More exciting colours from de Leon Cosmetics!

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Following my review for ‘indie’ Australian cosmetics de Leon cosmetics last month, the lovely Gladys said she wanted me to review some more of her lip products. But when the package arrived, it was such a wonderful surprise to find so many treasures in the signature de Leon silver package!

For the sake of keeping this post to a respectable length, I’ll just be talking about the eye shadows this time. De Leon has sent me four colours from their Burlesque collection:

• Coal Miner’s Daughter
• Kitty Kluts
• Dirty Angel
• Fools Gold

Again, I’m just loving the names for all the colours!

Here are the swatches. As in my previous review, I’m very impressed with the quality of de Leon’s eye shadows! The colours are so wonderfully pigmented and very unique. My favourite is definitely ‘Kitty Kluts’. I mean the name just totally sells me, and it’s such a lovely shade of deep purple! “Coal Miner’s Daughter’ would be a perfect colour to use as a liner.

Here’s my look with Fool’s Gold and Kitty Kluts! Because of my tanned skin tone, a lot of eye shadows with low pigmentation just don’t show up, but De Leon eye shadows are so vibrant and super buildable!

De Leon also sent me a full sized ‘Pot of Colour’ in ‘Indecent Exposure’ in appreciation of my review! In the lovely note accompanying the package, Gladys explained that she chose a colour that would be great for me to wear to the office – how thoughtful!

I thought it would be interesting to show you guys a few close ups of this product as it’s what you would get if you ordered a full sized product (priced at $17.50). The product size is very generous. Even if I used this everyday I could easily get a whole years usage out of it!

The pot itself has a ‘rotating sifter’, somewhat like a herb shaker, so you can control how much product comes out. Quite ingenious. However, I noticed that, as a powder eye shadow, it can get a bit messy.

‘Indecent Exposure’ is a “luminous nude with a golden pink shimmer”. Despite being a very pale colour, it shows up vividly against my skin. It’s a lovely highlighter for brightening up the eyes and is indeed perfect for every day!

For anyone wanting to try out de Leon’s eye shadows, you can now get a sample set of either of their collections. The Burlesque collection, with 16 colours, is only $14! That’s even cheaper than getting a full sized product! Individual samples are still just $1 each!

Friday review–Kat Von D ‘Metal Orchestra’ eye shadow palette

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I don’t know why but it’s taken me bloody ages to review one of the exciting new things my neighbour Andria gave me back in May last year, after I met her through her out of this world garage sale. Recently she held another one, selling yet even more of her extensive makeup collection. This time she kindly invited me into her home, to show me her main stash, which I have to say, was an absolute beauty blogger dream. She had a huge cabinet dedicated to her makeup collection of several hundreds of products, which included all the brands you could think of, from drug store to luxury. We talked makeup and beauty for half an hour, and I suddenly felt completely out of my league.

Long story short, I’m finally getting around to reviewing the Kat Von D ‘Metal Orchestra’ palette.

First of all I’m loving the packaging. The cover design is so chic and epitomises the theme of this palette. I also want to mention that the box feels very compact, just big enough for the generous portion of product, without any extra bs that just ends up taking up room in your makeup bag.

The first glance upon opening the palette conjures up images of underground raves on starry nights, mystery, romance and intrigue, and, inextricably, vampires - of the ‘True Blood’ denomination.

This palette is a spectrum of silvers and blues.The colours from left to right:

• First class
• Techno
• Thrasher
• Dagger
• Lucifer
• Glock
• Razor gray
• Slayer(cream)

Used in this look: Razor Gray, Techno and Thrasher.

The best way I can describe this palette is ‘electrifying’! Each colour is intense and shimmer infused, but the particles are so fine that your eyes don’t so much as shimmer, but glow. I’m in love!

Kat Von D also has a How-to video on youtube using this palette – check it out.

As a final note, here’s a picture of Andria’s garage sale. Needless to say I took my sweet time browsing it all, and picked up another kilogram of makeup, and this time, nail art accessories. I fought with an old Asian lady over one of the Elf Beauty Book eye shadow palettes, and she made off with the one I wanted!

Perfect brown eye shadow? Sponsored review - Ameli Cake Eye Shadow #217 Charcoal Brown from Vanity Box!

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A perfect brown eye shadow is probably one of the most important and also the most versatile item in your makeup toolbox. Ameli Cake Eye Shadow could just be…dare I say it…the one?

If you’ve never heard of Ameli, like me, the following blurb on the Vanity Box website says it all:

It is an online only business(lower product costs compared to store front retailers) and has only recently opened to end customers(2008), prior to that they only specialised in providing cosmetics for make up artists. They have been gaining immense popularity over the past 2 years, recently winning the best cosmetics site award(In Style Korean Magazine). Having reviewed their products, we feel that Ameli eyeshadows are an excellent buy as they have a range of colours similar to that only found in branded cosmetics and is of equally superb quality. Ameli’s products also come in a generous amount, i.e – their eyeshadows come in twice the amount of content compared to a majority of brands -  at affordable prices. You can read more about Ameli here.

When Vanity Box said they would send me some of their Ameli makeup for to review, I was sceptical. For makeup, I’ve always operated under the rule that price indicates quality (with exceptions when they come from Asia!). When I saw Vanity Box’s reasonable prices, I really didn’t expect the quality to be spectacular. But when they arrived, I fell in love with them immediately! I love the simple but cute packaging, and I’m a stickler for products that are wrapped in layers! I like the anticipation :)

The compact itself is super cute.

But enough about the packaging. What I really want to talk about is how great this product actually is! This is a seriously buildable eye shadow. Very pigmented and yet can can be blended or smeared to lighter tones if needed.

Here’s my look, using only Ameli eye shadow, liquid eyeliner and Licca False Lashes (I’m also wearing Ameli Shiny Cake Blusher, but more on that next time!)

 

• Highly pigmented and yet completely blend-able to various shades of barely there or full on deep brown
• Perfect for achieving a smoky-eye look
• One eye shadow can do it all – no need for a mid or light tone brown to create a gradation
• Due to the pigmentation, this could double as an eyeliner if applied with a damp eyeliner brush
• Matte with no glitter shimmer so versatile for day and night
• Generous portion, not that you’ll need it, as a little goes a very long way
• The price is a steal, on sale now at $10 each!

• More like powder eye shadow than pressed, so can be a bit messy if you don’t tap off your brush before application
• Size of compact is on the big side, about the same size as the Napoleon Colour Disk, so not really made purse friendly– but then I don’t really pack eye shadow in my bag anyway

I genuinely love this product and it’s already become one of my go-to items!

Stay tuned for my review of Ameli Shiny Cake Blushers and my 7 day coordination project with items form Vanity Box’s apparel range!

This review is sponsored by Vanity Box (http://vanitybox.com.au). They are based in Australia (yay!), but they ship internationally as well! They are still quite new, having only been around since 2010, but with their amazing products, excellent customer service and super fast shipping, I can tell they are going to be the next big thing. But there’s definitely something special about this retailer that gives them an edge against other more established online stores. Unlike some Asian fashion retailers, Vanity Box doesn’t ‘cattle drive’ their stock. You get a feeling from the effort they put into their well built website and excellent product descriptions that they are passionate about everything they sell. Also I might mention that the store owner is a dear!

This description on their website:

Beginning in mid 2010, Vanity Box is an online boutique store focusing on chic and trendy Korean fashion wear and Korean cosmetics. At Vanity Box, we aim to provide a pleasant shopping experience. Our motto is to provide quality yet affordable products without compromising our service. Vanity Box is the only foreign supplier of Ameli cosmetics, a new contender in the Korean market with a strong following online.