Better Version of Your Lips For Valentine's Day

Hello Ladies.

So Valentine's Day is approaching. If you celebrate Valentine, I hope you already have someone to spend your Valentine with. Hopefully that 'someone' would be either a guy or a bunch of girlfriends or even six casts of FRIENDS along with a bag of potato chip would do (hint!). I was thinking about making a tutorial for your Valentine's date (or even for just hanging out with girlfriends). I thought something neutral would be nice and then I realized that most of my makeup are subtle neutral looks that would be perfect for your date. So feel free to click on FOTD label for a selection of makeup looks. I know most guys would prefer if their ladies look naturally beautiful on the date but what they didn't know is that it takes makeup to look natural! *wink*

I am truly sorry that I couldn't come up with a new makeup tutorial. I'm sure you are already familiar with my cliche excuse. Yes, I'm not even gonna say it. But don't worry because my friend Nisa got it all covered. Check out her Valentine makeup look here! My advice would be to go easy on your makeup. This time, you might wanna keep your bright blue eyeshadow or fuchsia lipstick in your makeup case for a while and go soft instead. In this post I give you my collection of MLBB lip products you can try for your date.

French Kiss has a subtle faint color the way glosses are and yet it still appears as pink. To me, since this is not too opaque, it's great for quick application.

L'Absolu Crème De Brillance is a kind of liquid lipstick. Number 363 is warm nude pink. But the shimmer makes it much more special and far from blah-looking.

Syrup has lustre finish which, in my opinion, the most comfortable finish for lipstick as this gives a moisturizing effect. It has a hint of purple and leans a bit more on cooler side. Bit still falls in natural color category.

Kinda Sexy has a hint of peach. It's a matte finish lipstick so it wouldn't be as easy to pull off as others. But this is my go to lipstick for most of the time. And works when paired with most of my glosses.

Lady's Choice is the one that matches my lip color the most. Almost as if I didn't wear anything on my lips but since it has a glossy finish, it appears like healthy version of my lips. Which is the main idea.

Of course people have their own definition of My Lips But Better. To me MLBB is a shade that covers my actual lip color evenly, brightens up my complexion in general, yet doesn't look like I have lipstick on. Here I tried to include brands that are available locally. But I just had to add Benefit Lady's Choice because as I said, it's my truly MLBB shade.

Anyway, I hope this post could help you decide on what makeup you'll be wearing on your Valentine's Day. And whatever your plan is, I hope everything goes well. Happy Valentine's Day!

[Review] NYX HD Studio Photogenic Foundation

I've been wearing this foundation 5 months now. It's been my safety net lately so I think it's only fair to give this foundation a proper review and share it's story.

Honestly whenever I hear the name NYX my mind instantly wonders about colorful products. Yup, I'm in love with their eyeshadows, blushes, lipsticks but never really interested on their complexion products. That is, until they launched their HD lines. And as a camera whore, I'm a sucker for every foundation that promised flawless looking face in camera as well as in real life.

NYX HD Studio Photogenic Foundation gives you a high definition effect by covering the skin and a light diffusing effect. It also claimed to give a skincare benefits where it promotes collagen regeneration, reduces line and wrinkles and also skin rejuvenation.

Obviously I didn't purchased this for the skincare benefits. I don't even care about skincare benefits in my makeup (if any). So this review isn't going to cover that department. So let's call this product the way it is, which is a foundation and not a skincare.



As a foundation, this products claimed to give perfect coverage that makes it suitable for catwalk or sidewalk as written on the top and bottom of the box.


Packaging comes in a slim opaque bottle that's made of plastic. So no need to worried if you're a type of person who tends to drop things. It also has a pump (hallelujah!), a good controllable pump. It may look slim and small but you actually get more products inside which is 33mL where most foundations generally give you 30mL.


This foundation gives a light to medium coverage and it has a dewy finish. I really REALLY love the finishing of this foundation. It blends very well into my skin, looks like a second skin. It makes my skin looks flawless. I don't think my skin needs that much coverage right now, but I'll let you be the judge.


My skin is not perfect, I know. There are some acne scars that needs to be covered, redness that needs to be evened out as well as few bumps just because it's the time of the month. I don't think those are major and this foundation managed to conceal all those flaws. However if you have severe acne reaction or hyper pigmentation like my lovely undereye circle above, it will be more than this foundation can handle and a concealer might be required.

Below is my picture with the foundation on half of my face. Can you guess which part of my face covered with foundation?

Can you see? The right part of my face in this picture looks more even and it also appears more glowy compare to the left part. As I said earlier, this foundation has a dewy finish. It looks like a healthier version of my skin. Still, I highly recommend to set this foundation with powder since glow could easily mistaken as oily. For me, since I want to keep the glow, I only powdered my T-zone area which is the area where I get oily the most. Other thing to keep in my mind, considering this foundation is dewy already, I'd lay low on the highlighter. In fact, I ditch my highlighter everytime I'm wearing this foundation.

The performance of this foundation is another satisfaction. It lasts me for about 5-6 hours before I get extra shine on my nose. It even lasts longer is I spend my day in a cool weather.

My shade is Natural (03) which is a warm undertone although it's not as yellow as MAC Studio Fix Fluid. NYX's shade is slightly beige-y but it still in a warm undertone family. This shade matches me well despite the lack of yellow undertone in it.

I bought this foundation at NYX counter at Metro department store because I really wanted to find the perfect match and reduced the risk of picking the wrong shade from the internet. There are only 4 (or maybe 5?) shades available in the counter out of 8 shades, which can make finding your shade a little bit challenging. I was lucky enough that I found my perfect match.

Thanks to the bad lighting at the mall, I picked a wrong color the first time I purchased this foundation (Yup! I have two bottle of this). I picked Sand Beige (04) and it's too light for my skin.

The texture of this foundation is quite runny and it spreads so easily. My favorite tool to apply this foundation, other than my fingers, would be a sponge or a stippling brush. Basically you want to dab this foundation instead of swiping it. I don't recommend using a regular paddle brush, otherwise you'll be blending forever.

I can't say a lot about the "HD-ness" of this foundation, considering I have never been around any HD tools. But I love the appearance of this foundation on most pictures that I took with or without flash. This doesn't perform very well under minimal-lighting-and-harsh-flash-light, due to lack of yellow-ness in it (flash photography accentuate redness and yellow works to minimize the redness) but that's a rare case (like when I snap picture of me in the car at night). Other than that, I have no complain at all. I've been wearing this foundation pretty much everywhere, on casual as well as special occasion and I'm satisfied with the result, on and off camera.

This foundation retails for around IDR 285k at the counter. I know it's a little bit expensive, especially for NYX that's famous for affordable product. But it totally worth the price. Also you can purchase it at some online stores for around IDR150k, which is more affordable.

Here's some pictures of me wearing this foundation in different occasion. I believe you've seen some of it already.

All in all, I'm deeply in love with this foundation. And repurchase I will.

My NYX Prize

So my NYX prize is here. Well, actually, I went to NYX Studio at Plaza EX to take it. I haven't tried any of it, so I just post pictures here. The set comes in a little transparent clutch and inside I got:

NYX single e/s 'Frosty Lilac'

NYX round lipstick 'Pandora'

NYX sheer gloss 'Bronze'

NYX lip liner pencil 'Auburn'

Frosty Lilac is a sheer light purple color and yes, frosty. I don't know if this color will ever show up on my dark lids. Maybe I'll need like a colored base. Jumbo eye pencil, maybe? Okay, that's just an excuse to shop.. haha.

Pandora, again a pinkish purple color. I never have this color before. Gotta try it soon and hope it looks good on me.

The sheer lips gloss, I haven't opened it yet. But just take a quick look an the packaging. Kinda weird, though. Reminds me of that ointment for sore muscle I usually use.. LOL. Wonder how to apply it. With a brush, maybe?

Last one, the lip pencil. Well, this is the only thing that I've tried. It's in the name, Auburn. Kinda like a brownish red.

And my FOTD for today.

FOTD

Clinique moisturizer

Garnier sunblock

Fyrinnae Powder Primer

Revlon Colorstay concealer 'Medium'

NARS Loose Powder 'Beach'

Fyrinnae Mineral Finishing Powder: Oil Control

PAC Loose e/s 'White Frost'

MAC Powder Blush 'Margin'

EOTD

Majolica Majorca Lash Expander Frame Plus

MUFE Aqua Eyes '1L'

LOTD

Benefit Full Finish Lipstick 'Lady's Choice'

Stila Lip Glaze 'Kitten'

Fashionesedaily NYX FOTD Contest

Long time no post. Phew.. First of all, I had a problem with any google-related site. I couldn't open my e-mail and even sign in into this blog. That's why, I can't post anything here. Anyway, I finally changed my browser. It used to be Mozilla and now it's Google Chrome. Since my knowledge around computer is total suck, I hope I won't find such problem anymore.

Anyway, a week ago Fashionesedaily and NYX held an FOTD Contest.

NYX and Fashionese Daily would like to invite our forum members to post their best FOTD picture and win lots of goodies from NYX! Here are the rules:

- You must be a member of Fashionese Daily forum with minimum 100 post count

- Please post your Face of the Day (FOTD) picture using at least 1 (one) NYX product

- You have to provide description of what NYX product you use (no need to mention products from other brands )

- Only 1 entry per person please, so choose your picture wisely!

- Contest opens from 14 - 20 October 2009

- 6 (six) contestants will be chosen as winners and will each 1 (one) package from NYX, each worth Rp. 270.000 consisting of :

NYX Round Lipstick

NYX Slim Lip Pencil

NYX Single Eye Shadow

NYX Tube Lip Gloss

NYX Pouch

- To participate, please post your picture on this thread with the following format:

Nick :

E-mail address:

Makeup theme: (e.g. green field, sexy smokey, bright lights - be as creative as you want in naming your makeup theme!)

NYX Product used:

Photo

Come on girls, show us your perfectly blended makeup and win the prizes!

Honestly, I didn't have a lot of NYX in my traincase and I don't think one chrome eyeshadow could help in this contest. So I did visit NYX counter and purchase some.

And my FOTD that I submit.

Makeup theme: Rusty Java.

Not the best theme, I know. But I couldn't find other name, so I went with the name of the eyeshadows I used.

Nothing special with the colors, I know. So I added double winged eyeliner. I saw that kind of winged eyeliner, like, years ago, in InStyle magazine, if I'm not mistaken. I could only submit one picture. So the picture above is the one that I submitted. And here's the detail on the eyes.

Products used:

FOTD

NYX Liquid Makeup 'Medium Beige'

NYX Loose Face Powder 'Medium Beige'

EOTD

NYX Trio Eyeshadows 'TS12 Golden/ Rust/ Walnut Bronze'

NYX Chrome Eyeshadow 'Java'

MUFE Aqua Eyes 1L

Revlon Colorstay Liquid Liner

PAC Loose Eyeshadow 'White Frost'

LOTD

NYX Lipgloss with Megashine 'French Kiss'

And the result came out yesterday: I WON!! Yayyy....!!!

[Tutorial] Playing Turquoise pt.2

Light Turquoise Look

[Tutorial] Playing Turquoise pt.1

I did two looks using very similar eyeshadow colors, I'm so excited!
The first look... Smoky Turquoise Look

I'm using:

• Revlon Concealer
• La Tulipe Eyeshadow Palette no14
• NYX Chrome Eyeshadow in Lagoon
• La Tulipe Eyeshadow Palette no01
• Inez eyeshadow palette, Venice-05
• Revlon Marble-ous Match Duo e/s in Set The Nude
• Viva Eyebrom Pencil
• Revlon Black liquid and pencil liner
• Maybelline Unstoppable Curly Extension Mascara

Finally, NYX in Taman Anggrek!

About two days ago, I was wandering around in Matahari Department Store in Taman Anggrek and I saw this NYX logo and an empty counter. I was really really excited knowing that NYX was about to open in Taman Anggrek (the closest shopping mall from my apartment)!!

So today, I came back to Matahari, only to see if the counter's open yet. And it is!!! Ooh.. just when I needed a new (and affordable, of course) pink blush and lipstick!!! And even cooler, when I got there, all of testers are still new and smooth. The Beauty Assistant had to convince me over and over, "Yes, these are testers. It's okay, you can touch them." Hahaha...

And this is my small haul:

• NYX Chrome Eyeshadow in 33 Lagoon
• NYX Blush in PB05 Pinky
• NYX Goddess of The Night (Lipgloss with Mega Shine) in 113 French Kiss

And I got this NYX Eye/Eyebrow Pencil in 921 Baby Blue for free!