Belated Favourites of 2011

Although it is slightly late, I still have to entry this blog entry, as seems a year didn't complete perfectly without the list of my favourites of the year. And therefore, here they are:

Cleanser
As I made my own herbal infused olive oil to remove my makeup, there is no specific cleanser that I really have to mention, well, other than Origins Modern Fiction, I think.

Toner
To me, toner is just a basic form of moisturising water, so as long as they are not concentrated with alcohol, cheap toner will do for me, as I have used high end toner as well as those flower hydrolat, there is not much significant difference for me....

Skincare

Clockwise from the front:

• The Body Shop Lip Butter - i love them so much that i have purchased the whole collection. It's smoothing and i love the buttery texture.
• DHC Lash Tonic - since i realised that my lashes were falling off, i grabbed this quickly and started using it since. There was a noticable growth, but somehow it could irriate my eyes sometimes. 
• Za True White Sunscreen - as most of the sunscreen can irriate my skin, this is one of the rare one that won't and that it is not expensive
• Gariner Eye Roll - love the rolling ball and it's my 2nd one already, though i have already decided to get something else once this is done.
• Olay Total Effect Touch of Foundation - this is my quick touch up if I am just going to the veg market or around the corner to local shops, as seems nowadays, i cant leave the house without any foundation and this is one of the best way for a quick touch up.
• L'oreal Youth Code Serum - it has been a great hit on the net last year and that I have enjoyed the effect of the serum, which the only fatal fault is that i felt that my skin could be burn very easily after using this serum, so if your skin can be tanned as easily as mine does, then remember to put on extra layer of sunscreen after you use this serum at night.

Perfume

Clockwise from the front:

• L'occitane Cherie Solid Perfume - i have a newly found obsession of solid perfume, for which i have already collected 4 extra and for that this is my favourite as i love the smell of orange blossom.
• L'eau Par Kenzo por homme EDT - i love most of the perfume by Kenzo and that the person who gave this perfume to me is sort of part of the reason that i love it. However, the main reason that i like this as i love the scent that japanese combined. i love the citrus smell of yuzu, as well as the use of rosewood. 
• L'occitane The Vert Green Tea Solid Perfume - i used to use Elizabeth Arden's Green Tea EDT, but this scent of green tea is better than that and that i love stronger scent perfume.
• The Body Shop Moroccan Rose EDT - i think every woman should have a bottle of rose based perfume and that for this one, it is not strongly scent, which is the exception for me as i normally like strong perfume. This soft fragrant of rose is suitable for young girls or people like me, who much perfer a unisex or men's perfume.
• The Body Shop Dreams Unlimited EDP - i love the combination of cedarwood and white flower, which are the key essential scent. i love the musky scent, and that i love the shape of the bottle. 
• L'occitane Calanques EDT - this is similar to Dreams Unlimited, but this is more mediterranen style, a more subtle and soft smell, which remind me of the mediterranen sea.

Base/ Foundation

Clockwise from the front:

• Cargo OneBase Concealer + Foundation In One 01 - this is my most frequent use concealer, and that i sometimes use it as a foundation when i was travelling. it is light weighted and that it is not too pink toned.
• e.l.f. Tinted Moisturiser SPF 20 Procelain - i love this tinted moisturiser as the colour fitted my skin well, and it is yellow based rather than pink based. also this is really cheap, its only £3.50 for 25ml!
• Bourjois 10 hour sleep effect foundation - as titled, it is so light-weighted that i have been complimented when i was wearing this foundation, most people, even ladies thought it was my bare skin! so impressed by it to the fact that i have purchased a second bottle already!!
• Za Skin Beauty 2 Way Foundation - this is my favourite compact, though it's slightly darker to my taste, as in hk, they did not have the lightest shade, which is shade 20. Nonetheless, i love the formula that it's alright to have a slightly darker face.
• e.l.f. Mineral Booster, Sheer - i love this powder very much, as with Bourjois 10 hours sleep effect foundation, they were so light weighted to the fact that people thought i was wearing no foundation, while they actually covered my faults. also this powder gives a subtle, soft matt finish. 

T.B.C.

Bourjois Free Gift in Superdrug

For Christmas, to me, I felt that it was always a war between Superdrugs and Boots. Normally, Boots won the competition, at least for my money, but this year, without the present of my husband nor my parents, it was hard for me to purchase £50 worth of items in one go as I am not too keen to carry boxes of pads and bottles of shampoos, etc. Also, somehow, for these 2 years, I have found that Superdrug is actually cheaper in price and that with the their 10%/25% off survey voucher thing as well as the introduction of beauty card, I have found myself more in Superdrug than before.

This time, even though Boots is also doing 3 for 2 on Bourjois, but with a free gift for every 3 item purchase, this is a much better offer and that Superdrug is doing 10 points for £1, if I am correct, then, it is better than Boots, which is only 4 points for every £1.

Inside the gift bag, there are the following:

• mini nail polish 3ml
• mini eyeshadow powder 1g
• mini lip gloss 1.7ml 
• mini eye liner 0.46g 
• elastic mascara, 6.5ml, which i believe it's slightly smaller than the usual one, which i think it is 9ml

I can't remember how much they used to charge for those mini versions, but I definitely would say it is a bargain, as I quite like the bag that came with, though its only made of nylon, but it is not flimsy and that it is actually not bad quality.

Oh.. and what I have purchased?

Even though I have not finish my current bottle, but since I have been compliment that my skin looked flawless and that they could not believe I have put lots of foundation and make up on, I am in love with their 10hour sleep effect foundation as it is so light weight and that for the lightest shade, 71, it fits my skin tone nicely.

And for the other two eyeshadow, they are my 3rd and 4th ones as they are heavily pigmented and that they are really nice to use, as I love the colours that they offer.

So what do you think?

Vi.

p.s. Currently, in Superdrug, they are also doing GWP with Collection 2000, L'oreal, Accessorizes, NYC, Barry M, so if you are looking at those brands at the moment, it may be a better ideal to check it out, as for me, I love gift with purchase!

p.s.s. the free advert leaflet/ magazine thing, published by Superdrug, Dare, there's a coupon for a free pack of Fisherman's Friend Blackcurrant lozenges (25g) too!

Alternative to BB Cream

I think lots of you heard about bb cream, or already order them from ebay or ask friends and relatives to bring you over some when they travel to Asia. I just come back from Singapore, and I have heard (and seen some of) the high-end cosmetics companies have set foot into the market which is dominated by Korean and Japanese firms. So this is really 'hot' at the moment!


N.B. FYI, I have seen bb cream from the following companies: Estee Lauder, Lancome, Bobbi Brown, Clinque, Dior as well as MAC


So what's bb cream?


"In a nutshell...

BB Cream is an all-in-one cosmetic beauty and skincare product. Depending on the brand you choose, this cream can act as foundation, concealer, sunblock, and moisturizer all in one go."

quoted from squidoo.com

Therefore, anything that claims to improve our skin, which means tinted moisturiser is kind of the same thing, so why border?

The only reason that I have only one bb cream at home is that when I was in Singapore or HK for holiday, I have tested lots of the bb cream that's available in the market and to be honest, I found all of them too heavy for my taste. This is because most of them have very high SPF, I found any sun screen lotion that has more than SPF 30 too heavy for my skin as I felt I can't breathe though the skin (well, this is just my opinion).... Also, they can turn grey easily and it was quite hard for me to find the right colour (most of them are very pink based or on the other extreme, very yellow based)

Therefore, I have a list of 'alternatives':

The closest match is actually Olay total effect, as there has been lots of good review on Olay's total effect moisturiser and Max factor's foundation. This is the perfect match as it said on the bottle: 'total effects with a touch of MF foundation'. This has SPF15, which is ideal for base. I have used this everyday when I was in Singapore, and with an extra layer of mineral powder foundation, I can go out quickly and that it is moisturising enough for the whole day without suffocated my skin cells.

The 3 at the corner are only available in Asia, sadly. These are from Za, one of my faourite brand. The 2 in front are blend with their beauty powder, which I will explain further in my next review as I have taken the photso ages ago, but just have not got the time to type up the review.

The one in the box is same as the Stila one. These 2 have whitening effect. If you shop in Asia, you will find every single brand with whitening foundation, almost no exceptation. You may ask why Asian people use whitening products all the time? I can say it is due to culture, but I will say it is because our skin tend to be yellowed tone, whitening product does not meant making your face like Michael Jackson, but it is more about even skin tone as well as give the skin a more radiance effect.

Furthermore, although these 2 have not got any SPF, I think these are not bad for an alternative to bb cream, as they claim to have skin improving ingrdients. They are my newly arrive Bourjois 10 hour sleep effect and Bourjois healthy mix foundations. They have been out in the market for ages and I have always heard good reviews about them. But I only managed to purchase them now as I was planning to use £20 to get a good quality bb cream in Singapore, but at the end, I could not find any, as I felt cosmetics in Singapore are quite expensive and that other than Dior bb cream, I really wasn't keen to purchase the rest... so I managed to save £20 and purchase these 2 instead.

So what do you think?

Kyanvi.

p.s. phew... this is one of the longest review I have ever typed in this blog. @@ so please leave me some feedback!

p.s.s. and the one of the left, the white compact is almay line smoothing foundation, which I have wrote about previously: here

Eye shadow collection....

I was browsing some chinese beauty forums just now and there was a topic about how much eye shadow you have at home, so I digged up the ones that are on my shelf at the moment, and not included the one still in my 'storage' box, and I am shocked by the number that I own. ;-P

Gosh,,, they look small here, but much bigger if you see them in real life... like cover 1/6 of my double bed...=.=

From these, Sleek palette's are good and pixi palette is good in quality. I don't recommend NYC, instead for the small range, I recommend e/s from e.l.f.

Laura Galler and Stila are good in mineral e/s, but they are bit on the higher end... as they are not cheap.

Don't like my dior palette as I don't think they are easy to use, not sure whether it is due to the fact that they have fewer pigments.

Barry M and model own pigments are good, but they took me quite a long time to press, so unless you want to do some serious DIY, I suggest you not to do so.

Revlon Colour Stay is good, which I have depot into the muji plastic case at the RHS corner.

Bourjois e/s are very nice too, but seriously for £4/5 each, I rather get a sleek i-divine palette or a Revlon colour stay quads as you get more from that. lol

Also, Maybelline Mouuse e/s is nice as a temporay base too, and it was so cheap as I bought it from poundland. ;)

So how big is your collection??

Kyanvi.

p.s. ohhhh... forgot to mention, The Body Shop e/s are so-so quality, I think, so only recommend when they are on sale!