Etude House Princess Etoinette Collection

Asian cosmetics always have the cutest packaging ever! This holiday season, Etude House came out with a princess inspired collection which is freaking gorgeous>< I'm most excited for the heart shape blush. For more details, please follow Etude House Global on Facebook. Online retailers is probably the only way that could get this collection, so hurry up!!

Giveaway from Mizu

Hey guys! This is a quick little post about Mizu's blog anniversary giveaway. The prize is the Etude House Winter Limited Edition 2012 Princess Etoinette Pouch. I adore this collection, so please join this giveaway! It ends on December 30.Click here Mizu to enter the giveaway! Have fun~

Too Faced, Shu uemura and Sephora Haul

Long post alert! I have been hauling a lot because there were so many deals going on lately.

Too Faced had a 20% off sale back in October. I got the Naked eye palette, lip creme in Nude beach and a Lemon drop shadow insurance. The order came with 2 samples: Glamour gloss in Flirt and Chocolate Soleil matte bronzing powder.

The Naked eye palette from Too Faced is something that I have been tempted to try for the longest time. You get a good balance of matte, satin and shimmery colors in the palette. My favorite shade is Satin sheets which is a light pink with golden shimmers. Nude beach lip cream is described as a nude peach. To be honest, I think it's more of a pinky nude. Texture is great; very moisturizing! The down side is I need to put a lip liner underneath to get a pigmented color. I guess their darker color range have better pigmentation?

The 2 samples are fairly a good size. I may purchase the Glamour gloss in full size because it is minty! LOL I know it seems to be a lame reason but I'm a huge fan of minty lip products. Plus, the lip plumping effect is very subtle. I didn't experience any irritation or uncomfortableness on my lips. I'm happy with my first Too Faced purchase!

Too faced nude beach lip creme with flirt glamour gloss

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Moving on to Shu uemura, I took advantage of the 25% off Shu uemura sale. I got the orange pistachio eye palette which was from their Fall chocolate collection. 2 items I got from the Karl Lagerfield collection were the eye lash curler and rouge unlimited in Mon shu red. Also, I got the blush brush, but I forgot to place it in the picture. The order came with a mini lip gloss which I forgot to photograph as well. Swatches are down below.

At first, I wasn't even planning to get this palette until I saw syurisyndrome featuring this palette in her "Autumn Ulzzang makeup" video; I knew I had to get it. The orange sparkle shade is really a main reason that I get the palette. If you want a special color eyeshadow palette, this is the one! Also, the cream shadow is so buttery soft; I use it as a base color. I am kind of disappointed for the lipstick because I didn't expect it to be an orange red which makes me look kind of yellow. I'm thinking to return it or exchange for the burgundy color. However, the lipstick texture is great: moisturizing and pigmented.

Now onto Sephora, I received a $15 gift card and got these babies that were sitting on my wish list for quite some time. I wasn't qualified for their earlier VIB sale, so I kind of went crazy this time. What I got: Sephora Favorties in the Glow set, Laura Mercier Artist's eye palette, Laura Mercier Crème de Pistache hand cream, Kat Von D Lock-It Tattoo Foundation, Sephora Microsmooth Foundation Face Powder, Benefit They're Real! Mascara and a bag of samples using a coupon code.

The first picture is a swatch of the Kat Von D Lock it tatto foundation in Light 48. Swatched it on my neck seems like it's a pretty good match. Will do a further review on it soon. Below is the Sephora  Microsmooth foundation powder in 25 Beige. I wanted a longwearing powder foundation with good coverage. This is perfect when I'm running class late and I need something easy to apply. The color looks a little bit too yellow, so I may exchange for another color.

The Laura Mercier Artist's eye palette for eyes features 6 shimmery and 6 matte shades. After reading LILLADYLIFE's post, I wanted this palette so bad mainly for the African Violet shade. Funny right? It's so easy for me to purchase something after reading blog posts.

Recently, I have been obsessed in contouring and I want to try more bronzers. This set is $45 with 9 deluxe size highlighters, bronzers and blushes. I plan to give some products away to my friends, so I didn't swatch all of them.

Left top to bottom: Tarte Natural Cheek Stain in Flush, Laura Mercier Shimmer Bloc in Golden Mosaic, Nars Bronzing Powder in Laguna and Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzing Powder. 

Right top to bottom: Lorac Perfectly Lit Oil-Free Luminizing Powder in Spotlight, Tarte Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Blush in Splendor and bareMinerals All Over Face Color in Pure Radiance. 

My favorites are golden mosaic shimmer bloc, nars laguna and bareminerals pure radiance. 

I had high hopes for Benefit's they're real. Compare to Holika Holika's magic pole mascara which has a similar plastic spiky wand, the Benefit one is bigger and has longer "combs". Unfortunately, this doesn't do anything for me. I guess it's because of my asian stubborn lashes don't go well with lengthening mascara? I did apply a primer on my right eye and it performed a little bit better, but who's going to spend time on applying primer before mascara? It just doesn't make sense to me. I may return this mascara because a lot of drugstore mascaras do better jobs than Benefit's they're real.

Whoo! That's it for my long haul slash mini review post. I will try to update more often when I have time. Lately I'm kind of busy for finals, so please bare with me. Maybe I'll just post some photos^^ Hope you enjoy and have a great day!

Some Eye Looks

Here is a quick little post on my recent eye looks. I have forgotten what exactly I used for the eyeshadow looks, but I mainly used the urban decay naked palette. The second eye look was mac's paradisco, all that glitters on lid and some matte brown shadow on crease. Lips was revlon lip butter in cotton candy and nyx mega shine lipgloss in perfect.

Quick Tip - Dried Gel liner/Cream Eyeshadow

   Hey guys! Today's post is a quick tip on dried up gel liners or cream shadows. Have you ever own any cream shadows or gel liners that applied like a dream at first, but dried up later on? Then this post will help you on it^^ Let's see how it's done, shall we? If you see the cream is separated from the container? That means it's dried up, but don't worry! We can fix it!  

Here is my mac rubenesque paint pot. It is a gorgeous peachy golden color. Can you see the cream is separated from the container? That means it's dried up, but don't worry! We can fix it!  

Applied it with fingers. You can tell that the color is swatched patchily and unevenly. And the color isn't pigmented at all.

Next, take a cotton swab or any sticks. Mix the cream from bottom to top until it's evenly mixed.

You should get something like this. It's going to look kind of gross, but you can smoothen or flatten the top part. I was lazy so I just used the cotton swab to smoothen it.

Here are some other cream shadows and gel liners that I have mixed.

After mixing the shadow, it's so much more pigmented and even!

   I hope you guys enjoy this post! Next post will be some eyeshadow looks that I have done. Stay tuned for that!

Free Beauty Products?

Today's post is about a site that I have recently signed up called Influenster. It is basically a website where you connect with people and share products reviews. They have different categories of badges like beauty, fashion, eco, etc. You share reviews and once you hit the requirement , you get the chance to receive a VoxBox! If you don't know what a VoxBox is, here is some info:

Overall, I think Influenster is a great platform for new bloggers to earn new products since not everyone have the spare money to buy products and review them! I also love that they have different varieties of expert badges which is beneficial to many people! Thanks for reading! 

Introduction + Fall Haul!

Hey guys! I have realized that I have never officially introduced myself, so here it is! My name is Natalie and I am a fashion student in San Francisco. Since I am from Hong Kong, so my blog posts may not be as well written as other beauty bloggers do, but I will do my best^^ I am really into Asian cosmetics brands like Shu uemura, Paul & Joe Beaute and Jill Stuart. Back till I was 15, due to serious breakouts and I needed a heavy duty foundation to cover my acne scars. I'd say Revlon colorstay liquid foundation brought me into the makeup world. And now, I have quite a collection of makeup products. The majority of the collection are mainly blushes and lipsticks.

Today I'm going to show you guys a fall haul back in September when Ulta had a 40% off sale on NYX and Revlon; as well as CVS's buy 1 get 1 free Wet n wild bogo sale. Most of the colors are on a darker side because I wanted some fall appropriate colors, especially the dark vampy colors. Shall we start? :)

(Right top-bottom: Wet n wild Megalast lipstick in 918D Cherry Bomb, Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick in Black Cherry,  Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Pink Truffle, Wet n wild Megalast lipstick in 906D Wine Room) (Middle top-bottom: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Adore, Wet n wild Megalast lipstick in 908C Sugar Plum Fairy, Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Cotton Candy, Wet n wild Megalast lipstick in 914C Mocha-licious) (Left top-bottom: NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss in Natural, NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss in Smokey Look, NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss in Perfect, NYX lipliner pencil in Burgundy, NYX Slide on eye pencil in Gun Metal)

     

Here are the swatches. 

Cherry Bomb and Black Cherry are very similar in terms of colors. I would say Cherry Bomb is more red while Black Cherry is more purple. In terms of textures, Revlon's Black Cherry is so blotchy and uneven on lips. Applying lip balm and lipliner is a must! Wet n wild's Cherry Bomb is so much more smoother and opaque. Even without lip balm underneath, my lips won't be dried out and it lasted quite a long time. Also, both lipsticks left a stain effect after the color faded away. If you are looking for a dirt cheap vampy color, I will definitely suggest you to try Wet n wild's Cherry Bomb. It's only $2.99 plus I got mine for buy 1 get 1 free! You can't go wrong with it! I had a few Revlon lip butters and I really enjoyed using them so I got Cotton candy and Pink truffle. Cotton candy is a slightly cool toned pink with golden shimmers. I thought it would make my teeth look yellow since it is a cool toned pink, but it's actually quite flattering. Pink truffle is a brownish pink which is perfect for fall. The NYX lip glosses are just okay. I don't think I will purchase anymore because I couldn't stand the cherry scent of them. Lastly, I'd like to talk about the NYX slide on eye pencil. It glides on like a dream! Compare to my holy grail urban decay glide on eye liner, the NYX one is not as long wearing, but if you prime your eyes, I think it can last longer. That's it for my thoughts on these new lip products. Thanks for reading!

Fun nail ideas

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(Left to right) 1) Orly Space Cadet 2) Starfish nails 3) Nicole by OPI My life Saver 4) Lace nails 5) Rilakkuma inspired nails 6) Zoya Bela with Essence Space Queen and Barry M Hologram on top