ZOYA / Bar
I'm a big fan of Zoya's Pixie Dust Collection. I have Tomoko, which is a gorgeous golden shade with loads of matte glitter particles. I love how matte it looks when dried, even when I apply the top coat on top. I instantly fell in love with this new shade came out as a part of their 2014 spring / summer collection when I saw the photos as well as reading the description : Bar by Zoya can be best described as a glittery nude topaz in the
best-selling ultra textured, matte, holographic Magical Pixie formula.
I'm sold.
Look how glittery it looks. It looked a bit paler in their official photos, and is more like pinky gold in person. It's a little harder to apply than normal Pixie Dust as it has bigger chunks of holograms. And it chips very very easily, it doesn't even last for a day on my nails. It's so annoying because as you can imagine, it's pain in the butt to remove. Having to remove and repaint my nails every day or two with this nail polish is not ideal, but I cannot resist wearing this shade as it looks insanely sparkly and beautiful.
Have you tried their Pixie Dust Nail Polish? What's your favourite shade?
Makeup Revolution Eye Foils / Rose Gold £4.00
I might have forgotten to tell you, but I did a pretty big Boots / Superdrug shopping back in July. My husband was in England taking care of his family, and I took the opportunity to order as many drugstore products as possible, had them shipped to his house, and asked him to bring them back to Japan. He also got me my favourite magazines (Look, Grazia and Boots mag along with Stylist mags that I ordered online) which ended up to weigh 12kg in total. Anyway cut the long story short, I've got quite a few UK products to review. I've been writing reviews on them on my Japanese blog but am trying to focus on Japanese products here as a lot of my lovely readers here must be interested in Japanese products rather than the UK ones, as there are tons of great UK bloggers here. So I decided to write reviews of the products that stood out here, to share my thoughts with you.
Phew, the longest intro ever.
So, I got this eyeshadow only because I wanted the Stila one so bad when it came out. The idea of it is that you mix the liquid primer with the eyeshadow to create this "foil" look which is not too glittery but more intense than a normal shimmery eyeshadow. But the Stila one was ridiculously expensive. When I found this Makeup Forever version, I didn't even hesitate to purchase it. I picked the shade Rose Gold, as it seemed to be the most wearable.
The eyeshadow has this very unique texture. It's in between cream and powder. I take a little bit of it and...
...place it on the tray, and add a drop or two of the liquid primer. I used the brush to mix and apply when I tried it for the first time, but it made a huge mess so I wouldn't recommend it. You need to be really careful how much of the eyeshadow and primer you mix together, because when it's too hard, it literally makes you look like putting a piece of aluminum foil on your eyelids, and you cannot even blink. I realised a lot more of the primer than I expected is required to create the perfect consistency.
The bottom swatch is the eyeshadow alone, without the primer. The middle is the eyeshadow + primer applied with a brush. Then the top is the eyeshadow + primer applied with a finger.
When applied correctly, this eyeshadow looks really beautiful reflecting the light and making the eyes pop. I needed to practice a couple of times, and it was absolutely pain in the butt to remove it with a cotton pad with Bioderma. You need a good cleansing balm or oil to remove it completely from your face. But now that I learnt how to make the perfect formula, and how to apply, I am enjoying wearing it with Maybelline ColorTatoo in On and On Bronze on the outer corner to give a little bit of umph to the look.
I wish they had more unique shades such as taupe, grey, burgundy, khaki etc...hopefully they will come up with new shades in the autumn / winter! Have you tried this product? What do you think of it?
CANMAKE Lasting Multi Eyebase 500yen
I was pretty satisfied by the eyeshadow primer from Rimmel that I got from ASOS. Once I'd used it up, I immediately started searching for a replacement as I didn't want to order the primer from ASOS again just because the pound was like 175yen at that time, and also ASOS changed the delivery term and now you need to spend more than 15 pound to get free delivery. Ridiculous. So I was hoping to get something in Japan. Then I remember, this primer from CANMAKE had been hyped up. So I decided to give it a go.
It's a typical silicone-base primer that smooths out the skin and creates the perfect base for anything applied on top. It's not tinted but strangely it feels like it evens out the skin tone too -it could be only in my mind-.
In the morning, I apply this eyeshadow primer after applying the normal makeup primer all over my face. I take a tiny bit on my fingertips and apply it on my eyelids, brow bones and under the eyes. It prevents the eyeshadow from getting creased, and also makes them last much longer. I wear makeup more than 14 hours on weekdays, and any eyeshadow goes away after like 8 hours in this heat. But with this eyeshadow primer, I still can tell the colour of my eyeshadow at the end of the day, which is impressive!
Also it makes concealers go smoothly too, and they never get cakey and dry with this primer on underneath. I cannot rave about it enough, especially considering the fact it's only 500 yen.
Yes it's tiny, but it lasts for at least 3 months. I would say 6 months, probably. It is definitely one of the best products that you can get from a drugstore. It's waterproof which makes it wearable at the beach, too. I cannot put my makeup on without it, and have been using it none-stop since I got it a couple of months ago. It's a must-buy if you have a chance to come to Japan. I guarantee you!
