Diorshow Fusion Mono Longwear Eyeshadow Pots

Wowzers, what a long name! But like the name suggests, it is an extremely longwearing cream eyeshadow that is well worth it's price tag ($50 AUD). 

Maybelline Expert Wear Eyeshadow Quads

I'm not usually one to purchase flimsy packaged, cheap looking drugstore products, so the chance encounter with these Maybelline eyeshadow quads is pretty out of the blue. Being a neutrals-only girl, i picked out the only two which contained colours that I would actually feel comfortable wearing. The two that I picked up were Natural Smokes and Designer Chocolates.

The first palette that I caught my eye was the Natural Smokes quad. It had a gorgeous satin taupe-y lid colour and two matte shades which could be used on the brows as well as lids. This was, in my books, a practical palette. A complete eye look in one. But having used this, I realized my hopes had been set too high for this mere $11 drugstore eyeshadow. The base colour is not as pigmented as the deeper shades and the lid/crease colour is much too dark on my eyelid used together. If applied individually on the crease and using a lighter shade from another eyeshadow throughout the middle of my lids would work wonderfully though.

Natural Smokes

Natural Smokes swatched

This next quad I bought in Designer Chocolates was more of a wild card item. I stood in front of the display pondering for a good 2-3 minutes. There was a burgundy colour. I love the colour don't get me wrong but I have never applied anything like it on my lids before. Being asian and having very shallow eye sockets, I don't experiment with colours very often (ever!). I like to play it safe and stick with the browns and bronzes. 

But straight after I transferred the combination of colours from this quad to my lids, I was in love. Combining the brown Liner colour with the burgundy Crease colour creates the most beautiful shimmer shade and I really can say that I don't own another eyeshadow quite like it. I highly recommend this quad. And for $11, it couldn't hurt to try.

Designer Chocolates

Designer Chocolates swatched

Using Designer Chocolates: Base colour used to highlight brow bone. Liner colour used on bottom lash line and out crease. Crease colour used on crease on top of brown Liner colour. Lid colour used all over the lid. I blended the colours out quite a lot so the cranberry/brown colour on my crease are very subtle. This look is suitable for a housewife like me on an everyday basis :)

Swatch: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain

Recently there was a Revlon promotion at Priceline where you can get 3 products for the price of 2. I wasn't really interested in anything until I saw the 5 Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain gift set. Being a huge, huge, HUGE fan of the Clinique Chubby Sticks, I was excited to try out Revlon's cheaper alternative. 

Doing some quick math, if I were to pick out 2 more Balm Stains, the total of each stain would come to $8.30 after the promotional discount. The usual RRP is $17.95 each. WIN! The colors included in the Gift set are:

010 Darling

015 Cherish

020 Lovesick

040 Rendezvous

055 Adore

And the two extra that I picked out from the permanent range are:

001 Honey

045 Romantic

From L-R: Honey, Cherish, Darling, Lovesick, Rendezvous, Romantic, Adore

These balm stains are quite glossy. And I feel that the colour intensifies over time (so it does work as a stain!) But I am a bit undecided about whether I like the scent of these stains. They have a minty/tiger balm scent to them. I haven't tasted it but I wouldn't imagine it to be pleasant. So this is my only downside for these stains compared to the fragrance-free Clinique Chubby sticks.

Swatch from L-R: Honey, Cherish, Darling, Lovesick, Rendezvous, Romantic, Adore

This is one wipe with tissue (no make up remover used)

Of these colours, I would probably only wear Honey, Lovesick, Romantic and Adore on a daily basis. Honey is my most favorite for a pinky nude lip. I hear Revlon have released "Lacquer Stains" and also a Matte range of the balm stains in America and I can't wait to try them when they arrive in Australia. I am such a sucker for Matte lip products!

Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer

The Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer is my second "Youtube made me buy it" product for this month. After watching all the reviews, I needed this humungous 18gram jar of concealing goodness in my collection. 

My current holy grail concealer is the Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage concealer and these two products can't be anymore different. First is the texture. LM is a solid and dry-to-the-touch cream which needs to be warmed underneath your fingertips prior to application. It also doesn't spread so much upon application (which I guess is also why it's such a great concealer because it doesn't move at all) and has to be blotted on using stippling motions. The Kevyn Aucoin SSE is creamy soft and if you don't use a light touch, you're likely to get too much product on your finger. It is so rich and creamy that the smallest amount can be spread over a substantial surface area with fairly high coverage.

The colour that findation.com matched me to was SX04 which is light with yellow undertones. I did find a little bit of creasing under the inner corners of my eyes. But i still consider this to be a small flaw which can be overlooked once I set it with Laura Mercier's Secret Brightening Powder. 

This small jar of goodness is fairly pricey. I purchased it from yesstyle.com.au for AUD$58. However, LM Secret Camouflage was $49 for half the amount of product, so in the end it seems worthwhile. I am definitely interested in trying out more of Kevyn Aucoin's products. The packaging for some is so slick and absolutely elegant. 

Have you used Kevyn Aucoin products? Is there anything you could recommend me to try for next time?

Jouer Matte Moisture Tint

This is one of those "Youtube made me buy it" products. Namely, Missglamorazzi made me buy it. Self-diagnosed with oily skin, I usually flinch at the idea of a tinted moisturizer. They make me look as if I have a layer of cling wrap wrapped around my face and causes all products applied on my face to change GPS locations. Not to mention their known lack of coverage which my acne scarred skin needs to stay away from. But after seeing Ingrid's applications and reviews, it seemed that this product was;
1. lightweight on the skin
2. had build able coverage
3. had a matte finish

I was sold. All my adolescent years, I had wished to have flawless, makeup free skin. And this might just be the product to offer me that no-makeup makeup effect. Now Jouer is very hard to come by in Australia, infact, if you don't follow the beauty blogosphere, chances are, you'll never even know about this brand. I purchased mine from a korean website yesstyle.com.au for AUD$52 and used findation.com to find my colour match. 

Upon squeezing out my first dollop, I noticed it had a mousse texture rather than the creamy smoothness of usual tinted moisturizers. I buffed it into my skin with a flat top kabuki and I must say, it wears like a dream. It is lightweight, similar to Giorgio Armani's Maestro but covers up spots and pigmentation like Covergirl's Outlast Stay Fabulous foundation. I think this will definitely become a staple base product for me this coming summer. Set with a loose setting powder, I don't think I can go wrong ;)

The moussey texture can be seen from this swatch

Blended out

E.L.F. Essential Bronzing Brush & E.L.F. Studio Blush Brush

Having purchased quite a large haul from E.L.F. earlier this year, I was really surprisingly impressed with the quality of their products considering the pricing. In the haul I purchased a Studio powder brush (which is the one similar to a flat top kabuki foundation brush) and found it to be dense, soft and witnessed no signs of shedding. 

So in a recent purchase from Beautyjoint.com I decided to try some of their other brushes. These two brushes were a big disappointment. At $1.99 for the Essential Blushing, Bronzing and Blending Brush and $3.99 for the Studio Blush Brush you really get what you pay for. Not much! 

First up, the essential bronzing brush has hair that seems to be made out of hay. The hairs are not soft, not fine and they are certainly not dense. It is very thin in volume and does not make blending an easy job. Frankly, I can't imagine anyone to brush this up against their cheeks. Someone posted on makeupalley.com that this brush gets softer with use, but unfortunately I am not willing to test that theory out.

Next up is the Studio Blush Brush. This brush has much finer and softer hair which is silky smooth to the touch. I would definitely prefer to use this for bronzer than blush as it is quite tapered/pointed. I personally prefer my blush brushes to be more rounded and puffy because for me it blends out the blush more evenly for a natural hint of colour. I will keep this in my collection, however, if you are from Australia and looking for good quality medium price ranged cosmetic tools, i recommend Artiste from Priceline or Real Techniques. They are available from various websites for around $10 each.

Have you used E.L.F. brushes before? Which ones? And how did you find them?

Estee Lauder Illuminating Powder Gelee Blush - Tease

So of course my first blog post would have to be about one of 2013's most famous limited edition blushes. This Blush was released in the rest of the world earlier in the year around March and were long sold out before us Aussies even caught wind this product existed. It has been raved about by the likes of Tanya Burr, Zoella and just about every other Beauty Guru with a Youtube account. So of course, being a religious follower of holy grails products and monthly favourite videos, I HAD to have this blush in my collection.

It was a long wait. It was launched in Australia on 15th September. But of course, if it was on schedule something would be terribly wrong. So most stores didn't received any stock of it until days later and I was finally able to get my hands on the blush after going to about 5 different department stores. The Lauder staff actually used the "this is our last one" sales pitch on me which annoyed me a little bit as I hate sales people who feel the need to say this to push a sale. 

In terms of the product, I think it just might be a little bit too shimmery for me to wear on an everyday bases for just buying some groceries and running errands (in other words, for a housewife). It is just pink and silver shimmer from every angle that you look at it. It is gorgeously soft to the touch and applies like a dream but the staying power is not the best on the market. 

The soft creamy yet powdery texture has me hooked and I will definitely be on the lookout for more of Estee Lauders Powder Gelee products from now on.

This blush retails in Australia for a whopping $75 AUD. For those who don't know, it equals to about $71 USD with today's currency. Which is really, really, extremely unfair as temptalia.com mentioned this product retailed for $40 in America and Tanya Burr purchased hers for 30 Pounds in the UK.

Let me know if you have purchased this blush and how you find it. Do you love it or can you live without it?