Review & Swatches : MUA Ever After Matte Palette

For today's blog post...oh wait...let's all do the...

*Friday happy dance*

...for 5 minutes first!

And then, let's continue with today's post...

I picked up the MUA Ever After Matte Palette on my travels back home to UK this year and I finally cracked it open a couple of weeks ago.  It was cheap as chips at only £4 so should you buy a ticket to UK to buy this baby?

There are 10 matte eyeshadows in a cheap plastic palette with a double ended eyeshadow applicator - which is pretty useless so you can chuck that out and use your dirty fingers instead :P

I am happy to see that the shades now have names instead of numbers (which they had when I first encountered MUA back in 2010).

These are the swatches of the top row which contains the lighter matte shades - Unwrap, Butter, Bare, Taffeta, Fade.

The pigmentation was slightly disappointing.  They were almost non-existent in my yellow Asian skin.  I actually had to swatch a few times for it to show up on my arm.  But I appreciate the subtlety if you are going for a barely there makeup look.

These are the swatches of second row which contains the darker shades - Penny, China, Truffle, Fog, Smoke.

The pigmentation was better here, but not OMG-I-MUST-FLY-TO-UK-AND-BUY-THIS-RIGHT-NOW.  My favourite shade is Penny - a great shade for contouring - the only problem is... I don't know how to contour properly without looking like i have a dirty face, hehe!  But it's also great for faking the crease area on my Asian hooded eyelids.

Overall, I was left feeling a wee bit disappointed with the MUA Ever After Matte Palette because the eyeshadows weren't buttery smooth and as strongly pigmented as their mono single eyeshadows which I love.  I guess I had high expectations as MUA is a brand that I have loved from their early beginnings when they only sold £1 products.  However, the palette was ONLY £4 so it's definitely WAY better than other cheap eyeshadow palettes that I have come across which reek of some grandma scent with too much mica sparkles and looking at it will give you conjunctivitis - you know which ones I mean right?!

Well, thanks for reading this week!

Hope you all have an awesome weekend and catch ya next week.

Peace out,
Ling xoxo
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Review & Swatches : Maybelline Baby Lips Electro Pop

M for Monday...itis!

But hey, I'm fully recovered from my bout of Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease (thank you to baby germs!) so I ain't complaining!

M is also for Maybelline!  They recently sent me a few of their newest products and I immediately gravitated towards the Baby Lips Electro Pop Lip Balms.  (Okay, so they aren't new in the US of A but they are new to Australia.)

I am already a major fan of Maybelline Baby Lips but these Electro Pops are the sexier and more colourful elder sister (I'm only saying that because I am the eldest of 7, haha!  Sorry sibs!)

Basically, Electro Pops are awesome moisturising lip balms with a sheer tint of punchy colours.  I like the packaging of these more than the original Baby Lips because I like the longer lids which make them look more sophisticated like lipsticks.

• Pink Shock is Watermelon flavour
• Oh! Orange! is orange flavour
• Berry Bomb is berry flavour.

I have been wearing all 3 babies non-stop, but I think my favourite has to be Oh! Orange! but seeing as they are only $3.95 a pop, just buy them all! :)

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Five French Favourites featuring Uriage, Nuxe, La Roche-Posay, Gatineau & Bioderma

Today's letter is brought to you by the letter F.

Yes, it is Friday.

F yeah!

And also, I have Five French Favourites { featuring Uriage, La Roche-Posay, Nuxe, Gatineau and Bioderma } that I am really excited to share with you.

Clearly, the French do it best - French fries, French accents (mais, oui, eet eez zo zexyyy!) and French skincare - ooh la la!!!

1.  Uriage Xemose

When I was pregnant last year, I piled on 55lbs and most of it was due to my giant belly bump.  To keep my belly moisturised, I knew I needed something non-irritant, non-scented and highly hydrating.  Enter Uriage Xemose (Merci beaucoup to the lovely Emilie) and my bump was happy.  What is super awesome about this moisturiser is that it absorbs quickly without leaving an annoying greasy residue.  I got my Husband to moisturise my belly when it grew too big for me to do it myself and out of all the lotions and potions I used, he loved this the most because of the reasons I mentioned.  Added bonus was that his dry hands got moisturised too so they were well prepped for when baby popped out.

2.  La Roche-Posay Redermic [R]

I was only introduced to this infamous French brand earlier this year at the launch of Redermic [R].  This is a lovely retinol-based product which targets those dreaded wrinkles.  I am a big fan of retinol because it is a scientifically proven potent skincare ingredient.  Redermic [R] only contains 0.1% retinol and 0.2% retinol lineate so it is not as intensive as the concentrations that I have used before.  That said, I had stopped using retinol whilst pregnant so it was a gentle product to ease my skin back into retinol use without stripping it dry.  Fantastic for retinol skincare virgins.  There is also a Redermic [R] version for use around the eyes - I must get my hands on this!

3.  Nuxe Merveillance Expert Enrichie Jour Rich Correcting Cream For Visible Lines

With the changing seasons, my skin can go out of whack easily.  This is a fantastic ultra-hydrating day moisturiser which will keep very dry skin ladies like moi very happy.  It is a day moisturiser without SPF which is actually a good thing in my opinion because it forces you to apply additional sunscreen.  A lot of people skip sunscreen because they think that SPF 15 in their day moisturiser / makeup / BB cream is adequate - listen up ladies, it is (usually) NOT effective enough!

4.  Gatineau Activ Eclat Flash Radiance Serum

If you want beautiful glowy skin, get this pronto!  This just adds that special 'je ne sais quoi' radiant touch.  I have been mixing a few drops with my foundation and it just transforms my skin.  Love it!

5.  Bioderma Atoderm Nourishing Cream

Bioderma is famous for its micellar water but there are also some outstanding products in their range and this is one of them.  As a newbie mum, I only want the best skincare products for my baby's delicate skin.  Bunty's poor wee face was suffering from a rash (teething? weather? allergies? not sure...) and I tried 2-3 different creams but this Bioderma Atoderm Nourishing Cream was the only one which worked in calming down the redness and flakiness.  Now, we use it every night after her bath.  Not just for her face but all over the body too.  Major thumbs up from me!

Merci for reading.  All the products mentioned were provided for editorial consideration but I wouldn't recommend them if I didn't like them.  Je t'aime beacoup.  Au revoir!

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DKNY MYNY : Love At First Sniff

Well...I think the title of this post "DKNY MYNY : Love At First Sniff" sums up my review so let's just gaze at the gorgeous bottle instead...

Haha, just kidding...read on to see why it is such a delicious scent...

When this first arrived in the mail, I removed the packaging and plastic before I saw the bottle, but already my nasal senses were excited.  And then when I saw the heart-shaped bottle with the modern architectural lid, it was instant *heart eyes*.

Even though I can dissect the stench from my baby girl's nappy, I am not an expert at describing perfumes so I will let the experts do the talking...

Top notes :  Raspberry, galbanum, pink pepper
Middle notes :  Egyptian jasmine, freesia, oris
Bottom notes : Patchouli heart, vanilla absolute, creamy musks, ambergris

Together from top to bottom notes, DKNY MYNY is a fantastic concoction.  It is not overly sweet, the right amount of musk and it is all kinds of sexy!  Don't forget that the bottle looks gorgeous on your dressing table too!  This is guaranteed to escalate into your MUST-HAVE LOVE LIST!

Disclaimer :  Thank you to DKNY for providing DKNY MYNY for editorial consideration and for making me smell oh-so-damn-good!
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