Maybelline Sensational Lipsticks Review!

I know it's been a while since last time I updated my blog. I took a long holiday back to China, where there is no access to blogspot.com. I think that's coz the govt does not want Chinese citizen to read and respond to reactionary opinion people outside the country is allow to express on the website. Anyway, have no interest in politics. Now I'm back in New Zealand and I'm gonna try to post as often as possible since I took a trip to US in May and did a huge haul there. I bought my desired makeups for long, Urban Decay Naked 1 and 2 pallets, love them soooo much and other stuff like NARS blush in Orgasm. But I'm not gonna get into these today. I will talking about them in my future blog entries coz I haven't had much experience in using them yet. 


Today is about three drug store lipsticks from Maybelline and they are Sensational Lipsticks in color #416 Coral Fever, #445 Mango Diamonds, #515 Coral Crush. I know I am very into coral lipsticks nowadays coz I think the color brightens up my complexion and pretty much goes well with any eye makeup I want to achieve. Here is a picture of these gorgeous lipsticks.

The color on the left is Coral Crush. It is the brightest out of these three, definitely has red undertone with no shimmer in it. The texture of which is quite smooth, and it goes on like a lip butter. The pigmentation is good, but it does stain your lips a bit. I'd say if you are not a red lipstick person but wants a pop of color on your lips, it is a great alternative to a red lipstick. Otherwise try their #645 Red Revival and I heard it's a gorgeous dark red lipstick and since they have similar consistency, I bet the pigmentation will be great too.

The one in the middle is Mango Diamonds and it's in their High Shine range. Since it has diamonds in its name you expect it will have shimmer in it and yep it does have shimmer. But surprisingly it does not have a frosty finish, its actually a luster finish, which I prefer a lot more. It's also a coral color with red undertone but less than Coral Crush. It's the sheerest out of the three, but it's definitely buildable and I usually put on 2 layers and it's opaque and shine, and I love the look.

The one the right I have to say, is my favorite out of the three. It is a beautiful true coral color, which doesn't have any red undertone. I love how it's different almost like a orange color but still not exact. I don't know how to describe it but I love it so much  and I am thinking about buying a backup of this coz I couldn't find one on their official website, so I expect it's a limited edition one?!(Plz let me know if it is.) It is again very smooth in texture, 1~2 layers opaque. Here are swatches of these lippies on my wrist.

And here are the color payoffs on my lips. Sorry I have different lightings when I took these pics but hopefully they could give you an idea of how they look like on.

I went to my local supermarket last night just minutes before mid-night to catch up the 25% sale on Maybelline staff. Believe or not, I have not tried any drugstore lipsticks before but heard so much good things about them, so I decided to try them and I had to say I had great lucks with them. Thanks to Holly from Youtube, who loves Maybelline Sensational lipsticks and always rave about them. Check her out at www.youtube.com/hollyannaeree, and you will learn a lot from her and become one of her fans just like me!!

I will be writing a updated lipstick collection blog at some stage, but I would love to try some more before I can put up a decent collection. So I am waiting for that.

Have a nice day! Good Luck! 

Shopping on the Weekend!!

Me and my husband Allen (from now on I am just gonna call him Allen and that's his real name) went for a weekend shopping yesterday and I got myself a few staff that I want to share with you!

The first thing and the most expensive item I got was this Teenie Weenie trench coat from my local Korean fashion boutique. I've been actively looking for a classical trench like this and I finally found one that's almost perfect for me!

I am petite like 5'1 so I got size FS. I believe it's extra small or small, I don't know, but I got the smallest out of all. They've got colors in black and beige. Allen said black's kinda boring plus I look better in beige and it'll never go out of style, so I followed his pick (Allen's a designer, so I care very much about what he thought). Since the size is a perfect fit, I don't think I can layer too much in it, which is fine for me since it never gets too cold here in Northern New Zealand. Here is a look at the pattern inside!

Now for the price, since the store is running a sale right now at 30% off all its clothes and accessories, and the original price for this piece was $213 (US$162), so I got this one for $149 (US$113). I think it's a pretty reasonable price for a trench like this. I love it like crazy!!

 The lady at the store was so kind that she gave me these two cute T shirts for free. She said she knew I did a lot of purchases from the store and it's like a gift for me. How nice, I love them!!

I also picked this pink hairband for $14( US$10.6). I adore the gold flower shaped decoration and I thought it's unique and cute!

Then we went to Swarovski, my favorite brand for accessories. My local store is having a sale right now with up to 50% off selected items. We squeezed into the crowd and saw my favorite bracelet of this season is on sale. At first I thought it's ridiculous, coz I got my piece like a month ago for a full price of $275 ($210) and now it's half off.

I was pretty pissed off and in order to cool me down Allen offered to buy me another piece in a different color. He said then I could feel like I bought two with 25% off the entire purchase. That certainly made me feel better. The shop assistant said I had two colors to choose, a red one and a grey one (In fact I was informed that the dark blue one that I bought during Thanksgiving was sold out before Christmas and was never on sale). I was told if I choose red, I can only wear it in one way and if I choose the grey one, I can wear it alone or with my dark blue piece for a much trendy look! The choice was hard at first coz I really love the red piece but meanwhile don't want to give up a trendy fun look. But then I found the crystals on the red bracelet was not shine at all, so I asked the shop assistant and she explained that there is a metallic coating on the crystals and it's not likely to come off. I grow suspicious about the quality of the crystals but I don't want to cause any trouble so I just bought the grey one for $137 ($104), but I remained suspicious about the quality of the reduced items. I told Allen I thought the grey one I just bought is not as shine as my dark blue one and Allen said I was too paranoid.

Our friend Shirley and Johnny came for a visit at our house last night, and both of them are designers as well. So I asked them to compare two of my bracelets and see if they are different. Both of them agreed with me and said the two bracelets have different crystals and the ones on the dark blue piece tend to be less translucent so it catches the light better, while the crystals on the grey piece are more translucent and don't catches the light so well; and that's why I think the crystals are more shinny on my original piece. I'm not saying the grey one is not pretty, just a little disappointed. I don't know what's going on but I do think for jewelery you pay what you get!! I don't regret the purchase though, in fact I never regret anything I did because life with regrets are just miserable, I choose to be happy all the time!!

So that's all what I splurged this weekend, hope you enjoy this! In my next blog entry I am gonna talk about my makeup routine (I did my skincare routine here), so looking forward to that. Have a great one!!

Happy New Year 2011!

2010 was a wonderful year for me!!I finally got married with my lovely husband who I dated for 5 years and half. We met in the 1st year of college, watched each other grow up to adults, helped and encouraged each other when we were going thru tough times.

While I really enjoying my marriage, I also made great progress on my career as a trader, managed to make 100% return on my investment in 2010. If I'm able to maintain this yearly profitability, I will become rich as I enter my 30s, thus achieve early retirement! This of course means I need to work even harder for the year 2011 and I'm ready for any challenge that I may come across in the future!

We had New Year celebration at friend's house!! Since me and my husband are away from our parents, friends mean so much to us, we take care for each other and I feel like I owe so much to them! Jacqueline, Lana, Aggie, Shirley, Max, Johnny, Dean, Jack, Thomas...... You guys are so amazing, I love you all!!

Oh, BTW, here is the home-made Christmas cake by Lana (the 2nd gal on the left side of the pic above)! Soooooo fruity and yummmmmmmy!!

And to those who are reading this blog, I wish you all the best for 2011!! I will talk to you in my nxt blog entry, bye!

My Current Skincare Routine!!

A big cheers to everyone!! As promised last week, this blog entry is about my skincare routine! Well, to start off, I have relatively pale skin with yellow undertone. I do get compliments about my skin at all times, but to clarify I don't have perfect skin or even close to, I just have tiny pores on my face and that seldomly breaks out. I have uneven skin tone, I tend to be darker on my forehead and chin area, some redness around my nose. My skin is very dehydrated and dry coz both my parents' are like this. My face doesn't produce much oil even in summer when it's super hot, so you get a sense of how dry it is! So that's pretty much the condition about the skin on my face!

I don't have a lot of skincare products coz I don't like to try many staff at the same time. I do tend to stick to one product till my skin cannot take it any more! So here is a pic of all. (I include my primer and foundation in here because I get questions about them all the time)

Let's start from makeup removers. (You might wonder why the hell I'm taking my skincare products pics with a Starbucks coffee cup, well, I just got it a couple of weeks ago and I'm in love with it, hope you don't mind!) I'm currently using L'Oreal Gentle Make-up Remover for Eyes and Lips. My previous eye and lips makeup remover is from Estee Lauder, but I was recommended L'Oreal by my friend and she sent me a bottle to try and she's like "They work pretty much the same, why paying 3 times the price to get Estee Lauder?" I finished her bottle and thought what she said makes sense, so I switched to this drug store brand, so far so great!! Next, for my face makeup remover, I am using Clarins Cleansing Milk with Gentian. There is a trick using this one, you pour some product out and warm it in between your hands and press the product onto your face gentlely, and then you wipe the product off with a cotton pad. You can actually see the dirt which was extracted from your face on the cotton pad. Amazing, huh?! This was taught by my friend who used to work at Sephora!

After I use my eyes, lips and face makeup remover, I'd like to use my Laneige Fresh Cleansing Foam. It's a very gentle cleanser and it's good for all skin types. I exfoliate my skin only once a week with my all time favorite Laneige Strawberry Yogurt Peeling Gel, and again it's very gentle. It has tiny beads like actual strawberry seeds and I can immediately feel the softness of my skin after massage and rinse off. It smells like fresh strawberry, yummy!!

After completely wash my face I'd like to use my Laneige Snow-bright Perfect Renew Skin Refiner. It has a viscous consistency, def thicker than normal toners, so I'd just like to apply with my fingers. It's really hydrating and that's the effect I was looking for!

Next is serum. For day time I am using Chanel Precision Hydramax+ Active Serum. I don't recommend to use this product alone or as a substitute for a moisturizer because it does not provide enough moisture for the entire day, you have to apply another layer of cream on top of it. It smells great and it's working great for my dry skin!! At night I am using Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Complex, you guys probably heard so many good things about this product and I am too in love with it!!

I have three eye products. For the day, I am using Chanel Beaute Initiale Eye Gel. This texture of this product is like a lotion, very liquidy and gentle and absorbs into the skin right away, I love it!! For some days if I feel really tired and my dark circles are obvious, I use my Chanel Ultra Correction Line Repair Cream. The consistency is def thicker than the eye gel and it's more concentrated. At night, I am using Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye Recovery Complex. I have been using this product for 5 years, still effective on me. Great product that I still have 2 new bottles as back ups! I know EL has introduced a refined product for this one, but I just think they should be very similar if not identical.

Because it's summer here in New Zealand, I am using my Chanel Precision Hydramax+ Active Moisture Cream day and night and it's fabulous. It smells great and works great together with the Serum, providing sufficient amount of moisture and hydrate my skin like it drinks 8 bottles of water every day!! In winter, I use Dior's Hydra Life Hydrating Essence in Cream, love love love it since it's so moisturing. Ever since I started using this product, my skin never feel dry and flaky in dry season. The reason I don't use it in summer is because it tends to be too oily that I will look greasy, yeah, even for my super dry skin type!! My husband once tried this product on his face and he has oily skin, he broke out like crazy for another two weeks. So it's def not a useful product for those who has normal to oily skin!

I want include my face primer and foundation here in my skin routine as well because I was asked a lot about them. "How do you look so pale and flawless?!" is the very common question I got. Well, my holy grail products are Dior Radiant Base and Lancome Maquiliquide Mooist Perfect Forever Fundation. The Dior Radiant Base comes with only one shade, it has very tiny golden blue shimmers in it (almost invisable) which gives a natural glow to your face. It evens out your skintone and provides a smoothier surface for foundation application. For the Lancome foundation, I think it's Asian exclusive coz on the back of the bottle it says designed for Asian Skins. I got the lightest shade, which kinda matches my skin tone. These two products combine to give me a flawless healthy look!!

So that's it for my skin care routine, I hope you enjoy it! Just in case I won't have another blog entry before Christmas, Merry Christmas to everyone!!! All the best!!

Tag: Nice & Naughty List 2010!

This blog entry is inspired by Jen from http://www.frmheadtotoe.com/, she's tagging everyone for this. I've used a lot of products this year and some of them are real good and some of them are simply disapointments. So I decide to responding the tag by sharing my Nice and Naughty List of the year 2010.

First, my Nice List, think I should start from my YSL Rouge Volupte Perle lipstick in #102, Coral Sun. It's a limited edition, the texture is so creamy and smooth, the color is gorgeous and so flattering on my warm pale skin tone. I can't describe its scent, but it smells like flowers from heaven! Def my No.1 Lippie and I am sure I will purchase another one as a backup!!



 No.2: Chanel Christalle Eau Verte Concentree Spray Perfume. I love its citrus and Neroli scent, which calms me down at all times, making me feel relaxed and refreshed!

 No.3: Hydramax+ Active Moisture Boost Serum. It works immediately on my very dehydrated dry skin, makes it healthier and  smoothier. I use my Chanel Hydramax+ Active Moisture Cream right on top of it for even better results. I will talk more in detail about these products in my future blog entry, sth. like my skincare routine!

No. 4: CD Diorskin Radiant Base. It's a foundation base and because it is slightly shimmering you can use it as a highlighter. It evens out my skin tone and provides a smoothier surface for me to apply foundation. It doesn't break out my skin at all and it's SPF 15.

 No. 5: My "lifesaver" very cheap but precious drugstore/supermkt accessible Vaseline White Petroleum Jelly. I had a lip inflammation in June this year, I was so desperate that I went to my local pharmacy asking for help and I was told to try some medicated lip balm such as Alpha Keri. It didn't work for me, so my friend who had the same thing before recommended me Vaseline coz that's what heals her. So I tried and my inflammation went away in just 3 days, how amazing is that. I am still using this product whenever I have chapped lips.

Now for the Naughty List.

No1: Anna Sui Nail Color in 700. I bought this nail polish because I think the color is gorgeous and it does look awesome on my nails. However, it gets chipped away so easily and I only used it for 4 or 5 times, the product is all dried out and I cannot even open the bottle now! The package is awesome, but the quality, nop!

No. 2: CD Diorshow Power 001 Blanc Podium Onstage White. I know a lot of people love this collection, but I had difficulty playing around with it. I like its shinny designed package but I just don't know how to properly apply the product. Everytime I either applied too much and the shimmer flied everywhere, messed up my entire makeup or I applied too little that I can't even see it. So I don't know maybe I need to play a bit more with it!

No.3: Estee Lauder Pure Color Eyeshadow Palette. I had a review of it in the previous blog entry (http://ashinebunny.blogspot.com/2010/12/2010-travel-exclusive-eyeshadow.html), I hate it because of the fall-out, just waaaaay too much for me to handle!

Next, No. 4: Cameleon Makeup Collection 98 Color Palette. The colors are not as pigmented as expected and the fall-out is a nightmare. Not to mention about the 4 sponge applicators, soooooo cheap and crappy. It's now sitting down the bottom of my drawer!

No. 5:  Golden Eyes Eyeshadow Palette. Again the colors are not pigmented and the fall-out is just crazy!

All right, that's my Nice&Naughty List of 2010. I will try to write a blog entry about skincare routine nxt week, so looking forward to that! Have a great one!

2010 Travel Exclusive Eyeshadow Palettes Review!

Today I am going to review three eyeshadow palettes (1 from Clinique and 2 from Estee Lauder)  I purchased about a month and half ago from my local DFS. I've used all the colors in these palettes in different combination so I am able to point out the pros and cons for them. Here is a quick look at the package and colors in these lovely kit.



 Now first thing first, here is the Estee Lauder Pure Color Rainbow Eye Palette. The package is super with a golden shiny slide-open and 3 clear plastic layers. The colors in the first layer are 18 Lacoon, 42 Mint Ice, 12 Candy Cube, 10 Ivory Box and the colors in the second layer are 38 Chocolate, 60 Tea Biscuit, 23 Berry Ice and 63 Mocha Cup. All the colors in this palette are shimmery apart from 38 Chocolate, which has a matt finish. These colors are just beautiful and they have a median pigmentation, which I do like coz it's summer here in NZ, I don't like my eyeshadow to over-shown on my lids. However, since this palette is a little bit powery, it does seem to fall out, but not a lot that I can handle it well! Last but not least, there is a brush set down the bottom row of the palette and it includes a sponge applicator and a small brush that I use for blending purpose! The only thing with this kit that I need to gripe about is it does not have a mirror whatsoever, although I can see myself through the gold top layer, I can't tell the color properly and that's sth. that Estee Lauder might have to think about refine it for next year. Other than that, it's a pretty good product and it gets a overall rating of A- from me!!

 Secondly, this another Estee Lauder Pure Color Eyeshadow Palette. I wasn't originally gonna get this one coz the package of this palette does not hold a candle to the Rainbow palette above, but I just started to learn eye-makeup, I thought I'd have more colors to play with, so I picked up this one just for the niumber of colors it comes with. The colors from the first in the top row to the last in the bottom row are 35 Cinnamon, 03 Pink Quartz, 60 Tea Biscuit (a dupe from the Rainbow), 24 Midnight, 01 Pink Ice, 53 Ginger Drop, 06 Lilac, 09 Amethyst and 44 Camouflage.  And again, the only matt shadow from this palette is 44 Camourflage and all the others have shimmer in them. However, I think color 53 and 06 have a satin finish. Now for quality, this palette has waaaay more fall out than the Rainbow one above and I was very frustrated because of that. The color pigmentation is not as good either, so I give it a rating of C. However, it does come with a tiny mirror when you flip open, and two cheap sponge applicators, but other than that I don't have anything good to say about this kit!

 Last but not least, Clinique Eyes To Go Color Surge Eye Shadow Palette. It has 8 colors, from left to right, they are 03 Lucky Penny, 01 French Venilla, 08 Sparkling Sage, 04 Strawberry Fudge Duo (two colors), 10 Violet, 05 Light Blue and 06 Dark Blue. I like how pigmented this palette is and the large mirror that is so convenient for travel. A double-ended brush tool, rhough a little cheap, works pretty well. The only problem is again the considerable amount of fall out, but not as bad as the Estee Lauder 9 color palette above. Well, I give a B+ for this one!

I really would like to try out the Chanel eyeshadow quads (heard so many good things about them), but I couldn't find the newest issue in my local department store or DFS. However, I have recently found out that Nordstrom.com does international shipping for its cosmetics, so I might order several pieces from them soon and they are much cheaper than purchasing over here in NZ.

All right, that's for my current eyeshadow review, hope you enjoy it and have a good one!

Thanksgiving Haul!

I did my Thanksgiving shopping last Friday and got myself a couple of things from my local department store. They were running a 25% off everything excluding cosmetics, but as an alternative, the cosmetics counters did give out gifts with the purchase, so I think it's kinda like the same as discounts coz the gifts that they gave out were worth way more than the discounts. Here are the staff I got.

A YSL Rouge Volupte Perle lipstick in #102 and I think the color is called Coral Sun. I did swatch it in one of the pics below. It is a limited edition and I love the color so much that I am thinking of buying another one as a backup. The teddy bear behind it is a present I got for my friend Aggie for this Christmas and I'll give it to her this weekend as she invited us to her house for a dinner. I got it from a Korean gift shop and it costs $50, quite expensive, but so adorable and sparkling, so good as a backdrop of a photograph, haha!



 I got another lipstick from Dior and it's Rough Dior 264 Lilac (see swatch below). I adore this color because it's nude pink, so graceful! I thought it's a matt finish, but it did look shimmering on my lips!

 Here is the swatch (sorry you have to see my chubby hairy hand). Oh, here is my first OPI nail polish, I heard so many good things about it and I decided to try and I was very pleased with the color and the texture, simply great!

 Here is the Dior Holiday Palette that I mentioned yesterday. The package is awesome.

 I tried all of the products in this palette and I love all of them apart from the face compact, which does not match my skintone. But, overally, it's a worth buy! Just in case you're curious, the shiny crystal heart that I filmed in this pic is my birthday present I got from my husband a year ago. It's a 1GB USB storage, and now I'd like to use it to store my important documents.

 Here is the gift I got from YSL, it has a letter "Y" print detail, isn't that gorgeous?! It did come with 3 samples, a mini-lipstick, a makeup remover sample and a mini-mascara! I've given all of them away to my friends!

 Here is the gift set I got from Dior, a purse, a makeup remover, a mascara, a lipstick, a foundation sample and a moisturizer! I'd like to keep them to myself this time!

I've several eye shadow palette that I want to review and I've taken photos of them. But now I gotta work, stock mkt is about to open. I will do the review in my next blog entry! Bye for now!

Buffet high up in the Sky!

Hubbie and I recently received a fortune we never expected so we decided we need to go out and celebrate the thing. We went to Skycity in Auckland, where we live. There is this restaurant up on the top of the tower called observatory and that's where we booked our seat to have a buffet. We were going to book the night menu for $62/per but since hubbie does not favor raw seafood, which are main dish in the dinner menu, we decided to go for the lunch menu for $43/per including the free-entry to the main observatory that I've never paid a visit to, which normally cost $25/per. 

This is the look of the day! I recently bought the Dior Holiday Collection makeup palette, lots of people were raving about how good the collection is. Well, I kinda like it, but there is this one thing with it I don't like, the makeup compact in my palette is #030, which is waaaaay to duck for me, I saw the palette from Sephora.com, the color is #010, so I think they sell different product in Southern Hemisphere. Anyhow, other than that, it's great! So for this look I used everything in the palette apart from the compact, all the colors look flattering on me!



 I love prawns, I had about 30 of them, yum!

 Here is the Swarovski Hyphen Bracelet I got as a Thanksgiving present from hubbie. My wrist is kinda chubby and my Sony camera could not pickup the shine of the crystal. Well, the pic below shows how the bracelet actually looks like, I love it!

 Awesome view from the restaurant high up in the sky!

 These crazy people are skywalking right outside where we were dinning!

 This is the main observatory room. This 38mm piece of glass is as strong as concrete, but I still feel like I was gonna fall. See the expression on my face, totally weird! Hubbie said I conquered my fear of high, a good one!

 Hubbie standing on the glass. He also jumped like a mad kid.

 Me squatting on the glass, try to be brave. But did you see my hand, firmly holding on the stone, for what? I don't know!

 Big boy again, he enjoyed this piece of glass so much, lol!

That's pretty much it, enjoy!