Japanese makeup goodness!

You all know what a fan I am of ANYTHING Japanese, I'm obsessed with the country, the food, the wonderful people and of course, the makeup.  So when Lunatu approached me and said "Hey, can we send you a couple pieces of our Japanese makeup for your blog" I wasn't about to say No!

So, lets start in reverse order (saving my favourite product for last!)....

Dolly wink false eyelashes (No.2 sweet girly) - £10.50*

The reason it's taken me a while to review all these products (I've had them for weeks) is because I don't wear false eyelashes very often and I wanted to wait for an opportunity when I was going to wear them so I could give them a proper excursion!  The lashes themselves are really lovely and vary in density all the way down.  The were a little too long for me so I needed to trim them down by just under a centimetre.  Here's the good and bad bit - the glue.  It was good, it really held the lashes in place, probably better than any other glue I've tried, however, it took an AGE to go clear, and when I took the above pics, I didn't think it was going to go clear as that was after 30 mins of wear - so I'd applied liquid eyeliner over most of the white leaving only the bits you can see.  But it did eventually go clear, so my tip, if you're using these, put them on in plenty of time before you go out :)

Canmake BB Cream 01 light £9.25

Now, you know me, when I review a foundation/bb cream or whatever, I *always* show it in place on the face.  Sadly, because of the 'Yes to Cucumbers' face wipes I have an eczema breakout all over my face and as much as it doesn't look that bad, any foundation is looking terrible on my skin due to all the dryness, and I'm trying not to wear any so not to aggravate it any further.  What I can say about this, is when I first got it a few weeks ago, I wore it a lot and managed to road test it.

It's thick, very blendable and for me, a great colour match, if not the tiniest shade too dark (I had the lightest shade).  It covers as well as any foundation and stays put just as long, but with the added benefit of SPF 50 pa+++ protection.  I've been a big fan of Canmake for a while, ever since I did my Japanese makeup swap and fell in love with the Canmake duo blusher in 01.  Eastern BB creams are the best, Western ones just don't compare, so if you're thinking about getting one, definitely make sure you aim for an Eastern one :)  And at £9.25 this one is really well priced.

Dolly Wink liquid eyeliner in deep black £10.50

So what makes these my favourite of the three products? That's simple, it's amazing.  It's better than my Chanel Ecriture (holy grail) liquid liner hands down.  This is cheaper than half the price, has a finer point to it so it's more precise, it's just as black, it doesn't get on my lashes, it stays put all day, it doesn't transfer to the top of my lid and it's not crazy hard to remove, oh it's buildable too so you can make it blacker and blacker.  The Chanel one comes in around £26, and this is just £10.50 - it's a guaranteed repurchase for me.  

Since I've had this (mid-end March) I haven't used my Chanel eyeliner once!  That's how good it is, and you know how much I loved that liner!!  I love that I can get a much prettier and finer winged look, and this is friendlier on slightly 'older' lids too - on my eyelid on the inner corner, I have tiny little hairline wrinkles, and my Chanel liner bleeds into them while it's still wet, this doesn't.

So there you have it - I hope you've enjoyed this triple review, I've really enjoyed trying these out, and I've found an absolute gem with the liquid eyeliner :)  Thank you Lunatu for introducing me to it :D

This months Biggest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Jaina from Which Beauty Box UK

 

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Quest - Liquid Eyeliner

Just a quick update for you - I'm currently on a quest and wanted to share it with you - perhaps you can join me?  :)

My quest is to find a drugstore/pharmacy dupe/replacement for the Chanel liquid eyeliner.  So far I've tried MUA, Maybelline (currently the closest), L'Oreal, Dior and none of them really cut it.

Requirements
1.  The brush has to be either a felt tip, or like the chanel one, little bristles (not like the brush you can get with lip gloss).
2.  It must dry quickly.
3.  There can be no transferring onto my eye lid
4.  It has to be a deep dark black
5.  Oh, should probably be cheap too - if it's replacing my Chanel one!

So yeah, that may seem like a lot to ask, but it's all the things my Chanel one is (except cheap, it's currently £25) - if you have any suggestions of ones to try (that I can purchase here in the UK of course!), then please leave a comment below :)

I'll update you on my progress :)

Pixi3 out
xXx

MUA Haul / Review

Hey everyone!  I have a mini Birthday haul that I wanted to share with you :)

I've been a bit slow updating my blog recently, sorry about that.  I've basically had 3.5 weeks off work and have just been enjoying them so much, I haven't done much else (other than go to Ireland of course).  Now, this post is purely about MUA - and I would like to state that I am not in any way affiliated with the brand, and that I purchased all these products with my own money.  I haven not been paid to do this blog, these are my own thoughts and opinions.

So, MUA ran an amazing offer, because they hit 20k likes, they did an offer that if you purchased anything from their online store, they would give away with every order a FREE immaculate palette.  Now, that palette was worth £8 which is pretty much their most expensive item as it's a budget brand.  An offer you definitely didn't want to miss!  So, I took the opportunity to be brave, and get a few things I've been meaning to try, things like a white pencil liner, MUA lipstick etc etc.  Here's what I got:

MUA Extreme Volume Mascara £2
MUA Lipstick in Shade 6 £1
MUA Intense Colour Liner Pencil in Snow White £1
MUA Extreme Felt Liner in Black £2
MUA Eye Dust in Shade 5 £1

I've also since purchased 2 of their Lip Boom's from their online store which turned up today, which is great timing so I can include them in this post too!  I purchased 2 colours, ok.com and Doin Good.  They are retailing at £3 each.

Extreme Volume Mascara

I've only worn this volume mascara a couple of times, so I can't give a full in-depth review - however, these are my thoughts so far.  It's a really nice formulation, quite a wet formula and gives very pretty eyelashes.  My hangup is the brush, it doesn't grip the lashes that well.  This can be combated by purchasing lash brushes - you can pick them up for a few pounds on the web and generally come in large packs - if you can find ones you like this would be a great solution as the actual product itself is lovely.

Lipstick

I'm really impressed with thier lipstick.  This is the first lipstick in their line that I've tried, it feels very hydrating and buttery in texture.  The colour range is nice and contemporary.  I purchased Shade 6, which has small silvery glitter in it, this helps give it a nice sparkle and make it look more glossy.  A definite thumbs up from me, especially for £1.

Extreme Felt Eyeliner

Now, this felt eyeliner has some staying power, even with makeup wipes it doesn't shift easily, which is a good thing.  All too many felt eyeliners either transfer on to my top lid, or wear off very quickly.  I always end up reaching for my trusty Chanel liquid eyeliner after trying so many others, but with this one I didn't as much.  The only negative for me, was that I didn't find it black enough.  When I use liquid eyeliner, I like it to be jet black, whereas I found this to be more of a charcoal black.  The brush was quite firm too, so if you're going back over your liner to try to make it blacker, you might find it gets a bit sore, but I'm sure with use that roughness will wear off.

Intense Colour Eyeliner

So far, I've used this Intense Colour Eyeliner twice.  It was good, it stayed on for a reasonable amount of time.  It's very soft and creamy in texture and blends really well.  I don't see it lasting too long because of that fact.  Again I refer back to Chanel, I love thier Khol eyeliner, I've had it for ages and it takes a long time to go down.  But, there is also a massive price difference between the two, and it's unfair of me to compare MUA to High end brands.  In some areas, they do compare (lipstick, liquid eyeliner), and in others, not quite as much.  But that's not a bad thing - MUA own the fact that they're a budget brand and they embrace that, as they should.  They have some fantastic proudcts, and some I wouldn't re-purchase, but hey, you get that with every brand (even my favourite, Chanel).

Eye Dust

So far I've only used this one eye dust.  I love, love, love the colour, the only thing I didn't like as much was that it didn't seem to carry it's intensity through to the application and wear on the lid.  It did dull after a short while, and even after blending.  It's still a beautiful colour, even after all that.  I would like to try more of their colours in that range, maybe a sea / aqua blue or a bright purple, it would be nice to compare.

Immaculte Eye Shadow Palette

What a great palette for them to give away, The Immaculate!  24 colours, most are shimmery, and a couple are matt.  Some winners, and sadly, some losers which is to be expected.  The below picture I've circled the ones that I think are great, and the ones that aren't so great.  Green circles are good, red are bad :)

Oh, and here's some swatches.  All swatches were done on clean skin, and without primer.  So, these colours would of course intensify when using a primer underneath like Urban Decay's Eye Shadow Primer Potion or the Two Faced Shadow Insurance etc.

One of my favourite colours was the colour, 2nd from the right on the 2nd row down.  A shimmary blue colour with gold flecks in it, really stunning - I can't wait to use this one.

Last, and certainly not least, LIP BOOM!

Now, here's a product they've hit the home run with!  Lip Boom is in collaboration with Alexander Burke. They've launched in 8 shades (It's a Situation, LMK, OK.com, Vibe, Cheeky, Doin Good, OMG and Bring It), I purchased 2 of them in OK.com and Doin Good.  

 with lip gloss

 without lip gloss

 with lip gloss

without lip gloss

Both are beautiful colours, but I do have a favourite!  Doin Good is definitely the winner out of these two for me, I feel that the other one is just too light for my skin tone.  When you add the gloss over the top it's much better, but the base lipstick is just to fair.  However, with Doin Good, the colour alone is stunning, and then when adding the gloss over the top it's double stunning.  One thing I'd also like to mention is that both gloss's smell amazing!  They smell like ice cream, really delish :)

Pixi3 out
xXx