FOTD

Since I owe the lovely Jacqueline of My Beauty Hoard an EOTD and an FOTD already, and I have enough willpower left to write this short post, here it is, an "half" FOTD featuring the Chic Palette by Scott Barnes and other new purchases made during my mindless Xmas-New Year shopping spree. (I haven't even dared to count the exact amount of the fortune I've spent so far. Those who follow my Twitter might have catched one of the babies I've bought recently.)  

Not the greatest quality  (sheered out and not sharp enough) as I have no proper natural light in the morning, but this was the closest photo to reality I was able to make.

My hair was a totall mess, so I had to crop a bit heavily =D

I said "half" FOTD becoz, well, only half of my face was presentable hehehehe, quality of the photo is below average and I only used the bronzey gold color from the 3 colors of Chic Platte. Drawn as a line to the hollows of cheeks and blended up and forward to make a kind of 3D effect. I don't like bold blushes on myself, I keep them sheer, focusing only on the "darker line". No highlight was used.

Products used:

Face:

Kanebo Sensai - Fluid Finish Foundation (FF202 Soft Beige) [ only 3 words: OH MY GOD!!!]

pixi - neutralizing coverup kit

Scott Barnes - Pressed Powder (in Petal for setting foundation on T-zone & under the eyes)

Cheeks:

Scott Barnes - Chic Palette (in Brandywine, used the golden shade)

Eyes:

Make Up For Ever - Waterproof Eyebrow Corrector (shade is 0......named blonde or whatever...beats me)

NYX - 10 colors Smokey Eyes palette (neutral brown smudged close to upper&lower lashline....eyeshadows has no individual names)

Holika Holika - Magic Waterproof Deep Eye Eyelinder (black, for tight-lining)

Make Up For Ever - Aqua Smoky Lash mascara 

Essence - Volumizing Lash Powder (Vampire's Love LE, pure fibre)

"mister mascara" - eyelash curler

Lips:

bare lips at the time of taking the photo   

After the stressful work some leisure time...

Just a short post stating I'm still alive and am definitely going to start posting again soon! :)

After a killing period at work I was able to spend some quality time with a good friend of mine, sailing on the Balaton....

*click on it to enlarge....yumm*

And forever-best-Georgina visited HK a while ago and helped me get some things I've been lusting after...

Some of them were part of the hated Sasa order. BTW, Sasa.com deleted my order on their own since I didn't provide the data they wanted...how nice of them.... 

Blogger.com keeps on rotating my pics no matter how many times and with what programs I save the photos in the desired direction...WTF

Anyhow, you can see clearly what's on them, just click:

• MUFE Aqua Smoky Lash mascara 2x
• MUFE Waterproof Eyebrow Corrector (color nr 0)
• Naris Wink Up Maxigrade mascara
• Kiss Me Heroine Make Volume & Curl mascara
• Hada Labo Hyaluronic acid lotion
• extra masks

Now I'm feeling pampered! ^.^  

Thank you again, Georgina! Love ya! <3

Upcoming black friday & MUFE LEs & giveaway to come

I haven't updated for...what....2 weeks now? Have I mentioned I hate work? I don't have enough time to the things I like to do.

Aaaanyway, are you looking for the Black Friday sales? I do! I'm curious about the "amazing deal" Urban Decay hinted about on Facebook! Time is unsure, but US girls should wake up soon on Friday. I'll take my time. =D

Sigma also has something to make us spend our money on their brushes. Free shipping. Internationally! Yess~ Now, that's something I LOVE to hear! =D Since their brushes are said to be good quality and quite reasonably priced I'm thinking about indulging. I'm eyeing a Duo Fibre brush for base makeup and an Angled Top Synthetic Kabuki brush for contouring.

To get free int shipping on 26 November only(!) you need to use the code: BF2010 at checkout.

Just spotted the Rock LE collection of Make Up For Ever on Facebook. Jeeez, I'm spending all my time on FB tending my farms and restaurant....I'm pathetic >.<

Sooooo, there are 5 sets in the Rock collection, but only 3 of them are worth mentioning and they posted nice stock photos of these 3 sets LOL

Love the studded metallic boxes! *.* Let's see them:

Rock For Ever Aqua Eyes: set of 5 Aqua Eyes eyeliner pencils

Colors are: gold (9L), copper (10L), dark grey (21L), matte black (0L), silver (8L)

Rock For Ever Star Powder & Aqua Eyes

Rock For Ever 4 Eyeshadow Palette

Colors are: Diamond Beige, Diamond Black, White Shimmer, Silver Iridescent

The two other sets: Best of: their usual 'best of' in new LE packaging and Stars & Diamond: 2 Mini Star Powders and a Diamond Powder.

Will you be getting anything? The e/s quad is really tempting^^

Last, but not least, I'm thinking about doing a small giveaway....kinda Xmas giveaway. Originally I planned on doing it for my 200th post and even tho it's not that far away, Xmas is almost here and it's my Bday too, so, why not celebrate it? It's sad to see bloggers I love disappear, not posting and commenting anymore, but I try to stick to this blog and maybe build a constant reader base. Hopeful? Nonsense?

I already have 2 things I'm going to include, but the others I'm not sure about....I'll try to pick things I like and find exceptional.

We'll see, details to come later.

FOTD

I tend to come up with pretty lame titles, right? HAHA

You know, I like reading. After Harry Potter (oh yeah, I'm a fan LOL) I took a break..until the Twilight saga. Finishing all four books (in like a week) I craved for more and got hooked on urban fantasy books.

As I'm fed up sitting in front of my laptop staring at .PDF books, I wanted to buy real books. You now, in physical form. It's waaaay more comfortable to hold that sacred paper in your hands!^^

The other day I stumbled upon half.com! OMIGOD! It's like Heaven! I was hauling madly, thinking "okay, there's ground shipping, but at checkout I'll get more summed up for international" For dirt cheap I accumulated tons of books (okay, not tons, but a lot LOL)....

Imagine my horror when I found out it was a US ONLY shop. damndamndamndamn!

Thus, finally, I got myself introduced to parcel/mail forwarding aka concierge services. I visited quite a lot pages, lemming the prices, trustworthiness, look of the page, etc.

I have to say, this service is pricey! Okay, considering how many brands I'd like put on my hands while huge sales, it's still cheaper. But ATM I'm not gonna fork out 40-50 bucks only for shipping....Plus monthly fees, consolidation, sometimes handling fee per package and so on.

Not to mention custom taxes since it's import and these companies ain't write lower amount on the box just becoz I'm asking nicely.

If my complete order is some housand dollars, then I'm likely to pay duty fees too @_@

Until I have a job I won't use this service....

Good news is I'm going to job interviews Tomorrow. To the ministry. Two interviews. And hopefully one job LOL I sooooo want to be the one they choose! T_T

And now, onto today's "no foundation" FOTD:

wow I'm smiling! bwahahahahhaah

Please, excuse my messy hair! ˇ.ˇ

Face:

nothing

noname blush

Eyes:

MAC Patina

Givenchy 9 color eyeshadow

KATE gel liner

MUFE Aqua Smoky Eyes

MAC Studio Finish Concealer

NYX jar Concealer

Essence Eyebrow stylist set

Smudging eyeliner? Here are some tips!

Reading the Lancome blog I realized I should share the knowledge in case you hate smudging eyeliners as much as I do. And I know you do!

I love how Lancome promotes itself among bloggers. What other brands are here? Illamasqua and Benefit. Do you know about others?

But they don't do giveaways, and since I'm such a shallow soul, that's a big minus for them!

But back to the reason I'm typing this.

We all know how annoying it is when eyeliners keep running and travelling down south, and we keep buying ones that promise extreme staying power. Let's say, Make Up For Ever's Aqua Eyes for example. Some swear for it, even buy the whole color collection and some curse it being deceptive.

I belong to the later.

Here is my review of MUFE. See the comments!

Well, I still use it and it still runs on me, but I still prefer it over other liners (okay, not gel liners =D)!

But!

I happened to realise if you set the foundation and/or concealer with a little powder before lining your eyes, it won't smudge! (I'm obsessed over Scott Barnes Loose Powder ATM) If you're ready with lining and all, you can add a bit more powder. I love the forementioned one because it's transparent so it doesn't alter any colors and is totally invisible.....aaaaand.....doesn't set into my fine lines nor does it make my skin look older.

I mentioned Lancome above, right? Well, Aaron de Mey, their MUA shared some tips how to avoid running eyeliners. It's way more complicated than my routine, but he's an expert! Knows his stuff! HEHE

I urge you to go and read the whole article, if you haven't! And then stick with them!

We are like a big family! LOL Good for the brand image! ^.^

Anyhow, I'm copying part of the advice:

"Apply a fine layer of concealer and a light dusting of powder to the under eye area and in dark corners closest to the bridge of the nose. Then apply the pencil in and around the lash line and blend with a soft, small, fluffy brush or the fingertips. Set the edges of the pencil with a lighter/neutral powder shade such as taupe or gray for a graduated/sophisticated look and this will prevent the edges from bleeding/smudging. Alternately, use a powder shadow in a similar or slightly lighter shade of your gloss pencil and apply it around the edges and/or lightly dusted over the pencil to give extra hold and intensity. Or use the Khol Gloss only on lids and use powder shadow under the eyes to shape and design them. This gives a glossy lidded effect whilst looking sophisticated and holding perfectly under the eye."

Hope I could help someone with this post!

Let me know what you think! Have other tips?

My giveaway prize & FOTD & Bourjois swatches

First of all, the book I won arrived Today! YEY! Previously I mentioned that I had won a book giveaway on Aik's blog!

mmmm Can't wait to start reading it! But first I want to finish the one I'm reading ATM.

It's actually a signed copy! And came directly from the author, Dakota Banks!

Thank you miss Banks! ^.^

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As I went out Today for some shopping (and I mean beauty shopping), and dear Sun cooperated, I took some photos of my makeup:

The weather is snowy and it's friggin' freezing outside, so I went for a cold-ish look.

FACE: Skin79 BB cream Diamond Collection Luminous Pearl

            Sofina Primavista Clear Cover Base

            Kevin Beautymaker Magic Foundation Pen

            RMK Liquid foundation

            NYX Concealer in a jar

            MAC Studio Finish Concealer

CHEEKS: Oriflame Giordani Gold Mosaic Splendor Powder

            Oriflame Visions Pearl Shimmer Poder for Face

EYES: I Nuovi metallogy eyeshadows (Champagne and Oxide)

            KATE Gel Eyeliner

            L'Oreal Accord Naturels (for eybrow)

            MUFE Aqua Smokey Eyes

LIPS: MAC Lipglass (Spirited)

Sooo, bought some stuffs at Müller that I'm not showing here as they are presents, and took the chance to swatch a few things.....and I have photos too! wooow My first attempt at swatching in store! LOL The SAs didn't even care about me. Maybe next time I won't be this lucky.

At first I wanted to swatch the eyeshadow quad of Guerlain's spring collection, but it wasn't there. Maybe it's not supposed to be at counters yet? But the plate with with stock photos and all was up, so where was the actual product? o_O

Thus I swatched the new Kiss Kiss glosses, but didn't make notes of the numbers, as it was labeled as new shades. And here at home, checking the Guerlain site I can't find what were those shades....

No, they weren't the pretty lacy Xmas edition ones.

Stupid me! I should have had to write down the numbers! X_X

BUT! I did some work and swatched almost all of the Bourjois Smoky Eyeshadow Trios!

The ones on my hand: Gris Dandy, Mordore Chic, Rose Vintage, Violet romantic, Bleu Rock, Vert Trendy (From top to bottom, left to right):

The colors came out so crappy! And washed out! So sorry! Wish I could show you how the last two trios (Bleu Rock and Vert Trendy) looks in real life!!!!

As I started swatching the first ones, I almost lost all hope that these worthed a penny, but damn! The blue and green trios are so awesome! Never seen anything like them! *____*

I tell you, if you have a chance, go and see for yourself!

I usually restrain myself from this two colors, but daaaamn! I'm so gonna buy these!

Bleu Rock and Vert Trendy have some golden/green/blue sheen to them, under the main color. Think of....uhm butterfly? You know, those exciting, mixing colors on their wings!?

I was mesmerized!

They are ~£7.30 each (dunno the USD) and they well worth the money! At least the blue and green ones do. The other variations were either boring or sheer.

Kanebo KATE Gel Eyeliner vs. Make Up For Ever Aqua Eyes

Well, for a while now I've wanted to do my piece of review on these products, but just never made decent photos while putting up my makeup, so I could show how these perform on my eyes. Well, I have positive and negative point for these two liners.

Let's start with KATE.

Kanebo Kate Gel Eyeliner (BK-1)

The Kanebo Kate Gel Eyeliner is a smooth and easy-to-use eyeliner which is perfect for daily creation of the charming eyes. The black color of such makes the eyes look sharp and natural and super smooth, and it won't smash, fall off or retain winks during the day. Unlike the liquid eyeliner with shape head only, the brush coming with the eyeliner is ideal for drawing different sizes of eyeliners suiting different occassions.

You can buy it for $7 and above...depending on where you get it from.
Wherever you go, you hear only positive things about this product. And I can't say anything bad either! For your money, you get a 2.5g gel in a nice little matte glass jar, and a liner brush.

Some stated this is the best liner brush ever. About this...I have no idea. I used mainly pencils before and some liqiud liners with those tiny, pointy tips. So, all I can say about the brush, it's exellent! Holds hard, so I can draw whatever and however I like, without strays to mess up my work. The wand is okay, no problem there either, handles well. Purely shiny black with only "KATE" written on it.

Before I bought it, made a thorough research, reading every review I could find netwide, so I wouldn't be surprised or worse, disappointed. Thus I knew the amount of product is very little, so the jar would be a small size also. In spite of all, I was still shocked. It's soooo tiny!

See? Compared to my hand it really is small! hehe It looks like it would not last long, but I tell you, you need very little when using, so no need to run and buy a replace for....at least a year. I think. Or more. I don't know. I've been using it for only 2 months and such a small amount is missing that I'm always amazed!

Now, that we've seen the posite, take a look at the negative:

Make Up For Ever 0L ($17)

I wouldn't dare say this is a "negative" eyeliner, but truthfully, compared to Kate this performs less.

These waterproof eyeshadow and eye liner pencils contain a unique formula that adheres to the eyelids and resists water even under the most extreme conditions, without running or fading.

This received a lot of positive feedback, some claimed as a HG, was said to be the utmost waterproof pencil. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed. Although it beats most of my previous eyeliners, if not all of them. I really, really like MUFE, even though it's almost impossible to buy them here. Only way is through ebay, but there are only a few stuffs there and most doesn't ship outside the US. hah! uhm, back to topic.....

I'm sure the endless ravings made me expect Aqua Eyes to be a never-was-before-perfect stuff. Well, it is a long staying, somewhat water resistant liner that finally can be applied on waterlines too! It stays put in the summer heat, but i recommend no rubbing, this is no superglue to held against anything. You know, everything runs on my eyes, thus I never line my waterlines. That's suicide, it'd run down completely in 5 minutes. But with MUFE Aqua Eyes I can finally line there too! YEY It smears a bit only at the inner and outer side of my waterline. But that I can put up with. It doesn't fade either, only in inhuman summer heat, when I'm exposed to fire sunshine and sweat myself away. Behind glasses it's not eays to fight against running eyeliner and mascara.

Above are the swatches of both liners. The thinner line is only one swipe while the thicker/darker is made by several swipes.

The difference is conspicuous. KATE's gel eyeliner is more of a deep black. No wonder the 0L in Aqua Eyes stands for matte black. I prefer pitch black colors. It's more dramatic. hehe

Actually you can make MUFE draw darker lines pressing it a bit ( I swiped lighthandedly), but you might hurry, because it's rather creamy and once it sets, there's no way you can add an extra layer (unless you want to ruin everything).

There's no such problem with the KATE one though.

I haven't tried Aqua Eyes as an eyeshadow yet, but sooner or later I have to see how it holds as an e/s. I doubt it will fail me.


All in all, these are pretty good liners. Kanebo's gel liner is a better deal IMO. I'd say it's slightly better than Make Up For Ever's and for a waaaay cheaper price tag!

In the end, I reach for Kate almost every day, but Aqua Eyes, well I save it for distressed times.

If you happen to buy any of them, Kate Gel Eyeliner comes in 7 colors: blue, green, brown, black, metallic black, golden and silver (last two ones are also metallic shades).

MUFE Aqua Eyes has 25 colors which is impressive...and tempting !=D