MAC Surf Baby Collection for Summer 2011 !!

i'm so looking forward to the collection! bright bright colours! coral! teal! yellow! EVERYTHING!

my wishlist:

• my paradise blush coral orange w/ champagne gold flower
• surf the ocean crushed metallic pigment stack silver, aqua, gold, navy blue
• ocean dip nail lacquer aqua teal
• blue noon eyeliner teal
• gilded white eyeliner shimmering off-white
• saffron eyeshadow coral
• short shorts eyeshadow white champagne
• sun blonde yellow w/ gold pearl
• surf U.S.A aqua w/ teal pearl
• swell baby medium gray

really cant wait!! =D

frayed to order from jeanius collection by mac

^.^ my childhood friend ask me if i would like to tag along for the isetan private sale, [lol] of course i would love to! so we went there together with my boyfriend =) on friday.

im dying for a nice orange lipgloss/lipstick. unfortunately, no luck. BUT, i managed to buy something else thats on my wishlist, MAC eyeshadow in Print. its a satin finish with a tiny bit of fine glitter. love this shade, it really look like prints you see on newspaper. a great shade for the perfect smoky eye look =D.

and of course, i saw another collection, Jeanius by MAC. there's a few items on my wishlist too from that collection ( lol ).

pink cult to me was like a muted light pink. its really nice, but i have similar ones, so passed.
motorhead was nice, but not as pigmented as deep truth i would say. passed.
stovepipe black was just normale.
the lipsticks were blah.
but what i am really interested - frayed to order nail laquer.

i tried it on, indeed it is streaky as hell as mentioned on reviews. so there i was, undecided -.-"'

after sleeping on it, thats it, i went back to buy the very next day [lol].

love the matte finish with pink duochrome!

p/s: sorry no swatches yet cause my nails are really crappy now, since after the lunar new year. will try to post the swatches real soon!
and the new popsicles selling at starbucks taste pretty weird.

left: with UD primer. right: w/o primer

my boyfriend ^.^

late hauls !

the wonder woman collection was first launch in singapore on the 4th of march at tangs, and of course, i have to check it out cause the packaging seem so cute online.

went there with my boyfriend and a childhood friend of mine (the same girl that purchased the bh cosmetics 120 palette) on the very first day of launching, it was disappointing :'(

the packaging looks cheap in person IMO. the colours was not pigmented enough to my expectations. so i passed.

then my friend asked if the stila counter located at tangs is still around. luckily we decided to check out since we're there. i get to try out the stila smudge stick waterproof eyeliner in stingray for the 2nd time. this time i let the eyeliner sets for a few more secs before i start rubbing it. and i was so amazed, it didnt budge! so i went on trying out the rest of the colours available. and what really made me decided to purchase was the smudge stick in SILVER DOLLAR.

1st of all, both stingray and silver dollar applies like liquid, like butter, smooth and soft, no force needed.
2nd, the ability to not budge with my super-insane-rubbing skill is a huge huge HUGE plus point.
lastly, the silver dollar drives me nuts! the texture and finish are splendid! its like mercury!
they are, in my opinion, liquid eyeliner in pencil form and I LOVE IT!

if anyone, like me, have super watery + sensitive eyes, then stila smudge stick is the best eyeliner for your waterline! =D

bought another palette to keep all my blushes. love it.

side track, love my super huge ring from topshop ^.^

Eyebrows

eyebrows are the most important part as i feel it frames a person's features.

i guess most people wonder about achieving the perfectly drawn brows. be it eyebrow pencils or brow powder, the few key point to it is:-

• NEVER start filling in right from the start ( nearest to your nose bridge ) of your brows.
• only fill in at area(s) that are more sparse.
• start filling in from about 1/3 of the start of the brows with very light short stroke ( IMO ).
• slowly build the intensity as you don't want to over do and end up with "cockroach feelers".
• don't line the "perimeter" of your brows.

if you like to spend more time with your brows, u can use 2 shades of brow powder, the lighter one for the upper ( horizontally ) half, and the slightly darker one for the lower half. and i always fill in my brows before any eye makeup so that i can to take a look at it after spending time focusing on other areas, somehow its easier to spot which part of the brows needs to touch up to make them more symmetrical.
oh another trick that i love is to place the bottom of my palm slightly to one side of my chin to act as a pivot point and repeat the step on the other side. i feel that that why it's easier to make the more or less symmetrical too!

personally i use the ZA Ever Brows as i've pretty oily skin and so far it's the only pencil that doesn't turns "creamy" for a full day wear.

Review: BAD Gal Lash

as i've mention in my previous post - knowing the Unknowns, that i'd be posting pictures for the BAD Gal Lash swatches. here it is!

• natural lashes

• 1 coat

• 2 coats

hope you'll find the swatches helpful !

February Favourites

• Shu Uemura UV under base mousse
• Mac Prep+Prime Eye
• Sigma Buffer - F45
• Kiehl Lip Balm for Men
• MAC Kissable Lipcolour in Enchantee and Lip Pencil in In Synch
• Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion
• MAC De-vil
• Shu Uemura eyeshadow in 873
• Naked Palette ( Naked & Buck )
• Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencil in Flipside
• Nivea Extra Whitening Body Lotion

the UV under base mousse smoothens complexion while adding radiance with the pink shade or reducing redness with the beige shade. i use the beige shade, not only it makes my complexion looks better, my skin is less oily and doesn't turn oily as fast as before.
and i use MAC prep+prime eye for concealing dark circles instead of eyeshadow primer as its really very lightweight thus less cakey then my previous Clarin's Instant Light Perfecting Touch. it creamy and when applied it turns to powder finishing.

love the Sigma Buffer, totally not scratchy! previously i was using the Large Powder - F30 and it's a bit scratchy. so i bought their F45 to give it a try. i use it will my MAC Mineralize Skinfinish as using a kabuki brush to buff in minerialize skinfinish gives the most coverage.

using the UV under base mousse with the mineralize skinfinish is the base combination i have experienced so far ^.^

Kiehl's Lip Balm for Men is formulated for less shine, which i prefer that over shiny lip balms.

i find that Enchantee is abit too bluish for my preference, so i line and fill in my lips with In Synch, making it a warmer shade.

i used to use Clarin's Instant Light Eye Perfecting Base as a eyeshadow primer and it worked really well back then until i went to Hong Kong last year, somehow my eyeshadow creased in Hong Kong and even when i'm back in Singapore! the Urban Decay primer potion came in handy as i have two of the minis from the Naked Palette and Book of Shadow III, so i thought why not give it a try. i was kinda sceptical at first as it feels kinda oily to me when i rubbed my thumb and finger with just a tiny amount. but it proved me wrong!

im in this crazy mood that i keep using warmer shade eyeshadows, and the 4 shades listed above have been my go-to colours! to give it a twist, i wear it with Flipside [ again, will try and post a picture of it =p ].

i've stop using body lotions for a very long time ( about 2 years ), so i bought this lotion to give it a try. love the scent as i prefer citrus over sweet. it's not exactly citrus, but its definately not sweet scented IMO.

Coastal Scents

a week ago i ordered a few brushes from Coastal Scents. i actually wanted to place orders with Crown Brush, but shipping alone for 4 pencil brush is USD31 !so what i got from Coastal Scents were the Divine Large Eyeshadow Brush, Sable Contour Brush and Kabuki in a box. i've ordered from them a few times and shipping has always been pretty reasonable. 10 days from the day they shipped out the order till it reaches the mailbox. and so far they have always shipped out the very next day i've placed my orders.

i realised that their sable brushes are not scratchy on the skin whereas their goat hair brushes will. the kabuki brush is tiny bit scratchy, but taking the fact that i only paid about USD6, it's negligible [ LOL ].

they sell brush guard too. i got mine from coastal scents instead of the original brush guard website as shipping works out better this way.

i've tried quite a few of their micas and pigments too and i feel that their interfine, inter sparks, mirage, basically the inner corner or highlight shades works well. i especially love the Paradise Gold Fortune ( pretty similar to Too Faced eyeshadow in George & Weezie, just slighty warmer ) as it a very nice buttery colour, great for inner corner.
but their blues have big big problem as it almost doesnt apply at all. the rest of their shade are pretty okay, very shimmery.

as for their glitter powder, i only have eight of them out of 19. they are really sparkly and in comparison with the glitters that we can get in Singapore, Coastal Scents have a better range of colours IMO.

so if you are looking for cheap yet non-scratchy brushes, try their sable hair ones. if you're looking for highlight micas, they have really cheap ones with insane amount for sample size. and brush guard is definately a plus if u use blending brush as Asians have smaller eyes, therefore most blending brushes are so fluffy that it's actually easier to work with if you use the brush guard.

BH Cosmetics 2nd Edition 120 Colors Palette

2 weeks ago my childhood friend and i decided to purchase the 120 palette [ so excited! ] from BH Cosmetics. my friend got the 3rd edition, as for me, to satisfy my urge for colours, i got the 2nd edition.

the 3rd edition consist of mainly neutrals and some pastel colours, the 2nd edition consist of mainly bright/bold colours and a bit of neutrals.

im pretty satisfied with the purchase as the colours are quite pigmented in general. the frosted eyeshadows have better pigmentation, as usual, compared to the matte eyeshadows. some of the matte eyeshadows have pretty good pigmentation, and some not, for instance the yellows, you'll definately need a yellow base for the yellows to show up.

i wouldn't recommand doing the whole eye makeup with just the 120 palette alone as the finished look seems kinda flat ( i did 2 looks, one using all matte and another look using some matte and some frosted. will try and post pictures of it as i didnt take any photos ). i feel it's better to use, for example, the 120 palette for the lid and highlight and other brands like MAC or Shu for crease, it looks more 3-dimensional, more depth [ if you get what i mean ].

also, there's a couple of colours that's pretty similar. example, there's 2 butter frosted shadows, one of it is more of a golden tone and the other one is more of a yellowish tone. so if you do purchase, you might find that a few of the shades are quite close.

shipping was pretty fast, about a week or so. everything came in good condition, in a cardboard box filled with brown paper. the palette is sloted in a bubble wrap sleeve followed by the BH cosmetics packaging then another bubble wrap around it. the total cost for the 2nd edition is about SGD58 ( inclusive of half of the shipping fee ) and about SGD63 ( inclusive of half of the shipping fee ) as there's a 20% discount for the Valentines period =D

overall it's a worthwhile purchase if you wanna try out tons of different colours yet not spending tons of money.