I wish...

Have you ever felt sad that a big part of your makeup collections would not be used up and your favorite products might be wasted? How often do you use up a single powder, and compare to how many you have? Sigh...I wish, If just no makeup would ever expire...

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Something Worth Trying Out (II)


There are many products that we can easily find at the stores or online, and they have amazing qualities. However, for some reasons they haven't received a lot of attentions. It could be just me or they truly don't work on others, I don't know. If you are seeking nice makeup products to add to your collections, give these items a try.

Part I
  • Boots No. 7 Exceptional Definition Mascara
  • Inglot Eyebrow Pencil
  • Inglot Lipstick Pencil
  • Inglot AMC Liquid Blush
  • Inglot Brow Powder/Wax Palette
  • Dior Addict Lip Balm
Part II
  • Clinique High Lengths Mascara
  • Bare Escentuals Pencil Eyeliner
  • Crown Brush Brushes
  • Kett Cosmetics Liquid Blushes-Hydro Blush
  • Kett Cosmetics Sett Powder-Translucent Setting Powder
Part III
  • Stila Forever Your Curl Curl Your Memory Mascara
  • Stila Eyeshadows in free pan form
  • Stila Stay All Day Waterproof liquid Eye Liner in Intense Black
  • Koh Gen Do Aqua Foundation SPF 15/PA++
  • Shu Uemura Hard Formula Brow Pencil
Clinique High Lengths Mascara
I first got this mascara as a sample, and I was very skeptical with the brush. How can this brush work well, I have never seen this kind of brushes before... Surprisingly, this works so amazing on my lashes. If you have not read my previous posts about my eyelashes, I have Asian straight down lashes, they are normal length but not thick at all. Normally a volumizing mascara will be to heavy on my lashes to hold the curl, a lengthening or a curling mascara will not give me enough volume I need. With this Clinique High Lengths Mascara, it gives everything I need for my lashes: volume, curl, and length. What else do you need anyway? ^o^
The price for this mascara is not expensive at all. I think Clinique products in general is a very affordable high-end brand. This mascara comes in two colors, black and brown, and the black one sold out more quickly than the brown one in stores (when I was looking for it).
One problem with this mascara is when you take the brush out of the tube, you might get too much product on the brush that you don't need. You can either wipe off some of the product with a tissue (do not use those boxed super soft tissue, there could be some tiny white particles left on the brush); or you just scrape off the excess at the inner side of the tube opening so you don't have to waste the product. Too much product will result in eyelashes clump together. You have to make sure the small bristles are clearly revealed, not covered by the product, and then you can brush you eyelashes upward from the root to the end. The thinner your eyelashes are, the less product you want to apply each time to have the best result with this.
I don't know how this formula lengthens your lashes, it just does...I hate mascaras with small fibers in them that intend to lengthen your lashes, they leave some of the fibers at the tip of your eyelashes and look very unflattering. The fibers sometimes get onto my contacts which irritate my eyes so badly. I always stay away from mascaras like that. However, this Clinique mascara gives you a false eyelashes look without all the hassles.
This is not a mascara for you if you are going for a natural look. It's more on the intense or dramatic side. I did not have any problem wear this every day, and I still consider this as work-friendly mascara.
It will make your eyelashes a little bit more stiff after it dries to hold the curl. If you have very thin eyelashes then don't apply too much of this mascara, it might be too heavy for your lashes to hold the curl (two coats are fine).
I would not suggest to use this on your bottom eyelashes because of the shape of the bristles. Even though the bristles are small enough to brush through your bottom lashes, it is too long and the slightly curved shape might not suit everyone's eye-shape.
The lasting power is great and I don't have any complaint about it at all.
 I just love this mascara. After I ran out of the sample size one, I immediately went to Sephora and bought a new one. I strongly suggest you to try this one out.

Clinique High Lengths Mascara
$16.00 each (2 colors)
You can purchase at Sephora stores, Department Counters,
or Sephora website bit.ly/1eptK2jhttp://
Clinique website http://bit.ly/17PJKqw

Bare Escentuals (Bare Minerals) Pencil Eyeliner
I noticed the reviews on this product is not so good, about 3 out of 5 in general. I guess it must be one of those that works on some but not on others. In this case, it works on me pretty well but doesn't work on a lot of you. I am a contacts wearer, it's hard for me to find an eyeliner that is pigment enough and last me the whole day on my waterline. This one last me a long time without smearing or getting onto my contacts.

There are 7 colors total. Sephora has 6 of them (except the green one "11am-Smoky Moss"). You can find all 7 on Bare Escentuals website. I have the blackout and the deepest navy pencils, they both are very creamy when applying and have very good color payoffs.
Most of the long-lasting pencils I have used, from drugstore to high-end, they either get onto my contacts, give me panda eyes after a while, or just worn off after couple hours. I first got this Bare Escentuals pencil in blackout from a gift set. It was shorter than the original one. I left it in my drawer for a month or so without using it because I did not like pencil liners as much for the lasting power. One day when I was doing my make-up, and I really want to have a eye-look with smudged out eyeliner. That is not something I can do with liquid liners. So I grabbed this one in my drawer, with no high expectation in mind, and started to use it. Surprisingly, the liner applied on very smoothly and effortlessly; the black is black enough to give me the intensity I wanted. Since it's a very creamy pencil, I did not have any problem smudging out with a dark brown eyeshadow. After about a minute it will set. The first impression looked pretty nice, so I used it on my waterline as well. Like other times I used any pencil liner, I applied a dark brown eyeshadow (same as the one I used earlier) right on my lash line with a small liner brush to prevent the liner from bleeding or smearing.
During the day, I almost checked my eyeliners every one or two hours because I was worried about the eyeliners would not stay on well. After 8 hours, the color on my waterline faded just a little bit which is very normal, but the top liner looked fine. it didn't smear down, didn't flake off, or stick to my contacts. I was very shocked to see such results (partially due to the fact that I did not give high hope to it at the beginning...), and restored some of my confidence on trying out pencil liners.
Blah...Blah...Blah... Long story short, I purchased the navy color the next week, and it worked just as well as the black one. The navy color is a very good color for the days you don't want to wear black liners, and you want something different and less intense.
One con that comes with may pencil liners is You Need To Sharpen Them. The creaminess of the pencil just make it even harder to hold the sharp pointed tip. I feel like every time I sharpen a pencil liner, I am wasting some of the products. Overtime. I bet 1/5 of the product could be wasted if not more.
I got my pencils in March or April this year, it didn't dry up till I used it up. I hope Bare Escentuals did not change the formula of these pencils so I can try other colors after I use up some of my other liners in my collection.
The price for the liner is acceptable for the quality, for $15.00 not so bad. I can't say that this would work on everyone, but if you are still looking for a new black liner to try, put this on your list. You might be surprised too, you never know...

Bare Escentuals (Bare Minerals) Round the Clock Waterproof Eyeliner
$15.00 each
Can be purchased at any Sephora stores, Department counters,
or Sephora website http://bit.ly/1bab57B (6 colors);

Bare Escentuals website bit.ly/1eptK2j (7 colors)

Crown Brush Brushes
Crown Brush brushes are very affordable first of all, especially if you are not ready to invest in higher-end brushes just yet. You might think cheap brushes like that are not good quality brushes. I was thinking the same thing when I ordered Crown Brush brushes, and I didn't have very high expectations for them. However, after using the brushes for a while, I was so surprised that how durable the brushes are for the price I paid. Till this day, since I first purchased from Crown two years ago, the brushes still hold their shapes and work perfectly for me.