Beauty: Guerlain x Emilio Pucci
Known for his harmonious use of colour & patterns, Pucci ties up with Guerlain for one of the prettiest collections I’ve seen!
Terra Azzurra Bronzing Powder & Blush
Inspired by sun-soaked hues and the glittering Mediterranean Sea, the collection is an amazing flow of colours that’s just perfect for our tropical climate.
Ecrin Four Colours Eyeshadow
Model Natalia Vodianova, the face of the Summer 2012 Guerlain collection
Meteorites Pearls d’Azure
These shimmery pearls have a little of everything! perfect for an all-over shimmer.
Kabuki Brush with case
The Guerlain x Emilio Pucci is scheduled to be released internationally on 3 Jun 12
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Hits and Misses (Jan 12)
Lately, I’ve been obsessed with finding the perfect foundation. So far, ZA’s 2 way foundation has been my staunch favourite, but it was never long-lasting … so with all these new foundations popping up everywhere, I decided to pick up a few and try them!
REVLON PHOTOREADY TWO-WAY FOUNDATION
Compared to ZA’s two-way foundation, this was definitely on par in terms of texture and coverage. Both foundations also don’t turn orange on me, (i.e. they don’t oxidize too obviously), but I thought the packaging of this product was more aesthetically pleasing than ZA’s, which has become too colourful for me lately.
One thing I’m very happy about is that it wins hands-down when it comes to oil control + lasting power, so this will definitely be my go-to foundation for now! I haven’t found any flaws for this, so all in all, it’s a HIT!
Since there were awesome Christmas Sales this December and my 3 blushes were running low, I decided to invest this time and purchase the NARS blush palette, which is absolutely gorgeous.
NARS DANMARI ALL ABOUT CHEEKS BLUSH PALETTE
I’m fully aware that tons of bloggers have already blogged about this palette’s awesomeness, & let’s just say that I’m really very pleased with this product – I find all the shades very wearable, except for the hot pink at the top right corner, which is abit too bright for me. My favourites would definitely be Super Orgasm (bottom row, middle) and Sin (bottom row, right). It was definitely worth the $$ i spent and Caroline couldn’t help gushing over it when she came over to my place :) It’s a HIT! Read more reviews about the palette here, here and here.
SMASHBOX CLICK YOU’RE IT EYE PALETTE
In the spirit of Chinese New Year (and the Christmas discounts), I purchased the Smashbox Click You’re It Eye Palette. I felt it had the perfect combination of nude shades and dark shades. Til now, my eyeshadow collection has been pretty much just 5 or 6 shimmer eyeshadows, but those have been too “bright” to be work-appropriate. So I’m leaning towards more neutrals and darker shades.
There are 15 eyeshadow shades and no. 16 to 20 are gel liners. To my disappointment it didn’t come with brushes included, but hey, I do have my own so that’s not much of a big issue. It’s an interesting variety of colours and I do love the texture – it’s very soft. The staying power is great with the primer, pathetic without. That said, pigmentation isn’t as rich as I wish it should be.
ELIZABETH ARDEN EYESHADOW PALETTE
My mother is an ardent fan of Elizabeth Arden so she always gives me stuff from that brand whenever it comes to gift-giving time. This was a holiday palette so understandably, it’s all very bling and shimmery – just my type! Not easy to wear to work though, but I love the nude colours – nude, mink and silver taupe. Very wearable and subtle, though I admit I do have some difficulty telling them apart once they’re on my eyelids. Black Plum (dark purple, bottom left) is completely unexciting, but Indigo (the denim blue) and Midnight Emerald (bottom, far right) more than make up for it.
CLIO EYEBROW POT + GEL LINER
I’ve always been a crayon eyeliner type of girl, mostly because I don’t normally use eyeliner most of the time, and using crayon eyeliner is really very easy. Kids use crayons all the time! haha. The downside to crayon eyeliners is, they’re usually very blunt and can rarely draw properly on the insides of one’s eyes.. so I decided that my shaky hands could do with an “upgrade” and tried out this Korean Brand, touted as the #1 best selling eye liner product in Korea.
As seen above, it’s a conveniently combines eyebrow powder with gel liner, and has a two sided brush.
The pigmentation is really good, and the gel liner goes on really smoothly and is capable of drawing a very thin line. The back of the packaging comes with detailed instructions for the new and uninitiated.
Overall, I felt this was a rather good product, the eyebrow powder doesn’t look unnatural at all, but I’ll admit I do need more practise with the gel liner – one has to be fast and swift when using this, because when it dries before you “fix” it, it becomes patchy and unfixable. But it’s easier to manage than the watery nature of liquid eyeliners, so I’ll try to get used to this.
This product can be found at most Watsons stores in Singapore.
CHOCOLATE M&M LIPSMACKER LIP BALM
A friend got this for me from his recent travels to New York (thanks, kel!) and I was so amused by this product. It combines an essential (lip balm) with a girl’s best friend (chocolate)! That said, I’ve never really had a great impression of the brand Lip Smacker, because it always seems to pander to commercialised merchandizing.
So the verdict? It definitely has a very chocolately scent and isn’t that bad when it comes to moisturizing the lips. Its lasting power is negligible, an hour or so, and the brown shade of it (it’s tinted like chocolate!) is translucent. A fun product and adequate for air conditioned places, but I wouldn’t count on it to last me through a day in winter.
What’s on your Hits and Misses list this month?
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More than one of everything…
In my makeup box, I have more than one shade of foundation. Why? Well I do believe that when it comes to make up, it just makes sense to match everything in a colour palette. Blame it on my obsession with always being matchy-matchy, but I personally swear by using different shades of foundation for different make up looks. & by “different” shade i don’t mean shades that are a few tones apart, I mean shades that are pink-based, brown-based or yellow-based, but all almost the same colour.
Everyday minerals’ Kaolin Powder in Soft Bronze is pretty much my default au naturale shade for the day. With it, I usually match with soft gold, or varying tones of brown eyeshadow, with a muted mauve mascara and nude lips. This foundation looks great in yellow light, but isn’t so awesome in white light, where it tends to look slightly more pale. So I prefer to wear it in the day rather than at night.
Undeniably, certain women look better in certain clothes, mostly because they also have the makeup to match. Besides my au naturale set, I also have a set that’s for a tanner look – mostly for when I’m off for picnics, or am wearing beachy clothes, etc. With this, I do an extra step of using bronzer to sculpt the hollows of my cheeks and I also prefer coral lipstick. Za’s two way foundation in 22/32 (yellow base/pink base) is my go-to foundation for this look. Mostly also because everything in this set is slightly darker than the first, facial blemishes look less obvious and it’s more flattering in harsh white light.
Last but not least, the snow white set! For this I use maybelline’s compact foundation in the lightest shade, which isn’t discernably far from my natural shade, just a tad lighter. With this, i hardly ever go for soft or nude complements, as they would just make me look washed out. Instead, I go for dramatically lined eyes, mascara and red lips, with a touch of pink on the cheeks (see why I call this the Snow White set?) Of course, at times I do just go easy on everything, except the eyes.
So you see, there’s no such thing as a makeup “look” that won’t suit you – it just really depends on knowing how to match the colour palette for the look! so go experiment! step a little out of your comfort zone of routine make up colours & discover a whole new face to show the world :D
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A Bright Burst of Lancome
It seems that everyone is going neon and bright this season. Right on the heels of ZARA‘s bright & bold collection I spoke about recently, Lancome has released an all new Eye Brightening All-in-One 5 Shadow & Liner Palette
The new palette comes in a huge range of gorgeous combinations, all of which have 1 base colour, 3 beautiful eyeshadow shades and 1 liner shade.
Jade Fever
Teal Fury
Sienna Sultry
Midnight Rush
Pink Envy
Mauve Cherie
Coral Crush
The best part? Lancome has put together guides that you can download online to learn how to use the palette for day and night looks :) Of course if like me, you’ve already purchased other palettes that have similar colour combinations, you’d just might want to download the guide anyway, it’s free! Or well, you might not even have to, I’ve screencapped the full guide below:
all pictures credit to the official Lancome website
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NYX triple shadow review
As Ruth mentioned yesterday, we went to recce the Mega Flea Market at Expo and I bought two items: A polka dot dress for $10 (what a steal right?!) and a NYX eyeshadow palette in TS34 Team Spirit ($8).
Swatch courtesy of Shimmerkisser.
I wasn’t exactly looking for an eyeshadow palette but my regular spree organizer, Smoochiezz also has great deals that I can’t resist. She has round lipsticks and lipglosses from NYX ranging from like $3-5 and loads of e.l.f nail polishes, brushes and some other studio line stuff, all around the range of $3-8. And if you are looking for higher end stuff, she has some Mac eyeshadows and blushes too. If you’re interested, her booths at the Mega Flea Mart are I07 H07 I08 and H08. That’s in Expo hall 3B, the event runs from 10am-10pm. It’s only for the 27th-28th though so you better hurry before all the good stuff gets snapped up.
Anyhow I got through her booth pretty much unscathed (phew! didn’t spend as much as the last time), purchasing only this NYX eyeshadow trio. I bought this mostly for the fuschia pink/purple and the gold because I don’t have these colours in my makeup arsenal yet. So what did I think of it?
Well, to be honest, it didn’t wow me. Unlike the swatches, the colour payoff wasn’t that great. You really have to layer on the colour for it to be visible. I got quite frustrated initially because the pink despite numerous layering, was only a light pink at best. It never turned out to be that vibrant fuschia that I wanted. But then again, I didn’t try it with a primer underneath so hopefully the colours will show more and be more long lasting with a good primer on.
You see what I mean? It’s light pink/lavender. Not bright fuschia. Oh well. To comfort myself, I went heavyhanded with the blusher hence that bright pop of pink lol. So if you are thinking of getting this palette to create bright vibrant eyes, then I think you should give it a miss. The colours definitely turned out more pastel on me than I would have liked so I will most likely use this for blending the outer corner, or for days where I want a more neutral eye. Sigh. Quite disappointed actually. Oh well, the quest for that hot pink eyeshadow continues!
On the upside, the dress I bought fitted perfectly. A tad short, but given my height, it’s hard to find a knee length dress anymore.
I really like the ruffles at the sides and the button detail down the front. It’s cinched at the waist as well so it gives off this feminine girly vibe (which I don’t mind wearing on weekends. Weekdays it’s back to shirts and trousers!) and ooh! Its in line with the nautical trend! Haha see… here at Quirkychic, we practice what we preach!
Actually, I think this dress would work better as a romper. Maybe when I have the time, I’ll just stitch up the bottom and turn the skirt into shorts. That way I wouldn’t have to be so self-conscious whenever I have to bend over to pick up something.
All in all, the flea market at Expo was not bad. Ruth bought some rub-ons to decorate her planner and special socks with padding to cushion your feet against blisters (only $3 a pair). There was also a booth that sold My Beauty Diary masks for $10 a box and of course, alot of apparel from blogshops so if you’re free this weekend, do head down to check it out!
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Beauty on a Budget
As a student, my pockets are inevitably shallow – so til the day I join the ranks of the regular salaryman, I’m afraid I’ll be constantly on the lookout for Beauty Bargains.
Certainly I DO get quite a generous amount from both my parents and my tuition kids (I teach two students and get $30-$35/hr) so sometimes I can indulge a teeny tiny bit XP That said, I can’t help but feel excited whenever bargain beauty stores such as ELF has new additions instore.
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Greeen Eyes
inspired by the new L.A Colours Palette I purchased yesterday, I decided to do a green eyed look tonight!
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Our Quirky Loves
