Giveaway by Sahrish

I need a set of good brushes. The synthetic ones ain't doing that much good to my powders. :(

Would you like to enter this giveaway too? Click on picture to link you back to the page. 

Review: Benefit Dandelion Face Powder

Am I the last person in the world to review this? Maybe. Heh... (smiles sheepishly)

While I'm mostly obsessed with nail lacquers, I'm starting to venture more into makeup, thanks to Nic Nic. I love her subtle makeup which only enhances her natural beauty.

Now I've heard of Benefit Dandelion for a long time, and of complains of how sheer it is with little or no colour payoff, and also fake benefit dandelion circulating on the internet. As my campus is far far away from the city center, and I mean really far, I really don't have the time to visit the physical store to check them out. So I decided to get them online.

I was lucky I got them genuine. The seller even included the Benefit website official receipt for my reassurance. 

The little cardboard box was so so cute, and they look so different from the conventional sleek packaging for make ups, me likes!

But note that it is made from cardboard though, so the corners will have tears and wears pretty soon. See the lower left corner, there's a little wear and tear there already. I don't expect my stuff to look forever new anyway even though I'm quite careful with them.

The back of a authentic Benefit Dandelion blush.

I think the most qualms ladies have about buying stuff online is its authenticity. I'm all against counterfeited goods too, especially beauty products. It's quite scary as you do not know what they used to manufacture them, and it's so frustrating especially if you've paid close to the original product price only to get counterfeited goods. And Benefit, Mac and Bobbi Brown are some of the most counterfeited products around the internet, especially on Ebay, be extra careful when you shop there.

As there are quite a lot of helpful articles online on detecting a fake benefit dandelion, I won't elaborate more on it. Mostly they explained about the back label which can be tear off, but I realised that there is another way of determining from the front cover too. It's especially useful when the seller only provide pictures of the front box, and you can't possibly ask the seller to tear off the back label right?

You can see that the old version, and I mean the really really old version many years back have the 'Benefit' word in front with a straight f. They are the ones that have the weight printed as 10g.

Counterfeiters counterfeit the new version of Benefit Dandelion with curvy f.

Benefit Old Version with Straight f.

Well, the new version has a curvy f like mine in the first picture.

Fake benefit dandelion will have a curvy f like the new version, but the weight will be written as 10g.

Authentic Benefit Dandelion with curvy f has the weight written as 10.0g. See the picture below for explanation.

Authentic Benefit Dandelion with curvy f has 10.0g

So this is one of the ways of detecting that most people did not realise. It's very easy as it's from the front cover. So if you don't see the .0 and it has a curvy f from the new version, you're most likely looking at a fake Benefit Dandelion.

Benefit Dandelion in the pan

Once you open the box, you'll catch a whiff of a nice floral scent which isn't very strong but not entirely subtle. It's a very nice comforting smell, it's quite hard to describe.

Dandelion blush, or face powder as Benefit calls it, is a dusty light pink with small subtle gold flecks in the pan, but once it applies on your face, it's a delightful soft soft natural pink with a slight gold sheen from the gold shimmers.

The closeup from the next picture shows the gold shimmers better. 

See the gold flecks of shimmers in Benefit Dandelion

Most people say they don't notice the scent once applied on the skin, but I beg to differ. I can still detect the nice floral scent when I smell my arm, it's like the smell of a nice subtle soap after bath.

I swatched them on my arm for better comparison, which has the same color as my face.

Swatch on the left is one light swatch, and the one on  the right is one light swatch blended out.

It's really very very subtle, I would hardly call it a blush really. I could see why many people are having trouble getting a good colour payoff.

The picture below is two swatches, but it is really another very light swatch on top.(maybe the surface of half the pan) I was in a hurry to take the pictures that I swatched the second layer with too little powder. :( 

I like the fact that it brightens up my face quite naturally, and a second layer of Benefit Dandelion will give me a nice natural flush on my cheeks. Me likes and approve!

Ass you can see from most reviews, it was said to be so so subtle that it just doesn't show up. I think yes, that's the case if you are of a darker skintone. I think it functions better on lighter skintones as a blush, or as a overall brightening face powder.

The gold shimmer you see in the pan will translate to a nice very subtle golden sheen on my face. It's really very subtle, so unless you are looking for the shimmers and you're like 5cm close to my face, you'd most likely not notice it, so don't be afraid of looking like a giant disco ball.

On another note, I've just bought myself a nice pair of white gladiator sandals. I love the studs on the shoes. The design might be too complicated for some, but what can I say? I'm only young once. I'd love to pull off what I can when I can still do it. :D

My new white gladiator sandals

Till then, and I shall see you next time. :)

p.s. And oh, that's OPI Mrs O'Leary BBQ on my toes.

Review: Kao Liese Bubble Hair Dye in Glossy Brown

Hello readers!

My deep apologies for the sudden disappearance. I took a flight back home for a short break, and started to lug the stuff in my dorm back home. It's nearly time to graduate, and I've mountains of stuff here. I must start moving something back or else it'd be nearly impossible to get them all back at once. So you would see less nail polish reviews here as I've moved most of them back home, leaving me with only OPI Bubble Bath and Mrs O'leary BBQ, and of course my fav base and top coat. 

So what have I been up to?

I've dyed my hair brown. Teee heee....

Ok, not exactly brown, more like red brown. It's a colour named Glossy Brown from Liese.

Liese Glossy Brown

See? That's the packaging. 

Yes, I dyed it myself! 

I've dyed my hair before, but always in a saloon. But this time I thought I'd like to try some DIY .

Sorry I didn't took photos of the step by step of the process, I dyed it back home with my mom's help, and it ended up being really nice!

Liese hair dye is a bubble dye. Basically it's very simple.

1. Mix solution A and B.

2. Gently rock the bottle for a few seconds.

3. Squeeze the bottle and bubbles will come out from the nozzle.

4. Put the bubbles on your hair.

5. Wait 30-40 minutes.

6. Wash.

And it's done!

My natural hair was dark brown  to begin with, not stark black, so this might appear lighter on me than others.

See them photos!

Liese Glossy brown near window, evening sun.

 It's very subtle in a room, not glaringly obvious, I like!
Only if you are under the light, or near a window, the colour will peek through, and it's a very lovely red-brown tint.

Liese Glossy Brown near window, loose hair, day time.

 It also changes colour to a lighter brown or red brown, depending on the light, wet or dry, tied up or loose. The colour is really fantastic to look at, very very nice!

Liese Glossy Brown near window, when tied up.

See the difference when I pressed my hair and when I let it loose? One appear lighter than the other, but I can assure you they are all taken under the same lighting, same location. Quite amazing aint it?

All in all, it's a very simple and economical hair dye, the colours distributed evenly, and great colour payoff. Definitely recommended! 

Have you tried the bubble hair dye from Liese? How did you find it?

Giveaway by Hello Beautiful

Hello Beautiful from is holding a 500 followers giveaway having 2 followers each winning a lovely Nars blush. Awesomeness. Do visit her very pinkishly pink blog and enter her giveaway at http://www.hellobeautiful61.com/2011/08/500-follower-nars-giveaway.html

Giveaway by Polish Infatuated

Check out her first anniversary giveaway! I'm salivating too. :)
http://polishinfatuated.blogspot.com/2011/07/giveaway-polish-infatuated-turns-one.html

It ends on 18th Sept, opens internationally.

OPI Dulce de Leche part 2

This is the second time I post swatches of Dulce de Leche. The first time was simply disasterous because I plain suck at applying nail polishes.

As weird as it sounds, I've liked the color more ever since I wear it the second time round. It is unique. 'nuff said. It just reminds me of sweet caramel and ice-cream and yummy food. Weird eh?

OPI Dulce de Leche

Yeah, so I have itchy hands which prompts me to peel of the label that say, peel me. Tadaaa.. nude sticker now.

OPI Dulce de Leche, fore finger and pinky 2 coats, ring and middle 1 coat

The color is a nude fleshy pink with a hint of mauve. The mauve feel is especially strong if you apply the second or third coat. Amazingly, I was able to get decent coverage with 1 coat, which explains why the middle and ring finer is only a 1 coater. 

After applying the second coat, the fore and pinky looks more 'thick' and less pink, I don't likey.

Formula wise, a little thick and goopy, I don't likey. But no biggie because there's always my trusty Seche Restore. Saviour!

Here's a photo of the color in flash, it's rather true to life. All in all, I'm quite liking it again.

OPI Dulce le Leche

What do you think of it? Yay or Nay?

Till next time. I'm thinking of doing a review on how to spot non-genuine Princess Lee fake eyelashes on the next post. Cheers~

OPI My Daddy's The King II

This is not really a new nail polish, it's the same ol' My daddy's the king from OPI. I re-swatched it because I didn't really capture how nice it was previously, so hopefully the pictures in daylight will show you what a beauty it really is. It's too bad it's discontinued, but if you find any, be sure to stock em up!

OPI My Daddy's The King

MDTK is a very pretty peach with a slight pink tint and a faint shimmer that is hardly noticeable unless you put your nails to about 1 inch in front of your eyes. It's visible when you're painting your nails, but after it dries, it's just a lovely creamy peach.

OPI My Daddy's The King

I find color like these very suitable for my pale Asian yellow skin. Those sweet pink really doesn't do for me. It just look so out of place with my yellow skin. With MDTK though, it's like a BABB (band aid but better) color for me. Very sweet, very girly and extremely loveable.

OPI My Daddy's The King

As seen from the pic though, the color goes on maybe one or two shades darker than the ones in the bottle.
Formula is sheer, very sheer, but easy to paint. It doesn't go stringy or becomes gloopy, but remains the same formula the whole time.
This is a three coater, but well worth it! Took a while to dry though so a fast drying top coat is a neccessity.

OPI My Daddy's The King

This is the only nail polish that I have used until it's 75% full mark. It's very versatile, and suitable for office use as well. I can't help falling in love with it each time I see it. All in all, great color, ok formula. 

Would I repurchase?

yes, in a heartbeat.

French Manicure Ruby Deer and Where's the Soiree

Hello dear readers, welcome!

My last post was on how much I love ruby deer from China Glaze, a lovely sexy striking red creme, but the sad fact that it chips faster than, well, you can say chip.

So I did a french manicure with it because I wasn't ready to take it off, nope! Lovely red makes me feel happy! Here's how I improvised it with Color Club's Where's the Soiree, a black creme opaque in just 1 coat! Awesome!

Where's the soiree from Color Club

A red and black french manicure! Sexy and mysterious, no? Somehow it's just pull in all the right directions. I love how the starkness of the color compliment each other. Both are colors, a red and a black, and it just goes so well together, it just spells out confident, no? A I-know-what-I'm-doing look.

Modern Red and Black French Manicure: China Glaze Ruby Deer  and Color Club Where's The Soiree

Sorry for the little hiccups in the tips, I'm kinda clumsy, but I guessed you've already known it by now.

Modern Red and Black French Manicure: China Glaze Ruby Deer  and Color Club Where's The Soiree

I hope you dear readers love it, and would like to try out this look some time. Till then, cheers!

China Glaze Ruby Deer

I should think every nail polish hoarder-holic would have a basic striking red creme in her collection. I was looking for the perfect, classy, hot, seductive red creme nail polish a while back, and I was indecisive between China Glaze's Ruby Deer and Phat Santa. I didn't want a red creme with orange base, nor do I want it to be a blue base. I just want a red, period.

So many nail bloggers photographed Ruby Deer quite orange, and I was favoring Phat Santa, until I saw in someone's blog that Ruby Deer is the santa claus red, and Phat Santa is more deep blue red. So I took a plunge and chose Ruby Deer.

It was a decision I never regretted.

China Glaze Ruby Deer

It has the different silver cap of limited edition?? I'm not sure of that, but it is a bright seductive classy true red that is just plain red.

Yes, compared to Phat Santa it seems a little more orange, but Phat Santa leans towards the dark cherry/mulberry kind of red, while ruby deer is plain red, like coca-cola red.

China Glaze Ruby Deer

n the next picture, I adjusted the color setting to a little less red/more blue, because I realised that the red in Ruby Deer tends to show up much more orange than it really is. That is why I hesitated to buy  it because I thought it was orangey-red.

China Glaze Ruby Deer

Application wise is very smooth and opaque in 2 coats. Color true to bottle in 2 coats too. One of the downside is this is one nail polish that chips easily. I've never had a smooth good nail polish that chips so fast!

It chips in about 1 or 2 days, and awful tipwear. :(

Usually I encounter chips easily in pastel color or thick goopy nail polish, but this has quite a good formula...

China Glaze Ruby Deer

 Below shows the picture of my chip in the 2nd day, some bigger chips on my thumb and awful tipwear on the right nails, but I did a french mani to cover it up. Will show it to my dear readers in the next post. Till then readers, have a nice day~ :D

Giveaway by Pretty Edgy Nails.

Hello dear readers,

Pretty Edgy Nails is holding her 300 giveaway, so why don't you guys try out your luck too? There are altogether three prizes to be won.

If any of you are interested, here's the link. http://prettyedgynails.blogspot.com/2011/06/300-followers-giveaway.html

Good luck~

OPI Mrs O'Leary's BBQ + Nubar 2010

Hello dear readers!

Sorry for the lack of update this week. I was busy writing my thesis and submitting my progress report, and also completed 2 online tests for a job interview. It was a busy busy week~

Have I told you how much I LOVE OPI Mrs. O'Leary's Bbq? Let's put it as MOB for easy typing sake.
Yes, I love it so much that I even considered buying another backup bottle of it, just to be safe, you know, a girl can never have too many back up nail polish. XD

However, I'm sure I mattified it last time, didn't I? Well, seche vite gave me quite some problems when I put it on. It mattifies near my tips! Even Poshe top coat did the same thing too!
I really didn't know what happen, it was really ugly as it was glossy and nice about three quarter of the nails, but the last bit was matte. :(

I figured it has something to do with the seche restore that I dripped in, so after that, I rolled my seche vite before using it. Problem solved! Must be the solvent being less dense than the top coat solution... gah... you don't want to hear me rambling about these, do you? You want photos! hehe~

Here goes:

OPI Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ

Color is a rich black based maroon. It's not entirely the color of bbq sauce though, it has that little hint of red and purple. Awesome rich color, reminds me of thick carpets and curtains.

OPI Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ

 The consistency is as I remembered it, smooth, applies well in 2 coats, some maybe three. I love opaque cremes! Especially creme that aren't thick and goopy, awesome.

As usual, I think Nubar 2010 applies well over this color. In fact, I've came up with my own theory of Nubar 2010. It will apply well with rich reflective color leaning towards black and best for color within the spectrum of red to green. Maybe blue, I haven't try it on blue yet, a dark calypso blue from china glaze will be my next experiment.

OPI Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ + Nubar 2010

 As usual, you can see that it reflects more yellow/green when you tilt it to a 180 degrees angle, but if you view it perpendicularly as below, or you hold it directly in front of your eyes with no angle, it reflects more red/orange, no?

OPI Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ + Nubar 2010

Love the color, Love the application, sorry for the tip wear and nail growth, but it's time to change my nail color too. Be seeing all of you soon. And have a great weekend.

Till then, ciao!

Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau

Baby blues are my fav!!!

Color club has the lightest pure baby blue out there, well nearly... but it looks very very sweet on the nails, sort of like the color of mittens for little baby boy~ baby blue, very sweet and dear~

Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau

Cuteness no?

Cuteness in a bottle. I feel it's too light to even be sky blue, because it's just so cute and fluffy... sort of~

It goes on nail a tad darker than the bottle color though, which is good, because I think the bottle doesn't look blue enough for my taste~

Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau

Formula wise: thick and goopy... :(

2 coats to opacity, I like!

Then look at my forefinger~ :( awww... it's wrinkling!!!

Here's a closeup:

Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau

See?? What happenned?

Well, after I applied Poshe top coat, I pressed my forefinger against something, I don't know what... 

Something like the picture below.. putting pressure on your finger, and well, the thing is, the top surface layered has dried, but the ones below are still sticky and wet and goopy... so, the texture is still changeable, but not the top layer... thus wrinkles~!!!! :(

Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau

Still~ I like the color too much... hehehe~

Giveaway by GiMiKd Girl

GiMiKd Girl is holding a 182 follower giveaway!

Click on the link to enter her giveaway, or here's the link. http://gimikdgirl.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-182-giveaway.html

Hurry as the giveaway ends tonight. And it's open to international followers too~!

OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender

I've decided to take off Nubar Forest though I'm pretty sure it would last a couple more days without any very visible chipping. Time for some new fresh colors!

I wanted to show you a bare Mrs. O'Leary BBQ, but due to some bad experience with MOB, I've decided against it. I'm not sure it's MOB's fault or SV top coat's fault, or it's just that the two of them doesn't go together, but... I'd rather not risk it. To make the long story short, I had some weird matte tips when I used MOB with SV top coat. Isn't it weird? Like... it's all shiny but the tips is matte. Like flat matte. That's about a quarter of my nail length too. I'll show you next time, and if you girls have the same experience, do share. 

So I used OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender today.

Is it lavender? NOOO!

OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender

It's actually a dusty pink, it makes me feel like it has a drop of grey in that pink, and probably half a drop of purple. 

OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender

Despite how red my fingers looked, the nail color is actually quite true to life. 

Application wise, sheer, needs at least two coats for opacity, three if you have some bald patches.

Formula is a little goopy but sheer, nothing I like.

But the color is very flattering on my skin, especially nice on fair skin. It's a feminine not in your face soft dusty pink.

And OPI's brush is always great. Very minimal cleanup needed, I was lazy so I didn't do any.

After the great encounter with In2It Jackpot, I was beginning to wonder what constitute a pricey polish? Is it the formula, or is it the creative color? What is it? Because I'm beginning to question whether it's necessary to spend half a fortune on some pricey branded OPI since I could get so much value for money with merely 10% of OPI's price for a cheap nail polish which is 5 times better than OPI. Sighh....

Giveaway by Colores de Carol

Colores de Carol is having an anniversary giveaway! Opens internationally and ends on July 31st 11.59am eastern time.

Check out the giveaway at http://www.coloresdecarol.com/2011/07/anniversary-giveaway.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ColoresDeCarol+%28Colores+de+Carol%29

Product Review: My Beauty Diary Q10 Rejuvenating Mask

Quite some time ago, I went on a massive My Beauty Diary masks haul. 

I was aware of the fake MBD masks circulating around, so I was a little apprehensive to buy it online. But I found a reputable seller, so I went ahead with it.

The last time I used a MBD mask was a couple of months ago, and I didn't bother to do a review on it. Not this time though. 

My skin isn't oily, it just need a little brightening as I few it's a little dull these days. 

This is one of the better mask of MBD. In fact, I think this is the best. The mask fits perfectly and somehow I feel it's thinner and fits like a glove compared to the other ones that I've used. It looks more transparent in fact. But then again, it's been a while since I last use one... 

The essence in Q10 is slimy. Yes, slimy and sticky once it dries.. Maybe that's why the mask adhere so well to my face. 

The smell... is like normal fragrance, like a rose lotion smell.

Oh well, I guess my skin could use the pampering some times. It's not a miracle mask, so I don't expect anything much after 1 treatment. It feels refreshing, like after u wash your face. So nothing to shout about really.

On a different note, Nubar Forest is holding up pretty well. This is day 5, minor tip wear and a little chip on the pinkie and thumb. Not bad at all ehh...

Nubar Forest Day 5

To be fair, the chip on pinkie is probably because I missed it with the seche vite top coat.

Nubar forest day 5 minor chip

Nubar Forest Day 5 thumb chip

Not bad at all eh? But then again, it was one of the few nail polish that I haven't got bored of after 5 days of wear. I should probably start testing the wears of all my nail polish. hmmm..

P.S : Q10 mask is so sticky on my face now I had to resist the urge to wash my face eeeeeekkk.