Topbox January 2015 Unboxing

Last month's box was boring, but this box is off to a good start for 2015! Although it seems like the pattern from the last few boxes is now only 4 products per box, rather than 5. 

 

Always up for trying new serums, so it was good to see this from Lise Watier. I haven't tried many products from this brand (last time being their lip and eye primer, which was a terrible product that did nothing). 

Turns out there's 2 inside, one for day and one for night.

 

 Elizabeth Arden day cream with SPF, happy with this as usually EA's skincare does nice things to my skin.

 Now the Eyeko I'm looking forward to try... I haven't had much luck with makeup remover wipes when used on the eyes despite their advertising to be gentle and effective on the eyes (always find traditional biphasic removers much better, like Lancome's Bifacil), so am excited to see if this will perform. Will update this post when I have tested it out on my most waterproof stuff.

A liquid lip and cheek tint by MeMeMe...looks very similar to the Benefit one. I tried both side by side and Benefit's benetint definitely smells better and lasted longer on my arm after washings. However this isn't bad. Overall I prefer these tints on my lips rather than face, because I find if I don't blend quickly enough it's very streaky on my cheeks. Also can easily go from natural to clown without much warning, and can't really blend it out more after that...

 

 The swatch on the right I tried to blend literally right after I put it on, and as you can see the "line" is still clear. This does blend better when placed over base makeup on the face, but like I said above, still not great. I much prefer cream or powders for blushes. 

Here's the product card. I usually never calculate $/worth of the box, but am gonna try it today. So let's see...

Lise Watier - $78 for 2/20mL (sample is 2x3mL, omg I hate math...I think it's $11.70)

Elizabeth Arden - $60 for 50 mL (sample is 7mL... $8.40)

Eyeko - $12 for 10 pcs (full size product, so $12)

MeMeMe - $10 for 12 mL (full size product, so $10)

Total box - $42.10

What did you get your box this month? Feel free to share your links.

A first crack at the ombre lip...

I believe Korea first started the ombre lip trend (but please correct me if this is wrong). I'm sooooo slow on the pickup for anything trendy, so finally thought I'd give it a try.  I used a pinky-mauve lippie all over, then added a traditional red on the inner parts of the lip and blended both together.

Natural lips with clear lip balm

I actually really liked the look, now I get why it got trendy! I felt like it gave me an interesting look, kind of cute and doll-like?  Unfortunately my hubby really didn't like it, said it looked "unnatural". Sigh...men...they don't get us :)

Do you do the ombre lip? I think I will do it more often if I have time, as it does take double as long as I have to pat on another color and blend it.

Illamasqua Eye Brow Cake in Motto - Review, Swatches

Although the YSL Eyebrow pencil remains my HG brow product, the curious part of me that wants to see if anything out there is better always gets me to buy and try other products. I picked up this eyebrow cake during the Illmasqua sale from the Bay. It's a powder cake that can be used dry or activated with Illamasqua Sealing Gel (much like any cake activator, can turn any powder product into a water-resistant liquid). This turns the cake into a gel/pomade like product.

First off, the color is spot on for my brows, actually even closer match than the YSL in #4. I have very dark brown hair, but grey eyebrows (typical for asians). It was smooth and easy to apply dry, and gave a very natural look. When used with the sealing gel, it was more intense but could be applied lightly enough to not be unnatural looking. See photos below. Apologies for the lighting change from my natural brow, but hope it still shows how natural the product looks.

natural brow

Brow Cake in Motto - DRY

with Sealing Gel

Overall, this definitely makes good competition for the YSL in terms of final look. However, this takes waaaay longer to apply because I have to re-dip the brush repeatedly to pick up more product. Because the YSL is a pencil, I can just draw on and go. I have now been using this when I have more time to do my makeup, but can't be bothered with it when I'm rushing in the mornings for work. 

Have you tried any cake products, brows or eyeliners? What did you think of them compared to traditional pencils/gels?

Topbox December 2014

I'm really late with my Topbox post this month...but I was really not excited about it so I'll excuse myself with that. Good thing is, I actually got to test out most of the products this time, so this post is more of a "review" than an "unboxing". 

Yay baggie, I have been asking for no tubes, got way too many!

First up, some skin care samples from eslor.

 

They're unfortunately foils, though there is considerable amounts of products. I squeezed out the day cream into a container and after a full week, it's only half used up!

Product itself is decent, nothing special though.

 

Kinetics nailpolish. I like blue for toes, this is good!

 

marsk mineral eyeshadow. I was really underwhelmed by this... most because this colorful is not terribly wearable. I actually don't see myself ever wearing this shade.  The formula however, is AWESOME wet. When wet with water it's pigmented and beautifully multi-dimensional almost mermaid-like green (again, though the color is beautiful, I'm not sure what I would wear it with unless I were to dress up as a mermaid). It's unfortunately super blah when dry and goes on sooo sheerly it's barely there.  

Lastly I got the barefoot Venus "dry oil". I don't get this term really. It's essentially a spray oil. It feels like any other oil. Works fine but I really don't get what the "dry" is indicating cuz this aint dry, it's oily!

 

Did you get anything more exciting this month? Hope you did! Share!