Tag Archives: make-up

Face Of The Day: A Very Merry MAC Makeover

MAC Holiday 2015 makeover

What’s that faint ringing sound you hear? The approaching onslaught of tinny renditions of Jingle Bells being piped through every Hong Kong mall sound system for the next few weeks, that’s what!

Scrooge sentiments aside, C-Day is well and truly on its way – and with it, party season too. One of the most common questions I get asked as a beauty blogger in Hong Kong is where people can go to get a makeover session pre-party; it’s actually a service that quite a lot of the make-up counters here offer and just don’t advertise properly… but my default answer is always MAC! They have such a huge cosmetics range that covers pretty much every colour or product you desire, so can really give you the full works in any number of styles – and with over 20 locations throughout Hong Kong, there should be a venue that’s convenient for you.

MAC Hong Kong Face

Having been a devoted fan of MAC Cosmetics for many years now, I was invited to hand the reins over to the experts with my own 60-minute MAC make-up session – perfectly timed to showcase some of the newest products from their just-launched Holiday 2015 Magic Of The Night Collection. (Hint that will surprise absolutely no one: there might be a bit of glitter involved!)

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Revlon ColorBurst Balm Stains in Romantic, Sweetheart, Lovesick and Rendezvous review

revlon colorburst balm stains

What’s better than finding a beauty product you really truly love? Finding that same beauty product you really truly love at an even cheaper price!

Ever since Clinique’s Chubby Sticks became a total beauty blockbuster, every cosmetics company with half a brain has been inspired to create similarly chunky, lovely lip crayons (hi Sisley Phyto Lip-Twists!). As someone who just can’t get enough of all vaguely-pencil shaped beauty products, I’ve been lapping up these Chubby cousins with open arms – and wallet! – but perhaps the most dupe-tastic have to be Revlon’s ColorBurst Balm Stains.

revlon colorburst lip balms

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Chanel Mediterranee nail polish review

chanel mediterranee le vernis

There’s just something about Chanel nail polishes.

However many similarly coloured nail polishes you own… however little room you have for yet more nail polish… however many times you claim to be on a nail polish ban… Chanel nail polishes are just impossible to resist. Every. Single. Time.

Chanel Mediterranee is yet another example of a Chanel polish rendering me utterly helpless in its glossy gaze. As soon as it started appearing on U.S. beauty blogs, I knew I needed it – and once I went in-store, the shop assistant may as well have just opened my wallet and started helping herself!

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Shu Uemura Laque Supreme in Chu Chu Coral and Wild Rose review – baby got laque!

shu uemura laque supreme

The arrival of Shu Uemura’s latest lip product = this baby’s got laque!

Oh come on, you know I can never resist a good pun… and nor can I resist a good lippie. Shu Uemura’s Laque Supreme is a gorgeous halfway house between a lipstick and a lip gloss – but there certainly isn’t anything half-hearted about the final results!

Inspired by the high shine and rich colours of Japanese lacquerware, Laque Supreme essentially marries the consistency of a lip gloss with the intense pigmentation of a lipstick. But actually, it’s even better than that.

shu uemura laque supreme swatches wn02 cr01Top to bottom: Wild Rose/Wild Fuchsia (WN02), Chu Chu Coral (CR01)

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Benefit Roller Lash mascara review – curl power

benefit roller lash

Beauty confessions: I hate mascara.

I know, I know… mascara is like, everyone else’s desert island essential. But with crazy-sensitive eyes that tear up at the merest suggestion of the music from Up (the other day I even cried about how cute a dog on Instagram was), I very rarely wear the stuff. In general, I find mascara heavy, that it irritates my eyes, that it’s a pain to remove… and for all that, it doesn’t even make that much of a difference to how my face looks. [Note: I opt for lashings of eyeliner instead.]

benefit roller lash mascara brush

BUT if I did wear mascara often, then Benefit’s Roller Lash mascara would probably be high on my list.

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Zoya Aurora nail polish review

zoya aurora

Hail to the Princess Aurora! All of her subjects adore her! Hail to the King, hail to the Queen, hail to the Princess Aurora!

Given that Sleeping Beauty was always my favourite Disney princess, it was always likely I’d feel the urge to buy Zoya’s Aurora nail polish – and yes, I totally buy cosmetics based on the product names. Thankfully, the colour turned out to be pretty stellar.

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Clinique Chubby Sticks in Heftiest Hibiscus, Chunky Cherry and Jumbo Jasmine review

clinique chubby sticks

“Hello, my name is Rachel and I am a Chubb-aholic.”

Yes, ever since Clinique’s Chubby Sticks arrived on the beauty scene in 2011, I have found myself addicted to all crayon-shaped lip products that cross my path – be they the Chubby Sticks themselves, or bandwagon-jumping Chubb-alikes like Sisley’s Phyto-Lip Twists and Revlon’s Colorburst Balms. So it was only a matter of time before the itch hit and yet more Chubby Sticks found their way into my collection; if I plead innocence as to how they got there, will the make-up gods (and my bank balance) believe me?

clinique chubby sticks heftiest hibiscus chunky cherry jumbo jasmine swatchLeft to right: Heftiest Hibiscus, Chunky Cherry, Jumbo Jasmine

The latest additions to my Chubby Stick family are Heftiest Hibiscus, Chunky Cherry and Jumbo Jasmine. And of course, they are all pretty awesome. In case you need a recap as to why Clinique Chubby Sticks in general are awesome, may I point you to my previous reviews here and here… but if you are too lazy to click (tut tut), here are the basics:

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Winter Want List 2014: Beauty

Christmas Cosmetics 2014 1

It’s a shame there are officially only Twelve Days of Christmas – as there’s definitely way more than twelve things I’d like my true love to give to me! And yes, they’re all cosmetics – #beautybloggerproblems yo’.

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Shu Uemura Eye-Need-Shu Liner in Midnight Black review – the most purr-fect holiday cosmetics collection

shu uemura shupette collection

Calling it! The cutest holiday cosmetics collection this festive season has to be the Shu Uemura x Karl Lagerfeld collaboration, Shupette; themed around Uncle Karl’s princess pussycat, Choupette, it’s a pun made in make-up heaven!

The second of Lagerfeld’s collaborations with Shu Uemura (you may remember his similarly adorable Mon Shu 2012 Holiday Collection), Shupette amps up the Christmas cute factor with a range of products encased in highly covetable packaging featuring sweet sketches of Karl’s famous fluffy white kitty, bearer of the most famous baby blues this side of Sinatra.

shu uemura eye need shu liner midnight black

However, one of my favourite products from the Shupette 2014 Holiday Collection is actually one of the more understated items – the Eye-Need-Shu Liner in Midnight Black.

Rather than featuring a drawing of the old fluffball herself, this pencil eyeliner instead has teeny-tiny silver paw-prints dancing their way around the black casing – subtle but sooooo cute!

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Clinique Quickliner For Eyes Intense in Intense Clove, Intense Truffle and Intense Peridot review

clinique quickliners intense truffle intense clove intense peridot

#BeautyBloggerProblems – having such a mega stash of make-up hidden away that you forget what products you even own in the first place!

Back in 2012, I reviewed Clinique’s Quickliner For Eyes Intense eyeliners… loved them… then promptly forgot all about them in favour of my usual Urban Decay 24/7 Eye Pencil and Clinique Brush-On Cream Liner combination. But one day recently, when I couldn’t be bothered to faff with my eyeliner brush or go crazy with colour (funnily enough, the exact circumstances I predicted myself using them in my Quickliner review – well done me!), I spotted them sitting forlornly in my eyeliner tub – and remembered exactly why I fell in love with them in the first place. They’re so easy to use! The colour is so intense! They’re great for sensitive eyes!

clinique quickliners for eyes intense

… Which is how I found myself in Clinique buying another three Quickliner For Eyes Intense pencils – this time in Intense Clove, Intense Truffle and Intense Peridot. And I found myself smitten all over again, like a grown woman surfing Friends Reunited only to fall back in love with her teenage crush.

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