April 2017 - Reviews and Other Stuff

Month: April 2017

Burberry Effortless Eyebrow Definer & Eye Colour Contour Review

April 27, 2017 / FASHION & BEAUTY / 0 comments

Hiya, I don’t own a lot of Burberry beauty products but my experience with the few that I own have been really great. The thing I seem to love about Burberry beauty products are their robust packaging wearable formulations that embody that whole effortless and casual chic vibe. So Brit-ish. They also seem to put some innovation in their products and add attention to details.

Anyway, here’s two Burberry products that I love and I’m definitely looking forward to adding some more of these soon.

Burberry Effortless Eyebrow Definer in 02 Sepia ($33): I’ve been using this right from the beginning that it was released. The first of its kind, way before Anastasia’s Brow Definer came out or Benefit’s Goof Proof Brow Pencil was introduced. The texture is waxy on this brow product and I like that it’s not super pigmented upon first stroke so that there’s room for blending and for easy correction if ever you made a mistake. Also, this has a very natural effect on the brows and the Sepia shade is very versatile. It’s like a light grayish brown that could work on any light to medium skin tone. I love the thick and robust metallic double-ended packaging as well as the durable and useful spooley. It’s also long lasting and it fills the brows really well. The only caveat is the price, but there’s enough product in the tube to last a long time.

Burberry Eye Colour Contour 104 Almond ($29.50): It’s hard to find a matte cream eye shadow in a sea of pen-style eye colors. Fortunately, I found this gorgeous midtone shade of matte brown from Burberry and I really love it. It goes on smoothly like a butter and it’s waterproof plus it won’t budge. I love the versatility of this shade and it’s ideal for layering with other colors, specially for a daytime look. I love how it contours my lids and creates a naturally soft smoky eye makeup. This is definitely a great eye color pen to have and in the same caliber as the Laura Mercier Caviar Stick or the Marc Jacobs Twinkle Pop Stick Eyeshadow.

These two products from Burberry are really worth trying given that they help enhance your eye makeup game like a breeze. I do have my eye on the Effortless Eyebrow Definer in 04 Malt Brown and the Eye Colour Contour in 108 Midnight Brown and 112 Rosewood.

The Burberry Effortless Eyebrow Definer is available in: Sephora, Net-A-Porter, Saks & Burberry.com

The Burberry Eye Colour Contour are also available in: Sephora, Burberry.com, Saks, Net-A-Porter & Nordstrom.

Whatcha think of these?

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Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum & Snowise Brightening Water Review

April 26, 2017 / FASHION & BEAUTY / 0 comments

Setting my personal SK II beauty regimen aside, I embarked on two new facial products that I’ve been constantly using for more than a month now. I’ve been putting into test the Sulwhasoo Snowise Balancing Water as my facial toner, and the Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum as my daily facial serum. I know that the First Care Serum is the bestselling product of Sulwhasoo and a lot of people swear by it, so I was naturally intrigued and wondered just how good the product is, or if Sulwhasoo’s skin care line warrants a cult-following given the price of their products.

Sulwhasoo is high-end Korean skin care brand owned by Amore Pacific, and it’s much loved by a lot Koreans. The brand’s philosophy believes in the concept of beauty and harmony of energies, combining traditional medicine with modern science. The main ingredient of most of their product is Ginseng, but it’s not just any other Ginseng, it’s the best kind of Ginseng thought to be found only in the Korean Peninsula. Ginseng, when used as a skin care, has a lot of potential benefits. One being good in the anti-aging department and it also has brightening properties.

As a general observation of the two products I purchased, they both are in heavy glass containers that depicts a whole authentic Korean aesthetic vibe. The bottles are not necessarily too big or too bulky, and they’re both opaque, so you won’t be able to see how much product is left inside. Both the Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum and the Snowise Brightening Water smells very herbal-like, but it’s not overwhelming to the senses, instead, it’s pretty invigorating.

Sulwhasoo Snowise Brightening Water (4.22 oz: $63) – This slightly hefty toner is meant to be applied with the palm of your hands and pat starting from the center of your face. With Broussonetia Kazinoki, a Mulberry extract known to brighten and soften rough skin. The toner is meant to prepare skin for other Snowise products like the Snowise Brightening Cream and Brightening Serum. However, I didn’t plan to use this toner for that purpose, instead, I just wanted a good toner that can help brighten my dark spots or post-acne marks. So far, in my experience, this toner feels like a gel and it’s tricky to use a cotton pad with this, as the consistency seems a bit too thick for a toner. You might really need to use your palms when applying this, but I prefer to still use a cotton pad because I want my toner to take off excess makeups that didn’t rinse away after washing. Fortunately, the formula spreads very easily and it feels very soothing. As far as the benefits and changes I’ve noticed, this product did not irritate my skin and it keeps it plumped. Didn’t notice any brightening effect so far, but my acne scars seemed to have not darken further.

Suwhasoo First Care Activating Serum (2 oz: $84) – With Milkvetch that promotes skin circulation and Dwarf Lilyturf with Licorice to restore skin’s radiance. This bestselling product is meant to restore the skin’s moisture and nutrients. The serum has golden brown color and smells like Ginseng with some other herbs. It feels like a gel and it spreads easily onto the face, which then the skin absorbs easily and also has a relaxing feel to it. I truly love the consistency of this serum and a little bit goes a long way, perhaps 2-3 pumps will work per application. I also love the cap since it’s very easy to take it off or replace it whenever you use the product. When it comes to its effect, I do notice an overall evenness of hydration on my face throughout the day. I no longer have dry patches around my mouth and my skin’s not secreting too much oil. It’s still oily-prone, but not as much, and it looks my skin’s regulating the sebum production well. This serum seems to work to balance the skin’s chemistry, no wonder a lot of people have fallen in love with it.

Bottom line, I like Sulwhasoo a lot and I’m planning to try more of their products soon. They’re really pricey, but you could sense that they put a lot of value and effort on their products. They feel luxurious, soothing, traditional, and there’s an element of care and wisdom to it. Compared to SK II, I definitely feel like they’re neck and neck with each other. I also like SK II a lot and will always be using them, but these two products from Sulwhasoo would be great add on.

The Snowise Brightening Water is available at: Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus & Bergdorf Goodman

The First Care Activating Serum can be found at: Nordstrom, Bergdorf Goodman & Neiman Marcus

For more skin care stuff, follow moi on Instagram: @reviewsandotherstuff

Alex Marwood’s “The Killer Next Door” Book Review

April 25, 2017 / OTHER STUFF / 0 comments

“Everyone who lives at 23 Beulah Grove has a secret”.

Hi Bookworms! here’s a bone-chilling novel that I recently finished, it’s called “The Killer Next Door” by Alex Marwood. Yes, the title is as intriguing and gruesome as the story. It circles around the lives of the six residents, namely;

Cher: A teenage runaway with attitude issues.

Vesta: An elderly woman who seems to have lived in the boarding house for forever and has monetary issues.

Collette: The main character who’s running away from someone or something, and whose real name is Lisa.

Hossein: A middle eastern refugee who just wants to forget.

Gerard: A recluse and a former music teacher.

Thomas. Another oddball who also likes to keep to himself and is currently occupying the attic.

Together with their creepy landlord Roy Preece, this is a story of a harrowing life in the city of London, where the residents live in a Victorian-style but dilapidated boarding house. All of them have secrets to hide, and all of them seem to be running away from their sordid past. Preferring to forget and remain incognito. Most of the time, they like to keep to themselves and are always wary.

The residents seem to enjoy the anonymity that the building has offered, yet things aren’t always what they seem. There will be a terrible accident that will unite them together, and one of them is hiding a very deep dark secret. Much darker than what each of them already have. This is a tale of life, secrets, friendships, love, reality, wickedness, obsession and murder. This aint’ a tale for the faint of heart, not even for someone with a weak stomach. The details of the story are lurid, grotesque and almost scary.

Even though the story was intriguing and had a pretty satisfying ending with a good twist, this was a slow read for me. I like the whole concept of the story but it transitions from one event to another very slowly. The audiobook was the same, even though I kinda like the reader because she has different voices for each character. Yet still, the book was told in the third person being from the point of view of each character, and I still find that to be kinda hard to connect. Just not a fan of the third person narration, and it was also hard to follow as to who was who in the story. The first half was quite monotonous and the story starts to take hold almost at the end of the book. There’s few twists, but they weren’t so mind-bending. Some arguments were already expected and the overall pace of the book could need a little more push.

Overall, the book is riveting enough and the author truly captures the thoughts and struggles of each character while depicting the plot as realistic as can be. A good series adaptation would be great. I heard James Franco might be starring on it. I really hope so.

Have you read this book?

To purchase this book on paperback, click HERE.

To read via kindle, click HERE.

To listen to this novel via audible, click HERE.

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