Review: Face Atelier Lip Liners in Tango and Sweet

I'm not a big lip liner person, so please take this review with a grain of salt as I don't have that much experience with different brands.  I recently bought some lip liners from Face Atelier, one to base red lipsticks and one to base pink ones. 

Tango - the swatch on the left, is a gorgeous matte strawberry red. It is super creamy, goes on easily and blends like a dream. Red lipsticks go over it easily but I have also worn it alone with gloss over top as the color is that gorgeous.

photo from www.faceatelier.com

Sweet - the swatch on the right, is a matte neutral pink. I was somewhat with this one as it is not nearly as creamy and takes a much harder hand to apply. If you look closely at the swatch above, it does not smooth over the skin as much as Tango (and I had to press quite hard to make that swatch). The color is fine, and works fine as a base, but I just don't like the feel and application of it.

photo from www.faceatelier.com

Overall, I have mixed feelings about these lip liners. If I just had Tango, I would have said they are amazing and recommended them whole-heartedly. However, the formula of Sweet doesn't measure up. This is an unfortunate inconsistency as it makes me unsure about whether to buy more...will the next color be amazing like Tango or be defunct like Sweet...  Guess that's the problem with ordering online. I think I will go to Blur Makeup Room at some point to test out more colors in person.

Which are your favorite lip liners? I'm looking to try other brands!

Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz - Review + Comparison Swatches

I've been looking to try new brow products since my beloved YSL pencil is getting stubby (not cuz I don't love the YSL, it has made HG status - see full review here), but hey, whatever excuse for trying more stuff right :)

ABH is a brand that is mostly known for brow products, and I remember first hearing about them when their brow stencils came out (unfortunately the shapes didn't quite work for my asian brows). The brow wiz is a thin-mechanical-pencil-like product, which you twist up for more as it gets used up.

 

The tip is quite thin, and right away I was pleased with one thing: I don't need to sharpen this! EVER!

I chose the shade Medium Ash as I wanted something a bit more warm and brown for the summer. 

 

It comes with a spoolie to blend as with most brow pencils.  This spoolie is quite small, but precise.

Below is are comparison swatches to some of the other brow pencils I have used in the past. As I'm getting older I like the lighter pencils as I find the darker grey/black aging on me.

The Brow Wiz in Medium Ash is of course a brown pencil, but it actually doesn't look unnaturally brown (if you're asian you will know what I mean!).  I have long stopped using the Shiseido Deep Brown for this very reason (though I think that pencil will look great if you have colored your hair brown, but it doesn't work for my black hair).  Surprisingly, the brow wiz fills in my brows, gives it a light brown tinge, but without the artificial brown brow look I was getting with Shiseido.

The formula is much less waxy (ie. harder pencil tip) compared to Shiseido and YSL.  This allows me to draw on hairs in a natural way, and when blended it maintains that look. The Shiseido is much softer and waxier, and when blended out loses the individual-hair look and becomes a sort of darkly pigmented block of a brow (which is actually amazing for outdoor photography when the sunlight can otherwise make my brows disappear, but not so much for everyday!).  YSL doesn't do this despite it being soft, as the shade is a nice neutral grey which blends seamlessly right into my natural hairs.

Have you tried the Brow Wiz by ABH? What did you think? For me, this is a keeper for the summer and I'll enjoy using it, but I don't think it's good enough to top the YSL.

Battle of Luxury Lip Care: Hourglass Lip Treatment Oil vs 3LAB Perfect Lips

(photo from Sephora.com)

(photo from www.skin1.com)

vs. 





If one can buy lipbalms/chapsticks for mere dollars in drug stores, why spend so much for luxury lip care?! Well... there's people like me, who have very sensitive and easily chapped and peeling lips, who I think require a little more TLC! Oh heck who am I kidding, honestly, the high end products just "feel" nice. Packaging is nicer to use, and I do think they do slightly better for my lips than the $1 chapstick. How much is that worth the price tag... that is for you to decide. If you do decide to splurge, this post is my take on the 2 pricey lip care items I've been using consistently for the last couple of months.  Click on to read the full review!

The Good and the Bad... NeoStrata and Live Clean (fresh face)

Wow I've neglected this blog for a very long time... ! Work and family life have really been all I've been doing, with some watching of Breaking Bad here and there... but somehow this evening I remembered again that I have this space that I love which I can share my opinion on and hopefully may help whoever is reading with their next beauty-buy or product choice, so I'm back! And hopefully to write more frequently again, but not making any promises...

Today I'm going to share two drugstore products that I've been using off and on for the last while, one which I love and has made it into my pro kit as a staple, and the other is off my list as a face product and I will not even finish using it.  Read on for why...

First, the good product I like!
This is NeoStrata's Oil Free Matifying Fluid
CDN $20-30 (try to wait for a sale at Shopper's!)

Surprisingly, my hubby actually introduced me to this! I know eh...  This is what it says, a  matifying fluid, but man is it good at it! It's a white cream product that goes on into a dry-powderly consistency and not only matifies, but also minimizes pores. I use this over my primer on my T-zone and then apply my foundation or BB cream. It keeps me shine-free for about 6-8 hours without needing to blot or powder. Pretty darn good! This is now in my pro kit and I happily recommend it to anyone who asks ^_^









Next, Live Clean fresh face daily moisturizer
CDN $10-18

This advertises all sorts of interesting "natural" ingredients, all of which doesn't matter much in the end because this moisturizer contains a couple of alcohol-derivatives which is drying. It didn't bother me much in the summer (though didn't moisturize much) but now that it's winter, I notice how bad this is for my skin. It actually STINGS...ugh. My skin is sensitive, but this is only the second product in my life so far that actually stings. Big no-no.

In the sense of not wasting product, I actually switched to using this as a body lotion/hand cream. It doesn't sting when used that way but also doesn't moisturize well... sigh, despite not wanting to waste, I think this might be headed for the trash.




So that's it for my first post "back" from my hiatus. Hope it was helpful and let me know if you have tried these and what your experience was!

Battle of Blue Kohl Pencils: Sephora vs Lancome

When Lancome launched their Spring collection this year, there was a lot of hype about the Kohl in Love pencils. I bought the blue version called "deepwater blue" as it seemed to be the most wearable for day to day, and it has come to replace my previous loved blue kohl liner from Sephora.  Click the jump for swatches and more detailed comparison!

Dr. Jart+ BB Creams Part II: Renewalist vs. Premium

Now that the warm sunshine is out, I've started to pull out higher SPF products, and thus it's time for part 2 of my Dr. Jart+ BB cream review!  I reviewed and compared the Water Fuse and Black Label Detox BB cream in an older post.  I've really been loving the Renewalist and Premium BB creams, so click the jump to find out why!

Drugstore Lip brush review: Annabelle vs. Quo

I tried 2 different drugstore lip brushes recently and here are my thoughts on the Quo vs Annabelle (actually this is their concealer brush, but I much prefer using as a lip brush, click the jump to see why!)

Dr. Jart BB Creams: Water Fuse vs. Black Label Detox

I recently purchased Dr. Jart's BB cream set from Sephora ($34). It comes with 4 deluxe-sample sized versions of their original 4 BB creams. I highly recommend this as it will allow you to try each out before you splurge on the full size tube!  Click the jump below to read more of my thoughts on the two I tried so far: Water Fuse and Black Label Detox.

Update: My review of the Renewalist and Premium BB cream is now up!

Battle of the Pro Eyelash Curlers: Shu Uemura vs. Tweezerman ProCurl

I'm asian with naturally short/stubby lashes that grow down and hard to curl and maintain curl, so a good eyelash curler is a must-have product for me. I've tried quite a few, and this post is a comparison of my top 2 to date:

BB Cream: Dior vs Smashbox

You've probably heard of BB creams by now and with tons of way more informative articles out there I won't bother with an overly long explanation of what these are or what they do. In very brief, currently they're used as an alternative to traditional foundations and provide coverage somewhat skin to tinted moisturizers along with great skincare benefits.  The first BB products came out of Korea, but are now been made by many brands available in North America. In general, they are meant to moisturize/prime/protect/treat your skin while also providing light coverage, so that you can use it DAILY and not be causing damage to your skin (and without really looking like you have makeup on!). Of course, the light coverage won't be enough for special events if you aren't blessed with awesome skin at baseline, but it's good enough for day-to-day work/school.  Some are fancier and also contain anti-wrinkle ingredients or are anti-acne, but most contain SPF so that it also protects you from damaging effects of the sun.  The primer in some also make them a good base for putting foundation over top if you so desire, but it seems that most people use either or.