NARS Pleasures of Paris FOTD and some rambling...

Hello everyone~ sorry for been MIA for awhile, I've been so overwhelmed with work and family... and haven't been feeling too excited about makeup. I did manage to do some damage at Saks and Sephora F&F, I didn't need anything just didn't wanna miss the annual sale... lol. I pick up some YSL lipsticks, a sephora airbrush and NARS new foundation, maybe I will do a post on my next post.

I've been doing neutral look everyday, even on the weekend. I'm really loving this NARS Pleasure of Paris palette, nothing exciting it's just very very easy to use. I can make good use of every single color in it, the kind of palette that really get your money worth :)

- Fez all over the lids
- Nepal inner corner
- Abyssinia brow bone
- Cordura outer v

On my lips I have infamous Kim Kardashian's favorite lip combo -
MAC Angel + NARS Turkish Delight
(I haven't touched them both for really long time...)

I found myself ignore my NARS duo eyeshadows for long time because of their packing. I have to go through all of them to pick the names then open each of them if I want to mix and match the colors... I love NARS sophisticated black rubber case but it's preventing me from using them now :( Do you guys have the same trouble? I found myself stick with MAC shadows most of the time when I'm hurry in the morning.

It's a pain to go through them every time...

these are much easier...

I got my contest price from Cathy.

She let me pick two VS items and I pick the eye primer and 24K silky eye shadow. I haven't tried the primer yet but I LOVE 24K. It's a true gold color, soooo pretty! She also included whole bunch of stuff in the package... thank you Cathy :)

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Contest Winner

The winner is...

KRYSTAL

Congratulations KRYSTAL! I will be emailing you!

Thanks everyone to join my contest ^^

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NARS Cream Shadow/Drugstore Haul and FOTD

I'm a fan of NARS but never tried their cream shadows. I've heard some people hate it coz they crease real bad even with primer underneath. Since I love most of NARS stuff and the color is gorgeous, I decided to pick it up anyway to see if it will work for me.

Madagascar cream shadow

One side is peachy skin color that works great as all over base(similar to MAC Painterly PP) and the other side is a purplish brown taupe that works well with NARS eyeshadows like Ondine, Ashes to Ashes, Cairo or MAC Satin Taupe, Style Snob... If you are a fan of those taupey colors then you will love this duo.

I'd tried it a few times, it does crease but not terribly(depends on what you put on top and underneath). The shimmery taupe color crease more than the skin color on the left. If I put TFSI underneath first and put NARS/MAC shadows on top, they will last for about 4 hours before start creasing. I did try it once with drugstore shadows and it was a complete disaster.

I think this will be my one and the only NARS cream shadow... I decided to keep it coz the colors work really well with my collection and I just can't say no to taupe... haha. But seriously, MAC Paint Pots work so much better than these on any day!

I also pick up Night Breed single eyeshadow that I've been meaning to get for long time. Just a pure black with silver glitters. The pigmentation is really good and can be used wet or dry. I like how versatile it is and I can just bring it everywhere use it as shadow and liner.

NARS Night Breed

swatches from left to right
(Night Breed, Madagascar)

I also pick up a bunch of Maybelline at Rite Aid since they had BOGO. I got a back up of Lash Stiletto(My fave mascara of all time) and the Mineral power blush in Soft Mauve(this is love). Couple of shadow quads in Chai Latte and Velvet Crush, and the new color sensation lipsticks in Pink Please and Born with it.

I'm sorry to report that these shadows really have no pigmentation, you get what you pay for. But I do like the color combinations on the 2 quads I got. Velvet Crush is pretty, it looks gorgeous after I piled it on like 5 layers :)

The Mineral power blush is a different story. It lasts on my face whole day and the color is gorgeous. Soft Mauve looks like baby pink on my skin tone. Loooove :)

The lipsticks are ok. Born with it and Pink Please are basically the same colors, one with shimmer one without. They are the nudest baby pinks in the collection but not nude enough for me... they are creamy and pigmented tho.

NARS Madagascar(base)
NARS Cairo(lid)
MAC Folie(crease)
MAC Beauty Mark(Outer Corner)
MAC Vanilla(brow)
Maybelline Mineral power blush Soft Mauve(Cheeks)
Maybelline LS Born with it

Contest ends this Sunday... I'm excited :D

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VS Christian Siriano Silky Eyeshadow Sahara

So you all know I've been in love with VS makeup lately. After the Christian Siriano Kajal liner experience, I went to check out more of his stuff and found this amazing eyeshadow Sahara.

He came out with 5 limited edition eyeshadows with mostly neutral colors. The idea of his makeup line is Egyptian inspired and the compact sort of reminds me of pyramid. It comes with a small mirror inside and I think the packaging is just gorgeous. Of course for the $12 the material is not real metal but it is still a nice design.

VS Christian Siriano Silky Eye Shadow - Sahara

The texture of all his shadows are silky and soft(not as soft and wet as VS regular shadows) and very pigmented. Sahara is a neutral light champagne color with peachy tone, a bit shimmery but not over the top. It's very similar to MAC Grand Entrance and Stila Kitten. I own Kitten but don't use it much coz I found the color too frosty on my NC35 skin. On the other hand, Sahara is almost the same color with less frost and a tad warmer, works wonderfully as all over the lid or highlight on my skin tone!

Sahara all over the lids with MAC Antiqued at the outer corners and Blacktrack...voila! My perfect everyday look for work. I enjoy this shadow very much... plus it's kinda fun to play with the compact in my hand :)

Check out this shadow while you can... I think they are almost sold out in the store.


PS. Contest ends in 1 week... join if you haven't already ;)

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Lunch time swatches - Style Black

Today during the lunch time, I went to the MAC store near job to see if they have the Style Black collection out already since they usually have the collection out early. I asked the MA and he told me it's out on Thursday but will let me take a peek. I looked at everything there, did some swatches on my hand, mainly on the items that I'm interested in.

This collection will def be loved by people who like dramatic looks. Some of the products are really amazing and have great color payoff, just in time for Halloween makeup.

I'm impressed with the Mineralized eye shadows, very pigmented and soft. They are basically all black base with blue, burgundy, silver and gold glitters. The glitters are very fine(unlike NARS night series) so it goes on really smooth. I have my eyes on the silver(Cinderfella) and the burgundy(Young Punk).

Personally I can't pull off the black lipstick but Black Knight is very creamy and pigmented, I can see it will be a popular item in the collection.

I was originally interested in the Greasepaint Stick the most. It reminds me of the more intense, creamy version of the shade stick. The color is super rich and supposed to be water/smudge proof. It can be used as liner or base. This is a true black, it's darker than Blackground p/p and Sharkskin shade stick (I have both and thinking about picking this one up).

I like both Mattene lipsticks, Midnight Media is a near-black, semi-matte creamy color. The color is even more intense than Black Knight. I personally like Night Violet, it's a very pretty burgundy.


All in all I'm in love with the Mineralized eye shadows in the collection, and will pick up a couple. Do you like this collection? What do you like? 

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Weekend Recap...

So last weekend I had a chance to help a friend with her fashion show at Brooklyn Fashion Festival. The designer Jade Chiu is a talented accessory designer and her pieces are inspired by Chinese 12 animal signs with western funkiness.

I was one of the makeup artist(there are 2 of us) and we came up with the look of dark brown/black smokey eyes for the dramatic effect. We had to do the makeup at the dim light environment and since we arrived late we had to rush back to back to finish all the models. It was a bit intense but I had great time doing it :) Here are a few dolls I'd worked on...

working pic...

It was so rush I didn't get a chance to take close pictures for each model... next time I will have to snap some good shots no matter what ;)


Last weekend was all about Brooklyn. The next day, Me, hubby and Jacob went to Dim Sun for lunch in a famous restaurant in Brooklyn Chinatown (I was busy eating and forgot to take pics, haha...) After lunch we walked around the area and I found this tiny beauty shop inside of a small shopping center, here is what I found...

My Beauty Diary Black Pearl Mask

Got it for $15. I've heard good things about it, will let y'all know how I like it ;)


And a completely random pic. I took it at a small aquarium in Brooklyn that we walked by... the big fish just won't let go of the small one, he was swimming everywhere like this like forever... poor little fish :(


Have a great week everyone!

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3 things I'm sad to hit pan on...

First of all, I want to thank all the new followers and wish y'all good luck with the contest ;)

It's just a random post today...

I've never try to do the Project 10 pans (or 5 pans) coz I know I will never succeed... haha. I don't do impulse buy but when there is something that I really want, I can't wait.

I usually feel happy and sense of achievement when I hit pan on makeup items, like eyeshadows and blushes. I recently hit pan on some stuff I actually feel sad about ... mainly coz they are good products, fairly pricey, and they work for me.

Shiseido Bio-Performance Advanced Super Revitalizer Cream
StriVectin-SD Eye Cream
NARS Laguna Bronzer

They are definitely items I will repurchase, but my curious natural told me to look what's out there... so I'm kinda struggling now. I've been just putting on lots of serum or do leave on mask everyday, haha...

I'm actually already on my second Laguna, so that one doesn't count, just wanna show you all how big a pan I hit... lol ;)

On the other hand, a product I probably will never hit pan on...

I thought I like it when I first tried it in the store, but after bought it I'm just not too crazy about the smell. I use it very slowly, the only thing that keep me reaching for it is the SPF23, on those days when I need a little sun protection without whole face makeup.

What's the skincare product you keep repurchasing?

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