Revisiting: Coastal Scents Blush and Contour Palette

Happy monday everyone! I know that a lot of you have work today, but I'm happy because I don't have anything to do today! Just some typing. :) So anyway, back to regular programming.. Today I will be revisiting my Coastal Scents Blush and Contour Palette. You can see my original post HERE 

I already posted my swatches in my previous post, so I won't get into it again. After using this for more than a year, Here's what I have to say. I think that this palette performs very well for its price. The white color and slightly yellowish color do a good job for highlighting. The brown color for is just right for contouring. I noticed, though, that these colors are not very long-lasting. Staying power is average. The light pink color is not very useful, since it's very light and practically blends with my skintone. This can only be used for people with darker skintones and you want a slightly pinkish highlight. The two blush colors on the right are very pigmented. Be very careful when applying these to people with light skintones, as it's easy to overdo this on them!

For those who are trying their hand on highlighting and contouring, this is a great palette! Plus it will take forever to finish since the pans are so big! However, if and when I finish this, I will be upgrading to a more long-lasting set :)

Gel Liner Showdown: MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack vs. Stila Smudgepot in Black

Hello dearies! I have a lot of work to do but I took a quick break to post this entry LOL! I love gel liners. I don't know why haha. That's why I bought both Stila Smudgepots and MAC Fluidline. I put both to the test to show you which withstood more. I'll also reveal which one is my favorite.

First let's go look at the product. The Stila Smudgepot you see here is not the full size. It's the mini size I got as part of a set. The full size of the Stila Smudgepot is bigger than the MAC Fluidline that you can see on your left.

MAC Fluidline: P1,100

Stila Smudgepot Full size: P695 (I'm not sure as I bought this from Ebay)

Packaging: I find that MAC has better plastic, since Stila's plastic cover is made of thin plastic, as opposed to MAC's cover which is made of thick plastic.

So here are the swatches. MAC Fluidline on the left and Stila Smudgepot on the right.

 

As you can see, both liners make a good black, dry fast, although I find that MAC Fluidline is a teeny tiny bit creamier than Stila Smudgepot.

An on to the test. After waiting for both of them to dry, I rubbed both hard with my dry finger. Let's see what happened:

 

As you can see, MAC Fluidline smudged quite badly while Stila Smudgepot smudged just a tiny bit, although it's hard to see in the photo.

I wet both of them through running water:

 

Both showed no change.

Then while they were still wet, I tried rubbing both with my finger.

 

Both smudged a bit, but just a little bit as compared to it's previous state.

So who won? Well, obviously it was my Stila Smudgepot. I've said this a lot of times in Girltalk, Stila is definitely my favorite brand for gel liners! It got everyone beat. Plus it's cheaper than MAC Fluidline but has more product. Yey Stila!

Tip: Right after dipping your brush, close the jar immediately! Or else it will dry up.

To see another eyeliner showdown (Coastal Scents vs. MAC Fluidline), Click here

Haul Pt. 2: ELF and Saizen

The pictures I previously posted wasn't the end of my haul! Haha. My ELF Studio Line haul arrived after more than 1 month of waiting. We took advantage of the 50% off sale they had. Thank you September for hosting this pool. Please NOTE that I payed for this around 6 weeks in advance and I did not pay for them around the time that I did my previous haul. :P I'm not that rich.

And so, on to the pics:

These are all synthetic brushes, and yes they are soft. But the eyeshadow "C" brush is ginormous! I'm hoping it will work well because I don't like the looks of it. It's so wide (as wide as the CS big fluff brush) but not fluffy. Everything else looks good though.

I'm trying the double-ended eye primer and liner sealer, eyebrow treat and tame, eyebrow kit and the much-raved about contouring blush and bronzing powder. I bought the primer and liner sealer for the liner sealer. The reviews of the liner sealer are good but the eye primer has mixed reviews :P I've already tried the colored end of the eyebrow treat and tame and I think it's ok. I have yet to try the eyebrow kit, though. I've tried the blush and bronzer. I wish the bronzer didn't have glitters so I can use it as a contour instead, but hey, it did say bronzer. I tried it on and to my surprise, it stayed on the whole day! And guys, you know how oily my skin is :P

When I met up with September, I also adopted some of her babies. Yey! I also got her Life and Companion Brushes. I love them! They're cheap, and the right size for my small lids. The bad news is that some brushes shed, some don't.

Moving on, today I went to Saizen to buy the much-raved about charcoal mask but didn't find any! It's all gone! But I did buy some stuff: brow stencils, 2 roux sticks, an eyelash glue and an eyebrow coat. I'm curious about this since I've never seen one before :P I'll give a review about it.

That's all folks!

Collection Shots: Coastal Scents

I got this tag from Martha last month but I only got around doing it now. Anyway, I know most of you were expecting MAC items or something but I honestly don't have much MAC stuff so I decided to show you my Coastal Scents collection.

Here is the rule:

TAKE A PICTURE OF YOUR MAKE- UP ITEMS WITH A PARTICULAR BRAND, PREFERABLY THE BRAND THAT DOMINATES YOUR MAKE- UP STASH. DOESN'T MATTER IF IT'S JUST 3 OR 4 AS LONG AS IT'S THE BRAND THAT DOMINATES YOUR STASH

And on to my pics. Here are my 3 eyeshadow palettes:

Here is my 42 matte eyeshadow and blush stack, my 6-piece contour palette (1 pan broke, huhu) and my new 66 lip palette. I haven't gotten around to using it yet.

And my gel liners in Silk White, 24K, Platinum and Truffle.

I prefer buying in palettes since I don't have a big budget for makeup actually. And yes, I bought them one or two at a time.

Well, til next time folks!

Light Blue and Purple Look + Award

Hello my dear readers! I'm really sorry I've been MIA for a while. But the good news is, my laptop is finally working so I can finally blog properly again. Anyway, I'd just like to share with you a sort of blue and purple look. All the eyeshadows are from my Coastal Scents 88 Shimmer Palette. I rarely wear colorful eyeshadow, so my friends aren't used to it. Please excuse the small gap in the crease of my left eye. I think I scratched my eye accidentally. LOL.

FACE
Sweetscents Hide-a-pore in Medium
Ellana Sheer Velvet Finishing Powder
Earthen Glow Minerals Cover Me Foundation in Yuan Yuan
Milan Minerals Perfect Presentation
Dollface Cosmetics 15-piece concealer

EYES
UDPP
Covergirl Brow and Eye Maker in Midnight Brown
Coastal Scents 88 Shimmer Palette
MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack
Coffret D'or Liquid Eye Pen in Natural
Loreal Telescopic Mascara

CHEEKS
Coastal Scents 42-piece matte and blush set

LIPS
Ellana Lip Gloss in First Kiss

Anyway, I received this award from Mitch!

RULES:

Grab this award on my blog by leaving a comment on this post, a smiley face will do hehe. Please make a post of this award on your blog then link the person who gave this award to you. Also, you must pass this award on to bloggers you choose.

I'm passing this award to:
Martha
Nlng*Star

Anyway, my Ecotools Retractable Kabuki broke! WAhhh! I read about this happening to someone and now it's happened to me :( Luckily it's fixable.

Just a reminder, if you're from the Philippines, you still have time to join my giveaway!

Coastal Scents Contour and Blush Palette

I finally got my hands on the Coastal Scents contour and blush palette. I was really surprised how big they were! I expected small pans, but the pans were as big as a face powder! The whole container is around the size of the CS 28 neutral palette.

Here are swatches of them, taken from top to bottom, left to right:

The second swatch to the left can hardly be seen because it's so close to my skin color. The powders are smooth and not chalky. Being a performer, it's nice to have a contour palette so I can contour my face easily. It's also very easy to mix colors using this.

MAC Fluidline in Dipdown vs. Coastal Scents Gel Liner in Truffle

I was inspired by Nikki's Stila Smudgepots in Black vs. Coastal Scents Gel Liner in True Black post. I decided to do this for a brown color, since I use brown gel liners more often than black because brown gives a softer look. Anyway, for this post, I'm comparing Coastal Scents Gel Liner in Truffle (left) and MAC Fluidline in Dipdown (right).

Seen in the picture below, I swatched a few strips of the CS (left) and the MAC (right).



I waited for 5 minutes for these two brands to dry. Then, I smudged them with my hand. Here is how they looked like:

As you can see, the CS smudged more than the MAC. Although it's not very clear from the picture, my MAC Fluidline smudged as well.

In the next picture, I place my arm under running water.

As you can see, there are no changes in the swatch. Both stayed put.

So, to give a more detailed look at each gel liner, let's break it down one-by-one.

Price: Coastal Scents Gel Liners retail for $6.95 each online, while MAC Fluidline is available locally for P1,100 (approx $22). Unfortunately, though, shipping from Coastal Scents is really expensive. Keep reading to find out how you can order this without the killer shipping fee.

Color: It's not very obvious from the pictures, but I find that MAC Dipdown is a little darker than CS Truffle.

Texture: CS Truffle is creamier than MAC Dipdown.

Smudge Factor: As seen in the picture, CS Truffle smudges more easily than MAC Dipdown. The creaminess of CS Truffle might have something to do with it.

Waterproof Factor: Based on the swatches I did, the waterproof-ness of both are the same. It's pretty hard to remove these with soap and water. A good makeup remover is needed.

So what is the final verdict? Overall, I find that MAC Fluidline works better than me. Although, being really oily and single-lidded, I find that I can't stay absolutely crease-free even with UDPP! Yes, it's that bad!


Tips

• When I use my CS gel liner, I put a fan in front of my face to speed up the drying time.
• If you want to order from CS but don't want to deal with the expensive shipping price, you can order from The Makeup Mix Shop. Go to Toma's blog to find the link (http://www.makeupmasala.com/). I believe that she has a limited supply left so hurry!
• Gel liners dry up right away so be sure to keep the lid tightly closed.

Well, that's all for now! Hope that helped!

Post-Christmas Lemmings!

I know I just finished my Christmas shopping but all this blog-hopping has left me lemming for some eye products!

Do I want the Aromaleigh Pure Drama Eyeliners (that I've been lemming for since I read Phoebe's blog)? They're really pretty.

photo taken from www.aromaleigh.com

Or the Coastal Scents Gel liners that I saw swatches of in another blog?

photo taken from www.coastalscents.com

Or both?

It's a good thing none of these two companies are on sale right now so my wallet can rest for a little while. I might decide to wait for a sale.

I'm also lemming for a brush belt/case and a train case. I use a toolbox, but my stuff can't fit there anymore. Regarding the brush belt/case, I don't know which one to buy. Can anyone recommend a good one?

Of course, I'm also starting to collect more nail products, which I'll post in the next few days.

My Coastal Scents Palettes

Okay, first of all, I'd like to apologize for not being able to blog so much. December is my busiest month of the year, with all the Christmas concerts. Well, at least that means I have more money to spend on makeup and skincare! Just kidding. I'll really try to blog more often this coming January.

Anyway, moving on, I received my Coastal Scents 88 palette (the original one, not the shimmer). I promise that this is THE LAST eyeshadow palette that I will buy since I already have all the other palettes that I want. My only lament is that I wished that I bought all of my palettes together instead of buying them one-by-one so I would have saved P200 (around $4) extra on shipping.

Here's a pic of the 88 palette (left) side-by-side with the 88 shimmer palette (right):

As you can see, the shimer palette is indeed more shimmery. I read that the original palette is supposed to have matte and frost shadows, but actually, some of the shadows from the original palette are also shimmery. There are actually a few pans in the palette that are exactly the same as the one in the shimmer palette. Like they said, the 88 original palette is a little more pigmented than the shimmer palette, but I like the shimmer palette nonetheless because I like shimmer! Can you blame me?

So now, here is my family of Coastal Scents palettes:

from left to right: 88 palette, 88 shimmer palette, 28 neutral palette

The next day, I had to play with my new palette so here's a day look I made. Please forgive my messy hair. It was still wet when I shot the picture.

FACE:
Bare Naturals S5 Primer
Milan Minerals Oil at Bay
Ellana Sheer Velvet HD Powder in White Chocolate
Dreamworld Foundation Luna formulation in Themis
Joppa Dewy Finishing Silk in Sheer

EYES:
Monave Versatile Mineral Powder in Semi-matte Beige as base
Coastal Scents 88 palette 8th column, 1st row on lids
Coastal Scents 88 palette 10th column, 6th row on crease
Coasta Scents 88 palette 1st column, 3rd row as highlighter

CHEEKS:
Ellana blush in Heaven

LIPS:
Ellana liquid lip color in Allure

CS Palette and My First Nail Art!

Look what I got today! The CS neutral palette! I got the 88 shimmer palette before and loved it, so I decided to get the neutral palette as well! Since I don't use eyeshadows all the time, I promise not to get anymore palettes (except maybe the 88 matte palette!). The CS palettes are my only non-mineral makeup aside from my MAC Blot. Even just looking at the palette, I realized that sis Aika was right. The shades here are different from the neutral shades found in the 88 shimmer palette. Can't wait to play with these!

I got my very first nail art today! I initially went to Get Polished in Diliman because the Lay Bare website announced that it today was the grand opening plus I saw a Now Open sign outside. I went inside and was so surprised when I found out that they weren't open yet! Grrr.... I then found myself in Princess Nails and Spa in AIC Grande Tower in Ortigas. I really wanted a pick-me-up so I tried nail art on my fingernails. I've never actually had a manicure before! Normally, I just get pedis.

I'm so fond of dainty designs! It's too bad that I have short fingernails so I can't really do that much with them.

I used Orly Taffy here. For P250 (around $5.00) this is reasonable. The base and top coat are CND (I've never actually heard of this brand before but it's US-made).

Please excuse the messy background.

I'm happy that I tried nail art. I'll definitely do this again. Maybe next time on my feet! Lol.