Lotus Palace Sales to be updated

After purging and reducing my Japanese makeup stash drastically I decided I had to search for more goodies to sell among my Korean makeup. I just have way too much and don't want it to collect dust in my drawers.

I have not listed the items yet but I am currently taking and editing the pics and listing so they should be up within 2 hours or so.

=)

Inexpensive Beauty Find: VOV Castledew Diacut Eyes M601 "Platina Shinism"

The Castledew range from VOV has some really fabulous items and all at affordable prices.

Admittedly VOV was a brand that didn't appeal much to me before (their Color Song stuff etc) but the recent releases were all nice and quality/packaging has been seriously improved, too (the Castledew range is a good example for that).

I already reviewed the other Diacut Eyes palettes and really like the first 2 as they have a great texture and beautiful colors. There was a time where I almost exclusively used these palettes as the colors were so pretty!


I don't know when the newest Diacut Eyes (Multi-Type) palette with the weird name "Platina Shinism" came out but I think it might have been for fall? I am honestly a bit out of the loop with Korean makeup except for Banila Co. and Etude House but I still check Gmarket for new interesting goodies.

I found the beautiful new palette in one of my favorite shops (seller vovcare on Gmarket) and it came (and still comes) with a free Castledew eyeliner (the super fine one, similar to Kate Supersharp!) for 18000 Won (somewhere around US$15) so it was a good deal.


As always the palette is a rather large pretty silver palette with a holographic effect. While each of the older palettes contained 9 colors the new palette only offers 6 colors (or 7 if you include the little dot in the lowest left color). The colors come in different sizes. My guess is that the lower 2 colors would be probably the most favorite among most Korean ladies so you get more of them than the other colors. But might be they just wanted a fancy arrangement of the shadows.

Whatever, all 6 colors are beautiful neutrals that would suit about any skintone. All colors are very nicely pigmented and have a beautiful silky finish and feel. Really high quality for such an affordable eye palette in my opinion.


The shade in the middle left has some more fine glitters than the other shades (but not chunky. I think the color has a very pretty and interesting sparkly finish). The other colors are more shimmery or metallic (top left shade). The small dot of dark brown shadow in the lowest left color has almost the same (or maybe even identical?) color as the dark brown shade beside it so I didn't swatch it.

Generally all colors have a fine layer of glitter but it mostly wipes off with a couple of uses. However the shade in the middle left seems to have the shimmer bits throughout.

The colors are:
Top row: Platina Purple (plummy taupe) & Platina Bronze (silky light brown)
Middle: Platina Satin (Light golden taupe) & Platina Pink (light flesh color)
Bottom row: Platina Gold (Light yellow-toned gold) & Platina Brown (deep chocolate)
All colors look neutral to me as I mentioned above already.


All in all I really love this palette, it's so gorgeous and wearable!

Read my review of last Fall's Diacut palettes:
Click here

Xmas 2009: Aube Couture Designing Jewel Compact 04 Silver x Beige

I was pondering between getting one of the Coffret D´or palettes or one from Aube Couture. After long consideration I decided on the Aube Couture Designing Jewel Compact in 04 Silver x Beige as the colors looked prettier than either of the Coffret D´or palettes. I really love last year´s Coffret D´or palettes but this year the palettes both just look too pale and boring.


The Designing Jewel Compact comes in a pretty pink case with silver and white snow crystals embossed. It´s a rather large compact as it contains one full-sized eyeshadow palette and 3 lip color (1 gloss, 2 lipsticks). There are 4 variations available: 01 Brown (eyes) x Pink (lips), 02 Purple x Rose, 03 Gold x Red and 04 Silver x Beige.

I was really having a hard time to decide between 02 and 04. But the eyeshadows in 02 looked very similar to the Aube Couture eyeshadow palette I already have and even though I liked the rose lipcolors better I settled on 04 as the taupey silver eyeshadows looked pretty and the lipcolors seemed to match well, too.


I am so glad I settled on the Aube Couture palette as it´s just gorgeous! The eyeshadows are well pigmented and soft and in contrast to Aube Couture´s usual satiny shadow finish these are nicely shimmery so they´re more festive and perfect for Xmas.

The lipcolors are both very nude pretty colors and go well with the more dramatic eye makeup.
The gloss adds more dimension and shine to the lipcolors so they aren´t getting too pale or flat on me.


The colors are a light silvery taupe, medium taupe brown, dark cool brown (just a touch darker than the the other brown) and white with a high content of shimmer, almost frost so a light hand is best as to not make it look OTT.


The 2 lipcolors have a slightly glossy/moist finish, the gloss adds sparkle and shine. The colors are a pink nude, light peach and clear sparkly gloss.


All in all I am so happy with the new palette! The colors are exactly my kind of colors and the palette is just really pretty in its snow crystal compact.

I also like the eye colors paired with my a cool mauve or rose lipcolor.

I got mine from Ichibankao for somewhere around US$50 incl. shipping (I always do upgrade to EMS though).

Other Xmas items I am going to review: Lavshuca, Kate, Lunasol, Jill Stuart, Esprique Precious, HABA and mostly will get some from Majolica Majorca.

I´ll mostly skip Maquillage´s coffret as the kit doesn´t look worth enough to pick up (last year´s blue palette was really awesome though!), Coffret D´or, Magie Deco (I like the kit but it´s too pricey online), Kesalan Patharan (again very pretty but so expensive!), Beauté de Kosé (haven´t made up my mind about this one yet).