Colour Me In: Lemon aid by Benefit Cosmetics

"Colour Me In" is a series of posts in collaboration with Tram from Beauty With the Beautifool, Amanda of Thai -Tales and Alice of Arsyparsy, set out to explore almost every colour of the rainbow and sharing our collection of makeup with photos, swatches and mini reviews.

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I thought I'd take a break from doing manicures and the only yellow thing that I could think of is one of my concealer/primers from my Benefit Concealer Kit, as part of my Benefit Cosmetics haul earlier this month. It's called Lemon Aid. Cute name!

I'd let the book do the talking, but it's pretty much a concealer and primer in one! It helps even out the discolouration on your eyelids and also doubles up as an eyeshadow primer.

There's a cute little brush included in the kit. It's got synthetic hairs. I use the brush to apply it to my eyelid and then use my clean finger to blend it out.

It was pretty hard swatching this since I have such light skin, but I tried my best to capture it. Left is with the brush, right swatch is blended with my finger.

When I wake up in the mornings, this is what my eye area looks like, pretty uneven colour, more oily on my eyelids. Using the Lemon Aid concealer, it not only helps even out my eyelid colour, it also brightens up the whole area.

In a way, I guess this is kind of like MAC's paint pots, it's got the creamy texture that sticks to your eyelids, creating the perfect base for eyeshadows, or you can leave it just like that, simple, yet refreshed.

Here's how it looks like on my eye, without, with the primer, and all blended out.

In terms of a primer, you can see here that it's a pretty good base. I'm using Urban Decay's eyeshadow in YDK from the Naked 2 Palette. Left is without primer, and right is obviously, with.

I'm really glad I got to try this out in the Concealer kit, although I'm not sure if I'll be purchasing the full size, just because usually I use my foundation to even out my skin tone and around my eye area too. Also adding the fact that I don't play around with eyeshadows as much as I would love to, so I think this little sample size will go a long way for me for a while :)

Did you prefer me doing yellow nails instead? Have no fear, you're up for a triple treat with all three of the other girls doing bright and bold yellow manicures. Here's to Alice, Tram and Amanda! 

Colour Me In: Nude French Nail Twist

"Colour Me In" is a series of posts in collaboration with Tram from Beauty With the Beautiful, Amanda of Thai -Tales and Alice of Arsyparsy, set out to explore almost every colour of the rainbow and sharing our collection of makeup with photos, swatches and mini reviews.

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Everyone loves a classic french tip manicure. Nude nails and the white tip can match with anything in any occasion. I've decided to stick with the nude and white colour to create a french manicure with a little edge.

All I did was paint the base colour and using a nail art brush, drew on the zig zag lines on the top half of my nail. I was originally going to do one and a half zigzags per nail but I added the extra line on my ring finger to see what it looked like, and I like it better with the one and a half. Up to you on how many lines you want :)

Colours I used:
Essence (Nude Glam collection) - Iced Latte
Essence - Tip Painter 

The perfect manicure to spice up the boring straight line tip! Why not experiment with different colours, perhaps a dark nail with silver stripes?

Remember to check out Alice's nude lipsticks, Amanda's review on eyeshadow primers as well as Tram with her DIY nude nail polish!

I turned 21!

Last Friday was my birthday and I am now the lovely age of 21 :) I don't feel any different, still a little girl at heart! Just wanted to share with you some pictures of the  past weekend, it was such an enjoyable time with my friends and family.

My cake was made by my beautiful best friend, a Tiffany & Co inspired cake since my favourite colour is blue. She also made some cute little cake pops. My other good friend made the accompanying Tiffany cupcakes, and in addition with my candy buffet, the cake table looked amazing.

I also hired a Daytona machine haha vrooom vrooom!

Polaroid fun :)

This is my real smile :D

My cake was 3 layers!

Yay it's Tram from The Beautifool, Alice from Arsyparsy and Amanda from Thai-Tales! ♥

So blessed that I got to celebrate my 21st surrounded with the loveliest bunch of friends and family :)

Colour Me In: Orange Nail Art

"Colour Me In" is a series of posts in collaboration with Tram from Beauty With the Beautiful, Amanda of Thai -Tales and Alice of Arsyparsy, set out to explore almost every colour of the rainbow and sharing our collection of makeup with photos, swatches and mini reviews.

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Today's colour is Orange, a vibrant number that can brighten up anyone's day! I've decided to show you some nail art designs I did revolving around orange. Of course you guys can switch up the colours if you like, but this post is just an inspiration, so let your imagination run wild!

What you'll need is are few thin brushes and a steady hand, or use an old eyeliner brush that you don't use!

1. Drip nails. Base: Essie - Braziliant. Drip: Essence - Tip painter (White)

2. Kitty nails: Base: FOA - Orange you glad you came? Stripes: Essie - Braziliant. Eyes: Australis - Rub A Dub Dub. Nose: Sportsgirl - Smoke. Whiskers: Ulta3 - Black Satin

3. Butterfly wings: Base: FOA - Orange you glad you came? Wing outline: Ulta3 - Black satin. Dots: Essence - Tip Painted (White)

4. Penguin nails: Base: Essie - Braziliant. Eyes and body: Essence. Bow Tie - Ulta3 - Flashback Fuchsia

5. Two tone stripe nails: Base: FOA - Orange you glad you came? Stripe: Essence - Tip Painter (White). Bottom colour: Satin #25

Colours I used:
Face of Australia - Orange you glad I came?
Essie - Braziliant
Satin - #25 (I'm pretty sure this is discontinued)

I was the only one doing nails this week! If you're interested in orange lipsticks, the rest of the girls are onto it!
Check out Tram's, Alice's and Amanda's bright and bold orange lipsticks!

Benefit Cosmetics POWda WOWza

Having always wanted to try out some of Benefit Cosmetics, especially Hoola, their bronzer, and a few of their blushes, I knew POWda WOWza was my answer.

What Benefit Cosmetics say:
"Wear ’em and wow ’em...Benefit’s famous face powders are together in one portable box! This limited-edition box o’ powder adds a holiday glow with CORALista, a coral-pink cheek powder, hoola bronzing powder, and bella bamba, a 3D brightening pink face powder."

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This little package of two blushes and a bronzer is my definition of travel friendly. It's such a cute little box, only measuring 8cm across. You get 3.0/0.1z of product, which is pretty much a sample size, considering that the full sized product gives you 8g/0.28oz. But then again, I have never been able to finish at blush before, let alone hit pan. It's very likely that I will hit pan for this box, at the rate I'm going, but no doubt I will definitely repurchase the full size!

This box is perfect for those wanting to trial out some of their most favourable face powders. Coralista is a shade that almost everyone has heard of. The first product that introduced me to Benefit Cosmetics was actually Coralista! Their Hoola bronzer is also a well known favourite among many beauty bloggers/vloggers.

L to R: Coralista, Bella Bamba, Hoola

Coralista is such a flattering shade. It's coral but not too orangey with hints of pink in there, making it really suitable for different skin types. I now understand why everyone is crazy about it. It really is a gorgeous shade, the perfect barely there flush.

Bella Bamba is described as a 3D brightening pink. It's a watermelon pink that's pigmented and buildable (not even sure if that's even possible with a blush, but I'm sure you know what I mean!). Visibly in the box, it has more shimmer than Coralista but when applied on your cheeks, it only comes up as a sheen.

Hoola is a MATTE bronzer. I typed matte in capitals because it's actually quite amazing to come across a pigmented and matte bronzer at the same time. Used under your cheekbones for that chiseled, framed effect, again, it's buildable and blendable. A light hand will do the trick!

I do believe that brushes play a crucial role with cheek products because certain brushes can emphasise colours more than others, so just have a little play around with either slanted or domed brushes to achieve the look you like. For example, if you want your bronzer to be a little on the lighter side as defintion, rather than a bronzing look, try a dome headed brush instead of a angled contour brush.

L to R: Coralista, Bella Bamba, Hoola

All in all, all the face powders in this box were soft, pigmented, blendable and not cakey or powdery looking on your face. It is limited edition, and for only $28, it's a really good deal. I don't know when it will be out of stock, so you better hurry! I don't think limited edition boxes come back. 

I'm so glad I purchased this and it's now a staple in my make up routine. Have you guys tried any other Benefit blushes? Recommend me in the comments!

The product mentioned in this post was purchased by me.

Colour Me In: Pink - Real Techniques Blush and Kabuki brush

It's another one of our Colour Me In posts! Today's colour is Pink and what perfect time for me to review the Real Technique brushes since they are pink. ish. If you haven't seen our intro to the Colour Me In posts, and what this colour fuss is all about, head right over here.

Moving onto the review.

To be honest, I've never actually seen the Pixiwoo duo on youtube. I know, crazy right. But when I found out about the hype of these makeup brushes in the name of Real Techniques, I had to see what all the fuss was about.

I ordered the blush brush and the mini kabuki, just because I already have a holy grail foundation brush and I don't use eye make up that often.

First thing I have to say is that the brushes are super soft. I love running my fingers back and forth against the brush hairs. Another thing I love is that each brush arrives in its own cute sturdy plastic package. Most of the time, brushes arrive in these flimsy plastic film wrap and the brush hairs could get damaged, even if it IS covered. I also like how it has a short description at the back. It might be very similar to what she writes on all the other brushes, but still!

The bottom of the brush has a rubber grip and has a flat base so it can stand on your makeup table. I know it might not sound very appealing, but really, when your brush holder is full, this baby sits just right on your tabletop. It's a pretty sight too!

The brush hairs itself, are, as I said, extremely soft. The shape is domed, "hand-cut to contour and define cheeks". There are shorter lengths along the outside of the brush whereas its long in the middle area. This gradient of length is suuuper important when buying blush brushes because it helps you blend blend blend! When you swipe it against your blush, majority of product is on the tip of the brush where the longer hairs are. As you sweep it across your cheek, that's where the little hairs come into action, helping you blend and achieve a soft look.

I love using this brush with my Hot Mama blush from theBalm (see review here). I was previously using the Sigma Large Angled Contour brush (F40) with it but I feel that this Real Techniques blush brush works so much better. Definitely a softer, and even spread of blush. 

The reason I chose to get this Kabuki brush was because I needed a brush that could help me apply my cream blushes a lot better. Lo and behold, here is my answer.

This cute little brush is densely packed as you can see in the photo below, making it perfect to blend. Especially for cream blushes. In the past, I have used my fingers, and a thin synthetic flat angled brush, but they didn't achieve the look I wanted, nowhere near as blended out as I wanted it to be.
What I do now, is blob a few dots on the area I want on my cheek and take this brush and moving it in circular motions, I blend it out quickly.

Did you know this brush can also fold out? Cute right! You can open it and use it to sweep under your cheekbones for contouring or even as a highlighter atop your cheeks.

A lot of my time was spent watching Samantha Chapman herself demonstrating the brushes and saw how she used the brush to create a pretty look. She's a good seller. She got me hooked! Watch it too, it'll be sure to tempt you to buy some :) Watch here

Where did I get the brushes, I hear you ask?

I got them here http://www.iherb.com/Real-Techniques-by-Samantha-Chapman

The site looks a little dodgy, but I assure you, I received them perfectly fine! They even pack the box with scrunched up paper so your brushes don't fall around everywhere.

How much are the brushes?

I got the blush brush for $9, and the kabuki for $10. There's a small shipping fee, but nothing too outrageous.

These brushes are so worth your money guys, it's cheaper than Sigma and MAC brushes, but work just as well!

And I got a lil code for you guys. Just use the code WEK514 to receive $5 off on your first purchase at iHerb!

With this code, my whole order came to $20 (including shipping) !! So good right.

Hope you enjoyed the review of these two cute PINK brushes. Check out other shades of pink with Tram's afforable blushes, Amanda's duo toned lips and Alice's bombshell lips.

Curling your hair: Straightener vs curling iron

I know its a question that's been asked so many times. What curls your hair better? A straightener or a curling iron? I took that question right to the test. I was originally going to do hot rollers as well, but I'll leave that to another post. After all, my hair can only take so much, being the thinning, hair-losing thing that it is.

My hair used to be quite thick actually. As a little girl, I remember how much hair I had, always putting it in a big ponytail for school. It wasn't until around when I was 12 or 13, that I started taking notice of how I wanted to cut my hair and next thing I know, they're thinning it out and so on and so forth for the next few years. What I'm left with is fine strands of hair that always happen to end up on my bedroom floor. One of the hairdressers I went to, told me that I should treat it now, and if it's really serious, I should go see a doctor because it's going to be harder for me to fix when I roll over the age of 25. I have done no action since then, but apparently vitamins works. Any ideas on how to keep your hair from falling out girls?

My straightener is quite old actually. It's a Remington and it came in a pack with  the hairdryer. I wasn't planning on buying a straightener alone by itself since I already have naturally straight hair. It just came in the pack with the hair dryer so I put it to use. To curl.

My curling iron is from VS Sassoon with a 32mm (1 and a quarter inch) barrel. I was contemplating on getting one of the clipless curling irons, or curling wands, as some people might call it. But I got this one from David Jones. It was more of an impulse buy, but I'm glad I bought it.

So now that you have an idea of what my hair is like, it's relatively easy to curl my hair since I don't have to manage a lot and is not as time consuming.

The left side is with my straightener and the right is with my curling iron. For both sides, I curled all sections of my hair away from my face.

Hair straightener:

Shorter curls

Holds more tightly

Some frizz evident

Sections are prominently seen rather than bunching up together

Curling Iron:

Longer, looser curls

Not as long lasting as curls from a straightener

Less frizz

More time consuming

Softer curls means it can easily disappear into other curled sections of hair

It's really up to you the way you prefer your curl. Some people go for the more tighter curl. Or some people go for the loose. I like the look of both, but the curling iron wins me over, since I prefer the loose wavy look. I also like that it doesn't shorten my hair as much, yet still maintains a curl. And although, it's a little bit more time consuming then that of a straightener, it's worth it in the end. I haven't worn the look out yet so I can't give you a definitive answer to how long it would last throughout the day.

But then again, it all comes down to technique. I know when I first started curling my hair with the straightener, it took me a while to get it to curl right. Parts of it would stick out awkwardly and I'd have the problem of leaving the straightener in one place for too long and it'd crimp my hair. You just need a good straightener and good technique. And a good hairspray :)

Do you guys prefer curling your hair with a straightener or a curling iron?

Hope this post was really helpful in deciding whether to invest in a straightener or a curling iron :)