Review | Benefit Fake Up Crease Control Hydrating Concealer

One of the latest products to emerge from the Benefit makeup vaults is the Fake Up Hydrating Concealer which promises crease-free coverage while simultaneously moisturizing the delicate under eye area. I don’t often use concealer because I find most concealers a little cakey on me. I have dry skin, so with the wrong type of concealer, I can look somewhat reptilian. This is where I should mention that Fake Up is totally different than what I’ve tried before.

This crease-control hydrating concealer – with Vitamin E and apple seed extract – hides dark circles and diffuses fine lines for a silky smooth, ultra natural look. Fakeup never settles…and neither should you!

April 2013 Beauty Box 5

April’s BB5 wasn’t one the most exciting ones, but despite the lack of excitement still remains one of my favourite beauty boxes to receive. BB5 never ceases to surprise me in the the variety and types of items in each box and April’s box was no exception!

Day 25-Inspired by Childhood with Japanese Cherry Blossoms

My very first trip as a child was to Osaka, Japan and although my memories are few of my visit, what I do remember was how magical the scenery was since we went in winter. I was still living in Malaysia at the time so seeing snow for the first time was incredibly exciting. Even though cherry blossoms were far from blooming while I was there, every time I see them, I am transported back in time to Japan and my surroundings feel magical once more.

Even though this is a not a new idea, I have always wanted to try cherry blossom nail art because the final result looks so elegant yet you don’t have to be Van Gogh to achieve it. To make my design a little bit different, I gave my blossoms a purple background with two coats of Lime Crime-Lavendairy and sponged on Julep-Anne for a slight gradient. Then I used black acrylic paint and a small nail art brush and drew some random branches. For the blossoms I used Sally Hansen XtremeWear-Bubblegum Pink and Sally Hansen XtremeWear-Fuchsia Power. A coat of top coat and we’re done!

Day 24-Inspired by a Game with Pretty & Polished Flip Flop Fuggetaboutit

Now, I know this isn’t specifically a game, but as a kid I definitely created a lot of games in my head involving Hot Wheels cars! Specifically the ones that changed colour in cold and hot water! I knew they were considered “boys’ toys” at the time and as a 5 year old Asian immigrant, it was a little unusual that I was attracted to such a toy, but thankfully my parents indulged me.

Seeing as how I love Pretty & Polished colour changers, I thought Flip Flop Fuggetaboutit was the perfect homage to one of my favourite toys before computers entered the picture. When cold, Flip Flop Fuggetaboutit is a GORGEOUS coral with blue and orange hex glitter and *gasp* magenta circle glitter! What I’m wearing is two coats with a top coat.

April 2013 Glossybox | Olympian Edition

I vowed that I would NOT let this post wait until June! I’m so sorry for being late! As mentioned in the title, this is a Glossybox curated or rather endorsed by former Olympian Tracy Little. I couldn’t find her name associated with a medal though, so I don’t know if the Glossybox card is entirely accurate. And interestingly enough, Tracy Little has now retired and is now a Marketing and Communications Manager for a pole dancing company! Sorry, moving on April’s Glossybox!

Playing Nail Dress Up with Glitter Sequins!

Yet another “must-do” when it comes to nail art is mastering the way of the glitter sequin or, as the Nailasaurus has coined, “the glequin”. I have been eyeing the 12 pack glitter sequins from Born Pretty for God knows how long and when I saw the rainbow of glittery hexagonal goodness, I could not wait to get started on some nail art!

Each colour comes in its own little plastic twist-off jar and there are more than enough glequins in each pot for many many designs!

It took me awhile to decide what to do for a manicure, but after a couple of “glittergasms”, i decided on some gold glequins on top of a gorgeous dark blue by Sally Hansen in Co-Bolt Blue and my favourite unknown light blue by Quo. I started by applying top coat to the nail I would be working on so that the glequins would have a sticky surface to adhere to. I then dipped a tooth pick into top coat and applied each glequin individually.

Nail Art Update!

Some of you may have noticed that I am now horrifically behind on my entries for the New 31 Day Challenge and that is because I have sprained my right wrist! It is my painting hand so I have been relying on posts that I have done ahead of schedule. My wrist is almost better and I hope to be caught up over the weekend! Thank you for understanding! I leave you with a high resolution picture of Yoshi for comfort.

Make Up For Ever | Star Collection Lab Shine Lip Gloss

I am one of those girls that always layers lip gloss over lipstick. It’s something I started doing when I was 14 and now I can’t leave the house without seeing my own reflection in my glossy finish. When I was a teenager, I went through tube after tube of clear multi-coloured glitter gloss and now that I’m a little older, I have opted for a more grown-up sparkle. Enter Make Up For Ever Lab Shine Lip Gloss. The Lab Shine series houses three different collections (Diamond, Star and Metal) each delivering its own version of shiny goodness in 35 shades. The one I have is in the shade SO (Pearly Nude) and is from the Star Collection.

This gloss combines camelina oil and mother-of-pearl particles that reflect light to create incredible shine that adds volume to the lips. Formulated with hyaluronic acid, it provides intense hydration with a non-sticky texture for a noticeably moisturized pout. Its subtle apricot fragrance also adds a sweet scent to your lips.

April 2013 Ipsy Bag | Pretty in Pink

So, it’s almost the end of May and look what I have! April’s Ipsy Bag! I just received May’s Glam Bag which, as some of you have seen, is totally awesome. April’s theme is a fun one though and I do love all things pink!

KKCenterHK | Mint Green Circle Studs

Mint green is THE colour at the moment so when I saw these mint green circular studs on KKCenterHK, visions of ice cream and beautiful florals started swirling in my head. They caught my eye instantly! There are A LOT of studs in this 10g jar…more than enough to do a hundred manicures with! Each stud is 2.5mm which I think is much more versatile size to work with. 

For my manicure, I started off with three coats of China Glaze-Empowerment.

Come Shopping with Me!

I recently went shopping on Robson Street in Downtown Vancouver which I don’t get to do too often because I work just outside the city. I managed to catch the end of Sephora’s Chic Week (I know, I’m so late to post this!) and after much deliberation decided on the Living Proof Prime Style Extender after reading some very positive reviews. It seems like such an interesting product in that it is supposed to extend your hairstyle lifespan in addition to detangling and “perfecting hair”. It sounds fascinating!

The second products I picked up were the famous Korres Lip Butters in Quince and Jasmine. I was waiting for them to show up at my Winners, but alas they never showed up so here I was getting them during Chic Week. As a free sample, I received Lancome La Base Perfecting Makeup Primer. I really enjoy shopping online so much more because the number of samples online totally trumps how many you receive in-store!

Day 23-Inspired by Nature

I actually have two designs for today’s challenge, but I have yet to take pictures of the second set so I will go with this flowery creation. This is a picture taken from a Birks advertisement that spurred my creation. It didn’t turn out quite like what I had hoped as the diamond butterflies didn’t show as nicely as I had hoped, but it was fun to wear while it lasted. I can’t really draw so the flowers were a bit lost on me, but oh well! You can’t win ‘em all in nail art!

For my blue base I used an unknown blue Quo polish and the rest was down with acrylic paint and nail crystals. I finished everything off with my favourite glitter China Glaze-Fairy Dust.

Be sure to check out the other wonderful ladies also participating in this challenge!

Naomi @ Bellezza

Traci @ drinkcitra

Masha @ Lost in Lacquer

Day 22-Inspired By a Fabric

I totally forgot to take a picture of the fabric I was trying to copy, but because I am already so late with this post I just wanted to share as quickly as possible! I have a tank top with these really cool mosaic pieces in orange and I thought it would be neat to replicate the design in a bright blue. This manicure took a VERY long time to do for one hand…about 1.5hrs…outlining each shape was definitely what took the longest. To do this, I painted three coats of OPI-My Boyfriend Scales Walls as “underwear” and then hand-painted all of the shapes with blue acrylic paint and a small nail art brush. It was a lot of work, but I really enjoyed how it came out!

April 2013 SeasonsBox|Sweet and Lovely

It has been TWO weeks since I have posted about any beauty boxes, meanwhile I have a stack of unopened ones sitting on my coffee table thanks to the craziness of last week! It’s almost like Christmas again since I don’t actually remember what is in each box! Total first world problem right? April’s SeasonsBox is about getting excited for Spring and indulging the senses in all things sweet. What I love about April’s box is the focus on the natural and helping out women in need.

Day 21-Merge or Melt

I’m still a day behind on this challenge, but I swear I’ll catch up this week! Today’s challenge was a little bit of a screw-up which I will get to shortly. I started with three coats of China Glaze-Too Yacht to Handle from the new Sunsational Collection and I MEANT to use China Glaze-Beauty Within, which is a hot pink, BUT I reached for China Glaze-Bump & Grind and was so confused the first three nails over why my nail polish was so gritty and uneven! So, for this manicure I inadvertently combined “melting” with “texture” and here it is!

Be sure to check out the other wonderful ladies also participating in this challenge!

Naomi @ Bellezza

Traci @ drinkcitra

Masha @ Lost in Lacquer

April Empties

Not a bad month for empties and again it has taken me awhile to post!

1. Shu Uemura Full Shimmer Illuminating Shampoo (75mL)

Acquired November 2012

I didn’t really notice too much of a difference in my hair and for a shampoo that is pretty pricey, I don’t see myself buying the full size version of this. This is for color-treated hair so maybe I would have seen more of a difference if I’d had color-treated hair.

Day 20-Texture ala China Glaze-Itty, Bitty & Gritty

I know you all must have thought that I had abandoned the challenge for a bit, but never fear I will see the next 11 days through! It was a ridiculously crazy two weeks filled with LOTS of things to do at work and VERY little sleep combined with running on pure adrenaline. I’m just glad things have quieted down and I can breathe again!

To save myself a little bit of time AND because I was too damn excited to try these out, I am wearing two of the new China Glaze Texture polishes: Itty, Bitty & Gritty, a beautiful coral polish and for my accent nail a bright fuchsia called Bump & Grind. I honestly thought that not having top coat would result in massive chipping, but after 2 days they’re still intact!

*New* La Collection de Grasse at L’Occitane Plus Other Goodies

I shop so often at L’Occitane that whenever there is something new I practically pounce on it! The newest products is four new fragrances that are part of the Collection de Grasse which include Magnolia & Mure, Jasmin & Bergamote, Vanille & Narcisse and The Vert & Bigarde.

Review-Born Pretty Pink Panther Water Nail Decals

For those of us addicted to all things nail art, the Born Pretty Store has become THE hot spot for supplies at amazing prices and my favourite part, free worldwide shipping! The Born Pretty Store also carries a number of other non-nail art related items such as cosmetics, stationary and phone accessories so when I first discovered the site last year, I spent days just browsing!

Today’s review involves yet another new nail art “technique” for me and that is water nail decals! I have never used them before, but from what I have seen they look like a lot of fun to use! The ones that I will be using can be found here and really caught my eye as I loved the Pink Panther growing up. The decals come neatly packaged in protective, pink cardboard with instructions for use on the back.

Day 19-My Favourite Polish: Gotta Be a Holo!

When you have a collection of around 500 polishes, it gets progressively difficult to choose a favourite, but I definitely have a soft spot for holographic polishes AND the colour purple so Layla-Ultra Violet is an appropriate compromise. I always forget how patchy holo polishes can be too apply, but at three coats I got this polish to work and is it ever pretty! I never get tired of how stunning holo polishes look and I hope that I can rock them even if I’m 95! And now for the nail porn ;-)

April Luvs

After having a couple of pretty unadventurous months when it came to trying new products, I now have a post worthy of sharing with you all! I forced myself to try a lot of new things and use them consistently over the last month. It turned out to be a good strategy and gave me some new products to love!

Let’s get started shall we?

May the Fourth Be with You Nails!

Now I know that I am supposed to have Day 19 up today, but I could not resist being a part of May 4th and finally getting a chance to do some Star Wars nails! I am a HUGE Star Wars fan and still get teary-eyed with I see the Death Star blow up.

I’m not a very good artist so I tend to shy away from things like faces and stick to more geometric things so that’s why C3PO and Darth Vader look a little weird, but R2-D2 is my favourite! I should do a whole manicure with just his little robot body!

Review-Fruits & Passion Watermelon Goji and Pomelo-Granite

Today I am very excited to share with you a Canadian company that I’m sure many of you have heard of over the years called Fruits & Passion! This is a company that has won numerous awards and received much recognition for ethically sourcing all of their ingredients and making sure that nature doesn’t suffer for the sake of their products. All Fruits & Passion ingredients are plant-derived and contain nothing animal or mineral-based.

There are some new deliciously fruity scents at Fruits & Passion two of which I will review for you today! The first is Watermelon Goji which is fresh, fruity and perfect for summer! I almost exclusively use bath and body products that smell fruity so Watermelon Goji is perfect and is described as a fragrance bursting with fresh, summery watermelon notes accented with a cheerful and invigorating splash of goji berry.

Day 18-My Oldest Untried with OPI-DS Extravagance

My oldest untried nail polish is from almost two years ago when I first discovered my love of “the polish” and it is OPI-DS Extravagance! What I’m wearing here is two very easy coats with fantastic opacity. The entire DS line is one that I find quite fascinating and this was the first one that grabbed my attention and remains my favourite to this day, so why I waited so long to wear it as a full manicure is beyond me!

Be sure to check out the other wonderful ladies also participating in this challenge!

Naomi @ Bellezza

Traci @ drinkcitra

Masha @ Lost in Lacquer