Celina, based in Melbourne Australia is an aspiring artist. With a passion for expressing herself through makeup, beauty, fashion, cosplay & photography, she believes in living life as creatively as possible.
Check out of my gaming blog called SuzakuNU, outside of beauty and cosplay, I live and breathe IT and gaming :)
Another month has passed, and time to share what products I’ve managed to get through this month! Just one this month, I’m close to finishing up for a couple others so we’ll see how June pans out
This is probably my 3rd tub of Clinique’s Super Defense SPF 25 Moisturiser, it’s not because I think it’s the best thing since sliced bread, but it is honestly the only moisturiser that has such high SPF that DOESN’T have some awful fragrance put into it I’m really not a fan of heavily scented products, especially if I need to use them everyday, which I do this (at least for days I intend to step outside).
It does make my skin feel a bit oily, and the tub packaging isn’t something I’m a huge fan of so if I can find something better I’d be happy to give it a whirl, till then I’ve already bought my 4th tub now
Introducing Zoya’s Sunshine collection, these sorts of collections are making me really miss Spring and Summer I appreciate the beauty of Winter, but the freezing weather really puts a dampen on my spirits
This is a great bunch of shades, it gives off the illusion of glitter and sparkles, but minus the chunkiness that comes from actual glitter polishes. Instead these polishes are infused with gold micro-shimmers, a consistent trait for all of them. The formula was lovely, didn’t have any issues! If you don’t want the polish to appear as opaque, just use a thinner coat.
Only two coats were needed for all swatches, no top coat.
Apple
A light moss green with gold micro shimmer, I found this to be slightly darker than Color Club’s Magic Elf and Zoya’s Ivanka is even darker than Apple.
Faye
A darkened plum-like purple with a ton of gold shimmer, almost duo chrome depend in how you angle this under the light. A very unique shade, I couldn’t find another in my collection that came close to this
Kimmy
A true red shade with gold shimmers, though in this photo they actually seem to be red shimmers instead!
Reva
A deeper red with gold shimmers, I found this to be more magenta than Kimmy even though the photo may not illustrate that as clearly.
Rica
A coral red, almost pink under different angles with gold shimmers. Possibly my favourite from this collection. Tanzy
A bright mandarin orange shade with gold shimmers, again can’t find a dupe for this. Either my collection isn’t vast enough or this is another unique shade.
Really loving this collection and highly recommend it! Despite the shimmer, some of these shades are still very work friendly, especially on Casual Fridays
I don’t have a whole lot to say about this lipstick that hasn’t already been said on my previous review regarding the same lipstick, only in Nude Almond. So feel free to click through and read it there.
The only differing thing I can comment on is the colour, which is a gorgeous purple magenta shade, very pigmented and hence will last quite a bit longer than it’s Nude Almond counter part. I was provided this particular shade during the MBBE event last year, as I think most of the other girls were. How amazing is this shade?
It seems to appear in some photos almost reddish, but I’ll go ahead and blame my white balance for that
This seems to have become quite a staple among many of the lovely people in the beauty world, so I knew I had to see what all the fuss was about! The product was initially provided for me in my MBBE goodie bag, but at the time I thought it was a simple anti-puffy / anti-wrinkle eye cream and so I passed it to my mum.
It wasn’t until I saw the reviews online that I also realised it was a concealer. So I went out and purchased a 2nd one for myself Which safe to say is one of the downsides, I can’t share this product with anyone but me. Despite that, I can officially say I love it! Though I actually don’t use it as a concealer, but as a selective foundation.
I use this for selective application, which is a fantastic way to make it look like your skin is flawless and smooth, without actually applying product over the entire face. (I dislike wearing makeup I can “feel” if that makes sense) Just apply it any areas of redness or discolouration, for me that would be around my nose and inner cheek area. Blend out with my ring finger and my skin looks flawless, the formula is silky and applies like a dream. Set it with a light face powder and you’re done~ If you need heavier coverage then I’d recommend a foundation.
The coverage I get from this product is relatively sheer, but build-able to light if needed. It can be used under the eyes to cover dark circles, which I have used from time to time, though generally I don’t conceal my dark circles unless I’m doing a shoot. If you have serious dark circles then I’d recommend getting a more opaque cream concealer.
The cooling sensation from the roller ball is a great “wake me up” in the mornings, it feels very refreshing.
The product comes in two shades, one of the cons, but I suspect the reason is since this product is so sheer it is versatile to use over a range of skin tones and shades. I’d recommend this product for someone looking for a natural sheer coverage, either to use as a concealer or foundation, I love using this
A little while ago my HT aka Haul Twin aka Jess from Miss J Shopaholic did a video on doing her makeup using only 5 products. Inspired, I decided to take the idea and make it my own. I wanted to do two looks, something light and wearable and something far more dramatic to illustrate how far you can stretch a few products.
You’ll notice 6 products listed below (instead of 5) because during the second taping I decided to try a red lipstick instead of the creme blush, even tho I accidentally said I used the exact same products for both looks! My mistake Still, each look only used a total of 5 products!
Admittedly this particular chapter gave me a bit of a headache, I felt painfully limited by only using 5 products and I actually taped the tutorial twice, did a number of shoots etc. And honestly I’m still not happy with this look nor the video, but I decided that there was only so much time I could spend dwelling over the video and photos and just decided to post what I had and move on. Not my best work, but it’ll do Hope you enjoy either way
And why Limitless? Because the only limits in life are the ones we set for ourselves
I’d have to say Coastal Scents produces some of my favourite budget friendly palettes, even though I’m fully aware companies like BH Cosmetics (which I also love and need to review), Crush Cosmetics and a ton you will find on eBay all use the same wholesaler as Coastal Scents (hence why you can find so many palettes that look like this), I still love Coastal Scents just because it was the first one I got introduced to and still seems to have the largest variety
If the blog wasn’t obvious enough, I’m a bit of a collector (dude I collect useless achievement points on World of Warcraft, it’s my thing, let it go!) and so when I heard Coastal Scents was coming out with some new 88 palettes I snapped them up! I already owned all the previous versions so buying this was a bit of a no-brainer.
Introducing the Prism palette, which contains 88 shades of mostly matte, with a few shimmer shades thrown in for good measure. Out of all the 88 palettes available, I’d be inclined to recommend this one to makeup beginners because it has such a wide range of shades. True whites all the way to true blacks, with a mixture of shimmer and matte. It’s a solid beginner kit.
I used a gold shade in the inner corner of my eyes, a dark purple over the lid and the black as liner.
The shadow quality is pretty much comparable to all the other palettes, it’s not terrible, but it’s not absolutely amazing either. You’ll get a decent amount of pigmentation for daily wear and most looks, but if you’re like me and are crazy about getting intense, eye blinding shades then you’ll either need to prime your lids with your desired cream eye shadow and dust over this shadow to “alter” the colour, or head down the pigment road.
I swatched every single colour just for you guys~~ Hope you find it useful and also hope that you see what I mean by “decent” pigmentation.
This palette goes for $19.95US from the Coastal Scents website, which sounds like a great bargain! But, for you Aussies, beware the insane shipping costs that Coastal Scents deals out. Admittedly they do really go all out to ensure the palettes arrive nicely packaged, but it’s still not 100% fool proof (one of the colours was completely smashed for the next palette I’m reviewing).
I’ve heard fantastic things about the Etude House brand from friends, and I really wanted to love this product. I love the packaging and styling, but for this product, that’s about as far as it goes. I actually picked this up on the recommendation of the sales assistant as the darkest BB cream they had (and sitting on the same shelf as the Face Shop one). In store it looked fine, but when I was applying it on myself, it came out much whiter and dried to a powdery finish that just made it look even more pale.
This BB cream dries very quickly, which makes blending it out a chore. I applied it first with my fingers, then blend out with a stippling brush. This reduces the ghost-face effect, but is still too light for my taste, so I either have to use a foundation or powder foundation over it.
I haven’t used this cream enough to say whether it’s had any effect on my skin, but I did find that I didn’t have to blot at all during the day. I also generally didn’t need to use concealer since I could apply a bit more of the cream.
I’m quite dubious about the packaging as well. Normally tubes are the best packaging as they allow you to get every bit of product out. But since end of the pump is on the end of the tube, it means that the product pools at the opposite end of where it’s supposed to be! To be fair, I haven’t started having problems with getting the cream out, but considering the problems with the colour, I haven’t used it very much.
Obviously, I will not be repurchasing this cream for myself. But if you have medium skin that’s still a bit darker than most BB creams allow (NC30ish), you might find it more suitable.
This palette comes from Stila’s Limited Edition Garden Bliss Set, I decided to just review the palette, given to me that is the defining item. I’d be happy to review the mascara and lip gloss in another review another time, but those particular items are not limited edition and so is not as time sensitive as this
Unlike many of the other Stila palettes, this time the blush is in powder form rather than cream, making it a little less versatile than the holiday palettes since you can’t use it on your lips.
Those features aside, this palette is a delight, especially if you have a lighter skin tone. The four shadows are perfect neutrals for lid, highlighter and crease, and the blush colour is the perfect pink for a subtle flush on the cheeks The powders apply like a dream and the pigmentation is just right!
All in all, definitely give this palette a whirl if you can! The collection is limited edition, so get it while you still can
Yes, another Monday, yet no polish post! I’m actually enjoying the break from having to swatch a bunch of polishes, but I’m hoping to bring them back starting next week I might move them around to different days in the future depending on how I go~
Today though, I wanted to talk about how I label my MAC palettes. For the longest time I used to just write the name on a sticker and stick it to the palette, but I’ve found that to be very inconvenient when I purchase more colours and want to move the pans around. So I came up with this design!
It’s a technique I used to use as a kid, when I wanted to laminate my drawings to turn them into bookmarks, but my parents couldn’t afford to have it done So I used sticky tape instead~ Steps below:
Write the name of the pan on a piece of paper
Cut out each label
Sandwich each label between two pieces of sticky tape
Cut out the label
Stick it on the palette using Blu-Tack
And that’s it! Reusable, waterproof and movable Hope you guys will find it useful!
Many months ago I reviewed NYX’s Nude on Nude Natural Look palette, a palette I loved so much that I even purchased a second to win in my first giveaway~ Then a few weeks ago NYX released a new version of the Nude on Nude palette, only with a much larger range of colours (and naturally bigger palette).
I have to admit that I’m a huge fan of NYX, and I am also a huge fan of this palette. The thing I love about these powders is that they are perfect for people who aren’t too confident with their makeup application, because when you dip your brush into these powders they don’t give you an insane amount of product, which some extremely pigmented shadows can.
I took of photo of the eye shadows from the NYX palette up against the Urban Decay Naked palette to give a clearer comparison, it’s not an exact dupe, but I honestly think you can achieve very similar results.
The eye shadow range is pretty impressive, it not only covers most of the Urban Decay Naked palette bases, but also caters towards those inclined to silvers and golds. I really like that it has a matte white and an almost matte black, two essential shades that everyone can use.
The lip palette to me was an interesting bonus, you get a decent range of pinks and reds, but if you’re looking for nudes, browns or really deep reds, then this palette won’t have it. Generally I found the colours pretty pigmented, obviously the darker shades come across more pigmented, but I wouldn’t see this as a replacement for good quality lipsticks, like MAC etc who really do give a solid pop of colour.
If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative to the Urban Decay Naked Palette, I’d be inclined to say this is a good dupe. The shades may not be exactly the same, but generally you’ll achieve the same results, not to mention with an array of different lip colours to boot! The only reason I knocked off half a star (and I was very indecisive over this) was because the palette itself doesn’t feel the sturdiest. I’d be okay throwing this in my bag, but I’d feel better about throwing my Urban Decay Naked palette in instead as I feel that could stand up to a beating better than this.
Celina, based in Melbourne Australia is an aspiring artist. With a passion for expressing herself through makeup, beauty, fashion, cosplay & photography, she believes in living life as creatively as possible.
I’m really not a fan of heavily scented products, especially if I need to use them everyday, which I do this (at least for days I intend to step outside). 
