for contouring.




Easy and subtle spring look:

I used the pink, and blue colours on the bottom row and used one of the lilac shades to blend them together in the middle. Also used the blush, but no lipgloss here.










Overall its a nice palette to play around with for spring / summery looks. I like too how it has neutral colours that could be used for work as well. The fact that it contains eye, lip and cheek products plus 2 mirrors makes it very convenient for travel. Only issues with it are the need for a primer for the eyeshadows, and the flimsy applicators provided. Still, considering I got it on clearance its not too bad :)