Trial: Gold Collagen 50ml shots

I am experiencing an all-time bad time with my skin these days. I've always had blemishes here and there but never as frequent and constant as now. It really bugs me - of course it does! Which beauty-lover wouldn't be?

Trying out supplements, is me willing to try whatever there is to offer- of course along with trying to encourage myself to drink more fluids, improve diet, and sleeping whenever I can. 

This is my first time trying out a supplement that claims to improve your skin. This product in particular is mostly aimed at the anti-ageing market, but it does provide other affects- the one I'm looking forward to is improving skin's hydration levels, which ultimately could improve my congested skin.

These 50ml shot bottles reminds me of those health-kick shots you see in the Asian market, no surprise to me that this product is made in Japan. These can be seen in Boots with the single shots retailing at £3.69 and the 10day pack at £35.99 (and at the moment they are on a 3for2 offer), which to me is "alright" for a short term use, but if you were to continue for longer, of course it will become expensive.

They recommend you to consume one bottle per day for 4weeks to see some results but "preferably 8 weeks or longer to see greater benefits". Here I have 12 bottles for 12days, I may purchase some more if I see a slight improvement. I have read some reviews, but I don't want to judge my experience base on those reviews, even though the reviews have been pretty good so far. 

I will start consuming this from tomorrow, either after breakfast or lunch (depending when I wake up haha) and will keep an update perhaps every 3days?

I also want to note that my skin-care has changed yet again, and I am avoiding salicylic acid as much as I can, seeing as, it has made no affect on improving my congested skin and I somehow suspect, it may even have irritated my skin even more. 

To briefly outline the products used as of now:

• Eau Thermale Avene Cleansing Water (also used as a toner)
• Freederm Facial Cleanser
• Freederm Treatment gel
• Aveeno Moisturising Cream 
• Laniege Water Sleeping Pack

Haul: Some hair products...

Went out for another crazy-out-of-the-blue haul at Boots and bought some hair products. 

I saw a few easy "effortless" looking hair styling videos lately and really wanted to try them out...and then I entered the hair products aisle...dun dun duuuunnn ! 

Products: 

Organix Moroccan Argan Oil

Kent round brush

Umberto Giannini Glam Hair Mousse

Umberto Giannini Glam Hair Hot Styler Spray

If you haven't HYPE'd already on my Lookbook.nu.............

LOTD: Hello October!

October is here already. Today, I felt like the absolute worst! Perhaps it's the weather or perhaps its my busy schedule lately that took me down. Nevertheless, I went ahead and got ready even though I wasn't stepping out of the house.
I haven't been using eyeshadows lately. I'm always running late these days, that I don't even bother. So I decided to play around with my Too Faced Romantic Eye Palette that I bought a while ago. I have to say, the brow-bone colours/highlighting shadows in this palette seems to be a bit chalky....I ended up using colours from my Naked 1 palette instead. However, the rest of the shadows seem to go on fine, but I wouldn't say they are amazing shadows.
Since it's October, I thought I would do a look that resembles the fall using a green-gold shadow from the romantic eye palette in Honeymoon and a dark copper brown in Ever After, applying this at the outer eye in a horizontal V motion and blending this a lot with Honeymoon.
I evened out my lids with double-eye lid tape. These aren't the best tape in the world because I know you can get ones that are almost invisible, whereas the ones I am using just now, you could see the tape.
I've also fixed my brows (I'm ALWAYS trying to perfect my brows) by following the brow-bone that frames my face.
Lips I've been falling back in love with Revlon's lip butters and today I picked out my all-time favourite: Tutti Frutti. On the face and cheeks, I've use Revlon's Colourstay foundation, Vivo bronzer in Baked Bronze and Sleek blush in from their contour and blush palette in Light.

Now all that would make me feel even better is a bar of Twirl chocolate...sadly there's isn't any near me. 

If you haven't HYPE'd already on my Lookbook.nu.......

What's in my travel pack?

So I'm not always home. And over the years, especially ever since I started uni and I was staying on-campus, I travelled between campus and home (for work at the weekends) a lot(!) thus, I have been trying to solve the problem of HOW to pack my beauty products whilst travelling, or staying over at friends etc etc. 

I'm pretty happy with how my "pack" is these days. It's all very compact, it fits in my handbag neatly (obviously not the dinky wee bags, but one of decent size) and it isn't heavy to walk around with. So if you go between places a lot, you are staying over at your boyfriend's/friends or you're going on holiday- whatever the reason!- I hope this would be helpful.  

As I have mentioned, it is all very compact. Nothing too oversized. Essentially, I have two make-up bags: one is an Estee Lauder snake-skin, thats probably just a little bit bigger than an A5 sheet of paper and the other is a pencil case-like bag that I got from one of my Glossybox a while ago. 

If you wear contacts like me, you should purchase a travel-size bottle of solution, and it's also re-usable, so you can refill when you've finished.

Make-up wipes are the best for when you want to travel light! The Simple Oil-balancing wipes are my favourite as it cleanses my make-up without leaving that sticky residue other wipes do, instead it leaves my skin feeling matte and fresh.  

Here is what's inside the bags!...Surprised?

In the purple zip-bag I normally pack a toothbrush and hoping that other people will have toothpaste, then I have these Muji stack containers where I store my moisturisers, face primer and face wash -I told you it was compact didn't I? Then I shove all my make-up brushes, brow palette, foundation, powder and a blush in it.

In the pencil-case bag, I put in all my pen-like make-up inside. So concealers, mascaras, gel/kohl/liquid liners, tweezers, Carmex and there's space for my Shu Uemura lash curler! Normally I would put in my favourite lipstick of the week in there too.
If I remember, I try to bring my own face cloth because I somehow feel silly asking for a face-cloth, so I'd rather bring my own.

Unless I knew I was going to somewhere special or if it was to some special occassion, this is generally what I take with me. I hardly wear eye-shadows or false lashes these days as I feel there isn't an actual need especially when I'm always in a rush.

Happy 1st September folks! Can't believe the year has gone by so quickly!

Favourite Product of the Week: Refresh!

FPOW!

This week's favourite is Shu Uemura's Depsea Rose mist. I've had this for a while now, but neglected it until recently. I started using it again because lately my skin is acting up again and is looking rather dull due to too many late nights which has caused me to be even more lazy with my skin care routine. 

I use this with and without make-up on and it basically helps re-moist my skin and it gives a refreshing feeling after (probably because of it's lovely scent).
.Now, if I am honest, I wouldn't say this product is totally amazing or it has made a huge difference to my skin, but I feel that it's very handy to have when you are on the go and you need a refresher and re-moist. What is also good is that you could use it for your hair and body too. 

Shu Uemura offers other scents too, for example: mint, lavender, chamomile... and one that is unscented for those who do not like anything scented or are sensitive. 

Favourite Product of the Week: Tutti Frutti

FPOW!
So my favourite product of the week is a lip product and since it's summer, I like to opt for a more coral lip colour. My favourite this week is Revlon's Lip Butter in Tutti Frutti 015. Now these have been out in the shops for a while now (must've been at least a year or two now) so you can still grab them at most Revlon counters or drugstores and I've probably had this one for about a year(?)...

I'm just so in love with the colour and its versatility to go with most of the eye looks I go for. It's also wearable on a daily basis because even though it's corally-red, it isn't overwhelmingly bright which is great because I could also wear this to work and it just gives me a pop of colour. The application comes off semi-sheer but build-able. Of course, because it is a lip butter, it is also super moisturising which is just what I need lately.

Sleek Make-Up Haul

Bought a couple of Sleek products lately since I have heard good things about Sleek and wanted to try out myself. I have only previously ever owned two other sleek products and that was their Kajal liner (which I didn't really like) and the Original mineral based eyeshadow palette (I liked it but it isn't my everyday go-to palette). This time, I picked up 3 of their blush/contour palettes, 2 lip palettes and their eye primer palette. 

I always automatically assume that whenever lippys are in a palette form, they are never as good quality and they always have this plastic or chemical smell to them. Now even though these Sleek lip palettes still have a slight chemical smell to them, I really love first and foremost for their colour and pigmentation which ultimately gave them a good staying power. However I would suggest pre-moisturising your lips first before applying the colour because they can get quite drying.

I think with the colour selection they have, it's quite good to have in your kit but I wish they came in one big palette as well so it would mean carrying less.

The blushes and contour palettes? Offftt... I'd say they are comparable with some of MAC's powder blushes. The quality is just excellent and I like how they have a light and medium version for contouring. And like the lip palettes, they have an excellent pigmentation which maximises it's staying power.

As for it's eyeshadow primer palette? I was rather disappointed. When I came to use it, it almost felt like I was putting on a product that was from one of those kids make-up. It lacked something that would tick the quality box. I'm being very vague because to be frank, I haven't used it enough to give a full commentary on it. What I could say is that I really like the colour variety they have included which could be used in almost any eye-look.    

Primer Palette 600

Blush by 3 in Pumpkin 363

Face Form blush and Contour in Light 373

Face Form blush and contour in Medium 374

Lip4 Lipstick Palette in Siren 859

Lip4 Lipstick Palette in Ballet 858

Review: Apocalips!

I'm probably like the last one to blog about these lippies that Rimmel came out with around 2-3months ago in the UK -I've had a busy 2-3months.

I bought them when they were first came out though and at the time, it was a big rave around some beauty bloggers, so I was curious to try them. 

Colour

I chose 3 colours from its range, and (again) took advantage of Boots 3for2 offer:

• Luna (left) is a peachy colour, it's a colour that's very suitable for everyday wear and perfect for spring.
• Big Bang (middle) a blood red colour, perfect for evening wear or if you are like me, who is into reds, then this one to pick out from this range.
• Stellar (right) a bright pink/fuchsia but it leans more towards the reds when you wear it. It's a really nice colour, but I wish the pink was more....pink?

All the colours are very opaque and I was very impressed with it and I think it's obvious that Luna and Big Bang are my favourite.

Colour Swatch

Formula and Texture

It has a creamy texture which I find easy to glide on and spreads evenly (although that does mostly depends on how well you've been taking care of your lips -chapped lips never work with any coloured lip products). I find its formula really good for a drugstore product and it feels almost like a 2in1 combining lipstick and lip creme together. It also lasts very well, for a creamy-textured lip colour and feels rather moisturising (not drying) on the lips too.

Duffle applicator with a hollow to allow it to grab more of the product from its tube and producing the opaque colour even from first application.

Price

At the moment, this retails at £4.99 each in UK drugstores, which I feel is a fairly decent price for a high quality lip product.

Overall

I love this product for everything it is but I wish they had a much wider range in colours for me to choose from. It also smudges quite easily if you're not careful when applying. What I do is use a Q-tip to erase any slight smudges and for perfecting the lip shape. 

Beauty Trend: MAC Spring '13

Happy Chinese New Year to all my fellow yellows! I usually love this time of year because everyone is in good spirits and families come together, eating lots of good food. I had a quiet one, not really celebrating as such this year, but I'm happy to see all my friends are having a great time (and great food - yes I'm jealous). 

So in chinese:

 祝各位 新年快樂 萬事如意 但最重要是，身體健康!

It's middle of the night and I am busy doing trend research work for my knitting (course work) whilst multi-tasking on Instagram and obviously on this. 

I thought I would just keep an update detailing beauty trends/campaigns/collections (whichever you call it) either in general or by brand for you to look forward to or to check out now.

Well it just so happens that M.A.C has recently launched their Year of the Snake collection for this spring. 

I'm very intrigued by this collection already and yet I haven't even begun to try the products itself. What caught my eye really were the beauty powders that are embossed with a snake pattern. It's a simple design but I simply like it. 

Moreover though, it is the this collection's colour palette that succeeds to captivate me to (perhaps) purchase a few items. To be specific; I am highly into plummy colours and this collection's colour palette has it all. 

You have vibrant tones of magenta, purple and a slightly pink under-toned red. Then team them up with colours like copper,beige or a shimmery yellow to tone them down slightly or tone it up with some intense black.  

.In total, this collections includes: four single shades of eyeshadows, two pigments, three lipsticks, a beauty powder and their Zoom Lash mascara in Rich Black.

I also like the design on their box packaging which is always a bonus whenever I buy a beauty product.

Will I be spending my red pocket money on this collection? Maybe. But I shall most definitely check out the beauty powder (purely for the embossed snake - sad I know but I love it!)

What will/have you be/been spending your red pocket money on (if you got any)?

New Year, New Products, Better me

First things firsts- a very Happy (belated) New Year to you all and I believe I owe this blog so much more than an average of 15 posts per year-haha.
So looking back at my 2012, I felt that I've become a even stronger-minded person stepping into 2013. In other words really, there isn't very much left that would bring me down to the point I would hide again (I could be wrong though). Of course, I'm still me. I still have poo days (like today), but then nowadays, I have really happy -if not, content- days.
I don't remember much about the first few months of 2012, I was probably in the uni halls, avoiding any parties because I know I would be too distracted (and spend too much money). The highlights I that was most memorable to me was: going to Spain, Marbella for one of my good friend's hen-do (which although a little bit stressing, it was still a good experience to go on holiday with the girls), then attended her wedding. I hung out a few times with a few folks during the festival period, which is always good banter, however, I wish I had went to see some shows than just purely going out to drink and eat crepes & angus burgers.
Oh! I went to Big Bang's Alive concert in London! I've never been to a concert before so, although I was all worked up about expenses, by the time the show started I was all hyped up!

During the year, somehow a part of my life became spontaneous, but it made me realise something: trust fate. I wish I could detail what it is, but sadly, I could only tell you, my heart beats faster, I laugh louder, I smile longer, though sometimes, I cry in pain. I guess the other thing about trusting fate, is just let things be. Sometimes, owning something doesn't mean everything. To me, to be able to just share with someone is also a form of happiness.

2013 is now. Chasing dreams is mostly what I see. The better me will continue to focus on building my career. I will also continue to support some of my creative friends. I see some natural talent in them and I'm happy to see some already an upcoming success.

This is just the start (ha), I look forward to more spontaneity- good or bad.

Well, I am obviously not ending it just there. Over Christmas, I bought new skincare products because my normal routine did no justice to my growing acne problem- although I have to admit, I did have a series long of lazy period with skin care.
Having realise that my skin changed from normal to oily condition meant, I was looking for products that would hydrate my skin, because even though my skin is oily, is doesn't mean I should dry it out. Moreover, hydration meant less breakouts, so long as the products are oil free.
So my new daily skin care routine goes a little like this:

Dr Jart+ Pore Refine Bubble Foam facial wash

So continuing the subject of "spontaneity", I came across Dr Jart at Boots with the offer "3for2" on its aisles and randomly decided to begin the new routine with Dr Jart products. This Pore Refine series was made for oily-combination skin.
I really like the lather made from the foaming in the face wash. You can feel that it is gentle to the skin when washing and afterwards it leaves a cleanse feeling. Skin will also feel a little tighter, and I've been using it for at least a good month now, and one of the biggest difference is that my skin looks brighter with more radiance.

Shu Uemura Deepsea Hydrabillity Toning Lotion

I've always like Shu Uemura's lotions, this one is no exception. Generally I would pour some onto my cotton pad and swipe over my face a couple of times. Sometimes, I would rub a drop or two of it into the palms of my hands and then gently pat it into my skin for extra hydration. The patting motion also helps to open pores from the warmth of your palms and the lotion is soaked in better.

Dr Jart+ Pore Refining Up-Tightening Serum

 I haven't tried a great amount of serums apart from L'oreal and YSL. First of all, this one is a different texture from the other two I've tried. I generally don't have much thought about this serum but I know, it's not a product I would rave about. Perhaps I need to use this longer to see a better difference. But the plus side is that it comes in a pump, so I don't need to worry about spillage since I am hella clumsy.

Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Gel

I've used this product in the past, and loved it. The gel consistence seems perfect for my oily skin because after it settles into my skin, it becomes matte, doesn't leave much shine. I guess the bargain of this product is that it has helped my base make-up last longer from away from shine. Is it still moisturising? I believe it is. Although, for night time, I always feel that it a little more...

Dr Jart+ Pore Refine Recover Primer

The consistency of this primer can look and may feel a bit doubtful because it does make you think its oily, but its actually a gel base. Once it settles, it isn't oily at all. It does hold my base make-up rather well. Long story short- my make-up stayed even after walking through a snow blizzard (of course credit also goes to how good the foundation was itself).

Consistency swatches of products from Left: Primer, Moisturising Gel, Serum

Laneige Water Sleeping Pack (mask)

This sleeping mask was given as a Christmas gift (Thanks Holz) because my friend knew I was getting lazy with my skin care -how thoughtful! In my honest opinion, I really like this product (and not saying because it was a gift). It's convenient for lazy people like me who can't be bothered to get up again to wash it off after the mask is applied and just want to dive into bed. When I wake up, you could see your face is instantly brighter again. This mask has helped my overwhelming blemishes on my forehead a lot. It has reduced their size and has toned down the spot marks. And just the other day, my boss complimented how much smoother my skin looks -win. haha This tub also comes with a mini spatula which is wonderful when you want to keep hygiene top notch.

So that is it really. I still use some products I previously used like Skin Food's Aloe Vera mask (to reduce redness) and Vichy Normaderm pore tightening lotion/toner for acne prone skin. 

Have you embarked on a new skin care routine or a product too? If so let me know below what you have tried and what was a hit and miss for you.

Oh heck, this is probably my longest post yet! In this case, thanks for reading! 

Poo day?

Of course! I shall sign off with a poser photo. Standard. ;)  

Review: Benefit's Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Foundation

First of all, I was told by a few people said that this was good for oily skin. What a lie. But to be fair, I wouldn't know for sure if I hadn't tried it for myself.

I've been using this foundation for a week now and have been wearing through different sort of occasions depending what was happening during the week of course! Some days I wear it with a finishing powder some days just pressed powder.

The first thing I noticed about this foundation is that it gives a rather dewy complexion to the skin. I immediately thought "this is so not for oily skin!" because as much as how nice the dewy effect looks, if you have oily skin, your face will just become more and more shiny quicker. Nevertheless, I still wanted to see how long it will last until my face gets really shiny.

FACE BEFORE FOUNDATION WAS APPLIED 

So to start with, I had a few blemishes around my face (the most obvious one being on top of my lip) and redness around the nose area and the bit between my brows (the daylight meant the camera couldn't capture the redness but its there).

FACE AFTER FOUNDATION IS APPLIED

The coverage for this foundation is light - medium, but I felt that it was build-able. In fact, I found that since I normally use my fingers to apply, I decided to switch to using a flat-top brush and that gave more coverage with fewer layers.

On a hot day, the shine comes through quicker, maybe 4hours? and then I would feel I need to use oil blotting papers. On cold dry days, it lasts longer, perhaps a maximum of 8hours for me personally. I have mix feelings about this foundation partly because I do love the shade, it does feel hydrating, it's not heavy, has SPF25 and oil-free (this was probably the bit that was misleading some people) but I was rather gutted to notice instantly that my face wasn't going to stay matte. 

However, I will still keep using this foundation because I discovered that by using a finishing powder or blotting powder the foundation will stay longer so its the end of the world with this product -just invest in a really good finishing powder instead (and because its £24.50 non-refundable.....I am forced to keep it anyway).

My shade is Champagne which when blended, matches my skin very well

Also just to note: the liquid comes out more on the watery/thinner side than I thought, which is why it gives only light-medium coverage.

Also the only reason I'm looking for a foundation/base for oily skin is because all of a sudden my skin decided to lean more to the oily side, I'm not sure if its because of the change in weather or the act of my hormones. 

Next I am going to try Maybelline's SuperStay 24hr foundation. If you have any review/make-up look requests then feel free to leave a comment below OR you can follow me on my Twitter account @SoapyC and I will reply you there. =]

Easy Red Lip Look

Hey folks! It has been 2yrs since I had filmed videos and even then they were rubbish! Out of the blue though, I decided to film one for fun. However forgetting that editing isn't fun at all as it took me 6hours to work out how to use the programme, start editing, then I had to re-edit because it crashed and I had forgotten to save -nightmare.

In the end though, I was happy with the result. =]

About the look


I sometimes feel that some Asians (particularly amongst my friends) that having a bright red lip seems too much for them if it was to be worn casually. Personally, I love red lipsticks. So I decided to show people how to wear it as an overall look.
In balance with the bright lip, I kept the eyes simple and accentuate the cheeks. Truthfully though, to wear anything bright or a bit more quirky and different, all you need is a touch of confidence. And the bright lips? -Just smile.