I have tons of makeup, but i always wanna keep my makeup bag as simple and light as possible when I am travelling.
I don't find choosing which eyeshadow palette I should take with me a problem even though I have quite a number of it, but choosing lipsticks is the hardest. I have way way way many lipsticks than I should have and I wear lipsticks according to my mood. Which means my eye makeup is gonna be the same all 365 days I only change up my lip colour.
Makeup Geek eyeshadow in Beaches&Cream, Latte, Mocha
Max Factor Excess Intensity Longwear Eyeliner in 06
Soap&Glory Archery Brown Pencil in Hot Chocolate
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
EYESHADOW
Makeup Geek eyeshadows are really good considering it's price point is so affordable. They are £6.00 each for normal eyeshadows and it bit pricier for like foiled eyeshadows. Comparing it to the BodyShop eyeshadow which is £7.00, it's such a much much better one as it blends so much nicer than the BodyShop's.
The only con is that Makeup Geek shadows come in pans so you will need to get a separate palette to store it. The pan is magnetic though, you only need a magnetic palette like the Z-Palette will do.
EYESHADOW PRIMER
I have had this eyeshadow primer for the longest time ever and I still have quite a lot of product in it. I wanna try the Urban Decay eyeshadow primer after this.
EYELINER
Max Factor eyeliner is the best I am not kidding. It's so good that it doesn't smudge at all (well, maybe it's my super eyeshadow primer that keeps it in place but still the eyeliner is very very good in my opinion). It's a automatic pencil that cannot be twisted back as in once you have twisted it out, you cannot twist it the other way to keep it back into the tube, it doesn't work that way.
I've tried many drugstore eyeliners - Maybelline, Rimmel, Sleek, Etude House, Soap&Glory, Kiss Me and also high end ones - Kat Von D and Benefits, non of them beats Max Factors'. And because I don't want black eyeliner that's why it's very hard to find a good dark brown eyeliner.
I love this eyeliner so so much that I brought back 2 to Malaysia and thought it would last me until I go back to UK again but I used up one in 2 months. I was so panic so I asked Jia Wen to bring 6 back for me from UK again. I can't imagine doing my eye makeup without it.
It is retail at £6.99, which is already quite cheap considering the amount of product in that little tube. The 2 main drugstores in England - Superdrug and Boots always have the 3 for 2 promotions which makes it even cheaper if you are buying it during the promotion.
The only down side of it is it dries out quite quickly. It's so smooth and buttery when you first open and use it, however it would become a little be stiffer after that and it would be quite hard towards the end of the product. After all I don't think it affects the application even though it becomes a little harder than it used to be. It breaks quite easily when it is still new because its softer I guess so when it gets stiffer, it doesn't break that easily (it still would break though) which I find it quite good that way too.
EYEBROW
As for brows, I'm still learning how to do it and I haven't tried that many eyebrow pencils so far but this Soap&Glory is said to be a dupe of the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz.
Revlon Photoready Insta-Fix Highlighting Stick in 200 Pink Light
Revlon Photoready Insta-Fix Highlighting Stick in 210 Gold Light
Rimmel London Sculpting Palette in 002 Coral Glow
Rimmel London Sculpting Palette in 002 Coral Glow
HIGHLIGHTER
I thought it would be better to use cream highlighter during CNY so it can hold on for longer hours. I got my hands on these 2 highlighters once I've watched FluerdeForce's (a UK YouTuber) video. She claimed that these are dupes for Benefits' Watt's Up Cream Highlighter. I have no used the Benefits' so I can't compare them both.
I think Revlon's is quite good even though they are not that cheap as a drugstore product. But we all know that Revlon and L'oreal are a tiny bit up there among all the drugstore brands. They are retailed at £9.99 and I got it during the promotion of Get One Second Half Price I think.
I have swatched the Becca highlighter in Champagne Pop and Moonstone, comparing Revlon's and Becca's, Revlon's is more like shimmer. It's of course not that big chunck kind of glitters but the shimmer in it is not as fine as the Becca's.
Considering the prices of both, I think the Revlon's is good enough at it's price point and it's even better because I have got it during promotion. In my opinion, it would be more flattering and blinding if you top up cream highlighter with powder highlighter *wink*.
I don't want to bring a separate highlighting palette so I just use the highlighting shade in the Rimmel sculpting palette and it worked fine.
CONTOUR
This contour shade in Rimmel palette has glitters in it, probably is not the best choice to do countering (but it would be nice to use it as bronzer) but I used it anyway, light-handedly. It's not too bad as long as you don't use it to heavily contour, the glitter wouldn't be that visible.
I love love love this palette and brought it to my Europe trip. I was fairer then so I think the contour shade is very nice on me but now I am tanner it doesn't look that good on me anymore.
Laura Mercier Loose Setting Powder in Translucent
Bourjois Paris 123 Perfect CC Cream in 32 Beige Clair
MAC Prep+Prime Fix+
FOUNDATION
I have had so many foundations but none matches my skin tone, probably it's because my skin colour changes all the time. I got this last 2 years and it was my first foundation when I was in UK. I didn't use it at all because it was in the wrong shade until this year after I came back. Surprisingly it is my exact shade now that I am tanner.
It has quite a heavy scent which I don't like. Even though it is said to be a CC cream, its coverage is so freaking high and even buildable. I avoid using a lot of it as the coverage is very high because I don't want my face to be too cakey. I only tried to dab extra product on spots where I need to cover.
SETTING POWDER
I have had a few faves setting powder and this is my first high-end one. I have heard so many good reviews about it so I decided to give it a try.
Honestly I can't tell the difference of it and my drugstore ones like Rimmel and Soap&Glory in terms of setting power and oil absorbing power. But I must say it is expensive for a reason, which is the quality of the product. the powder is so finally milled that it flies off when the gentlest wind hits it. Other than that no comment.
SETTING SPRAY
I think the name of it has caused a lot of confusion because I don't find it has the effect of setting my makeup at all. My makeup still melts after Ive sprayed it on.
However it does the job of blending all my makeup together and gives me a very nice and smooth result, especially my foundation. You know if you apply your foundation with a brush it can get a little streaky. After you have sprayed it on your foundation would look flawless, it smooths out the streakiness.
I hold it some distance from my face and spray a generous amount of it (well not too much maybe) and then fan my face to make the tiny droplets dry out quicker and I repeat it again.
Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Outlaw
Tarte Matte Lip Paint in Choker
Urban Decay Rouge À Lévres Lipstick in 1993
LIPSTICKS
I have a few red lipsticks but they are not the red that I wanna wear for CNY. They are either too orangey or they exaggerates the yellowness of my teeth too much. I want proper red that has no orange, blue or purple tone in it and I found the Kat Von D's. It's the perfect red that I was looking for.
Kat Von D liquid lipstick is so so so pigmented OMG. You know some darker lipsticks even though they are of the same collection they don't appear to be as pigmented as the others, just like Dubai from NYX soft matte lip cream collection. No matter how many layers I have applied Dubai, it doesn't appear to be the pigmentation I am expecting and it's super streaky and hard af to apply.
The liquid lipstick of Kat Von D is so soft and it really last the forever if you don't eat oily food. Even though you do, only those in your inner lips would be gone and it appears to be a good as new if you reapply it. It's so weightless that you don't feel like you're wearing something on your lips.
I don't wanna say it's not drying because all matte lipsticks are drying and we are contributing to the dry lips as we don't lick our lips after putting on lipstick you see. But the drying effect is not bad at all, even though it's drying but I don't feel my lips are peeling off and flaky at all. The worst matte lipstick is the NYX lingerie collection because they are so freaking dry.
All of all Kat Von D liquid lipstick is the best liquid lipstick that I have tried and I'm gonna go back to get more colours. They are not cheap though, RM99, my heart breaks a little when paying for it but bought it anyway.
Tarte Matte Lip Paint is very nice as well. I have heard reviews saying that the shade I bought is not gonna be as pigmented as the other but I still find it fine even though I will need to apply it twice to reach the full coverage and colour.
It takes quite some time to dry out and comes out to be a tiny little sticky even though it has completely dried out. Choker is a brown colour with a tiny grey undertone, I love love love this colour, it gives a very rebel kinda look of me.
I decided to get my hands on the UD 1993 lipstick once I knew that it's called 1993. How can I not buy this when it's the perfect colour and it's named the year I was born, I can definitely see myself wearing it a lot. It's RM70, not too expensive but the product you get is so little, in that way it's considered to be expensive.
The texture of 1993 is comfort matte so it wouldn't appear to be like the kind of matte that you would see from liquid lipstick. I think it's between a matte liquid lipstick and a normal cream lipstick. Because it isn't completely matte, it doesn't last very long like those liquid lipstick but it's very comfortable to wear, it's very moisturising.
Love,
Xiaohui
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