Month: August 2013

Drugstore Finds: Pack on the Pigment with L’Oreal Infallible Eyeshadows

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I’m very late to this party, but we don’t get these here and I got these months ago but never really reviewed them. I got whatever I could from a really old Multiply shop. Luckily, they had Amber Rush in stock, which is one of the colors I was dying to try. These came out around the time that the Maybelline Color Tattoos came out, so a lot of people mistook them to be similar products. The Color Tattoos are cream eyeshadows, whereas the “Infallible Eyeshadow contains ultra concentrated colour pigments, for an intense colour finish and up to 24 hour long-lasting hold.” Essentially, these are pigments that seem to be pressed (?) or just packed really tightly. I got, L-R: Amber Rush, Golden Sage, and Sultry Smoke. SS is the only matte color among the three. All aligned together like that, I’m reminded of the NARS Trio, Delphes, although this is much, much more pigmented. On the whole, I really like the quality of these eyeshadows. You have to apply the least possible amount …

Playlist: Jennifer Lawrence

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Today, I’m going to attempt this look worn by Jennifer Lawrence, which is Sarie’s special request, via Whatsapp. It’s a warm, golden brown smokey eye with neutral everything else. In short, gorgeous! This is what I came up with, and as you can see, it is vastly different, but this was the best I have done after several attempts for the past couple of months. Anyway, I now know why I don’t really wear a smokey eye that much. This emphasizes my very mismatched eyes and my low-hanging eye bags. I also can’t do a thick black rim on my upper lash line because my right eye eats up any line I draw on it. If I want a thick line to show up, I might as well color in my entire eye. For my face, I just wore a soft rosy blush by Shiseido, warmed up the edges of my face + did a light contour with Tarte’s Park Avenue Princess (matte). For the lips, I have on NARS’ Pure Matte Lipstick in Montego …

Quickie: AHAVA Light Foundation

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The Ahava Light Foundation was actually my first foray into the liquid foundation world, if I’m not mistaken, so I’m not sure why I haven’t reviewed it yet. It’s rather good and pretty lightweight. I got shade Sand and it’s a pretty accurate match for my skintone. The consistency is more firm/cream than liquid-y, which makes it a bit hard to blend. It’s so unpleasant to deal with when you are trying to put it on. When it hasn’t set yet, it kind of makes you feel like it highlights dry patches and applies patchily. When it sets, though… it’s not so bad: Ahava is cruelty-free.

Favorite Things: NARS Eyeshadow Duos

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Here’s the thing about NARS Duos—you think you know better, but the colors really do go together. I found that to be true especially with Paramaribo and Grand Palais. I have four NARS duos, but I have my eye on a few more. Here’s a collective post of mine so you can see how awesome they are and maybe try one or two out for yourself. All of them swatched together! Oooooh~ Habanera is one of the first duos I bought, highly influenced by Kim of Gunk Fury, who sadly does not seem to update anymore. She used it for a smokey eye, tutorial here. Habanera is very pretty and soft with a “mint frost” and a “sparkling charcoal plum,” but it does not get that much love from me, because I bought it at a time when I was scared of über shimmer and just bought stuff because I was impressionable. I am not scared of glitter anymore, so let’s remedy this lack of Habanera love. Paramaribo is another duo I got when I …

Addiction x Jean Michel Basquiat Ready to Wear Palettes in Tuxedo Moon & Mudd Club

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Oh hello there, pretties. These are two of the six Ready To Wear Palettes that Addiction launched as their Jean-Michel Basquiat collection. I got two shades in the limited edition casing: Tuxedo Moon and Mudd Club, both of which are part of their permanent collection. I posted about another quad, Sugar Rusk yesterday here. In case you are new, I have a bit of a Basquiat obsession. On a trip to NYC in 2005, my life changed when we visited the Basquiat retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum. He remains my favorite artist to this day. You can imagine my reaction to this collection. “I burn, I pine, I perish!” as Cameron in 10 Things About You would dramatically say. Mudd Club is the more adventurous of the two. It features a white, a teal, a purple, and a black. They are all superb textures, with a sort of pearly sheen to them, but the pigmentation is quite subtle. Tuxedo Moon is a beautiful collection of neutrals that differs from Sugar Rusk in drama and texture. …

Deep Clean Detox: Aesop’s Parsley Seed Cleansing Masque & Antioxidant Serum

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The first Aesop product I used was the Parsley Seed Antioxidant Serum and it was a great product, though nothing really exceptional in my opinion. I bought this, the Parsley Seed Cleansing Masque, a few months later when I spotted it in Japan. I was so happy! When I first used it, I didn’t notice anything drastic, so I didn’t really incorporate it in my regular routine. It wasn’t until I started getting tiny pimple breakouts (as in, a smattering of literal tiny pimples) that I began to see a difference. After using this mask—or lol, should I say masque?—I noticed a significant change in the clarity of my skin. My current skin care routine does keep the pimples at bay, but I owe it to this mask for getting rid of the plague of little dots on my face, particularly situated around my forehead area. If you’re unfamiliar with masks, you just basically use them every couple of days, or even weeks. It’s not something you should do everyday, though I can’t really tell …

ADDICTION by Ayako Ready to Wear Eyeshadow Palette in Sugar Rusk

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You’ve read about my ADDICTION addiction. Let me talk about it some more. ADDICTION is a makeup brand by makeup artist Ayako, who worked with François Nars. I discovered and fell in love with their products on a Japan visit, during which I brought home 3 types of products: lipsticks, eyeshadows, and cheek sticks. Unfortunately, I didn’t want to sully the products and didn’t get to buy any more items before leaving for Manila. My friend, Den, kindly muled me some more Addiction goodies when she went on a trip to Osaka a few weeks ago. My Addiction eyeshadow stash grew dramatically, and one of the newest additions was this quad in Sugar Rusk. I was hoping to get this in a limited edition Basquiat case, like two other quads I got, but the pigmentation and colors gave me enough reason to hold on to it. Sugar Rusk has four colors: three shimmery neutrals, and a beautiful matte. The three shimmery neutrals are a white (with a green-gold duochrome), a cool, light brown that is …