Friday, September 30, 2011

Wedding Day go-er, featuring Lunasol Water Gel foundation


August 21, 2011 is the big day for my friend Psyche and her newly married husband Richard. I have known Psyche eversince in our primary school days (a whopping 20 years ago!!!)

It's interesting that after 2 decades, we are still living in the same city away from home!



A sneak peak of her fab wedding. Instead of a first dance, they have a first duet together (their love story began from an orchestra rehearsal a few years ago!)


Interesting huh?

For this wedding go-er look, I selected something more dramatic. I rarely use blue eyeshadows on a daily basis (my daily eyeshadow picks is nude and browns!), but this time, I reach out for my Lunasol EX-02 Vacation Ocean:




Something different from my usual makeup, right? And I apply half a falsies on the outer half of my lash too...

It compliments with the blue tie my significant other half picked too!



The ceremony was held in a small chapel close by our house. I was using Lunasol Water Gel foundation (which was a tad too dark for me, so I mix it with Shu Uemura BB mousse and dust it off with Mac MSF in medium light). As it's the height of summer, the chapel gets rather stuffy inside with all the wedding guests.... Look at my honey for a sweating face! My foundation was staying put without becoming a grease head!


FOTD tools:
Face: Shu Uemura BB mousse in medium beige, Lunasol Water Gel foundation in OC-4, MAC Mineralize Skin Finish in Medium Light, MAC Semi-Precious MSF in Crystal Pink as blush (not shown)
Eyes: Jill Stuart Eye Jelly N in Satin Lingerie, Lunasol Ocean Scene Eyes in EX-02 Vacation Ocean, Dollywink liquid eyeliner, Urban Decay Pencil liner in Stash, Heroine Make Lengthening mascara
Lips: Lunasol liquid lips EX-03 in Clear Rose and MAC dazzleglass in Sublime Shine
Tools: my HG Mizuho face brush!

That's it for now. Thank you for reading on!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Maquillage Essence Glamorous Rouge in RS 595 *Chu-New-Lip*


A while ago, I received a Maquillage lip brochure + sample from a love package from Japan but haven't get the time to explore. 

Maquillage Essence Glamourous Rouge is their newest range of liquid lipsticks for summer of 2011. My blogger pal, Jie Jie, just recently got hold of RS 794 and did a detailed review here.

More pictures from the brochure:



It even comes with sample from all 6 colors in the collection, plus an applicator. But I haven't try them out as they are quite pretty look at. (plus with one applicator only, do I need to wash it everytime I try a new color??)



Color range:



So after some weeks, I saw this RS 595 at $180hkd (roughly $23) plus shipping, so I thought maybe I would like to give it a try. It's the deepest color in the range and I don't usually get dark lipsticks, but maybe it will work out for my bold lips look this fall!



Japanese are really good at packaging design. The casing looks like a piece of jewel and it's very nice!



On the first glance, it does appear to be a bit dark... a dark mauve/rose color:



Swatching it on the back of my hands, it's much more rosy than it looks on the applicator!



And it's quite shiny under the light:



Applying the liquid lipstick on my mouth:



You can see fine shimmers more clearly in this picture:



Liquid lipsticks is one of my recently found love. I like lipglosses for the shine and liquid lipsticks is a happy marriage between lipstick and lipgloss-providing both color and shine~

In terms of their lasting powers, this liquid lip lasted at least 6 hours without reapplying. And it stays put even if I am drinking too. Of course by the 6th hour you won't be seeing as much shine as a fresh application and I am amazed by their staying power....

In terms of their texture, I do not find it sticky at all, and it's highly similar to the Lunasol liquid lips I reviewed earlier here. Maquillage is as equally moisturing and I love the subtle color it offers (though a little more pigmented comparing to Lunasol's). And it does what it promised-it plump up my lips a bit (especially my upper lips!), compared to this picture from Lunasol liquid lips:

Lunasol Liquid Lips EX-02 Clear Coral Peach



I am very happy with the Maquillage Essence Glamorous Rouge. I am planning to get BE 790, RD 791 and PK 393 next time if I have a chance!

Finally ending with a FOTD look featuring the Esprique Blend Dimensional Eyes (Deep) in B-1 for a fall look. It will be reviewed later on a separate post:

I am still around!

I am still alive! I haven't forgotten about this blog!


Sorry I haven't been able to do much updates with my blog lately. I just wrap up with a crazy deadline and my boss flew to China for a presentation of a project that I have been working on intensively the past 2 weeks...


Intensively meaning 80+ hours a week... not much sleep and my biological clock is all messed up!!


And you don't want to know how pissed off I got during the crunch time...


Anyways, to reward my hard work, my love got a little something...


*Drum roll* plzzzz~


It's La Mer!


But of course, everything has to pass under the strict scrutiny of the Queen of the Deals, aka, fishball!


Saks Fifth Avenue had a set of GWP for a $300 La Mer purchase that includes a sample sized La Mer creme, eye cream, serum, and facial wash.


I had my eyes set on a value set in Saks but as I was checking out, I was told that the GWP is sold out.


Bummer!


But I won't give up. 


After searching a few more deparment store, I landed on Bergdorf Goodman:



Basically the same set with the exception there is a free pouch and they are giving away a body cream instead of a facial wash.


However, Bergdorf Goodman doesn't carry any La Mer value sets, so I need to buy indivdual items.


But I also realized that since our state doesn't have  Bergdorf Goodman store, my order will qualify as tax free!


Plus I dig out a free shipping code too!


And I notice they are doing a beauty promo event, spend $500 and get $75 free. I had a hard time deciding what other La Mer products I want other than an eye cream and signature creme de La Mer (since the GWP has it all) I landed on a Chanel foundation and eyeshadow.




I would have spend about the same price with Saks, but now I save on taxes and shipping, plus getting 2 Chanel items... emmm, did I score a deal here?

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

FOTD, Featuring Jill Stuart Jelly Eye Color N 10 Vintage Decor and Lunasol Water Gel Foundation


My first Jill Stuart Jelly Eye N was in the color 104 Satin Lingerie, which has been reviewed here.

Since then I really like the texture and the lasting properties of this Jelly Eye because unlike other cream shadows which will crease on me, this doesn't. I am extremely jealous of Miss Elain-nio's Jelly Eye project as she managed to find other beauty pals that would like to split different colors with her so she can sample more colors in one go (since these jellies tend to dry out over time)...

I am not really the kind that like to waste things so after considering what colors I would like to use the most, I picked up this Jill Stuart Jelly Eye Color N in 10 Vintage Decor.

Cute little packaging:







Typical of Jill Stuart's make up items, they all look very royal and princessy. There is a light different on the rim of the cap with my other LE one, which has some black lacey prints over it:



Swatches. A swipe of jelly at the back of my hand:



Fully blended out:



Under sunlight, you can see the sparkly shimmers:





I have used the following items for my look this time:

Face
Shu Uemura BB Mousse in Medium Beige (limited edition)
Lunasol Water Gel Foundation in OC-4
MAC Mineralize Skin Finish in Medium
MAC Surf, Baby! My Paradise blusher (limited edition)
My favorite makeu tools: Beauty Blender in Mizuho Face Blush <3

Eyes
Jill Stuart Jelly Eye Color N in 104 Satin Lingerie
Jill Stuart Jelly Eye Color N in 10 Vintage Decor
Lunasol Ocean Scene Eyes in EX-01 Shelly Ocean (limited edition): used the darkest brown as eyelining
Urban Decay 24/7 Pencil Liner in Oil Slick
Majolica Majorca mascara

Lips
Shu Uemura lipstick in 956
MAC lipgloss 

EOTD in natural daylight:



Under candescent lightbulb, the shimmers are more noticeable:



And under florescent light, my FOTD look:

Fresh application

8 hours later...

As you can see there is no smudging or fall out at all for the Jill Stuart Jelly Eye color N. I am impressed. For the Lunasol Water Gel Foundation, there is indeed significant of oiling out on my T-zone areas, but that's 8 hours later, and at the height of the summer, so after a hot day outdoors without any blotting or NO touch ups, I look like this when I got home and is about the cleanse my face and shower. I tried other foundations before and there are worse greasing foundation than this, so I am happy. Only I wish I didn't get the wrong shade as this foundation oxidizes a bit on me and I look a tad darker towards the end of the day....

Friday, September 16, 2011

Mini Lunasol Haul - Water Gel Foundation & Full Glamour Liquid Lips


Lately I saw some good deals with Lunasol items from my usual Hong Kong seller of Japanese cosmetics brand, so I decided to pick up a few Lunasol items, a foundation and 2 lippies ;)


Lunasol Water Gel Foundation

I have always wanted to try Lunasol Water Gel Foundation because of the good oil control properties, however this 30g usually cost over $60usd over the internet... I got mine at $189hkd thinking it was a great deal, but I did a boo-boo and ordered a shade too dark....

I got OC-4 (should have ordered OC-3 to match my skin tone):



At 30g, this foundation comes with SPF 25 PA++, retailing at 4500yen and Adambeauty has it for $399hkd or $57usd:



(browsing through its ingredient list, it also contain parabens as the second last ingredient on the list.)

This foundation comes with a sponge and a little white plastic pouch to hold the sponge. The foundation packaging itself is like a tooth paste squeeze tube with a screw cap in the usual Lunasol bronze color. B



Quite a creamy consistency:



Blended out fully, you can notice the color is a tad too dark for me (see red arrow). But I think I can make it work by blending it with foundations that are a tad to light for me...



I will be doing a FOTD looking featuring this Lunasol Water Gel Foundation in a later post.


Lunasol Full Glamour Liquid Lips



Lately I have been on a liquid lipstick roll because I like the ease of application with the sponge tip applicator and how the texture is like, somewhere between the texture of a lipgloss (ease of spreading) and the colors of a regular lipstick.

This time I got 2 colors, EX02: Clear Coral Pink, which is a peachy coral color and EX03: Clear Rose, which is a mauve pink color.

Swatches:



Both colors appear a bit shear on my lips, but that is expected, as I am not a big fan of bright mauvy colors (EX03) on my look

Applying it on my lips:

EX02 Clear Coral Peach
EX03 Clear Rose