Sephora Mini Palette (Sephora White Card Member Birthday Gift) Product Review

One of the perks of being a member of Sephora on your birthday month is the free gift which you can redeem in store without any purchase required (yeah, I sound like a cheapo but let's be honest here - anything free is awesome don't you think so? haha)

So last week I decided to redeem my gift and I would like to share with you what I got - a Sephora Mini Palette.

 

 

The palette comes with 4 shadows, 2 lip gloss and 1 blush.

From top left to bottom right, below are all the colours:

1. Catherine NO3 - I guess I can describe this as a cool undertone grey metallic colour

2. Must Have MO4 - This is a rich black colour

3. Creme Caramel MO8 - Like it said it is a cream colour very close to my skin colour. I have the most problem with this colour since it never shows up on my eyelids.

4. Coffee Brown NO8 - This is a shimmery dark brown colour with a hint of red undertone

5. Rouge Shine 30 - A very pigmented shocking pink colour which you can either build up to a bright pink or use just a hint to give a stained lip look

5. Rouge Shine 05 - A pinkish clear lipgloss colour with shimmers

6. Exclusive Blush - A pinkish coral blush with no shimmer




First impression: I really like how compact this palette is and how it can fit 4 eyeshadows and 1 blush. Realise i didn't mentioned the 2 lip colours? This is because I do not like lip and powder products to be inside one palette because the powder most of the time will transfer into the lip products and stick there. 

 Application wise: 
I am not a huge fan of the pigmentation. For the eyeshadows, I am hugely disappointed by the cream colour as it does not shows up on my eyelids no matter how much I packed them on. The brown colour is also not as pigmented as how it is shown in the palette. The blush also takes quite a few pack on to really build the colour. The pigmentations I like comes from the black eyeshadow as well as the shocking pink lip gloss.

Overall review:

I will recommend you to get this palette only if it is free because I think you can get way better palettes than this if you're willing to splurge. If you're getting this palette for free like me, then get it (You gotta admit that any free palette from Sephora is something you should take ;))

The powder and lips in 1 palette thing again does not work for me here. The fact that brush is about the size or bigger than the colour pan surface really makes the powder fly around to the glosses. The brown one particularly goes inside the pink gloss pan and it's kinda gross (I think this is just a matter of preference, if you're cool with this, I'm glad to hear that :)) The pigmentation on most of the products are also a letdown.

If you'd like to see more details on the products as well as tutorials, do take a look at the link below:

Thanks for reading (and watching)!

A Milestone as of yet...

Hi all.. Yes I know it's been a while :(

I've been busy and I've just felt very sluggish and unmotivated for a while... To share a little bit, there's something that I have to deal with for a while and it's starting to eat me up day by day.. I'll share with you all when I'm ready about it but in the meantime I'd like to share with you a milestone of my journey as of yet..

Yesterday marks my birthday and I made a promise to myself that I will overcome this shyness and fear of sharing about myself online once and for all and to mark that... I just finished creating my youtube video and is now in the midst of waiting for it to post online..

It's really nerve racking and I know that there's still so much I need to work on to perfect this video (and my posts too) but I hope I will be able to take baby steps and improve on..

The link to my video is:

Do keep a lookout for me and give me your support/advice/suggestion :)

PS. Youtube for some reason hanged on me and never let me change my thumbnail to the ones i preferred :( while i work on this, please excuse my very weird half sleepy sorta going to sneeze kinda face -.-

How to: Build Your Basic Makeup Stash

I'm not a makeup a guru nor am I planning to but I did have a period where I became obsessed with makeup and start buying makeup like crazy (thinking that it's important to have 'em all) only to regret it later. Well I don't exactly have a closet full of makeup, I do have quite a collection and from these, I learnt what are the "good-to-have" and the "ok-to-have-but-not-really-necessary."

So here are some of my tips.

The "good-to-have":

1. A good foundation or BB cream - if it's for everyday, I'd recommend a BB cream as it has SPF and other benefits. The only time you may need a foundation is when you need heavier makeup (for evening parties, etc) or when you need to take lots of photos (in which SPF is not really your best friend). I apply my foundation and BB cream using my fingers and find it good enough =)

2. Concealer - skip this if you have a very nice skin that only needs BB cream/foundation to even out your skin tone. For me, concealer is a necessity for my under eye area and breakouts (during the time of the month). I apply this with my fingers too.

3. Powder - to set the BB cream and concealer. I applied it using powder brush to avoid looking cakey but using the sponge that comes with your powder is more than sufficient =)

When I'm in a rush or just plain lazy of putting on makeup, I usually only use these 3 products. Otherwise, I'll also use the stuff below:

4. Eye primer - skip this if you do not have oily eyelids. This is very important for me since 1. I have an almost monolid eyelids, 2. I live in a humid country, and 3. I have the oiliest eyelids ever.

5. A good neutral eye makeup palette - Any neutral eye palette will do! Owning one can basically help you create neutral look for any occasions. And face it, we do not really wear bright colors most of the time. I usually just sweep one color all over my lids for the sake of having some powder to prolong my eyeliner from smudging all over my lids. Alternatively, I'll add darker color on my outer corner to define my eyes a bit more.

6. A long lasting liquid eyeliner - it may be easier to work with pencil or gel liner but these do not stay well on my eyelids. Liquid liner may be intimidating but with new designs such as felt-tip pen like or 3-dotted tip, it's definitely easier to use them nowadays.

I'll stop until these 6 products unless I want some more color on my skin, which I will add:

7. Blush - It is very tempting to collect as many blush colors from various color ranges. After learning from my mistakes, I find that as long as you have a neutral pink (and optionally a coral one), you can survive =)

8. Bronzer - I have chubby cheeks so I need this to contour my face though I rarely use it since I'm kind of lazy >.<

9. Lipbalm - I only make this a necessary when my lips are very dry. But beyond that, I rarely wear any lip products

What about brushes? There are only 3 brushes I used for the 9 products above - 1. powder brush, 2. blush brush (double for bronzer too), and 3. eye blending brush.

Basically, that's the 9 products plus 3 brushes that I find as "good-to-have."

What about the "ok-to-have-but-not-really-necessary"?
1. Face primer - only when you need your makeup to last super long
2. Brow powder - this is pretty debatable, I have a pretty dark eyebrow so I don't really find the need to fill in my brows all the time. If you have sparse eyebrows, you might consider moving this to the "good-to-have"list
3. Cream eye base - besides my eye primer, I still use cream eye base to further ensure that my eye makeup stays put
4. Eyelash curler - I'm Asian and I have straight lash so this is important whenever I'm wearing mascara
5. Mascara - I rarely wear mascara because I just haven't find the one that stays on well on me (by the end of the day, I usually have racoon eyes). And I kinda like the just eyeliner with no mascara look.
6. Lipgloss/Lipstick - I guess it's because I have a pinkish red lips to start with so I don't really find the necessity to use one.

Any additional brushes? Well, if you're using a brow powder, you will need a small angled brush for it =)

That's basically my suggestions. Do feel free to comment on the list above! Thanks for reading =)