Hello again!

My blog hasn't been in the festive swing of things but I hope all is well for everyone in 2013 thus far!

Throwing on a quick blog-ish update, I have placed most of the sticky post (Brief Baby Break) under a 'jump', which is only visible from the main blog URL. Since it is quite old news and would only be informative for those who haven't visited in a long while, I didn't want to taking up that much main-page space anymore.

Though that's not much to shout about so... moving on!

❧

Though a seemingly random and simple swatch feature, it actually brings me great joy to do simple things like digging up makeup pieces to photograph and swatch.

This one is a particularly happy one because I had been gifted my very first Bobbi Brown lipstick by Mag (makeupstash). Thanks so much Mag!

According to Mag's post about it, this is one of the three shades that come with the travel exclusive Bobbi Brown Rich Lip Color Trio set.

The set consists of this pink-coral tone, a lighter nude shade (Bare Pink) and a deeper slightly plummy red (Plum Rose). All 3 shades are lovely in color and pigmentation pay-off, as you would see in Mag's swatches.

Unfortunately I haven't got to wear this out yet so I can't comment on lasting ability, how it feels on etc. Though you can bet this will be one of the first few things I reach for when I get into the habit of (and have the luxury of time for) putting makeup on again!

In the meanwhile, behold, Bobbi Brown's Rich Lip Color in Sweet Nectar.

I must declare, my pictures are a wee bit deceiving and I am not certain why. Perhaps the color somehow doesn't pick up well for my camera? Maybe the lighting?

But in any case, the lipstick has a little more beige-pink in it as opposed to the coral-red it looks above.

Despite how intense a red it seems to be in my swatch above, it is actually more coral and subdued, or should I say more wearable. This shade gives a good amount of color to the face and attention to the lips without being too bold about it. I would say it sits well for me with day time looks which would even work for a simple night-look.

I can't wait to wear it and snap some pictures of how it looks on!

Until then, hope everyone's doing well and thanks for reading still, despite my inactivity! :)

Do share, what is your favorite Bobbi Brown lipstick shade?

Another LOTD post! I had wanted to post photos from my graduation and do a vlog entry but since I don't have those photos on hand now I'll post up some other entries that are sitting in the 'holding' area. Namely this one!

This is a rather old Look of the Day, though one that I had repeatedly done during my hectic final project period. I would explain why I favored this look in just a bit but for now here are the photos and the list of products I had used. In some photos you can see the ulcers formed from where I had accidentally bit my lip, please don't mind that.

Products Used:

FACE/BROW
Etude House Baby Skin Foundation in 02
Revlon Loose Powder (to set)
K-Palette Brow Liner in 02

EYES
Etude House Proof 10 Eye Primer
Maquillage Palette in BE763 (middle color - all over lid)
L'oreal Palette in Golden Tan/Fair (dark and medium brown - crease and outer-v)
28 Color Palette (highlight)
MAC Powerpoint Liner in Engraved
Majolica Majorca Mascara
K-Palette Mascara (layered over the MM one)

CHEEKS
Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Nectar

LIPS
Maquillage Perfect Lip Rouge in PK112


• Highlighted products had been provided to me by companies/distributors.

I didn't layer on much of the Bobbi Brown shimmer brick for it to show up very obviously. This is a product that does require some building up for a more obvious effect. I don't mind that so much since that means I don't have to be overly cautious with how much I pick up with the brush and I can simply swirl away!

The all over lid color I used in this LOTD was from the Maquillage Palette in BE763 (the middle color). As mentioned in an earlier LOTD featuring this palette, I love how the eyeshadow shades have this brightening and light-reflecting effect. Sort of like how it is captured in this photo:

I like how this effect seems to 'give life' to the eyes by making it seem brighter and more awake. I have learnt that putting makeup on tired eyes (from the lack of sleep) can sometimes enhance how tired and dull it looks, so I turned to using brighter shadows and voila it worked!

I have probably been repeating how these shadows have a brightening effect and you are all bored of it by now, but I am amazed at how pretty the sheen of these shadows are. Not gritty or 'oily' looking, just a perfect sheen. I do love the lipstick color as well and this shade seems to be my favorite of the ones I ended up with. More about those in future. I'm planning to do a lipswatch entry since I haven't done that, look out for it!

Thanks for reading and I'll try to post more colored looks now! Or at least stray from neutrals for a bit.

Hi all! So here's a collective haul featuring some stuff that I had either picked up or got in the mail recently. It's collective so while it isn't a whole lot (compared to you guys' MAC Private sales hauls that I am currently drooling over!), I thought I should mention that I did not get this all in a day.

I still stand by what I have said before: When I'm stressed, I haul. Retail therapy? Maybe... I don't know but it seems to be helping!

Group shot! Well, almost.

❧

First off I got a package in the mail from a livejournal seller (e-seller) containing these goodies:

Ha yes, if you have sharp eyes you would have noticed that I folded the boxes back up so everything would look pretty.

MAC Volcanic Ash Exfoliator
I have heard a lot of raves about this product and that got me pretty curious to try it. I have also heard of some not so positive reviews about it and found out that the exfoliator is really just sugar (says Sucrose in ingredients list), but we'll see how this fares. Haven't tried it just yet but the color scares me - It comes out a jet black shade.

Maybelline Dream Sunglow Bronzing Pressed Powder in Golden (02)
No particular reason why I got this actually. Maybe because it's a bronzer and we don't have it here?

Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Nectar
Finally! I have been wanting a BB Shimmer Brick since forever. I almost picked up the Bronze one online some time ago, but I was too late. It's great I finally managed to pick one up, and in such a gorgeous shade at that. I never really fancied the Pink/Platinum Pink ones.

Here are some swatches of the Shimmer Brick and Bronzer. I layered the bronzer on so it would show up a little, but otherwise it swatches quite natural.

I cannot wait to use the Shimmer Brick, it swatches so lovely! I can't describe it well but aside from the gold sheen you see, from angles there is a slight pink sheen as well! It's something rather unique in my stash.

❧

Moving on to another package I got.
I had mentioned in a tweet (and I think recent blog post) that I have been rather into nail polishes lately. More specifically, brands sold on 8ty8beauty or Transdesign such as OPI, China Glaze, Orly etc. I believe this was stemmed from my very first encounter with Sephora by OPI's Metro Chic.

Once you start, you can't seem to stop.

But anyway, this was what I had gotten - again from a livejournal seller (e-seller).

Orly's Charged Up

Sophia (retailtherapy) had featured this polish on her blog a couple times before. You can view the swatches here.

❧

Now the following stuff are just random things I had picked up, probably not all that interesting.

After seeing Eka (Reyenal)'s success story with the Theramed Whitening Toothpaste, I decided to give it a go as well.

Theramed 2 in 1 Whitening Toothpaste

Next I had also popped by Daiso a couple days ago to pick up some good ole clear polish.

I will reveal the purpose of the random clear polish at a later date. (:

Now this is probably waaaay random to include in here but I had also gone out and picked up a table lamp from HOME F.I.X.

I believe Diana (adorebeauty) mentioned this lamp in one of her videos or blogposts. This has a daylight bulb and boy is it super powerful! The main reason I got this is so I can film videos at night with decent light and quality. Got to start planning for the (rather far) future where I might be working and can't make videos during the day. Plus it's just better to not be handicapped by day/time/weather when filming videos. Though school is the largest handicap as of now.

This lamp also works well for providing light for studio photography shots. Guess I can set up my own DIY softbox, don't have to spend a couple hundred getting proper equipment just yet.

And that is my haul, a couple more coming soon but I think I'll do them collectively since they are similar items. I promised the Skin79 initial opinions/thoughts this week but I decided to do things a little differently so that's why that didn't go up - just incase anyone was wondering. Will sure get those up, along with all the tags I owe you guys. It's just hard to juggle school and keeping this space alive, I'm trying!

Thank you all for reading (:

This post features a very simple and run-of-the-mill eyeshadow combination.

The main purpose of this was to feature the Bobbi Brown cream shadow (in the shade Sandy Gold) that I had picked up fairly recently - as it was requested. Though thinking about it now, I did layer an eyeshadow over it so it's not like you are exactly looking at the cream shadow? But I will just report what I think about it in terms of first impressions/usage.

First, if you haven't seen it, here is how the Bobbi Brown cream shadow swatches:

I have noticed that when I applied Sandy Gold to my lids, the beige-ish shade is not very visible - it seems that the color blends into my skintone. The cream shadow does provide a nice soft gold sheen while evening out my lid color. It does not seem to give my lids a darker or lighter appearance in terms of color, unlike Groundwork which makes my llids about half a shade darker (still natural looking, but a bit 'deeper' if that makes sense).

Here is the eyeshadow look. I have Sandy Gold over my lids (lighter gold portion)

No rest of the face shots here.
I took these shots when I got home from school and the rest of my face felt too icky to feature.

Product used:
EYES
- NYX Eyeshadow base in Skintone
- Bobbi Brown Long-wear Cream Shadow in Sandy Gold
- Maybelline Eye Studio in Autumn Spirit (light shade) - over lid
- Rhomlon Eyeshadow in No.38 (brown) - outer corner
- MAC Powerpoint Liner in Engraved
- Cover Girl Lash Blast

And to let you know, I layered this pale off-white gold eyeshadow over the Bobbi Brown cream shadow.

The lightest shade in this quad (extreme left)
I guess one of the more obvious things the Bobbi Brown cream shadow did was bring out the gold tones in this particular eyeshadow.

I really do love this product as of now. I have been looking for a product like this for awhile now; a neutral almost skintoned eyeshadow base that isn't matte or overly shimmery and gives a nice glowy sheen. I would definitely place this beneath lighter all-over-lid eyeshadows such as the one featured here and also Silk Natural's Whisper.

I might just check out the rest of their range of colors for the fun of. The packaging though, still irritates me. haha.

Just a quick entry about a package that I had received today.

Again, this is a second-hand makeup item. However, this is a brand new second-hand.
(Definition of Brand New Second-hand: Something I bought from a seller, not a store but yet is brand new and untouched)

This time it came in the form of a Bobbi Brown Long Wear Cream Shadow.

I had picked it up in the shade Sandy Gold.

In all honesty this wasn't a haul that I had planned. It was not meticulously reasoned out or thought through. I was just curious about it, thus I think this qualifies as an impulse purchase. The price I got it at was slightly lower then retail, for those wondering.

I did some research on MakeupAlley prior to purchasing and there were mixed reviews about it. People either loved it or didn't think much about it.
My main point of getting this is to use it as an everyday neutral-ish base. As much as I love MAC's Groundwork paintpot, there are days I just want a nicer, lighter and glowier (no such word, I know) look on my lids. Thus, my purpose for getting this fit right in with the people who loved this product; it's a great natural all over lid color.

Here is a swatch of it:

The minute I swatched it on my hand, one thought came into mind. MAC's Rubenesque paintpot.

Just for comparisons sake, I swatched Rubenesque beside it and here is how they look:

They are quite close, but not the same. Rubenesque is about a skintone shade lighter and contains more gold reflects, while Sandy Gold is more of a beige with subtle gold reflects.
I feel Sandy Gold appeals to me more because of the beige tone to it and because the gold reflects are more subtle.
The texture of it feels really nice too. It's creamy but yet solid and does not feel as 'dry' as the paintpots do after you spread it out.

My only gripe, the packaging is so wasteful. With that much excess, they can make 2 jars out of what they use to make 1 jar right now. If anyone understands what I mean.

I guess that's completely irrelevant to the product itself, but that was my little haul.
Thanks for reading!

As promised, here's the collective haul entry! (:
I'm pretty tired right now so I shan't get all descriptive and write essays like I usually do. Instead, lets get on to the main point of this entry.
I'm guessing the first thing you guys are interested in is what I had gotten from the MAC Hello Kitty collection, aside from the oh-so-adorable tote bag.

Sad to say, I didn't get tons since this collection didn't quite thrill me (not as much as the upcoming Style Warrior one does) but I did manage to take interest in one product and that is Pinkfish Tinted Lip Conditioner.
So naturally, I had to get backups for that.

In actuality I had purchased 3 but later realized I didn't need 2 backups so I'm selling one off to a friend who can't get her hands on Pinkfish TLC (cause it's out-of-stock everywhere).

Pinkfish on my lips:

Now, on to the stuff I had gotten ages ago.
If you follow me on twitter and have a superb memory, you would more or less know the timeframe in which I had gotten these products as I'm such a vocal person I voice my monologue-debates out loud on twitter. Ha! But really, I do feel the need to discuss things with myself when I am unsure.

Starting from way-back in the timeline, the first thing I had purchased was Bobbi Brown's Corrector and I got it in Light Peach

Bobbi Brown's corrector compared alongside to Canmake's Colorstick in 07.
The canmake one is more of a salmon-shade as compared to the Bobbi Brown one.

Using the Bobbi Brown corrector. I so meant to say corrector in the image 'wording'

On another day I went to MAC in search of a brow gel because the current brow routine that I was using didn't quite give my brows enough 'depth' to frame my face (as you can see from the image above). So I went to MAC asking the MA if she could recommend me a brow gel that matched my hair and the one she recommended was this:

Brow set in Show Off, which coincidentally happens to be one of the promotes in the Brunette Blonde and Redhead collection.
It photographs a little more reddish then how it looks.

And this is how my brows looked after the MA was done trying this product out on me:

On to the other stuff that I had purchased without much of a 'story' behind it.

MAC 129 Blush brush

MAC Mineralized Skin FInish in Redhead.
I know I did mention that this doesn't show up etc, but I've found a way to do it and it's to avoid the lightest strip and use the other 3 for blush while leaving the lightest solely for highlight. It doesn't show up so funky and chunky that way thus allowing me to layer the product a bit (enabling it to show up)

Here's a comparison of Redhead and Brunette MSF:

Redhead on the left, Brunette on the right.

Here's how Redhead looks on me:

People using Windows might not see the color at all because it is fairly natural and the flash just washes it out a lot more.
But trust me, it's a nice rosey natural color in person.

On to some other stuff, I got more brushes!

MAC 224. I was debating between this brush and the 222 for the longest time ever and I'm so glad I got this. I really love it and ever since I had gotten this brush, my 217 had been left neglected and unloved.

Initially I got this for my concealer, then I used it for paintpots. Right now, I'm using it to pack on eyeshadow colors.
Talk about multi-purpose!

Another 129, short handled this time. Don't ask. I do not know why I need 2 129s.

After a long wait, I'd finally jump on the Studio Finish Concealer bandwagon.

My shade is in NW25.

I also picked up, yet another, neutral/nude lipstick:

Blankety.

This is how it looks on my lips:

Pardon the 'lipstick-line', I was in a rush for dinner.

Also I decided to compare it along-side Honeylove seeing as from memory they seemed to be similar in shade

Apparently they aren't really even close. Honeylove is more of a warm beige and has a peachy undertone, while Blankety is a cooler pink with a brown undertone.

So that is basically my collective haul all summed up!
To wrap up this entry, I'd like to announce the arrival of a new card in my wallet.

The TANGS membership card!
Like, finally? haha.

Alright I believe I've taken enough of your time.
Thanks for stopping by and reading!
Much love.