Another Great Find at Landmark!

I love Landmark! There are so many things that you can find for low prices! A few days ago, I visited Landmark Trinoma and look what I found in the nail section:

From Amira Magic Beauty, one very fine brush, one angled brush, one flat liner brush, a fan brush and a dotting tool, all for an affordable price of P199. These are nail brushes, but all of the brushes (without the dotting tool) can also be used for makeup! The three brushes on top can be used for fine details. The fan brush can be used to apply highlighters, or cut into a smaller size to be used as a mascara fan brush. Who said brushes need be expensive?

Affordable Brushes: Fanny Serrano Angled Eyeliner Brush

I so love it when I find good brushes at affordable prices! And I can count my Fanny Serrano Angled Eyeliner Brush among them.

I have several angled eyeliner brushes but I find that this is my favorite for applying gel liners. I find that the small size of the head makes it easy to control the application, since other brushes are too big that the bristles aren't firm anymore. This one has the right amount of firmness. Applying gel liner on clients is a breeze! The bad part, I have a hard time using this to apply gel liner on myself because the handle is too long. I can't see my eye well from afar because I have bad eyesight :P Good thing Fanny Serrano also has a mini version of this!

How much? P150. Affordable, right?

Make Up for Ever HD Foundation and MAC 130 Brush

I've had my MUFE HD foundation for a long time but never got a chance to review it. Well, I'll finally give my thoughts about it. True to its word, it really is meant for pictures. My skin looks great in photos, but in real life, I'd say that its finish is just like any regular foundation. Its coverage is light to medium, and its finish is matte, unlike the dewy finish of the Revlon HD Foundation.

Staying power is just okay, around 4 hours. Sometimes, I notice that it cakes when I try to retouch it with finishing powder. I guess it's just me since my skin is really oily.

Lately, I've been using my MAC 130 brush to apply my foundation. If you've been following my blog, I picked up one for myself during my trip to the US. It's really much smaller than I imagined, so it takes long to cover your whole face. I have to devote extra time to apply my foundation, but I think the finish is worth it. The result was a very even medium coverage. Yes, this brush is like a hybrid of a stippling brush and a flat top brush. The result is a more precise application than a bigger stippling brush like a MAC 187, since the head is so big that it can tend to apply foundation in sporadically.

So after all my babbling, here is the result of the combination of both products I've been talking about. I first primed my face with TFS Professional Makeup Base in Green (you can read my review about it HERE). And then I applied my HD foundation with my MAC 130. I have bad skin, not because of acne but because of my large pores and depressed acne scars from my childhood, but I don't see it here.

I'll keep using this combination, because it works for me! Have a great day everyone!

Product Review: MAC 109 Brush

Hello dearies! It's time for another product review. I haven't done any reviews in a while so it's time I did one. Today, it will be about the MAC 109 brush.

photo taken from www.maccosmetics.com

Product Description:

Use on the face to apply, blend or contour powder products. Softly rounded dome tip delivers just enough colour; smoothly blends colour into the face. Of natural fibres.

This is one of the most highly rated MAC brushes ever. Although it was meant as a contour brush, it became famous as a foundation brush. So, when a brand new piece went up for sale in GirlTalk a few months ago, I jumped at the chance to buy it. Now it's mine! Bwahahahaha! LOL.

I was surprised when I saw the actual size of the brush. It was really small actually. The first time I washed it, there was no shedding. When I finally used it to apply foundation, I was in love! The finish was much better. It gave a very clean, even finish that surpasses the regular foundation brush. A note though, this brush gives a heavier coverage so you might not want to use this with a full coverage foundation unless you want even extra coverage.

So here are the pros and cons:

PROS

• gives a clean finish to foundation

CONS

• Although this doesn't shed when I wash it, it sheds when used on the face. Weird I know.
• Not available locally

Unfortunately, here in the Philippines, this brush is not part of the permanent collection (why?) and is only available as a limited edition item :( MAC should make this part of the permanent collection, it really is a very good product to try.

Rating: 4.5/5

I'd give it a 5 if it didn't shed :(

Just to show you an idea on how its finish, I'll leave you with a before and after picture of my friend Marie, during her recital. I used Revlon Custom Creations on her applied with a MAC 109 brush. I didn't apply lipstick on her because she's a bassoon player and lipstick will hinder her playing.

Have a nice day!

Mini Etude House Haul

I know I'm so behind the Etude House craze! I know everyone's been talking about it, and I've been there a few times but I've never bought anything actually. Haha, I have good restraint! Anyway, here's my actual mini haul.

I bought the much coveted mini stippling brush! It's good that they have on-hand stocks now as opposed to before when you really had to wait. I also bought the mascara top coat that they have. It didn't stand a chance on my oily lids though :P And I also bought some eyelid tape because my eyelids are uneven. I find them to be a waste of money because it only works when you're far and it's uber hard to put makeup on top of it. Oh well... I'm lemming for some other stuff there such as:

Lip Tints in Peach, Pink, etc.

Nail Polish Bottle

Romantic Beauty Stand

Makeup Wipes (it's very reasonably priced!)

Mascara Fixer

What do you think of these? What do you recommend I get?

I'm Baaaaccckkkkk!!! + Elianto Eye Brushes Review

Hey everyone! I'm back! I'd like to thank everyone who offered their kind words of support during the time that I was uber stressed and when I got sick. Yes, February is normally a very busy month for me, but this March, my schedule will be better I'm sure. So let's get on to our regular programming... Back to beauty blogging!

Today I will review some of the Elianto eye brushes that I own. Elianto actually has a lot of brush sets but I don't buy them because I feel that not all of the brushes in each set are good. If only I could mix and match the brushes :( Just some wishful thinking. So I'd rather buy the brushes individually even if they're more expensive, because you get to pick the ones that you want.

The nice thing about Elianto brushes are that they look classy. They have long handles and are brown in color. But do they deliver? Read on to find out.

From left to right:

Big Blender Brush

Flat Liner Brush

Flat Top Brush

Eyeliner Brush

Big Blender Brush (animal hair)

This brush sheds :( It's a little too big to use on the eyes, so I use it for highlighting. However, it does have some flyaways.

Rating: 3/5

Flat Liner Brush (synthetic hair)

This brush is good for making thick lines using a gel liner or powder liner mixed with a sealant. The downside is that people might find this a little too stiff.

Rating: 3.5/5

Flat Top Brush (animal hair)

This is definitely the best among my Elianto brushes. I have no complaints here. It gets the job done of applying eyeshadow on the lids. No shedding. It's a little smaller than the ELF eyeshadow brush, and also almost twice the price.

Rating: 4/5

Eyeliner Brush (animal hair)

Man oh man do I regret buying this brush. Serves me right for buying an animal hair brush for an eyeliner brush :( I didn't know any better during that time. As soon as I washed it, all the hair were all over the place. Good thing it was only P99 so it wasn't really heavy on the pocket. It isn't a total loss though because I can still use to apply eyeshadow on my lower lash line.

Rating: 2.5/5

Great Find: San San Pencil Brush

Let me share with you this great find. Wanna know why I think it is? Read on.

I'm not sure exactly what this brush is called, but it's actually a pencil brush. I first encountered this when I was in makeup school. One of my teachers, Ms. Nina Dumpa, frequently brought this brush out during her makeup demos. She said that it works as well as her MUFE pencil brush and it only costs P80 (around $1.60)! I was like, WHHHATTT? I didn't hesitate to buy this after that. 

This is made out of animal hair, and it doesn't shed. It's useful for applying makeup in the lower lashline and smudging eyeliner. The only downside is that it doesn't look very professional (more like a kiddie watercolor brush) but for it's price I really couldn't ask for more. It just goes to show that there are great finds that don't come with a hefty price tag.

Rating: 5/5

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!

Update on my Ecotools Retractable Brush

A girl from Girltalk posted that something went wrong with her Ecotools Retractable Brush so it's unusable now. Since my Ecotools brush is my fave retractable brush, I was hoping something bad wouldn't happen to it too but now it has! Here in this picture, I'm showing you the bottom of the brush that should be stuck to the cover of the brush. I was just brushing my face when the brush came loose! Apparently the glue isn't so sturdy. Luckily, I think this is easily fixable with some super glue. But right now, it's still in my drawer waiting to be fixed. So to you Ecotools fans (and I know there are a lot), really use it gently because these babies, although are very nice, could be sturdier.

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

Review: Ellana Buffer Brush

Gosh this is a big brush! I don't have a MAC buffer brush so I can't compare, but as you can see, just from the handle itself, it's a chubby brush. This brush is synthetic, so it's definitely soft and not scratchy. The great thing about this is because of its size, it's perfect for buffing mineral foundation if you're in a hurry because it covers a lot of area quickly.

Let me just give a quick rundown of pros and cons:

PROS

• available locally for P750 (around $15)
• soft and not scratchy
• fluffy and dense

CONS

• minimal shedding
• the handle is so fat that I can't find a brush roll/belt/case that it can fit in so it's a challenge to store

Rating: 4.5/5

I'd give it a 5 if it didn't shed a bit, as I noticed with Ellana brushes.

My Synthetic Retractable Brushes

Seen above is a picture of my retractable brushes.

Here is a pic of them from the top:

A retractable brush is the only type of brush I bring around, because I don't have brush guards to protect my brushes so I prefer retractables so brush stays protected. Since it's the only type of brush I bring around, I expect it to be multi-purpose: I can use it to retouch my finishing powder and blush. It's also an added bonus if it can act as an emergency mineral foundation brush, although it's not really necessary. So let me briefly describe my brushes (Please note that these brushes are synthetic):

ELLANA RETRACTABLE BRUSH
Price: 499 (around $10)
Available locally

This brush looks very similar to The Body Shop retractable brush but the TBS brush head is smaller. As you can see with the picture, it has the longest head out of all my three brushes. It makes a good touch-up brush for blush and finishing powder, yet I was surprised that it could also be used as an emergency kabuki brush for mineral foundations, if I sleep over in a house where I don't have any brushes.

Rating: 4/5

BLUSCHE RETRACTABLE BRUSH
Price: P480 (around $9.50)
Available locally

This is the cutest out of all the brushes because it's small and it's pink! What makes this different from the three is that it has a flat top head. I feel that this causes the brush to have an identity crisis because flat tops are normally used for foundations and yet the brush hairs are flimsy. Although you can remedy this by not pulling the metal sleeve all the way down, I find that this metal sleeve is a bit loose so it makes it hard to stay in that position. I'm also not comfortable using a flat head for blush because it gives an "in your face" look instead of a soft blush.

Rating: 3.5/5

ECOTOOLS RETRACTABLE BRUSH
Price: $9.99 from the Makeup Mix Shop

The great thing about this brush is that it's made from recycled aluminum so it's earth-friendly! It also doesn't have a shiny metal finish unlike the other two brushes I have which makes it very scratch-resistant! This is the most kabuki-like among all three. It's quite dense making it a good mineral foundation brush but it's still workable as a finishing powder and blush brush for touchups.

Rating: 5/5

Hope this review helped!

Mail Day

This is a picture of my purchase from EDM together with other sisses from Girltalk. Thanks Kat (katiztic of GT) for hosting this! I got it today. I got an FO brush and a pressed mineral foundation. The FO brush looks flimsy, unfortunatey, huhu! However, the foundation seems okay. I got the "Fairly Light Golden" shade. Well, as expected, it was more golden than yellow (I'm more yellow than golden). EDM's shades for the pressed mineral foundies are quite limited, but based on the description, this seemed to be the closest match for me. Although it's not an exact match for me, it's pretty close. I have to try it though. It's shimmery from the swatch, I just hope there's not too much shimmer when I apply it on my face. I have to give kudos for the packaging, though. I expected it to be in a plastic compact, as shown from a previous pic from the EDM forums, but it's actually made of recycled cardboard! Yey to being earth-friendly.

That's not all I received today. Recently, iamshallow.wordpress.com held a contest. They were giving a way a Chapstick Ultra and a Cherry Chapstick to the first 5 people to answer the question correctly. Sadly, I was the 6th. BUT I didn't go away empty handed--the 6th to 10th contestants were given a Chapstick Ultra. This is great since I want it more than the Cherry Chapstick anyway since it has SPF 30. Perfect for summer.

Here it is:

I'm sorry that the pic came out blurry for some reason. Anyway, that's all for now!

Essence of Beauty Brushes: MAC brush dupes?

When I got my first MAC brush set, which is the Heirlooms set, the first thing I thought of when I saw them is that they looked a lot like the Essence of Beauty face brushes that I have. So are EoB brushes dupes of MAC? Let me show you the pics to compare. May I remind you that the MAC brushes I have are SEs, not FS so they are smaller than the FS brushes.

Here is a look at my MAC 168SE (left) vs. the EoB blush brush (right):

The MAC is of course, smaller because it's not an FS brush, but they look very similar right?

Here is a look at my MAC 190SE (left) vs. EoB foundation brush(right):


Aside from the size difference, the EoB foundation brush is more pointed.

Here is the MAC 194SE (left) vs. EoB concealer brush (right):


My EoB is unwashed so it has a lot of residue but without it, it looks pretty similar to the 168SE. The EoB concealer brush is wider, though.

They look really similar don't they?

Recent Hauls

I received a lot of goodies this week and I just wanted to show you. First, here is a recital gift from my aunt.

Thanks tita! It smells good. I can't wait to use it!

Next is my package containing Urban Decay 24/7 liners:

I've been lemming for these ever since I tried Nikki's (askmewhats)! Urban Decay is discontinuing this set. In fact, it's not available in their site anymore. So I went into a panic and bought this from Ebay.

Speaking of Ebay, look what I got for 99 pesos only:

Yey for Ebay! It has 10 pockets. If I put eye brushes, it will fit more than 10. The material is delicate, though, so it needs to be handled with care.

Lastly, my Blusche pre-buy brushes also arrived this week.

The retractable brush is cute! The stippling brush is long, though, so it looks a bit flimsy to me. I'll have to try it out first to be sure.

So much goodies!

My First MAC Brush Set

I was finally able to get my first MAC brush set at a discounted price (thanks gale!). I'm happy for my new brushes (I'm beginning to get really addicted to them). This is the Royal Assets Collection from 2007. It contains the 187SE, 190SE, 168SE and 194SE. I haven't gotten around washing all of them, but I washed my 187SE right away because I was so excited. Unfortunately, it sheds quite a lot. I hope it stops eventually though, I'm hoping that it's just a phase as I read that some stipplings go through a phase of bleeding/shedding.

I'm sorry that I'm not able to write a longer blog for now. February is such a busy month for me. Ciao!

Shopping Day!

This is my loot from today's shopping trip. Today was a free day for me and I had every intention of going to Rustan's Shangri-La to check out MAC Fluidline (since I've started searching for my HG eye liner) but I got sidetracked to different places and I ended up getting Prestige brushes #102 and #103 (it's already P325 each from the previous prices of P200+ only). Next time, I want to get #104. I also bought Godiva Vitamin C Serum (I've been using this for a long time now and I promise to review this one of these days) and Covergirl Brow and Eye Maker. I bought this because I'm looking for an affordable brow product so I searched MUA and the reviews were favorable so I decided to try this out.

Regarding the Prestige brushes, I'm concerned about their quality control. Each brush really looks very different from one another. They weren't consistent so I really had to inspect each stock one by one and choose which I think is the best among the lot, especially when it came to #104 (which I haven't bought yet). If you try going to Beauty Bar in Robinson's Galleria, the difference with each #104 brush is so big, I got confused what that brush was actually for. It was only when I went to Beauty Bar Podium where the #104 brushes were more uniform that I finally saw what it was supposed to look like.

Anyway, I saw Cinderella's big sale and saw some simple gowns at around 60% off. How could I resist? Being a performer, I always have to have a ready stock of evening wear so I bought two! There goes my budget for MAC Fluidline. I never even made it to Shangri-La. I guess MAC Fluidline will have to wait!

My Essence of Beauty Brushes

I finally got my Essence of Beauty Brushes from eBay! This is actually my first purchase via eBay and I got them for a decent price. I actually started eyeing this because of Girltalk and I saw Shen (shensaddiction) with these babies during the MMU weekend. I loved how they look like! These are 3 double-ended brushes with 1 bonus eyeshadow brush.

from top to bottom:

blush and powder brush

foundation and concealer brush

blending and eye shadow brush

eye shadow brush

I'm no expert on brushes, but I think that these brushes are mixed. Some are synthetic while some are animal hair. The 3 duo brushes are soft, but the bonus eye shadow brush is hard and scratchy. I already see a little bit of shedding in the blush brush, which I guess to be made of animal hair. Because they're double-ended, they're very handy for travel, but it's a little hard to store. I wish I was able to find more of their eye brushes though, because they're much raved about. I guess I'll have to wait till I actually go the US to buy those.

Anyway, I was in Watson's today and look what caught my eye:

See the giant 70% off? It was originally P100 (around $2) but it came out at P20 only (around $0.40) so it was actually 80% off. I tried to feel the sponge (since it couldn't be opened) and it felt more durable than the usual sponge tip applicators so I decided to give this a shot. When I finally opened it up when I got home, yes it really was more durable. Although, this won't last as long as a brush will. LOL.

Much Awaited Arrivals for Early 2009!

photo taken from www.everydayminerals.com

Everyday Minerals Stippling Brush

This brush is due to come out late January. There is so much anticipation for this brush already because there are only a few stippling brushes here in the Philippines and stippling brushes are quite pricey compared to other brushes so everyone is always on the lookout for a good stippling brush. EDM previously came out with a stippling brush but the reviews weren't so good. But with the new lineup of EDM brushes today, I'm hoping that this brush will deliver. And it's sure to be affordable, since all EDM brushes are. My one concern, though, is that this is going to be made of 100% synthetic hair. Huh? Let's see how this will work out.


Hello Kitty for MAC

As you can see, I'm not into MAC that much because I prefer mineral makeup, but now MAC has teamed up with Hello Kitty! And being a pink lover, I love Hello Kitty! This is really making me want to buy some of these. I don't know if this will be available in the Philippines, but then, there's always online shopping! *wink wink*

How about you? What are you awaiting?