Month: April 2014

Weekend Spa Session: Dermal Collagen Essence Masks*

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Late last month, I received a package from Barbi Chan (!), makeup artist and editor of BDJ Box’s Beauty Ministry. You can learn more about her here. (She has a lot of helpful beauty tips.) Inside the package were 5 of the 29 “flavors” of the Dermal Collagen Essence Masks*, which have been awarded as the best facial mask in Korea. The masks are specially formulated with high quality ingredients that penetrate the skin effectively to deliver essential nutrients. The 29 different flavors moisturize, clarify, regenerate, brighten, and firm according to what your skin needs. All flavors contain collagen and Vitamin E, which are both widely known as beneficial to the skin. The essence is a no-rinse formula. You can tissue it off before applying your makeup, or massage the remaining essence into your face before following up with your usual night cream. Using it before makeup application preps the skin. You can also use them cold (leave unopened mask in the fridge) to de-stress your skin or warm (soak unopened mask in hot water) …

MUJI Bits I picked up last month

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The MUJI beauty corner is a place I’ve always wanted to explore but never quite did. I was under the impression that they are cruelty-free, but when I went to Google and double-check, I couldn’t find my source anymore and the top hit was my blog. As such, I’ve decided to revamp my cruelty-free beauty page (it’s in the works!) and reassess my values when it comes to consumption. I just wanted to quickly share some bits I picked up from MUJI, though. I’m not sure if they’re CF—they have a whole issue of selling shark fin soup (???) which I do not support—so please keep that in mind when reading through this post. Because of SPF paranoia, I got myself a UV Makeup Base, which has SPF 28 PA++. That’s pretty much all I understand from the packaging, but I tested its color and it seems to be a decent match. I also got two of these Medicated Lip Creams, which were pretty cheap (around ¥ 200ish) and have SPF 12. For lip products, …

Some Pixy Picks*

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Not too long ago, BDJ Box released a Pixy exclusive and it was chock-full of Pixy products. Pixy—with a 'y'—is a new Indonesian brand that's set to grace Philippine drugstores soon. It is fairly cheap, so I was obviously curious about the quality of these products. I was sent these items, from the box, so I thought I would do a short review on some of the items. Maybe this could be a guide to the products, in case you wanted to pick any of them up when they are finally unleashed to the beauty masses. First up, which I know y'all want to know about are… the lipsticks! I got three, each in a different finish: satin, semi-matte, and matte: To be honest, the matte was not very matte. As you can see from the swatches, it still has a strong sheen to it. My favorite finish was the satin, followed by the matte. The semi-matte was okay, but not the best. Also, I think that the color (which I don't think suits me) …

Beauty Boo-boo: NARS + Washi

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It finally happened. The rubbery texture of one of my NARS compacts has finally melted off. I was waiting for it, and one of them started to succumb to this unholy heat. Granted, it was my first ever NARS purchase, and I wish I could say that it was something other than the ubiquitous Orgasm, but it wasn’t. I am so very beige sometimes. Anyway, I tried to get rid of the sticky, but it wouldn’t budge. So I just wrapped it around in sticky tape. If you’re not familiar with washi tape (how???), it’s basically printed masking tape that originated from Japan (of course). People use it for everything—they even developed larger tapes to cover larger surfaces, much like wallpaper and temporary paint. Basically, I just wrapped most of the exposed sticky surface in a variety of tapes and called it creativity. I think it turned out pretty nice. Pretty summery, which makes me feel like I have created a limited edition packaging for summer days, kind of. I think it’s pretty cute. 🙂 …

5 Things Friday: My Favorite Multi-Purpose Products

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On the spotlight for today’s 5 Things Friday are some of my favorite multi-purpose products. They’re basically things you can use for more than one thing. There’s just something awesome about being able to use one thing many different ways. For the makeup bits, here are two products that can be used for the cheeks, the lips, and the eyes: the Addiction Cheek Stick and the OCC Creme Colour Concentrate. I haven’t tried the BECCA Beach Tint on my eyes, but it’s a great lip and cheek product, too. All three remain steadfast favorites in my makeup swamp. Next up, I’ve got bareMinerals Liner Shadow, which I actually primarily use on my eyebrows. It’s a great deep matte brown for both liner and shadow, too. Last but not the least, my tin of the cult favorite Smith’s Rosebud Salve. What can’t this little pot do? I don’t like it as a lip moisturizer, but I use it on dry, irritated spots and my gross cuticles. I have read many other different uses (i.e. hair wax? …

FOTD: Notoriously Morbid in the Springtime

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Just a quick Spring look for all y’alls using some Notoriously Morbid eyeshadows that I am in the middle of testing out and reviewing. Notoriously Morbid is an indie cosmetics company that I wanted to try out way back when. I placed an order in February and got my parcel in late March, which is pretty standard for international shipping. Anyway. Here’s what’s going on with my mug. My base is just comprised of the Le Métier de Beauté Peau Vierge Correcteur in Medium, the Le Métier de Beauté Eye Brightening and Setting Powder in Refresh, and the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Poweder in Dim Light. It’s so freaking hot, I don’t even want to bother with face products, other than my SPF. If you’re curious about my favorite Spring/Summer Face base, click here. For cheeks, I have my Tom Ford Cheek Color in Wicked, which I am beginning to appreciate just recently. It’s a very beautiful sheeny pink. It’s almost like a super pigmented highlight. It’s gorgeous. My lips are just coated with a Chanel …

BNT Girls Collaboration: SNSD Mr Mr Makeup (Seohyun)

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Before my batch of BNT Girls (possibly) disbands, we thought we’d cook up a makeup collaboration featuring looks from SNSD/Girls Generation’s new video for the song, Mr Mr! You can watch the video here: We each picked a girl who wore a makeup look we wanted to recreate! I’m not sure what time the other girls are planning to post their looks, so I’ll just add the links as they come. 🙂 Anyway, I did this look back when I still had long hair! I was picking between Yuri and Seohyun, but Seohyun had the look I wanted to recreate the most: (It took me a while to remember their names, haha. I’m not a big fan of K-Pop, but that’s only because I don’t know where to start. But that’s another story.) I never would have thought to pair purple eye makeup with a red lip; that just seems to cross over to super bold territory for me. Still, I persevered.