All posts tagged: cosmetics

Happy Skin Eye Need a Miracle Concealer

So, I dragged my mom to a Happy Skin Counter and this is what she ended up getting. To be honest, I think she got the Eye Need a Miracle Concealer for me, since I wouldn’t shut up about it. I didn’t want to buy it just yet because it had an alarming amount of glitter in it, for something that’s supposed to conceal dark circles. Eye Need a Miracle only has one shade, Butter, and I’ve been told that it “adjusts” to any skin tone. I’m a big ol’ skeptic when it comes to these things because I can’t fathom how that works out, but it swatches fine on my medium skin color:

State of Skin: Skin Care Routine Update

Hey everyone! To start the year off (my Inglot post was scheduled prematurely, lol), I wanted to do a bit of a basics series. Let me begin with skin. 🙂 This is what my freshly-washed face looks like in the morning. I’ve had pretty good luck with skin and breakouts for the duration of my life—I’ve maybe had 10 really bad pimples in 25 years—aside from allergies, etc. When I started wearing makeup, I started getting problems. I didn’t use to wash my face; I only washed it when I remembered to. In the shower. So, adding gunk was particularly problematic. I had great luck with shu uemura’s cleansing oils (I used the yellow variant/balancing one), but it’s expensive + not cruelty-free, which is weird to say because I’m not sure if the ff. items are CF, but bear with me!

First Encounters with Inglot

Another spoil from Black Friday. I only got it now because I live in a faraway land South East Asia. Anyway, I purchased 2 Inglot Palettes and some innards from the actual Inglot site. I was on a ban when I stepped into the Inglot store that just opened here in the Philippines, but I figured I could take advantage of a 20% off sale once I was “allowed” to purchase makeup, so I did. Here’s the damage… OK, so I got two palettes: one 5-shadow palette, and one blush + 3-shadow palette. I don’t know what they’re actually called, I think just EB and [5] Square, as indicated by their boxes. The packaging is awesome and sleek. Very minimalist, though I think I’d have preferred the logo to not be patterned over the ENTIRE cover. The cover is frosted plastic that’s pretty heavy-duty, and it attaches to the actual matte black case with four strong magnets on each corner. I predict that this will be a long-ish entry, so I’ll cut it here.

13 Best of 2013

OK, so I had a hard time narrowing this down because 2013 was a big year of discovery for me, in terms of beauty and makeup. However, I really had to pick through and determine which products made a big impact on me and my makeup life. Here goes! Addiction Cheek Sticks: some of my best discoveries from my Japan trip! I have 4 shades, but my favorites are Tea Rose and Revenge. They are such a great formula, sort of like cream blushes in a traditional lipstick form. The formula is a little varied, though, for a multi-purpose product. Some shades don’t work out since they can be drying. Other shades are Suspicious and African Sunset. Le Métier de Beauté Anamorphic Lash Mascara: Sarie got this for me as a GWP. It’s lightweight and gives the most natural definition and just a tiny bit of volume. I love it because it is cruelty-free, holds a curl, gives a bit of definition, and is easy to take off. Read the review here. Hourglass Veil Mineral …

Makeup Storage for Small Spaces: December 2013

OK, so I’ve been planning this post for a while, but it’s a) embarrassing, and b) hard to come up with a system that you’re happy with. I think this is good for me right now. I have very little space, and I like it like that because it’s extremely obvious when I go overboard. On my work/only desk, I have a corner, a cubby, and a drawer for makeup I want within my reach. By this, I mean, I have a separate drawer for back-ups (e.g. new mascara I don’t want to open because of current mascaras in rotation, etc.) and products I don’t reach for often. There were a lot more photos in the original iteration of this post, but I only kept the useful ones to show my main set-up. The desk looks neat because the other crap I have (books, bags, etc.) are on my bed, ha.

The One You All Knew I’d Eventually Get… The Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder Palette

I resisted and failed. Sort of. This is my brother’s Christmas and late birthday gift to me—the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder Palette. I am one of the crazy people that are absolutely in love with these, and I actually only have one other shade left to try, thanks to this palette. (Diffused Light, if you’re wondering.) If you are looking for an in-depth review of what exactly these powders are, I wrote one quite a while back, which you can read here. I’m still a firm believer in these, though, if that’s any indication (to you) of how awesome these are. This is a holiday release by Hourglass, and has three shades and a travel-sized Veil Mineral Primer, which is my HG Primer and costs an arm and a leg, so YAY. The shades are as follows: Dim Light — a neutral peach beige powder that blurs imperfections and highlights the complexion. Incandescent Light (Limited Edition) — an opalescent pearl powder that brightens the complexion with a celestial glow. Radiant Light — a sun-kissed golden …

OCC Lip Tar in Anita, Annika, Black Metal Dahlia, and OCC Lip Tar Stained Gloss in Little Black Dress

Apart from the two Crème Colour Concentrates that I bought from my last OCC purchase, I also got three lip tars and a concealer (more on that later). Because of a Black Friday Promo, my cumulative purchases earned me a complimentary tube of my first OCC Lip Tar Stained Gloss in Little Black Dress. Each of these little lip things come in a small resealable vinyl bag, which I think is a little wasteful—but I guess I get what it’s for—and a small lip brush. Lip Tars are highly pigmented lip colors that come in a little tube that you have to kind of paint on. I have two of these already and I always find them inconvenient to use if I have a long day out and would need to retouch. I mean, where do you put the lip brush? The bag solves this problem, but I’m surprised at this move by OCC, since it doesn’t seem to be a sustainable solution. I don’t believe my older lip tars came with them, which is …