November 2016 - Page 2 of 4 - Reviews and Other Stuff

Month: November 2016

Benefit High Brow Highlight & Lift Pencil Review

November 16, 2016 / FASHION & BEAUTY / 0 comments

Ever feel like your brows’ arches are not high enough? like you wanted it to reach the top of the Chrysler Building? Well yes of course, high arches means accentuating the eyes, looking more awake and having that overall appearance of a more lifted look. What better way to get lifted (hello CL) than to try Benefit Cosmetics’ High Brow pencils. I know they’ve released these products before, but now, with Benefit’s array of brow makeups, I’ve heard that these pencils’ formulations have been newly-improved. I’ve never tried the previous ones, but a lot of people are saying that these are a lot creamier and a lot easier to blend.

What’s really awesome about these eyebrow highlighting pencils are the following; First, they’re so convenient and easy to use. Depending on your application, you may or may not need to use a brush, a little dab on the pinky finger might as well work. Second, they’re really creamy and easy to blend. Third, they’re long lasting and they come in 2 different shades. Fourth, they give a major lift on your arches like Cruella Deville, LOL, not that exagg, ok.

Natural Matte: Creamy Linen-Pink. This is meant for creating a natural look while subtly looking lifted at the same time. The shade is a matte-pink but it blends quite well to a universally flattering hue, even for my now light-medium skin tone. This is my favorite among the two shades of Benefit High Brows because it makes your eyes pop while looking very very natural at the same time.

Luminous: Champagne-Pink. This shade is also very very creamy but has an added shimmer to its champagne-pink tone. It’s great if you want a dramatic lift. However, for some reason, it didn’t show much on my skin tone. I guess if your skin is very light, then this would be great for you. On my skin, this still looks very natural, so perhaps a little more shimmer should have been added for it to be really universally flattering.

Swatches:

I’m still a fan of using some shades from my eyeshadow palette to highlight the arches of my brows, it’s just a natural instinct for many of us. But when I’m in a hurry, or if I just need a little touch up to define my brows, these Benefit High Brows can come in handy. Specially when no eyeshadow brush is around.

Alrighty guys, GTG for now..

‘Till then…

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Nars Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer VS Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer

November 15, 2016 / FASHION & BEAUTY / 0 comments

Cold weather is here and I am obsessed with tinted moisturizers! when the temps go low, we go high with moisturizers! hahaha! sounds familiar? 🙂 Seriously, chilly days like these really do require a lot of moisturization or massive hydration. Our skin tends to dry a lot, and even if you’re the oily type, you still need to moisturize a lot or your sebum will overwork. 🙂

I laid off my regular foundations, for now, to give way to Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer (in Bisque) and Nars Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer (in Groenland). These are at the top of the bestselling tinted moisturizers on the market nowadays. They’re much like a lightweight foundation or simply a tinted moisturizer as what they’re called. They both work like a charm and delivers a luminous and hydrated effect on the skin. In fact, my skin never feels or looks dry whenever I use one of them. They have such a natural finish without making your face look flat or dull.

Since I’ve been constantly using these two, I feel like they’re both similar but with subtle differences. But before we compare and contrast, let’s take a look at each tinted moisturizer’s specific benefit and description.

Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer Broad Spectrum Spf 20 (Bisque) – Light Neutral complexion with balance of pink and yellow undertone. Since the start of this chilly weather, my skin has lightened quite a bit, thus the Bisque shade, which is a perfect match. This tinted moisturizer has antioxidants, Vitamins C & E, and sodium hyaluronate. It also has broad spectrum Spf 20 and is non-comedogenic.
Nars Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer Broad Spectrum Spf 30 (Groenland) – Light Medium with a neutral pink to peachy undertone. This tinted moisturizer is oil-free with broad spectrum Spf 30. It has natural polysaccharides for hydration and cell-renewal and also has mineral-rich seawater for adding minerals to the skin. It’s also non-comedogenic and it’s meant to even the skin tone by reducing dark spots or discoloration. In other words, this particular tinted moisturizer claims to overall improve skin conditions in 4 weeks.

Similarities:

They both deliver a “no-makeup” ~~but with a ton of~~ makeup look. They both blend easily and are really lightweight on the skin. Both have no annoying fragrances and my skin never broke out from constantly using them. Lasting power is about the same for both, and they do stay on my oily skin for hours.

Differences:

Nars Pure Radiant Moisturizer is slightly more pigmented than Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer. Since I’ve mentioned that my skin has lightened a bit due to this cold and gloomy weather, the Bisque shade of Laura Mercier’s Tinted Moisturizer is probably the best shade that matches my now NC20-25 skin tone, but the closest equivalent shade that I found in Nars Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer is Groenland, which as you can see at the bottom is still quite slightly yellowish than Bisque, though both are meant to be light-medium or light neutral. However, once blended to my skin, the slight difference in color is hard to discern.

Also, the Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer only has Spf 20 compared to Nars Pure Radiant that has Spf 30. I mean, that’s not much of a big deal, right? The Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer also feels more like a creamy moisturizer and has a very very natural effect, but the Nars Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer, though very fluid, can feel a bit makeup-y. I guess because it’s oil-free, but, the effect on Nars’ is quite luminous and glowy. It also has a nice fresh flowery scent to it.

Verdict:

I think, whichever you wanna choose, you won’t regret having any of these two. They’re really good tinted moisturizers and they’re so on trend with this natural almost “no makeup” look. Another great option apart from these two is the Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua, which is hard to beat, for sure.

Anyway, what d’ya think of these? Any tinted moisturizers out there that you can recommend?

Thanks for reading,

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Colourpop Ultra Matte Lip Review

November 11, 2016 / FASHION & BEAUTY / 0 comments

Hello Jell-O! Since my Kylie Cosmetics matte liquid lipstick review, (HERE) I’ve been really curious about Colourpop”s Ultra Matte Liquid Lipsticks, even more so when I was hearing and reading that both have a lot of things in common. However, for this review, I won’t delve much on their comparisons because there will be a separate review for that, hopefully soon. For now, let’s talk about Colourpop Ultra Matte Lip and focus on the swatches and formulations.

For being an affordable liquid lipstick, Colourpop Ultra Matte Lip delivers much more than that. It’s packed with super-strong pigments and it wont’t fail. It has the most pigment I’ve seen in a matte liquid lipstick, and yes, even slightly more pigmented than Kylie’s. It dries immediately and once it settles, it’s almost there for good. It’s takes quite an effort to remove it because it definitely won’t budge. And for that, I think it deserves some praises.

While it’s definitely nice to see a good quality and affordable lipstick, it also comes with a few letdowns. Since it’s highly pigmented, it’s also very drying and it feels kinda heavy on the lips. It’s difficult to remove and once it’s removed, your lips are gonna look raw. With me, for example, after swatching all the Colourpop Ultra Matte Lipsticks that I got, my lips were red and flaking, like I rubbed them on an asphalt, LOL! Also, the colors that I picked were mostly supposed to be on the wearable neutral-mauve tones, and they did looked like it on the tubes, but once applied and settled, they tend to be very muted and quite dull in tone.

See below.

Beeper: Warm Mid-tone Taupe. One of the nicest shade in this selection, simply because it’s wearable and it didn’t transform into a very muted dull shade. Also, it matches well with medium skin tones.
Trap: Dusty Greyed Out Beige. Simply put it, Grey + Beige = Greige. Interesting shade and one of Colourpop’s bestseller, but it didn’t work for me. I was really excited to try it, but apparently the shade doesn’t work for a medium skin tone. I ended up looking like I was running out of oxygen. 🙂
Tulle: Dusty Mauve Burgundy. Pretty vampy muted-red shade. This works quite well on my skin tone despite the fact that it’s a bit too dark. It’s extremely pigmented and is great for a nighttime look.
Viper: Dusty Rose. Gorgeous muted-mauve shade. I thought I wasn’t gonna like this before actually trying it, but now this is my most favorite shade of all the colors reviewed here. So wearable and perfect for winter.
Lumiere 2: Nude Light-Mauve Shade. I really liked this at the beginning but it dried down to a slightly grey-purple/violet shade that looked too muted on me. A little more flush of pink would have been nice.

Favorites: Beeper and Viper.

Dislikes: Trap and perhaps Lumiere 2.

I have mixed emotions for Colourpop Ultra Matte Lip. I love its long lasting formulation, its affordable price and some wearable colors. It’s a bit too drying for me and the colors tend to transform into having some dull undertones. Still, I consider these as outstanding given its quality and its price.

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Ciao!