Sleek Blush By 3 Sugar Swatch and Review

Sleek has recently released their Blush by 3 (I'm never sure whether it's Blush by Three or Blush by 3, but I guess they're the same), and I'm so excited to share these with you! I've always liked Sleek's powder products, especially their eyeshadows and blushes, so I was so psyched to get these, as I knew they would be awesome. And indeed they are!

If you're a blush fiend like me, the Sleek Blush by Three will be perfect for you - it's like getting three blushes in one! Each Blush by Three compact, as the name suggests, is a compact housing three different shades of blush. The blushes all have their own individual pans, too, so usage is less messy. The colour I have is Sugar, with individual blush shades Turbinado, Muscovado, and Demerara.

I've always been on the fence about Sleek Makeup's packaging, but I have to say, this time, the Blush by Three packaging somehow looks a little snazzier. Perhaps it's that the black plastic compact is more sleek and less clunky-looking; perhaps its the really pretty paper box, or perhaps it's the fact that the compact has a mirror. Whatever it is, I'm sold on the packaging for this one. It's pretty and practical.



The Sugar blush by 3 shades cover a good range of colour bases and finishes. There's Turbinado, a deep neutral rose shade; Muscovado, a neutral brown shade with gold shimmer; and Demerara, a pumpkin orange shade. So that covers your bases of pink, peach, and neutral-based blushes, and both matte and shimmer.



I know the names sound scary, and the colours do look really deep and unwearable in the pan, but I've really enjoyed wearing these, despite being a somewhat pasty NC20. With a light hand, these are very wearable and versatile. I've swatched all three blushes below, both with a light and a heavy hand, so you can see what they look like on.



As you can see, the blushes are very richly pigmented. They also have a very smooth texture, and apply nicely too. Turbinado and Muscovado are my favourites of the bunch. Although Turbinado looks like a dark brick red, and Muscovado just looks like a unflattering brown shade in the pan, on the skin these are such gorgeous, versatile neutrals that it's impossible to not love them. Demerara is a tad too orange for me, but with a light hand, it's a great peach shade.

I haven't had the chance to take any photos of my FOTDs (Face of the Days) with my Sleek Blush by 3 yet, but you can bet I'm working on this! I'm absolutely in love with the Sleek Blush by 3. It's perfect for those who want a variety of shades all in one compact, and for those who travel with makeup, and for those who - like me - just have a thing for blush. There's only one drawback - these are limited edition, so get them while you can!

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

ZA Concealer Perfection Swatches

ZA Cosmetics is a brand of skincare and makeup that can be found in Southeast Asia, as well as other nearby locations, such as New Zealand. One of their star products that has been much-raved about is their Concealer Perfection, a liquid concealer in a tube. I believe this product has won a bunch of awards from various local and regional magazines, so it's got the accolades to prove it.

The concealers are quite light-textured and heavily pigmented, which contributes to their popularity. The closest thing I can think of are the MAC Select Cover-Up Concealer. The shades are simply named 1, 2, and 3, from lightest to darkest.

1 is the colour I use, it's a NC20-ish type of shade, a light neutral beige.
2 is also a yellow beige, but darker. It's more like NC25, or NC30-ish.
3 is a shade that's a deep yellow beige for those darker than NC30.

I haven't done pure swatch posts like this in awhile, so it does feel good to have swatches up again. I just love swatching stuff, and I love seeing swatches too, so with any luck you'll be seeing more swatches around!

Astalift Skincare Products: A Quick Peek!

Astalift is a Japanese skincare brand that's just making its debut in Singapore, and I have to say, the brand is an interesting one. Astalift is actually created by Fujifilm (yes the camera brand). Apparently there are synergies between the technologies for creating film and photography products and beauty ones - who would've thought? Apparently, Fujifilm already does research into collagen and nanotechnology (supposedly one of the main components of film is collagen), and has also been conducting its own work on anti-oxidation (used in anti-aging products of course, but in the Fujifilm context it's used to prevent fading of photos). I got to take a closer look at the brand, and here are some of my thoughts.

Astalift has a very strong brand identity - everything is rose scented, and red or red-orange in colour. It's supposed to indicate that the products have Astaxanthin (another branded ingredient that doesn't actually have a name). Astaxanthin is actually a caretenoid-based ingredient that is apparently a powerful antioxidant. So that's why every product is red or orange-red in colour. You'll know what I mean as we look at some of their products.

They walked us through their entire product range, but I thought that perhaps to keep this piece focused, I'll just focus on some of the key products in the line.

First up, the Astalift Cleansing Oil. Much like DHC and Fancl, this one has a pretty light texture, and, based on a cleaning demo we had (I used it to remove waterproof mascara, below), is pretty effective. Oil-based cleansers are generally pretty good at cleaning dirt, so this isn't a surprise. The Cleansing Oil also has the red-orange tint the Astalift products have.



Next, the cleansing products. Astalift has two, the Liquid Soap (below in the photo), and the Moisture Foam (above in the photo). As you can see, the Moisture Foam is meant gives you a rich, luxurious foam when lathered, and it does. This is pretty much Astalift's version of all those pump-cleansers that dispense as foam (Biore Marshmallow Whip Facial Wash, Amythyststory Mineral Bubble Facial Wash, etc). I guess it caters to an Asian desire to see lots of foam in your facial wash.



Now, the star product of the Astalift line, the Jelly Aquarysta. I gotta say, while I may not care much for gimmicks, this is actually kinda cool. Basially, this product is supposed to be applied straight after cleansing your face. And it's supposed to offer firming and hydration to your skin.



The product itself is a jelly-like gel in that red-orange colour, and offers a cooling sensation upon application. The cool thing about this is that if you mess up the jelly in the jar, it reshapes itself after a few minutes to its original shape. That way, when you open the jar of Jelly Aquarysta, it always looks brand new. While this is cool, I'm not too sure what it actually means for your skin, although its firming powers were supposed to be more potent because of this property. Definitely a product I'd be interested in trying!



Also, we have the Astalift Lotion. The thing about Japanese skincare brands is that they tend not to have toners, but instead have lotion products that are basically clear, water-like liquids that are applied onto your face. And instead of sweeping across your face with a cotton pad like a toner, you apply the lotions by pouring a small amount into your palm and massaging into your face. Astalift has two lotions, called Lotion, and Lotion (S). The former is for dryer skin, while the latter is for oilier skin.



We were also shown how you can turn your lotions into a mask with the use of a paper mask sheet. Basically, you soak the mask in the Lotion (we used the Astalift Lotion cap as the receptacle, above), and then place it on your face (kindly demonstrated by Minru, below).



Lastly, an Asian skincare line wouldn't be complete without a sheet mask - so here you are of course! Astalift's sheet mask is also a red-orange shade, and the cool thing about it is that it comes in two pieces, one for the lower half of your face, and one for the upper half of your face. The mask, along with the Jelly Aquarysta, are supposed to have the highest levels of Astaxanthin, so I think these are worth checking out.



Before I end off, here's a photo of me and other bloggers from the event.



All in all, Astalift seems to be a very cohesive lineup of products, with very distinctive branding (the red-orange colour) and some really interesting products. I'm definitely looking out for the Jelly Aquarysta and the Sheet Mask, as I think those are the most interesting products.

(Information provided at an event. Opinions are my own. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

OPI Pink Friday Nicki Minaj NOTD: Just Celebrity Hype?

OPI's Nicki Minaj Collection, released sometime back, was quite well-received by the blogger community. I think part of all the hype was just because it was Nicki Minaj, you know? I personally didn't find the collection that inspiring or original, in that similar colours already exist elsewhere.

Anyway, I got OPI Nicki Minaj Pink Friday in my Vanity Trove last month, so I thought that since it was one of the much raved-about colours in the collection, I should at least do an NOTD with it, right? So I busted my mini-bottle out and did a mani with it.



I know a lot of bloggers have liked it, and about how it's such a great pink. Apparently this was Nicki Minaj's favourite colour (not hard to see why, I guess). Perhaps it's the celebrity factor, but this didn't do much for me. It's a light pastel pink with a warm lean, which would make it ideal for warm-toned girls looking for the pastel pink that won't look ashy on their skintone. And in that sense, it brings something to the table, since most pastel pinks are cool-toned. But otherwise, I found the colour just meh. It didn't look particularly great on my skintone, and I mean, pink-lipstick-similarity aside, this colour is a big yawn to me. Another pastel pink? Great, let's just move on.

Another gripe I have about Pink Friday is the application. This is kinda thick, so it tends to pull and be really streaky upon application. If you're lucky you can get away with two coats, but mostly I used three to even things out, and it ended up looking a little bit thick in the end. It doesn't really have the best application. I was hoping for a really opaque two-coater, but this wasn't quite it.



Anyway, I KNOW that this is the same shade as Nicki Minaj's lipstick, and that it's cool and all, but for some reason I can't like this colour. Maybe it's the crappy application, maybe its the fact that pink (seriously, pink lipstick aside, why would an artiste known for making daring sartorial choices put a pink in her nail polish collection?), or maybe it's just that the colour doesn't look all that great on me. Overall, I feel like this is a over-hyped colour I could do without.

Peach and Green Eye Look for Spring/Summer

Spring/Summer season is here, and that means more summery eye looks! For this one, I was inspired by the flowers and green of Spring and Summer, so I decided to do a peach and green eye look!

For this look, I just used a peach shade on my eyelid, and a green shade in the contour areas, and blended. I know I used these from my stash of Sleek Makeup palettes, but I can't remember which shades or palettes I used. It's a simple look to recreate though - really just peach and green, and blend.



I don't really have many issues with my Sleek palettes. I liked these - they were easy to blend, and had good pigmentation. I generally like my Sleek palettes quite a lot, especially for looks where you want the colours to pop a little more.



I like this look, as it's eye catching but still has a feminine look to it. Very Spring/Summer, don't you think? I love it when the season changes - although it doesn't change much here weather-wise, the colours and the look evolve every season, and I just like getting inspired by that.

Magnetic Nail Polish NOTD: L'Oreal Star Magnet Purple

Magnetic polish is back in vogue again, with China Glaze releasing their Magnetix Collection, a line of six magnetic nail polishes. I'm always amused by how trends come and go with nail polish - first crackle/shatter polish, which Covergirl had in the late 90's that has made a comeback in the past 1-2 years again, and now, magetic polish. I remember these during just a few years back, perhaps in 2007 or 2008 (anyone remember?). Back then, L'Oreal and Lancome both had magnetic polishes, and both of them made quite a splash, too. The L'Oreal ones I have were from this range called the Star Magnets, which have since been discontinued.

This one that I'm wearing is in the colour Purple, although to my mind it's not really truly purple. It's a gorgeous shimmery pinky-purple that looks more pink than purple, and if you hold the magnet over your nail when the polish is still wet, you get a star design on your nail. Pretty cool, huh?



There are various ways of using the polish and the magnets to get the best possible star design on your nail (meaning, clear designs that actually look like a star shape, not a blotch). The one important thing is to hold the magnet over the polish while it's still wet, so the magnetic particles can move into shape. Once the polish is dry, you won't get any design. Because the L'Oreal Star Magnets are discontinued, a lot of people I know conserve their bottles by painting a base coat of similar colour, and then layering the Star Magnet colour on top. For me, I personally don't get as nice a star shape that way, so I just do it the wasteful way, and do two coats of Star Magnet polish.



I still remember all the trouble I had to go through to get my L'Oreal Star Magnets. I only wanted them after they had been discontniued (of course), so fortunately the lovely ladies on MUA (Makeupalley) pointed me to an online etailer based in the UK, who still had some bottles left. These have been the babies of my stash since then. Anyway, since magnetic polish is in again, I thought I'd dust off my L'Oreal Star Magnets and give them a shot!



I'm loving these magnetic polishes, although I feel like they're a little more time-consuming to apply, because you have to hold the magnet over the polish while letting it dry. But they're pretty fun, and I like seeing the stars form. Anyway, has anyone else been bitten by the magnetic polish bug? Do you already have any magnetic polishes? Tell me!

Giveaway: Win a ShabbyApple Dress!

I'm so excited - it's giveaway time! And to mix things up a little, this time it's not going to be my usual staples of makeup, nail polish, or skincare! This time, the prize is a gorgeous dress from Shabby Apple (http://www.shabbyapple.com), a online boutique selling women's dresses. The Shabby Apple dress up for grabs is this gorgeous little beauty, the Side Saddle Dress:

Despite the equestrian-inspired theme of the dress, from the Side Saddle Collection, the dress is actually pretty versatile. I love how the mint colour is really on-trend now, and yet the brown tones the colour down and makes it wearable for even conservative office environments.

Here's the dress now, without the horse:

Isn't it pretty? I also like that it's the type of dress that would flatter most figures, and although it is vintage-inspired, it still retains a modern feel. To enter, simply fill out the giveaway form below! The giveaway lasts for 2 weeks, and it will end on the 30th of March, so get cracking - it won't last forever! Giveaway is open to US residents, as the prize will be shipped to the US only.

Spring/Summer Bright and Nude Eye Look!

One of the major Spring/Summer trends for 2012 has been the contrast of brights and nudes. In makeup, this has often translated into a nude eye with a bright lip, as exemplified by Bobbi Brown's Neons and Nudes Collection. I really love this brights vs nudes trend, and I felt so inspired by it, so I thought to myself - why not do a bright vs nude eye look? So here is my rendition of this year's Spring/Summer trend - a neutral eye look, with a pop of hot pink!

For this look, I used the neutral shades from my Sleek Storm Palette, and the bright pink was from the Sleek Curacao Palette. You know I'm generally a big fan of Sleek Makeup's products, so I don't have anything bad to say about their eyeshadow palettes (their mascara though, was kind of a let down for me). They were pretty easy to blend and looked good on, and even photographed well. Usually eyeshadow colours can turn out weird on the camera, but for these, I barely had to do any photo-editing at all, other than tweaking the brightness (it was an overcast day).



My concept behind this eye look was just to have a pop of bright pink in the middle of the lid area, surrounded by neutral golds and browns. So I actually did a neutral eye with just the gold and brown first, and then placed the pink in the middle of the eye lid. After that, I blended out the shades, and I was done.



Although this was more of an experiment than anything else, I'm actually quite pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. I feel like this look of blending brights and nudes together is a very easy way to make bright and neon shades wearable. I don't think I would wear hot pink eyeshadow out, but I would actually wear this combination out. It would be pretty great for someone trying out brights for the first time.

St Patrick's Day Gold Leaf Nail Art!

We don't really celebrate St Patty's Day here, but hey, give me any reason to wear green nail polish and I'll be all over it! By chance I also happen to have some real gold leaf on hand, so I decided to use it for my nails - after all, what's St Patrick's Day without a pot of gold?

The gold leaf was actually supposed to be used for cooking (you know, like decorating food), but obviously gold foil nail art is so much more fun :p The green nail polish is ASOS Paints by Ciate in Pixie. For this nail art, I just painted two coats of ASOS Pixie, and then layered the gold leaf on top.



Since the gold leaf is quite thin, I used tweezers to handle it. I didn't want to cover my entire nail with gold foil although that would have been cool (gotta leave some for the food), so I did a diagonal design instead. For me the challenge was getting the gold leaf pieces that were the right shape and size onto the nail. Sometimes I had to tear bigger pieces apart too, to get smaller ones that fit better on my nail.



I actually thought of doing something more St Patrick's Day-ish, like do a four-leaf clover or something, but I figured out that it would probably be better to just let the gold leaf shine on its own. I didn't want to overcrowd my nails!



Anyway, I really like how my nails look right now. I love that the gold foil really adds some bling to my nails, and is really nicely offset by the green. I'm not sure if you can fully see the effect in these photos, but in real life, it looks absolutely amazing. I'll totally need to try out gold leaf with other combinations (glitter polish? A darker base, e.g. black?), but for now, this makes me happy!

Beauty Blog Link Love

A botox virgin no longer - Lisamarie from Beauty Crazed gives you the scoop on botox and fillers - if you've been thinking about getting a little somethin' somethin' yourself, you'll want to check this out!

Lydia's addiction to Dior lipsticks is taken to a new heights with these new Dior Addict Extreme lipsticks at Perfectly Imperfect.

Lovers of the infamous Black Honey will be pleased to hear that the line's been expanded with not one, not two, but seven new shades. Check out Rae's close-up photos, swatches, and review of the new Spring 2012 Clinique Almost Lipstick lineup over at theNotice!

Miss Beauty Nerd doesn't believe that lip balm can get prettier than this... she's completely smitten by Dior's Creme de Rose lip balm!

Want to get the info on the beauty look for The Hunger Games movie? Well, Krasey Beauty's got it!

Jenn from Spiced Beauty shares a post about the NewBeauty TestTube™, a Canadian blog exclusive!

Want fluttery, long lashes? Amy Antoinette reviews Sleek Lash Out mascara.

At Musing on Beauty, Mariella tries Clarins Ever Matte foundation and powder and has mixed feelings about them. Find out why!

Very much a lipstick lover at heart, Hellcandy discovers a lipgloss that has won her over with it's lip soothing properties. Click here to discover the By Terry lipgloss that works wonders!

Duochrome AND glitter! Musicalhouses shows you her favourite China Glaze's Prismatic Collection swatches!

Phyrra shares with you Darling Girl's Only One Can Win Hunger Games collection.

Have you heard about the new Sleek Blush by 3 Palettes yet? Midnight Violets has all the details, swatches, comparisons and looks.

Tracy at Beauty Reflections cracks open her special occasion makeup bag and uses her Hourglass Aura Cheek Stain.

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Country Superstars and still-in-love couple Faith Hill and Tim McGraw recently launched their fragrance for couples, SOUL2SOUL. Visit Prime Beauty and enter to win a set for you and your man!

Claire is giving away a £50 Boux Avenue Gift Card over at The Beauty Scoop!

Yadah Skincare Angel Liptint Swatch and Review

Yadah is a Korean brand with a reasonable price point. Although the proper brand name is Yadah Skincare, the brand also has makeup items. I was intrigued by the Yadah Angel Liptint, which looked on first sight to be a dupe of Benefit's famous Benetint. I actually happened to get it in my January Vanity Trove, so I thought I'd do a little post on this for you guys!

The Yadah Angel Liptint is packaged in a small little tube with a tiny doefoot applicator. The liptint is supposed to be used on both your lips and cheeks, but I'd personally use my tube for either one or the other, because it doesn't exactly have the most sanitary packaging. I mean, can you imagine using the same applicator for both your lips and cheeks? Eww.

Anyway, packaging aside, I don't have too many bad things to say for the Yadah Liptint. For one, it smells really nice, with a sweet, fruity scent. If you don't like heavily scented products, then I guess that wouldn't be a good thing, but I actually like the scent.

Other than the scent, the Yadah Angel Liptint isn't exactly a dupe for Benefit's Benetint. For one, it's more gel-like in consistency, whereas Benetint is like water. Secondly, the colour is different. Benetint is more of a cool-toned rosy red, while the Yadah Liptint is more warm-leaning. You can see it's a more orangey kind of red in the photos below.



I personally prefer using the Liptint on my lips rather than my cheeks, so here's a swatch of the Yadah Liptint is on my lips. It's actually pretty good as a liptint. It lasted on and stayed put until I started eating and drinking, which is pretty good for a liptint.



All in all, I quite like the Yada Liptint as a lip tint, but I wouldn't want to use it on my cheeks, because the sweet smell just kind of puts me off using it on sensitive areas of my skin. If you're inclined to try, though, I don't think there would be anything wrong with it. As a liptint, I think this is good.

Purple, Orange, and Green Eye Look: Secondary Colours!

So the other day I was on Twitter, that time-wasting website that makes my morning commute to work seem shorter somehow, and I noticed that one of my Twitter and blogger friends, Jamilla Camel, mentioned that purple and oraange were two of her favourite colours. Immediately, I had one of those "bing!" moments, and I decided to do a purple and orang eye look. Of course, because purple and orange go so well together, don't they?

Well, turns out, although they're totally clashing in every way possible, they both have one thing in common - they're both secondary colours on the colour wheel! So I decided to add in the last remaining secondary colour, green, into the mix. Because it wouldn't be nice to leave the last one out!

Source

So, you must be wondering what this bunch of colours looks like on the eye. Not that bad, actually, if you keep in mind that they aren't exactly supposed to "go" together.

For this look, I think I picked out all the colours from my Sleek Curacao Palette (I can't remember exactly, I apologize). I used the green on the inner corner of the eye, the orange in the lid, and the purple at the outer corner and the contour area.



I think the hard part was trying to blend out the colours without them looking muddy. I think I did an okay job at that. I have to say, I really love how this looks, although I didn't wear it out. It was just something I wanted to try out, just because of Jamilla's tweet!



So there you have it, my eye look inspired by a single tweet! Isn't it great how inspiration can just strike anywhere sometimes and lead you to do all sorts of things?

Vanity Trove: Two Boxes = Double the Fun for March!

Vanity Trove, the Singapore-based beauty box subscription service, has not one but TWO boxes for Spring! One box features skincare, while the other features beauty products in line with this season's Spring trends.

With two boxes, each targeted to a specific need - beauty or skincare - you can pick which box you'd like! Or if you can't decide, or just want to get both boxes, then Vanity Trove will reward you with 10 Trove credits! Usually Vanity Trove's referral system is such that each referral to a new suscriber gets 5 credits, and 25 credits gets you a free box, so the 10 credits you would get just by buying the boxes is pretty decent...it's like 40% of the way to a free box! Even if you only use one box, the other one is easily gift-able, since the boxes are large, pretty, and very presentable as gifts.

Lastly, for those getting both boxes, Vanity Trove will be giving some lucky suscribers tickets to catch "The Vow" (check out the movie trailer), starting Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams in a campaign for Independent Women's Day. Hence the "Get Lucky" tagline for March - not only do you get free credits, you could win movie tickets!

Anyway, since this is a great deal, I thought I'd share it with all of you. if you want to find out more about Vanity Trove's double surprise for March, head to their website now!

China Glaze Prismatic Swatches: Liquid Crystal, Optical Illusion, Full Spectrum

China Glaze's Prismatic Collection has been making waves in the nail polish blogosphere, and horrible consumer that I am, I totally jumped on the Prismatic bandwagon! Last week, I happened to chance upon some China Glaze nail polishes being sold in person! They were on sale too, for SGD$8 a pop. That's just a bit more than US$6...not really cheap by US standards, but then again China Glaze is generally pretty overpriced over here. Anyway, I bought three colours from the Prismatic Collection - Full Spectrum, Liquid Crystal and Optical Illusion, so I thought I'd share swatches of these with you!

The first thing I noticed about this is that they're basically various sizes and types of glitter in a sheer-tinted base. So they're not holographic (I thought they would be at first, but they're not, and I'm cool with it), but they're still some really awesome colours, and pretty unique, too. Short of ordering from niche brands like Lynnderella, this is probably the closest we'll ever get to the mass-market multi-glitter, multi-colour, duochrome-y types of polishes that are so rare in polish-land. The second thing I noticed about these is that the glitter is pretty dense, so you can get full coverage with these in around 3 coats.



Now that I've gone on about these and how awesome they are, let's move on to swatches! First up, we have Full Spectrum. This is a pink base, and has large round multi-coloured glitter, as well as finer glitter bits. I got full opacity in 3 coats. I've swatched two of the fingers over black, just so you can see what it looks like over a dark colour as well.



L-R: Full Spectrum, Full Spectrum over black, Full Spectrum, Full Spectrum over black

The next one is Liquid Crystal. This has a slight blue-purple duochrome in the base colour, and it sure looks stunning in the bottle. What, duochrome AND glitter in the same colour? I could kiss whoever thought of this colour! This is a gorgeous colour on, too, you see a bit of the duochrome, as well as the bursts of colour provided by the variously-sized glitter. Pure love, this is.



L-R: Liquid Crystal, Liquid Crystal over black, Liquid Crystal, Liquid Crystal over black

Lastly, I also bought Optical Illusion, which is a gorgeous green-teal base. I love this colour, it's a very beautiful shade of bejewelled green, with further glitter added inside. Once again, I've swatched this both alone and over black.



L-R: Optical Illusion, Optical Illusion over Black, Optical Illusion, Optical Illusion over black

These look great alone, but I also think they would be amazing over other colours as a topper. I also think that layering a glitter over another would also be amazing. I know some people were a little underwhelmed by these because they weren't holographic (and if they were, I agree it would have been so much more amazing), but these are unique to my collection, and I'm happy as they're right up my alley. I can't wait to try these out more, and see what they can do!

Behind the Scenes of Blogging: Drop of Pink's Blog of the Week

Yours truly is Blog of the Week on Drop of Pink, a lifestyle and beauty website. When I was informed about the news, I was told that I was given this award because the site had received a lot of messages from readers who wanted this blog to be featured. I wasn't aware of this Blog of the Week feature, so thank you to whoever thought of this humble blog! I may not know who you are, but I really and truly appreciate the gesture!

Anyway, I don't usually toot my horn about features or awards, because I know that you guys come to read about makeup and beauty posts, not to hear me brag (and I have a page for that). But I really wanted to share this with all of you because unlike other "You're Featured"-type posts, I got to voice my thoughts in freeform! For most features, they tend to just put you in a list, write about you, or else interview you with a list of questions (and then sometimes butcher your answers). But for Drop of Pink's Blog of the Week feature, I was given free rein to speak my mind. So instead of doing the generic "I started my blog 3 years ago, when I got into makeup and was looking for a job"-type background story that you usually see in such features, I took the opportunity to really bring you guys behind the scenes!

On my blog, I make it a point to remain professional (i.e. drama-free, no name-calling/dissing etc.) and honest (i.e. If I don't like it, I'm not going to give it a good review). So the juicy behind-the-scenes stuff wouldn't really make it online, except through features like this that let me do whatever I like. So if you've ever wondered what it's really like trying to be an honest blogger in a competitive blogosphere, what it's like dealing with the occasional PR person who demands that you say only good things about their product, and my general philosophy towards blogging, then check out this week's Drop of Pink Blog of the Week feature - I'm guarantee you'll find it entertaining!

Enavose Black Tea Quench Mask: Light but Intense Moisture

Enavose is a skincare brand hailing from Switzerland, and has only in recent years hit Singaporean shores. The brand promotes itself as being a natural brand with products formulated bases on research.

I'm always partial to European skincare brands - the best ones have excellent quality that is hard to replicate elsewhere. And unlike American or Asian skincare brands, which can be very trend-driven and tend to be susceptible to jumping on the bandwagon (e.g. "Facial foams/cleansing oils/sleeping masks are popular now! Let's quickly jump on the bandwagon and launch one now!"), the best skincare brands don't. In this sense, I have a lot of respect for Enavose. Their product lineup makes sense, is clear in its ingredients and benefits (none of that "7-products-in-1" nonsense), and doesn't have any trend-driven elements. It comes across as a sensible brand.



In particular, the Black Tea mask, which I tried, was a pleasant surprise. The packaging was simple yet practical. When I first saw the jar packaging, I thought, "Oh, yet another unhygienically packed mask in a jar." But the opening actually has a mechanism whereby a bit of the mask is dispensed if you press on the inner lid, so that's pretty cool. Turns out, it's actually a jar with an airless mechanism, so your product isn't tainted by air once open. I really think this is a nice touch - it really shows the level of attention to detail the brand has.



Enavose claims that the mask will revitalize dry skin in 15 minutes, and has encapsulation technology which allows for time-release of their key ingredient (glacial water). Other active ingredients include sweet black tea, extracts of arnica montana flower, lecithin, and a yeast-derived ingredient, which the company has branded Envacel. When I saw the "Envacel" on the press release, I was like, "Pfft, the marketing guys have been making up fancy names for common ingredients to generate more buzz". You know, like those companies claiming their products have "cellular repair matrix" or "nano-nutrient complex" or "pico-nutrients" (before you roll your eyes at my examples, the last one is real). I mean, those are just marketing names, they aren't actually proper ingredient names (e.g. cyclomethicone, isopropyl alcohol, cocoamidopropyl betaine, etc). This type of marketing usually makes me a little more skeptical of a product. But I was pleasantly surprised - this actually seems to work.



The mask itself is a lightweight, white gel that applies clear. It doesn't have any scent, which I'm grateful for. On my skin, it feels light, and doesn't irritate my skin. After leaving it on for 10 - 15 minutes, you wash off the mask with warm water. I don't know if I'm imagining things, but I feel like my skin is smoother and more moisturized after use. I also like that it washes off easily without leaving any residue behind. To be honest, this performed beyond my expectations. Needless to say, I had to eat my words, and admit that this worked.



All in all, I really like the Enavose Black Tea Mask. It works, is of good quality, and is easy to use. And while you know I can be mean and I like to have a good laugh at the expense of the marketing guys (to be fair, I'm an equal-opportunity offender in that respect), I really do appreciate the attention to detail and quality that Enavose has put in. And for the price point, although it's not exactly drugstore-cheap, I think the quality is worth it. I even daresay that at this price range, most brands may not even be as good in quality as Enavose.

Enavose has counters at Suntec City Mall (Tower 3) and Tangs, VivoCity Beauty Hall, and the mask costs S$59.90. They also have an Enavose Facebook Page that you can check out for other products.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. Obviously, if I can be mean and snarky and make fun of some of the brand's marketing efforts, I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)