Chanel Peridot Inspired Eye Look: Gold/Green/Blue/Purple!

After all the Chanel Peridot (along with its two dupes, OPI Just Spotted the Lizard and Sephora Diving in Malaysia) hype, I thought to myself, since I liked the Chanel Peridot colour so much, why should I limit myself to just wearing it on nails? I wanted to see if I could recreate the look or feel of Chanel Peridot on my eyes!



I was looking at my own bottle of Sephora Diving in Malaysia (one of the Peridot dupes - I'm cheap like that, but hey, my spending money comes out of my salary, aka money I actually have to earn), and I paid attention to the colours at the edge of the bottle, where you see the duochrome. To me, it looked as though the gold colour was ringed by concentric circles of green, blue, and purple, each blending into each other. Well, it's quite complex, but that was my oversimplified way of breaking it down.

So, in order to recreate this look, I used a bunch of colours. I used Urban Decay Maui Wowie for the gold part, mixed with the tiniest bit of Sleek Screwdriver, from the Sleek Curacao Palette, to make it a little bit more yellow for colour accuracy. For the blue and the green I used two shades from an el cheapo Love Alpha Palette I got sometime back (middle two shades on the bottom row, if you really want to know). For the purple shade, I used the purple shade in my BeautyUK Day and Night Eyeshadow Palette. I don't know how much of each of the individual colours you can see (other than the gold), because I was trying to blend them one into the other - sort of like the nail polish.



Anyway, I used the gold shade on the lid, and then added on the blue, green, and purple respectively nearer the contour area. And then I blended everything together. And that's it, really. I had to adjust some of the blending a little bit here and there to match my bottle of Diving in Malaysia a little more. It's not a perfect match, but it sort of looks like Peridot, right? Sort of?



While this isn't normally a look I'd wear (or a colour combination I'd even think of making up), I think I quite like it. I wouldn't wear it out or anything, but I did have fun doing this look!

Flirty False Lashes: Before and After!

Nothing makes a pretty eye like a gorgeous set of lashes. And if you don't have it, why not fake it? While I'm not a big fan of false lashes in general (I don't like the feeling of something being stuck to my eye), I do appreciate the effect that it gives. And, holiday season is the perfect time to go all OTT with length, volume, and bling on lashes - I don't know about you, but I always feel like consumers tend to buy more false lashes whenever there are holidays.

The false lashes I tried out were from KKCenterHK, a Hong Kong-based online retailer of various types of makeup and beauty items. I've previously reviewed another of their lashes which were more natural-looking. This pair I have now is ES A63, which really gives you that va-va-voom effect!



Although the lashes are advertised as short and natural, they aren't actually very short or natural looking, in my opinion. These are some serious lashes! They come with a clear lash band, so you don't get that thick black lashbone being visible, but the individual lashes themselves are long and thick. This isn't a bad thing though - if you want lashes that have a bit more drama, these are perfect, without being to OTT.

Don't believe me? Here are some before and after photos. I used my sister's eye for this shot, and it wasn't easy persuading her to stay perfectly still, hold her eye open, and look straight at the camera, so I hope someone appreciates the effort it took me to bribe my sister to do this!

Here's a before shot of my sister's eye. I cheated and used the shots from my previous false lashes review, because i didn't want to go through the trouble of taking another set of bare eye photos (see paragraph above).



And here's the before shot of my sister's eye, closed this time. (Once again, photo was nicked from the previous review, for the same reason).



Now, ready for some magic? Let me wave my wand and bibbidi-bobbidi-boo, awesome lashes have you! Man, don't you love those classic Disney movies?



And here's a closed eye shot of the lashes. In this shot, you can see how long and thick they are in comparison to my sister's natural lashes.



Although these don't look that natural to me, they're perfect for that special night out. In terms of wear, they're relatively comfortable for a pair of falsies, and the lashbone is relatively flexible and pliable. So there you have it - a gorgeous set of lashes at a reasonable price, that really transform the look of the eye.

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

Mimididi 3D Flashing Diamond Powder Eyeshadow: The Foiled Eye Look

Every so often, I come across a cheap-yet-awesome makeup product, and then it becomes my mission to share it with all of you guys. My most recent cheap, unknown, but still pretty darn good find is the Mimididi 3D Diamond Powder Eyeshadow. I'm not too sure where the Mimididi brand hails from, other than that it's from somewhere in Asia - it kind of sounds Korean, but I can't seem to find a Korean makeup brand called Mimididi (I did find an online clothes shop/fashion website of the same name though).

The Mimididi Flashing Diamond Powder Eyeshadows come in a range of shades, and can be found on KKCenterHK, a Hong Kong-based retailer and wholesaler of a wide range of cosmetic and nail items. I've had a few dealings with KKCenterHK, and so far, they've been pretty reliable and reasonable in terms of communication, shipping, and quality of products. I got the Mimididi Powder Eyeshadow in shade 5 - it was so hard picking just one, because I was just so attracted to how shiny and blingy and awesome they looked online.

The Mimididi Diamond Powder Eyeshadows come in a small little plastic box, with a see-through window showing the colour of the eyeshadow. You actually get quite a generous amount of product - the pans are quite a lot bigger than your typical MAC-sized eyeshadow pans. They're closer in size to the Stila eyeshadow pans. For US$7, it's not a bad deal.



Each eyeshadow comes with a flip-up base, containing a small little mirror, as well as a sponge eyeshadow applicator. Both of these would be useful in a pinch, although they are probably too small for everyday use. The extra bulk makes the eyeshadow case a little clunky, but it's nothing I can't live with.



The shade I got, No. 5, is a gorgeous neutral antique gold-brown shade, but with lots of foil-y shimmer Think of Stila's Golightly or Wheat, or MAC Patina, but all blinged up and on steriods! I gotta admit, I really love this shade. It's a neutral shade, but totally taken to a whole new level with the kickass shimmer and glitter. The perfect illustration of a shade that's neutral but not boring!



Now, as a rule I generally don't like products that are too glittery, but this isn't like some eyeshadows with irritating big glitter bits. The effect is really more like a foiled pigment when applied on the eye. Don't believe me? Just check out the EOTD (Eye of the Day) I did with this eyeshadow. I loved the colour so much, I didn't want to pair it with anything else, so it was just this eyeshadow on the eyelid area, blended out a bit towrds the contour area.



One big advantage of the Mimididi eyeshadows is that you can acheive a foiled effect, without the risk of knocking over a container of loose pigment and having its contents stain the carpet. (That actually happened to me...I had to vacuum the carpet, then use tape to remove the coloured residue that refused to be vacuumed out. Sigh.)

Of course, since the Mimididi Diamond Powder Eyeshadows are essentially like big bits of pigments, but pressed, I would still recommend extra care when applying them, since there is fallout to be sure. I'd say the fallout is more than your average pressed eyeshadow, but isn't as troublesome as some loose pigments I've dealt with.



Also, in order for these to really pop and give that "I-foiled-a-pigment" effect, I recommend using a primer, or some sort of sticky base, under the eyeshadows, as on a dry, bare eye, the effect isn't as great. Here in these photos, I was too lazy to use a proper primer, so I just a bit of my undereye concealer for the base. I was using MAC Studio Finish Concealer, but I don't generally recommend using concealer as a base, because the concealer may slide and shift, moving the eyeshadow along with it. This is where I have to encourage you to do as I say, not as I do :P



All in all, I'm pretty impressed. For a no-brand, unknown-origin eyeshadow, the Mimididi eyeshadow really exceeded the lowly expectations I set for it. I love the neutral-but-not-boring colour that's classy but with a touch of bling, I love the foiled effect it gives, and I like that I can create such an effect without having to use loose pigments. I'm quite glad I discovered this cheap, unknown gem, and am quite happy with it. The only downside is that it does still have fallout when used without a base, but hey, I guess if you want that foiled look, you gotta put in some work, right?

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

Work Appropriate Neutral Brown EOTD on the Cheap!

Today's EOTD is a rather boring, basic one - it's just a simple brown EOTD that you're supposed to be able to wear to (most) work places. And it's pretty good example of how you don't have to spend a fortune on makeup to look good!



This simple EOTD (Eye of the Day) was done with my awesomely cheap 26 Colour Eyeshadow and Blush Palette, which I got from KKCenterHKa, a Hong Kong-based retailer of various brands of affordable Asian makeup. Over the past week or so, I've been playing around with this deceptively cheap and simple palette, and I've been quite happy with the variety of looks it can produce for the cheap price of the palette. Sure the palette's no MAC, but it's good for what it is.

The two shades with the "X" on them are what I used for this look. The lighter brown shade was used on the lid, while the darker brown shade was placed in the contour area.



Here's a look with the eye closed, so you can see the shades and the blending. I really am quite fond of the light brown, for some reason. It's a light matte, malt brown, which looks deceptively boring, but is so wearable. For some reason, the darker brown seemed to pull quite red on me, but not so much that it became unwearable.



Pigmentation and texture of this palette was pretty good - the shades showed up, although the lighter brown required a bit of layering to get it to that intensity that you see in the photo. The dark brown was quite pigmented, and blended easily.



You know I'm a neutrals kind of girl, so this look is totally up my alley! I absolutely love this look, and I hopefully haven't bored the colour addicts out there with this one. I guess after all the brights, everyone could use a little palette cleanser now and then!

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

Deep Purple EOTD with a Cheap Palette!

Ah, purple - one of my favourite colours both on the nails, as well as on the eyes. This gorgeous deep purple eye look is courtesy of my awesome 26 Colour Eyeshadow and Blush Palette, which I got from KKCenterHK. This time, I decided to go for placing the darker colour on the lid, instead of in the contour area, and I think it worked!



Here are the two colours that I used. The purple is was used on the lid, and the shimmery brown was used on the contour area.



The colours were pretty good, pigmentation-wise. The purple, having a more matte finish, had less pigmentation than the brown, but can still be built up for a more intense eye look.



And here's a look of the eye from a weird angle, just so you can see the blending of the eyeshadows. For some reason, although the purple is a bit more matte, it looks shimmery in the photo due to the blending, and the shimmer from the brown shadow got into the purple colour.



I like this look a lot, I think it's dark enough to be smokey, but not dark enough to look like you have a black eye, so it's quite versatile that way. I'm starting to like that 26 Colour Palette, as it can be used to produce quite a variety of looks.

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

Sunset Orange and Red EOTD: Budget Beauty

OMG, I'm wearing bright eyeshadow! This is so atypical, but I thought, why not? In my last post, I swatched the cheap and cheery 26 Eyeshadow and blush colour palette from KKCenterHK, and I thought I'd show you guys an eye look I did with it. Since the palette has a bunch of "sunset" colours, like rusts, oranges, reds, and bronzes, I thought I'd go along those lines, and do something vaguely sunset inspired.



For this look, I used just two colours. Unless I want to do something outrageous or complicated, I rarely ever use more than two or three colours. The two colours I used were shown below. The burnt orange colour was applied on the lid, while the bright russet red-brown was applied on the contour area. I also used MAC Dazzlelight on the browbone area as a highlight, but that was just to balance out the look a little bit.



Here's a shot of the eye look with the eye closed. As you can see, the shimmer shades in the palette have a pretty good pigmentation, especially with a base underneath, and can be blended out to acheive a gradiation.



The texture of the shades also wasn't too bad. Fallout wasn't as nightmarish as I thought it would be - there was some, but actually not much more than usual.



While this is perhaps not exactly one of my usual looks, I thought it would be cool to do a more dramatiic look out of a mostly neutral palette, as it shows how versatile the palette is. I also love how bright and shimmery the look is, it's just like a sunset on my eyes!

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

26 Colour Eyeshadow and Blush Palette: Swatches

One of the items that has been gaining popularity in recent years has been makeup palettes containing large number of colours, like the 88 colour eyeshadow palettes that have been popular in various forms. The reason why these are so popular is that they are cheap, and have a large variety of colours. I couldn't help but end up with one myself - the ES 26 Colour Eyeshadow and Blush Palette, from this page on the KKCenterHK site.

As you may know, KKCenterHK has been gaining popularity with some makeup fanatics for its wide array of cheap and cheerful makeup items. The 26 Colour Palette cost US$15, which works out to less than a buck per colour. Not bad at all, price-wise. But I was curious as to the quality of the palette, so I thought I'd provide some swatches for a start.



The palette itself comes in a plastic case, that, while not luxe-looking, certainly doesn't seem cheap and flimsy. The palette is also of quite a substantial size - sometimes, with these palettes with humongous numbers of colours, each individual colour can be the size of a dime or something like that. But each individual eyeshadow pan size is only slightly smaller than that of a MAC eyeshadow, which is pretty decent. Here's a photo for comparison. The MAC eyeshadow, Dazzlelight, is placed in between two eyeshadows on the palette. The two larger pans below it are blush colours.



Altogether, there are 21 eyeshadow colours, and 5 blush colours, making that 26. As you can see from the photo below, the colours are mainly warm neutrals, with some bright "sunset" colours (e.g. rust orange, gold) thrown in. Some of the blush colours look a little similar to eyeshadow colours, and a few of the eyeshadow colours are quite close to each other. Generally, though, I'd say the palette colour range is quite decent if you like these types of colours.



Here are swatches of the palette, row by row. The first row is below:



Row 1, L-R: bright orange with shimmer, light tangerine orange with shimmer, warm brown with slight shimmer, matte light pink, bronzey brown with shimmer, brown with a tinge of red with shimmer (think along the lines of Stila's Barefoot Contessa), medium brown with shimmer, which I really like - it could almost be a taupe!



Row 2, L-R: pinky-peach with shimmer (sort of like NARS Orgasm blush in eyeshadow form), burnt orange brown with shimmer, muted neutral brown with no shimmer, rust-red-brown with shimmer (it isn't as red as it looks in the photo, but it is quite rusty in colour), medium warm matte brown, deep matte brown, shimmery brown-gold.



Row 3: Warm orange-pink, shimmery burnt-orange brown, muted matte brown, deep purple with the slightest hint of shimmer, muted neutral brown, slightly darker and less warm-leaning than the previous brown in this row, midtone purple-magenta, and a gorgeous taupey brown shimmer, my favourite eyeshadow colour in the entire palette.

Lastly, here are the blushes.



Row 4: Light peach, pale baby pink-beige, medium pink, deep purple (sort of like the second-last purple in Row 3 of the eyeshadow range), and russet red-brown (similar to the middle colour in Row 2 of the eyeshadows).

Pigmentation and texture of the eyeshadows was actually very decent. In general I didn't have too many problems with pigmentation, and texture was pretty decent. As with some of these palettes, the shimmer colours for some reason were of better quality than the mattes, being softer in texture and better in pigmentation Still, the palette in general was of better quality than expected.

Over the next few days, I'll be showcasing a few EOTDs (Eye of the Days) using this palette, and we'll see what looks I can come up with! In the meantime, if you're looking for a palette of decent quality at a cheap price, and if you like warm colours and neutrals, this palette would definitely be worth checking out.

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

Insiti Eyeshadow Pencil: EOTD and Review

I'm a demanding customer - I hate high prices, but at the same time I can't tolerate lousy quality cosmetics. Thus, I always find myself trying out various cheap-as-chips brands to see if they fulfill my desire for something cheap but good.

My latest experimentation with cheap makeup comes from Insiti. Insiti is a drugstore cosmetics brand hailing from Asia - although to be honest, I don't exactly know which part of Asia it's from. My guess would be Taiwan or Hong Kong, because their Facebook page is in Traditional Chinese. I got mine from KKcenterHK, the Hong Kong-based online purveyor of cheap Asian cosmetics and other related products (false lashes are one of their specialties). The website may look a little dodgy compared to other more sleekly-dressed online counterparts, but my dealings with them have been trouble-free and pleasant.



The Insiti Eyeshadow Pencil itself is a simple dual-ended eyeshadow pencil with a plastic cap at each end. I got shade no. 12, which consists of a simple light pastel pink and a medium-toned purple.

Here are some close-ups of the two ends of the pencil. As you can see, the pastel pink is actually pretty frosty-looking in the tube, and the purple looks like it might have this interesting blue sheen.





Here are swatches. The pastel pink shade is indeed quite frosty when swatched, but the blue sheen is only very slight, which isn't bad, but is a bit of a pity.



I did an eye look with the pencil, just to test it out. I'm afraid working with the eyeshadow pencil was slightly tricky for me, and the eye look wasn't the best. But I hope it's demonstrative of how the product might look like on the eye.



One of the things I found about this product was that it's very emollient. It does slide around the eye and feel a little greasy on, which means, yes, it does crease, and would fade and shift if you didn't use a base under it. In fact, I'd suggest using a base under this, and then perhaps setting the eye look with some transparent setting powder for better lasting power.



Colour-wise, the pencil was decently pigmented, but I had to build up the colour a bit to get the colour intensity that you see in the photo. Building up successive layers of colour can be a bit tricky, though, since the product does tend to move and shift around the skin a little.



Would I recommend this? I guess it's cheap, and if you were willing to use a base and a setting powder on top, it could be worth it. But if you're lazy like me and don't have the patience to fiddle with a base or setting powder, then this may be a bit more trouble than it's worth.

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

Bright Summery Teal Eye Look on the Cheap!

Summer is coming soon, and in light of that I've decided to do an aquatic teal eye look, inspired by the brights and shimmers of the season! Yes, I'm wearing teal eyeshadow! What has the world come to?

I gave my awesomely cheap Love Alpha eyeshadow palettes a whirl for this look, just to see how the colours would hold up on my eye. I got these from KKCenterHK, and the colours were just begging to be used!

Here's a shot of the palette, so you can see which of the shades I used for my EOTD (Eye of the Day). As you can see, for this look, it was all about the teal-green shades!



And here's the final eye look. Somehow on me, the teal colours pulled a little more green. Well, it's not a bad thing, and the colour's still stunning. And still pretty summery!



The two teal shades I used were rather close together, although one looks significantly darker in the pan. I used the darker teal shade on my contour area and at the outer corner, while the lighter teal shade was used on the lid. They are pretty similar, except that the darker teal shade is a smidgen darker, is more green, and has more gold shimmer.



As with my previous post on the Love Alpha eyeshadow palettes, in order for these to look their best, care must be used when applying the eyeshadows. A sticky base of some sort is definitely needed, and it's also a good idea to dab or pat the eyeshadow on with a brush, rather than swiping it across the lid with sweeping motions, as most of us are usually prone to do. This allows the glitter to really "stick" to the eyelid, and build up pigmentation on the eye.



I love how it looks, but to be honest, I don't think I'd wear this very often, or even somewhat often, because teal eyeshadow is stretching my comfort zone a little. But if you are looking for a cheap palette that has some kickass teal shades, and you can work with glitter-laden eyeshadows, this one would be definitely something you could check out.

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

Budget Beauty: Simple and Natural FOTD

Today's FOTD (Face of the Day) has a budget beauty theme. I decided to try using the US$3.80 Love Alpha Summer Gradually palette I got recently to see how the palette would look on. Yay for cheap makeup!

Love Alpha seems to be a generic brand of makeup that is available through various cosmetic wholesalers, and I got mine from KKCenterHK. My experiences with them has been good so far - customer service is prompt, and packages arrive without delay.

I decided to go with a girly, more natural look this time round, since my previous EOTD was a little more intense. Here are the shades I used:



The blush, despite looking really intimidating in the pan, actually applied sheer, and could be built up for more colour. So if you're worried about having too much colour on your cheeks with this palette, don't! It isn't as bad as it looks.

And this was the outcome. Not too bad, actually. Although I do apologise that you don't see enough of the eyeshadow, and see too much of my undereye circles.



I actually like this look - to me it's as simple and as natural as makeup can get, while still being pretty. Lasting power of the blush and eyeshadow was pretty decent. They faded after a few hours, but for $3.80 I'm not going to complain.

This palette would be pretty useful for occasions where you're not concerned with the lasting power of your makeup - for example, if you're just running errands, or dashing out for a couple of hours. It woudln't make sense to use your expensive makeup then, right? (Well, not to me, at least. Did I say I'm cheap?) So palettes like that would bridge that gap where you want to wear something on your face, but it's only just for awhile.

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

Budget Beauty Shimmer Purple Eye Look

I always love trying out cheap makeup and seeing just how good it is. Sometimes, it's actually pretty darn good (like one of my loves, Wet n' Wild), sometimes, it just sucks, and sometimes, it's actually pretty decent. The Love Alpha Eyeshadows I got from KKCenterHK awhile back were finally put to the test today, when I decided to finally test drive those pretty palettes.

Here are the shades I used for my Eye of the Day (EOTD). I decided to go with my favourite purple shade (but of course!), and that gorgeous taupe shade I last got all excited about. I also use the light yellowy-vanilla shade as a highlight.



The EOTD I put together with the KKCenterHk product was this. A shimmery, glittery purple and brown look that would be pretty darn awesome if you did like shimmery metallic purples and browns:



I know I previously mentioned that the shadows were essentially a bunch of coloured glitter, so when using these, care is required. With a sticky base to hold the shadows in place, such as UDPP (Urban Decy Primer Potion), TFSI (Too Faced Shadow Insurance), or Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy, the colours show up much better. I was lazy, and just used my MAC Studio Finish Concealer. I wouldn't advise you doing this, though - if you have oily lids, it's more likely than not that the concealer will slide off your lid, taking your shadow along with it. But you get the idea - this was just to demonstrate the difference in colour payoff when a based is used.



Another tip I found useful when applying such shadows is to apply the shadow using patting and dabbing motions, as opposed to the sweeping, brushing motions we're usually taught to use. This will help to minimize fallout, and further help the colours to show up better, since they're packed on the lid, not brushed outwards. Blending, of course, still has to be done with sweeping motions after the colour has been packed on. As you can see from the pictures, the shadows are actually quite blendable.

Once you get the hang of application, it really is pretty easy to get the shadows to look good. The glitter-laden nature of the eyeshadow means that when patted on successfully, the eyeshadow looks very vibrant.



I'm really loving my eye look right now. It has that foiled, metallic look of a loose pigment, but actually is a pressed shadow, so yay for decreased mess and spillage! And from the vibrancy of the colours in this EOTD, I don't think I'd be able to guess that the eyeshadow palette was actually just US$3.80 in reality!

PS: Apologies for the appearance, disappearance, and re-appearance of this post. There was a glitch in Blogger's auto-post feature that made it go live earlier than scheduled.

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