Review: Swisspers Spa Cleansing Wipes (with pomegranate extract)

So I'm not usually a huge fan of cleansing wipes, they take ages to clean eye makeup off and for some reason they often make my skin hurt even though my skin is not really sensitive at all so it's quite odd. That said they are useful, for getting the foundations of makeup off when you're in a hurry and as a blogger are quite useful for removing swatches from taking photos. When I saw these pop up at Priceline i was quite tempted, they looked really cute and a bit more interesting then the usual wipes. These come in a variety of colors and "scents". I picked up the pink ones which are marked as having  "pomegranate extract".

I mentioned earlier that makeup wipes usually hurt my face and i was very happy to find that these did not, they smell quite sweet and faintly fruity but not really acidic or strong smelling. Just a sweet and pleasantly soft scent that you smell when you use it. I can't comment on if they actually smell like pomegranates as I am not really familiar enough with the scent to judge.

Overall these are a little more fun then regular white wipes although the lack of texture means it takes a while to clean the entire face of makeup and it has a bit of trouble with eye makeup, but not more or less then any other ones i have used, also available in "white tea extract"and "mango extract", for $6.29

Review: Lime Crime Present Carausel Gloss

Having spent the last two posts in a shady area let us move on to this amazingly pigmented lip gloss from Lime Crime. I picked this up in Melbourne and really wanted to splurge on the eyeshadow pallet and Velvet matte lip gloss but the first was out of my budge ( I spent it all at Illamasqua) and the Velvet lip gloss was out of stock. This little baby however grabbed my attention due to the incredible color, which sadly none of my photos do any justice to. This is Lime Crime's Carousel Gloss and it's spectacular.

The packaging is very cute, a clear bottom tube with a swirling plastic pattern going around the tube, hence "carousel" topped off with a purple cap which has the name of the company and some cute embellishments. Now I was drawn in my the package and the color, but i wasn't sold until i saw it swatched, I'm not a huge fan of gloss - i never really see the point in putting a mostly colorless gel on my lips that will need to be reapplied in 10 seconds and that my hair will inevitably get stuck too. But for this I was willing to make an exception.

The brush applicator was an excellent choice as it's a very pigmented color it can stain your lips and this small brush makes it easy to line only around and within your lipline. I found it very easy to use as i think a doe foot applicator would have been far too messy considering how thick this gloss is.

Not sure why but my lip swatch  is totally dulled out and the sparkles don't show up at all, so i found you this one below which is far more accurate then my sad little swatch.

Better swatch from veganbeauty.com.au

This lip gloss is gorgeous, it's sticky and can stain your lips a but but who cares when something is this pretty? I know that I don't care.

Review: Possibly Fake MAC Eyeshadows: Carbon, Sable, Shroom & Passion

If you saw my last post then you saw that i picked these up at Uni from a  supposed "auction seizure" and while thinking it was probably all a load of bull decided to try some stuff anyway as despite all that it seemed like pretty high quality stuff. i picked up Shroom and Sable as i had heard a lot about them before and was interested to see how they performed. Carbon was somewhat of a test purchase as i had seen numerous reviews saying that it was in fact a pretty terrible black eyeshadow and i thought this would help me judge the honesty of these shadows. Lastly passion was a cute pink and i wanted a more exciting color to try as well.

Packaging seems pretty legit to me from what i can tell with my very limited experience.

The color pay off on the first three is amazing and like it should Carbon is a bit fail, so either these are very good dupes, after i depotted my own mac shadows (ones bought at MAC counters that is) i was able to see that the authentic MAC pans are more rounded then these were. However quality speaks for itself and Fake Sable, Shroom and Passion all have good pigmentation and blend very easily and do not irritate my eyes, They do seem a bit softer though then the real MAC shadows i have (amberlights, star violet and wedge)

I'm happy with these and will continue to use them, but probably won't be going to get more when the seller reapears. The whole thing was an interesting experience and i will know in the future what sort fo things to look out for when it comes to fake products. However, just because their fake doesn't mean their bad.

Possibly Fake MAC & LUSH Haul

A few days ago i was sitting at home (playing Skyrim if you must know) when my partner calls me from Uni to tell me that there is a stall there selling a huge load of MAC stuff that had been seized at auction. I was pretty skeptical but at the prices they were offering, even if it is fake it was still cheaper then buying similar products at Priceline or Chemist Warehouse so i decided to had down and pick up some stuff. When i got there and questioned the sellers it seemed to pretty legit from what i could glean and from what i can tell it seems authentic enough - sized are correct, labels match other MAC products i already had, everything seems to be of an exceptionally high quality including the brushes which are the only items that i would question the authenticity of. Either way though i got some stuff and I'm really happy with everything i got. But i bet you want to know just exactly what it is that i got? Well I'll show you.

MAC Eyeshadow Refills : Sable, Shroom, Passion and Carbon

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in B01 Light

MAC Brushes in 187, 194 and 266

(If these are fake, which the handle on the 187 makes me think they are, they are still freakin' amazing and so incredibly soft and delicate that whoever made them should just make their own brush company because these were a complete steal)

 

Very Fake, MAC Eye/Lip Liner Pencil with Aloe Vera & Vitamin E

I was pretty sure this one was a fake right of the bat, mostly because i don't think MAC eyeliners have silver lids and there was no name of the color, I also wasn't able to find any reference to this lip/pencil when i got home. It still work pretty well though an i quite like the colors.

MAC Lipmax Lip Pigment

Not much to say about this, i was hoping it would be similar to a lip tar but it's mostly just clear with a slight pink tint to it. I should have just gotten more eyeshadows instead of this. The only real disappointment.

After this spree which amounted to about $40 i also needed to get my monthly dose of Fresh Farmacy from Lush and whilst there i also picked up some Sexy Peel Soap for the boyfriend as he doesn't like Shower Gels.

Overall I'm very happy with the things i got, especially the brushes and eyeshadows as they both seem great quality products so even if they are fake (which most likely they are) they were still a amazing deal. I don't really have too many feelings about fake makeup products, it can be annoying and disappointing if you go in thinking it was the real deal but that wasn't the case here as i was pretty sure it was all fake going on it. Keeping that in mind i was able to purchase a few things that were good quality and seemed like good products to try. What do you think about buying fake makeup products? Is it inevitable in Australia where prices are so incredibly steep?

DIY Z Pallete

I recently got some MAC refill eyeshadow pans and then realized i had nowhere to store them, so i looked online and found some really awesome eyeshadow z pallets, all of which, with shipping were pretty expensive and also meant that for weeks my eye shadows would have no home. So i did the next best thing and made my own, i looked over sevral online tutorials and there are many to choose from. Here is my take on it:

What You Need:

- Unwanted Hardcover Book - size should be the same size you want your palette to be, choose one where the spine is not to big.

- Ruler (metal works best)

- Double sided tape

- Foam board (same size as your book)

- Scalpel (Scissors will work ok, but will be less precise and the lines less clean)

- Magnetic Sheet ( i got mine at an Art Shop for $4.95, but if you have a magnetic calendar lying around that will work too)

- Decorative Tape (optional)

1. Open your book flat and cut out the center portion (the pages) so that you have only the shell of the book left.

2. The center part might have some threads or glue so be careful while cutting, i found a scalpel worked best.

3. This is how your book should look when it's been gutted. I used this time to stick down the ragged edges with some decorative tape to make it look a bit cleaner.

4. Measure one side of your book against the foam and cut to size if necessary.

Be careful while cutting, foam can be quite brittle and if your knife isn't sharp enough it will catch. If you can use a new blade as it will make it much easier and neater. ( i learned this the hard way)

6. Your foam board and half book should be the same size now, be sure to check the fit before moving forwards to the next step.

7. Measure out an inside square (or rectangle as the case may be). I made mine 2cm in on each side, it;s possible to free hand this but measuring will make the end effect look better.

8. Cut out the central square (or rectangle). Be careful not to cut to the edges, this piece will make the base frame of the palette. 

9. Measure your magnetic sheet to size, mine was a self adhesive one so i was able to draw on the back paper before gluing it down.

10. Double check the sizing and make sure both the frame and magnetic strip fit, cut anything down that needs it.

11. I wasn't happy with some of the ragged edges in my frame so i covered it in the same decorative tape i used earlier to stick down the ragged insides of the book.

12. Stick everything down, my magnetic strip was self adhesive and for the frame i used double sided tape, hot glue can also work but a regular glue stick won't grip hard enough and might move around.

13. Decorate to your hearts content.

Fit your depotted eye shadows however fits best, aluminum pots like those used by MAC and Australis will need to have a piece of magnet stuck to the bottom to stick while others will simply stick on their own. The only thing i need to add is some velcro straps or ribbon over the side to keep it closed.

Here is another quick palette i made from a cd case, all i did was take out the plastic piece that the CD sits on and then decorated it all pretty like with my decorative sticky tape and then stuck the other magnet sheet i had in the bottom. 

Depotting Eyeshadow: The Journey

So i depoted some of my eye shadows.  As you can see it turned out pretty well and they are all nice and ready to go into my newly made Eyeshadow palette, but since i only had 4 eye shadows to go into it i figured it was a great time to depot some of the rest of my stuff. Since there are a a million and one tutorials out there about how to do this I'm just going to give a brief overview and list of the areas that caused me the most trouble and what to expect while doing this. It can be a bit hard so if your unsure or you love a certain eyeshadow too much then it's better to be safe then sorry.

1. I used a candle to heat my eyeshadow pans, i tried a hair straighter but it took too long and was for me personally too hard to judge when it was ready. With eyeshadow that had packaging similar to Essence the best tell was when i saw a ripple go through the sticker on the bottom and a part of it would fold or bend so i knew it was ready to go. I only sustained one small burn on my finger while doing this, becareful the pans are metal and get quite hot.

2. If you timed it right then the sticker should peel off like a breeze, and hopefully doesn't have any burn marks on it. Some eyeshadow pans have a hole on the back of them where you can push them to dislodge them from the case but despite what some tutorials showed me the Essence packaging has a hole on the back but it doesn't go all the way through to the pan so poking it will do you no good. 

3. Invariably what you will need to do is stick a blade (scalpel) or specialized tool in between the pan and case and wedge it out. In many cases the heat will have loosened the glue enough that at least one side will have a wider spae where you can jam the blade and wedge the pan upwards.

!!! If you start to see the powder begin to crack STOP. Go back and heat it up a bit more.

4. You might need to use our fingers to wedge the pan all the way up as remember there is still hot glue trying to pull it back down. While it's still warm get rid of as much of the glue as possible, it will save you a lot of stress, mess and nail breakage later on.

5. The best way i found to get rid of hot glue one it's dried is some rubbing alcohol and cotton eyar buds swirled in a circular direction followed by a plastic spatula to move it off. If that fails your nails will work but they will get dirty and cracked, as i found out.

I had the most trouble with this  MUA eyeshadow single as instead of loosening the glue underneath all that seemed to happen was the pan would become softer so when i would wedge the blade between the pan and case the pan would bend causing the powder to crack. This one was a complete loss, but if this happens keep the pan - you can either try fix it or make your own pressed eyeshadow out of pigments.

* This shadow of eyeshadow seems to be more crumbly then other colors, not sure why but the Essence eye shadow i had that was almost the exact same color also shattered when i did this, though not quite as dramatically.

The hot glue was quite thick, but so was the bottom of the case which was part of the problem with the MUA. Be careful if your trying to depot these. Do not rush and take your time.

The left over mess, lots of plastic to recycle, and far less plastic clogging up my makeup draws. This is not going to be for everyone, the reason i did it was mainly because i found i had eyeshadows in palettes that i never used because they were packed away. 

Here are some quick notes about which eyeshadow brands proved particularly difficult to depot:

MAC - Easy

Essence - Easy

MUA - Very Hard

Dior - Super Easy

Savvy - Impossible

Gosh - Moderate

Australis - Moderate

Revlon - Super Easy