Jill Stuart 2011 Spring- 05 Romantic Onyx, 06 Little Anemone blush

Jill Stuart 2011 Spring features a range of usual Jill Stuart shades- romantic pinks (actually it's quite curious why almost every single eyeshadow palette has pinks in them...), but the blushes are fantastic! the newly revamped loose powder blush now comes in gorgeous portable compacts (they used to be in the old upright bulkier containers, albeit quite pretty on the dressing table too!)

Here is Jewel Crystal Eyes #05 Romantic Onyx eyeshadow palette, contains a shimmering moon-white, a soft pale pink, a mid-pink rose and a grey-charcoal - not quite fully black but deep enough.

Everything's so princessy with Jill Stuart! The eyeshadows are sort of jewel toned shimmery- I know those who prefer ultra finely milled eyeshadows might complain these are slightly crumbly or something- I still feel these are best worn at night when you need some romantic glam.

Here's the #06 Little Anemone loose powder blush duo:

The loose powder is under an in-built fabric-like sifter ( hence those little holes)- there's also a removable plastic clear sheet that you should keep on top of the sifter, then you close the lid and that should keep the loose powder in place during transit (even so I'm still a bit scared to take this blush out! spillage will not be pretty).

#06 little anemone is a soft pale pink highlighter (probably not enough to show up as a blush color on its own), the other side is a feminine soft pink rose. I think it's featured in the campaign ad this round. You are meant to either blend the colors together to get a pink blush glow, or you can use the highlighter shade separately for highlighting on bridge of nose, cheekbones, brows etc.

The brush comes with each blush! it's a retractable silver brush (with a pink jewel studded on the side) with the most adorable silver bow charm on the side. Unlike the pressed powder blushes that comes with brushes attached to the compact, these come separate!

Chanel 547 Pulsion Nail Polish color Lacquer

Some quick photos of my latest additions! Love the Chanel #547 Pulsion nail color! I think this was Holiday 2011- it's a very classy brightened pink, without quite going to fuchsia sort of brightness.

Planning to wear this on the weekend! nail swatches to follow later =)

Revlon Nail Enamel Polish ROSEBUD review/ swatch

Revlon Rosebud is a limited edition color in 2010, it's a creamy pinky peach nude. The consistency is not as nice as OPI or Essie, but with 2 coats any flaws can be masked quite easily.

I'm sure there are a few Esssie or OPI shades very similar to this though! It's pure creme and without shimmers.

Sofina Vital Rich UV Cut Milk (Sunscreen) review/ swatch

 Sofina Vital Rich UV Cut Milk has SPF24, PA+++, 30ml , housed in a white bottle with pink cap and gold trim, it has a metal or plastic ball inside so you can shake before use. The applicator is a thin nozzle tip squeeze type bottle which is very convenient and accrurately deposits amount you need.

When the Japanese say 'Milk' it usually just means liquid moisturiser or runny lotion. Basically this is a moisturising sunscreen. (Vital Rich is from the Sofina line for mature ages, not sure if it's still around but they constantly revamp the lines and call it different names even though products are more or less the same).

It's a liquidpaper consistency white liquid, it's not like normal moisturiser, there's just something unique about Sofina's signature sunscreen. It's not oily feeling or thick or too runny.

Spreaded out:

Fully blended in: does not leave a white cast, instead it leaves a very comfortable, protective thin layer that doesn't feel oily or greasy, just feels perfect for the Australian cold dry winters.

I love Sofina sunscreens (I know some people may be sensitive to their signature sunscreens due to the formula or the finish). They never clog my pores, provides adequate sun protection, and comes in a huge variety of different moisutrising properties or SPF ratings.

Overall 5/5.

Only drawback is this is just SPF24, obviously intended for winter use and relatively low sun protection. (There's a big hole in the ozone layer near Australia so sunscreen is pretty seriousl business here).

I've used this once during a ski trip where the snow was really glarey and reflective. I didn't find this to be adequate and I did turn a bit red, but not sunburnt, after a full day outdoors. (it's quite deceptive how much sun light you get from the snow!).

OPI Cozu-Melted in the Sun M27 Nail Polish swatch/review

OPI Cozu-melted in the Sun (code M27) is from the OPI Mexico collection.

It's definitely my top 10 favorite foil finished polishes. It's so pretty both on tips or toes. Goes well with anything, I've been wearing this shade a lot when going to weddings or functions, it looks very pretty with a nice dress in almost any shade.

Cozu-melted in the Sun is a foil finish polish without going on metallic or frost. It looks shimmering in the sunlight, it's a bit of beige, some champagne, some nude pink. Complex color. It's light enough to look good as a nude nailcolor, I wouldn't call it quite mid-tone because it is still sort of light in color.

The shimmers/ foils are just extremely fine, making this such a pretty feminine color. Would imagine this shade would look equally good on tanned skin which will pick up more of the nude beige tone inside.

overall 5/5.

Dear OPI, please release more foil finishes like this.

I'm wearing 2 coats below:

Some very close up shots:

Orly Bonder Rubberized Base Coat review/ swatch

Orly Bonder is a basecoat that is targeted at improving adherence of polish to your nails, to improve wear, and avoid polish flaking off or chipping. In my opinion if you wear polishes frequently, a basecoat is a must have, to prevent staining to your nails and improve the longevity (and often the finished look) of your nailpolishes.

If you are willing to invest in even more for the base coat, I highly recommend also getting one of those more opaque nail basecoats (like Nailtek Foundation II) which wears great under nude/french/pink colors to make any sheer polishes look more clean and even.

Orly bonder belongs in the clear-finish base coat category.

Comes in a standard size brush, relatively easy to use. You can see the basecoat is very liquidy- it's a lot of runny than most nailpolishes and a lot thinner. Which means the 18ml bottle truely lasts a long time (I've had mine for over 1 year and it's still going strong with 15% left).

The consistency means it also makes a very thin coat on the nails. Which I don't mind at all- because I hate the feeling of having a lot of layers of polishes on the nails, it sort of looks thick and unnatural.

Here's a light layer on my bare nails. My tips are naturally not as white because my nails are quite thin so they are a bit translucent.  You can see Orly bonder forms a very thin looking coat on the top. It quickly dries and is not that smooth to touch (hence rubberized base coat because it dries to a finish that allows your other polishes to 'grip' on to the base coat). This is why a lot of base coats don't finish smooth- because coarse surface helps adherence of your nailpolish.

Overall 4/5.

I did find I don't have much staining (but then I don't wear very dark polishes that often). My polishes generally wear for a solid 3 days and get minor chipping/ wear by day 4, but that's mainly because of physical abrasion of my nails against other surfaces (e.g. trying to put on necklaces, accidentally bumping nails into drawers, or having my nails exposed to a lot of water with dish washing, when I wash my hair daily etc).

Can't wait to finish this bottle then I'd love to try other base coats (but I would gladly come back to this one if nothing else better surfaces).

Origins No Puffery Cooling Mask for Puffy Eyes review

Origins No Puffery cooling mask is a refreshing translucent gel (can't really tell if there's any tint inside as the tube is translucent green , but the gel on the skin does appear colorless).

It is minimally scented, (or if anything, reminds me a bit of cucumber- literally scentless vegie).

It is meant to be a mask, apply generously to undereye area for 5-10 minutes, then tissue off.  Or it can be used like a normal eye cream/gel, just apply sparingly under your normal eye cream.

 It is meant to be de-puffying, not so much intended for moisurising your under eye area.

Honestly I cannot tell whether this does anything, then again sometimes you use certain skincare for the pampering feeling (it does feel cool on the undereye and you don't have to close your eyes so while you apply this you can still do other things).

Here's what it looks like- it does squeeze out as a rather solid gel, but melts a bit on contact on the skin to a normal eye gel sort of felling.

Spreaded out:

Overall I did feel slightly depuffed, but as I expected this is no miracle worker, there are still some days where I sleep late, wake up with puffy eyes and this seemed to only help minimally.

I don't feel bad about slapping this on generaously, given it's 30ml  in size (most eyecreams are standard 15ml sizes).

Overall 3/5.

Will not repurchase- must be other fun skincare to try out there...hopefully something that depuffs better.

Rene Furterer Paris Okara Protect Color Shampoo Protective Radiance review

I grabbed a few Rene Furterer travel size shampoos and conditioners from their various line as I've read good things about them on a few Asian beauty blogs.

Their packaging is generally pretty simplistic and in yellow/green labels. It's probably priced comparable to Redken in Australia, you are looking at paying 23-28AUD for a 200ml bottle of shampoo etc.

The Okara Protect Color Shampoo (colored hair protective radiance shampoo) is a typical shampoo consistency in a thickish yellow liqiud.

The shampoo has average foams, if your hair is a bit greasy foaming can be a little bit difficult.

Ingredient list:

It also has a pretty standard floral scent similar to a lot of drugstore shampoos.

You can see I'm on the bottom of the 50ml container, honestly I thought this was such an average shampoo. My hair feels a bit coarse and dry if I don't follow with a nourishing conditioner or hair mask. In addition it seems difficult to foam up if your hair is even slightly greasier than normal or has hair products.

I didn't find my color fading slower, or my hair looking more shiny.

Overall 2/5 for this shampoo. It's not that crap, but it's just feels like most other drugstore shampoos which retails at 20% of the cost of this shampoo.  It falls short of most other shampoos in similar price range like Redken.

Sofina Kao Sponge Cleaner review

Sofina is owned by the "Kao Corporation" in Japan. While they mostly have the pretty packaged Sofina Beaute or Sofina Aube Couture lines, Kao also sells some Sofina branded random items in drugstores.

This is the "Sponge Cleaner" from Sofina. It's in a 50ml fliptop bottle. The content is a clearish liquid gel, very faint scent that smells like generic face wash.

(It did come in a plastic sealed packaging but I threw that out ages ago)



This is meant to be a special cleaner for your sponges and powder puffs. I'm kind of a hygiene freak when it comes to sponges and powder puffs because ultimately, this is how all the makeup goes to your face.

For sponges I tend to use disposable ones (I buy those round sponges, cut them into 4-6 pieces, each day I use 1 new side and throw it out after day 2 (after both sides are used).

However for powder puffs that goes with pressed powders or powder foundations, they cannot be replaced as often (because sometimes they cost like $5 each especially the nice ones). This is where sponge cleaners become handy.

Here's my powder puff (Laneige one that comes with the Laneige foundations, it's interesting because it's a bit velvet like, and can actually apply a good fine layer of powder foundation). After 2 uses they tend to have either my powder resiue or a bit of foundation on it:

 I don't really understand the Japanese instruction on the back of the bottle, but usually I squeeze a drop like this, and wet the sponge and just massage it until a bit of bubble comes out, and the sponge quickly will go clean:

After rinsing out all the residue or bubbles, my powder puff is good as new! (It's naturally a bit yellow tinted because other than the velvet top layer, the middle bit is a thin yellow sponge layer, which makes these puffs great).

Overall 5/5. You can buy various Shiseido or Sofina sponge cleaner for like $5 or 6 on Ebay generally for a 50ml bottle or so. Very cheap, and really keeps your things clean. They are meant to be anti-bacterial too.

Stila Rouge Pots Cheek Mousse in Amaryliss review/ swatch

Stila was one of my favorite brands (before Estee Lauder bought it at least). I like the girly packagings, and I did collect Stila makeup for a year or two.

This is my recent lost and found love, Stila Rouge Pots Cheek Mousse in shade 'Amaryliss'. Rouge Pots are discontinued from the look of Stila website but you can track them down easily on ebay etc

.

Rouge pots have a soft bouncy texture, they are not a hard creme, but not totally airwhipped, but just a nice bouncey semi firm texture that spreads really easily even with finger.

As usual, you should apply creme products below any powder products, so I apply this after my liquid  foundation or BB cream but before pressed powders or loose powders. This means you can apply a little bit more (because the pressed powder will cover some of the color).

Here's the swatch on the skin, the top layer is applied slightly heavier and very sheerly on the bottom. You can see it applies totally smooth, you don't get the lumpy feeling you get with cream blushes normally. 

It dries quickly, to a powdery finish, but the color stays firm and well throughout the day.

Amaryliss looks like a orange in the pot, with some brick red undertone, but on the skin it transforms to a beautiful brightening coral orange, with slightest red undertone. My skin swatch isn't quite picking up the coral so much though.

Overall 4/5. It works well with a creme blush brush too. The only thing I can fault about this is sometimes when it's quite hot or my skin is a bit flushed, then rouge pot has a slight tendency to oxidize and turn a bit orange (but then that happens with me with most cream blushes).

Chanel #203 Miami Peach Le Vernis Nail Colour swatch/ review

Chanel #203 Miami Peach Le vernis nail colour was released at least several times over the last 3-4 years. In some countries you can find it in the permanent collection.

It's one of those mid tone colors I find hard to quite pinpoint. It's a bit peach, a bit coral, a bit pink, a bit orange, all depend on what light you look at it and what skintone you are. It applies quite true color to the bottle.

I would describe it on me as a brightened corally pink peach with average amount of gold shimmers in a gel-creme sort of finish. Not quite creme opacity but not quite see through. I love how it seems a bit jelly-like on my nails.

It's a bit brightening but definitely not garish or neon. Very wearable in summer and spring. Love the pop of color.

Here's the color under sunlight:

Another one under sunlight, this one shows how pale the color could look:

Overall 5/5 . Again I'm wearing 2 coats, underneath seche vite top coat (which is getting a bit gluggy on me and that's why there's some 'shrinkage' on the tip =\ ).