My 2nd Gmarket order =)

Today I received my 2nd Gmarket order and I am really thrilled. This time I ordered from 4 sellers so it took a bit longer till all the items arrived in the Gmarket headquarters to be packed for international shipping but today everything came in the morning and I am really happy with the stuff I picked. I love paying retail (+actual shipping) and receiving great GWPs from the sellers (Etude House was very generous!).

Here's a first pic of some of the stuff. More pics/reviews will follow later.

Ettusais Strong Separate Mascara & Lip Gloss

I don't own really lots of items from Ettusais and I am not super impressed with the brand in general but the and the Strong Separate Mascara and Lip Glosses are quite nice items.

Strong Separate Mascara:


I am a big fan of comb mascaras. My HG mascaras both have a comb applicator as it's much easier to separate my lashes with a comb and to reach the very roots of my lashes.

I think that thickening formulas work really best with comb applicators unless I want a natural finish (which I am personally not liking). Combs just can't deposit so much color on the lashes so if I want decent drama the formula should be volumizing.


The Strong Separate Mascara has an applicator with 2 different sides. On one side there is what they call a coil. To me it's just a riffled plastic piece. The other side has a very fine long-toothed comb that's really perfect to separate the lashes.
I achieve best results when I first use the coil side to coat my lashes and then comb with the comb side.


The result is really pretty. It gives me a sort of soft feathery lash look with enough volume and length.
The mascara is waterproof and retails for somewhere around 1500 Yen.
I have the black color. I don't know if there are other colors available.

Lip Gloss:


I got a few Lip Glosses from Ettusais before but didn't open them as I knew the colors won't suit me at all. I can't wear bright oranges so they were no-gos for me (they were freebies so I won't complain too much).
Recently I found a lot of 3 glosses on eBay for US$12 which is a steal as each of them has a retail price of about US$15.
Even though I knew there is 1 color in the lot I wouldn't use (yes, an orange one) I really liked the other 2 colors so I snatched the lot up.


I love that Ettusais Lip Glosses come with flexible clear spatula applicators. For the rather thick and sticky (and long-lasting formula) the spatula does a much better job in spreading the gloss than the regular fuzzy doe-foot applicator you find in regular glosses.
Lots of Shiseido-owned brands have those spatulas (Ettusais, PN, Maquillage, Inoui ID, IPSA and even Integrate but in a twist-pen style) and I wish more brands would use them as they're really practical especially when I want to wear gloss on top of lipstick as cleaning the spatula is a breeze.

I got 3 colors in the lot: BE2, PK1 and PK4.
BE2: A pretty beige with lots of pigment.
PK1: Sheer shimmery pink
PK4: I wonder why they labeled this as a pink? It's clearly orange. I didn't open this and don't plan on using this.
The glosses aren't flavored or scented (yay!)

BE2 (top) and PK1 (bottom):


Overall it's definitely worth picking up a Strong Separate Mascara or a Lip Gloss if you have the chance to.

Flawless skin in 30 seconds: Cle de Peau Beaute Concealer

The famous and very popular Cle de Peau Beaute Concealer always called my name but so far I didn't call back.

I searched eBay before and either found none in the lighest color Ivory or the price was ridiculous and then I forgot about it until recently.


I should have listened earlier as this is one of the most perfect concealers out there.

Like all CdP stuff this comes in the revamped smooth midnight blue tube that feels rather heavy and looks elegant and posh.
It's a solid concealer in a swivel-up stick like lipstick.
This comes in 3 colors and I ordered the lightest in Ivory/Ivoire and prayed it would be light enough.


This is indeed one of the best color-match I ever found in a concealer. It's slightly more yellow than my skin but it blends in so beautifully I can wear this on spots without any other makeup and it will just look like my skin but perfect.
The coverage-strength of this concealer is very good. The texture is slightly powdery and not greasy at all and feels lightweight on my skin. Blending is a breeze and staying-power is really good.

All in all it is very worth its pricetag (I paid US$50 but I think it's like US$65 retail price) and it contains 5g.


Cle de Peau Beaute really have some very good items like their fabulous Silky Lipsticks and a few of their eyeshadow quads (I am loving the one from last fall in black/gray and purple/pink color combinations). I stumbled across some crap, too, but overall it's a very good brand (and they better be good for all that money they take for their products!)

While I still love my cheap concealers from Beauty Credit, Etude House and various other brands I have to admit that CdP is probably the best among them. But for the price of 1 CdP Concealer you can buy like 6 or 7 tubes of the others and they perform well, too.

Ettusais Fall 2008: Aquatic Shimmer

Ever since I saw the new Ettusais (a Shiseido drugstore brand) collection for fall 2008 on my friend's blog Rouge Deluxe I was interested in trying some of the items out as they looked quite promising.


The collection consists of 3 nail colors, 3 lip color duos and 2 eyeshadow trios.
I purchased the eyeshadows and glosses from one of my favorite eBay sellers for a bit below the original retail prices.

Aquatic Shimmer Gloss: (from top: beige, pink, red)


This comes in 3 color duos: Beige, pink and red. Each duo has a lip color (like liquid lipstick) on one side and a clear glitter gloss on the other side.
The liquid lipstick side is quite pigmented and feels very light when I am applying it. It dries to a powdery finish, similar to those 2-step long-lasting lip colors (which I haven't seen from Japanese brands before btw) but without the extremely drying feeling.
When it is set then it doesn't really transfer and can be topped with the gloss coat. I have to say it doesn't seem to be 100% kiss-proof it's a very long-lasting lip color duo and leaves minimal stains.
The finish of the color is a pearly velvet. Not really shimmery and not glossy. The gloss contains glitters and is very glossy and slightly sticky like the normal range of Ettusais lip glosses so it gives a very shiny and gleaming finish.
Beige: Light peachy nude beige and a transparent gloss with green and orange glitters.
Pink: Orange pink/clear gloss with pink and green glitters.
Red: Reddish brown/clear gloss with ivory and green glitters.
Please note that all colors darken on lips after application of the gloss.
From left to right: Beige, Pink, Red


Overall a nice item
Retails for 1680 Yen for 9g

Aquatic Shimmer Eye Color:


I was mostly interested in the trio in color #I as it's the cooler-toned combination but finally decided to get both palettes.
I have tried Ettusais eyeshadows before and they're lovely and quite silky with sheer-medium pigment.
Each palette contains 1 cream and 2 powder shadows.
I am disappointed. The cream shadow is super sheer and very greasy which means it will crease if used as a base on me. It's not really pigmented enough to make a good brow-bone highlighter so it's pretty useless.
One of the powder shadows is very sheer and glittery. A combination I am not fond of. It's very silky but doesn't show up well.
The darkest shadow has good pigment and a slightly shimmery finish with a silky texture so this one is fine.
Please keep in mind that these are my first thoughts after swatching the shadows but sometimes the result on the eyes is different.

#I: Sheer pink cream shadow, silver glitter shadow and navy pearl shadow.


#II: Cream-colored cream shadow, golden beige and warm medium shimmery brown.


Retails for 2625 Yen for 3.6g.

All in all I am not terribly impressed... this was the first Ettusais collection in long time that caught my fancy and know I know why I wasn't really into that brand before. They do nice lipglosses and the eyeshadow singles are worth a 2nd look but the Aquatic eyeshadow trios are definitely no must-haves.

iPSA Skin Beauty Pure Lip Veil in L2. Get lush lips!

One of my newer acquisitions is a beautiful lipstick by iPSA called Skin Beauty Pure Lip Veil in color L2.


It comes in the typical iPSA signature smooth silver swivel-up tube which isn't that special but elegant and simple.

The Pure Lip Veil is a very sheer glossy lipstick and feels very soft on my lips. I love the soft glossy finish and sheer luscious raspberry red color (it looks like a clear red in the tube but with my naturally pink lips it mixes to a raspberry pink color)

Really, this is the perfect daily red as it's so sheer yet giving enough color to make lips appear full and beautifully tinted.


The Pure Lip Veil has a very moisturizing formula and it stays on decently and fades evenly.

If you have a chance to get an iPSA lipstick I highly recommend picking one up!


Retails for somewhere around 3000 Yen, I paid about US$18 for mine.

Click to read about iPSA Essence lipstick in H562 and Essence Lipgloss in H61

Banila Co Eye Love Marshmallow (aka crease city!): I am NOT impressed

It's really hard for me to bash an item from one of my favorite brands Banila Co... but this stuff is so bad I just have to share my thoughts with you.


Eye Love Marshmallow come in really cute heavy glass pots with a screw-on top with a flower print. Really pretty!

They're called marshmallow and feels so when you touch them. Like a hardened marshmallow, a strange sponge-y bouncy creamy texture.

They applie really smoothly and have enough pigment to show up. I picked 2 colors and both show up really nicely.

Now you might wonder what's the problem with these little eyeshadow pots?



These babies crease like hell on me. Even before I had finished doing my eye makeup these creased. I applied powder shadow on top of the stuff to keep the marshmallows from creasing but that didn't help at all. Instead the powder shadow melted away and creased along with the marshmallow shadows. Bleh!
I used primer beforehand and it keeps most stuff from creasing but it was defeated by bouncy little Eye Love Marshmallows.


I believe these aren't available anymore anyway and I think that's a good thing.

I used to have a similar item from the Korean brand U-Nuco Iris (I think it was called Sponge Shadow or something?) that was a beautiful very vibrant green color but it creased like crazy, too.


Lesson learned, already ordered 2 more of Banila Co's Cream Shadows as they're absolutely pretty (and crease-free!)

Fall Collections on Adambeauty

Just wanted to drop a note that the fall collections from Visee, Kate, Lavshuca, Coffret D'or, Majolica Majorca and Maquillage are now available on adambeauty.com.
The collections aren't complete but the main items are available.

You can also find the summer collections from Esprique Precious and Aube online.

As usual his prices are very good, even below Japanese retail prices (and include shipping!)

I just ordered a bunch of Kate and Lavshuca for myself =)