New Hauls and Reviews: NYX and Jesse's Girl Cosmetics

This is a way delayed haul which I almost forgot to post. Purchased it off Makeup Masala. Initially, I only wanted to get a brush. But I ended up buying other stuff after going through several makeup reviews on NYX and Jesse's Girl Cosmetics. The brush I wanted was out of stock by the time I finally placed my order and I ended up getting these instead. :)



Bought:
Jesse's Girl Color My World Baked Eyeshadows in Aqua and Earthtone
Jesse's Girl Bejeweled Eyeshadow Quad in 432A-1
NYX Concealer in a Jar in Beige and Yellow
NYX Megashine Lip Gloss in Natural

I ordered one of NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils too but it was out of stock when they finally got to my order.

And believe it or not, here's what I got as freebies.



EcoTools Bamboo Lash & Brow Groomer (free with purchase of $25 and above)
A sample Makeup Masala Mineral Blush (which I believe they give with every order)
L.A. Colors Sheer Lipgloss Tube: Pink Icing
A pair of false eyelashes

The last 2 items were a free gift to me for they delayed my order and were really apologetic about it. I think it had something to do with the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil. They were waiting for the supplier to restock so that they can send out my order but it didn't come in time and my package got delayed. But they were really nice and informed me about the OOS item and also told me they would be throwing in a free gift.

This is what I called GREAT SERVICE! :D

I received my package soon after they shipped it and everything was really neatly packed. I was super excited when unwrapping everything in the package. I do apologise for the lack of photos because I was too engrossed playing with everything.



The Jesse's Girl Color My World Baked Eyeshadows in Aqua and Earthtone are really pretty. The packaging made it look like a jewel. The pigmentation of these eyeshadows really do not disappoint. They are really pigmented as they are baked eyeshadows. Earthtone is a really flattering copper/bronze colour. I think it's very wearable. Aqua is this pretty blue shade with silver blended in it. When blended together, I find it a bit frosty but the shade of blue is really nice. These shadows can also be used wet for more intense pigmentation. Overall, I find them not too bad but I probably wouldn't wear them for daytime. The downside is that there is no place to store the eyeshadow applicator that comes with it.



The Jesse's Girl Bejeweled Eyeshadow Quad in 432A-1 is a grey eyeshadow quad and I love it. It looks a little plain on the site but it's not. It comes in this jewelled casing (on one side). The jewelled casing's cute but I don't dig it nor do I hate it. The grey shades in it are lovely. It's really a nice grey quad. The shades are a cream white, a light silver, a medium charcoal and a black. All the shades are a little shimmery but I don't think you can see the shimmers in the picture.



I also got 2 NYX Concealer in A Jar (colour in photo is a bit off). These are the real reason why I ordered. I stumbled upon it on the site and went to look up reviews. Apparently they have rather good reviews. After going through colour swatches, I picked out Beige (a light medium shade that is yellow toned) and Yellow (a colour corrector). The NYX Concealer in A Jar is awesome. It's my Holy Grail now. It's about a 5g jar size but the glass surrounding it is super thick so the jar is bigger. The concealer is creamy and very emollient. It's very easy to spread and blend and doesn't really cake. I love it in Beige, which is almost my skintone but darker. I picked Beige because I wanted a darker shade to cover up the dark eye circles. The one in Yellow helps to neutralise purplish dark eye circles, making the dark eye rings less obvious. But I find it leaving the area looking a little too white, like you have too much highlighters over it. Still trying to find a way to use the one in Yellow.

NYX Megashine Lip Gloss in Natural is also really nice. It appears to be mauve-pink but on my lips, it's MLBB (my lips but better)! Super natural, super nice. I don't like over glossy lip glosses and this is just perfect. The only thing about this gloss I didn't like is the smell. It's supposed to be a cherry smell but I don't think it smells like it. Overall, I think it's a great gloss.

I haven't really tried the freebies so that's about it. Very satisfied with this haul.

New Hauls and Reviews: L'oreal Sale

I'm a little depressed and a little sad I didn't buy more at the Loreal sale which ended yesterday. Heh.

Read up on reviews of the sale online. Many people didn't seem impressed by it. Maybe I'm easily satisfied. I went there to get Garnier products (which I'm such a fan) but in the end I didn't get much. Here's what I've gotten instead.



2 Maybelline Dream Mousse Blushes in Pink Marshmallow and Peach Satin for $10
2 L'oreal Eyeshadow Quads for $10 each
2 Maybelline Moisture Extreme in 945 Natural Nude and 950 Delicate Pink
1 Maybelline Watershine lip gloss in Creamy Peach
1 Maybelline Watershine 3D Collagen in 403 (above 4 for $20)
3 Maybelline Smooth Pencil Shadow in Lilac, Green, Turquoise
1 Maybelline Unstoppable Liner (above 4 for $20)
1 Garnier Long Lasting Shine Control Moisturizer for $5
2 Clutches for $5 each (not in picture)

The Gifts-With-Purchase bags are pretty awesome this time round. So pretty. The clutches I've bought are pretty thick. Very satisfied with it. Even if I'm not planning to use them as clutches, they would be perfect as makeup bags for travelling. :)

I'm so glad I finally got the mousse blushes this time round. I've been lemming for Peach Satin for the longest time.


From Left: 01 Pink Marshmallow, 02 Peach Satin

A bit disappointed that Peach Satin was very old stock from year 2007. I had tested it and did not spot anything strange about it. Pink Marshmallow is a sweet pink with silverish glitters when applied. Peach Satin is love. It is this peachy orange shade that dries to a smooth satiny finish. No glitters. It shows up as a glow on me. I am so thankful and so happy these two blushes showed up on me because I've read complaints on how it doesn't show up on some skintones. Peach Satin is now currently my favourite blush. :D

These mousse blushes are buildable so if you want more colour, just pile on it bit by bit. That's what I did (or rather, over did). So after a while to my horror, I find Peach Satin looking a little too bright. So watch the amount you're piling on. The colour doesn't show up on me immediately.


From Left: Made for me Naturals Quad, Summer Quad

I bought these 2 quads for the sake of it. It's just too cheap to resist. I bought a similar eyeshadow quad (one from the Stars Secret collection) from the previous Loreal sale and wasn't particularly impressed with it. These, I feel, were a little better.

The neutral quad consists of a eyebrow powder and a trio eyeshadows. The eyebrow powder was quite good. I like it a lot. The eyeshadows were all right. I just realised it's stated that this quad meant for "Golden Tan skintones", which clearly I'm not. Oh well. I was looking for another neutral quad so this appealed to me except I can't really use the reddish-brown shadow in it. The rest are all right.

The summer quad drew my interest because of the orange eyeshadow. It's so fun and wearable. The pigmentation of these two quads are not bad. There's a little mirror at the bottom. I found it handy. I wanted to buy the Maybelline Eye Studio quads but I didn't. I can't stop thinking about it now.



The lippies! I got 2 lipsticks from the Moisture Extreme range. Was quite impressed. 945 Natural Nude is this peachy brown nude shade and 950 Delicate Pink is just this nice pink shade with a little bit of shimmers. They are really quite matte and I really like it especially the nude lipstick. I think it's actually not bad. Was planning to go down to the sale and picked up a few more (but I didn't for I needed to ban myself :( ). The Watershine lipgloss was such a nice shade that I couldn't resist. Heh.

Out of all Maybelline lip products, I really like the Watershine 3D Collagen range. It goes on really smooth and has lip plumping effects. I was super happy to see it at the sale. But alas, they had only 4 colours to pick from and it was all the red shades. I bought another 403. I already owned one and really like it. It's a bright pink shade but not super bright like fuchsia pink.


From Top: Lilac, Green (not sure), Turquoise

The shadesticks. I am so happy I got these too. I'm not sure how much cheaper they were at the sale as compared to the stores. But I'm really so glad I got these. These shadesticks or pencil eyeshadows can double as cream eyeshadows or as eye bases. The colours are gorgeous. You just need to go over your eyes with these, blend a little and out you go. Super convenient. These dry to a sheen finish and shades are a little metallic. They don't budge on me after drying. Compared to Silky Girl's funky eyelights, I would say these colours are nicer.

I really like these a lot. Turquoise is such a gorgeous colour that I cannot stop gushing over it. I feel like getting more of these.

Overall, very satisfied with what I bought this time round. Wanted the Garnier cleansers too but buying 6 cleansers at one go is really too much for me.

Mineral Makeup Mess Tips

Found it pretty useful.

Review: Ah Yuan Organic Mung bean & Job’s tears Soap

Have been using Ah Yuan Organic Soap in Organic Mung bean & Job’s tears (or in other words, green beans and barley) for almost 2 months. The results were most obvious when I started out on it. Subsequently, my skin complexion showed improvements but of course there's a limit to how much it can do.

Initially it takes a while to get used to the smell. Now, it reminds me of tau sha pia (-.- Chinese pastries with salty green bean paste). What I did was chop the soap up into smaller pieces for fear of it melting super fast. I would wipe my hands dry before using the soap to swirl in my palms. After that, I would add some water to lather and use. This is to minimise water in contact with the soap. The soap lathers pretty well. Cleanses pretty well. Try to make sure it is washed off thoroughly. I noticed if I didn't, it makes my face itchy.

The soap is really gentle. I do not find it drying on my skin. When I first started out, I found it moisturising instead. I do not get that dry tightening effect as with other cleansers. It just felt normal and maybe even moist on the skin. For acne, it appears to dry up the acne areas. After a while, nothing much really happened to my acne.

After several uses on a daily basis, I realised my face had gotten brighter. I am not kidding about this part. I do have uneven skintone problems and even whitening products do not seem to help much. My forehead used to be much darker than my cheek areas. Now, after using this soap, my skintone has lightened quite a bit. And my skintone is no longer uneven. I would say this soap has lightening properties.(barley and green beans are good for those who wanted to whiten. If you watch Taiwanese shows, they are always talking about eating green beans and barley soup (not soap!) for whitening complexion) So if you have uneven skintone problems and would like a solution, do give this product a try. I would highly recommend this.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this product. My complexion have shown improvements. More radiant, less tired looking, no more uneven skin tones (Hurray! :D). I think I did get a little bit fairer because my mineral makeup shades which I used don't suit me. I was a little worried that mixing non-organic cleansers (like example, The Body Shop Tea Tree Oil Facial Wash) would cause a breakout but so far, nothing happened to me.

Pros: Non-drying, makes your skin radiant, no harsh ingredients
Cons: Organic soaps have a shorter shelf life, tendency to melt easily (common complaint by others)

If you want details of where I got it, refer to my older post here.

Review: The Body Shop Tea Tree Oil Facial Wash

source: http://www.thebodyshop.com.sg/en/ProductDetail.aspx?ProdID=956&SubCateId=85&CateId=4

I have been using this for a while, along with Ah Yuan Organic Mung bean & Job’s tears soap as my daily cleansers. I had to add this into my skincare routine because although Ah Yuan improves my skin complexion, there is a limit to how much it can help with my acne problems or blemishes since after all it's a gentle cleanser.

The Body Shop Tea Tree Oil Facial Cleanser did not disappoint. I purchased a sample bottle during their atrium sales and have been using this for almost 2 months.

This facial wash lathers very well. I love that it lathers really easily because it makes me feel that the face is super cleansed. The smell is a little unpleasant though. I have used other tea tree oil (TTO) products before and I have to say The Body Shop TTO cleanser smells really bad, like some disinfectant or insecticide. (Ew..) For this product, I had a little difficulty in ensuring that it's completely washed off with water. There was this slippery feeling after washing. Try to go over with a face cloth after thorough washing.

After using this for a while, I realised that my blemishes had lightened quite a bit so I'm super pleased with it. It is a tard on the drying side so it's only recommended for those with oily skin. Personally, I don't see the need to use the TTO toner along with their TTO facial wash for it will just make you skin super drying.

Pros: Cleanses well, the tea tree oil helps with clearing blemishes.
Cons: Can be drying for skin.

E.L.F Warning

This is another entry about E.L.F cosmetics. I wished to share this piece of information with E.L.F users in case you happened to miss it.

I happened to be checking up HSA website for the list of recalled products in Singapore. And I found that 2 E.L.F products were been recalled in February 2009 and noone seemed to know it. The two products confiscated were the Brightening Eye Colour in 2003 Silver Lining and their Feather Proof Moisturizing Lip Liner 1905 Spice.




You can read up about it here and here.

I got a little worried and decided to pen a little email questioning whether the products are still safe to our dear E.L.F Asia distributor Pixie Cosmetics (which I never had a good impression of, because they blocked Singaporeans from buying E.l.F products online off the USA site by directing us back to the local website. And it's not like their website is updated.).

Instead of providing me with an answer, they insisted that I call up their office to "chat". Apparently, enquires made through emails are not accepted. And they need to verify my identity because they don't trust gmail or hotmail. And it was part of their procedure to do so. So in the end, I did not get a reply. I got pissed.

When things like these happen, shouldn't they be advising us consumers instead of questioning our identities?


If you are holding these two products, please just ditch them out.

It's not funny.

Especially when the brand doesn't care about your safety.

Maybe some companies don't test their products on animals, because they test it on human instead.

New Hauls and Reviews: More E.L.F again...

This is my second E.L.F haul. I forgot to take pictures of the STUDIO brushes as I sent them for washing. Overall, I'm rather pleased with the brushes I've gotten. Especially the complexion and powder brushes which were just amazingly soft. I think they are really value for money. I also purchased their concealer brush and eye precision brush. They are really small, probably even smaller than other brushes of the same kind from other brands. If you are interested in the STUDIO brushes, I would say just get the bigger brushes. They are more value for money as they have a whole lot more bristles. The smaller brushes are all right but I just get the ripped off feeling whenever I looked at them thinking how tiny they looked.

Here are some of the other random items I've gotten.



I got the All Over Cover Sticks in Fair, Light and Medium. Shades look true to picture except Fair is really lighter (the cap makes it look darker). These are cream bases or concealers. They smell of orange sugar. First impression. The "Orange Sugar" smell gave me a headache.
Fair - Very fair light beige colour.
Light - An orange beige colour (very obvious it's an orange.)
Medium - Darker beige.

Sorry, I'm terrible with colour descriptions. The textures of the 3 color sticks are somewhat similiar but the colour stick in Light is extremely greasy. I bought the 3 of them hoping to have a variety to blend as my undereye concealer. My verdict? They are ok. They cover quite well compared to normal drugstore concealers. However, I would not recommend as they are greasy. It's probably my first time looking at my undereye areas and it's slightly covered (I tried the orange one for undereye circles) but it's super greasy. The greasiness is such a turn-off. Fair was totally too fair for me. But I managed to use it as a eyeshadow base or primer. It wasn't too bad.

Pros: Covers all right, easy to blend, can work as eyeshadow base.
Cons: Can be greasy, orange sugar smell can be annoying after a long while.



I also got the Duo Eye Shadow Cream in Butter Pecan and Mocha Swirl. These are cream eyeshadows that are not sheer, they are pigmented. However, these were a disappointment for me. Found them to be very greasy. Eyeshadows do stick but if you don't like greasy eyelids, don't get these.

I had better luck with the All Over Cover Stick as eyeshadow base than these.

Pros: Can be used alone as eyeshadows as these are pigmented.
Cons: So greasy if you just use them alone.



Not reviewing the Brightening Eye Color in Butternut as I just bought it to restock.
Got another Natural Radiance Blusher in Innocence. The colour looks true to picture. If you have never tried their blusher, I think their blushers are worth trying. However, the packaging is cheap to the touch. You have to slide it open and I don't like it. Innocence appears as a natural flush on the face.

Pros: Cheap and good (if it's USD $1). Recommended shades: GLOW
Cons: Cheap packaging. Some of the colours lack depth and can be uninteresting.



Ok, lastly I got the Under Eye Concealer & Highlighter from E.L.F Studio Line. This is in Light/Glow. It looks small in real life. If you are wondering about the material of the packaging, the material's like made of rubbery frosted plastic. I don't like touching it at all.

The concealer shade is a light beige colour. It did nothing for my undereyes (it was too light so it looked ashy). As a concealer, it was not too bad. Very easy to blend. Think it's an illuminating concealer as it looks brighter and light seemed to bounce off (so that people wouldn't notice the scars concealed) after blending. The highlighter shade is a opaque white shade. I have no idea what to do with this part as I'm not really interested in the white liquid.

Pros: Easy to blend. Illuminating is a bonus.
Cons: Cheap packaging. Container seems small so I doubt it will last long.