Estee Lauder Pure Color Illuminating Powder Gelee

The Muse has reviewed on this product sometime back in July here and it has really captured my attention because she said this powder gelee has self healing properties...

I just happen to be at Bloomingdale's to pick up my La Mer so I checked this out at the EL counter.

Display of the Fall collection:

The display has been tested out pretty heavily, and I don't think the self healing properties really apply after such heavy usage:

With just one swipe, with a whiter lighting, looking very shimmery and silvery:

With a yellower lighting, still very shimmery but showing more bronzy:

blended at the back of my hand with whiter lighting:

With a redder lighting:

Pigmentation on a tissue napkin:

I think to be a highlighter, it's way too shimmery for me, so the only use I can think of is being an eyeshadow... but this powder gelee is a tad too big to be an eyeshadow for me and it will take me 9 lives to finish it!

I have shimmery eyeshadows in my current collection and a pretty close dupe I have is by the name of B&C Laboratories Inc. Makemania-Sparkle Glitter (Brown, the left one):

So, without the interesting self healing properties, I am not too interested in getting it, what do you'll think?

A little treat after my crazy deadline... Creme de La Mer!!

As my friends may know, sometimes when I am working on a deadline, I stay up till 4 or 5am in the morning, and after 3-4 hours of sleep, I start working again...


So that was my life 2 weeks ago for my deadline...


To reward my hard work, I placed an order for La Mer with Bergdorf Goodman a few weeks back here.


However, BG was so sneaky that they cancelled my deluxe GWP when they shipped my order. What's the point without the GWP?


So I refused the package when it arrived an went to Bloomingdales instead...


Voila!

Items purchased:

-The Luxury Essentials Set: 2oz Creme de La Mer, and the Eye Balm Instense 0.5oz, $350

-La Mer Lip Balm 0.32oz, $45

Offers:

-10% off

-$50 Bloomingdale's giftcard

GWP:

-2x The Eye Concentrate 0.1oz

-3x The Regenerating Serum 0.1oz

-2x Creme de La Mer 0.11oz

-1x The Moisturizing Lotion 0.1oz

-2x The Cleansing Gel 0.17oz

oh also, a rather not too flattering Bloomingdale's GWP travel bag which is bright teal colored....

Thank you to the BA that gave me loads of La Mer samples! And thanks to my lovely hubby with such great sweet talking skills!

Jill Stuart Holiday 2011 Fairy Garden Collection

As mentioned yesterday, A Touch of Blusher has a detailed review of this collection preview here.

This Jill Stuart Holiday 2011 Fairy Garden Fairy Collection is set to launch on November 4th in Japan. I got mine yesterday in the mail, 10 days before the launch day, right perfect before my birthday! I felt it like it a birthday present to myself!

"Christmas fairies invite you to happy moments."

How poetic! And inside the box is the original pouch, in a soft pink color:

Details of this pouch, definitely a princess feel to it and it reminded me of bridal evening gown details (that I have once looked into prior my banquet):

Details of the zipper, which is the same style to the "J" signature ornament/charm on the JS limited blush brushes.

Set according to official picture (credits to Chenyu's blog):

My coffret set:

The limited-edition Fairy Garden Collection set includes:

- Jewel Crystal Eyes
- Jelly Lip Gloss
- Loose Powder N
- Fragrance Sachet Duo Set
- original pouch

The fragrance sachets appears to be more of a peach and purple color in reality, but it doesn't really bother much to me, as I am not planning to open it and use this set anyways :) It will be my first collectible holiday coffret set :)

Borrowed from chenyu's blog, which is closer to the real colors of the sachet:

I admit the main reason I am into this coffret is because of the flowery prints on the casing of the eyeshadow. It reminds me of flying cherry blossoms, one of my favorite thing in the world:

Eyeshadow jewel crystal eyes 104 fragile opal and jelly lip gloss in 103 crystal kiss:

Eyeshadow colors from www.iswii.net

Actual colors of the eyeshadow:

At the first glance, I thought it really resembles something I got from the Jill Stuart jewel crystal eyes range, here I am comparing with limited edition 101 smoky quartz here:

More comparisons, from left to right, 104 fragile opal, 101 smoky quartz, 07 sweet amethyst, and 06 angelic topaz:

Don't you think the lighter pinks and deeper cool browns all look alike?

Next up, it's the Jill Stuart loose powder N in 101 twinkle dust:

Loose powder N picture from chenyu's blog:

It comes with a matching elastic band with tulle, but I don't really see myself using it anyways....

Finally, it's the jelly lip gloss in 103 crystal kiss:

Details of a bling on the tube's cap:

Image from Chenyu's blog:

Again, with the cherry blossom like flower petals that capture my heart on the tube. And the shimmery pink color looks lovely as well. I also know that JS lip glosses are quite sheer and they are tad on the sticky side, but it doesn't bug me much as I don't intend to use this set anyways and they are just too pretty to be used anyways!!!

Latest beauty haul, featuring Jill Stuart Holiday 2011 Fairy Garden Collection Teaser!

Guess what show up in the mail today?

A package of items I ordered from Hong Kong last week! Shipping is rather quick for this round! In exactly 1 week I received the items I ordered!

Woot! Ready for the surprise? Can you guess what is behind the bubble wrap?

Voila! Jill Stuart Holiday 2011 Fairy Garden Collection, as feature by A Touch of Blusher here. 

It is supposed to be released on November 4th in Japan, but I ordered mine on October 17th and received today on October 24th, 10 days earlier than the official launch date!!

Contents:

A little more items I ordered along with this same shipment, which includes the Jill Stuart lip compact and discontinued highlighter from last X'mas coffret set.

I admit that I am becoming like a Jill Stuart collector as a lot of times I find their items too pretty to be used.... The highlighter and the lip compact is definitely is going to be housed in the museum of fishball's collection.

And sole reason why I decided to haul this X'mas set is because the flowery pattern that resembles cherry blossom petals... how superficial I am...

Stay tuned for more reviews coming up!!!

Zoya Nail Polish in Caitlin

Hello peeps! Sorry about the long MIA... Just been through a terrible 80 hour deadline week, and I am just recovering...


And I haven't have the time do my own nails, or even do proper make up in the past 2 weeks...


As I passed by Ulta the other day, I spotted this Zoya nail polish in "Caitlin":

Ulta has always carry Zoya, but the collection hasn't been too complete. It just happened that my beauty pal, Miss Elain-nio one told me that Zoya's quality is way above OPI so I guess I wanted to give Zoya a try.


Plus I want to get a grayish purple nail color that is suitable for the fall season.


Caitlin is very interesting color. Even this is just a high gloss color without any shimmers or glitters, its color change on my nails according different lighting.


1. Natural daylight
-looking more like pastel purple here

2. Daylight desktop lamp

-Now it looks a little less pastel color, more gray showing up here.

3. Under fluorescent light

-Really showing off the glossiness, and more purples showing up here.

4. Under halogen light (yellow lighting):

-Now it is definitely showing more grays because of the yellow lighting

Zoya's polishes are definitely pigmented. Just one coat alone deliver high gloss and nice coverage! I am beginning to like its quality!

But sadly Zoya does not really have much buy 2 get 1 free promos like OPI, and their collection is much less than OPI's in my local Ulta...

Next, I am aiming Butter London nail polishes with my Ulta 20% off in-store coupon. I have also heard good things about Butter London, and I would not have consider that without a 20% as for $14 a pop, they are quite pricy! Stay tuned!!

DIY wedding card

For Psyche and Richard's wedding, I would like to hand craft a personalized card for them instead of buying something off the self...

I added a personal touch at the back of the card with my hand writing:

I have seen some tutorials online for making this kind of "double-slider" card. You pull the ribbon tab on the top:

The top and bottom reveal a hidden message (this is taken prior to writing our "special" message to the newly weds!):

Fun, huh? Stay tuned for another DIY card project I made!

Naruko Taiwan custom order

Naruko has been one my favorites since I have been following Fuzkitte and this brand has been her HG as well.

It was not until recently that Naruko has a US website but their prices are pretty much jacked up and their collection is not as complete as their Taiwanese website counterpart. And the other thing that turned me off is their lack of value sets and GWP.

So I have been getting my Naruko dose from a Taiwanese custom purchase and I picked up a few items that I would like to try and items will be ordered from Naruko TW web directly and sent to a shipper in Taiwan. Then my items are being resent to me in the US.

So, if any of the bloggers here are interested in getting custom order from Naruko TW, please drop me a note and email address. 

EMS, Airmail, and SAL are available shipping options. If you are ordering in bulk, the prices are much better than Naruko US's site!

Maybelline Eyestudio in 05 Caffeine Rush

I know this is not something new, and the Muse has talked about it here back in August.

I have purchased this when there was a B1G1 for 50% off at CVS a while ago and have sent the wilder colors (purples and pinks, and soon another blue!) off to my beauty pals in Singapore (hello! Elaine!) and also my lovely Japanese friend Momo-chan who is a big fan of US drugstore cosmetics.

I actually got quite excited when I saw this released in the US market because back in early spring I saw something similar at the Sony Plaza's website... but with a whopping 1260yen (over $16usd!!)

From Maybelline Japan's website:

Aeon's online website, only 4 colors available:

For our own US version of this quint palette:

The US version has wilder and louder colors while the Japan version is more subtle, with a deeper liner color on the top triangle, while the US palette has been replaced by a top triangle of glitter bomb. Not too practical in my opinion... less is more, so to say :)

Moving on to the subject: 05 Caffeine Rush. It's a nice nude brown color, with the exception of the top glitter pan which is not nude/natural at all:

Swatches on the back of my hand:

Under shade

Under day lighting

Slightly blurred to show the gold glitters 

ETOD look:

The colors are more washed out and they do look nude in the pictures under the grayish afternoon sun in the fall.

The glitters doesn't really show up and look quite washed out.

But as the sun was setting while we were heading out to had dinner, I bust out my iphone to snap some pictures that best capture the glitters, it's quite gorgeous:

(sorry for the blur, but this the best way to show the glitter)

I have not notice any fall outs, and the quality is great as a drugstore brand. There isn't much smudging that I have noticed. This palette can be quite versatile, if you choose to use the the 4 regular shades for a daytime look, or layer it with the top triangle glitter for a sparkly nighttime look.

So even Japan has their earlier version of a similar eyeshadow palette, my buddy Momo-chan still wanted me to haul 2 for her. I guess a $10.99 price tag with a B1G1 for 50% off is a nice deal compared to a $16 price tag each for its Japanese counterparts. It's almost 50% cheaper here!