Careline Vitamin E Lip Gloss 103

This is just as pigmented as TFS's Extreme Rouge, at a fraction of the price! A couple days before grad, I met up with one of my blockmates to have our legs waxed at our usual waxing salon. This time though, she wanted to go to the Robinsons branch for a change of  pace. Opportunity presented itself! I had been reading about these amazing glosses during the time, and since I was already in one of the few malls that carried it, I took advantage of the said opportunity. :D

Price: P60.00
Location Bought: Robinsons Galleria
Approximate Date Bought: mid April 2011

Careline Rosy Cheek vs EB Rose

(A versus post! I haven't done these in a LOOONG time. This post is LONG OVERDUE too, actually. I've been meaning to write this since 2009!) 

What sort of local drugstore shopper isn't familiar with Careline and Ever Bilena? Both are owned by the same company, and where there's one, you can ALWAYS find the other. When I was an idiot high schooler, I used to look down on these brands because they were "cheap", and not just in the literal sense. Well, not anymore - I know better now! While not all their products are amazing, a lot of them - like their blushes - have decent quality at very wallet friendly prices.

Myra E Tinted Moisturizer: Beige

Seeing Aya's and Elaine's great posts finally made me get off my lazy butt and throw in my opinions about this product. :P

I got this because I was looking for a cheapo makeup base to finish off this powder and this powder with. (It would be a waste to use my favorite almost-empty Hydro Splash, or buy something more expensive - like maybe a new Hydro Splash or the Laura Mercier TM I've got my eye on OH NOES - just for the purposes of finishing off leftovers, after all.) It was either this or ELF's tinted moisturizer, but that was out of stock at the time. Furthermore, Myra E's TM had more positive feedback from people at the forums.

Price: P130.00
Location Bought: Mercury Drug Shangri-La
Approximate Date Bought: December 2010

Charm Kabuki Brush

My main blush brush, the Charm Retractable Kabuki, literally fell apart on me last December. The glue holding the metal parts together dissolved, and no amount of regluing could get the brush's retracting mechanism to work properly again. While I did not love the falling apart, I really loved the brush's density. I was convinced that no other brush brand would be the same. And so, to prevent any more incidents like that, I got the nonretractable variant as a replacement.

Price: P500.00
Location Bought: Shopsui Tiendesitas
Approximate Date Bought: January 2011

G-lish Eyeshadow Trio

Trying out a new posting format. This one's quicker to do and won't let posting fall behind schedule so much... I hope.

Price: P100, originally P250 but it was on sale
Location of Purchase: G-lish Trinoma
Approximate Date of Purchase: late last month

Colors: "spring" colors - a medium pink, a sky blue and a forest green.

All have slight shimmers in the pan.

Pigmentation: when primed, they appear to have good color intensity; no shimmers are visible

Actual Usage: product doesn't really show up on the lids even with primer, although shimmers become more evident

Great for daytime, although pigmentation is misleading.

Careline Glamour Eyes in Cotton Candy and Forest Green

ETA 6PM: Oops, forgot to put in links! Fixed now!

Eek, I've run out of scheduled posts! I'm actually writing this in REAL TIME. Must make more entries in advance! O_O

When people talk about good local makeup on GT, I often end up buying some of it for myself. It makes me happy when Philippine products perform well. (Also, I like to believe it's my way of supporting the local makeup industry heehee!)

Careline's stick eyeshadows - super steals at just P70 - were mentioned on the local makeup thread not too long ago, hence this review.

Platinum was the most recommended color, but I got Forest Green and Cotton Candy instead because they seemed more fun to play with.

Two other blogs have reviewed this product previously, and both agree that they make excellent eyeshadow bases.

I have yet to try them as bases, but I do like how iridescent they look when swatched. Speaking of which, what else is iridescent? Fairy wings!

I don't know why, but I've been thinking about fairies and fairy-themed makeup lately. :P

Forest Green is a nice Tinkerbell green (See! What did I tell you? FAIRIES!) which has just the right amount of shimmer in it.

Cotton Candy is a barely-there pale pink which brightens up the eyes effectively.

I wore Cotton Candy over a thin layer of BB cream at school today, and it lasted until I got home at 5PM earlier! This review has more evidence to back up Glamour Eyes' lasting power - the poster even ran the product under water!

The product doesn't last as long to some GTalkers, so I really think priming before application makes all the difference.

I agree with this review that the product strongly smells like scented Panda ballpens. People sensitive to scented products should probably stay away from these, I suppose.

Also, both reviews mentioned the VERY LOOSE caps on these things. I join their ranks as the third person to say that they are indeed easily removable, and I strongly suggest securing them with elastic bands (or something similar) before taking them along somewhere.

Packaging issue aside, I'm quite pleased with Glamour Eyes and will most probably buy more colors.

Nichido GNO eyeliner in Thin Mints and Smoke Green

This is part 2 of this week's GNO Series.

Thin Mints is a pretty pale green, while Smoke Green is a dark olive color.

Smoke Green is pretty popular on GT, and there have been some good mentions of Thin Mints too.

I can see the reason why, because both applied well on my upper and lower lids. Thin Mints was a bit difficult to get on my lower lid, but it was nothing as disastrous as last Wednesday's Cool Blue.

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.

herbench/ paint box colour palette in Show Girl

[Geeky side note: My new blog subtitle is TOTALLY NOT a Star Trek rip-off. NOT. 8D]

Today we have another one of bench's makeup palettes, one of which I already reviewed previously.

Show Girl consists of a bronzy-gold eyeshadow, a medium pink blush, and two bright glosses in fuchsia and red.

So, swatches!

Eyeshadow (without primer):

Blush:

Lip glosses (fuchsia on top, red on bottom, a layer of lip balm underneath):

And the whole look:

The end results are pretty subtle for a palette with such a flashy name, don't you think? But overall, I like Show Girl's colors better than Dainty Lass's.

My notes on the products:

• Eyeshadow: goes on smoothly, will most probably look more vibrant with primer underneath, and I really love the shade
• Lip glosses: somewhat drying (like the ones in Dainty Lass), look scary in the pan but are very very wearable
• Blush: decently pigmented, gives a nice flush of color

The blushes that come in the Show Girl and Dainty Lass palettes look quite similar but they're actually not. The Dainty Lass blush is much lighter and contains shimmers:

The Show Girl blush, in contrast, is warmer and has no shimmers:

Skin swatches (DL = left, SG = right):

They have one more palette, Earth Angel, but I think I'll pass on that. Too much brown, even for a neutrals girl like me!

Nichido Clear Mascara

I really don't like the feeling of mascara.

I think it all started way back during my prom, when I borrowed my mother's mascara, Estee Lauder's Magnascopic (a product which she has been using to this day).

It did make me look more awake, but I hated the goopy, clumpy feeling it gave my eyes. Needless to say, I refrained from using mascara from that point on.

Then I found out that clear mascara existed, and I figured it'd perk up my lashes without the added weight that colored mascaras seem to give.

I originally wanted ELF's clear mascara (since many of their products work well on me), but it was unavailable at the malls I went to. So, I got Nichido's version for P80.00 instead. Honestly, the product's consistency reminds me of hair gel. I suppose that's what clear mascara essentially is, though.

But it does manage to lift my lashes pretty well. And it feels weightless and non-goopy too.

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?

herbench/ paint box colour palette in Dainty Lass

Seems bench now has these handy dandy makeup palettes for convenient full-face touch-ups on-the-go.

The palette is done in the brand's signature flowery metallic pink style and comes with a generously sized mirror and two decently-performing applicators (although I suppose most of you girls carry separate portable makeup brushes already).

The palettes are roughly around PHP350.00 and come in three variants: Earth Angel, Show Girl and Dainty Lass, which I will be swatching today.

The Dainty Lass palette contains the stereotypically cutesy girly color combination of pink and purple: two pink glosses, one pink blush, and one sparkly purple eyeshadow. I honestly don't think pink and purple are cutesy girly at all, especially when paired with black.

Here's the eyeshadow:

(I thought it would look bad on me, but it surprisingly wasn't.)

Below are the two glosses. The darker pink is on my upper lip, the lighter pink is on my lower lip.

(You might want to wear lip balm or something similar underneath, though. The glosses are a bit drying.)

Here's the blush:

(I rather like the color, it seems like the shade in between Careline's Touch of Pink and Rosy Cheeks.)

And finally, this is how it looks like all put together:

I had fun playing with this - so much that I might even get the Show Girl palette!