Review: Let the Good Times Roll

If you've watched my Hawaii Haul Part II, you will know how much I love the smell of this mask. It smells like CAKE! Seriously, people. Cake.

Here's the list of ingredients:

Maize flour, Glycerine, Talc, Water, Corn Oil, Polenta, Fair Trade Organic Cinnamon Powder, Perfume (which occurs naturally in essential oils), Gardenia Extract, Popcorn.

Not only does it smell like cake (have I mentioned that yet?), it makes my skin feel so soft and smooth. I love a product that has all ingredients I can pronounce! It's got maize flour and polenta for gentle exfoliation and nourishment, corn oil to boost skin, and cinnamon to warm and stimulate your skin, leaving it refreshed. This cleanser is both scrubby and gentle, so it cleans but doesn't irritate those of us with sensitive skin.

What Lush cleansers do you love?

Ettusais First Impressions

Lip Essence stick

I always love when lip products have SPF. This has SPF 18 PA ++. It promises to reduce the look of vertical lines on lips, promote blood circulation, and moisturize with hyaluronic acid. I don't find this quite moisturizing enough to be a good winter lip balm, but I like it as a lipstick base. I think it will be excellent for summer! Also, I might have bought it just for the packaging which is a collaboration with lingerie brand Amphi...

Puru Puru Serum

One of the things I love about this is that it's so unique. It's not your typical serum, and as such I feel that it needs a bit of explaining. I saw this in stores and advertisements a few times before I could figure out what it was. It looks like a scrub, but it's a serum with soft little beads full of hyaluronic acid, fermented royal jelly, and water-soluble collagen. The serum has a moisture-lock shield to have a long lasting hydrating effect. It absorbs quickly and leaves skin feeling velvety and soft. This is meant to be used as the last step in a skincare routine.

I keep it on my nightstand and put it on right before I get in bed. I was having issues with dry patches on my face, especially around my nose and within a few days of using this they were gone! I highly recommend this!

Limited edition Princess Red rose cheek colour

In the new Princess Red series for spring, Ettusais is channelling a Snow White vibe. The colours are not the typical spring corals and oranges, which is kind of refreshing. The blush comes with a sponge applicator that stores in the bottom. It's not as useless as most applicators that come with blushes, but I still prefer to use my brushes. I usually apply it with the Real Techniques Stippling or Blush Brush.

The rose design goes all the way to the bottom. The cheek colour is a blush and highlight in one. This is a gorgeous red blush that is really pigmented and wearable. It does have some shimmer in it but it's not overdone.


You can also check out my entire Ettusais haul here!

Review: Maybelline Japan Cosmos Hyper Shadow and Kate Real Create Eyes

Maybelline Japan Cosmos Hyper Shadow in BR-1 Luna Brown

These are mixed pigment, marbled, baked eyeshadows. When I bought this I thought it would be identical to the (get ready for a really long name!) Maybelline Eye Studio Colour Pearls Marbleized Eyeshadow Duo, which I have in Persuasive Plum. Both are marbled, baked eyeshadow duos. The duos come with gorgeous colours that are perfect for each other. It  I bought Persuasive Plum in Canada last summer and wore it non-stop for about 2 months. I love the colours, the pigmentation, and how blendable they are. They're super easy to work with. All that being said, I might prefer the Japanese version. 

My only complaint with the former is that I have to be careful of fallout, especially with the darker shade. The Japanese formula seems to be a bit firmer, which makes for less shadow in places I don't want it. I might actually prefer the Luna Brown, but I'll have to use it more to see if it's true love, or just a fleeting flirtation.

Kate Real Create Eyes in BR-3

An 5-shade eyeshadow palette with "clear soft-transmitting colors and deep monotone colors for creating deeply contoured eyes." I really like shimmer shadows, and boy am I in the right country. It's actually a challenge to find a shadow (or any kind of makeup) that won't light you up like a disco ball!

 Let's start with the packaging. I love it! It's pretty and a visual departure from other drugstore eyeshadow palettes. The palette comes in a little plastic package which has visual instructions on how to use the shades to create a look. It would have been nice if this was printed on the back of the compact instead. 

You might have noticed that there are five shades, but only swatches for four. The palest shade, in the top left corner, is a shimmery cream shadow that is supposed to be used as a primer base for the rest of the shadows. I tried it and it's absolute crap. It made the shadow crease so much! The powder shadows work better without it. I think it's a great idea but the execution fell way short. They should have left it out and made the purple shade in the middle bigger because I'm gonna hit pan on that shade way before the other ones!

I really like both of these shadows, and would recommend the Maybelline one for sure. I think the formula, pigmentation, etc. of the Kate powder shadows is great, but next time I would go for a palette without the cream shade.

Have you tried and shadows my Kate or Maybelline Japan? What do you think?

Too Cool for School

I featured two of these products in my January Favourites video. First I would like to talk about the packaging because seriously! It is amazing! Who doesn't want dinosaurs or a sketched cityscape on their makeup?

Too Cool for School Dinoplatz-eye Krrrayon Stick in #2 Swing with Me
The colour is a rosy gold with little gold flecks in it. I like to use this with the Canmake Lasting Multi Eyebase WP because it can crease a little if I wear it all day long. That being said I think this is a great eyeshadow. I really like eyeshadow sticks because they're really convenient, quick, and don't make a mess. This eyeshadow is really long lasting. There is a little smudger on the bottom which I don't normally use; I prefer to use a brush to blend. But I think this product is perfect for travelling, and would use it then.

Too Cool for School Dinoplatz Lost Identity Lip Colour
They advertise it as both a lip stain and a lip balm, but I think it's more of a stain. It doesn't dry my lips out but it's not ultra moisturizing either. The colour lasts much longer than the moisture! One added bonus of this colour changing formula is that it doesn't leave a pink mark on your wine glass (which I actually don't mind) This lip crayon is perfect for creating that gradient lip effect that's so popular, especially in Korea.

Pumpkin Sleeping Pack
One of the benefits of buying beauty in Korea is all the free samples, which I have raved about before. These were some of those samples. For anyone who doesn't know what a sleeping pack is - I had to look it up myself, so you'll get no judgement from me - it's something you put on right before bed, after all your other nighttime skin care products. It's really rich and sinks into your skin overnight, making your skin soft and plump. These are especially good for winter, when it's so dry. I did like this, but two uses is just not enough to decide if it's something I would purchase a full size of. It did make my skin feel nice.

When I go back to Korea, I will be picking up a few more products from Too Cool for School! Do you have anything from them? Any you would recommend? Leave me a comment!

Bye x

Bite High Pigment Lip Pencils

From left to right: Quince, Rhubarb, Cranberry, and Madeira.

From left to right: Madeira, Cranberry, Rhubarb, Quince.

BITE is a Canadian company, run out of downtown Toronto - yay Canada! Their products are all-natural and they want to make lipsticks that are high performance but still healthy enough to eat. All the ingredients are food-grade quality! Their thing is "Edgy, Edible, Innovation for Lips". These are lipsticks that will give you absolutely no reason to not love them!

Unfortunately for me, BITE is not available in Japan. However, I was lucky enough to open this holiday set of four at Christmas, they made it into my Christmas Haul video. These are miniatures of the matte High Pigment Lip Pencils. They don't contain any parabens, sulfates, synthetics, petrochemicals or byproducts, phthalates, GMOs, tricolsan. They DO contain the antioxident resveratrol (5 glasses of red wine worth!) which helps fight free radicals and has anti aging benefits. Wow! Like I said, a lipstick a girl could really commit to!

This little set comes with four colours, which I know you can see because you have eyes, but I'm going to describe them anyway! It comes with Madeira, a nude-pink, Cranberry, the perfect deep holiday red, Rhubarb, a plum rose, and Quince, a rose berry. These lipsticks are super pigmented, long lasting, creamy, and make my lips happy. I wore Quince out to an izakaya (Japanese-style bar) a couple weeks ago, and it lasted all evening, through beers and bar snacks. 

I love this lipstick and finally have a lipstick that loves me back.

Review: Canmake Lasting Multi Eyebase WP

Canmake is coming to be my favourite Japanese beauty brand. Although the Lasting Multi Eyebase WP's name is a bit questionable side of the Engrish spectrum, the product is great! It's a white paste that turns clear when applied. First we'll get into what it claims to do.

It's waterproof(WP) formulation promises to prevent your eyeshadow, and eyeliner, and even eyebrow makeup from bleeding, fading, creasing, smudging, or running. It promises to boost the lasting power, and colour of your shadows and liners. Basically everything you could expect and eye primer to do, it does. 

Lately I've been having some problems with eyeshadows creasing on me. This is not something I ever noticed until just before Christmas. This base solved all my eyeshadow problems. Seriously. I was not expecting much and am totally impressed. Also, it was only 500yen!

I'm going to put it to the test this weekend with a black MAC kohl eye pencil that smudges so much I stopped wearing it. Results to come! I haven't tried any of the cult eye primers like Urban Decay's Primer Potion or the NARS Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base, but I'm not going to be in a rush to get either if this baby keeps performing so well.

I highly recommend this, and I will be most likely buying some of these to send home.

Have you tried this? How does it compare to some of the high end eye primers?

Review: Minnie Touch Highlighter by Etude House

The Minnie Touch Highligher was a complete impulse buy! I couldn't resist the cute vintage Minnie with her eyelashes out to there, and the tri-colour highlighter within.When I swatched it in the store, I wasn't that impressed with it but HAD TO get it anyway.

I've been wearing it this week and my first impression was wrong. I LOVE this. The only other highlighter I  have to compare it to is the Mary-LouManizer from The Balm. In colour, Minnie is much cooler, more white than champagne, thanks to the purple shade. I like this because it's sort of in between the stark white and peachy highlighters, a nice middle ground. It gives my skin a very natural glow, and applies nicely. It's also a very buildable product. I always swirl all the colours together when I use it. You can apply them separately. The lasting power is good, too! I checked it when I got home from work and the tops of my cheek bones were still glowing nicely.

My one complaint is that this compact has no mirror. It seems very strange to have that empty space inside the lid.

Overall, a great product. The packaging is the reason I bought it but the highlighter itself is lovely!

What's your favourite highlighter? Do you prefer cooler, or warmer tones?

Lavshuca Lav Fake review

This beautiful little red-potted beauty is part of Lavshuca's limited edition winter collection. It comes in two colours: pink and red. I have the red one, shade 1. This is a creamy stain for eyes, lips, and cheeks. I've only used it mostly on my cheeks and lips, which is where I like it best. I'm not sure how I feel about red eye shadow. Cranberry shadow seems to be a fall makeup trends.

First, let's talk about the packaging. It is beautiful! I love colour, the design, even the box it came in was adorable. The only thing I would change if I could is the pot. It's plastic, which makes the product feel a bit cheaper. A glass pot would be much nicer. I didn't break the bank buying this, but it wasn't super cheap either. Lavshuca is more of a mid to high end drugstore brand. Most of its products fall between the 1000-2000￥ (or 10-20$) mark.

Also I think the name gets lost in translation, but sometimes that can't be helped. Google translated 'Lav' to 'Love'. I asked one of my teachers, though, and she said it makes as much sense in Japanese as it does in English, meaning none. My only guess is that it's trying to say it makes you look like you have the flush of love, but unless you are attracted to cosmetics in a chemical way (you will find no judgement here) your rosy glow is fake, because it's makeup. Obviously. To conclude this pointless segment, the name is stupid in both English and Japanese.

The way I've been wearing this most is as a stain on my lips, with a lip balm over top. I usually throw it on as I leave my apartment in the morning. What I like most about this is the texture. It's got a velvety, matte finish. I feel like most potted blush, lip things are shinier but this has a really natural finish. It's super pigmented, very red. It's a beautiful winter flush just waiting to decorate your cheeks.

The moisturizing ingredient is silk pearl essence, whatever that means.

That's enough of me. Bye!