i'm maki, a 28-year-old stay-at-home mom. my MAKEUP SHAKEUP will deal mainly on beauty but i now have recently spread my wings to encompass other topics.
i love discovering how other people live & would love to share a peek into my life too.
i love a cozy blogosphere and my co-bloggers are considered my friends.
what really got me innerested in makeup is seeing those beautiful eotd's from famous bloggers. in my opinion, their eye looks are much more beautiful than most celebrities would sport in the red carpet.
i wanted to be great at eye makeup as it is the best part of the face where talent can be shown without limits. and so after the basics of learning how to put on foundation properly, i immediately looked into eye makeups. been trying products very carefully.
i have delved into different eyeliners and sadly my lids just wont cooperate with pencils, no matter how they say this or that brand wont tug the lids, my lids still gets tugged by eyeliner pencils. i realize now that it may be my dry skin. when most people are having issues with oily skin, oily lids (oil mine as they call it), my skin is dry dry dry. tried liquid eyeliners also but the problem with liquid eyeliners is the applicators that come with it. the brands i've tried have useless applicators that just gets me frustrated. either it gives very thick lines, or the brush is too flimsy you get liner formula all over your lids. and the liquid eyeliner bottles wont let you use other brushes too as only the useless brushes that came with it fits the opening.
glad that people like me have another option when pencils and liquids wont work! there's gel eyeliners!
i dont buy cosmetics without researching about it as much as i can, my readers know that as i keep reiterating it in my in FOCUS entries.
for gel liners there are such brands as mac fluidline ("great but with a hefty pricetag"), bobbi brown long wear gel liners (more expensive than mac's yea?) indelible gel liners (that most mineral makeup companies carry but is sadly not readily available in manila), stila smudgepot (read SMUDGEpot), and the coastal scents gel liners :)
i have read numerous reviews about coastal scents gel liners and the claims that it's as good as mac's fluidline but with a reasonable price. so for the longest time i've been wanting to get my hands on those babies. coastal scents dont have a store here but they do ship to manila (at a ridiculously high price compared to other brands), so when i stumbled upon a local blogger's opinion that the gel liners that dollface cosmetics carry is just really of the same formula as coastal scents', haha! i went right on and contacted pearl of dollface to order.
and that's how i came about my first gel liners!
here below is a photo of the shades i picked:
black is a matte black like i want it to be. it is extremely pigmented and applies smoothly too. light blue is really more of a royal blue to me. smooth application with it too. the finish is matte. it is a lovely color. turqouise really got me excited when i saw it from the website but im disappointed to find out it's shimmery, therefore making it less pigmented than the other two shades. to get the color you see from the bottle(which is very beautiful), you have to swipe the gel thickly onto your lids or lower lashline. nevertheless, i know its shimmers will come handy someday. meanwhile let me enjoy its color :)
i have been using these gel liners any chance i can get and with only these 3 colors im extremely happy to discover a lot of beautiful looks that i will be posting time to time.
for now, im sharing with you an experiment i did on my dollface cosmetics gel liners.
on the above is a collage of photos i've taken of my eyes.
thefirst and second photos showed my lids wearing dollface gel liners. i line my upper lash line with BLACK, then applied BLUE right above the black line. i applied it around 5pm.
i decided to sleep (or i's really too lazy to remove the liner as i's too sleepy) with the liners on.
on the third photo, you can see my lids show some hint of the blue and black lines. that photo was taken 5am the following day. i checked my pillow and my hands to see if the gel transferred there but my hands, pillows and bed clearly dont have any trace of the gel. im thinking the gel got dissolved by the oil from my skin.
lastly, when i finally decided to wash off the liners, you can see that the remaining gel didnt smudge nor did it give me racoon eyes.
the photos speak for themselves.
more facts on this experiment: i used charm eyeliner brush for the black (great!) i used etude house eyeliner brush for the blue (looked great but after one wash it's suddenly a bit flimsy) i didn't use any lid primer i used shu uemura cleansing oil to washoff the gel
and there you have it.
after this experiment, i know i made a great greatgreat purchase.
now if only i have better eyeliner brushes.. anyone can make a suggestion?
p.s. you can also look forward on my in focus entry about these gel liners too.
i have recently posted some lipstick acquisitions and im sharing with you lipstick swatches and reviews today.
im talking about styli-style timeless lipstick, maybelline color sensational and maybelline mineral power lipstick
for reference, above is my bare lips..
and here's my lips with styli-style l3 timeless lipstick..
i have previously called this particular shade "fuschia pink", but to be more precise, they call it UNITY
bulleted details about it: the shade is much much sharper in person than my camera was able to capture it is non-drying it smudges color pay-off is good butstaying power is not, like i said, it smudges no i won't get another shade thank you very much..
moving on..
above is my lips with maybelline color sensational in pink petal thanks to our good sister donna's timely review.. i's actually on the hunt for a pink lippie and found out how good maybelline color sensational is so i immediately bought this one in ebay..
here are the bulleted details on maybelline color sensational: the shade i picked (pink petal) is an mlbb, you can see that it has a satin finish too yes it is non drying it doesnt smudge too color pay-off is wonderful staying power is good (when applied alone) and i bet it will stay better with a good base doesn't transfer much when you drink or eat something while wearing the lipstick YES im definitely looking to buy more shades!
and lastly..
you can see my lips wearing maybelline mineral power lipstick
this shade is called PINK PEARL and you can see a bit of a frost in the shade of pink that almost copied the shade of my pale lips..before i purchased this i researched about it via total beauty reviews (like i normally do with before i purchase beauty stuff) and it says that it's great for a lipstick newbie (which i totally am), i knew too that it has a poor staying power..
so here are bulleted points about it: yes, like they all said in total beauty, STAYING POWER IS BAD the shade is very natural with a bit of a frost it is poorly pigmented, you gotta build it up baby moisturizing it smudges a bit no, i won't repurchase other shades.. i maybe a lipstick newbie but im quickly getting a grip of how lippies should be
and there you have it.. hope this review helps..
and if you got some color sensational lippies of different shades there, please do share it to us!
i recently got myself an ETUDE HOUSE PLUMPING LIP TINT IN RED and im sharing with you a review (and some lip porn too) of the product.
above is a photograph of my bare lips for reference
and below here are photos of my lips wearing the product
you may click on the photo to zoom in.it shows my lips just right after i applied the plumping lip tint upto the 5th minute after i applied it
on the above photo im showing my lips in different angles wearing theetude house plumping lip tint in red..yes it says red but you cant see red in there can you? more of a wonderful shade of pink that can totally flatter any lips.. i've been using it almost daily since i got it and..here's what i reckon:
plus points are: the shade aint off..even if at first you'll be surprised(hey i bought red, and it is red from the bottle but why isnt my lips red? but hey! looks good! it IS great!) it actually moisturized my lips without making it icky sticky, can work as a great base for drying lippies it can convert your matte lipstick into a satin-finished lippie, just like it did on my nyx round lipstick in snow white (or maybe just add shine to your lippies without the frost or shimmers)
but too bad that it: didnt really plump my lips..i dont know with you people but that's what i see.. you be the judge cuz the reason why i took that much pictures is for all of us to see if it did really plump my lips or not..did it? or did it not? (not that my lips are too thin, i just wanted a little bit of help of course.. DO YOU THINK MY LIPS ARE TOO THIN??) it did give a tiny bit of sting that can be expected from lip plumping products (the sting is comparable to when you eat mentos..yes that's about it) and may give an appearance of plumping action cuz it made your lips shiny, but to me i dont see real plumping action :)
so my overall take on the etude house plumping lip tint: i still love it even if it's more of a lipstick base than a lip plumper. i think it will be a staple lip treat for me.
i hope my review helped you decide whether to get this product or not..
oh and by the way i also checked the pink variety of the plumping lip tint and it's a pale pink. if you're into pale pinks maybe you can try it and share a review to us?
maybelline dream mousse bronzer in sun glow i love it. been using it daily since i got it. i think the best way to apply it is simply by using your fingers and make circular motions on the apples of your cheeks. it's sheer. very hard to overdo it. therefore it gives me the natural glow. my skin looks definitely healthy and ready for summer. it's so soft, as expected owing to the fact that it's a mousse, therefore it's whipped. pot is small. im getting a backup soon.
look how it made my cheekbones beautifully defined.
tropez lip liner in pink, w a lipbrush styli style waterproof lip liner in crimson styli style waterproof lip liner in nude wet n wild lip liner in nude 666 maybelline forever metallics lip pencil in red
swatches and initial review tropez pink lip liner - the shade is cute but the formula is too waxy, havent even finished swatching it and it starts smudging.. only great thing is that its other end is a lipbrush styli style line and seal water proof in nude - nude shade is a bit darker than the nude that most of us would expect; it is waterproof though, creamy when swatched but a bit harder to apply on the lips styli style line and seal water proof in crimson - love the color..same with the nude version, harder to apply on the lips, tugs a bit.. wet n wild lip liner in 666 - looks more of a dark bronze than nude on me maybelline forever metallics lip pencil in red - i love the color! it is a fat pencil that gives a creamy shade of metallic red. rich rich rich! yea and smudges big time too.. still thinking of a way to fix that issue as i really love its shade
nyx round lipsticks in: indian pink- i expect since it's an "indian" pink, a hint of saffron is to be expected..color is beautiful for that casual walk w my kids..there are days though that it turns too orangey on me..i wonder why.. circe - peachy, with a little bit of frost snow white -looks red on the tube but gives matte crimson shade when applied, a bit drying but the color is very rich..
charm travel pro only able to use the stippling brush for a lot of times and i love it! it does the work giving me a flawless look when used with a liquid foundation. its size is just right for my face. im so happy. its hair dries faster too! sadly though, i noticed some hair breakage, no, not shedding. the black hairs i noticed breaks when i wash it. 2-3 hairs for the past 3 washes have broken :( too bad its no longer sold these brushes.. not sure if it's discontinued but i really want another one and i'm not sure that if i get the full-sized ones, i will love it the same as the travel-sized version..
