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I used up a few items last month. I'm also proud to say that I haven't really purchased anything except some essential skin care items so I feel like I'm doing pretty good using my stash up.
First up is Benefit's Hello Flawless Oxygen WOW foundation. This was a nice foundation and though it didn't really "WOW" me, it was good enough that I was reaching for it to use just about every day.
NeriumAD Age-Defying Treatment. Definitely will not be purchasing this again. My review is here.
Unknown brand eye mask. This was nice to use after a long day of work. I actually had it on almost all night long as I fell asleep with it.
Dermactin-TSD Age Spot Gel Patches. This was a spur-of-the-moment purchase that I made at Sally's Beauty Supply a while ago. According to the box, it's made in Korea. I was right to be very skeptical because this did absolutely nothing.
Rimmel Fix & Perfect Pro Primer 002. For a drugstore brand primer, this is very good and I will definitely repurchase it again. This is actually the 2nd tube that I have used up.
Covergirl Lashblast Clump Crusher mascara. This is my favorite mascara. I think that this is also the 2nd tube that I've used. It's great for a drugstore brand and helps to curl my lashes without using a lash curler and actually holds the curl in place. I already have back ups of it.
*Kat*
While I normally do this post every other month, I just had to do one this month as it is all makeup products, something which is difficult for me to use up.
Rimmel Fix & Perfect Pro 002 Primer. This primer has been working out really well for me this summer. I love this new formulation. The older, tinted formulation did not work well for me at all. I've already purchased and am using a new tube.
Maquillage Moisture Finish Powdery UV Foundation. I don't use this as a foundation but as a finishing powder. This is the 2nd pan that I've used as I had bought 2 at the same time several years ago. I believe that this was a fall/winter release so I am hoping it gets released again as I liked it.
Canmake Cheek & Cheek 06. This was a LE color from a year or two ago. It was a great color and product to use. I find that Canmake blushes appeal to me and they are reasonably priced in Japan.
Covergirl Clump Crusher by Lashblast mascara. This is by far my favorite mascara. I have bought several back ups of it. Here's my review.
K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner 24h WP. I can't live without this eyeliner! I always love the LE packaging as it usually is pink. The new one that I opened up to replace this one is in the regular black tubing. I'm still getting used to looking for the black tube instead of pink when I want to use my eyeliner.
Discards:
While it's wasteful to have to throw away products, some items just can't be helped. I normally like to try to "recycle" products by either giving it away or selling it but items that can't be safely sanitized has to be discarded.
Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner Pens. I had read great reviews on this eyeliner and loved the fact that it came in different colors other than black and brown. Unfortunately, this isn't for me. I find that the application isn't as smooth as K-Palette. Although it's supposedly waterproof, I find that it smudges and color transfers on me very easily. While I fully line my upper eyelid, I line only the outer end of lower lashline. By half a day, my eyes look like a raccoon because of color has transferred to under my eyes and it's not a pretty sight. I have only used each of the colors once or twice but since they are felt tip pens, I don't think that these can be safely sanitized so they will have to be dumped. How unfortunate!
*KatI
Happy Easter Everyone! I didn't think that I'd do another post but I got inspired when I thought about easter egg colors and wanted to do an EOTD along the same lines. When you think about Easter and coloring eggs, you usually think of the colors yellow, pink, purple, blue and green, or at least I do.
Products used:
Sephora Prisma Chrome Eyeshadow--Gold Reflection
MAC Pigment (which I pressed)--Violet
Urban Decay Eyeshadow--Radium
Urban Decay Eyeshadow--Kush
Addiction Eyeshadow--Mystic Mirage
K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner--Black
Covergirl Lashlast Clump Crusher
Mascara--Black
I did my standard prepping of my eyelids and then applied Gold Reflection to the inner 1/3 of upper eyelid. Violet was then applied to the middle 1/3 of eyelid and Radium applied to the outer 1/3. Mystic Mirage was applied to the outer half of brow bone. Lined the upper lash line with K-Palette and outer corner of lower lash line. Radium was then applied to lower line to just about half way in. Although you can't see it well, Kush was applied to the lower lash line at mid eye and Gold Reflection was applied to inner 1/3 of lower lash line. A light application of mascara to the upper eyelashes.
To finish off the rest of the face, Canmake Cheek & Cheek blush in 06, which was a LE color, was used and Revlon Lip Butter in Berry Smoothie was applied to the lips.
It was a colorful eye look but all of the colors weren't over the top that it looked ridiculous.
*KatI
Spring is slowly coming around and brings with it all of those pretty pastel colors. I tend to gravitate towards spring eye makeup collections because of the pretty colors but have to keep reminding myself that I can't use them because they are too pale for me.
Sakura has come early this year in Japan and from last week Tokyo was already in full bloom. I love sakura and it was either last year or the year before that I did sakura inspired look. I have decided to do a new sakura inspired spring look.
When you thnk of sakura, one normally thinks of white, pink and brown colors. If you look carefully at a sakura tree in bloom, you will notice that there aren't any leaves. The leaves come out after the flowers fall off.
Products used (some are not shown):
Urban Decay Primer Potion--Original**
MAC Eyeshadows--Vanilla* and Samoa Silk**
Addiction Eyeshadow--Mystic Mirage (Gift from Justine)
Sephora Prisma Chrome Eyeshadow--Gold Reflection
Quo All About Eyes Eyeshadow Palette--Bronze (I think that's the color. Gift from Winnie)
Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill Eyeshadow--23
Urban Decay Eyeshadow--Kush (from BOS III)
K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner--Deep Brown
Covergirl Lashlast Clump Crusher Mascara--Black
Canmake Shading Powder--01**
Chanel Sculpting Veil Powder--Notorious** (Gift from Vicky)
Lise Watier Blush--Pink Power (gift from Justine)
Urban Decay Super Saturated High Gloss Lip Color--Love Child
I also used Boujois 123 Perfect Foundation, Sue Devitt Bermuda Triangle Concealer, Make Up For Ever Full Cover Extreme Camouflage Cream in #8, NARS Orgasm blush and Sephora Eyeshadow in Sun Kissed, which has been discontinued--so sad! I use these all to finish my face and if you haven't yet, you can read my concealing method here.
This may seem like a lot of products but it really isn't. The items with a pink asterisk are items that I use on a daily basis. For the eyeshadows in palettes, I marked the ones that I used for this look with a red asterisk.
As is standard preparation for my eyes, I prime my eyelids with primer potion. I then use Samoa Silk in the socket of my eyelid and bring it out to on top of the outer half of the brow/socket bone. My bone is very prominent and it makes my eyes look sunken in, plus with age, it seems to have sunken in even more. Using the orange-toned color helps to lighten the darker area on the inner eye socket. (This is the same concept with concealing.) Because the brow/socket bone is so prominent, I like to use matte eyeshadow to very thinly highlight just under the eyebrows. I usually use Vanilla.
I then applied Mystic Mirage from inner corner of eyelid to just about 3/4 of the way towards the outer eyelid, and bringing it gently upwards towards where Samoa Silk is applied. The outer 1/4 of the eyelid is where Bronze is applied sweeping it inward to blend into Mystic Mirage. I also pull it upward into Samoa Silk and going on top of the outer brow bone. Gold Reflection is lightly applied where Bronze and Mystic Mirage meet to blend the two colors in. Sometimes you do see a hint of yellow in the center of a flower, depending on the variety. I'm not sure if this applies to sakura too. Although this look is sakura inspired, it is also a spring look so I wanted to incorporate a little bit of additional color. I then lightly applied GA ETK #23 very lightly over the entire eyeld. This softens everything a bit but the main reason why I used it is because it is an iridescent eyeshadow with very fine iridescent flecks. Sakura season is a very special time of the year and its beauty and glory are quite magical. I wanted to have the wash of iridescent specks to create that magical feel. K--Palette eyeliner is applied to entire upper lash line and flicked up at the end a bit. The outer half of the lower lash line is lined also. I then apply Bronze over the eyeliner of the lower lash line and deepen the outer "V" with Bronze, softening the flicked up line. Kush is applied to the lower lash line at mid eye, just to give it a slight pop of color. Again, green isn't part of sakura but it is a color associated with spring and new growth of plant life. Clump Crusher mascara is applied to my lashes.
My cheeks are contoured using Canmake Shading Powder 01 and I also bring the color up to the temples and forehead. Notorious is applied in in darkened hollow of my cheek, close by the ear. I also very lightly apply it from my jaw bone down towards the chin. I think that I have a sharp jaw bone so this helps to soften it as well as give the illusion of narrowing my face. Pink Power had to be used in this FOTD because of the sakura theme that the design has. Thank you Justine for this beautiful blush and for Mystic Mirage!
Lips were colored using Love Child, which gives it just the right hint of color. I think it's a perfect spring color.
As most readers are aware, I am not a brown eyeshadow person. Browns tend to wash me out or make me look tired. I am also not a big fan of wearing neutral or pale looks. Again, it's because I look washed out. Warm tones are definitely not good on me, although I love how others can make warm tones and neutrals work for them. It took me a long while to use the Quo palette because it was a beige and brown color palette. Also, there is a very pretty embossed design on it and it was just too pretty to use. After looking at the palette more and more, I began to think that it looked more cool toned than warm toned, which is why I decided to give it a go. I was very surprised that I liked the way the two shadows looked on me. The shadows themselves are very nice, not overly pigmented but are nice and soft. They are not chalky at all. With Bronze, the darker color, you can't over do apply the color, which is nice. I even liked that it was a more muted look that worked on me. I still prefer to have the outer corners of my eyes darker but feel that I can comfortably use this for a day time look without looking washed out or like I'm not wearing any makeup. Thank you Winnie!
Chanel Notorious was something that looked so interesting to me when it came out. I was curious to try it but hesitated purchasing it. I joined the Blogger Secret Santa exchange again this year and put this out onto my wish list. Vicky was my Secret Santa and she sent it to me! I was excited to try it and yet was a bit hesitant to see how a gray-colored powder could work as a contouring powder. Normally we use browns so gray seemed to be a bit harsh. If applied correctly, it works great! You really need a light hand. When you think about it, the recessed parts of your face actually look more gray/black than brown--at least on me it is. Thank you Vicky!
Mascara is one thing that I have trouble finding that will work well for me. I have poker straight lashes that are difficult to keep curled, unless I use waterproof mascara. Clump Crusher is water resistant so it comes off easily with a gentle makeup remover and washing with warm water. The formulation is on the drier side, which works better for me. The amazing thing is that this mascara WILL curl my lashes without using an eyelash curler first. I used a light application here and it gave my eyelashes a natural curl look. If I apply more mascara and really press the wand into my lashes, it will curl it even more and giving me a more dramatic look, which I don't care for much anyway. The other great thing about this mascara, it doesn't flake! I can wear it for 12 hours or longer and not have it flake. Definitely my favorite mascara!
I decided to (12 hours later) darken the eye up a bit to make it more "evening out" appropriate. I decided to pull out Urban Decay Smoked Palette, which I have had for a while but not used.
I decided to use Barlust, which is a medium brown color. I applied it to the outer corners of the eye to deepen the color a bit and added it to the outer 1/4 of lower lashline.
I'm not sure if it's the right brown for me yet. I have to play with it more. I've read varying reviews on what people think the color is--Temptalia calls it a reddish brown while others have said it's a golden brown, neutral brown, etc. If it comes out more reddish brown on me, then it'll definitely not work. It was already late when I did this and only artificial lighting so I will have to test it out again during the day time.
This was a long post. Thanks for reading through it all!
*Kat*
P.S. Happy Easter!
P.P.S. There are still items available in the blog sale
Recently, Brianna of The Sun Girl Says returned home to California after living in Japan for 5 years. I was really excited to learn that she lives within walking distance to a Trader Joes. I asked her if she could pick something up for me and mail it and that I'd reimburse her. We ended up deciding to do a trade. Wondering what it is that I need to have from Trader Joes? Unsalted, toasted, slivered almonds!
I love these! I will eat it out of the package as a snack but it tastes really good on top of a vegetable salad. The funny thing is that the day before I received these in the mail, the husband asked if we had any more of "those nuts".
Also included in the package that she sent was a prize from winning her guessing game. She hadn't even announced it on her blog at the time that I received the package so it was a BIG surprise! I've never won anything from a blog contest/giveaway before.
Thank you Brianna! (I'm not sure if there were any more things in the bag as it got mixed up with some other things--please comment if there was more.)
On Saturday the 10th, I had a wedding reception to attend and was wearing a tunic top that is a pale dusty rose color with really dark chocolate brown spots on it. I wore it with black leggings. In trying to decide how I was going to do my makeup, I decided that the colors from the Wet N Wild eye palette prize would be perfect. The palette that I used is "We're Blasting Off".
Products used:
Mezaik Double Eyelid Stretch Fiber
Urban Decay Shadow Primer Potion in Sin
Wet N Wild "We're Blasting Off" Eyeshadow Palette
MAC Print Eyeshadow
K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner
Koji Eyelash Curler
Shiseido The Makeup Mascara Base
Covergirl Lash Blast Waterproof Mascara
Each shadow in the Wet N Wild palette is imprinted with where the color is to be used. As it turns out, it is where I would use them too, although I can see myself interchanging the pink and taupe colors depending on my mood.
I applied the pink color on browbone and over entire eyelid from creaseline on up. The taupe color was applied on the eyelid and along lower lash line. The chocolate brown color on outer eyelid and blended in towards the center of the eyelid. I also blended it upward towards the crease. MAC Print was applied on outer "V" of upper eyelid, along upper lash line and on outer 1/8th of lower lash line. Lined upper lash line and outer 1/8th of outer lower lash line with K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner. Using Koji eyelash curler, I curled my lashes and applied Shiseido mascara base. I use this when I want to make sure that my curled lashes will not uncurl. It really helps although I think that it's basically a clear waterproof mascara. I then applied Covergirl Lash Blast Waterproof mascara. This was a gift from K a while back but I only opened it up now. Thank you K!
