Swatch of Kiko Face Palette in Tangerine Tan

My other kiko Origami Face Palette finally arrived. This one is in the shade Tangerine Tan. I already reviewed the product in general, so this post is just going to be about the swatch and pigmentation, which sadly, even worse than my previous palette.

I was already suspicious when I opened the palette and see a group of warm brown colors that matche my skin tone, except for the dark brown and the peachy pink. If the colors match my skin tone, then how on earth are they going to show up? And I was right. You can see on the swatches below. I swatched the colors separately. They look very pale with very strong warm undertone. Most of the colors show up as yellow and orange. I'm not saying I don't recommend this shade, because as I said on my review, this actually has a wonderful quality But of course Tangerine Tan is definitely not for my skintone, and darker. If you are paler than me, then you should get this. But remember that this is a very warm palette. Don't even bother trying to get it if you have cool undertone

And here's how the color looks like on my cheek after I don't remember how many layers. I lost count after fourth layer. Can't see anything? Yeah, neither do I.

Anyway, I dropped my palette the other day. It fell from the sink which about the height of my hip. It sounded pretty bad. I panicked and immediately picked up the palette from the floor, expecting to find all kinds of mess consists of crumbly blush and pieces of cracked mirror. But I have to give it up to the sturdy packaging and solid product inside. The blush itself just detached form the pan and the five colors separate from each other, but no crumbly mess. Also the mirror stays in one piece.

If you notice that chunk of blush in the picture and staring with questioned mind, well that's not how the palette originally looked like right after it fell. I panicked when it fell and then relieved that the blush was alright so I just pressed the detached product immediately into the pan. And then I realized, this could be a testimony for the product and I wanted to show it on my blog. So.. ehm, I slammed the palette one more time. This time with lighter force though, just enough to detached the product once again and took picture (I realize this story is getting even more absurd as I'm writing it).

So yeah, plus point. Sturdy packaging and dense product. Get this if you can, preferably if you have lighter skintone than mine. And why do I never report about the sturdiness of a packaging? Because I always try my best not to drop any of my makeup compact. But hey, at least there's an advantage from that stupid accident, yea?

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!

OPI It's My Year. Review and Swatch.

OPI It's My Year is from Miss Universe Collection. I'd describe it as purple plum with loads of gold fine shimmer. This shade immediately caught my eyes when I was browsing around through some polishes at Sephora, while I was in Singapore. This is kind of an embarrassing story. Ehm, I stood there next to nail polish rack, really took my time applying this polish on all of my finger nails, in two coats. Yup. Well, in my defense, I did purchase this in the end so it's not like I was taking advantage of the testers. Ha!


I really love the texture. Shimmery polishes have never given me any trouble in application. It applies smoothly and evenly. And dries quite fast too. I didn't even use Seche Vite the first time I applied it. (Again, I applied this at Sephora. There was no tester of Seche Vite that I could take advantage of.) One layer is a bit sheer, but the shimmers could distract you from the sheerness. Two layers is enough. But I want the purple base to really show up so I usually apply this in three coats. The shimmer is so fine. I love how the gold shimmers give a three dimensional look to my nails.

Believe me those pictures don't do the judge. It's kinda hard to capture the shimmer with my camera. It's actually a lot prettier in real life as the shimmer is a lot more dominating.

While I wear it, I don't really experience chipping. But after three or four days, the polish kind of fades at the tip and I can see the tip of my finger nails. I assume it's normal for most polishes. But it's been so long since I wore polishes for days, so someone feel free to correct me here (It's frown upon to wear nail polish in the hospital so my fingers have been nail-polish-free most of the time for almost two years now). In case of removing it, of course it could be a tad difficult the way shimmery polishes usually are. I can easily remove the base color but the shimmer usually stay. And if I try to rub those shimmer with cotton, I end up with shimmer all around my fingers. But I don't care! I love this polish so so so much.

[Review] Sleek Oh So Special Palette

After reading so many raved reviews about Sleek palettes, I decided to give this brand a try. I wasn't sure which palette I wanted to try first. I was browsing through Sleek website and decided to get their recently launched Oh So Special palette.

The palette comes with 12 eyeshadows consist of 7 mattes and 5 shimmers. The colors in this palette are mostly neutrals shade. Some leans towards warm but I can see this colors still suitable for cool skin tone as well, especially dark colors.

Packaging is a simple sleek black palette with a wearable mirror since it's pretty huge and also comes with a dual ended sponge applicator. I think the palette is quite convenient. Doesn't take up so much space so it will be great for traveling as well. Inside there's a plastic insert with the name of each eyeshadow written on it. My fisrt impression was, why do they have to put the names on the insert? I tend to loose all plastic inserts from all of my palettes. If I lost this one then I won't be able to tell the names of these eyeshadows anymore. Wouldn't be convenient, especially if I'm doing tutorial. But never mind, it's just a beauty blogger rant. Might not be something to sweat about unless you really care about the names of your make up stuff.

Top row: Bow - Organza - Ribbon - Gift Basket - Glitz - CelebrateBottom row: Pamper - Gateau - The Mail - Boxed - Wrapped Up - Noir

Here's the swatch of the eyeshadow. They are all swatched on my arm with no base.

L-R: Bow (matte) - Organza - Ribbon (matte) - Gift Basket - Glitz - Celebrate

L-R: Pamper (matte) - Gateau - The Mail (matte) - Boxed (matte) - Wrapped Up (matte) - Noir (matte)

Here's my thought on the individual eyeshadow. I'm not gonna go through each and every one of it, though.
Ribbon: This color is actually one color that lured me into buying this palette. I didn't own any peach eyeshadow like this before so I thought it will be a great addition to my collection. Unfortunately this color is the biggest disappointment in this palette. The texture is chalky and impossible to blend. I tried applying it wet, dry, with primer, without primer and end up with same uneven finish.

Pamper: This is another color that's pretty similar to Ribbon which is a lighter peach. It turns out a lot better in terms of quality. But the color is not special enough. It's also a bit pale to show up on me. So it's not working either.

Gateau: Another disappointment. It looks like a pretty lilac with gold flecks in the pan. But once applied, the lilac is nowhere to be seen. I end up with just gold shimmer. I can still wear it as highlight on my browbone or inner corner but still, it doesn't look that special anymore.

The Mail: I can't really say if this color disappoint me. It's just that I thought this color would be a great crease color but apparently this color doesn't show up in my skin, even with primer. I guess this would be great on lighter skintone. In the pan, this color kind of reminds me of MAC Cork, but I was wrong as Cork is noticeably darker than The Mail.

L-R: The Mail - MAC Cork - Boxed

Noir: This shade is amazing. I've never encountered such super rich matte black eyeshadow and this one really satisfied me. I also love wearing it to set my eyeliner.

Other colors, especially dark ones are great. They are very pigmented, buttery smooth and I notice very minimal amount of fall out. Exactly the kind of quality I expected from ALL the colors in this palette

All in all, I'm kinda disappointed that some of the interesting shades in this palette don't work. I usually wear light colors on the lid and darker color on the outer corner. But with most of the lid colors in this palette don't work for me, all I left with are just small selection of colors I can wear to create just another smokey look which makes this palette not oh-so-special anymore.

This might be another nice addition for my make up, just for the sake of trying a new brand. Thankfully I can still use more than half of the eyeshadows in this palette. But if you're pretty new to makeup and just started building your makeup collection, I'd say save your money and buy a better quality palette.

More For My Lips!

When I first started doing make up, lipstick, lipgloss and everything for lips were my last interest. Just because, it's the only thing from your make up that will fade and gone by the middle of the day. You can use lip primer, you can wear long lasting lip color, once you have your lunch, then that is it for your lipstick.

Well.. those days are long gone.

Now that I'm turning into this make up junkie (I tried to stop, believe me!), I feel like I gotta have everything for every parts of my face. D'oh..

Anyway, here's what I purchased lately. And I realized that they are all lip products. I've been hearing a lot about the latest Revlon Colorburst and decided to give it a try. I didn't know what possessed me when I picked fuchsia color. But I've been wanting to try bright colors. One of the girls in Fashionesedaily wears fuchsia lips in her FOTD and convinced me that it'll look great and can be wearable too. My rule is, if I wanna try color which I'm not sure whether I'm gonna like it or not, I never go with high end brand. If I end up not liking it, it'll be a waste. Luckily, Colorburst line carries fuchsia color so I decided to buy it. It's in the name, "Fuchsia".

Another color that I got is "Crimson", which is a classic red, since I'm currently in the hunt for the perfect red lipstick. There are actually other reds in this collection and they are "True Red" and "Ruby". I swatched those two but the two colors didn't look red enough for me. Especially "Ruby", it has too much pink in it. "Crimson" is a warm red color and really suits my undertone.


Here's how the colors look like on my lips. See? Even the "Fuchsia" doesn't look that scary.
I wanted to get another colors from this line but nothing looks special enough. They all look like every colors you've seen before. So I got nothing other than those two. Period.

I also dropped by at Maybelline counter when I saw this pretty coral gloss. It's Watershine Liquid Pearl in "Spicy Coral". I've been looking for coral gloss just because I realized I didn't have any. I didn't even bother to swatch this on my lips because that'll be pointless. This gloss doesn't work alone. You need to layer it on top of lipstick. Wear it alone and you'll have nothing but shimmer on your lips.

For this next item, I didn't purchase it. I took it from my mom's make up pouch she left in her vanity. It's MAC Plushglass in "Ample Pink". You see, browsing through my mom's vanity really frustrates me. She has a lot of great stuff and she never really cares about them. I saw this plushglass still full and, hello, covered with dust. To be fair, my mom doesn't really care about make up. Some people have to save money for weeks or months to buy all the stuff she has (hint: her daughters) and she just ignores whatever make up that she has.

You think dust covered plush glass is the worst? I once saw a shedding MAC 129 brush. It didn't even look round anymore, more like a triangle. How did it end up like that, you might ask? Well. she pushed the brush to her cheeks until the bristles spread and the handle touches her cheeks, and then swirl it. Err.. But yeah, that's mommy. She is more of a bag person. For her, make up is necessary but she doesn't need high end brands make up. And if you find some high end brands make up in her stash, that's because some people convinced her that she'll need those. And that some people could either be her oldest sister or, well, me.

Anyhoo, Ample Pink is a warm mauve-ish pink. It's a little more pigmented than regular lip glosses. But it looks prettier when layered on top of lipstick. I put it on top of my MAC Kinda Sexy lipstick and they look so pretty together. And it has a stinging feeling (pretty sure why mom never wears this) which suppose give you that plumped lips. That might feel uncomfortable for some poeple. But I don't really have problem with that.

As for these Sephora glosses, my little sister just got back from Europe and got me these. Sephora was having sale and she bought some glosses, eyeliners and stuff. And she was, like, "Okay, pick items that you want and the rest are for our cousins." So I picked two glosses. The one in "Silver Toupe" (no.17), which is a shimmery champagne nude color and the other one is "Glitter Fuchsia" (no.23), described as fuchsia with pink and diamond glitter. I tried the "Silver Toupe" right away. The colors look so pretty on lips. And apparently, little sister thought so too. So what happened next, she took the other Silver Toupe which, you know, suppose to be for our cousins. LOL!

The other two that I picked, which are in tinier tubes, are plumping lip gloss. This has stinging sensation as well. My sister tried it on and removed it once the gloss started to sting. See? Not everybody can't stand lip plump. Anyway, I tried it but I wasn't sure if this gloss actually makes my lips look fuller. Maybe later I should ask other people's opinion.

[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!

Stila Can Cam Palette

According to Stila website, Stila Can Cam Palette was a Japan only palette. But now it's available on Stila website so everyone outside Japan can have this palette too.

As for the name, Can Cam, I googled and found out that it's actually a name of a fashion magazine in Japan, targeting school age girls and young women. It was first published in November of 1981. And this Stila Can Cam palette is specially made to celebrate the magazine's 25th anniversary.

The palette comes in a simple square box and it opens like a book with magnets on the side to keep the palette shut. It's so sleek, you can just slip it inside your bag or make up pouch without taking too much space.


There are four colors inside. Three eye shadows and one blush, all shimmery. On the back, there's an information on where you should put the colors (yeah, like you need one). For base is a lightest color, more like a champagne color. For crease is the purplish pink with subtle gold shimmer. And the dark brown color with gold shimmer for liner. But of course this is just suggestion and the application is totally up to you. The cheek color looks like a light coral color on the pan, kinda like the much lighter version of NARS Torrid, but it turns light pink on my cheek. The blush is so sheer, almost unnoticeable on my cheeks.


I tried the palette immediately once the palette arrived. Since I wasn't going anywhere, I applied the eye shadow colors without primer. Texture wise, as pressed eye shadows, the pigments are kinda loose. So you might wanna be careful applying it and don't let the pigment fall on your face (It's annoying when that happened). As for the color pay off, well, kinda disappointing. I have dark lids and those colors don't cover that. Although the base color looks pretty as highlight. The crease color and the liner color are just as bad. I have to re-apply all these colors just to make colors show up but it doesn't make any difference. Those colors are just too sheer. I use the liner color for my outer V and as the darkest color in the palette, the pigmentation is the.. poorest (is that a word?). And the texture is kinda muddy too, it's hard to blend. Meh..

I thought, it's probably because of the loose texture. So I try to apply the colors wet on my other eye. The result? Not working either. I mean, yes, the colors show up better when applied wet but the texture makes the colors even harder to blend. Oh gosh...

So for the second time I try these eye shadows, I use primer. And apparently, primer is what the eye shadows need. The colors show up better and blend well.

Anyway, these eye shadows are not my first Stila eye shadow. I have Stila Kitten shadow, and never have I had any problems like this. I thought that goes for every Stila shadows. Apparently not. When most eye shadows need primer to help the colors last, eye shadows in Can Cam palette need primer to make the color show up. It's kinda disappointing, though. But then again, I never apply eye shadows without primer, anyway. So I'm just gonna keep this.

So my conclusion about this palette, had I known this is how the colors would turn up, I'll never even consider buying the palette. But know that I have it, (and I paid good money for this. This palette cost $18 with extra international and domestic shipping for me) I have to make it work.


Here's my FOTD using Stila Can Cam Palette with a step-by-step following the information from the back of the palette. Well, not so much, but pretty close.

1. After primer (I'm using UDPP) apply the base color all over the lid, all the way to the browbone area.
2. Apply crease color on the crease.
3. Apply liner color on the outer lid, as outer V.
4. Once again, apply base color. This time apply the color wet, concentrating on the lid. The texture is kinda sticky, so never forget to blend.
   
5. Line lower lash line with liner color.
6. Add eye liner and mascara. Fake lashes for more dramatic effect.
   

And... Voila! Anyway, can't you tell that this is my first time wearing fake lashes myself? I'm such a rookie, the inner part of the lashes don't stick very well to my lash line. Haha..

And here's the rest of the face. This is how the cheeks color from the palette appears on my cheeks. Can you see?
Face

• MAC Face and Body Foundation in C4
• Revlon Colorstay Concealer in Medium
• Nars Loose Powder in Beach

Eyes

• UDPP
• Stila Can Cam Palette Eye shadows
• Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliner in Zero
• Majolica Majorca Lash Expander Frame Plus
• The Face Shop Lashes in XLH

Cheeks

• Stila Can Cam Palette blush

Lips

• NYX Round Lipstick in Pandora
• Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited in WH 001
• Lancome Color Fever Gloss #206

Stila Holiday 2009 Lip Glaze Collection

Told ya I love Stila lip glaze and gonna buy more colors. And stila answered my prayer and the answer is Stila Holiday 2009 Lip Glaze Collection. Comes in simple brown box with hole in the middle so you can see the colorful middle part of the tube. Notice the snowflakes pictures all over the box, they're screaming 'holiday' to me.

Contains eight.. yes, eight mini lip glazes, including four new shades:

plum fairy - a sheer plum with pink pearl
candy - sheer pink-coral with subtle rainbow shimmer
marmalade - sheer peach with pink and white pearl
pinkle twinkle - sheer mid-tone pink with rainbow shimmer

And four bestseller shades

kitten - nude pink champagne shimmer with golden pearl
starfruit - neutral pink-coral with white pearl
cranberry - sheer brick red
blackberry - deep purple wine

And here's the swatches:

L-R: blackberry, plum fairy, cranberry, candy, pinkle twinkle, starfruit, kitten, marmalade

You get this set for $38. I think that's a steal!

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....!!!