Finally the last purchase from my SUQQU Spring 2012 “haul”, a mauve rosy lipstick from their Creamy Glow Lipstick Moist range called Tousakura. The formula is incredible smooth and creamy. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was moisturising, but it certainly isn’t drying.

The finish of the lipstick gives the illusion that I’m wearing a thin layer of gloss over, that’s how moist it looks.

You can see below there are a ton of dupes, but none match the same level of creaminess nor moisture that SUQQU has.

This particular range I feel leans close to the lipsticks by Lunasol and Chanel’s Rouge Coco Shine My favourite kind of lipsticks, so far I’m highly impressed with each item I’ve purchased from the SUQQU range so you can be sure that I will be saving to “invest” more

A little while ago a dear reader of mine requested a comparison review between e.l.f’s Studio Powder Brush and Lancome’s Precision Cheek – Brush #7. I decided to throw in Sigma’s Flat Top Synthetic Brush into the mix as well, for good measure

And what I’ve discovered is that despite looking similar, each three brushes have a very different use.

Lancome’s Precision Cheek – Brush #7 ($47.50US) which I mentioned was one of my favourite brushes and is actually best for (surprise surprise) applying powder over liquid / cream foundation. It is great at picking up a light to medium amount of powder, and distributing it lightly and evenly across your face. It doesn’t do a good job at applying liquid or cream foundation. With liquid it would literally absorb most of the product and leave streaks across my face, and with cream it would just be streaks-ville

e.l.f’s Studio Powder Brush ($3US), could potentially do the same, but I felt that it was actually better at apply powder foundation. The reason is because I found this brush to be quite a bit denser than Lancome, and so it worked similar to a kabuki brush, good at buffing in products.

I personally don’t buff in powder over liquid foundation because I find it shifts the liquid foundation. But I do buff in powder foundation as there is nothing beneath it to budge.

Lastly, Sigma’s Flat Top Synthetic Brush ($16US) is best for applying liquid to cream foundation / blush and buffing in powder foundation. It wasn’t great at dusting powder over liquid foundation because it would pick up way too much product and instead of distributing it evenly over my face, would plonk it right where I placed my brush.

So overall, I found that Lancome was really best for a dusting of face powder over a cream / liquid foundation. e.l.f for powder foundation and Sigma for liquid and cream products! Hope that helps

Be prepared for another rather long post, but one I’ve been meaning to do for a very long time now. I’ve been a long time user of Sigma brushes, probably for well over a year now (If you see my Book of Fables, you see I use like 4-5 different brands at once, what can I say? I like to road test brushes!!). I thought like my previous brush comparison, I would do one for Sigma too. I wanted to give you a better idea as to whether or not the travel brushes are worth getting So let’s get on to it, I will only be comparing brushes I personally have used and own.

Regardless of their size, the brushes are given the exact same name so I labelled the full and travel version in the photos below.

Generally speaking, I was very impressed by the travel sized brushes, some were exact dupes, some were actually better quality than the full sized version and only very few were a little lower.

I would confidently recommend the travel sized brushes if you were either strapped for space or actually did intend to travel, they are good quality, work well and the experience I had with them as nothing like the experience I had with the MAC brushes.

Large Powder SS150 / F30

The difference here is obvious, the full sized is massive in comparison! In fact, I find it way too large for my face and use it as a body brush now. I found the bristles on the travel version to be just a tiny bit softer too.

Large Angled Contour SS168 / F40

Apologises for not being able to remove all the pigment from the my full sized, you can tell it gets a lot of use! No major difference between the two besides the travel version being just a tad smaller. Quality is exactly the same.

Duo Fibre SS187 / F50

Like before, the travel version is just a tad smaller and the bristles are only ever so slightly softer. But honestly, the difference is barely noticeable unless you’re silly like me, and like to spend your evenings writing these sorts of reviews for a comparison blog post ;P

Concealer Brush SS194 / F70

These two are pretty much identical, the only reason the full version looks a bit “worn” is because it’s been used more, but the two are the same in every other sense.

Short Shader E20

Aside from the very minor size difference, the quality is identical!

Blending E25

Quality wise, these are exactly the same, but I found that the travel version wasn’t as tapered as the full version. Plus the travel brush shape felt more “flat”, less rounder than the full sized. Example, the full sized version is a bit better for precise colour placement and blending, whereas the travel version is much better as a blender or placing one colour all over the lid.

Pencil SS219 / E30

I found the travel version to be only a bit stiffer than the full sized, which is actually preferred as it did a better job at blending out harsh lines. The full sized version wasn’t as good at doing this, I felt it slips around more and isn’t as precise with blending out lines. The bristles on the full sized were softer.

Tapered Blending SS224 / E40

Big difference here, massive! The full sized version flares out like crazy! It’s perfect only for blending out your eye shadow, or placing powder to larger areas (like brow bone), the travel version on the other hand is far more tapered and is the perfect crease brush! I absolutely love it, so very tempted to buy another travel kit just for it since they don’t sell travel brushes separately It’s one of my favourite brushes atm. I also found the bristles on the full sized to be a little rougher.

Small Tapered Blending E45

Apart for some minor size differences, I found these to be identical in application and quality.

Eye Shading SS239 / E55

The full sized version is a bit bigger and less dense than the travel sized, meaning it’s a little harder to pack colour on using the full sized version. It’s not a massively annoying difference, but now that you mention it (see what I did there? I blamed you guys! ), there is a difference.

Summary

• Not all the travel brushes are exact dupes of the full sized, in fact few of them are.
• The quality between the two is very comparable, exactly the same for some.
• Sigma travel brushes are definitely worth getting if you travel, they will function almost exactly the same as the full sized brushes. They are solid, well priced travel brushes!

Even though most of my inspiration and knowledge of makeup comes from endless hours online, I still love to collect and read various beauty and fashion related books. It’s just nice having something tangible in my hands that I can take over to my couch (I don’t use a laptop for blogging) and read with a nice cup of hot chocolate

I have a number of books, but for today I wanted to do a comparison between two brand specific ones. Bobbi Brown’s Makeup Manual and Napoleon Perdis’ Forever Flawless.

Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual

* Absolutely love that the first part of the book focuses on healthy eating and habits to achieve beauty. An essential and often neglected part of “beauty”.
* Gives a comprehensive guide on skin care.
* Each chapter focuses on a specific part of the face, eyes, lips, etc.
* Tutorials provide step by step images illustrating makeup application.
* Includes tutorials and tips regarding makeup for special occasions and various age groups.
* Provides advice and guidance for makeup artists wishing to become pro and break into the industry.
* Wish it talked more about Bobbi Brown products, when viewing some tutorials I would have liked some actual product recommendation.

Napoleon Perdis Forever Flawless: How to look your best at every age

* Very heavy product promotion, but does give comprehensive details on how each product should be used.
* Gives a solid coverage of tools and skin care options, easy to understand for beginners.
* Each chapter focuses on a specific part of the face, including a Napoleon Perdis product recommendations.
* The second half of the book gives very detailed information on techniques and products suitable for a wide range of age groups, including well crafted tutorials with before and after photos. Great start guide for budding makeup aritsts.

As you can see whilst both books are essentially guides on how to apply makeup, they also come from different angles and ultimately which book you select depends on your needs. Still I’ve glad to have purchased both books, if I had to choose one I might lean more towards the Bobbi Brown book just because I felt it had more content, and less product images / blank pages than the Napoleon Perdis book did and I enjoyed the step by step images. But keep in mind the Bobbi Brown book cost about double that of the Napoleon Perdis book.

I’m sorry, I’m not sure if both books are still available in store. I believe I paid about $50AU for Bobbi Brown and around $27ish for the Napoleon Perdis (which Sefie kindly had signed for me!!)

Firstly, I know white foundation is not something the typical makeup lover will have in their collection. But then again, I’m not your typical makeup lover~ Either way I hope you guys find this comparison useful, I’m sure a lot of the cosplayers out there will~

Today’s comparison will be between MAC Full Coverage Foundation in White vs Illamasqua Rich Liquid Foundation in RF 100. I’ve done a number of looks that require white foundation, and the needs of white foundation are very different to normal “skin toned” foundation. A couple of things to look out for:

• Solid opacity, the few coats to achieve this the better.
• Smooth even blending
• Formula dispensing, if you’re sharing this, hygiene is most important.

I know most people look for this in traditional foundation, but it’s even more important for white foundation since you are literally applying a new layer to your skin, not blending it into your existing skin. This makes it harder to get an “even” coverage.

A general comment on both foundations, they both have this plastic like smell to it. I have no idea why, I suspect it might be related to their pigmentation?

Comments on MAC’s Full Coverage Foundation in White:

• Comes in a compact, which makes it hard to share with other people. I usually chip off some into a plate each time I need it to avoid contaminating the compact.
• Whist very pigmented, it takes about 3-4 coats to get full coverage.
• Can be very difficult to blend, go slow with a sponge and avoid making any extreme facial expression, especially since it will crease.
• Not surprisingly feels heavy, recommend exfoliating skin after use.

Comments on Illamasqua’s Rich Liquid Foundation in RF 100.

• Comes in a tube, making it very easy to share with others.
• Very pigmented, needs about 2 good coats to achieve full coverage.
• Formula is rich, smooth and liquid, which makes application more gentle to the skin.
• Blending will still require some level of work with a sponge, but the job will go faster.
• Slightly more forgiving to creasing

Important note: Always always set your foundation with a white or translucent powder, or within no time you will experience some serious creasing

And the winner if you couldn’t tell would be Illamasqua, you can see in the photos how much easier the formula is to work with. It takes about 75% less time to cover my entire face and neck with Illamasqua’s foundation than it does with MAC’s.

It feels a little more light weight and less oily on the skin. I would still recommend using an exfoliator after use just because you are applying very heavy makeup at the end of the day.

Formula aside, packaging is so important. Not many people can finish white foundation all on their own, chances are (especially for me) I’ll need to end up using it on other people, which makes the Illamasqua foundation a great choice!

So if you need a white foundation, I’d head over to Illamasqua.

Currently I am on the hunt for the perfect eyeliner, something that is compact, easy to apply, feels gentle on my eye lid and gives me an intense black precise line. Unfortunately I am still searching, but I thought I’d do a quick review / comparison of two NYX liners I managed to trial

First up is the NYX Felt Tip Liner, which is essentially a pen liner. Take the lid off and go.

Second is the NYX Liquid Eye Liner, which comes with a thin small brush that you dip into a tube of the product.

I’ve decided to do a point form comparison, else this post would become way too wordy.

• Liquid Eye Liner gives a much more intense pigmented black line than the Felt Tip Liner.
• Felt Tip Liner dries much faster than the Liquid Eye Liner.
• The Felt Tip Liner’s tip is very sharp and hard, with almost no “give”, which means whilst it can give a lovely precise line and is easy to control it can actually be physically painful to apply .
• The Liquid Eye Liner’s tip is much more gentle to the eye, though can be more difficult to control than the Felt Tip Liner.Not as makeup “beginner” friendly.

Next on my NYX eye liners to try probably will be the fat and skinny liners, has anyone else tried them before?