Kim Yuna is Gold

Sorry for the lack of updates. I really was meaning to update frequently this week but I got sick...like horribly so T_T but now I'm recovering and its heading toward the weekend so as I rest up, I figure I should update but it takes me sooo long to do an update (like hours really -_- i need to figure out a more efficient way) but i swear it will come tomorrow.

But for tonight, it's just dedicated to Kim Yuna :) my new obsession heh <3

I watched her performance 3 times tonight: streaming online real time, on tv, and replayed on nbc online xD best performance ever...definitely in a league of her own~

and i just have to say, jype sucks because Kim Yuna deserves better than that >:(

Pretty in Pink

Um so it's definitely not a tutorial since I didn't take pictures of each step and the only thing I ended up with is a final look. So a V-day inspired (since valentine's has technically passed) EOT:

 

I know you can't tell in the picture, but in real life, the color is a lot more pink and much brighter. Tools used to achieve the look:

-Stila all doll'd up palette (peach, champagne, & pink) [swatches coming real soon~]

-MAC engraved powerpoint eyepencil

-MAC zoomlash mascara (about 4~5 layers) [hard to see in picture but it's a lot more dramatic in real life]

To finish up the look, I applied Benefit's Posietint on the cheek and on my lips Mac Please Me + Love Nectar Lipglass [which I didn't photograph because the color really didn't show for my lips and I don't like taking pictures of my cheek area cuz of my horrible skin]

Hope everyone had a great President's Holiday. I know I did~ :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy V-day~! (or S.A.D = single's awareness day...)

Sorry for sucha late post o.o I wanted to post something earlier but had an unbelievable schedule this week. But anyways, hope everyone got some kind of chocolate from friends, s/o, etc. I received handmade chocolate that was just sooo cute I had to share:

And finally cuz I thought this was so cute:

Tomorrow (or today) I guess now, I will have a valentine's day look and then later this week, I will have swatches of the all doll'd up palette as well as round 2 of my eyeliner series :)

Etude House Color Me Nude Lip Concealer Review

 Net wt: 4.5g

 Price: 4,500W (around $4)

 Natural concealment of lip blemishes holds makeup for long lasting lip makeup expression

Natural skin tone colored makeup conceals lip blemishes with smooth textured foundation that raises lipstick or gloss presentation and durability.

Formulated with silicone coating powder supplies a moist adhesive layer that holds lip color cleanly.

Formulated with vitamin E derivative and mango butter for lip lubrication and nourishment.

That's the official description.

Compared to a chapstick, slightly bigger

 

Swatch on my hand:

 

My bare lip with the chapstick:

With the EH concealer on (lighting really sucks but it looks ghastly pale):

With MAC Please Me on top:

Lip Concealers are generally to concealer your lips natural color and prime them for lipstick or gloss. Supposedly when your lips are primed with a concealer your glosses and lipsticks appear more vibrant and bright! MAC has a version called Lip Erase (available only for PRO I believe) that comes in a pot and this this seemed like a cheaper dupe so I tried it (although since I never tried the MAC one, I can't really compare)

As you can see, it definitely lightens the color of your lips.

Pros:

• cheap compared to other alternatives if you get it in Korea but I believe it's still cheaper than MAC even if you get it on ebay
• easy application
• does a pretty good job in concealing lip color

Cons:

• not available in US (except online)
• brings attention to dry, flaky lips & lines

Overall, if you're into this kinda stuff, it's worth trying out. For me, it was meh. I thought instead of making the color more vibrant, it mutes it since the whiteness from the concealer seems to absorb some of the color. If you compare the Please me swatch with the concealer to the one without, I do think that the one with the concealer is a truer pink, but in person it looks more white-ish. As in the color doesn't seem as vibrant when I use the concealer, which is ironic since it's supposed to make it brighter I think. Hard to describe exactly. As for me, it's a product I can live without.

3/5

Eyeliner Showdown Take 1

This is the first in my eyeliner series that I plan to do. Like many people I have been searching high and low for that HG eyeliner and I will share my results with you, some by comparing similar products and others by itself.

Round 1 - Rimmel Exaggerate Waterproof Eyeliner in 261 Noir (RE) vs Etude House Proof 10 Auto Pencil in #1 Proof Black (EH)

Description:
Rimmel (from website) Strong sexy eyes continue to smoulder from the catwalks. Rimmel's innovative formula gives you the color that hits you right between the eyes.

Etude House (from box): Proof 10's waterproof eye pencil supplies clean, intense definition for a long lasting, Perfect 10 smoky eye look. Comes with sharpener for fine line application.

I just wanted to comment, I give Etude House mad props for having English on their box and not Engrish . In the Korean part of the box, it mentions having Vitamin C & Vitamin E and aloe powder for soft application, but not sure how true that is.

Packaging:
RE - Black, has a clear cover at tip to cover the smudger at the end (but I lost it so it's not in the picture, has sharpener
EH - Dark blue looks more sleek & elegant imo but no smudger at end, has sharpener

They twist equally well, they're both almost exactly the same size, have the exact same amount of product. I personally find the design of the Etude House prettier but Asian products tend to care a lot at making their products look really pretty. The smudger on the Rimmel is handy and something that the Etude one does not have. They both have sharpeners that work well and is at the end of the pencil. I personally think the Rimmel sharpener works better because it seems to take less of the product off but I guess in that sense the Etude one can shape to a sharper point so you can decide which is more important to you. Personally I wouldn't be the type to sharpen automatic pencils anyways because you're just wasting the product and it usually doesn't get flat enough where I feel the need to sharpen it unless it breaks off which actually happened with my Rimmel during testing >,<.

Swatch without base (EH = left, RE = on the right for all pictures)

Pigmentation:
RE - high pigmentation
EH - med pigmentation

With one swipe of the pencils, the Rimmel comes out an intense black where the Etude you have to draw it more than once to get the same level of darkness. However, they are both capable of reaching the same intense black color so it just means you just have to try a little harder on the Etude, but not noticably so.

Smudge Proof?
RE -High smudgeability
EH - Med smudgeability

I know smudgeability is not a word, but for now it will be. I think because the Rimmel is darker and puts on more product in one swipe than the Etude, it has more product to smudge also.

Waterproof?
RE - Low WP
EH - Med WP

I rubbed a water soaked cotton pad across the swatch. As you can see in the picture, with water, the Rimmel spreads out more than the Etude. Neither are completely waterproof since the color fades from both
 
Durability? 
RE - few hours
EH - few hours

So I pretty much have the oiliest eyelids I've ever seen so eyeliner tends to disappear on me. Like it melts off my eyelids like I never applied it. Yay for super oily monolids -_- but yep they both disappear on me so I can't really give them points for it. I applied at 10am, when I checked at 2pm (almost 4 hours later) it was pretty much nonexistant on both eyes and by the end of the night I didn't have anything to wash off -_-" and this is in the winter too. sigh~ But all eyeliner disappears on me so I can't mark them down too much for this I suppose

Removal?
RE - Med
EH - Med

I used Missha's The Style Coral Water Lip&Eye Makeup Remover Pure. Don't ask me why the name's so long. It was about the same. It took about 6 swipes for both of them to come completely off


Price:
RE - about $6.50 + tax for 0.01oz (0.03 LBS)
EH - 6,000Won ~about $5.50 no tax for 0.01oz (0.03 LBS)

Similar price range except with Rimmel you can occasionally find Buy One Get One Free, which is what I did.

Misc:
So I threw away the original packaging the Rimmel came in and can't find an ingredient list online, but here's the ingredient list from Etude: cyclopentasiloxane, iron oxides, trimethysiloxysilicate, ozokerite, polyethylene, phenyl trimethicone, euphorbia cerifera (candellia) wax, disteardimonium hectorite, phenoxyethanol, lecithin, tocopherol, propylene carbonate, retinyl palmitate, ascorbl palmitate, aloe barbadensis leaf juice

And I know in the US it's required to list the ingredients in the order with the most active ingredient first; however, I'm not sure that rule applies in Korea.


Overall:
RE: 3.5/5
EH: 3.5/5

Overall, I think they acheive similar results and I give them the same score since although Rimmel gets points for having a smudger and being darker, the Etude is more waterproof and smudgeproof. In terms of the actual eyeliner, they perform the same on me aka disappears at the end of the day. So I wouldn't prefer one over the other except for the fact that the Rimmel is so much easier to get in the US than the Etude. If I were in Korea, I would be fine with the Etude over the Rimmel. Also I'm not too sure on the availaibility of the Etude since it was part of the Proof 10 line which they're done promoting and not too sure that it's permanent. Although you can still find it on gmarket.

And sorry this post is a little late, but it seriously took me forever because I kept on getting the pictures confused. So I had to redo the test over and over again. >,<

Dior Iridescent Eyeshadow Quint in 089 Smoky Crystal

An actual review?! Surprise...I know lol but I'm seriously intent on updating regularly and seeing where it takes me xD

 

A long waited review. Kicking off with the Dior Smoky Crystal eye shadow quint!! Smoky Crystal is part of the Dior Holiday 2009 collection and the moment I saw pictures online I knew I had to have it.

Sorry the swatches didn't turn out too good -0- I'm a bit of a noob and I don't think my camera is the best at picking up the colors : /

The Dior Smoky Crystal Quint is comprised of (left to right) a light pinkish purple, a sparkly silver, a more muted grey, a light taupe and a darker charcoal. I recently fell into purple eyeshadow so it was a bit of a toss up between this and Night Butterfly but from seeing the swatches of Night Butterfly online it seemed a little too dark for my taste. Then I dropped by the counter and tested this in person and decided I must have it. This is my first Iridescent Quint from Dior (the other I own is Twilight and yes, i had to buy it just because it was named Twilight -_-") but when I swatched it on my finger at the counter, the quint was more shimmery than I felt comfortable with, so I actually had a few reservations but in pictures it didn't seem glittery so I ended up getting it. The shadows are pretty sheer so they impart a nice a sheen that shimmers rather than glitters to my relief. I like I like!

Packaging: The usual Dior compact, not much to say about it

Quality: Very good–the shadows are soft and blendable, shimmery. The silver is a little more glittery than I would have liked and a bit harder to blend than the other colors though.

Value: $56 Pricey for sure, but I justify it since you get five very high quality eye shadows.

Overall: This seemed very cool toned so I was really worried that it wouldn't work for my color, but I think it actually somehow manages to look good on everyone. It was a little harder for me to get the color to show up on my skin at first but piling it on didn't make it chalky or powdery (which I guess I should expect from high end makeup). I would definitely recommend use over a base though and it helps immensely. Some of the colors do seem pretty similar so I'll definitely have to experiment to see how to use them but personally the purple alone was enough for me to buy. I rate 3.75/5

The Dior Smoky Crystal Quint is part of the Holiday 2009 collection and is still available at nordstroms.com. Not too sure about other sites xD

EOTD using the Quint:

Random EOTD (cat eyes!) using my Geo Angel Grey Circle Lens.

With flash (kinda creepy since it looks more like ice blue)

oh!

My first makeup haul for the new year!!

I got my Barbie <3 Stila all doll'd up eye shadow palette in the mail yesterday and it is pure <3. Definitely my favoritest palette that I own (which is saying not that much but still a lot hehe). i shall do swatches & a look soon. I also got Dior Quint in 089 Smoky Crystal so I shall post up swatches of that also.

And just because I've been listening to it everyday on repeat, Girls Generation Oh!



Maybe I'll try a look from it soon =D Otherwise, BB Cream Reviews will be coming soon in the upcoming days