Flormar Silk Matte Liquid Lipstick in Undressed

Hey dearies!

The grey skies during the past season made me want to add color to my makeup and I usually do that to my eye makeup. And whenever I have a pop of bold colors on my eyes, I usually pair it with a nude lipstick. Here's one lippie that I use...

Flormar Silk Matte Liquid Lipstick in Undressed

Flormar: Deluxe Cashmere Stylo Lipstick in DC30 Austere Brown

Good evening ladies,

Sharing with you a new lipstick from Flormar.

This lipstick line according to their website is made of a

Special formula that combines the finest colour pigments with an infusion of last generation moisture - boosting complex. Orchid Complex leaves the lips smooth and provides moisturizing. Fights free radicals and reduces appearance of fine lip lines. Shea butter and Cacao butter gives hydration and protection to the lips with mild and soothing effect. A full basket of anti-oxidants loaded formula leaves lips wrapped in light glossy color, comfort, nourishing and protection.

I love this simple gold packaging since it gives off an elegant feeling to the product.

The lipstick is very moisturizing and easy to apply. My lips tend to chap in 2 to 3 hours, but I did not experience that with this. The color is build-able as well and does not transfer a lot.

It isn't long lasting and you'd need to reapply after 4 to 5 hours or after a meal. However, that is not a big problem if you're not really into long lasting shades. I was more disappointed about discrepancy with the shade of the lipstick. When I saw this, I was overjoyed that I found a brown shade lipstick since I have never had that shade in a lipstick.

However, I was a little bit disappointed that the color is not as how it looks on the tube.

As you can see on the swatch, it looks a bit of a browny-red tone but not entirely a deep brown.

Lips sans product

As you can see in this swatch it looks more like a neutral color but I guess, depending on the light source, it either looks dark red (below) or natural lip.

But I do think this is a pretty good lipstick to have especially for short trips/events. I've only tried this once though and I might update this post with subsequent use. 

It costs 399 and is available in Watson's.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Cheers,

LIZ

Beauty Backstage: European Brand Shopping Galore!

Hello ladies,

Yesterday we were fortunate enough to be part of Beauty Backstage at White Space Manila. This was a shopping party featuring brands distributed in the Philippines by Bhagi's International.

Here is a look at the haul I brought home which I will show to you by brand as you read on. 

The brands consisted of European and US drugstore brands, most of which can be found at Watsons.  So let's start off with my dream-country-to-travel-to, Italy.

Deborah Milano is an Italian cosmetics and skin care market. It promises an array of innovative, top-quality cosmetics and skin care at an affordable price. Their most popular product is the Absolute Lasting Liquid Lipstick which I made sure to secure in my shopping bag. Their foundations are also highly reviewed and it was a struggle choosing what foundation to buy.

I ultimately ended up choosing their Perfect & Natural Foundation Natural Look in 03 which is 0% silicone, mineral oil, parbens, and acrylates.

Deborah Milano's products are the most pricey of the brands in the event with prices ranging from 300 to 800 pesos.

Next stop is Germany, where two brands hail from.

The first of the two is Essence and is the one I am more familiar with. I've tried some of their blushes before - those owned by Dawn. However, since I was in need of a new lip liner and Liz Lanuzo of Project Vanity recommended theirs, I went and got their nude lip liner to try out.

Here's a fun fact that I learned about Essence, they invest more on their product quality than any ad campaign. This is one way that they are able to delivery high quality low priced products. True enough, they are one of the lowest priced items in the event with a price range of 100 to 500 pesos.

I also got their I Love Stage Eyeshadow base and this beautiful Mosaic Blush. It's a little orangey-peach in color - which at some point I am hoping that I don't already have.

Another fun fact, all Essence products are not tested on animals. So feel guilt-free to splurge on their items!

Next is Catrice.

Catrice's make up line can be called as the runway dupes, in the sense that they take the runway trend of make-up as the base for their product development and then from there, the innovate formulas and textures from high quality ingredients. They boast of a large choice of colors which covers both trendy and classic shades.

They also regularly release limited make-up collections per year so you'll always find something new from them. 

Yesterday, their "featured" products were the  highlighting palettes, the cream bronzer and highlighter compact, strobing duo and such. However, since I think I already have too much bronzers, I skipped out on buying it.

Catrice is mid-range at 200 to 500 pesos.

Last stop on our European based brands is Il Salone Milano.

This is a hair care and hair color brand. They actually have 27 hair color products to choose from BUT there are only 6 of them available in the country; and if my memory is any good, those are:  Dark Blonde, Light Blonde, Burgundy Red, Dark Copper, Light Caramel Brunette and Light Chocolate Brunette. If I ever get one color wrong do tell me. I'm just generally sad that they do not have Blue Black available in the country.

Also, they have a spray leave-in that is perfect for colored hair but I'm not sure if it's available in the country as well.

Now we head on to Turkey with their number 1 make-up brand Flormar.

It's being number 1 isn't only in Turkey though, as you can see in my picture of their booth below, they were the first ones to get most of their items sold out. All of their liquid foundations were just gone in a few minutes to an hour.

And since I didn't want to lose out, I grabbed one of their matte foundations before somebody else takes it. I was also fortunate enough to get the last piece of loose powder in 04 which according to the sales representative, is not really the tester. Well, I just really wanted it and when she opened the lid, it did look pretty untouched so I just went for it.

Since I was "gaya gaya" and Helen of Lucky Citrine got a lipstick, I also got one. Anyway, it's in a shade I've always wanted to try so win-win. Their prices also range at 200 to 800 pesos.

Now we cross the ocean and go straight to USA.

Jordana, in comparison to the previous brands, is relatively young at 25 years in the business. They're a family-owned, LA based brand which offers value-priced cosmetics.

Their best selling product is the Sweet Dream Matte Liquid Lip Color in Tiramisu. Actually, Jordana was our first stop during that day and so we were able to secure a Tiramisu shade before everyone else. 

Since I wasn't familiar with the brand yet I decided to just go with their tube 2-in-1 concealer foundation. The good thing about this, according to their sales lady, this has yellow tone in it and is perfect for us Asian ladies so I don't really need to fret that much if the color I got was a little lighter.

The final stop is the perfumes section. The perfumes were from Joe of London  and Romantic Collection.

I chose the blue one since it smelled the lightest. There were also two fragrance mist from this brand which to me smelled like jelly-ace. :)

Joe of London had several scents available during the event like: Sage, Lily, Creme Noir, Orangey, and Lime Mousse to name a few. I really wanted to get Sage since it smelled powdered down and soft but I guess I share the same taste with a lot of the other attendees that's why it sold out quick.

Also aside from playing around the booths and getting busy shopping, there are also other activities set-up; for example, this make-up session and the nail atelier. I guess people were just too busy shopping to think of getting their nails done. :)

Now, I'd just like to share that Helen, Kaycee of KikaysiKat, and I were really early birds. It was nice seeing Helen again after so long. 

I was also equally happy to meet Kaycee and her purple hair! Ah, I think we kind of bonded over our mutual like of purple color in our hair. Hers however has such a pretty fade out... kind of inggit inside. :)

Anyway, that's it for this post. Do wait for the reviews of the products.

Hope you enjoyed this short trip around the "world" stalls.

Cheers,

LIZ

Flormar Mat Touch Foundation in Soft Beige

Hey gorgeous!

Just sharing a swatch post of a foundation I bought a few months ago.

Flormar Mat Touch Foundation in Soft Beige
I bought this at Watsons, SM North The Block for Php 599.00.

The reasons why I bought this are:
1. I'd like to try something from the brand. I've only used a couple from it and would like to "get to know" it more.
2. It promises a matte finish which I like when it comes to foundations.

According to the website, it promises:
Creating a velvety and rich texture, it blends with the skin perfectly, gives a mattes and smooth texture, helps skin look perfect and mat all day.

And it's available in 5 shades.

This is what the product looks like.
It's very thick and creamy in consistency and it has a very mild, sort of floral scent.

Here it is when slightly blended.

It gives medium to high coverage depending on the amount you applied. I don't recommend building this product up because the consistency is just too thick and it feels like your skin can't breathe. I guess the formula is too heavy for me. But it actually has good coverage and can hide most of my acne scars so I would only need to apply concealer in those few darker spots that are still visible.

I usually top it off with powder to strengthen the lasting power and also help with controlling oil. This can last the whole day on me but there are instances that it creases on some areas... so yeah, yikes! 

And it may not show on the pictures but this oxidizes on my face and gets more beige-ier. I guess since this is a western brand, they have more pink tones. At first when I swatched this, it seemed like it blends well with my skin but after a while, it gets a little darker and pinkier than I would like it to be.

I really like the coverage of this foundation and the matte finish is really good but the creasing and the pinkishness of it made me just skip this and move on to other foundations. Oh well.

So what do you think of the Flormar Mat Touch Foundation in Soft Beige? Have you tried this yet? What about their other products?


Cheers,
DAWN

A Makeup Tutorial Session from Clinique PH

Hey everyone!

Last Friday I went to Trinoma because I booked a tutorial session from Clinique Philippines. I get to have a makeover done by one of their consultants and they'll be using Clinique skincare products that suit my skin. Here's what I looked like after the makeover:

What do you think?

I booked this because my friends, Helen and Robin, convinced me to try it out. I wasn't really in the mood to get out of the house during the long weekend but I realized that I'm on the hunt for other skincare products that I can try. I do believe that my current routine is good enough but maybe there are other products out there that can treat my skin problems better. So why not try the workshop and learn what among Clinique's skincare range would work on my skin best. Clinique is, afterall, one of the major brands that focus on skincare and cosmetics.

So before I introduce the products that was used in my session, here are before and after pictures of me:

Haha! I look weird and so dull without makeup! The right photo, on the other hand, looks so colorful and cheery.  

 The consultant tasked to do my skincare and makeup was Cathy. She was hands-on with explaining every product used on me. She knew exactly what to apply as soon as she analyzed my skin. 

And so, here are some of the products that were used in the tutorial. I didn't get to take photos of every product but I made sure to take photos of the ones that were very interesting for me and those that were highly recommended by Cathy.

 Clinique Anti-blemish Solutions

This is the range that deals with the problems I've been encountering for more than a decade. Cathy didn't use all three products though...

...she only used this for my moisturizer. Cathy said this will keep me hydrated without getting my skin very oily. It feels light on the skin!

To add more moisture to my skin, she applied Moisture Surge. It's also light and actually feels like gel made of water. It dries fast when applied and made my skin very soft.

She then applied the Pore Refining Solutions Stay-Matte Hydrator to keep my skin shine-free. I can't really say if this worked since I got oily after 3-4 hours. I dunno if it just didn't work on me or maybe the amount of moisturizers were too much? Not sure but I wish I get to use this more so I can be more accurate in my initial review.

And let's move to the makeup part...

She combined these three foundations to achieve my color wherein Cashew has the highest amount. She also combined their CC Cream. After blending it on my face, she topped it off with powder.

She asked me if I wanted nude eyes or smoky. Of course I chose smoky because I love bold eyeshadows! :P

 She used this for my eye makeup. I was worried just because it's blue. I don't do blue smoky eyes much just because it can get drag-like. In the end, it wasn't too dark but I wasn't fond of the finished look. I guess it was just okay. Not something I would do on me but it's just... okay, I guess. 

 For the lips, she used these very, very beautiful shades—Curviest Caramel and Mightiest Maraschino. Combined, they made an awesome peachy pink shade.

So those are the notable products used for my makeup tutorial with Cathy of Clinique PH. She was so nice to arrange the products she used from the first one she applied to the last one so that incase I decide to purchase some of them, I know how to use them. See the photo below to check it out:

 And what do you think of the look?

And also, they gave the people who attended the workshops some freebies! Two lucky ones will get full-sized products. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them. Oh well.

But here are the products I got!

Super happy that I get to take home these. I got a free makeover and skincare lesson and I also got free stuff! Thanks, Clinique! :D

So do check out your favorite brands if they are doing workshops or seminars. You get to learn a lot and discover new products that can help you with your skin or other beauty concerns. I love going to those because I get to learn new stuff everytime about the brand and their products. 

One of the products I am eyeing on besides the products used on me in the tutorial is this:

 Clinique Even Better Clinical Dark Spot Corrector

My skin's ultimate enemies are my dark spots that I got from blemishes. I'm looking for good products that can help me deal with that and I really, really hope that this can be my ally. It's quite pricey at P4k+ but if it works, then it's so worth it! Time to save up!

Anyway, other products I got while I was at Trinoma (and SM North which was on their 3-day sale) that day are the following:

 I answered Benefit PH's survey and they gave me all these samples for free!

 My second bottle of Ciracle's Vitamin Source C-20 — Php 1,2k+

 ZA Perfect Solution Restoring Collagen Cream — Php399.00 (original price is Php 700+)

 Flormar Mat Touch Foundation — around Php 700 but got this at 10% off

 Biokos Vital Nutrition Eye Shield Treatment — Around Php 400-500

Been looking for an affordable eye cream. Hoping this can help slow down aging. Haha!

Beyu Soft Liner in Black — Php 450-500

Bought this because my sister took my very black eyeliner to Australia. Haha!

So that's all for this post, guys. :)

Cheers,

DAWN