Benefit Feelin Cheeky (limited edition)

I love when makeup brands made a value mini set. It's a perfect opportunity to try some of their products, especially when the full sizes cost you your child education saving (joking!)

I saw this when I online window shopped at sephora (we don't have sephora here, boo!). I always wanted to try the famous benefit tints and highlighters. It's called Feelin Cheeky, a perfect set to get gorgeus cheek.

This set consists of Benetint - a rose coloured cheek and lip tint, Posietint - a barbie pink sister of benetint, and High Beam - the famous highlighter with subtle pink shimmer. They came in 4 ml each. They were sold for US$15 at sephora.com, but I got this from an online local seller for 200idr (US$22). I still think that this is a good value though. Wil review the individual item later!

Everyday Minerals base - Beige Neutral

If lately you've heard so much about products labeled "organic skin care", then meet its sibling: "mineral makeup". Basically, mineral makeup is a type of makeup made from naturals minerals harvested from earth like zinc oxide, mica, silica, etc. Usually they are free of preservatives or other harmful/allergenic chemical ingredients, so they are a good choice for sensitive/acne prone skin.

The first mineral makeup brand I tried is Everyday Minerals because:
a. They have good reviews for being gentle on all skin type (few break out reported), and proven true on me!
b. Affordable price comparing to the expensive Bare Minerals (bought this from a singapore-based website for S$21 included the shipping cost for 1.7oz of product)
c. Huge selection of colours and finish type
d. No bismuth ingredients

They're available in 4 different formula:
Original Glo, Semi-Matte, Matte, and Intensive. Since I have a dry - combination skin, I tried the original glo first to achieve a dewy look. Well, it did made my face dewy like JLo, but it also oxidized very fast. My face turn orange in 30 minutes (note: I always wear face primer before makeup). So, no to orangey face. After that orange experience, I tried the semi-matte formula and it was perfect. It has more coverage that the ori glo formula, and still have a little shine which brighten up my dull dry skin (but emphasized my oily nose, sigh), and didn't oxidized at all.

As for the huge choice of shade, I finally found that Beige Neutral matches my medium south-east asian skin. I've tried light olive (too light), medium olive (too dark), golden medium (too ashy), and buttery tan (too yellow).

It comes in a white plastic packaging, which I hate because it looks cheap. And it has a shifter jar, which is useless because it won't close and keep re-open by itself, so everytime I open the jar, the product fall all over the cap. I hope they'll work on a better packaging in the future

Swatch: 
(note: after blending it, the powder completetly dissapered into my natural skin tone)

Ingredients:
Mica (CI 77019), Lauroyl Lysine. May Contain: Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Zinc Oxide (CI 77947), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499), Ultramarines (CI 77007).


Mica: Is a naturally occurring mineral noted for its transparent sparkly luster.
Lauroyl Lysine: An all-natural amino acid derived from coconut fatty acid, contributing to the products silk like creamy texture and spreadability qualities.
Titanium Dioxide: An inert white mineral that is used as a color adjuster.
Zinc Oxide: An inorganic white powder that is used as a color adjuster.
Iron Oxides: Cosmetic pigments used to add depths of color.
Ultramarines: An inorganic vibrant pigment used to add color.

Kose Softymo white cleansing oil

I freakin love the japanese. Can you imagine our life without them? No video games, no affordable city car, no sushi (gosh!).

So this is one of their contribution to the worldwide make up world: cleansing oil. This cleansing method has been used a long time ago by geishas to take off their heavy makeup. So before this was made available in drugstore, my makeup cleansing method was: eye makeup remover with cotton ball-cleansing milk with cotton ball-toner with cotton ball-cleanser-water. Now it's just cleansing oil-cleanser-water, no cotton ball needed (actually you can skip the cleanser part, but I always double cleanse my face, old habit die hard)

Anyway, the current cleansing oil that I use is from Kose: White Cleansing Oil. I love this, it's cheap (bought it for 90k idr/US $10 for 250ml), easy to use, clean effectively, doesn't dry my skin (I have a combination skin).

This cleansing oil was supposed to help whiten your face. But I have no single idea why, the bottle was written in japanese doh! They also have the speedy and deep cleansing oil variant. I'll try them later if this one runs out.

If you've never tried cleansing oil, the texture is like baby oil but less greasy. It also contain mineral oil, so if you're allergic, stay away from this. It does a very fab job putting my waterproof sunscreen/makeup away, including my mascara. It's also gentle on my eyes.

Here's the using instructions from sasa.com
How to use: Take a proper amount of cleansing oil with dry hands. Massage over dry face for about 1 minutes. Add a little lukewarm water and go on massaging to emulsify the cleansing oil. After the oil has been totally emulsified, rinse with a lot of water.

NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder - Dark brown/brown

I'm obsessed with this brand lately. Since I sucked at shaping my eyebrow with an eyebrow pencil, and I often only have one arm free for doing my makeup (the other arm is for holding my baby since he rarely let me do my grooming peacefully), so I decided to try this.

It says on the box: "For Those Movie Star Eyebrows". Not sure what that means. I'd love to have JLo eyebrow, but not Joan Rivers fake ones (does she counts as a movie star?). Overall I love this, and it's cheap! Bought it on sale for 60.000 ($7), and it will last like forever.

Here you can see the white wax and the two colour powder, plus two type of brush applicator (which is crap, but I have no other choice). The brown one is too light for my south-east asian medium skin, so I only use the dark brown. They come in several color choices, pick the one that matches your hair colour most. One/two shades lighter than your hair colour if you have dark hair, and darker if you have light hair. But too bad they don't give any instructions on how to use it, so I'm doing what I found best for my eyebrows.

Swatches:

top: dark brown - bottom: brown

Here's how:
• First, take the curly brush to comb your eyebrow hair until they look neat.
• Second, take the colour of your choice and swap it across your natural eyebrows with that tiny-crappy angled brush (or any better angled eyebrow brush that you have)
• Third, set your eyebrows with the curly brush dipped in wax. Be careful though, use only a little wax of a natural look, or you'll look like you just had a permanent eyebrow tattoo (yikes!)
• There you have your movies star eyebrow. Easy eh?

Ingredients: 
Talc, Mica, Magnesium Stearate, Titanium Dioxide, Magnesium Silicate, Mineral Oil, 2-Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Polybutylene, Silicone Oil, Propyl Paraben, Methyl Paraben. MAY CONTAIN: Iron Oxide Black, Ferric Ferrocyanide, Ultramarine Blue, Iron Oxide Yellow, Iron Oxide Red, FD&C Red 40 Al Lake, Manganese Violet, Carmine.

Urban Decay Vegan Palette

When it comes to eyeshadow, I think it's better to splurge. I mostly hate drugstore eyeshadow quality. The chalkiness, unpigmented colors, and short lasting of cheap eyeshadow often frustated me. As if I need to face more difficult obstacle in my life...

Anyway, this is one of Urban Decay's Limited Eyeshadow Palette. According to Sephora website, this palette is printed with soy-based inks on recycled packaging. This set contains 6 x 0.03 oz Eyeshadows: Minx, Urb, Gunmetal, Baked, Smog, Half-Baked; 0.03 oz Travel-size 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Zero; 0.13 oz Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Sin.

The thing I looooooove about Urban Decay (beside their obvious pigmented-buttery formula and amazing color selection) is their packaging. They often collaborated with famous graphic artist to design it. Can you see the cute helpless deer in the eyeshadow box? Aaaw, heart-breaking... I'm not a vegetarian, and never intented to be, but if you can help those poor animals from suffering, for the sake of your makeup addiction, why not eh?

see the writing? "we don't do animal testing how could anyone?" yeaay for urban decay.

The palette comes with a small mirror, a travel size 24/7 Glide on Pencil in color Zero (black), and a travel size eye Primer Potion in Sin (shimmering champagne color - very pretty). The eyeliner and eye primer is one of the best eye makeup product in this planet. So yes this palette is a very good value for money. The original price tag is $34, but I got it on sale for 200.000 idr ($22).
The only downside from this palette is the glittters from Minx, Urb, Gunmetal. They keep falling everywhere! Once I grocery shopping with my son wearing these, and he ended up having glitter everywhere, even in his hairscalp (yea, bad mommy). Other than that, this palette is worth to have.

Swatches:

from left - right: Minx, Urb, Gunmetal (see the mega glitter in those three?), Baked, Smog, Half-Baked, Zero, Sin