Shu Uemura X Karl Lagerfeld

Just a small other thing to share with my Singaporean readers; just yesterday I was at ion and decided to treat myself to an atas (highend) eyelash curler and went into Shu Uemura to ask how much it was. It turned out they were having a x'mas promotion for the Karl Lagerfeld collection eyelash curler and you can get it for $28 vs $32 for the normal curler and they are the exact same curler. The Karl Lagerfeld collection even has a really cute keychain and red curling pads.

I think they might possibly be cheaper if you buy dutyfree at the airport but... thought I should spread the love anyway!

The Faceshop Make Me Star Waterproof Gel Liner

Good Sunday folks! I'm back with the eyeliner I raved about... 2 weeks ago. I know, I'm extremely late. Sorry to keep you waiting! Seems to be a bad habit of mine ):

Anyway, I have bought more of the liners to test out their consistency so here we go. I first stumbled upon the Faceshop Make Me Star Waterproof Gel Liner when I wandered into their store during a sale. It was a 20% sale then so I got the turquoise liner for just under SGD$10? This liner stayed in storage for quite a while because I couldn't bring myself to wear coloured eyeliner to work (scared of shocking my boss haha) but one day I got bored and finally did and I was so impressed!!!

Since I pass by a Faceshop outlet on the way home, I popped back in to swatch more colours and ended up getting the bronze and a lovely peach pink. These are definitely more expensive(almost double the price) in the Singapore Faceshop outlets than say buying them online from qoo10.com.sg so I would recommend testing them out in the outlet then purchasing them online if you can afford to wait. There's this lovely lovely olive colour but I felt the pinch...

Here's how they look like uncapped. As you can see, my poor turquoise is still hardly getting any love as it's not even sharpened. Though that is no indication of how well it performs since it's just what colours I wear on a daily basis.



All the colours also come with this smudger on the back end of the liner. It's for smudging out the liner before it sets for that "smokey eye look". I guess it does work though I prefer not to use it as the line is soft enough when drawn.

The reason why this collection is called Make Me Star is because all the liners come with sparkles/glitter. I guess if you read past the terrible english, these liners are supposed to sparkle like stars. They have a black liner in the collection which I did not like at all because of the glitter particles. I think blacks should be nice and deep and matte.

The brown on the other hand is this lovely intense rich brown with more of a metallic sheen than glitter particles. I fell in love with it the moment I swatched it. It is so much more than a normal matte brown because of it's intensity. It's the kind of brown that upon first glance looks matte but then you realise that there's more to it. Goes on so creamy and does not tug at eyelids at all. For those who love gel eyeliners for their consistency, this is even creamier than gel liners, and draws on soft without harsh lines. Only people who like liquid liners for their clean lines will not like this.

The turquoise is also of a metallic variety. It also does have very minute turquoise glitter particles in it as well but it's not that obvious. This also goes on extremely creamy and intense. The colour just pops. I imagine this would be for the more adventurous or party looks. Or could be a great summer look for just a pop of colour to the eyes.

Finally the peach. This liner is meant for the inner corner of the eyes to brighten them up. When I swatched this colour in the store I really really did like it and as I didn't have any liners that were of this variety I bought it immediately.  But when I came home and started to use it, I realised that this peach had irridescent glitter particles in it that are visible. For young skin, I imagine it to be fine but I have fine lines around my eyes and the glitter just gets caught in them. Another problem is that the peach pigment does not draw as intensely as the other 2 colours and does come off in patches. So in order to get a nice even colour I have to go over it quite a few times which is not too ideal as too much glitter gets on the skin.

This is a picture after I let the liner set (takes about 10-15seconds or so) and rubbed a finger very hard across all the liners. The brown and turquoise are true to their name of waterproof gel liner. These liners are hardcore man. I have gone to the gym, rubbed my eyes and they don't budge. No smudging, no transferring to under my eyes, stays on my waterline, these are godlike. Even using my favourite Bifesta Cleansing Express remover, the liner is hard to remove. Only people with extremely extremely oily lids will find that these do not stay on. I have oily lids for reference. 

The peach colour though is a very different story. I did have to colour on quite a large amount in order to get the colour of the liner to show so maybe that's why the smudging is so intense in the picture. On my eyes, the peach pigments tend to fade through the day, but the glitter particles remain!!! That really pisses me off. Though I'm glad that the glitter particles adhere to my skin so well and do not transfer, it looks very weird when there's only glitter on my eyes and no colour at all!

Peach on inner corner of eyes. It does catch light extremely well, no doubt good for photography. 

My all time favourite liner for the past 2 months. I've even ditched the K-palette 24h  liquid liner.

For a perk me up. I find that the turquoise does bring out the brown in my eyes... Not that anyone can tell haha.

These are all the colours available and I highly recommend these liners even if you're a matte colour lover, especially in the deeper colours and ESPECIALLLY the bronze. Get the more metallic shades (bronze, turquoise, olive; maybe the navy). They are a cinch to use and last all day. The only colours I would not recommend getting are the silver and the peach because I suspect they probably have the same formulation.
Get them!!!!

NYX Bronzer & Blush Combo and MAC Wonder Woman Mineralize Skin Finish

Bronzer/Blush combos! I only have 2 so I thought I would just put them in the same post to see how they stack up against each other. They're probably not really in the same category but they are nifty lil (okay not so lil) things so read on! I have the MAC Wonder Woman Mineralize Skinfinish in Golden Lariat and the NYX Bronzer & Blush Combo in 01 Sunrise in Bali. 

As you can see, the Wonder Woman MSF is HUGE. WONDER SIZED. 

The NYX Bronzer Blush Combo (BBC) is actually a very nice lil thing. It has quite a solid white casing that snaps shut, a decent sized mirror and 0.35oz/10g of product to boot. Considering I have yet to finish any blush, it is almost a relief to have 2 products for the price of one. I got this for SGD$20 at Smoochiezz.

It is also my very first bronzer, so I'm not very skilled in the bronzer area. 

Some people may like this semi-indian(?) princessy design on the cover though I kind of see it as a space filler and feel that it doesn't do much to make the packaging seem more expensive. It really is quite plasticky and I do wish I can see the colour of the product through the packaging. 

I will try my best to describe the brown. I think that bronzers should lean towards greyer tones if that makes any sense because shadows are typically grey. At least those are for true bronzers. We can also understand bronzers as a powder to warm up the complexion, hence the term sun-kissed bronze. This is definitely one of those sun-kissed bronze shades. It leans quite yellow in my opinion and that quite suits a skintone like mine (mac nc30) without being too overpowering, as long as I do not apply with a heavy hand. This however does have glitter even though I find that the brush does not pick up too much of it. Even so, glitter phobes stay away.

The pink in this BBC, is absolutely gorgeous! It is a dupe for Nars Orgasm, so I've heard. As I don't own it, I compared it to the Too Faced Papa Don't Peach (also a dupe) and they are almost identical in colour. Both are a nice pigmented peachy pink, with a gorgeous fine gold glitter in it. I think this pink might be an even closer dupe as it's got more gold glitter than Papa Don't Peach which imparts such a nice glow to the skin. (I will take a proper picture of both colours swatched together and update this post!)

The blush in the NYX BBC is a tad crumbly, so pat the brush in it, not swirl. This blush is also awfully pigmented so do be careful when applying. It shows very obviously even though I'm considered quite a tanned girl.

Wear time is decent for the BBC, lasts about 5-6 hours on my oily skin. It does disappear when I blot my face.

Onto this absolutely irresistible brilliant packaging wonder. I got this at the Estee Lauder sale for 20 bucks. What a steal! When I saw it, I knew I HAD TO HAVE IT even though I probably didn't need it. This Wonder Woman MSF in Golden Lariat is MASSIVE. M.A.S.S.I.V.E. It is bigger than my palm and I definitely have larger palms than most girls. It's got 0.70oz/20g of product which is just an insane amount of product. I can probably keep this for my entire lifetime and not even make a dent in it.

Hey there pretty useless gold rim and pretty useless lack of mirror. Hey there absolutely visually stunning shimmery overspray and marbling. This compact has everything you need to contour your face with. Blush, bronzer and highlighter. I would say that this is probably meant for the tanner girls out there as fairer girls might find this too dark. However, if you are a huge fan of sun-kissed then go for it!

I do like that because this compact is M.A.S.S.I.V.E it is so easy to use each colour individually. Also because it's baked there's literally no mess/fall out.

The blush in Golden Lariat runs almost a brownish peach with a nice subtle satin finish. I would say just use this colour to achieve the sun-kissed look with almost no effort at all. I really do love this colour. Compared to the NYX, NYX seems awfully pink and the MAC seems awfully brown. 

The bronzer in Golden Lariat is quite matte on the skin, unlike the NYX one which has some tiny glitter. The sheen seen in the compact is just a overspray. It's a brown that runs more red, and though I find suits me when I use it as subtle shading, looks absolutely off if I accidentally put too much. 

The highlighter is INSANE. Even without flash, the amount of light it's reflecting is crazy. It's chock full of multi coloured glitter, and it definitely applies gold if too much is used. I find that the powder for this feels very powdery. Seen from a distance, the glow that this powder gives is so so so nice since it's multi coloured glitter and not a single colour, but upclose, I feel like the individual glitter particles can be seen. Definitely need to know how to work with this highlighter, and definitely mostly for the glitter drama mama. 

I find the blush and highlighter last longer than the bronzer. Still, overall quite decent at 5 hours for bronzer. Blush seems to last all day for me while the highlighter seems to spread as the gold fades and glitter remains and moves (cos I blot). 

One very unfortunate point about this compact is that I THINK IT BREAKS ME OUT. It seems that every time I wear this, my temples where I apply bronzer start to break out. I also find that I get tiny bumps on my cheeks. I don't know if I'm sensitive just to the bronzer, or the entire compact, but I do try to refrain from using this compact too much unless I really feel like I want that colour on my face. It is a pity but honestly, vanity and clarity of skin before colour. 

Summary:

NYX BBC Pros:

• Highly pigmented
• Nars Orgasm dupe!
• 2 colours for the price of one
• Decent lasting power

NYX BBC Cons:

• not for people who don't like glitter, especially in bronzers
• blush is crumbly

MAC MSF Pros:

• MASSIVE in size
• very handy with 3 colours in one compact
• large enough to use each colour seperately
• highly pigmented
• decent lasting power
• awesome sun-kissed look combo of colours
• bronzer is matte

MAC MSF Cons:

• Can be too big/heavy to carry around
• Wasteful packaging + no mirror integrated
• BREAKS ME OUT
• highlighter is too glittery and powdery
• glitter in highlighter tends to migrate

- end of post -

update: I've just found the most awesome eyeliner in my history of using eyeliner. It does not budge under any circumstances. And it is PENCIL eyeliner. Will blog about it this weekend I'm so excited I bought 3. Stay tuned!!!