RMK Blush in Pink Beige

RMK is a new makeup brand discovery for me this year, having never previously even seen an RMK makeup counter in Australia. The legendary Lisa Eldridge uses RMK products from time to time and she never steers me wrong! I love all her product recommendations, both low and high end :D

I sourced this particular blush from Ebay, and I have been wearing it quite a lot recently because it pairs well with a red lip, and only a red lip will do for the holidays.

Pink Beige has five amazing shades of matte pink fuschia (very pigmented and buttery), shimmery vintage pink (very pigmented and buttery), shimmery bright orange (very pigmented, soft and buttery), a light pearly pink (sheer, buttery), and a sparkling white (medium pigmentation, buttery, kicks up a lot of powder but not chalky).

Below I have two swatches for you. The top swatch is to show how all 5 colours combine, and directly below is a swatch of the top three stripes. With this palette, you can either wear it with all colours swirled together (a no-brainer blusher), or the top two or three colours combined as blusher and the bottom two shades as highlighter.

I am wearing the RMK blush in the photo below. I love that it looks very natural eventhough the three blushing colours look so bright in the pan!

 

Hope you enjoyed the review. Do you have any RMK blushes? I would love to hear your recommendations because I am dying to get more! :)

xx Cindy

Makeup Trend : Vampy Lips

I must admit. I am not usually for the latest trends in makeup, fashion etc etc. I prefer more classic items that never go out of style and the same goes for my makeup collection as well. 

I blame my fellow blogger, Reika, for my falling victim to the vampy lip bandwagon with her Black Orchid FOTD here. I decided to purchase Becca's Ultimate Colour Gloss in Berry Twist. It looks like a very dark plum in the tube but it applies very beautifully.

I will show you two ways to apply this gloss. In the first one, directly below, I have applied one pump of lip gloss and smeared it on my bottom lip. I then purse my lips together to distribute the gloss over my whole top and bottom lips. You can then use the little remaining gloss on the wand to fix the lip line or add a touch more to certain areas.

One coat of the gloss will give you a berry stain, with minimal shine but still the comfortable feeling of a moisturising balm. I love wearing the gloss this way, as it is "tame" enough for office wear. 

The lip swatch below was done with two coats. As you can see, the colour is significantly more opaque, and really emphasises any dryness and imperfections on your lips. This is not uncommon for very pigmented lip products.

I looove this gloss. I wish I bought more colours from Sephora. With every new product that I try from Becca, I fall in love with the line more and more. The Ultimate Colour Gloss is richly pigmented, and feels very  comfortable on the lips. Its quite moisturising (though I don't expect lip glosses to be moisturising at all), and has a delectable shine rivaling my favourite Chanel Glossimers. There is a slight vanilla scent when you first apply the gloss but its not detectable after a few seconds.

Happy Boxing Day everyone!!

Cindy

Two Tone Manicure - Inspired by "Bachelorette" the movie

I recently watched a movie called "Bachelorette" starring Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher and Lizzy Caplan. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie but I could not stop staring at Gena's nails (played by Lizzy Caplan). I don't have any screen shots of her nails from the movie but it looks like a base paint of matte white with a dark vampy red over most of the nail area.

I would expect that an easier way to do this is to buy those french tip stickers to cover the bottom of the nail bed and paint the red nail polish over it. However, I chose to do it the hard way and just free-paint my nails. Disaster. I had so much trouble with this manicure!! (granted, I am not the best with DIY manicures).

The two nail varnish I chose for this manicure is Ciate's Members only and Shu Uemura Shiny Rouge (released as part of a duo in the Wong Kar Wai collection)

I love this manicure a lot... as hard as it was for me to achieve the same look as Gena, I definitely think that the hard work paid off. Its super chic for the holidays!

I have one more review to do before Xmas day, so stay tuned!!

xx eCindy

Chanel Variation Quad - Review and Swatches

I was on a layover in Singapore a few months back and spotted this quad at a duty free shop. What's a girl to do in this situation? Haha, after all, the quad looks ever so pretty in the pan and it has purples!! I've recently been taking a departure from my boring old eyeshadows of taupes, browns and bronzes and leaning towards dark navy and purples.

The quad includes an instruction booklet that I have not seen included in Australian versions eventhough they are the same baked version.

Variation includes four colours: a shimmery pale pink, a silvery shimmery green grey, a light shimmery purple, and a dark satiny purple with some silver microshimmer.

Dry and wet swatches are shown below. I have used Chanel eyeshadows dry and wet before and have found that the wetting the shadows cause no significant change to the shadows themselves.

There are several downsides to the baked formula:
- inferior texture compared to the US formula
- sheerer pigmentation, particularly with the shimmery shades (I found the dark purple to be the best performer)
- powdery (you NEED a great base to ensure the shadows adhere better)

With this quad in particular, I find that using the sponge is actually the best way of applying the shadows.

Here is a look that I created with this quad. Forgive the slap-dash makeup application here, I had very limited time because I was running late to go to a movie :P

The one thing I LOVE about this quad is the shimmery shades. It is not visible at all in these photos but imagine the sparkle from the fourth swatch photo on your eyelids. Pretty! As you can see, the result is a grown up, sophisticated eye look that can go from day to night.

The look I created here (day appropriate) can be transformed into a night eye look by patting on the shimmery purple over the mobile lid and using the satiny dark purple on the outer v instead of just as a liner. You can also glam it up with a red or vampy lip :D

I really liked the photo below but the color cast was just horrible so I played with the hues and saturation instead to make it fun. The reason I wanted to include it is to rave about the Frederic Fekkai Glossing range. My hair now has so much volume and natural waves (instead of frizz) and I definitely recommend this product!

Have a great Christmas everyone!! Stay safe and don't drink and drive ;)

xx Cindy

FOTN with Wet n Wild Lust, Laura Mercier and Le Metier de Beaute

Hi guys!! I'm doing a short post today to show you the makeup that I did last night for my father-in-law's dinner party :)

Without further ado, here are the pictures... Pardon my amateur blending skills LOL I used the beige colour in the WnW Lust palette to blend out the harsh edges, and while it is quite subtle in real life (certainly subtle in dim lighting, too), I had the flash firing for all my shots and so it looks quite stark.

The eyeshadows I have chosen for this look are very dark, but it hardly shows up in pictures because of my hooded eyelids :) For this reason, I usually tend to favour darker eyeshadows to define my eyes.

The picture below was taken by my niece on her phone. It shows how my makeup looked during dinner (no flash, artificial lighting).

 

Product Breakdown:

Le Metier de Beaute Peau Vierge in Shade 2

Laura Mercier Silk Creme in Sand Beige 

YSL Touche Eclat in #3

Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Powder (on cheeks and T-zone)

Laura Mercier Canyon Sunset Blush

Wet n Wild Lust Palette

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Le Metier de Beaute Aurora Lip Kaleidoscope (tier 2)

Hope you enjoyed this short update.

xx Cindy

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter - Reviews and Swatches

During my trip to the US, I stumbled into a Walgreens in a quest to buy necessities like water and bread and milk. Like any makeup obsessed blogger out there, I wandered over to the cosmetics section and found a thrilling bargain in Revlon Colour Burst Lip Butters. It was a BOGO half off promotion and I snagged three. A friend of mine also wanted one ;)

The three shades I selected were those I deemed daily wear/ office appropriate.

Strawberry shortcake is a warm baby pink that really pops on my skintone. I'm currently sporting a dark tan (eventhough I don't go to the beach etc... ) courtesy of Perth's nightmare-ish dry heat in the summer.

Cotton candy is blue based light pink. On my lips, the coolness of this shade is unmistakeable. 

Peach parfait is a beautiful sheer peach which hardly shows up on my lips. I think this is a perfect, go-with-anything lip shade that I can rely on when I'm short on time :D

Another shot of Peach Parfait. The color shows up better in this picture.

Arm swatches are shown below. This was taken under artificial lighting as the sun had gone down by the time I came home.

These Revlon Lip Butters are basically tinted lip balms with a nice smooth buttery finish on the lips. I can not say that these are the most moisturising lip products on the market, but in the category of tinted lip balms, these are very good indeed. My favourite hydrating balms is still the Chanel Rouge Coco Shine Hydrating Lipsticks :)

All shades have microshimmers, with Peach Parfait being the most gritty in texture. I was actually surprised at this because it looks so beautiful in the tube. Strawberry Shortcake is the most frosty, and Cotton Candy is the most satiny. Both Strawberry Shortcake and Cotton Candy have a smoother texture and finish when compared to Peach Parfait.

I also picked up this Carved Citrine Ring from Gallery of Jewels in San Fransisco and I have been wearing it every day since I purchased it. I absolutely love this ring design and the detail that goes into making this beauty! The artisan jeweller who made this ring is Vanessa Mallet.

Hope you have enjoyed this post! See you soon :D

xx Cindy

FOTD in Shu Uemura Prestigious Bordeaux and Ciate Nails

Just a quick post to fill the gap that is my absence for the last 4 weeks. I have been traveling around the US and Canada and I simply had no time to do any post updates.

On another note, I have decided to take another job prior to leaving on this holiday and so the past 6 weeks have been simply hectic!!

Haha... I can't stop giggling at the above picture. I am no nail or hand model alright.

These pictures were taken after I came home from a full day of shopping etc. I was happy to see that the shadows held up beautifully over my Shu Uemura cream eyeshadow base. I purchased Urban Decay's eyeshadow primer potion in the US and its actually so much better than the Shu!! 

Product breakdown:
- Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation in Sand Beige
- Becca Anniversary Palette in Dusty Rose on cheeks (Tuberose lip & cheek creme and Narcissus highlighter)
- Shu Uemura Prestigious Bordeaux palette (bronze on eyelid, dark purple in outer v and lower lashline, light purple to blend harsh edges and lightly on the inner corner, light tan on the inner eyelid, gold glitter in the middle of the lid) - I love the colours on this palette!! Rich, jewel tones are the bomb!
- Maybelline Falsies Mascara 

Hope you enjoyed this look!! 

xx Cindy