Review: Model in a Bottle Makeup Setting Spray (Original)

Today’s quick review is on a makeup setting spray – the Model in a Bottle Original Makeup Setting Spray. I consider myself a rather loyal user of the Urban Decay All-Nighter, but when I saw this on sale on the Cherry Culture website for less than US$10, I decided that it was too good a deal not to try.

Claims on the website:
Our Model in a Bottle Original Makeup Setting Spray is the one that started it all. With just a few sprays, our one-of-a-kind matte finish setting spray makes sure you stay gorgeous by holding your makeup in place all day or night! It is resistant to smudging, tears, humidity and water. It’s the perfect setting solution for normal to oily skin.

It comes in a plastic bottle, with a spray nozzle. I am quite particular about spray nozzles, especially when it comes to makeup setting spray; I like a good fine mist that covers a large surface area. The spray nozzle on this is a bit wonky – it doesn’t give a good fine mist, but rather sploshes out; more of like sprinkle of water rather than an even mist, so I end up with wet patches on my face rather than a thin mist that dries quickly.

In terms of the actual product, I will just say it right away – I hate this. This is the most horrible makeup setting spray that I have ever used. The texture is okay – it looks and feels like water. But! This stings my eyes like no other! The first time I used this, I had my eyes opened, so it was a really painful lesson. The second time I thought closing my eyes would solve the problem, but when I opened it after spraying, it seems there were still lingering ‘fumes’ around near my eyes that stung. I tried a couple of times, waiting for nearly 10 seconds after spraying before opening my eyes, but it still bloody hurts.

In terms of the actual effect of helping makeup stay, the few times that I managed to use this, I think it did a decent job – I do think that my makeup did last a little longer through the day. Also, I can’t comment on the “matte finish” as my face tends to be naturally matte. Maybe I am biased but I still think that my makeup did not look as perfect by the end of the day as it did when I am using the Urban Decay All-Nighter.

So, obviously, this was a mega fail for me. I cannot recommend it and I will not repurchase this. Actually it’s already in the trash can, and it’s nearly full, but I can’t go through another spray of this.

Rating: 2/5

Final Swatch #7: Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzer

Today I said goodbye to another bronzer – there was a time when I watched too many American beauty youtube videos and decided that I needed my face to be tanned and contoured, so I bought lots of bronzers and attempted to contour my non-existent cheeks everyday. But now I’ve defected over the the Korean beauty style, which appreciates my natural paleness – in fact the fairer the better, so I no longer reach out for bronzers.

I love the scent of this Too Faced Chocolate Soleil matte bronzer – it smells just like chocolate and I can’t help but smell it every time I open this. But it was a very orange on me, so despite it being matte, it was not a great contour shade. The pigmentation is great, which was actually a problem for me as it turned me into an Oompa Loompa if I was not careful with how much I put on. After having it for nearly 2 years and barely using it, I thought it was time to let it go. So farewell now, bronzer.

Tag: Lipstick Addict

I was tagged by the lovely NerdyLibrarianGirl quite a few days ago; it took me awhile to do up this tag because I’m not usually a lipstick kinda gal – I like my eyeshadows, blushes and a slick of tinted lip balm to keep these lips soft and comfy. Lipstick are usually reserved for a special occasion when I can be bothered. But I shall try my very best to do this tag!

Review: ElishaCoy Vivid Party Magic Lipstick in #4 Grape Fruit

Today I have a review on a lipstick that I bought on a whim – I saw some lipsticks in rather shocking shades so I decided to have a closer look; then I saw that it changes colour according to my body heat and click, it went into my shopping basket. What can I say – I am a sucker for gimmicks! I bought this ElishaCoy Vivid Party Magic Lipstick in shade #4 Grape Fruit from the Bella Box web shop at S$12, with 3g of product.

Claims from Bella Box web shop:
Each unique color transforms to a beautiful pink shade (from your body heat) that does more for your lips health-wise than virtually any other lipstick. Natural oils like Grape Seed, Argan and Pomegranate, as well as Shea Butter combine for intense moisture and all-natural environmental protection. Vivid Party Lipstick actually acts as a primer, a lip tint, lipstick, liner, fixer and balm. Oh, and it also has UV protection! It lasts all day without smudging and never leaves your lips feeling sticky.

Now that is a lot of claims for one lipstick! Does it live up to all its claims?

Final Swatch #6: Eyecandy Wind Spin Magic Hair Curl Diffuser

There really isn’t any swatching involved with this item – but it is a beauty product that I am letting go and it is the Eyecandy Wind Spin Magic Hair Curl Diffuser. At point of purchase it sounded like a very clever idea – the diffuser is attached to the hairdryer; all you have to do is grab a bunch of hair and place it into the diffuser so that the hair will “tumble” and curl itself as the hairdryer dries it. No direct heating iron in contact with my hair involved, while still getting beautiful curls; yes please, bought it.

In theory it was amazing but in terms of practical use, this failed massively. Perhaps my hair was just not long enough, or I had too much hair, or my hair was too thick – it did not curl my hair in any way. My hair dryer is pretty powerful, but all it did was make drying my hair take much longer than it had to because I could only put a few strands into the diffuser at a time to blow.

I have passed this on to a friend with much finer and less hair than I do to see if it will work for her and I don’t think I’ll be missing it much!

Review: MAC Studio Finish Concealer

The MAC Studio Finish Concealer is my preferred everyday concealer. I bought this after watching too many Pixiwoo videos and decided that if they loved it so much, it’s definitely worth a try and I have not looked back since!

Description from MAC website:
A lightweight, creamy, discreetly opaque concealer. Provides a smooth, long-wearing invisible coverage for all skin blemishes. Water-resistant, fragrance-free and non-acnegenic. This emollient-based, lightweight concealer is so concentrated that a tiny amount can provide opaque coverage of the skin’s imperfections and discolourations.

The concealer is housed in a little standard black flip-top pot with a see-through window at the top. I like how the pan is big enough for my concealer brush to fit in easily, as well as my fingers when I don’t have my brushes.

My main concerns are the odd but very angry and red hormonal zits, as well as some old pimple scars and slight pigmentation; I find that this covered it all amazingly with just a tiny amount of product. It’s very creamy and opaque/pigmented, but blends easily. I like to apply this with my Real Techniques Deluxe Crease Brush, or just to tap it in with my fingers.

I don’t usually use it under my eyes – I find it slightly too dry. Lasting power is great; it lasted the entire work day if I remember not to touch my face. At about $30 for a 7g pot, this is pretty pricey – for a cheaper alternative I would recommend the Catrice Cosmetics Camouflage Cream, but if you have spare change, I would say this still rank higher in terms of creaminess and blending – it takes a lot more product to start looking caked up.

I’ve loved this so much that when I lost my tan, I immediately repurchased another lighter shade in C25 so now I have two! The sad thing is… I actually continued to lose some natural color and am now even fairer than my normal skintone; both shades don’t fit me! I guess a trip to MAC is due!

Rating: 4/5

Midweek Peek #11: Falling back in love with Tom Ford

Hi everyone! Just wanted to show something that I have been loving – the Tom Ford Cognac Sable. The bf bought this for me some time ago – I loved it so much when I first got it, then new products came into my life and I neglected it. I recently rummaged through my makeup drawer and rediscovered it. I can still remember my bf’s very shocked face when he saw the bill for a small quad came up to SGD100; sadly I have to say that he has not bought me any more Tom Ford palettes after this one.

I’m so glad that I’ve found this again. I love the packaging, and the color selection is so easy to use on an everyday basis. Cognac Sable is a rather warm palette and it comes with 3 satiny shades of a peach beige, a warm brown and a dark purple-ish chocolate with a really shimmery and sparkly copper shade. The 3 satiny shades make for a good day time look, easily topped off with some of the copper sparkly shade after work for an evening look. The pigmentation is really good, the texture is nice and smooth, and the staying power is fantastic.

Now that I’ve been reunited with this, I’m looking forward to adding more Tom Ford palettes to my collection!

EOTD #4: Neutral Browns for Work

Hi everyone! A quick EOTD – was waiting for transport to work this morning when I thought I might as well use the time to take a quick snap of my eye makeup! It’s quick and easy, plus I only used 1 eyeshadow palette. The palette is no longer available but the shades should be easy to dupe.

Products Used:

• Too Faced Shadow Insurance; all over lid, crease and browbone
• Chanel Les 4 Ombres Quadra Eye Shadow in 35 Rives; white shade to highlight brow bone, beige shade all over lids, brown shade in outer half of lids and slightly smudged along lower lashline, dark brown shade along lash lines and on outer third of lids
• Kiko Twinkle Eye Pencil in 03 Flexous Burgundy; lined along upper lash lines and smudged out

It’s a typical neutral look that does not require too many steps, or too many items. I went easy on the rest of the face as well – just foundation, powder and blush – mostly because I woke up late and didn’t have time to bother, but I did manage to do my entire face and eye makeup in under 10 minutes. I hope you like it!

MAC Me Over #2: Most Treasured MAC LE Collection

MAC comes out with a limited edition collection ever so often – once upon a time I bought at least an item from every single collection, regardless of whether I really liked the item or not, because I just have to own something from every collection. It didn’t make sense, but I was too obsessed to care.

Nowadays I’ve learnt to control my spending urges, and I was tired of it all – MAC just launched way too many items in a year, with many products from the LE collections having lower quality than usual, or even ‘relaunches’ of current items, just with nice packaging and a higher price tag.

But there are also collections that I could not bring myself to not buy – even if the quality was not there or are colors that I will never use! One of them is the Archie’s Girls collection! I’ve loved Archie comics as a kid, and now and then when I feel stressed out I will still grab a couple to ‘escape’.

I totally love the packaging for this! I have to say this is in fact my most treasured MAC LE collection of all! The products are really quite mehhh if I were to be honest, except for the blushes which are great, but I absolutely am in love with the Archie prints. I hope the prints will never fade.

Do you have a treasured MAC item/collection as well? 🙂

Review: Coastal Scents Bright Eyed in Light

Do you want to look like you’ve had a good night’s sleep despite partying through the night yesterday? Do you have dark eye bags that you want to hide? If the answer is yes to any of the above, read on! My review today is on Coastal Scents Bright Eyed Eye Brightener, which is available from the Coastal Scents website for US$9.95, for 20ml.

Claims on website:
Specially developed to diminish dark circles and minimize the appearance of fine lines, our eye brightener will leave you looking rested and refreshed all day. The lightweight, creamy consistency is perfect for layering underneath or on top of additional products.

From what I understand, this product is meant to correct any bluish tones that tend to appear on the undereye circles, just like Bobbi Brown’s much more expensive corrector. What I usually do is use the corrector, let it set for a few minutes, followed by a light layer of concealor and dust a little powder over. I don’t know if I am using it right, but that’s how I feel gives me the best “bright eye” results.

It’s packaged in a bright blue squeeze tube and there are only 4 shades available. I bought Light, the second lightest shade and I think it matches me quite well. For reference, I am a MAC NC20-25.

The color itself is a light salmon pink – it looks too light for my skin in the swatch, but my face is more than 2 shades lighter than my hands and it’s quite sheer so it matches nicely when blended well. The pink tinge seems to offset the dark bruise-y shadow under my eyes and makes it look brighter.

The texture is very creamy and easy to blend, with good lasting power – it doesn’t shift under my concealer throughout the day. I also love that it does not feel heavy or dry on the eye area.

Do I like it? Yes, I do on days that I have very bad eye bags. But on normal days, I’m lazy and tend to skip this step. It’s not a necessity for me – so I’m glad that it’s cheap, but I do enjoy it when I need it. If you have really bad eyebags, then I would definitely recommend you giving it a try!

Rating: 4/5