Gift Review: Hadanomy and K-Palette

How is everyone doing? I hope that all of you are enjoying your holiday season. I am surprising myself with a blog post since all my family is here for the holidays. The little one keeps us busy as we try to keep him busy but finally have a break and am home alone!

I wanted to share with you a couple of products that my son, daughter-in-law and grandson brought from Japan for me. One was part of my Christmas gift, the other was requested by me. Sana Hadanomy Aquaplacenta Esthefoam and K-Palette 1 Day Tattoo Real Lasting Eyeliner.

Sana Hadanomy Aquaplacenta Esthefoam

What is Aquaplacenta? Well, while it does sound rather distasteful, it doesn't come from any human or animal placenta. It is aqua placenta which is from Hokkaido Salmon. It is salmon ovary peptide, an enzyme also known as SOP. It is felt that marine or aqua placenta is safer since animals are more prone to diseases. It is also thought that the benefits of SOP is that it is hydrating, anti aging, skin lightening as well as helps to lighten freckles and age spots, is anti wrinkle and has lifting properties. It also helps to heal dry damaged skin.

From what my daughter-in-law told me, this is very popular in Japan right now. It is a carbonated foam face wash and it can remove makeup, cleanse your face and also gives the effect of a facial massage and moisturizing mask by washing your face for 30 seconds or more.

It comes with a dispenser that is very similar to shaving cream and even the foam that comes out reminds me of shaving cream.

It comes out nice and airy but does lather up rather nicely.

It felt really nice while washing my face and I did have a sense of the carbonation in it. Rather than it feeling fizzy, it had a cooling sensation. I don't know if anybody else did this as a child but I used to love to put my face close to the cup right after pouring soda into it just to feel the fizz popping. It had that kind of cooling sensation. After washing, my skin felt nicely hydrated and not tight at all. I do think that it seemed a bit brighter and smoother. I really like this face wash although I do think that it might be difficult to purchase here. Honestly, I still like the Naive cleansers that I am using although this does come very close.

K-Palette 1 Day Tattoo Real Lasting Eyeliner

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know that K-Palette is my HG eyeliner. So why am I blogging about this? I had noticed recently that there is brown eyeliner available in Japan. I had been wanting to try brown for a more subtle eyeliner look so I asked my son and daughter-in-law to pick a couple up for me. I had sent them a picture of one that was in Natural Brown but when they went shopping for it, found out that it was discontinued and replaced by Deep Brown, which is actually a much better color. I think that Natural Brown would have been a little lighter than I would have been happy with.

It's the same felt pen type applicator, which is easy to use.

It's a dark brown but it comes out quite natural looking. I really like it, especially when I'm using brown eyeshadows--which is very surprising for me. I have finally discovered some browns that I can use without it making me look tired. I think that the pink brown tones work well for me. Although in the pictures it looks subtle, it does work very well. It enhances my eyes very nicely and I really like it.

I'm going to ask them to pick up a couple more for me when the return to Japan so that I can have a couple of backups.

The end of the year is just a few days away. I hope that 2013 will bring much joy, happiness and good things to all of you.

*Kat*

L'Oreal Lash Serum--7th Week and Holiday EOTD

I'm back with another L'Oreal Lash Serum progress report. I've been showing weekly progress pictures every other week or so with 2 to 3 weeks pictures. I must say that at this point, it doesn't seem as much more has happened or perhaps will even happen so I don't think that I'll post each week's picture unless you'd like to continue seeing it.

This is week 7, again with no makeup and with makeup.

Again, I must say that I've been very impressed by this serum and will continue to use it.

I had a couple of Christmas parties to attend in the same night and I wasn't sure if we would try to make both. I decided to do a green and gold holiday EOTD and finally wear some mascara with my newly grown lashes.

Products used:

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion: Eden (not shown)
Urban Decay Eyeshadows: Blitz, Junkie (Vice Palette), Kush, Loaded (BOS III Palette)
K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner
NARS Pencil Eyeliner
Canmake Agebuto Mascara
Maybelline The Colassal Volume Express Mascara
Sephora Collection Glitter Eyeliner and Mascara: Gold

As usual, I primed my eyelids with primer potion.Blitz is applied to the inner 1/3 of eyelid, Kush to the middle 1/3 of eyelid and blended in sweeping back and forth motion into and just above the crease, sweeping out towards the end of the outer corner. I did not sweep it completely to the inner corner. Junkie is applied to the outer 1/3 of eyelid and blended into Kush. K-Palette is applied to upper lash line and outer corner of lower lash line. It's basically just dotted there to connect the uppler lash line lining to the lower lash line. Loaded is used to line the lower lash line, blending the dotted outer corner and fading the lining towards the middle of the eye. Loaded is also used to the outer "V" of upper eyelid to add a bit more depth. I curled my eyelashes--for the first time since I started using the lash serum--and applied a light coating of Agebuto mascara. It is a waterproof mascara and I need to use waterproof mascaras to hold the curl if I wanted it to be as I curled it. I then applied a couple of coatings of The Colossal Volume mascara to the upper lashes and lightly to the lower lashes. I usually don't like to apply mascara to my lower lashes because it makes me look like I have black eyes. Having been using the lash serum, it has really enhanced my lower lashes as well and applying mascara gave it an even more extreme look so to soften it I used a brush to angle it towards the outer corner. I then applied NARS pencil eyeliner to upper waterline.

As a last step to add a bit more glitz to my eyes, I applied gold glitter eyeliner to 1/4 of the lower inner lash line. Unfortunately you can't really see it in the picture. The product that I used for this is Sephora Collection Glitter Eyeliner and Mascara. The SA at Sephora was wearing it and it looked really nice. I was concerned about the glitters being that close to the eye and she said that she hadn't experienced any migrating of the glitter into the eye so I decided to pick it up in gold and in silver.

The tip of it is like a regular eyeliner brush and after that there is the mascara brush. It actually takes quite a few swipes to get the glitter onto your eyelashes but after I tried it, I decided that I like using it as just an eyeliner. Unfortunately, there was a LE mini set of this in just eyeliners and that probably would have been a better purchase for me since I ended up deciding that I will not use it on my lashes.

Swatch so that you can see what it looks like:

I like the way it gives a litte bit of sparkle to your eye. I had a lot of women friends who loved it. It was only the hubs who, at the end of the night, asked if that's glitter or tears!

I initially really liked Loaded but I'm noticing more and more that there's actually a brown undertone to it. It's very similar to MAC Club, at least in pictures. I need to find a true Deep Emerald green eyeshadow as I love the color. Any suggestions?

*Kat*

Gift Review: DHC Medicated Q10 Skin Care

A couple of months ago, a really kind and generous blogger sent me a gift package from Japan and in it was a mini skin care set from DHC. K told me that it was really popular and hoped that I liked it as well. This skin care set is DHC Medicated Q10 Series.

In the mini set is a lotion, milk and cream along with several packets of gel, a cleaning oil and mini soap. It all came in a cute metallic lavender cosmetic bag.

At first I was a bit apprehensive about using it because of the word "medicated". In most cases with skin care, when you hear the word medicated, you think of it being for acne-prone skin. K knows that I do not have acne-prone skin and what my preference is as far as skin care and base makeup goes. I did a little research and this is what I discovered:

This line is a new Q10 series, which is different from the old DHC Q10 series in that it contains 0.3% of Q10, which is 10 times the concentration of the old version. It targets the signs of aging caused by UV rays and stress by using the benefits of coenzyme Q10. It is a potent antioxidant which helps protect the skin from free radicals. Free radicals can damage your skin and accelerate the appearance of premature aging, which includes fine lines.

This sounds exactly what I'm looking for in a skin care product! First step is lotion (or toner). I was a bit surprised and off put by the color. Most toners that I've used are clear but this one came out yellow.

It reminded me of urine! I know, a disgusting thought but it was the first thing that came to mind. You can apply it with either your hands or using a cotton pad. I like this lotion/toner because it's non astringent. It just feels like it softens my skin.

Next I used the milk, which is a light moisturizer. It comes in a pump bottle. I am not sure if because it's a mini-sized bottle, it pumps out a small portion or if that's the amount that should be pumped out.

I thought it was a bit of a small portion but it ends up being just enough to apply over my entire face. It is nicely hydrating even though it's a light moisturizer. It doesn't sink and disappear into my skin, which I know some people like. It does leave my skin with an ever so slight bit of tackiness but it's not unpleasant or greasy feeling.

The cream is a slight bit heavier than the milk and it's perfect to use at night. I understand that you are supposed to use the gel as a first step to help with the absorption and penetration of the nutrients and moisture from the other products but I didn't know that until recently so I was using it more as a last step as an extra moisture boost. I guess that this is what I would use as a serum, which is perfect because the current serum that I am using will be used up soon (or at least I think it will) and I was debating what serum to use next.

I really like this line. One of the best things about it is that there is no scent at all. It feels good when I apply it--I get almost a cooling sensation which makes me think that my skin is really soaking up the nutrients from this line and hydrating itself. I like this line so much that I actually asked my friends to pick up a set for me when they went to Japan.

I also got the eye cream. Luckily, the set was still on sale when they went to Japan so I was able to get it at a good price. I just looked at the DHC Japan website a couple of days ago so that I could get the link the the gel because I'm asking my son to pick it up for me. I was surprised to see that the set wasn't even on the site any more so I'm glad that I asked my friends to pick it up for me.

I really want to thank K of Cosmeddicted who gifted me with the mini set. I've been fortunate enough to have met her and she is a wonderful, kind and giving person. I'm so glad that I have become friends with her. She has an awesome blog so please check her out if you haven't already.

The holiday season is upon us. My son and his family will be arriving here in a week and a half and staying for close to 3 weeks. I am very excited and I'm sure we'll be busy. Please excuse me if I am not as active on the blog during that time period.

*Kat*

L'Oreal Lash Serum--Progress Report

I have now passed the 5 week mark of using the lash serum. You can see my first post about it here.

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

In all of the EOTD pictures, I am not using any mascara. During week 5, I was pretty sick so I didn't use it consistently. I would guesstimate that I probably applied it only half the time. I'm not sure if it's because of the darker EOTD but it does look like my lashes are significantly fuller than previous weeks.

One thing that I have noticed is that I now have lower lashes! It was quite sparse to say the least. The one thing that I can't seem to do is take pictures of it. Perhaps if I apply mascara first and take a picture that will work. I will try that later. I usually don't like to use mascara on my lower lash line because I don't have much lashes to begin with. I also find that when I do use mascara on my lower lash line, I don't like the effect.

I think that I am still seeing some improvement in my lashes. I've been quite impressed by this lash serum.

I will do an update in another couple of weeks or so.

*Kat*

EOTD Using My Stash

I apologize for I am way behind on my posts. I got sick last week Tuesday and am finally feeling almost normal today although I still have unexpected and frenetic coughing spasms.

Just prior to getting sick, I had been seeing posts about Tom Ford Emerald Lust eyeshadow quad palette and fell in love with it. Who else has been lemming it? Unfortunately with its high price tag, I wasn't willing to purchase it and thought that perhaps I could rummage through my stash and come up with some similar colors. I haven't seen the quad in person so I wasn't quite sure what the colors look like in actuality. On some blogs it looked more blue and on others it looked more turquoise/green. This picture that I have is from Neiman Marcus website.

Products used:

L'Oreal Infallible Endless Sea
Urban Decay Unhinged (from Vice Palette)
YSL #5 Palette (5 Colour Harmony for Eyes)
Addiction Mystic Mirage
Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill #23
Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion
K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner
Sephora Glitter Liner
Sephora Mascara
L'Oreal Mascara

 

My substitutes for Emerald Lust

After applying eyeshadow primer, I applied Mystic Mirage to contour area of eyelids. Endless Sea to inner 1/3 of eyelid, Unhinged to middle 1/3 of eyelid and the lighter of the YSL blue eyeshadow to outer 1/3 of eyelid. I also applied very lightly GA ETK #23, which is almost a holographic eyeshadow, over the various blue eyeshadows to blend them together. Since there are micro glitters of blues and greens, it also helps to stay within the color theme of the eyeshadows. K-Palette eyeliner lines the upper lashline and just a smidge in the outer corner of lower lashline, to make a seamless transition from the upper lashline to the lower lashline at that outer corner. Using the darkest blue eyeshadow from YSL, I line the outer half of lower lashline starting at outer corner and fading it in towards the middle. I also use it in the outer V of upper eyelid and blend the color in, emphasizing the outer corners.

To glam it up for an evening out, I added mascara and Sephora silver glitter eyeliner to the inner corner of lower lash line. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get it to show up in the picture well.

 

Sephora Silver Glitter Eyeliner

I could have also used MAC Freshwater and Contrast instead of YSL palette.

All in all, I was pretty happy with my substitutes for Tom Ford's Emerald Lust palette.

I hope that everyone is well and gearing up for the holiday season.

*Kat*

Purchase Review: L'Oreal Lash Serum

It has been a while since I've used any type of lash enhancing product with the last being Trish McEvoy's products. I used to use Talika lipocils but mainly as a way to clean my lashes of any eyeshadow fallout after doing my makeup. Both Talika and Trish McEvoy products are on the pricier side. While I don't have any before and after pictures of Talika use (I started using it before I started beauty blogging), my final post of my Trish McEvoy challenge is here.

I had recently noticed that my lashes were getting sparse so I decided to go the inexpensive route and test out L'Oreal Lash Serum. I can't remember the exact price but it was between $13.00 and $14.00.

I don't wear mascara every day so I wanted to go back to using something that would help to clean my lashes like I did with Talika lipocils. I was going to go back and purchase it but decided on trying L'Oreal instead. The applicator is not a brush like a mascara brush (Talika lipocils has a brush) but is more like a curved doe foot applicator but not as spongey.

I am approaching my 3rd week of use and thought that I'd do a post of the last two weeks. Here are pictures of start, after a week and a half and after 2 weeks.

There is significant change in my lashes already. It looks much fuller and thicker and perhaps a slight bit longer.

Here are pictures of before and after with makeup on.

The before picture is from earlier in the year, July I think. In all the pictures, there is nothing on my lashes, not even the serum.

I must say that I'm significantly impressed by this inexpensive lash serum. I am happy that my lashes are looking fuller, which is what I prefer over length at this point. I use it twice a day, in the morning after I put on my makeup and at night before I go to sleep. In the almost 3 weeks that I've been using it, I forgot to apply it only twice. I'm looking forward to seeing how my lashes will look when I decide to apply mascara on it. I will continue using this for 8 - 10 weeks and continue to post updates.

Has anyone else tried this lash serum? If so, what has been your result?

*Kat*

Purchase Review: e.l.f. 10 Piece Brush Set

While I was shopping at Target last week, I came upon some of the e.l.f. holiday collection sets and picked up a few things that I thought I would give away as inexpensive gifts to some young aquaintances that I have. One of the items that interested me was the 10 Piece Brush Set. I decided to get one for myself and debated whether or not to pick up more but didn't.

The set includes blush brush, foundation brush, brow comb and brush, eyelash and brow wand, eye liner brush, concealer brush, eyeshadow brush, smudge eye sponge, lip defining brush and total face brush. The set was only $10.00 and even though there were several items that didn't interest me in the set, I thought that that was an excellent deal.

Washing your brushes before use is a must so I set aside some time to wash all of these brushes using my trusty and much loved, Daiso Puff and Sponge Cleanser. I noticed that while washing the blush brush and total face brush, they had a very funky scent. It was reminiscent of when I washed the natural animal hair brushes that I own from Crown Brushes. When I laid them out to dry, I tried to reshape them back into the shape it should be but it was to no avail. This is the end result of it after it dried:

Blush Brush:

Total Face Brush:

It's a bit of a disappointment because these were the two brushes that I thought I would make the most use of. The other brushes washed and dried well. I haven't used any of them but I'm sure that they will be fine. I can't be too disappointed though because it was only $10.00 for the set and I'll be using most of the other brushes. I'm just glad that I didn't end up buying any sets to give away.

*Kat*

Halloween EOTD--An Everyday Look

I didn't think that I'd have time to do a post after I posted my quick Happy Halloween wishes post late last night. Happy Halloween! When you tink of Halloween, what colors do you think about besides orange? I often think of gold, purple and black. I decided to do today's EOTD based on this color theme for Halloween.

 

Products Used:

 

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion (not pictured)

MAC Goldmine and Print Eyeshadows

Urban Decay Omen Eyeshadow (From Annivesary Palette)

Dior Ultra Violet Eyeshadow

The Body Shop Eye Shimmers in 02 and 06

K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner

 

 

As is my standard practice, I primed my eyelids with Urban Decay primer potion. Out of my bag of treats, I pulled out MAC Goldmine and applied it to the inner 1/3 of upper eyelid from lash line to crease line. Omen is applied to the middle 1/3 of upper eyelid from lash line to just above the crease line and blended upward toward the brow bone. Ultra Violet is applied to the outer 1/3 of upper eyelid and blended upwards towards outer brow bone.

 

From my bag of tricks, I pull out The Body Shop Eye Shimmer. 02 is a gold tone and 06 is lavender tone. Since I'm at work, I'm writing this post on my work laptop, which is relatively new so the display color set up is different from mine at home and I can't tell how well the pictures will show up--sorry! I also took this one picture really quickly while at work and it isn't the greatest picture but hopefully it'll give you some idea of how the eye shimmers work. From left to right, black liner pencil, 06 eye shimmer, black liner pencil with 06 eye shimmer applied over it.

 

 

As you can see from my swatch, 06 lavender eye shimmer is very sheer and doesn't show up well, although it might do a little better if I had used primer on the paper. The magic of this eye shimmer is that when you apply it over a dark color, the color and brilliance shines through. Creams work best with it but it does work over powder eyeshadows too.

 

Back to my EOTD...I decided that I wanted a little more shimmer to this look so I applied 02 over Goldmine and 06 over Omen. Since both Goldmine and Omen are not dark colors, it just subtletly pops the gold and purple colors. Print is applied to outer "V". Entire upper lash line and outer 1/4 of lower lash line is lined with K-Palette. Using Print, I go ogver K-Palette on lower lash line and blend it inward toward mid eye. 06 lavender is then applied over Print at mid eye of lower lash line.

 

 

I hope that your Halloween is filled with lots of treats and no tricks!

 

*Kat*

Happy Halloween!

I was planning on doing a post on "strange" beauty things that I like along with it being a creative ideas thing plus have it coincide with Halloween. Unfortunately, I failed. Perhaps I'll work on it and post it later.

We've had some unexpected guests show up and we've been busy taking them around. For now, I'd like to just wish everyone a Happy Halloween!

*Kat*

P. S. Here's an interesting video--there is singing but it takes a while for it to start.

Evening Out FOTD

Last night I had a business dinner to go to and so I felt that I needed to dress up a bit even though the restaurant that we went to doesn't have a high class environment.

Products used:

Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill 20, 21 and 23
Addiction Eyeshadow Mystic Mirage
K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner
NARS Larger Than Life Long Wear Eyeliner
Shiseido Mascara Base
Canmake Agebuto Mascara
Sephora Full Action Extreme Effect Mascara
Clarins Skin Illusion Natural Radiance Foundation 109
Canmake Cheek & Cheek Blush 06 (LE)
Urban Decay Super Saturated High Gloss Lip Color Love Child

I did an explanation of the Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill EOTD in my post here. The only difference is that I added Mystic Mirage to the outer brow bone area and used NARS eyeliner on water line of upper eyelid. I curled my lashes and used Shiseido mascara base which helps to hold my curl. I applied Agebuto mascara, which is a waterproof mascara and that also helps hold my curl. I then applied the Sephora mascara because I like the effect that it gives as it really seems to darken the lashes and make it fuller. I'm sorry but I forgot to separate my lashes before taking the picture!

The foundation that I used tonight was Clarins Skin Illusion Natural Radiance Foundation in 109. This foundation gives a nice finish and while it's rather natural looking, it also gives good, long-lasting coverage. Since my eyes were made up darker than normal, I decided to go with light cheeks and lips. I'm really loving the Canmake Cheek & Cheek blush in 06. Too bad it's an LE shade. Lips were done using Urban Decay pencil gloss in Love Child.

I love how this Canmake Blush gives a nice pink flush to the cheeks. It's nicely pigmented so you can apply too much--yes, I've done it! Please take note of my beautiful handmade earrings from Fushigi Shop. I wore these thinking that it's the perfect time to wear it. Please do check out this wonderful store with enticing jewelry pieces. Yasumi is away on vacation right now but she will soon be returning and coming up with more beautiful and unique creations.

I must say that when I purchased the Eyes to Kill eyeshadows, I was hesitant on #23 (the opalescence white shadow). I'm so glad that I bought it because it has to be my favorite of the 3 colors that I purchased.

*Kat*