Going to Hong Kong! =D

Yay, finally my trip to Hong Kong is confirmed! I am going there from May 4th (well, leaving here on 3rd) and will hop on a plane back home on 12th early morning.
I am really excited as my last cool trip (that excludes my yearly boring Egypt stay) was the one to Japan 5 years ago!
Besides Egypt trip... I have to go there in April (19th-25th) for a week. I am SO not interested and annoyed to no end about this stupid trip but it´s some super boring family event I HAVE to attend. You know how funny it is to travel with 3 kids.... *sigh* 



Any tips or hints regarding Hong Kong are highly welcome! If anyone wants to meet up in a mall or something I might be open to it!


I am thinking of wearing a shirt with a Lotus Palace logo to see if anyone recognizes it haha!


<3

Gmarket haul: Holika Holika (& some stationery)

Holika Holika is a relatively new brand by Enprani (or whoever makes Enprani cosmetics) and to be honest some products look like a blatant knock-off of Majolica Majorca:P
Anyway, I was so curious about this brand so I ordered quite a big bunch of goodies from Gmarket, seller 홀리카홀리카. I also got some stickers and stamps but forgot to take close-up pics =X
Reviews will follow of course! 

Honoré des Prés We Love NY Vamp à NY and Love Coconut eaux de parfum

I recently got couple of samples from Honoré des Prés and while I don´t usually review samples for several reasons I thought I will do a short review nonetheless as those are perfumes anyway and I usually don´t need much time to decide if I like a perfume or not. I either like it or will get a strong headache...that´s so with me =P
 
I got samples of the Vamp à NY and Love Coconut perfumes. 80% of the perfumes are derived from organic farming...now the ingreds list shows the alcohol only to be from organic farming so means 80% of the perfume are alcohol hehe =P And 100% are of natural origin..whatever that means ;)
The coffee cup packaging is a nice idea and probably has something NY-ish about it.


Anyway, I am not good at describing scents. The Vamp à NY is a strong floral and woody spicy scent with great lasting power. Since I am sensitive to scents it´s a bit too much for me but it´s a good and clean perfume many ladies would probably like.

The Love Coconut is not my kind of thing, I just don´t like coconut scents and this is not an exception. At first it smells a bit woody but after some time it pretty much smells like coconut to me.

Overall a nice range but I personally would not buy either of the perfumes for myself. So probably it´s good I only got samples as I wouldn´t know what to do with full-sized bottles anyway =P

Kiss Me Heroine Make Impact Frame & Curl Mascara in 01

I have to admit that the Long & Curl Mascara from Kiss Me Heroine Make has become my favorite and daily staple as it´s just the best mascara that is available right now and it´s at least as good as my previous HG from Majolica Majorca which has been discontinued anyway.
 
It was granted that I had to get their newest mascara, the Impact Frame & Curl Mascara which was added to the Heroine Make range very recently.

Seems Kiss Me got a cheap deal on black plastic and copperish golden ink as the new mascara and also the Milky Color Lips products from the Heavy Rotation line now come in those colors. I personally liked the burgundy tubes much better but well, it still looks nice.

The brush is quite interesting, it´s a hard ribbed plastic coil on one side and a regular mascara brush on the other. One should first coat the lashes with the coil-part and then use the brush for definition etc. 
This really works well as the hard part can deposit a lot of mascara on the lashes and the brush is perfect for spreading the liquid, separating and defining the lashes. I only use the coil in the beginning for the first coat and then only use the brush for the additional coats as otherwise the lashes could probably get too wet or clumpy.

This mascara can hold the curl perfectly which astonished me a bit as the mascara has a slightly wet formula and it seems to contain fibers.
Just like the other Kiss Me mascaras this is hands-down an excellent product, gives perfectly long and lush lashes, especially when used in 2-3 coats.


Removal is a bit hard, you definitely need a remover for waterproof makeup but this also means the mascara doesn´t smudge during the day at all.
The only little flaw I can detect in this mascara is its tendency to flake a little. I usually notice about 3-4 small black crumbles on my cheeks during the day.


Overall a great mascara and affordable, too! I got mine from Alphabeautyuk who also kindly included a cute mechanical pencil but you can also buy this on Adambeauty.com for a really good price.
It´s honestly so hard for me to compare this with the regular Long & Curl Mascara...both mascaras give long lush lashes and keep the curl. The new version is a bit deeper in color whereas I never experience flaking with the regular version. So all in all both are equally good for me.


Before: Please note that my lashes are naturally quite long and dense but quite light and uncurled in their natural state thus they look almost non-existent on the pic below =)

1 coat:

2-3 coats used with another EOTD:

Rating 5/5

Etude House Sweet Eye Cupcake in #1 Banana & Chocolate, #4 Lavender & Grape and #5 Gray Brown & Smoky Black

The cute Sweet Eye Cupcake baked eyeshadow duos from Etude House caught my eye some weeks ago but the color I wanted most (#5) was not listed on Gmarket but when it was back in stock I ordered it together with 2 other colors.
 
I really love the cute little tin cases the shadows are housed in. The shadows are not scented and feature the typical slightly hard baked shadow texture. The finish is pearly or metallic and blending quality and color pay-off are good though there could be even a bit more pigment in the darker colors in my opinion.

On me these shadows last very well without fading or creasing worn on top of Lunasol Eyelid Base and they don´t irritate my eyes. Not sure about the performance in hot or humid climates and/or oily eyelids.

The color duos are nicely matched however I personally need an additional highlighter for duo #5.

#1 Banana & Chocolate is a safe neutral brown/yellow ivory combo

#4 Lavender & Grape is a really pretty lavender/purple duo, I especially like the metallic quality of the lighter colors which is just gorgeous!


#5 Gray Brown & Smoky Black is a lustrous taupe/deep charcoal combination, definitely my favorite and a great buy for cool-toned ladies.


The Sweet Eye Cupcake eyeshadows are not expensive (somewhere around US$7 perhaps?) and can be purchased from etudegmark on Gmarket or you can check ebay, I have seen them there for a few $$ more.

Rating 4/5

Rohto Hada-Labo BB Moist Emulsion SPF50+ PA+++ in Light Beige & couple of small hauls

I didn´t order much this month as I am on some sort of low-buy (as I am pretty surely going to Hong Kong early May) but I need my weekly package of happiness so I got couple of small hauls from Adambeauty and Alphabeautyuk/japan_value (both run by the same seller thus shipping could be combined).
The Adambeauty haul contains 2 of my favorites to have back-ups (the MJ and Kiss Me liners) and some other things to try out and the other haul from the eBay seller actually contains only 2 beauty products, band-aids, matcha latte and a really nice contact lens solution & case.


Among my Adambeauty haul was this new Japanese BB Moist Emulsion from Hada-Labo in the lighter color (Light Beige). I actually wanted the cream but it had sold out so I got the emulsion instead.

The 40ml bottle is quite plain and un-cute but practical. The BB Moist Emulsion is like a slightly runny face milk with a pleasant smooth texture and a very good blending ability. My skin feels very soft and moisturized when using this and the sun protection of SPF50+ PA+++ is definitely good.

However my usual problems occurs: the BB Moist Emulsion is way too dark and yellow for me so unfortunately I can not wear it.
 
I didn´t wear it for more than 2 minutes so I can´t tell you how it performs regarding oil-control, oxidisation etc. etc. 


So this gets a nay from me solely due to the color. 
I would normally rate this a 4/5 but now I have to give it a 
Rating of 1/5.

Etude House Touch Touch! Shadow Liner

I am admittedly not a big fan of cream shadows but the Touch Touch! Shadow Liner from Etude House in color #4 looked really good so I ordered it on Gmarket, seller etudegmark.
 
The Shadow Liner comes in a lightweight plastic pot which contains 4.3g and retails for 5500 Won (a bit over US$5) so it´s fairly inexpensive. 

The texture of this is great, a very smooth super-pigmented cream which applies and blends perfectly. The finish is an intense metallic color which stays absolutely put without any creasing, fading or smudging.

I like applying this over my whole lid with a wide cream-shadow brush but the Touch Touch! Shadow Liner is pigmented and intense enough to be used as a liner. 

Color #4 is a nicely intense metallic gray.


Overall I am very impressed with this product and can highly recommend this!


Rating 5/5