Chinese New Year Nails: Make Up Store Doreen

Chinese New Year has arrived, but unlike previous years, I haven't managed to do any CNY nail art! But, I didn't let my nails go bare! I painted them with Make Up Store Doreen!

Chinese New Year Nails: Make Up Store Doreen, which I finally decided not to ignore.

Isn't that pretty? I actually bought Doreen a long time ago (gosh, it sounds like I'm buying a person, but I'm not), and used it a couple of times last year, and then forgot about it. But, with Chinese New Year around the corner, I was rummaging through my nail polish stash, and I decided that this beauty needed another go! I mean, CNY is the perfect season for red, right?

Happy Chinese New Year!

Wishing you all a very Happy Year of the Horse! 新年快乐! I don't have any exciting posts for today, so it's just me wishing you all the best! 恭喜发财, 万事如意, and 心想事成!

Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快乐!

In case you're curious what products are in this post (I just randomly assembled a bunch of red nail polishes and lipsticks), the names are after the jump :)

Chinese New Year Eyeshadow: Gold and Brown (Althought it Looks Orange)

Since Chinese New Year is coming up, I thought I'd show you guys a look I created with one of my favourite palettes of the moment, the MUFE Arty Blossom Palette, which I've reviewed and swatched before.

My Chinese New Year eyeshadow! A wearable, but still festive eye look.

This look was just three colours and some simple blending. Easy-peasy, and it doesn't look too bad either, given my small eyelid space and general lack of makeup skillz, haha!

Giveaway: Japanese Skincare and Makeup with Juju Aquamoist, Forme, and Hurry Harry!

Yes, you read the title right, it is a GIVEAWAY! And it's open internationally! If you remember my blogpost which reviewed products from Juju Aquamoist, Forme, and Hurry Harry, I mentioned that I would be doing a giveaway? Well, since it's my birthday month, the giveaway is here (gotta get it started before the month is over)! So, happy birthday to me (OMG I'm one year older! *cue ominous music*), and good luck to you!

Giveaway: Juju Aquamoist Whitening C Cream H, Juju Aquamoist Whitening C Essence H, Forme Acne Care Concealer for Strawberry Nose, and Hurry Harry Collagen Serum Bar.

Three winners will stand a chance to win a set of all the products featured in my previous blogpost, so this means that you can win all of the above! There will be 3 winners, 2 Singapore residents, and 1 international. So no matter where you're from, you stand a chance! The giveaway will be open for a month, so it will close on 23/2/2014, 2359h, Singapore time (google "time in Singapore" if you need to check)! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(Product was provided by company for the giveaway. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Juju Aquamoist Whitening, Forme Acne Care Concealer, and Hurry Harry Collagen Serum Bar Review

As you may know, Beautydirect has been recently bringing in some cult Japanese brand products into Singapore, including some very niche, can't-find-anywhere-else type products. If you visit their website, they carry a lot of brands, but here are some of my personal picks from the range they carry!

My four product picks from Beautydirect's stable: Juju Aquamoist Whitening C Cream H, Juju Aquamoist Whitening C Essence H, Forme Acne Care Concealer for Strawberry Nose, and Hurry Harry Collagen Serum Bar.

I wanted to sample a range of products they carried, so for this review, I picked two products from the Juju Aquamoist Whitening C range, which as the name suggests, is a range meant to help with skin whitening (always a popular concern in Asia). The two products are the Juju Aquamoist Whitening C Cream H and the Juju Aquamoist Whitening C Essence H. I also picked a Forme Acne Care Concealer for Strawberry Nose - which means that it's a concealer for noses with huge, enlarged pores and uneven surface, like a strawberry. And lastly, I picked Hurry Harry Collagen Serum Bar, which is actually an eye product. I thought this was a good distribution between brands, as well as between "spot" products (e.g. for nose or eye only) and entire-face products.

And as you might expect, my review process is a little more involved, because I go through the ingredients lists of the product in question, as well as evaluate the product based on my own experience with it. Since there are not one, or two, but four products here, you can imagine the post will be quite long. So if you're all ready, let's get started!

Illamasqua Velocity: Pantone Colour of the Year Radiant Orchid-ish Nails!

In a previous post, I've been going through my Pantone Colour of the Year Radiant Orchid makeup items in my stash. And this time round, I'm looking at another nail polish shade - this time it's Illamasqua Velocity!

Illamasqua Velocity: A Pantone Colour of the Year-ish colour!

I already have quite a few Illamasqua nail polishes, but I'm always game for more because the quality is pretty darn good. I've never come across a dud yet, and every Illamasqua nail polish I've tried has been fantastic.

Vichy Normaderm Review: Hylauspot, Active Care, Cleanser, Toner

Vichy has launched their Normaderm range of skincare products, which is meant to help acne-prone skin (aka my type of skin!). It consists of four products, namely the Normaderm Deep Cleansing Purifying Gel, Normaderm Imperfection Prone Skin Lotion, Normaderm Tri-Active Anti-Imperfection Active Care, and Normaderm Hylauspot, covering all your skincare bases: cleanse, tone, moisturize, and spot-treat. As you can imagine, I was pretty excited to try this range. And after having used it for a few months (because I'm sometimes slow on reviews like that), I have to say I think the range is pretty effective at what it claims to do.

Vichy Normaderm: Hylauspot, Active Care, Cleanser, and Toner

In general, I found the entire range to be pleasing to use. In general, the products, sink into skin and absorb fast, and leaves skin feeling clean and dry but not stretched out or dehydrated. The fact that efficacious ingredients like glycolic acid and salicylic acid are included really help two - those two are some of my favourite ingredients ever for my acne-prone, oily skin bits. The range also strikes a good balance, using glycolic and salicylic acid to target acne and oily skin, but yet at the same time having rather moisturizing formulas. And, the packaging is pretty sensible as well - all plastic flip tops and pumps, or squeeze tubes or other form of tubes. You .

But now, let's go into each of the products one by one, and you'll see what I think about the individual products!

Travel-Friendly Makeup and Skincare: What I Brought for my Holiday

If you've been following me on Instagram or on Twitter, you'll know that I recently went to the north part of Vietnam for a holiday! And I figure that perhaps some of you may want to know what beauty items did I pack along with me for my week-long holiday?

Travel-Friendly Makeup and Skincare: Here's what I packed!

The weather in Vietnam was good, ranging from just above 10 degrees Celsius in the mountainous areas at night, to a good mid-20s degrees Celsius in the city areas during the day. We expected it to rain when we were in the hilly paddy areas of Sa Pa at some point, but it didn't, so that was great! The next thing you know, though, it started snowing (a rare occurrence for that area) once we left the area, so there you go, the weather can be unpredicatable. But for the most part I brought along my usual staples when it came to skincare. And for makeup, it was a mix of usual staples, as well a "cheap stuff that I won't cry over if it gets lost/gets broken/get banged up and that does not suck". So without further ado, here you go!

Pretty Serious Cosmetics Atomic Brain: Pantone Radiant Orchid with Duochrome!

Since my last post on stuff in my stash that was similar to Radiant Orchid, Pantone's Colour of the Year for 2014, I've decided that I should bust out some of those products and actually use them!

Pretty Serious Cosmetics Atomic Brain: Look at all that duochrome!

One of these is part of my slow downward spiral as I continue to throw the contents of my wallet into this black hole called "indie nail polishes", but my, oh my, the spiral sure is pretty! For today's example, let's take a look at Pretty Serious Cosmetic's Atomic Brain. Isn't it so pretty?

Buy Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate And Help Action For AIDS Singapore!

This January, Kiehl's Singapore is partnering with Action for AIDS (AfA), a non-governmental organization (NGO) committed to AIDS prevention, advocacy and support. Don't you just love it when companies do their bit for charity, too? And the good news is, there are not one but two ways you can support Kiehl's efforts!

For each bottle of Midnight Recovery Concentrate you buy, $5 will be donated to AfA.

The first way is to buy a bottle of Midnight Recovery Concentrate. From now to end of January, for every bottle of Special Edition Midnight Recovery Concentrate sold, SGD$5.00 will be donated to AfA. As a token of appreciation, each customer will receive a limited edition key charm. The funds collected will go towards helping AfA's Pregnant Mothers' Fund where work is done to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and assist diagnosed HIV-positive children to seek immediate medical treatment. The Midnight Recovery Concentrate is pretty darn awesome, and I've blogged about the Midnight Recovery Concentrate before, so you can check my review out if you so wish!

Also, you can upload photos of smiling kids to Instagram with the hashtag #SmileKiehlsSG to donate $0.50 per upload!

The second way is to join in Kiehl's Instagram contest! In this campaign, Kiehl's would like to collect photos of "smiles from children". For every photo submission to Instagram with the hashtag #SmileKiehlsSG from today till 31st January 2014, SGD$0.50 will be donated to the AfA. You might also stand a chance to win a bottle of Midnight Recovery Concentrate, with the limited edition key charm!

So those are your two ways to do your bit for charity, either by stocking up on your favourite Midnight Recovery Concentrate, or by simply Instagramming!

MUFE Arty Blossom Palette Swatches: Spring 2014's Romantic and Fun Eyeshadow Colours

MUFE's Arty Blossom Eyeshadow Palette, part of its Spring 2013 collection, will be launched in Singapore on 9 January. I do believe this is one of the first few products for Spring we are getting in here! Of course, Singapore is pretty much hot and humid all year round, so I suspect that for us "Spring" is really more synonymous with "Chinese New Year" than any real turn in the weather. Which is why I'm more than happy to welcome the Arty Blossom Palette as my first Palette for Spring!

MUFE Arty Blossom Palette: Limited Edition for Spring 2014

It's too early to say this is my favourite eyeshadow palette this season, since truthfully this is the only Spring eyeshadow palette I've tried, but the MUFE Arty Blossom Palette certainly sets the bar high. You guys know I've always been a fan of MUFE due to their great range of colours and consistent quality, and this palette is a win in multiple ways. It is pretty and feminine, in contrast to last year's Technicolor palette, which was bolder and brighter, but still lots of fun.

Beauty Blog Link Love

The holidays may be over, but winter scents are still in full swing. Find out what all-natural, smokey-forest perfume Rae's been loving over at theNotice!

Are they taking the hobbits to Isengard? Head over to Makeup Morsels to find out which fancy perfume bottle sparks fond memories of the Fellowship. Bonus: it smells really good.

Want clear skin for 2014? Jenn from Spiced Beauty shares her favourite electric cleansing brushr for the new year!

Jenny features a step-by-step tutorial for a holiday season silver khaki eye onMy Funny Valentine

Phyrra shares her Best Beauty Products of 2013!

It's all wintery romance with Musicalhouses as she explores the Kiehl's Patchouli and Fresh Rose Aromatic Blends line!

Beauty Reflections has found the perfect violet lipstick in MAC Heroine Lipstick! Are YOU brave enough to be Heroine Chic too?

BB/CC Cushion vs BB/CC Cream: What's the Difference?

BB cushion and CC cushion products have been all the rage among Asian (primarily Korean) makeup brands in the past few months, sometimes referred to collectively as "air cushions" by some blogs I read. If this sounds like a BB cream or CC cream (not that there is very much difference between the two - in a previous post I had done an ingredients analysis of BB and CC creams and found virtually no difference between them. And later on I had also done an ingredients analysis on a DD cream, and again found no difference), it's because BB and CC cushions are like BB/CC creams: the formula is the same, but instead of packaging it in a tube, it is now in compact form. Inside the compact is a sponge soaked with BB or CC cream, which forms a "reservoir" of product. To apply the product, you can use a polyurethane puff that comes with the compact. And off you go - a brand new product to sell to the masses who otherwise wouldn't buy another BB cream because they have 8 tubes from different brands sitting around at home. You may have seen the ads for products like the Laneige Snow BB Soothing Cushion and the Etude House Precious Mineral Any Cushion. These are two of the most popular examples, but there are many others out there, as my home-cooked graphic illustrates:

Now, I recognize that a change in packaging and application sometimes may be appealing enough to the consumer to warrant a purchase, and I'll get into that later. But given all the advertising hype, I wanted to ask the question: from a formulation standpoint, is there really any difference between BB cushions and plain ol' BB creams?