Geez, I was gone for almost 2 months. Again, my apologies. I would understand if you would not believe me anymore if I say that ‘I vow to be a better blogger this year’ hee hee. I mean it! I swear, I will allot more time updating this blog (nose getting longer now) oh well, moving on

One time during lunchbreak, I got really bored and lacking of energy (my body has taken its toll due to rigid workout routines which include: zumba for xbox 360). So I decided to list down my Make-Up Christmas Wishlist for 2012 hahah! I know way too early, might as well label it as my TO BUY LIST for 2012. Seriously, I am trying my very best to simplify my make-up kit, I want to stick to my tried and tested items and to stop trying new collection. But, a make-up junkie can never have too many lippies, you know. Maybe, I’d be able to stop trying out concealers, foundation, eye shadows and blushes but not/NOT lipsticks!

Initially, I started out with this short list (photo above), but to date my current 2012 Must Buy Make-up List is this:

1. NARS Lippies: Casablanca, Niagara, Catfight, Damage, Dolce Vita.
2. NARS Oasis Blush.
3. Benefit Hervana Blush.
4. MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium.
5. MAC Bare Again Lipstick.
6. Make-Up Forever Aqua Liners.
7. Make-Up HD Invisible Cover Concealer.
8. Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder.
9. Chloe Perfume.
10. No. 5 by Chanel Perfume.

Uh-oh, that was quite a long list and it’s just January hahah! Care to share your list?

Before I check on this tourmaster site for a friend, let me share a new staple in my bedside + travel kit.

A piece of Pond’s Wet Cleansing Towelettes in Evening Soothe is what I needed after a day’s worth of stress and heavy make-up. It feels like I had a cold masque on my cheeks and freshly sliced cucumber on my eyes. I do not use it daily but when I feel like I needed a cold masque to relax me before I hit the sack, I get one and pat it gently on my face. I use this AFTER cleaning my face with Cetaphil and SK-II facial cleanser and BEFORE I apply my night cream. While it claims to remove make-up especially mascara, it cannot remove mine. So make sure to remove your make up with your regular facial cleanser then gently pat a towelette before you apply your night cream.

Evening Soothe with Chamomile & White Tea

Lifts away impurities while soothing the senses, Removes waterproof mascara, New Seal Helps Towelettes Stay Wet

Breath deep and unwind. A perfect end to the day, Pond’s Evening Soothe Towelettes gently clean away all traces of dirt and make-up, while calming the skin and senses. These soft, textured cloths wipe away the day while releasing the relaxing fragrance of Chamomile and White Tea.

• Removes waterproof mascara
• Dermatologist tested
• Ophthalmologist tested
• Leaves skin perfectly clean and make-up free
• Removes waterproof mascara with ease
• Soft, textured cloth works gently, without drying skin
• Ideal for all skin types

VANITY.KIT’s RATING

Overall Product: A

Value: 4/5

Ease of Use: 4/5

Packaging: 4/5

If choosing the best home theatre system used to be hubby’s shopping dilemma, shopping for the right eyeshadow palette is a dilemma to me. You know why? Because we both could not afford buying more than 1. He would rather invest on 1 (quality-wise) that would last us a lifetime. Same goes with shopping for the right and most complete eyeshadow palette, I just need one palette that carries the most comprehensive eyeshadow color collection.

Now, this Urban Decay 15-year Anniversary Eyeshadow Collection could have been a better choice than my Urban Decay NAKED and Urban Decay Limited Edition NYC Book of Shadows Vol. 3 because it combined all my essential eyeshadow colors in 1 palette, the basic nudes, pinks, golds, blues and greens. Generally, a collection of nude, bright and deep colors. The packaging is even better, looks to me an easy to manage travel palette. Oh well, I think I would have to skip this even if they claim that shades included in this palette are all new. But if you have not invested in an Urban Decay eyeshadow palette just yet, this is a good choice. But it is out of stock (ALREADY!) so just wait, they will reproduce for sure. Remember the NAKED craze? I guess they are starting a marketing hype once again .

15 ALL-NEW shadows for our big 15! You get neutrals, brights AND deep shades in a sleek gunmetal collectible box (our most luxe EVER!).

It’s our party, and we’ll launch 15 NEW (and only in this kit!) eyeshadow shades if we want to! With just the right balance of neutrals and brights, darks and lights, the 15-Year Anniversary Palette is both versatile and the ultimate UD junkie collection. Shades like “Junkshow” (a bright pink), “Evidence” (a deep metallic blue) and Midnight 15 (an oyster pearl shade) mesmerize the eyes. The collectible gunmetal outer box features a luxe faceted jewel “UD” on the cover and an eye-grabbing laser-cut filigree design on the sides. Inside, the shadow tray pulls out to reveal a velvet-lined compartment that can be used to stash jewelry or personal mementos.

Included in this kit: Deeper (deep shimmery golden brown), M.I.A. (soft shimmery dark brown), Ace (dark gunmetal shimmer), Blackout (darkest, most saturated black), Half Truth (shimmery smoky purple), Tainted (pale matte purple with golden shimmer), Junkshow (bright pink w/fuchsia shift), Omen (shimmery metallic bright purple w/blue shift), Evidence (deep metallic blue), Deep End (bright teal shimmer), Midnight Rodeo (medium metallic brown w/silver and gold glitter), Midnight 15 (oyster pearl w/silver glitter), Vanilla (shimmery white gold), Flow (soft peach shimmer), Chase (metallic bright bronze)

Before I go looking for trophies as my contribution for our neighborhood Summer sports festival, here’s a quick review on my current IT undereye treatment. You see, I have blogged about this more than a year ago but I have forgotten to make a follow-up blog entry. I only got reminded when this was talked about amongst my twitter bebots friends.

I have tried Clinique’s eye treatment serum as well as Lancome’s but this very affordable Garnier Eye-brightening roll on treatment which is meant to reduce puffiness and dark undereye circles seems to be the most effective for as long as you do not fail to use it every single day, twice a day. I guess the cooling effect that we get from cucumber when put on our eyes shut is the culprit for it to work on me. But nothing else will hydrate and brighten your eyes more than a good sleep, healthy diet, stress-free life, and plenty of water.

Go ahead and try it, it’s less than $15 a pop!

My friend, C and I were talking for 2 hours last night. Initially, we were talking about our kitchen must-haves, say this set of le creuset pans and our newly discovered recipes. Then like we would always discuss, we tackled on our most current beauty product lemmings! We both agreed that while we loved MAC products especially their lippies and eyeshadows, their foundation collection tend to cause us breakouts and make us look yellowish if not finished with another loose powder, although, my everyday powder foundation is a MAC Studio Fix  powder plus foundation. We are both on the fair side, by the way. I was telling her that I noticed more dark-skinned women suit MAC foundation while Laura Mercier, NARS, Benefit, Shu Uemura, Lancome and Clinique are popular on fair-skinned women. That is just my opinion.

I also realized that I do not own a MAC blush (save for THIS as I just find it too powdery and too matte/dry on my cheeks. I am a huge fan of NARS and Benefit blushes. On the other hand, a dark-skinned friend dislikes NARS and Benefit blushes because they do not seem pigmented for her skin color.

So if I were to pick my top 1 foundation, that would be Laura Mercier collection. In fact, I am lemming their Spring Collection ‘11.

I am currently in the middle of a Conference call as I blog this. I just cannot resist sharing with you that I finally got my Urban Decay’s most coveted NAKED palette weee!!! That was after more than 2 months of waiting and another 10 days for shipping. I will make the review shortly as I need to study the settings of my camera so as to get the best photos for the swatches. But in the meantime, for those who haven’t gotten theirs, I hope these photos are enough to convince y’all that this is a staple eyeshadow palette . Get now before it ran out of stocks again.

My second time to make another extensive review and I feel like this is going to be a tough one.

To begin with, I am not an expert to make a review on any beauty product nor do I claim to be make-up educated. So I’d rather tag my reviews with experiences because after all they are my own experiences and with experiences, opinions vary.  What I have is this addiction on make-up and almost 3-4 yrs stint of doing professional make-up, other than that I am here to write reviews for my own circle of friends who also love make up (they are less than 10 peeps by the way hee hee).

What do I consider when I buy something? Not just the price, also its components, but most especially, I consider reviews of other bloggers and even the one liner comments of people who bought the product. This is the reason why I would not dare take a hoodia gordonii pill or any diet pill for that matter. Because I am not that gutsy to put my immune system/health stature to risk knowing there will be side effects if I base my judgment on random testimonials.

Where do I begin.
The first time I heard about Eve Pearl Salmon Concealers was when MakeupGeek and Temptalia listed it among their top concealers. Then the hype grew when more and more make-up fanatics bought the product and raved about it. There were about 85% satisfied costumers and only 15% unsatisfied costumers in the Make Up Alley forum site. So I thought, I wouldn’t go wrong trying this out considering that Salmon or peach shade will definitely cover the blues and purples of my dark undereye circle, the way green concealers cover the redness of your skin.

I bought without any coupon and got it for $44.00!!! (tax and shipping inclusive)

Again, I am not compensated to make reviews. The price was pretty steep but like what I always say, dark undereye circles will always be the story of my life. I will never stop finding the perfect concealer for me.

Shipping was fast, what do you expect for an $8.oo-shipping cost and the item is just tiny weeny bit small.

When I got it, I was so excited that I instantly took a picture of it and instagram-ed it:

I told myself, aha, this reminds me so much of Cinema Secrets concealers which I used for my brides years back except this was a little more emollient/creamy since it also doubles as undereye treatment.

Step by Step
I got Salmon Dual Concealer in LIGHT/MEDIUM shade and  THE COLORS were darker than what I expected it. Now, I am around MAC nc25 shade and this makes me wonder how about those who are lighter-skinned than I am. They do not have a lot of shades to play around with.

The first blend of the medium using a concealer brush was awesome. It instantly covered the blues/purple hues of my undereye circles but something’s not right, it was too peachy/orangey so I mixed it with the light shade and it blended well with my natural skintone. I dabbed a little powder to settle it because it looked like it will crease. So far so good. After about 3 hours, it was going away probably because of my natural oil and because I am sweating or for some odd reasons, it was not long wearing. Definitely it won’t work well during warm weather and I suppose, to more oily skin.

The next day I tried using it under a foundation and it stayed on really well then the 3rd day, I still won’t quit trying and wore it on top of a foundation and it reacted the way the first time I used it. Application can be really tough because it is very creamy. It was so hard to get a flawless finish as you will end up  removing too much of the product. But if you apply this with a primer, then foundation and then this, it will stay on long and blending will be easy. Then again, I am on the hunt for the perfect on the go concealer.

VANITY.KIT’s RATING

Overall Product: B-

Value: 2/5 (overpriced! there are other concealers cheaper than this product but works better.)

3.25 gram mirrored compact is $44 (inclusive of tax and shipping charges)

Ease of Use: 3/5 (I alternately used both my fingers and concealer brush just to blend it perfectly)

Packaging: 3/5

VERDICT: Will not buy again.

Remember THIS ANNOUNCEMENT on the much-coveted Urban Decay NAKED eyeshadow pallete? Finally, they have stocks at their online site. I just ordered mine, I could not pass this chance anymore. We are lucky to only have a $4.00 increase (unlike those car insurance rates that keep going up), yet you get a good karma eyeshadow brush. For me it’s a better deal than the 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Zero shade.

While at the site, why not add this Lip Pencil in Roach at $6.00. Besides, Naked is $48 and you are $2.00 away to receive free shipping.