Blush -NARS - Blush in Oasis
dolce_1127 12/5/2012 1:02:00 AM
I love NARS blushes. This one took me a while to win my love, but it eventually did. It is now my signature winter blush. This is a mauve colour, with beautiful shimmer. The shimmer looks outrageous in the pan, but is barely noticeable on the face. It is a warmer mauve. If you have Sin, and you compare it to this, Sin is cooler, and therefore, will look very red and very dark on yellow-toned skin, very quickly. Oasis is extremely pigmented, to the point of being almost difficult to use. For a period of time, I thought it looked extremely unflattering on my face. I am very pale in winter, and recently, I noticed that if you are very pale, this would look very very good with a very light hand. It will look like you have blush on, but it looks like very pretty blush, very sweet but sophisticated looking. Or if you have olive or darker skin, it would also look like a natural flush. But if you are somewhere in between, it is a little bit harder to work with. Sometimes it will look muddy, sometimes it will age you, sometimes it just looks like you've got too much going on on your face. It will even look like contour if you put it slightly under your cheekbone. Therefore, I almost don't know if I should recommend this. I love it though, it looks very good with nude or red lipstick on pale skin. It also goes with shimmery neutral eyes very nicely. The one thing that it is also very good is that it works extremely beautifully with dark brunette to black hair. I don't suggest you to rush out and buy this immediately, but you should definitely try this out, as it is very beautiful if you get it right.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Blush -MAC - Sheertone Blush in Blushbaby
dolce_1127 11/8/2011 3:22:00 AM
How I love this stuff. I am a solid NC20 and this shows up a nude pink! Before my friend gave this to me, I never bothered with it in MAC, I was always buying up peachy and pink blushes. This looked brown to me in the store against the other 30 pink/peach blushes. How would brown look good on me when I'm NC20? So it wasn't even on my "Wanted" list. My friend bought this for me for my birthday. At first I really didn't even want to try it. But when I did, it was love at first swipe! For some reason, this shows up pink! Like a very subtle nude pink! Like I am flushing, but not red! I am flushing pink!! Not brown at all, and for some reason, I can go ahead and pack this on when normally I have to be very careful with my blushes if I don't want to end up looking like I got slapped recently. I LOVE this stuff, and it is approaching Holy Grail surprisingly. If you have NARS blushes, I would say this is lighter than Douceur, or rather, I little more natural and less peach. It is similar to Oasis without the shimmer and the scary pigmentation. It's like Oasis's mellow good-girl sister. When you apply it, it is like a pinker version of NARS Penny Lane, think that kind of pretty subtlety, and that kind of pigmentation, and that kind of glow, but in powder form. Overall, everyone needs to try this. A must have in my book! =)
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Polishes -OPI - Over The Taupe
dolce_1127 10/23/2011 7:06:00 PM
My favourite OPI of all time would be You Don't Know Jacques. So you should know that I love taupey nail polishes. But I was greatly disappointed by this one. Though personal opinion on colours cannot bring down the rating, so I kept it at 4 lippies. The reason I was so let down is because this looks not very taupe on me. Taupe means grey brown, ideally it should come with maybe a hint of smoky lavender. While YDKJ is exactly that but darker, I was hunting for, technically, a lighter version of YDKJ. Over the Taupe seems like a good pick on that, but it is not. It's a simple light chocolate brown. I don't see taupe. Some people may call it a warm taupe, sine it lacks the slight smoky lavender element, but keep in mind warm taupe should still have grey in it. This one looks milk chocolate to me. The great thing about this particular nail polish is that it dries SUPER shiny, especially for OPI, and the better thing is that it stays chip free and flawless for 7 whole days nonstop. (This was all just 3 coats with no base/top coat!) If this thing had a tiny little bit coolness to it, it would immediately jump to my HG statues. It's a pity it doesn't, but it is still a great neutral.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lip Treatments -Jack Black - Intense Therapy Lip Balm SPF 25 - Lemon & Chamomile
dolce_1127 9/29/2011 11:51:00 PM
Oh my dear Lord...Let me put it this way. I have the habit of collecting makeup, and I have more makeup than I can ever use up in this life. But amongst all these insane obsession with cosmetics, my most psychotic problem is my lip balm obsession. I have so many I can open a lip balm store with a considerable amount of display. And among ALL these lipbalms, this particular one, this Jack Black Lemon Chamomile is the ONLY one I actually used up. The other one close to being used up is Softlips French Vanilla, but that one has only like 2g of product. This Jack Black lip balm contains 7g product for $7.50 in Canada, recently Sephora bumped up the price again to $8.50, but I'll buy this again and again until I die. It is the most moisturizing, most long-lasting, best texture and bext flavour of all lip balms in this world. (I can safely make this conclusion with no objections considering the amount of lip balms I possess.) It is the ONLY thing, that when your lips are dry, it actually heals them, instead of temporarily moisturize them. It also has SPF 25, and a flawless ingredients list. Glorious under lipgloss or over lipsticks. Overall, definitely most DEFINITELY HG lip balm. Ugly tube, gorgeous balm. =)
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Lotions/ Creams -Eucerin - Aquaphor Healing Ointment
dolce_1127 9/27/2011 1:16:00 AM
This is a better version of vaseline. It is white clear with no scent or taste, and has a slightly thinner consistency than vaseline. I was in Vegas when I bought this. I was in my Summer vacation and Vegas is triple the heat and dryness, where you can actually FEEL the moisture in your lips and eyes evaporate. When I went into CVS I didn't specifically look for this, but when I saw it I remember how everyone in the beauty community raves about this and since I am from Canada, I am normally unable to purchase this. After I got it I decided to use it as a nighttime lip treatment, and it works wonderfully like the Rose Salve, without the nasty rose scent (or whatever that scent is). It has a thinner consistency which makes it more easily absorbed than vaseline. I was wearing sandals a lot in Vegas, so I also put this on my dry heels, which also worked quickly and wonderfully. During the blue seasons I mix this in my foundation to add some natural looking glow, and it makes foundations look less obvious and more skin-like. When the sun is too bright this is also a great glow enhancer on cheeks, because if you put shimmer on your face, it's going to look too sparkly and "done" under the sun, no matter how fine the shimmer is. Overall this is very useful. A boring little tube that actually gets some use in my makeup drawer.
6 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lip Gloss -Clinique - Superbalm Moisturizing Gloss in Ginger
dolce_1127 9/20/2011 12:23:00 AM
I wanted to try this for so long, and I am so let down! This is so sticky it's beyond any kind of description. And this is coming from someone who LOVE and love MAC lipglass and Lancome juicy tubes, which are supposed to be heavy and sticky. This Superbalm is not superbalm, it's superglue. It's horrifying. The colour is very pretty, like a pinky brown that is the perfect MLBB colour. But unless you pack this on and give your lip that mirror look (which to start with, is very inappropriate for day time, and this gloss is too shiny for some reason, it's way shinier than MAC lipglasses), it is drying and sticky. If you pack it on you won't feel the dryness as much, but if you let it wear off or if you put on a little bit as I tend to because the pigmentation is strong, it gets so sticky and tacky feeling, to the point where I actually felt uncomfortable and unbearable. Wiping off is a hassle too, it tugs and pulls on tissue. This is going back to the store and I'm never buying it again.
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Lip Gloss -Philosophy - I love candy corn
dolce_1127 9/2/2011 9:56:00 PM
I LOVE this stuff. It doesn't smell like candy corn in the western countries, but it smells like a type of corn flavoured hard candy I had when I was very small, back in Asia. This is really weird, because I think the makers of these glosses probably never heard or ever tasted a candy I used to have when I was 5 in Asia, but this smells and tastes exactly the same as the one I used to love and was never able to purchase again. It has that baked corn/rice scent to it, on top of the sweetness of candy. But I agree it doesn't smell like candy corn here. It is moisturizing and non sticky like every other Philosophy gloss, but I don't like the packaging. I prefer the normal packaging better. This one has a plastic wrap around the tube that makes it look like a Thanksgiving themed product, but I like the usual Philosophy packaging where they print letters directly on the tube. I think it's more vintage and cute that way. Otherwise, I LOVE this product. But it is strongly subjected to personal preference. Go to Sephora and try it out first, as Philosophy glosses tends to scent quite strongly.
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Eye Shadow -Maybelline - Stylish Smokes in Natural Smokes
dolce_1127 6/5/2011 2:34:00 PM
I HATE that they changed the packing on these. WHY?! The 4 large pans were very convenient, plus the lid shade and crease shade gets used the most, now it's tiny! If you are gonna change packaging, at least improve the texture of the shadow with it! No. Just a random idea suddenly poped up in their head and they changed the packaging..I personally like this quad over all, it contains a matte beige white, a shimmery neutral gray taupe (that doesn't have the rosy undertone like Satin Taupe), a shimmery neutral brown (like Mulch) and a matte dark taupey gray brown. I agree it is slightly chalky and chunky, the white hightlight colour is very chalky infact, and the lid colour, although pigmented and shimmery, is slightly chunky. The quad has that hard and dry texture. Someone below said they are comparable to Urban Decay, I find they are way off, I won't compare this to UD at all, but these are comparable to MAC eyeshadows, only more chunkier and chalkier. These are very cheap however, so I don't think we should compare these to any highend eyeshadows. My quad was on sale for 5 bucks, usually they are about $8.99CAD here. Overall, I like these colour a lot, but I wish the texture was creamier like their Chai Latte quad.
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Blush -BeneFit Cosmetics - Dandelion
dolce_1127 6/4/2011 1:28:00 PM
Pale pinks are very difficult. They are usually on the border of either showing up as a natural tint or nothing at all. I bought this after Mac well dressed failed with me, it is complete invisible on me, I'm NC20 and I don't consider myself dark. Dandelion lOoks very much like Mac pinch o peach and well dressed combined, the good thing is it shows up on me!! It shows up to be this really natural tint, maybe not princessy pink, but a delicate glow that is somewhere between a really light red and the slightest hint of pink, like naturally how my cheeks look, lightly rosy, very pretty. It is one of my only blushes that is fool proof, it's impossible to overdo. Smells great, not as good as my Coralista but I still do think the scent is very comforting, not obnoxious. Pricewise this is expensive, but it also has more than double than usual blushes contain.I like the packaging because I never bring blushes out with me unless I'm traveling, so the box is no big deal to me. Overall I really like it as a everyday school/work blush.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Bronzers -NARS - Casino
dolce_1127 5/29/2011 1:19:00 AM
Nars is hands down my favourite brand for colour-makeup in the entire world. They make supreme makeup that are both high-quality and actually works. While everyone is hyped around Laguna, and I agree it is an excellent bronzer, I don't agree when people say if you have a lot of redness you should avoid a red-tinted bronzers and go for Laguna. If you have a yellow undertone, and you have redness, you should only wear warm toned bronzers if you want a natural bronzed look, or a natural contour. Laguna is a relatively more cool and golden bronzer, while Casino is more red-orange. On my yellow toned skin with redness on cheeks (NC20), Laguna looks like a dark yellow brown stripe down my cheek when I want to contour. It looks very natural as an all over bronzer but as a contour, it is too light, too yellow and too cool for me. But Casino, when I contour with it, not only does it appear darker and more pigmented in one swipe, it also looks like my own cheekbone shadow, not some synthetic shadow that I created with the wrong bronzer. However, if you are light like me, you need to be very careful when you use Casino as an all over bronzer, because it can be very dark very quickly. Overall, I love them both, but as a contour for yellow undertone skin with lots of redness, Casino definitely wins in my book,
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Eye Shadow -NYX - 10 Color Palette - Champagne & Caviar
dolce_1127 5/17/2011 1:22:00 AM
Sorry guys, but this didn't cut it for me. I am not a highend makeup snob. I really want to love NYX makeup, they seem like a MAC dupe to me, at a much more reasonable price. But I just can't. This one is a nude palette, in fact, it reminds me of Too Faced Naked, not colour wise, but the style of the palette. The 10 shades were bland. The similar colours were too similar, and the variation of the neutrals are lacking. The mixture of the cool and the warm were not well balanced, and the pigmentation is not all that great, the matte colours were a little chalky. But, I did actually love the shimmery shades in this palette, they had a creamy texture that I really love, and no shimmer was over the top. The Bohemian Rapsody palette also contains many shimmery colours much more sparklier than these, and the shimmer was out of control, the colours were nice but drug-store makeup needs to improve their shimmery shadows. I would say make this your starter makeup kit, then it would be very very nice, price is reasonable and you get many wearable shades. But if you already got spoiled by better shadows and you are happy with what you're using currently, then definitely skip these. Don't buy into the hype like I did. Overall, average product, but very nice for the price.
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Blush -MAC - Satin Blush - Well Dressed
dolce_1127 4/24/2011 7:27:00 PM
Oh God why won't you show up on me!!! I'm NC20 in MAC, and I don't know why this just won't show up! I think I'm at the borderline for this colour, people lighter or darker than me will have this blush shown on their face, but NC20's just won't make it work. I don't understand, this looks pigmented, and colours even lighter than this works for me. I don't have any regular MAC blushes, just their mineralized ones. I mostly use Nars, and this is one of the only MAC blushes I have and it's basically like a finishing powder to me. It has minimal shimmer, I can't see them, it's more like a satiny finish. I know this is popular and seems to be everyone's favourite, but if you are NC20 I suggest you try this on before buying it.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Eye Shadow -MAC - Paint Pot in Painterly
dolce_1127 4/21/2011 4:52:00 PM
I loved the texture of this, opaque, creamy and not too dry like Soft Ochre. Unfortunately, on my eyelids, it is pink. I have NC20 skin, my lids are darker, maybe NC25-30. When I put this stuff on, it turns my eyelid a coral pink colour. It's not just a barely there pink, it's a highly visible pink tone. When I put on eyeshadows, it alters the colour of my eyeshadow, making them appear much more warmer than I would like them to be. Soft Ochre fits me so much better, unfortunately it does have the issue of being dry and flaky looking on lids. I usually wear my paint pots after my TFSI, and I use them more like a paint for blanking out the colour of my lids, not as eyeshadow primers. But on top of TFSI, they look lovely all day, and my eyeshadows stay put. I recommend them, but for some reason Painterly did not work for me.
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Lipstick -MAC - The Faerie Glen lipstick
dolce_1127 2/10/2011 11:46:00 PM
What? This is not a dupe for Cherish! Cherish is more peach based brown nude. This is pinker and cooler, in my opinion this is a dupe for MAC's Viva Glam II lipstick, a much lighter (as in texture, not colour), sheerer and more moisturizing version of VG II. Pinky brown nude, lustre finish and signature vanilla scent. Initially it looks pinky brown nude, with a sheen. But after a while, when the lipstick dries and the shine of the lipstick goes away, this looks generic brown on lips, and almost a little drab. Loved this initially, now I don't like it much. I'm NC20.
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Polishes -China Glaze - Chiaroscuro
dolce_1127 1/20/2011 6:40:00 PM
Chiaroscuro is a nude peachy pink, topped with fine detailed sprinkle of pale pale gold and green shimmer. The shimmer is so fine that it creates a sheen rather than sparkle. It looks not mature, nor does it look girly. It looks lady-like. Very romantic and pretty! Formula is sheer. 2 coats is a necessity not an option. But like all sheer nail polishes, it is relatively fool proof. Formula is sheer. 2 coats is a necessity not an option. But like all sheer nail polishes, it is relatively fool proof. Lasts a very very long time on nails.
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