Night Space

Pausen Rooibos Tea

2010-12-31T14:37:00.000+01:00

Yes of course! How predictable! As a Chinese, I love teas to death! :-D Almost all kinds of teas (with the very exception of black tea), especially Chinese tea. But the teas I drink are not the ones in tea-bag form, I rarely drink it cause I don't think they're real teas. I still tend to make tea in the traditional way. So this time when I saw teas in Galeria I was so excited! My favourite Rooibos Teas! And in so many varieties...!!! I was in heaven...!!! :-DDD

They have about 10 varieties for Rooibos Tea, I chose Vanille and Lemon, each 100g, on the expensive side though, €2,49 per bag, but I spend the money on them willingly even if they're much more expensive, cause I drink tea everyday, as people drink water, I actually do not drink water, which is partly the local water quality to blame.

It was love at first sight, cause they're packaged in strong paper bag, not plastic bag or metal tin (I've got enough metal tins at home), so it's environment-friendly. I also like the colour of the paper bag (it's light beige) and the design. Simply the whole thing!

Rotbusch Tee Vanille:

Upon opening the bag, I cried out with joy...! It's such a feast both for my eyes and my nose! Dark reddish brown Rooibos infused with dried rose pedals and on the first sniff I could already tell the scent of forest-after-rain and strong vanilla...! So delicate, fresh and fragile.

I really love the colour and the dried rose pedals.

Typically Rooibos Tea colour: mid-dark reddish brown. The taste is naturally sweet and slightly nutty and dreamingly woody, and it's also highly nutritional with its high level of antioxidants and lack of caffeine. The vanilla scent feels and tastes very warm, perfect for autumn and winter.

Rotbuschtee Lemon:

Yet another great tea to be added to my favourite...! One of its ingredients is lemon grass so it's meant to have a fresh taste, and the "Kornblumenblüten" only makes the tea look more romantic, it's in dried flower pedal form and is mysteriously beautiful being mid-tone blue. The taste is very different from that of Rooibos Vanilla tea, it's not woody or nutty, it tastes totally fresh and is perfect for ice tea. I'll drink it everyday in hot summer.

Both excellent teas! I'll be buying them for as long as the manufacturer produces them and highly recommend them to anyone who loves tea, especially to those who are health-conscious...!

IsaDora Perfect Moisture Lipsticks

2010-05-23T16:15:00.002+02:00

Woohoo! New lipsticks for Fanneke! :-D She's getting addicted to lippies! :-D

Awhile ago I was approached by a lovely MUAer who wanted to swap for my Illamasqua Rich Foundation and since I saw that she offered anything from the line IsaDora which I had never heard of, I thought maybe I should give it a try, God am I glad that I did...!

I did a careful and complete research, from foundation to eyeshadow (although I'm not really an eyeshadow user, but well, you get the picture, I just wanted to see what they have) and changed my choices several times and the poor lady had to go to a bigger drugstore which had more colour selections especially for me and I felt so guilty... -_-

For those of you who don't know IsaDora yet, it's a Sweden-based cosmetic company which offers a wide range of products at a decent price. I learnt it's popular in Sweden (ok, check out the Youtube videos and most of the ladies who use IsaDora products are from Sweden).

They retail for 105 SEK (equivalent to €10,84 ) each in Sweden.

The packaging is classic, a safe gamble for the company. :-P I wish it came with a round tube instead of a square one, but it's no big deal. I'm being too demanding. I like to hear that "Klick!" when I close it. :-) (By the way, the new Catrice Absolute Moisture lipsticks have that sound too! I'm going to buy a few...! ^_^)

The colours I have now are #33 Tender Rose and #142 Poppy Coral. They of course look different on the official swatches but in real life very similar, only #142 is slight redder and #33 looks actually more coral to me.

#33 Tender Rose

#142 Poppy Coral

I used lipbalm (Labello Med Protection) prior applying these lipsticks, as always. :-)

Upon opening the lid, I sense a strong coconut smell, I'm not very fond of coconut so I was a bit sad that they smell like that. :-(

The texture on the other hand is really nice, it glides on like butter and doesn't settle into the fine lines of my lips. One stroke covers perfectly all uneven tones on your lips and it's indeed moisturizing, that being said, it doesn't dry your lips, and I don't feel the need of touch-up either. It feels very light and soft as if I didn't apply lipstick at all. And the colours are true to the core on my lips. I won't hesitate to recommend them to everyone and I'm eager to try other colours...! :-)

What It Is: IsaDora Perfect Moisture Lipstick in #33 Tender Rose and #142 Poppy Coral each 4.5g

Price: 105 SEK in Sweden.

Availability: A few days ago I've just found out that it's actually available in Belgium by IMMO, the high end department store which I can only do window-shopping, but they don't have the full range of stock and the price of some items is literally doubled. -_-

INGREDIENTS: Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate-2, Octyldodecanol, Pentaerythrityl Tetracaprylate/Tetracaprate, Ozokerite, PentaerythritylTetraisostearate, Cera Microcristallina/Microcrystalline Wax, Candelilla Cera/Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Synthetic Wax, Cetyl Alcohol,Butylene Glycol, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Butyl Methyoxydibenzoylmethane, Panthenol, Tocopheryl Acetate, BHT [may contain: Mica, CI77891/Titanium Dioxide, CI77491/Iron Oxides, CI77492/Iron Oxides, CI77499/Iron Oxides, CI15850:1/Red 7, CI19140:1/Yellow 5, CI15985:1/Yellow 6, CI15850/Red 6, CI45410:1/Red 27, CI42090:2/Blue 1, CI75470/Carmine, CI17200/Red 33].

PROs: Beautiful colours. Covers flawlessly. Easy to apply. Long lasting.

CONs: I don't like the smell.

Verdict: 9.5 out of 10! Love them!

(Tina, if you ever read this, please accept my thanks once more!)

And by the way, thanks to this lovely MUAer that I bought the P2 LE baked blushers that I'm so fond of... ^_^

Tina, does the Illamasqua Rich Foundation work for you? I sincerely wish so, let me know... And thank you for wishing me a happy birthday! Absolutely one of my highlights on that day! ^_^

My German Haul - Alverde Items

2010-05-22T20:19:00.002+02:00

This time I bought Alverde's Reinigungsmilch Wildrose, Aqua Mattierende Tagescreme 3 in 1 Perle, Aqua Peeling Perle, Clear Gesichtstonic Heilerde and Puder Camouflage.

First, Reinigungsmilch Wildrose. I got a travel size from Izar and I loved it as a cleansing milk back then for winter (and I also foresaw that cleansing power might not be enough in summer for my oily skin and I was partly right).

I asked Izar if I could use it as a makeup remover and she said yes, but when I tried it as a makeup remover in winter with the travel size, it didn't remove my makeup very well, lots traces to be seen and I felt small bumps on my face. Needless to say, I was disappointed cause I thought it would replace my NIVEA makeup remover (I bought makeup remover from Corine de Farme and works wonderfully!). But when I finally bought a full size and use it again this time, my point of view changed, it's actually a very good makeup remover, only last time I didn't use it properly, and now I use a cotton pad to remove the cream and the melt makeup instead of rinsing it off with water and the result is dramatic! It gently removes all makeup traces (you have to massage it into your skin for a considerable time) and doesn't irritate skin, followed by toner and moisturizer (I still yet have to use Paula's Choice 2% BHA Liquid and Bio Oil), your routine is completed. :-)

What It Is: Alverde Reinigungsmilch Wildrose 150ml

Price: €2,25

Availability: Exclusively by DM

PROs: Decent makeup remover. Doesn't irritate skin. Smells nice.

CONs: Not enough cleansing power in summer and/or for oily girls.

Verdict: 9 out of 10

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And second, Aqua Mattierende Tagescreme 3 in 1 Perle. I only found out while writing this review and checking the package that I bought the wrong one: I wanted to buy Alverde Aqua Tagesfluid Perle but in a hurry I grabbed Aqua Mattierende Tagescreme 3 in 1 Perle cause the packagings are exactly the same. And I'm glad I bought it.

It is better than Alverde Aqua Tagesfluid Perle, much better, cause it's easier to blend and the texture is "softer". I use it together with Bio Oil: I first squeeze a pea sized cream on my hand and then 2 drops of Bio Oil on it, rub with my hands and then apply on my face. It's so much better than applying them separately. And it doesn't leave residue. No weird smell either.

What It Is: Alverde Aqua Mattierende Tagescreme 3 in 1 Perle 50ml

Price: €3,25

Availability: Exclusively by DM

PROs: Easy to blend. Easy to be absorbed. No residue.

CONs: Not that I know of.

Verdict: 10 out of 10

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The third product is Aqua Peeling Perle, I have mixed feeling for it.

Upon opening the cap, I got the first negative surprise: it smells like a combination of alcohol (by the way, alcohol is the second on INCIS) and bathroom cleanser...!!! It's so overwhelming that I was reluctant to put it on my face...!

And the second negative surprise is the huge blue beams. They're harsh on my skin. They're even hard to smash with fingers. I much prefer NIVEA face scrub.

What It Is: Alverde Aqua Peeling Perle 50ml

Price: €1,95

Availability: Exclusively by DM

PROs: Good face scrub for the price, so once I finish it, I won't buy it again.

CONs: The smell...! The blue beams seem a bit too harsh.

Verdict: 6 out of 10

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The next product is Clear Gesichtstonic Heilerde

I'm really not demanding on toner, I've used Oshadhi Highland Lavender toner and Liz Earle toner ( they're both very very good toners and I love them a lot. Only Liz Earle is expensive and Oshadhi is not available here) as well as NIVEA ones, the difference is not really that big. Now this one claims to be good for blemished skin, so far (1 week of use) I didn't notice any change, but it's a very decent toner and keeps my face hydrated and is a good "joint" product for my cream, so I should at least give it 8.5 out of 10.

What It Is: Alverde Clear Gesichtstonic Heilerde

Price: €2,25

Availability: Exclusively by DM

PROs: ?

CONs: ?

Verdict: 8.5 out of 10

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The last product is Puder Camouflage

This is the one that I like the least out of all my Alverde items, to say the least. Or, not at all.

I discovered it on Aussen und Innen's blog and it seemed that the powder can refine large pores. That was the reason why I bought it.

It smells very weird, I can't even describe it. And although the manufacturer is thoughtful enough to enclose a sponge, it does nothing in practical. The powder, oh now that the powder, it's so cakey and the texture is all wrong. I just can't do anything right with it, it doesn't refine my pores and has no coverage and doesn't even out my skintone. Guess it's the biggest disappointment in the purchase.

What It Is: Alverde Puder Camouflage

Price: €3,85

Availability: Exclusively by DM

PROs: Lovely box with mirror and sponge

CONs: Smell. Creates white cast. Looks cakey.

Verdict: 2 out of 10. Won't buy again.

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Last but not least, I saw a cat on our terras! Isn't she cute!?

20/05/2010

2010-05-21T17:06:00.001+02:00

I guess it might be the best way to celebrate my birthday: shopping + nature.

Not long ago I was excited to learn that the famous British drugstore Boots have branch shops in the Nederlands and I was eager to know what they offer. I was especially interested in A'kin or Trilogy Rosehip Oil (Boots in the UK do carry it, so why not in the Nederlands?), so I didn't go to Germany on my birthday but instead went to Holland especially for Boots.

As you know the neighbourhood where I live is not very nice, so it's an eye-candy to see beautiful towns like Heide full of fairytale-like villas and green field and tidy bicycle path, and in Holland, it's beautiful and tidy everywhere, even in the train station! And everywhere was quiet! No screaming youth, no crying babies. It had a certain serenity that I'm dying to have in my neighbourhood, and it also brought back some childhood memories.

Holland should also be an ideal place for shopping next to my number first destination Germany, cause it has a larger selection cosmetics-wise and has a lower VAT, plus it's not far from Belgium, in 25 minutes I'm already in Holland...! :-D

The town we went is Barendrecht, a tiny weeny cozy lovely gem in the southern Holland. I can't believe, while Boots is only available in few cities in Holland, Barendrecht is one of them. :-)

Ponds and rivers are everywhere and ducks are also to be seen. The sun shone upon the crystal clear water and made the whole town quite dreamy, and flowers are also not to be missing either. I doubted if it was paradise.

Thanks to Joeri's perfect orientation we found the shopping street in 10 minutes (it would take lifetime for me, I lost my way hundred times in Antwerpen already...!!!).

Boots in Barendrecht was actually quite disappointing and boring, they had a very small assortment, more like a normal drugstore, there you could only find their own brands such as No.7 etc. They didn't have what I wanted, they didn't even heard of it (but they were very helpful), so I went away empty handed. I only spent less than 3 minutes in the shop, I didn't even bother to have a look around. But never mind, Joeri will go to China anyway and I'll ask him to buy my precious oil. :-D

For those of you who are interested in the products, search A'kin (unlisted brand) Rosehip Oil or Trilogy Rosehip Oil and you'll understand why I'm so crazy about them. :-)

And then we had a short walk in the shopping street, I had a look in almost all the shops. :-P

Living in Barendrecht is truly an enjoyment...! I haven't seen a town quite as cozy as this one yet. I'm sure I'll come here again. :-)

On the way back, we got off at Heide, I love nature and would love to have a walk in the forest there. The fresh air and the woody scent did me good.

I just got a big nasty pimple 2 days before my birthday and it's still on my face as of now...! Very heartbroken...!

Embrace my 27th year...

Looking forward to "Giants", we all are...

2010-05-15T14:42:00.008+02:00

Nick welcome back...! We've been waiting for too long since your last album and we all think you've drifted away too far from your roots but yesterday I've just heard your "Barefoot" which is rumored to be in your new album "Giants" and I was so positively surprised...! Simply Euphoric! Praise God that it's Ibiza Era again...! Praise God that your whole new album will be the old school style and it'll be a bliss to all your loyal fans...!

Chicane - Barefoot

My German Haul - P2 LE blushers

2010-05-14T13:14:00.006+02:00

Oh well, I initially wanted to buy the Alverde baked blushers after having seen Innen und Aussen's pictures and swatches. I thought it was an LE or something and I was rather excited. This was my motivation why I went to Germany last Monday, and I also needed to send a package to Sweden - I arranged a deal with someone on MUA, she asked for some P2 LE goodies and how dramatic it was that I gave up my own choice but bought for myself what she wanted...!

En ja, my dream blushers, the Alverde baked ones turned out to be way smaller in reality than what I had imagined them to be...! No blush brush could successfully get powder off the surface, it's really that small, diametre 3 cm maybe? And the colours were not that great either. As I went to the P2 counter, having seen their LE blushers for the first time, I thought I was in love, so I bought both of them instead of the Alverde ones. No regrets.

The ones I bought are #10 Summer Flirt and #20 Summer Love.

#010 Summer Flirt: A beautiful peach/coral colour with pale golden veins. The colour is very eye-catchy and the blush has a vague olive oil smell, it smells exactly like my HEMA Wet And Dry Blush, even the packaging is highly similar too. It performs well on my face, giving a subtle glow and doesn't enlarge my pores. It has all that advantages one requires a blush to be, except for the staying power,

#020 Summer Love: Cold pinkish berry with pale golden veins. I have a love-hate relationship for this one: the colour looks absolutely unique in the pan but it turns to red on my cheeks. -_-

What It Is: P2 LE Summer Love Blush #01 Summer Flirt and #02 Summer Love 7g

Price: €3,25

Availability: (as far as I know) DM

PROs: Cheap. Subtle. Beautiful colours.

CONs: Not long lasting.

Verdict: 9 out of 10 for #010; 8.5 out of 10 for #020. Overall good blushes, worth the money.

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FOTD:

Foundation: Silk Naturals in Medium Coverage

Blush: P2 LE Blush #010 Summer Flirt

Lip product: Manhattan High Shine Lipgloss 52W

Eyeshadow: Catrice High Pearl Loose Eyeshadow #50 Sophisticated Brown

My German Haul - Catrice Compact Powder

2010-05-09T13:40:00.026+02:00

I think Catrice is in general a very good brand cause their price is incredibly low meanwhile the quality is quite amazing.

I've bought this compact powder before in the lightest shade #110 Light Beige but it was still a bit too dark for me (and my skin is not that fair). It sure looks very pale in the compact but once applied, it significantly darkens on my face. Well I have this problem with any mineral foundation so maybe I really should stick to Silk Naturals' wonderful Custom Blend system. I guess it's the only mineral foundation that I've tried so far which is almost perfect (9.8 out of 10 maybe?), although my first impression of it was not that positive.

Back to this one, what happened to my previous Catrice Mineral Compact Powder? I found it too dark therefore ground it into fine powder and mixed it with other foundation.

So why did I buy it again? Because now that summer is near, I'll be a bit tanned, so I thought maybe the shade would suit my current skintone. But well, the shade is still a bit too dark, but it's no problem. I don't mind the difference cause apart from that, it's a very good powder.

The coverage is light to medium, on the light side though (far from covering up my pimples), maybe that's why it looks so natural on the skin (but you should know how to apply it correctly), which is exactly the reason why I go for it. :-).

What It Is: Catrice Mineral Compact Powder in #110 Light Beige 10g

Price: €3,49

Availability: (in Germany) Galeria, DM, Müller, Ihr Platz; (in Belgium) Kruidvat.

PROs: Looks naturals. Cheap. Natural ingredients. Doesn't break me out. Long lasting.

CONs: Shade a bit too dark. Not enough coverage.

Verdict: 9 out of 10! I wish they had it in lighter shade.

FOTD:

Foundation: Catrice Mineral Compact Powder in #110 Light Beige (no concealer)

Blush: P2 LE Summer Love blush #01 Summer Flirt

Lipgloss: Manhattan High Shine Lipgloss in 52W

Eyeshadow: Catrice High Pearl Loose Eyeshadow in #050 Sophisticated Brown (discontinued)

My German Haul - Labello Fruity Pomegranate

2010-05-08T23:41:00.000+02:00

Please don't blame me, but aren't all women easily tempted by new and lovely cosmetics? Two weeks ago Izar just tempted me once more with her successful and satisfactory purchase Labello Strawberry so I became a drool-hanging puppy again and this very Labello was the second priority on my shopping list for my Germany Daytrip. :-P

Pity they didn't have it (and don't forget that I've been to 3 DM plus 1 Galeria...!!!) so I bought this Fruity Pomegranate instead and I'm very happy with it. :-)

The packaging looks romantic! The red fruit looks promising! And it smells fruity sweet, though not necessarily pomegranate. They say there's "unwiderstchlicher Schimmer" (irresistible shimmer) but it's not too obvious and certainly not annoying on my lips. It looks so scary red in the tube but goes on sheer. I quite enjoy the sheerness too, I actually don't feel that I have any lip product on, it's just so subtle and gives a slight shine and it's of course not sticky. I'll wear it very often in the summer to avoid heavy and greasy looking lips.

What it is: Labello Fruity Pomegranate 4,8g

Price: €1.45 (Should it be available in Belgium, the price is easily doubled, if not more...)

Availability: Practically in every drugstore.

PROs: Availability. Price. Colour. Smell.

CONs: None.

Verdict: 10 out of 10! Love it and would like to buy it again...! :-)

My German Haul - Manhattan lipglosses

2010-05-08T18:17:00.005+02:00

It's not a coincidence why I bought these two Manhattan lippies in Germany while they're also available in Belgium. There's a remarkable price difference between the two countries. The Manhattan Mineral Loose Powder (15g) ratails €6,85 (by Kruidvat) in Belgium whereas in Germany it's merely around €4 (by DM). So when I say Germany is a cosmetics heaven, I not only mean the amount of brands that are available there, but also the price. So if possible, I always tend to rush to Germany to buy some goodies - cosmetics or food or whatever I feel like. Maybe you'll ask :"Isn't the train ticket expensive?" Well not for me, cause my boyfriend works for the Belgian national railway company so I also get very attractive discount which makes a day-trip ticket to Germany just a piece of cake. So that's why I can save so much more on cosmetics even if I have to pay for the train ticket...!

Well, the two Manhattan lippies I bought are High Shine Lipgloss in 52W and Tasty Lips Lipgloss in 59K.

Manhattan High Shine Lipgloss:

The packaging is like that of most lipglosses: transparent plastic tube. And the colour is a lovely red with pink undertone (recently I'm in love with bright colours again). Magic Nectar in a tube. :-)

I'm not very fond of the applicator, though I thought it's cute at first sight. Well it's soft and doesn't stretch your lips at all, but it's just so irritating that the tip tends to split. v_v

What it is: Manhattan High Shine Lipgloss 6ml

Price: €3,55

Availability: (as far as I know) DM, Müller and Ihr Platz

PROs: Nice smell, Cheap, Lovely colour, Easy to apply. Non sticky. Doesn't leak.

CONs: The applicator tip tend to split. I wish it came with a doe-foot applicator.

Verdict: 9 out of 10! I'd love to try other shades too!

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Manhattan Tasty Lips Lipgloss:

In the tube it's a cold berry pink, but on your lips there's barely any colour (or very subtle) but a glossy watery shine. I just don't understand why it appears so dark on the swatch photo above but goes so sheer on my lips. :-S But ok, no big deal cause I have enough lipglosses that beautifully paint my lips.

This applicator is much nicer! :-D

What it is: Manhattan Tasty Lips Lipgloss 6ml

Price: €3,55

Availability: (as far as I know) DM, Müller and Ihr Platz

PROs: Fits into any handbag (it measures 8,6cm), Smells nice, Handy applicator, Cheap, Non sticky.

CONs: Not long-lasting

Verdict: 9,5 out of 10!

All in all, I'm very satisfied with these two lipglosses and would like to take both with me on vacation: one almost colourless when I use a bright blusher and another bright pinky red lipgloss when I use only minimum blush and eyeshadow. The two should be enough for most of the occasions.

My German Haul

2010-05-04T12:53:00.006+02:00

Hi hi dear readers...! I've just been to Aachen, Germany yesterday and bought some goodies that I really love...! Both cosmetics and non-cosmetics. During the 4 hours of shopping time, we (my boyfriend and I) have been to 3 DMs, 1 Galeria, 1 MediaMarkt, 1 Saturn, post office and Ihr Platz, super productive and efficient, no time for Müller though, pitiful. But I'm planning on going to Germany again within 1 month (probably around my birthday) right before I go to China for vacation and I'm sure I won't miss Müller again. :-)

So in the next few days I'll review them one by one per brand with detailed description and tons pictures, so please watch my blog closely. ^_^

3 Essence Lipsticks

2010-05-01T18:05:00.001+02:00

I bought the 3 Essence Lipsticks already awhile ago, I was just too lazy to review them, now it's really high time that I did so!

They're #03 Sparkling Angel, #40 Look At Me! and #41 Femme Fatale. Different textures, Sparkling Angel and Look At Me are shimmery, the other is matte. They retail for €1,99 each in Belgium. They're housed in silver coloured aluminum tube, the packaging is simple but classic and attractive (at least to me). They have a slight sweet smell, pleasant, but a bit artificial.

#03 is a light-hearted shimmery young and fresh and innocent pink, the shimmer may look a bit cheap but it's indeed a nice colour, very suitable to young girls. Easy to apply, unfortunately not long lasting, maybe due to the shimmer? All in all a nice colour, and nice consistency too. And for €1,99 you can't go wrong, really...

#40 might be the only one out of the three that I don't like, the colour is simply wrong to me! I look very ill and pale and ashy when wearing this, easy to apply though. The colour is difficult to describe too, shimmery mid-tone copper maybe? I won't buy it again, I can't imagine who would look good wearing it... -_-

#41 is another colour that I like! And it's actually the one I like the best out of the 3! It's a bright red with purple undertone, a dead-on dupe of my Pout "Please Me". Really, I don't see any colour difference at all! And it has no shimmer, which is another big plus to me (not into shimmer, but Sparkling Angel is good). I welcome bright colours cause I normally only apply minimum blush and no eyeshadow at all, and bright colours make me look alive. :-)

Music Remake Project: White Cliff

2010-04-23T21:26:00.000+02:00

When I was in high school, I was a big fan of computer games, and there was one game, whose music is divine and heavenly to me, therefore I made a few remakes (using the software "Cakewalk") according to the original ones myself, some are quite similar to the original, whereas others are different. And here's one of my all time favourites: White Cliff (it's the name of my remake, the original one didn't have a name but only a number).

Click here for the original one. It has a particular echo effect which I really love, but my Cakewalk doesn't have that. -_-

Click here for my verison.

There're not many differences between the two but still it's subtly different. I changed some instruments (it's so irritating that when being converted from wrk to mid format, some instruments are also slightly changed) and it gives another feeling. Enjoy! ^_^

Two major elements for acne/scar improvement

2010-04-16T22:44:00.002+02:00

I got my first pimple in the summer of 2004 when I first ventured to use cosmetics, I do believe I used something that didn't suit my skin, cause on the second day my skin reacted to it strongly, and pimples were forming one by one. I had pretty clear skin before that, so it was quite a shock to see that my face was completely ruined. I used various stuff trying to get rid of them, some of them did work for a short while and then stopped so I had to throw the whole thing away, whereas the other products only made it worse. I don't remember anymore how much I spent on the products only in order to get rid of the acne, and while days went by, some of the active pimples became scars, quite severe I can say, and no products helped on the roots. I thought there was no hope for me anymore...

In the early 2009 I was introduced to Paula's Choice 2% BHA, the rating on MUA was extremely positive, so I managed to swap for it with my most beloved Pout blush (a difficult choice) hoping it would put an end to my pimples. And I must say, I was not disappointed at all.

What I got was Paula's Choice 2% BHA Liquid, which is perfect for oily skin, the consistency is watery and it's colourless, odorless. I use it twice per day after cleaning and toning. After the first time that I applied it onto my face, it felt as if my skin was instantly smoothed out, which had never happened to me before. It works like a wonder! And thanks to it, my pimples are for the first time under control...! And it doesn't break me out.

Ingredients: Aqua, Methylpropanediol, Salicylic Acid 2%, Camellia Oleifera (Green Tea) Extract, Butylene Glycol, Polysorbate-20, Sodium Hydroxide, Disodium EDTA

Price: €19.95

Content: 118ml

PROS: Easily absorbed. Instant cooling and soothing feeling. Prevents new pimples from forming. A little goes a long way (one bottle lasts me a bit more than 1 year). Doesn't cause irritation. No odor. No alcohol.

CONS: Price. Availability.

Verdict: 10 out of 10, definitely. I'm on my second bottle.

As I said, Paula's Choice 2% BHA is truly a Godsend product. But, it doesn't help with scars (nor does it claim it), so although I can easily say that my pimples are under control, the scars are still there. And as far as I know, there're few products that claim to reduce scars, the ones that I found online are all ridiculously priced, so it's no option to me, I don't want to break my bank balance (I'm sure you know by far that I'm a drugstore girl than a high-end girl).

But still, I found one (thanks to my greedy nature actually, cause Kruidvat had promotion on it, €4 off, and my eyes popped out when I saw the poster "...also reduces new and old scars...", thus I was sold and I had to try it! Without the promotion I would never have discovered it, plus, it's on the bottom of the stand in every Kruidvat, it took me 15 minutes to find it. Had it been placed next to NIVEA, I would have found it within 10 seconds! :-D):

Bio Oil

What is it and what does it claim?

Bio-Oil® is a specialist skincare product that helps improve the appearance of scars, stretch marks and uneven skin tone. Its advanced formulation, which contains the breakthrough ingredient PurCellin Oil™, also makes it highly effective for numerous other skin concerns, including aging skin and dehydrated skin

What does it look like? It's colourless runny oil (although it does appear orange coloured in the bottle, however it's colourless) in a plastic bottle (I wish it came with a dropper, unfortunately, it's just a plastic insert with a hole in the middle, so I bought a small 10ml bottle with dropper myself, which makes application much easier and spill-free)

I don't have stretch marks, my target is scars (and redness, if it helps that too), I've been faithfully using it since the day I bought it (4th March). I follow the instruction strictly.

On the leaflet it says that the result varies from person to person, and a minimum period of 3 months regular use is needed in order to see the result, but I saw mine in a matter of days.

Strange enough, after 3 or 4 days of using it, I developed a few very serious pimples and I panicked, but I continued using it nonetheless, only the amount was much reduced so it felt less greasy (again, I was greedy to use that much, only to think that it works better). I guess it's the reason why I got pimples: I used too much, and my skin was not used to it. .

After having reduced the amount of each application for one week, when I woke up and looked in the mirror, to my surprise, one of my scars faded (it was a mild one to begin with), could it just be an overnight miracle or I just didn't pay much attention to that scar earlier on I do not know, but it has faded, for sure. And as time went by, I saw more scars fading, though recently it's not that quick anymore. And it actually reduced my redness too, not much but still you bet how glad I am...! My skin feels firmer and smoother in the morning.

Oh by the way, for the first time when I used it, 1 hour after having applied it, I touched my face to see if the oil was absorbed, well it wasn't, and plus, my skin felt bumpy, I was confused and decided to see how it would be tomorrow morning, and on the second morning, my face was totally smooth and firm, not oily and bumpy at all. So I would suggest not to touch your face after you've applied the oil.

I also use it under makeup as a part of the primer and it prevents dry flakes. :-) But you have to use it sparingly.

A little goes a long way, you only need 3-4 drops for the entire face otherwise it'll be too greasy. People having troubles with it is mostly because they use way too much. I've been using it for more than a month, and only 2 mm off from the top. I'm pretty sure it'll last more than 18 months.

Ingredients: Paraffinum Liquidum, Triisononanoin, Cetearyl Ethylhexanoate
Isopropyl Myristate, Retinyl Palmitate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Anthemis Nobilis Flower Oil, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Rosmarinus, Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Oil, Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil, BHT, Bisabolol, Parfum, Amyl Cinnamal, Benzyl, Salicylate, Citronellol, Coumarin, Eugenol, Geraniol, Hydroxycitronellal
Hydroxyisohexyl 3-Cyclohexene Carboxaldehyde, Limonene, Linalool, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, CI 26100

So what's the key ingredient? It has to be PurCellin Oil, on the official website it's described like this:

"PurCellin Oil™ acts as a delivery system for Bio-Oil’s other ingredients, dramatically improving its application and spreadability, and allowing for targeted absorption into the skin."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What It Is: Bio Oil

Price: €11.95 for 60ml (on eBay you'll find good bargains)

Availability: A few countries worldwide, as in Europe: UK, Ireland, The Nederlands (Belgium is not in the list, but since the Nederlands-originated chain drugstore Kruidvat carries it in The Nederlands, so the branch stores in Belgium also carry it, so you might as well check your local drug stores and might be delightfully surprised. ^_^).

PROS: Lovely scent. Reduces scar and improves skin texture. Keeps skin moisturized. Leaves skin feel soft and smooth. Easily absorbed. Lasts ages.

CONS: For some people it might be a bit greasy.

Verdict: A solid 10 out of 10, will buy again...!

I've checked tons of reviews online. People tend to split in two groups, either love it to death or hate it to death, rarely in between. I would definitely recommend it to ladies with dry skin cause it's a super moisturizer, would also recommend it to people who have scars and stretch marks. If you find it too oily, mix it with your moisturizer. :-)

Sunshine Award

2010-04-14T14:12:00.004+02:00

I recently got a reward from Nimphetamin, a lovely lady from Romania, one of my silent readers and to my surprise, she awarded me with this Sunshine Award, so here's my post to respond it. :-)

Here're the rules:

1. Post the award (that picture)
2. Say who gave it to you
3. Offer it to other 12 bloggers or firends
4. Post their links
5. Announce everybody on their blog
6. Make a list of 10 things you like

So here're the 10 things I absolutely love:

1. Non commercial Trance music (But I also like modern-classic music like Ludovico Einaudi writes)

2. Books

3. Forests

4. Oceans

5. Cold Places

6. Mountains

7. Countryside

8. Good cosmetics (we all do, don't we? :-P)

9. Travelling

10. Lancélot (my teddy bear, the 30-year-old teddy that originally belonged to my boyfriend, now mine :-P)

Voilà, task done. :-)

This time I'll only pass the award on Nimphetamin, my new friend, for her support of my blog and her kindness of giving me the honour to share my likeness with everyone who reads my blog. :-)

7 Random Facts About Me

2010-04-04T13:46:00.005+02:00

A big Thank You to Izar, for tagging me in her blog. I feel honoured. So now it's my turn to do it.

Rules:

Thank the person that gave you the prize
Give the award to blogs you've recently discovered and think that deserve it
Contact those bloggers and tell them about the award
Write 7 random facts about you

1. I've never used mascara in my entire life.

2. I know it's a bad habit, but I always bite my nails when nervous, which explains why I never use nail polish.

3. My lifetime favourite song is Isla Blanca - Aerosoul (Aftersun Chill Factor Mix), I've been listening to it 20 times per day in average since the day I found it 4 years ago and never get tired of it. I love that when I'm writing and need to concentrate, Isla Blanca is filled in the room and then I'm in a semi-trance state, for a whole afternoon or whole evening, truly a heavenly experience. I'll have it played on my funeral. I even wrote a poem for it published on www.fictionpress.com (userID: Spookuur)

4. I collect pens. :-)

5. My favourite places are mostly cold places such as Scandinavia and Russia, with one exception, which is East Europe, namely Hungary and Poland.

6. Gothic minded, but I don't dress like a Goth.

7. I'm constantly thinking about the ideal place to die, preferably ocean.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

I noticed that I got some regular readers except for Izar and Sagu, but none of them comment my blog entries, which I've been wondering out of frustration why that's so. Therefore, I cannot tag anyone rather than Izar and Sagu (I might encourage people to comment if I have a give-away kind of project but I don't want to do that, not now at least).

So my choices are:

Izar

Sagu

Looking Forward to Catrice LE Oceana ^_^

2010-04-03T20:44:00.001+02:00

Oh Gosh oh Gosh! I was so excited and overjoyed to discover the upcoming Limited Edition of Catrice for May: Oceana!

As the name suggests, the colours are mostly deep blue and emerald. I've never been that excited for any of their LE (although I do like most of them! Of course! :-D). So what does this LE include? Let's find out...!

Oceana Soft Eyeshadow - €1.99 per piece

Delicate, soft textures of matte eye shadow available in 4 colors:

Sandy Beach

Pebble Beach

Sea of Green

Blue Out to Sea

Smooth Duo Eyeliner - €1.99

Two of the most beautiful colors of the sea merge in the new Smooth Duo Eyeliner a perfect duet for in-depth look. The secret lies in a matte and a glossy shade that can be both apply very gentle. Available in:

Grey Sky – Green Sea

Blue Sky – Blue Sea

Maximum Volume Mascara Resist - €2.99

An intense look, like the unfathomable depths of the ocean succeed easily with the water-resist maximum volume mascara. It is almost black, but mixed with magic, dark blue pigments. Available in:

Almost Black – but blue

Moisturizing Lipstick - €2.99

The ocean is full of life and magnificent coral colors. These were captured in a creamy, moisturizing lipstick with fine shell and they will become the must-have for the summer. The Moisturising Lipstick is available in two colors:

Ocean Sunset

Ocean Sunrise

Soft Lip Color - €2.79

Seductively glossy lips – the soft Lip Colour Brilliant magic effects on nude lips and perfectly complements the moisturizing lipstick with a high-gloss finish. The soft texture pampers the lips and dips it in the warm colors of the rising and setting sun. Available in two colors:

Ocean Sunset

Ocean Sunrise

Ultimate Nail Lacquer - €2.49

Bright colors and innovative finishes! With the latest trend wave from New York the Ultimate Nail Laquer shines in the intensive colors of ocean blue and exotic red and in the absolute hottest Matt finish at the shades of green and gray: Available in four colors:

Pebble Beach

Sea of Green

Blue Out to Sea

Ocean and Sunset

Moisturizing Spray - €2.99

Pure refreshment! The Aqua spray provides the skin with intense moisture and a sparkling fresh kick! Perfect for a long hot day at the beach or in between, if you simply feel the gentle spray of the ocean on the skin.

So voilà, that's it. Gorgeous aren't they!? :-) The designs (especially the nail lacquer one) are too attractive to resist...! I'll definitely buy the lipgloss in lighter shade and the correspondent lipstick, plus the spray and one of the eyeshadow (I have to choose between the grey and the blue ones yet, but might get both if it's a difficult choice :-P) you can expect swatches from me. :-) So until then, dear readers, be patient and let's hope they're worth my money (I'm sure they are!) ! ^_^

Maybelline Dream Creamy Foundation & Smashbox Photo Finish Lipstick

2010-03-30T15:43:00.003+02:00

Oh I must have been crazy, after the negative experience with their blushes not long ago, I was recommended to their Dream Creamy Foundation by a friend, thus how I stumbled upon it. Since it's a new product and is not yet available in Belgium so I swapped for it from MUA (the lovely MUAer also gave me a Smashbox lipstick which I'll review later in this post entry).

It's in a cheap looking plastic pot, but sturdy enough. It also comes with a sponge, which is not bad at all. The shade is Nude.

As you know I was skeptical about Maybelline but since my friend recommended it and it got a not bad rating on MUA, I thought I should give it a try. Have my friend not recommended it, I would never have bought or swapped for it. Well, what should I say? I'm glad I did...! :-D

My first impression was: Wow! It looks very natural, not mask-like at all. My second impression was: bah, not enough coverage (I used Essence concealer pencil prior using this foundation). But if it does provide full coverage, then how can you expect it to look natural? So it's the old dilemma again that I won't discuss here, cause you have to decide which one you're after: full coverage or natural looking. As for me, I choose natural looking.

It's very creamy and moisturizing, I was afraid that the colour would be a bit too dark (it's strong yellow based) but it blends into my own skintone perfectly, which, at this point, no mineral foundation can achieve.

Long lasting too. I wore it yesterday for at least 8 hours and I almost didn't see any fading or wearing off. But of course you have to set it with powder.

All in all, I highly recommend it to anyone who doesn't need much coverage and who's searching for lightweight, natural looking foundation. Perfect for summer.

What It Is: Maybelline Dream Creamy Foundation 14,5g

Price: Unknown

PROS: Feels lightweight on the skin, looks very natural, blends easily, long lasting, creamy.

CONS: Not enough coverage, limited shades to choose from, not easy to remove.

Verdict: 9 out of 10 I'll probably buy it off eBay but not at our local drugstores here. :-P

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So now let's talk about the Smashbox Lipstick, in the shade "Invite Only", a gorgeous red.

The first thing that drew my attention was the packaging. It comes in a stylish metal box decorated with plastic jewelry and with a little mirror and black velvet inside, which feels expensive.

And now the lipstick itself. It looks exactly the same as my most beloved Catrice lipstick Indian Brown. Only the texture is even better. It doesn't wear off easily and is moisturizing too, what's more, it seems to "lift" my lips and erase the fine lines too, which means that it provides full coverage.

There's a slight colour difference in the photo and somehow it appears pink but on my lips I detect no colour difference.

What It Is: Smashbox Photo Finish Lipstick in the shade "Invite Only"

Price: $22 for 3.6g

PROS: Creamy, long lasting, glides smoothly on the lips, beautiful shade, full coverage.

CONS: None.

Verdict: 10 out of 10

I'd very much love to buy it again but it's discontinued. :-(

Last but not least: FOTD

You can still see my imperfections in this photo (but they're improving visibly since recently, thanks to 2 major elements, which will be told in my next post! :-D And don't forget, my imperfections are scars that have been haunting me for almost 6 years...! ) but I guess if I use a better concealer then it can be completely covered up, but at present I'm actually very satisfied with my Essence concealer and will not search for another one. I'm hoping that my scars will be completely cleared up before summer! Fingers crossed! :-)

What I used:

Foundation: Maybelline Dream Creamy Foundation

Concealer: Essence Concealer Pencil #1 Natural Beige

Blush: Maybelline Mineral Blush "Topaz Rose"

Lipstick: Smashbox Invite Only

Maybelline Pure Mineral Blushes

2010-03-24T18:25:00.001+01:00

I recently got two Maybelline Pure Mineral Blushes, one I swapped from MUA, the other I bought off eBay UK (only £3,74 including S&H, £1,24 for the product itself. I wouldn't go higher than 2 pounds).

It's strange why I swapped for or bought them. I never liked Maybelline (my first foundation was Maybelline Wonder Finish, my mom bought it for me when I was around 18, well I never wore cosmetics before but there was an important event and I didn't want to be bare faced so I begged my mom to buy it for me, she kindly did, but the foundation worked not well at all (I couldn't believe it! So much money for so little result!), and I didn't dare to tell her, lest it would disappoint her, cause it was very expensive and my mom was not someone who gladly threw money in the water, my family has been financially tight for many years), I even hated Maybelline for wasting my mom's money, but still, some time ago I got interested in their mineral blushes and eventually got two, and here's the review.

The two shades are 10 Topaz Rose and 40 Quartz Peach.

They both have no odor and have fine shimmer, which is not a problem for me. Topaz Rose is a super bright pink, very Barbie doll-like. You really need a skunk brush plus light hand for it otherwise you become a clown. Quartz Peach is, as the name suggest, peachy/tangerine, colour wise. I personally like it way better than Topaz Rose. The two shades have 1 thing in common though: they don't really look natural on your cheek (or is it just my technique? But I'm not a blusher newbie and I have the best brush (as far as I can afford) for it). My personal experience with the two blushers stray far away from the main stream on MUA, which is rare.

It says "Mineral powder blush. No added preservatives, fragance (wrong spelling?) or talc. Oil free."

The swatches are true to the actual colours.

Under natural sunlight.

What It Is: Maybelline Pure Mineral Blush Topaz Rose and Quartz Peach. 4.5g

PROS: Good pigmentation. Relatively Long Lasting (if you consider 5 hours is long lasting but my Pout blushers easily last 8 hours or longer, even Catrice and HEMA blushes perform better at this point).

CONS: Price (around €10 in Belgium, outrageous! Needlessly to say, I would never pay for the full price). Not Easy To Blend. Can Get Quite Messy. The Result is Not Really Natural. Quartz Peach Can Look Ashy On Some People.

Verdict: Topaz Rose 4 out of 10; Quartz Peach 7.5 out of 10. Won't buy again.

Maybelline, you let me down once again after 9 years.

And here's the FOTD:

What I used for this look:

Foundation: A mix of Catrice Mineral Foundation #010 Natural Beige and Silk Natural White Base in Medium Coverage.

Cheek: Maybelline Mineral Blush #40 Quartz Peach (I applied a bit more than usual so you can see the colour better).

Eyes: Silk Naturals "Sapphire"

Lips: Pout "Please Me"

Pout (1)

2010-03-20T14:16:00.000+01:00

(In memory of loving Pout)

Pout is a legend in cosmetics world.

Pout is discontinued.

How very sad...! :-(

·•°•·ο·•°•·ο·•°•·ο·•°•·ο·•°•·ο·•°•·ο·•°•·ο·•°•·ο·•°•·ο·•°•·ο·•°•·ο·•°•·ο·•

I got to know the brand in early 2008, Pout was already discontinued by then but you could still find their products on eBay and online shopping sites (as long as they sell high-end cosmetics, such as www.amazon.co.uk, www.thecosmeticshouse.com etc.) at a reasonable price, but as it was getting more and more difficult to get hold of, the price was rising too, but it didn't stop Pout fans from spending their hard earned money on their favourite cult band, and it's exactly they that made Pout a legend.

And when I found this fantastic brand, it was almost too late. It took me quite some time to discover and find out their stellar products and meanwhile Pout was disappearing quickly on the world wide web. I managed to get their Radiant Foundation (in a beautifully decorated glass bottle with lacy pattern), Vanilla Cream Foundation (in a beautifully decorated plastic bottle with lacy pattern), Blossom Belle blush (in a sleek chic turquoise compact, the original size is even bigger than a regular compact face powder, 12g), Cherie Tarte blush (5g), Loose Powder (17g), Moisturizer in Organza (40g), Wild Berry blush cream stick (7.5g, it lasts forever), Compact Face Powder (8.5g). I used to have more of their products but I swapped them away on MUA. The only two things on my wishlist right now, though I know I'll probably never have the chance to find them, are Coral Diva blusher and the legend Apricot Totty blusher (though I don't think it'll perform as well as Blossom Belle).

The signature of Pout is their lacy pattern which is utterly feminine and sexy. They had a large choice when it comes to cosmetics. Their most famous products are LipPlump Lipgloss, Radiant Foundation and blushers (in powder form or cream form). I'll try to write reviews of all their products that I have. This time is for blushers.

Pout Wild Berries Cream Blush: Girls prefer powder blushes cause they're easy to blend, but this one, as a cream blush, is easy to blend too.

Presented in an oh-so-beautiful sleek and chic turquoise metal tube decorated with fishnet.

Don't be put off by the dark red, once blended, it's not dark at all, suitable for almost all girls with different skintones and skin types, but suits dry skinned girls the best. 8,5 out of 10.

Pout Blossom Belle Powder Blush:

A highly sought after shade! It gets a higher rating than the legendary Apricot Totty on MUA. A very beautiful tangerine shade with lots of shimmer, ok, I'm not into shimmer but I do love Blossom Belle. The powder is extremely fine (but I have to say, not all Pout blushers have such fine texture) and doesn't accentuate your pores or pimples, nor does it cause breakouts, long lasting too, and the pan is very generous, 12g, bigger than most of the compact face powder. A solid 10 out of 10.

Pout Cherie Tarte Powder Blush:

This one is less known, cause it's not a blush for everyone. But still, if you have the right skintone for it, then it's a hit. How it performs also largely depends on your makeup style of course. In my humble opinion you need a low profile eyeshadow for it, less shimmer or sparkling cause the blush itself is already an eyeball catcher.

It's hard to describe the shade, a bit plum maybe? Definitely on the cool side. I give it 9 out of 10.

What do you think of them? Let Fan know! :-D

3 Catrice Absolute Moisture lipsticks

2010-03-09T14:07:00.000+01:00

There's only one word to explain why I haven't updated my blog so long: laziness... And also, I've almost done no purchase, cosmetics-wise. Sorry dear readers. But now I'm back and I'll try to update my blog on a regular basis. :-)

This is a long delayed post...!

I've bought the 3 lipsticks in October and didn't even test them cause I wanted to use my current two Catrice lipsticks up before starting exploring them. But seems I have to wait for quite some times before I can actually test them, and since I have time today, so why not now?

I've talked about their lipsticks before and I was so much impressed by the very fine texture and they were not sticky at all, nor would they dry your lips (though I do recommend a good lipbalm prior applying them).

And these 3 are no exceptions. Very silky texture gently glides on your lips creating a velvety finish without sparkles or glitter but looks very moisturizing (hence the name), and the colours are very wearable (Izar said so, too! :-D She reviewed Dark Rosewood and Spicy Coral. Here is the link to her post entry).

The first image below presents the actual colours very well. Soft Coral seems ultra light with soft orange sheen, it suits girls with yellow undertone the best; Spicy Coral is a lovely bubblegum pink; Dark Rosewood is perfect for cold winter and suits fair skinned girls well.

(from left to right: Soft Coral, Spicy Coral, Dark Rosewood)

Soft Coral looks very light in the tube but still it shows up on my lips. Since it's very light, so you can get away with a very heavy smoky-eye look.

(with flash)

(without flash)

Spicy Coral is a very lovely "strawberry milk" pink. I look younger when wearing it. :-P

(with flash)

(without flash)

I think I like Dark Rosewood the best out of the 3, I like this kind of red, it's not too flashy. It suits fair skinned girls with very clean makeup look (light eye makeup, no blush) the best, it also has a purple undertone in it.

(with flash)

(without flash)

Gifts for 2009 Xmas

2010-01-14T23:37:00.002+01:00

Finally I have some time to write a post again! This week I got rotten working hours and didn't have much time at home, until now... :-)

So this post entry is for the gifts I got for 2009 Xmas, not many though, but all of them are stunning and lovely. I love and cherish each of them...! Really really... On 25th December I got a gift card of Kruidvat from Anna, she's been so thoughtful, knowing that I'm a regular customer of Kruidvat. :-P Indeed, even though I need nothing from them, I would just have a quick look in their shops to see if they have promotions on my favourite brands, or if I can find something new there (the one at Meir has surprised me a lot of times! They have some cool brands (I'm talking about cosmetics and skincare products of course :-P) that are not available in other branches). I guess I'll use the gift card on Catrice when they have promotion again.

And a wonderful Philips mp3 player from Joeri received at New Year's Eve! :-D He's absolutely caring, knowing that I love music (without music I'll die, literally) and that my previous mp3 player is broken. I had absolutely no idea what was in the box (badly gift-wrapped by Joeri by the way :-P), and when I opened the box, I guess my heart did beat a bit faster...! It was exactly what I wanted for a long time and after I've tried it out I found the quality is simply great...! It's amazing that Joeri always knows exactly what I'm longing and never disappoints me...! Truly a soul mate...!

And last but not least, some Alverde products and a necklace (very antique-like and elegant) from Izar...! :-D

So they're Alverde Pflegedusche Vanilleblüte Mandarine, Wildrose Reinigunsmilch, Wildrose Gesichtswasser and Macadamianuss Karitébutter körperbutter.

I love the Gesichtswasser the best, the smell is pure rose, not artificial, not irritating, it does linger on your face for awhile which is pleasant for me. It keeps my face moisturized very well. And then there comes the Cleansing Milk, it's said to be good for dry skin, well my skin is oily but I have no problems using it, the cleansing is mild and doesn't irritate my skin and is perfect for winter, but maybe in summer I might want to use something stronger to get rid of the oil on my face. The body butter is also quite good, non greasy, easy to blend (much better than NIVEA Blue Tin at this point) and perfect for everyday use, mine is almost up, I'll ask Joeri to buy me a big one when he's in Germany again.

Only the shower gel disappointed me slightly, cause it doesn't lather much, and I don't see a difference after I've used it, I'll stick to my Dove shower gel. :-P

(from left to right: Alverde Pflegedusche Vanilleblüte Mandarine, Wildrose Reinigunsmilch, Wildrose Gesichtswasser and Macadamianuss Karitébutter körperbutter)

And, why don't you have a look at our gorgeous Christmas tree? :-P

(Sorry, this one is not very sharp, but it looks warm and mysterious nonetheless, the curtain at the background only makes it more atmospheric)

HEMA Wet & Dry Blush

2010-01-02T15:39:00.002+01:00

Hello? Hello? Is there any Bourjois blushes lover out there? I'm sure there is...! :-) I can already count in Izar...! :-D

I used to drool over their blushes too, so many colours to choose from and package is lovely too, but the price is simply too steep, if calculated by gram, it's actually more expensive than MAC blushes (not that I'm a fan of MAC, on the contrary, I've never liked that brand, and I'll never do, strange hé?) considering Bourjois is no more than a drug store brand, moreover, many girls reported that after a while the surface will get literally as hard as a stone and any brush will fail to get some powder off it, not even mention the weight is already on the very low side (2.5g) so I doubt if it's really worth the money (OK, they're not expensive in the UK and the USA, but in Belgium, you can forget about buying it) although I do have to admit it's indeed beautiful.

So, fair maidens, if you're planning on buying Bourjois blushes but are scared by the price, I'll introduce a cheap alternative for you, yet the quality is maybe even better than that of Bourjois:

HEMA Wet & Dry Blush...! :-D

I've been told that cosmetics from HEMA is rotten so I didn't care to try it. But 3 weeks ago, when I was in HEMA, I glanced at the cosmetics shelf, and I saw something shiny, I had a closer look, it's a beautiful and unique blush. I tried all the colours and finally picked the one I liked the most and bought it. And ever since then, I've been using it daily. :-D

There're 4 colours available, one of them is highlighter which I don't need, and another one is a golden brown bronzer (which I don't need either) and can also be used as a blusher for dark skinned girls. So there're only 2 shades for me to choose from, as well as for most fair skinned girls (my skin is actually not that fair), one of them is a lovely bright pink, the other is a very unique salmon/berry red with pink undertone and it's the one I bought (shade #2). Oh I should have bought the pink one too! Damn!

It's dome shaped and has mysterious veins. If not for the packaging, then it looks exactly like a Bourjois blush...! It's, as I said, a unique salmon/berry red/pink depending on the light which is similar to one of the MAC Skin Mineralize blushes. I guess it's probably either a mineral blush or a baked blush, though it's nowhere mentioned on the packaging. But if it's a baked blush, like Bourjois', then I would worry if the surface hardens after a while of use but I've been using it daily for 3 weeks and so far it doesn't appear so. :-)

Once I've tried it on my face, I couldn't stop admiring it...! Simply perfect...! Normally I only use matte blushes cause most of the blushes with sheen will enlarge my pores and pimples, but not this one...! It feels very light and easy to blend, and the pigmentation is very good. If you use a regular blush brush, one layer should already be enough, if you're a bit heavy handed or a newbie to blush, use a skunk brush and 2 or 3 layers would satisfy you, depending on the effect and intensity you want. :-) It's pretty long lasting, at least 6 hours for sure and has no strange smell, which is a plus for me.

It's a "Wet & Dry" blush but I don't think I'll ever use it wet. I don't recommend using it wet to anyone, unless if you want a clown effect. :-D

(The colour on this photo is a bit dark due to the lack of the natural light, sorry)

Doesn't it bewitch you...? :-P Such a beautiful salmon pink/red...!

It says (at least in Dutch): Also to use with a dry sponge (what!? Sponge?) for a matte effect or use it wet for a glossy (?) effect.

What it is: HEMA Wet & Dry Blush #2

Price: €5.5o exclusively by HEMA 7g.

PROs: Beautiful colour. Intensity. Cheap. Long lasting. Won't enlarge pores. Easy to blend. Can be used with both a regular blush brush (light hand...!) or a skunk brush. No obvious smell.

CONs: None...! :-D Or wait! They don't have an ingredient list, not on the product itself, nor on their website, which slightly annoys me. :-P

Verdict: 10 out of 10. Will definitely buy again...! :-D

Finally, a swatch on my hand, and remember it's only one layer. The colour is simply amazing and very intense too, with a beautiful pearly iridescent sheen. Love it. :-)

Kawasaki Rose...! :-)

2010-01-02T00:07:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year everyone...! :-D

I've recently got an interest in Origami and 1 month ago I learnt how to make Kawasaki Rose.

(I don't own copyrights for these photos...! I do own the interpretation though. A big Thank You to the one who originally published these photos online)

1. A Square paper.

2. Fold and unfold as shown below:

3. Fold and unfold as shown, now you get 64 blocks.

4. Diagonal fold

5. The other side, too:

6. Fold it as shown, a diagonal fold of 4 blocks.

7. Another diagonal fold:

8. Fold it at the red line, make it two sides (front and back):

9. Open it and fold another diagonal side:

10. The result is as shown:

11. Fold it diagonally, and then another time:

12. Now it's diamond shaped:

13. Fold it at the red line shown, and then to the other side (front and back):

14. As shown:

15. Open it:

16. Do you see the red square in the centre? It's very important:

17. Now push the centre square downwards and fold the two horizontal sides down:

18. Like this:

19. Fold the two sides as shown:

20. Like this:

21. Fold it backwards:

22. Alongside the line from above, fold it downwards:

23. Like the red lines shown:

24. And the other side too:

25. Voilà, a windmill:

26. It's exactly half of the length from each upper flat side to the centre square, better make it a mark with pencil and it won't affect the result at all:

27. Alongside the red line, push it downwards:

28. The down-right corner is done:

29. Now do you get it?

30. As shown:

31. The same with the other three corners, now it looks exactly like a windmill:

32. And back side is like this:

33. Fold the red line downwards:

34. As shown:

35. Alongside the red line, fold it upwards:

36. As shown:

37. Fold it to the other side as shown:

38. Overlap the left-down corner to the folding we've just made:

39. As shown, all 4 corners:

40. Fold it alongside the red line

41. Fold the point behind another, do the same with the rest 3:

42. This is a tricky and troublesome step: While the rose is in the palm of your left hand, keep pushing it gently to the centre (inwards) so that the form won't collapse, and use your right hand fold all three "pedals":

43. So the upper side looks like this:

44. Push the four pedals gently downwards:

45. Each overlap another:

46. As shown:

47. The last one under the first one:

48. Voilà:

49. The upper side as shown:

50. Gently take the 4 pedals out, so that it appears like a real rose:

51. Like this:

52. Press the pedals gently downwards:

53. Voilà...!

If you can't follow the instructions or the photos (sorry for my interpretation, due to my bad English), here're links to how-to-make-Kawasaki Rose videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLubZ94jy1E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jwtSYPbvSU

Have fun...! :-D

(How about more challenge? Try this one, the result is here)

And then, finally some roses made by myself, for my friend Dawn's birthday, as well as for everyone who enjoy reading my blog...! :-D

DAZE

2009-12-10T19:08:00.002+01:00

It's been a damn decade and I still don't know her name...

I first heard of DAZE back in 10 years ago, precisely in 1999. I went to my favourite CD "shop" (it was very very tiny weeny, with a few hundred cassettes and Cd's. The shop owner is a damn good friend of my damn good cousin's so he's my friend too, though I can't say he's a "good friend", it's only because... because I didn't really visit him as often as he would like to, and by doing this, I disappointed him a lot. He didn't treat me as an ordinary customer but more like a sibling brother) on a casual weekend and bought a few cassettes (mind you, CDs were quite rare in China yet...) and the friendly shop owner gave me a cassette of DAZE as a gift, hence how I got to know them.

DAZE, a Euro Dance brand from Denmark, that type of brand that you often hear on EuroSong festival, though I didn't know how to categorize them back then, cause it's so different from Enya, Death Metal and classics, from all the genres that I knew of. And it's so cheery.

The cassette I got of them is Superhero. The cover was flashy enough: The lead vocal, a sexy attractive assertive young woman dressed in stark red Chinese cheongsam, with dyed stark blue hair, each single hair pointing to a different direction, how fancy...! And her companions, a bald guy with a sick smile, and an attractive black haired guy posing like a dark wizard, two rays of laser lights from his two hands.

Haha...!

There're 10 songs in total, each has a strong character, and the rhythms, oh my god oh my lord they sounded so fresh and new to my ears and I thought I was in love... There's no lyric insert so I had no idea what they're singing about, could be anything, of course, I even tried hard to figure it out as an English listening exercise, didn't work. I loved it so much that I listened to it everyday over and over again for a good 2 years, even more so than my beloved Enya. I lent the cassette to my friends and they loved it too and made copies of it. :-D

Glad to hear that my taste to music was appreciated. :-)

How happy I was, if only for discovering this lovely brand, back in ten years ago, a decade...

Back to a few weeks ago in the very chilly winter of 2009, I accidently found it on youtube, with official videos and lyrics. I recognized the familiar rhythms immediately...! Their videos are so fancy, only a pity that the vocal looks much older (time flies! Especially for beautiful women...!), but her style didn't change a single bit, I see the stark blue hair again with exaggerated facial expression, what a relief. Wat een opluchting hoor!

And for the first time, I got to understand their lyrics... Once again the word:"Fancy"...! It's both fun and imaginative, though others might think they're just some meaningless blablabla, but to me, it's much more than that, it brings me directly back to ten years ago when I was a young and fresh high school student who was considered to be a bit weird by her classmates. Even if not for this, DAZE is simply a cool brand hands down.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

I always wonder what her name is, must be very unique and exotic to me cause she's from a country that's almost unknown to me, and she's that lovely and sexy, she surely deserves it...

:-)

(The End)

Twilight Saga

2009-12-03T21:50:00.001+01:00

Seems every teenage girl is absolutely buzzing about the Twilight Saga New Moon.

I've watched Twilight last year on the premier day in Belgium with a friend who is a huge vampire related stories fan, I liked the movie back then, but now no more, thinking it's just a third class love story with super exciting computer effects (and some girls don't even like the computer effects), but at least, it's a sensation.

This year I don't bother to spend €9 on a movie ticket cause First, I'm financially tight. Second, I don't like love story in general, not to mention the storyline is poor and way too exaggerated.

But here the topic is not about the movie but the sensation it made and one of the related industries ---- Cosmetics.

I wouldn't think Twilight Saga has something to do with cosmetics, but somebody did and BAF! There's a makeup line...!

http://twilightbeauty.com/

Had a quick glance and got disappointed though I haven't even tried any of their product so far. The price is higher than that of MAC and they only have a very small range of products. They don't even have a foundation...!!! Very unprofessional...!

Needless to say, I don't wanna buy anything from them, they only have a web shop that only ships within USA.

P.S. Essence released their Limited Edition for November and it's another proof that Twilight has made a huge and successful sensation.

Guerlain Météorites #3 Beige Chic

2009-12-01T18:00:00.001+01:00

A very expensive and luxurious face powder, I shall say, as an opening line.

I already own it for a while and used it a few times. I have to say, I'm rather disappointed in it... -_-

Normally I'm a low-end girl in relation to cosmetics and would never buy something so expensive... But sometimes we adore the vintage packaging, or the special smell that arises our memories from our childhood, or just the brand name, or our hormone works in a weird way, or... nothing, cause we just feel like buying something expensive and expect miracles. Well, I bought it cause I happened to have a gift card from my boyfriend as a birthday gift and I wanted to buy something special with it, to "treat myself", so after a long and tiresome research, I finally settled up with this one.

Guerlain Météorites #3 Beige Chic, 33g, RRP €47.6

Many Guerlain starters would choose #1 but I've already had it and didn't have pleasant experience with it, and initially I didn't want to buy this #3 either, but due to the good reviews on MUA I decided to give it a try... (sigh...) A very big mistake...!

It's in a very beautiful and stunning box, inspired by Marie Antoinette (by the way, she was not French but Austrian)'s jewelery box, truly vintage and elegant...!

The balls are of different sizes and colours: white pearl, yellow, light pink, beige and light brown. Impressive.

I still remember how I opened the box at home with trembling fingers, and how I sniffed at the familiar violet fragrance, so much for my excited heart and senses, yet the delight disappeared as soon as I tried it on my face...

It formed a fine cast on my face, almost translucent and with fine shimmer (I want a matte face powder, not a shimmery one!), I had the feeling that it did nothing except for brightening up my face a little bit, if I think it did much more than that, then it must have been self-suggestion. How sad.

Now I'm stuck here, I don't know what to do with it, I can't simply throw it away, I can't give it away as a gift (it being second hand), I don't wanna use it anymore... I might just put it on the dressing table, letting it remind me how stupid I was to buy something as a "blood rush to head". I'll be more careful with cosmetics and avoid of buying something for the name which I usually regret later. :-(

PROs: Beautiful box.

CONs: Very expensive. Heavily scented. Doesn't control oil.

Verdict: 3 out of 10, won't buy again.

A Bit Of Everything

2009-11-17T18:58:00.005+01:00

1. Vaseline works actually no less than any lipbalm, if not better, it's sheer and moisturizing, and super cheap too, but not easy to apply cause it doesn't include any applicator so you have to use your finger which is not hygienic. So I still have to stick to my Labello Repair. :-P

2. Lovelace is actually a wonderful blush! I tried it only with skunk brush and it seems not very pigmented but today I tried it again with a regular blush brush and the result is amazing...! Love it! :-D

3. I always thought my skintone was warm, but today, an expert told me, that I'm actually cool toned. O_o

4. Yesterday evening, I wrote the very first poem ever in my life, inspired by Linneke who always encourages me to write something (oh and I still must finish my Reine for her!), and it's in Dutch! Ok, it's a very simple poem, cause people told me poems don't have to be complicated and, basically, even a ten-year-old can write a poem (though I doubt it would be in gibberish! Hahaha!).

The most famous Belgian poet would probably be Paul van Ostaijen, he died young at age 32. He wrote a very bizarre poem that I totally don't understand.

I followed the format of "Ruitgedicht": with a total line of 9 and total words of 25. My poem probably sounds gibberish too, but I'm still proud of it. Below is my poem:

heb gelopen

door het bos

waar ik je zocht

maar ik had geen idee

waar je zou zijn

moe was ik

slaap gevallen

stillte...

Chicane - Already There

2009-11-06T21:36:00.000+01:00

My sincere apologies to Chicane, for torturing his masterpiece Already There, it's not my intention though. I simply love it so much that I have to remake it, though it's a total failure, cause it sounds so pale and lost the "forest fog" atmosphere, but it's not completely my fault, I can't find the right instruments to weave the magical atmosphere... -_-

I only re-made the first half of Already There which is the part I love the most from the original version. A chilly cold, melancholious piece.

The general work took me only 1 afternoon, what's difficult was the re-arranging and finishing work, cause the rhythm beat is difficult to get it exactly the same as it is in the original.

Because it's in MIDI format so the quality is not stable, which means, the output quality depends on your hardware therefore it might vary from computer to computer. -_-

Click here for the original version.

Click here for my version.

Silk Naturals Eyeshadows & Blushes review

2009-11-02T16:50:00.001+01:00

Eyeshadows: Since they had a "Gift With Purchase over $30" action and because my order was above $30 so I chose "Storm Cloud" as the free gift, and surprisingly got two extra's from them: Sapphire and Cyprus Sand. Sapphire was the colour that I wanted but eventually chose Storm Cloud, whereas Cyprus Sand is not in their shop at all so I was lucky, and the jar is also a bit smaller. :-P The regular size is around 2g in a 5g jar with sifter. $4. A very big advantage about them is, they don't create a mess when being applied.

Cyprus Sand: is pale gray with fine shimmer and a hint of khaki. I'm not an eyeshadow maniac and I only wear "classic" and "neutral" colours so I'm not sure I would reach it that often, nonetheless I'm very grateful to Silk Naturals. :-)

Storm Cloud: is metallic gray with pale blue undertone (due to the reflection you can only see the blue undertone though), it's a very beautiful colour and versatile too. I guess I'll try to create a "Smokey Look" with it (I actually have never tried Smokey Look nor any other looks yet, I only use one eye colour each time so it's an challenging for me to combine the two colours, it shouldn't be that difficult though).

Sapphire: Very pretty! SN describes it as navy blue which I agree. It's a rich dark midnight blue with shimmer, under certain light you can also detect the beautiful purple sheen. You can create tons of possibility with it, use it wet or dry, wear it along or with other colours, the choice is in the palm of your hand. :-D

Blushes: SN blushes are around 3.5g in a 10g jar, enough to last 2-3 months. The prices vary from $6.5 to $6.75, very reasonable. Like many mineral makeup companies, they categorize their blushes with skintones (cool, warm), finish (shimmer, matte) and textures (powder, cream). Two things they have in common: 1st, they all apply like a dream. 2nd, most of them have sort of an "in between" shade, or appear another colour under reflection (for instance, Nuance looks differently on the two photos, and I think the last one represents Nuance better)...! Compare my swatches with the official ones, you'll be surprised...!

Apple: is shimmery pink (on the dark side) with just a hint of plum tone (in the photo you only see red, but it really IS a pink blush), since almost all the blushes in loose powder form are very pigmented so Apple might suit darker skinned girls, which means I must be very careful not to overdo it.

Climax: SN claims that it's a clone of NARS Orgasm blush. I've never used Orgasm (nor am I going to get it) so I can't compare the two. Climax is a lovely light pale pink with shimmer (in the picture it looks matte though). It will suit cool toned girls better than warm toned.

Embrace: it looks like EDM Plum Dust, though Embrace is lighter. It's matte. I'm not sure if I'll like it, cause it looks too dark and is absolutely not my natural flush colour...! But again, one can never know how it performs before one tries it out oneself, so I still have hope for it, because for the shades I tried so far, I like all of them...! :-D

Foxxy: I almost don't see any difference between Foxxy and Climax, except, maybe, that Climax is on the pink side whereas Foxxy has a hint of plum, it looks very metallic and transparent and crystal-like. I haven't tried it yet on my cheeks and am not sure it'll show up.

Lovelace: A clone of apparently overrated NARS Deep Throat (vulgar name...!). I had NARS Deep Throat and swapped it away, it was okay but nothing special. I was just curious to see how this Lovelace would perform on my cheeks. It gives me a very youthful look, as if I were 5 years younger. ^_^

Nuance: Seeing it for the first time at swatch online, I thought it's a clone of Pout Blossom Belle (a rightly rated and highly sought-after tangerine shade with plenty of shimmer, very unique and flattering on almost all skintone, especially warm skintones. I'm honored to have this shade...!), at least it appears so on the official swatch, hence why I bought it, but when I look at it in the jar, it doesn't look like Blossom Belle, cause it's not that tangerine shade but light pink, but the magical thing is, when applied lightly on my cheeks, it's half pink half tangerine depending on the light, very very pretty. It absolutely deserves 5 stars! I'll definitely buy it again...! It's also the one I love the best among the 7 blushes.

Stardust: in the jar it's a bright cotton candy pink, very girly, with shimmer, but that's very deceptive. It's just as unpredictable as its name: it actually isn't that girly, it's a cold pink (reminds me of MAC's Dame). I always imagine it would suit well on a young noble girl wandering in the garden, with beautiful dress and that cold stare of her blue eyes, with just a hint of Stardust on her pale cheeks (suits cool toned girls better than warm toned ones, so in another word, it won't suit me but I just had to buy it cause it's stunning!). Dazzling! :-P

And last but not least, a photo of all these blushes as a "Perfect Ending" of this post entry. :-D One word of advise though: if you're interested in a certain shade, don't trust the swatches too much, simply read reviews and buy it...! :-D

Voilà, what do you think of them? Let Fan know! :-D

Silk Naturals Haul

2009-10-30T20:28:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I got my first order from Silk Naturals and it was a big one, containing 2 foundation kits, 7 blushers and 3 eyeshadows (two of which are extras from SN company, so they're for free! YAY!). Sorry Izar, no lippies, cause I already decided to collect (almost) all their blushers and lippies, so this order is for blushers and next time will be for lippies. ^_^

So far I only tried the foundation (I finally managed to mix my foundation and it took me 1 hour...!), which is very good (maybe I should use it at least for a week to write an objective review but I can't wait...!). Later I'll write reviews about their blushers and eyeshadows, and today is for foundation.

I bought twice the kit Medium Coverage with Ebony as darker shade, not knowing if it would be suitable to my skintone, but I thought it should be ok, I normally always go for the very light shades with whichever brands cause most of the mineral foundations tend to oxidants on me, don't know why. -_- And SN foundation doesn't make an exception so I mixed an extra amount of white base in it. I didn't bother to remember how many scoops white base and darker shade, I just follow my intuition and it normally works.

The kit contains a bag of white Ivory base (1 table spoon), a bag of Ebony powder (1 table spoon), a tiny measuring scoop, an empty jar with sifter, a sample of Perfecting Powder and an instruction of how to's, tips, tricks etc.

COVERAGE: nice, but not perfect, it covers actually not so well as EDM Intensive formula (maybe I should get the Heavy Coverage kit), but it's also less chalky too. :-) It doesn't feel like "silk" on my skin at all as SN claims, simply a mineral foundation and I used the Perfecting powder in order to control oil but seems it didn't help much, at least I noticed no difference. :-S

FINISH: Matte finish with almost non detective shimmer. No dry patches or flakes (primer and/or moisturizer is needed). YAY!

ALLERGY/IRRITATION: None.

PRICE: $11.95 Very affordable.

Verdict: 9 out of 10, will definitely buy again! I might place an order around Christmas, hopefully they'll have promotion by then. :-P

These little blushers are absolutely impressive...! Swatches will be for next time. :-P

The same as blushers, these eyeshadows are for next time. :-P

PS By the way, I got my order in 6 days (weekend included) all the way from USA to Belgium which is amazing...! And what makes me happier is that the Belgian Custom House didn't open it and ask for a tax. :-P

A Lovely Surprise From Hungary...! :-)

2009-10-29T22:25:00.003+01:00

A while ago Izar and I were discussing Catrice lipsticks and I offered her two lippies of her choice, and in return I got something very nice from her too, a touch of Budapest and Silk Naturals samples that I've wanted to try, and lots more...! :-)

Aren't they amazing!? I was totally stunned...! I had a good time oohing and aahing (as Izar would say :-P) and having been looking at them with great admiration for quite some time. ^O^

I initially asked a few postcards of Budapest from her, cause I simply like Hungary (I have a special passion for cold countries such as Scandinavia and East Europe, which, namely, are Hungary and Poland). After a quick glance at the postcards, I already picked up the places that I definitely must visit if I ever have the chance to visit this dream country: The Opera House, Fisher's Bastion, Margaret Island and a shop called Philanthia...! Along with the postcards, Izar also sent me a booklet about Budapest in English (thank God). It's such an eye-opener and I can't wait to visit it...!

The SN samples are amazing...! It comes with a white base Ivory (Heavy Formula) and 4 different darker shades to suit different skintones, plus a blusher called Galaxy, they're presented in a lovely (jiffy?) bag.

When mixing the foundation (I chose Ebony which is the lightest among the dark shades), I made a typical starter's mistake: I put all the white base to all the Ebony and the foundation is too dark, and since I don't have more white base to be added, I am kinda stuck here. :-P But still I've tried a little on the back of my hand and seems the coverage is pretty good. My SN order already arrived so I can start my experienment at any time. :-P

But I don't like the blush Galaxy very much to be very honest, cause it's insanely pigmented and can't be toned down by loose powder (the Manhattan loose powder normally does a good job at toning down pigmented blushers but it failed at Galaxy) and the colour is simply too red and way too shimmery (I don't like shimmery stuff, well, a little bit is okay but it can't be too much cause it mostly accentuates my pimples...! -_-). :-S Thank God I didn't order this blush along with my order (I bought 7 blushers from them, enough to last me 2 years...!!!). :-P

And here comes the EDM blusher Theme Park and a sample of Montale "Crystal Flowers". Theme Park is also very bling bling, not so much as Galaxy though, but still, it almost reaches my limit. :-P

But the biggest surprises were her hand written letter and a butterfly she made especially for me...! ^_^ It seems to me she's specialized at making jewelery. I'll hang this lovely butterfly on my Kipling bag "Joanne" ^_^

Voilà, these are the gifts I got from lovely and sweet Izar. ^_^

By the end of the post, I'd love to thank her again, for her thoughtful surprises, for bringing me a touch of Budapest, for giving me the chance of exploring a cosmetics brand that I've been wanting to try, for a hint of luxury - the perfume, for the very personal and warm token of our friendship - the handmade butterfly. Izar, you know who you are...! :-) *hugs*

Hiding All The Stars

2009-10-25T15:22:00.002+01:00

Chicane's latest single Hiding All The Stars is officially released on iTunes...! YAY! :-D

Well, it's not yet available on iTunes Belgium so currently I can't download it, but I've been listening to it over and over again and I wanna write something, to express my happiness.

After his milestone album "Behind The Sun" has released in 2000, he seldom made "Ibiza Style" trance any more, much to Chicane Fan's disappointment. -_- But Chicane never lets us down! He's experimenting various possibilities and I mostly love them too! Though I have the feeling that they're more commercial than his old albums... :-S

Anyway, we're talking about his new single Hiding All The Stars and this is a wonderful song! The vocal (I was told that the song is written for a certain female boxer and she seems to be the singer of this song too) sounds clean and innocent. The rhyme is fluent, very refreshing. Maybe it's difficult for some Chicane fans's to accept non-trance from him but I absolutely support every turn he makes...! :-D

Interested?

www.chicanemusic.com (upon opening the link, the song will be played automatically)

Oh and there's another single that I must mention:"House Arrest". It sounds very dancy, that kind of songs that typically is played in disco... At first I didn't like it at all cause I expected a trancy song. But after listening to it for a few times, I realized that this song is actually very charming, there's only one word to describe it: sexy. It doesn't sound like a typical Chicane style song and after further search I learnt that it's a remix version of a very popular dance hit back in the late '80 and I think Chicane's version is more appealing than the original one. :-P

P.S. Izar introduced a soothing song to me: OST from the movie "The Fountain": "Together We Will Live Forever". I'm going to make another version out of it, with another instrument which gives another feeling... ^_^

Lush “New” Shampoo & Essence Pocket Beauty Brush

2009-10-24T16:36:00.001+02:00

I bought them back in 2 weeks ago and have been using them since then. Time for a review.

Lush "New" Shampoo Bar:

I think I've lost half of my hair ever since I came to Belgium, it must have something to do with my food and stress (yes stress!). At first I didn't take it seriously but recently I realized that if I didn't take action then I would be bald before I get 30...!

The first potential solution would be taking vitamins, but I was told people are easy to get addicted to it, this idea left me cold, so I thought maybe I should search a new shampoo, though I know it can't solve problems from the root but now I just wanna keep my hair hanging there a bit longer in the mean time I have time to search other solutions. :-P

One day, while shopping with my friend, I saw the shop Lush, I've never been to Lush before cause I'm not someone who is willing to change her skincare products every now and then, though I've heard of this brand before, of course, cause it's frequently discussed on MUA.

Belgium welcomed the first Lush shop since only the end of 2007 and Belgians are usually conservative and are not willing to try new things.

I told the shop assistant my hair loss problem and she immediately recommended shampoo bar "New". I've never tried any shampoo bar before cause I was a bit skeptical cause there might not be enough lather, or it might dry my scalp, or might cause irritation etc.

But I wanted to give it a try, cause I was kinda desperate and my hair was in its worst condition, so even if this shampoo bar would cause irritation, it's actually no big deal, so off I bought it, it cost 8.3 euro. I was told I could use it for 80 times, equivalent to 3 bottles of 250ml shampoo...! :-O

I was stunned.

I've been using it twice per week for 2 weeks only and I noticed the change already, and the biggest benefit is actually not preventing from hair falling (though it helps at that point too) but making my hair super soft and smooth, and it holds oil longer at bay (my hair is super oil) for at least 3 days and no shampoo could ever achieve that. What a miracle...! It doesn't dry out or irritate my scalp at all, and it produces tons of lather, easy to use indeed, all my worries are for nothing! :-D And the very strong cinnamon scent helps me to relax, but if you don't like cinnamon scent, stay away. :-P

All in all, excellent product at a reasonable price. 9 out of 10!

I'm going to buy another Lush shampoo bar to give my hair the extra shine and I'm curious what the shop assistant would recommend me this time.

(Doesn't it look like rice cracker? :-P)

Essence Pocket Beauty Brush:

I wanted a small powder brush that can fit my makeup bag so that I can carry it everywhere and touch up anytime but most brushes available on the market are simply too big, I was so upset until I found this baby and bought it without hesitation. €3.05

It's very small and cute, it measures (when cap closed) only9.5cm from head to toe and fits in any makeup bag. The bristles measure around 3.5cm.

The highlight is, it has a very clever system: it's a retractable brush (see photos below)! You can twist the bristles in when it's not in use and it's protected from dirt. How convenient! :-D

Is it perfect? No. I find the bristles actually a bit stiff but still, I would continue using it and I'm grateful that Essence has such a considerate brush. :-)

PS I've just placed a big order by Silk Naturals and am waiting impatiently for it to arrive...! :-D

•°ºοº°•°ºοº°•°ºοº°•°ºοº°•°ºοº°•°ºοº°•°ºοº°•°ºοº°•°ºοº°•°ºοº°•

FOTD:

Foundation: A mix of EDM "Perfect" in Intensive and Essence Mineral Makeup #2
Blush: Catrice mineral blusher "Wild Rose"
Eyeshadow: Essence September LE "Coffee Cream"
Lipgloss: Pout "Squeeze My Melons"

Unpigmented blushers...

2009-10-18T12:31:00.000+02:00

I'm a blush collector and have many blushes, but some of them are not pigmented enough to show up on my face which is frustrating, but recently I found a new way to apply those unpigmented blushers. :-D

What did I do? I ground them into fine powder...!!! Sounds really crazy but it really works! But how did I discovered this idea?

Still remember my Laura Geller blush Roseberry? I ordered it off eBay and when it arrived it was partly broken, so I gathered the broken parts and ground them into very fine powder and found the colour a bit too pigmented, even with a skunk brush and a light hand, it's not easy to control how much you apply on your cheeks so I didn't use it very often. But a few days ago I tried the blush on the pan and it's not that pigmented than the powder form, it gives just the right amount powder and the chance of overdo reduces dramatically, and I thought, hey, why not do the same with those unpigmented blushers? At first I was not sure if it would work so I tried to dig out a little product from Alverde blush Apricot and ground it into powder, and to my surprise, it really did work, so I immediately ground the whole blush into powder and voilà, a newborn, or rather reborn blush, and the colour seems to be prettier than before, it changed from brick red to light peachy orange...! Magic! :-D

Manhattan Mineral Loose Powder

2009-10-11T18:10:00.001+02:00

I've passed Manhattan's counter thousand times in Kruidvat, but it didn't really draw my attention until last Friday, I suddenly remember I came across some reviews (www.ciao.de) of their loose powder a while ago and they were mostly positive, so I thought maybe I should give it a try, though I already have way too much powder.

I've never tried any of their product before.

It's called Minerals Pure Mat Loose Powder and has two shades, one is slight pink (#3) and the other is beige(#2). I bought it in #2, which is a very slight beige, almost ivory colour powder. 15g. The slight pink one looks beautiful too, pale skinned girls can even use it as a blush I think. I don't know yet how I should use it but I want to try it too...! ^_^

Ok, back to the powder I bought. It's in a lovely round plastic container with a black lid. There's something on the ingredient list that caught my eyes: Sapphire Powder. It's said that it protects the skin and is suitable for all skin types

So far, I've only used Pout Loose Powder and Guerlain Météorites in #3. I can only compare the Manhattan one with Pout one, cause the one from Guerlain is in a different form and different colours, though all of them are loose powder.

The Pout one is 17g, the RRP was around £20. It's light yellow beige but on the face it's almost transparent, the problem is it's a bit too chalky and doesn't do much in term of oil control but still I thought it's a minor problem and have been using it faithfully for almost 2 years, never thinking of trying another brand, cause Pout is my HG brand in general, but it doesn't mean all of their products are that great. I only realized that a while ago.

And the one from Manhattan actually does a better job than Pout: it holds oil longer at the bay, and looks more natural and less chalky. It has a hint smell too being vanilla. There's only one problem: the sponge, I tried it once and immediately threw it away. Sorry Manhattan, but your sponge is really not good. Actually Pout and Guerlain don't provide good quality sponges either and since I always apply loose powder with a brush, so it's not a problem.

Price: €6.85

PROs: Controls Oil, Cheap, Good colour Match, Doesn't feel chalky.

CONs: Poor Quality Sponge.

Verdict: 9 out of 10. Will buy again!

Now I wanna try their lipsticks too, they're mostly in bright colours, too bright to my liking, but I've found some good ones on their website and would buy some in the near future! :-D

Actually not only lipsticks, they have a lot of interesting things, which, one of them is the Liquid Blush that has sadly been discontinued (BeneTint is just way too expensive...! Almost 30 USD for a little bottle of 12.5ml!? It's day light robbery!), but I found it available on a Chinese auction site and will be getting a bottle of mine soon, Joeri is going to China in November and I should not miss the chance. Maybe I should already start making a shopping list for myself, as well as for Joeri, poor him, he'll be carrying way too many things for me all the way from China to Belgium, only to satisfy my passion for cosmetics. :-P

谢馥春（Xie Fu Chun）

2009-10-04T23:52:00.003+02:00

I always thought China had no cosmetics companies, at least no good ones, but seems I was wrong.

I came across this brand, Xie Fu Chun (typically a girl's name), when browsing a Chinese auction website (more or less the Chinese eBay). The packaging was of course the first thing that caught my attention, after an intensive search, I learnt that this company was founded in 1830 and their products were used exclusively by the royal family back in more than 100 years ago...!!! Just fancy...! How cool it would be if you could get that touch of luxury, and knowing that 100 years ago the Chinese princesses were using exactly the same products as you do now!?!?!? WOW!

Sounds like a dream...

I found some reviews of their products and they're almost all very positive, which means I should also try to get them. I don't have to wait for long, cause Joeri will be on a trip to China and I'll ask him to bring back some...! :-D

Their most famous products are/were "Duck Egg Powder (literally translated)" (!!!), cabardine oil (which they don't produce anymore, pity -_-), fragrant bag (sorry for my poor translation -_-). They all belong to the "Vintage series" category. Nowadays they also developed a "Modern series" cosmetics range, together with skincare products based on modern technology, but now I'm focused on their "Vintage series".

Now, photo time: :-D

The first and utmost is of course the "Duck Egg Powder". When I was small, I wondered if it was actually made from duck egg, and of course it's not so, it's just housed in a duck egg shaped (i.e. oval) sturdy cardboard paper box and the colour slightly resembles to duck egg, being purely white or slightly blue due to the light. Xie Fu Chun is generous to make it 50g while the price is around €8, rather decent (it seems they have 2 kinds of packagings for the same product: one simple and one luxurious, and the prices vary a lot, from €3 to €8, so the €8 is the luxurious ones, which are my targets. ^_^ The €5 difference is entirely for the packaging). According to the reviews I found online, the quality is quite good too, and how can we forget the vintage packaging...? It's just such an eye candy and would look absolutely lovely on the dressing table...! :-D

Don't be put off by the extremely pale powder, it won't form a white mask on your face (but still, I think it's only suitable for fair skinned girls), it goes on sheer and smooth, and holds the oil on your T-zone at bay, it evens out your skin tone but doesn't provide coverage, it's up to the standard of a loose powder, but I'm not sure if I should use it as a loose powder or compact powder, and this is not mentioned on their website, it sure looks like a compact powder. :-S

There're four fragrances to choose from: jasmine, rose, gardenia and osmanthus (i.e. "sweet olive" but it has nothing to do with olive, it's totally another kind of plant) and the packagings are different too, but the content is the same.

Traditionally, in the ancient time, almost all the Chinese women, however young or old, rich or poor, used "Duck Egg Powder" (different brands though, all powders were basically called "Duck Egg Powder") as a part of basic makeup routine.

As far as I know, they didn't change the formula, which is nice, though technology is improved.

Hair oil: Yes they produce hair oil too, traditionally, Chinese women were after the shiny black healthy looking hair thus they used hair oil to keep their hair in good condition, which was also mentioned in the classic Chinese literature.

Blush: Yay this is gonna be my favourite part, but strange enough, they only have one shade to choose from, and it's exactly the shade that I would avoid: bubblegum pink...! -_-

But once again, the packaging is striking : it's in a lovely little porcelain pot decorated with peony patterns produced in Jingde county, which is famous for producing the best quality porcelain, which is already something to look forward to, if not for the blush itself. By the way, it's a cream blush, 5g. Around €4.

This is their powder blush, 20g for around €10. The shade is somehow different than the cream blush and they have no numbers/names indicated. :-/

Lipbalm: They only have one lipbalm, as far as I know, the texture is a bit too thick for most girls. I don't think I'm going to get it. It's 5g, around €5.

Their shop as of today:

To be honest, though they're called The First Chinese Cosmetics Brand, I don't think their products are professional: they have only one blush shade to choose from, one eyeshadow too (golden brown), but I still find their Duck Powder interesting and would very much to give it a try. :-D

So what do you think? Let Fan know! :-D

Alverde items and Essence items

2009-10-02T19:58:00.001+02:00

So this is the review of Alverde Tagesfluid (I still don't know what it really means, surprisingly, there're Hungarian, Czetch and Croatian translations) & blush ("Flamingo") and Essence September Limited Edition eyeshadows Wildberry Sorbet, Chocolate Shake and Toffee Cream (just bought it on last Friday).

My favourite type of makeup is mineral makeup, hands down no doubt, but for a while I drifted away from it cause I behold obvious blotches after having applied mineral makeup and it sometimes causes me dry patches, partly because I don't primer, but I do use moisturizer which is Oshadhi Aloe Lavender Lotion (€17 for 100ml), it doesn't help with dry patches and blotches, I was using it for soothing pores and it's super moisturizing, blended with lavender essential oil but not greasy and oil at all on your face, all in all, it's an excellent moisturizer and lives up to its claims, but I need something to solve the blotches and dry patches problem, and now, this problem easily is solved by Alverde Tagesfluid. Miracle in a bottle, yet so cheap.

I don't understand German, but basically, I think it's a moisturizer, it doesn't matter how it's supposed to be used, I just use it as a moisturizer and primer, it's not liquid-like, it's more like a gel, white, no obvious scent and feels comfortable and easy to blend, followed by mineral makeup and I CLEARLY see the differences, there're simply no dry patches nor blotches. Only a lovely made up face. It stays put for 4 hours and then I need to touch up, which is not a problem cause I always take powder and brush with me. :-D

PROs: Not greasy. No residue. Cheap ( any Oshadhi moisturizer is at least 3 times the price of Alverde Tagesfluid). Easy to blend. Gives a nice preparation for makeup. No breakouts.

CONs: Doesn't control oil (which I don't expect either, so I'm not disappointed).

Verdict: 9.5 out of 10, will buy again! I might even replace Oshadhi moisturizer with it.

Price: €3.25 for 50ml

A big THANK YOU to Izar, without her, I wouldn't have discovered this gem...! I couldn't find the Goji products that Izar recommended though, what a pity... :-(

Alverde blush "Flamingo"

It's stark bright red/pink, at first I was a bit frightened but in the meantime was also charmed by the colour, although it's actually nothing special. I remembered my two other Alverde blushers, their pigmentation is rather poor, I hoped this one isn't, cause it looks scarily bright. And well, as soon as I was home I tried it on, the pigmentation is actually not that crazy as I thought. I use a regular blush brush to apply it, as long as I remember to tap off the exceed powder, I won't be like a clown.

PROs: Beautiful colour. Cheap. Doesn't accentuate pimples.

CONs: Eh...?

Verdict: 8 out of 10, but I probably won't buy it again, considering how many blushes I have... :-P

Price: €2.95

Essence September Limited Edition Eyeshadows:

Chocolate Shake:

This is a silver grey colour, not too dark nor too light, just the right colour for me with the right amount of shimmer, it's much more beautiful in reality than on the photo. A real Must-Have...!

Wild berry Sorbet:

This is the one I love the most out of the 3, it's such a beautiful plum colour, with fine shimmer that's hardly noticeable, it can create a smoky look or a laid back look, truly a versatile colour, and elegant too...!!!

Coffee Cream:

This is an everyday colour that can be used on the whole eyelid, when I tried it on the back of my hand in the shop, it was rather light, I feared it might not show up on my eyes, but it does!

I can't believe that I could be so clumsy!! On the second day that I bought it, I accidently dropped it on the flour and of course this baby is broken. :-(

PROs: Great colours. Non creasing. Easy to blend.

CONs: None (not that I know of, at least)...!

Verdict: All 3 of them are very nice! I wish they were permanent products. :-(

Price: €1,99

What do you think...? Let Fan know...! :-D

P.S. By the way, Oshadhi is a very good German brand that only produces 100% organic products, they select the finest ingredients and follow strict procedure to pursue their goals, they have a large selection of Aroma oils and provide a few hundreds (!!!) kinds of aroma oils in different contents.

Daytrip to Aachen

2009-09-23T17:09:00.003+02:00

In order to celebrate Joeri's birthday, I went to Aachen on last Friday (he happened to drive the train to Aachen on that day and had a sleepover there) and had a shopping day (actually only 2 hours, but it's already more than enough) on Saturday.

After I arrived in Aachen and met up with Joeri, we first had a pop-up in DM store, merely 10 minutes. I wanted to buy the moisturizer that Izar had mentioned on her blog, and then Joeri reminded me that I had enough moisturizer to last me 2 years so I didn't buy it, though it looked good and the price is low-budget friendly.

Eventually, I left the shop empty handed and went to the restaurant...

It's an exotic Thai restaurant not far from Aachen Station. Joeri has been to here many times so he's kind of a regular customer. I've also been to here at last 5 times. Their service and tasty food makes us come back for more. I ordered lamb with green curry, which reminds me of hot pot in Beijing. :-P

After dinner, we went to the hotel, it's not in the downtown area, it's located in a quiet neighborhood. We were bathed in starlight. walking hand in hand on the narrow pavement, I suddenly had a strange déjà vu feeling, as if I had been to here long ago, and the smell of fresh air was familiar too.

The hotel, Rosenpark Laurensberg is an ideal place to lodge, there's no shopping centre and noisy schools around, only a small super market, and yet not far from downtown area. The room is clean and well furnitured, the soft bed ensures a good rest. Of course, you pay €80 per night per person, hence why everything is satisfying.

On the second day I was alone, Joeri got up early to work and I took the bus to the shopping street and was wandering around. You bet I would visit DM again cause I thought I'd better buy the moisturizer that Izar recommended, eventually I bought it, together with an Alverde blush called Flamingo. I'll write a detailed review about them.

One thing that I like German cosmetics companies is that they have a fair "global price program", I mean, as far as I know, Catrice and Essence in Germany have the same prices as they're in Belgium. Well, maybe some items are slightly more expensive in Belgium but it's within a reasonable range, let's say, 10 cents, which doesn't hurt at all. And many international known cosmetics brands have crazy prices in Belgium or Germany, so crazy that I can't afford, such as MAC, a #109 brush costs £20 (equivalent to €22) in the UK whereas it's €32 in Belgium!?!?!? (#187 brush costs £29 in the UK and €49 in Germany!?!?!?) Plus, I don't think the MAC items that I've tried deliver excellent quality. I had a few MAC blushes and 2 brushes, I bought them at the local MAC boutique, not on eBay. I expected good result but only got disappointment. In the next week I already swapped them away on MUA. I also had Ultra Mat foundation from Dior, and after having tried it, I had the feeling that I just bought a bottle of tinted water...! What a rip off! Well, if you're curious about the foundation or if you're planning on buying it, see the review here.

P.S. Before going to Aachen, I purchased 2 eyeshadows from Essence's September 2009 limited edition Creamylicious in Kruidvat. The colours are so tempting and I have been wanting a plum colour eyeshadow, cause a lot of colours actually don't suit me, such as blue, green, yellow, black etc. I'm currently using Catrice High Pearl Loose Powder Eyeshadow, it's silver grey and I'm satisfied with it, but it's been discontinued so I have to search another one for daily wear. I'm glad to have found Creamylicious eyeshadow Wild Berry Sorbet, the plum colour one, unfortunately it's only a limited edition but well, maybe by the time when I use it up I already find something that I like.

The colour I bought are Wild Berry Sorbet (plum colour) and Chocolate Shake (grey with fine shimmer). At first I only wanted Wild Berry Sorbet, which was love at first sight, but Kruidvat had promotion if you buy any 2 products from Essence, so the choice was easily made. :-P

So far, I only tried Wild Berry Sorbet. It's plum coloured, with fine shimmer (hardly noticeable), super creamy and easy to apply, stays put for a good 6 hours (I used eye primer prior applying this eyeshadow). I'll write a review soon.

I'm now thinking of getting the light brown one too, if Kruidvat still carries it. Fingers crossed...! :-P

P.S. I didn't get the lovely baked bronzer cause I never use bronzer, of course I can use it as a blusher but then it would be way too shimmery... -_-

Sweet Chicken Wings

2009-09-17T20:35:00.002+02:00

Ingredients:

Chicken wings 1kg
Coke 800ml
Oil 25ml
Soya Sauce 80ml (Can be found in China Town)
Sugar 30g
Salt 5g
Ginger slices 20g
Onion 20g
Cooking wine 10ml (Can be found in China Town)

The 4 most important ingredients:

1. Wash the chicken wings thoroughly, cut twice on each wings so that the sauce that later I'll mention can be absorbed by the wings easily. Shortly boil them in hot water for 10 minutes on high fire.

2. Mix soya sauce, 5ml cooking wine and salt as sauce and mix with the wings. Leave them there for 20 minutes so that the sauce gets absorbed. 3. Put the oil in pre-warmed tepid wok, wait for a few seconds and then put the sugar in, keep the fire low, continuously stir it until the sugar becomes dark brown-red (sugar is easy to get burnt), add the wings and continue stir until it becomes gold colour, add coke, salt, soya sauce, onion, gember, turn the fire high (maximum) until it starts boiling, turn the fire low, put the wok cover on until the coke is absorbed. Voilà...!

This is a perfect example of tasty Chinese cuisine, yet easy to cook too. ^_^

Innisfree Mineral Skin BB Cream

2009-09-15T20:18:00.005+02:00

(This blog entry is for Izar)

I received Innisfree Mineral Skin BB Cream 3 weeks ago, which I purchased on eBay Korea. I've been using it for 3 weeks daily. So now it's time to write something...

It comes with a nice beige squeezy tube, 40ml with SPF40 PA++. I chose shade #1.

Except for the product name, everything is in Korean so I have no idea what they're saying. :-P

I've gone through a lot of research over BB cream before I made this purchase, and surprisingly, I chose a brand that's not so known overseas, because:

1. Their package is nice.
2. It's not expensive. :-P
3. I saw good reviews on their official website, written in Korean (I managed to translate the reviews using online translator. Hahaha!).
4. I like their concept, products being made from pure nature ingredients, not too much chemistry.

So I guess I have enough reasons and finally clicked "Buy Now" on this item, from a lovely eBay Korean seller (I got many thoughtful samples from him! ^_^).

When I first opened it, I noticed the smell immediately, it smells like herbal shampoo. A good first impression. :-) And I tried it on the back of my hand, oh gosh! What!?!?!? It's DULL GREY!??? But I was brave enough to try it on my face, so, read on, here comes the interesting part!

I was told most BB creams are very thick, hard to blend. But not this one! It's relatively runny and watery, easy to blend, when I was applying it, I noticed the obvious colour difference, as I said, it's grey, and my skin tone is around NC25, I certainly don't want a grey mask. But after it sets, merely 3 minutes, it blends into my own skin tone perfectly forming such a natural look!!! Can you believe it!?

The coverage is actually not very good, at least not so good as my mineral foundation. I would say it's sheer to medium (well I just have too many pimples to cover up and most liquid foundations fail at this point). But this BB Cream is far more natural-looking than mineral makeup. It doesn't leave a mask. With mineral makeup I normally can achieve a nearly-flawless look (on the days when my skin condition is better) when standing 30cm away from the mirror but close up it looks like a mask. Well the Innisfree BB Cream doesn't provide enough coverage therefore it's not flawless, and since I don't use concealer, you can see the pimples, though not that obvious of course, but it looks far more natural than mineral makeup and has an effect of minimizing the pores! :-D

Something else that I noticed with this BB cream is, it looks best after having been applied for 2 or 3 hours (so, not right after you've applied it) and will continue and last 5 hours and then it'll gradually melt.

And by the way, it didn't break me out (I think it's even improving my skin condition). A big plus! :-D

As I said, the coverage is not very good hence why you still see my pimples, but trust me, it's far more natural looking than any mineral makeup that I've used. Korean females are after that "nude look" and that's exactly what BB creams claim to proform so if it has the mask effect then it's no more than an ordinary foundation.

What I have used in this look:

Makeup base: Innisfree Mineral Skin BB Cream #1
Blush: Catrice "Wild Rose"
Loose Powder: Pout Translucent Loose Powder
Eyeshadow: Catrice High Pearl #50
Eyeliner: Catrice Stay On "Midnight Blue"
Lip: Catrice Lipstick "Indian Brown" (It's such a beautiful colour and super moistrurizing, not long lasting unfortunately -_-)

I don't have good skin, I'm suffered from acne and pimples, but like other girls, I'm dreaming of having flawless skin, and here, now, I'm brave enough to post a photo of my bare face -- no makeup whatsoever -- only to show you how good this BB cream is, of course it's not perfect, but I'm sure after seeing the Before After photo, you will have a general idea of it. And without the Before After photos, this post is pointless.

(Sorry, the Before Photo is not accessable to just everyone, anyone who's interested in seeing it, please feel free to ask ^_^)

Here's the After Photo:

PROs: Cheap. Natural-looking finish. Pore minimizing effect. Natural ingredients. Smells nice.

CONs: Not enough coverage for me.

Verdict: 9 out of 10. Will definitely buy again! :-D

What do you think of Innisfree BB Cream? Have you used it? Let Fan know! :-D

PS Dear readers, have a look at my new ring which I purchased at Kruidvat (Kruidvat is my paradise! It has a large selection of cosmetics brands! Essence, Catrice, Nivea, Bourjois, Gosh, 2true, Maybelline, Manhathan, Max Factor, and much much more!), it's in light lilac and dark purple, though you don't see the colour difference in the photos, it's very stylish, now try to guess the price...! :-D

SkinFood BB Cream & Etude House Blush

2009-09-12T23:34:00.002+02:00

I'll keep it short this time.

I received SkinFood Mushroom BB Cream#1 and Etude House Peach Cheek Blusher in #2 Smile Pink.

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SkinFood Mushroom Multi Care BB Cream 50g:

On the back side of the SkinFood BB Cream, it says

Mushroom Multi Care BB Cream SPF 20 PA+

A triple functional BB cream that contains skin-friendly aloe & mushroom extract, adenosine and arbutin that helps to improve the appearance of fine lines and promotes a brighter, more radiant complexion with UV protection properties.

The triple functions mentioned above are whitening, anti-aging and sun block. This BB cream is the most expensive one from SkinFood but still it's very cheap.

It's a bit thicker than Innisfree Mineral Skin BB Cream (for which I'll write a review soon) and smells like gingko. The shade is very light, almost like Ivory for most of the foundations out there.

It doesn't provide much coverage, so unless you have relatively good skin, you can forget about this BB cream. It's easy to blend though, and the colour match for me is perfect.

PROs: Cheap. Lovely packaging. Good colour match.

CONs: Sheer coverage. Not suitable for darker skinned girls.

Verdict: 7 out of 10. Won't buy again.

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Etude House Peach Cheek Blusher 4g:

It comes with a lovely pink paper box, as if it came right out of my fantasy, with cute peach pattern and a dolly face. Unfortunately the box was totally out of shape when I received it, after all, it travelled all the way from Korea to Belgium.

Why did I buy this blusher? Cause the concept is interesting. It comes with a stamp-like sponge as well as applicator and you literally and simply stamp the blusher onto your cheeks. It's that easy! But...! Your task doesn't end here! You must blend it with either your fingers or with a blush brush to achieve a natural look. By the way it smells like peach, but I smell the rubber too. :-P Open it carefully and hold it tight or it'll jump out of the palm of your hand --- it has a spring inside hence why it jumps. Hahahaha!

It's a cool toned light pink, similar to MAC Pink Swoon. The pigmentation is not very good but it's silky and feels comfortable on the skin.

PROs: Cheap. Lovely packaging. Fascinating concept. Silky texture.

CONs: Pigmentation. Not long lasting.

Verdict: Overal not bad, reasonable amount at a decent price. 7.5 out of 10. I might try other shades too.

What do you think of them? Let Fan know! :-D

Of Beauty

2009-09-05T21:07:00.003+02:00

To those ladies who think they're not beautiful and are shamed of it.

Beauty is not skin deep.

Click here to find out (it won't take long, merely 1 minute).

A New Step

2009-09-05T20:34:00.001+02:00

Today is absolutely a milestone day to me in term of violin:

My teacher finally decided to teach me vibrato! :-D

I've been learning violin for 8 years, but strictly speaking, it's only 3 years. I've been working hard on it and wondering when I could learn vibrato, but since my teacher didn't mention it, so I didn't dare to ask either. And finally, on the first lesson of this school year, finally he told me that he decided to teach me vibrato cause in the past few years my skill has been improved a lot...!!! :-D

He explained me some basic movements and asked me to practise them at home and then I'm to show him next week, I'm already excited to practise even the most basic things...!!! Hahaha!

New Catrice beauty items released...!

2009-09-01T13:21:00.003+02:00

I was still pretty sad when Catrice discontinued my favourite High Pearl eyeshadows but this sadness vaporized as soon as I discovered what they have released just since TODAY...!!! :-D

Lipstick part:

They discontinued some uninteresting colours and released a few new shades, which, one of the names is Dark Roseberry. I tried it on the back of my hand and immediately fell in love...! Why? It resembles to my beloved Catrice Indian Brown and Pout Darling Heart, only a bit darker and redder than Indian Brown (which, by the way, has a hint of orange tone). It's already on my wishlist. :-)

Another one, named Soft Coral, is pretty too! Do you know YSL FARD À LÈVRES ROUGE PUR #144 Silky Apricot? Voilà. The two are very similar, colour-wise! Only Soft Coral is lighter, and might not be that thick as Silky Apricot. I'll definitely buy it when Catrice has promotion, should be very soon. :-)

Lipgloss part:

The new shades are moderate, not dramatic, translucent or mild pink, except for maybe one, being diamond-like sparkling dark red, very striking colour. I'm not sure if I wanna try this one, maybe when Catrice has promotion again and when I use my stock up, which won't be in the near future. :-P Oh by the way, they improved the applicator too, it's longer and narrower, good! :-)

Eyeshadow part:

I didn't pay much attention to their new eyeshadows cause I've determined not to buy any until I use my stock up. They released two violet shades, one darker and one lighter, they look good. The light one looks even lighter when applied on my hand, you might say the pigmentation is not very good, but for me it's a bless. :-)

All the new shades are nowhere mentioned on their official website yet so I guess I'm just a pioneer to have already discovered them. Of course if Catrice released them in summer vacation they would have already drawn more attention from the teenage girls of course. :-P

What do you think of them? Let Fan know! :-D

FOTD

2009-08-31T18:39:00.001+02:00

This is the look that I like, natural and clean, only this time I applied my blush a bit heavy handed so that my readers can see it better. ^_^

Foundation: A mixture of EDM Fairly Light in Intensive, Catrice Mineral makeup #1 and Essence Mineral makeup #2.

Blush: Laura Geller Roseberry

Lips: Essence lipgloss Big Night Out

Eyeshadow: Catrice High Pearl Eyeshadow Powder #50 Sophisticated Brown

Eyeliner: Catrice Stay On #30 Smokey Silver (I'm an absolute newbie for eyemakeup, I always make it messy, I only bought my first eyeshadow since last year, eyeliner this month)

What remarkable is, except for the blush, all the beauty item here used in this look are under €5. :-D

What do you think of it? Let Fan know! :-D

My current lipglosses collection

2009-08-31T15:15:00.004+02:00

I'll categorize them per brand:

Essence:

When I opened the cap, the first thing that caught my attention was the smell: very creamy and yummy smell, sweet and seductive, kind of wild berry, and doesn't feel artifical at all, by which I was delightfully surprised...! And the colour is just great! What I have are"Big Night Out", "Wild thing", "Rendez-Vous", and "Big Night Out", the colour, as well as the smell, assembles to wild berry, it's kind of dark plum, very sexy, and when applied on lips, it's actually not that frighteningly dark, and is truly XXL Shine, as the name suggests, in the meantime also moisturizing(contains vitamine E), not sticky and itchy at all, it feels like velvety smooth. I'm very happy about the applicator tip too, it's soft and flexible, won't scratch you ladies' delicate lips. How about the staying power? Being lipgloss it's bound to have less staying power than lipsticks but it's not a problem at all. On me it's 3-4 hours if I don't drink or eat. I also like to use it as a coating over my matte-finish lipsticks which gives a lovely shine yet I have the staying power. And the price? Here in Belgium it's 1,79 Euro, which makes it a real winner among all those cheap ranged lipglosses.

PROs: Lovely and girly packaging. Smells tasty (fresh wild berry, not artifical). Dirt cheap. Good colour collection. Feels comfortable on lips. Relatively long lasting (if you want a ton of staying power you should stay with lipsticks). Beautiful sheen.

CONs: Eh?

Sorry, didn't apply it very well... v_v

Catrice:

Another fantastic brand which I love (I'm indeed a low-end cosmetics girl). They provide classic and elegant packaged products that are totally wearable at an utterly affordable price.

Their lipglosses I own are Vanilla Cream and Creamy Toffee. 8ml. Price: €2.85

I was not a fan of lipglosses cause they're sticky and smell weird, and the motivation of buying Vanilla Cream was it reminds me of my beloved Pout Vanilla Cream foundation.

The colour is hard to describe, it's, hmm, pink with yellow undertone, but on the lips I don't see pink, only glossy shine.

PROs: Cheap. Smell nice. Glossy shine.

CONs: Not very long lasting. Not true colour ("what you see in the tube is not what you get on your lips").

Verdict: Highly recommended for lipgloss freakies. I myself would definitely buy them again.

Creamy Toffee: It's a tad darker than Vanilla Cream with a hint of brown and is a natural and almost nude ("nade" according to my own definition) shade to me. It's a safe shade that can be worn on almost all occations. I reach it more and more and really love it.

You don't see much difference on the photo (I'm completely a newbie in taking photographs) cause it's subtle. Vanilla Cream is light yellow based and Creamy Toffee is light brown based.

Shiseido (I'm a low end girl in relation to cosmetics, but I happen to own a Shiseido lipgloss, which is very exceptional):

The shade is G26 Peach Melba, 5ml. This is a lovely pink colour, not bubble-gum pink or dolly pink though. It can be safely worn by elder ladies. Fresh peppermint smell.

The price is not cheap, €23.6 RRP in Belgium.

Estée Lauder:

Fortunately it's given to me as a gift otherwise I would have felt being robbed. It's 10ml, €15.6 RRP in Belgium. The price is a lot cheaper than that of Shiseido, but... The 2 EL lipglosses I have simply do nothing for me. The colours are Granny Apple (light apple green/yello) and Blackberry (mysterious purple). They're both transparent on my lips, no moisturizing effect, only water shine, and it doesn't feel comfortable, being sticky and even a bit scratchy. Gosh, for the price I certainly won't purchase it again. The smell is fruity, the applicator is unique and provides precise application and packaging is stylish by the way.

Pout: I keep Pout for the last place, yet in my heart it's always the best! I'll specially feature some products of Pout in the future as a memoir, a collection and a tribute to Pout, which has been discontinued in the end of 2007. :-(

Pout is famous for their LipPlump lipglosses, Radiant Full Coverage Foundation and blushers (ever heard of Apricot Totty? Highly sought after in all major beauty forums as well as on eBay). What I have in term of lipgloss is only a simple one and the shade is Squeeze My Melons.

I don't detect any unpleasant smell yet it does have a hint of smell. It comes with a squeezy clear tube decorated with fishnet (fishnet and lacy pattern are the signatures of Pout by the way), 12ml. In the tube it's dark red and yet in the lips it's lively youthful red (pity that it's invisible on photo -_-).

PROs: Lovely (!!!) packaging. Nice texture.

CONs: Price (around £12). Being discontinued.

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I didn't upload swatch of Estée Lauder lipglosses cause they're transparent.

Voilà, this is my whole collection of lipglosses, it's really not big and I'm not going to expand it in the near future cause I'm satisfied with Catrice and Essence lipglosses. :-P

What do you think of them? Let Fan know! :-D

P.S. SkinFood Sugar Cookie Blush

2009-08-28T15:15:00.002+02:00

2 days ago I reviewed SkinFood Sugar Cookie Blush. I stand by my word that it's as hard as stone and hard to get powder off, yes. I almost wanted to throw it in the dustbin or swap it away on MUA or sell it on eBay. But I decided to give it one more chance, and applied it in another way.

What did I do? I moisturized a cotton pad, swiped it lightly over the blush and then apply on my face, and WOW, what did I see? Such a lovely peachy pinky (more on the peachy side, though it appears more pinky in the pan) blush but not exaggerative and doesn't look fake either. What a lovely blusher! It quickly gained a place in my heart as well as on my dressing table too. I'm glad I just found the right way to apply it, otherwise it would be a big loss to me. :-P

Tip: Don't make the cotton pad too wet, just a bit moist is already more than enough. And since it's not really in powder form, so it's not caky or flaky and not very possible to overdo it, it gives a subtle glow, but it's not long lasting. For details you can correct it with a moist cotton bud.

The blush has been intensively tortured by me. :-P

Sorry for the poor quality photo but in reality it's such a lovely pink blush.

Once again apologize for the poor quality photo and messy background. :-P
Something else you should notice, it appears pink in the pan and peachy on my cheeks.

Voilà. What do you think? Let Fan know! :-D

Innisfree

2009-08-26T20:04:00.005+02:00

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evenings full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear the lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

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Beautiful poem hé, this is a poem from famous Irish poet W.B. Yeats, but now I'm talking about a Korean cosmetics brand as beautiful as the poem, named Innisfree.

This sub-brand belongs to Amore which is one of the largest cosmetics/skincare company in Korea. The core of Innisfree is to pursue nature-from-nature cosmetics, which should be nearly 100% organic. The packagings are amost all green, simple yet stylish.

It's not a low end like SkinFood or Etude, and yet not expensive as Banila Co, Laneige either. Koreans seem to be well aware of the power of organic products so it's a big hit in there, and they're becoming the trendsetter. In China, Japan and South East Asia you can find various Korean cosmetics brands.

Ok, back to Innisfree. If you're a fan of any South East Asian based beauty forum I'm sure you should have already heard of this brand, this is how I discovered it. The frequently discussed items from them are Trouble Care BB Cream and Rose Marble Blusher.

Trouble Care BB Cream:

Rose Marble Blusher (to be honest, this doesn't look attractive to me at all, it even frightened me, don't know why) :

They both get rather positive reviews so normally they should be my choice too, but instead, after some careful research, I chose their Mineral Skin BB Cream, because first, it got good reviews on the official site (I managed to translate all the reviews using Babelfish, hard labour :-P), second, I'm into everything made from mineral, and third, I like the packaging, so when I saw it for the first time, I was sold. :-P

So voilà, this is what you can expect me in the next few days: a review of Innisfree Mineral Skin BB Cream. :-D

Skinfood Sugar Cookie Blush

2009-08-26T16:15:00.000+02:00

So my first purchase from eBay Korea has arrived, it's Skinfood Sugar Cookie Blush. I was told it's a baked product.

Strange enough, when I got it today, I surprisingly found out that it's not a peachy colour as I imagined and as the official swatch. It's pink (I always try to avoid pink blushes cause I'm already too old for that, I suppose) and the seller didn't send me the wrong shade... And, being a baked product, it's not multi-coloured and has no veins either, not even the beautiful sheen I saw on photo. I thought it would be big, being 9.5 g, but it's pretty small, at least the packaging is cute.

Needlessly to say, I was a bit disappointed. It's just a simple blush and there's nothing to make it stand out. It's such a pulse buy. Fortunately it's not expensive.

But I haven't tried it yet, so how can I already draw the conclusion?

I had a close examination on sunlight, and finally I detect some peachy hints, thought not enough to call it a peachy blush. The shade is No.2, they only have 3 shades now: pink, peachy, light lilac (don't know how you can put purple on the face but some says it looks mysteriously charming on pale skin)

First, it's dome shaped, firmly packed, very hard to get powder off, it's literally as hard as a stone...!!! I used various blush brushes trying to get powder but didn't notice a single bit of colour on the brushes and nor did I notice any change on the surface of the blush either. I even wanted to throw it hard to the flour or grind it into fine powder, but I don't think that would work either. And when I finally managed to get some powder on the brush, here came the problem of pigmentation...!!! I swiped my brush ten times on the blush and faithfully swiped it on my face, what did I see? Nada. :-\ I've been telling myself that it's really a highly popular blush in Korea and loved by the teenagers but still, it doesn't work on me at all. I'm so disappointed cause I really had high hope for it...

PROs: Cute packaging. Very cheap.

CONs: Poor pigmentation. Hard to get powder off.

Verdict: Won't repurchase it again. Hate it.

New Discovery

2009-08-24T23:08:00.015+02:00

Two days ago I've just discovered a fantastic cosmetics brand, and it's yet another Korean brand.

Banila Co

It's considered to be a Korean version of Benefit. Well I'm not interested in Benefit cause first the price is outrageous second I've seen mostly negative reviews about it on MUA so I don't bother to get some products through eBay, though the packagings are cute (once again, never judge a book by its cover, certainly not with cosmetics).

But now I'm seriously interested in Banila Co. I got to know it from a South Asian based beauty forum, some girls are showing their Banila Co hauls. The packagings are lovely and retro and arose my interest. I immidiately jumped to their official website.

Pity, everything in Korean, which is Martian language for me, seems they're not interested in expanding their realm to international market. But I could still find my way and got a general idea of it.

Am not sure if it targets at younger crowds or not but the price is obviously higher than that of Etude, Skinfood, etc. Maybe around the same range of Laneige (but still, prices for Westerners are still very cheap)?

Most Korean cosmetics brands would use famous Korean singers/actresses as their spokeswoman but Banila Co uses a young and fresh Western girl as their spokeswoman, which fascinates me.

And the next surprise is... They have lots of baked products and they're rather sysmatic...! Some of the products are obviously dupes of MAC Mineralize series. I'm especially interested in their blushers and eyeshadows. Beautiful veins and lovely packagings. I was hoping to first search some reviews and then decide what to buy.

Strangely enough, rather than that forum previously mentioned, I didn't find much info about this brand. But upon further search, I found out a Korean site that acts like eBay and some sellers are willing to sell items to overseas. But the sellers won't send items directly to the overseas buyers, they first send items to a warehouse (??) if I'm not mistaken and the warehouse will arrange the international despatch part. The only problem is, they only offer EMS service so it's not that cheap (8 Euro for 0.5 kg and up to Belgium). But when I'm in China I might be tempted to buy something cause sending from Korea to China is a lot cheaper than sending to Europe of course. :-D

These blushers (at a generous 12g) are sold for 18000 Korean Won, equivalent to €10.

Click here to see the 1st picture.

Obviously another baked blusher:

Click here to see the 2nd picture.

Baked eyeshadows:

Click here to see the 3rd picture.

Click here to see the 4th picture.

Click here to see the 5th picture.

Click here to see the 6th picture.

Click here to see the 7th picture.

Click here to see the 8th picture.

Click here to see the 9th picture.

Click here to see the 10th picture.

Click here to see the 11th picture.

Click here to see the 12th picture.

Click here to see the 13th picture.

So, dear readers, what do you think about Banila Co? Let Fan know! :-D

Banila Co, make in style.

Laura Geller Roseberry

2009-08-23T17:02:00.004+02:00

Imagine your cosmetics baked in an oven with unique colour and sheen... Most people would say, how fancy! Baked in an oven? What difference does it make from traditional makeup?

Since last year I've been curious with this whole new concept. And I just had to have it...! :-P

Ever since then I've been doing research of it and narrowed down my selection to a few brands and products. Basically, almost all makeup products can be baked, including foundation, eyeshadow, blush, highlighter. According to the ratings on MUA, I chose Laura Geller baked blush Roseberry.

Finally, just two weeks ago I bought it off eBay so it's much cheaper compared with the RRP (£24.5), but unfortunately when it arrived, it's partly broken. So I ground the broken part into very fine powder and found it just fine to use (and easy to carry too!). :-P

There's a lot of product in a big pan, being 9 gram, much bigger than regular blushes. It's dome shaped, very cute. It's medium dark rosy pink (on the cool toned side) with mysterious veins, whose colour is just a tad darker than the blush itself (sorry, I sound a bit incoherent). Some people say that they see copper shade in their Roseberry but it's not my case.

I don't detect any obvious shimmer but it's not completely matte either. And it's absolutely not bling bling on your face, so if you're not into shimmer or glitter, this might be something for you.

When I first opened it, I thought Oh my god it's dark...!!! And I realized that I must use a skunk brush to apply it (I use Pout AirBrush to apply heavily pigmented brush, I find it so much better than MAC #187). If you apply too much, just dust a thin layer of loose powder over it.

The colour that you see is slightly different than when applied on your face, in the pan it's cool toned pink but once on your face it turns slightly red. Or is it only me? No one on MUA reported this problem, so maybe it has something to do with my skintone or the other cosmetics that I use...?

Although it's pink, but it doesn't give a fake procelain doll look. I guess this shade is more suitable for ladies between 25-40. Would be perfect in winter.

PROs: Generous of product, 9 gram. Long lasting without fading. Glide on easily and smoothly. Easy to blend. Universal Colour, it suits from fair skin to dark skin. Very good pigmentation. A little goes a long way. No paraben or mineral oils, which means it's suitable for sensitive skin, another big advantage...!

CONs: Price (but you get what you pay for, so it's not really that expensive, I only hope they can make a smaller version, let's say, 5 gram, and adjust the price accordingly). Only available in the USA and the UK, or on eBay (as far as I know).

Verdict: 9 out of 10. Highly recommended. Fan's pick! YAY! :-D

Any question? Suggestion? Advice? Let Fan know! :-D

Click here to see the first picture.

Click here to see the second picture.

Click here to see the third picture.

Disappointed... :-(

2009-08-18T22:20:00.006+02:00

So my Illamasqua order has arrived and I immediately tried it out as soon as I got it, but I only got disappointment...

I've only ordered a foundation called Rich Foundation 135 (NC20-25), it claims that it provides maximum coverage while still looks natural and lasts all day long, the advertizement is quite promising, and since I have quite a few pimples to cover, I thought, why not? Let's give this foundation a try, though it's not cheap, £20.

In order to play safe, I don't wanna order a bulk worth €€€ only to discover that I don't like any of them... And moreover, I do need a good foundation. I've been using mineral foundation since last summer, I tried various brands, overall I'm satisfied with them (especially EDM, Catrice and Essence), but none of them is 100% perfect, so I'm still hoping that I could find a perfect foundation in the traditional range: liquid foundation (or creme foundation).

Prior applying this foundation, I first applied Paula's Choice 2% BHA Liquid and Oshadhi Aloe Vera Lavender Moisturizer (both of which are my absolute staple! :-D) and I didn't use any other products (no concealer, no lipbalm, no blush, no highlighter etc.)

Ok, back to this Illamasqua foundation, what's wrong with it? First, it's a bit too light for me, and second, it just sits there leaving a greasy painting mask...!!! The texture is completely wrong, very thick and hard to blend...!!! I tried with my fingers and Pout AirBrush skunk brush and no way, the result is always the same: ghastly pale and greasy looking mask, and it makes my pimples appear bigger! But apparently, some people do like it and say that it's a HG (Holy Grail) to them, well, maybe I just don't have the luck...

Don't know if the foundation is long lasting cause I rinsed the foundation off after merely 10 minutes. Can't comment on the breakout thing either, but normally I would stay away if a liquid foundation claims to provide full coverage.

The only thing good about the foundation is the smell (faint sweet vanilla) and the gothic packaging. So much for my £20. Sigh...

PROs: Nice packaging. Nice scent. Very good coverage. Nice shade range (from ghastly pale to deep black). A little goes a long way.

CONs: Price. Texture (in my case, hard to blend and cakey). Suitable for NC (yellow undertone) but not for NW (pink undertone). Very difficult to remove.

Verdict: 3 out of 10. Won't buy it again. But I'd like to try their blushes. :-P

Any question? Suggestion? Advice? Let Fan know! :-D

PS The ratings of this foundation on MUA drops from 100% positive to 66% (as of today, 18/08/09) and the reviews are very extreme, either very good or very bad, so if you're interested in this foundation, don't care too much about what other say, just give it a try. :-)

Click here to see the first picture.

Click here to see the second picture.

Click here to see the third picture.

Click here to see the fourth picture.

Click here to see the fifth picture (frightening Geisha look :-P).

Illamasqua

2009-08-07T14:13:00.004+02:00

Hi hi dear readers!

Sorry for being silent so long, gosh I was just not in the mood to write something, my apologises.

So, I'm going to share with you guys a fantastic cosmetics brand, my new love:

ILLAMASQUA

It originated in the UK since only last year and their style is gothic and dark, the whole concept is just brand new and will be a revolution in the cosmetics world. Their motto is: Illamasqua is your alter ego. People say it'll be a competitor for MAC and I sincerely hope so, only the price is even more expensive than MAC. O_o

Sounds tempting hé?

Click here to find out their makeup tutorial "Ingénue", isn't the background amazing and the model gorgeous? When the makeup artist Alex Box was applying blush onto her cheeks she smiled faintly and oh gosh! How seductive and beautiful...!?

Click here to find out their makeup tutorial "Siren"(don't know if it's a limited edition), the model is gorgeous too! And I really like her nails, super artistic!

I personally prefer Ingéunue cause it's more retro and elegant. Perfect for an upper class evening party. Siren is good too but a bit too dramatic to my liking.

I've just ordered their Rich Foundation (it says that it provides full coverage while still looks natural and long lasting too) on their website and it should arrive one of these days and then I'll certainly write a review to share my feeling with you guys! ^_^

Be bold, be daring, be Illamasqua...!

My current Top 25 songs (Most Frequently Listened)

2009-06-07T16:54:00.005+02:00

Someone wants me to post a list of my current favourite songs, he admires my music taste (am flattered) and has recently been converted to a Trance lover (partly thanks to me), so here it goes:

1. Aerosoul - Isla Blanca (Aftersun Remix) (It'll always be my number 1 favourite)

2. Chicane - Low Sun

3. Chicane - Leaving Town (il fait froid...)

4. Chicane - No Ordinary Morning

5. Depeche Mode - Only When I Lose Myself (psychodelic)

6. Depeche Mode - Walking In My Shoes (psychodelic)

7. Aerosoul - Time Is By Your Side

8. Depeche Mode - Stripped

9. BT- Flaming June

10. Jethro Tull - Wounded, Old And Trea

11. Gaelle - Transient

12. Gaelle - Rain

13. ATB - Black Nights (I appreciate the crystal-clear voice)

14. Chicane - Locking Down

15. UNKLE - What Are You To Me (DJ Sasha Remix)

16. Grand National - Talk Amongst Yourselves (DJ Sasha Remix)

17. Enya - I Want Tomorrow (It feels vintage)

18. Enya - Fairytale

19. Sonate For Cello And Continuo in A Minor Op. 14 No.7 RV44 (Ophélie Garillard)

20. Chicane - Kilometre

21. Ancient - Intro

22. Jethro Tull - Wounded, Old And Treacherous

23. Vitali - Chaconne

24. J.B. Accolay - A Minor

25. G.B. Viotti - Op.23

Susan Boyle phenomenon

2009-06-02T14:50:00.005+02:00

I heard of Susan Boyle since April from an article from a Chinese forum, in the article Boyle was described as a worldwide sensation, she being a jobless church volunteer, who enjoyed singing a lot, and wanted to realise her dream of showing her talent to people, entered Britain's Got Talent, with her appearance unpolished and her somehow 'odd behaviour'.

She arose my curiosity and I decided to check her videos out on youtube.com

I have no doubt of her singing ability, she sure has a lovely voice and, in my humble opinion, is even up to professional standard, but alas, she didn't win, but maybe it's good for her this way. And the final winner Diversity, is no more than a wanabe (ABBA impersonator maybe?), there're tons of such groups worldwide, but well, they were appealing to audiences and judges, apparently, hence why they won.

Susan was built up by the media and was dropped down bitterly. And people like to see other's fall, the cruel nature of human being.

I once read the article written by Ian Dunt the journalist, "What Susan Boyle says about the UK", in which he pointed out "She (Susan Boyle) was, for all to see, just another victim of the celebrity machine. It sucks them in, uses them, and then spits them out: used and worthless." How true...!!!

Some people think it's Susan to blame, and their reason is: "If you can't stand the heat, then stay out of the kitchen.". It sounds reasonable, but this is, however, not Susan's case.

Throughout the whole event, Susan has done nothing wrong. Is it wrong that you got talent and that you wanna show it to everyone through an influential platform? No.

If you have a sense of diversity, a sense of understanding, then you should well understand that everyone grows up differently and has their own point of view towards everything and that when you're planning something or are about to do something, you simply cannot forsee what will happen along the way -- in both positive and negative sides. There's many a slip twixt cup and lip. Some people might say, in Susan's case, it's easy to predict that after she has gained an enormous fame, she's no way to escape dealing with enormous pressure and massive media, but Susan, being someone who has led a simple life all through her life, being a naive countryside peasant (no offence intended!), she has no experience dealing with media, she didn't even know how media works, how could she ever predict that she would be a victim of media and end up in clinique due to the overwhelming pressure that the media have given to her...? Maybe she didn't know how to handle fame and media appropriately, but is it her fault? Of course not...! You cannot blame the others for some abilities / capacities you have while the others don't, that would be simply selfish.

Media is surely to blame, and who else? Maybe it's us people. We're obssessed by celebrities these days, celebrities' personal lives takes equally the same space as airlines missing or Iraq War in the newspaper and it's absolutely not right! Why should we care if a famous person has a love affair out of his marriage? What does it bring to us if we knew all these? Why should we worship them and spend money on magazines revealing their (usually nasty) personal lives? Why are people into gossip so much? The ill nature of human being...! We've lost our manners and civilization and we're not born to be civilized, it has to be learnt. When someone has gained fame, does it mean that media can spit vicious words to him and that he's a part of their sinister game?And why should people blame Susan for what the media have done? Jolly unfair!

I sincerely hope Susan will recover soon and that she will find another platform to perform for smaller group of people, for those who really appreciate her talent and not just criticize her appearance.

On stage

2009-06-01T14:16:00.004+02:00

I've done my public violin exam beautifully in the concert hall of Antwerpen Muziek Academie with approximately 30 audiences watching including the judges, one of whom was accidently the uncle of my boyfriend, the director. Strangely enough, I was not nervous, my hands were not sweating. I was incredibly calm, for the first time in my life standing on the stage, only my lips were dry.

The atmosphere was pretty casual, it was a sunny afternoon, on the late side being 5pm, the sun was going down. The sunshine shone through the curtains with sparkling golden hue.

One thing I don't understand is why we had to play 4 pieces, but fine. I got away with it alright. I guess I played too fast, and as a result, I missed some notes, and my fingers were a bit stiff. Hardly did I finish the first piece, someone already began applause. :-P

Except for one piece, the rest 3 were rather childish (No wonder! I'm considered to be a beginner while I actually am not) which appealed the little ones. They were cheered!

The most impressive one was not me of course (which had to be expected), it was Anna, she played Souvenir de Buenos Aires beautifully...! Lore also did a fine job.

My final score was 90, which is really not bad at all.

How far am I from being a genius?

2009-06-01T14:00:00.004+02:00

I've been curious of how clever or how stupid I was for 10 years and now I finally have an idea thanks to www.iqtest.dk.

I've been a bit self-contemptuous for the past few years, I thought I was weird, stupid and unpopular (unpopular yes, weird in a positive way which I'm proud of, stupid? Maybe my physics results...)

It's all in a sudden that I decided to search an authoritative website where I could do an IQ test and the result had to be as accurate as possible.

And I found www.iqtest.dk.

My score was 107, a bit higher than average (being 100), within the range of "normal", not very satisfying, but what a relief...! My hubby has also done the test with a score of 130! And it's only one step away from Mensa level...!!! He's truly a genius (I knew he was intelligent but I didn't know he was that intelligent)...!

I've also done an EQ test and my score was seriously too low...!!! But I just wonder how can it be cause my IQ is pretty normal and my EQ being so low...!? But anyway, I'm now rather addicted to such kind of test and I'm going to explore it a bit more over internet.

The battle is not yet over.

Fyrinnae Foundation Moonstone

2009-05-27T23:43:00.003+02:00

A few days ago I found a cosmetics brand called Fyrinnae which has funny names for their products (hence why I wanted to try out this band initially) so I swapped for their foundation from MUA and immediately fell in love with it.

The shade is Moonstone which is considered to be the second lightest shade. Well, my skintone is not that fair but the problem is most mineral makeup just turns dark on me so I always go for a tad lighter shade for my skintone and this trick normally works.

Their foundations have two catagories: Regular and Superpower, under which they have Matte and Sheen formulations. Superpower is supposed for oily skin and has more coverage, which I fit the bill perfectly, so it should be perfect for me, but I couldn't be able to find it on MUA and I didn't wanna order it all the way from the USA sight unseen so I simply paid £4,5 to an MUAer and bought it off her.

So far, I really love it a lot, I need a lot of coverage, which the foundation doesn't provide, but the drawback is easily made up by the perfect shade (I've ordered 4 sample kits from Everyday Minerals and I still didn't find my right shade, whereas Fyrinnae doesn't offer such a big shade range as EDM does but I found my perfect shade immediately) and the more natural looking, cause EDM's formulations either don't have enough coverage or too chalky for me. So you now know how happy I am with this new foundation, absolutely HG status! I'm going to try their blushes and rice primer too, which both have good reputation, who knows? I might just stop searching in relation to the perfect foundation...! :-D

I like the style of their website too, dark and gothic. They have fun names for their eyeshadows which are related to vampire and East Asia. :-P

www.fyrinnae.com

Political Orientation

2009-05-27T23:39:00.003+02:00

Something happened to me and my hubby a few days ago, because of which my political orientation has changed dramatically: from right wing to extremely right wing. And I'm proud of this change and am willing to discuss it openly with everyone.

CoCo Avant Chanel

2009-05-18T18:37:00.003+02:00

I've just watched the hot hit French movie directed by a Luxembourgeois director Anne Fontaine, I've seen the trailer one month ago, looked interesting, though I didn't particularly want to spend 9 euro on such a film knowing that would be typically French style (so you know my taste now, I dislike French) but since my mother-in-law Anna got free tickets and she especially wanted to watch (she is a big fan of Audrey Tautou and expected something similar to Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain ). Fine, let's see where the film would lead me to.

I know little about Coco the founder of Chanel Empire, she was the mistress of a very rich guy and so on but there was no love between the two, she had a fine taste for dressing and she began designing hats, etc. All of which is reflected in the movie, though I don't know how true it is. Throughout the movie, I only felt French style Elegance and Arrogance. But the content of the movie was so pale that I couldn't say I liked it and I could only give it a score of 6 out of 10.

Catrice Absolute Moisture Lipstick

2009-04-18T16:08:00.003+02:00

Which young girl hasn't once dreamt about becoming an outstanding and elegant dancer as Dita Von Teese (please ignore Marilyn Manson)? And when she dances, oh my god! Pure grace...! And what makes she so special out of all the dancers/artists/models? Her graceful silhouette and her flawless makeup, always flawless, yes, the light-peach-coloured face and her signature Russian Red lips.

Russian Red?

Yes, Russian Red, not Scottish Red, not China Red, but Russian Red. It suits Dita perfectly. I always wonder, what if she used another colour? Would it still have that effect? The answer is probably no.

Ever since I had seen pictures of Dita, I've been hunting for the perfect lipstick. So far, Pout's Darling Heart is my absolute favourite, the colour and texture is just right, but unfortunately, since Pout has been discontinued, I had to search an alternative. And I found it, yet it's so cheap.

Let me present Catrice Absolute Moisture lipstick, shade number 090 Indian Brown.

Funny name, I know, and it's not brown at all, it's red, a bit at the dark side, the colour resembles to that of Pout's Darling Heart (no wonder! I took Darling Heart to the cosmetics shop in order to find a perfect match), but a bit darker than Darling Heart and no pink undertone, pure red. And the colour in the tube will be the true colour on your lips too.

It smells devine, like vanilla ice cream and the texture is no less than Pout's. It's absolutely moisturing and doesn't dry your lips at all. And what's more wonderful is, no matter how many times you re-apply, it won't get flaky and it does a good job at covering the veins on your lips. It's not perfect though, cause once you drink/eat, you'll detect the red colour on your cup or food but still, for the price (2,99euro) I should just shut up and enjoy using it to pamper my lips. I'll definitely buy other colours too, I'll even buy a back up for Indian Brown considering how much I love it!

Inspiration Source

2009-04-05T14:51:00.003+02:00

After having had a chat with my close friend about my little novel, I begin working on it again after it had been forgotten for so long. The most important factor of writing a book is of course inspiration, which is what I'm lacking of, that's why I stopped writing in the first place, until I find my inspiration again, but it has a reason of course.

One thing that inspires me constantly, is music, especially trance, classical and world music.

I recently discovered an interesting feature of Wikipedia: Random article. I would use this feature when I'm bored, and one day, suddenly, I was thinking, hey, this is interesting and somehow I can find links between two random articles, which gives me inspiration, and this is what I need for my book...!

So I tried to add the knowledge I got from the random articles into my books and it works well, and it blends into the stories seamlessly. And thanks to Wikipedia, my vision is broadening dramatically. :-)

每个人都有每个人的活法

2009-03-25T14:22:00.003+01:00

闲来无事，在网上查了一下小日向白朗（日本浪人，生于1900年，因为仰慕独自穿越西伯利亚的福岛安正，所以希望能来中国和西藏考察。他16岁来华，习得流利汉语，误打误撞地当了马贼，从此开始了他在中国长达半个世纪的波澜壮阔的一生）的生平。我曾经读过朽木寒三教授（我对日本人绝无好感，若是平白无故，断不会在某个日本人的姓名之前加上“教授”或“先生”一类的尊称，不过对朽木教授却是个例外，他是个只写“严肃著作”的教授）所著的一本书《日本浪人小日向白朗在中国的经历》，是在书市发现这本书的，买价一元。原本以为是奇遇记一类的故事（当时正上高中，对奇遇记着实着迷了一阵子），后来发现不是奇遇记的时候，对这本书已经欲罢不能了。

话题有点扯远了，且说我在网上找到的小日向的生平，要么是日文，要么就是被小说化的抗日故事中轻描淡写的叙述。正失望之际，发现了一个博客中提到了小日向（尽管也不是很详细），起因是因为一个日本电脑游戏公司推出了一本关于描写郑苹如（即使你不喜欢历史，只要你还读过张爱玲的小说，肯定对她不会陌生）、小日向、川岛芳子的游戏，而这几个人物的设定（身世etc.）实在太过离谱，无法让“正常中国人”接受（这里的“正常中国人”指的是“不是个哈日到没一根中国骨头的人”，是那位博主的原话。他在博客的署名是Solmyr，虽然不知道是从哪里得到的灵感所以取了这样的名字，但是我姑且先这样称呼他，料想他看到本文也决不会介意的），所以Solmyr立刻针锋相对地写了篇文，他在文章里面贴出了游戏海报（日文），自己还给翻译成中文（本人日语欠佳，仔细看了看海报，基本上什么都没看懂）。

这位仁兄或许正在读研，或许正在读博（不能赖我，是他的博客语焉不详），会日语，也会英语（不是那种你随便在中国大街上所面对的中国年轻人的那一类英语）。他的博客风趣幽默，对任何现象任何经典都敢打趣，似乎也很善于自嘲（我对这种人有着本能的尊重），即使是写日常发生的小事，也能写出一番特别的风格。

我是这么一种人：如果敬仰人家的作风、性格，立刻就想成为像对方那样的人。我仅仅是大致浏览了Solmyr的几篇文，立刻就对人家尊重的不得了，并且立誓我自己的博客风格也应该像他那样，然而这事儿明摆着行不通：人家的风格不是光靠学就能学来的。敬仰人家是一回事儿，至于能不能自己写出那种风格则是另一回事儿了（主要是能力问题）。这两者相差甚远，彼此也没啥因果关系。我总不能天真幼稚到"Love this flower and be the flower myself".

世界上既有专门写化妆品的博客，也有专写人生感怀的博客；既有专写体育的博客，也有专写音乐评论的博客。我可能喜欢很多人的博客，却不能成为这许多人。

每个人都有每个人的活法，不是么？生活本该如此。

谨在这里贴出Solmyr的原文网址：
http://solmyr.blogbus.com/logs/14126859.html

Multi Colour Rouge "Pacific Beauty"

2009-03-22T14:18:00.003+01:00

It's soooo predictable that I would buy their newly launched blush...! And I use it everywhere on my face cause every colour has its own function: the cream for highlighting your nose bridge, the beige for adding nosewing shadow, the light brown for contouring your face, the dark brown as an eye shadow, but ironically, I just can't use it as a blush and I don't intend to either...! :-D

Verdict:

The packaging is very simple, after all, I didn't pay for the packaging either, but as a low end, the quality is amazing, it performs no less than some high end products...! As you've already sensed, I'm more to the low end side. Nowadays I almost don't use high end anymore. I used to use them but was very disappointed by their performance, especially Christian Dior Ultra Mat foundation. It's just disgusting (I don't wanna discuss the details here)...! After having tried so many brands and products, I realized that I don't need to spend a fortune on cosmetics if I can get almost the same result from low end brands that are comparable to high end. And certainly since my acne has improved a lot recently, I'm not so demanding on the coverage of foundation anymore, most of the time I don't even need a concealer...! And I hate those cliché from high end brands, they definitely have beautiful packagings and new concepts only to tempt women to buy more from them...!

But I do have my favourite high end brand which is Pout, the one and only, if it were not out of business, I would use it forever. I still have some products from this legendary brand and I'll introduce all of them to my readers. And I'll tell you why I like it too.

PS Kruidvat is going to have promotion on Catrice, Essence and Gosh. It would be a shame if I don't take advantage of it. :-P

Catrice Blush Brush

2009-03-18T15:35:00.000+01:00

Bought the recently lauched Catrice blush brush and have used it for a week, here comes the review...

The first thing that caught my attention about the brush is elegance. It's flat, oval-shaped, the handle is 5 cm and the joint part with the bristles is coated with metal, the colour is deep wine red/purple which looks professional, the top of the bristles is a bit wide though to my liking. It's very soft and feels really good on my skin and you won't overdo your blushes with it unless you intend to do so. It claims that it works perfectly with the new Catrice Mineral Soft Powder Rouge, which is true, I was really positively surprised by that...! I can already give it five stars for this! And when I apply loose mineral blushes, it however proforms less well than it does with Catrice blushes (I guess it's partly my fault, cause I chose those insanely pigmented EDM blushes that only work well with skunk brushes), but it's not a problem at all. It's a perfectly sized blush brush that fits into any makeup bag and is ideal to use on vacation.

For reference, the price is 3,49 Euro, which makes it a real winner amongst most of the blush brushes out there available on the market, low end or high end.

A Big Letdown... :-(

2009-03-17T15:26:00.000+01:00

I've been a big fan of the genius British DJ Chicane ever since 2003, I love all his albums (especially Behind The Sun and Far From The Maddening Crowds) and I was excited to have discovered his relatively new single "Bruised Water" which is supposed to be a combination of his hot hit "Saltwater" and Natasha Bedingfield's "I Bruise Easily", and I have to say, I'm very disappointed...!

Out of curiosity, I listened to the original version of Natasha's "I Bruise Easily" before listening to "Bruised Water" and in my humble opinion there's no highlight in it, it's just a pop song that's appealing to pop fans but not to trance fans.

"Bruised Water" is typically Chicane's style, featuring relaxing percussion and 110-120 bpm breakbeat, which is very recognizable amongst Chicane fans, the opening line is Saltwater's percusion which cannot be mistaken, and then, Natasha's voice emerges... Ok, let me make it simple: the foreground music is "I Bruise Easily" and the background is "Saltwater", neither of them being slightly adapted. I fail to see how Chicane, or anyone, can simply combine the two songs that're so different from each other in every way. But on the other hand, the idea of combining pop and trance is sooooo "original", if you know what I mean...

Of lipstick/lipgloss

2009-03-16T23:41:00.001+01:00

We all have the experience of impulsively buying cosmetics, especially lipsticks/lipglosses and only after having tried them at home do we find out that they actually don't suit us, and we have to either throw them away or return them to the shop (not an option in Belgium). What problems can there possibly be with lipsticks/lipglosses? The colour is too dark? Too harsh? Causing flakes? The texture is not quite right? Can these problems be solved?

Mostly yes...!

Cream colour lipglosses can easily tone down the harsh/dark colour and after a coating of clear lipgloss your lipstick won't be that flaky anymore.

After Catrice (yes I know, Catrice again...! :-P) had launched their new lipglosses I immediately rushed to the shop and picked one up, an unexpected one called Vanilla Cream (ok, the only reason why I bought it was because the name reminds me of my favourite Pout foundation Vanilla Cream). The colour is creamy pale yellow (!!!) with shimmer. I didn't try it in the shop, I hoped it would be a wearable shade, it was however, according to me, not that wearable, much to my disappointment.

A few days after I bought a lipstick which I thought would suit me but turned out to be too dark, and then I thought, maybe I could use Vanilla Cream to tone it down, and you know what, the result was fab...! I once used Vanilla Cream to reduce the flakes and it worked well too. So let's say, the only function of cream colour lipglosses is to tone down the harsh colour. If you don't wanna throw away your way-too-dark or flake-maker lipsticks, keep a cream coloured lipglosses in your makeup bag, and you won't be sorry...!

Dilemma

2009-03-12T12:31:00.000+01:00

As a young girl, I love cosmetics (who doesn't?), but I'm not crazy for cosmetics, I tend to be a minimalist, but it's just not possible! Now that my collection is growing (slowly but surely), it even frightens me...! There're several blushes that serve me as daily blush, and sometimes I don't know which to choose, I would just stare them for several minutes, comparing each other under the poorlit bathroom light, putting strokes on the back of my hand, in the end, because I lose so much time considering which to use, I would be just forced to quickly pick one -- any one -- that I think would fit my mood and dress, which probably is the wrong one... -_-

There are blushes that I only used once and twice and then have to swap them away on MUA, so I'm very careful when buying cosmetics. But there're so many wonderful beauty items out there and it's hard to resist. For example, the newly launched Multi-Colour Rouge "Pacific Beauty" from Catrice (they recently launched many lovely items, especially blushes, and I happen to be a big fan of blushes): There're 4 colours in a square plastic palette: creamy, beige, light brown, dark brown. In my opinion, it's a highly multi-functional item: The creamy colour can be used as a highlighter, the beige and light brown can be used as a blush, the dark brown can be used as contouring face and on nosewing as shadow, or even as an eyeshadow...! That's why I think maybe I get to have it, but I'll wait until there're some reviews cause I know there're many Catrice fans in the Nederlands, they like to sample whatever Catrice launches. :-P

Nivea Mild Exfoliating Scrub

2009-03-11T22:47:00.000+01:00

It almost feels embarrassing but I must confess that I had never used any face scrub until January 2009. I just didn't see the need of using it. We clean our face twice a day so it would be more than logical that there's no dead cel on our face, this is, however, not true.

I didn't bother with the idea of using face scrub until last December, when I applied my Everyday Minerals foundation as usual, after I was done, I noticed that there were flakes peeling off just like an old painting...! Awww...!!! So I began to wonder what's wrong with the foundation or rather... myself?

I went through some research and drew the conclusion: I needed face exfoliating.

So the next thing to do was to find a good brand, I ebayed "exfoliating" as key word and what caught my eyes was Burt's Bees Face Scrub, it was reasonably priced, but not the postage, I was frustrated and tried hard to forget it... -_-

The next day when I was at my local drug store, I saw Nivea Mild Exfoliating Scrub. The package was nice, but was it suitable for me?

yes, if you have normal or combination young skin

yes, if you want a gentle scrub for peachy-soft skin

Well, I guess I fit the bill, not 100% though (my skin is oily), so I bought it (around 5 euro). On the same day I already tried it, and the result was...

AMAZING...!

I haven't felt my skin being so soft for years, the softness was something I've been after, and now I finally have it, only after one time of face exfoliating, can you believe it? It's a wonder-in-a-tube! What a surprise!!! And it's only 5 euro! Plus, you don't need to use it daily, once per week is already more than enough. :-D

The exfoliators are very finely milled so they won't hurt your delicate skin even if you exfoliate hard and they have a hint of pleasant smell, massage it onto your face for 5 minutes and then rinse it off, you can already feel the significant difference: your skin is peach-soft. And when you apply your foundation (especially mineral foundation), you'll see your skin gets less flakes or no flakes at all...!

For those of you who want to try a good face exfoliating scrub and in the meantime still wanna keep a small budget rather than throw out your hard earned money on those big brands, try this one! :-D

"Peach", "Apricot" and "Soft Copper"

2009-03-11T14:14:00.000+01:00

Remember that I'll write a review about the 3 blushes from Alverde? Here they are! But, dear readers, I'm very sorry, I can't be able to upload my own photos wearing them, cause I myself look so ugly (it has nothing to do with the blushes!) and it's just bleh...! But still, I wanna keep my promise and at least say something over them...

Peach: The texture is very velvety and silk-like, I'm not sure if it has something to do being organic, though the concept of being organic sounds very appealing to most ladies nowadays cause we're more and more aware of what's inside the things that we use daily (plus we use them on our face...!). I've read an scientific article somewhere stating that the so-called cosmetics that the ancient Greek and Egyptians used contained mercury...! And do you have any idea what it is...? I bet you don't want to know. :-D

Ok, back to the topic, we were talking about Peach, yes, it feels good on my face and everything is ideal, except for one thing: it doesn't show up on my face...! Well, I'm NC 25 in MAC, I consider my skintone as "Fair-Medium", more to the fair side, though I have a yellow undertone being Asian. I didn't even think about if the blush would show up on my face cause I didn't have the problem with any blushes before (partly because I always chose heavily pigmented blushes, so it's me to blame... -_-), and now that I encounter this problem, I finally realized that I'm not that "fair" (but, how many Asians have you seen that truly have a fair skintone? Not many, I bet). So although I like it a lot, I'm afraid I have to swap it away on MUA... -_-

Apricot: Aha! This one shows up on my face and it's lovely...! :-D The texture is the same as that of Peach, and the colour on my face is mid-dark pink. I guess I won't use it as often as it's supposed to be cause I just have too many blushes...!

Soft Copper: It goes on sheer, smoothly glides onto my skin leaving a nice finish. I just hope it won't break me out, or else I'll be forced to swap it away. But so far so good, well, we will see...

Will upload some pictures soon.

Newly launched blushes from Catrice...!

2009-03-07T14:38:00.000+01:00

Actually I already bought one of their newly launched blushes in the shade Wild Rose two weeks ago and I'm very pleased with it. I normally refer to the description on their website before making purchases but there was no description available back then so I impulsively bought it only because it's so beautiful, and it's made from mineral. I'm very into mineral these days. Also, it cost only 2,99 euro, if I didn't like it, it's no big deal, but I do like it a lot so it's well worth it. :-)

Terra Brown:

Wild Rose is muted pink (the official swatch is simply useless, it's not that bright) with tiny bit shimmer which is not noticeable at all once applied, so it's not bling bling, the shade is not special, but since I'm a big fan of Catrice, and I've fallen for the cute little packaging so I got to have it. I might also get Coral Sand, who knows? :-)

And yet another item from them to mention: The Limited Edtion Collection "Aurora" that will be launched in April, what caught my attention is (again!) their blush named Sunrise, what's so special about it? Its gradating shades! From light pink to mid dark pink with red under tone. I'm not a big fan of pink but the design of the page for this limited edition is so artistic! It's pink and soft yellow that are perfectly aligned which gives me a serenity feeling inside, which I haven't felt for a long time.

www.catrice.eu

A Big Surprise!

2009-03-06T15:33:00.000+01:00

This Monday I received a long awaited package full of Everyday Minerals foundations and blushes from a MUAer (e.g. member of www.makeupalley.com) and it was full of surprises for me (in both way though)...! The negative surprise was that she didn't reseal the jars (the products being used) with tapes so when I opened the jars... oh my god! Powder flying everywhere! Mostly on my shirt and my bed sheet... (I'll have a good time washing them... -_-)! And the positive surprise was that she included tons of lovely extras (I initially swapped for her brand new full sized Linen and Fair Neutral both in intensive formula, and mini sized Snuggle and Sunkissed Fair in intensive): Best Friends in mini jar (I actually already have Best Friends), Morning Cup in sample jar, Multi-Intensive Concealer in sample jar, Fair Medium (intensive) in sample jar and Sunkissed Fair (intensive) in sample jar. The lovely lady is so generous and is truly proven to be a gem on MUA. :-D

(Sorry for not being able to provide photos of the foundations, it's only because I've mixed them for better shades)

And the biggest surprise was... Snuggle is such an amazing and radiant blush... (I've been lemming it for a while but didn't have the chance to try it)! Simply beautiful...! It's a combination of pink and coral with shimmer and it makes my face glow. It has a little shimmer but not too much (I'm not a fan of shimmery things) and the shimmer doesn't annoy me at all, cause when I blend the blush, the shimmer goes off. If applied with a light hand, it's very dolce vita. :-) I guess it will be flattering on many skin tones from very fair to dark/olive. Definitely a keeper and probably will become one of my HG blushes, but the rating on MUA is not very high, it's in my opinion really underrated.

And another minor surprise, negative though: Morning Cup. It's a blush, and it's grey! I can't imagine who can possibly put grey on their face as a blusher...! I don't see the point why it's categorized as a blusher, it can be a good eye shadow though. So needless to say, I have to swap it away. But seems it's not too bad according to other MUAers, which I seriously don't understand. @_@

EM is discontinuing some really nice blushes and if I want to have them, I have to buy them now.

PS I'm afraid I can only admire the beauty of Bourjois's newly lauched lipstick/lipgloss (I think it's only available in Belgium at the moment) rather than buying it cause the price is simply too steep (11,9 euro for 6ml, if calculated by the price per mililiter, it's actually more expensive than any of Estée Lauder's lipgloss (15,6 euro for 10ml, this is the RRP in Belgium)). So you see, a drool hanging Fan sadly admiring her new discovery in Bourjois but cannot have them herself... Truly sad... :-(

Mariage D'amour

2009-03-02T18:44:00.000+01:00

I first heard this melody back in 13 years ago. Richard Clayderman was over popular in China back then (that's how his music became super market music, haha) and I was addicted in his albums (but now I realized how commercial his music is) and listened to them over and over again until I got fed up with them, but there're particularly some songs that I still like very much now, and you bet what I'm gonna do with them. I'll make my versions out of them! :-D

So this is Mariage d'amour, a romantic one. And I only made it more dreamy. I've finished it long time ago with Overture (another music edit/compose software I use, but I don't like it so much cause the result is in their own format that cannot be played by any media player), and last week I "copied" it on Cakewalk. It took me a whole week back then to rewrite this song, and today I made some small changes. I do hope you will like it dear readers (though at this moment I only have Izar ^_^):

Click here for the original one. It's played by Richard Clayderman.

Click here for my version: This time I uploaded the unconverted midi version! ^_^

If you're interested in the music sheets, just a message and I'll be more than glad to send it to you. :-)

No.18

2009-03-01T16:56:00.000+01:00

One of my greatest passions is: music editing and (re)mixing. Whenever I hear sweet music, I try to make a version of my own based on the original ones. What software/equipment do I use? Well, I have no money for a turn table (a decent one is normally more than 10 thousand euros, to give you an idea) and I only have Cakewalk. It's a wonderful software that allows users to compose music, so far, I haven't really composed any music of my own and I only use it for remix other's music and I'm having great fun! :-D I'm currently using cakewalk 9,0 which I bought back in 9 (!!) years ago on a book market in China, but I only used it on and off, cause as a high school student, I was busy with my studies and thus had not much time for my hobbies, and now I have plenty of time so I decided to pick up this old hobby of mine again. :-D

It looks like this:

This is the main panel that gives you a good overview of every function panel and menu. You can mute any channel (e.g. instrument) or change the key (e.g. tone).

This is one of two forms that allows you to edit music, it's easy for expert to use.

This is another form of how you make/remix your music, it's called "piano roll", which is my favourite form to remix music. Why? Cause it's easier to navigate than the above one and you have all the options before you just by a click! Also, if you don't quite know how music sheets/notes work, or if you're not familiar with the theory part, then the piano scroll is definitely something for you...! :-D

I very much like to remix good music and then change the tempo/instruments, which brings a dramatic effect compared with the original ones. I've already remixed a lot of music in China, but unfortunately my computer crashed and I lost almost all my work...!!! It was a severe blow to me and I had been upset for quite a long time cause it's my 3 years' work...!!!

So far, I mostly only remix instrumental music, cause I can't find a virtual instrument in my cakewalk database that actually resembles human vocal, which is a great shame (I'll ask my friend to order a higher version of cakewalk for me in China, mine is very basic and don't forget that I bought it 9 years ago).

So here it goes, I finished this piece quite a long time ago but I was not (and am still not 100%) satisfied with it compared to the original, which is so beautiful and lively. But I decided to share it with my blog viewers anyway and all comments are eagerly welcomed! :-D

Click here for the original one (it's from a Chinese PC game which I loved a lot, and I still do ^_^):

Click here for my edition 1: A slower version of it, 2 semi tones lower, which makes it simple and sweet, the two instruments are harp and celesta which I'm very very fond of...! You can hear the two instruments in almost all my work. :-D

Click here for my edition 2: Another slower version of it, and 3 semi tones lower. When being converted from midi to mp3, the sound of each instrument has been changed and I'm not very happy about that. I made it much slower than the original one so the styles changed dramatically from cheery to sentimental. :-)

Personally speaking, I think the second edition is a good work, and now I'd like to hear your opinion, even if you know nothing about music...! :-D

Daytrip to Aachen

2009-02-28T11:43:00.000+01:00

I never understand why Aachen always looks so grey, it's almost depressing, and unexceptionally, it was raining too, but not too hard, so that I could still enjoy wandering on the shopping street of Aachen in the rain... :-P

My boyfriend has been staying in Aachen, Germany for a week for his job, he was having a training in Aachen, yesterday was Friday and he could finally pack his stuff and go home, and since I've always been wanting to visit this lovely city so I decided to come here today, do some shopping and then go back to home with him. I would meet him in the afternoon, around 3pm. So that I still had enough time enjoying myself doing (window)shopping. :-D

I had the address with me, and I managed to find the shop DM (it has been my favourite shop since 2005, it's a chain supermarket store which keeps on surprising me, unfortunately, it's not available in Belgium) under the help of a friendly lady, I didn't spend much time and money there, cause I knew if I beg my boyfriend sweetly, he wouldn't mind spending some bucks for me. :-P So all I had to do was to drag him here. :-D

When I stepped out of the shop, something unexpectedly happened: two German girls stopped me and told me that my jeans was almost completely wet...!! I stared them blankly for some seconds and then immediately realized what happened: I didn't close my drink bottle tight enough so the drink spilled everywhere in my backpack...!!! How embarrassing...!!! I thanked them and tried to cover it with my long coat but it didn't help so much. I sat in a bench thinking how miserable it could be, and it happened on me. I wanted to pay a visit to Douglas, a high end cosmetics store, but I couldn't just walk into the shop like this of course. It was already 1pm so I decided to get something to eat before my miserable feeling killed me.

I went to a Turkish eatery (I can hardly call it a restaurant) where I had been to before. The only difference was, this time I was alone. So, making an order in German became a primary problem, it was like "Hallo, ich.... eh... ein pizza, well... hmm... kein kä...käse... danke!" Thank God he understood me without any problem and after merely 10 minutes' waiting I got a very nice large tuna pizza without cheese and it cost only 4,5 euro! :-D When I stepped out of the eatery, my mood changed dramatically and my jeans was completely dry! :-D

I've been waiting in the train station for my boyfriend for almost one hour. He was not late, it's me, I was way too early. I bought a bottle of Cherry Coke and then settled down on the bench near the exit watching people passing by...

♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪

So many times, I've overflowed
So many faces come and go
I play my dice, into the sun
And try to work out what you are to me...

Hardly any businessmen here. Only groups of cheerful students and tired travellers, am I one of them...?

My boyfriend finally came, he looked cheery and jolly, we went to DM again, only this time another one (I've no idea how many DM stores in Aachen, but at least 4, I bet).

On the day before I went to Germany, I've already carefully read Izar's posts about Alverde (her posts have been super helpful...!), trying not to skip a single word. And now I'm excited to see the brand in reality myself. I've been testing all their blushes on the back of my hands for more than 20 minutes, picking this up and putting that down, like a little girl in toy shop. I had no idea which ones to choose cause they all looked so beautiful so I asked my boyfriend's opinion, and as usual, he had no opinion at all. :-P He doesn't like me wearing cosmetics and he doesn't understand why I need to cover up those annoying pimples. Maybe he thinks that the pimples have been on my face long enough to be a part of me? Or maybe he thinks even those pimples reflect my "natural beauty"!? Who knows?

I finally made my choice, I picked up two powder blushes: Apricot (01) and Peach (02) (2,95 Euro each)and a cream blush in the shade Soft Copper (02) (3,25 euro). Their powder blushes are packed in a lovely apple green plastic (not metal -_-) compact and they smell like black locust which reminds me of my childhood whereas the cream blush is packed in a smaller silver plastic tin. Both of the packagings are very stylish and pretty cool, in my opinion. Cause they're so different than the packagings of MAC or Chanel etc. which I'm not so fond of, cause they unexceptionally look cold and less bright.

Apricot is rosy pink, with a hint of plum, it looks dark in the pan, but let me assume it won't look so dark on my face, cause most low end blushes go on sheer, which is a bless for me. I always tend to apply my blushes with a heavy hand and I always end up looking like a hilarious clown. :-(

Peach is mild coral, it would be a very good everyday-look blush and if I don't fancy anything adventurous then I'm sure I'll reach for it. :-)

Soft Copper looks a bit coppery as the name suggests, but still you can sense some rosy tints (red, plum, but not mauve, luckily) in it. I'm not a big fan of cream blushes cause I have super oily skin and cream blushes have the tendency to clog your pores as I was told, but still I couldn't resisit Soft Copper but had to buy it cause it's such a unique shade. :-P

And a photo of these three lovely blushes:

Next week I'll try to write a specific review with my photos wearing the three blushes. :-)

On the train back to Belgium, when blankly looking out of the window, I was thinking maybe someday I should go back to Aachen again, to do some shopping, to wander on the cobblestones, to indulge myself in the colourful world of DM, maybe very soon, maybe already next week. Who knows?

♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪

Inside my eyes, the answer lies
Something I can't see
Another day, another way
It's all the same to me, to me...

Preface

2009-02-27T00:37:00.000+01:00

First and foremost, I wanna express my appreciation to Izar, a Hungarian girl.

The whole story is like this:

Me being a cosmetics junkie, constantly searching for my ultimate Holy Grail, especially foundation and blush. Tomorrow (Oops! Already today! I've just noticed the time!) I'll be going to Germany and would like to visit some local cosmetics stores there. I searched the website of DM and found a brand called Alverde. I've fallen for their sleek and slender apple green metallic (at least they look like metallic, it would surprise me if they're plastic) packagings (Love at first sight! Once again!) and decide to buy some tomorrow when I'm there (initially, I was searching for a MAC boutique in Germany but learned the prices are out of my small budget). I did some studies and searched for this brand Alverde, the results I got were mostly in German which is Greek for me...! I was about to give up, and then I came across Izar's blog, a cosmetics junkie just like me...! She has detailed reviews plus pictures which helped me to gain a clear insight for this brand. I read all her reviews related to Alverde with great interest and I am very grateful to her, what's more, I discovered later on that she's also a big fan of Everyday Minerals (which I'll call it EM from now on) and Depeche Mode and Enya. I truly want to get to know her, to say the least, to become a good friend of her and to share my reviews of a-little-bit-of-everything with her. In order to do that, I must open a blog of my own of course, so this is my motive of writing all these words above. I'll try to continue writing and hope that my blog might be the inspiration of somebody, which would be great...

A big thank-you to Izar and everyone who views my blog! You know who you are!