Monday, May 19, 2014

Review/Swatch: Etude House Look At My Eyes Eyeshadow in Indigo BL04

Do you know that feeling when you really want to love a product so bad because you fell in love with the color, packaging or whatever reason it made you purchase it, but it just did not work out. Despite the consistent poor reviews given by other makeup enthusiasts, you still went ahead and bought it?

 I really should not bother reviewing this particular eyeshadow because I already gave this to my friend last year (despite my warning), but I just can't move on from the fact that out of all the good, pigmented eyeshadows in the Etude House Look at My Eyes line, I still went ahead and purchased this, thinking that I could at least do something about this to make this work with me.


 You see, I have this very unhealthy habit of gravitating towards everything that's color blue. The more rich and vibrant it is, the better. I love blue eyeshadows so much that I would even save up and buy a high end brand, just because I like love to collect one (I'm talking to you my NARS Outremer...my very first high end eyeshadow...hahaha!) 

 I don't even understand it since I know that blue eyeshadows are quite hard to work with, especially for daytime (but I would use it during daytime given the chance). I don't even use blue eyeshadows on a daily basis and if ever I would use one, I would only put it on my lash line as a liner and smudge it out a little to make it quite smokey if I want to. 

Price:
I honestly forgot how much this is, but I think the price range would be anywhere from P150-200 each, depending on where you purchase it. It's very affordable.

Place bought:
SM North Edsa (or you could buy this from an online seller)

Packaging:
As always, the packaging of Etude House tends to be consistently cute, pink and girly, but at least they did a good job at keeping it minimalistic this time with the eyeshadows. See how pretty it is in the pan?


Formulation:
This is where the flaws come in. This particular eyeshadow is nowhere near buttery. It has a hard, slightly chalky texture, that picking up pigments from this with a brush is quite useless and using your finger to pick up product would only give you less than satisfactory results.

Given the price, I understand that I can't expect superior quality and performance, but because I also own other Etude House eyeshadow from this line that has good quality and performs really well, I just hoped that this particular eyeshadow would also be consistent with the rest that I have tried and still enjoy using up to now.


 Pigmentation:
 Since using a dry brush would make the powder fly everywhere, making a mess on my table and my hands, I tried using this wet in hopes that it would give me better pigmentation. Unfortunately, using this wet ruined the eyeshadow (look at the "cement-like" texture at the upper left side of the pan in the picture above), making it harder for me to pick up product the next time I'm going to use it.

After giving this eyeshadow a good rub with my finger, it would look like it would give me good pigmentation (as shown in the picture below), but that's where the good part ends...It applies very patchy. The rich, vibrant pigment we see in the pan automatically says bye bye as I applied it on my skin which gives a very dull looking pigment blah of nothingness.

But honestly, the deal breaker for me that pushed me to just give this to my friend to play with was the glitter. I HATE GLITTER, ESPECIALLY CHUNKY GLITTER...WITH PASSION. It's not the eyeshadow's fault in the first place since I was dumb enough to know this contained glitter when I bought it, but I never expected the glitter particles to migrate everywhere on my face throughout the day. Eventhough I'm a Twilight fan (yes, I hear many sighs of disappointment...deal with it...hahaha!), not once in my life did I wish or want to sparkle like that hunky vampire we saw in the movie. Anyway, I've seen my friend use this eyeshadow too and I knew she was hella annoyed with the glitters chilling all over her face throughout the day. She keeps on wiping her cheeks, chin and even her forehead every now and then...I warned her about the glitter, but she kept the eyeshadow anyway hahahaha! 

 Pros:
- affordable and easily accessible in Asia and online
- cute, minimalistic designed packaging (not that this matter too much)
- so many colors to choose from (they also have matte eyeshadows in this collection)

Cons:
- applies very patchy (I understand that many blue eyeshadows, especially mattes, applies quite patchy, but this eyeshadow took "patchy" to a whole new level)
- poor pigmentation
- poor texture
- poor staying power
- glitters scatter everywhere on your face
- you can't apply it wet or you'll ruin the eyeshadow

 Swatch:
after LAYERING this a few times, you still get this much pigmentation. 'nuff said....Excuse the scaly arms, I had eczema on my arms at that time (I know, it was a bad idea).

Would I repurchase?
Obviously not...BUT I am interested in trying out other colors from the Look at My Eyes line because, as I said before, the other eyeshadows I own from this collection performs really well. I would still recommend that you try out the other shades. I want to try out their matte eyeshadows from this collection, I hope they're good.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Review/Swatch: Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick in Coral Crush

The Maybelline Color Sensational lipsticks has been one of the most reviewed drugstore lipstick since it came out a few years ago. Obviously, I haven't really thought about purchasing one until their Bold Matte line came out. Luckily, I waited for it to go on sale before purchasing this.

Price:
Original price is P399, but I bought it on sale for 20% off.

Place bought:
SM North Edsa (Available in all their dept. stores)
Packaging:
packaging is quite sleek for a drugstore lipstick, although the cap is made of plastic. the ingredients are attached on the cap as seen in the picture, but it's quite hard for me to see what's written on it. 

Scent:
I took a whiff of the lipstick and my brain told me, "oh no." Although the scent of the lipstick is not strong and you can't "taste" it when it's on your lips (ladies, ya know what I'm talking about), it annoys me that the scent lingers for a few minutes, making me choke cough everytime I wear this. It has this powdery, vanilla-y, perfume-y scent that I wish they did not include in the product. I wish they just stayed scentless, like the Maybelline Watershine pure or the Maybelline Bold Mattes which I enjoyed immensely. 

Out of all the pretty shades, I picked "Coral Crush". I don't know why, but I've noticed that I find myself gravitating towards peaches, corals, orange and cool toned pinks (even if it's a bad idea since I can't pull off cool toned pinks very well...but it so pretty to look at from the tube...hehehe!) from bright to pastel shades. Maybe I should find more dark colored lipstick to complete my lipstick obsessions? Maybe?

Formulation:
I've worn this without a lipbalm underneath and it still applied quite smoothly, given that my lips are not very dry and flaky that day. The pigmentation is good even though the color spreads out a bit patchy on my lips. It applies to a satin finish, but the color wears off like a stain on my lips after 3-4 hours (with or without eating or drinking).

Swatch:
depending on the lighting, the color (on me) changes from dark orange-y coral (indoor lighting) to a bright coral like the one in the picture above (outdoor/natural lighting).

Pros:
- affordable and easily accessible (on sale most of the time)
- wide range of colors to choose from
- great pigmentation

Cons:
- I don't like the scent.
- color spreads out a bit patchy

Will I repurchase?
Maybe not.


Saturday, April 26, 2014

Review/Swatch: Maybelline Bold Matte lipstick MAT 1 & MAT 2

Bright matte lips are on trend right now and no matter how dry my lips are, matte lipsticks will always have a place in my heart. Unfortunately, ever since I had atopic dermatitis, I can't pull off any kind of lip product. Even lip balms are no match for my dry lips especially when my skin is flaring up. So whenever I feel like my skin and lips are in a "happy place" or at least normal in my standard, I go crazy with lippies...the bolder the color, the better.

So whenever you see me posting about lip products, you betcha those days are what I consider my "good skin days".

Purchased some Maybelline bold matte lippies to try out last January and I haven't even opened these two (among many other new products that is still in their pristine condition...yeah, I'm borderline hoarder hahaha!)
Maybelline Bold Matte Lipsticks
Packaging:
it looks like this when the seal is unopened. When the seal is removed you'll be left with a bare frosted plastic cap. Overall look is ok, with a decent weight to it. 

Price:
got these on sale for 20% off its original price of P399

Place bought:
SM North Edsa

I think when I was purchasing this, I only saw 5 or 6 different shades in the bold matte line. I checked reviews about this in the internet and saw that in other Asian countries, they have 7 or more different shades to choose from this line (no fair!)...don't know if they have added the "new" shades here 'cause I'm not up to date anymore and I'm not in the mood to collect this lipstick line as of now.

 Ingredients:

Scent:
no detectable scent which I prefer.

Pigmentation:
In my opinion, the pigmentation is great. It is very bright with a hint of neon in it (at least in these shades I got).

Formulation:
-It applies smooth on my lips which is surprising for a drugstore "matte" lipstick 'cause the ones I've tried dragged on my lips (but I still love you Wet n' Wild megalast lipcolor).
- Even though it does not make my lips look chalky or super dehydrated, it is still not moisturizing enough for me to wear without a lipbalm underneath which is understandable because all matte lipstick are like that.
- although this is a "matte" lipstick, other people find that this lipsticks give a very subtle satin look to the lips (which can be remedied by blotting the lips with a tissue to make it look matte). My lips are naturally dry already, so it looks matte on me from the get go. hehehe!
- I don't know about other people, but I like how it stains my lips after long hours of wear. I can wear this for 6-8 hours max.

MAT 1
bright, almost neon pink on my lips

unfortunately, when I opened the MAT 1, the tip of the lipstick was ruined. I don't understand how it happened because I made sure the lipstick was new and the seal has never been touched by anybody. 

Swatch:
I swatched this with a lipbalm underneath. It's no biggie since I'll just blot my lips with a tissue and it will looked completely matte.....if I don't wear a lipbalm underneath, this will look matte on me.

MAT 2
bright, neon orange red on my lips 

Swatch:
I find that this is a tad more pigmented than the MAT 1.


Pros:
- affordable and easily accessible (Maybelline is on sale most of the time.)
- decent amount of shades to choose from.
- great pigmentation.
- although it is not moisturizing, it still feels comfortable to wear for long periods of time and it does not give your lips a "chalky" look.
- I like that it stains the lips (I can wear this as a lip tint) and it does not look patchy once the color wore off during the day. 

Cons:
  - I can't think of any.






Thursday, November 14, 2013

Review/Swatch: NYX Black Label Lipstick in Hot Pink and Citrine

I hope not everyone's tired of me doing swatches and reviews of NYX products. I just love their products because most of their products are of great quality for the price. I'm also trying to finish posting reviews about the NYX products that I haven't posted yet, so just bear with me.

NYX Black Label lipstick
This is a step up from their usual NYX round lipstick. From the packaging, design and formulation, this thing looks and feel way better. Of course, this has a higher price point than the former.

Current Price:
P250-P300 depending on where you buy it and if there is a sale going on.

Place bought:
digitaltraincase (they already have a personal website where you can shop premium, hard to find and makeup for professional artists online since multiply has closed down already)
at the moment, I don't see the lipstick from the black label line in stock from their online store.

carton sleeve
actual lipstick


Packaging:
When I bought this, it came with a carton sleeve with nice lace designs at the sides. The product has a good weight to it and it doesn't feel "cheap" as compared to their round lipsticks.


The colors that you see at the bottom of the tube is the same as what you see on the actual lipstick bullet so it's easier to navigate what color you want in your lipstick stash. 

Scent:
it has a nice, faint, fruity scent to it. It actually reminds me of a candy called Frutella.

Ingredients:
ingredients are both indicated on the carton sleeve and on the lipstick cap so that we don't have to keep the carton sleeve after.


Formulation:
it glides on easily, but unlike the NYX round lipstick, it has a better adhesion/staying power on the lips to avoid feathering or smearing which I have experienced with some NYX round lipstick in the past.

Pigmentation:
very pigmented especially for the bolder colors like "citrine" which can act as a stain as it wears off your lips.

Swatches:

Citrine
full-on application

applied sparingly

Hot Pink
full-on application

applied sparingly