Vulcano

I've been wanting to try some make up from Dolce and Gabbana beauty line. The beauty line is not available in Germany both in stores or online so I was very excited when I found out that Galeries Lafayette Paris carries the make up line. 

The counter was very full when I first came so I had to wait about 5-10 minutes until a very nice and friendly SA came to help me. I've seen Rae from theraeviewer raving about some of Dolce and Gabbana products so I asked the SA that I wanted to try a full face make up from foundation to lipstick. The SA was very gentle in make up application, asked me about what I like and dislike, about my skin condition , etc etc. The finish look she created on me was very nice, natural and fresh looking ( Sorry I forgot to take a pict of the finish look ).  As much as I wanted to buy everything she put on my face, I picked up only the foundation and the eye shadow quad ( I was on the edge to get the blush as well but I have just bought 2 NARS blushes so I didn't buy it ). I'm still trying out the foundation so now let's talk about the eye shadow quad now.

Packaging wise, the palette has great quality. The case is made of plastic but not cheap kind of plastic. The case is sturdy and well made, though very prone to finger prints. There is a built in mirror inside with 2 mini sponge applicators. It weighs well on my grip and it also comes with a velvet pouch like most high end brands do.

Vulcano consists of 4 shades. A light pearly yellow, a matte redish brown, a duochrome cranberry ( very similar to MAC cranberry ) , and a duochrome blackened eggplant shade. All shades work well together . They really compliment each other. Both of the duo chrome shades also look great worn alone.

The texture is so smooth, buttery and they apply well on the lids. The pigmentation is just perfect. They blend easily and give such a nice finish on the lids. The staying power is impressive, they stay on for more than 8 hours without base. 

Some of you might have known how I love Burberry eye shadow. This quad is just as great as the Burberry ones. Only the shades I picked up from D&G are not as wearable as the ones from Burberry. But I can create a lot of different looks with this D&G palette, from everyday natural look to bold smokey eye look. The color might not be everyone's cup of tea but I just wanted to have something a bit unusual, because I have already owned too many earthy brown shades.

How do you like the quad? Have you ever tried Dolce and Gabbana make up?

Love,

Pam

Shocking Coral

I have just cleaned my make up collection and got rid of a lot of stuffs I barely used. So now I don't have as many lipsticks as I used to, therefore, a reason to buy new ones! lol

I did some research online and a lot of people seem to like the Color Sensational vivid line from Maybelline. There are only 2 shades available in Germany and Shocking Coral is the most loved one so I bought it.  At first I was quite worried about the color being 'too neon' for me , but my local drugstore was having 20% off all maybelline products so I picked it up anyway.

The lipstick comes in a square bullet with transparent red closure lid. The packaging is quite nice for drugstore. It feels nice on the hand,not very plasticky or cheap looking.

Shocking Coral is a true neon coral shade. It leans more to orange on hand swatch but on the lips it leans more to pink. It is a very bright-neon shade. I am not sure how I feel about it as the shade is too neon for my liking. The texture is creamy but not slippery, a very nice texture actually. But it sets into lip lines very bad so make sure to moisturize your lips properly beforehand. The pigmentation is over the top, it takes only a light swipe to make it opaque. This is not the kind of lipstick you can apply or re apply without mirror.

I have to say, the color looks kind of nice on pictures above, but on real life it looks very 'Jersey Shore', definitely not flattering for my asian complexion. It makes my teeth appear more yellow and my skin appears dull. I know a lot of people love it, but it is just not meant for me. Aside of the color, the lipstick's formula is very nice. It is creamy and feels hydrating on the lips and it also stays on pretty well. 

It originally retails for 7,75€ but I got it for 20% off.

Have you tried the vivid line from Maybelline?

Love,

Pam

Bienvenue à Paris!

Hey guys! My 4 day trip to Paris is over T.T why holiday always flies like a jet plane?? Paris is a beautiful beautiful city. The fact that Paris is beautiful, I believe is no longer a secret for a lot of people. I didn't have much expectations though to be honest, because I have heard some 'not so good' things about Paris, e.g how 'unsafe' the city is from pickpockets, how 'unfriendly' the Parisians are, and how full the city is with loud and clueless tourists. But I have to say I was impressed with the city. Let me conclude it for you.

The Parisians - During my 4 day trip in Paris, I found that Parisians are friendly. The people on the streets,  staffs at dept.stores, boutiques, restaurants, cafes, even taxi drivers were all very friendly and helpful despite of my pathetic french skill . I only found that mostly people who work at public services were very unhelpful and unfriendly and unwilling to speak even a word in english ( which is such a shame because they are supposed to help -.- ) But anyway, the parisians are not that bad. It could be because I live in germany where the people are not considered the friendliest :p

The Metro - Okay, I was not impressed with the metro. I think it was even worse than the London's. I live in Berlin where public transportation is excellent, so Paris metro was a bit a shock for me. They were mostly on time though, but almost always so full-hot-and dirty, very old wagon ( but some lines have new wagons which are good ), too many exits and entrances per station so it is very difficult as a tourist. And the worst among all, is that you have to walk a very looooong endless tunnels every time you want to reach the train or transfer.

The Tourist Attractions / Sightseeing - Louvre, Eiffel, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Cour, what else? I am not the kind of person who love sightseeing, for me, taking must have tourist pics in front of the most famous landmarks is enough. I didn't go up the Eiffel tower, I didn't enter Louvre ( which I actually really wanted to , but didn't have time ), I didn't go to Sacre cour, so I don't really have much to say. But I did enter Notre dame church which is beautiful! the entrance is free so make sure you don't miss it! And if you want a good pict in front of eiffel, go to Trocadero station, best view is at night when the lights are on.

Disneyland - a must visit! 1 day is def not enough. I only managed to finish the disneyland park but didn't have time to visit the disney studio as they were closing at 6pm. It was a dream comes true. I am always a disney kid inside out, I grew up watching disney movies, I remember every scenes in cinderella and sing all the disney soundtracks, so being able to finally visit Disneyland was really a dream comes true for me. The park is huge! So wear comfortable shoes and bring empty water bottle as there are a lot of free water stations you can find all over the park. The 5pm parade was also soooo good I had tears on my eyes.

The Shopping - All the luxury boutiques at rue st.honore, rue cambon and rue fabourg are must visits. They have wonderful window displays and chic parisians walking down the pavements. The Hermes boutique is unbelievably full of asians and arabs ;p. Chanel boutique is huge and they have their own perfume and beauty corner. Most of the staffs in the boutiques are relatively friendly and helpful too. Printemps beaute and Galeries Lafayette beauty floor are also must visits. Printemps' NARS counter was the highlight while Dolce&Gabbana beauty counter at Lafayette was a dream home for me. 

Champ Elysees in other hand, was not very special. It is very paris but also very full, crowded, and overrated imho. The huge sephora there doesn't carry a lot of brands from the US. 90% of what they have are available in Germany as well so I didn't really spend a lot of time there . It was also very very very full and the stuffs were all busy, so save your time and better go to Lafayette or Printemps. 

 

Food - Paris have good steak and wine and pattiserie of course. L'aduree main store ( including a huge 2 storey restaurant ) in champ elysees is a must. The interior is soooooo paris and grandious and beautiful. Staffs were very friendly and tea and desserts were delish. Brunch on street cafes is also a must do.

I didn't find any 'drugstore' in Paris and I really wonder where the parisians buy their drugstore make up. There is a few selection of drugstore make up in lafayette but they are very over priced and there were only bourjois, lafayette own brand, maybelline and loreal and all of them are almost the same price as MAC. They have a lot of pharmacies though, but most pharmacies only carry skincare and medicine, no make up. So I saved the money and went for high end brands. I bought Amour Blush, Killing me softly cheek palette, and hyde park satin lip pencil from NARS, a set of 3 perfumes from Laura Mercier and Vulcano Eyeshadow quad + perfect luminous liquid foundation from Dolce&Gabbana beauty. Of course, reviews coming soon!

So, that's all about my paris trip, it was a wonderful 4 days in Paris and I'll def come back. 

Have you ever been to Paris?

Love,

Pam

DIOR Forever Flawless Foundation Compare to DIOR Nudeskin Foundation

Warning : This post is going to be a very looooong about in depth review and comparison, grab some popcorn! 

I ran out of my holy grail high end foundation, Guerlain Lingerie de Peau which is very very sad because I love the foundation so much T.T

As much as I wanted to repurchase Lingerie de Peau, I also wanted to try on other high end foundation and also to give my skin a bit of a break from Lingerie de Peau, because somehow, after using a product so constantly, our skin get used to it and it is no longer having amazing effect to our skin. Does it also happen to anyone of you?

So I did some researched on the internet and the 2 foundations from DIOR caught my interest the most. Good luck that I have a friend working for DIOR beauty counter so he gave me 2 little pots of Dior Forever Flawless(FS) and Nudeskin(NS) so I can try them on and see which one suits my skin's needs the most. Below are pictures where you can see both foundations worn.

Both foundations in shade 23

From how they look on my skin, I honestly can't really tell the difference. I asked my boyfriend and some of my friends if they can see any difference and none of them can -__-. But I do feel after few hours that FF stays on better than NS. Based on the texture, NS is thicker and a bit more difficult to blend while FF is very liquidy and easy to blend. A lot of people say that NS has more glowy finish while FF has matte finish, which I can't really confirm because on my skin, both foundations look kind of glowy , I'd say semi matte. On coverage, FF has buildable medium to full coverage and NS has sheer to medium coverage. FF has SPF 25 and NS has only SPF 10, so FF has more plus points for me, thus I decided to go with Forever Flawless after a week of trying both foundations. 

Dior Forever Flawless Foundation comes in a very high end packaging. It is a matte glass bottle with a pump spender that dispenses the right amount of product. The bottle is very weighty and well made, It is not really travel friendly as it is kind of heavy and it might break, but it looks so beautiful and I can almost justify the purchase based on the packaging alone.

My shade is number 23 - peach. The color has more neutral / beige undertone which I like. It is the perfect shade for me at the moment, it darkens a little bit once it's settled but nothing very noticeable. The texture is liquidy, a bit runny but it makes the foundation blends easier than Nudeskin. It is subtly scented, typical high end foundation and the scent it very pleasant. 

Forever Flawless has medium to full coverage, very buildable. It has semi matte finish but still allows my natural skin to glow without being oily. It covers up my imperfections well and concealer is not necessary when I'm in hurry. My rednesses and blemishes are covered beautifully without being blotchy or flakey. Despite of the medium to full coverage, this foundation looks very natural and doesn't feel heavy on the skin.  The staying power is also above average. I notice that it only starts to fade after good 7-8 hours. 

One downside is, I can see that the foundation can settle to dry patches a bit. So make sure to moisturize well beforehand. It is not really a problem for my combination-oily skin, but people with dry skin might like NudeSkin better. 

Overall, if I had to choose between this foundation and lingerie de peau, I'd pick lingerie de peau. But that doesn't mean this one from DIOR is not good, only I feel like this foundation is lacking its 'luxury-high end effect'. The finish that I got from this foundation is only slightly better than my recent HG drugstore foundation Bourjois Healthy mix serum. With Guerlain Lingerie de Peau, the high end and expensive feeling was very noticeable. I would still recommend this foundation for people with normal-oily skin type. If you have dry-normal skin then you might enjoy Nude Skin more. This is nonetheless a very well made foundation, but I'm not sure if it's worth the 46€ / 30ml price tag. 

Love,

Pam

Floral Grunge

It is a bit late for me to review this blush as the limited edition display is already long gone from the drugstore. But as most of my readers are international, and I believe the collection is not yet worldwide available, so I think I'll review it anyway. 

The blush was part of the Floral Grunge collection which was launched in May 2013. 

The blush comes in a simple plastic-acrylic packaging, very plain but sleek imho. The pot is well made and weighty, doesn't feel cheap at all.

The blush is a baby coral shade. It is the perfect marriage between baby pink and coral. The color is unique and I bought it because I didn't have similar shade in my collection yet.

The texture is amazing. It is soft, smooth, velvety and not powdery, every good things you expect from high end blush, actually. The fact that this blush is a drugstore product and costs only 3,49€ makes it even better. The pigmentation is great, not over the top so it is foolproof. It gives such a natural finish on the cheeks, semi matte finish and it looks so pretty and perfect for everyday use. I think this blush will compliment lighter complexion better because the color is a bit pale.

The staying power is also above average. It only starts to fade after 6-7 hours. 

This blush has been a staple for my every day routine, such a nice shade that goes with any kind of look. If Essence is available where you live, and this LE collection has not yet come to your drugstore, keep your eyes opened because it is such a steal!

Love,

Pam