BECCA Glow on The Go

I was never big on highlighter. I used to find them too much for my combination skin, but I guess I just had not found a good one yet. After my encounter with The Balm Mary Lou Manizer, I started to appreciate highlighters more and recently I've been buying more and more highlighters xD. 

On my first visit ever to Space NK when I was in London, I spotted this glow on the go kit from Becca and instantly fell in love with the swatches I did there and £ 20 is not a bad price either.

BECCA Glow on The Go contains mini sizes of their famous shimmering skin perfector pressed Opal and shimmering skin perfector Opal spotlight wand. BECCA is a brand which is not easily accessible in Germany so I didn't waste the chance to get this set and give it a try. They're tiny but a little goes a long way, 

Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed Opal has a very smooth, silky and almost creamy texture. It reminds me of The Balm Mary Lou only creamier and smoother and finer. It feels like Mary Lou on a higher level. The pigmentation is intense but once applied, it doesn't appear too much on the skin. It illuminates and highlights the desired area very well. I usually apply it on the highest point of the cheeks and on the cupid bow. It is shimmery but not glittery. The texture is sooooo fine! It has a dewy looking finish which is great as I don't really like too much shimmer on the cheeks. It doesn't enhance pores either. 

Shimmering Skin Perfector Spotlight Wand Opal is the liquid version of the highlighter. It is more subtle and perfect if you want an even more natural look. The texture is lightweight, creamy and very easy to blend. I like to dab a few dots on the cheeks and blend it using my finger. The finish look is very subtle though. If you prefer a more saturated look, you will not be satisfied with the result and might need to layer it with the pressed Opal on the top. 

Overall, the set is a good purchase and a nice one to get if you want to give BECCA highlighter a try.  Or since the holiday season is here , this set will make a nice gift too! 

It is reasonably priced and the products are really good as well.

Have you tried any highlighter from BECCA?

Love,

Pam

Maybelline Color Show Cream Matte lipstick

On my recent trip to Jakarta, I spotted this new range of matte lipstick from Maybelline. They're very affordable at IDR 33.000 ( ca. US$3 ) so I didn't hesitate to grab few colors at once.

Maybelline Color Show Creamy Matte Lip Colours come in a sleek black bullet with a coloured ring in the middle that imitate the color of the lipstick inside. The bullet is made of matte plastic case which doesn't catch fingerprints which is great. 

The range is quite wide. There were more than 10 shades available if I'm not mistaken. Divided into group of hues ( purple, red, pink and nude ). I picked up 2 from the purple, 1 from the nude and 1 from the red.

Lively Violet - is a true mauve shade which could make my complexion looking a bit ashy. I can trick it by applying a pink gloss over it, but it is a matte lipstick, so why layering it with gloss? 

Madly Magenta - is a bright fuchsia shade.

Pop of Pink - is a Barbie pink shade. I don't know why I picked up this shade. It is so unflattering xD

Hot Chili - is a bright chilli red. 

For lipsticks that cost roughly US$3, they're great. The texture is creamy but not slippery. They're full coverage and well pigmented. One swipe is what's needed to reach full opacity. They're easy to apply and glide on smoothly. They also don't set into lip lines.

The lighter shades don't stay on very well though which is okay for me. They still can get around 3-4 hour mark, while the bolder shades can go up to 5-6 hour mark easily.

The other thing I noticed with bolder shades ( Hot Chilli and Madly Magenta ), they tend to bleed and feather so I always frame my lips with lip pencil to avoid feathering.

Overall, they're not the best matte lipsticks I've ever encountered. But, they're certainly good for the price point. The color selection is wide and the packaging is not that bad either. 

What is your favourite matte lipstick from the drugstore?

Love,

Pam

Rouge Noir

I usually don't really like Chanel makeup, but their Illusion D'ombre eye shadows are my favourites. They're so complex, simply beautiful. And when I saw they brought up new limited shade ( I read somewhere it's going to be permanent though! ) for the holiday collection and the shade happened to be my cup of tea, I just had to have it xD

Rouge Noir is a blackened reddish purple shade with multicolour glitter particles. I can spot gold, silver, green, yellow, and red glitters which all together make Rouge Noir a beautiful, iridescent and complex shade. I made a insta video which you can see here, to have a look at the shade better. Rouge Noir is darker and less red than Ebloui. It appears more purplish on the lids. 

If you are familiar with Illusion D'ombre, they all have bouncy - spongy and slightly dry texture. They're not as dry as L'oreal Infallible eye shadows though. Illusion D'ombre still have a wetness to it. I've been gravitating towards cream eye shadows lately, as they're easier to apply and usually stay on longer on my oily lids. 

Rouge Noir applies sheer on the first layer but you can build up the intensity. To achieve the opacity on the above swatch, I layered it 3 times. I personally like it that it's so versatile, you can have a simple eye look to heavy smokey eye look only with one single eye shadow. 

Rouge Noir applies smoothly, blends easily and doesn't crease nor smudge on the lids. It has a good staying power and I don't feel the need to apply eye shadow primer underneath. 

I expected it to be very similar to Ebloui as some swatches I found on the internet seem to show it that way. But, surprisingly they're relatively different on my lids. Ebloui appears very 'reddish' and coppery meanwhile Rouge Noir appears rather purplish and doesn't even look reddish at all.

Overall, I enjoy Rouge Noir a lot. There is no faulty in the quality department. Illusion D'Ombre is definitely one of the best cream eye shadow formulas I've tried. The complexity of the shades, the easy breezy application, good staying power and the luxurious well made Chanel packaging. Love.

Have you tried Chanel Illusion D'Ombre?

Love,

Pam

Cherry Pop and Nude Pop

During my recent trip to London, I met up with the lovely Jing Jing from shizurawr.com . She was really kind and bought me Glamour UK which had these Clinique lipsticks as their goodies. I managed to get another one with different a shade resulting in 2 mini Clinique Lip Pop in Cherry Pop and Nude Pop.

I had not tried the Clinique Pop Lipsticks before, but had been wanting to give them a try. So I was very excited to be able to get their minis for free xD

Cherry Pop is a blue toned red, the name is just perfect as it is a cherry red. I didn't expect to like it as much as I do now. It is such a brightening red. It has a whitening effect for the teeth too which is a plus point.

Nude Pop is a true nude shade. It has no pink or peach undertone, and really is a true beige nude. The color is actually almost identical with my natural bare lip color. It is not a dead nude, but it's not something I'd be comfortable wearing as it makes my whole complexion looking more pale and a bit 'sick'.

Texture wise, they're just amazing. They're creamy and balmy and feel very comfortable and hydrating on the lips. They're not as balmy as Clinique Chubby Sticks but balmy enough for a regular lipsticks. The pigmentation is great and they both don't feather or bleed ( esp for red shade like Cherry Pop, it's amazing! ). They glide on smoothly on the lips and don't enhance or set into lip lines. Both have a slight shine finish but I prefer to wear my red matte, so I blot it with tissue paper to eliminate the shine. It's not very shiny though, just a little bit.

Staying power is great. Nude Pop doesn't last as long as Cherry Pop. But it can go to 3-4 hour mark easily. Cherry Pop on the other hand is fairly long lasting. I remember wearing it when I was in London for the whole day. I applied it around 10am and when I came back to the hotel around 4pm, it was still on point. I didn't have big meal during that hour though, only one croissant and few drinks. It didn't leave my lips dry despite of the good staying power. It's just great, I'm pleasantly surprised.

Overall, I already plan to get other shades. Plum Pop is on the top of my list. I really love the formula of this Lip Pop range. I think I just found another favorite lipstick formula. They're reasonably priced too at €23 compare to other high end lipsticks.

Love,
Pam

Cup O'Coffee and Rosy Cheeks

I did a bit of LUSH haul recently and bought 2 of their masks, Cup O' Coffee and Rosy Cheeks. I've been trying them for awhile now and will let you know how I like them. 

Cup O Coffee

Cup O Coffee is described as a face and body mask. Coffee masks have been really popular lately and I had been wanting to give it a try since I saw them everywhere. When I found out LUSH just launched their coffee mask, I was excited to try.

Long story short, I bought a smaller pot for me to try at home. First of all, I love the smell! It smells like a fresh ground coffee beans. If you like the smell of coffee, you're going to like it. The texture however, is very rough. I don't have any issue with it though as I like rough scrub for body, I just can't imagine using it on my face. It is so rough and scrubby, I'm sure it will irritate my face immediately. On my body, it works very good as exfoliator. But, it is not that kind of scrub that will leave your skin silky smooth afterwards like Rub Rub Rub for example. This is a true exfoliating scrub, it will leave your skin feeling squeaky clean and you definitely need to moisturise your skin afterwards.

As far as the scent goes, I love it. But the whole product doesn't really wow me. I prefer to repurchase my beloved Rub Rub Rub as it does the job as exfoliator as well as leaving my skin feeling as smooth as baby's bum. xD

Rosy Cheeks 

Rosy Cheeks is a fresh face mask from LUSH. It only has 1-2 month life span and needs to be stored in a refrigerator, just like LUSH other fresh face masks. Rosy Cheeks supposed to reduce redness on your face and soothe and calm down your skin. The description sounded like something I'd like, so I decided to give it a try too.

The texture is thick and creamy. The pink mask dries up to a greyish shade on the face. It reminds me a lot of clay mask, the kind of mask that will set dry and stiff. It has a cooling sensation ( well maybe because I stored it in the fridge, duh! xD ) and feels soothing on the skin. But, once I rinsed it up, my skin felt squeaky clean and it felt like it stripped off all the dirts and oil. Well I don't mind the dirts gone, but a bit of oil is needed for my skin to stay away from being dry. My skin felt smooth but not soft or suppled. It definitely didn't feel moisturised though. I can understand, the mask might be marketed towards people with oily skin or to be a deep cleansing mask. But I can't see the definition anywhere. It is just written that it supposed to reduce redness, calm and soothe your skin, nothing says it will deep cleanse or strip off the oil. So I do feel a bit mislead by the description.

Overall, I have used this mask three times since I bought it and while I didn't hate it, I didn't love it either. I barely used 1/4 of the pot and the expiration date is 2 weeks away. I can't bring myself to use this mask more than once a week, so I will have to throw the rest away I guess. Or I will 'force' my boyfriend to use it haha xD.

Have you tried any masks from LUSH?

Love,

Pam