Makeup Experiment #16: Poison Ivy—A Late Halloween Post

Hello loves!

It's been a year since I published a makeup experiment post. If you've been a reader of my blog for years now, then you've probably seen some of those experiments where I play with my friends' faces with makeup and create various creative looks. I still do these experiments every once in a while but I have not uploaded them... until today. I thought I should share one since it was Halloween yesterday after all. I was supposed to post this last night but due to circumstances, I wasn't able to get home sooner (I got home at 2am and was too sleepy to write). So yeah... after more than a year, here's one of my makeup experiments... :P

This is my friend, Gucci. We just got our hair colored a couple of weeks before we did this makeover. It was her first time coloring her hair and she chose this beautiful red shade. We were already thinking of a makeup theme even before doing this makeup experiment and one of the themes we thought of was Batman villains. Since her hair was currently red, why not go with Poison Ivy, right?

Here's the lovely Gucci sans makeup, 2nd from the right, between Liz and I. This was taken during my karaoke birthday celebration last September. :P

So yeah, back to the Poison Ivy idea, I thought it was an easy task although we're not open to making Gucci's skin all green so we just decided to do the Batman Animated Series-Inspired version where Poison Ivy wears green eyeshadow and a red lipstick. It's simple but I added a little twist—flower petals and some sparkles (sort of like pollen)! Gucci even brought a green, jungle-like outfit to make this experiment look better!

And here are some of the photos we took after the makeup application process:

Makeup by : Me 

Hairstyle : Gucci? It's naturally like that

Model : Gucci

Photos by : Me

Place taken : My room

Don't you think she looks great with red hair? ...and flowers around her eyes? LOL 

Anyway, that's one of my makeup experiments. I'll try to be not so lazy and post some of my previous makeup experiments. I already have a handful waiting to be posted and I'm excited to let you see all of them. :D

Cheers,

DAWN

SkinFood Cacao Hand Balm

Hello guys!

Okay. So I think I've mentioned a few times that I don't like the taste of chocolate... especially the sour aftertaste it leaves in my mouth (I'm talking about the choco bars and cakes... I'm okay with drinking it because it's less... fudgy and thick). BUT that doesn't mean I don't like how it smells. There's something about the smell of chocolate that is somehow comforting, especially the scent of the tsokolate or the local chocolate drink here in the Philippines. I associate it with getting a treat when we eat out or when I'm out-of-town on a vacation because I almost always order a cup of that when we have breakfast on a Filipino-themed restaurant (And yes, I don't drink coffee daily. I drink tea more often actually.).

Now, I get to smell the sweet aroma of chocolate without having to eat it every morning with this product...

SkinFood Cacao Hand Balm

A friend of mine, Tellie, gave it to me a few months back and it has been in my office desk since. :D

Since it's in a tub, I try my best to remember to wash my hands before I use this. The good thing is that when I wash my hands, I feel like my hands are too squeaky clean so I want to moisturize it. Haha! 

The product looks nice on the desk. The packaging is a small tub and the design of the label is pretty cute.

The product is quite thick... and a bit waxy. It takes time to be absorbed by the skin so there will surely be instances that it will get to the stuff that I've touched. But I don't mind. The important thing is that my hands feel moisturized and that they smell soooo good. The scent is not that heavy cocoa smell... it's just the right amount of chocolotey scent that I like. I can't describe it much but I recommend you to go check out a SkinFood counter and check how awesome this product smells like!

See how thick it is?

It's really a good product to hydrate my hands and I only need a small amount to cover both hands so this 50g tub will last me a long while. I draw, paint, and do other kinds of artworks with my hands and they get tired and get exposed to various chemicals, not to mention stuff for nail art too, so they tend to feel dry especially the cuticle part. This hand balm definitely helps a lot in keeping my hands soft and smooth! I just love it! :D

And that's all for the SkinFood Cacao Hand Balm! What scent does your current hand cream have?


Cheers,
DAWN

Review : Koji Dolly Wink Liquid Eyeliner in Deep Black

Hey loves!

Don't you just love it when you accidentally discover an HG potential product? This happened to me when I first tried this product...

Koji Dolly Wink Liquid Eyeliner in Deep Black

This was a gift from a friend but this is also available in the Philippines for PhP 800.00.

I've been a fan of some eyeliners from different Japanese brands. Whenever friends ask me what eyeliners they should buy, I almost always say to check out Japanese brands first because the ones I've tried so far have the qualities I like in my eyeliners—very black and long-lasting.

So when my friend went to Japan for business, I asked her to buy me some eyeliners since I know they are sold cheaper there. She bought me one from four brands and one of them is from Dolly Wink. She told me she bought this (even though she isn't into makeup very much) because she kept getting requests to buy this from friends and they tell her that this product is really, REALLY GOOD! 

Unfortunately, I can't read the product description on the packaging. All I know about Dolly Wink is that it is a makeup brand that specializes on eye makeup. So I googled and here's a product description from Pinky Paradise:

Dolly Wink Liquid Eyeliner III Deep Black

Produced by Tsubasa Masuwaka. Big, beautiful, doll-like eyes are guaranteed with this Liquid eyeliner. Ink brush type. Rich, deep black to dramatically highlight the eyes.

Product Details

Brand / Dolly Wink

Country of Origin / Japan

Deep and rich black - just a single slick looks like a double application. Dramatically highlight beautiful lines and flicks.

Outstanding resistance to water

Clings to the skin from the moment of application. Quick-drying and resistant to rubbing or running from sweat, water and tears. The colour won‘t fade over time, meaning your liner will stay bold and beautiful all day long.

Slim brush head

A slim brush head with good resistance allows you to create delicate or bold lines as you please.

Remove easily

A washable film-type formulation that‘s resistant to sweat and water, but dissolves away in warm water.

Contains honey extract

Enriched with honey extract to moisturize and gently care for the skin.

The packaging is pretty. It's the kind of pink that I like (somewhat near to peach). The gold font and ornament design gives a princessy vibe, which I also like. ;) I like the size (like an actual pen) because it's easy to carry, especially when travelling. 

The pen's brush has a very fine tip and the bristles are smooth so it can create thin lines, which are great for the cat eye look (for the flick part). It's not too soft that it bends but it's just right to let it glide easily when being applied. I love how it feels and I think its applicator is the best quality among all the pen-type eyeliners I have used so far.

Here's a closeup of the pen.

And here are swatches.

See how thin you can make the lines? And each line is really deep black and I got these with just one stroke. You can make the lines even darker if you layer them. I do realize that when I use very shimmery eyeshadows that it kind of gathers them which makes the blackness of the liner less black and more shimmery. But when I use matte or shadows with little shimmer, then everything's okay, it's still beautifully black.

I don't know why but I've read reviews that it's hard to make clean lines because it goes within the lines of your skin. But as you can see in my swatches, I can create my lines cleanly. I haven't experience any runny situation when I use this. The consistency is just right for me. The tips I can give you to keep the finish deep black and not watery is to shake the product before use and if not in-use, store it with the tip facing downwards (similar with the idea of how you store a fountain pen). :)

And how strong is the lasting power of this product? Check out how it stayed on after I did some tests:

When rubbed by my hand

When rubbed by dry tissue
There's slight fading.

When rubbed with wet wipes

It was easily removed with wet wipes as you can see in the pic above. I can see the "washable film-type" quality. It can stay on my oily lids without being removed or smudged all day, but when I removed it with my makeup remover or a simple wet wipe, it gets removed without difficulty. Awesome, right? I dunno how that works but that's an awesome combination when it comes to eyeliners—long-lasting but easy to remove!

Check out how I apply the eyeliner on the photos below:

I can easily create that flick within seconds. Plus, I don't have to wait a long time for it to dry. I apply and after probably 5-10 seconds, I can open my eyes normally. This is definitely one of the easiest eyeliners to use and I'm an instant fan the first time I tried it!

To summarize my review:

What I LIKE:
- It really is deep black
- Can create thin lines with the very fine tip
- Easy to use and apply
- Lovely packaging
- Very long-lasting—can stay on my oily lids all day
- Can easily be removed with makeup remover/wet wipes
- Locally available
- Somewhat affordable
- Dries quickly after application


What I DON'T LIKE:
- Shimmers from very shimmery eyeshadows gather on the film-like quality of the product making it look less black

Would I recommend? Hells-to-the-yeah! I love this product! It stays on my oily lids even under the hot weather or even when I walked under the rain!

And that is my review of the Koji Dolly Wink Liquid Eyeliner in Deep Black! What do you think of this product? What other products from this brand do you like/want to try?


Cheers,
DAWN

ARTDECO Eyeshadow in Matt Rosy Starling

Hello dears!

A little update about what's going on with my life: I got a new phone!

My old phone was broken last week while I was buying groceries. It fell while I was... carrying cans of mushrooms. On the outside, it looks okay—no scratches at all, but unfortunately, it was the phone's LCD that got broken... That phone was three years old anyway and it was performing poorly and I was already thinking of buying a new one... so yeah, I got a new one! Yay!

Although I'm happy with my new purchase, I'm still sad that I lost some of the pictures I took when I went to ManilArt 2015. I really regret that I didn't sync my phone to my iCloud or Dropbox then. And I also lost some pics that I took for the blog. Oh well.

Anyway, I'll get over the pictures someday...

For now, here's a swatch post again of a recent purchase I made...

ARTDECO Eyeshadow in Matt Rosy Starling

As usual, I bought this on sale at Beauty Bar. I got it for PhP 175.00. Original price was PhP 350.00.

I love this shade. The sort of light nude pink color with a matte finish. I love that color for my lippies, I love them more as eyeshadows!

It's pretty much close to the other ARTDECO mono eyeshadow I bought, the 345 Glam Beige Rose, except that this one is paler and not shimmery.

Info from the website:

Eyeshadow Matt

Powder eyeshadows in matt, natural colors: Thanks to their new, particularly smooth and silky quality, the matt colors adhere perfectly to the eyelid and can be applied especially even. The brown shades are ideally suited for the accentuation of the eyebrows.

Remove the clear cover from the eyeshadow and arrange as desired in the magnetic box. Apply the required shade with the eyeshadow applicator or brush. The eyeshadows can be combined individually and can be stored in the practical refillable magnetic beauty boxes.

So below is the swatch:

It's pigmented but I was hoping that it will have a lighter color. I find that it is close to my skin's color.

On my lids, it's color blended on my skin. It looks really close to my skin's color so it's barely noticeable even with an eyeshadow primer underneath. I wanted a lighter, creamier shade, but I think this is still a nice base shade for a simple, everyday look.

And that's all for the ARTDECO Eyeshadow Glam in Matt Rosy Starling. What do you think of this eyeshadow? :)

Cheers,
DAWN