Skin79 Hot Pink Super Plus BB cream vs Orange Super Plus BB cream

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Since my Skin79 Orange Super Plus BB Cream review, people have been asking me whether they should get the Hot Pink or Orange Super Plus BB cream. Now that I have come into possession of both of these BB creams, I thought it would be interesting to compare the two to help anyone out there trying to decide which one to get.

I’ve lined these two BB creams up side by side, and you can see that Hot Pink seems to have more of a grey undertone than Orange. Orange also seems to be a little lighter in tone.

(You might notice textural different between my Hot Pink and Orange BB Creams, but this is just because my Hot Pink is considerably old now!)

 

[I’ve had some comments from people wondering if my Skin79 Hot Pink Super BB Cream might be fake! For tips on knowing when Skin79 BB creams are fake, check out this article by Little Makeup Box: http://littlemakeupbox-eng.blogspot.com.au/2010/05/skin-79-real-vs-fake-bb-cream_13.html. Please note that Skin79 products have been redesigned, and so older products may not look like the newer ones. I don’t believe my Hot Pink is fake, as it appears to exhibit all the indications of the real thing, but just in case, I also have the miniature Hot Pink sent to me by the official distributor www.mybbcream.com.au and the below swatch was made using the miniature.]

After blending, it’s clear to see that while Skin79 Hot Pink has a distinctly dewy finish, Orange is completely matte. Also, while it’s difficult to represent this in photos, Hot Pink has a clear greyish undertone, while Orange is much warmer. One other thing I noticed is also that Orange appears to have better coverage potential, applying much more opaquely than Hot Pink on the first layer. Of course, both BB Creams are very buildable.

The formulation of these two BB creams are also quite similar, being on the thick and sticky side.

There are also important differences in the benefits each one offers. Below is a comparison of respective benefits each product boasts.

Hot Pink	Orange
Enhanced sebum control	Controls oil and moisture balance
Increased hydration	Maintains moisture
Skin whitening	Skin whitening
Anti Wrinkle	Anti Wrinkle
SPF25/PA++	SPF50+/PA+++
-	Skin soothing
Fast absorption	Fast absorption
Dewy finish	Matte finish
Soft and smooth skin	Transparent and clean skin

So you can see that Hot Pink and Orange promise different benefits to cater to different skin needs.

Based on the promised benefits, I would say that Hot Pink would be more suited to people with oily skin, while Orange would be great for people with normal or combination skin. Also, if you are particularly concerned with sun exposure, Skin79 Orange Super Plus BB Cream would be the one for you, with double the SPF rating than Hot Pink!

One final difference between the two BB creams how they smell. Hot Pink has a soapy powdery scent. Orange is floral and zesty.

Check out my Skin79 Orange Super Plus BB Cream review for further information!

My Skin79 Orange Super Plus BB Cream and miniature Skin79 Hot Pink Super Plus BB Cream were provided by www.mybbcream.com.au, the only authorised distributor for Skin79 in Australia!

Friday review: Dolly Wink No.14 Natural Cute Lower Lashes

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Like the massive fashion victim that I am, the moment I

heard about the new Dolly Wink “Otona Kawaii” (ladylike) range, I immediately searched the interwebs far and wide to acquire me a set. After ogling the different designs on the Dolly Wink website for about 40 minutes, I decided to try No. 10 Sweet cat and No.14 Natural Cute. These two are my personal favourites from the range at first impression. I reviewed Dolly Wink Sweet Cat a few weeks ago, and due to shifting around the blogging schedule, it’s only till now that I’ve been able to post my review of the lower lashes, Dolly Wink Natural Cute.

First of all let me just say that I am completely and utterly in love with Dolly Wink Natural Cute. Forget all the other Dolly Wink lower lashes, even from the original series. These are now my favourite lower lashes of all time. Why? Feel free to read on and find out!

For those who have just joined us, I should probably give you a little background on Dolly Wink false lashes. Dolly Wink is a false eyelash line under Japanese cosmetics brand, Koji. ‘Produced’ by Tsubasa Masuwaka, Japanese ‘gyaru’ model, her false eye lash range is aimed to be of superior quality, extremely natural looking, and specifically engineered for creating the gyaru makeup look, which is characterised by big, lashy and often ‘droopy’ eyes. This line of eyelashes has become highly coveted both inside and outside of Japan, so much so that www.sasa.com, which is one of the stockists who ships worldwide, is constantly out of stock of the popular styles such as Dolly Wink No.1 and No.2. The first Dolly Wink range offered 4 styles of upper lashes and 4 styles of lower lashes. The new Dolly Wink Otona Kawaii range offers the same, but the twist is that this time the styles are more subtle and mature or ladylike, but still distinctly ‘gyaru’.

I notice that a lot of people are not in love with the packaging of the new Dolly Wink Otona Kawaii range, saying that it’s plain and cheap looking compared to the original packaging, and that they don’t get why it’s a bottle. I don’t either! Actually when I first saw pictures of the Dolly Wink Otona Kawaii range online, I thought these had ‘fake’ written all over it.

Despite the less popular packaging, the quality of the the product definitely lives up to its reputation. While cheaper false lashes easily warp out of shape, Dolly Wink lashes always maintain their perma-curl to the very end. Even when you pinch the strands too hard with your tweezers and they develop a kink, they seem to just revert back to their original shape on their own. When anyone asks me if I think Dolly Wink is worth the extra price, I would suggest they look closely at the quality difference between Dolly Wink lashes and cheaper dupes. Also Dolly Wink false lashes are almost always guaranteed to last you longer than cheap lashes.

As always, Dolly Wink false lashes come in a set of two and a small tube of Dolly Wink eyelash glue. With cheaper lashes, the glue is always rubbish, but I totally swear by Dolly Wink eyelash glue!

The lash design

Dolly Wink Natural Cute is exactly as the name suggests. Thin and extremely natural looking clumps make up the inner half of these false lashes, while the ends have triangular clumps which, true to the gyaru style, aim to emphasize the outer corner of the eyes to help achieve the ‘tare me’ or droopy eye effect.

I can imagine some of you must be thinking, “the design looks so simple, surely you can find a cheaper dupe!” But if you look closely, you can see that attention to detail has been paid to place the lash clumps somewhat randomly and in alternating thicknesses so that they more convincingly resemble real lashes. In my opinion, it’s details like this that make many Dolly Wink designs not easily dupable.

 

Application

The spine is very flexible so it’s easy to curve Dolly Wink Natural Cute to your natural eye line. Once the glue dries, the transparent spine is more or less invisible, and it’s really not that obvious that I am wearing lower lashes. You could also use black coloured eyelash glue to deliberately make the spine look like perfectly drawn eyeliner!

I would also recommend applying these lashes as close to the inner corner of your eyes as possible to achieve consistency. I would not recommend trimming these as the length is perfect for elongating the other corner of the eye. However, if you already have naturally long lower lashes, you may choose to trim off the inner strands and only use the outer clumps.

• Extremely natural looking
• The design and length is perfect for elongating the eye and creating the tare me effect
• Flexible spine makes for easy application
• Super thin and transparent spine is almost invisible once the glue dries
• Durable and one pair should last many many applications

• May be too natural looking for those who want to create a more dramatic look
• Lash clumps may start to move along the spine if pulled excessively

Make sure to also check out my review on Dolly Wink Sweet Cat!

Dolly Wink Natural Cute are available on www.sasa.com for $13.50USD!

Mid-week outfit–Ahh…the city

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I wore: Blazer by Witchery; T-Shirt by Stussy, from Parliament; Singlet Dress by allabouteve, from Parliament; Shoes by Diavolina from David Jones; necklace, thrifted.

Sometimes a piece of clothing can kind of touch you, or maybe revive a dormant memory – yes, I’m serious. For me recently it was this Stussy T-shirt, with its cityscape silhouette and quote from the song ‘Under the bridge’:

Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a partner, sometimes I feel like my only friend, is the city I live in, the city of angels, lonely as I am, together we cry.

It made me ponder my relationship with the city I was born in, Shenyang, in northeast China. I honestly loved it there as a kid (despite the communism). The city was always alive and there were so many places to go and things to see. From street markets to 10 lane roads, apartment blocks to skyscrapers, there was so much diversity of shapes and sizes, sounds and smells. I can always remember the route I took to school, streets my friends lived in, and the time I fell into a snow covered open well (ah the perils of an enormous city where certain manholes are simply forgotten about)! I identified with the city, and every thing I knew about myself had something to do with a particular location there.

Then when my family migrated to Australia, I lived in small town after small town, hating it, until finally my family settled in Perth, which, with its some 1.5 million people, is hardly what most people would associate with a capital city. I couldn’t wait to get out of there! So after graduating from uni, it was straight to Japan. But unfortunately I was placed in another tiny town called Aioi, where my apartment literally faced off with a mountain range at the back. On a visit to Tokyo that year, I found myself overwhelmed by the number of people and the congested traffic. It was then that I realized, while I had continued to think of myself as a city girl, I had unwittingly become a country girl at heart, and a lover of the peace and quiet. It’s funny how life takes you to places you never expected to go. Now I’m working in Canberra, yet another small town. I wonder if I’ll ever get back to the city, and if I do, if I will be able to survive there.

So after reminiscing, I realize they actually didn’t have this shirt in my size!! So I actually hunted it down at another Parliament shop. The sales assistance probably thought I was such a weirdo, trying so hard to get a hold of this rather generic looking T-shirt.

Review: Skin79 Dream Girls BB Cream

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I’ve seen a lot of comments on my BB Cream reviews that people are not getting the best results out of BB Cream because of oily skin. So here is one of the few BB Creams that is specifically designed for oil and sensitive skin types – Skin79 dream girls BB! Also, like the Skin79 Lovely Girl BB Cream I reviewed a couple of weeks ago, and you can guess from the whimsical packaging, Skin79 dream girls BB is marketed towards teenage skin.

I love the quilted embossing on the box of Skin79 dream girls BB – it reminds me of my pillow haha.

Like all Skin79 BB Creams, dream girls BB comes foil sealed, so you can have complete peace of mind that this is fresh from the factory to you!

So now on to the promises of Skin79 dream girls BB! These are:

• Strong sebum controlling effect
• Formulated to be suitable for sensitive and troubled skin
• Excellent UV Protection at SPF30/PA++
• Evens out skin tone and conceals flaws, apparently helping you achieve baby like skin
• Non-oily and feels fresh when applied

Apparently Skin79 dream girls BB is also suitable for dry skin types, complimented by your usual skin moisturising regiment. For oil skin types, it is recommended that you skip any moisturising step prior to applying BB cream.

So here’s the product out of the tube. Immediately you can see that this formulation is very different from other Skin79 BB creams in that it’s much thinner and begins to flatten out immediately.

Skin79 dream girls BB is so smooth and easily spreads onto the skin. It is non-oily, as promised, and feels very fresh on the skin. A little also seems to go a long way. Compared to the Skin79 Super BB creams, dream girls BB is much more sheer, and therefore more readily blends to your skin colour. However, as discussed below, it has less potential for coverage. The finish is dewy…at first!

And it appears to turn matte after the moisturising component is fully absorbed into the skin. I prefer a matte finish, so this gets a tick from me!

Now to the coverage. (If you’ve been following my BB cream review series, you’re probably getting sick of seeing this side of my face!) You can see that in the first picture, my bare skin has quite uneven skin tone and some pesky pimple scaring. After applying two layers of Skin79 dream girls BB, my skin tone is much improved. Notice that this BB cream hasn’t totally made my face pale! However, while my scars have become a little fainter, they are still definitely there. So to complete the look, I applied concealer to completely erase the scars and then mineral powder to matte out the finish.

I think looking at these snaps you’ll agree that Skin79 dream girls BB really does help you achieve the appearance of baby soft skin! Because of its lower pigmentation, it’s completely buildable even for people with darker skin tones. But due to the relatively light coverage, it’s probably not a BB cream that you can wear on its own. Concealer is definitely a must. This BB cream would also be perfect as a non-irritating, non-oily makeup base under foundation.

Here’s my look, created with Skin79 dream girls BB cream!

When I first tried this BB cream I was disappointed by the low level of coverage. But as with all BB creams I’ve reviewed, I continued to use the product for at least one week before forming an opinion. My final assessment is that while Skin79 dream girls BB cream has less coverage than other BB creams I’ve tried, I love the way that it makes my skin look so smooth and…well..fresh! Also I’ve found that applying multiple layers greatly improved the coverage potential. I also love that it doesn’t completely pale out my skin, even when several layers are applied. Best of all, this BB cream has been great in controlling oiliness. I experienced no shine throughout the day.

• Thin and smooth formula that is easy to apply
• Non-oily and feels light on the skin
• Provides sufficient moisture for oily skin while at the same time effective in controlling sebum
• Formulated to be caring and non-irritating for sensitive skin
• Also great for dry skin types, however extra moisturiser should be used before application
• Evens out skin tone and makes skin appear smooth, fresh, and youthful
• While the finish is dewy at first, it tends to matte out after the moisture is absorbed into the skin
• Likely to make a great primer as it is non-oily and evens out skin tone
• Due to lower pigmentation, is more likely to blend to darker skin tones

• Light coverage that may not be enough for people with more than minor blemishes
• May not provide sufficient moisture for dry skin types, but this is countered by applying additional moisturiser underneath
• Only comes in one light shade and may not be suitable for all skin tones

This BB cream was sent to me by www.mybbcream.com.au!

I first caught wind of this vendor when I saw their special offer on http://www.ouffer.com/. It seemed clear to me that this company was interested not only to sell BB Cream to current fans of BB Cream in Australia (mostly Asian customers), but also to bring Korea BB Cream into the main stream. If this is one of their goals then I’m right behind them – in my mind Korean BB Creams are still the ‘original’ and the best.

This from their website:

If you are wondering which BB cream is right for you, check out mybbcream’s skin type analysis and their 2 step process to picking your perfect product!

I had a read of their Wholesale page and it looks like if you can get 4 of your friends together to buy and share, you can get 1/4 knocked off the price! This from the website:

• Get any 5 BB Creams & enjoy 25% discount!
• Get any 10 BB Creams & enjoy 30% discount!
• Get any 20 BB Creams & enjoy 35% discount! (Mix-and-match accepted)

Also, for a limited time you’ll get miniatures as free gifts of any purchase of full sized BB Cream!

As well as BB Creams, Mybbcream stocks an impressive range of other Korean beauty products from makeup to skincare.

They have a great well structured and easily to navigate website – I really hope you guys check it out!

 

 

Also don’t forget that there are less than FIVE DAYS to join my Favourites Giveaway!

Don’t miss out!

Review: Geo Grang Grang (Big) Brown Circle Lens

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A couple of weeks ago, I posted my review of the Geo Grang Grang (Big) Choco, which I declared was an amazing natural brown lens to rival Geo Bambi Princess Mimi Almond Brown! Today I’ll be reviewing Grang Grang Choco’s little sister, the much lighter in colour Geo Grang Grang (Big) Brown!

This pair of Geo Grang Grang (Big) Brown was provided by my lovely sponsor, www.eyecandylens.com! The reason www.eyecandylens.com is one of my favourite contact lens distributors is the love they put into packaging their products! I love how the lenses come rapped up safe and sound in several layers of bubble wrap and then inside an adorable gift bag.

• Brand: GEO
• Origin: South Korea
• Water content: 38%
• Diameter: 15.0 mm
• Use: 1 year disposable

So here’s the Geo Grang Grang (Big) Brown close up. Like Geo Grang Grang Choco, the design looks like pieces of randomly overlapping shards of honey brown crystals. They form a defined brown circle around edge of this lens, which will give you the enlarging effect. Also like Choco, there is a discrete ‘B’ camouflaged among the design elements. I deducted that this was to indicate that this is the ‘Big’ 15mm Grang Grang, rather than the regular size, which is 14.2mm. But rest assured. This little B definitely does not show up when you put these lenses on!

While looking at Geo Grang Grang Brown in the solution, the design really is identical to Geo Grang Grang Choco, but when you put them on, the look is dramatically different.

As a comparison, here are pictures of Geo Grang Grang Choco:

So while Grang Grang Choco gives a beautiful deep dolly brown look to your eyes, Grang Grang Brown, while every bit as natural looking at Choco, delivers a lovely halo effect that makes your eyes look as though they have an inner glow! Also, being much lighter, Grang Grang Brown allows for the design details to show up more vividly. In my Grang Grang Choco review, I commented that Choco looked extremely similar to Bambi Princes Mimi Almond Brown. This comment definitely doesn’t extend to Grang Grang Brown, which looks totally unique in its own right, and does not resemble any lens I’ve tried to date.

I’m totally in love with both colours from the Grang Grang series!! Now it’s just a matter of deciding which one to get.

My search for the perfect brown lens may be at an end…or is it?? :)

• Beautiful natural brown that make your eyes appear to glow
• Due to the light tone of the design, this lens shows up beautifully against even dark eyes, like mine
• Impeccable dolly and enlarging effect
• Very comfortable, despite the relatively low water content of 38%
• Also comes in a smaller 14.2mm design that’s even less noticeable when worn

• Relatively low water content, at 38% but this does not seem to affect the comfort level of this lens!

Pick up this lens for a discounted price of $26.88 at www.eyecandylens.com with free shipping! Also don’t forget, if you use my discount code “CLOSETVOYAGE” you’ll get a free gift with our purchase!

You can also try your hand at winning a pair in my current circle lens giveaway!

End of Week outfit–*gasp* dots vs floral

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Remember when there used to be rules in fashion like, don’t wear pink with orange, never match your shoes and bag unless you’re 70 years old, and dun dun DUN, don’t wear polka dots or stripes with floral? I kinda liked that because, well, I’m a lawyer, and we’re lost without our rules! But then again, now that the only rule seems to be that rules should be broken, which, I guess, also includes the rule about breaking rules, there’s not much anyone can say to criticize what you wear other than ‘I don’t like it’. But a statement like that just makes you look like a grouch!

 

I wore: Top from FELT, Skirt and socks from Forever New; Shoes by Churches famous English shoes, thrifted; Bag and pendant from ebay.

Shortly after buying this floral skirt it dawned on me how much it resembled a neck scarf. In fact, I was dubious that it wasn’t just a scarf with a zipper attached. I mean it’s got the edging and everything! Luckily I happen to love using things for purposes for which they were not intended-like wearing shoes as hats, perhaps!-and I really like the idea that someone might think I was cheap and converted a scarf into a skirt!

Introducing de Leon ‘indie’ Australian cosmetics brand

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A while ago I caught wind of this idea of home grown ‘indie’ Australian cosmetics companies. Since when?! I had no idea Australians had this kind of ingenuity, hence the reason I don’t own any makeup products made by Australian brands, like Australis and Face of Australia. While some brands like LUSH have their products hand made in Australia, the concept and formulas come from the brand’s head office in the UK, so on so many levels Australia just isn’t known to be that original.

Then along comes de Leon. With head honcho Gladys de Leon at the wheels, the brand has released a range of eye and lip products (however their flagship product ‘Post’s of Colour’ can really be used for eye, cheek and lips). Gladys was kind enough to send me a few samples to try out and introduce to my readers!

de Leon Cosmetics is all about:

• high quality mineral makeup at affordable prices
• products that are the result of two years of research and development
• formulated and handcrafted in Queensland, Australia
• formulations are long lasting and created without cheap fillers
• Not tested on animals

While de Leon cosmetics’ packaging is somewhat plain, and I think they would go a long way if they were to invested in more marketing (taking a leaf out of books of brands that ride on their marketing like Australian brand MOR US indie brand Lime Crime), this also emphasizes the ‘indie’ feel of this brand, and anyway the products speak for themselves.

So first up is the de Leon Eye Primer. Apparently this Eye Primer can also be used as a lip primer. It looks and feels like lip balm, and works treat in smoothing out the skin.

The below shows eye shadow (Frustrated Horde) applied on the left, directly on my skin, and on the right, over a patch of skin after applying primer. It does appear that after primer, the pigment grabs on more strongly and smoothly.

Rubbing the eye shadow off with a tissue, it’s clear that the eye shadow has adhered better to my skin after applying the primer. So this product gets a tick!

Next is de Leon’s flagship product, their ‘Pot’s of Colour’. I chose:

• Knock out punch – Blackened plum satin with a pink sheen.
• Frustrated Horde – Electric blue satin with violet overtones.
• Absinthe sugar – Pearlescent yellow toned green with a high shimmer.

I was interested in the stories behind the names of these colours, and asked Gladys to elaborate:

Knock out punch - reminded me of the colour that comes up in bruising when you've got a black eye. That pretty colour at the start, not the yellow green colour at the end that seems to linger!!!

Absinthe sugar - I've tried absinthe and this colour reminded me of the sugar as you pour the liquid through, a sparkly green, tinged with a bit of yellow because the glass I was using had yellow in it. Random and probably no one else will see that!

Frustrated Horde - my fiancee and son used to play WOW. Not only was I a WOW widow, I was also a girl all alone in a house of males that could talk strategy and "stuff" for hours. This phrase popped into my head one day and wouldn't go away till I named something. This colour is one of my favourites (and fabulous with a silver) and even though the boys have gone on to play other games, it still represents that gaming attitude for me.

I admit that one of the reason I picked ‘Frustrated Horde’ was that it reminded me of World of Warcraft, and it was hilarious to find out that it in fact was a reference to the game!

So here are my swatches of the colours. My favourite one is definitely ‘Absinth Sugar’, which is a gorgeous sheer but vibrant shimmer green/yellow. Each of the colours are highly pigmented, and are extremely buildable. “Knock Out Punch”, while it is a pretty colour, really is reminiscent of bruising, which is interesting, but I’m not sure it would be everyone’s cup of tea. I mean, worn on its own, it might be too convincing as a black eye!

Next up are the de Leon lip products. The Lip glosses promise to be highly pigmented and still moisturising; not too oily with a great shine.

Interestingly, each lip gloss is complimented by a range of ‘lip stick balms’ of the same colour. The de Leon ‘lipstick balms’ are unique in that they have the full pigmentation of a lipstick and have a high level of opacity.

It’s difficult to represent this in photos, but “I like the ruffles” is a fluorescent light pink, and man is it vibrant! There so many other unique colours in the lip range, including Captain Tightpants, which is a shimmery violet, Spank your inner moppet, a navy blue, and my favourite, Girl know things, a vibrant apricot.

Here’s my look created with the de Leon products. For lips I layered the lip gloss over the lip balm as de Leon's product statement suggests. I think both products together is brilliant, and delivers fully opaque and pigmented colour, but I’m not sure that either product on its own would be enough. The lip balm is indeed highly pigmented, but due to its waxy formulation, creates a matte and powdery finish. The lip gloss by itself is shiny, and feel great on (not sticky at all), but looks best laid over the lip balm, which gives it an extra boost of pigmentation.

Over all, I was impressed with the quality of de Leon products. de Leon’s eye shadow products are high quality, and the colours are original and very pretty. The lip products are unique, and I love the colour range. I think this brand has enormous potential. It’s obvious that the brains behind this operation, Gladys, is full of ideas. I can’t wait to see what else she comes up with!