Etude House Haul: Highlighter, Lip Tint, Nail Sticker and Steel Balls!

You guys know by now that I own quite a number of things from Etude House, and that I like their makeup and nail polish products. I do tend to have a soft spot for some of their products, so when there is a sale, I usually can't help buying a few things! This time, I was pretty good with the self-control and walked away with just a few items!

My little Etude House Haul - it was all on sale too!

I got a liptint, a highlighter, some nail stickers, and steel balls! And I think I got these for under $20, so that made me doubly happy too!

Guerlain Ecrin 4 Couleurs for Fall 2014: Kiss Kiss Collection

Guerlain's Kiss Kiss Collection for Fall 2014 consists of three new Ecrin 4 Couleurs eyeshadow palettes, and being the shameless swatcher that I am, I have swatched them for you! The Ecrin 4 Couleurs consists of Les Sables (browns and warm beiges), Les Violines (purple shades) and Les Aciers (smokey greys). Looks like the most popular looks - neutral and wearable, subtle colour, and deep smokey - have all been touched on for this Fall season!

Guerlain Ecrin 4 Couleurs for Fall 2014: Kiss Kiss Collection

I know the swatches aren't perfect, but they were taken in indoor lighting in the evening at an event, which kind of messed up with the swatch colours. I've tried to edit the colours to make them look better, but this was the best I can do.

Kiehl's Hydro-Plumping Re-Texturizing Serum Concentrate Review and Ingredients Analysis

Kiehl's Hydro-Plumping Re-Texturizing Serum Concentrate is their latest product launched this year, and already this has been getting a few raves online. Kiehl's bills this as a serum which "utilizes next generation liquid-to-serum technology to intensively hydrate skin's deepest surface layers", and "correct the signs of age-related dehydration". So naturally, with plump, moist-looking skin a popular thing here in Asia (and elsewhere in the world), this product is definitely bound to catch the attention of any

Kiehl's Hydro-Plumping Re-Texturizing Serum Concentrate: The latest skincare product from the company!

One of the things that the Hydro-Plumping Re-Texturizing Serum Concentrate boasts is 15% glycerin, along with Shiso Leaf Extract. I know what you're thinking: "Musicalhouses, this sounds fantastic, but why is this advertised as such a new product when glycerin is already in virtually all the moisturizers out there? And 15% doesn't sound all that high to me, is it really a significant percentage to advertise?" And that my friend, would be a very intelligent question to ask indeed, if you did indeed ask it (if you did - you have awesome critical thinking skills, yay!). So I thought I'd start off by exploring what exactly is so new about the Hydro-Plumping Re-Texturizing Serum Concentrate? And of course, to do that, we start off at the ingredients list.


Kiehl's Hydro-Plumping Re-Texturizing Serum Concentrate: With 15% glycerin to hydrate skin.

Benefit Majorette Booster Blush Review and Swatches

Benefit's Majorette Booster Blush, its first-ever cream blush offering, has been making waves online, as people have been raving about it. And if you've seen this Instagram post of mine, as well as this post, you'll know that I've been testing it out and have been meaning to write a review on it for awhile! Now that it's finally Friday and I can settle into the weekend, here's the review!

Benefit Majorette Booster Blush: A cream-to-powder blush

The Majorette Booster Blush is billed as a "cream-to-powder" blush that can be worn either by itself as a blush, or under a powder blush of your own choice. Benefit also describes it as having a peach-pink colour, but the colour appeared more like a nice wearable coral to my eye.


Benefit Majorette Booster Blush: With majorette-inspired packaging!
Like almost all the Benefit Cosmetics products I've come across, Majorette is just full of quirky girly cuteness, packaging-wise. From the marching, baton-twirling inspired name to the little drum-like packaging, it's cute from the moment you open it.

Etude House Wonder Pore Freshner Review and Ingredients Analysis

Etude House's new Wonder Pore Freshner (yes it is actually spelled wrongly, as in "Freshner" not "Freshener" (which would be the correct spelling) - don't ask me why!), billed as an "Ultra Pore Solution" with "10-in-1 benefits" already seems to be getting a lot of interest from people. Etude House claims the new Wonder Pore Freshner is an improvement over Etude House's existing Wonder Pore Product (also called Wonder Pore Freshner, but with a mere 7 in 1 benefits instead of 10), and the moment I posted about this on my Instagram and Facebook, I immediately got comments on both sites asking me how it was, and how did it compare to the original Wonder Pore Freshner. So I suppose there's no better time for a review than now!

Etude House Wonder Pore Freshner: New and improved with 10-in-1 benefits

Etude House's Wonder Pore Freshner (gosh I just want to type "Freshener" sooo badly throughout this review!) comes with pretty high expectations which the product sets for itself. The blurb on the back of the product claims that it is a "total solution product", and there's another line that says, "I'm the Wonder Woman for Your Pores, More Powerful!" (again, this is me quoting verbatim from the product - I'm assuming something got lost in translation, but you get the point). You're supposed to use this much like a toner - after cleansing, but before other skincare products, you apply this to a cotton pad (Etude House also sells this in sets with a special type of cotton pad that has holes on the surface to better exfoliate the skin), and you do this twice a day, and it's supposed to help your pores.


Etude House Wonder Pore Freshner: Not sure if you can see it from here, but the cotton pads have special holes in them to aid exfoliation
Sounds like a lot for one product, right? I guess if it even does half of what it says it will, it would be quite an interesting product. But let's take a deeper look at the product itself, and see if it lives up to the hype!

DKNY MYNY Perfume Review: A Fragrance For Fall

DKNY has recently released their new fragrance, MYNY (My New York, if you're wondering what it means), and as the name implies, this is meant to celebrate all things New York - the eclectic, unique individuals and the urban, carefree, spirited vibe of the city. I suppose it makes sense, since DKNY is itself a New York-based brand.

DKNY MYNY Perfume: Inspired by New York and its people

The bottle for DKNY is pretty cool tool, with a heart shaped bottle top. You can also see that the bottle has a very interesting cubic design on the top - these are supposed to represent the skyscraper-filled skyline of New York. DKNY says that the MYNY perfume consists of top notes of raspberry, galbanum, and pink pepper, middle notes of Egyptian jasmine, freesia, and orris, and bottom notes of patchouli heart, vanilla absolute, creamy musks, and ambergris. It was billed as a modern patchouli by some of the PR people I met when I learnt about the perfume.


DKNY MYNY Perfume: Even the bottle is inspired by the New York skyline!

Guerlain Kiss Kiss Lipstick Swatches: Re-launched, and Still as Gorgeous

Guerlain's Kiss Kiss Lipstick was one of the brand's iconic products with its cube-like packaging, and now for Fall 2014, the brand has re-launched these! There are 25 shades in all, and during the Guerlain X StyleXStyle workshop that I attended (where I got to meet local celebrity Sharon Au and the famed local makeup artist Andy Lee), I managed to shamlessly swatch almost all the shades - I swatched a total of 23 out of 25 shades, so you should thank me for the effort! That said, I don't know if I'm ever going to be invited to another Guerlain or StyleXStyle workshop again - I hope the Guerlain and/or StyleXStyle folks weren't too super-horrified at my maniacal arm-swatching, haha. Ah well, I simply couldn't pass up the chance to swatch these babies!

Guerlain Kiss Kiss Lipstick: Yes, I shamelessly swatched all these!

The lighting was indoors, so it wasn't the best, so a lot of these look way better in person. Nevertheless, the quality of the lipsticks is pretty good. All are nice and moisturizing, and the pigmentation is also great - a couple of coats gives you full opacity for almost all the shades. The finish varies depending on the shade - some are cream finishes, some have slight shimmer, some have glitter you can feel when you wear the lipstick, but nothing too sparkly or disco-ball-y. Alright, enough of my rambling, let's get to the swatches proper!

Stuff I Used Up! Skincare, Makeup and Nail Empties

I think I've been pretty good this time round! I've actually used up a whole lot of stuff with this round of empties! There are 6 products in here, so perhaps numbers-wise this isn't the most, but 3 of them are tubs of moisturizers, so I get some credit, right?

As an aside, though, I've always felt like the "empties" post is perhaps something only the beauty junkie can appreciate. I mean, normal people with like, 3 eyeshadows and 1 blush and 1 powder foundation and 2 lipglosses don't go around telling people, "O Hai I finished up my eyeshadow! So happy! Squeeee!" because they pretty routinely use up their stuff - and go back to get the same (or similar stuff). So to them, it isn't particularly spectacular when they use up something. But the beauty junkie is slightly different. When you have literally have a few tens of blushes, eyeshadows, lipglosses, and so on, even as you keep lemming the new collections and makeup that gets put out, then every empty that you use up, every pan you hit, becomes a cause for celebration. To me, it's sort of a way of saying any one of the three messages: "Look, I actually use up my stuff - see, I don't have that much stuff, you're kidding, stuff, who me?", or "Look, I actually use up stuff! I get to buy more!", or "Look, I used up this stuff, because it's awesome/although it sucked, and I want to tell you about it!" And hence, the empties post.

Look at all those empties! This is some serious using up of products, guys!

But don't let my existentialist comments on empties bother you, let's get down to the good stuff - what did I use up this time, and what do I think of it?

Elizabeth Arden Flawless Future Review: Caplet Serum and Eye Gel

Elizabeth Arden has launched its new Flawless Future Powered by Ceramide skincare line, and this line is actually geared towards younger women in their 20s and 30s looking to treat the first few signs of aging, as well as to keep the skin in top condition for future years (hence the "Flawless Future" tagline, I suppose!). This certainly is something a little different from what Elizabeth Arden is known for, since the brand is probably best known for its anti-aging products geared towards more mature ladies.

But don't let that deter you from checking out this range, because this range is actually quite pleasant to use. Elizabeth Arden has taken care to keep the range lightweight and easy to use (which people our age will probably want in their skincare), but at the same time, they've managed to keep in the Flawless Future range some of the ingredients from iconic products that made Elizabeth Arden's brand so famous, such as the the Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Capsules (which I've reviewed before). In fact, Elizabeth Arden explicitly makes this link to their mature-market Ceramide range, labelling the Flawless Future range "Powered by Ceramide".



Let's take a closer look at the two products I have - the Flawless Future Caplet Serum, and the Flawless Future Eye Gel, and see if their ingredients really live up to the brand's much-vaunted reputation for skincare!