Author: yukino

Beauty

Lip Monthly: May ’15.

Post author By yukino
Post date 10/12/2015

May ’15 Lip Monthly came in a yellow bag. For some reason this particular shade of yellow was even easier soiled than white. I rotate all Lip Monthly bags as my work make-up bags. Usually I carry them for a month, but this one I retired after about two weeks.

Jing Ai Lip Pencil in Raspberry Ice

Lip crayons! My love. Love the packaging, very simple and elegant. This is a bright pink-red berry colour. Very flattering on my skin tone. The formula is creamy. For better precision it’s better to even this one out with a lip brush, especially around the contour. This lip crayon is very pigmented, and also stains a fair amount.

NYC Sky Rise Lengthening Mascara in Extreme Black

Unopened! I have a queue of mascaras I need to try, and this one is second on the list, if my memory doesn’t fail me.

OFRA Long Lasting Liquid Lipstick in New Orleans

This is a second OFRA lipstick I own. The first one, Laguna Beach, I received via Lip Monthly several months ago. Now, I’d be honest – this isn’t a colour I would’ve bought on my own. It’s interesting to play with, and I have a few looks in mind that I’d wear it with. But this is an experimental shade for me, and I cannot see myself wearing this one too often. My skin is pale, and this is not the best shade to work with, especially if you have huge under-eye bags like I do.

However the quality of this lipstick formula is indisputable. It’s a true matte. Applies evenly, very easy to spread, and requires minimum correction on the contour of your lips. Use sparingly, as the doe foot applicator picks up a generous amount of product, and you honestly don’t need much for a fully covered lip.

As with all bold colours, make sure your lips are exfoliated and soft.

Read about OFRA Laguna Beach here.

Milani Power Lip Gloss Stain in Pink Lemonade

Unopened as yet! Will write a separate review once I use it.

OFRA and Jing Ai swatches. I’ll have you know these things stain like a mother. The gold stroke under them is an eye liner that my flatmate bought. I swatched it on my hand and realised that I absolutely must have one of my own. I’ve been searching for an affordable gold eye liner for ages for an eye look that I want to recreate, and it looks like I found one.

Lip Monthly is a subscription bag with a focus on lip products. One month is $12.95 (plus shipping outside US and Canada).

(This post features affiliate links.)

Tags face, jing ai, lip monthly, lips, mascara, milani, nyc, ofra, subscription bag, subscription box

Beauty

Lip Monthly April ’15.

Post author By yukino
Post date 10/09/2015

I’ve got half a year of Lip Monthly subscription bags to catch up on, woo hoo. The reason I haven’t been writing about them much was because I felt disappointed in the products at first glance, and it continued for a while. But then I actually sat down and spent time with these, and found out that my first impressions were incorrect in many cases.

City Color Cosmetics Be Matte Lipstick in Cammi

Didn’t like this shade in the tube. No, that would be wrong. I loved the shade, but since I’m so pale, I thought it wouldn’t look good on me and came up with a list of friends with darker skin tones to whom I could pass this on. Didn’t even want to open it at first, but then curiosity kicked in, I swatched it, and what do you know: It looks great on my lips. It’s a very autumn/ winter shade. The longevity is OK. It’s a true matte, but it’s not very drying. I can see this getting a lot of use during the next couple of months.

L.A. Girl Lipstick in Last Night

My first reaction was, wooooo bright bright bright. I thought I wasn’t going to keep it, but then it grew on me. The quality is decent. The formula is very creamy. One of the things I didn’t like about it was that it stains. Although the colour is intense, you can turn it down a notch if you just pat the bullet on your lips and then go in with a brush to even things out. It’s a very spring/ summer colour. I might bring it out in the dead of winter to brighten things up, though.

Cargo Cosmetics Essential Lip Gloss in Sahara

Can I just stop for a second and say how I love Cargo Cosmetics packaging? I’ve previously received their eye shadow, and both the box it came in and the tin the shadow is in are so pretty, I can’t even.

Haven’t yet used this gloss yet, but in the tube it looks similar to the Milani gloss I received via Lip Monthly not long ago, perhaps a bit lighter. I’m weird about lip glosses, as in I really don’t like using them for longer than a certain amount of time after opening. So I kinda want to go through at least two other glosses I’ve got going before I open another one.

Other reviewers posted about a Cargo gloss in Anguilla, and I have to be honest here, I wouldn’t have minded getting that shade instead of this one. On swatches it looks like this really pale milky kind of pink, and it’s something that I’ve been looking for for ages now. But ah well, I suppose Sahara is a more universally flattering shade.

Ofra Universal Eyebrow Pencil

Once again, I have yet to use this one, but the colour, a cool-toned medium brown, looks like a match, and I really enjoyed using all the other Ofra products I received via Lip Monthly. Their Laguna Beach is one of my favourite lipsticks.

OFRA, City Colors, and LA Girl swatches. The City Colors lipstick looks streaky, but it really isn’t. It’s just my mad swatching skillz on display here.

Lip Monthly subscription is $12.95 + shipping (outside US & Canada – I live in Europe, and it’s $5). Each box contains 4 products, usually full-sized. The products come in a make-up bag.

(This post contains affiliate links.)

Tags cargo cosmetics, city color, city color cosmetics, eyebrow pencil, la girl, lip gloss, lip monthly, lips, lipstick, ofra cosmetics, subscription bag, subscription box

Beauty

#100empties: Three Mascaras and Two Lip Glosses.

Post author By yukino
Post date 10/07/2015

Time to talk trash again. 😛

INGLOT Sleeks Cream Lip Paint in 89

Glossy without the stickiness. A perfect shade of slightly orangey peach nude for me. Good coverage on its own. Not long lasting, but hey, it’s a gloss. Chucked this one because of its age, already repurchased.

Oriflame HyperStretch Mascara

This one has already been discontinued. I didn’t like this mascara when I first tried it, but it grew on me. It’s a perfect every day mascara. One coat gives definition and length, two coats give a bit more oomph, but no drama. I’m on my second tube of this mascara, and really, I’m kinda sad they discontinued it. Can’t vouch for its lash growing properties, but my bottom lashes do appear to be a little longer. Perhaps the thinner the hair, the better it works.

Vivienne Sabo Cabaret Mascara

I read nothing but exceedingly good reviews of this thing. Indeed, when I bought it and used it for the first time, I was like, WOWZA. The second time I was like, yeah, this is good stuff. Fourth time I was, hmm, something’s off… And on the sixth use the formula was so dry, it crumbled off my lashes within minutes. Now, I’m not sure if my tube just came from a weird batch or something, because this product gets steady positive reviews from just about everyone. I was very excited to try it. The pricing is quite merciful, so I might give it another go some time soon.

Oriflame MaxiLash 3D Mascara

Discontinued as well. Had one of those brushes that are combs. That was the only reason I never got along with the product, as the formula was good — not too thick, not too runny, and even with the ruddy comb it didn’t glue my lashes together.However I’m one of those weird people who refuse to use a brush from another mascara with a different tube. I could never really build up volume with the comb or use a right amount of product. The application was messy, and although I really loved the colour (very black) and could see that the formula was good, it had to go. Sadface.

Covergirl Outlast Lip Color, the topcoat/ balm part

One day my father just came over with four Covergirl lipsticks, dropped them on the desk in front of me, and mumbled something about them being for the daughter that never visits him. Fathers, right.

This is the balm that goes over the colour part of the product. I love these Covergirl super-staying lipsticks, and the balm is thick enough that it doesn’t let the colour product dry your lips. This one was a bit funky from the start, as in it would refuse to stay in the bullet properly. Eventually it fell out, so I let it go, as I have three other balms that I believe would be enough for the lip stains.

5 (+2) down; 93 to go.

Tags 100 empties, covergirl, empties, eyes, inglot, lip balm, lip gloss, lip paint, lips, make-up, mascara, one hundred empties, oriflame, vivienne sabo

Beauty

The Purge: Nail Polishes, part 1 of 235.

Post author By yukino
Post date 10/05/2015

I’m a nail polish hoarder. I’m not even holding my hopes high for this one — the amount of nail polishes in my house is going to return to the original number very soon after the clean-out. Out with the old, in with the new, etc.

But I gotta try.

Behold the first five candidates.

Flormar Nail Enamel, deep berry with fine glitter

This is so old, I can no longer tell you the number. It’s… I think it’s from 2006, maybe earlier. Still like it, even though I’ve become a bit more particular with finishes and try to avoid everything but creme and matte these days. But it is old, and it has to go.

Wet ‘n’ Wild MegaLast Strengthening nail polish in 214 Soul Mate

Apologies for the quality of the photograph.

We don’t have Wet’n’Wild around here, so the only place I could’ve got it from was the States… And I’ve been to the States in ’07. Lovely colour, but has to go.

Olivia nail enamel, mint green

A lovely mint green. Very aged. Separated up the wazoo.

Olivia nail enamel, melon yellow

A sheer melon yellow. It liquefied significantly, and no longer behaves like a polish.

Catherine Arley nail lacquer in 190

A sheer silver polish, quite possibly the oldest polish in my collection. More of a topcoat/ French manicure enhancement than a stand-alone polish, if you ask me. I used it recently. My nails didn’t fall off, and it still behaved like a polish ought to, but it has to go. I still love silver nails, but this one is too sheer and glittery for me. Still in hopes of finding a good silver chrome.

Tags catherine arley, flormar, nail polish, nail varnish, nails, olivia, orkide, the purge, wet'n'wild

Life

Welcome to the Purge.

Post author By yukino
Post date 10/01/2015

I swear I named the damn thing before I read about the film. Made sure to forward the title to my brother after that, he’s into that kind of thing.

On screen.

My version here’s a bit more peaceful. I’m just going to be doing a massive clear-out of my earthly possessions.

I live in a big flat that has once been very beautiful. It’s a lot for one person to upkeep, so the beauty part has subsided some time ago. The organisation and clean part stayed with me until about last year, though. Ever since then it all went downhill.

I’m a neat freak, and I strive in clean organised spaces. Haven’t had one in a while, and finally I realised why — I’ve just been moving piles of clutter from one place to another. Clutter cannot really be cleaned, or kept neat. It has to go.

Originally I thought of maybe having a bit of a sale of the stuff on some local version of craigslist, but the further it goes, the more overwhelmed I become. So no selling. Just donating, passing it on to anyone who needs anything, and taking it to the trash.

Technically I already started doing this when my brother was home. Then I took a long break, and I swear the stuff just multiplies on its own volition. It’s like we haven’t done one bit.

I tried coming up with a couple of categories for things. It didn’t really work (you can’t categorise clutter either), but here we go:

Beauty – make-up, nail polish, skin care, hair care;
Wardrobe – clothes, shoes, accessories;
Paper – notebooks, old bills, postcards, magazines, books (sob);
Kitchen – appliances, cutlery, foods, jars;
Homeware – general appliances (like TVs), furniture, carpets, bed linen, towels;
Miscellaneous – knick-knacks, memorabilia, everything else.

Books is probably going to be the hardest. I’m already crying on the inside.

Tags the purge