Coffret D'or Summer 2008: Trance Deep Eyes in 03, 04 and 05

I wasn't too thrilled with the first batch of eyeshadow quads (3D Lighting Eyes) Kanebo's newest line Coffret D'or released for their debut in Spring 2008.

When I saw their newest summer quads, called Trance Deep Eyes online I was right away attracted to 4 of the 5 palettes and finally ended up ordering 3 as soon as I saw them for sale (and will get 01 Rose Variation soon, too!)


I have to say that Trance Deep Eyes are even a lot prettier in real life than on pics online and they have a great smooth pigmented texture. All colors show up nicely with beautiful intense shimmer, some colors even have a metallic look to them.

Each palette comes with 2 lighter and 2 darker colors. The shade on the bottom left is a bit more glittery compared to the other shades and the liner shade on the bottom right is the least shimmery color in the quad.

The colors I picked are:

-03 Khaki Variation: Cream, light beige, medium green and darker green


-04 Gray Variation: White, silver, medium cool-toned purple and dark silver gray.


-05 Beige Variation: This is a great neutral quad! Cream, peachy beige, medium taupe-beige and darker taupe brown.


The only thing that bugs me a little is the smell of the shadows. They have this typical cheap eyeshadow smell you might know from $1 eyeshadows and which I haven't really noticed a lot in other Japanese eyeshadows. Maybe today I am hyper-sensitive to smells but I just wanted to mention that I noticed this today.

Trance Deep Eyes come in the same smooth silver rhinestone-encrusted cases like 3D Lighting Eyes and cost 3650 Yen for 5.2 grams of product.

Here's the diagram how to apply the shadows from the back of the box:

I swiped only 1 layer of shadow for the swatches and they're a bit more vibrant and pigmented in real life.

EOTD: Jill Stuart Gemmy Diva quad

Today I am wearing my new Jill Stuart Gemmy Diva summer quad and it's quite nice, though the other quads I have are better, especially the light lemon cream base color is very hard to pick up in the Diva quad while the satin shades in the 3 other quads are quite soft and give a good color pay-off.
Therefore the glitter shade on the very left is better pigmented and a bit subtler than the ones in the other 3 quads so it makes a nice highlighter.
All in all the result is pretty but not breathtaking.


Other items I used:
-Banila Co Eye Love primer
-T'estimo Bright Up base
-Skin Food Choco Eyeline Jam black
-Kate Supersharp liner BK
-Canmake Shiny Underliner in PK
-Integrate Pencil Eyes in PKsomething (light pink)
-Majolica Majorca Jewelling Eye Pencil in WT
-Majolica Majorca Lash Base
-Majolica Majorca Lash Enamel Glamour Neo
-Maquillage Full Vision Mascara

(EOTD = Eye Of The Day btw)

Jill Stuart Summer 2008: Seductive Eyes quad in 05 Gemmy Diva

I actually thought of passing this palette up but finally gave in and ordered it.
I am quite a fan of Jill Stuart's Seductive Eyes range but they are quite repetitive with a pink/purple and dark brown, taupe or gray shade in every single palette (I love those kind of combinations but honestly wouldn't have needed to get 4 similar palettes =X Call me a sucker for JS!).
Why can't the guys just come up with a jewel toned green palette or other exciting color combos?


Anyways, here is my newest addition to the collection: Seductive Eyes in 05 Gemmy Diva which is an LE release for Summer 2008.
Last year's summer baby was Brilliance Eyes in 05 Mauve Pearl which is a more exciting and fresh mix of white, blue, fig and black.

Still the Diva quad is a pretty combination of beige (the glitter shade on the very left), a satin yellow cream and the obligatory purply-pink and dark charcoal colors.

JS palettes retail for 5250 Yen for 4.4 grams of eyeshadow in the most gorgeous palette cases.

If you already have 1 or 2 of the Seductive Eyes quads you can safely skip this but it's a pretty quad nonetheless and since it's Limited Edition it's even more alluring.

Here are pics of the other palettes and click here for my review.

01 Seductive Doll:



03 Twinkle Venus and 04 Sensual Fairy:

Beaute de Kose Summer 2008: Multi-Reflection Colors Eye & Cheek Color palette

I apologize for not posting for almost a week now but I have been extremely busy with arranging my kids rooms. It was a very tiresome and boring work but now I am back :)

While browsing ichibankao.com I spotted Beaute de Kose's new summer collection consisting of 2 Liquid Eyeliner Fantasist, 2 Rouge Fantasist lip glosses and 2 pretty Limited Edition palettes called Multi-Reflection Colors Eye & Cheek Color. One color, 001 Strawberry Ice, immediately caught my eye and I ordered it.


I am not a huge fan of Beaute de Kose in general but I have some items I like and I really was attracted to the pretty silver faux-leather and rhinestone compact so I couldn't pass this palette up.

All 4 colors have a very pretty pearl shimmer and are on the pastel side but still are pigmented enough to show the actual color you see in the pan (don't you hate when different pastels turn up white in the end?). The texture is very soft and a bit powdery so the brush picks up lots of color easily. The colors are: white, light lilac-y pink, strawberry ice-cream pink (the most pigmented color) and a pinkish light beige taupe.


I am sure I can create a pretty fresh summer look on both eyes and cheeks with the little cute palette.

This comes with a small blush brush in the mirrored compact which safely snaps close with a strong magnet.

The little attached chain looks very pretty and was one of the reasons why I ordered this (yes, I AM a sucker for cutesy packaging!)

The other color quad available is 002 Peach Frost which is a warmer combination of white, beige, apricot and brown.

Retails for 4500 Yen for 4.7g of product.

Brand Review I: Lavshuca

Lavshuca is a quite new brands, just debuted in spring 2006 and is produced by Kanebo in Japan. I see it as Kanebo's direct competitor to Shiseido's Majolica Majorca range and I have to admit that recently I prefer Lavshuca over MM since they just keep releasing better new products.


When the brand first launched they had a small and not so impressive assortment of items, especially their variety of eyeshadows left a lot to desire. There were just singles in some pretty but also some ugly colors (and no single green color!) and I am not so much a fan of singles as I prefer pretty pre-made palettes.

Currently the spokesmodels are the girls from Puffy, before it was that odd pouty model Juliana.. I am very happy they replaced her :P

The first release also included mascaras, liners, lip gloss liners (I cracked up when I got some of the first batch released labeled as "Lip GRoss liners" haha!), some glosses, primers, powders and blushes. There are also nail polishes but they're not that pretty (mostly glittery sheer shades, yuck!)

The first items all came in girly pink packaging. Pretty but a bit simple.

Most of the recent releases come now in pretty dark purple and silver packaging with elegant prints and patterns and I have to say that's an improvement.

Some of Lavshuca's items include:
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Eyeshadows:


The first really impressive items are the Spring 2007 Eye Color Select quads. Finally eyeshadow palettes!

For fall 2007 a new series of palettes, called Grade Color Select were added to the line-up. (This range included the first and so far only green eyeshadow palette!)

The xmas 2007 palettes called Winter Make Collection (01 and 02) are great palettes with 3 eyeshadows, 1 lipstick and 1 gloss. I think the brown one is still on adambeauty and both can still be found on ebay.

Spring 2008 saw the following new trios: Noble On Color Eyes.

The current LE palettes for summer are Summer Gradually Compact in 01 and 02. So worth checking out!

If you're interested in single eyeshadows, click here: Eye Color Select

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Lipsticks & Lip Glosses:


The original lipsticks

The first range of Liquid Lips (Rouge: pigmented glosses and Gloss: sheer glosses.)

The not so impressive Color Conc Rouge which came out for fall 2007.

My current favorite range of their lipsticks is the Rouge Essence Bar. If a lipstick deserves the description "buttery" then it's this!

Their newer small glosses called Liquid Rouge are pretty good. There's also the Jewel Lips series of mini lipsticks but I find them too dry and the lipsticks have the tendency to break at the base.

There are also the pretty Gloss Sticks, sparkly sheer glosses in twist-click pens. You can see 3 on the pic above.

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Other pretty items:


Check out the pretty new Cheek Colors!

The first batch of Cheek Colors has been discontinued already =(

The Slim Line Liner is a good fine liquid liner similar to Kate Supersharp!

I have not been impressed with the Liquid liners, mascaras, face powders (the dual-color kind), UV primer, nail colors, Color Conc Rouge, Jewel lips and may be some other items but overall the brand is great and offers the cutest items at good prices. Items range from about US$7-21.

The top pic shows my complete current collection of Lavshuca items. As you see there are some items in my reviews not shown in the pic. I am someone who quickly gets rid of things that don't work for me so my stash pics will mostly not resemble all items I purchased.

Working on the following posts:
-Brand Review II: Majolica Majorca
-Gone but not forgotten: In Loving Memory of Inoui ID =D

Skin Food haul: Mushroom BB cream & more

Today my eagerly awaited Skin Food Mushroom Multi Care BB Cream SPF 20 PA+ arrived.
It delivers a "Triple Function: Whitening, Anti-Aging and Sunblock" besides the usual benefits of BB cream (healing properties and light skin coverage).


For those unfamiliar with BB cream just a little info:
BB cream (BB = Blemish Balm or Beblesh Balm for some brands) is the biggest hit in Korea right now and the trend is spreading to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.
BB cream initially was developed by German dermatologists for people recovering from facial laser surgeries. Soon Korean actresses started using BB cream as it improves skin texture and simplifies makeup routine as the BB cream is supposed to be your skin care, primer and foundation in one.
With daily use BB cream supposedly improves your overall skin texture.

Many brands are carrying BB creams now. It usually comes in a light-medium color, some brands like MISSHA and Skin Food have 2 shades to choose from (#1 for lighter skin and #2 for darker skin tones). They come in every price range and some of the most popular brands seem to be Dr. Jart, Hanskin, Skin79, BRTC, Etude and others. Some brands have BB creams for oily or dry skin types and there are also shimmery ones available.


I tried the Mushroom BB cream and the color #1 seems fine. It's a quite thick texture though so I think I'll better use this in winter as right now summer starts and I generally use a lighter foundation.
Coverage isn't too great but it evens out the skin tone a bit. I'll not skip concealer and powder though.
Skin Food also have an Aloe BB cream and a Green Ginko BB cream in their range. I think Aloe is lighter textured and probably more suited for summer whereas the Green Ginko is for oilier skin types.

I also purchased the Choco Eyeline Jam in black and the Honey Glossy Rouge in #362 Sugar Jelly. The lipstick seems to be a pretty coral pink but a bit sheer so it seems very wearable to me. The liner is a dark matte black.



I received a bunch of samples:

Happy Birthday, Dear Lipstick!

We're celebrating the 125th birthday of a very old and pretty lady very dear to most of us: The lipstick!


While humans used to color their lips for 1000s of years the swivel-up sort of lippy was just invented 125 years ago and according to a TV reportage I watched yesterday it's the most popular makeup item sold worldwide.

So let's give high five to the lipstick and enjoy it in all colors of the rainbow =D