For Beloved One Melasleep Whitening Bio-Cellulose Mask Review

For Beloved One is a Taiwanese skincare brand that is most famous for its masks, which are apparently used by its local celebrities including Barbie Hsu(大S), Annie Yi(伊能靜), and Niu Er (牛爾). One of its best-selling masks is the Melasleep Whitening Bio-Cellulose Mask, which features what the company calls is a "bio-cellulose" texture - meaning that instead of using plain ol' paper like the rest of them cheapo masks do, this expensive mask (S$63.00 or US$45 for a box of three pieces) is made of some biological fiber material, whatever that is. This mask has style, baby!

The mask itself comes in a clean-looking, sleek white box. Unfortunately the box got a bit dinged on its way to me. But it still looks cool, right? Unlike most Asian brands, which tend to drench themselves in cutesy packaging, For Beloved One keeps it clean and simple.



The individual mask packs (yes, that's S$21 for each pack here) comes in a sealed pack, and the design is exactly like that of the box.



The mask claims to have three awesome ingredients in it that will brighten and whiten your skin: Lumiskin, Melaclear, and Matrixyl. Now terms like that are just marketing jargon, of course, (you know, much like the "Age Rewind Complex" from Maybelline's Age Rewind line, or Pond's "Derma-Recovery Complex" from its Time Rewind Wrinkle Cream) but a closer look at the ingredients shows that they are just a bunch of other ingredients - fatty acids (Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride), glycerin, water, as well as some ingredients that may help with skin brightening, and are usually used in cosmetic products for skin whitening or pigmentation (Diacetyl Boldine, dithia octanediol). The good thing is that they at least bothered to make the active ingredients the top three ingredients in the list, so they probably aren't skimping on the good stuff in this mask.



This is what you see when you first open the packet of mask. You get one layer of mask, sandwiched between a papery layer and a plastic foil, and the mask is swimming in the facial essence, which is a milky white liquid.



Anyway, I did mention that one interesting thing about the mask was its selling point of being made of a "bio-cellulose" (another marketing jargon there) material. What this means is that the mask is actually not made of paper, but some filmy substance that kind of feels like a thin layer of jelly. It reminds me of that agar jelly substrate we had in petri dishes back in the days when I was still in school. It kind of has that squishy feel. Here's a shot of the mask material:



One thing I liked about this mask was that because the mask material wasn't made of paper, it felt a lot less flimsy than other masks I've tried. In fact, the manufacturers claim that the mask naturally sticks to your skin, and you can walk around with your mask on your face. I tried that, and I think they're right. Because the mask is made of this film-y material, it adheres to the skin better. I was essentially working on the computer while using the mask.

Here's a really unglam shot of me wearing the mask. Look, ma, the mask is actually staying on!



After application, the mask leave behind a film of liquid on your face, which takes awhile to sink in. The instructions on the package encourage you to continue with the rest of your skincare routine without washing off the mask residue. After usage, I did feel like my skin looked a little brighter. However, I personally felt like it was better when I washed it off, because when the residue was left on my face for too long, my skin seemed to react to it in a negative manner, with my pimples experiencing some swelling. I'm not sure exactly what ingredient it was, but my skin is usually ridiculously sensitive, so it could have been anything. I doubt mosts people would have this sort of reaction to a mask.

Anyway, at S$21 for each application, this mask isn't cheap. I personally believe that you don't have to spend a fortune on good skincare (and in fact, some of the best skincare products I've come across aren't actually expensive), but I do think this mask has some good points going for it if you're willing to splurge. For one, I like the fact that it clings to your skin when applied, so you don't have to lie around comatose on your bed when using this mask. I also feel that enough thought and care has been put into the ingredients to make them work, and the mask seemed effective enough on me. If price isn't an issue, this mask would be worth checking out.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Mentholatum Acnes Creamy Wash and Sealing Jell

Although Mentholatum was originally founded in the USA, the brand is often associated more commonly with its many brands of drugstore skincare and cosmetic items that are popular in Asia, including popular brands LipIce, Sunplay, and Oxy. Within Asia, it often markets its products as originating from Japan, particularly following its acquisition by Japanese company Rohto in 1988. As such, to the casual consumer, its products tend to be associated with Asian markets rather than Western ones, despite its strong roots in the West.

As such, it's no surprise that Mentholatum's Acnes line also bears the cutesy hallmark of Asian brands. Just look at this Acnes set, comprising their Creamy Cleanser and Sealing Jell!



Mentholatum Acnes is, as the name suggests, a range of skincare product targeting acne-prone skin. The line up of products range from standard items such as cleansers, toners and moisturizers, to more Asian-centric products such as nose pore strips. The set below contains the Creamy Wash, a cleanser for oily skin, as well as a Sealing Jell, which is a pimple cream.



At first, I was a bit dubious of the quality of the product. After all, what on earth is a Sealing Jell? Is that a typo, a fail-attempt to make a product name sound cute, or something else entirely?



So, I thought the only way to know whether the set was any good or not was to try it out myself! The first product in the set was the Creamy Wash, which came in a sensible plastic tube with a flip top packaging.



The Creamy Wash is a off-white gel that is tinged with some off-white gel that had a green tinge. It foamed well, and washed off cleanly. However, although the Creamy Wash is billed as non-drying, I still found it a bit too dry for my liking - when I had washed my face, my skin felt squeaky and tight. Definitely a sign that the cleanser was too harsh for my skin.



The second item was the Sealing Jell, which is a pimple gel that just has a funny name. The gel comes in a sensible tube with a screw top.



Like the Creamy Wash, the Sealing Jell is an off-white gel-like cream that has a green tinge. And also like the Creamy Wash, the Sealing Jell also is very drying on my skin. This feels slightly sticky when applied on the skin, but turns clear and dries fast. I did feel like it helped my pimples, simply by drying them out so they didn't evolve into those huge cystic boils I'm so prone to getting.



One last thing I noticed about the two Mentholatum Acnes products was the smell. Both products had this lemon-lime smell, that honestly, smelled exactly like the scent you'd find in dishwashing liquid or hand soap! I'd much rather they tweak the smell or lose it altogether - I don't want to feel like I'm putting dish soap on my face!

Although I felt that these products, particularly the Creamy Wash, were too harsh for my skin, I think these might be useful for someone with very oily, thick skin that's not sensitive. Between the two products, though, I felt that the Sealing Jell was the better product for my skin. I'd probably use these products, but I'd alternate them with other skincare products that weren't so drying. If you're interested, you can redeem some free Acnes samples at http://www.facebook.com/acnes.sg?sk=app_213564948660624 or http://www.facebook.com/acnes.sg.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Hada Labo Retinol Lifting and Firming Lotion

You may not know this, but Hada Labo actually means "Skin Lab" in Japanese - "hada" means skin, and "labo" is "lab" transliterated from English. The Japan-based skincare brand has garnered quite the following in Asia, and this is in part due to the most popular product in their line, the Hada Labo Super Hyaluronic Moisturizing Lotion (which I need to get around to reviewing one day), which is marketed with the catchy tagline, "One drop locks up an ocean".

Now, Hada Labo has launched a new Lifting and Firming Line, which is an anti-aging line. Seeking to capitalize on the "one drop" tagline, the Lifting and Firming line has the tagline "One drop restores youthful bounciness". And as with the Moisturizing line, the star product of the Lifting and Firming Line is expected to be the Retinol Lifting and Firming Lotion.



The Lifting and Firming Lotion comes in a tall, red plastic bottle with a flip top. While the lotion isn't exactly that runny, you need to be careful when pouring it out, as you may end up accidentally pouring out too much!

The lotion itself has a milky, gel-like texture that's a bit on the sticky side. So yes, you do need to wait for a couple of minutes for the lotion to sink into the skin after use.

This is more of a night lotion for me, for two reasons. First, I don't really like fiddling around with sticky lotions in the day. Secondly, there is a small amount of retinyl palmitate in the lotion (the retinol they refer to in the marketing material), and retinyl palmitate applied topically may increase the skin's photosensitivity, which is why concentrated forms of retinyl palmitate are probably best used only at night. However, give that the concentration of retinyl palmitate in this product is quite low, and given that retinyl palmitate is actually one of the weakest forms of retinoid out there, it's may probably be safe for day use as well. I just prefer to be cautious with regard to sun exposure whenever I use a retinoid, so all retinoids are treated the same - night use only, sunscreen in the day. The directions on the packaging, however, are a bit less parannoid, and encourage both day and night use.



After using the lotion for awhile, I do feel like it helped my skin. I'm not too sure about the "restores youthful bounciness" bit, because that's kind of hard for me to assess, but I did feel like the product helped to moisturize my skin and gave it a slightly better texture. If this sounds like the product for you, then this will be worth checking out. I believe Hada Labo is having some Facebook promotion, where if you like their Facebook you can redeem your Hada Labo Sha lotion samples. The offer is available here: http://www.facebook.com/hadalabosg?sk=app_151292538267800 or http://www.facebook.com/hadalabosg.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Shills, Anosa and Beauty Bistro Roadshow with Judy Lin

Shills and Anosa are both a Taiwanese brands that have skincare, bodycare, and haircare products, but both brands are most famous for its BB creams. The brands, together with local retailer Beauty Bistro, had a roadshow to promote some of their latest products. For those who aren't familiar with the roadshow concept, it's sort of like watching QVC, where they hawk all their products and promote their special deals, only that in Asia, QVC actually comes into your mall, so you get to see them demonstrating their products in person.



The road show featured Judy Lin (Mandarin name Lin Ye Ting 林叶亭), a Taiwanese celebrity fashion and beauty stylist whose TV appearances have garnered her something of a small following. I don't follow Taiwanese TV, so I wasn't aware of who she was, but the event was full of fangirls and people who were just waiting to see her in person. Judy is quite stunning in real life - tall, thin, and tanned, with long curled hair, she looks very gorgeous. I also think she kind of looks like the Asian version of Kandee Johnson, LOL!

Here's Kandee:

Pic from http://blog.beautylish.com

And here's Judy:



Don't they look alike? LOL! Both are such beautiful ladies!

Judy was demonstrating some products, including bodycare (primarily slimming), haircare, and skincare. First off, she started with some Some of the highlights of the session included these really interesting products. One of these was the slimming products, which included a cream and (oddly enough) tape!

The slimming cream, the Shills Miracle Lift Body Contour Control, was billed as a cream that if applied and massaged properly into the skin, would help the user lose weight. Like most other weight-loss creams on the market, this cream produces a heating sensation, and that is attributed to increased blood circulation.



And like most other slimming creams, caffeine is a main ingredient in the cream. As you can see from the above photo, she demonstrated it on a volunteer and it seemed to work on the spot, which is quite impressive. But I'm personally very skeptical of all slimming creams, since I don't believe anything can take the place of proper eating and exercise habits. That, and the fact that the last time I tried a slimming cream, it didn't work for me.



The other intriguing product that caught the attention of the audience was the Anosa Fit Patch. This one is a slimming patch, and it releases caffeine and other ingredients, such as various plant extracts (strawberry and raspberry are in there), and the cocktail of ingredients is supposed to penetrate through your skin and help you slim down. I guess it sort of works like a nicotine patch, but like the Shills Miracle Lift Cream, I'm personally skeptical.

When I took this photo, I was thinking, "Bullseye!"

They even applied the strips on a volunteer during the show, just to show you how the patches should be applied. You're supposed to cut the patch (which is quite large in size) into strips and stick it at problem areas on the body. I have to admit, I'd be tempted to try this, but just sticking on a patch and watching the weight melt away sounds too good to be true, no?

There were also hair products that were sold, and she did the hair of a couple of volunteers - but unfortunately, I couldn't catch a good photo of that. Also other products that were featured were the Shills Whitening and Brightening Cream, which is a moisturizer with whitening properties. It's a white cream with a light texture that is easily absorbed.



Another product Judy was selling was the Shills Foundation base SPF 42++, which is basically a thick cream foundation in a pan compact. It also looks like the Covergirl and Olay Simply Ageless Foundation that was out awhile back in the US and was really popular.

Here's the Covergirl version:

(Image from Covergirl website)

And here's the Shills version. I don't know how clearly you can see it, but Judy's holding it in the photograph. You can see the white swirls are just like Covergirl's Simply Ageless Foundation. And like the Covergirl version, the Shills Foundation Base claims to have ingredients beneficial for the skin in the white swirls too. It would be interesting to see if it's really like the Covergirl one.



I did play with the Shills Foundation Base for a bit on my hand, although I didn't manage to take any photos of the foundation itself. It had this texture that slides around easily, as though the product was formulated with a lot of silicones to give it good "slip". And it did look quite a bit darker in the pot than my own skin tone (NC20) - to me, it looked like it would be around NC25ish. But when I took a little bit of the foundation and really blended it in, it ended up pretty much blending into my skin. So I'd say you really need to blend for this one, and a little goes a long way.

It's a very interesting experience watching such roadshow events - it's like being in the room with the QVC girls when they're engaging the audience with their chitchat. Judy is a very personable and likable character, and absolutely beautiful to boot. I'm glad to have gone for this event, as it was an eye-opener of sorts, featuring some of Taiwan's most popular brands - I certainly didn't know there were such a thing as weight loss pads before being told about them!

Majolica Majorca Jeweling Pencil Eyeliner Swatches

Majolica Majorca is the offshoot of Shiseido, the Japanese brand famous for skincare, as well as makeup. Majolica Majorca is very popular among Asian girls, with its "Shiseido-for-a-cheaper-price" appeal. That said, I have to admit, Majolica Majorca is one of the better Asian drugstore brands I've seen to date, with their quality of products.

Majolica Majorca has a line of pencil eyeliners, called the Jeweling Pencil Eyeliners. Why they're called Jeweling is a mystery to me, but I guess it's a reference to the sparkles in the pencil eyeliners, since it's definitely not the colours.



L - R: BK999, BK901, BL503, PK204, BR606, Marble 71, Green Jewel GR522, Amber Flakes BR633

BK999 is a soft matte black.
BK901 is a black with sparse silver glitter.
BL503 is a deep colbalt blue with sparse silver glitter.
PK204 is a frosty pale pink. Pink eye anyone? LOL. This would probably be good on the waterline.
BR606 is a warm yellow brown with sparse gold shimmer.
Marble 71 is a frosty gold that isn't that greatly pigmented.
Green Jewel GR522 is a light grass green with gold shimmer. The shimer in GR522 is a bit denser than in the other colours.
Amber Flakes BR633 is a deep brown, less warm than BR606, with gold shimmer. I'm not sure if I'd call it amber flakes, but it's pretty. Again, the glitter in this is denser than the other shades.

I don't know why some of the shades have shade names and some don't, but I guess the ones with the names were part of a later release. These went on with a nice glide, and were decent in pigmentation, althought they didn't stay that long.

Japan Cosmetics and Skincare Haul (and Other Funny Things)

A few weeks ago, I went to Hokkaido in Japan. I really enjoyed it, and I did all sorts of really awesome things - I went to a hot spring (you aren't allowed to wear clothes in there, so it takes some getting used to!), visited both the Ishiya Chocolate and the Asahi Beer factories (those were highlights for me, because in my day job I get to visit factories too), and just generally enjoyed the sights and sounds of gorged myself on the awesome Japanese food, especially the seafood and the dairy products. It was such an amazingly beautiful place with so much to do.

But of course you're not interested in that, right? So I'll show you what I hauled while I was in Japan. Now we're interested! :P

Firstly, I'm going to have to disappoint you by saying that my haul was rather small. In part, this was due to the fact that once the exchange rate was accounted for, prices were actually the same, although we were in Japan. Unlike US-based and Europe-based brands, which like to mark up their retail prices by at least 30% once they export out of their home market, Japanese cosmetic brands don't seem to have the same mindset. So yes, unfair as it may seem, while a NARS blush is nearly USD$50 in Japan and only USD$25 in America, the girl in Indiana pays the same for a Shu Uemura eyeshadow as the girl in Tokyo, unless you happen to buy from some unscrupulous third-party reseller who jacks up the retail price. So yes, that did dent my haul, but on the bright side, I can buy all the Japanese cosmetics I want back home knowing we're more or less paying the same prices worldwide.

So, that rant aside, let's start with the fun stuff of what I got: Shiseido Integrate nail polishes! For the unfamiliar, Integrate is one of Shiseido's subsidiary brands, calibrated for the drugstore market, along with a line of other brands, including Majolica Majorca, ZA Cosmetics, Maquillage, and Ettusais. Most of the colours were rather ho-hum, playing into the casual nail polish user's preference for sheer pinks and reds, but there were a couple of more interesting colours I spied. I got RD701, a dusky, dusty, greyed-purple with a pink flash, and GD841, an antique gold-green shade with a pink flash.



Don't they look gorgeous? I can't wait to use them!

I also got a Canmake Nail Glitter 02, one of their ranges of nail polish. Basically consisting of four colours, each colour is a different coloured glitter (pink, teal, silver, gold) in a clear base. I got the gold, as it looked more interesting.



And, this is the part of my haul I'm most excited about. I GOT A TAUPE EYESHADOW! Woohoo! Now for a taupe lover like myself, I compulsively collect and hoard taupe eyeshadow, so I was glad to lay my hands on this little baby. Go ahead, feast your eyes. You know you want to.



Okay, so it looks a little blah in the pan, and the photo isn't great because the plastic wrapping is still covering the entire case, but that's Coffret D'or, dude! Coffret D'or is one of the better makeup brands in Japan, with shades that are actually very smooth-textured and nicely pigmented. I don't know about you, but a lot of Asian-brand eyeshadows tend to be over-glittery, gritty, and have downright wimpy pigmentation (and I'm looking at almost all of them - most Canmake, some Majolica Majorca, some KATE, and the list goes on). So when I swatched this eyeshadow, I just HAD to have it.

It's Coffret D'or's Eye Color in GY-37. Taupe perfection, taupe goodness. A perfect light-to-midtone greyed-purpled-brown with some sparkles, but not too much. This is like my baby right now. I just love it so much, I can't bear to use it.

Other than makep, I got some skincare items. I got my DHC Cleansing Oil, which I find so much better than the Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil, as it lathers more easily and rinses off so much cleaner, whereas the Shu Uemura version leaves a residue that makes me perpetually paranoid that the mineral oil in its formulation will break my skin out. Oh yeah, and did I also mention that the DHC Cleansing Oil also has no mineral oil? Perfect for people who are sensitive to mineral oil, like me.



Of course, the drawback is that the DHC Cleansing Oil looks rather gross in it's packaging. It looks like the olive oil I used to use for cooking when I was living in the West (olive oil is cheaper there than in Asia, believe it or not), and that's because it is primarily made of olive oil. Olive oil, and a bunch of emulsifiers, so it rinses off better than pure olive oil. I rather like this. I need to review it sometime.

Lastly, I got some DHC Pimple/Acne Spot Therapy Cream. Now, I have something I want to say to DHC about the packaging of the product: Why is it that the consumers in Japan get the cutesy packaging, while the rest of us get a boring baby blue box? No fair!



The box above is what I bought in Singapore - which is a rather medical, serious and stuffy-looking blue box. The box below, the kawaii one with spots and a drawing of the product working on the pimple, is what you can get in Japan. The product inside is the same though.

The discrimination even extends to the tubes themselves. Why does the Japanese version look so much cuter? Both contain 15ml of product, however, so you get the same product in the same amount, but...I want mine to look cute too!



Anyway, I'm guessing the change in packaging is probably to cater to the market, since it costs the company money to have more than one design for the packaging and boxes and so on. The marketing honchos must have figured out that while cute and kawaii things sell within Japan, for a pimple cream that will be sold outside of Japan, it would probably be better for it to look more professional and medicinal, and more like something the doctor would prescribe. I guess it's working - this product seems to be selling well.

And of course, what kind of tourist would I be if I didn't marvel at the funny Engrish there? To be fair, I do think that since the last time I visited Japan 8 years ago, the English competency has definitely improved. But I still see Engrish gems all over the place. Here's a makeup-related one for you:



I'm sorry, but this ad is just hilarious. It's for a foundation product released by Maquillage, one of Shiseido's subsidiaries, that promises clean, smooth skin. So I guess that automatically allows you to proclaim, "I'M VIRGIN!" Woohoo! Somehow, I can't imagine this selling in the West. Ever. In the rest of Asia, probably (provided it's better translated than "I'm virgin" - I believe the actual message they wanted to convey was virgin-clear skin, or virgin-clean skin, etc). But not in the West. That would seem positively medieval.

Anyway, another thing I found funny were the instructions showing you how to use squat toilet. That's right - toilets which are a glorified and beautified hole in the ground, and you basically squat over them to use them. I don't believe these exist in the West (come to think of it, in my 4 years living abroad in the US and UK I've only ever seen sitting toilets), but they're commonplace in Asia. So I found it funny that the Japanese people have helpfully provided instructions on how to use the toilets for uninitiated, clueless Westerners, complete with diagrams! I never saw any such diagrams when I visited other parts of Asia - I guess they expect you to figure out how to use it yourself, or else handle your bladder well.

Here's a typical diagram you might find. I think they claim too much credit in calling these "Japanese style toilets", since they're found all over Asia, certainly not just Japan. I'd call them "Asian style toilets", but hey, I don't write instructions for toilet usage:



And this, hands-down, has got to be the BEST "how-to-use-our-toilets-for-clueless-tourists" manual ever. It's got painfully detailed step-by-step diagrams, and classic Engrish lines such as "Do it" and "If you lose your balance, you are gonna fall down on shit". ROFL! They even have instructions in Mandarin, although I don't know why they need those - the rest of Asia is familiar with these toilets.



So now that I've wowed you with the awesome makeup I bought, laughed with you at the funny Engrish, and grossed you out with toilet signs, I hope you've enjoyed this post. While I know I can sound mean laughing at stupid things like Engrish and toilets, let me assure you that I have nothing but utmost love for Japan and its people. I'll be posting as I use some of the items, but until then, I am glad that my visit to Hokkaido has left me with beautiful memories, and gorgeous makeup and skicnare items.

Work Appropriate Neutral Brown EOTD on the Cheap!

Today's EOTD is a rather boring, basic one - it's just a simple brown EOTD that you're supposed to be able to wear to (most) work places. And it's pretty good example of how you don't have to spend a fortune on makeup to look good!



This simple EOTD (Eye of the Day) was done with my awesomely cheap 26 Colour Eyeshadow and Blush Palette, which I got from KKCenterHKa, a Hong Kong-based retailer of various brands of affordable Asian makeup. Over the past week or so, I've been playing around with this deceptively cheap and simple palette, and I've been quite happy with the variety of looks it can produce for the cheap price of the palette. Sure the palette's no MAC, but it's good for what it is.

The two shades with the "X" on them are what I used for this look. The lighter brown shade was used on the lid, while the darker brown shade was placed in the contour area.



Here's a look with the eye closed, so you can see the shades and the blending. I really am quite fond of the light brown, for some reason. It's a light matte, malt brown, which looks deceptively boring, but is so wearable. For some reason, the darker brown seemed to pull quite red on me, but not so much that it became unwearable.



Pigmentation and texture of this palette was pretty good - the shades showed up, although the lighter brown required a bit of layering to get it to that intensity that you see in the photo. The dark brown was quite pigmented, and blended easily.



You know I'm a neutrals kind of girl, so this look is totally up my alley! I absolutely love this look, and I hopefully haven't bored the colour addicts out there with this one. I guess after all the brights, everyone could use a little palette cleanser now and then!

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Asian Face Powders Haul: Ponds Magic Powder and Bhaesaj Teen Powder

Everywhere I go, I'm always discovering new beauty products and tips. And thanks to friends who travel and are nice enough to buy stuff back for me, from time to time, I get to lay my hands on some of makeup tips, tricks and hot items from other countries!

My friend, Lynn, recently went to Thailand, and bought back these two Asian face powders for me, the Ponds Magic Powder, as well as the Thailand-based brand's Bhaesaj Teen Powder, both of which are extremely popular in Thailand, and have garnered a following in Asia as well.



These face powders look like body powders, but they're actually used as face powders in Asia. Pretty neat, eh? I've actually reviewed the Johnson's Face Powder previously, so these powders are in the same vein as the one.

Here's a photo of my face powders, including the Johnson's one previously reviewed.



I'm so excited to have hauled this, even if in proxy through a friend, LOL! I can't wait to start using and reviewing these!

Kanebo KATE Lipgloss S Swatches

KATE is the drugstore arm of Kanebo cosmetics, the ever-popular Japan-based cosmetics and skincare brand. KATE has been gaining popularity among Asian girls as it is often perceived as being similar to Kanebo, it's more expensive sister, but at a better price point. That, combined with the cutesey marketing and the "it's-from-Japan" hype, has garnered it something of a small following.

One of KATE's latest products is the Lipgloss S, consisting of just five colours. I have to admit, Asian cosmetics naming conventions are so odd that although I'm Asian myself, I've no idea what S stands for. Shine? Shimmer? Sheer? Sticky? Well, the Lipgloss S is all of those, so I guess they picked the letter quite rightly. Anyway, enough of my snark, here are the Lipgloss S swatches.



L - R: PK-2, BE-1, PK-1, BR-1, RD-1

In general, Asian cosmetics naming conventions for lip shades go as such:
PK = Pink
BE = Beige
BR = Brown (although oftentimes in Asian cosmetics "brown" really looks more like "pinky-brown-that's-not-pastel")
RD = Red
PP = Purple (once again, not as purple as it sounds, it's usually used for plummy shades)

And the 1, 2, 3 etc numbers usually denote depth or darkness of colour. So, say PK-1 and PK-2 would be both pinks, but PK-2 could be reasonably be expected to be darker than PK-1. Which in itself isn't saying much, because you know, darker could be one shade darker, or three shades darker, and there is huge variance in shade depth between shades.

Anyway, here's my colour description below:

PK-2 is a pale, purply-pink with big chunk of glitter.
BE-1 is a pale, sheer, peach with glitter.
PK-1 is a pale, pastel pink, that's not as purply as PK-2, and also has glitter.
BR-1 isn't as brown as the colour naming scheme makes it sound. It's actually a gorgeous neutral pinky-brown, a lovely MLBB (My Lips But Better) shade.
RD-1 is the lone shimmer-free shade in the range. It's a sheer red, perfect for girls who want an introduction to the red lip.

As I've mentioned previously, all these glosses are sheer, have copious amounts of shimmer, and are really, really sticky. Like, Lancome Juicy Tubes kind of sticky (and if you're a makeup fanatic like me, you'll know the Juicy Tubes are famed for being possibly one of the stickiest glosses ever to have touched the lips of womankind). As it tends to be with Asian cosmetics, the lighter shades tend to be sheerer and have more shimmer, while the darker shades tend to have better pigmentation and be less glitterbomb-ish.

Ginvera Nude Cover Green Tea BB Cream and Aqua Whitening Cream: Review/Swatch

Ginvera is a Singapore-based brand mostly known for its whitening range of skincare products, often infused with green tea-based ingredients designed to appeal to the Asian market. Their most popular products include, up to this point, include the Green Tea Marvel Gel, which is an exfoliator in gel form, as well as the Green Tea Spot Corrector. In keeping with the whitening, green tea-infused theme, Ginvera has released two new products to their whitening line.



One is a moisturizer, the Aqua Whitening Cream, while the other is a BB cream, that ever popular Asian foundation substitute. Both products come in plastic tubes and are housed in plastic boxes. The products are all green in colour, in keeping with the rest of the colour scheme for the whitening products.



The Aqua Whitening Cream is billed as a moisturizer with oil control benefits, and is thus marketed towards girls with normal/combination skin. It is supposed to moisturize your skin while preventing it from getting too oily. I rather liked this product, as it blended in easily and worked well under makeup. It did feel a little thick for a moisturizer, though - this is definitely a moisturizer with a creamier texture, as opposed to a more watery, gel-like feel.



The Nude Cover Green Tea BB Cream is a BB cream, and also claims to have skin-healing benefits in addition to being a cosmetic product. It also has SPF30 for sun protection. Initially, I thought this looked rather dark in the bottle, but it blended out to be fairer than it appeared at first.



Here are swatche of both products. As you can see, both products blended nicely into the skin. The moisturizer sinks into the skin nicely and doesn't leave any residue. And the BB cream also blends in well. I really appreciate that it doesn't have any glitter, so you don't have to fear the dreaded discoball effect with this BB cream!



One of the other things I really liked about the BB cream was that for possibly the first time ever in my life, I actually found a match in a BB cream! Most BB creams tend to run really pink (like the CU Skin BB cream I tried before), making it hard for me to find a match, so I was pretty excited to find a BB cream that would work for me. And I also like the finish on this one - it isn't as oily-looking or overly-shiny as some other BB creams are, and although it is also on the shiny side, it doesn't make my face look like an oil slick.

Here's an FOTD of the BB cream, just so you can see that it's actually a match for me (NC20 in MAC). Coverage of the BB cream is also decent, and I'd call it medium. It won't cover any very major spots, and as you can see it didn't cover all the blemishes on my skin, but if you have decent skin to start off with, it will cover minor imperfections.



If you are looking for a decent moisturizer or a BB cream, this would be worth checking out. If you've had previous issues with BB creams being too pink on your skin, the Ginvera BB cream may just work for you. Both products retail for S$16.90, so even girls on a budget would be able to appreciate these items. Right now, Ginvera is having a promotion on their Facebook, so you can head over there to redeem your FREE NEW AQUA WHITENING CREAM (with Oil Control) & NUDE COVER BB CREAM SPF30/PA++ samples, at https://www.facebook.com/ginvera.sg?sk=app_213564948660624 or http://www.facebook.com/ginvera.sg.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Insiti Eyeshadow Pencil: EOTD and Review

I'm a demanding customer - I hate high prices, but at the same time I can't tolerate lousy quality cosmetics. Thus, I always find myself trying out various cheap-as-chips brands to see if they fulfill my desire for something cheap but good.

My latest experimentation with cheap makeup comes from Insiti. Insiti is a drugstore cosmetics brand hailing from Asia - although to be honest, I don't exactly know which part of Asia it's from. My guess would be Taiwan or Hong Kong, because their Facebook page is in Traditional Chinese. I got mine from KKcenterHK, the Hong Kong-based online purveyor of cheap Asian cosmetics and other related products (false lashes are one of their specialties). The website may look a little dodgy compared to other more sleekly-dressed online counterparts, but my dealings with them have been trouble-free and pleasant.



The Insiti Eyeshadow Pencil itself is a simple dual-ended eyeshadow pencil with a plastic cap at each end. I got shade no. 12, which consists of a simple light pastel pink and a medium-toned purple.

Here are some close-ups of the two ends of the pencil. As you can see, the pastel pink is actually pretty frosty-looking in the tube, and the purple looks like it might have this interesting blue sheen.





Here are swatches. The pastel pink shade is indeed quite frosty when swatched, but the blue sheen is only very slight, which isn't bad, but is a bit of a pity.



I did an eye look with the pencil, just to test it out. I'm afraid working with the eyeshadow pencil was slightly tricky for me, and the eye look wasn't the best. But I hope it's demonstrative of how the product might look like on the eye.



One of the things I found about this product was that it's very emollient. It does slide around the eye and feel a little greasy on, which means, yes, it does crease, and would fade and shift if you didn't use a base under it. In fact, I'd suggest using a base under this, and then perhaps setting the eye look with some transparent setting powder for better lasting power.



Colour-wise, the pencil was decently pigmented, but I had to build up the colour a bit to get the colour intensity that you see in the photo. Building up successive layers of colour can be a bit tricky, though, since the product does tend to move and shift around the skin a little.



Would I recommend this? I guess it's cheap, and if you were willing to use a base and a setting powder on top, it could be worth it. But if you're lazy like me and don't have the patience to fiddle with a base or setting powder, then this may be a bit more trouble than it's worth.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)