Thursday 24 March 2016

Colourpop's Lumiere vs Lumiere 2 Comparison!

Hello there!
The post I have for y'all today is a little comparison of Colourpop's Lippie Stix in Lumiere vs it's liquid lipstick sister, Lumiere 2! These two shades were created by my queen, KathleenLights on YouTube and I love them both! These are supposed to be really similar to each other colour-wise, but I think they're completely different. And that's not a bad thing at all, I'm glad they are!

Lumiere is a Lippie Stix, which is just a regular lipstick, with a comfortable matte finish. It's a beautiful purply, pink-y mauve and I think it's so flattering for a lot of different skin tones!

Lumiere 2, on the other hand, is a darker, more purple Ultra Matte Lip that dries down to a completely matte finish. If you're familiar with the Colourpop liquid lipsticks, you'll know that they have quite a thin formula and they can be drying, which a lot of people don't like about them. Buuuut, I find that Lumiere 2 is wayyyyy thicker and creamier than the Ultra Matte Lips I own from before, so I'm thinking that Colourpop might have improved the formula. It feels better on the lips too!

Here are the swatches (excuse my horrific camera quality, I'm working on getting an actual camera to take pictures instead of using my phone!):


As you can see, Lumiere 2 is a lot darker and has more purple in it than the original Lumiere does. Love them both though! 

What do you guys think? Do you own one or both of the shades? And how do you think they compare? Let me know in the comments!

Goodbye for now ~

Saturday 16 January 2016

REVIEW: Maybelline Pure Mineral Concealer



Hey there,
So today I thought I would write up this review of the Maybelline Pure Mineral Concealer that you can find at pretty much any pharmacy here. It's available in two shades, 01 (lightest shade) and 02 (darkest shade):


Left: 02, Right: 01

As you can see 02 is an almost perfect match to my skin tone, whereas 01 is way lighter. I can use 01 as an overall face highlight or undereye concealer only.

Pros
-This concealer is very easily accessible, you can find it in most pharmacies like Watsons or Guardian. Also, its cheap!
-In terms of the texture, the concealer is nice and creamy, and it blends easily and nicely into the skin. 
-I feel like the coverage is pretty damn good, and it can cover up all my acne scars very well. 
-The finish of the concealer is not 100% matte, but it's a very natural finish which I like a lot. 
-It doesn't have any scent to it, which is good too. 
-The wear time on this is great, it will stay on your face all day if you set it with a powder like I do. I have quite oily skin and I wear this to class everyday, and it's still working it's magic when I come back in the evening!

The concealer blended. You can't even tell I have anything on my hand!

Cons:
-This concealer will crease if you don't set it pretty quick, but I guess that's normal for most concealers.
-Also, I feel like this will emphasise any dry patches you might have on your face, so stay away if you have dry skin.


So in conclusion (if you couldn't tell by the way this review is going), I reallyyyyy like this concealer. I've been using it for around a year and it hasn't failed me yet. It's a good match for my skin, I like how it feels and how it blends, it's affordable, and most importantly, it actually covers! Love it, and will definitely recommend it.

You can find this concealer at any Watsons or Guardian pharmacies near you, or online here or here. It's normal price is RM21 which is cheap already, but I always find it on sale for RM15-17!

Thanks for reading!

Wednesday 13 January 2016

Mitsui Outlet Experience + Sasa Haul & Mini Reviews!


Heylooo there,

So the other day me and my family went to Mitsui Outlet Park near KLIA because it was my mom's birthday and she wanted a little shopping treat for herself, so we drove all the way there (which took around 40 minutes).

It was my first time there so I was excited because I keep hearing people say how cheap the things are! The place was bigger than I expected and there were quite a few stores in there, ranging from clothes, shoes and kids stuff to kitchenware, makeup and fragrances, etc etc. One thing I was a little disappointed by was the not-so-good selection of places to eat. Hopefully they'll open more restaurants in the future.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the place so I can't show you, but it was alright, it looked like any other mall to be honest. Now I had heard that there was a store there selling cheap Mac and Bobbi Brown products and stuff like that, so I hunted around and found it. It was called the Company Cosmetics Store, and they had a few higher end brands in there that were selling for cheaper than retail. They had some limited edition Mac products in there, like a couple of things from the Toledo collection and a selection of eyeshadows from the Wash and Dry collection. They also had a bunch of Paint Pots, single eyeshadows, Cremesheen lipsticks, foundations, etc. But, me being a broke college student I can't afford any of those, even after the discount, so I left the store empty handed.

Next stop was Sasa! Now this was a store that I could actually afford to buy stuff in lmao. They had a loooooot of sheet masks in there, a bunch of skincare products and nail polish, and the makeup section wasn't too shabby. Not to mention that all the things there were cheap! I found a little table full of products by The Balm and got excited, but a lot of those products were opened, swatched, dirty, broken, and generally gross so I mostly stayed away. I did, however, grab their Overshadow in the shade Work Is Overrated. This retailed for RM59, but I got it for RM20! But as you can see by the packaging, the colours are faded on the box and this expires in 7 months time, so it must be pretty old.



But nevertheless, it's still a beautiful taupe-y silver colour with multicoloured glitter in it. These Overshadows were meant to be eyeshadow toppers, so you're supposed to put them on top of any eyeshadow you already have on to add that extra bit of glitter and shimmer. Here's this swatched so you can see what I'm talking about:



The left swatch is without a base, and the right one is over a black base. The left picture is in direct light whereas the right picture is not. (Can you tell I'm in a bathroom? lol)The colour shows up a lot better over the black base than it does on it's own. To be honest if you put it on on it's own, you'll only be able to see bits of glitter and not much colour to it at all. Also, as you can see from the two pictures in direct light the Overshadow appears almost opaque, but when its not then you almost can't see it at all. 


Here's a macro shot of the glitter. As you can see, its mostly a taupe-y silver base, with green, purple and silver reflecting glitter. Super pretty!

Next up are some sheet masks! I obviously had to grab some because they were 4 for RM10 so helloooo, I ain't stupid enough to pass up on that deal. I grabbed these 4:


I grabbed the Aloe and Cucumber Essence Mask from Skinlite, the Pearl Facial Mask from Sasa's house brand Sasatinnie, and also a Green Caviar Hydrating Face Mask from Sasatinnie as well. 

Since I've tried 3 out of the 4 I got, I can give y'all some little reviews so you know which to get and which to skip. 

1. Aloe Essence Mask from Skinlite
This is the first one I tried and all I can say is it was aite. The texture of the liquid inside was nice, it wasn't too runny or too thick, so it sat nicely on my skin. If I'm not mistaken it had a pleasant, skin care-y sort of smell to it so that wasn't bad. All-in-all, it was okay. I'm not wowed by it, it didn't particularly hydrate my skin or anything, it was just okay.

2. Pearl Facial Mask by Sasatinnie
This one tho. SKIP THIS. The liquid on the mask was soooooo runny, it was literally dripping off my chin. And all the product from the top of the mask near my forehead would flow downwards because it was so runny and drip off, resulting in the upper part of the mask not being as wet as the lower half which sucked. Also, the scent! It had a really strong scent, kinda like Arabian oud which I did. not. like. at. all. There were no changes at all to my skin, no hydration, nothing. The liquid kinda just disappeared when I took the mask off, unlike some other masks where the liquid would kinda act like a moisturiser and sit on your skin which I liked. Also, the shape of the mask made it really hard to stay on my skin and it kept trying to slide off. DO NOT BUY THIS ONE. 

3. Green Caviar Hydrating Face Mask by Sasatinnie
On the opposite end of the scale, this mask I LOVED. The product on the mask felt super rich and gooey and moisturising, the shape and cutting of the mask made it really comfortable and it stuck very well to my face. It doesn't have a scent which I don't mind at all. The only negative thing I have to say about it was that when I put it on it kind of irritated my face and stung a little? But that could have been my own skin's fault for being dry. But! What I also love about this one is the fact that it makes my skin feel amazing after taking it off! I massaged the excess product into my skin after taking the mask off, and it feels really nice and absorbs well. My skin feels sooooo soft and smooth and moisturised, its amazing. I would definitely, definitely repurchase this one!


So the last things I picked up were nail polishes! I got a couple Sally Hansen nail polishes, they were 50% off the prices shown below so they were RM7-8 a pop! The colour selection was enormous, there was a whole table to dig through of different brands and colours. I picked up the two below, both of which are stunning and I could not resist getting them.


The one on the left is in the shade Pacific Blue and on the right is Emerald City. But of course, the downside was that these are really old and are gonna expire this year, but to be honest I don't really mind. 

I put on Emerald City and I am so freaking obsessed with how gorgeous this colour is!


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So this concludes this haul. Overall, I'm quite happy with what I got this time around, and I would definitely repurchase a couple of these things! So if you haven't been to Mitsui Outlet Park you should definitely check out the Sasa in there for cheapy items, you won't regret it ;) Thanks for reading!

Monday 23 November 2015

REVIEW: Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipsticks!





Hello there!
A week or so back, dollskill.com was having a one-day only free worldwide shipping promo on their website, so OBVIOUSLY I had to jump in and get some stuff! Their international shipping usually costs around $30 which is ridiculously expensive if I were to just buy one or two items >.<

I knew that they carried Jeffree Star Cosmetics, so those were the only things I was bothering to look at in their store (unless I'm secretly interested in getting nipple stickers or marijuana-print socks, you never know). The liquid lipsticks were USD$18 each, and since shipping was free that made them around RM80 each, which was a bargain! Instagram shops and Carousell sellers usually had them for around RM90-100 a pop, so that was what I told myself to justify this expensive purchase hehe

So initially I only wanted to purchase one lipstick, because obviously i'm a broke-ass student and I can't afford to buy more than one without having to starve myself until my next allowance comes in (for point of reference, the price of one Jeffree Star liquid lipstick can comfortably pay for my meals for a week 😬). Also spending 80 bucks on a lipstick was going into my personal book of records as my most expensive makeup purchase ever. Buttttt I was undecided between Celebrity Skin and Doll Parts and put both in my cart, and ended up accidentally getting both. Oops. No ragrets

Anyway, here are the beautiful, beautiful lipsticks:


Left: Celebrity Skin, Right: Doll Parts
Without flash. Top- Celebrity Skin, bottom- Doll Parts
With flash

Okay first of all, these colours are TO DIE FOR PRETTY. I love them. Doll Parts is like a dusty, darker version of a Barbie pink. I was initially a little hesitant to get Doll Parts because based on swatches I saw online, it looked like it would show up pretty bright on tanner skin like mine, and it does. I mean, it isn't obnoxiously bright or anything, just brighter than what I'm used to wearing, but I can still werk it 💁🏻 Another reason why I almost didn't get it was because its online swatches looked really similar to Colourpop's Clueless liquid lipstick, which I already owned. But upon comparing them irl, they are definitely way different. I love it so much more than I thought I would. 

And do I even have to talk about Celebrity Skin? It's a cult favourite for a reason. It's a beautiful warm brown nude that will suit sooooo many different skin tones, including mine. I can definitely see myself reaching for this a whole lot in the future. 

The formula of these remind me a lot of Colourpop's Ultra Matte Lips in terms of consistency. But how they sit on your lips is definitely different than CP's. These are more comfortable, and I don't mind these so much because I tend to forget I even have them on. These didn't dry completely matte on me, they stayed a wee bit tacky but I liked that. I'm not much of a fan of matte lipsticks in general tbh, and after wearing these for a few hours my lips would start to feel a bit dry and crackly, but then again it happens with every lipstick I wear so it's not much of an issue.



So, was this worth spending most of my monthly allowance on? The answer is definitely yes. Would I purchase more in the future? Yes, but only if I get as good a deal as I did this time (and also when Androgyny comes back in stock). I would definitely recommend y'all snap these up, especially Doll Parts because it's a limited edition holiday colour and once it sells out, it ain't ever coming back. So my verdict? 8 out of 10 lipstick emojis 💄

Listening to: pre-2012 Justin Bieber and life has never been better

Sunday 12 July 2015

REVIEW: Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge

Hey guys,
What I have for y'all today is a little review on this here sponge from Real Techniques. I read reviews that this was an amazing sponge and everyone needs it in their lives etc etc, so I decided to go out and purchase it to see what all the fuss was about. Read on for the review...





Okay so I think the reason why this sponge is so well-known is because apparently, it's a really good dupe for the Beauty Blender. But since I don't own a Beauty Blender and I never will because I would never pay that much money for a sponge, I decided to give this one a try instead. Here's what it looks like:


It's orange, and it's got a pointed bit at the top and a flat bit at the other end, which I think is pretty useful when putting on foundation or concealer on certain areas of your face. The sponge is pretty small initially, but after soaking it in some water it expands quite a bit and gets so much softer and spongier.

Before adding water

After the h2o magic

So to test this out, I put a little bit of my foundation on the back of my hand and used the Miracle Complexion sponge to blend it into my skin. And I have to say, I actually love the finish it gives! It looks super natural and like my actual skin, which is what I want my face to look like, not like I'm wearing a foundation mask (oh the horror)

Before blending

After (!!!!!)
Honestly, you can't even tell there's any foundation there at all.

So there are a couple different ways to blend out stuff with this sponge, either by just dragging the sponge around your face to blend foundation or by dabbing it onto certain areas that you wish, for better coverage. By dragging, the sponge sheers out your foundation, so even full coverage foundations won't look THAT full coverage. And that's not good to cover up all dem acne on my face, so what I do is drag it around first to make a nice base for my face and even out redness, then I would dab the sponge onto the areas of my face that need the most coverage, and it works pretty well that way.

You can also use this sponge to apply cream products like cream blushes, contour, highlight, pretty much anything that you want tbh

So all in all, I am very happy with this sponge and I can no longer live without it. It's become a staple to my daily makeup routine and I am very glad that I decided to give it a shot. So bottom line is: I love it and I think everyone should give this a try, especially because it really is very inexpensive compared to the Beauty Blender. So if you're like me and you're a cheapskate who can't afford to fork out $$$ for a high-end sponge, settle for this instead and you'll get results just as good. Check out this product on Real Techniques' website here. Until next time...

Wednesday 24 June 2015

REVIEW + SWATCHES: NYX Butter Glosses

Hey guys,

So recently I ordered these 4 Nyx Butter Glosses:



These were my first NYX products everrrr and it's crazy that it took me this long to try them out seeing as they have an incredible amount of hype around their products!



I got four glosses, in the shades Creme Brûlée (which is a pinky nude), Red Velvet (obviously, a bright red), Merengue (a light purply-pink), and Peaches and Cream (which is a bright ass peachy pink).




These glosses have a doe foot applicator like in the picture below, which gives you a good amount of product, not too much or too little.


Okay, first thing about these glosses is the smell! They smell absolutely incredible, like vanilla cake batter and I have to hold myself back from licking it all off my lips haha they smell so good. These glosses are decently pigmented, I find that the most pigmented one is Red Velvet where I would only need one swipe for a ton of colour. Red Velvet is the only gloss in the swatches below where I only did one swipe on my hand, the rest needed 2-3 swipes to show up that much on my skin. They are smooth and really glossy, but they don't feel uncomfortable on the lips which is awesome.



My favourite colour out of the bunch is Creme Brûlée, because its super wearable, its such a pretty nude colour that I can wear with any outfit or look. Unfortunately it doesn't show up much if I wear it alone on my lips (because my lips have a dark pigmentation), so I would have to wear a lipliner or lipstick beneath it. Same goes to Merengue, because my lips are dark it doesn't show up so well which is sad.

 I ordered these off of cherryculture.com because they were having like a crazy sale and these were only $1.50 USD each (but last time I checked, they stopped selling those and now they're upgrading their website, so check back often to see when they're reopening!). But these retail for $6 I think, and in Malaysia it's something around RM25 at Sephora (I can't remember the exact price though so don't quote me on that)

So all-in-all, I love these glosses for adding a touch of colour and gloss to my lips, I love the colours and the smell, so I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to try these out.


Saturday 6 June 2015

MOVIE REVIEW: Mad Max: Fury Road

Hey guys,
So yesterday I fiNALLY went to the cinema to watch Mad Max: Fury Road, which I was looking forward to for so long because every single person who's watched it said that it was incredible, amazing, etc., etc. Do I agree with them, or did I think the movie was a load of shite? Read on to find out...


The movie is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, where the dry, hot desert is home to thousands of people, thirsty and desperate, given up on hope of a better life. Who would control their water supply but their nasty leader, Immortan Joe, who, besides looking like a Halloween costume gone wrong, is self-absorbed and pretty possessive over his numerous wives. Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron, smuggles his five wives away on a mission to get to 'The Green Place', where they envision nature, greenery, and freedom. Once Immortan Joe discovers his missing wives, him, along with hundreds of his evil cronies, set out on their crazy awesome cars, bikes, and monster trucks, to hunt Furiosa down and bring his wives back. Mad Max (Tom Hardy a.k.a. bae) somehow gets involved in the process and helps Furiosa and the others escape from the evil clutches of Immortan Joe, along with Nux (Nicholas Hoult, also bae), one of Joe's ex-henchmen-turned-good, in hopes of them leading a better life away from the toxic wasteland they've been calling home. 

First off, I LOVE THIS MOVIE. The action and special effects are incredible, I couldn't get enough. I was literally so hyped up when watching this, my heart was racing. The desert setting was desolate and beautiful, perfect as a background to this story (that one part with the dust storm was breathtaking). The accompanying music was really cool, it goes perfectly with whatever was happening onscreen at the time, especially during the more high-octane action parts (also, the fucking guitar maestro strapped up to his wall of speakers and non-stop playing metal riffs that would've blown your brains out of your skull if you were there in front of him? Need I say more?)

Besides the fact that both Tom Hardy and Nicholas Hoult were in this (infinite heart eyes), the star of the show was, for sure, Charlize Theron as Furiosa. Like seriously, she pulled off her character amazingly well. She was brave, strong, intelligent, and bad-fucking-ass. Tbh Max felt more of like a supporting character, and Furiosa was basically running the show here. The wives, too, were awesome in their respective roles, not to mention freaking stuNNING. Seriously, they were all so pretty I could die. 

I can't recall watching this good of an action movie in recent memory, so if you're into action/adventure/fire/explosions/etc, I would definitely recommend checking this one out. I'd give this one a 9/10. LOVED IT

Until the next one,
Alani