Review: Kate Mascara Base

Hello everyone! I'm really sorry for not being able to blog. December is a very toxic month for me, with all the Christmas concerts, weddings, etc. I promise to be a more diligent blogger after Christmas. Haha. So for today, I'll be reviewing Kate Mascara Base. Here is a picture in the box. What I've actually been eyeing is Clarins Double Fix Mascara, which is said to make your mascara uber smudgeproof. But I saw this Kate Mascara Base during the Luxeasia sale in Ortigas and decided to try it out.

Here it is in the box:

 Let's take a look at it's wand:

It looks like your ordinary mascara wand. When applied on your lashes, it looks almost clear, but there are some white fibers that stick out. They won't be seen though once you apply your mascara.

So let's give a rundown of the pros and cons:

PROS

• Cute packaging
• Adds length to your lashes even before you put your mascara
• Holds the curl up all day

CONS

• Did not make my mascara smudgeproof

Sadly, my Maybelline Cat Eyes Mascara, which is supposedly waterproof, still smudged on me even when using this. But all-in-all, I think it's still a product worth trying.

Will I buy this again? Maybe.

This retails for P900. However, I got this on sale. Be on the lookout, as Kanebo frequently joins Luxasia sales and stuff. They also give a 10% discount in their stores sometimes.

I Found my HG Liquid Liner!

I love Japanese products! First of all, it's more suited for Asian skin, so yeah, I take a leap of faith. Kanebo is the first Japanese brand I've encountered. Even when I was young, my mom used a lot of stuff from Kanebo, and if you've been reading my blog for a long time, you'll see that she even bought me lovely presents from Kanebo for Christmas.

Anyway, moving on, I got the chance to try this Kate Super Sharp Liner. Before that, I was really lemming for MAC Penultimate Liner because I'm fond of felt-tip applicators for liquid liners since I find that it's easier to use than brush-type applicators. As you might know, it's hard for me to find a budge-proof black eyeliner because I'm the oiliest gal you will ever meet! I'm serious. But one day, while hanging out in SM Makati, the SA of Kanebo applied this on my lids. After a few minutes, it smudged but after I wiped off the immediate smudging, the rest of it stayed put the whole day. So it seemed like a good product so yes, I went ahead and bought it!

I roadtested it now. I primed my lids using UDPP, and then applied this. I experienced no creasing for the first 3 hours! That's really a record for me! After the 4th hour, there was a very teeny-tiny crease in my right eye (because it's more monolidded than my left), but you couldn't even see it unless you look real close! Whoa, I was really impressed because no liquid liners has ever lasted this long without creasing! I've found my HG liquid liner. I didn't even buy MAC Penultimate Liner anymore when it came out.

So here's how it looks like:

 picture taken from www.kaboodle.com

My shade is BK-1 which is the blackest. It's not uber black, but black enough. I can always swipe again if I need it to be darker. I can make a really thin line with it as you can see in my swatch. The texture is not so runny. It's just right if you ask me.

 

I'm loving this because it gets the job done and it's affordable! I got this for less than P600. No need for more expensive brands.

TIPS

• During SM mall sales, Kanebo goes for 10% off. During Luxeasia sales, they become 20% off.
• Be sure to close the tip when not in use or else it will dry up easily.

So to end this I will leave you with an EOTD using the Kate Super Sharp Liner:

 

It's hard to see it well with my monolid eye, but it's there. I'm so happy with this EOTD. Do you know why? Because my eye has very little puffiness in this picture. Yey for enough sleep! Unfortunately, I can't say the same for today because I was so tired last night and I'm still tired today. Haha!

So what's your HG liquid liner? I'd love to hear from you.

My fave eyeshadow quad and my everyday look..

Hello my dears! I love eyeshadow quads because sometimes I have to apply eye makeup on the go and I don't have the convenience to reach out for one of my big palettes. Quads are convenient because they can be brought around and there are already four different shades for your eyes. The downside is that they can put a damper on your creativity since you can only choose among 4 colors, but I still like them. I'd like to show you my favorite eyeshadow quad. It's my Coffret D'or eyeshadow quad. The SA told me that's it's one of their bestsellers and I can see why. The colors are soft and very wearable and it comes with a powder eyeliner.

Here is a picture of it that I've labelled:


Colors A, B, C are powder eyeshadows while D is a small eyeliner. It's a pretty color but I recommend that you use this strictly as an eyeliner and not as an eyeshadow because I find the consistency to be very different. It's harder to blend them with the other eyeshadows especially when used with a primer like UDPP.

I've noticed that most Kanebo eyeshadow palettes come with an illustration on where they recommend that you apply the makeup. Here is the illustration that came with mine. Of course, you don't have to follow it if you don't want to.

Here's my version. I didn't follow the illustration to the letter. This is my favorite everyday look. I don't make it too dark and I normally don't deepen my crease for day looks since it's quite odd in my line of work. So I added grey eyeliner and an everyday lengthening mascara.

So here's my final everyday look:

I'm back! Paris, Rome, Singapore Part 1 + award

I'm back! All I can say is, I'm so tired from all the walking I did for the past 11 days. It was insane! Anyway, before I go to serious travel talk, let me start with my haul from Singapore first (although it was the last stop on my vacation) just because I'm quite excited with my goodies. But before anything else, here's a picture of Sephora in Singapore.


Okay, it's not as tiny as what I expected from everyone else's comments, but it is much smaller than the other Sephoras I've seen in Europe.

Here's a picture of Sasa in Singapore:


Now this is what I call tiny! It's really small, unlike its counterparts in Hong Kong, which is Sasa land! I was hoping it would be bigger. Oh well.

My sister and I bought an epilator in Singapore. This is a shared purchase. I tested it and it was nice. Quite expensive though.


Here is my haul from Singapore:


Here's a rundown of the stuff I bought: I bought 3 eye brushes from Sasa. The brand is Arezia (never heard of it actually) and they were cheap. They were less than P120 pesos (around USD2.5) and they looked soft so I decided to try them. I got a sample of Clinique Turnaround Visible Concentrate because I've read a lot of good reviews. I got a sheet of nail stickers from a nail art stall I saw, a pack of Biore black pore strips since I've read a lot of good reviews, an e/s quad from Coffret D'Or (since Kanebo is cheaper in Singapore than in the Philippines), and Legere Water Drop BB cream. Thank you everyone for you input, BTW. I tried some of the BB creams I saw. I also really liked Legere Multi White BB cream (the purple one) but the petrolatum scared me since I'm really oily and I might breakout from continuous usage so I got the oil-free one instead.

I also forgot to add these:


I bought some stuff from MAC Duty Free since it was cheaper than retail price. I bought the Summer Rose Beauty Powder from A Rose Romance Collection. I'm loving this! It gives me a very natural blush. I also got a Layin' Low paintpot. This was the only neutral paintpot they had, since the Duty Free stores don't have all the MAC items.

Here is my happiest beauty purchase:


This is a pack of 5 Shu Uemura Cleansing Oils with a free extra brightening oil in the rightmost! I've been really curious about Shu oils (since they're supposed to be really fab) for the longest time but I didn't want to invest in a big bottle until I'm sure which one worked for me. So now, here comes a set of the oils in 50 ml sizes! Perfect for sampling since I need to sample one product for at least 3-5 days each. I can't remember the exact price I paid for it but it costed less than P2500 for sure. It still doesn't come out cheap but since they are Shu oils the price is reasonable. I haven't seen them outside Duty Free Singapore, though.

Anyway, that's it for my hauls! Stay tune for Part 2 of this post.

Let's move on. I'd like to say thank you for the love you've given me while I was away. I even got this lovely award from Shatz, Pammy and Vonnie:

Terms & Conditions For the Award Recipient:

1. Paste the Award Logo in your blog

2. Give out the award to 10 Blogs that you feels the most inspired and most friendly

.3. Make sure u back linked the recipients' blogs to your blog.

4. Inform the recipients about the award by leaving them comments on their blog

5. Give some love to the person who give you this award.

I'm not sure who's received this award while I was gone but I'm passing it to these people:
Gale
Chrissy
Nikki
Chris
Soapaholic

Recent Hauls + Award

Let me show you a picture of my recent hauls. Mind you, I did not buy them all at the same time! I'm not that rich. LOL.

Anyway, since Stila is having some problems and is refinancing, I thought it was best to purchase some items already since I really don't know what will happen to them.

I bought the Stila Contouring Trio, it comes with tiny lights as you can see on the side. I'm sorry I forgot to swatch them, though.

Anyway, I also bought a set of mini Smudgepots. It has the bestselling colors: Black, Bronze and Gray. For me, Stila Smudgepots are better than MAC Fluidlines. However, I didn't expect it to be this small. When it said mini, they really meant it! This is much smaller than the regular Smudgepots (which is big). This is smaller than MAC Fluidline. I purposely didn't swatch it to prolong its lifespan since I still have my MAC Fluidline.

My Lumiere Pre-buy brushes have finally arrived! Thank you Grace (OD from Girltalk) for hosting these! We made our order last January pa and it finally arrived. I ordered the LHK, FO and angled FO. I haven't washed these so I can't say how they are. The LHK is very soft though. They're very well packaged for shipping! I can't wait to join Lumiere's next prebuy to get some more brushes since I regretted not buying the FT.

I also got my loot from EG minerals from an order we placed last January! LOL. It's been with Grace all this time. Thank you for holding this for me.

And here are my recent purchases from Rustan's. A Coffret D'Or liquid pen. This is my 2nd one already. It's not boxed anymore since I started using this already. Gia also informed me that Fasio mascaras are back in stock at Rustan's Gateway (Thank you Gia!) so I bought one when I happened to be in the area since I've been dying to try it for a long time.

I also got this friendship award from Chrissy, Donnarence, Khymm and Soapaholic. Thank you dearies! Mwah mwah mwah!
The rules are:

1. Take your award here

2. Put the logo on your post

3. Link the person who awarded you

4. Nominate at least 7 other bloggers

5. Add the links of those bloggers on yours

6. Leave a message for your nominees

So now, I'm passing this to 7 different bloggers:

1. Nikki

2. Nlng*Star

3. Gale

4. Shasta

5. Aileen

6. Yumeko

7. Blair

My First Attempt at Nail Art, My Konad loot and My Post-Christmas Gift

Okay, around a week ago I posted the nail art pens that I got from Nikki (askmewhats). I finally used them to paint my feet! It's my first attempt ever to do my own nail art and yes, it looks very crudely done (Darn! I should have used the dotting pen instead). Hopefully, with a lot of practice someday I'll be half as good as Nikki. It's a good thing that this is on my feet so it's not so obvious that it isn't perfect or even. Right now, flowers are the only designs I can do. Tee hee!

Anyway, I also bought nail stamping items from Konad. In the picture is a French tip set (with a stamper, scraper, 2 10 ml bottles of nail polish, a demo video and 3 image plates), 2 5 ml nail polishes and 9 image plates. I admit that I got carried away. I hoarded a lot of image plates. The nail polish is expensive! P330 (around $7.6) for 10 ml bottle. It's even more expensive than imported polish Anyway, I'm in the process of testing them. I'll do a review on this stamping set soon.

I also received some goodies from Kanebo from my mom as Post-Christmas gifts.

from left to right: Faircrea White UV Protector SPF 50, Lunasol Brow Styling Mascara and Coffret D'0r Natural Clear Liner.

Remember the review I did on sunblocks? The Faircrea SPF 50 is very similar if not exactly the same as the Tiffa SPF 50. Of all the sunblocks I've tried, this is my favorite!

A Review of Sunblocks I've Tried

I looove sunblocks! It's a must for us girls. However, most sunblocks give that icky, greasy feeling and nobody wants that. Especially for me with my oily, acne-prone skin, the last thing I need is more grease on my face. I'm sort of on a sunblock spree. I've tried a lot of sunblocks and I've never bought one kind twice because I like testing different ones. And so, I made a review of the different sunblocks I've tried.

My criteria for a good sunblock:

• Must have a protection of at least SPF 40


• Must be oil-free


• Must have UVA protection as well


• Must be non-shiny and non-greasy
  

Nivea Face Sunblock SPF 50 PA++

Well, the one for sale in the Philippines doesn't look exactly like this, but it's pretty close. I used this picture because I don't have a pic of this sunblock anymore. I didn't like this sunblock. Yes it was oil-free and non-greasy, but even the tiniest application left a really obvious whitish cast. People would always ask me what happened to my face! I was using this sunblock back when I wasn't using any makeup. I'm not sure how my face would have looked like if I used makeup on top of it. Plus, I don't like the sunblock-y smell.

Cosmed Total Block Milk SPF 90 PA+++

I've never heard of this brand before. I just stumbled upon this in one of those beauty shops in Hong Kong. This product claims to have SPF 90 and a very high UVA protection of PA+++. Well, a claim of SPF 90 is very hard to prove but I decided to try it nontheless. This product is a milk type sunblock. You have to put a very little amount because if you put to much you'll have a slight whitish cast on your face. It's just slight though and it's nothing that my MMU can't fix. It's non-greasy but when you apply this, you have to be sure to blend, blend, blend or else the application becomes uneven. It's not a pretty sight to have some white spots on your face. After a few tries though, I finally got how to apply this properly.

Kanebo Tiffa Silky Look SPF 50+ PA+++

I spotted this sunblock both in Thailand and in Hong Kong. At first I was hesitant to buy this because all the instructions were in Japanese and the sales attendants in Thailand spoke very little English. In the end, I decided to put my faith on Kanebo and tried this out, and I'm so glad I did! I love this sunblock to bits! It's also a milk type, non-greasy, no shine, no whitish cast, no sting upon application and my face feels smooth when I apply it. It's texture once it dries up is similar to a makeup primer, so it's possible that this can substitute for a primer. Although I have a fetish for trying out different sunblocks and not repeating, I'm seriously thinking of buying this one again once my stock of sunblocks to review gets finished and when I see this again when I go abroad. This sunblock is available in 3 variants: Clear, Silky Look and Pearlish. I might also decide to try the Pearlish next time.

Garnier UV Protect SPF 50

This sunblock is very similar (if not exactly the same) as Loreal UV Block. Garnier is part of the Loreal group of companies, both sunblocks have Mexoryl as the active ingredient, and are both available in the same 3 variants: the white, purple and natural colors. Well, you do the math. I bought this one in Thailand. I got the white one, since I prefer ones that don't have a color so they won't turn out to be not my skin type or interfere with my makeup. This has no whitish cast, but it's a little shiny, but the shine can be covered by my makeup. Although a lot of people don't like Loreal UV Block, this one worked for me.

Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry Touch Sunblock SPF 55

I bought this sunblock back when it wasn't available in the Philippines yet. I bought it in Hong Kong for twice the price here! This sunblock is non-greasy, no whitish cast on me but it has a bit of a shine but nothing that loose powder can't fix. It's a big tube so it lasted me a really long time. The downside for me is that sometimes my face felt a little stingy upon application. I also broke out during my first month using this, but after that, my skin adjusted to it. This product says that it has UVA protection although the rating is unspecified.

Other Sunblocks I've tested:

Somang CoQ10 Whitening Sun Cream SPF 39 PA+++ - I tested this a few times when I was in Hong Kong, but this is actually a Korean brand. I liked it. It was non-greasy, had a pleasant smell, and the CoQ10 is definitely a plus. I decided not to buy this since I already had a lot of sunblocks waiting to be tried out and this might just expire before I get the chance to try it out. I might buy this though the next time I go to Hong Kong.

VMV Armada SPF 60 - This sunblock has a watery texture, no shine and non-greasy. I still have to buy a tube for myself, though, before I can write more.

Avene Very High Protection Cream SPF 50 - I tested this when I was in Thailand. It felt sticky so I decided not to get it. With its small size and high price, I felt that there are better ones out there for me.

Next in line to be reviewed:

I have a bottle of Dr. Baden's Sunblock Lotion SPF 60 waiting to be opened. I bought this in Hong Kong. It'll be a while though before I consume the sunblocks I'm using now. After that, I might just try Cetaphil SPF 50.