Etude House VIP girl Dear Darling lipstick: PK007

I've always had this strange fixation for medium-pale pink lipsticks. They seem like such an unnatural color to me that I feel compelled to find a shade that suits my skintone.

Unfortunately, PK007 does not.

Price: around P428.00
Location Bought: Etude House SM Megamall
Approximate Date Bought: January 2010

Etude House Cute & Sexy Eyes No. 2 Peach Pink

So much for my Etude House winning streak.

Price: P428.00
Location Bought: Etude House SM Megamall
Approximate Date Bought: January 2010

Packaging: It's Etude House's usual princessy pink. I really like the quality of plastic that they use in all their products.
Colors: A pale peach highlighting shade (top left), a peach lid shade (top right), a pink lid shade  (bottom left), and a brown crease shade (bottom right). There were application instructions on the box, but they were in Korean and  had no diagram. All shades are shimmery, btw.

Pigmentation: horrendously weak. Normally I'm very forgiving with how pigmented products are, but this is just BAD.

There's almost no difference between the highlighting shade, the peach shade and the pink shade!

Actual Usage: This quad barely shows up on my lids, even with primer. It just looks like I put a ton of sparkles on them. Maybe fairer skinned people will have better luck with this? But even then, look at the fallout on the lower left corner of my eye. Ick! I don't like shadows that do that!

 

The brown is the only shade worth using.

Kathi from Lotus Palace said that the other two quads in this product line have better pigmentation, so I might try them out in the future.

Nichido GNO eyeliner in Cool Blue and Metal Blue

After the awesomeness that was Nichido GNO's Bronze Glow (which my mother stole from my stash LOL), I decided to pick up a few more eyeliners from that line.

This is part 1 of this week's GNO series.

Cool Blue is an almost-periwinkle blue, while Metal Blue is a deep, greenish navy - kind of like slightly oxidized titanium metal.

Judging from the swatches below, it seems that Metal Blue would make a good upper lid liner, while Cool Blue would be great for brightening up the lower lid.

I was half right. Metal Blue looks great as a top liner. Cool Blue was extremely difficult to apply and spread all over the place, though.

Cool Blue has potential as an eyeshadow base, but as an eyeliner? FAIL.

Elianto baked eyeshadow duo in Brown

I've wanted to try Elianto's baked eyeshadows for a while now - they look so cute!

Unfortunately they're not as pigmented as I thought baked eyeshadows would be, even under a base.

There seems to be more shimmer than pigment in them. As you can also see in the picture above, there is barely any distinction between the lighter shade (used as lid color) and the darker shade (crease color). That, or maybe I blended too much?

herbench/ paint box subtle glow powder in pink glow

I seem to have terrible luck with this sort of product. It appears it just isn't possible for me to find a good quality low-priced highlighting powder.

This bench product is a winner in terms of packaging,

and its texture and "shimmer power" seem to be excellent,

but it just doesn't deliver. Tell me, do you see anything in the swatch below?

Other than some VERY SLIGHT shimmers, there's really nothing else. :(

I remember another blog having a review for this, but I can't seem to find it anymore. Does anybody know where it is?

e.l.f. Luminance take two

Yesterday's face shot of this was pretty bad, so I did a do-over.

Upper cheek:

Bridge of nose:

There are some VERY slight shimmers, but nothing really noticeable. I generally like e.l.f.'s products, but this time around, FAIL.

e.l.f. Healthy Glow Bronzing Powder in Luminance

I'm a total noob when it comes to bronzing powders. I wanted to see if they could really make me "glow", so I got e.l.f.'s version in Luminance.

I like how they have the brand name stamped onto the product.

What I don't like is the glue showing up at the bottom. (Remember my review on San-San eyeshadow duo 01? Same sentiments here.)

Here I am with the bronzer applied to the bridge of my nose and on my cheeks. (ETA: I just realized how DARK my undereye circles are in this pic. Blech. My apologies. X_X)

I can't really tell if anything happened. Hmm, maybe I should've gotten the darker shade (Sun Kissed) instead...

ETA: better photos of the product in action here

4u2 dreamGIRL Faith BB Cream

While I lust after the makeup crown jewels that are MAC and Shu Uemura [or insert your own worshipped brands here] like any other makeup fan, I'm mostly a cheap thrills peasant who delights in finding great products at good deals.

This is not a great product, however. I was definitely wrong to have such high hopes for 4u2's contender to the BB market just because it was a good deal at the low, low price of P198.00.

(Click the pic to read the ingredients and stuff! :D)

It was far too runny, which I'm sure ISN'T supposed to be what BB creams feel like. When I put it on my face, it looked okay, but nothing really happened: no even finish, no covered blemishes, no effective adhesion for other makeup products. I'm also pretty sure "nothing" ISN'T supposed to be what BB creams do.

Perhaps you're wondering why I showed the back first?

That's because silly me only remembered to take pictures of the product right after I had peeled off and crumpled the front label since I felt like being "creative":

You're not missing much, don't worry. It was just the 4u2 logo in hot pink.

Here are some swatches, unblended and semi-blended:

This was a pretty weird product that had no effect on me whatsoever. Maybe I should've gotten this BB cream instead.