Esprique Blend Dimensional Eyes A-1

Esprique has a new line of Blend Dimensional Eye shadows. It comes in 5 different palettes and each palette contains 4 colors as shown in the box. I got A-1 about a month ago from Adam Beauty for $33. 

The packaging is very sleek. I like it a lot!

Here's how the inside looks like. It comes with a mirror (which I didn't take in this pic), a standard Japanese instruction on how to apply this palette, and the 4 eye shadow colors. A is use for highlight in the tear duct area, B for the brow bone, C for the crease area or I use on most of my lid, and D for the corners and some smoky effects :D. The sponge tip applicator on the top is bigger than other Japanese brands. I find that quite useful and you can just swipe less to cover your lid. The applicators are very high quality.

The shadows are very silky and not powdery. They do have some shimmers but quite subtle, not sparkly. Stays on all day and very versatile for work (if you just want a bit of color and not too dramatic). I wore a number of times and love it. Here's the swatches:

My First Inglot Purchase

I was surfing on youtube and came across Inglot Cosmetics. It's from Poland and the price is very reasonable. There's no store located at where I live, so I just went online and bought a few to try because it's very difficult to see what I was buying. They have full range of colors and depending on your computer screen, colors maybe off. So online buyers beware.

I've placed an order online. They never sent out an email confirmation with tracking to my email. On their website, my account didn't show they've already shipped the products out. I waited for about 10 days.

I could feel the stuffs inside were moving around as I carried the package. When I opened the box, the eye shadows were just inside the box loosely. For cosmetics mail orders, it's very important for the company to wrap their products and ensure products don't move around. I consider that as standard business practice! 

And guess what, after all the transportation and moving around inside the box, some of my eye shadows fell off from the tin. I'm very annoyed. For a brand new product to have a fall out like this due to poor packaging, I am quite upset...

Top row from the left: AMC Shine40, AMC Shine 43, AMC Shine07
Bottom row from the left: AMC 73, Pearl 420
Sorry I don't know what AMC stands for as the company did not send me any description about their products... Each shadow costs $5. if you purchase 10 or more, each shadow will cost $4.50.

The company is famous for its Freedom System. Basically they have various empty palettes to hold their eyeshadows or blushes. You can pick and choose what you like and fill up the palette. I got the 5 square eye shadow one. The package is pretty good with a heavy duty magnetic cover. This was originally $10 but somehow there's a discount for $5.

To open, it's better to slide from one side and it will just slip right off.

Sorry forgot to take a picture before I swatched the shadows. They are highly pigmented and very soft. 
I like the middle Pearl 420 the most. Below are the swatches:

I don't think I will repurchase from them online simply because they have too many colors to choose from. Since I didn't get any brochure from them and their packaging may potentially damage their products, it's very difficult for me to buy from them again. If there's a store near you, it's probably better to check out in person because I think the overall purchase experience will be much better. 

Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer

I had used Bobbi Brown's concealer for a number of years before trying out other brands. The old formula had pretty good coverage but it was slightly thick for me. When they recently changed the formula, I went and bought it.

Packaging is still the same. If you get the one with powder, it looks like a small compact but I don't like fine powder getting into the concealer, so just got the concealer only for $22.

If you open and close it for a long period of time (which will be quite likely coz this little thing can last forever!), eventually the tiny little piece of plastic will come off from opening and closing so much. 

My shade is Sand. The new formula is creamier and doesn't crease on my undereye. Need to use a bit of powder to set the concealer to prevent my eye makeup from transferring to the under eye area. A little goes along the way. Great buy!!

Long Time No Post

How are you? It's been awhile. Just been pretty busy at work and the cold bug was bothering me. And now, the allergies. Life is just full of challenges. Since I haven't posted much, so thought to share with you a few things.


Butter London Lady Muck
Retail Price: $14 but I got this with the coupon at Ulta and received their nail polish remover as a gift with purchase.

At first glance is a greyish with silver shimmers but the more I looked at my nails, they looked blue to me. But quality is very good and the color is great for Spring.


Nicole by OPI Baby Blue

The picture turns out nice but I don't quite like this color. It's just a bit too sharp for work. I would use this for nail art or paint with another color to diffuse the color. Quality is pretty much the same as the OPI. One thing to notice is its new brush on this polish. 

This new brush is called Perfect Stroke brush. It's rather flat and fat. For those who only want one stroke to paint the entire nail, this maybe it. The curve of the brush does help to paint near the cuticle area.  I don't quite like it simply because I'm used to regular brush.

I just played with my nails. Only used 2 colors; Something Sweet from China Glaze and Castaway from Essie. Only used dotting tool to do polka dots and bows. Topped with Seche Vite.

Got Bad Reactions from Beauty Products? FDA wants to know.

I got an email alert from FDA today. They would take complaints from people who had bad reactions from cosmetics products. If you live outside of the US, this probably does not apply to you. Of all the products I've used in the past, a lot of them would not work even though they said they were for sensitive skin. And now I know what needs to be done besides returning the product to the store. See the link for more details on how to report.

http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm241820.htm

VISEE Glam Shade Eyes

I got two of new VISEE Glam Shade Eyes in PK-1 and PU-7 from Adambeauty for $21 each. I owned one of their single eye shadows year ago and really liked it. Their stuffs usually are pretty good in quality and silky smooth. Personally I like these two new palettes' color combination. Their pigmentations are good and the shadows feel smooth when you apply. Occasionally there may be tiny clumps and need more blending to smooth them out. The shadows have a drier texture compared to the ones from Lavshuca but it's not bad. But if you are used to Lavshuca's ultra silky texture on their newer eye shadows, you may not like how these palettes feel.  Here's a closeup on PK-1 (Note: the lighting is a bit yellow...):

PK-1 has a plum color  with some subtle gold shimmer in the middle. I like this shade because normally I don't have a lot of dark rosy color. Here's a swatch for you under natural lighting:

PU-7 is the another one with darker purple shades.

The shades have some silver shimmer and I like this purple color combination. Just pretty classy looking. Here's a swatch under natural lighting:

California Mango

I went to Sally Beauty the other day and saw this California Mango Mango Mend. This is a 1/2 oz tube for $2.99. Its regular size product comes in a big jar. It has a thick orange gel texture and smells very fruity. I can't tell if mango scented but sure smells great.

It  supposes to help with cracked heels or dry feet. I can only do some much with exfoliation but this tube works wonders!! The Korres Guava body butter is pretty moisturizing but not as good as this one when used on the feet. This is a lot moisturizing and nourishing. My feet don't look dry at all and have a glow to it. And you don't need a whole lot to achieve the result. Will get a jar once I'm done with this.