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Go Hard or Go Haul!

Posted on July 25, 2011 | 19 comments

Believe it or not, I don’t actually like Mac make-up much. [Yeah, I can tell you don’t believe me.]

But the Semi-Precious Collection was SO pretty. Marbleised multi-coloured glittering domes of wondrousness; a cross between precious minerals, gemstones and cosmic galaxies. I just fell in love with the lot on first sight. Incidentally, swatches on the Internet just DO NOT compare. They make them look gritty and dull and sheer, but in real life, they are shimmery multi-dimensional wondrousness.

And I went accordingly overboard. Before I got in the store, I only wanted the Golden Gaze eye shadow (the outright gold star of the collection) and Pearl Skinfinish. Such is the power of a great shop assistant! And the allure of these babies in person!

I’m still in the ‘bring them out and stroke lovingly’ stage of ownership – they’re just too pretty to touch! I said to my boyfriend I should have bought two of each, one to use and one to look at; I was only half-joking. So these are photos to preserve the beauty!

Mineralize Skinfinishes in Pearl, Rose Quartz and Crystal Pink. Glowy gorgeousness in a pan.

Mineralize Eye Shadows in Golden Gaze, Hint Of Sapphire, Jade’s Fortune and Clarity. I know others have complained about the lack of pigmentation, but for me, the lightness is what makes these so useable and great for my fair skin. They all shimmer different colours in different lights, like magic. Stunning!

My lovely boyfriend bought me this limited edition Bobbi Brown Bronze Eye Palette from the Tortoise Shell Collection.

Bobbi Brown aren’t exactly known for being exciting but they do great quality neutrals and this palette absolutely epitomises that. I LOVE the classy packaging – in the words of the awesome Alex Perry, it looks expensive (say with Aussie accent for full effect)! I love how compact is it, with the pull-out drawer, and the shades are all complimentary browns, golds and bronzes. Great for travelling and creating easy lovely natural looks.

I’ve recently got into The Balm, which is now sold at Sasa. It’s an American brand with retro packaging and witty names, kind of a B-List Benefit. After learning my beloved Benefit Georgia was discontinued, I have been on the lookout for a similar peachy blush. The Balm’s Hot Mama blush had quite a lot of good write-ups (including from blush queen herself Jenn)… and it all escalated from there!

I received the Shady Lady Eye Shadow (Mischievous Marissa, a lovely glittering beige) as a free gift for purchasing two The Balm products; I also got a Read My Lips lipstick in Letter To The Editor (a shimmering bronzed berry). Next, I got a free It Girl Lip Gloss for buying two of their Sexpot Mineral Overshadows. The latter are highly-pigmented loose powders in No Money, No Honey (a light bright gold) and Work Is Overrated (pink champagne), with gorgeous 50s pin-ups on the lids. I blame these on Vicki getting me hooked on L’Oreal’s intense Infallible eye shadows, which aren’t available in HK, although these are much less adventurous colours!

Meanwhile, the baked Pupa Luminys Eye Shadow on the left is a Semi-Precious hangover. There were no really nice purples in the Mac collection, so this is the result!

I also got these two Canmake Jewel Eye Shadows in a very glittery gold and a very glittery melon. I had been lusting after Benefit Creaseless Creams but these were about a third of the price, whilst make-up queen Jenn recommended them as cheap Jill Stuart eye jellies! Sold! Plus, a freebie Sasa Garden Fairy hand cream.

After my wonderful day at Elemis Day Spa, I wanted to buy some of their products and kept reading about this gift set in the UK magazines my mum sent me. This gorgeous leopard-print Elemis Safari Traveller is designed by Alice Temperley (only one of my favourite designers!) and I thought it would be brilliant for carrying all my toiletries for travelling. It didn’t disappoint in person – nice and hefty and again, a touch of the Alex Perry (i.e. expensive!)

It comes stuffed with seven Elemis miniatures that I can’t wait to get stuck into (including the Papaya Peel I enjoyed so much during my facial) and a percentage goes to charity, so what’s not to love? Sadly, it’s not being sold in Hong Kong so I purchased it from Lookfanastic.com, who offer free (and speedy!) international shipping.

I couldn’t just buy one thing from Lookfantastic though! So popped the Urban Decay Ammo Eye Shadow Palette in there too. I decided on buying this rather than several of their individual eye shadows (which I love), which would have ended up costing much more. Another typically fabulous and unusual array of colours from UD and in a very pretty box too!

I’ve been busy putting together a Hello Kitty birthday package for Aimee and sadly for my wallet, that means I’ve been swept along on the Sanrio steamroller of cuteness too! I bought a Cinnamoroll folder and two tins to hold all my eye pencils. They’re so lovely, they cheer me up just by seeing them!

And too cute not to show you some close-ups! I particularly love the Cinnamoroll pencil tin – the soft dusky colours are so haute! This is the sort of crazy-pretty-silly-cute-loveliness I missed so much when I lived in England; I used to have so much of it when I was young here so I’m just resuming my collection!

Whilst Aimee’s weakness is Hello Kitty, mine is Stitch. I just can’t get enough of that cute blue bug-eyed little alien! I’ll probably do a post documenting all my Stitch stuff, as there’s lots of it, but here are my three latest little buddies. Yes, that is a Soy Bean on his head. And no, I don’t know why either – but it sure as hell is cute!

More non make-up goodies thanks to my Kwai Fong shopping spree with BFF Mirander, including cheap and cute headbands, beautiful earrings and Miffy propelling pencils. I love that mini padlock on the headband and who could possibly resist watering cans on earrings?! Not me, that’s for sure!

Gwen Stefani is one of my style icons and I’ve loved the super-kawaii bottles she’s been putting out for her Harajuku Lovers perfume range but have so far resisted as, apart from my trusty Chanel No. 5, I don’t use scents. But resistance finally crumbled in the face of this limited edition G Of The Sea fragrance – IT’S A MERMAID. Amazing.

And finally… no haul of mine is complete without nail polish, right? Firstly, some pa nail polishes, a Japanese brand with tiny bottles but a rainbow of colours. I picked up some of the more unique colours – a silver glitter with antique-rose-copper sequins and a purple with a gold shimmer, plus this charcoal holographic polish I found in CitySuper.

A reader, fellow HK polish and holo addict CaCa, tipped me off about some amazing undiscovered BK holographic nail varnishes. Well, she didn’t need to tell me twice – I was there in a flash to get my stash of rainbows in an (admittedly tiny) bottle!

I already showed you the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils I bought from the “Make-Up Fiesta” (read more about that hyperbole here!) so, since I have no idea when I’ll get round to trying them all, here are all the NYX nail polishes I bought too. Are those flakies i.e. amazing shreds of rainbow awesomeness, I see before me?! And some multi-coloured glitter and duochromes too!

So as you can ascertain, I went hard AND went haul! Now for a rest I think!

19 Comments

Posted in Beauty, Pretty Things

Tagged Beauty, BK, Bobbi Brown Tortoise Shell Collection, Canmake, Cinnamoroll, cosmetics, eye shadow, G Of The Sea, Harajuku Lovers, haul, Kwai Fong, Mac Semi-Precious Collection, make-up, mindless consumption, My Melody, nail polish, NYX, pa nail polish, photos, Pretty Things, Pupa, retail therapy, Sanrio, Sasa, shopping, stash, stationery, Stitch, Temperley for Elemis Safari Traveller, The Balm, Urban Decay Ammo Palette

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils review

Posted on June 22, 2011 | 6 comments

I recently paid a visit to Hong Kong’s annual Make-Up Fiesta (combined with one of their mill-annual Wedding Fairs) at Wan Chai’s Convention & Exhibition Centre, hoping for bargain beauty buys and the appearance of some elusive hitherto unfound-in-HK brands (yes, Nfu Oh, I’m looking at you). However, the term ‘Fiesta’ was generous. I’m thinking more ‘intimate gathering’, ‘impromptu shindig’ or even ‘quick drink down the pub with mates.’ Amidst the crowd of wedding gowns, photographers and men pestering my boyfriend as to when the big day was, there were all of about… three make-up stalls.

Luckily, there was one that just about made the $20 entry fee worthwhile. NYX Cosmetics is a brand that I’ve not seen sold so far in Hong Kong, and judging by the storm of make-up hungry girls by its stand, not many other people had either. There were also plenty of bargains to be had, if you dared run the gauntlet of being without testers; I picked up… you’ll never guess… nail polish (what else!) at four bottles for $100, plus three NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils for $200. Having got these colourful chunky babies back to the safety of my own home, my only regret is that I didn’t pick up more!

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils are a very similar proposition to the recently-released Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Shadow Pencils (see here for photos). They’re both chubby creamy crayons available in a rainbow of vivid hues, fat enough to use as eye-shadow but pointed enough to use as an eyeliner too. The crayon form makes it ultra-convenient, neater, quicker and simpler than getting your fingers and brushes dirty with powder or cream shadows, whilst the fatter-than-your-average pencil sweeps over the eyelid oh-so-easily in just one or two strokes. So for someone that (guiltily) uses her eyeliners as eye-shadows more often than she should, and for anyone who appreciates great make-up in general, they’re perfection.

In my opinion, these are actually softer and creamier than Urban Decay’s eye pencils – they glide onto the eyelid effortlessly, more effortlessly than the word effortlessly even implies, delivering a sweep of vibrant consistent colour that Urban Decay would be proud of. I don’t think they could be nicer about it unless they bowed and said ‘After you, ma’am’. Even after many hours wear, there was no sense of dryness at all, whilst the colour pay-off is so magnificent that it makes coating the eye-lid in a simple intense wash of colour easier than learning your ABCs.

Size comparison: NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils vs Urban Decay 24/7 Shadow Pencils ends in a draw!

The only downside of the NYX Jumbo Pencils? They crease. A lot. It’s such a shame as the colour itself certainly isn’t going anyway but that’s one area that Urban Decay has them beat at. Obviously, this is less of a problem if you’re using them as a liner, and I’m yet to try them with Urban Decay’s Primer Potion underneath.

Many of the colours are named after foods, which sounds fun until you get to the reality of make-up named Black Bean, French Fries and Cottage Cheese (now sadly more famous for being name-checked in thousands of doctor’s leaflets about thrush), which just sound a little… well, icky. After all, I detest Horseradish in real-life, so why would I want to put it anywhere near my face!

Yoghurt is my favourite of the three. It’s a beautiful neutral, a shimmering glimmering pink-leaning champagne. A gorgeous versatile colour for everyday use, it also comes into its own glowing and glistening for special occasions, and should suit just about every skintone and colouring. It’s also pretty much an exact dupe for Urban Decay’s Shadow Pencil in Sin which, given that Sin has received far and away the most use out of my five Urban Decays, can only be a good thing! Looks nothing like any yoghurt I’ve ever tried, that’s for sure.

Then again, Lemon is my favourite too. This has sensibly been re-named Lime as it’s a vibrant vivid almost acidic olive-gold that leans way more towards green than the name Lemon implies. It’s zingy, zesty and a total stand-out, different to anything else in my (Urban Decay dominated) stash. I’ve compared it here to UD’s Shadow Pencil in Narc and their 24/7 Eye Pencil in Mildew, yet as you can see, they’re far darker and mossier than Lemon.

Lemon is the perfectly-pitched balance between green and gold, where green still comes out on top yet but where gold has made it a far superior colour along the way. This gilded green makes me think of Cleopatra for some reason, it just has something luxuriously glamorous yet flattering about it. Stunning and surprisingly versatile, it looks amazing paired with browns or adding a nuanced punch to neutrals.

My final pick was the imaginatively-named Purple. This is actually the exact colour of the outside of Urban Decay’s 24/7 eyeliner in Ransom, with a shimmering silvery blue iridescence to it. However, it’s absolutely nothing like the actual colour of Ransom itself, which does have that same blue-purple iridescence but is a lot more dark and a lot more purple with it. NYX’s Purple is the colour of dreams, the colour of butterfly wings and the colour of a precious stone I always hoped existed when I was little, a lavender moonstone. I do love Ransom too, and I think you now realise I just love purples full stop, so NYX’s Purple is an excellent addition to my collection, for swooning purposes if for nothing else.

I’d definitely buy NYX’s Jumbo Eye Pencils again (let’s hope another make-up ‘casual get-together’ makes it to Hong Kong soon), as they’re such an obviously brilliant products. Far from competing against the Urban Decay 24/7 Shadow Pencils, they sit happily alongside them, creasing issue aside – NYX currently have a greater range of colours (since UD just launched theirs) and they boast all the same virtues that made me fall for the UD ones in the first place. I’ve got big… or should that be jumbo-sized love for them all!

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils in Yoghurt, Lime (aka Lemon) and Purple, $200 for three at Hong Kong’s Make-Up Fiesta