BEST OF BEAUTY 2018: Makeup

January 23, 2019 admin1 Comment

2018 flew by so freaking fast! It’s been a personal journey for me, but let’s reflect on the interesting stuff: MAKEUP! Below are the ones that hit me in the feels when I use it (I mean that in the best of ways). I understand the product, I look forward to using them, and I trust them.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nztiQjYvLRU]

BASE

It Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC Cream (Medium) – One of the best Western CC Creams that I have tried to date. Provides great coverage, literally makes it look like my skin but better, lasts a long time. It’s no surprise that it’s one I favour, for it’s made in Korea, the place where BB Creams became heavily popularized! I do sometimees notice my face looking paler than usual when using this, but it’s in the off lighting that you’ll barely catch me under xP

MAC Cosmetics Studio Face & Body Foundation (C2) – A great reach for when you literally want just a tint. The base is on the glowier side, so I find this more suitable for the winter time when my skin is more susceptible to looking lack-luster. I also found the coverage of this tint buildable compared to other ones I’ve tried.

Left to right: It Cosmetics, MUFE, Pixi, MAC

MUFE Matte Velvet Skin Full Coverage Foundation (Y305 Soft Beige) – She is found – a natural looking, buildable, matte-satin foundation for DRY skin. Here’s the catch – the matte look doesn’t last that long, but it wears the way I want it to for a night out, which is when I tend to reach for this. I’ve worn it for a whole day and it will get quite dewy, but heck, the finish is there when it matters most and it’s been a while since I’ve been so comfortable wearing a foundation. Since it is buildable, I can also use this to spot conceal as well. It’s not 100% non-transferrable, but definitely better than when I used to use Too Faced Born This Way Foundation!

Pixi Beauty H2O Skin Tint (No. 3 Warm) – One of the better drugstore complexion finds I have found to date. It’s not orange, it’s an actual undertone. It always gives me a lovely satin finish, with a slight blurring effect.

Pixi Beauty Makeup Fixing Mist – At first the heavy fragrance in this turned me off, but it’s so damn good that I put up with it. Before makeup, it gives my skin a great healthy glow without looking oily, and really diffuses the texture I’m concerned with on my forehead. After makeup, gets rid of the dry, powdery look if I did overpowder.

I encourage you to check out my previous posts if any categories are missing. Like I said, I only include the ones that really hit me in thefeels the year I discovered it!

EYE AREA

Heroine Make Volume & Curl Mascara (Super Waterproof, 01 Jet Black) – Black, waterproof, buildable. I can wear it for a natural look, and build it up when I do a more eyeshadow heavy look. Seriously, the Japanese know what to do with mascaras!

Anastasia Beverley Hills Soft Glam Palette – Hands down most used palette this year. I was really fond of using Orange Soda, Burnt Orange, and Sienna this year, all year long. Lately I’ve been loving a brown smokey eye!

CHEEK

Clinique Cheek Pop (Melon Pop) – So glad to have given cheek pops a try, and I was lucky enough to first pick out my favourite daily blush! I’ve watched Korean MUAs use them for its water-colour type finish. And they were right! It adds a beautiful hue to the cheeks and lasts.

Winky Lux Strobe Balm (Lit) – I actually like this better than RMS Beauty’s Living Luminizer! While that one is natural, the WL one is thinner, hence easier for me to use on top of any base. It’s also more dimensional and I find it works as a nice base for other highlighters.

LIPS

Bubz Beauty Liquid Lipstick (Girl Next Door) – The best neutral pink lip product I have come across. I can make it work with a warm and cool look, and it doesn’t make my lips look pasty or buttholey.

Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited Sheer Shine Liptisck (S RD 150) – The perfect hot pink colour! Love that it leans warm, and you can wear it sheer or really build the colour. It really moisturizes my lips and I never have problems wearing it for the whole day. I’ve been searching for this colour for so long!

And there you have it, my makeup faves from 2018!! If I didn’t mention a product in a specific category, check out my previous “Best of” posts, I’m most likely still using the same stuff! In the selfie above, I used all products I mentioned (except 3/4 foundations… Cause you know, I only have so much face). List of products used are already captioned in my Instagram post.

Hope you have had an amazing 2018, and 2019 has been treating you well so far! Stay tuned for the Best of Skincare!

xo, M

BEST OF BEAUTY 2017: MAKEUP
The Best of Beauty 2016

*This post contains affiliate links.

REVIEW: Banish Acne Scars Banish Starter Kit

May 25, 2018November 2, 2022 admin9 Comments

Products all purchased by me.
This post contains affilaite links / code . This means if you use this link / code to make a purchase, I make a small commission. Thanks for your support if you decide to use them! If you feel uncomfortable, feel free to google a new link.

After years of ogling this product, back when I was a broke af university student, to my now somewhat adult self, I bit the bullet – I purchased the Banish Starter Kit.

Now for those of you who don’t know the brand Banish Acne Scars, it’s a skincare brand created by an OG acne-talking YTer named Daisy from the Acne Channel (formerly Perfect Beauty). Back when I was dealing with cystic acne, I found Daisy’s channel and saw that she too was going through the same journey to clear skin. Back in the day, not a lot of people showed their bare face on camera if they had really bad skin, so I was really happy to find a YTer I could connect to.

Fast forward to today, she has her own business called Banish Acne Scars, a brand that’s about:

“[Creating a] product line that gets to the root of problems, not just to cover them up temporarily.

Use fresh natural ingredients, sourced from the West Coast of United States .

Focus on the internal rather than external healing.”

I’ve been wanting to try her products for a long time, especially for my leftover scarring from cystic acne. The website has a lot of before and afters of customers that have been using her products, and that just made it more intriguing for me to try it for myself.

REVIEW: It Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC Cream SPF 50+ (Medium)

May 19, 2018 admin5 Comments

I finally bit the bullet and purchased a very highly talked about item in the beautysphere – the It Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC Cream SPF 50+. My main reason for buying it is because I wanted a complexion product that will give me a “my skin but better” look while providing sun protection and mainly consist of skincare ingredients. The It Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC Cream SPF 50+ pretty much fills all my requirements! But does it perform well? Onto the review.

Reviewing Some of the Ordinary Skincare

March 19, 2017November 2, 2022 admin3 Comments

Since my last post, [The Ordinary Haul] Focus: Dry & Dehydrated, Acne-Prone, Texture, Prevent & Prolong, I have used day and night, non-stop, the following Ordinary products for one month:

Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5
Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%
Lactic Acid 10% + HA 2%
Azelaic Acid Suspension 10%

I know many people have already reviewed this brand, but in my previous post I mentioned my concerns are:

Dry & Dehydrated
Acne-Prone
Texture
Prevent & Prolong

With that in mind, I hope this post is more catered to you and helps you better understand the thoughts I have on these products.

I have used all of them day and night for just over a month. The lactic acid however had to be put aside when I went on vacation to Cuba for the week, but I used it a couple of times after.

MORNING:
Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%
Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5
Azelaic Acid Suspension 10%

NIGHT:
Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%
HA, Azelaic, & Lactic in rotation (2/3 always used)

Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5
Use 1-2x a day
Feels like any other hyaluronic acid serum I’ve ever used. Momentary relief and then goes away. I actually purchased the Hyalimide a few days ago and notice it leaves my skin slightly softer and my skin feels a tad more rich with hydration. Truthfully I think I have been using this serum wrong. The air in my apartment and outside have been so dry, the HA has nowhere to draw moisture from except from within my skin, thus making my face feel drier. I gave the Ordinary HA to my boyfriend and will be continuing with the Hylamide.

Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%
Use 1-2x a day
PORES: The effect it has on the pores are noticeable once applied, and it made me feel like it was only an “in the moment” effect that wouldn’t last. I still used it everyday the whole month to see if I was wrong. Nick actually changed my thoughts when commented that my pores are a lot smaller compared to their size when we started dating.

FINE LINES: The dehyrated line on my forehead is almost non-existent! WOOHOO. And the ones that *I* felt were developing around my nose and mouth have stopped in its tracks.

BLEMISHES: I thought it was working on my breakouts in a sense that it gets them poppable without any marks after. However, after couple of weeks of using it day and night, it wore off. My breakouts were not controlled, and even some small cystic spots appeared. I went on vacation and didn’t change my routine. It still did nothing to control breakouts. I don’t think this causes breakouts at all, but it hasn’t really been doing anything for them. Maybe it’s something that will come in time, since niacinimide is all about helping the immunity of your skin.

Azelaic Acid Suspension 10%

Use 2-3x a week
All I know about this product is that it’s supposed to help with brightness and texture. I don’t like the mattifying effect because it makes my skin feel more dry. It also pills up like a MOFO even if you apply minimal amount or wait for a few minutes. I do not recommend this at all if you are going to follow up with a facial oil after, and be very mindful when applying moisturizer. My face however does appear to be smoother after using this consistently, althought I don’t think it had that big of an effect on my indented scars like the lactic acid serum.

Lactic Acid 10% + HA 2%
Used 3-5x a week at first, then 1-2x a week
The tazmanian pepperberry definitely helps with lowering irritation, although I have built a high tolerance for acids. My skin actually feels very smooth and soft after using this product a few times. I was using it almost every night before my vacation down south and decided to put it on hold since the equator sun is quite strong. The monkeys at the abnormal beauty company recommended I use this 1-2 times a week and up the amount of product to use as a face mask so I’m not using it every night, and so my face doesn’t become significantly pale compared to my body. So far I have used a quarter-sized amount all over my face, left it on for 10 minutes and rinsed off. My face is left feeling and looking incredibly smooth! It’s also a bonus that it never dries out my skin when I leave it on. It’s definitely a method of application I’ll continue using. Even though the first 3 weeks I used it almost every night, my skin does not look thinner nor has the product ever dried me out while using it.

RESULTS

– Texture is improved; indented scars are less prominent, skin does not feel congested
– Skin is more even tone, have been using minimal makeup since using the serums consistently
– Doesn’t feel hydrated because the air is perpetually dry, but skin still feels very soft and not as chapped as it used to be, some slight relief of dehydration
– Skin does not look thinned out and weak
– Breakouts have not stopped; still get the occasional cystic spot
– Pores considerably smaller. (Without asking) Nick commented that my pores look smaller and I look younger because of how smooth my face looks (yayyyyy)
– I saw my friend who I bought this with over a month ago and she said she also noticed my face looked a lot smoother

Favourites from most to least:
Lactic Acid 10% + HA 2%- improves texture and quality of my skin
Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% –
Azelaic Acid Suspension 10% – pills like a mofo and truthfully I don’t know if this does anything for the longterm.
Hyaluronic acid 2% + B5 – Meh.

I like this brand and how it’s about potent, stabilized and safe ingredients, and the overall simplicity of the line. With the price point and and ability to layer 3 at a time, this is definitely a low-risk buy if you’re looking for something new.

I will continue using them all to the end, and still buy from the brand, and will definitely update on a post about “Ordinary Empties” to give my final thoughts.

I recently bought Hylamide Booster Low-Molecular HA ($20.00 CAD) to see if it’s more potent and powerful than the Ordinary HA 2% + B5; I also picked up the Ordinary Alpha Arbutin 2% + HA ($8.90 CAD) to help fade my hyper-pigmentation marks and prevent age spots!

And that’s that! Hope you enjoyed the review, definitely let me know if there’s something I must try from Deciem, and I’l blog for you soon.

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR DEMO:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDf5syFRmT8]

xo, M

www.ordinaries.com

Not sponsored. Not affiliated. I took it upon myself to review this day and nigh for a month because GOSH DARN I couldn’t believe!

MICHXMASH

Documenting my Trials and Tribulations with Beauty Products

Tag: asian skin