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Sunday, December 20, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 20 - Christmas Lights/Tinsel


Ok, so for this, I was inspired by a face chart by @valerievixenart and had to recreate it!

Christmas, lights

Ok, the product list is going to be LONG. Bear with me...

Face:

  • Dr. Jart Mineral BB Pact (02 Beige)
  • Life's Entropy Contour Stick (Neutron)
  • Femme Fatale's highligher (Toy Terror)
  • Old Revlon blush I lost the name to
  • Skindinavia primer & setting spray


Lips: 

  • Limnit (Deepest Taupes & Dreams, The Other Side)
  • Life's Entropy's lip theory (Quantum)


Eyes:

  • Majorlica eyeliner
  • Lancome pencil liner
  • My Pretty Zombie (mNg no. 2)
  • Daisy Bird Cosmetics (Dandy Dandelion, April Showers) 
  • Backstreets Makeup Co ((love))
  • Blackbird Cosmetics (Dim Tradition)
  • Ten Three Labs (Zombie Butts)
  • TKB Trading (Matte Red Pop)




Christmas, lights


I actually went out like this! I did alter the lips a bit by blotting Eccentric Cosmetics' Forbidden City in the middle!

Christmas, lights

Saturday, December 19, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 19 - Doctor Who

The Adipose has got my wing!

Doctor Who,


I had to go with the cutest Doctor Who character for this theme! The liner's Notoriously Morbid's Morgana! Here's a pic of how the Adipose look:


Friday, December 18, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 18 - Favourite Fairy Tale/Cartoon

I decided I should go with an Indonesian fairy tale to introduce people to my culture! My favourite stories as a kid was about Si Kancil (The Mouse Deer), a prank loving mouse deer who outwits all the bigger animals in the jungle. The stories made me laugh and I loved listening to them all night.

This is using Lit Cosmetics Magic Dragon, Life's Entropy's Stay Pawsitive, Blanche Neige's Deep Sea, & Backstreet Makeup Co's Meatloaf Again!

cut crease

Full Face! Not my favourite look to do on monolids but fun to do for a change!



Thursday, December 17, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 17 - Star Wars

For the IMAM Challenge Star Wars theme, I did a lightsaber wing using Notoriously Morbid's 13 Black Rainbows, Blanche Neige's As Above, Below, and Daisy Bird's April Showers!

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 16 - Winter Wonderland

Ok, initially, this is the look I did:

Add caption

This is using My Pretty Zombie's Grandma Cleavage, Notoriously Morbid's Snow Queen's Return, Backstreet Makeup Co's Usky, Life's Entropy's Astral Imprisonment. Here's the full face!



But then Lit's Glitter Friday challenge them of Snow & Stars totally fit into this theme too, and I ended up liking the look I did for Lit more! So this is what I'm submitting for the Winter Wonderland theme!


This is using My Pretty Zombie's Grandma Cleavage, Notoriously Morbid's Snow Queen's Return, Backstreet Makeup Co's Deoch-an-Dorus, and Lit Cosmetics' Gold Digger!

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 15 - Complementary Colours

I wanted to do a purple and yellow-gold halo for the Complementary Colours theme, but I think I over blended the gold and yellow, and they're not really showing up. XD

Using Müse eyeshadows, Mad Labs' Pyrite, and Darling Girl's Aurelia's Fire!



Monday, December 14, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 14 - Hanukkah

This is for the Hanukkah theme! I'm using Lifes Entropy's Stay Pawsitive & Dream Coil, Notoriously Morbid's Cry Innocent, TTL's Ehhhuagh, and Lit Cosmetics' Mexican Lucky & Gold Digger!


 Bonus full face XD

Review: Deep Midnight's Christmas Dark & Light Set (5+2 Scents)

Ok, final part of my Deep Midnight (DM) Christmas reviews! This review is for the 5 scents from the Christmas Dark & Light sample set. Kissing Ball turns out to be a scent I've reviewed  a year ago (but forgot to upload), so I get to revisit it and review how it has aged! Like the previous reviews, I'm also reviewing 2 more DM scents I happen to have, Goblin in the Gears & Faerie Feast.


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Review Notes


As always, reviews are done blind until the TL;DRs are written. Kissing Ball was reviewed blind last year, so the reviews I did this year is still done blind!

If any of the notes surprise me, I write an overview. I've also started adding a "Final Verdict" section to help me keep track of my perfumes and figure out what to destash, since my perfume collection is starting to get messy. Here are the categories I came up with for my "Final Verdict":


  • Love: Most awesome perfume ever. Need endless supplies of it and will swap my first born child for the last drops of it if it's limited edition. 
  • Like: I like it and may buy a full size of it, but it's not urgent. 
  • Interesting: I don't really like it or I don't think I  can wear it in public, but I appreciate the artistry of the scent. It's like a beautiful but unwearable runway piece you won't buy on your own, but don't mind owning.
  • Ok: It's okay. I like it enough, but may destash for a good price to keep my collection manageable. 
  • Destash: Kill it with fire.
  • Age it: Maybe it will smell good one day. One day. Just wait.

You'll notice in my DM reviews, I don't have a single scent I plan on aging. It's just because I've aged these for a year, so I don't think aging them further will make much of an improvement.



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Aurora Borealis

"This rich, sweet, velvety scent is comprised of a delicious vanilla bean accord, winterberries, sweet musk, soft peppermint, white sugar, and winter pines."

Artificial strawberries & cream! It smells exactly like this Big Babol Strawberries & Cream bubble gum I used to like as a kid. The packaging has been updated now:

I'm actually craving this now...I think I'm going to look for it.
Image courtesy of Amazon.com


It's the kind of artificial strawberries & cream you expect a pink cupcake plush toy would be scented with. There's hints of mint and that woody, dry and slightly acrid "tea" note, but it's mostly artificial strawberries and cream. It's nice enough, but not exactly what I want to smell like. It's definitely one of those scents you either love or hate.

The mint gets more pronounced as this scent wears on for another 10-20 min, before the cream part gets more pronounced and the strawberries get shafted. Now it smells like slightly minty old cream. It's not the fresh sort of cream, it's a more settled, oily sort of cream.


TL;DR: Minty strawberries & cream bubblegum turning into minty old cream.

Final Verdict: Destash.



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Dark Winter's Tale

"Inspired in part by a fantastic cookie recipe from Morgan Crone, this holiday perfume contains many wonderful scent notes, including: dark gingerbread, rich vanilla, molasses, cardamon, anise, and black pepper."

I'm getting fresh orange with old, crumbly dark chocolate. The kind of chocolate that has been left out for too long, that it has white spots all over and crumbles to the touch. Like this:

If you buy chocolate from Indonesia, you often risk getting this.
Photography by Narisa

The orange part is actually gorgeous. At first, it's so fresh, I wondered if it's neroli instead, but as it wears on, it starts smelling like very fragrant candied oranges, the kind that's flavoured further with cloves and cardamom. The old chocolate scent won't leave me though.

TL;DR: Candied oranges & old, crumbly chocolate

Final Verdict: Destash



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Faerie Feast 

"Lush and creamy white amber, dried colorful leaves, roasted pumpkin, laurel, cinnamon, cardamom, toasted sugar and cream."

I get an extremely strong, dark brown caramel scent. It's a bit watery and kind of makes me think of artificial low-fat, sugar-free "caramel" flavoured diet drinks. There's hints of these cool and slightly gingery blue note underneath and it's actually pretty nice, but the caramel's not for me.

The caramel gets less pungent after about 10 min, and now it smells like beautiful cool, clean blue, mixed with piercing artificial caramel. It pretty much stays like this for the rest of the time until it dries down. The scent that lingers the longest on me is that piercing caramel.

TL;DR: Cool blue & piercing artificial caramel.

Final Verdict: Destash




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Goblin in the Gears

"This mischievous, inventive blend consists of anise and blood orange, spiked with warm vanilla and a touch of soft sandalwood."

Omg no, no, no, no, noooooo. This is liquorice and vaguely fruity candy. Really strong, medicinal liquorice. The fruity candy makes me think of red, fruity candies and there's a slight minty scent, so the resulting scent makes me think of a candy shop around Christmas. Yes, it's a highly artificial smell, but I have positive associations with it so I kinda like it. Unfortunately, the liquorice just ruins everything. It's so medicinal and it kinda makes me think of being taken to a candy shop around Christmas and being told you can't buy anything until you drink some "fruity" flavoured cough syrup that tastes even more disgusting thanks to the flavouring.

As it dries down, the scent gradually turns into pink, scented plastic toys.
I've never had a My Little Pony toy, but this smells like what I imagine this toy would smell like.
Image courtesy of swoonstylehome.com

It reminds me of one of those pink toys and scented markers I used to have, which makes me feel nostalgic, but it's not exactly how I want to smell like.

TL;DR: Pink, scented plastic toys.


Final Verdict: Destash



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Kissing Ball

"Roasted chestnuts and pecans, rum, creamy vanilla and spiced orange are followed by softer notes of balsam fir and sweet florals. Festive, warm, and cozy!"

Oooh..creamy vanilla and oranges. I love the vanilla, but I'm afraid I'm not a fan of Deep Midnight's orange notes. It's the fizzy orange soda or piercing car perfume in a can type of orange. The kind of car perfume that looks like this:

I haven't found a single one of these that didn't give me a headache.
Image found on flixcart.com

I want to like it so bad, since the vanilla reminds me a lot of the creamy cinnamon vanilla in Possets' Gelato: Vaniglia, but the artificial orange really ruined it for me.

1 year later:

At first, I only got this creamy scent and got excited, but the artificial oranges burst in pretty fast. It smells like an orange can car perfume, with a diet milkshake sort of creaminess.

After about 10 min, it actually turns out good! It smells exactly like McDonald's apple pie filling! I'm so surprised because it was so bad before. There hints of that searing perfume, but it's mostly McDonald's apple pie filling. This definitely aged well!

When it dries down, it turns into vaguely fruitiy soap.

TL;DR: McDonald's apple pie filling

Final Verdict: Like




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The Holly King

"Sweet sugarplums, mistletoe evergreens and cedar are wrapped up with a light crisp mint, warm vanilla, notes of three soft florals and lastly a touch of fig rounds out the scent."

Oooh, this is a nice soapy scent! There's tart fruits that I can't identify and a clean, green sort of soapy scent that makes me start thinking of melons even though it doesn't smell like melons. It just makes me think of a green soap. It's cool, clean and sweet, vaguely fruity without any fruits being identifiable. I actually wish I can have this in shampoo form, because this is how I want my hair to smell like –clean, fresh and fruity, but totally grown up.

Unfortunately, 10 min later, it just goes full soap and even has this slightly sterile, toilet cleaning soap sort of scent.

TL;DR: Green, vaguely fruity soap turning into toilet cleaner.

Final Verdict: Destash



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Wenceslas

"This perfume is a wonderful blend of: soft pine, crisp greens, sweet sugars, white cocoa, and a waiting oakwood fire, kissed lightly with clove and cassia."

This took a while to settle on my skin. When I first applied it, it's just a crazy burst of bitter, coffee-like cocoa, cleaning fluid and something way off. After about 5 min, it finally settles into this cocoa and pine scent. the cocoa smells more like a plasticky sort of artificial chocolate, while the pine's a pretty nice room scent. The combination just confuses me. As it wears on, the chocolate just smells really gross on me...kind of skunk-ish. No idea what's going on.

TL;DR: Artificial chocolate going skunk-ish with pine room scent.

Overview: I can't figure out which of those notes are going wrong on me. Maybe it's just the combination.

Final Verdict: Destash.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 13 - Meteor Shower

This look actually went wrong...I wanted to do streaks of glitter like a meteor shower, but I accidentally opened my eyes before the glue dried and ended up with a patchy mess. I ended up liking the look more so I stuck with it! The black is an old Müse eyeshadow that I added Crucible Gold too (swatch here) and the glitters are Lit's Gold Digger & Mexican Lucky.


The lips is Brazen's Two Faced, this blue duochrome lip gloss you can layer over any colour to give them a crazy blue shift!

Saturday, December 12, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 12 - Scent of the Day

I decided to go with my favourite scent, Darling Clandestine's Blue Valentine (review here). I definitely felt the pressure to make this look as pretty as the scent!

This look took soooo many eyeshadows. I lost track as I blended, but i think about 7 different colours went in there. There's a bunch of different Müse shadows, POMI's Ripley, Ten Three Lab's Bells Bells Bells, and  Dawn Eyes' Kartini. The eyeliner is Urban Decay's eyeliner in Chaos!


I used Eccentric Cosmetics' Cano Cristales for the lips again! I think I managed to capture more of the purple-ish shift here! The blush and highlight are Femme Fatale's Monsters From Mars & Toy Terror respectively.


Friday, December 11, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 11 - Turquoise


 Ok, a LOT of eyeshadows went into this one! There's Blackbird Cosmetics' Beau, Ten Three Labs' Night Butterfly, Beauty FTW's Hazel, Notoriously Morbid' Tenorman Tears, & Eccentriccosmetics' Altered Ego.



The blush's Femme Fatale's Monsters From! Mars, the lips is  Notoriously Morbid Cosmic Gulfs!


Thursday, December 10, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 10 - Celebrate Your Nationality

Went with the Indonesian flag for this theme! The lips is Limnit's Racin Carnation & Life's Entropy's Quantum. I don't think Quantum's meant to be worn alone because it's really patchy. The eyes is TKB's Matte Red Pop & NYX's Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk.


Here's the bonus full face with the lip art on XD

Anyway, since I can't go out with clown lips, I first mixed the two colours together and got this bright pink. The colour's wayyy too bright for me, so I added Notoriously Morbid Cosmic Gulfs and got the shade that works!

Review: Deep Midnight's Ancient Yule Set (5+2 Scents)

This is the 2nd part of my Deep Midnight (DM) Christmas sample sets review. For my previous DM reviews, you can click here or on the DM tag on the side. This review is for all 5 scents from the Ancient Yule sample set and two other DM scents I happen to have, Miss Sherlock & Tenebrae. Turns out, I've reviewed all 5 scents from the Ancient Yule sample set a year ago, only I forgot to upload it. So now I get to write a review on how these scents have aged!



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Review Notes


As always, reviews are done blind until the TL;DRs are written. Yup, I did them blind last year, so the reviews I did this year is still done blind!

If any of the notes surprise me, I write an overview. I've also started adding a "Final Verdict" section to help me keep track of my perfumes and figure out what to destash, since my perfume collection is starting to get messy. Here are the categories I came up with for my "Final Verdict":


  • Love: Most awesome perfume ever. Need endless supplies of it and will swap my first born child for the last drops of it if it's limited edition. 
  • Like: I like it and may buy a full size of it, but it's not urgent. 
  • Interesting: I don't really like it or I don't think I  can wear it in public, but I appreciate the artistry of the scent. It's like a beautiful but unwearable runway piece you won't buy on your own, but don't mind owning.
  • Ok: It's okay. I like it enough, but may destash for a good price to keep my collection manageable. 
  • Destash: Kill it with fire.
  • Age it: Maybe it will smell good one day. One day. Just wait.

You'll notice in my DM reviews, I don't have a single scent I plan on aging. It's just because I've aged these for a year, so I don't think aging them further will make much of an improvement.





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Miss Sherlock

"Orris, lemon verbena, geranium, musk, white tea, and woods."

When I first sniffed this in the bottle, I fell in love and hoped it'll smell just as great on my skin. Fortunately, it does! It smells like clean, soapy juicy fruits. It's just such a well-blended medley of fruits, I can't really identify them and they just vaguely smell melon-ish and peachy. It's definitely very clean, light and sweet (in the personality-sense).

It makes me think of a woman in her late teens or early 20s, who's very feminine, neat and put together. The kind of woman who'll dress in very girly yet preppy, clean-cut styles and have a charming, bubbly personality that people can't resist. She's definitely the type to be the president of some student association at some point in her life. Someone who looks like this:

The photography's great, but I'd really love to know who the fashion stylist for this shoot is.
Gorgeous photography by Stas Pushkarev


I get traces of a tart, zesty green every now and then, but it's not a loud part of the scent. When it dries down on my skin, I get this super sweet room freshener kind of scent, but I don't mind it since it's faint by then.

TL;DR: Girly, preppy scent.

Overview: Looks like there's no fruits in here. Maybe the white tea is the type of sweet, "perfumed" version that smells fruity?

Final Verdict: Love.



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Saturnalia 

"This scent evokes the feeling of ancient ritual and festivity with an earthy mix of Arabian sandalwood, Sudanese frankincense, and patchouli blended with the aromas of roasted chestnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts, and finished with cranberries and sweet cake."

The first 10 min was scary. First impression was, "Welp. Cherry liqueur."

In 5-8 min, I got bitter dusty wood coming in and the cherry liqueur becomes more of a tartness in the background. The result is Chinese medicine flavoured with cherry liqueur in a sick attempt to make it more palatable. I'm looking at you, grandma. It doesn't work, I know it still tastes like death!!!

1 year later:

Still Chinese medicine and cherry liqueur. Not as pungent and before, but still pretty hard for me to stomach. The aged cherry liqueur bit is actually pretty nice and smells more powdery and soft, but it's not enough to hide the Chinese medicine. Seriously, the Chinese medicine bit is horrible. It's dusty, old and almost acrid. Ugh. I hate the smell of Chinese medicine.

As it dries down, it's dusty, death-like Chinese medicine with this artificial purple scent.

TL;DR: Cherry liqueur mixed into Chinese medicine.

Overview: The cherry liqueur bit could be an almond note going wrong on me! Either that or the cranberry mixed with everything else turns into cherry liqueur.

Final Verdict: Destash



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Tenebrae

"An ancient brazier spilling over with tendrils of sacred incense smoke that mingle with candle wax, polished old wood and stone, blessed resins, faint soft notes of Sicilian citron, and a touch of divine black agarwood."

In the bottle, I got a blue scent with a sterile sort of bitterness...kind of smells like cleaning fluid. I was a bit scared to put it on me at first, but luckily, on my skin, it doesn't smell that bad. Somehow, my skin eats up this scent really fast, so it's rather faint. The resulting scent I get is slightly hard to identify, but it smells like a cross between this gorgeous, slightly smoky sort of blue cologne I can see on sophisticated older men (think late 30s or 40s), and root beer gone flat.

After about 30 min, the root beer gone flat mingles with the overall scent and now it just smells like a mainstream men's cologne that has dried down and gone a bit too sweet. My skin sometimes amps up sweetness though, so maybe it won't be that bad on other people.

TL;DR: Mainstream men's cologne & root beer.

Overview: Ok, I have no idea what's causing the root beer scent. Nothing in it looks remotely close!

Final Verdict: Destash


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The Holy & The Ivy

"This is a slightly spicy and crisp unisex scent that has both feminine and masculine aspects: the scent of festive hollyberries is mingled with the beautiful and earthy greens of an inviting winter forest."

Initially, I got the smell of roasted meat in the background but luckily that dissipated fast.  I still get a savoury sort of scent underneath, though. Other than that, it's a pine type of scent that's leaning towards smelling like a room fragrance. It's nice enough, but I rather scent my room rather than myself with it. As it dries down, the smell is a very dry, dusty woody pine scent.

1 year later:

Yup, still getting roasted meat. Roast meat and pine...it really smells like dinner being served in a cabin during winter. It takes only 1 min for the roast meat to disappear though, and now it's an icy pine scent. It's less room fragrance than I remembered, and more perfume now.  I actually like it, and it reminds me of winter in ski chalets that looks like this:

I visited the site and fell in love with the villas. After I saw they had no price lists and you have to inquire instead, I kinda guessed they're either very expensive or extremely expensive....
Image courtesy of akvillas.com

TL;DR: Clean, icy pine perfume.

Overview: I'm not getting any berries at all, and the roasted meat part could be a quiet smoke note going nuts.

Final Verdict: Ok/Like

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The Sun King 

"A rich, warm, and deep archaic blend awaits you with dark frankincense, myrrh, spikenard, white amber, sandalwood, and a faint touch of eastern spices. A lovely unisex blend."

I get that sweet, watery scent I get from a lot of Deep Midnight's scents. Soon, I get a gingery sort of spiciness in the scent. It reminds me a lot of a woodier version of Catrianna's Couldron so I better smell them side by side. The dry down is one of those dusty old wood scents. It's a different sort of old wood from NAVA's old wood, though. NAVA's is ancient furniture that's really old, this is wood in an attic that's left alone for a couple of years and gathering dust.

1 year later:

Ok, I'm getting more of this whiteboard-marker-ish woody scent. Maybe there's myrrh in this? I'm also getting that cool, herbal fuzzy scent that smells like Baygon, a popular Indonesian insecticide, but it's usually marketed as some sort of stone/asphalt/concrete note. Dang...I'm reading my old review and looks like this is a scent that did not take aging very well.

Once the scent starts settling on my skin 2-3 min later, it ends up smelling like ginger ale and Baygon. I'm not a fan. It stays like this until it dries down into this sort of tart, insecticide scent with wood resins about 30 min later.

TL;DR: Baygon with ginger ale.

Overview: I really, really should have used this earlier. This is why hoarding is bad.

Final Verdict: Destash.


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Yule Log


"Imagine a cozy fireplace hearth in a lovely log cabin, the comfort and warmth of the fire and the enveloping scents of buttery frankincense, oakwood embers, evergreens, and lingering cloves as you relax into the joys of the season. A great unisex winter blend."

There's that artificial pine scent that usually smells like a car freshener, only it's more bitter. There's also a roasted meat scent in the background.

1 year later:

Roast meat and car pine perfume. And it's slightly bitter and medicinal. It doesn't get more complex than this.

TL;DR: Bitter & medicinal roast meat and car pine perfume.

Overview: Ok, I need to compare this with the notes from The Holy & The Ivy to figure out what's causing that roast meat scent. Unfortunately, here's the notes for The Holy & The Ivy:

"This is a slightly spicy and crisp unisex scent that has both feminine and masculine aspects: the scent of festive hollyberries is mingled with the beautiful and earthy greens of an inviting winter forest."

The notes are pretty vague, so I'm guessing it's probably an unlisted smoke note gone crazy since the only other thing they have in common is the greens, and that's probably the one causing the pine scent.

Final Verdict: Destash




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Yuletide Revels 

"This blend evokes the feel of the season and the joy of celebration with a base of warm Chypre, stirred up with whiskey, sugarplums, cream, and a touch of sweet orange and cardamon. Cheers!!"

This smells like a creamed orange soda. It's nice enough, but artificial as you'd expect orange soda to be. It's definitely a more fun scent. I personally find the scent a bit cloying, but I can see little kids loving this sugary scent. By 30 min, this dries down to that sweet, metallic smell a lot of gourmands turn into on me.

1 year later:

Ok, it still smells like creamed artificial fruity soda, but it's less orange and more vaguely tutti frutti. Still cloying on me, but this time there's this nutty woody scent and a soapy bubble bath suds scent. I'm still not a fan. The nutty woody scent gets stronger as the scent wears on, but mixed with the creamy tutti frutti soda bubble bath, the combination just gets really nauseating for me. This scent's not for me.

TL;DR: Nutty, woody, creamy tutti frutti soda bubble bath.

Final Verdict: Destash.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 9 - The Snow Queen

I had to crack out this icy blue eyeshadow I customized ages ago for this look. I really need to give it more love! The grey-ish black is Hello Waffle's Rule 42, the gold glitter is Lit Cosmetics' Gold digger, the lips is Eccentric Cosmetics' Cano Cristales.



Tuesday, December 8, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 8 - Summer in December

Oh geez, I'm really sucking at uploading this, so I'm stuck backdating everything. Sorry! I decided to go with bright neons, a summer trend I miss the most! This one is using a few old Müse eyeshadows I had and Fyrinnae's Masala!



Monday, December 7, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 7 - Grandma Approves

 I rarely do natural looks so it feels so weird! The highlighter is Femme Fatale Cosmetics' Toy Terror, lips is Fyrinnae' Masala, eyes are Blackbird Cosmetics' Beau & Lucid.


Sunday, December 6, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 6 - Grandma Disapproves

I made a mistake for this theme...I forgot my grandma's a traditional Chinese grandma, so she probably would've approved of the red eyes. She'll definitely disapprove of the grey lips though! The eyes are My Pretty Zombie's mNg no. 2, Hello Waffle's Rule 42, and Brazen's Fierce + Flawless in Primrose Glow. The blush is Femme Fatale's Creepin Coffin. The lips is Limnit's Goodness Graycious, & Deepest Taupes And Dreams, with white eyeshadow dabbed & blended into the middle.




Thursday, December 3, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 3 - Favourite Song

At the risk of sounding really pretentious, my favourite song is a French song, J'envoie Valser by Zazie. It's really pretty! Here's a version with English subtitles:



Anyway, the song makes me think of pretty pastels, so I decided to do pretty pastels in a golden cage. The lips are created using TKB Trading's MyMix kit, the gold is TKB Trading's Forged Gold.



IMAM Challenge: Dec 2 - Favourite Childhood Toy

Today's IMAM Challenge theme is your Favourite Childhood Toy. I liked board games the most as a kid, and I remember this one Snakes & Ladders board game that had a really pretty illustration style that I liked. I tried to imitate that style for this look!



I used Daisy Bird's Dandy Dandelion & an old blue eyeshadow over NYX's Jumbo Eye pencil in Milk!




The lips is Hello Waffle's Maraschino!

DIY Cosmetics: The Crucible Collection

I recently got access to a lot of TKB's micas and pigments, so I thought I'd review them here. For the first in this series, I'm reviewing their Metallic Collection. TKB Trading's Metallic Collection is a collection of "pure metallic pigments (no mica, no titanium dioxide, no iron oxides or dyes)." Depending on the amount you buy, they cost about  $ 0.19-0.28/g individually, or $ 0.17-0.25/g as a set of 4.

These are the colours in the collection:

Crucible Gold
  • Ingredients: Bronze Powder, Silica
Crucible Khaki
  • Ingredients: Copper Powder, Zinc, Silicon Dioxide 
Crucible Red
  • Ingredients: Copper Powder, Silicon Dioxide
Forged Gold
  • Ingredients: Copper Powder, Zinc, Silicon Dioxide
These colours are approved for use on lips, eyes, and face, so you can pretty much use it all over your face. Another great thing about these colours is that they're really great on their own. You can pretty much use them on their own as eyeshadows, and they adhere well on their own, even without a base.

Here are arm swatches:


Under natural light, over Eccentric Cosmetics' primer

Under natural light
Left: Over bare skin
Right: Over Eccentric Cosmetics' primer

As you can see from the side by side swatches of these colours over primer and bare skin, while a primer do give them more of a vibrant shine, they look pretty good without a primer too!

You can also easily mix them up with a clear polish to great gorgeous colours:


Mixed with Sally Hansen's base coat, photographed under natural light


You can either dust them on your lips for some colour, or mix them up with Vaseline/lip balm/TKB's lipstick base/Life's Entropy's Placebo to create a lipstick/lip gloss. Here are swatches of the colours mixed with Vaseline:



Face swatches for the lips!



So now, DIY time...let's take a look at how they affect eyeshadow blends. These metallic colours create a sort of metallic "duochrome" effect. It makes any eyeshadow look sooo luxurious!

I've mixed them into some existing eyeshadows I have, and here are swatches of the original eyeshadow (top) + the Crucible micas (bottom) so you can get a rough idea of how these pigments change your formulations:

Under natural light, over Eccentric Cosmetics' primer

Under natural light, over Eccentric Cosmetics' primer
Here's some of the crafting tips I have for these:

  • These pigments are pretty opaque on their own, so they're great for making sheer eyeshadows more opaque and fixing patchy eyeshadows. 
  • They do darken the colours so watch out for that.
  • As you can see, the effect's rather lost on browns, and it's most dramatic against a darker base. You can still create ethereal looks with lighter colours though. 
  • I personally prefer something in between a 1:2 - 1:1 ratio for Crucibles:Colour. Since these pigments are pretty opaque on their own, if you have too much of them, they tend to dominate the colour and you'll end up with mostly metallic gold/red.
  • You can mix these into duochrome eyeshadows and still see the duochrome shift, but you'll probably need to add in more of the duochrome highlight if you want a more dramatic shift.
So there you have it! Hope you have as much fun with these pigments as I did!

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

IMAM Challenge: Dec 1 - Candied Apple

Today's IMAM Challenge theme is Candied Apple! So here's my take on it, using Lit Cosmetics' Mother Earth & Mexican Lucky, Backstreet Makeup Co's Raven, and Femme Fatale's The Scarecrow and Wicked Wax Museum!