Superdrug MUA Lipgloss Shade 4: Cheap and Awesome!

Superdrug MUA (the MUA stands for Makeup Artist) is a line of makeup launched by Superdrug, the eponymous drugstore line. The main attraction of the makeup line is that all its items are just £1. Yup, everything is just a quid! Of course, this means that there are hits and misses - some items are great, some are not so good. Here's one that I think is fantastic.

Introducing the Superdrug MUA Lipgloss in Shade 4. I picked up this little gloss when I stepped into Superdrug for a quick browse and got tempted. The Superdrug MUA line actually has two ranges of lipgloss, both called Lipgloss, but the colours in each line are different. The packaging is also different - one of the glosses comes in a squeeze tube, the other one, which I bought, comes in a hard plastic tube with a wand applicator.

Here's the gloss that I bought. I wasn't impressed by the other shades I swatched, but I did like Shade 4. so I ended up buying it!



Here's a swatch of the gloss. Unlike the other glosses, which were just very sheer and glitter-laden, Shade 4 actually is a colour I really like. It's a deep rosy pink with fine gold shimmer. Very wearable, and very flattering on almost all skintones! Pigmentation was also very good, unlike the rest of the Superdrug MUA lipglosses. As you can see, my skin doesn't even show through.



And here's a swatch of it on my lips. The gold shimmer doesn't really show up on my lips, but it imparts some subtlety of colour that I really like. It would be suitable even for work.



So that's my cheap and awesome find of the day! I certainy hope I'll be finding more gems like this!

Budget Beauty: Simple and Natural FOTD

Today's FOTD (Face of the Day) has a budget beauty theme. I decided to try using the US$3.80 Love Alpha Summer Gradually palette I got recently to see how the palette would look on. Yay for cheap makeup!

Love Alpha seems to be a generic brand of makeup that is available through various cosmetic wholesalers, and I got mine from KKCenterHK. My experiences with them has been good so far - customer service is prompt, and packages arrive without delay.

I decided to go with a girly, more natural look this time round, since my previous EOTD was a little more intense. Here are the shades I used:



The blush, despite looking really intimidating in the pan, actually applied sheer, and could be built up for more colour. So if you're worried about having too much colour on your cheeks with this palette, don't! It isn't as bad as it looks.

And this was the outcome. Not too bad, actually. Although I do apologise that you don't see enough of the eyeshadow, and see too much of my undereye circles.



I actually like this look - to me it's as simple and as natural as makeup can get, while still being pretty. Lasting power of the blush and eyeshadow was pretty decent. They faded after a few hours, but for $3.80 I'm not going to complain.

This palette would be pretty useful for occasions where you're not concerned with the lasting power of your makeup - for example, if you're just running errands, or dashing out for a couple of hours. It woudln't make sense to use your expensive makeup then, right? (Well, not to me, at least. Did I say I'm cheap?) So palettes like that would bridge that gap where you want to wear something on your face, but it's only just for awhile.

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

Budget Beauty Shimmer Purple Eye Look

I always love trying out cheap makeup and seeing just how good it is. Sometimes, it's actually pretty darn good (like one of my loves, Wet n' Wild), sometimes, it just sucks, and sometimes, it's actually pretty decent. The Love Alpha Eyeshadows I got from KKCenterHK awhile back were finally put to the test today, when I decided to finally test drive those pretty palettes.

Here are the shades I used for my Eye of the Day (EOTD). I decided to go with my favourite purple shade (but of course!), and that gorgeous taupe shade I last got all excited about. I also use the light yellowy-vanilla shade as a highlight.



The EOTD I put together with the KKCenterHk product was this. A shimmery, glittery purple and brown look that would be pretty darn awesome if you did like shimmery metallic purples and browns:



I know I previously mentioned that the shadows were essentially a bunch of coloured glitter, so when using these, care is required. With a sticky base to hold the shadows in place, such as UDPP (Urban Decy Primer Potion), TFSI (Too Faced Shadow Insurance), or Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy, the colours show up much better. I was lazy, and just used my MAC Studio Finish Concealer. I wouldn't advise you doing this, though - if you have oily lids, it's more likely than not that the concealer will slide off your lid, taking your shadow along with it. But you get the idea - this was just to demonstrate the difference in colour payoff when a based is used.



Another tip I found useful when applying such shadows is to apply the shadow using patting and dabbing motions, as opposed to the sweeping, brushing motions we're usually taught to use. This will help to minimize fallout, and further help the colours to show up better, since they're packed on the lid, not brushed outwards. Blending, of course, still has to be done with sweeping motions after the colour has been packed on. As you can see from the pictures, the shadows are actually quite blendable.

Once you get the hang of application, it really is pretty easy to get the shadows to look good. The glitter-laden nature of the eyeshadow means that when patted on successfully, the eyeshadow looks very vibrant.



I'm really loving my eye look right now. It has that foiled, metallic look of a loose pigment, but actually is a pressed shadow, so yay for decreased mess and spillage! And from the vibrancy of the colours in this EOTD, I don't think I'd be able to guess that the eyeshadow palette was actually just US$3.80 in reality!

PS: Apologies for the appearance, disappearance, and re-appearance of this post. There was a glitch in Blogger's auto-post feature that made it go live earlier than scheduled.

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

Swatches: Love Alpha Summer Gradually Eyeshadow from KKCenterHK

As a girl on a budget, I'm always on the lookout for cheap makeup options. Is it possible to find cheap makeup products that are just as great as more pricey brands? As a cheapskate, that's a question I always seek to answer. And in the process of doing so, I somehow ended up with not one, but two, eyeshadow and blush compacts from KKCenterHK, a Hong Kong-based online retailer of wholesale cosmetics you probably have been seeing around online.

The compacts, although procured from the site (KKCenterHK has the entire range of eyeshadow compacts, by the way), appear to be rather generic-brand makeup, and are called Love Alpha Summer Gradually Compacts. These come in 3 sets of colours, and I ended up going with 01 (listed as M176-A) and 03 (listed as M176-C).



The compacts arrived all whole and unharmed in the post (thank goodness!) after a slight delay - you know, international post is always a little bit iffy, and it was Chinese New Year over on this side of the world, which wrecks the same havoc on the mail system as Christmas does over in the West. Both times I received packages from them, they arrived quick and intact, which is definitely a good thing.

The Love Alpha Summer Gradually compacts are quite small, and are around the size of my palm (as well as my digital camera!), and come with no-frills, no-fuss, basic black shiny plastic packaging. The lids have clear windows, though, so you know what colours are inside without having to look inside the palette. The palette itself consists of 8 eyeshadows and 2 blushes in a colour-coordinated little package.



When I saw the cheap-looking plastic packaging, I didn't have high hopes for the product inside. (Although at US$3.80 a compact, they're actually pretty cheap.) But the two palettes are actually not too badly colour-coordinated. They're actually colours that would go together, and they even seem to have colour themes for each of the palettes.

Palette 01, or M176-A on the site, is what I'd call a girly neutral summer theme. The colour scheme for this palette is mainly warm, summery neutrals that are wearable for daytime. Here's a close-up shot of Palette 01:



Palette 03 (or M176-C on the site), on the other hand, is a palette that has a much more intense colour scheme. This is composed primarily of jewel-toned blues, greens and some teals - perhaps a smokey mermaid theme?



The first thing I noticed about the compacts when I opened them was - OMG GLITTERBOMB EYESHADOWS! I was quite worried that these were clunky, glittery, un-pigmented crap with lots of fallout. Oh well, I thought, what did I expect for $3.80?

But I decided to put them to the test, and swatched them. Here you can see what the swatches look like - not as fantastic as the high-end brands, perhaps, but definitely better than I thought. I would like to caveat, though, that these shadows are packed with tons of glitter - and by glitter I mean big discrete specks of glitter, so you'd really want to use a sticky base with these to prevent fallout, and help them adhere to the skin longer.

It is my personal experience that with these types of eyeshadows that are primarily composed of glitter (very common in the Asian market although less so in the West), it helps to foil the shadows, or use a primer or a sticky base to make the colours really show up. Without the base, you'd just end up with glitter and no pigment. So moral of the story is - don't forget to use a base for best results!

Here's Palette 01. I've swatched the eyeshadows on the left, and the two blushes on the right, in the order that they appear in the palette. As you can see, the shadow colours show up, and give a metallic, almost-foiled finish, with some gold sheen. I did use my fingers to swatch these, though, and I imagine with brushes they'd look different.



The colours in Palette 01 are very pretty, and quite feminine. I especially love that eyeshadow in the bottom right corner (fourth from the left in the second row), because it looks like a gorgeous browned taupe! We have a taupe, everybody! Taupe Alert! Taupe Alert!

Other attractions of the palette are the blushes, both of which are wearable and devoid of glitter. I think that's a good choice - if the blushes had as much glitter as the shadows, I'd end up looking like a glitterbomb if I used the palette.

Here's 03. As you can see, the eyeshadows have the same frosty, metallic finish, with a gold sheen. And the blushes are also matte.



My favourite colour in this palette is the teal, that's third from the left in the second row. You can't see it in the swatches, but it's actually teal with a gold flash. Very pretty, and very aquatic, and reminiscent of mermaids.

Over the next couple of days, I'm going to be trying out a few looks with these two palettes to see how they fare on the eye - in other words, OMG this neutrals girl is going to be using teal eyeshadow! Judging by the swatches for now, these seem very decent for the price tag (8 eyeshadows and 2 blushes for $3.80), and although they aren't of top-notch quality, are decent enough to work with, provided you use a good eyeshadow primer. So if you're on the market for cheap shades that could pop, these are worth looking into.

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

Barry M Instant Nail Effects: Black and Silver Crackle!

If you haven't been living on Mars, you'll know what Barry M Instant Nail Effects is - it's this (not-so) newfangled thing called crackle or shatter polish. The reason why these polishes are called crackle or shatters is because, once applied on the nail, they dry up and contract very quickly, producing the coolest shatter/crackle effects ever.

Crackle polishes actually first made an appearance in in the late 90's (the brand was Covergirl back then, and the polishes were called Crackle Laquers), but went out of vogue until the trend was revived. Isn't it interesting how fashion - even nail fashion - seems to go in cycles? I mean, there were the Covergirl Crackle Laquers, and then the Sally Hansen Nail Prisms (holographic before holo became a trend), and the Maybelline Street Wears (all kinds of funky finishes and colours back in the day)! So you never know - that old dinky bottle of crap from 10 years ago might just be next trend!

Anyway, I'm sure you didn't want to hear a history lesson about nail polish (and yes, I am so much of a geek I know the origins of nail polish trends). I'm sure you wanted to see the awesome crackle/shatter effects.



There are many crackle polishes out there, of course, and Barry M and OPI were the first brands to have them out this time round. (Unfortunately Covergirl missed out.) But between the two, I personally prefer the Barry M Instant Nail Effects to OPI's Black Shatter - it's cheaper, and it shatters better. Yes, I said that Barry M's crackle polish beat out OPI Black Shatter! Now I'd better hide before the OPI fans come after me.

One of the things to note about applying crackle polishes is that they dry very fast. Very, very fast, as in almost immediately. So they're really like an instant way to glam up your nails!



One of the things about applying crackle/shatter polish is that the way the polish shatters/crackles on your nails is highly dependent on how thick or thin the coat of polish is. I've found that in general, thin coats tend to produce finer, smaller shatters, while thick coats tend to shatter in bigger pieces. Whether you prefer your shatters smaller or larger is personal preference, of course, but for me, I strive for a happy medium.

Here's Barry M Instant Nail Effects applied thinly. As you can see, it shatters in to tiny pieces, especially nearer the tip of the nail, where the coat of polish was the thinnest. Some people may like that, but for me, it's a bit too thin.



And here's the same shatter polish, applied thickly. This one I didn't like at all. It seemed a bit gloopy and clumpy instead of nicely crackling.



One of the last questions I faced when applying my shatter polish was - to top coat or not to top coat? Either way is possible, the topcoat just gives a glossier finish to the nails. Personally I prefer applying top coat, because the shattered bits can chip off quite easily without it.



I'm really loving my shatter manicure, and I'm so excited to try this out on top of other colours! *Waves nails around in the air*

Evil Shades Dryad: Perfect Smokey Spring EOTD

I rarely wear loose eyeshadow, because I'm scared of the mess, but recently I've been venturing more into the arena with some colours that are pretty complex. Evil Shades, one of my perennial favourites for loose eyeshadows, has again captivated my heart, this time with another beautifully complex eyeshadow from their Mythology Collection, Dryad.

The Mythology Collection was launched some time ago, and Dryad is a beautiful metallic forest green, which is a very appropriate name, given that a dryad is a tree nymph in Greek mythology. Right from the start, Dryad captivated my attention even in the case. It just looked so intriguing:



That's a lot of product, given that it's all in a small container. These things can be massively pigmented, so a little bit will go a long way.

Here are dry and wet swatches. Dry, you get a blackened green, which is pretty to have, but perhaps not very stunning. However, once you foil it a little, you get a gorgeously stunning metallic forest green.



Don't you just love how it morph into something that's just pretty, to something so eye-popping? It's like the colour really comes to life when it's foiled.

Here's an EOTD I did using just Evil Shades Dryad, blended out into a white highlight - in this case, I used Evil Shades Ice Star. Simple, but pretty eye-catching:



And here's the eye closed. I liked this shadow, once foiled, it went on very well, and didn't give as much fallout as I thought.



And here's my eye in a really weird half-open, half-closed position. I was trying to get the picture at an angle where you could see the metallic finish of the eyeshadow, but obviously I failed, because the camera didn't pick up the subtlety of Dryad.



I don't normally wear such dark shades on my eyes, but I really enjoyed wearing this one! It's green, but it isn't your usual Springy-bright-happy green. Instead, this one is a Spring with a smokey twist - a sparkly, metallic, foil-like forest green. I do kinda feel like a forest nymph wearing this one!

Essence of Beauty Crease Brush Duo: BFF of My Small Eyes

Yes, it's official! The BFF of my teeny, puny, tiny little eyes is a pair of crease brushes. And it's none other than the famed Essence of Beauty Crease Brush Duo! I don't know why I took so long to buy myself a pair of these, but now that I finally have them, I have nothing but great things to say about them. In fact, I think I need to get a backup. Or two, or three, or four, or more!

Essence of Beauty is a US-based drugstore brand, and can be found in CVS. The brand is pretty much loved for its range of brushes, but the Crease Brush Duo is definitely my favourite out of the various EOB (Essence of Beauty) brushes I've tried. The Crease Brush Duo, as the name suggests, consist of two small crease brushes in a tiny little plastic ziplock packaging:



Both brushes have black ferrules and light handles, and both brushes are marked "Crease", which I think is kind of cute. These brushes are actually smaller than your average crease brush, which I think makes them perfect for small eyes which don't have much lid space.

The larger of the two brushes is a domed brush for blending, while the smaller of the two brushes has tapered bristles resembling a pencil brush. The larger domed brush is great for blending out eyeshadow, while the smaller one is great for applying eyeshadow to tight areas, or applying eyeshadow as eyeliner, or even blending out very teeny tiny areas (like the corners of your eyes).



The brushes themselves are made of natural hair. It's not particularly awesome quality natural hair, to be honest - the bristles are a little stiffer than some other brands that have good quality bristles (e.g. Stila). However, they're pretty good for the drugstore price, and definitely comfortable to use. They're just not, you know, THE best out there.

But the quality of the bristles isn't what makes this duo so brilliant. It's the fact that the brush tips have a rounded shape, and that the bristle length and density are just perfect. The larger domed crease brush is one of my major loves right now - it has enough bristles to feel firm to the touch, allowing it to pick up and apply eyeshadow to the crease, and yet, the bristles aren't so tightly packed together that it makes blending difficult. The pencil brush is also the right length, allowing for bristle flexibility that still retains some brush firmness.



Another thing I love about these two brushes is that they're small, so they fit very nicely into the contour area of my puny little eyes. I still love my Stila #9 All Over Blending Brush, but for small or tight spaces, when the Stila brush is too big, I find the EOB brushes give a more precise application that is still blended. It's much easier blending smaller areas of eyeshadow with the EOB brushes, as the smaller brush surface mean that the risk of overblending areas you don't wish to blend is lessened.

Here are the brushes next to the Stila #9 for comparison. As you can see, they are a lot smaller, and the bristles are more tightly packed together.



So do you need this? Of course you do! If you, like me, have small puny eyes, then you need this for blending colour in your contour or crease area. If you like to do precise work with your eyeshadow, and need a brush to blend out small areas of eyeshadow, then you need this. If you find the average blending brush too large, and wish for a smaller blending brush for your eye area, then you need this. I mean, what's not to like? It's cheap, it's good, and it works a treat. My eyes are totally in love with this brush duo. It's definitey worth a shot - and if you don't like it, send it my way, because I'm looking for backups!

Rihanna Who's That Chick Eye Look Dupe!

I was watching Rihanna's latest music video, Who's That Chick on Youtube lately (oh yes, I do watch pop music on Youtube!). And while I was singing along, "Who's that chick, who's that chick", I was also ogling her eye look in the video:


Image from Great Black North, credited to Hiphopconnection.com)

There I was, marveling at the stunning eye look, when a thought struck me: Hey, I have all those colours in my stash! So why shouldn't I try out that look?

Of course, I couldn't possibly wing my liner all the way out like that and wear it out, and my very different eye shape necessitated different eyeshadow placement, but I did try to stick to the colours and adapt them to my tiny, puny, contour-less Asian eyes. And this is what I arrived at:



Okay, fine. So my eyes don't look anything like Rihanna's. What can I say, I'm not gorgeous! For this look, I used the cheap but still awesome BeautyUK palette I got awhile back. Yes, it so happens that the main colours used in Rihanna's eye look were all found in this palette - how lucky is that? The photo below shows which of the colours I used:



For the lid area, I used the yellow shade. On the crease/contour area, I used the light brown to blend in. And the shimmery white shade was used as the browbone highlight. And I finished off with mascara (this time, I'm also using the BeautyUK mascara, which I really need to get around to reviewing soon), and eyeliner. I used MAC Ostentatious Fluidline, which has sadly been discontinued. *Kicks a rock and mutters* Darn MAC, making stuff I like limited edition...

Anyway, here's a shot of my closed eye, so you can see the colour placement and blending. Looking at these shots, I really envy Rihanna's gorgeous peepers!



The thing I really liked about this eye look is that while it's certainly the kind of look that adds a pop to any outfit, it's not terribly difficult to do, and can be done with just three simple colours - yellow, brown, and a white highlight. I love using browns in makeup looks. You can't muddy up a brown look with overblending, because it's already brown!



Obviously, I can't sing, dance, or pull off outrageous brightly coloured outfits like Rihanna. And my eye look doesn't even end up making me look any closer to her! (Darn.) But by adapting her Who's That Chick eye look to my eyes, I guess I can now channel my inner (if a bit non-existent) pop star!

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

Cheap Awesome Haul: Yashali Nail Polish

So while I was browsing around on one idle weekend, I found a small shop selling a bunch of polishes for just SGD$1 each! Faced with such a plethora of options, I couldn't help but haul! I mean, those polishes were less tha US$1 or a quid! Woohoo!



L-R: Yashali polishes in 023, 006, 042, 052, 037, 045, 066, 036

Okay, okay. So I know that the colours were kinda boring - a few of them were gifts for less finger-funky ladies, which explains the colour selection. I got the cool ones! :P My personal favourites are 036, an awesome milk chocolate brown that kind of looks like it could be a dupe for all the Chanel Particuliere-wannabe polishes out there, as well as 066, a lilac glitter suspended in a clear base. Oh yes, I may hate glitter on my face when it comes to makeup, but I lurve it on my nails as polish.

I had no idea what kind of brand Yashali is, but apparently it's a Taiwanese brand, made in China, which unfortunately is often stereotyped as the great big land of cheap things. It seems most prevalently sold in Hong Kong. I couldn't get an ingredients list, so I can't vouch for it's safety. I wouldn't be surprised if the polishes weren't B3F (Big Three Free - meaning free of formaldehyde, DBP & toluene). But they're cheap and pretty cheery. I've read other bloggers who have bought Yashali polishes and featured them, but I don't believe anyone else got it for SGD$1! The average price, from what I know, is around SGD$5. *Starts making a note to add cheap polish to bragging rights*

Anyway, cheap-ness aside, I'm pretty excited to use these - as I always am about nail polishes - so I'll be updating on how the polishes are as I go along using them. What do you guys think? Would you buy cheap polishes? Do you get excited about brands you're not familiar with, or would you stick with the tried and tested?

Metallic Gold EOTD: Evil Shades Morning Star

Ooh, I'm finally stepping out of my comfort zone and wearing metallic shades on my eyes! OMG! What's next? Blue eyeshadow? LOL. Well, this came about because just awhile back I was raving about Evil Shades The Stars eyeshadow collection, particularly the shade Morning Star. I was going on and on about how it looked so cool once it was foiled, and I was just so excited that I had to do an EOTD (eye of the day) to show you guys.

So, ta-da! Here it is. I know it doesn't look like much, but I swear it looks better in real life. Photos seriously don't do this colour justice.



I'll be honest with you guys: being the glitter-phobe that I am, I seldom, if ever, wear glittery eyeshadows, so this was one of the few times I had to experiment with such a glitter-laden eyeshadow. Hence the fallout, so please pardon my newbie attempt! That said, I really love the shiny, sheen-y, shimmery effect this gave. Everytime the light hits my eyes from a different angle, I get all excited! It really does look much more vibrant and alive in real life...the photos just kind of flatten out the colour.



I paired Morning Star with Urban Decay's Twice Baked eyeshadow, a warm brown, because I'm boring like that, and it seemed like a sensible choice. I love Twice Baked, It's got some hint of shimmer, but not too much. I feel like it seems more of a matter to me than a true shimmer. It's awesome for pairing with zingy colours and for giving the eye a little bit more of a contour.

And another photo with my eye in this really weird angle. It was one of my failed attempts at capturing the complexity and blingy-ness of this colour.



Here's the breakdown for anyone interested:
Evil Shades Ice Star (applied dry for a highlight)
Evil Shades Morning Star (applied damp on lid)
Urban Decay Twice Baked in crease
Urban Decay Bourbon 24/7 Pencil Liner
Rimmel Lash Accelerator Mascara

I hope I did a good job at capturing the colour, and at not getting fallout all over my undereye and lashes!

(Evil Shades product was sent to me for review. Review is my honest and complete opinion. I am not affiliated with the company.)

Girly Punk Valentine's Day Nails: Neon Pink and Black Roses

Nothing says girly punk like hot pink and black. And nothing says romance like roses. So when I decided to do Valentine's Day manicure, I decided to combine these two aspects, although I'm not very girly, punky, or romantic. I keep seeing all these sterotypical reds, pale pinks, and sheers coming out near Valentine's Day, and I keep thinking - why shouldn't I do something different?

So here you are: neon pink, black, and roses. The horror!



To be honest, I didn't quite like my nails when I first wore them. I thought they were ugly (and I'm sure some of my readers will think they ARE ugly), but for some reason they grew on me, and I can't quite figure out why either. Maybe I got used to the ugliness. Or maybe the hot pink colour matched my funky Valentine's Day eye look. LOL. But it did grow on me, and yes, I was walking around with blinding hot pink nails with OTT rose designs. Yeeha!



For the neon pink base, I used Eyeko Punk Polish for Neon Nails, which is a one-coater if you're careful. Like other Eyeko polishes I've used before, the consistency is a little on the thick side, so if you prefer a thinner polish consistency, one or two drops of thinner would be more than sufficient. Oh, and this polish is NEON. Like eyeball searing, highlighter pink kind of neon. I know it doesn't look like it in the photos, but that's because I just couldn't capture the blinding neon-ness of it on camera.

For the black roses, I used my favourite konading black of all time, Wet n Wild Black. It's dirt cheap (if you don't count the cost of shipping it outside of the USA), easily available, and opaque in one coat. Perfect for konading!

The konad plate used was M65. I figured I could get away with such an OTT rose design only around Valentine's Day!



So this isn't your traditional Valentine's Day sweetheart manicure. But I have those too! If this is making you puke, feel free to try some other sweetheart, Valentine-appropriate posts: there's one with girly chic, a feminine pastel purple that's holo to boot, a nude with a touch of flowers, and the near classic jewel pinky-purple holo. Probably more traditionally Valentine Day-ish than this sad excuse to wear hot pink, LOL!

I'm not much of a romantic, and I really couldn't care less for Valentine's Day. But I figured, since it was the occasion for it, why not go all out in dressing up my nails? It's the perfect reason to get away with whatever I want!

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

Hot Pink and Purple Valentine's Day Eye Look on the Cheap

Valentine's Day is coming up, and I felt inspired by all the pinkness going on to do a pink eye too! But I didn't want to do a pastel pink out-on-a-date kind of eye look, because I didn't actually want to make Valentine's Day all about dates and guys and flowers and that kind of sterotypical stuff, you know? I wanted to give my Valentine's Day eye look a bit of an attitude, so I gave it a bit of an attitude by making it hot pink!



For this look, I used shadows from my recently acquired BeautyUK eyeshadow palette, No. 6 Night and Day, which I previously blogged about. I previously said that I wanted to use the bright shades for an eye look, and Valentine's Day is the perfect excuse! I used the two pink shades, the violet purple shade, as well as the shimmery white shade for a highlight. The shadows I used are marked with an X.



I used the shimmery white shade as a highlight, the light pink shade in the inner third of the eye, the hot pink shade in the middle third of the lid, and the deep purple shade in the outer third, and blended just a little into the crease. I was surprised how the shadow were actually very pigmented on the eye, and blended very well with not too much fallout. The photos speak for themselves.



Here's a shot of the eye closed, just so you can really see the colours. For some reason, the light pink shade doesn't seem to show up much in photos, but I swear the gradiation is there! My camera just couldn't capture it:



I doubt anyone would want to wear a hot pink shade on an actual Valentine's Day date, so this look isn't quite date-appropriate, unless you're the kind of girl who wears hot pink shadow regularly anyway. But this EOTD (eye of the day) can be made appropriate by replacing the hot pink shade with a pastel pink, and viola! Pastel pink and purple eye, all date-ready! But for all my girls who aren't going on dates (and why should Valentine's Day be only about dates, anyway?), this is a great chance to get away with a pop of pink.

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

BeautyUK Day and Night Eye Shadow Palette Swatches and Review

BeautyUK is a drugstore brand hailing, as the name suggests, from the UK. It's one of the cheapest brands in the UK, and can be found at Superdrug. BeautyUK is a family-own brand, and unfortunately gets overshadowed in the drugstore by bigger, more corporate brands like Sleek and Barry M. As a result, its one of the more underrated drugstore brands I've come across, but there are gems to be found if you like brights and colour.

I figured it's about time I checked out this brand, so I turned my attention to one of their six eyeshadow palettes. The names are not written on the palettes, but a quick check with the BeautyUK website showed that this is palette No. 6, with the name Day and Night.



The palette comes in a slim plastic compact, and the compact has a black base with a clear lid. I like clear lids - you can see all the colours in your compact without having to open it. The only thing is, because it's small and plastic, it doesn't look exactly very sleek or expensive. It does look a little cheap, but hey, it is inexpensive (£3.99 from Superdrug), and it's the inside that counts, right?

Here's a closer shot of the colours. As you can see, this palette is very aptly named Day and Night, because half the colours are neutral, everyday colours - beiges, browns, and of course the basic black adn white, while the other half of the palette is brights - hot pinks, a purple, blue, and yellow.



So how does the palette stack up when swatched? I'm pleased to say it actually isn't too bad. I have to confess to having a case of judging the book by the cover, and I thought that the palette would be absolutely craptastic. Turns out, it's better than I thought.

As you can see from my swatches, these are actually decently pigmented. They don't look like it in the pan, but they are. With a couple of swipes, you can definitely build up the colours to opacity. I noticed that for some reason, the mattes were a bit more pigmented than the shimmers, and easier to build up in colour, too.



Top Row, L-R: Shimmery white, shimmery light neutral beige, lemon yellow with slight shimmer, matte teal-tinged blue, matte light pink

Bottom Row, L-R: Matte black, shimmery medium brown, shimmery burgundy brown, matte violet purple, matte hot pink

And this is going to be really uncharacteristic of me, but my favourite colours in the palette AREN'T actually, for once, the neutrals. *Long pause as shock sinks in* Nope, they're not. I actually really like the pink, purple, and blue colours on the extreme right. They're matte, but they aren't flat, and there's something about those colours that just glows and grabs your attention. I'm definitely going to have to do a look with those. I also really like the shimmery burgundy brown in the middle of the bottom row - it kind of reminds me of Milani Java Bean, which is a colour I've loved through the years, and have had to procure backups when it was discontinued. *Shakes fist at Milani for discontinuing the colour*

So, do you need this palette? Well, why not? Whether you're a neutrals girl who only wants to dip her toe into brights, or whether you're a brights girl who only wears neutrals at weddings and funerals, I think this palette would be handy. And the BeautyUK website does ship internationally, so if you ever want a cheery palette from the ol' land of absymal weather (I can say that - I've lived in London :P ), it's worth checking out.

(Product was sent to me for review. Review is my honest and complete opinion on the product. Not affiliated with/compensated for this review.)

Cheap and Awesome: Jordana Lip Shine Natural Glaze in Watermelon Punch

Jordana is one of those US drugstore brands which is much overlooked at ol' Walgreens, that establishment of value-seekers like myself. I believe a selected range of Jordana products can also be found in some parts of Asia (I know Singapore carries some of them), but they're not worth buying in Asia as they're way overpriced. But in the US, they're a cheap and cheery brand, and they actually have some very good items.



Case in point - the Jordana Lip Shine Natural Glaze in 02 Watermelon Punch. These come in little click-pen dispensers with a brush at the end, a la the Stila lipglazes. These are also half the size of your typical Stila Lipglaze, but they're also definitely less than half the price, so I'm guessing value-wise they're still better. Jordana has two ranges of Lip Shines, Natural Glaze and Shimmer Glaze, and from what I hear, the Natural Glazes are way better than the Shimmer Glazes, which tend to be too frosty for most people's preferences.

Here's a swatch of the lipgloss:



02 Watermelon Punch happens to be a gorgeous coral colour. It's a pretty universal shade, so I do think that anyone could wear it. There isn't any shimmer or glitter in this one, which suits my preferences just fine. I also like the semi-sheer, jelly-like texture of the lipgloss - it's not as pigmented as I usually like my glosses to be, but it shows up enough for me. It probably wouldn't overwhelm girls who don't like too much pigment either, since it's semi-sheer - I guess it's a happy in-between.

Here's a swatch of Watermelon Punch on my lips:



As you can see on my lips, it also replicates that jelly-like, semi-sheer texture, producing a very glossy finish. I quite like this, really. I just wish it was a bit more pigmented, but at least it's not totally sheer. The Jordana Natural Glaze range actually reminds me a little bit of the Rimmel Vinyl Glosses.

So do you need this? If you do happen to be passing by a Walgreens and see this lying around, I think it'll be worth grabbing a couple. It's cheap, cheery, and actually pretty good.