FOTD: 30th August 2010

Today I wanted to try the Nymph Dream quad from ELF, but I chickened out and end up only using two of the brown-ish colour in the quad.
The lighter brown is such an interestin shade as it's a brown with golden-ish sheen to it, so lovely. But the picture didn't really show how lovely it is. Maybelline Great Lash Mascara is such an overrated product, I wanted to finished it up fast but I hate it too. But I find using ELF Mascara Duo (regular part) before the Great Lash makes it work and also make removing the mascara much easier.

And today I mix ELF Mauve Luxe with Pink Kiss glosses, I love the glossiness of this glosses, it could last all day!

Products used for day look: Silky Girl Blusher Honeywood, ELF Cream Eyeliner, NYX Eyeshadow base in white, ELF Eyebrow Kit, ELF Gloss Mauve Luxe and Pink Kiss, Elianto Single Eyeshadow Champagne, Everyday Minerals Olive Medium Matte Base and Intensive Tan Concealer, and ELF Ivy quad, ELF Mascara Duo and Maybelline Great Lash Mascara (Black, Waterproof).

Tools: ELF Powder Brush, Angled Foundation Brush, Complexion Brush, Blending Brush, Contour Brush. Everyday Minerals Eye Kabuki Brush. Fake MAC 24 eyeshadow brush and eyeliner brush.

FOTD: Day and Night, 27 August 2010

FOTD today gonna include two looks, day and night look.

Day look.

Yeah, that's me in the lab. Only dark green and light green from ELF Ivy quad used for this look. Noticed how long my lashes is! ELF Mascara Duo from the regular ($1) line really awesome.

Products used for day look: ELF Studio Blush Candid Coral, ELF Cream Eyeliner, NYX Eyeshadow base in white, ELF Eyebrow Kit, ELF Gloss Watermelon, Everyday Minerals Olive Medium Matte Base and Intensive Tan Concealer, and ELF Ivy quad.

Since my friends and I going to Merdeka Palace Hotel for dinner, I feel like doing some dramatic eye look for the night and I come up with this look.
For night, I use almost all the product that I used for day, except that I change to Drama quad and Pink Kiss lipgloss. I also add false lashes to the look. I put more product than I usually did for the eyebrow using ELF Eyebrow Kit, I'm amazed how natural it look even in close up. I used all 4 color in Drama quad with the black being toned down a lil.

The ELF Studio Candid Coral blusher is such a beautiful blusher, and it's a good thing that it is not super-pigmented as I love my blusher to be barely there, just enough to give glow to my face. I love the golden sheen in the blusher, it's gorgeous!

Products used for Night look: ELF Studio Blush Candid Coral, ELF Cream Eyeliner, NYX Eyeshadow base in white, ELF Eyebrow Kit, ELF Gloss Pink Kiss, Everyday Minerals Olive Medium Matte Base and Intensive Tan Concealer, and ELF Drama quad. Used both day and night: ELF $1 Mascara Duo and DAISO eyelash curler.

Brushes used today: ELF Studio Complexion, Powder, Angled Foundation and Contour Brush. ELF Professional Blending Eye Brush, Everyday Minerals Eye Kabuki Brush. Fake MAC 24 eye

FOTD: 25th August 2010

Since I spent most of my weekdays working in the lab, I prefer to put on natural makeup, just enough to make me look less tired and stuff. Today, I opt on grey eyeshadow to match my shirt, I used both greys from ELF Drama quad and light brown for highlighter from ELF Luxe quad. Turn out to quite nice. Done nothing to my brows today. I'm too lazy to spend too much time in front of the mirror.

Finally, after weeks of used, I learned how to use the Everyday Minerals concealers and base without caking it. Yay! Can you see how neutral the Clinique High Impact Honey Blush lipstick applied to my lips, I'm loving it!

Blusher is one of the cosmetics item that take me forever to master, I paranoid of looking clownish when I put blusher on, so I always end up with only hint of blusher on my cheek, like today. The Silky Girl blusher in Honeywood is one of my favourite everyday blusher, this is the product that make me fall in love with coral shade.

The stuffs: Nivea Lip Care Rose Velvet. ELF Mascara Duo. ELF Drama and Luxe Quad. NYX Eyeshadow Base in white. Everyday Mineral Olive Medium Matte Base and Intensive Tan Concealer. Silky Girl Honeywood Blusher. Clinique High Impact Honey Blush lipstick .

The tools: ELF Powder Brush, Angled Foundation Brush, Blush Brush, Blending Brush. Everyday Minerals Eye Kabuki Brush. Fake MAC 24 eyeshadow brush.

Haul and Review: Everyday Minerals

I've just recently converted to mineral foundation and god, how I wish I did that earlier. I love the fact that it is so easy and convenient.

So my quest searching for the right shades started with three Everyday Minerals samples namely Buttered Tan, Golden Medium and Beige Neutral. All in intensive formulation. The formulation is not bad at all, it covers minor imperfection on my skin without using concealer. But it's a lil too heavy, so I thought lighter formulation will work better to my liking. Regarding the base shade/colour, Buttered Tan is a bit dark and it make my face skin color look flat. Golden Medium is golden-ish and Beige Neutral is too light for my skin tone, so I combine this two and the combination come close to my skin tone.

After deep discussion with my bestfriend regarding with my skin tone, I'd decided on Olive Medium matte base. Guess what?! It's a perfect match! It make my skin glow that I received quite a few compliment when I have the foundation on. The formulation is just nice for everyday use, not too heavy, not too light, just nice. I still need some concealer to conceal under eye circle and some imperfection. It could last all day (more than 9 hours) provided that I didn't sweat much. Once, I was sweating like I'm in a sauna and I can see my foundation melting from my face.

Intensive Tan concealer is not bad at all as an everyday concealer. I used it as under eye and blemishes concealer. Based on the way I used, it covers the imperfection decently, not perfectly. You can build it up for more coverage. However, building it up would make it appear reddish, which contrast my base color right away. So I have to be light handed with this. Still loving it tho.

click to enlarge

And lastly, I bought the Eye Kabuki Brush from Everyday Minerals, and now it is one of my must-have brush. It's a wonderful brush for concealer application under the eyes and on considerably large area. All brushes from Everyday Minerals are vegan-friendly, meaning that the brush made of synthetic material. I love the handle so much, beautiful bamboo pattern and lovely clear finishes. It's a good brush as the ferrule and the handle connection is firm and I experienced very minor one or two hair shedding after weeks of usage. The brush is also soft and easy too clean.

All in all, I'm happy with my purchase, and I'll definitely gonna stock up on the Olive Medium base as it is perfect!

Review: ELF Brightening Eye Color (Drama)

In my pajama and playing around with my makeup, I found that ELF Brightening Eye Color (Drama) deserves a review video ASAP. It is such a beautiful quad for dramatic look.


The quad comes with one matte white, 2 sparkly/shimmery grays and 1 a lil shimmery black. Paired with NYX eyeshadow, it could last quite long time, around 6 hours. With hot and humid weather here, slight creasing and fading unavoidable.

With decent brushes, this quad is easy to work with, the shades are buildable and blendable. You can see how nicely pigmented the quad is from the picture above. However, I noticed that this quad won't packed satisfactorily without a base for it to stick to. Without base, the sparkles from the grays easily fall out and it is hard to wipe it off from the cheek without messing up my foundation first.

The quad is awesome for travel as it so lightweight comparing to the Studio line packaging, I think it is because of the type of plastic and the fact that the mirror is way smaller compared to the studio line. It does look cheap tho! lol

Pardon me for the horrible picture, but you can see that the quad is actually an awesome quad!

Haul: ELF combined supa-haul! Part 2

Continued from part 1 http://pepperflecks.blogspot.com/2010/08/haul-elf-combined-supa-haul-part-1.html

Picture from left to right, top to bottom:

• The Studio line blushes Candid Coral and Mellow Mauve is such a joyous purchase, such a flattering shades and wonderful finishes to the blushes.
• The Eyebrow Kit in Medium is perfect to my liking as I never really into strong brows and the shades somehow matches my hair color. The swatch on far left is the gel part alone, middle is gel+powder and far right is the powder alone.
• Mineral Booster, I have love-hate relationship with this one as it helps controlling the shine and make my skin feels so soft, but it also darken my face, like really dark.
• Complexion Perfection is such a saver as the Mineral Booster disappoint me a lil. It brighten my face and control shine a lil less better than the Mineral Booster.
• The glosses are my sweeties. From top to bottom: Watermelon, Pink Kiss and Mauve Luxe. So glossy and moisturising. Last a real long time on my lips!
• The Clarifying Pressed Powder and the mascara duo is decent products, but the All Color Stick doesn't agree with me as it shimmer too much.
  

I'd got myself ten of the Brightening Eye Color Quad and most of it are actually I'd got myself ten of the Brightening Eye Color Quad and most of it are actually good quad.

From left to right, top to bottom: Ivy (Good), Luxe (Good), Blue Moon (Good), Silver Lining (Good), Butternut (Good), Nymph Dream (Good), Drama (Good), Punk Funk (So-so), Nouveau Neutrals (Decent), Hazy Hazels (So-so), Brownstone (Meh~) and Matte Mauve (Super Meh~)

Haul: ELF combined supa-haul! Part 1

Since a month ago, three separate ELF hauls arrived and I'd been kept busy with annual report preparation. Finally, I got some time to show some love to my (restarted) makeup collection additions.


I've done haul videos. I have to make it into two videos since I got 32 items to talk about. So I guess I'm gonna separate this into 2. XD





I'd done review for one the product http://pepperflecks.blogspot.com/2010/08/review-elf-studio-cream-eyeliner-in.html

I got some of their brushes, and the only one I'm not really happy about is the Studio Contour Brush, it is so scratchy, sadly, it's a good size tho. Could be that I got the bad batch. Other than that, Powder brush and the long handled Blending brush ferrule were loosely crimped to the handle.

The Studio Face Kabuki Brush is the crowning glory of the Studio line brushes. It is dense, nicely shaped and super soft. As you can see from the picture below, this brush is soft!

Pic 1- From top to bottom: Complexion brush, Powder brush, Blush brush, Foundation brush, Contour Brush, Blending brushes.

Pic 2 and 3 - Face Kabuki Brush

...continued in part 2. http://pepperflecks.blogspot.com/2010/08/haul-elf-combined-supa-haul-part-2.html

Review: ELF Studio Cream Eyeliner in Black

Sometimes, price of a product does not reflects the quality that it brings, and this is so true when it comes to this $3 cream eyeliner from ELF Studio line.

It come in a very chic packaging for its price and there a hell lot of product in the pot, 4.7gram. I'm very pleased with that. I'd check back the ELF website few days ago and I found out that they started to sell the eyeliner with an eyeliner brush. What a steal, hopefully the back-up I recently bought comes with the brush.
I've been using this product almost everyday since the day I got it for almost a month. Having oily hooded eyelid often make me abandoned lining my eyes since it gonna smudge like crazy immediately after I put it on. However, ELF cream eyeliner stays put on my lids with minor creasing, transfer and fading for up to 12 hours. Sometimes, I sleep w/o removing my eye makeup, and the eyeliner does smudge, but most of it stays in place. I'm so amazed how long wearing this product is.

Aside for being long wearing, the product is very pigmented and creamy. It is so easy to apply and dry almost immediately. That's a big plus for hooded eyelid.

I noticed that after a month of use, the product starts to dry up in the pot, I could pretty much see gap appearing between the product and the wall of the pot. I think if it too dry for use, few spray of MAC Fix+ could fix the problem. For the mean time, I'm gonna keep the pot upside down to minimize liquid evaporation from the pot.

Considering the drying-up problem, I could give 4/5 for the eyeliner, but putting it to perspective, considering how inexpensive it is, this eyeliner deserve 5/5

Anyway, I think this is my HG eyeliner.

Review: NYX Eyeshadow Base (White)

I first received the product on 17 June and today is 21 August, so it has been a little over two months since I first tried the eyeshadow base.

I learned that thin application of the base needed to reduce the creasing, and I find it works! My eyeshadow stays relatively creaseless for more than 6 hours. However some eyeshadow doesn't last as long and the creasing worsen a lil whenever I sweat like crazy.


The color of the eyeshadow appears to be more intense and truer to the palette when it is applied over the eyeshadow base.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I think the price of this base if roughly 1/3 of UDPP. So putting things into perspective, this product is a decent product. And it works, but you need a decent eyeshadows to make it work as I found this base won't work with the purple colour in ELF Punk Funk eyeshadow quad. It crease and and fade almost immediately. With the other quad, such Butternut, Luxe, Ivy, Silver Lining, Nymph Dream and Blue Moon, this base works wonders. I didn't have other brands eyeshadow to test this base at the moment as I just started rebuilding my makeup collection. There are still creasing and fading, but it is very minor.

I'm not sure whether this base as a keeper, but I think I would be willing to spend more money for a better e/s base or primer. For now, I'm gonna put it to a good used as I always feels bad letting stuffs go to waste.

Anyway, I found out from 27vampyr in youtube that this base have almost the same ingredients with their concealer in a jar. The ingredient that is not in the base is in Bold. BHT is anti-oxidant additive.

Consealer In a Jar
Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Mineral Oil, BHT, Microcrystalline Wax, Nylon-66,
Octyldodecyl Myristate, Silica, Butylparaden, Fragrance, Ricinus Communis (Castor)
Seed Oil, Ceresin, Dipentaerythrityl Hexahydroxystearate/ Hexarosinate, Polyethylene,
Sorbitan Sequioleate, Tocopheryl Acetate. MAY CONTAIN: Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides,
Chromium Oxide Greens, Ultramarines.

Eyeshadow Base
Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Mineral Oil, Microcrystalline Wax, Silica (and)
Methicone, BHT, Dipentaerythrityl Hexahydroxystearate/Hexastearate/
HexarosinateRicinus Communic (Castor) Seed Oil, Sorbitan Sesquioleate,
Octyldodecyl Myristate, Polyethylene, Fragrance, Butylparaben, Nylon-66,
Ceresin, Tocopheryl Acetate, Polyethylene, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891).

So, instead of getting the base in 'Skin Tone', you might as well get the concealer in a jar.

Pepper

FLECKS started

Another blog. This time, it's about one of my biggest obsession, makeup.

I don't really have a lot of makeup, but I do have quite an amount of 'em.

I bought most of them after watching and reading all those reviews in youtube and in blogs. That definitely helps me avoiding (most of the time) poor products. So I guess, I should started to give input to the community after benefiting from it for quite a long time.

So, this is the beginning.

Pepper.