Ettusais BB Mineral White

First of all, let me introduce the brand ; Ettusais. Ettusais is a sister brand from the giant Japanese brand Shiseido. It is first launched in 1991 and the name Ettusais derived from French slang language for 'You Know?'.

I got this BB Cream in Singapore for approx. 50 SGD. The price is a bit high for BB Cream as I usually got asian drugstore BB Creams for under 10€.

Ettusais mineral white BB Cream comes in a squeeze tube packaging in pearl white and baby pink colors. The packaging has a cute typical Japanese design which I like.

As any asian brand make up, all the instructions are written in Japanese / or chinese alphabet that I don't understand at all, so I did some research about it on the internet and here are some facts that I found ;

• This BB Cream won the Japanese Cosme Award in the best BB Cream award for 2 years .
• It is non comedogenic and fragrance free
• Ettusais claimed this BB Cream to be :

"Ettusais Mineral white bb cream is a brightening japanese BB Cream with 63% skin care ingredients for acne prone women in their teens and early 20's. The 8-in 1 BB Cream has the effects of facial serum, make up base, foundation, concealer, and sun protection while brightening skin , hiding visible pores, and preventing acne. It is formulated with AC Control oil to surpress acne while optimizing skin's natural moisture and it also contains pure whitening brightening powder with light diffusing properties for brighter skin. It gives a smooth luminous finish for baby-like skin."

What a loooong promise, isn't it?

EMWBBC comes in 3 shades and my shade is #02-natural.

BEFORE

AFTER

EMWBBC has a light to medium coverage. It gives a dewy and radiant finish without making my face look greasy. The oil control isn't really impressive I must say, but I like the healthy finish it gives to my skin without creating a typical bb cream-grey cast. I notice that in compare to korean BB Creams, japanese BB creams are less grey which is a good point. 

The texture of this BB Cream is light and creamy and it is easy to blend. I find that it works best when applied with fingers or beauty blender. Once applied and blended well, it feels lightweight and smooth on my skin. It covers enough imperfections without making my face look dull or cakey. It also doesn't clog my pores.

The staying power is good but it gets a bit oily after 4 hours wearing, but I don't mind to blot some powders over it because I like the dewy and brightening finish.

It is overall a really nice BB Cream and worth the slightly high price. I've tested it while I was in Indonesia and it was really warm and humid there but it performed well. So if you live in warm and humid countries, this BB Cream is just right for you.

PS : I am currently away from home,attending an economic conference in Riga,Latvia.. I'll post the winner of the giveaway in 1-2 week time! 

Love,

pam

Lancome L'Absolu Rouge #280

I got this lipstick as a birthday gift from my lovely colleague at work. This is my 1st Lancome lipstick, since Lancome is a brand, that I am not really interested in, I don't have any Lancome make up on my stash, yet. So I am happy to get this as a birthday present so I can try it out :D

The lipstick comes in a sleek black bullet with a Lancome golden rose printed on top. The lipstick itself also has a rose logo embossed on it. The packaging is nice and chic, it def looks high end and the bullet is also well made.

I can't find the name of the shade, only the number, which is #280. It is a nude-peach shade with a lot of gold shimmers. It is not my cup of tea, and I don't own any similar shade on my stash mainly because I don't usually attract to this kind of color.

The lipstick has a nice texture. It is smooth and creamy but it is not slippery. It does feel a bit waxy though, like an old fashioned lipstick, if you understand what I meant. It accentuates the lip lines a bit, but not too much, so def apply lip balm or exfoliate your lips before.  The staying power is okay, it lasts on me for 4 hours without major eating.

I have nothing against the quality of this lipstick. Only the color is not my thing. I feel washed out wearing the color, and the golden shimmers are a bit too much and the glitters are flaky as well.  It is nice to try something new and it is nice to have a total different shade in my collection, but I know I wouldn't reach for this often.

What do you think about the color? Do you think it looks too nude for me?

Love,

Pam

Sonia Rykiel Eyeshadow Duo

The first time I read about Sonia Rykiel beauty brand from lovely Kate from drivel about frivol. I was so excited when I found this brand on my trip to Singapore. Unfortunately the price is hefty, otherwise I'd love to take more with me. The SA girl there didn't really speak english and I didn't really speak Hokkien so we communicated with broken english and broken Hokkien but she was really sweet and helpful.

I wanted to take the eye shadow quad but it was 75 SGD and I wasn't sure about the quality so I didn't want to risk that much money, so I took the duo instead for ca. 40  SGD.

The duo eye shadow comes in a nice case though I expected more 'heavy' material because the case is lightweight so it feels a bit cheap in certain way. It also comes with a small round built in mirror. 

Quality wise, my first impression was that the texture is a bit dry. It feels more like a pressed pigment. The texture reminds me a lot of the L'Oreal Infaillible eye shadows, really similar. 

The pigmentation is good and the shade is really complex. It has kind of duo chrome , shimmery finish. Look at the plum shade on the swatch above, beautiful isn't it?

On my lids, the duo chrome finish doesn't look as beautiful as on my hand, maybe because my lids are oily. The staying power over base is okay but not groundbreaking either.

I am not really sure about the quality of this eye shadow. I like it but I don't love it. It's nice to have in my collection , but I am glad I didn't spend 75 SGD on the quad. 

Have you ever heard about the brand?

Love,

Pam

Color Tattoo 24 Hour

Maybelline Color Tattoo 24 Hour cream eye shadows are products that are highly praised and hyped around beauty community but I failed to understand the hype. 

I purchased my first color tattoo in Permanent Taupe a year ago and it didn't impress me at all. The texture was dry and not creamy enough. It creased on my lids like crazy and the color was just too grey and ashy. 

But as fellow bloggers and youtubers keep raving about them, I believe they deserve a 2nd chance.

The packaging is really nice glass pot. Heavy, well made, and sturdy. It is definitely a good packaging for the price ( 7€ ).

I wanted to buy only 'On and On Bronze' ( a.k.a Bad to the bronze on some countries ) but as I saw the newly released ( in Germany ) 'Metallic Pomegranate' which is actually the same like Pomegranate Punk ( which is available in the US only? ) I decided to take them both.

On and On bronze is a really nice bronzy shade which is unbelievably easy to wear. It is a perfect shade to wear alone on the lids every single day without being too much. It is not too gold nor too brown. 

Metallic Pomegranate is a plumy burgundy with gold shimmers which is BEAUTIFUL. It is definitely my cup of tea.

On and On Bronze

Metallic Pomegranate

I don't know what is wrong with the 'Permanent Taupe' that I bought a year ago because these 2 are totally different. They are both creamy and smooth and don't crease on my oily lids. 

The pigmentation is great and they can be worn alone or as a base for powder eye shadow. I find the best way to apply them is with finger because brushes will make them fade. The staying power is great, though 24 hour is a bit too much ( I meant, who wears make up for 24 hour straight? )

I must say I love them both though I reach for On and On Bronze more often on daily basis.

Do you have Maybelline Color Tattoo and do you like them? Which one is your favorite?

Love,

Pam

The POREfessional

Applying a primer is a step that I usually skip. Mainly because I often forget, or because I am too lazy to apply it or because I don't really see the difference between wearing a primer and not.

But on my last trip to Benefit Brow bar to do my eye brows, the Benefit girl did my make up as well as I came there without make up because I wanted to try the Hello flawless Oxygen foundation. Then she applied this Porefessional before applying the foundation and I was surprised at how smooth , silky and matte my skin felt after applying thing primer.

I didn't buy the primer directly because it is so expensive ( 32€ ) and contains only 22ml of product . But on my trip to Asia, I found this at Dubai Duty Free for only 22€ which is 10€ cheaper so I bought it right away and I didn't regret the purchase.

BEFORE

AFTER

Porefessional comes in a cute tube packaging which is practical , hygiene and travel friendly. The packaging is cute and retro-like, just as Benefit's trademark packaging.

Porefessional has a smooth creamy powdery consistency, really similar to L'oreal Studio Secrets Face Primer which I used to like a lot. It glides on smoothly on the skin and it minimizes my pores significantly. I notice that my make up stays on better over this primer and also less oily.

It has no color so it can also be applied over make up, but I have not yet tried to apply it over make up, I just don't like the idea of applying primer over make up, sounds cotradictive, doesn't it?

I overall love this primer a lot, but I am not sure if I would buy it with the full pricetag 32€. It contains only 22ml of products and it is just too expensive for the heavy pricetag. To be honest, I think the Studio Secrets primer from L'oreal is just almost as good as this one with only 1/2 of the price. So this is a nice decent product, but definitely overpriced.

Have you tried The Porefessional?

Love,

Pam

Clarins Gloss Prodige #Grenadine

A lovely friend of mine gave this for me on my birthday and I was so happy receiving it since it had been on my wish list for a long time!!

She got me the color 'Grenadine'. Grenadine is a pretty pink-strawberry shade with a lot of gold shimmers. It is not too red or too pink, so it is something in the middle. The gold shimmers are visible on the tube and even only looking at them makes me happy. 

The packaging is really nice as well. It is a clear tube with a golden cap with clarins C logo embossed on the side. It comes with a doe foot applicator.

Grenadine is pretty opaque for a lip gloss. It is def meant to be worn alone, because I think it is too pigmented to be layered over any lipstick. The formulation is just right for a lip gloss. It is not too thick or too thin and it doesn't feel sticky on the lips. 

The pigmentation is great and it covers up evenly. It still leaves a translucency feeling of a lip gloss but still being opaque enough to be worn alone. 

I noticed that it leaves stain after few hours, but I don't mind since it makes the staying power even longer. It stays on for 5 hours without major eating. 

Overall I love this lip gloss and have been wearing it often lately to work. The color is bright and vibrant but not too much. It also smells sweet like a watermelon, but not too overwhelming. It retails for 18€ which I think is a really reasonable price for a high end brand like Clarins.

Have you tried any of Clarins lip product?

Love,
Pam 

Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation

After reading so many good reviews about this foundation, I decided to pick it up on Bourjois counter in Jakarta. Bourjois is available in Germany, but very limited ( only online and at some drugstores outside Berlin ), so I was really happy to find a full Bourjois counter in department stores in Jakarta. ( in Jakarta, a lot of drugstore brands like Maybelline, Revlon, Bourjois, and Max Factor are sold in department stores together with high end brands like YSL, Shu Uemura, Anna Sui, Dior, Chanel, etc etc also with their own Sales Assistants ). 

So long story short, I picked up the healthy mix foundation for Rp.220.000,- ( approx. 24 USD ) and my shade is the lightest shade available in Jakarta, #51 Vanila Clair.

The foundation comes in a plastic bottle with a pump which I really like. First of all, it's travel friendly, second of all , it's hygienic and third, I can use it up till the last drop by cutting the bottle once it's finished which I can't do with glass bottle.

Vanila Clair has a beige undertone with a bit of yellow hint. But the yellow hint fortunately doesn't transform to my face, as I don't like my foundation looking yellow. 

BEFORE

AFTER

Now to the formula. This foundation has liquid consistency with a bit of 'gel-like' feeling. It is not too thick nor too runny. It provides medium coverage , a bit more than the Revlon Whipped Foundation. But it doesn't make my face looking cakey or dull. Otherwise it makes my skin look radiant and healthy but in no way greasy. It feels also a little bit sooting and awaken the first time you put it on. And it smells really nice and fresh as well. I find that it works best with beauty blender, but it also works just fine with my usual foundation brush.

The staying power and oil control are great, when I first time had this on while I was in Jakarta ( which is 25-30'C warm ), it stayed on really well and it didn't melt or get greasy after hours. Of course I still need to touch up , but only after 7 hours wearing. 

Overall,  this foundation doesn't cause my any breakouts, it doesn't clog my pores and it looks healthy , radiant and natural on my skin. love!

Love,

Pam

Fake Up

This product has been getting so many hype recently, just right after the launching. Concealer is something I don't usually attract to. I have in total only 2 concealers on my stash, the Maybelline FIT ME concealer which I use literally every day and the Catrice concealer correcting palette which I barely use. In comparison to other make up items like lipsticks, foundations, blushes and eye shadows that I have A LOT, concealer is clearly not my fave thing on earth.

Thank God I don't suffer a lot from dark heavy under eye area. I do have some area to cover under my eyes, but nothing really bad. So when I let my eye brow waxing done at the Benefit counter in Galeries Lafayette Berlin, the lovely Benefit SA ; Steffi applied this fake up hydrating concealer on my under eye area and I loved it!! So there you go.

Isn't the packaging beautiful? I really love the hexagon 'box' though I managed to throw the box away because I don't have any space left for unused boxes in my tiny apartment. 

My shade is the lightest shade available.

The concealer comes in a silver bullet, just like a lipstick.

Fake up comes in a stick form with a concealer in the middle and the hydrating balm wrapped around the concealer in a stick form. The texture is more like a lip balm I must say, but it is not sticky at all. It glides on really smoothly on my skin without being overly greasy.

Bare Face

With BB Cream + 1 swipe fake up

With BB Cream + Fake Up blended

For all of you who need much coverage on your under eye area, this is not a product for you. The coverage is minimal, mainly because of the hydrating balm 'part'. As I have mentioned above, I am lucky that I don't really have problem with my under eye area, so the coverage is just fine for me. Whenever I need extra coverage, I just apply 2 -3 swipes so it gets more opaque. 

The staying power is great, it stayed on for 6-7 hours before needed to be touched up. 

Fake Up doesn't get cakey on my skin. I have so far, only tried to apply it after foundation which works really well. But Rae from Raeviewer  said that she loves to apply it before foundation. Interesting!

update : I tried to apply it before any foundation and it worked even better. It brightened up the skin even more and it blended more smoothly.

One thing that I am concerned about, is that it uses up pretty quick. I barely have this for a week when this picture above was taken, and almost 0.5cm of product used. Maybe it means that I will have to buy the new one pretty soon!

Have you tried Benefit Fake Up?

Love,

Pam