Kanebo Coffret D'or Nail Gel Top Coat N review/ swatch

Ok I couldn't quite find this top coat on the Coffret D'or website- there's a Gel Mode Top Coat on the website which is probably the 2011 version of this one.

There are two topcoats on the website at the moment, there's a gel top coat (which just means it's gel-like finish like those gel-nails) versus the jewlite topcoat (which is in a square bottle).

This was purchased in 2010. Look how gorgeous the bottle design is- it's like a diamond cut crystal blue bottle (the topcoat is clear). It contains 12ml.

This is what it should look like when purchased- there's a bunch of stickers on it but easily (and meant to be) taken off.

The ingredients etc in the back :

The bristle is just the right size, it's not as big as OPI prowide brushes, this is more like standard nailpolish bristle size (e.g. Chanel's bristles).

Swatch below with 2 coats of Chanel 521 rose cache nail polish before top coat:

Here's after topcoat- see it adds a slight gloss to the polish.

Overall I like the topcoat during applicator, it glided on really easily (I didn't have to wait for the Chanel polish to dry completely, I usually just do two coats of polish, from right hand, then left hand, then I go back to the right hand and start applying the topcoat from the first finger I painted with colored nail polish before).

It doesn't seem to have much issue with gooping up (sometimes the topcoat can just apply too thick a layer). It has a medium gloss - I do not find it to be more shiny than my usual Seche vite top coat. It dries pretty fast compared to a lot of other top coats but not as quick as Seche vite. I probably finish both my nails and have to wait for 10 minutes (and careful not to ding my nails on anything hard otherwise it will still leave a dent).

It has a typical nail polish smell, not too strong. However the biggest issue I had with this was the tiny air bubbles- there are some super tiny bubbles (I didn't shake the topcoat before application either). It's not visible in the photos but I did notice some tiny bubbles in real life. 

Overall 3.5/5. It's not bad at all compared to a lot of other top coats I've used, but I wish it dried faster and also have less bubbling issues. I have no issue with using this up but not sure if I would repurchase.

Chanel Le Vernis Nail Colour 521 Rose Cache review/ swatch 2011

Chanel 521 Rose Cache was from 2011 fall or Christmas collection (anyway, late 2011). 

I didn't really expect to love this color given it looks rather generic in the bottle, like any Chanel soft pinks.

It's a muted pink on a very slight mauve side, but not really "purple based" just yet. It's a soft creme finish, infused with very very fine shimmers that are barely visible on the nails, (however my very last picture below picks up the shimmers under flash photography if you look close).

The shimmers are more obvious in the bottle than on the nails.

It's sort of still translucent creme, that builds to a good opacity (consider this is still a light pink) with 2 coats.

First pic below is with ONE coat. I'm wearing Paul & Joe base coat underneath which is pretty much clear anyway.

Below are done with two coats. From a distance it's very pretty and elegant- I wore this to a wedding with a white and multi-color print dress on the weekend. It's understated but I would still think it's a unique pink.

Pic below shows as much mauve tone as you can get out of this.

This pic below picks up the shimmers on my middle and index finger a bit more at an angle.

I cannot think of anything else in my collection that looks similar.

Out of all the recent Chanel soft pinks I'm quite liking this one for its uniqueness with the very light mauve tone base.

Overall 5/5. It has an usual Chanel polish consistency, sometimes I do find it chips faster than e.g. OPI nail polishes.

I do not think it's quite in the same color family as like, Essie Ladylike (has way more purple base) or Essie Bootleg (which is more pink and flatter), Essie Innocent (reviewed under Essie Bootleg link before) is more beigy-peach than mauve undertone compared to Chanel Rose Cache.

Chanel Rouge Coco Hydrating Creme Lip Colour #35 CHINTZ swatch/ review

I've always liked Chanel lip colors, particularly the ones from these 2-3 years - they have definitely improved with the formula and dryness issue that I previously remembered about Chanel lipsticks.

#35 Chintz was limited edition for early 2010 I believe. It looks like a soft pink with a hint of soft peach in it, and subtle shimmers (more pearls than shimmers actually, it's not visibly grainy or anything).

Here's a close up- you can see the subtle gold pearls evenly distributed: 

Here are two swatches- (swiped about twice). You can see there is a definite good color payoff despite this being a light color. It applies smoothly and glides on. When swatched on the skin the moisture content seems higher than once swiped on the lips. On initial lip application I always feel Chanel lipsticks are slightly dry and accentuate flakies, but I realised let it sit in for 5 minutes when your body temperature melts the lip color a bit, then you get beautifully looking lips (despite actually having chapped lips on the day).

 Of course this won't mask really bad flakies or anything, but it does conceal well from a distance.

My lip swatches below- the pearlyness is a lot more obvious under flash photography, I think it looks slightly softer and peachier in real life. My natural lipcolors are a bit rosy so it brings out the pink tone a lot more. It's a gorgeous gorgeous soft pink apricot lip color with a slight shine in real life. I absolutely LOVE this shade.

I actually had quite dry lips when doing the swatching but it doesn't really gather in the dry bits which is good. I would think some people would still find these drying if they are used to the more glossy/ emollient lipsticks (e.g. Dior serum de rouge).

I read reviews before on this shade saying it's a bit 'bright' , once I applied it I realised what the reviewers mean- there's something brightening about this shade due to the pearliness, but it's not bright as in neon or bright, it's just a soft but brightening shade. Very classic soft pink with a brightening factor.

Overall 5/5. I actually have a backup somewhere I think, thankfully! You should still be able to spot this around ebay or dutyfree or less busy Chanel counters.

Kose Visee Feat. Smacky Glam Glow Eyes Eyeshadow Palette PK-6 Sweet Pink/ Glossy Nude Rouge PK805 swatch/ review

I've tried a few Visee items over the year but always felt it was the cheaper counterpart of its more expensive sister lines like Kose Esprique. However, the recent 2 years of Visee eyeshadow palettes have received great reviews across a lot of Asian blogs so I decided to try 2 items from their Christmas 2011 limited edition Smacky Glam x Visee range.

They are packed in limited edition floral prints which I think are quite festive and pretty.

The first item is Glam Glow Eyes eyeshadow palette in "PK-6 Sweet Pink".

Eyeshadow has a floral print embossed on top- it's actually embossed quite deep so even though I've been using this for a few weeks now, the flower print is still there (without looking ruined and ugly). 

The double ended sponge applicator does it job, I usually use my fingers for the base colors though.

Swatch of eyeshadow:

PK-6 Sweet Pink contains a soft shimmering pink (it's not so sheer that the pink disappears, there is still some pink base), the pink is rather neutral, however probably quite generic shade among many Japanese drugstore brands.

Then it's a medium mocha brown shade, which is really quite pretty, it's not too warm and not too cool which works really well as my day-to-day go to brown shade. It's shimmery and buttery soft and decently pigmented.

The darkest shade is the dark chocolate shade, it's pigmented enough to be used as eyeliner (but not so dark that you can skip eyeliner all together), works well for a smoky look if you want. It's a slightly cooler bitter chocolate shade.

Lastly it's the common "sparkle" shade a lot of Japanese eyeshadows seems to like to include in a palette. It's not exactly pigmented, rather it will show up as sparkly bits, slightly iridescent / shimmery finish. The shimmers are visibly bigger than all the other shades.

Overall a great palette consider I got it for around 1,200 yen after discount (15USD) when I was in Japan.

PK805 Glossy Nude Rouge- sorry no swatch yet. It's a nice baby pink . The advantage of buying these in person was I was able to swatch them.

The other two items from the same limited edition collection was a warmer brown eyeshadow palette (looked too warm for even my Asian skintone) and a more nude lipgloss in apricot nude. I thought the pink looked prettier. (Swatch to follow later).

Overall thumbs up, if you can still grab there at a reasonable price, would recommend them.

Kanebo Sponge Cleaner review

I use powder makeup (either pressed powder or powder foundation) far more often than liquid / cream foundations (always found powder ones to be far less pore-clogging for me no matter which brand).

A good powder foundation application is often got to do with what sponge you use. A good sponge can last for a good while with regular cleaning (most of the sponges that come with Japanese pressed powders of powder foundations are quite good, especially the department store brands, however they do cost like 5-10USD each so using them as disposables is a bit out of the questions.)

Following my last bottle of the Sofina Kao Sponge Cleaner reviewed previously, during my trip in Japan I thought I would try something new. I got this from just regular drugstore in Japan for about 6USD.

It's 55ml and a good sized portable bottle.

Everything's in Japanese, I assume I just use it as normal, wet the sponge, squirt a bit, work through the sponge and rinse thoroughly.

Here's the dirty sponge before: 

I poured a small drop on it (sponge was still dry). It worked out quite hard to work through the sponge since the sponge absorbed it all so quickly, so later on I find the best way to use this was to squirt a few drops on my palm, then massage through the wet sponge. This way cleans the best.

Sponge good as new afterwards! And I've had this sponge for like 2 months. (I have 3 or 4 good sponges that I rotate around while the others are being cleaned or dried.). I do not use any sponge for more than 2 days in a row. This is an Albion sponge which is probably one of the best sponges I've used. It's dense and soft and applies powder foundation like a dream, especially the Albion's own foundation.

And here's a quick look at the bottle- just flip-top bottle.

Overall 4/5 for this . I think the Sofina version is superior since it seemed to clean quicker. Both cleaners do not have a very obvious scent to it (smells a bit clinical but quickly dissipates once rinsed off).

Highly recommend anyone who use powder sponges (or powder puffs) regularly to get a bottle of either Sofina or Kanebo sponge cleaners. They are really cheap, and cleans like a dream. I use them to clean my synthetic makeup brushes too. You will not be going back to trying to use your face wash or normal makeup cleaner after trying this.

Sesha Cell White Brightening Dermal Mask review

Sesha is mostly found in HK, however there does appear to be a US and UK website if you google it.

I got two of these masks for free with my recent purchases from my regular HK seller. They retail for 420HKD for 10 sheets (which is 50USD for 10 sheets). Not the super pricey side.

Comes in silver satchets like this:

Ingredients and instructions (click picture below to enlarge)

Here's what it looks like out of the sachet. The blue bit is the plastic film layered over the actual mask which you are meant to remove. The mask is not an ordinary paper sheet mask , it's those more celluloise based masks with a slight jelly consistency- rather popular with a few cosmeceutical brands in Asia.

The sheet opened- you can see in the middle there's the jelly like bit, that's the actual mask. The rest is just the plastic film over it.

Applied on the face- interesting consistency isn't it, it's like a layer of jelly on the face. Due to the flexible consistency, it adheres to the skin very well.

I leave on for the suggested 20 minutes then remove. This is marketed as a brightening/whitening / spot removing mask with some hydration. It does hydrate very decently and I usually do not believe in the 'brightening' effect that a lot of these masks boast about unless you are able to use these very frequently, like 2-3 times a week. There is no strong fragrance and is rather pleasant to use.

Ingredients: Hyaluronic Acid, Collagen, Panthenol (Vitamin B5), Palmitoyl Oligopeptide, Hydrolyzed Wheat Gluen, Ceratonia Silique Gum (Pentacare), Tranexamic Acid, Ascorbyl Glucoside, Inositol Hexaphosphate, Kojic Palmitate, Arbutin, Seaweed Extract


Overall rating 4/5, I would be interested in maybe trying a full box to see if the brightening effect is more visible. However as a moisturising mask this is quite nice to use.

Christian Dior Addict Lip Maximizer Collagen Activ Lip Plumper 002 Apricot (lipgloss) review/ swatch

 Dior Addict Lip Maximizer Collagen Activ Lip Plumper was introduced about 2010 , with new shades #002 Apricot (the one I'm reviewing here) introduced in 2011.

I haven't tried the original version but I don't particularly need lip plumpers. I purchased #002 thinking it would give at least a baby pink/ peach lip color and would work as a normal lipgloss.

Clearly in the tube it looks like a pale apricot, really pretty. The lip plumper is pretty much unscented, and I did not experience any tingling on application (like Duwop lip venoms type of lip plumpers). I think the lip plumping effect from this lipgloss is the collagen content which feels up your lip creases a bit to give the plumpy lip look.

Comes with a standard doe-foot applicator like other Dior lipglosses.

Ok now comes the disappointing bit- where is the color? Yes it goes on very much clear on the skin or lips, it's so average and I really don't feel it 'plumps' or anything, it's at most a glorified, moisturising clear lipgloss (moisturising effect is very light either, it's not actual hydration but a superficial one given the collagen content).

Overall 2/5. Absolutely not worth the pricetag. Definitely try it before you buy it...

L'Oreal Sublime Mousse Luscious Conditioning Permanent Colour 41 Delicate Iced Chocolate swatch/ review

Honestly hair color posts are massively difficult!  I never remember when I took the hair pictures unless I edit the pictures immediately and rename them accordingly. So now I've decided to fix all my photos in one go.

Here's the Loreal Sublime Mousse bubble hairdye- I purchased it in Australia during priceline sale (I think it was 20% or 25% off) and bought for about 13AUD. Which is quite similar pricing to the Japanese bubble hairdyes I typically use.

This is the first time I've tried a bubble hair dye from a Western brand. I picked #41 Delicate Iced Chocolate which seemed to be almost the darkest cool toned brown in the range. I would have liked to try an ash brown but seems that normal ash brown range is not so popular with Western brands so I didn't spot anything I like.

Here's what the supposed finished color should look like: (all my pictures can be enlarged if you click on them)

It comes in a nice foam applicator bottle, it's quite easy to use and I would say I might prefer this to both Salon de Pro or Kanebo Prettia dispensers.

Content: from left it's the conditioner, then 2nd item from left on the top is the mixing solution along with the large bottle. The little round container is a pair of gloves. The item on the right is the pump dispenser.

Instructions. I did notice however it says do not shampoo and only rinse clean after you apply the foams. Which is different to other brands of Japanese hair bubble dyes which usually are ok to be shampooed off.

This is what it looks like after I massaged all the foam into my hair- while they were foams going on, I have no idea where the heck is the foam after application.  It dissipates into liquid so quickly. Thankfully I didn't experience too much dripping. (Yes it tinted my ears brown too...).

Here's my BEFORE hair color (which is Dariya Salon de pro bubble foam hair dye in shade "3" which has faded after 3 weeks...I dyed the L'oreal over it about another 2 weeks later, but you can get an idea of the color.

This is a BEFORE hair color too (I still liked the color but my greys were growing out and I'm just paranoid- even though I only have about 50 greys which are not that visible)

Before pics are all AFTER shots of the Loreal 41 Delicate Iced Chocolate, most pics are from about 10 days or 2 weeks after. I had to take a pic after 2 weeks because the stupid hair color was seriously staining on everything else and I didn't believe it was the intended color after application. It is possibly due to the 'no shampoo' afterwards which means even though I rinsed and rinsed for a good 20 minutes with runny clear water, the dye was still fading. I had to sleep with a towel over my pillow.

It still does not rinse clear even after about 5th shampoo. However once it finally rinses clear, the color was very stable on my hair.

Here's what it looks like after about 1 week which is the color it remains for rest of the 5 weeks after. (once it stops staining). It does give a very dark, very deep cool toned chocolate. It was really even around my hair roots but not so much on the rest of the hair.

However, I noticed that under sunlight and photos the color is obviously uneven, which has never really happened to me with any Japanese hairdyes. I suspect it's the lack of the "foam" after application and it dissipated too quickly to be able to effectively coat all the hair. I can imagine it might look really uneven for those who started with much lighter hair colors.

Here's a closer shot- you can see the middle section is obviously lighter than the left side.

Here are the ends of my hair (was playing around with curling iron but my hair is naturally straight). You can see the ends are relatively in decent condition. It did freel drying after the first week (and the conditioner from the pack was nothing to rave about, I quickly stopped using it and went back to my Kerastase hair masques).

It took me about 2 weeks of using Kerastase hair masque as a daily hair treatment (I just used shampoo then follow with the masque and skip conditioner) to restore my hair back to its 'healthier' state in the photos. Otherwise it really felt a bit strawy and dry. I would rank it as a bit more drying than Prettia. (Salon de pro was most non-drying for me).



The uneven application didn't bug me all that much since it wasn't visible under indoor light and under sunlight it might look like just lighting issues or something- however if you had a lighter hair color beforehand, definitely be warned.

Overall 3.5/5. I dislike the lack of a good lasting foam, and it did stink a little bit, plus the no shampoo after meant I rinsed for such a long long time and still couldn't get water to rinse clean, plus the shade stained for a whole week afterwards.

All that being said, the grey coverage was phenonmenal, I think it's because of the no-shampoo rule which really allowed the color to set too. Would probably be better for those with shorter hair since it's just hard to get an even application for anyone with long hair. (Mine is about 5cm below armpit at the moment).