Make-up Review : Essence Sun Club Glamour To Go Eyeshadow in 02 Long Beach

Assalamualaikum pretty ladies!

Another Essence review! As a student with a college budget, there's no way I can get away with purchasing Essence or Catrice products, although I have made damage to the Catrice makeup stand, but I'll soon purchase a few stuff from them. *cue evil laugh*

Since I've been using a lot of use from MUA neutral palette, it's time for me to actually "save" the palette from hitting pan, yes I love it so much that I don't want it to hit pan. So I've actually looked for a nice alternative palette that would slow down my usage of MUA's palette. I actually use both the Undressed and Heaven and Earth palette pretty much everyday to school. And yes, I love to wear makeup to school, not that I'm using it excessively. LOL.

Then I realized that Essence do release some eyeshadow palette from their Sun Club range, why not? It's cheap, a palette costs me around $5.90? It's good value for money, with my membership to Paloma, I can even get a 10% discount. So all around, one shadow equals to about 70cents.

It's an all-neutral palette which contains shimmer eyeshadows, no matte. Which is actually a sad thing, because I'd definitely could use some mattes to balance my everyday look. The color ranges from pinks to brown with a golden color too.

The pigmentation is amazing, especially when you use primer underneath. Although the colors are a bit harder to use with the lighting, sorry, but they have good pigmentation. But the texture is a little bit rough, I won't say that it's creamy or buttery, but it's almost to the point of gritty. I assume the grittiness is because of the shimmers itself. But fortunately, only a few shadows are gritty the rest is creamy enough after a few wears out of this.

Since it's very cheap, it lasted for about 6-8 hours before it starts to fade, but I really don't mind about.

Though this is not something I'd repurchase but it is something that I could actually buy for my friends who are into makeup.

Skincare Review : Nexcare Acne Patch

Assalamualaikum pretty ladies!

Today is my birthday and I've reached 22! Not a big milestone for me, celebration was at the minimum, as I had 2 tests to study and 2 tutorials to finish up on that day. So, it wasn't a big deal for me and I actually, for a moment, forgot about my birthday. LOL!

I will try to remember and add in my a few pictures of my tiny birthday celebration later on. Now, we're going to review this baby. I think I've delayed the review for this particular product for more than a year already, talking about procrastinating, huh?

I've used this a lot of times and believe me when I say I purchased this more than 10 times already and that's how much I love it and how effective it is for my acne-prone skin.

Basically it's just stickers with two sizes and what it basically does is that it absorbs those white disgusting pus that comes from pimples and I usually do this to my bigger zits as to my smaller zits that could be called as spots can be removed by exfoliating.

Technically, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, it really depends on how big is your pore is at the current pimple spots. Sometimes it doesn't really work on my forehead as I can safely assume that my pores on my T-Zone isn't that big as this is more effective absorbing the pus and thus reducing the pimple size around my cheek areas. Although if I popped JUST A LITTLE BIT of my pimples on my forehead and put this onto it, it really is effective and by the next morning, the swelling will reduce itself.

It takes about literally a day and a half to actually really get rid of pimples. What I like about this acne stickers is that it creates a nice barrier so you won't be tempted to disturb your acne spots.

I've already repurchased this and I'm planning to buy the ones that has less than 15 pieces to be put into my first-aid mini bag.

Want-It Wishlist : BeautyUK

Assalamualaikum pretty ladies!

So another Want-It Wishlist and this time the brand is, as usual, all the way from UK. I don't know what's with make-up brands from UK, they simply have the products that performs nicely and very pigmented despite the low price.

BeautyUK, I don't think this product actually captures a lot of hearts from beauty bloggers all around the blogosphere. I mean it's hard for me to actually find reviews with this particular brand. I pretty much prefer this over VIVO and LOOK beauty. But that's just my opinion.

And duh, of course I'd definitely go for the palettes, though I will definitely be purchasing the palette No.7 Naked! You can never have too much neutral palette, I actually have 3 MUA Palettes in my shopping cart, waiting to be purchased. I wanted to go for the Soho Palette, but the fact that they have 4 blue shadows just does not fare well with influencing me to purchase it.

They actually have the eyeshadow palette that includes two gel liners, at first I wanted to get a go for it, but from the reviews, I think I'd just let it pass.

And then, there's the set of lip vinyls, this is very intriguing, I'm so curious with the performance of this product, so yeah, I'd just love to try this! :D

Make-up Review : Etude House LUCIDarling Fantastic Gradation Eyeshadow Palette in Nymph Brown Aura

Assalamualaikum pretty ladies!

I have an eyeshadow palette to review for you girls, I received this from a good friend of mine as a birthday present last year, I love it to bits! I never really try out the make-up line from Etude House as it never really attracts me to try or maybe I'm just biased. Although, I think this is actually my first eyeshadow experience with Korean cosmetics as I'm not a big fan of their sheer pigmentation and overly shimmery shimmers.

But since this is a gift, at least I was able to experience using Korean-made eyeshadows. At first when I saw this palette, I never really know that these palettes exists, there's a few eyeshadow palettes from this range, some are lovely looking, but as soon as I went to the shop and checked out the tester, the colors weren't so pigmented as I wanted it to be.

So I had the Nymph Brown Aura, which is a weird name compared to the rest of the palettes. It house 2 matte and 2 shimmer eyeshadows. The brown are more on the taupe side, it felt a bit on the cool side as I somehow feel it doesn't suit me so much. I can pull it off but this is not the best neutral palette I've encountered.

But I really love how the eyeshadow on each pan looks like some sort of velvet cushion, it almost reminds me of Burberry's eyeshadows.

I would love for the brown/taupe shimmer to be a bit darker so that it can be the ultimate smokey eyeshadow palette, but yeah, this is what I get.

On an another note, the textures of these eyeshadows are amazingly creamy and they could actually last without a primer pretty well, although the colors won't be so pigmented unless you packed it in. Although the gold color has the smallest pan from the rest, I think the designer of this palette knows what they're doing as I'm not sure I'd be able to use it as often as I can.

I don't think I'll miss out a lot on these, but I'd love to try other eyeshadow palettes from other Korean brands.

Make-up Review : Essence Soft & Natural Make-up Long-lasting Foundation in 04 Light Caramel

Assalamualaikum pretty ladies!

Another review on Essence's stuff, I still haven't find myself getting on to Catrice yet, but I'll try to purchase something there next time. I'm eyeing on their photo-finish foundation, but I found that there was not much products left from the Catrice stand, hey, who's been over-shopping there? *insert angry face* LOL

So at first, I was planning to repurchase my 16hr Stay All Day foundation, but I decided to just purchase this one as the color is a little bit darker than the one I have. I need a darker color foundation to mix it with my BB Creams as I'm not a big fan of a white/grey cast on my made-up face.

A squeeze tube with a nice nozzle that controls the amount of product you're squeezing.

In the pictures, it does look a little bit on the lighter side, or maybe because my hands are actually a great match for the foundation, I've actually tried this out when I was watching a football match in the evening, I find it to actually be long-lasting, it didn't slide off or smudge me, not that I was sweating as it is a bit windy.

 

As for texture, this is almost watery and it easily blends into your skin without any problems, I usually use my stippling brush to apply it. This is a great affordable foundation, but the bad this is, it doesn't have SPF, I would've picked up another matching foundation if there were SPF. But I'd definitely repurchase this over and over again, to mix this with my BB Cream.

Make-up Review : Hare Magic Lipstick

 Assalamualaikum pretty ladies

I would first of all would love to thank my friend from Little Red Viola for giving me two of these lipsticks. This lipstick is actually very famous in Brunei and maybe, even in Malaysia. It is a lipstick that older generations loved to use as it is "magic"

There's not much to see from the packaging, it is flimsy and tacky, but I don't really care much about the packaging because I know the performance of this lipstick is beyond some of the lipsticks in my collection.

As you can see, the lipstick is green in color, okay, I wouldn't call this a lipstick actually, more like a lipstick stain.

For the first few seconds, the swatch is very much sheer but then as time goes on, the swatch turns into this hot berry pink that actually really depends on your natural lip color. This lipstick really stains for a few hours, it can even reach 12 hours and the pigment on your lips is still strong and bright.

The color is so suited for everyday's use or even for a nice evening date as I never really thought to touch it up except touching up with a lip gloss.

It's moisturizing and there's a little glossy effect, this have been my favorite after I received this from my friend and I really love this to bits and I'd definitely repurchase if only I can finish it up, LOL

Skincare Review : Smooth Egg Skin Charcoal Egg Soap

Assalamualaikum pretty ladies,

This is a backlog that I've been meaning to review this but I hardly use this for everyday use at that time but I'm currently using this everyday so, I think it's time for me to tell you girls on what I think about this product, this was a gift from a friend because this product did not work on her. At first, I thought this egg soap is for reducing blackheads, so I actually wanted to write off as a big NO to repurchase this but then I went to the packaging and it says for sebum control. 

So I had to test it out again for a few weeks with a different perspective, and here it is. 

It's very small, but don't let it get to you, I hardly made any changes to the size of the soap after a few months' of use, so this might be around $15+ but one egg soap lasts you a very long time.

What I like about this soap is that it doesn't give me any dry or tight-feeling on my skin, I still can feel that this soap did not strip my face of natural oils. As far as sebum control goes, I think it's safe to say that I actually apply a lot of product on my skin after washing my face so it does actually affect the way this soap performs, but I once was so tired and forgot to moisturize my face after washing it with this, after a few hours' nap, I found there's little oiliness on my T-zone and other parts of the face is still as fresh as it was a few hours's ago.

So this is a nice product to use, but I don't think I'd necessarily need it but I definitely would use these 2 soaps up.

Make-up Review : Holika Holika Silky Veil Primer

Assalamualaikum pretty ladies!

Finally, I've actually get my bum off of procrastinating and actually reviewing my holy grail primer! Well, that would be an overstatement, because I can't really afford to pay for this as my college budget, I think I will keep on looking for something better than this within my budget.

I've heard good reviews about Catrice's primer, so I might just purchase that as they are the budget-friendly cosmetic.

So anyways, this silicone gel primer, I'm not sure why it differs to some of my silicone gel primer, but somehow this is the best one I've encountered. I think Revlon's primer, although it's good, but it doesn't have  the performance that this does with my skin.

As per what silicone primer does, it minimizes your pore's visibility, giving a good smooth canvas for more makeup, although a con is that it doesn't even out your skintone but it does last a long time. This easily keeps my makeup fresh for 12 hours before it fades nicely.

So a really good primer in my point of view.

Do tell me what you use to prime your face before make-up

Skincare Review : Clariderm Astringent in #3

Assalamualaikum pretty ladies!

I've actually been using this for 2 months now, I've had it before a few years ago and I decided to stop using it as at that time I don't know all about skincare and I thought this product is way too harsh for my skin. But as time went on, my blemishes are becoming more and more prominent, I decided that  I should actually try this again so for B$1.95, I won't be missing a lot.

I bought the Oily-skin version, and it has the number 3, there's actually the Dry Skin version and Normal Skin version, but I think these are according to the strength of the astringent itself, but I'd definitely try out the Dry Skin version, for regular use because this version is a bit too strong for daily use.

The main ingredient of this astringent is Glycol Acid and Salicylic Acid, I was afraid of the fact that I had problems with Salicylic Acid, it would give me break outs, but fortunately, it didn't so I wonder why I cannot tolerate with Salicylic Acid products except this. I heard Glycol Acid is related to skin-peeling action and yes, it peels your outer skin.

Look, the before and after pictures, it's dirtier in real-life than in the picture but the first week I used this, the amount of dirt is even more in abundance as the color that I got after applying this all over my face (except for my undereyes) is pretty much greyish-black, and after weeks of using this, the color becomes less and less so I assume that this astringent is very deep-cleansing.

A week after using this, my skin was so dry that it peeled off and my current moisturizing routine at that time didn't work out for me as my routine was for light moisturizing and what I need was HEAVY moisturizing routine.

At first, I try to layer on my moisturizer, build it up to 3 layers, but it didn't work, I was using Essence's Pure Skin Moisturizer. Then, I tried Bio Oil, at first I was happy because with just a few drops, the Bio Oil really helped me moisturized my face completely, no dry patches, but what I hated was that it broke me out so I stopped using it after I purchased Simple's Moisturizer. Now, no pimples and my blemishes fade with the help of this astringent and the Fair and Lovely face cream.

I'd definitely repurchase this as I'm currently running out of this baby. Gonna buy the Dry Skin and Oily Skin versions.

Make-up Review : Sariayu Foundation in Kuning Langsat

Assalamualaikum pretty ladies!

I'm here with a budget brand from Sariayu, it's an Indonesian makeup brand, I've had this before a few years back, I love the scent and I love the finish on me, so I decided to repurchase it again and with the price B$2.50, it's hardly breaking the bank either.

I bought one in Kuning Langsat, I don't know what's Langsat in English but basically this foundation is actually a very yellow-tone foundation, I've actually forgotten how this foundation actually performed so when I bought this, I was afraid that it might be a little too light for me. But I'm afraid if I buy the Sawo Matang version, it would be a little too dark for me.

As you can see from the swatch, there's not much beige tone in it, it's very yellow all the way. I never really actually know what's my skintone is whether it's yellow-toned, neutral-toned or pink-toned. But I think I'm more of a neutral tone kinda gal, but who knows. LOL.

See, it seemed too light even on my hand as I'm trying to blend it out, it has a watery texture, also a cooling effect and it really blends easily with your fingers, so I hardly use a brush with this.

Well what do you know, it actually blends well with my hand even if my hand is darker than my face. I think this would actually match well with people with neutral-toned skins, not sure of yellow-tones though, but this foundation gives me a brighter and more awake look. It has a sheer coverage, which I don't really mind as although I have a lot of blemishes, I decided that for everyday use, I'd usually wear my concealers on my undereyes only, hardly ever on my blemishes except for when I have special occasions. I'm getting lazier, lol.

But anyways, I really love this foundation but this is great for dry to normal skin as I have oily skin, it only last around 3-4 hours on my T-Zone. So, I'm basically using this for quick errands.

Favorites: January 2013

Assalamualaikum pretty ladies!

So I decided to do something new, I hardly ever make a favorite monthly post as I hardly rotate with my makeup mainly because I usually stick with the same old things that I used the past months. I still should post what I'm loving this month as now that my main mission for the past few weeks is to finish up my less favorite BB Creams which I'll be putting it on a new post.

This is what I've been reaching for during the month of January, although I was being snobby on my review for MUA's Undressed Palette, but I've now warmed up to it. I've been using Shade 5, a matte shadow which is slightly darker than my skintone, I sometimes use this to contour my nose and also use this as a lid wash. Also with Shade 8 and 10, they are my go-to defining shadows to create neutral smokey effect, but I'd pack on it if I were to go out at night and for shade 9, I like to use it for my crease to create a gradient effect.

For the Essence Multi Action False Lashes, I'd definitely repurchase this as it does give me voluminous and defined lashes, though not sure about lengthening, but I'm not picky with my mascaras, as long as it creates nice lashes for me then it should be fine.

I never thought that I could actually use Essence Gel Eyeliner in London, Baby on my waterline and it doesn't even budge, it was still pigmented at 8pm and I applied it around 6am? So, it became the eyeliner that I've reached for.

For Hare Magic Lipstick (review coming soon), it's been my go-to lipstick ever since I received this. This really rocks, an old-time favorite with the older generations. Also, I'm a big fan of BB Creams but I hate the fact that they're too light for me, so I bought Essence's Soft & Natural Make-up Long-lasting Foundation in Light Caramel which is a little too dark for me and I used this to mix with my BB Creams to match with my skintone.

Tell me what's your current favorite?

Skincare Review : Fair & Lovely Advanced Multivitamin Face Cream

Assalamualaikum pretty ladies!

I've been battling and trying to diminish whatever lefts from my acne scars after months of breaking out and popping them out and yes, not advisable to do that but I just can't manage to stop myself. So I've been sticking to a routine that would be able to help and reduce the visibility of my acne scars, so far it has worked slowly but then, I'm thinking of buying this certain product which I will post on my Want-it Wishlist after I've finished up this cream.

This is actually an affordable budget brand that many Bruneians are familiar with but I never really see any reviews on any of its products.There was a few variants of the whitening/brightening cream, but my friend recommended this one as it works for her and she's someone who knows about beauty skincare products, so all her opinions are always being taken in consideration.

A squeeze tube with a nozzle which I found very practical as I want to savor this product so I can actually see any improvement on my skin.

It's fairly a white but white a pink tinge cream, and it does give a brightened look to your skin as you applied it, also it might be a little drying. At first, I'd usually use moisturizer and then apply this cream after, but I found it to be too heavy for my skin so I decided to actually mix it with my moisturizer. It works well as I don't have to layer it up.

It is also very mattifying, though I never really thought about the oil control so I won't go there. About this cream, it claims to be a solution expert for scarring, uneven skintone, dull skin, dark circle and face brightening.

Whenever I use my Clariderm (review coming up) there would be a lot of redness, especially around my acne scars, I'm sorry for not providing pictures as I can't seem to access my laptop's camera. So, after a while of using this, I can see that it reduces the redness around my acne scars and also helped reduce the visibility of my acne scars.

When I was on a holiday at Rizqun Hotel, I went swimming and of course wearing a hijab while swimming, so I got a tan around my face that are exposed. A tan usually resides after a few months, but as I'm using this, I see that there's no more tan line and also my face has actually brighten and I think my skintone is a little lighter now as I found that I've been using less amount of darker foundation mixed with my BB Cream and I finally matched-shade with my Essence Pure Skin moisturizer and the shade I have is for fair skins.

I'd definitely repurchase this to even out my skintone and help fade out my tans if I do ever get tanned.

What's your product to help you to fade blemishes and acne scars?