My First Face Of The Day!

I have never done a face of the day and I since had put on my "face" whilst trying out a few lipstick swatches, I thought why not use those pictures to give you a little something extra to look at. So here goes!

 

 

These are some of the items I used to achieve this look:-

 

 

 

 

 

Face:-

• M.A.C - Mineralize Satinfinish SPF15 Foundation in NC42 (not in picture)
• 
  
  Coastal Scents Professional Camouflage Concealer (not in picture)
• 
  
  Smashbox Halo Hydrating Perfecting Powder in Medium (not in picture)

Eyes:-

• Coastal Scents 88 Palette - 1st row from the left, 5th color down - a light salmon matte color; all over the eyes
• M.A.C Painpot in Indianwood on eyelids only
• M.A.C Eyeshadow in Crimsonette on the outer corners of the eyes and inwards around the browbone
• Coastal Scents 88 Palette - 6th row from the left, 8th color down - a dark matte purple; on outer corners to intensify the color
• Coastal Scents 88 Palette - 11th row from left, 8th color down - a dark, charcoal grey; to line the lower waterline
• NYX Ultra Pearl Mania in Nude in the inner corner of the eyes around the tear duct

Eyelashes:-

• Loreal Ultra Volume Collagen Mascara (top lashes)
• Majolica Majorca Lash Gorgeous Wing (bottom lashes)

Brows:-

• Red Earth Absolute Brows Brow Perfecting Kit in Mahogany

Cheeks:-

• M.A.C Blusher in Hushabye

Lips:-

• Revlon Colorburst in Mauve

My goodness! That is quite a list indeed! Well, I wanted my first face of the day to be a saucy picture of me and I think I achieved that!

 

Review: Revlon ColorBurst Lipstick

I was pleasantly surprised a couple of weekends ago, dear readers when I came across these lippies from Revlon ColorBurst collection. I purchased these in two shades - Plum and Mauve for a decent price of RM 32.88 and got a free item to boot!

Plum

Mauve

Since the Revlon counter was hogged by a loud lady looking for a nail polish color that she purchased way back in the day and did not remember the name of it, I could not really get a close look at all the colors properly! I took a look at Fuchsia and True Red and decided that those were not the colors for me. I then moved on to Plum and Mauve and knew that I would be able to rock those colors for sure!

I got home and immediately tore into the packaging - unfortunately, in Malaysia such items come with a security bar tag stuck on to the product which makes it impossible to remove! Once I opened the lipstick, I was happy to note that there was no smell which I really like. Strong smelling products sometimes put me off. The packaging is sleek looking with a crosshatch design.

As you can see from the pictures above, the cover of the lipstick tells you the color of the product very accurately. Great for identifying quickly in a drawer full of lippies, I tell you! More so when you have multiples of the same brand/type of lipstick.

I was delighted when I tried these on - they were really creamy and applied very well. The color pay off was great as it was intense and a true reflection of the color of the lipstick itself. After several hours, the lipstick wore off but did not leave my lips dry and flaky. Nice!

Here are the swatches:- Plum and Mauve

Plum

Mauve

As you can see, Plum is really deep and I have worn these on days when my eye make up is simple. Mauve on the other hand is a shade that I can carry off well when my eye make up is strong. These colors were applied only once and I had my lips primed and concealed with some concealer to even out the color (my top lip is darker than my bottom lip) before I applied it on, so the color payoff is awesome!

And remember the free item I got with this purchase? Well it is a lipstick pouch with a little mirror! The design of the pouch is similar to the ColorBurst lipstick casing as well. There is enough space in here to store miniatures of your make up items for a quick touch up at the office, so its really useful for me.

I am quite excited to see the whole range of colors and see if there are other shades that will suit me.

Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque

This is a little bit of an icon in the world of clay masks and I wanted very much to try it when I saw the many reviews of it online. It promises to do many great things to the average face and heck I wanted a piece of that paradise too!

I got a huge tube thanks to the 33% more product promo - I guess the clay mask Gods knew that my face needed the extra work to get it looking super sweet!

The first thing about this product I noticed was the fact that it was quite hard to squeeze out because of how thick it was but that's ok as I can live with it. I ensured that my face was clean and my hair was pulled back so it would be easy to apply the mask. I applied this on my face with clean fingers and there was a noticeable stinging around the area of my nose. I was a little alarmed at first but this is normal and for me it was only around that area that there was a stinging. Elsewhere on my face, the mask just felt cool. 

There was also a very strong minty smell and reminded me very much of toothpaste or gum. But once the mask is spread evenly on the face, the smell is not as overpowering. 

I settled in to read a magazine for about 15 minutes and I felt the clay mask hardening and tightening my face at the same time. It went from a light green to an almost whitish color as it dried out. My little girls were so amused at the antics of their sligtly eccentric mother and asked me to save some of the clay if they ever needed to play the role of a ghostly apparition for their future school plays!

The magic was seen once I washed the mask off my face. My face was smooth, cleaner and slightly fairer and my pores were visibly smaller!! I do not have blackheads but I believe that this mask is good to remove that as well as you can see from the instructions on the back of the product below. Indeed it draws out impurities because my face truly felt clean after.

Here is the list of ingredients and as you can see, Kaolin is listed as the second ingredient. And for those who like a bit of trivia, Kaolin is white, chalky clay named after the region in China where it was used to make porcelain during the Tang Dynasty (about 1,200 years ago).

My verdict:- I do love this mask because I think it is a heavy duty, impurities cleansing, pimple drying mask which every girl needs for those emergencies when you find huge zit on your forehead and need it to shrink fast! I tried spot applying a small amount of the mask overnight, on a pimple on my chin once and it had shrunk when I got up in the morning. Nice!

What about you, dear readers? Do you use this mask? What other masks do you use that is good? Do let me know.

Freaky Friday

So pretty....but a wee bit too flowery for my taste. The only other person I can imagine wearing this is Bobby Trendy who is a Vietnamese interior decorator, designer and television personality in the U.S. He is a strange boy and I think this strange pair of shoes will suit him perfectly!

Review: Nivea's Refreshing Facial Cleansing Wipes

I have not paid much attention to the brand Nivea until I spotted these cleansing wipes recently. Ever since starting on facial cleansing wipes with Skinlite Make Up Cleansing Tissues (click on the link to read my review), I have been hooked and cannot live without them!

These are really useful and if you have never used one of these, I suggest you try them soon. It is even more useful when you are travelling and need to keep fresh.

I like to ensure that I effectively remove all traces of make-up as soon as I come home from work and sometimes, just cleansing with a cleanser does not do the job effectively. More so if you are wearing waterproof eye make-up. This is where these wipes come in handy. I do use a cleansing oil but that involves using several pieces of cotton wool to effectively clean my whole face. These wipes do just that and all I need is ONE piece of it to effectively clean my whole face. I then follow with my regular facial wash and this ensures that my face is really clean.

As you can see below, the wipes have cleaned my foundation and blush (the reddish brown areas) as well as waterproof eyeliner and mascara (the black areas). I use one side to clean my face and then turn the wipe over and wipe again to get the last traces of make-up.  

Nivea wipes do not contain alcohol and thus does not dry out skin. The wipes are enriched with Hydramine and Vitamin C and E. The wipes do contain a little cleansing oil as it feels a little oily after use - that is how it effectively removes waterproof make-up.

Have a look at the list of ingredients below.

I do love using these because it is so convenient as well as reasonably priced. You can pick this up for under RM20 and it contains 25 wipes. It also removes waterproof make-up like eyeliner and mascara. Do remember to wipe your eye area gently as you are using this to remove stubborn make-up.

Please remember dear readers, that once opened, you should use your wipes in a reasonable time as they tend to dry out and become useless. I should know, I learnt the hard way!

What Makes Your Skin Happy?

I started pampering my skin a little late in life. It was my face and hands that were the centre of my universe until I discovered that I was sorely neglecting the biggest organ of my body which is my skin! Thus in my quest to quench my skin's thirst, I have taken to slathering cream right after I jump out of the shower. The body cream I am so loving right now is Whipped Silk Advanced Body Moisturizer by St. Ives.

The smell of this reminds me of sweet flowers as well as being in an open grassy field on a sunny day! After using this for many months - as you can see it's a beast of a bottle, 12 oz in all! - I can happily report that my skin has become softer and less dry. My feet especially, were looking quite shabby and this cream has managed to transform them to their former glory! Soft and supple.

A plus point is that this cream is not at all greasy and disappears into the skin quickly without leaving an unpleasant sticky film. This product is formulated with Hydrolyzed Silk Protein to provide intense moisture which is so necessary for those who have dry skin. Below is the list of ingredients. I also like that this product is not tested on animals - that's a bonus.

(Please click on image to enlarge)

When there is time, I put on the cream in the morning as well as at night after a bath. However, seeing that I am always rushing to get to work on time in the morning, this is pretty much a night-time ritual. It is really calming and soothing and to a great extent helps lock in the moisture right after I have taken a shower. I sleep in an air conditioned room which tends to dry out skin even more, so this is a great step to add to my nightly routine.

What caught my attention about this product was the fact that it is called 'Whipped Silk'! I love that term because it gives you the feel of luxuriousness and thats what sold me about this product. The other thing I was so enthralled with was how the product is dispensed. It does not have a small round hole on the cover but rather a star shaped one, which dispenses the cream very much like cake frosting! Sweet!

Review: Maybelline 2-In-1 Impact Shadow Liner - Great Drugstore Find!

Readers, have you set your eyes on these yet? I found them whilst restocking on some drugstore essentials yesterday and my have I hit the jackpot for those on a budget!

These are Maybelline's 2-In-1 shadow and liner from the Eyestudio line - and you do know how I love, love, love items that double up.

For RM13.88 (there was a sale going on) you get these pens that apply so very smoothly on your lids. Very important for ladies who are concerned about those horribly dry liners that pull and tug at your lids. These are surprisingly creamy. Upon swatching the tester pens I was sold when it applied super smoothly. So I purchased three colors - (from left to right in the picture below) Forest Green, Ocean Blue and Bordeaux. Forest Green and Bordeaux are shimmery and Ocean Blue is matte.  

There are two ways you can use this - firstly, you can smooth the color all over your lids like an eyeshadow and perhaps smudge immediately for a lovely wash of color or you could use this as a liner to define eyes.

This product promises to be waterproof and hence stays on without smudging the whole day. I wore this on my lid and did some cooking and sweating(!) all at once and after 5 hours, the one eyelid I applied the color on, still had a bright pop of color and looked as fresh as when I first applied it! So a big thumbs up here.

It also contains several moisturising ingredients, including jojoba oil, vitamin E and cottonseed oil. What more could we ask for eh, readers?

I give this two thumbs up for how creamy it is as well as the price. It's unbeatable! If you want more than the three colors featured here, the Shadow Liner comes in a range of colors which are - Black, White Pearl, Chocolate and Dark Purple. So what are you waiting for?

Smashbox: Reign Fall Collection Blusher

Although this is quite an 'old' collection by cosmetic junkies' standards, I purchased the one thing that caught my eye from this collection several months ago - the blusher. I have moved on from mostly dusky pinks to peachy toned blushers recently and this was one that I knew I had to have for several reasons.....the regal looking box and the smart leather packaging!

The leather packaging was to me something that I don't often see and it was way too cute to pass up.

The best part of this blusher is that it is divided into several 'bricks' of matte and shimmer. So a swirl of your blush brush will give you a little bit of both. And if you so prefer, you can just use either shimmer or matte on it's own. How cool is that!

I took a swatch of both the textures mixed together as you can see below.

It's a really sweet shade which works for my NC45 skintone...so if you are about my shade or even a little darker, why not give this a try? I got this for less than RM60 so it's a good buy for those of you who are considering going from your safe pink shades of blusher to a more peachy toned one.

Funky Footwear Friday

Freaky! 'Nuff said!

From Dull To Darling in Benefit "That Gal" Face Brightening Primer

Benefit......I love the whimsy behind their product designs and this one had me from hello! I know what you are thinking dear readers, "has she gone into primer overdrive?" Hell yeah!

What caught my attention (apart from the packaging) was the fact that this adds a subtle youthful glow to the face when applied and makeup goes on evenly and lasts longer throughout the day. The primer also keeps my make-up in place - so necessary especially in the tropics where it can get really hot and humid.

This pink colored primer is creamy and feels much like a moisturizer. The light-reflecting pigments contained in the primer helps to brighten my face without the disco ball effect. Very appropriate for those who are looking to glow and not shine!

The packaging is also slightly different from what I have seen. It comes in a white plastic tube that has a hexagonal twist cover at the bottom and a mesh top that allows the product through with a twist. This is great because you twist out the amount that you need and no more.The product is not too runny that it spills out so there is little opportunity for creating a mess in the morning when you are in a hurry. The downside to the white packaging is that you are not able to judge the amount left in the tube. Also, it looks more cutesy than luxurious.

I apply the primer with my fingers and find that it is very easy to blend and it is absorbed very quickly. It contains raspberry and chamomile as well as sweet almond and algae extracts to help skin retain natural moisture. This quite explains it’s rather sweet, almost bubble gummy smell!

Please click on the photo to enlarge.

Here is a fun fact for you, dear readers:- Benefit was created in 1976 by twin sisters Jen and Jane Ford.