Eyeliner -Lise Watier - Lise Watier Waterproof Eyeliner
darkmist 4/15/2013 7:29:00 PM
I am in love. I've been looking for years for a liner that would stay put on my upper waterline and I've finally found it! As I have puffy undereyes, my waterline liner usually smudges anywhere between 1-3 hours just from me blinking or my eyes scrunching from smiling. This liner sets after a few seconds and once it's set, it doesn't move at all. The pigmentation is great, a nice dark black and it's a smooth formula that doesn't tug. The other liners I've tried (MUFE, UD, MAC, Maybelline, etc) don't stand a chance compared to this waterproof liner. $19 well spent and I'll definitely repurchase once I'm out.
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Mascara -Cover Girl - Lash Blast Clump Crusher Water Resistant
darkmist 2/6/2013 6:56:00 PM
PROS: Length Clean CONS: Very wet Doesn't hold a curl (despite being water resistant formula) Not much volume Smudges Takes a long time to dry and set Like others, I saw rave reviews for this mascara so I decided to give it a shot even though I'm usually pretty meh about CG mascaras. It's kind of pricey in Canada as I've seen prices ranging from $8-11 but that's just stupid Canadian prices for you. Overall, I found this mascara to be a pretty big fail. I have straight Asian lashes of decent length; while I curl my lashes everyday, once they're curled they tend to do ok (WP formulae = perfect curl, regular formulae = slightly droopy at around 40 degree angle). This mascara has a really wet formula despite being water resistant. While this wetness means that you can comb through your lashes more easily and thus get a cleaner finish, this also weighs down lashes and makes them go straight less that 3 seconds after application. It's also so wet that it takes a good 5 minutes for the mascara to dry (really not joking) - after waiting around 2 minutes, I ran the back of a finger against my lashes and there were streaks of black mascara on my finger. I waited two weeks and while the formula is a tad dryer, it still doesn't hold a curl. I've also never experienced mascara smudging on my eyelids with either regular or wp formulae but this one smudged if I even blinked. I did see quite a bit of length but not much volume. Overall, not impressed at all with this mascara.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lips -Yves Saint Laurent - Rouge Pur Couture Glossy Stain (All Shades)
darkmist 1/14/2013 7:18:00 PM
I bought #11 Rouge Gouache a few months ago and it is my favourite lip product ever. Normally I never wear gloss of any sort because any time I even consider applying gloss, the wind starts howling outside and I end up with a face of sticky hair streaks across my face. However, I caved to the hype (a year later) and went in to try this product. #11 is a bright fuchsia cool pink-red. On my medium pigmented lips, it comes out true to colour with just one layer. It's very opaque and the stain lasts around 4-5 hr stain with 1 layer and didn't fade at all (aside from the glossy finish) for 7-8hr with 2 layers and no touch ups. As others have mentioned, at first the texture is an odd watery gel but after 30 secs, it sets into a slightly sticky gloss finish. The pointed angled doe foot applicator is a dream to use and really helps with a smooth and tidy finish. I'm looking forward to trying and buying more shades of this amazing product - definitely highly recommend! Tips on getting an long lasting and non-patchy finish: 1: do a couple broad strokes with the flat of the applicator on your bottom lip - doesn't need to be tidy (fyi I don't wipe off any excess from the applicator in advance) 2. using the tip of the applicator, line your upper lip 3. fill in your upper lip 4. tidy up the bottom lip 5. smoosh and rub your lips together (DON'T do this step earlier! IME, rubbing your lips together before you've fully applied the colour on your lips, it results in a patchy finish) 6. Do the finger test (purse your lips around a finger and pull out the finger - so sexual, I know :P) to remove any excess gloss If you wanted to layer on another layer for extra longevity or more opacity, I'd recommend waiting around 30secs to let the stain set. Blot (remember to blot or your second layer may end up a bit clumpy/uneven), then repeat the same steps.
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Liquid -Lancome - Teint Idole Ultra 24h
darkmist 11/17/2012 12:13:00 AM
Wow. This is honestly my HG foundation at the moment. I love that I finally have a near perfect straight-out-of-the-bottle colour match in 100N (edit: ~N/NW 10-15) and I really love the longevity and finish (more on this later). It's very smooth and easy to blend and while it does cling somewhat to dry skin, I don't find that it enhances dry patches too much. But what I find absolutely amazing is that this foundation looks better the longer you wear it. Usually foundations look great upon first application and start to fade splotchily as the hours pass but I find the opposite with the teint idole ultra 24h. When I first apply, the finish is mostly matte and a tad powdery - half an hour in, the powderiness fades and the fdtn starts to look skin-like. 3-4 hours later, I have a very natural satin glow which stays until the end of the day. I have not experienced any fading or breaking up with this fdtn at all. A huge factor in the finish you end up with really depends on your application in my opinion. Results I noticed with different application techniques (ymmv): 1) beauty blender: sheer dewy finish (can be built up to a light-med coverage) 2) fingers: natural semi-matte finish w med coverage (my preferred method and how I achieved the longevity results mentioned above) 3) buffing brush: very matte finish w medium to full coverage (this finish looks the driest and tends to accentuate dry spots more than fingers or beautyblender. Over time it will eventually turn into a more satin finish but not as natural looking as when applied with fingers) All my results were achieved with 1 full pump. The only minor complaints that I have is that my foundation pump seems a bit iffy - sometimes it works normally and sometimes it sputters out only a few dots despite being 95+% full. Annoying but workable so I'm probably not going to bother exchanging for a new bottle. Second, this is a pricey foundation - $50CDN + tax. However, as I only require 1 pump for a full face, I can see the cost/use being quite reasonable. Will definitely be repurchasing this foundation.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Toners -Neostrata - Toning Solution (8%)
darkmist 11/16/2012 1:46:00 AM
I am seriously in love with this product. My skin is so smooth now, my hyperpigmentation from old acne scars seem to be fading faster, and I seem to be getting less breakouts/breakouts are healing faster now (I usually break out on chin or have a few on cheekbones). The Level 1 toner was my first ever AHA product and I while I did see some results within 10 days, it's really a month or so in that i really start to see major impressive differences. The instructions tell you to ease into this product if it's your first time using AHAs - YOU REALLY SHOULD LISTEN TO THIS. You should first start off by using once a day or even once a day every other day if your skin is really sensitive. I ignored the instructions since I'm impatient and greedy for results and dove in with using the toner twice a day which resulted in a slight stinging/burning sensation on first few applications and some dry patches. These neg effects stopped after the first week-ish. I also did experience purging - my chin started breaking out more than usual but after two weeks, my skin is a lot clearer and smoother. Packaging wise, it's very simple - a plain white plastic bottle. It's not the prettiest but I'm happy having a boring bottle for an overall lower price point. I don't like the small hole that the lid has as I feel like it's forcing me to squirt out more product than I actually need. I simply unscrew the whole cap and hold a cotton pad to the open mouth and tip over quickly to lightly dampen my cotton round and swipe away. A pump dispenser would've been nice but all in all, no big deal. I don't know how well this will help with teenage acne but if you are suffering from small but constant adult hormonal breakouts, I highly recommend you try out this product! It's totally improved my cranky skin :) Note: If you live in BC Canada (or wherever they have London Drugs) you should buy the gift sets - you get a full sized toner and a full sized gel cleanser for only ~$27 (so the gel cleanser is free). These sets are available year round so take advantage of them!
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Misc Beauty Tools -Unlisted Brand - London Look Precision Makeup Sponge
darkmist 11/1/2012 6:00:00 PM
I'm really really impressed with this sponge! While I've never had the original beauty blender, I've felt it before and I have to say this London Look Prestige Sponge feels nearly identical. I never bought the BB before because $25 for a pink inflatable sponge seemed, well, ridiculous. This looks and does pretty much the exact same thing for way cheaper: is egg-shaped, expands when wet, has a middling firm texture, and applies foundation more sheerly for a natural semi-dewy finish. My only complaint is that the the sponge density doesn't seem to be consistent throughout the whole sponge: when I first got it wet and squeezed out the excess water, there were finger/nail dents on one side. I tried rotating it and squeezing it with the same pressure but it didn't dent anywhere else - just that one random spot. Also when cleaning, it seems like the soap kind of collects in the bottom of the sponge and takes a while to rinse out properly. Nonetheless, I've still very happy with this purchase. I got mine on sale for $7 at London Drugs and it's totally worth it! Think I'll be using this over my ecotools buffing brush from now on :)
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Treatments (Eye) -Promaxyl - Eyelash Renewal serum Rapidlash
darkmist 10/20/2012 3:22:00 PM
This is the first eyelash serum I've ever used and I was quite happy with it. I'm Asian and while I naturally have decent length, my lashes are straight and not very voluminous. In my experience, rapidlash works very slowly in the first month then seems to start working a lot faster. First 3 weeks, I dutifully applied each night but I didn't see much change besides a bit of length so I got lazy and started skipping the some nights. But around week 4-4.5 I freaked out as one morning I realized I had a random gap/super stubby lashes in the middle of my right. Applied rapidlash religiously and thickly for 3 days and started seeing growth. 5-6 days after I first found the gap, lashes were back to normal. I don't know if it's because I was freaking out that I started paying much closer attention to my lashes but around week 5 I realized that my lashes in general had gotten a lot longer than pre-rapidlash. Like another reviewer has said, while rapidlash did make my overall lashes longer, where I saw the most effect was in making my my baby lashes/random dinky lashes grow a lot faster. While I'm pretty happy with my results, I won't be repurchasing this since it's expensive and I bought it with the intentions of testing out an expensive novelty item. I also won't be looking into alternatives either since I just really wanted to try out eyelash growth serums at least once. I`d recommend this to other people curious about lash growth serums and looking for a fairly effective but comparatively inexpensive option (rapidlash does on occasion go on sale on sites like hautelook and in drugstores - I got mine around 40-50% off at london drugs in canada)
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Cleansers -Origins - Clean Energy Cleansing Oil
darkmist 9/8/2012 4:48:00 PM
PROS: easily accessible at most department stores decent price (~$30 in Canada) great for most makeup* nice herbal smell each bottle lasts a very very long time CONS: leaves skin feeling tight and a bit dry* takes a while to remove wp mascara end up with eyeliner gunk inside my eyes This is the first full-sized oil cleanser I've ever tried (I tried a sample of DHC). I was previously eyeing the Shu cleansers but as I'd have to go to another city to purchase it, I didn't want to risk spending a lot of $$ on something only to find out that it didn't work with my skin type. This is a decent product - it's easy to find and buy, the price is reasonable, it lasts for a very long time, and it does its job. However I personally find that my skin (normal with slightly oily t-zone) feels a bit tight and dry after I'm done cleansing with this oil. My skin feels a bit better after I double cleanse with a cleansing milk and toner+moisturizer but I still feel a bit stripped. While Clean Energy does do an excellent job in taking off stubborn bb creams, fdtn, eye mu, etc, it does take a bit of soaking and rubbing to get my wp mascara off. Another irritant is how it seems to melt part of my eyeliner into my eye. I wear liquid eyeliner and tightline with a pencil eyeliner so I'm assuming it's the pencil that's melting into gunk even though I keep my eyes shut while washing my face. I only point this out because with my DHC oil cleanser sample and previous eye mu removers, I've never had this issue. Would I buy this again? Yes and no. It's not the greatest but it's decent and easy to get hold of. Depending on how things are when I finish this bottle, I might just bite the bullet and buy the Shu cleanser.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
BB Cream -Ishizawa Labs - Nanoce BB Moist Cream
darkmist 9/6/2012 4:48:00 PM
I swapped for this product after hearing rave reviews online and comments that it is a light coloured BB cream perfect for very fair Asian skin. While I loved the herbal smell of Nanoce BB cream and its coverage, this bb cream was way too yellow for me. Yes this doesn't have the infamous grey tint of many Korean bb creams but the Nanoce is definitely very yellow based. I'm more neutral-cool (NW 10-15ish) so this sadly did not work out for me at all. I also personally found it to never quite fully set... like it always seemed to stay a bit creamy and wet on the face even after powdering and checking again after half an hour. Also I wouldn't recommend this to people with dry flaky skin as this clung to and enhanced the small dry flakes I had around my nose.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Mascara -Maybelline - one by one, waterproof
darkmist 3/21/2012 6:44:00 PM
PROS: doesn't clump* large brush can still get into corners easily really holds a curl lashes don't feel crunchy really is waterproof CONS: only average lengthening and volumizing effect can be extremely sticky and clumpy** can be harder to take off in comparison to other maybelline wp formulas This mascara has its pros and cons, the weirdest and most frustrating for me was the clumping issue. When I first opened my tube and pulled out the wand, there were fat mascara clumps between nearly all the bristles. If I didn't immediately comb through my lashes with a lashcomb after applying this mascara, I would look like I had only 4 fat clumps of lashes per eye, no joke. I tried to compensate by dragging one side of the brush against the lip of the tube (when pulling out the wand) in hopes of getting rid of the clumps. This kind of worked but I would have to apply multiple coats since I was scraping off a lot of product in order to get a cleaner brush. I was quite irritated since the whole selling point of the One by One was that it doesn't clump. I tossed it into my makeup bag and ignored it for a few weeks. Then last week I decided to give this a go again since I didn't want to waste money - lo and behold, suddenly there were no clumps and this mascara applied so cleanly! Maybe this formula needs to settle and age a bit first but after waiting a few weeks, I can happily report that there are no more clumps at all. It really holds a curl, even with my stubborn straight Asian lashes and holds up well even in rainstorms. Docked a lippie though because I only get average lengthing and volumizing - it's good but not outstanding. And depending on what kind of makeup remover you use, this can be hard to get off. This doesn't make me go wow but it's still decent mascara.
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Eyeliner -Bobbi Brown - Sepia Ink Long Wear Gel Liner
darkmist 3/17/2012 1:05:00 AM
I got mine as a set (black and brown) as a gift. I was so disappointed with the brown - it's not pigmented, doesn't have much staying power, and most importantly, fails completely on my waterline (what I got it for in the first place). I know BB gel liners are formulated to work on the waterline but for some reason, once my gel liner dries and sets, it starts flaking like mad and hurting my poor eyes. This happened when I first opened it, a few weeks and even months later so I'm pretty sure it's not a dried out/product aging issue. Maybe I got a dud set, maybe the formula just isn't for me - either way, this definitely did not live up to it's HG hyped status. The only pros are that it's very smooth and the packaging is nice. I've moved on the liquid liner which is much quicker and pigmented. Less messy too since I don't need to clean the brush after every single use. Definitely won't repurchase again.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
BB Cream -MISSHA - M Perfect Cover BB Cream
darkmist 3/12/2012 10:05:00 PM
This was the first bb cream I'd ever tried from a few years back. I got shade 21 and it colour was a bit too dark and grey for my nw15-20 skin. Overall it's an ok bb cream to start out with to see what bb creams are like and if they're to your tastes. It's medium coverage, thicker creamy texture, and seems ok for all skin types (I have slightly sensitive combination skin). Like all bb creams, there's a very small (i.e. 1 or 2) shade range so if you're very pale or very dark, you're not going to find a match. Shade 13 and 27 do exist but I've only ever seen them on the MisshaUS site - I didn't buy 13 even though it was potentially a better match since but I don't think this bb cream is worth $30+shipping. I found the Missha M to sit on my skin a bit and had very little oil control even on my only mildly oily tzone. Instead of a "dewy" effect, I just looked allover more oily. This bb cream does slightly accentuate dry patches/flakes. If you're interested in buying this, I suggest looking on ebay since there are lots of reputable sellers (this is one of the easiest bb creams to obtain) who sell this for much cheaper than either instore or the MisshaUS online store - I spent at most $15 including shipping. Won't be buying this again though since there are other bb creams that suite me better out there.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Treatments (Eye) -Boscia - Enlivening Amino-AG Eye Treatment
darkmist 3/4/2012 3:31:00 AM
This is a the best hydrating eye cream I've every used. I got a sample foil packet of this when I bought something at Sephora and it lasted me for two weeks. You only need a tiny bit and it absorbs quickly, truly moisturizes, and has a lovely herbal smell. It's listed as $38 on the Sephora site and sounded doable so I went in intending to buy it. Turns out in Canada it's $46 + 12% tax. I'm holding back on buying since it's so darn expensive and I'm now looking for more cost effective product. Maybe if I`m in the states and at a Sephora I`ll get consider buying it. A great product but taking off a lippie since I`m not sure if the price is justified.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Eye Primer -Too Faced - Shadow Insurance, Anti-Crease Eye Shadow Primer
darkmist 2/26/2012 3:23:00 PM
Ugh this did not work for me at all. I finished up my UDPP so I thought I'd give the TFSI a try since there were so many good reviews. With the TFSI, my eyeshadow started creasing around 3 hours and by the 4th hour, the creasing would be really obvious and lumpy. No matter how little I used or how long I waited (I would put on eyeshadow primer first and then put on my foundation to give it time to set), it never seemed to fully dry and was always kind of tacky - maybe that's why it just settled into my eyelid folds and creased like no tomorrow. I'm exchanging this for UDPP since I can't stand this crap any longer.
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Palettes -Christian Dior - 3-Couleurs Smoky Palette #481 Smoky Khaki
darkmist 2/8/2012 12:36:00 AM
I'm surprised this palette hasn't been reviewed yet on MUA. I bought mine nearly a month ago and it's my everyday go-to palette. There is a light medium gold (base), a cool khaki green (soft smoky), and a charcoal gunmetal with glitter particles (couture smoky). This trio is the smoothest and most pigmented of the new Dior trios I've tried. What I love about this palette is that it's so pigmented and true to colour (more vibrant with primer; still true to colour but softer without primer) and has a pearl/velvety finish. I was highly impressed with this trio (actually almost all of the trios) since they're much more pigmented than the usual Dior palettes (i.e. quints) I've tried which I found to be not very pigmented and more shimmer than colour. I haven't experienced any fallout aside from the glittery gunmetal colour which was minimal. All colours are silky smooth and very blendable. This has a great colour palette and is very versatile - for a simple day look, I do a soft smoky eye with the gold and khaki and thin black cat eye liner. If I'm super lazy/in a rush, I just do a quick light wash of the khaki and add on an extra layer of khaki to deepen the crease. For a more darker or glamourous look, I'll do the gold/khaki smoky with the charcoal to darken the v-crease or do a khaki/charcoal smoky with the gold as a lower lashline and inner corner highlight. Though probably not dramatic enough for clubbing, this palette works for pretty much every other situation. Pricey at $49CDN pretax for 5.5g, I still highly recommend this and will repurchase because of the fabulous silky quality and great colour scheme.
7 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No