eyeliners and eyebrow pencils

Use lousy eyeliners as eyebrow pencils! Today, I'm going to be looking at 3 products that I frequently use as eyebrow pencils. The Revlon ColorStay Liquid Eye Pen, a Kanebo Kate Liquid Eyeliner, and the Maybelline Eyestudio Eyebrow Pencil. All pictures on screen are as close as possible to the original colour my eyes see.

Design:

Revlon Colorstay: Pen, cover does not pop onto the back end of pen, has a nice length.
Kanebo: Same as with the Revlon, both tend to attract fingerprints and get greasy
Maybelline Eyebrow Pencil: Pencil form, needs to be sharpened. Very short.

Nibs:

Revlon: Marker like tip. I can't really tell whether it's meant to be flexible. It does bend if pressed hard enough, but mostly it's stiff to draw like a marker. I've had this for about 2 years, but mostly because I could not figure out how to use it as an eyeliner. Tip gets frayed with use.

Kanebo: Brush like tip, feels nice and cool on the face. Brush offers very good and fine control, allows a very natural look because it's almost like drawing many hairs to fill in the brows.

Maybelline: Pencil tip, can be sharpened to desired sharpness. Draws nicely and doesn't tug on the skin, the pencil is very soft so take care when sharpening. Also because it is soft, the pencil seems to use up quite quickly.

Swatched from left to right:
Revlon drawn lightly, Revlon pressed hard, Kanebo, Maybelline.

Revlon: This is one of the most horrible eyeliners I have ever used. The colour doesn't come out dark in one drawing, and drawing another layer over causes the first layer to come off. It is TERRIBLE as an eyeliner.
One day I gave up and decided to try it on my brows. It was then I saw the magic of using a pen to draw my brows.

The colour blends in with my brows quite naturally, and it offers plenty of control in shaping the brows. It is great for filling the brows in because even if drawing over a 2nd time causes the ink to disappear, the brows look all the more natural! It's ingenious! My pen nib has actually dried out, so the colour that comes out is less intense unless pressed hard as in the swatch, but it still works very well for me in terms of eyebrows.

Colour lasts all day too, as it's a liquid and hard to rub off like a pencil would rub off.



Kanebo: Another eyeliner that I bought because I enjoyed the fine brush tip. Then I realised that the brown colour was so light it did nothing for my eyes. Since I don't throw products away because that just feels like throwing $$$ away, I used it for my brows. Brown eyebrows are less harsh on the face and tends to make a person look younger. It also works very well should you have brown hair.

The brown of this liner is lighter than the revlon eyeliner. So light that the swatch above required about 3 strokes to reach that desired intensity. One stroke barely shows. This is good for the inexperienced or if experimenting with different brow shapes.

This liner is very similar to the K-palette 1 Day Tattoo Real Lasting Eyebrow Liner 24h in terms of the colour and the brush. Gently paint multiple strokes on brows to get a very natural looking brow.

Colour lasts all day as well.



Maybelline: This eyebrow pencil leans more towards a greyish brown. The intensity of the colour depends on how heavily shaded the brow is, or how hard the pencil is pressed. Colour comes out alot easier than any of the pens above, with a much softer effect as compared to pens.

Pencils are much easier to work with than pens because they are correctable. They can be smudged or rubbed off. slowly colouring/shading in with a blunt pencil is also easier than trying to draw lines with a pen.

This brow pencil seems to last all day for me, but then again, I don't really touch my brows. I do get a feeling that the colour does fade slightly through the day, but not enough to be too noticeable. In worst cases, just bring the pencil out for a touch up! It's so tiny anyway.

This is how the pens/pencil look like when drawn. If I had to rank these 3, it would be
1. Revlon
2. Maybelline
3. Kanebo

Unfortunately this is as far as my eyebrow experience goes because my pens never ever seem to run out. Ah well, whatever stays on, right? Just don't throw away useless eyeliners before trying them out on eyebrows! 

Maybelline Mineral Power Naturally Luminous Blush (Gentle Pink) Review

Hi! I'm back with the first blush I've ever owned, the Maybelline Mineral Power Naturally Luminous Blush with Micro-Minerals. Phew that is one heck of a long name. The colour I own is Gentle Pink. I can't remember how much it was since I got it at least 4 years ago. All colours of products are as true as I can get on my screen to the original product.

I know that we're not supposed to keep blush for so long, but I don't know how anyone expects to finish using up this whole tub of blush within even a year. Plus I'm quite the hoarder. One does not simply throw make up away.  It's a pretty huge tub of happy powder, as can be seen from my cutting mat, about 5cm in diameter. Does not come with brush.

Being the first blush I've ever owned, I didn't know anything about blush when I bought this. Guess I was lucky enough to fall into the 'mineral' makeup category. I used it quite a lot then, then fell out of using it as my blush collection just kept growing. But recently I've fallen back in love with it big time.

Design wise, loose powder. Nobody loves the messiness of loose powder, especially me. I am paranoid that the puffs of powder that appear when I close the container will magically stain my clothes. That aside, this tub fits nicely in my palm. Also, unlike the everyday minerals blushes, maybelline only gives 5 small holes in the tub. Much better to control the amount, but still not really suitable to carry around. This product is definitely one that should stay at home. 

What i do is before I open the tub, assuming there's no powder already in the lid, i turn it over so that it's cap down, then lightly tap the bottom surface 2-3 times with my fingernail. Gently unscrew upside down. That amount should be sufficient to give both cheeks a subtle glow. 

The powder is finely milled. It also goes on the face very smoothly. There are glitter particles in this blush if you look at the picture closely, but they are extremely fine. On the cheeks they just impart a very nice glow, even if when swatched reveals quite a scary amount of glitter.

Gentle pink does lie towards a coral tone. The above swatch shows the blush heavily swatched on the left and lightly swatched on the right. Oddly enough, the pink tone of this blush is more evident when layered, though I would suggest using a light hand as this blush is very pigmented.

I'm afraid as I'm still compiling the colour swatches that the only skin tone this will be showed with is mine. This slightly coral pink matches my nc30 skin tone extremely well, it's probably the best "flushed after exercise" tone that I have. I'm very sure this would match all skin tones very well.

This is how the product looks on the skin. Left is in the morning freshly applied, taken in natural sunlight. Right is after 12 hours of wear, 1 hour in contact with the humid weather of Singapore, the other 11 in the confines of the artificially cooled environment I call school. I don't blot my face, so I apologise for the oily face and hair and general weariness of myself.

Back to the product, you can see how amazingly long this product wears and I only put the tiniest amount.
Again, I really love the colour! No breakouts even though this product has technically expired. Thumbs up!

I really think blushers should be made in smaller tubs, then at least there would be hope in finishing a product. Will definitely repurchase this should I ever run out though.

Summary:

Pros:

• HUGE amount of product
• perfect colour (for me)
• highly pigmented 
• applies to a glowy finish
• lasts all day
• smooth soft powder, can't feel it!

Cons:

• messy to apply
• tough to bring out if annoyed by messiness

H&M liquid eyeliner review

What a better way to kickstart this blog than with my favourite thing of all time - eyeliner! This is quite a tough liner to get your hands on, unless you happen to live in Sweden (that's where I got mine) or a country in Europe (I suspect). I believe it's available online, but again, only in specific countries.

This was quite a surprise find for me. In fact, upon trying it on when I got home, I was thinking of buying it for all my friends!

Introducing the H&M liquid eyeliner. It is about 7SGD, the cheapest eyeliner I have every bought.

As you can see, it has quite a sleek design with it's bold silver letters printed on a glossy black tube. I've used it for about 7 months now, none of the silver print has faded. So if you're one to fuss over products showing wear and tear on their happy plastic cases, this one won't let you down!

My only gripe about the packaging is that the cover is not very easy to grip, so if you have sweaty/greasy palms then it may be quite tough to remove the cover. Also, there's nowhere to pop the cover on at the back of the pen, so for the forgetful, the cover might get lost pretty easily.

The eyeliner is designed like a sharpie. Perfect for all the unsteady hands or the uninitiated. And also of durable material - no frays for 7 months of usage! Says something about the quantity of ink too since I use it almost everyday.

Swatch showing the type of line and the ink. Thin line, thick line, mega thick line, curly line, anything is possible with this sharpie eyeliner. This eyeliner allows me to draw the thinnest of lines possible for "no make up days" (which we all know is us in denial).

Ink is black enough. What I like about it is that the ink is not glossy. Glossy eyeliners seem to have the tendency to flake. This does not. It lasts all day on oily lids like mine and does not fade. Does not sting eyes as well.

Eyes open. Eyes closed. Can you even see the line?! At this point, I imagine Mario completing his level and hearing the points add up with a dingdingdingdingdingding!!!!

But of course, no product can be perfect. The thing I hate most about this eyeliner is the smell. It smells like a sharpie. Or any permanent marker. Which is a very very very scary thing. Permanent. Marker. Very. Scary. Thing. I literally have to hold my breath to apply this eyeliner. It is worth it for me, but may not be for those with sensitive noses. Might be great for people who sniff glue (kidding).

Despite its permanent smell, it is in no way permanent. It washes off with water. Which means, please do not watch Grey's Anatomy with this on. It WILL smudge and make you a panda. Do not go for a dip either. You will emerge and people will wonder why your eyes have gotten smaller. Washing off is a plus point for me though, because that makes for easy removal. i.e. just wash my face and rub gently.

What can I say, I LOVE IT!

Summary:

Pros:

• CHEAP
• Hardy packaging
• Easy to use
• Versatile tip for different line widths
• Decent black ink
• Lasts on oily lids
• Water soluble

Cons:

• SMELLY
• not easily available
• not waterproof/tearproof

Introduction

Hi everyone. I'm Val. I'm currently an Architecture student from Singapore with a slight obsession with buying the makeup that I can afford. Between buying materials, paying for printing and makeup, I'm perpetually broke. But that's besides the point. 

*Warning, big rant in coming 2 paragraphs, read only if interested.

I like to surf makeup blogs in my spare time. I also like to google swatches of things that I might never even get (hands up I'm sure I'm not alone in this) . This blog was born because of my general unhappiness at the state of make up blogs. I believe in a thorough review, and I appreciate someone who can write an informative review. I am tired of going through blogs who claim to review products, and then swipe a picture from the internet with no actual usage of the product. I am tired of having to go through archives to find out what shade the blogger is. A picture is never accurate especially with foundations/concealers because lighting changes the colour of skin! I want to read a blog that I can trust. I do not want to read a blog where I can only assume the blogger has tried a product out, and for an unknown amount of time because that only wastes my time. I appreciate short reviews for what they are, but as I have claimed previously, to come across a thorough review is rare.

Also, I cannot, for the life of me, understand swatches. Maybe because there are less Asian makeup blogs, or maybe, it's just that there are few Asians who are as tanned as me. Or maybe, i just cannot guesstimate colour. The reasons that will forever remain mysterious to me have driven me to try to compile a series of skin tones, and to show them in comparison with my skin tone as well as the swatch. I give the example of a ruler. Without a ruler, we will never know the true length of our noses, we can only give a good guess. If that ruler is present alongside the face, not will we know how long our noses are, we know how far it is from the tip of our head or our chin. Hence, even if the swatch is just on my skin, I find having other skintones available help me out greatly is guesstimating how many shades darker or lighter I would have to go with that particular cosmetic product.

*End of rant.

All unhappiness aside, my discontent has driven me to want to do something to counter what I feel is lacking, and I will, to the best of my ability and resources, try to achieve a certain standard of integrity and thoroughness in my writing.

I have a long (as a percentage of my life) history with make up. That would be just about 8 out of my almost 23 years of life. I blame my Mom. She introduced THE EYELINER to me. Ever since then, she has persistently nagged me to use eyeshadow, and I have consistently refused. The eyeliner is my first love. 

Somehow somewhere, nobody in my life breached the topic of good makeup removal. I suffered horribly for my negligence, and broke out horribly. It might've partially been due to stress and other factors, but my negligence exacerbated it. I have had acne and scarring for a good 4 years. I saw a doctor for 3 out of those 4 years and tried everything, but this DARNED skin refused to cooperate with me until I started Accutane. So very slowly, my acne and cysts(oh lord I hate cysts) started to subside and my scars started to fade. Till today(I'm still on a low dosage of Accutane, have taken it for a year), I'm still waiting for some cysts to subside. Hold on a minute before passing judgement to say that "oh her skin can't be that bad". I have pictures from 2011. Small to not scare the living daylights out of you. Pissed because... Well who wouldn't be pissed off with skin like that.

My skin is much better now but that aside, I have developed some skills (I hope) in covering up scarring and meanwhile, also learnt how to curb acne on my sensitive skin which tends to get irritated using creams like Retin A and Benzoyl Peroxide (I blame the eczema!!!!). Also, I find that just putting foundation/concealer alone is half assed (because who doesn't like flushed cheeks and bigger eyes!), and have also developed a terrible obsession with pretty much everything except eyeshadow (in defiance of my ma?).

So this is my story, and to put a face to it, this is me trying not to look greedy as I drink my coffee.

Thanks for reading!