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 :)
As a beauty blogger, the “daily” makeup I use is constantly changing, which has to be the case if I want to give proper reviews on each of products you see here. But believe it or not I still have a set of makeup that I’d call my “usuals”, which I always use when I’m not testing anything or when I’m in a rush. Makeup I know works for me. You probably saw most of it back when I showed you my neutrals in my UNII Palette a little while ago.
Well, I wanted to talk about a specific eye shadow that I absolutely loathe and love at the same time, and that’s MAC’s Eyeshadow in Wedge.
I love it because it gives the perfect “warmth” to the eyes. Very neutral and subtle, it’s buildable from a very soft look to the base of a more smokey look. And it blends surprisingly well.
I can’t stand it because the powder is like a rock! I have to swirl my brush for an insufferable amount of time just to get half an application. Yes half! This means to get one full application that I’m happy with I need to swirl my brush twice for ONE eye, so in total four. That takes a solid 5-7 minutes to apply this shadow and it drives me absolutely insane.
I am very very tempted to crush it up and re-press it, wondering whether that will make it more pigmented upon application. Worst still is I have this eye shadow twice, I have no idea how that happened, it’s the only MAC shadow I own two of, so that’s one of the reasons I’m trying to use it daily (must use it up!).
Everyday I get annoyed at how hard it is to extract pigmentation from it, but after applying my makeup, I smile and admire how beautiful the colour is.
I’m very VERY tempted to throw it out if and when I find an exact dupe, because I’m sure no matter the brand, it will be easier to apply than this.
Shadow rant over! Anyone got products they love / hate?
For me, MAC’s Mineralised Skinfinish range has always functioned more as a highlighter and / or bronzer than anything else, which is all good and well but I don’t get a lot of use out of contouring products and would much rather a blush.
So when I saw this shade I thought maybe I could use it as a blush. Unfortunately no dice, this is very much a pinky-toned highlighter. At least for me and my NC 15-20 skin it is.
Porcelain Pink has these gorgeous golden veins infused throughout the baked powder, so when applied the highlighter has a pinky undertone with gold shimmer. As shown below, it’s really a beautiful shade.
Unfortunately whilst it is beautiful, it’s too light for someone with my skin tone. You can hardly see it in the photograph, and in real life it’s “barely there”, which may be great for some people but I’d much rather a product that gives more pigmentation, that way if I want less, I can just apply less.
It’s a beautiful product, but definitely suited to people with very light skin tones.
Back in May I did a post on how to create labels for your MAC Palettes, if you’re curious you can read the original post here.
I’m really been having a blast creating videos for YouTube, the Book of Fables series is one of my greatest creations and I love doing them more and more each day~ I’ve got some pretty exciting ones in the works, I can’t wait to show you guys!
However I’m keen to branch out and try my hand at other types of videos, vlogs for example, and little “how to” videos. So here is my first of what will hopefully be many to come
Let me know if you have any suggestions or requests, I want to do my best to make videos you guys will actually find both entertaining and useful! Yes, I’m not just about making useful videos, I want them to be entertaining as well Why not try and make life as fun as possible, yes?
I bet those of you who frequent Asia already know the answer to this, but let’s carry on anyways. Now I don’t wear bronzer everyday, I actually reserve it for photo shoots or when filming a Book of Fables. That day has come, I am being a good Youtuber / Blogger and am going to try, come hell or high waters, to shoot a video for you guys this weekend.
But, the look I’m going for calls for some bronzer, and since as you know I didn’t bring any, I decided to head downstairs and see if I could get some.
I honestly didn’t anticipate how difficult a task this would be. Apparently people in Asia dislike being tanned! *shock of the century* Yes, sarcasm at it’s best
Seriously, I asked at about 8-10 different counters, in fact that lady serving the Shiseido counter at TST’s Galleria literally gave me the most bewildered look, “Bron…zer? O_o!?!?!” she replied.
The lady at the Dior counter actually asked me what it does, the minute I said to sculpt your face or give you a tan, she shook her head furiously and replied, “Oh! NO NO NO!”. Really? Is being tanned that bad? *le sigh*
Eventually the lovely ladies at the Giorgio Armani counter (whom now recognise me as that ABC girl who keeps playing at our counter) said probably MAC would be the only place to sell it. Though I suspect I’d find some at the Benefit and Bobbi Brown counters too if MAC disappointed.
But MAC rarely does… well, they don’t disappoint when it comes to variety, the quality is a whole other issue. MAC in Hong Kong is now at the tail end of the Semi Precious collection, and it really was no surprise that the “darkest” blush was the only one left. Perfect! After swatching it at the counter, it really does give a beautiful glowly bronzed shade, perfect for sculpting and adding a bit of warmth to my complexion.
So, Australia! Fear not, I know most of you are truly annoyed at the lack of variety we get in both clothes and makeup, not to mention the low SPF and total absence of whitening goods, but at least we have an abundance of bronzer?
You can’t blame a girl for attempting to put a positive spin on things.
This is my current go to primer, I’ve tried a couple of different primers, but I feel determined to finish this tube that just doesn’t seem to want to be finished!
The photo wasn’t very good at capturing it, but the formula is white with the tiniest hint of micro shimmer infused through it. However once applied to your skin, you wouldn’t notice it at all. It certainly leaves my skin feeling very smooth, which makes it a perfect base for my foundation.
And surprisingly I do notice my foundation / blush lasting quite a bit longer. Before I discovered face primers, after 4-5 hrs of wearing makeup, I could see my natural imperfections coming through, such as freckles etc. However with primer, even after 8+ hrs of wear, my foundation is still providing amazing coverage!
So I definitely believe in face primers, they are perfect for long photo shoots and conventions! But they may feel a bit heavy / greasy if you want to use them as part of your everyday routine, which I do not!
I saved my favourite till last and no I had nothing (okay maybe a bit) to do with the name! Sakura I’ve already reviewed Giggly and Miss Behave from MAC’s Quite Cute collection
Like I said for the last two blushes, the texture and quality is about the same for me~ Soft and luxe, and unfortunately not easy to fix if you break it (so try not to!)
I really did enjoy the pigmentation in Sakura It is more suited for my particular skin tone as it is lighter and not as deep in shade as Giggly. Do check out my previous reviews if perhaps you want a deeper blush or even a highlighter~
Last week I reviewed Giggly, from MAC’s Quite Cute collection Now it’s time to take a look as Miss Behave.
I found the texture to be very similar to Giggly, soft and luxe with average pigmentation. But I found this worked better for me as a subtle highlighter than actual blush. I often used this on my high points AFTER applying my normal blush. I’m not sure if this would work as a blush for people with very light skin tones, maybe? You can judge by the swatches
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.
Why not try and make life as fun as possible, yes? 
