Dior Addict Ultra-Shine 2 in 340

Dior lipsticks and I haven’t been good friends for a while. Don’t get me wrong, I am totally in love with Dior Addict’s color line up... who can resist those pretty shades with healthy dose of shimmer and glitter?

This is why....

Presenting ... my first ever Dior lippie... it is pretty apricot-pink in color with silver shimmers which glimmers and sparkles in the nicest way. Very very pretty... and it was sheer... totally... just the way I like my lippie back then... sheer and shimmery.

Swatch on the left was single swipe, the right was 2-3 swipes. As you can see... sheer and pretty...

It applies nice and light. I almost believe this will be the my lippie BFF. Glides nicely on my lips...

But...Disagreement starts after 1 hour of wear... my lip start to feel ultra dry. If I insisted on wearing longer, I am sure to get my lips dry and flaky even. May be there is some ingredient inside which irritates my lips? Or it is just plain drying ( I think this is the more likely answer).

And so... I have stopped wearing it. Unless I applied balm before applying the lipstick.

As the color is very sheer, I cant really tell how long does it last on my lips. But I can tell the shimmery particles hang around for quite some time.

In summary...
Packaging: the iconic Dior Addict design
Color variations: 4/5 from the sheerest pink to the strongest red... lovely variations
Texture: light, glides nicely, shimmery but not gritty, non fragraced too
Moisturizing: 1/5, ultra drying on my lips
Staying power: 1-2 hours, by the end shimmer stays but pigments are gone
Is it worth it?
Yes if... you like shimmers, you love sheer lippies, your lip is not dry
No if... you want more pigmented stuff, you want more moisturizing lippie

Too Faced Lip of Luxury Lipstick in Pink Flamingo

I am totally in love with peachy color... which brings me to purchase this baby...

Too Faced has been around for sometime in Sephora Singapore, just I was always too mesmerized by other brands and never actually realized this one is around! How glad I was when I finally discovered Lip of Luxury!

The packaging is Barbie perfect...with silhouette of a girl applying lipstick as logo and metallic pink tube. Wait! That’s not all... it has this huge diamante on top too! I am still trying to find that fine print saying ‘created with Barbie’ somewhere on the box... cute cute cute!

The color is pretty shimmery apricot-pink. The shimmer is gold and very fine... I am totally lovin it.... on the left was single swipe, on the right was multiple swipes.

It applies nicely, light texture. Lip of Luxury is lightly fragranced – mixed fruits I think. Not too strong, after application, it will fade away.

Unfortunately the pigment doesn’t last very long on my lip (and my tea sippings)... about 1-2 hours. By the end of the wear pretty much no pigment was left on my lips, but soft golden shimmer still sticks around. I like it for the shimmer  But I can foresee many will not like it so much for the fact it doesn’t last long enough.

It is soft and kind to my lips...not moisturizing, but not drying.

In summary...
Packaging: cute pink tube with huge diamante on top
Color variations: 2/5 I did not see much color in Sephora Singapore
Price: SGD 32 ( I think...)
Texture: light, lightly fragranced
Moisturizing: 3/5
Staying power: 1-2 hours, by the end shimmer stays but pigments are gone
Is it worth it?
Yes if... you love golden shimmer, you adore the packaging, you want light textured lipstick
No if... you dislike fragranced lippies, you want longer lasting lipstick

Too Faced Lip of Luxury Lipstick in Celebrity Meltdown

My previous Too Faced was Pink Flamingo ... lovely apricot pink with golden shimmer. I am just cant let lippie with golden shimmer stays on the rack like that... I have to adopt it! This time the golden shimmer is total opposite of Pink Flamingo... Celebrity Meltdown is here!

Deep berry with golden shimmer! I was intimidated too... but what the heck..the golden shimmer is too pretty... And with Champagne Essence, who can say no to it?

The packaging, is the not-to-be-missed pink with huge diamante on top. Made of plastic, but somehow it doesn’t feel cheap.

Okay...the swatch couldn’t really show you the shimmer or the fact that this deep berry is not at all intimidating. Why? It is buildable. Lighthanded single swipe will give you lovely stained lips with subtle shimmer. I am so loving it!

Alternatively, apply the lippie as usual, let the color build then blot your lip with tissue to ‘lighten’ the color.

Make it double swipe or more, the deep berry goes... well... deep and strong. I guess it is the shimmer... but I think most will be able to rock this shade be it for the stained look or deep berry look.

The mixed fruit fragrance is the same with Pink flamingo’s. Nothing that I love or hate... With that.. I am not sure what’s the difference between Celebrity Meltdown and Pink Flamingo...as my Celebrity Meltdown tube has “champagne essence” but my Pink Flamingo doesn’t. They smell the same, feels the same, just different shade.

With color as deep as Celebrity Meltdown, I would expect longer wear than Pink Flamingo... And I was right! By 4th hour, my lip was still berry colored, of course I sipped my tea as usual. Only after meal the color was off.

In summary...
Packaging: cute pink tube with huge diamante on top
Color variations: 2/5 I did not see much color in Sephora Singapore
Price: SGD 32 ( I think...)
Texture: light, lightly fragranced
Moisturizing: 3/5
Staying Power: 4 hours with tea sippings in between
Is it worth it?
Yes if... you love golden shimmer, you adore the packaging, you want light textured lipstick, you want deep berry which can goes light
No if... you dislike fragranced lippies

Pink stain for lips, cheeks and *what*?!?

When I went to my local drugstore today I noticed this product called ‘Pinki Princess’. With a tiny white box and pink silhouette of magical looking fairy, I am interested.

Apparently this product is pretty precious... it is located behind the cashier, so if you would like to test it, you gotta ask one of the staff there. When I requested to have a look, the male staff has no clue what product it is... until I saw the back of the white-pink box: it is supposed to give rosy-pink cheek and lips... and unsightly brown nipples... and that’s not it... can be used on pubic area too!!! (I am sure gynaecologists out there wouldn’t be very amused with the idea of staining pubic area...)

The product is said to be natural plant extracts to remove dark pigmentations on lip, skin, nipple and external pubic area. Supposedly it is waterproof and will last a few days.

Being curious cat that I am, I decided to try it on my hand...

The color is fuchsia-pink which might look nice on lips, but I don’t think it will flatter me if I were to wear it as blush. Or may be I just have to use even less product and blend more?

The texture is thick gel, very thick to the extent it was hard for me to get the product out of the tester tube. It has slight sweet fragrance and feels greasy even after blending.

I cant stand the greasy feeling ... and so after about 30 minutes, I grabbed the nearest tissue and try wiping it off... the grease is gone, but the pinkish stain is still there. And it stays strong up to 9 hours after initial application. This gotta be the strongest stain I have ever encountered...

By the way, I only used teeny weeny dot of the product... I cant imagine if I accidentally pushed more product out of that tube...

Thankfully, the stain could be removed with scrubbing and plenty of soap. Never again I will go near this product...

This product claimed to be Korean and famous in Japan, but heavily promoted by Singaporean... confusing...

Etude House VIP girl Dear Darling Lips Miss Tangerine in OR205

Recently I see poppy corals, oranges and citrusy colors and themes everywhere! And I am ready to lemming in with the color trend! And then I bumped to Etude House’s Miss Tangerine collection, which include eye shadow set, blusher, powder, lip stain and of course...

I think I saw 3 colors from VIP girl Dear Darling Lips and another 4 from Sweet Shower Lips (another line of lippies with Miss Tangerine theme).

The packaging looks cute from far away. But when I hold it, the feeling of light plastic slightly turned me off... but don’t put it back to the shelf yet...the best is yet to come!

OR 205 is the most sublte tangerine I can see from the collection. It is more creamy apricot than tangerine to me. Slightly scary on the tube, but I do think it kinda matches my warmish skin tone...

Pigmentation is surprisingly good for Asian brands, which usually are rather sheer from my experience. The swatch on left was single swipe and the one on right was 2-3 swipes. It offers slight matte finish.

It is slightly scented with orange fragrance, which I don’t fancy. Kinda reminds me of room freshener... But thankfully, the scent is gone really fast after application. I think I can pull this color off! Lookie!

Application was smooth and creamy, rather moisturizing too! sadly, (or gladly?) the vibrant color stays for about 1 hours only...after 1 hour I am left with nude-apricot tinted lips. Too bad the color doesn’t last longer, but hey, I love how it looks on me after ward!

With this... I am going to return to Etude House and haul stronger colors and may be the Sweet Shower Lips too!

In Summary...
Packaging: cute, but light
Color offering: varieties of poppy tangerines
Moisturizing: I give it 4/5
Staying power: vibrant color stays for 1 hours, toned down to more neutral shade after that
Collateral damage: SGD 21.9
Is it worth it?
Yes if... you want to try on the orange-coral trend, you like moisturizing lip colors, you love the cute design
No if... you just hate orange-ish shade, you want stronger tangerine shade (in that case, you might have to try the other color from this collection)

L’oreal Color Riche Nutri Shine in Pink Rose P120

Not so long time ago, I adopted L’oreal Color Riche Nutri Shine in CR101 (swatch here) , which is sheer and shimmery pale coral. I am loving the formula so much, I just have to drop by L’oreal display every time I pass by the drugstore. I need one color of each family...one pink, one red, one beige...

Hey! Stay sane... one baby step at a time... let’s start with Pink, the Coral looks so lonely sitting alone in my drawer...

P120 is sheer pink with soft shimmer. Glides smoothly on my lips, without gritty feeling from the shimmer. The formula and lasting power is similar to CR101. Ahhh ... love...

Red, you better pack your bags, your sisters are waiting in my lipstick drawer :D

In summary...
Packaging: light plastic. I still don’t adore it, but don’t judge a lipstick by its packing, right?
Color offering: 4/5
Price: SGD 19.9
Texture: glides smoothly like lip balm *heart*
Moisturizing: 4/5
Staying power: approx 2 hours with drinks in between
Is it worth it?
Yes if... you like balm that double up as sheer lip color, you love subtle shimmer
No if... you want your lippie to show more pigment.

POP Beauty Eye Shadow Palette in Indie Pop

Another one from POP Beauty! Yay! This time it is Indie themed.

As usual, slim mini palette with 12 shades inside. The palette is made of cardboard with mirror inside. I just love the color combo in this collection... they have pale highlighters, neutral mid tones and pretty liners in olive-black, shimmering navy, dirty teal-green and shimmering plum. I just love the colors...

Cost me SGD 18, and I do think this is worth it. Texture is lovely, pigments are good. Some pale colors blended too well with my skin tone. This really allows me to experiment with colors I normally steer away from like that shimmering plum and matte teal-green! Love...

Available in Sephora Singapore.

In Summary...
Collateral Damage: 18 SGD

Is it worth it?
Yes if... you love small palettes, you want color variations, you adore POP beauty
No if... you want more products in your palette

POP Beauty Bare Texture 3D Eye Shade Kit

This palette offers... 39 colors in one small, okay not-so-small box! YAY! Comes with tiny bottle of Eye Magnet shadow primer too!

See the colors... lovely! I just love the way POP Beauty arranges these shades.... highlight on the left, colors and medium shades on the mid and liner colors on the right! Oh... mattes on top, shimmer in the mid and bottom rows are for the glittery sparkly colors!

Love the texture, soft and pigmentation are pretty good. Some colors seems to blend too well with my skin tone. Anyways... swatch time!!!
Mattes:

Shimmers:

Glitters...

And the eye primer and brush. I don’t like the brush... too plasticky and hard for my liking...

Collateral damage: SGD 48

Available in Sephora Singapore or ASOS.

Love...

Canmake Cream Cheek in Cherry Pink 02 and Marshmallow Pink 08

I love cream cheek formula so much, I got myself not one, but two other colors! Previously I got myself sweet apricot colored blush (swatch here)This Japanese brand offers so many pretty colors...

The packaging is light clear plastic. Pretty cute if you ask me.

Now the colors... Cherry Pink 02 is sheer buildable pink with golden shimmer. The shimmer might be too much for those who prefer subtle shimmer. I can imagine younger girls would adore the shimmer more than those who plan to sport this to the office. The left is unblended, right side is blended.

Here is Marshmalow Pink 08... Cute baby pink with very subtle golden shimmer. Subtler than Cherry Pink when it comes to shimmer. Left swatch was unblended, right side was blended. Now this color... would be subtle enough for office.

The formula is consistent across all colors for Cream Cheek. All are cream-gel which turns to powder upon application. I personally love the formula and texture very much. Very comfortable to wear, doesn’t make my cheek oily.

In summary...
Packaging: cute but simple, light clear plastic
Color variations: 4/5
Price: SGD 19.9
Texture: cream-gel turning powdery upon blending
Staying power: color still vibrant on my cheek by the end of the day 
Is it worth it?
Yes if... you like light cream blush, you like healthy dose of shimmer in your blush
No if... you don’t like dipping your fingers in the pot, you dislike cream blushes

Dolly Wink Eye Shadow Palette in Green Pink 04

This is my second time swatching Dolly Wink’s palette. The colors they offer in the palette are cute, I must admit. Even though I don’t fancy their cream eyeshadow (review and swatch here) and the Blue Orange Palette (swatch here), I just want to swatch and see if this one suits me. Japanese products are just so good inviting me to try and most probably buy their products...

This picture is scanned from Dolly Wink Promo booklet.


The Eye shadow palette comes with a small booklet containing more kawaii promo pictures of Tsubasa herself. Too bad I didn’t end up purchasing this item, so I cant scan it for you to see... But...I do have the swatch...

As with the Blue Orange Palette, Green Pink applies sheer as well. I prefer my shadows more pigmented, and if they are sheer I like them sparkly or at least shimmering. That’s why I don’t end up hauling this palette too...

The ivory is very very sheer but with pale gold shimmer and teeny glitter chunks. The last one (black) is ...well... black, also with tiny chunks of silver glitter. No worries, the glitter is not so overwhelming, the amount is, I believe, still office appropriate. The green and fuchsia-pink are sheer with satin finish. I find the green more sheer than the fuchsia-pink.

In Summary...
Packaging: kawaiiiii
Color offerings: 4 palettes, one neutral browns and the other 3 mix of neutrals and poppy colors
Price: SGD 32.9
Is it worth it?
Yes if... you love kawaii packaging and Tsubasa sooo much, you like the poppy green and fuchsia
No if... you prefer your shadows shimmery or more natural

POP Beauty Eye Palette is Here!!!

Oh...I fell in love with POP beauty since I purchased their Eye Topper mini palette. And today in Sephora Singapore, I discovered these 2 new items:

Indie Pop Eye Shadow Palette

This baby contains 12 pretty colors from pale neturals for highlighting your brow bone, neutrals to darker colors. All in a palette which will fit even the smallest handbag... Oh~ it comes with mirror inside too ...Love....

Shades:
*Deep olive gold liner, popped navy blue liner, deep emerald liner, deep rose liner
*Milky bronze, mocha bronze, sheer apricot, soft rust
*Sheer burnt orange, glimmering white gold, eggshell white, soft lilac

And the other is...POP Texture 3D Eye Shade Kit!

Look at the color collection here.... endless possibilities... I particularly love how POP Beauty arranges the colors in this palette:mattes on top row, shimmers in the middle and glitters on the bottom. Total of 39 COLORS in one single palette! Talking about my dreams finally coming true.... It comes with a tiny bottle of Eye Magnet Primer (1.9gr) too!

When I swatched these babies in Sephora, I love the overall texture of all of the shades. Silky powdery and pigmented the way I liked it.

I purchased Indie POP for SGD 18, slightly more expensive then POP eye topper palette of the similar size I purchased earlier. POP Beauty Texture causes credit card damage of SGD 48.

For those residing outside Singapore, according to Musings of A Muse, POP texture is ASOS (link: us.asos.com )exclusive

Swatch and complete review coming up! *jumping up and down*

EDIT:
I finally swatched Indie Pop (here) and Bare Texture(here)

Eye Shadow Base Comparison: Too Faced Shadow Insurance, Urban Decay Primer Potion Eden, Urban Decay Primer Potion Sin, Urban Decay Primer Potion Original and Canmake Eyeshadow Base (tried with Urban Decay Eye Shadow in Sabbath)

Now now... I never use eye shadow base before... So this is my first time trying to pick one for myself... Overwhelmed by options available for me, I decided to swatch and compare them to each other!

Let’s go to the swatches! Here are Too Faced Shadow Insurance, Urban Decay Eden, Urban Decay Sin, Urban Decay Original and Canmake blended on my hand on top and the bottom are the bases with Urban Decay Sabbath.

This was Sabbath on its own. Sabbath is part of UD’s Black Palette. Deep blue-black with blue shimmers. I like it.

As most of you know, Too Faced Shadow Insurance comes in small squeezeable tube. I find Too Faced’s packaging the easiest to handle. It is pale beige cream which easily blended yielding colorless base with matte finish. After applying Sabbath on top, I don’t see any difference between Sabbath alone vs Sabbath on top of Too Faced.

UD Eden is yellowish beige, after blending it was pretty opaque matte. I am sure this baby can double up as concealer as well...the pigmentation is fantastic! Texture is nice and light as well. Eden makes Sabbath appear deeper... I like the effect it give on Sabbath.

All UD eyeshadow base has same texture, just different finish and pigmentation. UD Sin is pretty pink champagne shimmer-borderline metallic. Pretty good on its own, IMO. As I expected, this one increase the sparkle factor of the shadow!

UD Original is colorless with matte finish. Just like Too Faced, It doesn’t do anything to the color or sparkle of Sabbath.

Before applying the shadow on top, I don’t like Canmake the most. First of all, I have to dip my finger on the pot and Its creamy texture is slightly oily. My eyelids are oily...so I am not sure how this will work on my lids. But on my hand, pigmentation is pretty good, it brightens my skin visibly. I find Canmake strengthen the sparkle factor of Sabbath... I have weak spot for shimmering sparkly stuff...love it!

Soooo... how effective are these eye shadow base? I rub them slightly with dry, clean cotton pad and this was how they looked like...

Sabbath only (without any base) after light rubbing

UD Original and Too Faced loss a bit of the sparkle, but the color intensity remained more or less the same.

Eden was sooo good, it retained the color intensity and sparkle. Whereas Sin’s color faded a little, shimmer was still around though.

Canmake was surprisingly good... Sparkle and color remained similar with before light rubbing.

Prices in Singapore after GST:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance 11gr : 30 SGD
Urban Decay Primers (Original, Sin or Eden) 10mL: 32 SGD
Canmake Eyeshadow Base : 17.9 SGD

I am loving Eden and Sin... simple reason: good coverage and the shimmer in Sin is just lovely. I think I will try Canmake base too... looks interesting. At least if it doesn’t work as base, I can use it as concealer.

UD Original and Too Faced Shadow Insurance would be suitable for those who would like to get the shadow color as it is, not accentuated in any way.

Any previous experience with these brands or other eye shadow bases? Recommend me something here...

The most complicated How To...

Those familiar with Asian drugstore brands might have already noticed this: most eye shadow palette sold with plastic mica envelope, would have simple, easy to use How To diagram to replicate the look. I love these diagrams and find it very useful for novice like me.

The other day I found Cyber Colors catalog and grabbed it. Its a Japanese drugstore brand, but not the kawaii type, this brand exudes more edgy feel.

Now... look at that diagram...

Imagining myself trying to follow that diagram... I just cant.... 6 different colors (without the browbone highlighter) around my typical east Asian eyes... hmm....

Totally... the most complicated How To diagram I have ever seen...

Dolly Wink Eye Shadow Palette in Blue Orange 03

After swatching Dolly Wink’s Cream Eye Shadow (swatch here:), I just have to swatch this powder shadow palette too! The colors are just to poppy to ignore. And of course, the kawaii factor of Tsubasa and the packaging just makes this Japanese drugstore brand sooo hard to ignore.... See what I mean...

That was the scan of promo booklet... so cute!

Now the swatch...

Even though the palette looks strong , these are very sheer and will not give too much poppy color when applied.

The ivory gives slightly pearl finish, but the orange, teal and black are light matte. The texture was just okay, not so extraordinary.

In Summary...
Packaging: kawaiiiii
Color offerings: 4 palettes, one neutral browns and the other 3 mix of neutrals and poppy colors
Price: SGD 32.9
Is it worth it?
Yes if... you love kawaii packaging and Tsubasa sooo much
No if... you want more pigmented colors