beauty blogger Archives - Page 16 of 16

Backstreets Makeup Company Review (Handmade, vegan cosmetics)

July 28, 2014

Backstreets Makeup Company is founded by one woman, with a passion for makeup and creating her own vegan makeup products. Yep, you heard that right! April, the owner, actually hand makes each one of her products, where she then posts them on her website to sell at affordable prices. I have never tried handmade, vegan eyeshadow products so I was quite excited to give these a try!

I wore the colours out once right after I received the products, but unfortunately, did not have time to take any pictures. I finally found the time again to play with these products last week, where my artist friend came up with two looks for me! My opinion will be based on the first time I wore the eyeshadows out, instead of the mini makeup session I had with my friend!
April, the owner, was very nice and friendly. She even sent me a handwritten card when I received this in the mail. The packaging was very thoughtful as well, the makeup products came in two separate layers of recyclable bag. I can not comment on the turnaround time as we found out through our emails that we were actually neighbours! What a small world. But on the website, the TAT is 3-5 days.

Originally, I tried to use the makeup as is in the baggie, but it was very difficult and messy for me. I wasn’t able to get the amount of product I desired, and my table was becoming a powdered mess. I found those small, plastic medicine holders and unused contact lenses cases, and ended up transferring the products in the baggie. The beginning was quite messy as I moved from attempting to dip my brush into the baggie, to moving them into small compartments.
Yay! After moving them into these pods, they were WAYYY easier to work with! Please excuse the erm… visual appeal factor to the new compartments. But trust me, it really helped! The three pots are the full sized products which you can order. Each pot costs between $4-$5.

One of April’s goals when starting her own makeup creations was to make her products affordable, and I definitely think they are! You get a lot of quality product, and each pot comes with a sifter as well (you can request to not have one if you want). Here are the colours that I received, my first ever swatch!
I noticed that some colours weren’t as glittery on my skin as in the eyeshadow packages. Which one is your favourite colour? 🙂

As I said in the beginning, my friend wanted to play with makeup and we decided to create two looks with these products, since we had such a wonderful range of colours to work from! I’m glad I did, because I felt that the “love” and “golden pie” colours were too dramatic for me, but they actually turned out pretty neutral when she applied it on my eyes!

The colours are really gorgeous, but I think you would need to apply a lot of each shade to match the colour it looks like in the pot. I also found that there was a lot of fall out, we ended up using an index card under my eye to catch it. It was very powdery as well, which made it very soft to apply on my eyes.

On the day that I wore it out, it lasted all night and the colour did not fade (I used eyeshadow primer too). I was pretty impressed with the staying power of this, and liked how the shades looked on my eyes! I would recommend this product if you are looking for an alternative to your usual, everyday eye products.

Pros:

Very soft and powdery texture
Vegan and hand blended by April, the owner
Not tested on animals
Colours are neutral and suitable for everyday wear
Does not wear off easily; wore the products on a night out and did not smudge
Affordable & cheap
Excellent response rate from April

Cons:

Fallout when applying
Can be hard to apply when the eyeshadows are in the baggie. I talked to April about this and she mentioned that some people actually prefer baggies, so maybe it’s just my own preference?
Colour in the pot and on your eye may look different

Check out Backstreets Makeup Company here! You can also follow their Instagram. I would love to hear your opinions on this product, leave me a comment and let’s chat! 🙂 Thanks for reading!

The products in this post were sent to me free of charge from Backstreets Makeup Company, and I was not paid to write this post. Everything in this post is my personal opinion and was not altered by the request of the company.

-Carmen

Etude House- gradient nail trio

July 17, 2014

The full name of this nail polish is actually Etude House Juicy Cocktail Graduation Nails, but that seemed like too long of a name to

include in my title. The name also doesn’t really make sense, but oh well 🙂 I was over at my friend’s house, and loved the gradient and golden shimmer on her nails. She told me that her aunt got the set for her in Hong Kong, and let me use it as well. The nail polish set comes with three shades, which you are supposed to use in a specific order for the desired gradient effect.
The nail polish themselves are smaller in size than your typical drugstore nail polishes. After browsing on Amazon, I found that the average price of one set is around $3-10 dollars. The relatively large price window was very surprising to me!

I also came across a review from Youtube beauty guru FromHeadToToe, who had the same set but in different shades. I have attached her picture here because it explains a lot better.
Straightforward enough, you start with the translucent polish all over your nail. You can choose to use more than one coat, I used two coats for mine and I will attach a picture of my own nails down below.

After it dries, you apply the second polish, which has glitter to half of your nail – from the tip to the middle, not the base. From there, the third polish is applied which has bigger glitter particles, giving it a beautiful gradient!
There are also instructions on the back as well (written in Korean but with straightforward pictures).
Unfortunately, I was only able to wear my nails for one day as I had to work the next day. I work part-time at a coffee shop, where we are not allowed to wear nail polish due to health reasons. This is both good and bad. The good is that I have saved a lot of my money by not buying copious amounts of nail polish.

The bad part, of course, is that I love painted nails and that I miss being able to paint them whenever I want! I apologize for the blurry picture, I was in a hurry to work and quickly snapped this picture. I was having a hard time removing the glitter off my nails. I have yet to find an easy way to remove glitter, if anyone has a solution PLEASE let me know! I know you can wrap your fingers in foil and let it soak but I don’t have the patience to cut up the foil, soak my nails, etc etc etc.
A better, less blurry picture of my nail. I showed this picture to my best friend and she thought my finger was swollen. No, my nail naturally looks like that,I don’t have “lady-like” long, slender, and beautiful fingers :(.

Anyways, since I didn’t get to wear this for as long as I hoped (3+ days at least!), I wasn’t able to test how long lasting it was. One thing that I really liked about the nail polish was that it gave my nails a good healthy and natural shine. My nails also looked thicker and healthier with this on, kinda like gel nails but that might have been the top coat I used from my friend. I am hoping to try this polish out again in the upcoming months so I will post an updated review to this current post when I do!

I also found this awesome compilation online of all their various sets! I used the one in the middle, first one on the left. I really like peachy and pink sets in the first row! What about you?

Pros:

Love the shade and idea of this!
Don’t have to waste time finding three separate nail polishes that will blend well together
Gives your nail a healthy shine
Many beautiful colours to choose from

Cons:

Small nail polish set
Glitter was hard to remove (But then again, all glitter polish is difficult to remove)
Can’t buy this in Western drug stores or Sephora, best bet is online or in Asia

Update: I wore this nail polish for four days again the week after writing this draft. Most of the polish had chipped off, except for the glittery tips. I noticed that my nails began to chip the second day. After going swimming on the third day, more than half the polish had chipped 🙁 But overall, not too bad! I also didn’t wear a top coat, which probably would have helped!

That’s it to this review! Happy painting everyone!
-Carmen

E.L.F. Studio Eyebrow Kit

July 3, 2014

Since my last beauty post, I have promised a drugstore product because I realize I haven’t done much of those. The elf studio eyebrow kit is my favourite eyebrow tool and brow makeup to use. I love how it is super easy to apply, how long lasting it is, and how natural the colour looks on me. I’ve been using this kit for the past eight months everyday, and just recently ran out.

Unfortunately, I live in Canada where we do not sell elf products in drugstores, so I usually stock up when I visit the US (US Targets or Wal-Marts sell them for cheap!) or ask my friend to kindly order them online for me!

Simple packaging of the product. The packaging is very sturdy, I’ve dropped it a few times on tile floor but it did not shatter. The left side is the pigmented wax, which kind of gives off a gel-like texture. The lighter shade on the right is the powder, which sets the eyebrow colour. For me personally, I never used the right side since it was too light on my skin. I only used the pigmented wax.
It comes with a small angle and eyeshadow brush, along with a mirror. For $5, this is a really good deal and you get a lot more than what you pay for. The angle brush helps you to colour in your eyebrows with more precision. I normally just use the angle brush from this kit. I know that some people are a bit nervous to use a brush and stick with eyebrow pencils, but to be honest, the application process is tremendously easy.
Yep… as I mentioned earlier, I just recently finished my first kit. Looks a bit gross, eh? Oh well. I am pretty surprised that it lasted me this long since I use this every single day.

Anyways, since I use this eyebrow kit daily, I’ll just attach a few random photos from the past few months when wearing this. I think that the shade is suitable for my skin and like that it’s not too harsh of a colour, what do you think?
Random picture #1: This picture taken from my Face Shop mini haul post!
Another random picture from last month…Yes I know my hair is a mess, it was very windy that day in my city and we were by the water 🙂 Also, say hi to Polka the cat again!
Taken in Disneyland back in January 🙂

I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for reading! Comments make my day, and I would really appreciate your support! 🙂
-Carmen

The Face Shop Mini Haul- Korean pore balm?! and concealer

June 21, 2014

I’m really excited to write this post because I have loved The Face Shop since my preteen years and discovered two amazing products! They actually closed down the only boutique in Vancouver around five years ago.

It really sucked because I dug up my old concealer a few months ago, and it worked so well. I tried looking online but I didn’t spend that much time because the site was in Korean. I just gave up and accepted the fact that I would not be able to buy that concealer anymore. 🙁
Anyways, I was beyond ecstatic when my cousin told me that they had just opened up a boutique in town! I couldn’t contain my excitement and I actually went the same day.

Incase you’ve never heard of The Face Shop, it is a Korean cosmetics company. It is very popular in Korea and is their third most popular cosmetic line. I can see why it is so popular, their products deliver great results. Here is what I ended up buying and what I thought of the products!
I bought two full sized skin care products- a pore balm and a double ended concealer (total was $35 with tax). They were quite generous with samples, and took great care in wrapping my purchase.

The worker also informed me at the till that the beauty balm I bought works best for dry skin. I actually have combination skin so she recommended I swap my pore balm, and gave me samples based on my skin type.
Starting with the pore balm, I was in the mood for trying new products and I was just happy that I was able to shop here again! The sign on the table said it would minimize pores and cut oil from the face, so I figured I would give it a try.

It comes with a pad to rub it on your face with, but I just used my fingers because I felt it would absorb better. I noticed that the smell of the balm had a borderline medicinal smell, like Vicks Vapour Rub. At first glance, I noticed that it absorbed my oil really well and had a satiny, smooth finish. I used foundation afterwards, as you are supposed to do. Keep reading to see my results!
I couldn’t find the same concealer I bought a few years ago, so settled on this double ended concealer. The worker told me that they probably didn’t carry that one anymore, and showed me the only concealer they had. One side is liquid while the other side is a stick. I found the stick side to be very smooth, blend able and easy to apply. It also matched my skin tone perfectly. I would say it’s the same quality as the one I bought years ago! Yay!
After finishing with both products and my foundation, I was in shock when I looked in the mirror and ran to show the boyfriend because I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming. Sure enough, all my pores had disappeared.

My problem area was T zone, but I did not see any pores or blackheads at all. My amazement continued the night as my foundation stayed on perfectly without melting. When I took off all my makeup at the end of the night, I noticed my pores looked a lot tighter and smaller than they usually do. The pore balm was sure a miracle! As for the concealer, it hid my dark spots and scars pretty well and did not smudge.
Here is a picture in different lighting,with both the products on. Both pictures are completely unedited and have no filter, I just resized the second picture to fit my site better. I finished my skin off with my Naked Skin foundation, Maybelline setting powder, and Lancome blush. My total came to $35 for the 2 products. I would definitely buy the pore balm again. I definitely have struggled with uneven skin tone, dark marks, scars, you name it since hitting puberty but the beauty balm will hide all your secrets. I find it works a lot better than Benefit’s Porefessional, which was my favourite before this one. The beauty balm is $17 which is cheaper but maybe I should try using both next time?

Pros:

Pore balm is a complete lifesaver, it will even out your skin, make your pores disappear, and seems to tighten them even after washing it off
Concealer has a very smooth application, and is easily blendable

Cons:

The Face Shop does not have many boutiques, may have a hard time finding it in person but is available online
Pore balm has a strange smell (medicinal menthol scent, like Vicks Vapour Rub)

What are some of your favourite primers and concealers? Have you tried these products before and what did you think? Don’t forget to follow me on Bloglovin because I’m lonely over there, and comments/feedback here make me happy 🙂 Have a great day!

-Carmen