Beijin Make-up brushes vs Departmentstore brushes and Giveway!

1:04 PM Moi Sanom 104 Comments

As I already mentioned here I had some troubles with my post lately.
The good news about that though is that I received two packages from Bornprettystore.

Today I would like to announce a 35th of May and Born pretty store collaboration Giveaway.
But before I tell you about all the wonderful prices, I wanted to review one of the items that are in the goodie bag.


The reason I ordered a brush set is that even though I own brushes I am not really satisfied with them. I have been using a Mac brush set for the past few years that I really don’t like since they shed like crazy.
Recently I received a Stila brush set  (thank you Stila!) which is much better but not the bees knees to be honest.
My favorite brush I own is actually a no name powder brush that I ordered from Ebay over a year ago.
And when Born pretty store asked me to choose some items to review I didn't hesitate on ordering a brush set hoping it would be as nice as my powder brush.


Since telling you how good these brushes doesn’t really show the quality of the product I thought to compare them with the department store brushes I already owned.
I looked for the 3 most similar brushes I had and decided on Mac 239SE and Stila number 7.
All three brushes are of a similar size and shape, I decided to try them on 2 different eye shadows. One from Stila and one from Mac.
You would assume that the brand would make the brushes according to the product they sell but it really doesn't seem so.

Stila, Mac and Bejin

The Mac eye shadow is very hard and it is difficult to pick up a lot of colors with any brush, but surprisingly not only did the Mac brush perform the worst but the no name brush actually did the best!
The Stila eye shadow was easier to use, but too powdery in my opinion, with this shadow the cheaper brush performed excellent once again with a tie between Mac and Stila brushes.


Now I have to say I am impressed!

Of course both Mac and Stila are natural brushes (Goat and Pony bristles) and the Beijin brushes are synthetic but I dont really care what my brushes are made of as long as they perform well!
The Beijin brushes are synthetic brushes that are very soft and don’t seem to shed.
They pick up products very well and the application is smooth.
Even though the application doesn’t look flawless in the swatch photo they do apply very well on the eye lids.

Bejin brushes swatching Stila eyeshadow

Keep in mind that I was working without a primer with a not so ideal eye shadow.
I used the brushes in order, the widest being swatch ones the angled brush being swatched second both horizontally and vertically, and the thinner liner brush being swatched last both ways as well.


I am really happy with them though!
They are easy to use and easy to clean.
Applying eye shadow with them is a breeze and they have quickly become my favorite shadow and eyeliner brushes!



Rating: 1.Blegh  2. Pff  3. Meh  4. Oohh  5. Awwyeah 6. Wooha



Available at Bornprettystore


Now onto the Giveaway!


You can win these wonderful brushes, a magical Burgundy Lipstick (reviewed here) and a super adorable Black cat shaped eyeliner from Born pretty store.
On top of that there are two items from the 35th of May store as well.
An adorable little Ice cream ring and Bread in a basket created by hand.

The giveaway is open internationally to all living creatures.

a Rafflecopter giveaway 
 So good luck everyone and remember if you don’t win this time you might win the next!

Illustration by Misschlei and Design by Issa

Here is the Giveaway Banner, you can resize it to fit on your Blog.
Thank you all again for your support!

Disclaimer: This product was send to me by Bornprettystore. This does not alter my opinions and I will continue to review with all honesty. I receive no compensation for the reviews. For more information read my Disclaimer page.

Woeful Windsday

5:02 AM Moi Sanom 0 Comments

Barbette photographed by Man Ray in 1926

Barbette was an American trapeze artist who performed around the world in drag.
Muse to Jean Cocteau he was most popular in Europe in the 1920s.
For more info read here

Lioele Multi Seaweed Gel review

8:39 AM Moi Sanom 10 Comments

Lioele Multi Seaweed Gel is like youth in a bottle. It has more than 90% of seaweed extracts to calm irritated and sensitive skin. It contains intensive amount of Coenzyme Q10 to help prevent skin lose it's elasticity from gravity. Hydrates and calm skin leaving skin smooth and healthy. Our skin is like a delicate plant. It needs a lot of moisture and care. Help bring it back to it's prime by providing it nutirition and elasticity. How to use:  Apply over face or body for excellent moisture!Absorb by tapping.

It comes wrapped in clear plastic, has a spatula and the packaging is adorable!

A very nice friend of mine let me use some of her Korean skin care to sample it and make some mini reviews.
This seaweed gel came highly recommended by her and I couldn't pass up trying it.

I have seen this product around but never read any reviews on it.
Since I've never used anything by Lioele before either so I wasn't really sure what to expect.


This is supposed to be a multi use product and I have tried it as such.
It has a gelly texture that is very watery and melts into your skin as soon as it touches it.
It stays on your skin until it warms up and becomes practically liquid.
It smells fresh but in a subtle way.
Don't worry you wont smell like ocean and seaweed when you apply this!

It comes with a separator, it doesn't do much though since the product still spilled in the shipping process

Even though I use toners I honestly don’t really have many opinions on how toners perform.
If they don't dry my skin out I am ok with them.
Some give more moisture some less but so far I haven't found any that are spectacular.
When I used this as a toner I didn't really feel a difference in my skin at all.
It moisturized but not any more then other hydrating toners, it was pretty average but felt comfortable.

As a hydrating gel is was ok as well.
I do have super duper dry skin so most moisturizers are simply underwhelming for me.
Even if they feel really hydrating when applied, my skin usually dries out to its pruny state within a few hours.
Since I haven’t found a moisturizer yet that I am happy, with you simply have to keep in mind that they are almost all very underwhelming for my skin.

That is how the gel looks just before melting from the body heat

I applied my regular routine and the Seaweed Gel as a last step, it made my skin feel good for about an hour or two.
After that my skin started getting drier and drier, the good thing about this is that my skin did not become itchy at all.
Which means that even though it didn’t keep my skin super moisturized it gave it enough hydration to not desiccate completely.

As a sleeping pack is where this product excelled in my opinion!
I applied a thicker layer of the product as the last step of my routine so it could slowly absorb into my skin at night.
When applied it was very wet but started to dissappear fast, in tickly and wet face puddles.
Since I hate moistness it was a little odd but much better than sheet masks.
It took about 2-3 minutes for the gel to absorb into my face.
Afterwards my skin felt plump, juicy and very hydrated.
Huzzah!

It melts on the skin and then becomes liquid

Of course this didn't last by the next morning but no product I have ever used gave me super hydrated skin for longer then a few hours.
Not even sheet masks!
My skin was quite soft while using this which is nice.
I definitely liked it but I do believe it would be an excellent product for normal, combo and even dry skin.
It is so lightweight and fast absorbing that I think any skin type would enjoy this texture.
And with its excellent non oily hydrating powers it is suitable for anyone.
It is also very gentle and a quick look at its ingredients shows that this product is quite promising for what it does.
I don’t think it is strong enough for really dry skin unless you have a very moisturizing routine that just needs that hydrating cherry on top.

Ingredients: Here
PH: 6



Rating: 1.Blegh  2. Pff  3. Meh  4. Oohh  5. Awwyeah 6. Wooha



Purchased at Testerkorea (sold out)
Available on Ebay

Which movie am I gonna watch tonight?

11:08 AM Moi Sanom 2 Comments

Filth
2013
directed by Jon S. Baird
starring: James McAvoy, Jamie Bell, Eddie Marsan, Imogen Poots, Jim Broadbent


I saw posters of this film hanging everywhere here this summer.
It reminded me of the poster for Delicatessen and looked generally quite interesting.

I finally got around to see this film, and even though I knew nothing about it I was still quite surprised at what it was actually about.



It is a very weird film, in a way that anything could happen without much of a shock.
It doesn't follow any rules and that makes for an interesting and unexpected result.
You can definitely tell that this film is a European production, since they tend to be a little looser in the way they write stories.
Somehow they managed to makes this a humorous but also a quite dark movie.
It actually deals with quite a bit of moral issues in a light yet also serious way.


If you like strange films or are a fan of John Waters, not that this film is like a John Waters film but it definitely had elements, I would definitely recommend this!

Heng Fang Balm Lipstick in #2 Burgundy red review aka How I found THE Burgundy Lipstick

4:05 PM Moi Sanom 3 Comments

Very inconspicuous in its tube

I decided to try this lipstick on a whim, I have quite a few Burgundy Lipsticks already but I haven't found the one that has that perfect shade of deep bloody red yet.

I always wanted a product that I just put on my face and suddenly I feel better and more confident! Usually when I am testing out new make up products I use them on my face and then the rest of my face looks so bare and naked!
Does this magic product even exist?
The one that you put on and it makes your face more clothed instead of more naked?


I do believe I found it!
When I was testing this lipstick at home I had crazy wild uncombed hair, I was really hot since there is some kind of heat wave happening here, and I felt generally gross just like one does in a summers day.
So I put this lipstick on with little expectations, the color looked good swatched but it isn't really a shade that wowed me on my hands.


I asked Johnny Clyde to take photos of the application stages, they are close ups of my lips only.
When I saw them on the camera screen I gasped, why does it look so pretty?
Was it suddenly perfect lighting in the room, or was the shade of red simply gorgeous?
I brushed it of as a mere mirage!
I went along with my day, lounging and trying not do die from heat stroke, but every time I caught my reflection I actually didn't look as gross as I felt, I looked decent and sort of like I just popped out of a vintage film

This is how a Lipstick should make you feel!

I decided to document this newly found lipstick confidence feeling that I heard so many people talk about and took a photo with a crappy web cam.
I still don't know how this Lipstick made me feel like such a princess?
But it did!
Johnny Clyde commented on how pretty the Lipstick looks too, and he never says anything even if I get dolled up!
He prefers me without make up and getting a compliment on make up from him is a pretty rare occurrence.

Web cam picture

The Lipstick smells like nothing at all and it is really easy to apply, you can dab it, use a brush or just layer it straight from the bullet.
I actually happen to have the perfect Lip liner for this.
Estee Lauders Lip liner in Wine is a match made in heaven!
It does apply quite patchy, so keep that in mind since the Lipstick looks a little uneven on the Lip liner photo, but it is a really long lasting Liner so I don't care about that.


The Lipstick applies smoothly and evenly, it is very soft and quite hydrating.
I actually tolerate this on my lips for a few hours before begging for a lip balm!
It leaves a very nice berry stain behind, which makes the fading process quite even.
It lasts between 3-5 hours depending on what you are doing during that time of course.

These are applied out of the Bullet and without lip liner

All in all I think this is not just a gorgeous color but also a really nice quality lipstick.
I am actually a little bit of a lipstick snob.
Not that I don’t use cheap ones (Barry M is the bomb!), but after having used really expensive lipsticks I have quite a lot of expectations that often don’t get matched, not even by high end lipsticks.
I am looking at you Chanel!

Wearing Welcos Zombie CC Cream, Heng Fang Lipstick and Landbis eyeliner (review coming soon)

Ingredients: I couldn't find any

Rating: 1.Blegh  2. Pff  3. Meh  4. Oohh  5. Awwyeah 6. Wooha
I give this a 5, it is such a beautiful shade and a must buy for anyone who loves Burgundy lip products. And if you have never used a Burgundy lipstick before this is the perfect product to experiment with since the price is so good!



I will hold a giveaway very soon where you can win this product so keep an eye out!




If you are interested in trying some of their products or this Lipstick in particular, you can use the link on the side bar or this discount code to save 10% on your purchase.

Available at Bornprettystore


Disclaimer: This product was send to me by Bornprettystore. This does not alter my opinions and I will continue to review with all honesty. I receive no compensation for the reviews. For more information read my Disclaimer page.

Woeful Windsday

10:40 AM Moi Sanom 0 Comments

Dolores Costello (silent film starlet..she’s also Drew Barrymore’s grandmother.)

Johnny Clyde reviews: Tonymoly Panda's Dream Eye Patch aka A Scientific experiment on dark circles

12:12 PM Moi Sanom 6 Comments

Tonymoly Panda's Dream Eye Patch (7ml) 
Features  
Whitening functional formula for Your Undereyes
 - Improves dark circles
- The most suitable for eye skin
- Strong adherence black sheet
- It makes the eye area brighter after use
Main ingredients
- Niacinamide
- Bamboo sap
- Bamboo shoot
- Parabens, talc, benzophenone, silicone, tar dye FREE

It sure is adorable but does it work?

Today I'll be reviewing the panda pirate eye patch.
Yarrrr.
So I for one love my dark eye circles and would feel naked without them.
But Moi insisted this is for science or whatever so we experimented to see if it would decrease my lovelies at all.
My little eye circles fought hard and beat the crap out of the pirate panda patches!

*suffering ensues*

They barely did anything, and I'm not even sure if they even actually did do anything.
There looks like there's a bit of brightening but maybe I was just in a good mood or something.
The panda pirate patch itself felt like an absolute nightmare!
I've got this problem where if anything slightly moist touches my eyes I can't breath and feel like I'm drowning.
So that was a hellish couple of minutes trying to remind myself I am not actually dying and I just have to open my airways.
I'd tell you all what it smelled like but seeing as it was just constant drowning panic I didn't really think to just stop and sniff it.
So I don't know, probably smelt like cheap death.

Freedom!

I would recommend this to my enemies probably, but they wouldn't understand why it's a bad thing because I don't think other people drown with moist eyes.
Also if you've got dark eye circles, don't fight it.
Creeps like me think they're amazing so you'll always have that!



Rating: 1.Blegh  2. Pff  3. Meh  4. Oohh  5. Awwyeah 6. Wooha

This is what I call a pirate competition, I recon I win Yarrrr!

Mois thought:
I read about a lot of people wondering how they can get rid of their under eye circles so I thought I’ll do a little bit of an experiment to see if eye patches work.
I got this cutie from a friend.
It arrived very conveniently a few days after I decided to make this review, almost like she read my mind!
I wanted to see if these eye patches reduced fine lines, wrinkles, dark circles and eye bags.
I never had dark eye circles until I got very ill for a whole year and they never went away since.
Also I never had fine lines or wrinkles, but then I had a bout of eye eczema which lasted 6 months. Finally my eye area healed completely about 7 months ago, but now I am left with one deep line underneath each eye.
I can only assume it is from the skin getting destroyed or something like that.
To test these patches properly I thought I would use one on my sleep deprived eyes and the other one on Johnny Clydes naturally dark eye area.

The patches are moist and cool, they smell fresh and like nothing specific.
There is a plastic layer on each patch which you take off before applying them to your eyes.
They stick well on your skin and you can definitely move around with them on.
There is a little flap so you can open them up but we left them closed.
I didn't really like wearing them, but I do hate moistness on my skin and thus am not a big fan of sheet masks either.

Pretending to be relaxed...

Since I have had on and off eczema around my eyes all my life I am wary what I put on there, but this patch was quite gentle!
It didn't sting when the product entered my eye by accident and there seemed to be no irritation at all.

Unfortunately it didn't really do much.
It definitely moisturized the area but got neither rid of that pesky line nor of our dark circles.
None of us had puffy eyes but for some reason my eye looks puffier in the after photo.

As you can see my right eye looks puffier but not really lighter then before

I think that this patch won’t lighten your eye area with a one time use, of course I cant say anything about regular uses.
It looks like Johnny Clydes area is lightened, maybe a teeny tiny bit, but it is mostly light reflection from the moisture that the camera picked up.
In real life there was no difference between both eyes.

Ingredients: Here
PH: 5


I think these patches are fine for moisture but wouldn't recommend them for anything else.
Rating: 1.Blegh  2. Pff  3. Meh  4. Oohh  5. Awwyeah 6. Wooha


Available at Beautynetkorea
Available on Ebay


 

Which movie are you gonna watch tonight?

10:47 AM Moi Sanom 0 Comments

The Hunger
1983
directed by Tony Scott
starring: Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, and Susan Sarandon


Well who can resist David bowie?
I do confess he was the first crush I've ever had as a little youngling watching Labyrinth.
Yeah Jareth the Goblin King was my ideal future husband!

Yep, that guy!

But besides my huge childhood crush on Mr Bowie, this is really an awesome film.
It is a classic that should be watched.
A great spin on the vampire genre and immortality.
It is deliciously dark and calm but also wonderfully creepy.

How is her eye make-up so perfect in the shower? Vampire magic perhaps???

Even if you aren’t a fan of vampire films you might be pleasantly surprised.
Not as good as Only Lovers Left alive (reviewed here) but definitely a film that should be on every ones watch list!