Spring 2009: Kate Diamond Cut Eyes BR-2 & Liquid Rouge N PK-6

As soon as Adambeauty listed the new Spring eyeshadows from Kate I placed an order for the Diamond Cut Eyes BR-2 (together with various items I already reviewed over the past 2 weeks or so) and I decided to pick up the beautiful Liquid Rouge N in PK-6 (which I had been lemming ever since I tried out the other 2 Liquid Rouge N in RD-2 and BR-2) from Ichibankao.


For some reason Adam has a tendency to list all new eye and cheek palettes but often either lists a limited range of newly released lipcolors or doesn't bring them in at all. I don't know if he'll list the Liquid Rouge N or Lavshuca's new lippies anytime soon but I didn't want to wait so I ordered from Ichibankao.

Click here to read my review of the first bunch of Kate Spring I reviewed.

-Diamond Cut Eyes:


I already reviewed the new Diamond Cut Eyes in BK-1 which is a pretty smokey palette so since I quite like the texture and pigment level in the BK-1 palette I decided to add the BR-2 to my collection.

Generally Kate releases a BR-1 and a BR-2 in most palettes. BR-1 is usually a palette of warmer browns/golds whereas BR-2 tends to be more neutral or even cool-toned.
This is also the case with the Diamond Cut Eyes quads so I settled on BR-2 which looked overall more neutral and wearable for me.
When I finally received the palette I wasn't quite sure if I really liked the palette as the darkest shade looked like a warm muddy brown. But I decided to try it anyway as I really like the cool brown shade and this palette simply rocks. It's darn pretty!


The texture is rather silky and smooth and with good pigment. All colors blend effortlessly and I experienced no major fading and no creasing at all when I wore this from 8 AM to about 7 PM (over Lunasol Lid Base N).

The only color I don't like that much is that glittery gold/silver split pan. It's the same as the one in BK-1 (and probably all other palettes) and it adds a nice little sparkle to the finished look but is not a necessary thing in my opinion. I would have preferred maybe a bright contrasting color or another lid color or so.


The colors are a pretty neutral light shimmery cream, cool brown (looks more taupe when applied than on the swatch pic..probably wonky lighting), deep neutral chocolate brown (oddly this color looks much more golden, lighter and warmer in the pan...when appplied it transforms to a deep neutral brown).

EOTD: Taupe brown applied on lid, deep brown in crease area, cream to highlight from crease to brow... I dabbed a little of the silver glitter on my lids and a bit of the gold under my brows. Lined lower lids with the taupe and the cream shades. I used Lavshuca's new Mascara Base and Integrate Volume & Curl Mascara EX (love this stuff, reviews will come soon)


I paid US$18 from Adambeauty. Ichibankao lists this for US$19.50 (shipping included, adam charges US$2/order so if you order more items it's more worthwhile)

-Liquid Rouge N in PK-6:


This is a delicious raspberry pink with a good color pay-off (for a gloss) and finely milled shimmer imparting a gleaming finish.


The texture is slick and spreads well though I have a slight problem with this particular color as it has a tendency to creep into any fine lines I might have around my mouth (and I don't have many yet).
Anyways, a lipliner is needed in my opinion.


The color is really goreous and very flattering though!

I paid US$18.50 Ichibankao.com

Coffret D'or Trance Deep Eyes 02 (Blue) & Full Memory Rouge (Glow) PK-250

The Trance Deep Eyes from Summer 2008 is my favorite eyeshadow line Coffret D'or put out so far. I managed to collect all 5 available color palettes and all look really great on me which is a rare occasion as most Japanese brands tend to release warmer colors so it nearly never happens that all colors of an eyeshadow range work for me.

Anyway, the blue was the only palette I didn't pick up last year even though I liked how it looked online but blues are a tricky thing for me as they can end up hooker-ish quickly hehe.
E.g. Baby blues look horrid on me as they wash me out and make me look like a cheap ho.


Even though eBay has become a place where scoring deals on Japanese makeup is really hard you can sometimes find some fine bargains.
I found the Trance Deep Eyes 02 for only US$22.50 incl. shipping and the Full Memory Rouge (Glow) PK-250 for only about US$15 (incl. shipping) brand new in a buy it now auction. That's about half of the retail price. Pretty sweet, right?

-Trance Deep Eyes 02 Blue:


The Trance Deep Eyes shadows have a nice smooth feel and good pigment. The 2 shades on the left are a bit sheerer and the shade on the bottom left contains lots of finely milled glitter which gives a jewel-dipped finish.
The lasting power is great, I wore the palette today from like 10-6 and there was no sign of creasing or fading.


I like the blues in this palette very much. The palette contains a blue-tinged white, bright light blue with a touch of aqua, a pale violet glitter shade and a deep violet blue (looks strangely more navy on the pics).


I am really pleased with this pretty palette and I hope Coffret D'or will release some pretty Summer collection this year, too!

-Full Memory Rouge PK-250:


In my opinion all Coffret D'or lippies (and also the ones from its predecessor brand T'estimo) are amazing. The "Glow" line is always sheer and shimmery whereas the "Color" range offers more pigmented lipsticks.
I think I have a tendency to prefer the lipsticks from the "Glow" range as I love the sheer nearly wet shine they can give.


The Full Memory ranges comes in a longer slim smooth silver tube. Not that special and I am really happy that they came out with such beautiful packaging in the new Shine Drape Rouges!

The color PK-250 is a pretty light shimmery and sheer pink which is a no-brainer lipstick as I can swipe it on without a mirror or lipliner. The color is very neutral and would work with the majority of eye looks.


All in all a great little lot of Coffret D'or items =D I also got a few other items from the same seller as she had a 25% off sale in her shop (that's why the things came out quite reasonably priced).
She is doing sales from time to time (ginsengseafood on eBay).

Spring 2009: Coffret D'or Shine Accent Eyes 05

I am sooooooooooooo bad. How often did I say I am NOT and NEVER EVER going to buy one of Coffret D'or's new Spring quads? Probably about 3 gazillion times.


I proudly resisted for about 2 1/2 months....
And still one of the palettes sneaked into my stash (thanks to Adambeauty lol!)... it surely didn't help that my fellow blogger Fuzkittie liked her new Coffret D'or 02 palette and it looked so pretty on her lol! And Birkinbagbeauty gave a good review for her palette in 01, too!

Anyway, let's make the long story short: I really LIKE my new Shine Accent Eyes palette VERY much.


The smooth silver case is similar to the ones of the older palettes but the pink crystral cross is arranged in a different way (not centered but moved to the bottom left of the case).
The palette comes with 2 applicators and contains 4 colors: 3 powder shades and a cream.


The powder shades are silky and smooth, 2 of them with a fine pearly shimmer and 1 silky matte. The cream shade is a white base with silver glitter to be used on your inner corners.
The pigment is on the sheerer side but the shades layer and blend really well.

The colors of palette 05 Beige (!?) are a muted orange beige, an olive gray, green-tinged white and white/silver glitter cream.


You're supposed to use the orange on your lids blended upwards, the white to highlight, olive gray to line and glitter cream to use in the inner 1/3 of the lower lids.

I paid US$33.50 on adambeauty.com

Spring 2009: Maquillage Eyes Creator (3D) GR366 & Lip Essence EX

I reviewed the Eyes Creator (3D) Palettes in GY865 and VI367 so I won't go much into detail regarding price, texture, packaging etc.


I already mentioned in the review for the eyeshadow palettes that I wanted to get the one in GR366 so when Adambeauty listed it (it's already out of stock though so check Gooddealer for this color) I ordered it right away (US$41 but I have to add approx. US$2 as I ordered a bunch of about 7 items and paid the shipping upgrade to Speedpost EMS which costs US$12/shipment).


I admit that the palette in GR366 is the prettiest out of the 3 I got. I didn't expect that as the GY865 palette looked like the perfect taupe brown combo (it's pretty but warmer than I expected) so I was sure this would be my fave.
Also I didn't really expect that the navy liner would go with the greens in the palette but it works perfectly.


The colors are a deep very pigmented gray-undertoned emerald, light seafoam green, white with green iridescence, a white cream base which flashes a little green and a deep navy gel liner (the glitter you see on the colors is just an overspray).
This palette is very unique and I have no combo similar to it.


Definitely a great buy and I will have lots of fun using this!
Maquillage really did a great job improving their eye palettes and I hope they'll add more colors to the series or release a new one without the cream base =P


I also picked up the Lip Essence EX which is replacing their older Lip Essence, one of my favorite lip primers ever.
It cost me US$22 from adambeauty (I factored in the shipping already) just like the other lip base from Maquillage (called Lip Refiner which is also good).


The Lip Essence EX comes in a pretty pale pink and silver tube with a wand (spatula type with fuzzy covering) applicator.
The lip primer is a slick thin balm without any stickiness. It somehow has a grainy feel though when I rub my lips together and I have no clue where this feeling comes from. It's unfragranced, uncolored and unscented.


Admittedly this is a nice moisturizing base for lipsticks but I liked the older version better which had a nicer feel, was slightly tinted (pink) and had a sweet scent (like cherry though it was supposed to be unscented I believe).


More Maquillage Spring:
-Face Creator (3D) in #44
-Eyes Creator (3D) in GY865 and VI367
-Moisture Rouge (Sheer) in RD309 and RS713

Spring 2009: Majolica Majorca Pressed Pore Cover & Lash Expander Frame Plus

Majolica Majorca was one of the very first Japanese brands I tried out and fell in love with. However in the previous few years this love has cooled down quite a bit as there were really only a few items that stood out.

2 items from MM I can't live without are the Lash Enamel Glamour Neo Mascara (my absolute HG mascara and I used up a few tubes of this already...I always have 1-2 backups of this at home) and the Lash Base (keeps the curl so well!).
For long time their 24hr Pressed Powder Fantasia used to be the only powder I used so I finished about 5 refills of this. However I branched out quite a bit and found other powders I like better.


The Spring collection 2009 is very small. Usually MM comes out with a few pretty new eye palettes but this year they just give us 2 new lipglosses, a mascara and a new powder.

Since I am not so much into squeeze-tube glosses I decided to pick up the new Pressed Pore Cover (1785 JPY for case & refill, 1050 JPY for the refill only) and a tube of the new Lash Expander Frame Plus Mascara (1260 Yen).

-Pressed Pore Cover:


The new powder comes in a black case instead of the white one the Pressed Fantasia came in. Also the Powder Fantasia has been discontinued.
I thought the new Pressed Pore Cover would be an upgraded version of the older powder but in my opinion it's more of a downgrade.


The Pore Cover is white in color which also shows up so it can make you look a little chalky/whiter.


It applies nicely but gets blotchy after some time and it doesn't cover my pores at all. Thankfully my pores are small to start with but the Pore Cover doesn't really reduce whatever visible pores I have.


All in all a disappointment and I am happy that I still have a few refills of the older version left.

-Lash Expander Frame Plus:


I know that the Lash Expander Neo is the most popular MM mascara. I personally haven't tried it as I always opted for the volumizing Lash Enamel Glamour Neo as I generally go for volumizing rather than lengthening mascaras.
However the new Lash Expander Frame Plus looked interesting enough to try it out so I ordered a tube.


The mascara comes with a comb applicator but a different style of comb than the other MM mascaras (Lash Gorgeous Wing has a brush btw).

The formula seems to contain lots of fibers you can spot on the comb when you pull out the wand.
You first coat your lashes with the back of the comb (which just looks like a ribbed piece of plastic) and then use the comb to elongate and separate your lashes.


The effect this mascara gives are long feathery lashes so to me it's like an upgraded version of the Lash Gorgeous Wing which gives very natural feathery lashes.


I quite like this as it doesn't weigh down my lashes at all and removes easily.

Spring 2009: Love Clover Stick Pen Nail

I think I rarely posted about nail polishes... I have about 2489878978968976 different colors but most of the time go au natural as a) nail polishes don't last long on me and b) the whole procedure takes so long (filing, buffing, base coat, 2 coats color, top coat....wait wait wait till it's dry and I will still make a dent in at least 1 nail) it's not really worth it for the 2-3 days I'll enjoy my manicure.


The best nail polish I discovered so far is one from Paul & Joe in a fire-engine red. It stays shiny and doesn't chip for like a week so it's perfect for me (way better than any of my OPI nail polishes!). However I am not always in the mood for super bright nail polish so I don't wear it that often. I think I should give a try to other P&J nail colors to see if they perform just as well.


Anyways, Love Clover came out with an interesting little item which is a nail polish in a pen with a button on the bottom so you just push to get the color flowing out.
I thought this looked cool so I decided to pick out 2 of the available colors.

The Stick Pen Nail looks cute with its pretty ornaments printed on and it does work decently.
The brush is a little stiff and the nail polish is rather liquid (probably needs to be to flow out well).


There are a few things I don't like about this item though:
-The pen only contains 4ml so it will be used up quickly
-One of the colors (the Strawberry Pink #04) is super sheer so even 2 coats look uneven. Besides that I hate the color as it's a super bright neon text liner pink, bleh!
-The other color I have Nude Beige #02 goes on a little streaky but otherwise it's the perfect easy-care pink-beige perfect for French Manicures etc.


The good:
-Dries quickly
-nice high shine without any bubble even with 2-3 coats
-color lasts well for several days.


How to use: Shake well, push the button until color flows and apply.

I paid US$16/each from ichibankao. Retail is 987 JPY.