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)?

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.

FOTD: Sweet Pink

This is actually the make-up I had on yesterday, but it's pretty similar to my every-day look anyway. I am currently totally in love with the Kate Moss spring collection lipsticks for Rimmel in the shade no.16! It's a sweet rosey pink and normally I would be more a coral or nude person, this one made it to my everyday-go-to lipstick list! My eyes are then, to keep the look soft, I used brown shades from the Naked Palette. My cheeks I used a new favourite of mines from MAC's mineral blushes collection.

LIPS

Rimmel Kate Moss Spring Collection Lipstick in no.16

EYES

Crease: Naked Palette - Sidecar

Outer crease bring towards middle and up: Naked Palette- Buck

Brow bone: Naked Palette- Virgin

Mascara: Maybelline Colossal Waterproof Mascara in Black

Top liner: L'oreal's Super Liner Carbon Gloss in Black

Bottom Liner: Maybelline's Gel Liner in Black and runned over with HD Brows shadow in Carbon

Brows: HD Brows Vamp Palette in Rich Brown

FACE & CHEEKS

Face: Rimmel's Wake Me Up Foundation in 103 True Ivory,

Maybelline's Mineral Concealer in 02 Natural (I heard this line is discontinued?), 

MAC's Studio Fix Pressed Powder in NW20

Blusher: MAC's Mineralize Blush in Dainty

No Filter and under natural lighting

That's it! It's boiling in my room just now so I'm going to go cool down for a bit (like stick my head in the fridge!).