Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014! The new year will be here in a few hours and I can't wait! 2013 was a big blur, don't you think? The only thing that was clear to me was when I turned 20 haha! Anyway, I've decided to end this year with a bang- here's my version of the only tag that made me ecstatic, the Perfect Palette tag! x

Heya! Today's look is holiday inspired, something that involves shimmer and gold. This was supposed to be a Christmas look but I decided not to post it just because I knew there will be a lot of gold looks out there already. But now that Christmas is over, here's a look that is holiday-ish that can also be worn, say in New Year's Eve? Or anytime of the year really. ;)

Products Used:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Urban Decay shadow in Smog (lid)

Urban Decay Shadow in Half Baked (lid, on top of Smog)

Cosmoprof Brown shadow (crease)

Urban Decay Backdoor (outer v)

Urban Decay Kinky (brow highlight)

essence Gel Eyeliner London Baby

Catrice Precision Eye Pencil in 090 Gold Me Tight! (waterline)

Maybelline Volum' Express HyperCurl Cat Eyes Mascara

 Hey there! The past few days were blur mainly because everyone was busy and on the go. It's a problem for those who want to paint their nails (like me!) really because obviously you don't have much time to wait for your polish to dry. Thankfully, I found this uh-mazing top coat that solved my problem.

I recently got the Quick Dry & High Shine Top Coat from Catrice Cosmetics. I wasn't expecting anything from it really; I just wanted a top coat that I can use after painting my nails with colored polish. I also wasn't sold on the "speed dry formula" because everything that claims to dry quickly just doesn't. Again, I just wanted a top coat. But you know what, this amazed me!

The first thing I noticed was the consistency. It was like water! It doesn't have the thickness of a regular polish. It was runny and fluid. But I guess that's what makes it quick drying. Yes, it does dry pretty quickly! I waited for about 1-2 minutes (I waited by playing a round of Word Scramble. That game is so addicting!) and it was dry and smooth and shiny. I applied it when my nail polish has settled already. Don't apply this (or any top coat) on top of your colored nail polish immediately; make sure the colored polish has settled or semi-dry. Applying top coat on a wet nail polish is just disastrous and messy!

Overall, I'd give this polish a 4/5. It dried quickly, gave my nails shine, and it didn't create those irritating bubbles you get with other top coats. If you're a sucker for quick dry top coats or you just need one because you're always on the go, this one's worth the try.

I got this at Guardian Plus in Takashimaya SC for S$5.95.

What's your favorite/go-to top coat?

Heya! Just want to show you my nail color for Christmas. :) Instead of going for the usual red or plum, I decided to make it lighter this year and this nail polish turned out to be the perfect shade for this time of year.

Gorgeous Bling Bling is somewhat a spiced orange shade that's deeper in person. It must be the light that made the photos look like the polish is a bright orange but it's really not. It's the perfect mix of light and dark, so it's not too bright and neon nor dark and vampy. I also like that it has fine glitters and fine chunky glitters incorporated in it. The glitters add dimension to the polish but don't change the texture of the polish. One layer of Gorgeous Bling Bling is quite sheer and lighter in color. I did two coats on my nails because I wanted the polish to be opaque and quite deep in color. 

I absolutely like this polish which is a surprise really because I thought it would look unflattering on me. I'd say it's an age-appropriate color for me- not too mature but not too teenager-ish. Just thought I'd wear a new shade this Christmas since almost everyone's wearing red or plums or gold glitter. But I'd definitely wear this again after the holidays, that's for sure!

What shade are you wearing this Christmas?

Hi there! Today I have a quick review on the Bifesta Sebum Cleansing Lotion. I first saw the Bifesta line here in Singapore (yep, I'm here...again!) around two years ago and I wasn't able to try it asap because I've been very satisfied with my L'Oreal makeup remover. But that changed when I saw this last November in Watsons! The Bifesta Cleansing Lotions were sold in travel-sized bottles, perfect for those who wants to give it a try. It's also cheaper because each 50ml bottle costs only S$2! Win!

So anyway, I started using this this month and it's an okay product for me. I like that it's water-based so it leaves no oily residue on the face. It's such an amazing product for removing powder products, especially eye shadows. However, I think it's not the best makeup remover for waterproof mascaras. I used this to remove my mascara, the Maybelline HyperCurl Cat Eye, and it wasn't able to budge the mascara that much. It managed to remove flakes but that's it. I needed to tug my lashes for me to remove the mascara, something I don't really do that much when I use the L'Oreal makeup remover. It also takes quite some time to remove cream and liquid products but after that you'll notice that your skin is soft and smooth and oil free so the effort's worth it, I guess.

Because I think they're so cute, I think I'll be hoarding these 50ml bottles once I see them again. I think it's a perfect stocking stuffer since it's small and usable, especially to those makeup wearers out there! They don't take up space and weight so they're really good to take on a trip. Just don't forget to bring some cotton pads and you're good to go. :)

Hi there! Here's another EOTD which is definitely more wearable and day friendly than Caution Is Calling but still holiday appropriate since it's a glittery pin-up look. Pin-up looks are my favorite because they're pretty easy to do and recreate. All you need are eye shadows (light, brown, and/or dark brown/black) and black eyeliner. For my light shadow, I decided to use a non-white one and flesh-colored shadows are the best alternative as they're not as harsh but still give you a light wash on the lids. You all know I love my brown shadows so I decided to incorporate three. I'm not a big fan of a dark crease with pin-up looks so I just stick to browns and a teeny tiny bit of a dark brown shadow to deepen the browns a bit. As for eyeliner, I just did a wearable wing that's not long and dramatic. And for the first time I used liquid eyeliners! And I have to say: I still prefer my gel and cake liners. :P

Products Used:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Urban Decay shadow in Freestyle (all over the lids, crease, and browbone)

MAC shadow in Jaan (layered on top of Freestyle on the lid)

Kat Von D shadow in Evil Monkey (main crease color)

Cosmoprof Brown Shadow (blending/crease)

Urban Decay shadow in Backdoor (tiny bit on the outer third of crease, blended to the rest of the crease)

Urban Decay shadow in Foxy (browbone highlight)

essence Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner*

essence Stays No Matter What Waterproof Eyeliner Pen*

Ever Bilena Advance Eyebrow and Concealer Pencil (concealer end used on the waterline)

Maybelline Volum' Express Hypercurl Cat Eyes Mascara

*I used two liners because I had difficulty using the eyeliner pen so I switched to the thicker one with felt tip. After which I used the eyeliner pen again to clean the edges of the whole wing liner as the pencil is thinner and more precise.

Hi there! Here's a look I did that was a bit holiday inspired. I really like holiday looks that involve warm bronze and cranberry shades so I decided to make those my stand out shades. This is definitely an evening look since it's on the darker side. If I were to wear this look, I'd pair this with a dark red lipstick, most likely my Elizabeth Arden lipstick in Cranberry Cream. Christmas is coming and I don't have any holiday looks here so here you go. Also, another thing I'm obsessed about right now is lining my waterline with a cream colored pencil. I love how it opens up my eyes but in a less harsh way. I say skip the white liner and go find a cream colored liner! NYX has them but if you can't get a hold of those, look for concealer pencils. Nichido used to sell concealer pencils but I can't find any nowadays so I decided to try Ever Bilena's. I got the brow/concealer duo first since it's cheaper but I fell in love with the concealer end that I've decided to get the full sized ones that come in 3 shades. Yay!

Products Used:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze

Sleek Au Naturel Palette

a. Conker (layered over Bad to the Bronze; lower lashline)

b. Regal (outer v; outer corner of lower lashline)

c. Taupe (inner corner highlight)

d. Honeycomb (brow highlight)

Cosmoprof brown shadow (crease/blending)

essence Gel Eyeliner in London Baby

Ever Bilena Advance Eyebrow and Concealer Pencil (used the concealer on my waterline)

Maybelline Volum' Express Hypercurl Cat Eyes Mascara

Here's a little heartbreaking tale featuring my brows.

I love eyeliners. They're probably the most used items I have in my kit. I love how they make a difference to an eye look. Bigger eyes? Smaller eyes? A wicked wing? Just natural? Whatever look you're going for, eyeliners will always add an extra oomph.

Eyeliners are everywhere nowadays, thanks to the constantly growing beauty world. I remember years ago that some of the eyeliners I encountered were crap. They're too rough, too dry, they lacked pigmentation, and they weren't waterproof. Thankfully, that's not the case anymore. Liners are amazing now and they now come in different kinds, shapes, and sizes.

So I have here a list/compilation of the five different kinds of eyeliners for everyone out there. Whether you're a makeup newbie, a makeup collector and lover, a professional makeup artist, or just someone curious or who's confused as to what's what- may this somewhat help you to find the perfect liner to use on a daily basis...or just for fun!

Warning: Mildly photo heavy!

Can I just say how weird it is to have a red lip liner called Iris? Like, really, how is it that a red lip liner is named after a blue-violet flower? Oh well.

Moving on, here I have a first impressions-like post about the Guerlain Le Stylo Levres aka The Lip Liner (everything sounds posh, expensive, and complicated in French, doesn't it?) in #25 Iris Noir.

Hello, hello! Today I'm here with a moisturizer  review. Come to think of it, I think this is my first time to review a skincare product so I'm pretty psyched to tell you what I think about it. Curious? Then read on! :)

 Lookie! Purple liner! This is the other gel liner I got alongside London Baby which I previously featured. was really excited to test this one because I want to see how different it is from Maybelline's purple liner. Well, let's just say Berlin Rocks is definitely not a dupe for the Maybelline liner.

 Heya! So today I decided to open and test the essence gel liners I got in their private sale. I actually had low expectations with the liners just because they were really inexpensive and sometimes inexpensive products aren't really that spectacular. And you know what, I take it back; these liners are surprisingly mind blowing. The first gel liner I have for you is London Baby.

 Hey there! Today's EOTD is another look I did with the Too Faced Sweet Dreams palette. I played with the three purple shadows in it and attempted to somewhat do a 3-shadow gradient on my lid which was a bit of a struggle because I have such small lid space. The darkest color, First Dance, was a bit of a let down just because it moves/fades quite easily. But anyway, here's the final look. :)

Products used:

Too Face Shadow Insurance

Too Faced Sweet Dreams palette:

a. Cut the Cake - inner corner/inner third

b. Party Girl - middle of the lid; lower third

c. First Dance - outer lid/outer third; outer corner of lower lid

d. Cocoa Rose (blush) - crease 

e. In the Buff - browbone highlight

Catrice Precision Eye Pencil in 110 My Ninja Purple (waterline)

Graftobian Cake Liner in Jet Black

Maybelline Volum' Express Hypercurl Cat Eyes mascara

I know this product is so two years ago but guys, I've found the one. This is it!!

 After several days of not blogging (...teehee) wearing nail polish, I decided to start wearing the nail polishes I got during the private sale of essence cosmetics. Since I had 9 nail polishes, I can't, for the life of me, pick which polish to wear. So I did what I normally do when I can't pick: close my eyes and grab whatever bottle I get a hold of. #lifehackbyshaunne :)))

Two days ago, I went on a "field trip" somewhere in Bukit Timah Road. I call it a field trip because it felt like one; it required a very long train ride + walking + a bus ride. Specifically, my trip went like this: from Dhoby Ghaut (NE Line), I transferred to the red line (NS Line) going to Jurong East and alighted at Bishan. From Bishan, I transferred to the Circle Line going to Harbourfront where I alighted at Botanical Gardens station. From BG station, I rode a bus and two stops later, I finally arrived. Went through all that just to find the one shop* that sells the current obsession of everyone aside from cronuts: cookie butter. The Lotus one.

Heya! For today's EOTD I've decided to incorporate color instead of the usual neutral colors I use almost every time I do an EOTD. I snooped around my sister's makeup stash and I picked her Too Faced Sweet Dreams palette. I really liked the two green shadows so I decided to play with them. This look turned out to be a pretty simple one with two shadows on the lid plus the brow bone and inner corner highlight. I can never do looks that involve 3-4 shadows on my lids because, if it's not obvious enough, my lid space is pretty small and limited so I just stick with two colors most of the time.

Anyway, here's the look I did with my sister's palette. :)

Products Used:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Too Faced Sweet Dreams palette

a. Nice Stems! (lid)

b. Label Whore (outer corner, blended into the crease; lower lashline) (This shadow has such a nice color on the pan because it's like a shimmery green on top of a warm reddish brown shadow. I was a bit disappointed because when I blended the shadow, the green color vanished and left me with only the brown shadow on my crease. I figured Label Whore's better off unblended so what I did was pack it on the outer corner to retain the green color and I just gently blended the edges.)

c. Honeymoon (inner corner)

d. In the Buff (brow bone highlight)

Maybelline Volum' Express Hyper Curl Cat Eyes mascara

 essence cosmetics held a private sale in Concorde Hotel Singapore last November 1, 2, and 3. Since I'm a big fan of the brand, I went their on the first day. It really overwhelmed me because there were a lot of boxes containing nail polishes, skin care and face products, makeup products, and previous essence collections and discontinued products were also up for sale! Aside from essence, Catrice Cosmetics, a sister company of essence, was also there, as well as Hello Kitty and Elizabeth Arden. Aside from cosmetics, perfumes, shower gels, and bottles of liquid soap were also on sale. So after all the craziness that happened on that sale, here are the products I got. I must say that my self-control was really tested on that sale because everything was so damn cheap! I really had to think twice, thrice if I need or want a product. But anyway, I'm really happy with my purchase and the money I saved. ;)

 Quick post here. Decided to be toned down for Halloween this year. Last year was a Sally/Jack Skellington kinda look but now I decided to just do stretched lips. I actually used Promise Phan's video as a guide since that video was the first stretched lips tutorial I saw in Youtube. I don't have the Makeup Forever palette she has so I just used the materials I have.

Products used:

Maybelline Baby Lips Lip Balm

L'Oreal Color Riche in 374 Intense Plum

Maybelline Gel Eyeliner in 01 Black

NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk

essence CoverStick in 03 Matt Honey

Tools used:

Suesh Lip Brush

Royal & Langnickel C450 Flat Eyeliner Brush

Cosmoprof #3 Lip Brush

Happy Halloween everybody! xx

Heyy! I finally had the time to play with some of the shadows from the Sleek Au Naturel palette. I didn't really know what look to do so I kind of just went with whatever shadow I saw first. The shadow I saw first was a dark one but I didn't really want to go for a dark look so I countered it with a light shimmery shadow. I still wanted to incorporate a neutral shadow here to also tone it down. And here's the final look. :)

Eye products used:

MAC Painterly Paint Pot

Urban Decay shadow in Freestyle (lid wash)

Sleek shadow in Mineral Earth (middle and outer lid;  lower lashline)

Sleek shadow in Taupe (inner lid, middle lid overlapping Mineral Earth)

San San shadow in Warm Copper Fire (crease)

Sleek shadow in Regal (outer lid)

Urban Decay shadow in Kinky (brow bone highlight)

MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack

PS. Yes, I am still obsessed with Warm Copper Fire. :D

PPS. Title is from Panic! At The Disco's "Far Too Young to Die".

Last Saturday, I was able to see essence's new collection here in Singapore: Floral Grunge. If there's one product that caught my attention, it's definitely the hair dye powder. If you love hair chalk, you'll love this even more.

Black shadows are makeup staples. You can use it for smokey eyes, for filling your brows (that's if you really want a strong in-your-face brows), for creating depth in the outer v, for lining your eyes, and for setting your creamy or liquid liner. I absolutely love black shadows that are very opaque, especially in just one swipe. My favorite finish is matte and matte black shadows are usually the most opaque ones.

List:

L-R:

a. Carbon (from MAC quad, Athma); a matte black. This was a disappoint to me since I've heard a lot of raves about Carbon. The one on the Athma quad was so dry and quite sheer and as pictured, patchy. Please tell me Carbon isn't like this anymore!

b. Noir (Sleek Au Naturel palette); a dark matte black. Absolutely love this as it's decently dark and not sheer at all. I used this shadow on my brows on my previous LOTD, Miss Lily.

c. Creep (UD Naked palette); blue-black shadow with silver shimmer/glitter.

d. Blackout (UD Smoked palette); deep dark matte black. It's such a buttery shadow and it's very opaque too!

e. Oddfellow (Kat Von D Candelabra palette); a matte black with blue, green, and silver glitter. Not as pigmented as the others but it's definitely better than Carbon.

f. Blacksmith (Kat Von D Candelabra palette); a matte black with silver glitter. 

g. NYX Black shadow (NYX Make-Up Artist palette); a medium black with a hint of brown undertone.

h. Cosmoprof Black shadow (Cosmoprof Eye palette); a sheer-medium matte black. Has the same dry texture as Carbon but is more pigmented and it's not patchy.

j. Crave (UD Naked Basics palette); matte black with brown undertone. Another very pigmented UD shadow, same as Blackout except this is brown/black while Blackout is just a solid black shadow.

 Happy Friday! Here's the last San San shadow I got, Charcoal Brown. And it's gorgeooooooouuuuuus.

I previously reviewed Warm Copper Fire and now I have Deep Earth Brown. Yes, another neutral shadow. :))