All The Things I Can't Live Without...

Once again, I tried to put my e.l.f cosmetics eye transformer to good use, so I utilized the pink and blue shades in the palette this time. Can't really see the pink and purple huh? Looks like a normal silver smokey eye through the camera. -__-

Close-ups of the eye makeup. Maybe you can just see a hint of pink on my lids; it's more obvious in real life. Also, the purple on the outer V was created just by layering the blue transformer shade on top of a black base, and using a bit of dark purple e/x from my 88 palette to contour some more.

I used one of Smashbox's more recently released mascara, the Hyperlash. The mascara is not too bad, it lengthens quite a bit and volumizes well. Unlike the new Urban Decay Cannonball, which gives no volume at all.

[Pic credited to Makeupandbeautyblog.com]

A silly face to end off the post. As you can see, my complexion isn't at its best right now. I was breaking out real bad a few days back, but luckily the pimples are healing nicely now. Must be the monthly thing and the stress!

Ha ha ha, thanks for looking people!

I initially wanted to do this tag a few weeks back, after I saw Jen's (one of the YouTube makeup gurus that I subscribe to) "Naughty & Nice" list. Basically, it's just telling people which 5 products worked for you (nice) and which 5 didn't (naughty) for the Year 2010 and I thought it would be a nice end to the year. Anyway, everyone was coming up with their "My Favourites For 2010" lists so I'm doing this version of it. :)

Naughty List

[Credits to Zaleha/aizutto for the LUS makeup wipes picture]

1. LUS Makeup Remover Wipes

Yeah, I couldn't wait to throw away the thing after I was finally through with it, hence the "khoping" of Zaleha's picture. To me, it was the smelliest thing that I've ever placed on my face and I'm not even particular about smells at all (I still smother myself in my stinky baby pillow every night). Couple that with a mediocre cleansing ability and its relative small size, and you get item 1 on my naughty list.

2.  Dejavu Lash Knockout Mascara

I was trying to sell it away and am still trying to sell it away, cos it simply doesn't work for me. I know a lot of people raved about this product and the wonderful volume it gives to their lashes but this, for me, it's just clumps galore! Plus, I don't really appreciate the gigantic bristle brush; it threatens to poke me in the eye.

3.  Maybelline Gel Liner

Smudges like nobody's business. That's enough for me to blacklist it. (Read the full review here)

4. L'oreal Elnett Hair Spray

Ha ha, its weird cos almost everyone out there is raving about this product but I just don't get its hype. For me, it doesn't hold at all (a light breeze and my fringe is flopping all over the place) and granted it combs out easily, the other hairsprays that I've tried all comb out easily! Really annoyed with its non-present hold.

5. L'oreal Hair Spa For Dry and Damaged Hair

Once again, it was something that was recommended on the flowerpod forums so I bought a tub to try...and it didn't nothing for my hair. Except smell really nice and coconutty (I think that's the only part I liked about this product). It didn't moisturize and smoothen out my hair, and it weighed my hair down and made it slightly oily after 1/2 a day; it was just a big no-no. I still have 1/2 a tub left and I've got no idea what to do with it.

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Nice List

Ha ha, it seems that I've blacklisted a lot of L'oreal products but it gets better with the nice list. :]

1. Smashbox Long Wear Lip Gloss in "Boundless"

That's that beautiful coral colour you see in the picture. I was using this lip gloss to death when I was working in Sephora cos it's that amazing! And apparently everyone loved how it looked too, cos after I started wearing it, people started buying it and in 3-4 days it was sold out. :) It is very thick and sometimes clumps at the corners of the lips since it's a long-wear lip gloss, but I didn't mind that (just put a thin layer) and it lasted at least 4 hours on me. Still super glossy, the colour still as vibrant, plus it's got SPF15. Too bad it's so freaking expensive.

2. Lo'real 24 Hour Gel Liner

Ha ha, I don't hate all L'oreal products; in fact, I think a lot of their products are actually pretty good! This gel liner for instance. It was everything the Maybelline one wasn't - it didn't smudge, it lasted for more than 18 hours, it's really black and it's all spongey and creamy. And cheap too, if you can get it at S$10 at the L'oreal sale. :)

3. Kerastase Nectar thermique Leave-in Conditioner

I'm addicted to this stuff. One, it smells heavenly! Two, it has this amazing ability to straighten my hair and curl it in so that it doesn't dry all flipping out with cow licks. Three, it makes my hair so glossy and gives me that mush sought-after halo on the crown of my head. Four, it's got heat protective properties. Enough said.

4. MAC Mineralized Skin Finish in "By Candlelight"

Yay, at least 1 MAC item made it to my list and it's the MSF that I've been religiously using every day! Not because I wanna hit-pan on it or something, but I just love the sheer glow of colour it gives to my cheeks. And it's an awesome highlighter! This follows me everywhere I go, from east to west of Sg to Malaysia when I went over for a holiday 2 days back.

5. Tresemme Hair Products

Ok, this is technically not an item (cheating..?) but I love everything from this hair care brand. I'm digging their shampoos, their conditioners are awesome and I love the heat protectant spray. It really makes a difference when I style my hair with my straightening iron, and I think it's this spray, plus my Kerastase leave-in, that still keeps my hair healthy and smooth with my daily straightening/curling.

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So that's my list for 2010, which will be ending in 12 hours time. If you haven't done your favourites list or if you're interested in doing this tag, go ahead and share what worked for you and what didn't! Leave a comment behind on the link so that I can read it ok, cos I'm super kay poh and super interested in your items too!

Happy New Year everyone!

Ha ha, my bank account is dwindling (hi-5, Michelle!) and yet, I still can't resist buying stuff so I've been sneaking a few small new items here and there into my stash. Just a round up of what I've gotten~

Mascara and eyeliners, who can resist~~~

The Urban Decay eyeliners, Mildew and Covet, are the travel sized ones and I got them from sg_beauty, for a super reasonable price of S$5.00 each. Also, I bought the Smashbox Lash DNA mascara off Jennifer (lillgoddess) and she was kind enough to give me a small discount for it! So happy, cos I don't know if you remember, I was raving about this mascara when I was working in Sephora. And it's currently sold out in the GWC branch (I wanted to get it with my staff's discount), so imagine how happy I was able to get this!

Here's how its very unique brush looks like:

From these 2 pics, you can probably tell the mascara has got a big-ass brush! That'll be one of the few cons of this mascara - you'll have to be careful/get use to using such a big brush as it may accidently smear mascara onto your eyelid.

It's kinda rectangular in shape, not like the conventional narrow-end, fat base kind of brushes - which means that getting to the lashes at the inner corners may be difficult. However the few times I've used in Sephora, it wasn't so at all. In fact, I found it reached my inner corner lashes and coated them more effectively than those tapered wands.

Also in the pic above, you can see its double-helix shape, where the bristles are arranged - long, short, long, short - in the manner of a spiral staircase. There's a special way to using this unique mascara but unfortunately, I'm not starting on this one yet - have to finish up my Covergirl Lash Blast first! Will do a review when I use this in the near future.

And also, this was something I had ordered 2 weeks back and it finally came yesterday! So exciting!

Bella V2 Pro Hair Iron, specially imported from Korea! I've tried it this morning and it's not bad at all~ Next post will be on the details and results of this hair iron! ^__^

Ohh yah, I almost forgot. Just wanna show you guys the goodies I got from my boss before I left Sephora.

I've never seen the Too Faced concealer sold instore before, so I'm guessing it's either an older, discontinued product or it's from the Ion store...? I'm not sure, but I have not used it yet cos I've still got other concealers opened. The Bliss Triple Oxygen mask, on the other hand, I've tried and it's GOOD! :D

Ha ha, these 2 Urban Decay products! There's a small story behind these - we were having a mini game between us colleagues and our supervisor, as to who can sell the most UD products at one go, and the target was S$500 in 1 receipt. Which is crazy really, cos 1 UD product is about S$30+, so S$500 would mean about 15 items? How to sell so many UD items at one go to one customer?! But we all tried our best and in the end, I won the game by selling 5 items for S$210+. So I got these 2 stuff for my reward, lol! I know it's super cheapo, but it's something! I guess I was prouder of my sales persuasion skills than anything else~

So yeah, thanks for reading and look forward to the hair iron review up next!