Friday, April 23, 2010

Tutorial on My Birthday Look

I know my birthday is sooooo yesterday. But then I remember that I haven't show you the close up of the look I did. So, I decided to do a tutorial as well. 

First, I'm gonna need a black base. I use Stila Kajal Liner in 'Onyx'. Apply it on my lid and then blend it. By the way, boyfriend walked in when I was doing this step and he was, like, "Whoa! Is that because we're going to a jail-themed restaurant?!" LOL! 


This is how it looks like after you blend it. Take a little bit of it and blend it upward to the crease


Next, I apply Urban Decay Deluxe eye shadow in 'Underground' on top of 'Onyx'


Apply crease color, which is Urban Decay Deluxe eye shadow in 'Honey'


MAC 'Carbon for the outer corner


Drag 'Carbon' to the outer half of the lower lash line


Don't forget to add eye liner on your upper lash line and lower tight line


And the final look...





Sunday, April 18, 2010

[Review] My HG Foundation Brush

Happy Sunday, everyone! How’s your Sunday doing? It’s a lazy Sunday for me. I have to wake up early for six days a week, Sunday is my only sweet escape. Nothing beats snuggling up under my bed cover and sleep until noon. Anyhow, I didn’t sleep till noon. I slept at eleven last night and woke up at nine this morning. Now that’s one long beauty sleep.

Okay, sorry for rambling on and on. Let’s just continue to my review.

Have you found your foundation brush yet? I mean like, your HG one? I tried a stippling brush before. And I’m not a fan. It was okay, but not great. I think the pixelated bristles that suppose to give that ‘airbrushed’ look make foundation application feels never ending. When I do my make up using the stippling brush, I’m always the last one who gets out of the house along with mom’s voice yelling at me to hurry up! Plus, I don’t see any airbrushed look whatsoever.

As for paddle brush, still not a fan. Back when I had only stippling brush and paddle brush, I always reached for paddle brush. It’s denser than stippling brush so at least I could apply my foundation faster. But it makes my foundation kinda streaky. So I have to, either make short strokes or, go back to back to the part I’ve applied my foundation on, and fix it.

The first time I laid my eyes on Stila Double Duty Cheek and Contour Brush, in my heart I KNEW that this will be a great match for my foundation. It was like…. Magic (yes, I’m quoting Sleepless in Seattle, in case you’re wondering. I’ve watched the movie for like a gazillion times). I mean, look at the dense bristles, I bet that’ll help spread my foundation in no time.




You’re probably wondering about the name. But you know what Shakespeare said, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose; By any other name would smell as sweet." According to Sephora, “A corner edge applies color precisely beneath the cheekbone for a contoured cheek look. The flat circular top of the brush puts cheek color down on top of the cheekbone in one sweep.”

After contemplating for some times, I finally decided to purchase this brush at Sephora Hong Kong. And no regret! As I thought, I love how dense the bristles are. The brush helps transfer my foundation on my face with just the tiniest amount of it. When I use this brush, I love to pat the foundation in a quick motion, instead of swirling it, to give me that full coverage. The bristles of the brush are at the perfect length. They don’t bent on your skin and gives you more control. The bristles do shed a little the first time I washed it (I always wash brushes I just bought, before I use it). But that’s it.

Other than liquid and powder foundation, this brush also great for applying loose or compact powder (although I rarely use powder these days) and I use this for my mineral make up. This brush is multitasking when it comes to complexion!

As for what this brush is intended to, blush brush and contouring, I find the top of the brush is way too big for my cheeks. It smeared color all over the places I need no blush on. And do you know how hard it is to contour using the edge of a flat top brush? That being said, I’m gonna skip this brush when it comes to applying blushes and contouring.

The only downside of this brush, I think, that this is so overpriced. This brush sells for US$45. I bought it for HK$420 (times Rp1200), considering that this is a China made brush. I really have to save up to buy this.

But still, I’m glad I have this brush. It’s my one and only foundation brush now.


Wednesday, April 7, 2010

[Review] Viva Eyebrow Pencil

I can't believe I've been using this eyebrow pencil for all this time and haven't even reviewed it yet. I'm talking about my Viva eyebrow pencil. As you can probably tell, I use this in all of my FOTDs, since I started wearing eyebrow pencil. Which is quite recent.





Viva is an Indonesian make up and skincare line. And Viva eyebrow pencil is something most make up artists would recommend. This eyebrow pencil comes in two shades, black and brown. I bought mine in brown, since my eyebrows are pretty thick already, black eyebrow pencil will look to harsh on my face.

Now let's sing my praises about this pencil. I've been using it for quite a while and I really love the consistency of this pencil. It's soft, so it won't hurt your skin but not that soft so you won't transfer too much color and you don't have to sharpened it too often. So even the pencil is kinda skinny, still, it'll last for a long time. The staying power is great and it's waterproof too. With all of those quality, this pencil sell for only Rp13000 (the last time I bought it, around last year). It's about $2, convert it to USD. Seriously in love with this pencil!

Talking about the packaging, it's a tacky orange colored pencil. Honestly it looks kinda cheap (well, it is). But I don't really mind that as long as this pencil doing a good job coloring my eyebrows. But one thing I really hate about this pencil, you can't easily get this in random department stores or super markets. If I wanna restock, I have to go to these small make up stores in traditional markets. A place I really hate to go to.

But other than that, I have no complaint. Quality wise, this eyebrow pencil is great. I know there are lots of expensive high quality eyebrow pencils out there, but what's the point of buying the expensive one if the cheap one could give the same result.

Here are the swatches of the pencil in brown.



So if you live in Indonesia and you haven't have this eyebrow pencil. Seriously, go ahead and get one. Careful with the fake ones, though (yes, there are fake Viva eyebrow pencil in the market, that's what I read).

Hope this review helps. I really should write more reviews about Indonesia brands. We have lots of great stuff here!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Happy Easter, People..

Happy Easter everyone. How do you celebrate your Easter? This is my first Easter where I don't have anyone around.Boyfriend just got back to Jakarta. So I went to church all alone. Sad, me.

Just to remind you, this is going to be a totally random post. I have nothing to do around the house, so I turned on my computer and start twittering, blogging, youtubing and all that jazz.

Here's my today's look. Just a simple look to go to church. I don't wanna wear too heavy make up, so I ditched my foundation today. Oh! And finally I got a chance to take pictures under natural lighting. I took this picture in my car, on my way to church while waiting for the traffic light. 


I put on my Revlon Colorstay Concealer in Medium on my under eyes for this look. No matter how simple my make up is, concealer is always a must for me. If you have my under eye circles, you'll understand why. And then I applied Everyday Mineral Semi Matte Base in Olive Medium. It's light to medium coverage, you can still see my blemishes here and there, but that's the point. The mineral base evens out my skintone without making it looks masky. It looks more natural. I used MAC Mineralized Blush in Fab-Dabulous for this look. 

For my eyes, I applied Urban Decay Primer Potion first even though I'm not gonna wear eyeshadows. But applying eye primer helps reduce oil on your lids. That way, your eyeliner will stay put. I don't bother wearing primer when I have no eyeliner on. I still wanted to make my eyes stand out, so I lined my upper tight lines and lash lines with my Make Up Forever Aqua Eyes no. 0 and then layered it with my Revlon Colorstay Liquid Liner. I winged my eyeliner because that's an easy way to drives people attention to your eyes, plus for me, it makes my eyes look wider, which I love. Then I added Stila eye shadow in Kitten to highlight my browbone and inner corner of my eyes. And of course, shaped my eye brows using my favorite, VIVA eyebrow pencil.

For a second I was thinking about putting on red lipstick and copy Dita Von Teese's look. But I didn't think I have enough confidence to wear red lipstick for everyday look. I still need some time to get used to it. So right now I'm saving my red lipstick for formal occasion only. Haha.. Anyway, I put on my NYX Round Lipstick in B52 instead.

On my way back home, I bought a new shampoo. I have seriously dry to damaged hair, due to permanent straightening. Have you ever heard about Kadus Imunal? Well, I haven't. But the sales lady gave me this when I asked her for a great shampoo to fix dry hair. I also bought two sachets of hair mask from the same brand jut to try it first. Hopefully these things really work and I'll let you know.



Another thing, I learned to shaped eyebrows. And I did it on my boyfriend's eyebrows. Yes, he went through all the plucking and survived. LOL. You can see his 'before' eyebrows on my previous entry, and here's the 'after'.


Not bad, eh? And to my surprise, he liked it! He said the eyebrows shape gives him the 'eagle eyes' look. LOL. Whatever dear, just as long as you like it. I told him to keep his eyebrows in that shape until my graduation day, so it'll look good in pictures. He said yes, but I can't really picture him going to a salon to get his eyebrows shaped. I dunno.. 

Anyway, this is the end of this entry. Told ya this is gonna be so random. LOL. Thanks for reading, by the way.