2011 Favorite Products

Hello Everyone! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! I sure ate a lot... As I look into putting together my favorites this year, there are a few things I keep in mind as I pick the items. They need to be something I have no hesitation in selecting them and things I use frequently.

My Favorite Base Products:

• Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream #21- I use this only for my nose to control oil. This is my 2nd bottle and cannot live without this.
• Lancome Teint Miracle Foundation - I've been searching for a new foundation this year but cannot find anything like this. Really hydrating and has nice coverage that lasts for hours.

My Favorite Eye Makeup Products:

• NARS Pro-Prime Smudge Proof EyeShadow Base - I use this everytime I wear eye makeup. My HG eye shadow primer.
• Lunasol Sheer Gold Beige Brown EX01 - This is a limited edition from Kanebo Lunasol's Christmas Coffret 2010. It's just very versatile, neutral palette. I use this the most out of the 5 Lunasol palettes I own. 
• Urban Decay Naked Palette - I know some people keep seeing this UD Naked Palette on many people's favorite lists. The colors I use all the time are Naked, Sidecar, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, and Hustle. 
• Urban Decay Naked 2 - Wait a minute. Some of you may wonder this just came out. How can this possibly be on my 2011 list?? This palette compliments the Naked Palette a lot because it has lighter, neutral shades. I've been using this with the Naked Palette. I use pretty much all the colors except Half Baked and Blackout. 

My Favorite Lip Products:

• Dior Addict Ultra-Gloss Reflect 127 - This shade is no longer available for purchase. What a bummer. I've enjoyed using this in the past year and put on top of a lip stick. It's very moisturizing.
• Mac - Hug Me - I've finished the entire tube before getting a new one. This is in Lustre finish and in flesh pink color. Can't go wrong with this shade.

My Favorite Blush:

• Lunasol EX01 Sheer Gold Beige Pink - This is also from the 2010 Christmas Coffret. It just gives a sheer glow to my face. Love it!

My Favorite Body Lotion:

• Korres Body Butter in Vanilla Guava - I love Korres Body Butter and got one next to my bed. It's very moisturizing and I use this every night before I go to bed. 

My Favorite Hair Styling Product:

• Lucido-L Designing Aqua Hair Curl Lotion - I use this before curling my hair and this is my 3rd or 4th bottle. It helps to protect my hair from the heat and helps my curls to stay.

My Favorite Nail Polishes:
If you are my regular reader, probably won't be too hard to guess what I like.

• Butter London - Toff
• OPI - Planks a Lot
• OPI - Steady as She Rose
• Spa Ritual - Native Rock
• Essie - Lady Like

Hope you enjoy reading this long list. Let me know what you like too!

Le Métier de Beauté 'Rock 'n' Romance' Mini Nail Lacquer Set

Merry Christmas!! Wish you enjoy a good time with friends and family!


I got this Le Métier de Beauté 'Rock 'n' Romance' mini nail polish set from Nordstrom for $25. It's probably the most expensive nail polish set I've spent based on the amount of product I get. Regular price for a mini polish is $10 and so $25 for 4 nail polish is considered a deal and this set is exclusive to Nordstrom.

Here's the description taken from Nordstrom's website:

• Heat of the Night: a passionate black cherry
• Midnight Rendezvous: a shimmery, steely midnight blue
• Chrome Passion: a chocolate charcoal with sultry shimmer
• True Romance: a delicate pale rose with a subtle metallic nude finish

Depending on the lighting, the colors may vary.

Heat of the Night can look as dark as black but it has some hints of red and shimmers. It looks more red in the bottle but when you apply, it's an intense dark red color. Midnight Rendezvous is gorgeous and I don't own a blue like this and like it. And Chrome Passion is a charcoal grey color with holographic effects.

True Romance is pretty much a light gold color and it's not anything special. The color may vary depending on the lighting. But the other three are unique in their own way. The consistency is rather thick compared to OPI or Butter London. Drying time takes longer than my other nail polishes but they are much more opaque. I would still apply 2 coats to achieve the best result. And here's a pic of me wearing Chrome Passion:

Holiday Nails

Christmas is near and it's a great time to gather with friends and family. Thought to paint my nails with glitter nail polish to make it more festive. I am in a love hate relationship with glittery nail polishes. They look so nice on nails but such a pain to remove. My nails end up peeling if I rub them too much with nail polish remover. Oh well... I found this new Revlon Nail polish in Sparkling (261) and it consists of both fine and small pink glitters. I tried them on and had removed them once and they don't take as much effort to remove compared to the other glitter nail polishes I own. Probably because the glitters are much smaller.

Here's what I used with this nail polish:

• Seche Vite Base Coat
• OPI - Steady As She Rose
• Revlon Sparkling
• Butter London - HardwearP.D Quick Topcoat

I just went with a lighter shade and used as a base. You can try a darker color like plum or burgundy or dark blue. That will make them stand out even more.

Review: Revlon Lip Butters

I've watched a number of videos and swatches about the new Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters. From what I've read, people are very excited about them and bought a ton of them. There are 20 colors and incredibly difficult to find. I don't see them at Rite Aid and Target. For the ones I found at the stores, some people just opened and swatched or tried them on. Doesn't that bother you when people just open brand new drugstore products and try them on?? And when they find them not working for them, they just leave them there. They are not testers and are meant for purchase, you know.


Revlon's website have online shopping feature and would take you to drugstore.com for a purchase but they are not in stock when I write this entry. They will eventually be in stock at the stores or online I suppose.


Let me show you what I bought after carefully browsed through them.

I just happened to see them at Walgreens for $7.49 each. Accidentially found them in a small plastic bin and surprisingly they have all the colors I was looking for. This was really a treasure hunt. hahaha From left to right:

• 050 Berry Smoothie
• 090 Sweet Tart
• 025 Peach Parfait

They are called lip butters for a reason and remind me of Giorgio Armani sheer lip stick. This is nowhere close to a regular lip stick. Revlon calls this "sheer to medium color with buttery shine". I don't know how many times some people had applied these lip butters on their lips to get the pigmentation but for me, apply it once only gives a sheer finish. I like this sheer finish though. It's good for some who just want a pop of color on their lips without having to wear a ton of makeup. Another plus is they don't taste or smell.


Here are the swatches after applied it once:

I find them to be moisturizing but am not estastic about it. There are many other more moisturizing lip sticks. All these lip butters contain mango, shea, and coconut butters to give you that hydration if you just wear it alone. If your lips are dry and chapped like mine, you may find them not moisturized enough after 2 hours or so. It shows more fine lines on my lips than my other lip sticks. I would apply a lip balm beforehand to avoid chapped lips and minimize fine lines.


Out of the 3 I got, I like Sweet Tart at first but the more I wear Berry Smoothie, the more I like it because it matches my skin tone pretty well. Would I repurchase? Probably just one or two after I'm done and when there's a sale. Definitely not gonna haul a bunch of them.

Swatches: Givenchy Gloss Interdit

I own 3 Givenchy Gloss Interdit now. 2 of which I got from Costco awhile back. Only used one of them and the other remains in the box. And just the other day, a friend of mine gave me another one as a gift. So, I thought to put them together for a swatch review. :)

These are scented lip gloss; highly pigmented and super glossy. It's not a sheer lip gloss like some of the Dior ones and I really like them. The scent is not too strong and smells sort of sweet, so it's tolerable. It's composed of top notes of bergamot, litchi, and red fruit; middle notes of rose, jasmine, and lily of the valley; and base notes of sandalwood, vanilla, amber, and musk. Each product contains 0.21g and is at retail for $26.50.

From left to right:

03 Coral Frenzy (soft coral)

02 Impertinent Nude (light neutral pink)

01 Capricious Pink (vibrant pink)

The colors are opague and make my lips look pretty smooth. They have a hint of shimmers. The lip gloss has some ingredients that make your lips pumped. I don't care about the pumping effect though. Here are the swatches (03, 02 and 01 starting from left to right):

Review: Creer Beaute La Rose de Versailles Eyeliner

Hello Everyone. It's been pretty cloudy and dark here, so taking nice swatch pictures have been quite challenging. And my computer is acting weird lately, so I think I need to send it back for a fix. Have been limiting myself not to buy beauty products, so stopped buying for like awhile... but there are quite a number of exciting products released just within the past month, so got a few and will share with you later. ;)

I got this Creer Beaute eyeliner from my trip in HK for about $11. I think you can buy from Sasa or other websites for around $12 or $13. Just opened it like a month ago and have been loving it.

I never like liquid eyeliner because some are very watery or dispense too much and I don't quite like the feeling of putting something wet on my eye lids. This really surprises me because it dries quite quickly.

This particular eyeliner is rated #1 by Cosme for 2011. I always read their ranking before buying certain Japanese products coz it's quite helpful to know what works. For Cosme ranking in English, check here . And for Chinese version, please check here. It's nice they have English and Chinese now because it takes me awhile to read Katagana...

The eyeliner has a fine point tip and can draw very fine line if you like. I can now draw a line starting from the inner corner without worry about smudging.

The eyeliner is waterproof and smudgeproof. A lot of the waterproof eyeliner pencils would smudge on me and this does not do a bit. And this can be removed easily with makeup remover. This is my HG liquid eyeliner. Highly Recommend it!!