Shiseido Anessa Perfect Hair Sunscreen

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I´ve wanted a sun protection for my hair for the longest time (sounds like a weird product but it would help protect hair dye from fading etc.).
I finally settled on the one from Shiseido Anessa which I ordered from Adambeauty for US$21 (quite steep but anyways...)...

This product comes in a white 100ml spray bottle which dispenses the sunscreen as a very fine mist (which is a must in my opinion..). It offers UVA and UVB protection however no SPF or PA level seems to be listed on the package.
The Perfect Hair Sunscreen has a light creamy scent which is quite pleasant. What I love about this product is that it makes my hair super soft and smooth for an overall very nice feel.

To be very honest I have no idea how well this is protecting my hair from the sun? I dye my hair every 4-6 weeks anyway due to some stupid white hair so.... hmmmm....don´t know if this actually protects!

I just spray this on my dry hair and comb it through. This product is waterproof so it will only remove with shampoo which is a great thing!

Anyways, I love this product as it makes my hair so soft and lovely so would repurchase for that result alone.

Rating 4/5

Fall 2011: Maquillage Essence Glamorous Rouge in RS794

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I arrived to Egypt last week hence my lack of posts, sorry! I am quite busy with family duties and other stuff so posting is limited these days *sigh*
Anyways, I purchased one of the new Essence Glamorous Rouge lipglosses from Maquillage a few weeks ago and just wanted to do a quick review now.
I bought mine from Alphabeautyuk on eBay but I have also seen these on Adambeauty now.

The Essence Glamorous Rouge comes in a silvery rounded tube with a very nice slanted doe-foot applicator made of a very soft fuzzy material distributing the right amount of color.

The gloss is creamy and totally un-sticky while feeling moisturizing and just wonderfully pleasant to wear.
This unscented gloss wears very well for a decent amount of time before it needs to be reapplied.

The finish is glossy but not mirror-shine and the color shows up well as this product is relatively pigmented for a gloss (or liquid lipstick).

RS794 is a very pretty cool mauvey rose pink.

Overall I really love this stuff and will say it´s excellent like the majority of Maquillage lipsticks/glosses. I can´t find anything negative about this lovely product.

Rating 5/5

Majolica Majorca Strawberry Macaron mirror

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I scored this cute GWP pocket mirror from Majolica Majorca´s Strawberry Macaron spring collection on eBay recently (seller alphabeautyuk)...it´s really pretty so I wanted to share pics.

Za Cosmetics Plumper Lips lipstick in 01 Ruby Dazzle & 05 Innocent Rose

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I stumbled across quite a few Za Cosmetics displays in Hong Kong, e.g. in various Bonjour shops.
Za is a brand under the Shiseido company but doesn´t count as a Shiseido brand per se (as there is no Shiseido logo printed on).

Anyway, it´s an affordable drugstore line with some famous products (their powder foundations!) and the Plumper Lips lipsticks are nice little gems, too!

Packaging-wise these are quite simple, in pinkish-silver shimmery plastic tubes with the Za logo printed all over the cap.

The lipsticks contain "Fill-up Collagen", "Plump-Up Pearl" and Vitamin E. Furthermore they claim to plump up your lips, moisturize them and contain a "prismatic red pigment" for natural yet rich color.

These are really soft, creamy, glossy and shimmery lipsticks with a great slick and moist feel. I think due to being glossy and shimmery they definitely give a plumping effect to the lips without those nasty cold or burning ingredients some other lip plumpers tend to include.

Despite being creamy these last really well on me, a few hours without reapplication is possible if I don´t eat during that time.
The colors show up well on my naturally pink lips even though they look quite sheer on the arm swatch.

The Plumper Lips are slightly scented but it´s more of a hint and very subtle and furthermore it´s a pleasant sort of creamy scent.
I got 4 colors but first took pics of 01 and 05 together as I bought them on my 2nd day in HK thus the separated review (the other 2 will be reviewed soon, too).


01 Ruby Dazzle is a gorgeous deep raspberry pink

05 Innocent Rose is one of those perfect natural pink beige lipstick colors.

I think these cost me around HK$95 (or thereabouts) each, contain 3.5g and are made in Taiwan...these should be readily available in countries like Singapore and Malaysia and are worth to be given a try in my opinion.

Rating 5/5 as these are truly nice!

Shiseido UNO Fog Bar (pink version for women), special LE set

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Fog Bar is a very famous series of liquid hair wax mists from Shiseido UNO, a brand targeted towards men.

The Fog Bar became quite popular among ladies, too, so Shiseido decided to release a set for women for market testing purposes. Here is an interesting article about this product.

The set contains a pink Fog Bar spray, a dusty pink satin (or silky material) hair scrunchie and a small booklet with styling ideas.

I believe the Fog Bar spray contains Tsubaki oil =)
I got my set from Alphabeautyuk on eBay and I still see a few sets left for those interested.

The Fog Bar is a slightly sticky and waxy spray so I recommend using it with care as the result otherwise can feel a little gross. If used sparingly this stuff is really good for keeping my style in place and smoothing down fuzzies but without the slightly hard sometimes crunchy feel of regular hair spray. It´s great to do an "airy" hair style and kneading in some of the Fog Bar as the hair will get a good dose of volume and it will nicely stay in place.

This product smells slightly floral but it´s a very unobtrusive scent which doesn´t smell strong at all.

The scrunchy is not slippery even though it´s made of a really nice silky material. It seems like a good quality product to me and I like wearing it a lot these days =)
The booklet is useless for me but might be interesting for others.




Overall I like the Fog Bar set and while the spray can be sticky the overall result it gives is good - as long as you don´t overdo application.

Rating 4/5

PS sorry for my lack of posts. I am studying for my 2nd last exam so I even don´t get to see my kids a lot these days let alone have time for posting =( I will be back to normal early July.

Summer 2011: Integrate Mineral Watery Foundation SPF23 PA++ OC-00

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Integrate added a new liquid foundation to their Mineral line and to my delight they had the color OC-00 which is usually a pretty light color suitable for fair skin like mine.
The new Mineral Watery Foundation comes in a very small plastic squeeze bottle with a slim nozzle. The packaging is simple but quite hygienic and easy to tote around.

The texture is a very liquid cream which offers sheer-medium coverage. It applies nicely and gives super smooth, moisturized and soft skin but doesn´t feel heavy or greasy. I can´t comment on oil-control since I have dry skin.
The result is not shimmery nor dewy but not flat matte on me either.
The Mineral Watery Foundation is unscented and doesn´t irritate my skin at all.

Unfortunately it is quite yellow and very dark so even though the color code suggested otherwise I can´t wear it as my skin is lighter and more pink.

This would get a good rating (4/5) as it´s a really nice product but the color match is off so a personal and individually sensed
Rating of 1/5

I got mine from Adambeauty for somewhere around US$20.

Spring 2011: Majolica Majorca Puff de Cheek PK301 & PK303 and Cream Pencil Liner BK999

This year´s spring collection from Majolica Majorca is chocolate-themed so I really love it! While the eyeshadow palettes are definitely too warm for me I was glad to see that after many years there are new cheek colors released!
I also liked the black Cream Pencil Eyeliner so I ordered it along with 2 of the new Puff de Cheek blushes.

The blushes from Majolica Majorca (Customize Cheeks?) were really popular, especially that NARS Orgasm-dupe color though while I liked the blushes they were really very shimmery thus a little hard to wear on a daily basis.

The new Puff de Cheek blushes come in really adorable metal tubs with a cute little soft puff adorned with a ribbon (as a handle). These are pressed blushes and retail for 1365 (~ US$17) for a quite generous 7g (that´s a good amount for a blush actually!). I got 2 colors from eBay, seller alphabeautyuk for less than US$20.

I got the 2 pink (PK) colors, one of them being a limited edition. Both have a silky texture and sheer but buildable pigment and a softly gleaming finish, no glitter or shimmer overkill as before.


The blushes are unscented and last pretty much all day long on me (in the cold un-sweaty weather we have right now).

PK301 is a peach shade with very subtle pink tones. It actually looks less orange on the swatch pics I saw online but it´s one of those face-brightening shades.

PK303 is a brighter pink, on the warmer side in my opinion. This is LE
There are also an orange and a LE highlighter shade (I think pale pink or so) available.

Overall these are excellent little blushes and should be checked out if you like a cute blush in cheerful colors.

Rating 5/5

The Cream Pencil Liner comes in 2 shades, a warm mocha brown and a deep black...since I definitely have no use for a reddish brown eyeliner pencil I picked up the black one as it looked really yummy!

The liner retails for 850 Yen and is shorter than an average pencil. 
I think the all-black pencil with golden writing looks really pretty and the product is really good, too.
I like how creamy the pencil applies, it´s really pleasant to use this as it doesn´t tug on the delicate skin around my eyes.

This is really a deep black eyeliner, once the line is set (about a minute after application) this stays put all day long without smudging, fading or budging. This is one of the best liners to put on the inner rims of my lower lids as the color stays put extremely well there and this is actually the main use I intend for this great pencil.

Best of all this doesn´t make my eyes water and burn like the previous liners from MJ (Jeweling Pencil) and I wore it on my inner rims with my contacts inside and there was neither irritation nor any sort of film or gunk collecting on my contact lenses.

BK999 is a deep black as mentioned above.



Overall a high-quality product and a great basic staple for anyone´s makeup collection. 
Rating 5/5

Spring 2011: Maquillage Lighting Eyes Creator VI342 & Rouge Enamel Glamour PK744

Maquillage released a new series of eye palettes called "Lighting Eyes Creator" for the 2011 spring look and even though all looked a bit pastel I decided to pick up the one in VI342 as it looked like a pretty lilac/taupe combo.
I am also quite fond of the Rouge Enamel Glamour, a 2-step long-lasting lip color so I got one of the new colors, too. Please read about what´s a 2-step lipcolor, how to apply it etc. in my previous review here.

The new Lighting Eyes Creator reminds me very much of one color of the older palettes from Maquillage though I can´t remember which range exactly that was.

These eyeshadows are very sheer, compared to the previous Eyes Creator palettes that´s quite a disappointment in my opinion. I think the spring palettes usually tend to be on the sheer side but I prefer pigmented shadows I can just apply sheerly instead of unpigmented shadows that take layers to show up somewhat decently.

The shimmer in the colors is very pretty as it´s very finely milled and gives a gorgeous softly gleaming finish to the lids. The shadow at the very right is glittery but it´s meant to be used just to give some shimmery accents to certain areas of your lids so it adds a nice extra touch.

The shadows apply, blend and stay nicely but as I mentioned above they are very sheer so the colors don´t show up too well on me.


VI342 is a combination of ivory, lilac, grayish taupe and a glittery silver (the pale blue tinge doesn´t show up at all).


Overall a nice eyeshadow palette creating a soft feminine look but it´s not worth hunting down or shelling out retail or even more for this product. It´s just mediocre.

2 looks I did:

Rating 3.5/5

The Rouge Enamel Glamour is just like the other one I purchased in fall so I won´t go into details, please check the review here.

PK344 is a pretty natural pink, just like half a shade deeper and more coral than my natural lip color. Topped with the clear gloss it´s really ultra-shiny and lasting-power is fantastic unless I eat something greasy.

 
Rating 4.5/5, deducting half point for the slightly dry feeling this leaves on the lips if I don´t reapply the gloss somewhat frequently.

I got both items on eBay from Alphabeautyuk.