Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Etude House Face V-Line Slim Maker

Korean brand, Etude House has launched Face V-Line Slim Maker, Basically a bronzer + highlighter duo in a compact. Look at that pretty lace design on the compact!

Meant to be use to highlight, contour and create 'slimmer' cheeks... therefore the desirable 'V' shape on the name... 

etude.co.kr

Friday, September 26, 2014

Etude House Dear My Wish Lips Talk in PK 001 Dreamed Pink Flirt, PK 002 Pounding First Kiss and BE 101Chic Hollywood Bay

It always feels like Christmas comes early each time I see a box sitting on my desk. This time, I know for sure, the box contains my Dear My Wish Lips Talk. 

I picked PK 001, PK 002 and BE 101. Packaging wise, it is almost similar with the older version of Dear My Lips Talk series (without the 'Wish'). 


Now, let’s start with the color… I do love how all three of  my choices comes out. PK 001 is light medium pink, bright and cheerful. PK 002 is colder, lighter berry shade… I am particularly loving this one… it allows me to wear berry without making me feel old about it. BE 101 is warm nude brown, very pretty too. PK 001 and BE 101 are two of the recommended color from Etude House. All colors I picked are cream with glossy finish.


The texture is super creamy and super pigmented. I started with PK 002, I was pleasantly surprised with the pigment this pretty bullets pack. On my lip swatch over here, I only applied on top of my lips (direct from bullet) then close my lips together to spread out and even out the color. On my hand swatches, they are single swipe direct from bullet. Swiping this lippie feels so nice… so smooth and the slip is just lovely…


 Unlike lighter PK 001 and BE 101, PK 002 stains my arm a bit, even though I used cream make up remover only 1-2 minutes after making swatch. Like any creamy lipstick, it does transfer to my cup super easily too.. . but since the color is so pigmented, the transfer doesn’t affect the color intensity on my lips as much. 

  
Etude House Dear My Wish Lips Talk PK 001


I find the lippie feels light and not drying at all on my lips. Lately my lips has been super dry and I almost always apply honey on my lips to moisturize it a bit. So…. Getting ‘not drying’ statement from me, I do think is a good thing… 

Full luscious color lasts until mid-day, it is pretty much gone after I had my lunch, except light stain around my lips... I suspected this happened because my lips is super dry these days. Until the color is gone, I do think the lippie doesnt dry my lips at all... so, I am super happy about this...




BE101 is a pleasant surprise… the beige adds a bit of life on my pale lips. Like its sisters which I have tried, the color is pigmented and the slip during application is just nice. It is more forgiving than other creamy pale lipcolors I have tried, it doesn’t settle too much in my liplines. The half lip swatch was a single swipe. The full lip swatch was a double swipe.




I’ll update this post/created new post when I’m done trying PK 002 . Sooo excited! Let's hope the other two color packs as much pigment as this one!

Bottomline,
I am so happy with the slip, creaminess and pigmentation here. May be I will be purchasing new colors if Etude House launched new colors. 
I do think this is Etude House's best lipstick formula so far. (Counting out the Color Pop gloss stain hybrid, since it is technically not a lipstick).

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Peripera Wholly Deep Liner Kit – Disney Frozen box

This cute box is part of irresistibly cute release by Peripera with Disney’s Frozen theme. I reviewed Elsa’s lip tint and fell in love, proceed to buy Anna’s lip tint (not yet reviewed). And now, I am going to share with you joy in a box that is Wholly Deep Liner Kit.

It comes with cute tin box featuring Elsa and Anna. Plus… Olaf in the inner lid of the box. I was so thrilled to see Olaf inside ! The box contains 5 mini sized eyeliners. 

The pencil design is typical of more ‘modern’ eye liners, with plastic body instead of wooden pencil. I am loving plastic pencils as the shavings are easier to handle than of wooden pencil. Unfortunately the plastic body of these pencils are white. Therefore it got stained pretty easily… mine got stained already by the time I received it. Probably it does nothing to the quality of the product, but I just don’t like my white pencils spotty…

I love the color selection of the box… I do think it is harmonious, even though the deep maroon (number 4) can be tricky to use. The colors included is matte black (1),  medium-brown with light shimmer (2), purple with slight iridescent shimmer (3), deep maroon with shimmer (4) and clear with ivory shimmer (5). Matte black 1 is the most pigmented of all, iridiscent purple (3) is the least pigmented, if you count out clear shimmery (5).  I am quite happy with all of the pencil’s pigmentation.
hand swatch from 5 to 1 (rightmost). drawn in then tails blended with fingertips
 
Cosmetic issues with the packaging aside, the pencils itself is waterproof and managed to stay put and pristine on my oily lids the whole day. It doesn’t migrate or fade. Removal with eye make up remover or oil remover is recommended, since it really stays there. When I rubbed my eyes a bit, the liner pills… I find this is the case with Etude’s 101 Play pencils too. It doesn’t bother me, since as long as I don’t touch my eyes, it wont create any problem to me.

The packaging box also includes a how to diagram to create an eye look using this pencils. In the beginning I was skeptical if it is possible to create such look with eyeliner pencils. But apparently, it was possible, since the pencils are creamy during application and can be easily blended with fingertips before it sets. Once it sets, it will stay still. It took about 1 minute to set in my case…enough time for me to blend and play around with shadings. 

Bottomline…
Wonderful, cute set. Love the color selection, Love the pencil texture and love the longevity.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Holika Holika Waterdrop Tint Stick in 4 Waterdrop strawberry

Cold refreshing things are what we always need and dream of in summer, right? Unless you are living in a tropical country like me, which in my case, I always need and want and dream of cold refreshing things. Holika holika tried to fulfill this dream for me… I mean, all of us, cosmetic lovers…

Waterdrop tint stick promises fresh colors and tint… super summer appropriate! Of 5 colors, I picked number 4 - Waterdrop strawberry.

The packaging is simple glossy plastic tube with color coordinated shade as the lip color inside. The tube feels kinda light and cheap. 

Waterdrop strawberry is cool toned medium bright pink. Very cheerful. When applied, it does feel like I’m applying water on my lips… refreshing indeed… but not menthol/minty refreshing feel. It has light strawberry bubblegum fragrance when applied, it dissipates quickly after application. And I cant detect any taste too. 

The product however, is a little bit hard to control, especially if you have dry lips like mine… the lip swatches made here is done direct from tube… see how the product tend to clump on dry patches of my lips? But I can easily even the tint up with few swipes and taps with my fingertips. A bit warning though… this lip color stains easily. So, expect pink tinted fingertip.

The nice thing is building color is very easy and the color is transparent, therefore there’s no risk of looking like you are wearing too much lipstick here. 

Staining power of this tint is good. It stays put until the end of the day. It doesn’t dry up my lips. I prefer to top it with a nice moisturizing balm or gloss, since my lips is super dry.

Bottomline…

Nice addition for my summer make up box. Color is cheerful, staying power is good. Too bad the packaging is tad too flimsy for my taste.

Monday, September 8, 2014

Innisfree Creammellow Lipstick

These days korean brand Innisfree is rather quiet... However, to my surprise, they launched Creammellow lipstick line recently! The name sounds yummy... The swatches look interesting too dont you think?  

Pictures from innisfree.co.kr

Etude House Play 101 Pencil in 4, 17, 35 and 38

I was a late adopter in this one… simply because, I thought I have too too much eyeliners. Of course, I was wrong! No one in this world would ever have too much eyeliners… (or lipstick, or shoes, or bags…)


Oh well.. then I said to myself… this one is gonna be value for money, as it promises 101 use! Off I went to order four colors… 4, 17, 35 and 38. Etude House offers way more colors than what I ordered… see it in my previous post here. 


Play 101 is a gel type pencil which promises me vivid colors and various texture. I wont doubt on the various texture part… looking at Etude’s official swatches… there’s tons of colors…  of course… it can be used anywhere too… eyes, lips, cheeks… 


First of all, I love the packaging. The pencils has differently colored ends… corresponding to the colors inside the pencil itself. Making it easier for me picking up the color I wanted. Plus… it has the color number printed in cute fonts on the pencil ends. I am happy to share with you too… that this is a twist up pencil. Easy peasy for someone lazy (and unskilled with sharpeners) like myself… 



Let’s go one by one… 4 is warm off white with oyster glitter. Glitter is quite big and obvious, but not gritty when applied. It is blendable, if you blend it just after you applied it. I can see myself using this often in my bottom lashline to ‘open’ my eyes more. Also in my centre eyelid to create ‘3D’ effect on my daily eye make up. 


Number 17 is a cool magenta-pink with satin finish. No glitter here. The texture is creamy and easy to apply and blend. It sets longer…making it easier to work in the lips and cheek. I cant see how I’m gonna see this as eye color thou… may be as accent color? Nonetheless, the texture is pleasant to work with. The lip swatch below is more close to real life color of Number 17. 

On the lips, the pencil took me some time to get used to. May be because I dont apply lip pencil when I dont really, really need to. The pencil shape gives precise application. the texture itself... the doesnt glide as smoothly as I wanted it to be, and I need to apply it in few layers to get the intensity you see in the third lip swatch (full lip swatch). the partial lip swatch was done in single (but numerous) swipe of the pencil. As you can see, it is opaque. I am actually loving the satin finish of this lip color! not my usual glossy-dewy look... but definitely not drying as most matte lip colors. 

After a few sip of tea the lipcolor got diluted and somehow changed its look to more matte finish. it is not drying nor moisturizing. but since my lips is so dry... I wouldnt be using this too often on its own- most probably I will top it with my favorite gloss or use my preferred balm as base (currently I am crazy about Apivita lip care with propolis). the swatches and this review is based on application without any base or gloss top coat. Fast forward 3 hours later... I got faded thin veil of color. However, the leftover color has the tendency to settle in liplines... making it rather unsightly.

As blush... 


Number 35 is dark navy with subtle navy shimmer. Reminds me of my favorite MAC inky liquid eyeliner from yesteryear….  It is intense with single swipe. As you can see in the swatch, it is easily blended too, but you have to work as soon as you apply it… else it will appear patchy. This color is less forgiving than number 4 when it comes to late blending. 


Number 38 is pretty dark cool dark moss. Texture wise and blendability is pretty much similar to number  35. however, I found 38 to apply more patchy then the smooth-and-evenly-applied navy 35.

Number 35 and 38 stays the whole day (that's 9 to 5) without smudging or migrating or fading.... as long as I dont rub my eyes. When I did rub my eyes, the color will somehow pilled... peeled a bit and formed tiny balls. However, it didnt removes fully, some faded color will still be left on my lids ...plus the leftover pigment which didnt pilled when I rubbed my eyes.  So... as long as you dont rub your eyes, your line will stay nice and pristine until the end of the day.


Now comes the removal part… simple cream make up remover wont do it for this one. You definitely need eye-lips make up remover at least. I reckon oil remover works best. Number 4 is the first to go after some massaging with cream make up remover.  Number 17 stained my skin a bit. More gentle rub help to removed number 35 and 38. But I cant imagine doing this kind of rubbing on my face …more on my eye area… the horror! 

Bottomline...
I am loving the concept and the execution of Play 101 pencils. So far, Number 4, 17 and 35 is a win. 38 is a bit too patchy for me to love it as much i love its sisters... But... I wont generalize opinion based on this limited review alone, as each color promises different finish and intensity.