Review on Maybelline 24hr Color Tattoo Metal cream eyeshadows

Hi Everyone!

I hope you guys had a good spring break (for UC schools [except for cal cus....it's a semester school for some reason =P]) and a good first week of term! Yay...schoollll! XD
I went paintballing this morning! And then I came back, posted a video on here, took a shower, did some random stuff, and now I'm here! XP Paintballing is awsome!!! You should at least try it once!

Today I'm reviewing the Maybelline 24hr Color Tattoo Metal cream eyeshadows!!

These cream eyeshadows are relatively new and I got some of them about 3 months ago because I loved a couple of Maybelline's 24hr Color Tattoo cream eyeshadows (which I used as my daily eyeshadow for all of fall and winter)!

You can buy this product at Ulta, or any drugstore like CVS or Walgreens. I think I got mine at Ralphs actually. =P It was so new at the time that Ulta didn't have it! O_O
This product contains 14 oz or 4 grams of product and costs about $7.

Of the 5 Color Tattoo Metal creams produced I bought 3 of them:
- 70 Barely Branded
- 55 Inked in Pink
- 60 Silver Strike

What do I think of these products?
Overall I like these cream shadows! =)
They all have a lighter and softer texture than the Color Tattoo cream shadows. Because of that, they tend to apply on more sheer, however the color is buildable. The ones I have are all very shimmery. The pigmentation is great and these cream shadows last for a long time. I would say they last almost the entire day for me up until the last few hours of the day, which is when I am at home, so it doesn't matter if someone sees creasing or not. =P They are also great as bases for your pressed or powder eyeshadows to help the eyeshadows stick easier, last longer, and become more vibrant.
Just keep in mind that, when the light does not shine on these colors, the colors themselves become deeper and more vibrant. When light shines on them, they become very shimmery and the colors more washed out.

Barely Branded is a very light and shimmery champagne color. I know it looks kind of yellow in the picture above but it is more pinkish, like a light peach color. When I apply it onto my eyelids though, it is more of a yellow-toned champagne color. I usually put this on the ball of my eyelid and spread it out. I don't use a lot, because it will tend to make my eyelids look too pale and a little weird. But it is great as a highlight for the ball of the eyes, in the inner corner of the eyes, and on the bridge of the nose.
Inked in Pink is a very pretty shimmer pink color. It is currently one of my favorite cream shadows and I love it because it gives a sweet and feminine look. It is also great to use this spring! I like to use this on my eyelid under my fold or crease, and blend it out. Then I'll take a matt medium brown eyeshadow and blend it into the crease of my eyelids (where you can feel the eye socket) and it looks so cute! Just be careful when applying this product. Start of small and gradually build up if you want more color. Indoors, the color may not look as pink and as pigmented as you think. But once you walk outside, into the sun, the color shows up a lot more strongly and can look wayyy too pink, like you got an eye infection or something. XP haha.
If you mix this cream shadow with the Color Tattoo: Bold Gold, it becomes a beautiful rose gold color! Soooo pretty! ^o^
Silver Strike is a bright silver cream shadow. It is very shimmery, probably has bigger shimmer flecks than the other 2 cream shadows, because it shows up a lot more glittery on my eyelids. I think this cream shadow is great to use to go on a night out with friends, or a dance/clubbing, etc. Some sort of evening/night event. It might be a little too intense to walk around during the day, unless you use some matt colors after applying this cream shadow. But it is a beautiful silver color and if I want my eyes to look extra twinkly that night, I'll use it and it gives a great sparkle!

Here are some pictures and swatches of the cream shadows:

Barely Branded

Inked in Pink

Silver Strike

Looking at the swatches on my arm above. The left picture shows the colors in a dimmer light and the right picture shows the colors in more direct light. You can see how they become a lot more shimmery and the colors themselves, more washed out. But you can still see the colors. =)

Do I recommend these products?
If you are looking for affordable, easy to find cream shadows that do a pretty good job in almost everything, then I recommend these cream shadows! They are well pigmented, long lasting, and versatile. Please keep in mind that if you have oily eyelids, it may be better to use less product to prevent creasing.

So I hope you liked this review! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to write inh the comment box below! Thank you so much for reading and I will see you later. ^_^

Review on Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer

Hi Everyone!

I am back! Finals were rough and I am so gland for winter break!

A couple things I did during as breaks in between finals, I wrote Christmas cards to my friends and co-workers, and also directed a photoshoot at my university for fun. XP

(This was inspired from the movie "Hunger Games" =P)

Anyway...=)

Today I will be reviewing the Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer in Buff

This product costs about $8. It can be found at any drugstore or Ulta and contains 1.5mL or 0.05 fluid oz of product.

What do I think of this product?
I think this concealer is not bad. It is easier to blend than the Revlon primer that I reviewed last time. Also, it is a yellow-toned concealer which matches my skin's yellow undertone!
The color "buff" is a little light for my face but the color matches my hands almost perfectly. However, this is a highlighting concealer, so it is supposed to be on the light side. If I could though, I may choose a shade darker.
Because it is a highlighting concealer, I use it to highlight the shadows under my eyes so it does not look like I have dark circles, and on the bridge of my nose. Because it is more on the light side, I do not use a lot on my face, and focus on blending it out. Because I am putting the concealer on the shadows under my eyes, I am not bringing it too high up to my eye when I blend it (where my undereye folds are) so I do not get creasing.
The consistency is not watery, but it does have some substance. I'm not saying it is thick, but it does take some time to blend and work with. I like to use my forefingers to pat and blend the concealer so that the warmth of my fingers makes it easier to blend into my skin. However, I do need to make sure that it is well blended in and out, otherwise, if I am not careful, it will look like light patches on my face. =P
I would not repurchase this again because I believed I could find better (and actually I did!) However, I do not think it is a bad concealer to start off with as long as one remembers that it is a highlighting concealer and needs to be worked with carefully.
The packaging is a twist up, that pushes the product up to the brush. This I don't really like. Because after you use it the first time, the product left on the brush kind of oxidizes and dries to a darker color and when I need to use this concealer again, I need to be careful to use the new product that I twist up and not the older, drier, and darker residue that was left from last time.
But because it is not in a palette or jar, this is a very portable item. You can put this in your purse for touch-ups or bring it when you travel because it is slim and takes up little space!
This works well on oily or dry skin, however if you do have dry skin, just moisturize beforehand and it should be okay.

Here are some swatches of the concealer:

 In the first picture, I have a swatch on the right and the product blended on the left. I know it is hard to tell, but there is a bit of a yellow tone or hue on the left side of my hand. While it is blended pretty well, I would not use that much product underneath my eyes. This is to give you an idea of what it looks like and so that you can see the yellow undertone better.

 In this picture, I have started to blend the swatch on the right. The blended product on the left is still there, but you can see, it is pretty close to my skin tone.

This is the product blended all over my hand. It definitely makes the complexion smoother and more even. However, my hand is lighter than my face, so it would be lighter on my face if I did not blend it out properly.

Do I recommend this product?
If you have a skin color that is on the lighter side and your skin tone is yellow, I do recommend this as a decent product to try. If you are a beginner who does not want to spend too much, try this, you might like it. =) It is not bad but it is not amazingly good, it works and if you want to save money or need something that you can carry around and wouldn't be too sad losing maybe this will do well for you.
If you are interested in trying this product, you should definitely go to the store and make sure it matches your skin tone better, I ordered mine online and it did not match as well as I thought.

So I hope you liked this review and it helped you. I am finally back and I have so much to talk about and review! It is also winter break and I have so much time to work on my blog and talk to you guys! =D
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to write in the comment box below. Thank you for reading and I will see you soon!

Products that I regret buying: Pur Minerals Gel Liner and Maybelline Tough as Taupe cream eyeshadow

Hey guys! I hope your summer is going well.
Me being a double major, not so much fun, but I think i've had my share of crazy partying and what not =P.

Anyway, today I will be talking about 2 products I regret buying:
1) pur minerals gel eyeliner
2) Maybelline Color Tattoo cream eyeshadow

Purminerals: Pur Intensity Gel Eyeliner (Carbon)

This can be bought at Sephora, online, and Ulta. I bought this gel eyeliner on their website for $17 and probably paid shipping. It contains 0.17 oz or 5 grams of product.

Why this product didn't work for me?
I read a lot of reviews on the eyeliner. How it was nice and creamy. How pigmented and dark it was. How it dried really well and worked for oily eyelids and that it didn't smear and smudge. So, I bought it. I've been looking for a good gel eyeliner for my oily lids so I decided to try it out.
Sadly, it was a disaster for the entire trip. =(
It is true that this eyeliner is very creamy and the Carbon Black color is very black. I had no problems with those features. I bought this during the winter quarter which means I used it during one of the driest seasons of the year. And within a couple hours, it smudged. And it smudged badly. Maybe I should show a picture, but  in about 2 hours, I looked like a panda. I only lined my upper lashline and the lower lashline was completely covered in the stuff. It was really bad. It was as if it didn't dry at all...
I still tried for a bit. I thought that maybe I put on too much liner, like too thick, so I tried putting less and drawing a thinner line. It still smudged. =(
And then I was like okay, I will set it with black eyeshadow, maybe it'll work or last longer. Nope, still smudged like my eyes were crying black blood or something....
I always make sure that my moisturizers and eye creams are absorbed before putting on makeup so my makeup won't smear, so it has nothing to do with my skincare or other makeup routines.
After those tries, I pretty much stopped using it. I'm upset because of the cost of this gel liner, because I could have got something better with the same or less money....*sigh* anyway...

Do I recommend this product?
Nope, I don't recommend this product, especially if you have oily eyelids. If it works for you then, great, I'm glad it did. But for some reason it failed miserably with me. I really wanted it to work, but it just didn't. =(

Maybelline Color Tattoo cream eyeshadow (Tough as Taupe)

(This is the best picture I could find that had the closest color similarity to what it actually looks like)

Why this product didn't work for me?
So I also read a lot of reviews and watched Youtube videos on this product. People said it was well pigmented, creamy, long lasting, and didn't form creases. I wanted something natural and so I bought Tough as Taupe. The majority of what people said about this cream shadow it true. It is nice and creamy, the application is fine, and it blends well. I have no problem with its longevity. It is long lasting, waterproof, and crease-resistant.
The problem I had was the color. Looking at swatches online, it looked like a decent, taupe color, not took dark or too light. However, this cream shadow was super light on me. I'm Asian and my skin is not that tanned but as an eyeliner, it looked like a light tan line on my lashline, which looks weird. On pictures too, it looks a lot darker than it really is. It is more of a light tan-gray color. Even when I took pictures of this, it still appears darker than it really is.
I bought this cream shadow to use as an eyeliner, but that clearly did not work out.
I may use this as a base for more neutral brown and gray eyeshadows. The thing is, I have a good eyeshadow primer, so I don't really have a need for an eyeshadow base. But if I want a really neutral eye and a strong colorful eyeliner or I need a long lasting base for a neutral look, I'd probably use this. But I won't buy it again, at least not this color.

So, as you can see, the pictures immediately above look darker than the one under the title. It is deceiving, the picture under the title is the correct color. I don't know why everytime I take a picture it turns out darker than it looks.

Also, the swatch, starting from the wide part of the swatch on the left, that is much closer to the actual color of the shadow, than the rest of swatch.

Do I recommend this product?

If you are looking for a good eyeshadow base or you have white/pale skin and you want a good overall lid color, then I think this product is works well. However, if you are looking for a more dark taupe color or if you are looking for a cream eyeliner, I don't recommend this product.

So these was a couple of products that I regret buying. Please keep in mind, there were specific things that did not work well for me and that is why I don't like them and regret buying them.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to write in the comment box below =)
Thank you for reading and I will see you later!

Mascara Review! CoverGirl, Loreal, Maybelline!

Hi Everybody!! XD

So Today I will be reviewing 4 mascaras! ;D
They are:
Lash Discovery Minibrush by Maybelline
LashBlastFusion by CoverGirl
Voluminous Carbon Black by L'Oreal
Full'n Soft by Maybelline

Note: All of the mascaras are waterproof and all of them are black in color. I am a big fan of waterproof mascara because generally they smudge less and they definitely can hold up curls a lot better! Also, all of these mascaras are drugstore mascaras, affordable, easy to find and you can buy them online too!

And, to the reviews!

This is Lash Discovery Mini Brush Waterproof:

It is small and slim, about 11 cm long. It's very portable. It was made to coat every single lash and lengthen slightly. The wand is small and slim, with tiny bristles that are ordered in a single helix (biology moment! XD), a single spiral.
It is about $6-9.

What do I think of this product?
I really really like this mascara! I have been using it for about a year and I will definitely buy another one again! The wand lets me comb every single one of my lashes and it is very precise! It darkens well and lengthens the lashes a bit and separates them well. I like to use this for a more natural look, and because it uses so little product, it can hold curls all day with very little smudging or melting. It's not very buildable, but it wasn't made for that. It was made to coat and separate lashes and it does it well! It is not very buildable, like your lashes won't get thicker and longer the more you apply, so that's why I meant it's more of a natural look. Also, b/c it uses so little product, it rarely smudges. There is not shedding or fallout underneath the eyes as well.

Do I recommend this product?
If you are looking for natural looking lashes that are well coated and separated and a little longer, then I recommend this mascara. If you like more dramatic, thicker and longer lashes, then you probably want something more intense than this.

This is LashBlast Fusion:

This mascara is about 11.5cm long. It's rather barrel-like shape makes it a bit awkward to carry around and use. the bristles stick straight out and are longer at the end and shorter at the tip to give a more flared out and flirty look to the outer lashes. This mascara was made to make lashes fuller/thicker and longer. It's about $7-9.

What do I think of this product?
I have used this product for about a year. And I like it, it does what it says. It lengthens and thickens lashes pretty well, though it's lengthening properties don't work as well as thickening. It does lengthen but maybe not to most people's preferences.. I favor thicker lashes than longer lashes, so =P. It is a buildable mascara but if you build up too much, it does start clumping. There is no fallout but I always find at the end of the day (so from 9am till around 9pm) it will smudge onto the lower lash line, but I think it lasts long enough for my purposes =P, so it doesn't bother me that much. Besides, I just wipe it off w/ some tissue and it comes off easily. It also makes my lashes very black which I like.

Do I recommend this product?
If you are looking for a mascara that thickens and does some lengthening and lasts for a relatively good amount of time, then I do recommend this product. It won't look like false lashes or be very dramatic, but it's definitely a visible change compared to normal lashes and really does open up the eyes well. The only issue I have with is bulkiness, because it's kind of awkward to use but it doesn't bother me that much and it depends on your preference for that.

This is Voluminous Carbon Black:

This mascara is about 12 cm long and it has a cylindrical shape. The bristles are long just taper at the end. This mascara is said to be a volume building mascara, made to make lashes thicker and be very buildable. It is a drugstore brand that can be found anywhere and it's about $8.

What do I think of this mascara?
I got this mascara because of Michelle Phan's review on it on one of her Youtube videos and she said she really liked it b/c of the volume and buildability. However, I kind of thought otherewise. Yes it's very black and somewhat buildable. In buildability level I think it is passable but it doesn't build as well as the CoverGirl one. Personally, I didn't this made my lashes much thicker, I think they lengthened them a lot, made them look really flirty but it didn't really do much for me in thickening. I was disappointed because it's supposed to be for thickening and volume building which it really didn't do much of. Another thing that I didn't like was that it was super hard to take off. I use waterproof mascara and I use waterproof eye makeup remover too, and this is annoying hard to take off. I still got smudge marks from this mascara at least 3 days after I used it without applying any mascara at all. It was annoying....
So, I personally did not like this mascara. It definitely creates very long lashes, but that's not what I looked for and it's very difficult to get off, leaving smudge marks for days, which looks unattractive.

Do I recommend this mascara?
Even if you are looking for lengthening mascaras that make your eyes look flirty. I don't recommend this mascara, just because how annoying it is to take it off! Go try something else, I don't think it will work that well and I won't be using it anymore.

This is Full'n Soft:

It is about 11cm long. And it has similar bristles to Voluminous. It is said to make lashes long but still natural and soft looking. It is said to help prevent loss of lashes through it's vitamin E formula and that there is no clumping or smudging and it is contact lens safe.

What do I think of this product?

I think it does make my lashes dark and long and soft. It does thicken a little bit but I wish it could do more. It is very buildable and there is no clumping. However, it is still a little hard to remove, but it is much easier to remove than the Voluminous. There may be a bit of smudging under the eyes the day after you use it (without putting on mascara that day) but it is acceptable to me. I haven't used this mascara long, but I have decided to keep and use it (unlike the Voluminous which I will not use ever again).

Do I recommend this product?

If you like longer, flirtier lashes, then I think this is worth a shot. However, if you want thicker lashes, this won't do too much. I like the fact that there is no clumping and it fans out and separates my lashes quite well.

So, I hope that you found this review helpful! For the Full'n Soft, it is new to me so I will edit this post if there is anything else I find out later.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you guys later! =)