Kate - gel eye liner

Price : 14.95 at alphabeautystore

Size: 2.5g

Not so long ago there were generally only two options for eyeliner, pencil of liquid. For the longest time I used a soft black pencil, creating a smudged eye look rather than a line. I used to like how it looked, but a nice clean line looks so much more posh and professional.

But liquid liners are f*ing hard to use. I now, am more than capable of using one to create a nice even line.

Unless I’m in a hurry, or distracted, or my hand accidentally slips.

At least with a pencil, there is never that much mess…

I’ve been using Kate’s Gel liner for about 2 years now. I’m on my fourth order.

This stuff is wonderful.

Like all gel liners, it creates a finish somewhere between that of a pencil and liquid.  But with total control, and greater flexibility.

The liner is a good dark black. It applies smoothly. The little included brush is of good quality, and applies the liner in a narrow, even line.

And if you screw up, it is pretty easy to fix.

Kate’s liners in particular stay on all day, no flaking, and once dry, eye rubbing/ light crying doesn’t affect it.

I have tried a few other gel liners , but keep going back to kate. It’s lasting power is the best. 

The only issue I have is it dries out pretty quickly. It’s usually unpleasantly dry before I even finish the pot, and I wear the stuff just about every day.

Since I think the dryness of the liner is part of what gives it such good staying power (oilier/ wetter liners almost always smear/fade easily), I’m ok with it.

The price is not super cheap, but its not expensive either. And it’s comparable to far more expensive brands.

It’s my absolute favorite, so if you can find it, buy it!

Silver and Gold

This review is totally different than the Black liner.

I hate these liners. Since I’ve had such success with the black liner, I thought, yay more colors.

No.

The liners are flaky. Like little chunks of gold or silver leaf. It’s weird, and they are big flakes. It applies flaky. So you have to sort of pat…. Like applying gold leaf if you’ve ever tried it.

The effect once on is very silver, and very gold and they do last nearly as long as the black.

But I tend to end up with flakes in my eye! 

This sucks!

Don’t buy them!!!

Etude House Juicy pop Tube Lipgloss.

Price: 2500 won (Less than $2.50)

Size: 10g

Comes in 6 colors

I bought two different lip products from Etude house. A tube of sparkly pink lipgloss. And the magic tint balm.

Sadly the Magic Tint balm disappeared before I ever had a chance to use it.

And believe me, I searched for it. But its gone gone gone….

The Etude house Tube lip gloss, is basically what it looks like….

A sparkly pink lip gloss. It was exceptionally cheap at only 2500 won (US $2.50). I really didn’t expect much.

It’s glossy, with a slight rose pink, and scattered sparkles. The sparkles are small and refined, so there is no feeling of rough bits. 

The texture is smooth, and not sticky.

Like similar glosses of this sort, there is almost no lasting power, Maybe an hour or two if one doesn’t eat or drink.

Generally its cute and unexceptional, except for one point, the smell.

I LOVE the smell. It  a subtle sweet lemon scent.

Oh, it’s so good. I love the smell of lemons, and this is light and sweet enough not to smell like cleaner, and subtle enough that only the person wearing it can even smell it.

Benefit - High beam

Price: $24 US at Sephora
Size: 0.45 oz
Even though Benefit is a bit of a cult favorite, it’s not a favorite brand for me. The kitschy packaging is attractive but holds absolutely no appeal to me.  More importantly,  the products  are both unappealing and in my opinion unremarkable…
So other than a few star items, I don’t even bother with benefit.
But I have been trying to find a good, and I mean really good highlighter for ages.
When using Mineral make up, my appearance tends to dry and powdery. So adding a powder highlighter, it doesn’t’t really enhance  a  natural appearance.
I’ve wanted a cream or liquid highlighter.
And if you ever looked for one…. They not exactly easy to find. Everything is powder.
After reading soooo many glowing reviews of High Beam on Sephora, I was stoked to try it..

High beam is  in a clear bottle,  very much like a nail polish bottle, with a similar applicator.  

It’s a light pink. It applies shimmery, but not glittery.

It’s easy to apply.  When applied lightly, is easily subtle enough for day, but an be applied more heavily without looking fake.
Overall it gives the skin a nice dewy look without being obvious.

The only noticeable issue is its weak staying power. It wears of really quickly… Like an hour or two at best…
Still, its definitely a nice product, and a wonderful alternative to powders!

Sheer cover Lip to Lid Highlighters

If you’ve ever used one of the MAC pigments than you know what to expect from the Sheer Cover Lip to Lid Highlighters.

They are basically mineral loose powders. The selling point is the “lip to lid” factor. They can basically be used anywhere! 

They come in three colors

Bronze

Pink

Peach

They are very smooth, lightly pigmented, and very sparkly.  The sparkles are very finely milled mica to compare it to MAC’s pigments, they aren’t nearly as pigmented. As you can see from the pictures of me using them as eye shadows, there isn’t a whole lot of color pay off...

The Bronze color is supposed to also act as a bronzer, to compete with other Mineral lines that have bronzers. But it’s so sparkly I can’t see how anyone could use it as anything more than a highlighter.

EOTD in Bronze and Peach

The peach and the pink work well as highlighters though. I actually love the peach for adding a tiny bit of sparkle to my cheeks. But I think the pink would be really nice on darker skin tones.

They can also be used as lip pigments. Just mix with any lip gloss (clear or translucent are best) then apply with a lip brush.

They work surprising well as a lip color! The colors come across as more pigmented (although they produce a frosted look); they are not too glittery on the lips. Best of all they wear really well, and once the top gloss has work off, they are kiss proof! 

Seriously, the pigment smooth coats the lips (not rough or scratchy at all), so even when you kiss and eat, the pigment stays fused to the lips.

It’s really cool.

Last, but not least, my absolute favourite thing to do with the LTL’s is to use them as a lip highlighter. I take a little of the pigment (peach usually), and line the top inner bow of my lip, then dab a little in the center of my bottom lip. Then top with gloss. Or, if wearing lipstick, apply it for then the Ltl.

It gives an effect just like in magazines, and wears really well.

Skin 79 BB creams sampler

Size 4x 5g tubes

Price: $11.60 US

Skin79 is a Korean brand with both skin care and make-up. I haven’t used very many Korean skin care products, them being not commonly available in Japan. But since I got a job in Ulsan, I’m going to have to start...

So since I added the skin79 miniature set to a mini order I was doing on Adambeauty.

It comes with 4 mini BB creams.

BB stands for blemish balm. But what BB creams really are a super tinted moisturizers. They are the rage over here in North America...

Anything that eliminates a step from the make-up routine.

So the skin 79 BB creams are basically the same idea. They are tinted moisturizers, most of them with SPF with one or more additional features.

It’s really the additional features that sell me!

I got

Super+ BB

Its UV protection SPF25 Pa++ (considering most tinted moisturizers here are Spf15, or 20 at most, 25 is pretty awesome)

It also claims to be whitening and wrinkle free (whether that means wrinkle minimizing, wrinkle preventing or wrinkle hiding I’m not sure..._

Super + BB – the gold collection

Uv 25++, whitening and Wrinkle improvement

It sounds about the same as the previous one, but the Skin79 website shows a ton of added ingredients, like arbutin and adenosine (both are good for whitening), Q10, phyto complex, Gold and Caviar...

But the full sizes are both the same price... So...

BB diamond collection

It doesn’t say it on the sample tube but it too has Uv 25++, whitening and Wrinkle improvement

according to the Skin79 website.

But apparently this is the newest... It contains many similar components to the other two but it now contains EGF! Which is epidermal growth factor. It’s supposed to help increase cell turnover. (By increasing the growth rate not by removal of dead skin cells.)

BB diamonds collection – Pearl

it’s the same as above, but with added “pearl”

I’ve wanted a BB cream for ages. They seem like the perfect solution to minimize my skin care routine. Now I currently apply a light moisturizer, sunscreen and foundation separately.

I don’t use a tinted moisturizer with all 3 because of the really low SPF (15 is so not enough for me).

I use SPF 50 on a daily basis.

Plus all the ones i’ve tried either have a weird color (too dark or too orange, since tinted moisturizers rarely have more options than light medium and dark) and they tend to irritate my skin. So component in sunscreen actually makes me break out in a rash. For some reason this happens more often with North American brands... It’s horrible. Though I was using the Clinique super city block for a while, but the tint was a little too dark for me, so I had to carefully blend it in.

Anyway... I predicted that the SPF in many BB creams would be better, since BB creams are super light (and it seems to be the heavier the sunscreen the more it irritates me), plus Japanese sunscreen works for me...

The result; I am madly in love with All of the skin 79 BB creams.

Seriously LOVE!

They are all super light, they spread easily and the give light coverage.

As you can see the Super BB and the diamond BB are slightly different in color.

With the Super(s) being slightly darker, and the Diamond(s) slightly more orange,

But once they are spread out they are light enough to blend in perfectly even though they appear to be slightly darker than my skin tone. Honestly once they are on I couldn’t tell you the difference between them (except for the pearl of course.)

It’s the same coverage as the Cover girl trublend I’m currently using as my foundation!

Plus, as you can see from the swatches, there isn’t much color variation between the samples (I expected at least a couple to be totally wrong/ too dark/ too orange.)

But they all are pretty close to my skin tone, and blend like a dream!

They also last well, as good as or a bit better than my CG foundation.

As you can see though, applied they are all basically identical, except for the Pearl.

Sadly it’s not a subtle glow like my Anessa pearly sunscreen. It’s more of a small sparkle.

It’s not quite subtle enough for me for day.

A little too much sparkle when applied all over the face.

But 3 out of being Perfect *Smiles*

Now I just have to decide which one I want in the full size...