December 2013 Haul

I recently went back to Singapore and Malaysia for yet another holiday. Now, if you remember my previous haul, you'd know that I bought some goodies from Singapore. YSL to be more exact. This time round, I did not buy anything from Singapore because duty-free prices seem to have gone up. On the other hand, I had the opportunity to shop to my heart's desire at Sephora while I was in Malaysia.

Here's a list of what I bought.
1. Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush in Blissful
2. Kiss Me Heroine Make Long & Curl Mascara
3. Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Turn On
4. Kiss Me Heroine Make Mascara Remover
5. Benefit Hydra-Smooth Lip Color in Dare Me
6. MAC Brush #109
7. Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Lip Pencil in Ozone
8. Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Rockstar
9. Urban Decay Naked Skin in 4.0
10. Shu Uemura Heart and Flower by Murakami S Curler
11. Benefit Brow Zings

Individual reviews and swatches to come! I can't wait to share with you my opinion of these products. I've tested quite a few of them out and I look forward to announcing my favourites.

Have you tried any of these products? Which are your favourites? 

Wicked Wednesday: Emily Blunt Inspired Makeup Tutorial

I wasn't aware of Emily Blunt (and her gorgeousness) until recently. I only noticed her after seeing the poster for the movie Five-Year Engagement. At first, I thought "Huh, interesting. Who is this actress?" I only started to get to know her (impersonally, of course) when I came across a small feature of her in an article written on Primped. A couple of weeks back, I was reading the June issue of madison (I take forever to read/finish a magazine) when I found an article on her in it.

The large photo of her (I believe, at the Tribeca Film Festival 2012) really caught my attention.The more I looked at the photo, the more I realise how amazing the makeup look she wore was! It's such a versatile look! It can go with practically any outfit, whether it's casual or formal.

Emily nailed her black eyeliner by having it nice and thick but not too flicked (or at least her makeup artist did). I also liked how the black eyeliner was balanced out with some gold shimmering eyeshadow under her eyes. I think that fuchsia is an all-rounder; you can wear it during both warmer and colder months. I'm currently obssessed with this lip colour so I'm giving Emily two thumbs-up for wearing it! Lastly, to avoid looking like a clown, Emily had her blush applied oh-so-subtly to her cheeks. Kudos to you and your makeup artist, Emily!

I love this look so much that I decided to recreate it. Besides that, I think that this look is universally flattering and I would like to show everyone that it can be easily achieved!

Step 1. I started off by covering my blemishes with concealer. You can put on foundation if you like, I just chose not to. Just remember to powder your face afterwards because for this look, Emily's skin was quite matte.

Step 2. For the eyeshadow, I used Urban Decay's Naked Palette in Half Baked. You don't have to use this particular eyeshadow. Any (lighter) gold shimmering eyeshadow will do.

Step 3. This step is optional. I applied the gold eyeshadow all over my lid and stopped before my crease.

Step 4. I lined my lower lash line with the same gold eyeshadow. Using a pencil brush would be best but since I have yet to own one, I just used the edge of my stiff eyeshadow brush (from Urban Decay).

The last picture is to show you what you'll end up with after you're done with these steps.

Step 5. Line your eyes with either black liquid or gel eyeliner. And do so thickly. Create a tiny flick at the end. Keep in mind that we are not aiming for cat eyes here. I used Bobbi Brown's matte black eyeshadow and a wet angled liner brush.

Step 6. Curl your lashes if necessary.

Step 7. Apply generous coats of mascara to your lashes. Don't forget to apply mascara to your bottom lashes as well. Emily's lashes looked very long but not particularly voluminous, you may want to choose a lengthening mascara if you want to stick as close to the original look as possible (but it really depends on your needs). I used Rimmel's Scandaleyes mascara, which is both lengthening and volumising on my lashes.

At the end of Step 7, my eyes looked like this. You may add false lashes if you wish (for more drama) but Emily kept her lashes looking quite natural.

Step 8. Moving on to the lips, I slicked on Revlon's Colorburst Lip Butter in Lollipop. This is my current favourite lipstick/balm and I will be posting up a review soon!

Step 9. I stopped at Step 8 but you may add a light blush if you wish. So ta-da! This is my finally look!

With more sunlight.

With less sunlight.

With effects.

Do you like this look? What do you think of my tutorial? I'd love some feedback, thanks!

Triple S: Photoshoot

I did this photoshoot at the start of the year to enter a photo competition. Just thought I'd share with you guys a couple of photos and the products I used to achieve the look.

For my face, I used:
- Bobbi Brown Natural Finish Foundation in Warm Beige
- Bobbi Brown Concealer in Warm Beige
- Bobbi Brown Sheer Finish Powder in Soft Sand
- Brown Brown Illuminating Bronzer in Aruba
- Bobbi Brown Blush in Nude Peach

Okay, so that soundsed like a lot of Bobbi Brown products. Allow me to rephrase: "For my face, the Bobbi Brown Makeup Artist used". Yes, so for my base, I did a 20 minute Secret To Perfect Skin lesson since that is the only way I could pull off a flawless face for the camera.

Moving on, for the eyes, I used:
- Urban Decay Naked Palette eyeshadows in Virgin, Sin and Toasted
- Bobbi Brown Eyeshadow in Matte Black as eyeliner
- Clinique High Impact Mascara
- MAC False Eyelashes in #33

Lastly, for my lips, I used Bobbi Brown Lip Gloss in Nougat (which went perfectly with the Nude Peach blush).

I would like to thank my wonderful photographer, RLD Photos.

Wicked Wednesday: Whoops! Too Much Liner?

I finally bought myself an angled eyeliner brush (ecoTools) and a lash/brow brush (manicare). I've only ever used a slightly rounded eyeliner brush by Bobbi Brown and I have to say that it's hard to do the cat eye with it.  Don't get me wrong, it's a good quality brush and I love it. So I tested out ecoTools' angled eyeliner brush, by wearing a cat eye look to work.

 My colleague said she liked what I did with my eye makeup but I'm not so sure about my customers. They were probably cringing inside at the sight of me. I think I over did it. It didn't help that I was wearing a strong eye colour: Smog from Urban Decay's Naked Palette.

It's uneven, I know. I still need more practice! But I did have fun trying to achieve this look. I probably should have saved it for a night out instead of wearing it for work! Oh well, I just hope that my good customer service made up for it.

I have to say that I'm quite impressed with ecoTools. Not only is the brush affordable, it's of good quality too. It's feels soft to the touch but it's stiff enough to create some nifty eyeliner looks. The manicare's lash brush is alright. It separates my "mascara-ed" lashes but not as much as I want it to. I guess I still haven't quite gotten the hang of it.

I hope you enjoyed this post! Do you wear the cat eye to work? Do you think it's appropriate for work? Comment below and share your thoughts!

Review: Urban Decay Lipstick in Naked

I haven't posted for quite a number of days because I've been busy working and my internet had exceeded its download limit. To keep things short and sweet, I'm going to jump straight into the review.

Remember my complain about how short the lipstick is? Well, maybe I was exaggerating a little. You can't blame me. If you read this post, you'd understand. I compared it with my MAC lipstick and it actually isn't that much shorter. So you do get a fair amount of product. (Is it just me or did lipstick lengths shorten over the years?)

I did a swatch. At certain light angles, you can see sparkles or minute glitter in it. I didn't expect that. I thought it was just going to be a simple matte lipstick. I don't know if you can see it but there's definitely shiny bits in this lipstick.

Here's another shot at a slightly different angle. It looks more matte here.

Here's a "Before" photo (of my bare lips).

Here's an "After" photo with one coat of the lipstick. 

It's a very pretty nude pink. I'm very happy with it. It's creamy and much less dehydrating than my MAC Plink! lipstick. It's very pigmented. As you can see it shows up even on my very pink lips. You can just tell it's a good quality lipstick. It has no funny chermical smell to it. One down side to it is that it's very bulky and heavy, not something you can stuff into your tiny evening purse. For more on the packaging, read my previous post on this lipstick.

I purchased this lipstick from beautybay.com at AUD20 (excluding shipping). If you have any other questions, feel free to drop a comment!

Enjoy.

Birthday Online Haul

I went on a frenzy shopping online for my birthday last year. The items finally arrived two weeks ago but I didn't get around to taking photos and posting them up until now. I won't go through all of them because you can already see them in the photo. The box between the false lashes and brushes is a lip liner from Benefit. The big black box contains a Good Karma crease brush from Urban Decay. All Benefit items were bought from their website and all Urban Decay items were purchased from BeautyBay.com

I was really excited about the UD lipstick. I loved how pretty and purple it looked, especially in it's box! I bought the colour "Naked" because, apparently, it's one of the best nude colours around.


Now it saddens me to report this but uncapping the lipstick the first time was agony! I spent half an hour trying to open it. The little dagger thing doesn't give you a lot of room or grip. It was capped on so tight that my fingers turned red from pulling at the dagger. I even tried running some warm water over the cap to get it to expand. I had to Google it to see if anyone could shed some light on how I can pry the thing open! I was really really frustrated. I twisted and pulled at the thing for a long time. Finally, after LOTS and LOTS of twisting and turning, I pulled and it gave. I managed to open it! Hoorah! But wait, as though I wasn't already put off by the whole experience, the lipstick itself was very short, compared to MAC and Rimmel. They did not give me a lot of product!


It was such an anticlimatic and exhuasting experience that I put the lipstick away afterwards, without swatching it or trying it on. I've been really busy so I still haven't had the time to try any of the products that I bought. I'm not joking. That's why there are no reviews for this post. I'll definitely be reviewing this lipstick (in terms of its quality) when I have the time.

My Addiction to All Things Makeup

It feels wonderful to be truly back and participating in the blogging community. That's right. You guessed it! We finally have internet at home!! I'm beyond euphoric. It took us two months to get it because the stupid company kept stuffing up our order! Anyway, better move on before I sink into a bad mood about that matter...

I've been wanting to do "haul posts" for a while now but I haven't had the time and the access to internet to do it. So this is a "collective haul post" and I'm doing it in chronological order.

In October, I went on a mini shopping spree to reward myself for doing well in a few quizzes. I bought a MAC lipstick, Katy Perry's perfume Purr and a red lipliner from Natio.


Out of all the items, I think I was most excited about the MAC lipstick because it's my first one. Well, it's not my first lipstick per se. My first one is a Rimmel London lipstick in red. Anyway, this one is pink and it's called Plink!. Isn't that cute name? It's under the Lustre range and it's a pretty pink with shine and very minute bits of (what appears to be) glitter in it. When applied, it looks a bit sheer (like semi-matte) but it's obvious that you're wearing a pink lipstick! I love it so much that I wear it everytime I go to work.


I used to be a member on dropdeadgorgeousdaily.com and I earned a fair bit of DDGD$, which I could exchange for some "SWAG". I exchanged almost all of my points for a Natio set. It looked like such a good deal that I couldn't resist. After all, it was free! The set consists of a mascara, a liquid eyeliner and an eyeshadow palette. I haven't used any of the items yet. I initially wanted to do a giveaway on my blog with the eyeshadow palette but I somehow managed to make a big scratch on its plastic top that I see it not fit as a giveaway item.


The eyeshadow palette contains four colours. The shades are called Light, Gold, Bronze and Black. I must say that the "Bronze" looks more like a "Brown" and the "Black" looks more like a "Navy".


I've been wanting Urban Decay's Naked Palette for quite a few months now. I've read so many blog reviews and watched so many Youtube reviews and tutorials that I was convinced that my life would not be complete without it. So at the start of November, I ordered myself one from beautybay.com (I made sure there was a discount going on first!) and by the time it arrived, my end-of-semester exams were over. The timing was perfect.


In case you've never heard or seen the Naked Palette, this is what it looks like. It is the ultimate eyeshadow palette. All its colours are neutrals and so it is universally flattering. It comes with an eyeshadow brush and a small bottle of their famous Primer Potion (eye primer).


Here's a quick swatch that I did for each colour. I was a bit stingy so you may not be able to see the colours well on my skin. Do Google or Youtube it. It's AMAZING! Here's my favourite Naked Palette tutorial done by itsjudytime. My favourite colours are Virgin, Sin, Toasted and Hustle. So if you're a makeup-junkie-to-be, I suggest you get this palette. I can positively say that when it comes to eye makeup you can survive on this palette alone because you can come up with tons of looks with these 12 beautiful colours.


Then, came the dinner that I organised to celebrate mine and R's birthdays with some friends. That evening, I purchased a pair of MAC false lashes and wore it to the dinner. R was the one to pick them out and boy did he have a good eye! I'll upload a good photo of my makeup for the night once I get hold of them. It's on R's camera. I also bought a really gorgeous pair of Shu Uemura lashes a couple of weeks but I forgot to take a photo of it. I'll save that for my next beauty post. It costed me a lot of money but it's so beautiful that I reckon it's worth it.

But here's a photo of me wearing makeup for Christmas using the Naked Palette and my MAC lashes. And yup, that's my best friend Nop who was visiting me at the time.


Phew! We're finally at the end! You must be thinking. I actually wanted to put up more photos but I thought that it'd make this post way too long. So if you'd like to see more photos (up close shots) of the Naked Palette or my makeup for my birthday dinner and Christmas, just leave a comment below. If you'd like me to review any of the items that I've mentioned, please leave a comment as well. I hope you've enjoyed reading this post as much as I've enjoyed writing it!