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Like a magpie, I'm attracted to all things shiny, shimmery and sparkly! Come share the makeup and skincare love with me! Today is Monday, January 30, 2012
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Qwic-Pic: Deliciously Pretty - Deborah Lippmann Good Girl Gone Bad


Jan30

Hi!

Here is another Deborah Lippmann polish - GOOD GIRL GONE BAD, from the Holiday 2011 Collection.

 

Its described as a bold cabernet glimmer by Lippmann. I get the wine reference given how the base is a delicious dark deep wine/berry shade. The magenta sparkles are another thing altogether!

 

In the blurred shot, you can see just how sparkly this shade is! 2 coats for full opacity - no streaking, bald patches or visible nail line whatsoever.

 

The only problem with this polish is that it dries to a matte, flat finish ... and I think it sort of eats topcoat. The next day when I looked at my nails, they didn't look so shiny and feel so smooth despite a generous coat of Seche Vite Top Coat. So after 1 coat of Seche Vite, I applied my trusty Sally Hansen Mega Shine - it really creates a very smooth, high-shine glossy finish that really brings out the sparkling beauty of Good Girl Gone Bad.

(Sidenote: I really like the iPhone4S camera! Its so clear! The above was shot with my iPhone)

And since I'm still excited over the scalloped / cloud nail design, I tried it again. I like how the different textures of polish - glitter, foil and creme - contrast with each other and add dimension (not that Good Girl Gone Bad needs extra dimension!).

The silver foil is Orly Shine (one of the prettiest silver foils I've seen) and the magenta pink creme is Orly Pure Petunia.

I'm really happy with Good Girl Gone Bad - I kept rummaging around for a dupe in my stash and thankfully, found none. It is said to be similar to another Lippmann polish, Razzle Dazzle but the latter apparently requires more than 3 coats for opacity whereas the formula is awesome in Good Girl Gone Bad.

 

A beautiful sparkling polish in a great formula ... Good Girl Gone AWESOME :P

 

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Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

 

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Disclaimer: All products featured were purchased with my own money. All opinions are my own and have not been influenced by anyone.


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Qwic-Pic: The Bold and Beautiful - China Glaze Make Some Noise, OPI Road House Blues & Some Scallops


Jan30

Hello!

Somehow, OPI Road House Blues from the OPI Touring America Collection sneaked off my radar and I ignored it initially. Then the more swatches I saw and the more I swatched it at BHG and Robinsons, the more I wanted it. Both PNC and DYON International were completely out of stock and I finally purchased this from Nail Vibe.

 

I'm so glad I decided to get it because Road House Blues is one excellent polish! 2 coats and you have indigo perfection! It is not navy, it's not prussian, it has a tinge of purple but not too much that it becomes blu-ple. It's just so so so pretty!

Indoors


Outdoors, natural lighting


Outdoors, in the sun

 

The other polish you see in the collage at the introduction is China Glaze Make Some Noise is from the China Glaze Spring collection, Electropop. It is a VERY vibrant, eye-popping coral-red that pulls very orange on me. A little too distracting as a full manicure for me, I felt.

So I decided to try to make it work and decided to try out this cloud / scallop design with Make Some Noise. I first saw this design on Nailside and I really like how it looks. I think the curved blob shapes would look nicer if they were a little more rounded and I hope it gets better with practice. I really like this design and until I find another design I can pull off decently, I'm going to be doing this for a bit!

I really like this combination of colours - the gold foil, China Glaze Midnight Kisses, is a nice transition colour between the cool and deep Road House Blues and the fiery Make Some Noise and just ties the whole design together.

 

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Thanks for stopping by and have a good week ahead!

 

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Disclaimer: All products featured were purchased with my own money. All opinions are my own and have not been influenced by anyone.


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Qwic-Pic: Deborah Lippmann Across The Universe VS Essence Blue Addicted


Jan29

Hello!

Finally, finally, finally I have Deborah Lippmann Across The Universe in my stash now. It's probably the one polish I've been wanting for the longest time and I finally got hold of it. The twinkling discs of green, blue glitter in an inky navy jelly with bits of blue micro-glitter scattered everywhere - the name is definitely apt.

 

Prior to acquiring DL Across The Universe, I had picked up Essence polish in Blue Addicted, which has been anointed as the "dupe" of Across The Universe.

Since I have both in my possession, I thought I'd just do a quick comparison and share my thoughts with you (this is also for Jerlaine who wanted to see comparison shots :D)

Given that the base is a translucent navy jelly, I will use both polishes as a layering polish. I painted one good coat of Lancome Indigo Paris on all my nails and layered 2 thin coats of Lippmann Across The Universe and Essence Blue Addicted on alternate nails.

They're really super close - both have similar jelly bases and are chockfull of green and blue disc glitter as well as a good scattering of blue micro-glitter. Even the shape of the disc glitter is super similar.

 

Here's the labelled shot:

I can't comment on wear time comparisons because when I do have my nails painted, I tend to change colour rather often (which is good because at least that way, I get to use a lot of shades in my nail polish stash!).

 

The main difference I spotted was that the jelly base in Across The Universe was much inkier, clearer and glossier. Essence Blue Addicted seemed to dry a little flat and matt-ish. Neither of this is a major concern given (1) I layer it over a dark blue polish and (2) I always use a shiny topcoat so the differences are then imperceptible to me unless I'm going to be inspecting them till I go cross-eyed.

 

The other difference I noticed was that the glitter in Across The Universe applied a little more evenly and spaced out nicely on the nail; you will notice I have A LOT of glitter piled on my middle finger which I painted with Essence Blue Addicted.

 

The most stark difference is of course the price - the 5ml Essence polish costs SGD$2.80 whereas Lippmann polishes are SGD$20 and above (depending on where you purchase them from and whether they are glitter or regular polishes; this was about SGD$23+). That said, Essence Blue Addicted is rather hard to come by - the day I bought it, I was just incredibly lucky and the shelves were fully stocked. I've not seen Blue Addicted on the display since and I think it gets snapped up the moment its restocked.

 

At any rate, if you love shades of blue and green and have a thing for glitter, you should definitely try to get your hands on either Across the Universe or Essence, whichever is within your easy reach. It's not a decision you will regret!

 

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Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

 

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Disclaimer: All products featured purchased with my own money; all opinions are my own and have not been influenced by anyone.


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Review: Love At First Lather - LUSH Solid Shampoo Bars in Squeaky Green and Seanik


Jan29

Hello!

Among the things I zoomed in on when the Lush store first opened, were the solid shampoo bars. I checked out the range available and I was terribly intrigued by all the natural ingredients like juniper, rosemary, thyme, nettle and so on. Also, I liked how the Lush Times (and the website) lists the natural and synthetic ingredients for each shampoo bar – I usually avoid shampoo with Ammonium Laureth Sulfate as I realised it makes my hair drop.

Not being able to resist the array of candy coloured shampoo bars, I purchased 2 – Squeaky Green and Seanik.

 

SQUEAKY GREEN (pictured above and below) is the invigorating one – it has aromatic herbs like rosemary, tea tree, nettle and peppermint – rather than tingle, the rosemary and nettle scent is amazingly fresh and uplifting and hair feels amazingly clean. I LOVE Squeaky Green and have since purchased another 2 bars (my first, as you can see in the shot below, is rather flat already). It leave my hair very clean and fresh and I like how my hair has good volume and body when I use Squeaky Green – even after a long, hot day out, my hair doesn’t look as flat as it does with some shampoos.

The flatter one has since become incredibly thin and biscuit-like!

 

SEANIK on the other hand, was a teeny bit of a disappointment for me – firstly, it has a fresh, slightly citrus, sea-breeze kind of scent but it somehow triggers my memory for washing detergent (like Fab and Persil!). The star ingredients are sea salt, seaweed, lemon and orange. It cleanses well but what was disappointing was that Seanik was supposed to be the one that creates beach-tousled voluminous hair, since it contains sea salt and seaweed. However, I found it left my hair flatter and my natural waves seemed straighter (as opposed to when I used Squeaky Green). It cleanses well no doubt, but I’m just missing that volumising action.

 

How to use? Easy ...

All you need to do to use these is this – wet your hair thoroughly and gently massage the shampoo bar in your hair. I usually start with the crown and then flip the ends of my hair upwards and massage the bar on the ends. You don’t need that much because these lather really pretty fast and well – no need to worry about 5 PUMPS of shampoo (Ahem, Iris, Mag and Sara are you reading this? :D). Then lather away and rinse off as you would normal shampoo. Simple!


Let me share with you why I love these shampoo bars so much:

  • My hair doesn’t seem to drop as much after using these shampoo bars – I always carefully monitor hairfall ever since my very long hair got too heavy and started falling. My hair is also rather fine and since I dye it quite often to cover the pesky greys, I try to be careful and vigilant about hair fall. Somehow, I notice hair fall is much much less these 2 months (or so) since I started on the shampoo bars. It could be the rosemary, nettle, tea tree and seaweed in the 2 shampoo bars, which are often found in many hair-growth, hair rejuvenating shampoo formulas.

 

  • My hair feels cleaner and fresher and seems to get less oily – Again, it could be the same natural ingredients that help with the oil control. I like how the rosemary and some herbs are left in their natural form and I’m sort of massaging it directly into my hair and on my scalp (for Squeaky Green that is)

 

  • The scent gently lingers in your hair – so make sure you pick a scent you can live with! :P

 

  • These shampoo bars are environmentally friendly and take up less space in the bathroom – I just keep these in little lunch box containers which I picked up from Daiso and they’re stacked neatly.

  • These are convenient to take along anywhere (not that I’m travelling at the moment) but you need not worry about storage, spillage with these shampoo bars.

 

  • As you saw in the shot above, these lather really well – just like regular shampoo, suds and all. And the funny thing is this – usually, shampoo lather is white, regardless of the colour of the shampoo right? When I lather with Seanik, the lather is tinged blue!

 

The only negative I noticed about these shampoo bars is that I felt my hair dye washed out more quickly than usual.

Some folks have also mentioned that these shampoo bars are pretty drying and stripping. I always use conditioner (on my hair ends) these days (totally in love with the L’Oreal Ever Strong conditioner now) and I usually detangle my hair with a wooden wide-toothed comb before I wrap it in a towel. Sqeaky Green is a little more stripping that Seanik so I use a little more conditioner with Squeaky Green.

Overall, these Lush solid shampoo bars are really wonderful. I’ve grown terribly fond of Squeaky Green and this will remain my shampoo of choice for a good while J

*flips rosemary and nettle scented hair*

 

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Thanks for stopping by and have a bright, good week ahead!

 

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Disclaimer: All products featured purchased with my own money; I am not affiliated to Lush and all opinions expressed are my own and have not been influenced by anyone


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Qwic-Pic: Kiss & Be Happy with Clinique's Valentine's Day Special


Jan25

Hi!

Just a quick post to let you know that CLINIQUE will be releasing a special Valentine's Day set in Feb 2012. The set is worth SGD$70 but retails at SGFD$58 instead, which makes it a neat little present for yourself or for a loved one or good friend.

In a cheery floral drawstring pouch, you will find HAPPY fragrance in 30ml as well as a 30ml tube of HAPPY Body Creme.

And the star of the set for me is the Chubby Stick in CHUNKY CHERRY (deluxe sized at 1.2gm; the full sized ones are 3gm). I really like both the Chubby Sticks I have (Mega Melon and Super Strawberry kindly gifted by Mag - Click HERE for my entry on Mega Melon). Unfortunately, I don't think Chunky Cherry is available as part of the permanent lineup at our local Clinique counters (I don't recall seeing it at all) and this is something I would like to get my hands on!

According to the press release, it appears rather Limited Edition - its apparently available only from 1-14 Feb 2012 at all Clinique counters so if this is something you'd like to have, act fast! :)

 

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Thanks for stopping by always and hope you had a fab long weekend :)

 

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DISCLAIMER

I have neither been trained in any makeup or skincare application nor am I affiliated to any makeup/skincare company.  If a product featured is sent to me by a company, I will indicate so.  Otherwise, ALL products featured are those purchased with my own money.  In all instances, all entries, reviews and comments are published with the best of intentions.  They are also all my OWN opinions (formed by experimenting or media-research).

I hope that you will have an enjoyable time here =) Thanks for visiting and come back often!!!

ON PRODUCT REVIEWS ...

Everyone reacts differently to different products - effects of makeup and skincare will differ on all of us, depending on skintone, skin type, facial features, preferences, etc.  Whatever works for me may not necessarily work for you; likewise, whatever works for you, may not necessarily work for me.  Product reviews are also a great platform for everyone to discuss what about / why they like or dislike a product, so pls feel free to comment constructively.

Thank you for your understanding

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*** I NEED ANOTHER TRAINCASE FOR THESE! ***

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