The Makeup Box

The makeup blog with your daily dose of beauty inspirations, makeup tutorials, product reviews and shopping deals!

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Majolica Majorca Chapter 37: Getting Reunited with a Cult-Favorite Fiber Mascara (in Brown this time!) plus a Pencil that looks like a Swan Feather

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From this month, Shiseido will release a limited edition collection called “Moonlight Virgin” in 2 parts. The first includes a multipurpose “quill pencil” and a brown version of the Lash Expander Edge Meister mascara (with the dual-sided comb tip). Now me and Lash Expander mascara go way back. I used it exclusively for 3-4 years when it was just released across Asia, because it created these long, fine, waterproof doll-lashes. After a 5-year breakup (I’m never monogamous with makeup), I was quite glad to get reacquainted and grabbed the chance to find out 2 things:

  • whether the mascara was as good at building length as I remembered
  • whether the brown shade would show up (and look alright) with my dark hair and eyes

image

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Posted April 25, 2013 at 9:30 am 157 notes

#makeup#pastel makeup#soft makeup#colorful makeup#brown mascara#majolica majorca#majolicamajorcasg#lash expander edge meister#japanese cosmetics#japanese makeup#shopping#shiseido#beauty#mascara review#fiber mascara#waterproof mascara#favorites#mj

Spring Flings: 10 things I’m obsessed with these past weeks

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Here’s a quick summary if you don’t want to read the full post!

  1. Stila Color Balm Lipsticks in Betsey and Elle
  2. 1920s scents: Shalimar and Bois des Iles
  3. Light coverage: MAC Face & Body, Ginvera Green Tea Nude Cover BB Cream
  4. Make Up For Ever Super Matte Loose Powder #12 (flash-back)
  5. The Body Shop Colour Crush matte eyeshadows
  6. Strong bright blushes
  7. NYX Yellow pencil
  8. LUSH Rockstar soap
  9. Revlon Colorstay Concealer in 03 Light Medium
  10. The art store

More details below!

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Posted April 11, 2013 at 10:00 am 201 notes

#makeupbox#favorites#favorite beauty products#favorite makeup#beauty tips#makeup#makeup tips#shopping#haul#fragrance#chanel#bois des iles#perfume#shalimar#guerlain#scents#revlon colorstay#concealer#ginvera#bb cream#mac#face and body foundation#acrylic paint#nail art

Beauty and Makeup Products I Keep Reaching For

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Here’s a list of the items that I might not have really talked about much but that I’ve been reaching for over and over again the past month or so.

A few are also items I would recommend many of you check out because they are such great value.

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Posted March 9, 2013 at 10:00 am 288 notes

#makeup#beauty#favorite items#favorites#neutrogena hydro boost gel#hilary duff with love#chanel bronzing base#soleil tan de chanel#lush seanik#mac studio finish concealer#nyx orange concealer#nyx yellow pencil#mac 130#maybelline color tattoo#dior nude natural glow hydrating makeup

Favorite Coastal Scents Brushes Requested by vampgrl1918:  — I use many Coastal Scents brushes, and I use them a LOT. I think they’re great value, and while not all of them are the best quality, there are many that do perform just as well as more expensive brands. Most of them tend to be eye brushes because unlike foundation or blush brushes, I might need to do several different things with an eye look, and need different brushes for blending, smudging, lining, and defining. Here are a few staples: 1. Pro Blending Fluff This is the cheapie equivalent of a MAC 217. I use it for EVERYTHING because it picks up and applies color well, blends things out beautifully, AND it’s so cheap you can be like me and buy a bunch so you can rotate them while some are drying (after a wash), or when you’re doing a colorful look and don’t want to muddy up the colors by using the same brush to apply 3-4 shades. 2. Classic Shadow (Medium) This comes in synthetic and natural hairs, and it’s a basic brush that’s quite flat and firm, so it’s good for packing on cream shadows, intense pigments or glitter since they don’t cause as much fallout. Firmer brushes are also good when you want to apply some color right to your lash line because you can use just the tips. 3. The Pointy Blender You’ll often see me using a pointy brush like this for the outer corners, especially if I want a more defined look. You can run this along the crease when you’re doing a cut-crease look with a dark shade. 4. Mini detail brush My favorite multi-purpose brush for cream products! I use the synthetic hair version of this for gel liner AND I use this for pin-point concealing. It’s very small and firm so you can be very precise. 5. The Bionic Buffer  If you’re looking for your first foundation buffing brush this is a fabulous alternative to more expensive buffers from Sigma and MAC. You apply it in circular motions like you’re gently washing or massaging your face. NOT recommended if you have flaky skin, because buffing motions can make it worse. Use your fingers or a flat paddle-shaped foundation brush if you have that type of skin. 6. Bent Liner Brush If you prefer a finer brush but are quite new at lining, an angled brush makes things a lot easier. This one doesn’t shed and performs as well as higher-end ones as long as you clean it after each use and re-shape it to dry.  7. Classic Brow Smudger This is a multi-purpose brush for me. If you use a powder for your brows, this is a great brush. But I use it more for lining my eyes with eyeshadow, so you get that soft smokiness along the lashes.  And that’s it really! I’m sure there are a lot of other good brushes but these are the ones I’ve tried so far.  I’d say most of my eye brushes are from Coastal Scents because obviously I tend to use eye brushes a lot more (both for life and for the blog) than the average person, and I didn’t want to feel bad if they got bashed up and had to be thrown out often. Surprisingly, I haven’t had to throw a single one out. The ones I listed above all held their shape well over the past 2 years despite constant use and a LOT of washing.

Favorite Coastal Scents Brushes

Requested by vampgrl1918: 

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I use many Coastal Scents brushes, and I use them a LOT. I think they’re great value, and while not all of them are the best quality, there are many that do perform just as well as more expensive brands. Most of them tend to be eye brushes because unlike foundation or blush brushes, I might need to do several different things with an eye look, and need different brushes for blending, smudging, lining, and defining.

Here are a few staples:

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Posted February 19, 2013 at 10:00 am 259 notes

#makeup#beauty#makeup brushes#eyeshadow brush#coastal scents#eye brush#beauty tools#makeup tools#tips and tricks#review#favorites

January - February Favorites (2013)

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Here’s a round-up of things I’ve been impressed by recently!

Sikin79 Super Perfection BB Cream - I really like Skin79 BB Creams in general but I felt a need to mention this particular one because the more neutral coloring matches a medium-light skintone a lot better than many other grey or overly-pink BB Creams which give an unnatural cast to anyone with yellow/gold tones. Unlike typical tinted moisturizers, this gives a bit more coverage, and contains adenosine and arbutin to even out the skin. At the same time, it’s great for combination skin and sets to a natural soft matte finish.

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Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation - I’m using the brand new shade, Medium Ivory (great for NC25), and I absolute love this foundation. It’s a medium-to-full coverage creamy product that gives a luminous, natural-looking finish but is probably better for normal and combination skin types. I don’t find it to be too much coverage because I actually just apply it in areas as a concealer when I don’t need something very thick and opaque. If you’re sensitive to silicones, beware, but otherwise, give this one a try. 

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Posted February 12, 2013 at 10:00 am 140 notes

#favorites#makeup#beauty#tips and tricks#drugstore makeup#laura mercier#silk creme foundation#nyx blush#maybelline color tattoo#liquid liner#skin79#bb cream#super perfection bb cream

For Bath/Body Product Lovers Only: LUSH Soap Bars! — Show of hands: Who owns more LUSH soaps than they should? If you do, reply and let me know which ones you enjoy! I might just drop it in my shopping list. (Okay maybe that’s a bad idea… but who cares? I wanna know!) I bought my first bar of LUSH 10-11 years ago. The brand pulled out of Singapore a few years later, and just relaunched here in 2012. Prices are high, but shipping from the UK would be worse, so I’m just sucking it up. What you’re seeing above is my soap bowl filled with little chunks of different bars I cut out for use. This makes them last much longer because I don’t constantly wet the full bars, and I get to conveniently pick whichever soap/scent I feel like for the day.  — Snowcake This silky, creamy-feeling almond-scented soap was one of the first products I EVER bought from Lush, about 10 years ago now, back when it didn’t have the shimmery gold top. As a poor student, there were plenty of LUSH products that were beyond my budget, and Snowcake was one of the few that I’d always save up to indulge in. Somehow the gentle, milky-marzipan flavor and moisturizing texture was really addictive. Unlike many of the other soaps, this doesn’t have a very strong scent although you probably shouldn’t buy it if you don’t like the smell of almond or almond extract. — Rockstar I can’t call this a favorite of mine, but it’s such a classic from the brand that I had to try it just once. Rockstar is a powdery, sweet floral-vanilla, but I’d really only describe it as POWDERY. While it is supposedly made with the same fragrance oil as Creamy Candy Bubble Bar, the candy note is really much weaker and it’s not really all that food-like in Rockstar. You’ll smell more of a powdery sweet floral than anything else. I do love how it always looks though; like a mountainous slab of pink marshmallow. I notice people ALWAYS seem to gravitate towards it in the store. If you like the smell, do note that a fresh piece cut from the “inside” of the soap tends to smell stronger than the pieces cut from the drier, harder outer edges. — Porridge Porridge is the only LUSH soap that I bought more for the intended skincare benefits than the appearance and scent. It’s not the prettiest-looking thing in the world, but gosh does it smell delicious and malt-like, with an edge of resiny-spice (labdanum). There’s also some orange but I don’t really smell it.  Don’t be like me and mistake oats for oatmeal. Oatmeal is soft, gentle and colloidal. Oat is grainy, hard and exfoliating. I had intended to use this on the face but it felt a little too harsh so I use it for the body only now. (As you use it, the soap sort of washes away and the bits of oats start to stick out more, so the bar becomes more “rough” and exfoliating.) Great for the body. — Honey I Washed The Kids I swear these look AND smell like chunks of honey-toffee fudge and I always have to resist the urge to bite them. This is another moisturizing soap that is pretty good for normal or drier skin. I really don’t know what to say about it other than that this is completely delicious smelling. If you love food-like scents and body products, you CAN’T not give this a sniff.  — Lust Lust is my newest obsession. I never even noticed it until a LUSH SA asked me “Do you like jasmine?”  and stuck a piece of this under my nose. By the second sniff, I was sold. This primrose-pink soap bar has a sweet, “dirty jasmine” fragrance and was designed to be an aphrodisiac and “seduction” scent. It’s centered around a sweet animalic jasmine, candy-ish vanilla, and a touch of ylang ylang and rose. I can’t attest to its powers of attraction but I do want to strip buck-naked and cover myself in it every time I smell it. (Guess it works on ME at least.) Definitely sniff this if you like almost candy-like amber-jasmine scents like Thierry Mugler Alien.  P.S. the foam does color due to the reddish pigments. It won’t color your skin but some people don’t like colored foam, so take note. — P.S. LUSH does offer some of the fragrances used in their soaps under the Gorilla Perfume range if you’re not into soaps or just prefer your scents to be stronger and to last longer on your skin. Some of my favorites include Tuca Tuca, American Cream, and - of course - Lust.

For Bath/Body Product Lovers Only: LUSH Soap Bars!

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Show of hands: Who owns more LUSH soaps than they should?

If you do, reply and let me know which ones you enjoy! I might just drop it in my shopping list. (Okay maybe that’s a bad idea… but who cares? I wanna know!)

I bought my first bar of LUSH 10-11 years ago. The brand pulled out of Singapore a few years later, and just relaunched here in 2012. Prices are high, but shipping from the UK would be worse, so I’m just sucking it up.

What you’re seeing above is my soap bowl filled with little chunks of different bars I cut out for use. This makes them last much longer because I don’t constantly wet the full bars, and I get to conveniently pick whichever soap/scent I feel like for the day. 

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Posted January 24, 2013 at 10:00 am 405 notes

#lush#lush soaps#lush rockstar#lush porridge#lush lust#lush snowcake#lush honey i washed the kids#lush hiwtk#beauty#skincare#body care#bath and body#favorites

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