Benefit Coralista v Bella Bamba: Comparison Swatches

Ever since I featured Bella Bamba on my blog, I've been meaning to swatch it next to Coralista, just to show the difference between the two. So finally, after much ado, here are comparison swatches!



Bella Bamba was released early this year, and Coralista was released quite a while back - possibly a year or more ago. Benefit seems to have cut down on the amount of product product they give in the blushes though. Coralista gives you 12g/0.42oz of product, Bella Bamba gives you 8g/0.28oz of product. That's like, cutting down the amount of stuff inside by a third!



Bella Bamba and Coralista look pretty different in the pan. Coralista is a lot more, well, coral with a side of pink, while Bella Bamba is pink but with just the slightest hint of warmth. Both of them have similar shimmer - small particles of shimmer that aren't too much or unwearable. I guess there isn't really a need to swatch them to show how different they are, but well, here are swatches anyway.



L - R: Coralista, Bella Bamba

Although Coralista looks like it would be brighter in the pan, Bella Bamba is actually the brighter, more pigmented colour on. It's a gorgeous warm pink that is beautiful, whereas Coralista is a bit more muted. I have and love both, and I think that both are pretty universally flattering on most skintones. If you had to choose just one, it probably boils down to whether you want a coral or a pink blush.

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

Edward Bess Storm Eyeshadow: Taupe of the Day EOTD!

*Rings alarm bells* TAUPE ALERT, EVERYONE! TAUPE ALERT! And it's a brand spankin' shiny new taupe to boot! Edward Bess has just released two new shades to his Ultra Luminous Eyeshadow range (just so you know, I've swatched the Edward Bess eyeshadows before), and one of them is a taupe! *Starts hyperventilating* As a taupe lover through and through, you can't imagine how excited I was. I was positively, eagerly, holding my breath for this to come in the mail.

So here it is. Behold, everyone, the newest taupe to my already burgeoning taupe eyeshadow collection. Edward Bess Storm.



Although the colour name is Storm, Edward Bess's rendering of this colour isn't exactly stormy (lame pun, I know). In fact, it's positively tame. The colour is neutral, and light - in fact, it's exactly the kind of eyeshadow colour you could wear to any office.

The eyeshadow packaging puzzled me a bit. I hadn't realized that Edward Bess had changed the packaging for his Ultra Luminous Eyeshadows, but unlike the other previous eyeshadows I swatched, Storm didn't have the brand name imprinted on the eyeshadow surface. And the eyeshadow pan was round, not square. And the material of the casing seemed different. Still, the packaging retained the chic black exterior, and comes in an expensive-looking box, and a luxe looking velvet pouch.



The eyeshadow itself seemed surprisingly light in terms of pigmentation. Granted, this is a lighter colour, not so much a taupe like MAC's Satin Taupe, but more like Bourjois's Brun Nylon. In other words, a light, beige-ish kind of taupe. I found this lack of pigmentation a little bit disappointing, because previously when I swatched Edward Bess's Luminious Eyeshadow range, I found the colours to be very pigmented. Perhaps these shades are meant to be sheer for Spring/Summer. Here's a swatch of the eyeshadow.



Here's an EOTD (Eye of the Day) with Storm on. Here I used it on my lid. To contour the look a little more, I paired it with the darker shade in another eyeshadow duo I've featured before, the L'Oreal's Sassy HIP Duo. The L'Oreal HIP shade is just a little bit in the contour area.



As you can see, it's a lighter, browner, beige-ier kind of taupe, perfect for conservative offices. It also has a hint of shimmer, although I do think Storm has more shimmer than the shades I previously swatched in the rest of the Edward Bess eyeshadows. Still, this is manageable shimmer, not OTT, and quite pretty, too.



I quite like this shade, and for me this is something wearable that I could definitely see getting heavy usage in my stash. It's just that if you were expecting a deep, dark taupe, this isn't it. Come to think of it, I should swatch this with some of the other taupes in my eyeshadow collection, and see if there are any similar taupes out there.



So, would I recommend this? Well, if you are NC/NW25 and above, I'm not sure if this shadow, being a light shade, will show up on you. It would probably be used as a base, or an all-over lid shade in that case, so if you want it for that reason, great, but if not, it may disappoint you. Also, if you are looking for a shadow with strong pigmentation, this may not be for you. But if you want a simple, wearable taupe, then this could 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.)

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!

Natural Purple Eye Look with Zuii Organic: Swatch/Review/EOTD

Yes, now you can have makeup that's actually certified organic! Unlike other brands which use the "organic" slogan caarelessly, Zuii Organic is actually certified organic by not one, but two governments (the US and Australia). The last time I wrote about Zuii Organic, I was raving about their lipgloss. and going into a bit more detail about their certification, so if that interests you, do feel free to check out my previous post :)



Today, we're looking at the Certified Organic Flora Eyeshadows, which, as the name suggests, are also organic, and contain plant-derived ingredients - in this case, from Rose, Jasmine and Chamomile flowers. Cool, right? They have about 30 colours, which is quite a lot for a niche brand. I'm totally drooling over how Fawn looks, because from the website swatches it looks like it could be a taupe!

The eyeshadows come in a simple black plastic pots, with twist-off lids and a clear top to ensure that you can see the colour inside without having to open the pots.



All the eyeshadows have plant or nature-inspired names. The eyeshadows I have are Mustard and Blackberry, which correspond quite well to the colours of the eyeshadows themselves. Mustard is, well, a yellow-mustardy-beige (mustardy in a good way), and Blackberry is a deep red-based purple.

Here are swatches of Mustard and Blackberry:



The finishes of the eyeshadows are a bit glowy. They're not shimmery, and they don't have big bits of glitter, but they're not entirely matte either. I quite like the glow, its makes the colours look a bit more alive and less flat.

Pigmentation for these is also on the moderate side - these aren't pigmented in one swipe, but can be layered for greater intensity. The swatches you see were a few swipes to build up the colour.

The texture is a little bit different from the usual eyeshadows. I felt like these were a bit harder than I expected, perhaps due to the formulation used to produce organic eyeshadows. However, these are still a lot better than most drugstore eyeshadows, and it's perfectly possible to work with them to produce eye looks.

To prove that point, here's an EOTD (Eye of the Day) with these two shadows.



I really like how the EOTD looks. It's a look that adds some colour to the eye, without being too much. It's very wearable, and very pretty, and I think I could even wear a combination like that to work!



Although the eyeshadows are not as pigmented as I imagined they should be, I think in this case it actually works out quite well to bring out the soft, feminine look that I was going for. I was also able tp layer the eyeshadows to produce different intensities of colour - so at the outer corner of the eye, the purple is more intense than towards the inner corner. I actually quite like it.



The only downside is that girls who are really into very pigemented eyeshadows would feel underwhelmed. But for girls who prefer eyeshadows with medium but buildable pigmentation - think pigmentation like Chantecaille - then the Zuii Organic eyeshadows would be just fine.



So do you really need this? Not if you're one of those girls who like bright, pigment-laden shadows. But if you do want makeup that's actually organic, or if you just want eyesahdows that are more wearable but still buildable for a more natural look, then these are worth checking out. Their website, zuiiorganic.com, provides more information on their organic certification as well as product line.

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

Benefit Ultra Shine Lipgloss Swatch/Review/FOTD

Benefit recently released their Ultra Shine Lip Gloss this year, and you know that I can't resist a lipgloss, right? So of course when I heard all the raves for this one, I just had to try it out!



The glosses are billed as being the ultimate shiny gloss, and I think they might just be right. These really are pretty shiny! They come in the usual Benefit black-and-white designed box, and come in small but chubby tubes with a brush applicator.

The two glosses I tried were Who Are You Wearing? and the hilariously-named Patootie. Benefit's definitely got a sense of humour!



Here are swatches of the glosses. As you can see from the swatches, both of them are heavy on shine, but are slightly sheer in terms of pigmentation. Although Who Are You Wearing? looks like it could be quite a bright pink in the tube, it's actually more wearable than it looks, since it lets the natural lip colour show through.



L-R: Patootie, Who Are You Wearing?

Patootie is a very pearly, almost bordering on frosty, nude pink. I'd call it oyster pink or shell pink. Very pretty if you like that kind of shade.

Who Are You Wearing? is a midtone purple-pink with sparse, very tiny glitter bits. You can't really see the glitter once it's on.

Here are lip glosses swatched on my lips. First up, here's Patootie:



Like I mentioned earlier, it's more of a nude kind of shade - perfect for pairing with smokey eyes! It's also not as sheer as it looks - if you used a bit more of this one, you would actually blank out some of your natural lip colour.

And here's Who Are You Wearing?, which is my favourite out of the two. I love this colour because it adds a bit of pop to your lip, without being too unwearable. I think this is one of those "go with anything" lip colours, because it's just so versatile!



The Ultra Shines also have a very nice, light, and non-sticky texture, and a smell that is vaguely fruity. In fact, the texture and the smell reminds me a lot of the YSL Gloss Pur range, which I've featured in this post before. The nice, light-but-not-too-fluid texture and the smell are actually pretty similar! The difference is that the YSL Gloss Pur is more strongly scented, and also more pigmented. But when it comes to texture, they're remarkably similar.

Here's a FOTD with my new favourite gloss, Who Are You Wearing? As you can probably tell, I'm really loving this gloss. It goes so well with two of my other staples - taupe eyeshadow and plummy-pinky blush!



These are definitely one of the highlights of Benefit's recent releases (other than Bella Bamba, which I also love). The quality is good, and the shade range is also excellent - there aren't any colours in there that I feel are unwearable, and most of these shades look like they would go with almost anything. If you're on the market for a non-sticky lipgloss with decent staying power and medium pigmentation, these are worth checking out!

MUFE Sculpting Blush Swatches Part 1

With all the Spring collections out lately, I have to admit I have been lagging behind on the swatch front. So here's my attempt to make it up to you by swatching something I know you'll love - MUFE (Make Up For Ever) Sculpting Blush swatches!

MUFE is one of those brands that take their makeup seriously. Most brands tend to be good in some items, but not so good in others. MUFE, however, seems to excel at everything - I don't believe there is an MUFE product that hasn't garnered raves, everything seems to be well-loved. Blushes (both powder and cream), lip products, foundations, concealers, eyeshadows...the brand seems to have it all.

MUFE's Sculpting Blush is a powder blush, and one of the relatively underrated products in their line. Here are swatches of some of the colours. I'm sure there's more out there, but this was what was available:



L-R: 06 Fresh Satin Pink, 08 Satin Indian Pink, 10 Satin Peach Pink, 14 Matte Raspberry Brown

06 Fresh Satin Pink is a light pink with a hint of lilac. This is a cool-toned colour, and almost pastel (but not quite).

08 Satin Indian Pink is a pink in the same vein as 06 Fresh Satin Pink, only that it isn't cool-toned, it's more neutral, perhaps even veering slightly warm. Not a bad colour, I can imagnie this looking good on most girls.

10 Satin Peach Pink actually looks a lot more peach to me than pink. In fact, I'd say it was more orange than pink.

14 Matte Raspberry Brown is, well, matte raspberry brown. It's a neutral-to-cool colour, and I imagine this is MUFE's version of some NARS blushes out there (e.g. Exhibit A, Crazed and so on) - it looks scary in the pan, but can b applied sheerly for that rosy look. Of course you could also layer it for a very flushed look, too.

As you can imagine, the blushes were smooth, pigmented, and I don't actually have any complaints about them. The finish is also given in the colour name. The Satin colours have slight shimmer (nothing too visible once on the cheeks), while the Matte colours, as implied, are matte. I know MUFE doesn't come cheap, but they're actually pretty good quality if you don't mind spending the cash.

Benefit Bella Bamba: Swatch, Review, FOTD

One of Benefit's cult products are their boxed powders, so when Benefit released their latest boxed powder offering, Bella Bamba, I just had to give it a whirl! Most of Benefit's boxed powders have been blushes, and Bella Bamba isn't that much of an exception - it's a blush, but this time, it's 3D!

Yes, you heard me right. Benefit calls this blush a "3D brightening pink" - the idea is that the gold shimmer is supposed to impart a multidimensional look to your cheeks that's not flat.

Going along with the whole 3D, multidimensional concept, the blush packaging also features some cool holographic-ish effect. I don't think my camera captured it too well, but you can tell there's some cool visual effect going on:



Visuals aside, the blush packaging has also changed in substance this time - instead of a totally removable top as with previous boxed powders, the lid on this one is hinged, and there is a mirror inside too! Not bad at all. I consider it an improvement over the previous design.



As with Benefit's other boxed blushes and bronzers, Bella Bamba also comes with a brush. I'm not too keen on the brush myself, and I personally prefer to use my own blush brushes, but in a pinch (say if you're travelling), this is quite adequate.



The colour of the blush itself is actually very pretty, and one of my favourites to date. Bella Bamba is a very pretty colour, with gold shimmer, and Benefit was right in describing it as "watermelon" - I do think this is watermelon pink, with a hint of coral. I love it!



The colour is remiscent of NARS Orgasm and all its dupes, but to me they aren't quite the same. I had NARS Orgasm awhile back, and didn't really like it - it came out too peachy and quite "meh" on me, but I really love this colour. I think the key difference is that Bella Bamba is pinker, and less peachy than Orgasm, which helps make it a little bit more universal. Unlike Orgasm, which didn't look good on me (I absolutely detest those ads that proclaim Orgasm as the "ultimate universal blush colour"), I can imagine most people being able to wear Bella Bamba. It's pink, but the coral tinge and gold shimmer help to ensure that it's a pink that would be wearable even for girls who don't normally like to wear pink.

Here's a swatch. On my skin, it's pretty obvious that Bella Bamba isn't an Orgasm. Oh no, it's way better.



The texture of Bella Bamba is pretty good, and also quite comparable to Benefit's other boxed powders. Benefit pulls no surprises with regards to quality on this one - if you've liked their previous blushes, you'll like this too. Another thing I liked about Bella Bamba is it's buildability. You can wear this colour sheered out as a barely-there blush, or you could build it up for a pop of colour on the cheeks. It's actually pretty versatile that way, and I do appreciate that.

Here's a FOTD (Face of the Day) with Bella Bamba. This one features a light-to-moderate application of the blush colour.



I thought the glitter would show up too much in the photo, but it isn't that obvious once applied, which is a plus. The amount of gold shimmer is nicely balanced - there is enough to ensure that it does add some dimension to the colour (so they weren't totally lying about the 3D claims), but at the same time not so much that the blush becomes a glitterbomb. Still totally wearable for work, in my book.

So do you need Bella Bamba? Well, I thinnk you do! For one, it's a great colour I could imagine most girls wearing. For another, it's got a great texture, and nicely buildable pigmentation. And it comes in a cool-looking holographic box! What's not too like? If you've been eyeing Bella Bamba, it's definitely worth checking out.

Lancome Etoile du Soir Palette: Day to Night Eye Looks

Ah, eyeshadow palettes, and my undying love for them. There is just something about palettes that always tempts my wallet - the packaging, the sheer prettiness of seeing a nice choreographed set of shades neatly lined up side by side, the fact that you feel like you could be getting more value for money with more shades - whatever it is, I end up buying palettes, even if I don't even use them all that much.

The latest palette to capture my eye is the Lancome Ombre Absolue 3D Eyeshadow Palette (which I've swatched before) in Etoile du Soir, G10. It's a set of five varying shades of greys, from white-grey to black, and it's absolutely gorgeous. It's also my personal favourite palette right now because it's just so versatile.



The palette comes looking much like any other Lancome compact, complete with shiny sleek back packaging and the Lancome rose at a corner. Very classy, and very nice looking. There are a couple of small tiny travel eye brushes inside, consisting of sponge applicators of various sizes, as well as a tiny natural hair shadow brush. The shadows inside are arranged from lightest to darkest, and my favourite shades are the three greys in the middle row.



It appears that this palette was created partly with the Asian market in line, as part of it's marketing is that it provides you with shiny, glittery eyes, which tend to be more a staple of Asian market eyeshadows than Western ones. For some reason, Asian eyeshadows tend to be a lot sheerer and contain larger, chunkier glitter - both of which are often viewed as traits of "bad" eyeshadow in the West. I don't know why this is the case, but it just seems to be a difference in market preferences.

Anyway, all the Lancome Ombre Absolue palette fortunately doesn't make the mistake of imparting heavy craft-style glitter into its shades. Instead, most of the shades are kept glitter-free, with the exception of the black liner shade, which has specks of glitter, and the shade imprinted with the Lacome rose. The shade with the Lancome rose on it is just purely a glitter shade, and is meant to impart that "fairy eyes" look so popular in Asian makeup. Which is a good thing to me - if I don't feel like fairy eyes that day (e.g. if I have to work), I can just skip that particular shade, instead of passing over the entire palette. Perfect.



Etoile du Soir, consisting of grey-based neutrals, is thus very work-appropriate (if you don't wear the glitter shade), and suitable for virtually all occasions. And just to prove the point, I've done not one, but two(!) EOTDs (Eye of the Days)!

Here's the first EOTD. This is the day look:



For this look, I just used the three lighter shades. The off-white shade on the top row was a highlight, while the lightest grey shade in the second row was used on the lid. The middle grey shade in the second row was used to contour the eye.



As you can see, this look is very soft, simple, and girly. Very appropriate for any occasion where you don't want to look like you're wearing too much makeup, yet still want to bring out your eyes. This look would also be totally appropriate for Spring, since grey eyes seem to be all the rage lately!



Now, here's the night look, created using the same palette, but just a different array of shades:



For this look, I used the middle shade in the second row as a lid shade, and used the black shade to contour the eye. The white shade was used as a highlight.



I really love this look. It's a smokey, sutry, sexy look that is still very wearable - perfect for a smokey eye without being too dark. I would absolutely wear this out even during the day, although I'm sure most girls would probably only wear it out at night.



Although a palette of greys might look a little bit boring to some people, Etoile du Soir really stands out in its versatility. The quality of the palette is also pretty good - the shadows start off moderately pigmented but are buildable, and have a soft texture that makes it easy to blend. I love this palette, and if you love neutrals and greys, and are out on the market for a palette that can take your eye from day to night, this could be worth looking into.

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

Face Shop Illuminating Cushion Blusher Swatches!

Even if you have only a customary knowledge of Asian beauty brands, you would probably have heard of The Face Shop before. It's a drugstore brand of makeup hailing from Korea, and in addition to the requisite cute, girly, and drowned-in-pink packaging that Asian brands seem to be fond of, it's also pretty well known in Asia for engaging hot Korean stars (both males and females), and putting them in very girly, pink advertisements. Yes, girly and pink, and kawaii. Even the guys.

Case in point: an example of a typical Face Shop ad that just ran for Christmas 2010 featured some Korean star (Kim Hyun Joong, but I have no idea who he is because I don't follow Kpop) for the following ads:



See? What did I say? Pink and girly, and he's a guy!

Now, here's kawaii:



(Images are courtesy of http://fangurls.blogspot.com)

Having lived in the West for 4 years, I am always slightly bemused by these ads, because these are the kinds of ads that would sell products to people in Asia, but not necessarily in the West. I mean, I can already imagine the reaction some of my American friends would have to ads like these: "Oh my gosh, is he gay?!", "Wait, you mean, this is normal advertising in Asia?" "So noone in Asia thinks this is too effeminate for a guy?" "Wait, are these ads targeting the gay segment?" "Ewwww....that's so gay." Ah well. But just as the West has its on advertising idosyncracies, so does the East. After all, if Paris Hilton can sell false lashes and perfume, I'm sure we can wrap our male stars up in pink and make them look all girly. You know, whatever sells.

Anyway, yes, this post was about the Illuminating Cushion Blusher. Not much to be said about it really - just like those ads pictured above, it rides more on it's innate cuteness and girly packaging instead of actual product quality. The packaging for these blushes is absolutely adorable - they come in little round paper pots with a little ribboned powder puff in them. As the name suggests, it's a Cushion Blusher because you use that little powder puff (which they have called the cushion) to apply the blusher. Cute, right?

By request, I've updated the post with an actual product picture. It's a pretty last-minute update, so I took the liberty of plucked off from another website, a Thai makeup selling forum. (Picture courtesy of 212cafe.com)



Here are swatches. These are my own, of course:



L-R: 01 Pink, 02 Orange, 03 Violet.

01 Pink is a candy pink shade that leans slightly cool. 02 Orange is a similarly candy-looking orange shade, while 03 Violet isn't actually violet, but a very pale pinky-white with a hint of violet. I personally can't imagine wearing either the Orange or the Violet colour, but I can imagine that some girls might like them. The colours have some shimmer, but nothing too OTT for work. I personally like the pink best, for that naturally-flushed-cheeks look.

That said, when I swatched these, the product was a little disappointing. For one, it was quite sheer, and you really need to layer these on for them to show up. My swatches reflect a heavier application. But I guess as far as Asian cosmetic brand blushes go, this is pretty alright. For some reason, Asian brand blushes tend to be pretty sheer, probably because sheerer blushes seem to sell better in Asia. Also, I'm dubious about the efficacy of using a powder puff to apply blush. I mean, wouldn't you need to blend it out with a brush anyway? I guess it adds to the kawaii factor.

So these blushes are decent, but they aren't perfect. But for anyone who wants a piece of kawaii, you know which brand to start looking at!

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.

Kawaii Budget Beauty: Daiso Shiny Powder in Brown

Isn't this cute? It's so round and bulbous and just generally kawaii. It's Daiso's Shiny Powder in Brown, and it was a little cheapie I came across while trawling through Daiso.



For the uninitiated, Daiso is the Asian equivalent of Poundland or the Dollar Store. It originated in Japan, but its stores can be found elsewhere throughout Asia. Much like Poundland or the Dollar Store, it sells a mishmash of random products - everything from stationary to household items - but for a beauty addict like me, it also carries a line of super-cheap makeup and nail polish. And when I say super-cheap, I mean it - the items are just a couple of dollars. And I'm talking about Singapore dollars here, not pounds or USD. Awesome!

The Daiso Shiny Powder is a loose powder that's billed as being multipurpose, but in this colour, Brown, it's really more of a loose eyeshadow. The packaging is cute - there is a round twist-off cap, and under that there's another flip-top lid. Its sturdy and powder doesn't fall out of the packaging (unlike the Superdrug MUA line - the powder leaks like nobody's business).



So cheap it is, and kawaii it is. But is the Daiso Shiny Powder really worth it? This is the part where I have to confess - not really, but I wouldn't complain for the price. And, I've seen makeup of similar quality go for higher prices.

Here's a swatch of the Shiny Powder in Brown.



The brown colour itself is a pretty nice colour - it's a light fawn brown that leans warm, with a medium amount of shimmer. But while I like the colour, I have to say pigmentation wasn't that great. And I thought it would improve if I foiled the colour, but for some reason there wasn't that much of a difference. But then again, in my laziness, I simply foiled the eyeshadow with water, which might not have been sufficient for foiling. Still, you'd think that for purposes of a swatch, even water would have helped more.

Here's a shot of the Brown Shiny Powder on my eye:



As evidenced by the swatches, pigmentation is rather light. To be fair, it's not so sheer that it doesn't show up, because you can definitely see the colour on my eyes. But it's a very light shade. On my eye, it also pulls a little bronze, although not in a bad way. It's a nice shade, really. Pity about the pigmentation.

Here's a shot with my eyes closed:



So, do you need this? You probably don't, but if you happen to be in Asia and are looking for cheap makeup, this is definitely something worth checking out. And as I've mentioned before, makeup lousier than this has gone for higher prices, so it's not like it's that awful. I personally wouldn't complain given the price, but I'm just pointing out that if you're willing to spend, there is better out there. But if nothing else, there's always the adorable, kawaii packaging to induce your buying tendencies.