Kiehl's Ultra Light Daily UV Defense Review: SPF 50 PA+++ Feels So Lightweight

Since the weather has been heating up, I thought a review of the Kiehl's Ultra Light Daily UV Defense SPF50 PA+++ sunscreen is in order. After all, sunscreen is probably the most effective product out there at preventing aging, because it helps to prevent the damage done to your skin with years of cumulative sun exposure!

Kiehl's Ultra Light Daily UV Defense SPF50 PA+++: Perfect for the hot weather!

Usually when evaluating sunscreens, we want to look at the combination of sunscreen filters, as well as how photostable this mix of filters looks to be (if your read my sunscreen tips blogpost, you'll know that sunscreen filters can interact with and degrade each other, and if that happens, then your sun protection will fade over time). So let's take a look at what the Kiel's Ultra Light Daily UV Defense has to offer, and see how it stacks up!

Etude House Precious Mineral Magic Any Cushion Review and Swatches

Etude House's latest product, the Precious Mineral Magic Any Cushion, is already out in Korea, and is coming to Singapore in May (so that's just a few days away!). If you saw my post on the Etude House Magic Any Cushion launch event, then you'll already know what these are, but if not, let me just do a brief recap for you. Unlike previous BB cushions, which are BB creams in cushion form, the Magic Any Cushion is really more of a colour-corrector, a primer, if you will, that can be worn alone, or under whatever other base makeup you want (e.g. foundation, BB cream, etc).

Etude House Precious Mineral Magic Any Cushion

The Magic Any Cushion comes with great expectations - apparently 200,000 Magic Any Cushions were sold within the first few days of its launch in Korea, and I expect that it will do just as well in Singapore, too.

PERFECT Black Eyeliner Pen Review and Swatches

I was recently introduced to PERFECT, a fairly new local beauty brand. Yes, PERFECT is the brand name. Right now, PERFECT only has one product, and that is a black pen eyeliner. I always love trying out new brands and products, so I was happy to review this.

PERFECT Black Eyeliner Pen

The PERFECT Black Eyeliner Pen comes with quite high expectations, I'll admit. After all, right there on the packaging, it touts its own major features of being quick drying, smudgeproof, waterproof, and well, having a perfect tip. So, naturally, I had to put it to the test!

Etude House Color Lips Fit Review and Swatches

Etude House, the Korean brand known for its girly, affordable yet quality products, has launched their newest line of lip products, the Color Lips Fit. This is a lip tint type of product, which made me happy, because after having been to Korea I realized how popular these seem to be and am now officially a huge fan of liptints. It is, however, slightly different from your typical liptint.

Etude House Color Lips Fit: Bright, pigmented, yet lightweight colour.

The Color Lips Fit are touted to deliver a bright blast of colour, yet feel weightless and non-sticky on the lips. There are a range of seven colours, all bright shades, from bright reds to pinks oranges to beiges (yes there is a bright beiges) and a top coat. The topcoat is useful because the shades dry matte. I have two colours, PK003 Fantasy Fit Pink, and BE101 See-Thru Fit Beige, as well as the topcoat, to review.

MUFE Blush & Highlighter Brushes Review & Comparison: Buffer Blush Brush #152 and Medium Highlighter Brush #154

Along with the MUFE HD Second Skin Cream Blush that was launched recently, MUFE has also launched a set of makeup brushes, which I thought deserved their own post, because these are some really standout makeup brushes!

MUFE Buffer Blush Brush #152 and Medium Highlighter Brush #154

One of the really standout features of these new brushes are how soft they are. When I heard that these were made of synthetic bristles, my first thought was, "Aren't all these synthetic-bristled brushes the same? They all feel the same to me!" And I learned that these are made from a different material. Your regular synthetic-bristled brush is made out of nylon fbers, but these are made out of a special type of material that's proprietary (so although the science geek in me was trying to annoy the PR staff into telling me what the material was, it turns out that they didn't know exactly either) and unique to MUFE at the moment. So these brushes are indeed something unique!


MUFE's new brushes utilize a new synthetic fiber that makes their brushes softer than the typical synthetic brush.
In order to test this out, I thought there was only one fair way to do this - and that is to bring out all my synthetic-bristle blush and highlighter brushes, and do a brush-on-brush comparison, to see which one was really the softest! And after much digging around my stash, I got these. I included the Hakuhodo Kokutan Blush Brush S because it was partially synthetic (a mix of synthetic bristles and blue squirrel hair):


Almost all my synthetic-haired blush and highlighter brushes, for the sake of comparison!

TheBalm Mary Lou-Manizer Swatches: Quick Swatch

Today's post is just a quick swatch of TheBalm's Mary Lou-Manizer, the beige/champagne shimmery highlighter that's been getting lots of raves from everyone. I happened to be in the store, looking around, when this caught my eye, and I was entertaining that age-old question that plagues every beauty blogger, "To buy or not to buy". (Believe me, after nearly 5 years as a beauty blogger, saying no to that question isn't any easier than it was when I began...Darn the slick marketing departments of beauty brands.) Of course being the diligent beauty blogger that I am I also took photos for my blog.

TheBalm Mary Lou-Manizer Swatch

As you might know, Mary Lou-Manizer (luminizer, haha) is a champagne shade that is actually quite shimmery. I made two swatches, a heavy one and a light one. The colour is really pretty, and overall the product gives off a gold sheen on the face. I did notice however that in direct strong sunlight this looks a little sparkly...As in you can see the sunlight bouncing off the individual sparkles in this product. I'm not too sure how I feel about that, sparkly has always been a thing a good illuminator should avoid, in my opinion. In all other lights (indoors, shaded sunlight) this seemed fine. These swatches are taken indoors so they look a little more metallic and less illuminating, but they don't look that bad in most other lights. And I imagine if in real life this is applied with a fan or stippling brush, it will be just a hint of shimmer and sparkle.

In the end, I didn't get these because one of the Etude House highlighters I got in Korea lately, the Face Designing Brightener in #1 Wannabe Face, kind-of-sort-of reminded me of this (also another beige-y highlighter with shimmer) so although I'm pretty sure they're probably not dupes, I didn't buy it. So I escaped for today. (Who knows when I might cave, or what I might cave in on next, though!)

Etude House Magic Any Cushion Launch: K-Beauty Travel Highlights

If you've seen the first post on my Etude House K-beauty trip, you'll have seen me blogging about the awesome flagship store in MyeongDong! Today, I wanted to show you another key highlight of my K-beauty (Korean beauty, for those not yet initiated into the abbreviation) trip: the launch of the Magic Any Cushion! For those who aren't familiar with the product, one of Etude House's recently popular products is the BB cushion (another product popular among Korean beauty brands right now), and Etude House already has one BB cushion on the market. The Magic Any Cushion follows the BB cushion trend, but it's not another BB cushion.

Etude House Magic Any Cushion Launch Event: Lovely decor at the place

The Magic Any Cushion, which comes in three shades, are more akin to primers or colour correctors than they are to BB creams or BB cushions. In this respect, Etude House is the first K-beauty brand to launch such a product. I was told that when it launched in Korea, there were 200,000 Magic Any Cushions sold within the first few days of its launch. So the product comes with a lot of expectations!


Etude House Magic Any Cushion: The three shades to be launched!

MUFE HD Second Skin Cream Blush Review

MUFE's HD Second Skin Cream Blushes have been launched already, and I've finally managed to get down and give you guys a review! It's definitely one of my favourite cream blushes at the moment, and for a variety of reasons.

MUFE Second Skin Cream Blushes

I've already swatches of the MUFE Cream Blush, so I won't re-swatch them, but I'll just go a bit more into detail about how I use them, and what I think of them.


MUFE Second Skin Cream Blushes