Shiseido Integrate Melty Your Heart eyeshadow duo No. 1

Integrate is a brand from Shiseido. This cutie is from their 2014 fall collection called Love Sniper. In the past I loved their Pure Big Eyes palette, I am curious if I like their duo too. 

http://www.shiseido.co.jp/ie/point/

Integrate offers eye shadow in gel cream texture (pink) and shade fit powder (brown) to aid the color stay put and not faded. according to their test, it lasts 10 hours! I am interested! 

As usual, integrate website offers diagram to advise how to apply the shadow. Right now they offer 5 color combinations, No. 1 is limited edition. 

The eyeshadow is housed in plastic tub with plastic lid over the powder shadow. both colors has satin finish with minimal shimmer. Not the most pigmented colors, but they are a pretty combination nonetheless. the pink is cooler baby pink while brown has a tinge of plum.

The pink is buttery and glides easily. Brown shade is not as powdery as I originally imagined it to be, it is rather well packed yet smooth to touch and easy to apply. it just sticks nicely when applied over the pink gel.

On my eyes, I didnt follow the Integrate diagram. I used Dolly Wink liquid eyeliner, then applied Melty Your Heart eyeshadow duo on top. I applied a bit of Make Essence Face Powder on my browbone. 

well, as you can see... pigmentation is not the forte of this duo. but, it does stay put! the sheer pink and brown stays up to 9 hours on my oily lids.

Bottomline, 
if you want sheer, office friendly duos with lasting power. this is suitable for you!

Majolica Majorca Cream de Cheek Kiichigo Cream Blush in RD 411

Cream de Cheek is part of Majolica Majorca Autumn Winter 2012 launch titled Circus Ecstasy.  This collection contains liquid blush Cream de Cheek, nail polish, new perfume, liquid eyeliner Trick On Liner and hand cream. Of all, I am only interested with the liquid blush.

Majolica Majorca is Japanese drugstore brand from Shiseido. They always come up with pretty seasonal stuff. I have been in love with most of their products...good quality, buttery eye shadow, well pigmented powder blushes and all...

As usual, the packaging is pretty- frosted glass bottle with black cap and golden MJ logo on top. Lovely. It reminds me of nail polish! The brush style is just like nail polish too!

RD 411 is creamy warm red which applies sheer and lovely. It makes my cheek glows nicely – like baby cheek!

The consistency is similar with nailpolish too… minus the nail polish-y smell. Little goes a long way here… a single dot is enough to make my cheek blush nicely. Even though it is well pigmented, Cream de Cheek is easily blended.

Bottomline,

Lovely liquid blush! Pigmented and easy to blend. Just how I want my liquid blush to be! Too bad they don’t come with more colors.

(pictures from shiseido.co.jp/mj/)

Pantone Color of The Year 2013 - Emerald

After 2012’s highly successful Tangerine Tango, Pantone has announced 2013 color of the year… Emerald!

I personally find Emerald super easy to work with… it is cheerful enough for spring/summer outfit and makes you get noticed during grey cooler months. To tone it down, pair up with beige or navy. When I feel like adding splash of color, I pair my emerald with a little sunflower. Emerald is one of those versatile colors which make both silver and gold jewelries pop equally.

In my beauty beauty & make up universe, I loved a little emerald eye liner in rotation with my staple jet black – like Urban Decay 24/7 Eye Pencil in Covet. Or, apply little green eye shadows from Lancome’s Color Design 5 Palette in Vert Tendresse.

My personal Asian drugstore pick would be Kanebo Kate’s Eye Blend Zone Eye Shadow palette in GN-1 and Majolica Majorca Jeweling Eyes palette in GR 780.

Nails… ah… there are thousands, if not millions, of gorgeous emeralds out there- in variety of finish too! Like China Glaze Exotic Encounter if you like crème or China Glaze Deviantly Daring for duochrome lovers.  

So, are you going to embrace emerald next year?

(pictures from pantone.com, Sephora.com, chinaglaze.com, adambeauty.com, shiseido.co.jp/mj, head2toebeauty.com). 

Ma Cherie Hair Oil

I love hair oil waaaayyy too much. I have a lot, yet I keep on buying more. This time I grabbed one from Shiseido’s Ma Cherie. I tried their hair milk and straight wax before, and am quite happy with the results.

Ma Cherie says this hair oil will provide deep penetrating nourishment to your hair. They also promises light texture. It will protect hair from heat styling and UV rays. Two of the star ingredients are Champagne royal jelly extract to repair damaged cuticle inside out and hydroxyethyl urea and inositol to enhance gloss and shine, plus making hair soft to touch. And as with all Ma Cherie product, the fragrance promises protection against odors and cigarette smell.

This hair oil is colorless and feels very light-almost watery, with light fruity floral fragrance that’s present in all Ma Cherie products. It does feel a little silicone-y, even though the ingredients list doesn’t mention various silicone based stuff. But then again, we never know the proportion of each ingredient from the ingredient list.

Ingredients: c 13-14 isoparaffin, dimethicone, olea europeaea fruit oil, hydrogenated polyisobutene, poly silicone-13, triethylhexanoin, amp-isostearoyl, wheat/corn/soy amino acids, bis-ethyl-hexyloxyphenol methoxyphenyl triazine, royal jelly extract, wine extract, ehtylhexyl methoxycinnamate, isostearic acid, alcohol, water, tocopherol, butylene glycol, bht, fragrance, red 17, green 6.

This product is a pleasure to use. Single pump might appear and feel too much in the beginning, but it does get absorbed easily. It doesn’t weigh my hair at all or make it appear oily. It just adds softness and shine and reduce tangles on my hair ends. This might be the perfect hair oil for those with normal or softer hair. for me, I would want my hair oil to give a little moisture to my split ends.

Nowadays I’m using it to complement my regular Vrai oil, just after I towel dried my hair.

Bottomline,

Pleasant to use, light hair oil. It adds softness and shine, but doesn’t weigh down my hair. might be a perfect hair oil for those with finer or normal hair. Personally I wont repurchase, as I would want my hair oil to supply more moisture to my fried our hair ends. 

Shiseido Integrate Pure Big Eyes in GR777

This palette is part of summer 2012 release from Shiseido’s Integrate brand. I cant deny that the reason why I got this is the cutesy clover shaped palette…

There’s 9 palettes available with one of them being limited edition. I picked up GR777: a combination of shimmery beige pearl, light shimmery copper, soft forest green and warm brown liner + silvery shimmer powder.

Just like every Japanese drugstore brand palette I’ve purchased, this comes with simple how-to diagram.

I am very happy with the pigmentation, even though they are not exactly pigment bombs. All of the colors shows up nicely on my skin. Very suitable for daily office friendly looks. I find the liner being more pigmented compared to other Japanese drugstore palettes I owned. Unfortunately, the color does fade a little along the day. With no primer, I don’t experience major fallout- but with the shimmer powder on, it does fall a bit.

Bottomline,

I think it is worth is price if you are looking for daily palette that’s easy to use and blend. But for a collector, the colors might be repetitive.

Seabreeze UV Cut & Jelly in Crush Berry SPF 25 PA++

I have owned this bottle for a while. Amazing how I never thought of making a review on it… this week have been a UV protection-sunblock week for me. I posted my thoughts on Nivea’s smooth milk, Fasio’s airy shield, SuhadaFit’s Baby milk.

Seabreeze is UV protection line from Shiseido. This brand offers variety of fragranced products aimed at younger audience. This Seabreeze UV cut & jelly is available in 4 fragrances: soapy, apple, citrus and berry. I got myself the crush berry from Sasa Taipei.  

It is packaged in nozzle tipped plastic bottle, just like most Japanese UV milks. From the size of the content (60ml) I do think this is aimed at may be face and body too. It is a thin milky gel with sweet-berry candy fragrance with a hint of mint. Like most gel, it gives cooling sensation when applied; the fragrance is quite strong compared to other UV milks I have tried, but not as strong as fragranced body lotions.

It gets absorbed easily and definitely didn’t leave any white cast on my skin.

I do think Seabreeze UV cut & Jelly to be more suitable for body, for simple reason.. the minty sensation might be too much for face’s skin. It is very mild on me, but I can imagine it irritates some people with more sensitive skin.

This has been a buddy in my beach bag. While I don’t think it is water resistant, I like the cooling sensation when I applied it under burning tropical sun. too bad it only comes in SPF 25.

Bottomline,

I do think I will buy this again for my travelling bag. It is refreshing and light for travels.

Ma Cherie Straight Care Wax

Ma Cherie is brand from Shiseido, a Japanese cosmetic giant. I am loving Ma Cherie for their cute pink packaging, refreshing light scent and the gimmicky bad-smell absorbing formula. I don’t know if this really work, but hey…It sounds good! Especially if you work around smokers or smokey kitchen a lot!

This time I purchased Straight Care Wax from Sasa shop in Taipei. Like some waxes from other Japanese brands, this baby comes in tin tub. Of course, in baby pink! I adore this whole wax in tin thing, but after a while it gets annoying. While it is pretty presentation, the tin got dented easily during shipping or in my suitcase! And sometime, the product got to the side of the tin lid. I just don’t like how it looks.

Ahem, back to the wax… scented with Ma Cherie signature scent, this looks more like glossy semi translucent gel than wax. I can imagine putting it on a tiny plate and looking at the glob while thinking it is a lychee flavored jell-o. don’t do this at home, people, this wax is not for eating.

The wax is definitely moisturizing and makes my hair look more glossy. But it provides zero hold. It does help tame flyaways, but not more than that.

When I applied it prior to flat ironing, it helps keeping my hair to look more healthy…less fried. But unlike treatment wax from Kose’s Salon Style, Ma Cherie Wax feels more silicone-y. and yes, it does contain a few silicone based ingredients.

Bottomline,

While I adore Ma Cherie’s scent, I don’t fancy the too silicone-y feel of this wax. I prefer Salon Style’s. So, no repurchase for this baby.

Shiseido Ma Cherie End Cure Milk

Japanese giant Shiseido certainly has specialized brand for every single beauty lover! This line, called Ma Cherie, is hair care range with lovely and fresh light fragrance. Totally caught my eye because of.... the pinky winky pretty sweetie bottle design! ha!

End cure milk is pretty much a non-wash conditioner. light lotion -textured and lightly fragranced. this baby got absorbed easily to my ultra dry-super processed hair.

I used it before and after my daily flat-ironing, and I find the product helps keep my hair feel softer all day long. The fragrance is gone by the time I massaged the milk in my hair.

Bottomline,
helpful addition in my haircare box, but not essential. I can replicate the result with other more readily available products.

I got mine in Sasa Taiwan.

Shieseido Fine Toiletry Perfect Oil

Since I found oil cleansers, I cant live without them! This is true. The principal is, you clean and lift up oil with oil, since oil in make up and our natural oil will dissolve better in oil. Just try one of those cleansing oils if you dont believe me!

And I love trying new products too. Beside my favorite FANCL cleansing oil, I always have at least a bottle of cleansing oil from other brand. This time, I picked up Shiseido's Fine Toiletry Cleansing Oil.

Standard packaging here, clear plastic pump bottle to dispense just the right amount of oil. Massage in your face, then rinse with water to emulsify and cleanse...not with cotton pads.

The oil here is light and clear, I couldnt detect any fragrance too. Usually I first test oils on back of my hand, to cleanse Urban Decay eye liners. It worked nicely! Then the ultimate test... to clean my favorite bulletproof MAC liquidlast eyeliner... and... it worked! YAY! No residue at all, no tugging involved.

This is certainly going to be my favorite oil cleanser. With economical price (USD 11.5 from adambeauty.com), I am surely going to repurchase this one.