Mascara Reviews! Maybelline Turbo Volume Express, Canmake Gokubuto, Kiss Me Heroine Long and Curl

While I was in Hong Kong during April, I stopped by Sasa to pick up some mascara since I had to look "dolled up" for an party with my friend. My previous mascara I threw out, since I didn't think I needed to wear makeup at all during my travel (all I had was concealer). 

In Hong Kong, I picked up a lot of face masks, skincare, and the two mascaras that I will blog about here.

Please keep in mind that all the mascaras I use are waterproof. They are the only type that will hold my curl.  

The first thing I picked up was Canmake's Gokubuto mascara. 

I only chose this because I heard that Canmake makes really good cheap makeup products. While I, unfortunately, didn't pick up any other makeup items by Canmake, I decided to choose this because mascara is VERY important to Japanese girls. 

My opinion: I didn't like it at all. Doesn't hold a curl and it smudges. The product gunks up on the brush so defining my lashes made it difficult, I had to clean the wand with a paper towel several times. Even after I cleaned it, the product quickly began to stick to the wand.

The only way I continued to use this by layering it over waterproof mascaras. 

When I realized that the Gokubuto mascara was horrendous, I went back to Sasa and bought the Kiss Me Heroine, Long & Curl mascara. I've heard fabulous things about the Kiss Me series, and I was not disappointed! 

My Opinion: Holds a curl, does not smudge, defines my lashes, it was amazing!

The wand is great, the product barely gets on the wand, and it's super flexible making it easy to reach the upper and lower lashes. 

I recommend this, and if I was to ever get a Japanese mascara again, it would be from the Kiss Me series! :)

After I came back from my Asia adventure, I returned to using my Maybelline Turbo Volume mascara. I love trying all the Maybelline mascaras because they are amazing. After my previous mascara post where I tried the Maybelline Colossal mascara, I wanted to try all of the Maybelline mascaras!

My opinion: As expected! Maybelline makes fantastic waterproof mascaras. Defined my lashes, kept a curl, and it didn't smudge! The wand is very simplistic, but it was still extremely easy to reach all of my upper and lower lashes. 

If I was to choose though, the colossal is my favourite Maybelline mascara though. This one isn't bad, but the colossal made my lashes look much better. I would still recommend this though. 

Right now I am on my second tube of the Kiss Me Heroine, Long & Curl mascara. It is amazing, I wish I had yet ANOTHER tube of it. 

Next on my mascara posts is the sample tube of Benefit's They're Real! I have also been using a non-waterproof version of L'oreal's lashblast volume. Basically, I don't like it. It does add a lot of volume to my lashes, but it doesn't hold my curl. Probably because it isn't waterproof. :( 

What mascaras does everyone like? I would love some recommendations! Right now I have more Maybelline mascaras to get through since I bought some during a sale at Shoppers. 

Etude House Haul

Slightly mentioned in my previous Korea skincare haul, I said my sister might pick up some items from Etude House for me (since after looking at blushes online), I realized I wanted to give them a try! Once again, I didn't get a lot because I personally don't need more makeup.

Overview of everything I got

Blush!

I picked the lovely cookie blusher in raspberry tarte and carrot cheesecake. The packaging is cute, but personally I would never use the puff. I haven't opened them yet, but I chose the colours because orange is really in and I wanted a cheap orange blush. And the raspberry tarte because it was bright and different. 

Water color blush in apricot

I really wanted to try this blush because I read it'd be perfect for my oily skin! I found this might be really good to layer under the orange blush from above.

I shouldn't have been too shocked, but when I grabbed it out of the bag I was shocked at how tiny it was! I decided to compare it to a roll of scotch tape. I haven't tried this either.

Last is the two items I received as a freebie. The wonder pore freshner trial glove and a hair tie! Haven't used them either!

Another thing that I just remember that I forgot to photograph, but it is included my haul photo, the "I'm blooming sebum control mist"!

I was trying to explain to the sales associate that my skin was oily, and I wanted a spray. I bought the aloe vera mist as a refresher, but this one I didn't get because I didn't think I'd use it. However after coming back to Canada, my skin has definitely got some oil control problems (probably just adapting to the different climate here). I haven't tried it here either but it worked really well when I tried it in Korea. 

Obviously, reviews of products will come! If anyone has any specific requests, just comment below! I can't wait to use the makeup, but I haven't really needed to wear makeup and I recently went hiking and got a mosquito bite on my face.... haha!

South Korea beauty and skincare haul!

As previously mentioned in my short update post about beauty associates in Korea, I now have a haul from South Korea to post! Korea was my last stop on my trip around Asia, by this time my suitcase and luggage was quite heavy and I didn't have space to buy a lot. Irregardless I managed to stuff as much cosmetic stuff in my bags as possible. Things that I did not take a picture of were face masks, nail polishes, some face powders and one eyeliner. I bought quite a bit of face masks because they are presents for my family and friends. 

While I absolutely love makeup, I was more on a skincare haul because they were (slightly) cheaper. Personally I don't feel the need to increase my makeup collection, so I didn't buy eyeshadows or mascaras. Although after I left, I did send a note to have my sister buy me some blushes because I love blush (not too sure if she got them for me though). 

ALSO, I apologize for the horrible quality. I took this on my iphone4 and it was late at night (I was still incredibly jet lagged when I was unpacking all my things). 

Onto the pictures!

Everything I got, including some of the free samples!

My 3 BB cream, and 1 CC cream haul

 I held back and only bought 3 BB creams and 1 CC cream. From left to right it is: Skin fit original from the Saem, CC Cream from tony moly, perfect cover BB cream from Missha, and precious mineral BB cotton fit cream from Etude House. 

Skincare goodies from Etude House and Nature Republic

 From left to right: Wonder Pore Freshner (toner) and Black Head healing deep clean gel from Etude House. And a pore and blemish cream and bee venom pink spot lotion from Nature Republic. 

Random goodies, I got a cute bunny pocket face mist and a lip and eye makeup remover with two lip tints from Tony Moly, and a aloe moistfull face mist from Etude House.

I have used the BB cream from the Saem already once or twice, I still want to use it more before giving my full opinion or review. 

The aloe moistfull mist is very nice, despite the fact that I have oily skin I still use this to refresh my skin if it is feeling dry, or irritated in any way. Sometimes I use this as opposed to a moisturizer in the morning because it's lightweight and soothes my skin before I apply any makeup. 

My favourite makeup store in Korea has to be Nature Republic. Every store I went to, no one really followed me around like the other stores, and even though one store was extremely busy during a sale in the store, when I asked some questions they tried their best to help and explain it correctly to me.

Not to mention they were the store that was the least stingy with free samples. The one that was most stingy was the Saem, the lady explained that because I bought stuff on sale, she can't give me anything. She promised that the next time I come in I will get more, and I said I was leaving soon and she said: "Oh, sorry." Not that I need more samples, but I was disappointed, I really wanted something from the store since G-dragon was promoting there!! 

My second favourite has to be Tony Moly. Cute and good quality items, but every time I went in they didn't have a sale and things were slightly pricey. However they gave me a lot of free samples, despite having bought everything cheaper items and things that were on sale!  

Reviews on items will be coming! They probably won't be for a while since I don't have my good camera and don't have much of a chance to wear makeup. 

Also I think I will do a small haul of things I got from Japan, because I did get quite a bit of makeup from Japan as well (even though it was expensive). 

Daily Makeup Box

I have a small stash compared to others (although my family thinks it's huge and rather wasteful), but I have a small box that carries the makeup that I grab for on a frequent basis.

 The container, as you can see, is a thin cardboard box that I found in a big pocky package holding smaller pocky bags. Hard to explain, but I saw that this box was the perfect size and I decided to keep it. To make it a bit more sturdy, I taped the sides and... well, the whole box to make it sturdy. 

Now onto the products!

Hard Candy glamoflauge, I bought this because of all the rave reviews but it's a little too dark for my undereyes. I still use it for undereyes and spots because the coverage is amazing.

Mascaras, I am using the NYC volumizing show time as a base and then overtop use a sample of Clinique's high impact mascara. I really wish the Clinique mascara was waterproof (or at least hold a curl) because it makes my lashes look amazing. 

I got the Physicians Formula eyeliner and eye booster liquid eyeliner because there was a rebate for it to try it free last year. I decided to jump on that opportunity because free eyeliner, why not! I got it in the colour brown and I absolutely love this eyeliner. Thin felt tip, opaque and made applying eyeliner feel like a breeze! Can't say much for the eyelash booster portion of this, but it already ran out so once I go through my other eyeliners, it's a definite repurchase!

Lorac's behind the scenes eye primer, sadly I bought a set just for this eye primer (since Lorac isn't readily available in Canada), and I was disappointed. Urban Decay primer potion didn't work well for my eyelids, I figured this would be the next best thing. Nope, and not a repurchase from me.

Last is a Clinique pencil liner in 04 black coffee. I received this from a family friend, because it was part of a gift with purchase and they don't want the makeup, just the skincare items. Ah well, it works like any other pencil liner. I do however like the cap it came with, and will reuse that with all of my pencil liners in the future.

And last but not least my tweezerman tweezers, nothing special there, they work just fine.

Eye products next! Sephora eyeshadow that I received free as a birthday gift. I actually don't use this often at all, beside that in the white container is whatever is left of the taupe shade in the Wet and Wild silent treatment trio (it fell on my bathroom floor and only the taupe shade broke). A Rimmel eyeshadow in black, but it is really sheer and applies like a light charcoal so I use it for my brows. Elf cream liner in black, it dried up so I used some eyedrops to revive it but once again, I don't use this often (I prefer pencil, it's faster and easy to draw on). 

Ardell eyelash glue, nothing special but I won't be using this again and would rather try a Japanese brand or maybe the duo brand in the future. 

Last but not least my only cream shadows, Revlon in black magic. I don't use this as often as I want, but my lids are so oily that these crease within an hour without a primer. With a primer, maybe three hours. Definitely going to use whatever I can and then toss it.

NYC loose powder in translucent, for the price you get a lot! I'm going to have a hard time using this up, it works alright, I don't see it making a HUGE difference! L'oreal mineral foundation, I don't really care for it. Same goes for the blush beside it, and then a sample of blush from coastal scents.

NYC blushable cream sticks, I don't use this too often too but will try to because for some reason, I have a backup of this.

Three most commonly used eyeshadow palettes

Left to right, Laura Mercier in sandstone. Estee lauder palette and a Elizabeth Arden palette.
I absolutely love the Laura Mercier shadow, I got this in my luxe box and was extremely happy with the box. Amazing and easy wash of colour that brightens up above my eye easily, lots of product and small packaging.

As you can tell from the picture above, I used up the pink shade in the Estee Lauder palette, not my favourite colour but I managed to use it everyday for a few months. 

The Elizabeth Arden palette is extremely old, I actually found this in my mom's room. She doesn't use eyeshadow, and I fell in love with the browns in the palette, so I took it. The pink is extremely sheer, so I only use the brown colours.

My only lip product, Maybelline baby lips. I received this as a prize from a giveaway, and I must say it smells really nice! It adds a nice bit of colour too, but I can't say I like it very much. Mainly because I am a lip chap junkie, I reapply as much as possible throughout the day. Because of that the pigmentation on this builds up and turns into a really unflattering colour with my skintone. But for a sheer wash, works fine!

Another longer post! I am on a role. 

So what do you use on a daily basis? Around the same - or even more - than my little box of products??

Mascara galore!

As stated in my previous post, I am a mascara junkie. I absolutely love mascara! Fortunately I have been blessed with fairly long lashes (for an Asian girl) and I find that my eyes really stand out when I have mascara on. 

Rexall usually has a 50% mascara sale once (or twice?) every year, I usually take that time to try out new mascaras, as well as stock up on old favourites. 

As mascaras can range from $4 - $15 in Canada, I really like taking advantage of this sale because each mascara will usually end up being around $2 - $5 each. I definitely can't pass up a sale like that!

I decided to review the mascaras that I have been using since I bought them in October/November.

Side note, the Lorac one is actually from a Sephora Lorac kit I bought back a while ago but became interested in using the eye primer.

NOTE: All of them are waterproof except for the Lorac one. I find only waterproof mascara holds a curl.

Top to Bottom: Maybelline Colossal Volume, Revlon Grow Luscious Plumping, Revlon Grow Luscious, Lorac Special Effects and Prestige Lash Matrix.

 Starting off with Lorac special effects, my only mascara that is not waterproof. Half mascara and half mascara primer, I was quite excited to try this because I've never tried a mascara primer.

 If I had naturally curly lashes, I'd love this mascara! However I just have long flat lashes, it lengthens it nicely but that's about it. 

Top: Primer side, Bottom: Mascara side

Close-up of the bristles on the wand (same type of bristles on the primer end)

Altogether

 Overall it's a nice product, but not for me. I do really like the primer side though, when I used it under other waterproof mascaras, my lashes looked gorgeous. I will definitely look for another good primer to use on the special occasions where I don't want to apply falsies. 

Prestige Lash Matrix, as it says on the tube: Length, Lift, Volume mascara. Sadly I can't say too much about this mascara because it was pretty much dried up by the time I opened it. I can't remember but I think I might have opened it once and took a look at it when I first bought it... but as I said I can't remember. 

All the dried up product gunked on the brush, yuck. 

I do have to say though when I tried it the few times, it was nothing special. That and it has a REALLY strong fragrance. I'm used to smelling chemical like mascaras, but this one... smelled really nice. But if you're sensitive to fragrances, you probably don't want to apply this near your eyes... at all. 

My FAVOURITE of the bunch! In the past I tried Maybelline's Falsies (in black drama waterproof), It didn't really stand out for me and while it made my lashes look nice, nothing amazing. This mascara however... AMAZING!!

 The brush is nice, covers all my lashes, volume and lengthens it just enough. Not to mention my lashes stay curled all day long. Best of all, NO SMUDGING! I have had so many smudging problems with my old mascaras, that when I tried this and there was no smudging, I fell in love! This is a definite repurchase for me.

SUPER close up of the bristles

 Next up are the Revlon ones!

 I decided to try both because eyelash growth serum? Yes please!

Needless to say, both flake, didn't notice a difference in length and they dried up really fast. 

Grow Luscious

Grow Luscious Plumping

Top: Plumping
Bottom: Original

 Final verdict: Even though I wouldn't repurchase either, I did find better results with the original formula. Mainly because of the brush, it worked a lot better to get into the inner and outer corner of my eyes to reach every lash. Something to note is that both of these flake horribly. If your a contact lens wearer, there were times where it would just flake into my eyes and cause temporary pain.  

Last but not least, NYC Show time.

I bought this because my HG for a while was the Cover Girl mascara professional in the blue tube (I think) and I thought this would be similar. I would've continued using the Cover Girl brand, but it started smudging under my eyes so I stopped using it; even though it gave my lashes an amazing look. I thought this would be similar, as it was cheap and looked about the same.

I think the brush is what made it fail on my lashes. Didn't coat my lashes, and in the end didn't do anything for my lashes. It gave my eyes an extremely natural look, it didn't even seem like I had mascara on! But that isn't my preferred look, if I use mascara I want major definition of my lashes. I ended up mainly using this under other mascaras because it was somewhat waterproof, but again it didn't even hold a curl so in the end a waste of money.

Phew, long post! 

If anyone has a HG mascara please share! I love trying drugstore mascaras, with the occasional high end mascara that I get as a sample. I love mascara! Who else does to?! :)

Coastal Scents Haul, and Project 10 Pan!

First of all, I want to start this off with

HAPPY 2012 EVERYONE!

I know I posted my acne story as my first blog post of 2012, but I figured this is more of a thought out post, whereas my acne one was something that came to my mind and I just had to write about it.

Anyhow I hope that everyone had a wonderful 2011, and 2012 will be an even better year. :)

Post holidays, I received some items that were sent extremely late.

A while back when I was browsing online, when I saw that coastal scents was having their 40% off sale!

I've never purchased anything from coastal scents (CS), being from Canada I'm extremely weary of ordering anything from the US just because shipping fees tend to be completely overpriced.

But I wanted a new setting powder, and heard that pure silica powder is the best. I was lemming it for a while, but never wanted to pay full price and shipping for the one item. 

After browsing the website, adding some things to my cart, I calculated my shipping and the total was $5 for all the items I wanted! I was shocked! $5!! Naturally I jumped at this opportunity and ordered things.

Continue on for loads of (somewhat) blurry pictures and my thoughts! :)

Collective Haul!

Tis the season to be spending~

Since there were quite a number of deals the past couple of months, I've been stopping by Rexall to pick up a few items, and doing just a bit of online shopping. ;)

I picked up a new foundation, Marcelle Matte finish in the colour Almond. Rexall was having a 50% off all face cosmetics sale, and I was rather eager to try a new foundation out.

I haven't tried it yet, but I have to say not fond of the packaging. I totally thought there was going to be a pump, but alas as soon as I opened it was I disappointed. Guess I'll have to wait to see how the formula is!

Parfum1 had a 20% off code, so I used that to pick up my favourite perfume

Came with a sample~

Once again Rexall had a buy one get one free on the Revlon lip butters! I originally bought the colour "Pink Truffle" at work, and this time I wanted Berry Smoothie and Creme Brulee or Peach Parfait. Sadly both colours were out of stock, so I ended up with Berry Smoothie and Raspberry Pie. Reviews to come soon!

Also the Christmas cards (SUPER CUTE NO?), hair mousse and spin pins I picked up at London drugs. The mousse was 1.99 each, so I snatched up the remaining 6, the spin pins were 25% off and came to around $5 (originally 7ish!).

My yesasia.com haul! I waited FOREVER for this! I originally ordered a Rilakkuma cosmetic bag that wasn't in stock, I waited a couple of weeks while they searched through warehouses until I got a email saying it was out of stock. I cancelled the item and wanted the rest shipped out asap!

The cat is pencil case, and it's actually a Christmas present for my friend! She loves cats so when I saw this I immediately put it in my cart! It's super adorable and kinda makes me want one too...

I got a iphone/ipod/ipad home button sticker, and a headphone cover thing (that's also a strap holder), and Tablo's album - Fever's End.

I LOVE Tablo's album, I was most excited for this to reach me more than anything! After listening to "Bad", "Home" and "No tomorrow" I knew I HAD to order it. 

Inside it came with a YG family card, I'm not too sure how to register it but god knows I will figure that out! I've been a fan of Tablo and Epik High for so long, ever since I heard "Anyband", I fell in love with Tablo, which then led to Epik High. 

I'm so happy that he finally released an amazing album, after all the hard times he's been through, I'm so proud and happy for him!!

Left: Commander in Chic, Right: Barracuda

Lastly Sally Hansen polishes!

Nail products are buy one get one 50% till Dec 24 at Rexall, and the last time I was there picking up the lip butters I saw Barracuda! Ever since seeing it in missglamorazzi's youtube videos back in the summer, I've been on the hunt! It's been sold out everywhere (I've found it at one SDM but it was all crusty as someone had used it in the store), and when I saw i knew I had to have it!

I've been lemming Commander in Chic for SO long! It reminds me a lot of Rimmel's Steel Grey, but I couldn't compare the two colours at the store so I bought it anyway! I hope it's a bit different, because I loveee Steel Grey, and don't want something extremely similar. :\

On another note! Revlon lip butter review, picture, swatches (of some) to come soon!

I've been on a blog block because I've been working everyday, and coming home for a couple of hours just to go out and catch up with some old friends!

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everything is going well for everyone!! :)