Huge MUA haul

As I discovered that MUA(Makeup Academy) does international shipping for a decent price at 7,5£, I just went crazy because the products are so cheap!

I’m just gonna show you quickly what I’ve got. I was most excited about the eyeshadow palettes. I know it was a little silly to get those three that remind so much of each other, but they were so cheap! -only 4£.. I’m gonna give one of them to my roomie though. It will take forever to swatch them, so it’s gonna be another time.

Upper left – Heaven and Earth. Upper right – Undressed. Lower left – Glamour Nights. Lower right – Undress me too.

And then there are the foundations. I have been looking for some lighter foundations. The drugstore foundations here in Hong Kong are all too light for me, and I’m just not very keen on buying high-end foundations these days, so thought I might as well give these a try. I was searching for a while hoping to get the right shades. Luckily, they are quite good matches (I’m NC42). The fashionista feels quite thick(3£ – saved 9£). The matte feels (surprise) matte when putting on the skin(sales price is 1£). And the BB cream consistency feels pretty light(4£).

Fashionista foundation in Desert. Matte foundation in shade 3 gentle fawn. BB foundation in dark.

Swatch order according to the above. Blended out at the bottom(although it’s barely noticeable).

And then we’ve got some crazy lashes for 1£ as they’re doing half price now.

Sassy and Vixen.

Some brushes – E3 blending eye shadow brush(1,95£) and F2 foundtion blending brush(3£).

And then I bought 2 power pout colour intense tint & balm in broken hearted (left) and irreplacable (right). I accidentally cut a whole chunk off when I tried to rip off the packaging, so I’ve stored it in a little container. These give a more sheer finish, but feels very soft on my hand. These are 3£.

   

From left to right: I got 2 matte lipsticks in wild berry and peach keen. And then atomic tangerine and ultra pink. I had hoped that the berry would have been more pigmented, but I’m quite satisfied with the pigmentation with the rest. The fashionista double take lipsticks(the red ones) feel very very soft on my hand. The matte ones are 1£, and fashionista 1,5£ on sale.

  

Then there are the “regular” lipsticks in shade 13, 5, 3 and 7. I must say, I’m very happy with the pigmentation except for the light pink one – I just thought it wasn’t so glittery. 1£ per lipstick.

  

Lastly, I’ve got a blush in shade 3 and a lipliner. I didn’t swatch the lipliner as I couldn’t tear up the packaging haha. I expected the colour to be a deeper anyway, so I’m a little disappointed with this one. The blush seems to be quite pigmented and has a really natural colour. 1£ for the blush and same price for the lipliner.

      

Alright. That was it. Genereally very happy with what I’ve got. I will do a review of the products at some point. Hope you liked my haul 😀 I’m super excited!

Maria xoxo

Whatever matters

I’ve been a little hesitant to share things this private, but I think sharing this epiphany would give me some kind of emancipation.

I have been in Hong Kong for, on and off, 1,5 years now. Out of my trips staying abroad, I’d say I learned the most about myself the past few years. It’s kind of weird as you meet so many new people, and there are just the people that I know by heart will always be there for me back home ❤ This is one thing that is keeping me going out here in the far east.

This is kind of an epiphany-process I have been going through lately. I was looking around and tried to notice those people that would reach out for me and wonder how I am – those are the people that matter. Especially for those of you back home/out there where the distance makes it so much harder to keep in touch.

During the last 2 years, I have been  through so much I’d never thought I would go through. So many broken hearts – others and mine. The realisation came  to me that it might simply be because I don’t know what I want; freedom? security? adventures? the unknown? fun? commitment? challenges? love? or just the feeling of being loved? I still don’t think I know what I want, which is dangerous – cause that’s when you get hurt.

There is at least one thing I know – all the pondering of feelings are taking too much of my time. I don’t have time for that, and should focus on what matters. Shut out people, feelings, and things that will distract me from reaching my goals. And keeping the people and projects that will inspire me and thrive my positive energy and drive. It sounds so simple, but it’s hurting and I’m still trying very hard to make everything right. This is a commitment I’m making to myself. I really need it to go through especially the next six months. After that, I will enter a whole new chapter of my life – hopefully with some more refreshingly new challenges.

 

Eyeko skinny liquid eyeliner

I just got this eyeliner in, and want to share my quick thoughts with you.

Looking at the big brush you would think that it makes huge lines, but it is actually very easy to control whether you want a thin or thicker line.

One thing I want to really agree with them is that it’s definitely foolproof. It can be a little difficult with liquid liners for beginners, but this one is really good for that. The brush is soft enough to go on smoothly, and hard enough for better control. It doesn’t distribute too much product which makes it easy to make a precise (winged) line.

On the downside; because not a lot of product is coming out, I like to go over with another liquid liner to fill the liner in with more intensity. But for outlining; this is really good. It’s also not waterproof, and my eyes water a lot. However, it is pretty smudge-and budge-proof as it says on the packaging.

This was 16.90USD, and is available in black, brown, navy and purple. Mine is obviously black 🙂 I bought mine on beautybay.com.

I think this is okay for the price. Would maybe need to try it out for a little longer to tell whether I would repurchase.

Update: forgot I actually took pictures with this liner on:

Maria xoxo

Michael Todd order arrived

My skin has been hating me lately, and I’ve also been using random sample-sized products on my face. It’s breaking out, but dry at the same time. It was really oily a while ago, so I’ve been trying to keep the oil at bay, and now it’s dry. You might have read that I’ve tried to order Paula’s Choice products, but didn’t succeed. Read why here.

I then decided on the Michael Todd products. I just remembered it as being more expensive, so haven’t been thinking about this brand, but realised that it’s indeed not that bad at all. What I did was that I looked into one of their regimens with 6 products(for 85USD whereas the value is 180 if ordered separately). However, there’s a creme cleanser, and I don’t like this kind of cleanser. So I tweeted and asked for a solution, and was directed to e-mail their customer service. They got back to me saying that I could just choose the products I want, and pay for it all, and then I will get a refund. It all worked out so quickly and easy, and I can’t believe that the products are already here. The shipping is only 8USD!

Why I already love Michael Todd even though I haven’t tried the products yet:

– Awesome customer service – quick response and highly flexible.

– Quick – at transferring the refund and mailing it to me.

– Cheap – both products and shipping. The retail value is 180, shipping 8. BUT I got the 6 full-sized products for 85 and further 20% off with a coupon code, one free sample-sized mask. In total I paid 76USD for all that including shipping.

– Size – we are talking about full-sized products here.

– Packaging – nice and sturdy.

– Shipping – cheap worldwide shipping. Read their details here.

– Organic – not 100%, but it states very clearly on their website how many % organic they are.

– Good reputation – many youtube beauty gurus have raved and praised Michael Todd products.

These are the products I’ve got:

– Honey and oat cleanser (210ml)

– Pumpkin mask, sample-size (30ml), free

– Avocado and mango mask (100ml)

– Blue green algae toner (250ml)

– Concentrated C serum (30ml)

– Intensive eye cream (15ml)

– Citrus cream moisturizer (70ml)

I’m very excited to try out the products and will do a review on them once I’ve tried them out for a while.

Visit Michael Todd’s website here.

Have you tried thier products before? If not, will you want to? If yes, what do you think of them?

Maria xoxo

My liquid pen liners

Hey there

I wanna do a review of the few pen liquid liners I’ve got. I also have other liquid liners, but not formed as a pen, but I’ll do them another day.

  

 

From left to right:

1. L’Oreal Super Liner Ultra Sharp

2. Maybelline HyperSharp Liner

3. Dolly Wink Liquid Liner

4. Kiss Heroine make smooth liquid eyeliner

5. At the bottom – Maybelline Impact express smooth felt liner

As you can see, the swatches don’t really show any big difference, but I’ll go through them with what I think.

1. The L’Oreal liner: When I got this at first, I was a little disappointed by its pigmentation. After a few times of use, I’ve actually become quite fond of it. I just go over a few times, and the pigmentation problem is solved. It’s easy to apply with, and has a decent staying power. I would recommend this.

2. Maybelline Hypersharp Liner: This one is my favourite liners. I made another post on it here, explaining why.

3. Dolly Wink: I honestly don’t know what the hype’s all about. It’s not a bad liner, but it just underperforms a little. It bleeds out a little, the pigmentation is average and the staying power is only ok. I would say that there are better liners out there for the price.

4. Kiss me liner: At first, I really liked this liner. But I don’t know why that it began to bleed out during application. It does go on pretty black though. Staying power is okay. I will not buy this again.

5. Maybelline Impact Express: Simply horrible. The pigmentation is bad, application not very smooth, staying power horrible. I do not recommend this one.

So here are a very quick review of my pen liquid liners. I think the next one I want to try out is the Shu Uemura liquid liner.

What’s your favourite?

 

MAC Prep + Prime Lip

I’m so glad that Vee could use my advise and enjoying the MAC lip prep & prime!

VeeBeautiful

I knew about MAC’s Prep + Prime collection, but I hadn’t really considered it. After my Rimmel Lipstick Lock post, the lovely nhieubeauty recommended this product to me thinking I may like to give this a try. If you read my Lipstick Lock post, you’ll know I wasn’t too impressed with how it altered the colour of my lipstick and turned my satin finish into a matte one.

I can’t see the point in spending money and hours trawling through all of the beautiful lip colours available to you, when you buy it, put it on, and it doesn’t last. I’m not a lip gloss wearer, I’m too old for sparkly lips now, so I’m talking lipsticks, lip liners and stains. I was disappointed with the Rimmel product, so on nhieubeauty’s recommendation I went along to MAC and bought it. The lovely lady that served me (my fave MAC assistant)…

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Strong and pretty nails

Nails is not my main thing but I do like keeping them nice and healthy. And no, I can’t have enough nail polishes!

My favourite base coat is Mavala 002, and favourite top coat is the very famous Seche Vite.

One thing I have seriously been struggling with, is chipping nails. I hated not to be able to put nail polishes on, because of short, ugly, chipping nails. I’ve tried to keep them healthy and moisturised by using the Sally Hansen Diamond Cuticle Nail Creme twice a day, and the Mavala Scientifique nail hardener. They kind of worked, but it took ages to see a weak result.

But I have found my cure. I know it sounds weird, and many people claim that it doesn’t work, but it really does for me. I began taking Gelatin as supplement everyday. Gelatin is basically just the main ingredient in jelly! I was a little sceptical at first, but I thought it wouldn’t harm to try it out a few months as it’s just the same as eating jelly. And I could already see a result after two months. I ran out of the pills for a few months, and I tell you, I could tell the difference right away. The thing I have noticed, is that it is actually quite difficult to find – I still haven’t seen them in the stores. I have bought mine online on ebay, and the ones I take are called:

Mason nail strengthener with Gelatin, Plus calcium and magnesium, dietry supplement

So if you’re also suffering with weak nails, give it a try!

Romantic rosy look

I started playing a little, and ended up with this:

Here is a step by step for this look:

1. I primed my face with Makeup Forever HD Primer in #6.

2. For foundation, I used Makeup Forever HD foundations where I mixed two colours. See my other post for more details.

3. Primed the eyes with Urban Decay primer potion.

4. Defined my brows(here’s how I did it) with YSL eyebrow pencil in no. 5, and started the eyelook:

  

5. I started off putting a very matte light colour on the whole lid so that the other colours will show up better.

6. I used the Sleek iDivine Storm palette. Oh my, I love this palette. I mixed 1 and 2 and applied on the lids, starting from inner corners and blended outwards.

7. As I wanted more of the light rosy colour(1) at the inner corners, I applied more of that.

8. I used 3 as the contouring colour. And another lighter matte colour as a transition colour.

9. I started off mixing 4 and 5 and lined under my eyes. I sprayed the brush with elf’s Makeup lock and seal for better staying power. I then went back to 4 and applied more of that blue. I did this using Sigma Small Angle E65 brush.

10. Used 6 to highlight inner corners and brow bones.

11. Lined the eyes with Bobbi Brown gel liner, using the same E65 brush.

12. Curled, applied false lashes, and mascara. See this post for how I applied the false lashes.

13. For undereye concealer, I used MAC Moisturecover in NC35, and for spots, I used Makeup Forever full cover concealer in #10.

14. Contoured the face with Makeup Forever HD concealer in 355, and highlighted with Clinique concealer in medium.

15. Powdered the face with MAC Studio Fix in NC42.

16. Blush is NYX Dusty Rose.

17. Lipstick is Revlon Lip butter in Lollipop for a more romantic look.

Done!

Maria xoxo

Maybelline Bold Matte in MAT1

Just a super quick review of one of the two newly acquired lipsticks from the Maybelline Bold Matte by Color Sensational Color.

I was browsing through the makeup section in Watsons the other day and saw these new lipsticks in bright neon colours, so of course I got so excited that I bought two: one in neon pink(MAT1) and the other in neon orange(MAT3). There was a 25% off.

I was a little hesitant on putting up the pictures as I think they don’t do the colour of the lipstick any justice. In real life, it looks much more neon-y.

 

I’m so sad to say that I was a little disappointed by this one. The first thing I noticed was the pigmentation compared to the actual lipstick. The lipstick looks so bright and neon-y, but then the colour just does not transfer on to the lips enough. So in my desperation, I kept swirling it on and on a few times which helped only a little.

And after a while of wearing this, I found that it was really clinging on to my dry patches, although it’s something I have to expect from a matte lipstick??

I applied it again after the first time, and I was surprised that a pinky colour stayed on my lips although it’s not the same pink as the lipstick itself.

To be honest, I actually prefer Revlon’s lipsticks whether we are talking about the Colorburst lip butters(very moisturising) or Super Lustrous line(very opaque). I didn’t get to take pictures of the orange one yet, but expect to do that soon. Just thought I would quickly share this one with you.

Maria xoxo

 

Doing my brows with a pencil

I am one of those people that have no brows. So I have to define them from scratch which is why I prefer pencils over powders as the powders are best for just filling in. I don’t just need filling in – I need to define them. I really wish that I had thicker brows! I have done a post on my brow pencils, click here to see my brow pencil collection.

Here is a quick pictorial of how you can do your eyebrows if you practically have none like me 🙂

1. Start off brushing through the brows.

2. Find out where to start and end, and the arch. It’s easier to show you with a picture:

Disclaimer: this picture is taken from the book, Makeup The Ultimate Guide by Rae Morris. Page 22.

Tip: Don’t draw it too heavy where the brow starts, so try to make it lighter there than the rest of the brows to get a more natural look.

3. You can just fill out with the pencil, or “frame” it first as I’ve done on the picture. Usually, I actually just fill out right away.

4. It’s okay not to have it right on the first go. I go back and forth, trying to make it right a few times if I have a bad brow-day.

5. There would probably be too much product on the brow by now, and might look a little unnatural. So just make sure to brush through the brows until you get the desired coverage.

And you’re done 🙂

There are so many brow shapes out there, and mine changes too. Sometimes, I feel like thicker brows with a harsher arch, and other times, I feel like thinnner brows with a soft arch. Whatever makes me feel comfortable 😉

Do you have any other tips for the perfect brows?

Maria xoxo