Eyeliners; Loved & The Search

While I may or may not use eyeshadow on a daily basis, eyeliner is something that I rarely go without. It might be a full-on wing, or just a little dash between the lashes for that extra oomph. It’s just a really quick and easy way to make the eyes bigger and a little more bright. Hence, the stash of over ten eyeliners in my war-ready chest of makeup.

While I was getting ready this morning, I realised that two of my regular trusted pencil-type eyeliners are almost at the end of their lives. Given the number of eyeliners I own, I think it’s saying something when I use up and repurchase them over and over again. What am I going to do without them?

Too Faced Perfect Eyes Eyeliner in Perfect Black- Extremely creamy, goes on opaque, and does not smudge. Towards the end, it did kind of ‘dried out’ such that it shrunk a little against its wooden outer covering, but it’s still as smooth as before. It’s slightly too soft for a thin and controlled line, so I only use this when I don’t want my line to be too precise.

Pupa Multiplay Triple Purpose Eye Pencil in Black – Great quality, and at affordable prices if you know where to look. This went on really smoothly and opaque, without tugging on the lids. It doesn’t smudge and is slightly harder than the Too Faced eyeliner, so I can get a more precise line.

I don’t usually line my waterline, so I cannot attest to their durability in that area. But for regular usage without having to worry about having racoon eyes at the end of the day in a pencil-style, these two are the best I have tried so far. Now that they are nearly all used up, though, my itchy fingers are looking for new ones to try! I’m eyeing a few from MAC – can’t believe I have never tried a black eyeliner from MAC, as well as NARS Larger than Life Long-Wear Eyeliners.

Have you tried them and do you have any other eyeliners to recommend?

Random Thoughts: On Life, “Haters”, and Knowing More

A little non-beauty related chat; more so to keep track of my own thoughts and perhaps so that many years later I can look back and see if I have changed, improved or degenerated.

I’ve recently stumbled upon the Coursera website – I think it must have been around for a while now but I only got to see it now. I think it’s an incredible concept – I have signed up for 2 courses, a little too ambitious I think but I will try to finish the courses. I’m just not one to read about the same thing every night, so I thought I’d sign up for 2 different ones to mix up the variety a bit. Let’s see how it goes.

Speaking of courses, I wish people would read more outside of what they learn in school, but I feel this is not an easy notion for fellow Singaporeans to follow. I volunteer as a tutor for disadvantaged/ill children on the weekends and I often find that the emphasis on classroom knowledge to be stifling. I think it’s because we focus so much on the scores that we don’t really care what we learn anymore. But I rant.

Last quick thought; this week a recurring theme seem to be “haters” – a colleague of mine told me about how some clients call up and just simply start scolding her for no reason, and this was also a topic that a taxi uncle brought up during a ride home one night. I was just thinking – maybe some people just like to hate; there isn’t a reason why so, they just want to have someone to blame and their joy is when others are unhappy. Haters are going to be haters no matter what you do; I feel sorry for them. Next time someone throws mean words at you, take it as a reminder that your life is blessed enough to not have to hate.

I have more thoughts running in my head, but it’s the weekend and I’m looking forward to a good rest. I hope everyone have a great weekend too; recharge well for the new week ahead and hope it’s filled with lots of love!

Review: eos Lip Balm Sphere in Summer Fruit

What is round and cute, pink, and smells amazing? Enter – the eos Lip Balm Sphere in Summer Fruit. I’ve seen this lip balm featured in tons of youtube videos over the last couple of years – sadly, this item is not readily available in Singapore so when I chanced upon it at a makeshift store for around S$10, which is morbidly overpriced, I had to pick it up.

Claims by eos:
eos lip balm in Summer Fruit is 95% organic, 100% natural, and paraben and petrolatum free. Packed with antioxidant-rich vitamin E, soothing shea butter and jojoba oil, eos keeps your lips moist, soft and sensationally smooth.

Fruit scents are my preferred choice of smell and this lipbalm is incredible on that front. I find it quite sweet-smelling and really fruity like it is meant to be, but not overpoweringly so. I just simply adore the smell!

The packaging is also really adorable – in a round little plastic sphere with a flat bottom so that it stands up on its own and doesn’t roll around. However, it’s not the most convenient thing to bring about and can be quite weird to stick in your pockets. So this lip balm mostly sits on my desk at work.

In terms of efficacy as a lipbalm, I would rank it middle of the road. It’s quite a solid product so it feels waxy on the lips and needs a few runs over the lips for it to feel adequately ‘coated’. Freshly applied, the lips feel very comfortable and soft, but not greasy or slippery. However, the ‘moisturised effect’ doesn’t last very long – I couldn’t feel any of it on left my lips an hour later. But because it’s not fluid, it’s very easy to use lipstick or gloss over without it being goopy.

In short, I do like this because of its smell and the fact that I can layer other products over without it being too much. But a lip saviour – it is not. I would recommend this as a base for other more drying lip products, but not for those looking for a good moisturising lip balm.

Rating: 3/5

Midweek Peek #2: What’s in my small Z-palette?

Because of my working schedule, as well as the bf’s, I often carry around a full face worth of makeup, just in case I have to fix my makeup during the day, or if I have to stay overnight at the bf’s house at the last minute. I’ve been loving the small Z-palette lately, because it cuts down on the amount of packaging I have to lug around with me.

What do I have inside? I have a powder foundation – a small sample of the Diorskin Nude Compact in 030 Medium Beige which I use as setting powder, a mini Benefit blush in Sugarbomb, and some depotted eyeshadows from various palettes by Urban Decay – in Bordello, Rockstar, MIA, Smog, Virgin, Flow, Naked and Buck.

I love that I can easily switch up the colours, and still be able to carry a good variety around. I don’t actually use Sugarbomb as a blush but more as a highlight; as there is no mirror in the z-palette, I normally bring along a blush with a good size mirror. I also do carry a good variety of lip products, some concealers and tinted moisturizers, and a small set of makeup brushes.

So what’s in your Z-palette? Do you carry it around as well?

Haul: Bits & Bobs from Muji

The last week was largely spent mulling over tons of books; I had an exam last Friday, which I am not proud to say that as usual my last-minute nature won and I didn’t prepare very well for it, but thankfully still managed to pass. That explains much of the lull in blog posts, as well as a small haul which I did right after walking out of the exam hall.

I had stuck to my beauty budget so far, and in fact had bought nothing the entire month until this little haul. I have a weakness for Muji with my love for symmetry and clean lines; if I had a house and lots of money, I would redo all my storage system with Muji items, and I have an urge to repack all my beauty products into Muji bottles.

I wasn’t planning to get anything, but once my eye saw this I had to get it – it’s a small little washbag (S$23.90) which is perfect for the gym; my old one was really bulky and I’ve been looking for a new one for ages. I also picked up a little clear bottle (S$1.30) for decanting some makeup remover, as well as a set of spare spatulas (S$1.90) just in case.

It’s a tiny little haul as compared to the usual damage I do, but it did made my day so much better. The little joys in life. 🙂

Review: Caudalie Beauty Elixir

I picked up the Caudalie Beauty Elixir sometime back after watching a video from Lisa Eldridge, one of my favourite youtube personnels who is also a celebrity makeup artist in real life. I love her videos and often run out to buy what she recommends; she mentioned this product in the video about her beauty regime on long haul flights and suddenly I needed it.

From the Sephora website, this is described as part toner, part serum mist of essential oils. The product comes in a lovely glass bottle; it makes me feel a little glamorous just carrying it around but it’s not exactly travel friendly. It’s quite expensive for something that’s essentially mostly water; I bought the smaller 30ml at around S$24 from Sephora.

Ingredients:
Aqua, Alcohol, Citrus Aurantium Amara (Bitter Orange) Flower Water, Parfum, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Oil, Potassium Alum, Glycerin, Mentha Piperita (Peppermint) Oil, Styrax Tonkinensis Resin Extract, Commiphora Myrrha Resin Extract, Melissa Officinalis (Balm Mint) Leaf Oil, Rosa Damascena Flower Oil, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Fruit Extract, Tocopherol, Citral, Limonene, Linalool, Citronellol, Geraniol, Farnesol, Benzyl Benzoate, Eugenol.

The first time I used this, I did it the way Lisa used hers in the video – spraying a good amount on the palm and pressing it onto the face and breathing in. Unfortunately, I am not a mint-scent person; I almost choked in the very strong scent and it lingers too long for my liking. For a skincare product, I’m not impressed that the scent was so overwhelming.

The mint also irritated my eyes, and as with most mint products, there was a cooling feeling on my skin but the tingle was a tad too much. For all that suffering, I don’t think it made my skin smoother, neither does it tighten my pores or gave an instant burst of radiance. It does make me feel refreshed and awake, but a punch in the face would have done the trick as well.

It’s very sad, but I am not a fan – though I have to say it’s really a matter of preference and skin sensitivity, so it’s really important to test something out, especially skincare, before purchasing. At the price, I will continue to use it; I’ve been spraying it onto my face from a further distance now to reduce that concentration of mint and tingling effect so it feels a little less uncomfortable, but I won’t be repurchasing it.

Rating: 2/5

Review: Lancome UV Expert GN-Shield BB Complete

I used to hate BB creams – I always thought they were over-hyped tinted moisturizers, and honestly I still think most of them are. But I received this Lancome UV Expert GN-Shield BB Complete in shade 01 in a Purchase-with-Purchase set last Christmas and I must say that I have been loving it! I find that it reduces my morning routine on a good skin day – I no longer have to put both sunblock and foundation; I just use this!

Claims by Lancome:
UV Expert SPF 50 PA+++ BB Complete features an exceptional triple potency formula offering optimal performance on protection, correction and coverage.

I won’t bore you with too much details, but apparently its pink and blue bioptic pigments with translucent liquid micro-mirrors provides skin with a fresh, luminous glow, and it also has a powerful protection system that provides 12-hour UV protection and fights blemishes and imperfections.

Does it live up to all those claims? Well, I must say that  I am very happy with the high SPF which is quite hard to find in a BB cream or any base makeup. I’m not sure if it fights blemishes and imperfections; I’m just happy that it did not cause me any breakouts even after using this product consistently.

I also like how much coverage it gave me – I would say light coverage, but better than most BB creams that I have tried. On a good skin day, I can just wear this with a bit of concealer and a light setting powder, and I am good to go.  The weird thing is that it looks quite grey-beige when freshly squeezed out of the tube, but blends out to give a nice brighter-skin finish; I wouldn’t describe it as ‘dewy’, just not flat or matte.  The texture is quite fluid, but not too watery; I find the best way to apply it is with my fingers. It’s very light weight, absorbs and dries very quickly, and does not feel greasy at all.

One downside is that this comes in only 2 shades and the difference in colour is not a lot; for me, this is not a problem as shade 01 suits me well but I can see that for anyone darker than my light-medium skin tone, it might be difficult to find a match. Also, this costs S$75 originally! If you’re the same skin tone and looking for a high protection BB cream with light coverage, and of course happy to splurge on a high quality product, I would recommend picking this up!

Rating: 4/5

Review: L’occitane Dry Skin Hand Cream

For someone with very dry skin, hand cream is a must on a daily basis just to make sure that my hands are not all old and crinkly by the end of each day. Sometimes I forget and my skin turns scaly; not a good sight and rather a pain. So a really good moisturizing hand cream is a must for me and I am forever on the hunt for something that’s moisturizing without being too greasy, as I spend all day typing up excel files and an oily keyboard does not make the job any easier.

In comes the L’occitane Dry Skin Hand Cream. I received this rather generous sample of 10ml as a VIP gift from Sephora (in the US) some time ago but only dug it out recently from my stash. I must say that I really like this! It’s quite creamy in texture, but not too thick. I find that it absorbs really quickly on my dry hands without an oily residue and my hands felt really nice and soft afters. It does have a pretty strong scent which I don’t really mind but it’s something to take note of.

One thing that I didn’t like was the price – at about S$44 for 150ml, I thought that was pretty crazy for a hand cream! There is also a smaller size version but the price per ml is even more ridiculous. I think whether an item is really worth it or not is very personal; for me, I think as much as I did really enjoy this, I will be hunting around for much cheaper alternatives or when I really feel like splurging on myself.

The search for the perfect hand cream continues…

Haul: Holiday Hauling with Kiko Makeup Milano

A holiday is not a holiday without some beauty hauling, right? I spent most of my 20 days of holiday in Italy in September lounging around the Tuscan countryside, but I did manage to grab a few items during our much shorter stay in Rome and Milan.

Almost all of my haul products are from Kiko – the bf wasn’t too pleased about being dragged around all the beauty stores on holiday and threatened to eat all the gelato by himself when I’m beauty shopping; I had to make a choice, and I wanted some ice cream! A lot of the beauty brands sold in Italy were also available in Singapore, so I didn’t see a point in wasting time and luggage space on them. I did also grab a couple of Bumble & Bumble shampoo (not pictured), but mainly because my hair was dying from using bad hotel shampoo and I desperately needed some good ones.

My cool new toys from Kiko:

• Kiko Soft Touch Blush
• Kiko Water Eyeshadow
• Kiko Smart Lipstick
• Kiko Latex Like Lipstick
• Kiko Energy Mask
• Kiko Hydrating Mask
• Kiko Mixing Solution
• Kiko Glitter Gloss
• Kiko Long Lasting Stick Eye Shadow
• Kiko 30 Days Extension – Daily Treatment Mascara\
• Kiko Twinkle Eye Pencil
• Kiko City Filter

I’ve just started to play with these, so I can’t really comment on them yet but some reviews should be coming soon! I’ve heard a lot of great things about Kiko so I’m really excited to try them out!

Have you tried anything from Kiko?

Little Things #1

Very random post today but I wanted to give a shout out to Kiehl’s customer service, or marketing department, or whoever thought of sending a hand written postcard to customers. I was so impressed when I received this!

Kiehl’s products are already lovely but I felt this just made my day. Granted, the person who wrote this most likely don’t know who I am, and could possibly even be a part timer hired to write post cards, but it was still a really personal touch that I appreciated from a brand with already great products.