Hits & misses Jul-Dec 2013

Hi everyone!

Thank you for tuning back in and let me start off with wishing you all a great (and huge belated) 2014. I've been SO darn busy that I have neglected this blog like I never did before... Shame on me!
Anyway, a new year has begun, so this means turn a page and let those new, fun challenges begin!
If you have any resolutions, please share them in the comment bar below, I would like to know them! :)

Let's get back to business and kick off the year with a hits and misses of the passed couple of months. If you haven't read my former blog post on hits&misses, don't be shy to give it a read here.

Hits

Let's start of with za face. It may sound weird, but I have the feeling my skin has never been as oily as it has been the past year. I've used blotting sheets like crazy. And if I'm using them, sometimes I'll need 2 papers to get all the oils off! Whenever I'm in a beauty related store, I check out their mattifying sheets, because I like to try out a bunch of those papers. After using the Clean&Clear for a couple of years, I thought it would be fair to give other brands a try as well. Sasatinnie, Catrice, Suki, ... They've all lived in my make up bag. They've all done their job. Frankly, no matter which brand it says on its packaging, as long as it takes the oils off, I'm one happy lad!

I've used high end concealer, and yes, they're good, but I could not longer spend so much money on something while I've found a drugstore version that works just as well. I'm talking about the Catrice's camouflage cream. It's cheap, it has a high coverage and it works with my yellow undertone. What more can I ask from a concealer?

You know I love my lippies :) The passed year I have experimented with lip stuff like crazy and man oh man, have I fallen in love with it. I'm talking about the Bourjois Color Boost glossy finish lipsticks. They're in the form of a big fat crayon that you use to color in the lips. The pigmentation is great, they moisturize, have SPF and they're quite cheap for a lippy.

Another lip item I would like to mention are the Maybelline Baby Lips. These have been raved about for years and the company has finally decided to make its way to Europe as well. I have recommended them to my friends who aren't really into make up and they have fallen head over heels with it! Coincidence? I don't think so!

Misses

As for the face I couldn't stand the sunscreen by Avène. It has a SPF 50 and it's supposed to be for people with normal to combination skin, but somehow this leaves my face a little bit sticky and it makes me oily as an oil can! Luckily I received free samples, so I didn't spend any money on these sunscreens.

Occasionally, I like to put on eyeliner if I got out with my girls. Unfortunately this drugstore eyeliner hasn't done good to me eyes. This is by Essence and I bought it for 1€, I guess I can't complain then, huh? This didn't make my eye any red, but it did clog up the pores on my waterline. Yes, that's actually possible! It left me with a little reddish bump that hurt a little bit, but was more annoying than painful. I wasn't sure whether I did something different to my beauty routine, so I gave this a second try. I threw it away as soon as it happened again. Never again!


This was the very first blog post of the year 2014. Let's make it a wonderful year filled with make up and nail polishes! :)

YesStyle haul

Since I didn't do a lot of summer sale shopping, I justified it by shopping online (don't act like you don't do it!)

I didn't buy a lot of YesStyle, just a few things, but thought I wanted to share it with you anyway.
If you haven't heard of YesStyle, basically it's an Asian online shop where you can buy make up, clothing, health stuff, and so on from a wide variety of brands. I like it that they're all Korean, Japanese or Chinese findings, so the chance of having my European fellow habitants wearing the same thing will be a lot slimmer. Who doesn't like to feel unique? :)

Their shipping to Europe may take an eternity, but I like their website. It makes it all worth while :) Mostly it takes about a month time to ship a package without any costs.

But enough chit chat, let's jump right into it!

I only got 4 items, because I have another beauty haul coming up soon :)
Let's get started with the clothing:



YesStyle

If anyone would describe my clothing style, it would definitely be casual. I'm the kind of girl who likes to put on a white T, some shorts, sneakers and off I am. But, it's not because I like simple tees that they the image on it can't be special. This is a short sleeved white T-shirt with a cute little man on it who's wearing headphones. It's simple, but cute :)


My second clothing item is a playsuit (or a short jumpsuit). It's cobalt blue with a drawstring to synch in the waist to give it that feminine look to it. I think this look sophisticated, yet it'll be comfy enough to do whatever you want.





Then on to make up!

YesStyle

Whenever I'm buying online at an Asian store I have to look whether they carry my favorite eyeliner pencil. If you haven't seen my review/swatch on it, click here. This is by the brand Jealousness and is aaaaah-mazing!
I thought I'd buy a back up of this eyeliner so I'm sure I wouldn't run without it whenever I'm in the mood for a sultry look.


Last but not least, I've heard good stuff about the Canmake's stay on lip balms. And as a lip balm junkie, I just had to get this and give it a go. I really like it so far, but I don't want to give too many information since I'm planning to do a review on it. So keep your eyes peeled for it!


That was my haul from YesStyle! It was a very short one, but thought I would want to share it with you all, so ... hope you enjoyed it and stay tuned for more! :)

Favorite products of the month: September 2013

Another end of a month means another listing of my favorite products of the month!
Maybe you've noticed that I haven't been doing these king of post every month, that's because I usually use the same products for quite some while.

The products that do make it to the 'favorite products of the month-post' are or awesome products I use on a regularly basis or I've discovered them recently and I just want to share them with you.

Anyway, enough chit chat for now, let's jump right into it :)

My face has been very bad to me the last couple of weeks. I've been using my Benzac which contains 5% benzoylperoxide to treat the blemishes, I've been using my Clarisonic more often and I've rediscovered a scrub to get rid of the dead skin cells. You've probably heard of this scrub before, it's the St. Ives Fresh Skin Apricot scrub. This scrub is the Allure readers' choice award winner and yes, it is quite good actually. It comes out as a pinkish white cream with orange beeds in it to exfoliate the skin. As the name gives it away it has a pleasant apricot scent which isn't too overwhelming. After using this scrub my skin feels very soft. A good alternative to my Nivea Visage Pure Effect Peel Soft which is more a mattifying scrub than it is an exfoliating scrub.

For facial make up products, the waterproof Jealousness gel eyeliner has been taking care of my smoky eye looks. These eyepencils go on very smoothly, no tucking, no going over the same place more than one time to darken it up, good pigmentation, ... By far, one of my favorite eye pencils! I got this pencil from an online Asian beauty shop, if you want to try it out as well, click here :)

Jealousness: waterproof gel eyeliner: black

I've been digging the Bourjois cream blushes. They're a cream to powder blush and the old spices color Sweet Cherry is a wonderful color for my complexion.

Although summer is coming to an end, the oils on my face haven't decided to call it a day. They've been excited to come out since summer has started. To solve this problem, mattifying papers have been my best friend. I've been using several ones, because I keep a certain brand in my purse and some in my make up bag. Catrice, Sasa, Clean and Clear, ... they all get the job done, so I don't really care what brand they're from.

I have been loving lip stuff lately, well actually always, but I've discovered some great lip goodies the last couple of months. Not just the regular lipbalms, but the tinted versions.
One of Korres' best selling products is the lip butter. These are little pots with a scented and tinted lip balm in it, but dang...they're good!

Korres lip butter: Pomegranate

I've done a blog post on the Bourjois Color Boost glossy lipsticks before. If you'd like to give it a read, click here. They have a good pigmentation, are quite cheap and they're cute looking. If you haven't seen them before, they're basically like a big fat crayon to color in your lips.

Bourjois Color Boost glossy finish lipsticks

These have been my fav's of the month. I'm still trying out a bunch of new products, time will tell whether they will make it to my next favorite products of the month! Until then, see you soon!

Battle of the eyeliners

Hi blog readers :)

I've had my share of eyeliners, but unfortunately my oily eyelids, my sensitive and water-very-easily eyes don't appreciate eyeliners as much I'd like to.

I have typical Asian eyelashes. You know, stubborn, stick straight pointing down and very scarce in quantity. Yes, those kind of lashes.

Meanwhile I've gotten to know the magical make up tool which calls an eyelash curler. Ever since I've used it, my lashes can become curly. In spite of not having lots of them, I don't like wearing false eyelashes, I've found out that you can fake the look of having more eyelashes than you actually have by putting eyeliner on your upper waterline, mwoehahaha! And here's when the eyeliners swoop in!

I've used pencils, liquid, gel eyeliners. Quick conclusion? I love gel, like liquid and usually hate pencils eyeliners.

Pencils cause my eyes to water and the white in my eyes becomes red. Also, these can smudge quite easy on my eyes.
Liquids are not very easy to work with, and smudge or rub off eventually.
Gels stay on me the longest.

Today, I'll be comparing not 1, not 2, but 15 kind of eyeliners, including my all time favorite, so stay tuned!

Here's an overview of all the eyeliners. I've swatched them accordingly to the separate reviews down below. Just in case, here's the list with all the brand names:

I've swatched all eyeliners on my hand.
On the right picture I've tested these with saliva to test whether they're really as waterproof (=WP) as they claim to be. I swiped over the liners 3 times with my finger. As you can see, there are a bunch of them which did not succeed the water test.

* Mac technakohl

* Déjà vu Lasting fine

* Maybelline Master drama

* Mulensa

* Rimmel Scandaleyes (WP)

* Dolly Wink

* Benefit BAD gal (WP)

* Cover girl perfect point plus

* Cosmagic lock on liner

* Almay

* Maybelline Eyeliner-matic

* L'Oréal Color Riche Le Smoky

* Catrice (WP)

* Prestige (WP)

Those who survived, were put up to round 2: the waterline.

This eyeliner is probably one of my most expensive eye pencil. No offense, but big brands must promise something good, right? I'm afraid this pencil disappointed me so bad. It smudged, it didn't endure the water test (not that it said waterproof, but still) and it's pricey. No, I won't repurchase this. 4/10

Mac technakohl liner eye liner kajal in graphblack

This is an Asian eye pencil, which I bought in Hong Kong. I heard so much about this brand, I thought I'd give the eye liner a shot. Unfortunately I didn't like this. Perhaps it stayed on me for about an hour, but that's it. In spite of putting it on my waterline, I'd like a pencil to stay put longer than 60 minutes, don't you? A poor 2/10

Déjàvu Lasting fine in black

Maybe it's Maybelline. It sure is Maybelline :) I didn't expect much from this pencil to be quite honest. I bought this at the local drugstore and I thought it would smudge on me like no other, as most drugstore eyeliners do, but I have to admit that this has surprised me, in a good way. This stayed on my waterline after a few hours, barely smudged and the price is right. This deserves a proper 8/10

Maybelline Master drama khol liner in charcoal grey

My friend bought me a khol pencil in France. Mulensa. I never heard of it, but gave it a try anyway. I've put this on my waterline a while back and it stayed put, but I don't know why it smudges immediately after testing it for this blog post. It failed badly at the water test, so another flunk: 1/10

Mulensa khol pencil in black

I bought this drugstore eyeliner after hearing that this is the drugstore version of the Urban Decay 24/7 glide on pencils. LIAR!! It's a shame that this isn't able in a solely black pencil. The pencil I have contains little chunks of glitter causing my sensitive eyes to become red and watery. It didn't take long for this eyeliner to smudge and to even cause a little bit of pain. Thanks a lot glitter... 0/10

Rimmel Scandaleyes kohl liner in 002 sparkling black (waterproof)

For the Asian beauty fans out there, who doesn't know Dolly Wink? The liquid eyeliner has reached an incredible fame, but I've never heard anyone talked about the pencil. On the hand, it's ok, but it's not good at all to put on the waterline. You'd think: well, then just put it on your eyelid. I can't. My oily eyelids makes this eye pencil smudge as hell and I'll look like a panda in no time. Too bad, but nice try, I'll stay with the liquid Dolly Wink: 4/10

Dolly Wink liner in black

We've all heard about the Benefit bad gal liner. I like the pigmentation and the lasting power is ... okay. I don't love this liner, but I can put it if I only have to go out for an hour or 2. I told you so, it's not the best liner. Again, you pay a price for the brand. Luckily this performs a little bit better than some others... 6/10

Benefit BAD gal liner in charcoal, comes with smudger (waterproof)

I don't even know why I wanted to buy this eyeliner. I always heard so many good things on the brand Covergirl, so how bad could it be? Well, let me tell you one thing: this pencil eyeliner should be called smudgetown, haha! No, it didn't leave my eyes watery, but dang...I looked straight up like a panda after 15 minutes, for real! Definitely not worth your money people: 1/10

Cover girl perfect point plus in 205 charcoal, comes with smudger

An Asian eyeliner that didn't do the job properly. Smudged on me after a half an hour, although it didn't cause any more sensitivity, hence my 3/10

Cosmagic lock on liner in black, comes with smudger

After reading so many good reviews on this eyeliner, I just had to give this pencil a try. This did stay put on my waterline at first, but unfortunately this did smudge eventually. Ok, but not good enough. 7/10

Almay eyeliner in 205 black, comes with sharpener

After seeing the results on the swatch picture, you'd think this would perform great. Well, I'm here to tell you this is not a great pencil, but it does the job. It doesn't last as long as other good eye pencils on the waterline, since it's not waterproof. But in spite it's not waterproof, it's aight :) 7/10

Maybelline Eyeliner-matic in intense black, comes with sharpener

  

First off: dang, that pencil is sharp! It actually hurt putting this liner onto my waterline. But back to the purpose of this review: no, it did not last on my waterline. Since it says 'Le Smoky' and there's a smudger with it, I can't blame them for not staying put on my waterline. 3/10

L'Oréal Color Riche Le Smoky eyeliner in 201 black velour, comes with smudger

Catrice, a brand which is often neglected for no understandable reasons. I'm not sure whether the States have access to this brand, but I'm pretty sure some countries in Europe do. Anyway, for a drugstore pencil, this is a good eye pencil. It stays on my waterline for quite some time, I like the twistable pencil and I appreciate the sharpener that comes with. Overall, I like this one: 8/10

Catrice longlasting eye pencil in 010 new kids on the black, comes with sharpener (waterproof)

I've always compared Catrice with Prestige (don't ask me why). Now, I've had this pencil longer than I had the Catrice one. Twist up, waterproof, black eyeliner... It has all I need in an eye pencil. But no... It's no good. It doesn't stay put for too long and my eyes become very red after putting this eyeliner, so a 4/10.

Prestige eyeliner in 01 black (waterproof)

And last but not least, ma favorite pencil. No, I didn't swatch this on the overview of pencils, because I wanted to save this one as a surprise :) This is a gel pencil. When putting this on my waterline, this dried immediately so it stayed put on my waterline. Can I just mention that this didn't budge at all! By far, this is the best eyeliner I have ever used! Definitely worth a 9/10. I couldn't give this full points, because it did smudge a bit on my hand after testing with water (look below)

Jealousness in black (waterproof)

Now I've put all eyeliners to the test, I'm glad to announce the top 3:
Here's another swatch picture of my winners. You'll see that the right side is a bit blurry, that's because I, again, put them to the water test.

*drumroll*

Top down: Maybelline Masterdrama - Jealousness - Catrice

 Results:

3. Catrice
2. Maybelline Masterdrama
1. Jealousness




The thing I like the most about all 3 eye liners is that they're all drugstore products. So they're affordable liners with a great staying power. I can't do anything but recommend these babies!

 

After testing these goodies, I'm still on the hunt for good eyeliners (yes, I'm obsessed, but so are you!) But tell me, do you know any good eyeliners that you happen to love? :)