ABOUT ME        FAQ        BOOK OF FABLES        COSPLAY        GALLERY        SUBSCRIBE (RSS FEED)        CONTACT ME

A Day in the Life – An Average Working Day

January 25th, 2012 § 18 comments § permalink

Day in the life - Work Day

So! I’ve been meaning to do a Day in the Life post for the longest time, but I always keep forgetting to take photos throughout the day so I had to virtually set alarms throughout the day to remind to “snap a photo, snap a photo!” I won’t be narrating any of these photos, mostly because as the clock at the end indicates, it actually is 1:20am in the morning at the moment and I need to get to bed to get up at 6:30am for work… (I know this little sleep is not good for you, everyone and their mum has told me already)

So hopefully the photos will be enough, but please let me know what you think. Whether I should do more of these? Or would you like me to narrate what is happening? Etc etc :) I aim to please! Enjoy~

Day in the life - Work Day

Day in the life - Work Day

Day in the life - Work Day

Day in the life - Work Day

Day in the life - Work Day

Day in the life - Work Day

Day in the life - Work Day

Day in the life - Work Day

Day in the life - Work Day

Day in the life - Work Day

Day in the life - Work Day

Day in the life - Work Day

Day in the life - Work Day

Day in the life - Work Day

Day in the life - Work Day

Share

NARS Holiday 2011 Joyous Red Lipstick & Albatross Lip Gloss Review, Swatches and Photos

January 24th, 2012 § 6 comments § permalink

NARS Holiday 2011

I’ve already reviewed the Arabian Trio Eye shadow from the same collection a while back. Since then I’ve decided that if I do buy several products from the same collection that I’m just going to lump them all into one post. Saves me time and hopefully makes it more interesting for you guys :)

NARS Holiday 2011

Aside from the Arabian Trio Eye shadow, I also managed to snag the lipstick in Joyous Red and the lip gloss in Albatross. Honestly I probably didn’t need the lipstick, but I had to have the gloss. I love the powder version of Albatross, which is a beautiful shimmery highlighter with yellow / gold undertones.

Generally I am a fan of NARS’ Lip Glosses, they aren’t what I’d call the perfect lip gloss because they do tend to run a tad sticky, but generally I love them :) They have no offensive smells and apply beautifully.

NARS Holiday 2011

NARS Holiday 2011

However I am not a fan of this lipstick, and you can tell from the photo that it is a pretty matte lipstick. Which was disappointing since NARS actually have a range of lipsticks specifically dedicate to matte finishes, so I wasn’t sure why this particular lipstick that doesn’t state matte anywhere on it had to be matte as well :/

NARS Holiday 2011

To be honest though, despite appearances the texture over time didn’t feel drying. It certainly wasn’t moisturising, but it didn’t cause my lips to crack or chap either. None the less, I think unless I manage to swatch the lipstick at a counter before hand (which almost never happens given how far away I work from makeup counters now *sad face*) or read some raving review, I will probably be avoiding NARS Lipsticks.

NARS Holiday 2011

NARS Holiday 2011

For me, I love NARS for almost everything else in their range, but their lipsticks constantly seem to disappoint me :(

Share

China Glaze Let it Snow Holiday 2011 Review, Swatches and Photos

January 23rd, 2012 § 6 comments § permalink

China Glaze Let it Snow Holiday 2011

Another holiday 2011 collection! I think this may be the last one, yay! Luckily you can still purchase these shades if you feel so inclined :) I liked that this collection had a good mixture of crèmes and glitters. Overall it’s a solid collection for more festive occasions, depending on your work I can’t see many of these being overly neutral or work appropriate. As always 2 coats with no top coat.

Blue Year’s Eve

China Glaze Let it Snow Holiday 2011

A shimmery royal blue, despite appearances the finish is really smooth. I find the shade to have a very decadent feel.

Champagne Bubbles

China Glaze Let it Snow Holiday 2011

Shimmery canary yellow gold with silver glitters, I would’ve never thought silver glitters would work well with yellow gold, but now that I see it, it isn’t half bad!

Glittering Garland

China Glaze Let it Snow Holiday 2011

A rich moss green with duo chrome gold and green flecks, I absolutely love this! It is gorgeous, I am such a fan of anything with duo chrome and the finish on this is very smooth. But if you like this without the flecks try China Glaze’s Jolly Holly.

Holly Day

China Glaze Let it Snow Holiday 2011

An emerald crème shade, Essie’s Going in Incognito has more of a bluer tinge to it.

Icicle

China Glaze Let it Snow Holiday 2011

A metallic silver shade, China Glaze’s Cheers to you is a more metallic version. Surprisingly I found Face of Australia’s Titanium to be a pretty spot on dupe!

Poinsettia

China Glaze Let it Snow Holiday 2011

A chilli red crème, I thought Zoya’s Sooki and Tamsen was a pretty close dupe to this.

Ring in the Red

China Glaze Let it Snow Holiday 2011

Red glitter with large chunky red glitter, not my favourite of the collection and it leaves a rough finish.

Snow Globe

China Glaze Let it Snow Holiday 2011

Chunky light hologram glitters, a bit too gritty for my own taste but I do have a number of very similar dupes I can talk about. Color Club’s Snowflakes and Color Club’s Starry Temptress are much finer versions of this polish with a smoother finish. Or check out OPI’s Happy Anniversary which has even finer micro shimmers.

Tinsel Town

China Glaze Let it Snow Holiday 2011

A gunmetal shimmer shade, packed with a ton of large and medium sized silver glitters. Even tho I wouldn’t deem my description as unique, I wasn’t able to find any dupes to this! And I actually really loved it, it’s edgy yet girly.

Twinkle Lights

China Glaze Let it Snow Holiday 2011

A mixture of antique gold, red and green glitters. A few more coats and this would look amazing, very christmasy. OPI’s Bring on the Bling is similar but with a more pinky hue.

Velvet Bow

China Glaze Let it Snow Holiday 2011

A deep maroon red creme, not a hard shade to dupe! Try OPI’s Sariguite or even a light coat of OPI’s Black Cherry Chutney. Even OPI’s Pepe’s Purple Passion is similarish.

Winter Berry

China Glaze Let it Snow Holiday 2011

The perfect red, an essential in everyone’s collection… but I suspect most people already have it since it really isn’t that unique.

China Glaze Let it Snow Holiday 2011

Share

Book of Fables: Chapter 84 – The Dragon

January 20th, 2012 § 26 comments § permalink

Book of Fables - Chinese New Year

Xin Nian Kuai Le! :) Well, at least it will be in a few more days :D I won’t pretend that I can speak fluent Chinese, so please forgive any mispronunciations in the video, I’m going purely based off my old memory of Chinese classes which I haven’t attended in well over 10 years now XD; But it’s the year of the Dragon, which is always exciting as the dragon is the only sign who is consider legendary. And the only person who I know is a dragon was my grandfather who unfortunately passed away a few years ago.

The dress was my mother’s, she used to wear it during her youth to celebrate Chinese New Year back in Singapore (where my parents are from, though most of my family is from China). In case you were wondering, I am 100% Chinese, I know I get a lot of questions in real life around whether I’m Viet or Japanese or even half Caucasian O_o;; (I… just don’t see it….) but nope. I’m quite boring :) I’m certainly no artist so this was my best attempt at drawing art on my face (doesn’t that just sound so eloquent?) but I hope you enjoy!

I got a real kick out of dressing up minus the last minute rush rush stress that comes with actually making my costume, so having one ready made is a nice change of pace :)

Book of Fables - Chinese New Year

MAC Prep + Prime – Skin Base Visage
Illamasqua Rich Liquid Foundation – RF 100
Revlon PhotoReady Translucent Finisher – 001 Translucent
Bobbi Brown Bronzing Powder – Light
NYX Mosaic Powder – Highlighter
MAC Paint Pot – Painterly
BH Cosmetics 120 Palette – 01
MAC Fluidline – Blacktrack
Savvy by DB Luxury Liner – Shimmering Slate
Benefit BAD Gal Lash Mascara – Black
e.l.f Eyebrow Kit – Dark
Benefit Box Powder – Coralista
Topshop Lipstick – Confession

Products marked * were sent for consideration

Book of Fables - Chinese New Year

Book of Fables - Chinese New Year

Share

Smashbox Click You’re It Holiday 2011 Palette Review, Swatches and Photos

January 19th, 2012 § 4 comments § permalink

Smashbox Holiday 2011 Palette

Back in 2010 I reviewed Smashbox’s Eye Wish Palette and thought that was an impressive palette. Since then I’ve been through my fair share of truly impressive palette and decided to give Smashbox’s Click You’re It palette a whirl so I could compare it to their previous holiday palette.

Smashbox Holiday 2011 Palette

My general impression of this palette is yes, big improvement on their Holiday 2010 version BUT it really isn’t a must have in anyone’s collection. You know those type of gifts that are just kinda of a nice addition, nice to have, but not really an essential? Yeah, well this is it.

The range of colours is very usable, you’ve got neutral shades and some more colourful ones, but nothing too over the top. But the actual quality of the shadows is not the best in my opinion, I found that some were very rich and pigmented (the darker shade) but the lighter ones were pretty disappointing. Left me feeling very lackluster.

Smashbox Holiday 2011 Palette

Smashbox Holiday 2011 Palette

Smashbox Holiday 2011 Palette

Smashbox Holiday 2011 Palette

However one stand out feature of this palette which 2010 sincerely lacked were the gel liner / cream shadows. This year they were absolutely beautiful! Creamy, pigmented and very easy to apply. I remember last year I have to literally dig into the pan to get any colour, complete opposite to this year.

But is it worth buying this entire palette just for those cream liners?… Honestly? Maybe! At $49US, that works out to be a little less than $10 for each liner, throw in the primer, mini eye tutorials and eyeshadows as bonus and it isn’t a bad deal. It really comes down to personal preference, if you don’t have a ton of gel liners and want variety without splurging out, then consider this palette JUST for the eyeliners.

I’ll keep this in the palette for now, but I know personally after a few month of using the same big palette I have a tendancy to try and depot everything into an easy to store and access Unii Palette. As the palette is essentially made of cardboard, you know this won’t be a hard goal to achieve if you decide to.

Smashbox Holiday 2011 Palette

All in all, it’s an okay palette. I’m guessing you may not be able to get this palette anymore, as it was limited edition to Holiday 2011 :/ But after reading this review, I hope you don’t think it was a huge loss :)

Smashbox Holiday 2011 Palette

Share

Lancome, e.l.f & Sigma Flat Top Brush Comparison Review

January 18th, 2012 § 10 comments § permalink

Sigma, e.l.f, Lancome Flat Top Brush Comparison

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 :D

Sigma, e.l.f, Lancome Flat Top Brush Comparison

Share

Clinique High Impact Mascara Review, Swatches and Photos

January 17th, 2012 § 8 comments § permalink

Clinique High Impact Mascara

I know that Clinique’s High Impact Mascara is a highly talked about mascara in general, I received this tube at a not so recent event thrown by Clinique for bloggers where we learnt that High Impact was actually their best selling mascara! I was definitely keen to see how this would fare, mascara and eyeliner are the two pieces of makeup I try my best to always wear to work :D

Clinique High Impact Mascara

Generally speaking this is a great mascara, I like the length of the wand and the thickness of the brush, very easy to use. The application whilst great, isn’t something I’d consider a HG. I need about two coats to get the usual fullness I aim for, which honestly is probably a little thicker and clumpier than the average person.

Clinique High Impact Mascara

All in all, it’s definitely an above average mascara. I don’t however think it’s an overly unique one. This would really suit people with already healthy lush lashes wanting just to amp them up a bit more. These retail for $38AU / $15US online or at David Jones & Myer.

Clinique High Impact Mascara

Share

« Older Entries

Newer Entries »