Clio Gelpresso Waterproof Pencil Gel Liner Swatch + review

I am in love with the Korean brand CLIO professional because they do the best makeup, of all that I have tried so far I love their eyeliners best. Today, I will be doing swatches of  CLIO Gelpresso Waterproof Pencil gel liner plus letting you guys know how they wear.

Etude House dual show volume mascara review + random life updates

Hi Guys,

So so so so sorry for being MIA life has been too hectic! I swear I will be updating quite a bit because I have lots and lots of things to share with you guys, so please don't leave and keep reading us at foreveerr29.blogspot.sg.

I came back from Korea a week and a half ago, just to give you guys an idea of what kind of beauty reviews to expect, this is how much stuff I purchased from Korea:

plus all the samples kindly given to me by the sales assistants, rest assure you will be getting Korean beauty products review galore. :)

The first beauty product I want to share with everyone today is a mascara from Etude house called the Dual Show Volume Mascara.

Mamonde Total Solution Moisture bb cream: A Review

Yes, yet another product review, but I swear I did not spend another tens of dollars on this bb cream because I am still too in love with my Mizon snail bb cream. Story has it, a couple of weeks ago, my mother's flight to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific was delayed and she barely made her connecting flight to Xiamen, China. Upon reaching Xiamen Gaoqi airport she realized that her luggage did not follow her home to Xiamen. After a lot of haggling and reasoning with the Cathay ground stuff in Xiamen, she managed to get them to give her RMB400 (around SGD 80 bucks) to buy some daily necessities to tie her over till her luggage arrives. The bb cream was one of the first things she bought. Now, with a mum like that, I am sure all of you guys can understand why I am such a vain pot. :P

I have never heard of Mamonde till my mum passed her bb cream to me. Apparently, it's a relatively high end brand from Amore Pacific (owns things like IOPE, Laniege etc) in Korea and is loved by mature women. The bb cream is a little pricey at around SGD40 for 40ml.  A quick search from around the net tells me that this bb cream claims to whiten the skin with the help of some "secret" flower complex, providing elasticity to the skin while preventing problems (I am assuming wrinkle problems).

I have been using this bb cream interchangeably with the Mizon snail bb cream for almost 3 weeks now, and I did not see a stark improvement on my skin condition, unlike when I first started using the mizon bb cream. So for this review, I will only be talking about the cosmetic properties of this bb cream  and not the skincare bit.

Clio art Blusher in #2 PINK: Review + Swatch

I have been eyeing Korean makeup brand CLIO for years. Over the past year,  I noticed their products popping up in Watson's Singapore, so obviously, when my sister was looking to buy a new blush and I edged her on to buy the CLIO art blusher. Let's just say she wasn't disappointed at all.

This blush is part of CLIO's art collection where they collaborate with artistes to come up these beautiful cover designs that awakens your sense before you even apply the makeup on your face. In this collection, they have baked eyeshadows, blushers and lipsticks, for swatches of these products, visit here.

Sleek Original + Ultra Mattesv2 DARKS palettes swatches, review: A luxola sg haul

Hi girls (and perhaps boys),

Just a week ago I was complaining about not finding decent quality cheap eyeshadows, this week I am back with a post about some great UK drugstore finds: SLEEK MAKEUP.

Sleek Makeup from UK is definitely not anything new, I have heard raves all over the blogosphere about their Divine palettes and have been itching to try them since they first came out in 2008. However, I never got around to it because they don't ship to Singapore and shipping to US is too expensive when I was there (whooping USD13.50 which was more than the price of the actual palette). Last week, when my friend Min Ah told me about a 30% off all items on luxola.com, I never thought I would find Sleek makeup items there, imagine my excitement! I made use of the discount and got 2 Sleek eyeshadow palettes and a face contour palette, for below SGD40.

(Just a little side note about shopping on luxola.com, I really enjoyed it! First they stock a whole ton of high end luxurious makeup/skincare items, hence I guess the name Luxola. From the brands there, I would recommend Becca cosmetics, the Face Atelier foundation, Sarah Hipp lip scrub, all of which I have heard great things about and would one day love to try. Second. the website is very user friendly and clean, I love the fact that they allow you to check out using PayPal. Third, for Singapore orders, they have free 3rd delivery in person, so you don't have to worry about the postman dropping and breaking your items. If you love online shopping, I would suggest you head over there and take a look.)

On to the Sleek palettes,

I got the Divine Mineral Based Eyeshadow Palette in The Original, as well as i-Divine ultra mattesV2 DARKS palette. Each of these palette cost SGD20 on luxola and contains 12 x 1.1g mineral based eyeshadow, which works out to around SGD1.70 per shadow, making them a huge steal if good quality.

Size comparision between MAC's 1.5g shadow and Sleek's 1.1g ones

The shadows are housed in a sleek (how apt) black palette which is compact and good for traveling. I am contemplating bringing them to Seoul for my trip in July instead of my usual Naked Palettes.

Logo on the front.

Palette discription on the back.

The shadows themselves

The Original Palette contains 11 metallic, shimmery shadows and 1 lone matte black eyeshadow, which according to Sleek's site is for us to use as eyeliner. Initial thoughts are that the colors look gorgeous in the pan, and would make a great travel palette because it contains both neutral and bright colors for versatility. Upon swatching, I find the the shadows are soft, quite buttery and pigmented, all of my swatches made above were done with a single swatch. They also apply true to their color in the pan which is exciting. My personal favorites are colors number 12 an olive green and number 5 a teal blue color. The Matte black is a little lacking in quality because it applies chalky and isn't very pigmented. Also, the dark brown 11 also has chunky glitters that are prone to fallouts, but all in all I think for the SGD20 that the palette is retailing at, it is a huge steal!

The MatteV2 Darks palette is a slightly newer palette that was released last year if I am not wrong. Since matte shadows are all the rage now, I decided to give it a try. (They have a MatteV1 palette which contains bright colors, but I am more conservative when it comes to shadow colors, so I gave that a pass).

Again, these swatches were single swatches. I feel that most of the colors are pigmented and swatched relatively smoothly (click for bigger view). Even the lighter colors like Dune and Pillowtalk applied gorgeously. Unfortunately, Flesh a yellow orange color is the exact same shade as my skintone and did not apply upon swatching no matter how I tried. Besides Flesh, I was also disappointed with Thunder, even though soft, it's not pigmented enough, it will probably take at least 3-4 applications to get the color to show up like the color in the pan. Fern and Orbit somehow swatched similar on my skin, Orbit looked more green than teal, as for Fern, even though it's a very gorgeous deep green color, the texture was chalky and had fallouts. However, despite that, I still think that for the 20 dollars you are paying, this palette is worth a try if you are searching for good matte shades.

All in all, I am happy with my purchase, I would definitely repurchase Sleek palettes again sale or not. So if you guys are looking for more eyeshadow colors to play around with, or if the haze is keeping you indoors, head over to luxola.com and take a look.

Have fun!

xoxo,

Nyx Love in Paris- 06 C'EST LA VIE review

Hi everyone,

I took a week off blogging, no special reason, I was just kind of lazy. :P

Anyway, as some of you may know, I am getting married soon, so these days I have been more careful about spending money, and have been trying to cut down on my makeup spending habits. Besides buying less makeup (HA!), I am also exploring cheaper drugstore options. With age, I have come to realize that there are a lot of treasures in the drugstore, just because they are cheaper, doesn't mean they do not measure up to quality of branded cosmetics. For instance, I have come to love Revlon's lip products, in fact I feel that a lot of their formulas are every bit as good, if not better than MAC's lipsticks, and also Japanese liquid eyeliners are the best liners in my opinion.  However, drugstore eyeshadow is still lacking quality in my opinion, I am still searching for my holy grail eyeshadow brand.

Recently, my friend, Johnny, brought back Nyx Love in Paris Palette in 06 C'est La vie from the States for me. I wanted to try out this palette most because from the pictures online it has a very lovely olive green and a plummy brown, colors that I would love to incorporate into my everyday look.  Plus, I think the quality of Nyx's single shadows rival that of MAC's, I wanted to see if I can get the same quality from their palettes.

Offical professional shot from their website

Love in Paris is a 9 pan eyeshadow, retailing for USD 9 on Cherry Culture (they ship internationally). 06 C'est La Vie contains shimmery beiges, browns and deep greens. If the color turns out as gorgeous and as pigmented as they look in the pan, I think great everyday palette or for traveling.

First impressions, the packaging is the standard Nyx black plastic packaging which I am not a fan of because they break so easily,but  for USD 9, you really cannot ask for much. Plus, the bow closure on the compact is so cute, perfect for spring and perfect as a gift for a friend.

Moving on the the quality of the shadows, sadly, I have to say I am disappointed.

This is how the shadows look like in the pan. Still gorgeous. All shadows are shimmery, some of them has large chunky glitters.

However, the colors of the shadows did not transfer well to the skin. They are not pigmented, swatched chalky and gritty.

Below are the swatches I made. I had to swatch at least 3-4 times before I get the color to show up.

As you can see from the swatches, almost all of the shadows are very powdery, and there are a TON of fall out upon application. The glitters are also so chunky that they don't blend well with the shadows. Also, I don't know if it's just me, but I feel that all of the shadows look has a dirty greyish tinge to them. The olive green that I was so excited about swatched more like a dirty dark green on my skin, than the gorgeous olive green it looks like in the pain. 3-4 of the colors look about the same once I put them on my eyelids.

Just to show you guys how powdery the shadows are

All the fallout in the palette after I am done swatching.

All in all, I am just very disappointed in the quality of these shadows. The colors look flat and unimpressive on my eyelids. I have only used this palette once after receiving it. Even for the 9 bucks it's worth, I think it's a total waste of money.

If you are thinking of purchasing this palette, I suggest you pass on and save some money for my favorite urban decay shadows.

Friends, if you know of any drugstore shadows that can wow me, let me know!!!

Have a great weekend everyone, I am going for Avicii's beach party concert at Siloso beach later, be sure I am gonna blog about it!

Xoxo,

Snail Essence Mask :Dr. Morita Repair Essence Ultra Slim Facial Mask

I had previously reviewed the Mizon Multi Function Formula Snail Repair Blemish Blam SPF 32/PA++ (Click to read the post if you haven't),  and have fallen so in love with the bb cream that I went to Watsons and picked up a snail essence mask too.

Just a short update on the bb cream, after using the Mizon snail bbcream for 2 months, my skin condition has improved a whole ton (Keira is a witness!). I used to be very very acne prone but after using the bb cream, I swear I rarely breakout anymore, and if I do, the pimple heals on its own within a day or two. Also, the old acne scars are starting to fade too! I used to think that the rave about snail essence is all but a hype, now I am not so sure. 

A quick search around the internet and pubmed tells me that the scientific name for snail essence is  “Helix Aspersa Müller Glycoconjugates”, it is actually a thick fluid collected by stimulating live snail (ok, I know gross, but hey, it works!). It is mainly made up of proteoglycans, glycosaminoglycans, glycoprotein enzymes, hyaluronic acid, copper peptides, antimicrobial peptides and trace elements including copper, zinc, and iron, which are all essential for keeping the snail free of bacterial or fungal infections as well as helping them heal when they get scratches from sliding around the hard pavement. I guess that's how the essence will be working on our skin as well by increasing topical wound healing properties. 

Does the snail essence really help in keeping us wrinkle free? I am not sure, because I do not have wrinkles yet. I am getting my mum to try out the mask though, will let everyone when I see results. Although, searching on pubmed, I do find some promising data, scientists have tested the snail fluid on a variety of cell cultures, where they see an increase in proliferation of fibroflast cells through the stimulation of new collagen, elastin fibers as well as fibronectin proteins. There was also a study that claims that snail extract improves skin condition by increasing the derma cells' ability to take up and hold water. Basically, I think there's enough legitimate evidence here to make the scientist in me believe that snail extract might really be a scientifically sound skincare product! 

It's up to you to believe, but let's move on to this new mask I have been trying. I have been using this mask for about a month, twice a week, and so far, I believe my skin has become fairer, and plumper, although I can't guarantee that the effects is from the mask and not the Mizon bb cream. 

Anyhow, 

Dr. Morita masks are supposed to be from Japan, but they are made in Taiwan, it made me a little disappointed. However, these masks are very well made, they are thick, and contains a whole lot of essence,  even more than those in the beauty diary masks.

The essence is also thick, slimy and sticky, it might be psychological but I like my essence thick because they feel like they contain more ingredients and are better absorbed.

This is how the mask look like on my face, I do have a pretty huge face, so there is enough material to go around. :P

I leave the mask on for 20-30 minutes, and this is a before and after shot of my pores.

Before

After

I think it's pretty obvious from the picture that my pores are a lot smaller after applying the mask.

TIP: After using the mask, DO NOT wash your face, just massage all the essence into your skin. The essence from this mask can be easily absorbed into the skin, and is not sticky after. Try it, it makes your skin smoother and softer the next day.

The mask is available only from Watson's, and cost SGD13.90 for 10 masks. Quite a good price for the quality. Are you willing to give it a try? Let me know!

xoxo,
Nicole

Battle of the east vs west: Beng Hiang, Lolla

This week, I'm going to review two noteworthy restaurants that has fallen within my radar in the past week. 

Lolla

First up, Lolla. What is Lolla? It is a small tapas restaurant nestled on the busy street of Ann Siang Hill, where a ton of bars and restaurants are situated. If you go to their website, their slogan is 

"Inspired yet simple small plates combining the finest ingredients and seasonal produce with the influences of the mediterranean"

http://www.lolla.com.sg/

On HungryGoWhere, it got a 100% rating based on 7 reviews, whereas on Yelp, it got 3 out of 5 stars based on 6 reviews. Why the disparity, you might ask? 

The answer lies in the taste profile of the reviewers. 

Due to the popularity and physical size of the place, it is impossible to get a seating without making a reservation, but somehow, L. and I managed to grab the last two seats in the house. 

Looking at the menu, which is a trendy paper printout which serves as your table mat as well, I was very intrigued right away. The menu had a very good selection of seafood, meats and carbs, and I love a restaurant which boasts an emphasis on the quality of the produce...

 I started off with the uni with black pudding. The black pudding had a very very complex taste profile, but goes really well with the uni. The uni, although not the best grade, wasn't bad with the pudding, but the quality becomes obvious when you eat it on its own. But then again, for this generous chunk of uni for 19 bucks, I'm not going to complain. I give this dish points for being able to come up with something so wonderfully complex and delicious, but I have to say that this gets heavy really fast. Three spoonfuls of this dish, and I was a little overwhelmed by how rich it is.

Next, I got the fresh baguette with home made tomato paste and garlic. The bread was nicely toasted but the tomato dip was a little watery. It does taste home-made, due to the simplicity of it, but it does lack a little in flavor and texture.

 I also got the frisee salad with anchovies and crispy garlic, which was on the seasonal menu. I love anchovies, and these didn't disappoint. Although, the salad was a little too oily for my liking. A good salad should showcase the vegetables in it, not the dressing.

We had the duck fat potatoes everyone seemed to be ordering. It was good, just pillows that melt in your mouth, but then again, very oily.

We also had the pork collar which was not photographed because we were too far gone on the delicious carafes of white wine, but it was nicely cooked and the sauce was tasty. I also had the duck rillette, which was as good as rillettes go, but unfortunately, I had it too late in the meal, and the fattiness of the rillette wasn't too appetizing to me.

Final verdict: As far as mediterranean fare goes, I can understand why this would appeal to the masses at Hungrygowhere, as it is a trendy spot that boasts very bold flavors and rich meats and seafood. But if you are truly looking for european food with finesse, this is not your place. The dishes in general are tasty, but are a tad too oily. Maybe that is why Yelp gave it 3 stars, because for the price range, you are looking for dishes which are more well-developed.

Beng Hiang (Amoy St) 

 As much as Lolla is trendy and pretentious, Beng Hiang is as unpretentious. Yet, on a sunday night, it is packed full of hungry Singaporean families. Why? Because it brings you back to old, simpler times.

Beng Hiang is one of my grandfather's favorite restaurants, so you can imagine how long it has been around. The owner is this quaint old man, who obviously have built this restaurants from a small establishment to the grand restaurant it is today.

The decor of this place is very old school. It could be garish to some, but to me, it reminds me of old banquet halls where weddings were held. Of course, people come here for the food......

We started with a cold platter which wasn't much to talk about, so I'm just going to highlight some of the tasty dishes we got. I love the fish maw soup. It is just a hearty soup that is chock full of crab meat and fish maw, and with a dash of vinegar, it is so tasty!

Braised cabbage with mushrooms, carrots and pork: Apparently this dish has to be pre-ordered a day in advance because they braise the cabbage for hours. And it is my favorite dish of the night. It takes a lot of skill to make something as ordinary as white cabbage so tasty, with strong hints of nutmeg and cloves. The sweetness of the cabbage contrasted nicely with the broth, and I could not stop eating it. 

 The crispy oyster omelette is also one of the favorites. It is an interesting rendition of the normal moist and wet oyster omelette. And oil satisfies!

 The "kong ba pau" is also one of the must-orders. Everyone at my table liked it a lot, but unfortunately, I cannot bring myself to choose the fatty meat, so the lean meat was a little tough. The meat juice was delish though.

I need to mention that I really dislike hokkien noodles. I do not care for it much, because it is oily and I don't like the yellow noodles they use. BUT this hokkien noodles was soooo good! Not too oily, with a really good flavor. Loved it.

And look, they have a website too!

http://www.benghiang.com/

Final verdict: Great for bringing your elders to. You will not regret it. 

xoxo,

Keira

L’Oréal Les Ombres Color Riche Eyeshadow Palettes Review + Look

I am quite excited today because I am doing my first "look of the day" post. Last week after lunch with Y, I walked into Watsons, got seduced by their 3-for-2 loreal deals and picked up a couple of new makeup products. Oh, how I miss those days of walking into sephora and picking random things I liked, too bad sephora is expensive in Singapore, I will make do with Watsons. Anyhow, one of the things I picked up was the new L’Oréal Les Ombres Color Riche Eyeshadow Palettes.

There was  a total of 6 shades on display in the Watsons I went to, and they retail for SGD22.90. I picked up the color "Beige Trend" from the smokey eyes line. For swatches of all the palettes please see here 

 My take: The colors did not swatch very well on my naked skin without primer, but with primer on, the pigments did come out pretty intense. The 2 lighter shades were very similar on my NC 25 skin tone, so it is as if I got 3 eyeshadow colors for the price of 4. Also, instead of a creamy texture that I am so used to with my Urban Decay naked palettes, it is more of a flakey, powdery texture. Plus, I didn't like the fact that the every single shadow in the palette is packed full of glitter, such that there is no good contouring shade, or highlighting shade. Furthermore, over the course of the day, there was quite a bit of glittery fall out over my cheeks, making it somewhat  messy.  However, the packaging is gorgeous, and for the price, it's a good piece to buy if you are just starting out with makeup, and want to get something cheap that will work well as a neutral palette. I also do love the champagne shade in the palette, I can imagine it wearing as a base color for a variety of looks.

How I use it: 

1. Use the base color and apply it all over the eyelid, creating a dome shape as shown. Use the highlight shade and apply that on the brow bone under the eyebrow. Highlight the inner corners of your eyes for a brighter eye look (pic 2).

2. Asian eyes are usually flat, so to create some contour, I used the darkest shade and pat it gently on the other 1/3 of my eyes, slowly moving up into the eye socket (pic 3) about 2/3s of the way in as shown in the last picture. Also line your lash line with the contour color to define your eyes.

3. Blend all the colors together. Blending is the key to wearing any eye color!

The top picture shows how the look after blending. It creates an illusion of deeper set eyes, and therefore adds more definition to your eyes.

I then lined my eyes using a black eye pencil liner. I didn't use a liquid liner in this case because I was going for a softer look. Finally, I finished my eye makeup with some mascara.

Final look, which is good for work or college

Makeup items used

Verdict: I would not repurchase for sure, but I think this palette is ok as a starter piece for makeup beginners, otherwise I would not recommend.

That's all for today folks. Thanks for reading, let me know if there's anything you think I can do to improve my entries. I am still working on taking better pictures, making the makeup show up better on camera and writing better instructions for the makeup steps. Please bear with me while I work on perfecting my entries. :)

xoxo,

Nicole.

Jungle beer brewery!

4 beers on tap. Free flow!

Entry from guest blogger and lover of beer, Clyde.

I am an enthusiast. Most of my family and friends know me as the beer guy. But I want to be clear:  I’m not an expert. I don’t study beer. I don’t analyze it. I don’t hoard it or cherish it. I don’t look at beer the way a sommelier looks at a glass of Bordeaux. I drink beer. I drink it often and I try to experience as many as possible. I prefer crafted beer from the West Coast of the United States, but I enjoy all forms of the wondrously fermented malt. I drink Tiger sometimes and I’ve even been seen with a Bud Light in my hand on a hot afternoon (although I don’t often admit that), but there’s little that gives me as much pleasure as finding that perfect IPA when I’m not expecting it, or ending the day with a really strong, boozy imperial stout that has spent a few months in a bourbon barrel.

If you’re still here after that rambling narcissistic diatribe, Keira wanted me to talk about our recent trip to Jungle Beer.

The journey. I’ve lived in Singapore for about a year and a half. I have enjoyed almost all of it, but the rarity of craft beer has been a challenge. I do enjoy the hunt, though, and this recent one almost felt like a safari. Jungle Beer (at Barefoot Brewery) is hard to get to. It is as far north as you can get without getting wet, so you need a car or a cab. Follow Google Maps to 8A Admiralty Street (not 8 Admiralty Street, sorry Keira), turn into the carpark in front of the FoodXchange sign, drive up to level 4, and look around for the Jungle Beer van. The tasting room is through the door, past the “Danger Men Brewing” sign, and up the stairs.

You’re getting warmer…

The First Impression. Most of the time it’s just a microbrewery, but once a month on a Saturday they open up the tasting room for … wait for it … FREE FLOW BEER! $40 for all you can handle from 6:30 – 11:30. Bring some munchies, though, because there’s no food there (unless you walk down to FoodXchange) and you’re going to want something to soak up that beer. We showed up after 10:00 and met Joe as we walked in. Very friendly guy. He introduced us to the lay of the land, chatted for a few minutes, then disappeared into the back room to find us a couple of glasses.

Polished, frat-like atmosphere.

The Vibe. Two words:  house party. The “tasting room” is really more of a frat house, but cleaner. A few couches, some bar tables, a pool table, and a “we-mean-business” scale kegerator in the corner. The music is loud and centers around 2002. By the time we got there, several of the patrons were visibly drunk (duh), but everyone was pretty mellow and amicable. About half local, half ex-pat. Also, pretty cool that there is a large window overlooking the production floor. And if the noise starts to get to you, you can always grab a seat at one of the tables they set up outside the door in the carpark.

Enjoying their IPA at the Good Beer Company

The Beer. Now this is where the rubber hits the road. I’m here for the beer, not the vibe. And I’m not referring to the quantity. I’m not here to drink as much as possible for my $40. I want good, satisfying, brewery-fresh, lovingly-crafted beer. They had 4 taps flowing when we got there:  American Pale Ale, Mango Wheat, Coffee Amber, and a smoked Porter. The Mango Wheat blew shortly after we got there and they quickly replaced it with a similar Fruit Wheat. The verdict, honestly: meh. I wanted to love it. Really. I’ve had their beer before. The IPA is satisfying although unremarkable, and the Kiasu Stout is very good. Drink the stout at about 18-20 degrees and you will find a rich and complex beer, deserving of the moniker, “craft beer”. That is what I was expecting (hoping for) at the brewery. But the offerings that night were underwhelming. The Pale Ale and the Porter were passable, but highly unrefined. They had what I call the “green brewery syndrome” which happens when a small brewery starts production before they’ve really figured out what they’re doing. I’m an intermediate-level home brewer, so I use my own beer as my yardstick. It’s decent, but I wouldn’t try to sell it. I can make a better pale ale and a better porter than I had that night at Jungle Beer. The Wheat and the Amber suffer from a related disease. In my opinion, you should be able to make a good Wheat beer first, then you can experiment with fruit. That being said, the fruit and the coffee characters do mask the shortcomings of the underlying beer and make it more drinkable.

The Close. At 11:25 Adi turned off the music and politely-but-firmly told the crowd that it was time to wrap it up. Getting a cab turned out to be more of a problem than it should have been, but that was my fault for not using my app properly (sorry again, Keira).

The Judgment. Despite my disappointment with the beer, I was happy to stick with the porter and enjoy the laid-back atmosphere. Will I be back? Almost certainly, but it won’t be the mandatory monthly event that I expected it to be.

Did I mention the laidback vibe?