US

Dandelions are plentiful here! So preffy!
Blue skies...
Weird hanging traffic lights.
We bought loads of food! So cheap! Haagen Daaz, 4 tubs for USD10 which is so cheap!!! We eat one every day.

Our first pizza buffet - self serve, no tips. We were worried about tipping lol.





This is me in the restroom lol.
We cooked. I'm honestly still pissed off that DM put wine (that was too sweet) in the broccoli and made it taste like fizz pop broccoli
That;s me 2nd from left.
Regular beauty related posts coming up soon! The connection is bad, my apologies.

USA

I'm not dead!

I'm currently in the US and the Internet connection sucks. Took lots of pictures so hear from me soon (:

Review + Swatches: Lip & Cheek Tints/Stains

Gosh I've been so busy these days I've been neglecting this place! I managed to dig up some old photos of stuff I'd always been planning to review though. I'm a collector - I like to collect the same product from different brands, so there you go - my collection of tints from half a year ago. I've since added SugarBaby to the stash, but my camera batt's flat, so no pictures. :( Sugarbaby's Lip, Eye and Cheek Tint is really good - I love the one in Peachie Glow, the colour is awesome but unfortunately it has low staying power.


Bonnebelle Translucent Gel Blush, Bourjois Rouge Hi-tech, Benefit Benetint, The Body Shop Lip and Cheek Tint (in old packaging)


From left: Benetint, Bonnebelle Gel Blush, Body Shop Lip & Cheek Tint, Bourjois Rouge Hi-Tech
Benefit Benetint
We've all heard of this, so I'll be fast - I like the nice rose-syrup scent, and the natural rosey flush, but the fragile glass bottle is super inconvenient. I find the lasting power is also not that great. The brush applicator is ok.

Bonnebelle Translucent Gel Blush in Sheer Red
The colour is a straight bright red, and looks scary in the tube but it gives a lovely flush when blended out. It smells very artificial though, and I've actually tried it as a liptint though it isn't supposed to be one, and it tastes nasty. Works well though! Lasting power about the same as Benetint, but it is so much cheaper. I know it's available in peach as well.

The Body Shop Lip & Cheek Tint
This is the one in the old packaging - I've since repurchased the one in the new packaging and it's totally the same. You can see that the colour is quite different from all the others - it's very much a purplish fuschia, on the lips it makes me look like I'd been sucking on grape ice lollies. On the face it blends out very subtly into a nice wash of colour. This is really drying on the lips though. Can't do without a balm after that. Better lasting power than Benetint and only available in one colour. It has a doe-foot applicator.

Bourjois Rouge Hi-Tech in Rose Pixel
This is the most most most pigmented of the lot! Seriously! The others give sheer watery looking flushes, but this is almost opaque. It's still very light in texture since it is water-based, but the intensity of colour is amazing. Not for the faint-hearted. Staying power is awesome. But overall I find this is not the one for me - I prefer a more natural look. The good thing is, it's available in like 6 colours! All very pigmented. It has a doe-foot applicator.

--------
Anyway, The Body Shop's tint is actually pretty much the first make-up item I owned because I was broke and I needed make-up for a concert and it fulfilled 2 purposes so it was great value for money! I like to collect tints and stains because they're so easy to use, just smear it on, and you can't possible go wrong with it, it looks so natural.

The thing about tints and stains is that while it's so convenient to have a product for dual purposes, I'm a hygiene freak and it worries me to use the same brush/doe-foot applicator on my cheeks and lips. I actually repurchased the Body Shop's tint, to separate the usage. Then again, you could always dab it on a clean finger.

I've also tried Origin's Pinch Your Cheeks - it's a small metal paint-tube and super expensive, but very pigmented and I love it. It gives a sun-kissed look, like you've been a little sunburnt and it comes in a bunch of colours. As for Sugarbaby, they have a Lip, Eye and Cheek Tint (why eye, I have no idea) which is a gel in a tube and I love the Peachie Glow which is actually quite plummy, though lasting power isn't that great. They have other colours like Pink Ink as well.

I'm hoping to try out lots of other tints/stains as well - Tarte Cheek Stains, Suki Pure Natural Cream Stain, Stila's Cherry Crush Lip & Cheek Stain... But first I must finish up some of my existing stash. :P

--------
It's a pretty busy couple of weeks for me so I won't be updating much. I've been subsisting on coffee again but I really don't think it's weird? This 9-year-old kid at my workplace saw me having my coffee fix and she was like "You're drinking coffee at 2pm?! You won't be able to go to sleep at night!!!" (Then again, she has a 9pm bedtime, so...) -_-U I'm so tired I could sleep drinking coffee just before bed. But - 2 more weeks to the end of my exams and university life. ;) Fighting!

Review: Bourjois Mineral Matte Mousse Foundation

I bought the Bourjois Mineral Matte mousse foundation on a whim and also because I read awesome reviews on MUA!

The saleswoman was one of those middle-aged women who spoke to me in Mandarin. I find saleswomen who speak to me in Mandarin are usually more pushy because they can get away with it, if you know what I mean. Speaking in Mandarin makes them seem more... 'friendly' and well-meaning instead of being 'hard-sell', so it's more difficult to reject them when they speak in Mandarin. Pfft.

Anyway the woman tried to recommend me shade 82 (Vanille delicate) but in the end I opted for shade 83 (Sable Fondu) because my face is paler than my neck and I hate the white-faced look. I guess shade 83 is good for people with MAC NC30 skintones. There are only 5 shades (81-85), so 83 is in the middle. I find the variety of shades sadly limited! Plus, in Singapore, the kabuki brush is sold separately, and it's not very cheap really, for Bourjois is essentially still a drugstore brand. I got them both for about S$40 in total (after a 20% discount).

Still, this foundation is seriously awesome if you manage to find your colour match. It is really really pigmented (like regular mineral foundation) so I find I only need to dip a super small amount onto my brush and buff buff buff (as with regular mineral foundation) and voila, veiled skin! It does contain silicones to give that smooth finish, but no mask effect (as advertised). And because I use so little of it, I really think it could last me an entire year (or even longer)!

Before I used it, I was apprehensive about how hygienic it would be to use the brush consecutively. (I wasn't looking forward to washing it every day). The photo above is the brush after I used it once. Surprisingly, after buffing the mousse in, few traces are left on the brush. After I got used to it, I can buff till the brush is pretty much free of foundation. So I have no qualms about using it every day, and washing once a week.

The best thing about this foundation - it's really light, with sheer coverage (if you use really little and buff it in) that is absolutely buildable (due to the awesome pigmentation). It does a pretty fantastic job of evening out skintone, and while it doesn't cover my acne scars completely, I think it does a commendable job on the under-eye circles! And I can get away without using loose powder on top of it because it's pretty good at controlling oil! The only con I can think of it the flowery scent which may scare some people off, and made me feel weird at first, but now I'm totally used to it.

Rating: 9/10 (-1 for poor colour selection)


--------
So I've almost come to the end of my busiest week for the semester! Yay! I went to collect my Gelato Pique mook at Kinokuniya today and passed by so many shopping temptations, you cannot imagine. But I remained strong. -cough cough- 1 more month to the end of my shopping ban! :P

Shopping Ban

I bought 2 pairs of shoes at Mitju the other day! Their slip-on wedges are really nice - I don't recommend the kitten heels or any covered shoes from them though, because they hurt. :(

I have a huge zit on my cheek so now I'm using the highly-raved 3M Acne Patches! I find they work better on zits with an open wound where the patch can absorb the pus. Inflamed whiteheads or bumps that have no opening for the yucky insides to get sucked out don't fare so well with the acne patch. I find it really expensive though! S$8 for a box or 36 patches which vary in size - I find the tiniest patches not much use. :P

Rating: 8/10
--------
As you can tell from the title of my post, I'm officially on a shopping ban until the end of April. I'm the kind of person who buys loads of stuff when I'm stressed or annoyed, and recently I've been a little too much of both. I don't generally post haul photos because I like to post reviews systematically and I don't use the items from my hauls immediately, but seriously, way too much stuff. ;_; I'm definitely trying to finish up my current stash of stuff first - it annoys me when I can't throw away those bottles etc on my table when there's only a little bit of product left. :P Look forward to reviews of the stuff I used up! ^^

US Goodies + Nuteen Review

My sister came back from the States and got me all this stuff! The pink and navy blue pouches, and the pink brush barrel (with 4 brushes) are GWPs from Estee Lauder - and she actually got 2 of them! (There's the eye cream, mascara and free lipsticks as well which aren't pictured.)

Apparently the minimum spend for GWPs is really low in the US (about 45USD or SGD according to my sis) and my sister gets multiple gifts all the time. The last time she bought Clinique (which is more budget and thus has a lower minimum spend), she got 5 huge sets of free gifts!! Haha, can you say awesome? It's so much better as compared to Singapore - I think Estee Lauder's minimum spend for the same GWP would be about SGD160! Crazy. So now I am totally saving up to spend in the US!

I'm really happy my sis got me a bundle of grapefruit and pomegranate soap - I freaking love grapefruit! And she must have noticed my incredible stash of soaps in the bathroom, hehe. When she took out my present (while I wasn't at home), my younger sister immediately knew it was for me. Lol.

I got this brush in the brush set - does anyone know what it is? My guess is either an eyeliner brush or a pencil brush for the outer V.

Moving on, my skin has been really horrible lately. It's deadline season and I have presentations with my violin exam next week on 3 consecutive days! Cue stress. :P Also I've been banging on the piano, practising violin and typing furiously on my laptop (bad ergonomics), which caused wrist tendonitis - I had to get this expensive wrist guard because I don't want to have a weak bowing wrist during my violin exam. So anyway the point is, my skin is horrible right now. Horrible. ;_;

Review: Nuteen Acne Away Gel
This is yet another one of the samples in my collection. (I have tonnes of sample satchets in a little pouch, hehe. Trying to use up my junk.) It contains Thanakha which is supposedly a popular skincare ingredient in Myanmar.
This is quite moisturizing, surprisingly! Good for dry-skinned peeps. It has a very strong fragrance which I don't really like - way too strong for me, though it smells quite pleasant. I don't understand why the fragrance is required. Anyway, I used it for a couple of days, but it doesn't give fast results on my zits. Plus I noticed that it contains mineral oil! (Of course, high-grade mineral oil is supposed to be fine for skin, but I'm still wary when it appears in the ingredients list.)

I will not give a rating for this because I don't think it is fair to rate sample products without a sufficient timeframe for testing, but overall, I didn't think it worked, though if you have dry skin and don't want acne treatments that cause peeling skin, you might want to give it a try!

Review: Taiwan Yes Deep Ocean Water Oil Cut Acne Free Essence

Recently I've been having breakouts due to lack of sleep and stress. I used a heavy duty Pan Oxyl 10% Benzoyl Peroxide Gel on my bumps, but it ended up making my skin really really dry! It's not effective on inflamed whiteheads (which is what I have), instead it's more suitable for zits that hormonal teenagers get, but not for me because I've outgrown that stage. :P I remembered this sample I got from Taiwan and decided to use it since I doubt I will get zits often (hopefully not!)

It is a thick gel and you're supposed to put it on problem areas (not the whole face). I used this satchet for about 4 times only but it's enough for me to get a fantastic impression of the product! I like it because it heals my zits quickly without drying, and the non-greasy texture is a delight, as compared to other creamy (and to me, slightly greasy) acne treatments like Neutrogena On-the-Spot Acne Treatment or Oxy.

The gel also contains hyaluronic acid which, I think, makes a big difference! I feel that sometimes you have to use a gentle approach to stubborn zits, you know? Sometimes treatments that are too strong will aggravate your skin further, but I think this gel strikes a perfect balance.

I don't know what other ingredients are in it, but it really works! I have no idea how much it costs, or where it is stocked in Taiwan, but I have seen it advertised in Queen (Nu Ren Wo Zui Da) magazine. The interesting thing about it is the company - Taiwan Yes is a deep ocean water company and they really do draw water from the ocean and stuff like that. So they're not just some fluffy cosmetics company. They have other skincare products listed, and while the packaging looks a little dodgy, I would love to try them out if I ever visit Taiwan again in the future!

Potential HG. (: