Reviews and Other Stuff

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!

Chanel Le Crayon Yeux Review

November 8, 2016 / FASHION & BEAUTY / 0 comments

Apart from the Chanel Stylo Yeux Waterproof Eyeliner that I so love, (reviewed HERE), here’s another Chanel eyeliner that blends easily and is so practical to use. The Chanel Le Crayon Yeux Precision Eye Definer comes in handy when you need to to create different eye looks, from a natural daywear to a smoldering smoky eye. Though the formulation is not exactly waterproof, it’s still quite long lasting and its blending power is just amazing. It’s very creamy and it glides easily on the lid without being streaky. It’s so great for tightlining in order to make your eyes bigger. Lurve it!

When I said that this Chanel Le Crayon Yeux Eyeliner is practical, well it really is. It comes with a built-in smudger on one side of the pencil for easy blending and an eye crayon on the other side. There’s even a free sharpener that came with the packaging. I wish all eyeliners were made like this. 🙂

The shade that I picked for this particular Chanel eyeliner is the shade in Coffee Bean, which is a deep dark brown that is almost slightly black. It looks very natural on the eyes specially when smudged and blended. You can purchase this eyeliner or checkout its array of colors HERE.

Are you an eyeliner fan? what’s your favorite eyeliner of all time?

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