Rimmel Color Rush Duo Eye Shadow in Soft Glam

When Rimmel first hit Malaysian shores I was really excited because I remember purchasing a few items from this drugstore brand way back in the early nineties in London.

When it comes to eyeshadows, I was not very adventurous and only preferred light pink to deep purples. However, after seeing so many wonderful lady bloggers out there use to-die-for colors on their lids and watching all the inspiring You Tube videos of women of color experiment with bold bright colors, I have become more adventurous too! So when I saw this, I decided to purchase it because green was a color that I had previously NEVER considered putting on my lids......  

This duo is called Soft Glam and I must say that there is nothing "Soft" or "Glam" about this! Strong words, I know.

The moment I opened the package, I noticed that there was powdery dust all over the inside of product. The shadows were not smooth upon application and there was a lot of fallout under my eye which had to be cleaned up. The color payoff was miserable especially the lighter color at the bottom. In the picture above, it looks rather silvery but its actually a lovely light cream shade, which was what caught my attention to this duo anyway.

As for it not being soft - the sponge tip applicator provided is of course, crap. But the product itself, seems very grainy and coarse with a lot of product wastage because of its powdery nature.

The colors too are not glam - let me show you the swatches below:-

The top swatch is the green color which is a lovely shade but, in order to get the color to match that of what you actually see in the packaging, you will need to apply it several times. This is not a single swipe of the color on my hand but about three or four swipes! The bottom color on the other hand totally refuses to turn up on my hand and you cannot really see a true reflection of the color too. I swatched this at least six times and was still unable to get the color to show up! The same goes for when I apply it on my lids........

Verdict: Totally dislike this product and would not recommend it. Pricewise, it's priced at RM18.90 at the time of purchase so it did not cause any trauma to my wallet. As for my introduction to green....well this bad experience has not totally put me off the color so I will continue to look for the perfect green for my skintone. Meanwhile, I will chuck this duo in with the other colors that are lying in my cosmetics graveyard.

Idea! How to Store Your Brushes

Have you tried many methods of storing your brushes and not found one that was satisfactory? Well here is an idea that you can use to ensure that your brushes stand straight up and don't flop around in your brush container!

My brushes (sorry for a photo of unclean brushes - I promise they are up for a thorough wash this weekend!) are stored this way. I am a big believer in repurposing simple things that you find around the house by giving it a new lease of life. So the container you see here was from a hamper full of cookies stored in several sizes of this clear plastic container. The plastic is very durable and the height of the container was just right for my brushes. I took the cover and attached it to the bottom of the container to form a stand.

Initially I could not find the correct materials to keep my brushes standing upright and one day as I was walking past a craft store, I spied these lovely beads that were being sold for RM13 per bag.  

The beads are long cylindrical ones and are a lovely shade of green. In these pictures the green does not show up as vibrant as they are. It looks rather dull here but I assure you that in the container, it looks lovely and sparkles quite a bit!

All I did was to empty the packet of beads into my container and I had a sturdy holder that keeps my brushes stand upright and I don't struggle to keep it organised anymore.

Another idea is to buy colored sand which can be found in our Ringgit store or flower shops. I have purchased some of these and will do a post sometime in the furture to tell you how the sand holds up as compared to these colorful beads.

How do you keep your brushes organized?

Spotted! The Hayan Korean Beauty Masks

I was at Wisma Cosway yesterday having lunch and to walk off some of what I had eaten, I decided to walk around a bit and stumbled upon this little booth selling Beauty Masks under the brand called The Hayan. Pricewise, they are about 5 ringgits each.

The Hayan, according to their website here means "best beauty products for women that dreams of longing for white and fresh skin". I must say that I am not longing for white skin.....I am brown and I do like it that way but who does not want fresh skin eh, dear readers?

The lady manning the booth called "Park" (she and about 6 million other Koreans are called Park right!), could not speak very much English but she managed to tell me that they are having a BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free) promo going on and so I picked up two masks and got two free. She was kind enough to help me pick her bestsellers.

Here is what I got:-

• Arbutin is extracted from bearberry plant and is said to prevent the formation of melanin, therefore used as a skin-lightening agent. Arbutin can also be found in wheat and in pear skins.

• Artemisia are shrubs such as mugwort and sagebrush. It is said to have antibacterial properties. 

• Pearls copntain a unique combination of natural substances and minerals exist which, when applied topically, keep the skin smooth, soft and supple.

• Pomegranate extracts help to smooth rough skin and lighten skin pores.

• I was particularly attracted to this product which is a mask specifically targeted for hands. You put it on and put on a pair of gloves to allow the goodness of the essence to seep into your hands and wait for half an hour for the magic to happen. I am excited about seeing what this can do.

Last of all, Ms Park threw this BB cream into my bag as a parting gift. Sweet!

I will try these masks and let you know how I feel about them in the near future!

Jordana "Glitterama" Eye Liners

Jordana is a US drugstore brand and although I believe way back in the late nineties, it was sold in Bukit Bintang Plaza, I have only recently stumbled upon it at Shins. I saw a few products in this line and I picked up the Glitterama Eyeliner Pencils for their attractive colors and great price!

What attracted me to these pencils were the cute colors namely the  purple and turquoise and the glitter. The eyeliner pencils came in a packet of 5 for the price of RM29.90 which is super cheap.I mean who wants a plain ol' eyeliner when you can make your eyes pop with glitter around them!!

On a more serious note though, I was curious to take this for a test drive to see if :-

• the pencil is soft
• the glitter would show up after application

Here is a swatch of all 5 colors. They are Midnight Celebration, Purple Party, Turquoise Jamboree, Bronze Fest and Black Bash. Not the most creative of names, I must say but that did not put me off buying it though!

On their website, Jordana glitterama is pitched as being "glamorous, glitzy, daring and edgy". They also claim that the "sparkling micro-glitter adds shimmer" and the color promises to be "super intense and creamy". However, I beg to differ.

The pencil was not soft and creamy. I think what made it difficult to apply were the micro-glitter which had a tendency to scratch the lids. The pencils pulled on my lids and did not apply as intensely as I wished it would. This is especially so for Bronze Fest and Black Bash which was a total disappointment in terms of intensity.

You can see from the swatches that the glitter is minimal and not at all that intense which can be a good or bad thing. If the glitter was really intense, then these pencils would be great to use to a party or for a night out. But seeing that it is not that 'in your face' these pencils are suitable to be worn to create a day look without looking too overdone in my opinion.

I wore Black Bash to the office and the glitter was not so noticable - I had drawn a thin line on my top lids that day. Perhaps it would have been more noticable if the line had been thicker. That remains to be seen and perhaps I will swatch these on my eyelids soon to give you a feel of what it looks like that way.

Overall, I am not that enthusiastic about these pencils and I may use it occassionally perhaps but for now, I will stick with what I am using.

EcoTools Brushes

I am so happy to be part of this earth friendly movement! I spotted these beauties in Shins and though their collection of brushes were extremely limited, I still managed to get two brushes which I had been wanting to add to my arsenal namely the Eye Shading Brush (1203) and the Retractable Kabuki Brush (1214).

The 1203, has wide synthetic taklon bristles and the ferrule is made from recycled aluminum.

The 1214 on the other hand, is also made from synthetic taklon bristles and I am going to use it to pick up loose or pressed powder to set my makeup. Its retractable case is made from recycled aluminum which is great to know.

My first impression of these brushes were how soft the bristles are and I am happy that I finally have a kabuki that is super soft! The other kabuki that I am using is a Smashbox one and it is a little too scratchy for this missy's face!

I note with glee that the packaging these brushes came in are reusable and at this point, for the life of me, I cannot think of what I would re-use them for....so my dear readers, if you have any ideas, please share them with me.

Shins was an exciting shop to walk through and since I was unable to fully explore it, I am determined to go again. If you click on the link to Shins, you will be able to purchase their products online but not all products found in the shop are found online though.

Freaky Friday

Looks like the heel fell off and this lady asked her husband to glue it back...trouble is he was watching a crucial match in the World Cup and did not pay close attention to what he was doing!! 

M.A.C Give Me Liberty Of London Lipglass In A Different Groove

When I spied this at my nearest M.A.C recently I was quite taken in with the packaging. So cute and whimsical that I wanted to get something from this collection. I guess it must have been "that" time of the month because most of the items were sold out and the only things left were the harder to match colors. Nonetheless, I ended up picking a Lipglass in the color A Different Groove.

Indeed it is a groovy color and not for the faint hearted as this is a strong and deep almost purply brown color with flecks of bronzy shimmer in it.

I do love it and I have worn this on an easygoing weekend with lashings of mascara and eyeliner and just this lipglass. Very sweet!

Here are some other items in the Give Me Liberty of London collection:-

Beauty powder

• Shell pearl - Pale peach with gold pearl
• Summer Rose - Soft violet pink with pearl

 Eye shadow 

• Give me liberty of London - Flat creamy pink (matte)
• Free to be - Creamy true coral (matte)
• Dame’s desire - Frosty mid-tone reddish purple (frost)
• Birds & Berries - Frosted dark green blue (veluxe pearl)
• Bough grey - Mid-tone blueish grey (satin)

 Lipstick

• Ever hip - Creamy light coral (cremesheen)
• Peachstock - Neutral peach (satin)
• Petals & Peacocks - Creamy bright magenta pink (amplified)
• Blooming lovely - Creamy greyed lilac mauve (amplified)

Lipglass

•  Frankly fresh - Neutral pink beige with soft pearl
• Perennial high style - Creamy bright pink coral
• English accents - Creamy midtone blue pink
• A different groove - Deep purple brown with pearl

Powder Blush

• Prim & Proper - Neutral nude
• Dirty Plum - Sheer Dark Plum (Pro)

 Nail Lacquer

• Vestral white - Creamy white (cream)
• Blue India - Dark green blue with pearl (cream)

 I was quite lemming the powder blush in Dirty Plum but they did not have stock of it! Pffttt!!! Did you get anything from this collection, dear readers? What did you think of it?