Make up artists and professionals will always tell you make up tools will make of break your make up routine. I personally agree to this to an extend; while you don’t need make up brush for every single make up step, there are a few that you most possibly can’t do without for example the blush brush, powder brush, eye shadow brushes to name a few.
I have been raving about how much I adore those make up brushes from Bobbi Brown & Hakuhodo and they certainly are not cheap either. Recently I’ve trialled brushes from a few other brands and is quite happy to report back with the following. They all work just as good and is relatively heaps cheaper than BB. So let’s begin shall we?
Benefit Cosmetics is one of those brands that takes us by surprise with their quirky packaging and quality of products. I am pretty surprised to see their brushes look so ‘normal’. They are sturdy, doesn’t shred when I wash them and is soft and does its job.
Benefit brushes starts from $28 – $30++. I find them very reasonable for the quality of their brushes. Brownie points for its quality of the bristles without any fall outs. The range is however quite limited, there’s only 6 brushes to choose from, great for beginners who aren’t too sure how many brushes they need and what they can do with it.
Royal and Langnickel Silk Green Line brush is the perfect eco-friendly option if you like your products natural and is environmentally friendly.
This 12 piece brush set is retailing for around $120, making each brush approximately $10 + a brush case that is comes with. Travel friendly and comes with all brushes that you need unless you’re a pro that requires 20,948,395 brushes. The brushes are super silky soft as they are 100% synthetic brushes.
Great option for someone who have very few brushes and require a complete set of make up brushes, you can’t go wrong with this.
NP Set  brushes ranges from $9.99 – $29.99. Another affordable range with great quality brushes. They are soft to touch and picks up colour just as good as the expensive brushes.
There are around 14 make up brushes all up from NP Set with a few double ended brushes mostly under the $20 mark. Comes with NP Set signature white colour, I especially love the Crease Blender Brush and Primer Brush, they are the clear stand outs.
You can probably read about my past experiences with DMK products and I still swear by some of their best selling products like the Micro Peel, Acu Masque, Deep Pore Cleanser and so on.
With the changing temperature and the constant change with my skin, DMK has recently personalised a program that suits my skin specifically looking at reversing sun damages to my skin and to prevent any future possible sun damage.
 
DMK Herb & Mineral Moisture Restoring Spray
RRP AUD$63.50
This is recommended to use after moisturiser or on its own when needed. Unlike your typical facial spray that sits onto your skin and dries it out, this one replenishes with herbs and minerals to keep skin at well hydrated level. Â It is also a refreshing welcome to keep at your office desk or in the fridge for the hot Summer days.
DMK Dermatox (MY FAV OUT OF THE LOT!)
RRP AUD$40.50
We all do detox to our body all the time but often neglect that our skin aka our largest organ requires detox too. This helps to remove toxins and free radical causing pollutants from the epidermal layers of our skin. To be honest, the product itself is quite neutral scented but it stung really bad on my skin once applied (I have been told that strong odours occurs when your skin is extremely toxin, so go figure!) However, once rinsed, the odours disappears.
I start by pouring some of the dermatox onto a cotton pad and wipe down my face and neck. Let it sit on my face 5-10 minutes and rinse out. Love how my skin always has a brighter, clearer and softer results each and every time I use this.
DMK Melanoplex Creme
RRP AUD$109
Many people often associate brightening products with bleaching. This is a common misconception and Melanoplex Creme uses an exclusive ‘non bleaching’ product to reduce hyper pigmentation (the freckles and brown spots). The formula inhibits tyrosine which stimulates melanin in our body.
I for one have over productive tyrosine that makes me tan way too easily and even when I hide my life from sun and I somehow turn brown!! Whenever I get acne on my skin, I am bound to get pigmentation scarring that last on forever and ever, longer than a fairy tale’s ending.
I am currently use this faithfully every night during Summer and is loving how acne scarring seems to speed up and hopefully it will protect me against signs of pre mature ageing.
DMK Solar Damage Gel
RRP AUD$35
This gel moisturiser is god sent during Summer months. Designed to repair and restore skin that has been punished by age, harmful UV rays and external aggravations. It works to help boost collagen and elastin fibres while promoting more efficient hydration and cell regeneration.
The great thing is that this product is ideal for face (including the delicate eye area), neck, hands or body. I find this brightens and hydrates my skin well without breaking it out. It can however be a little sticky, so be sure to use a tiny bit and gently massage with hands and pat/dab all over desired area.
Other notes:
DMK is a salon only brand (prescribed by professionals)
All products mentioned in this post is now available on counters
To sum this up, I LOVE the product but HATE the packaging.
Why I love it:
- It is a concentrated treatment concealer that covers your flaws instantly and treat it by tightening and improving skin elasticity at the same time
- Promises to eliminate dark circles, puffiness, revitalizes, re-plump and minimise fine lines
- Star ingredients: Goji berry, haloxyl, collagen
- Available with a Neutralizer shade (for extreme dark circles, to be used on top of usual concealer) and in #Pure beige, #Nude, #Creamy Natural, #Honey, #Creamy Beige and #Buff Beige
- Comes with a micro corrector applicator (in other words a round sponge!), it is recommended to wipe off with tissue after each use. Personally I don’t like this as I find this unhygienic. I also find the whole applicator turning mechanism is very confusing.
- I find it works very well at eliminating my dark circles and brightens the whole under eye area, making it look younger, fresher and less TIRED looking (I’m calling this my HG concealer despite the unhygienic applicator)
- I also love how this concealer does not seep into fine lines, look obvious on the skin (like so many concealer can!), dries onto skin (happens to me with so many other concealers!)
Other notes:
Shade I’m using is #120 light pale and is my perfect match
RRP AUD$24.95
Available on counters now
Lanolips Lip Ointment with Colour SPF 15 in #Apples
Gorgeous red shade in my all time favourite lip loving ointment – Lanolips!
Intense moisturising, softens cracked/peeling lips, shiny and never sticky!
#Apples is by far my favourite shade, what do you think?
RRP AUD$13.95
Available on counters now
You know how there are so many hair care products in the market that comes in super and jumbo sizes but what if it’s a dud and you’re stuck with it?
That’s where the smart cookies at Pantene came up with the Pantene Clinicare Hydro Surge Revitalizing One Week Trial Kit. You get to trial if it suits your hair and you get to trial the complete kit before commiting to purchase, how good is that? Certainly a first in the hair care industry and it’s about time isn’t it?
Gotta love the try-before-you-buy idea!Â
Each kit comes with a shampoo, conditioner and leave on treatment and these are will last you one week (if you wash your hair daily) and longer if you don’t.
The trial kit comes in 3 different kits to suit different hair types:
- Hydro Surge Revitalizing
- Micro Repair Revitalizing
- Fullness Charge Revitalizing
RRP AUD$20 per kit
Available on counters now Â
Clinique Almost Lipstick in #06 Black Honey
Not quite a lipstick and not quite a balm. This lipstick looks quite dark violet and scary on the stick and doesn’t look very flattering to anyone when I first saw this but once applied on my lips, I was impressed. The texture is glossy with a nice hint of healthy shine to the lips and the coverage is quite sheer.
Turns out #Black Honey is a dark reddish shade that looks very flattering to my skin tone. (I also took a picture with it on my lips but it didn’t show up as true to the swatch on the back of my hands) You’ll love to hear that this doesn’t stain lips either so once it rubs off after a meal, it doesn’t leave those annoying ‘leftover’ lipstick marks.
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RRP AUD$30
Available on Clinique counters nowÂ
BB cream is slowly picking up in the Western countries and with that, there’s so many articles out there telling you it’s this and that. I have to say, I don’t agree to many things that has been written/blogged/published about and here’s why I’ve decided to write a post on All about BB Cream that you need to know.
Note: These are of course my own personal opinions, so don’t hold me against it. Â
FACT #1 : BB cream be it Blemish Balm or Beauty Balm is still a makeup product.
A moisturiser is there to moisturise and a sunscreen is there to protect your skin. (Exception: If you have really oily skin and provided you use a good serum you can skip the moisturiser step.) BB cream has those ‘added benefits’ to continue work on your skin throughout the day so they won’t dry out or appear like ‘make up’ on your skin. Those ‘added benefits’ will not do wonders on your skin if you neglect your base skincare routine.
Therefore, BB cream does not replace your moisturiser or sunscreen routine. Under no circumstances, should a makeup product like tinted moisturiser or foundation or BB cream should replace your moisturiser and sunscreen skin care step.  EVER, period.
FACT #2 : BB cream should be amazing at coverage.
A true BB cream should have magnificent ability at coverage, at least this is true for the ones that are Made in Korea or other parts of Asia. After all, it is designed to cover scars/blemishes on face post surgery. Personally, I find that most of the BB cream developed and marketed for the Western world appear to be really watery and appear to be nothing like a BB cream (that I am used to) and more of a tinted moisturiser with ‘added benefits’ to appeal to the wider market.
For a BB cream that provides no coverage or ability to cover up scars, blemishes, angry acnes; that doesn’t qualify as a BB cream for me.
FACT #3 : BB cream will always have a dewy finish.
That’s what makes a BB cream, the dewy finish – the ‘your skin but better and healthier’ look. At least, that’s what the original BB creams came about with.
If you’re after non-dewy BB cream, I’m sure they are plenty of foundation in the market that targets people who prefer the non dewy, matte finish. I’ve seen BB primer, BB powder, BB cream foundation, BB makeup remover, BB mousse, BB jelly, BB lipstick! To me I reckon those products are just riding the BB wave and more often than not does not truly represent what a BB cream is.
FACT #4 : BB cream will always have limited shades.
Most brands offer one to two shades to choose from, not very helpful if you don’t fall into the ‘universal skin’ shade category. If you’re after perfect matching shade, I’d say either find a way to trial it first before purchase or do extensive research online. More often than not, those ‘Asian’ brand BB cream can be quite greyish on the skin so far I’ve only come across two BB cream (out of 20) that did not look too brown, too white or too grey on my skin and match me perfectly.
FACT #5 : BB cream might not be everyone’s cup of tea.Â
Just because everyone else are hyping it, it doesn’t mean that the product will work for you. For me, Rosehip oil did nothing and broke me out; so you need to be smart and test to see if BB cream is for you. I’ve met people who have tried BB cream and didn’t like it, which is perfectly okay.
After all, BB cream is a lot thicker than what we are accustomed to and it has a dewy finish which is very unusual in the Asian market where everything is all about matte and oil free.
Good luck with your BB cream journey and feel free to ask me any questions that you might have about BB cream.
Temporary lip tattoos anyone?
Each pack comes with 3 lip application and a detailed how-to for application. To be honest, we don’t need much help as it is identical with putting on a temporary tattoo except for a little bit of measuring and cutting out the extra bits.
Fans of Violent Lips includes Kim Kardashian, Kelly Rowland, Jessie J, just to name a few.
Violent Lips The Australian Flag
It looks and feels exactly like a temporary body tattoo. It was a no brainer to apply and if I can manage I’m pretty sure it’s easy for you too. It does feel bit dry on the lips, so feel free to pop on lip gloss over the top (I’ve checked, it’s okay and the print won’t come off).
To remove, it’s pretty easy, I soak my lips with any cleansing oil, wait for 60 seconds and rub it off with a cotton wipe. With the last remaining bits, I just use my electric toothbrush to brush it off. It did not stain my lips or leave any annoying bits, so I was very happy with that.
RRP AUD$14.95 per pack (works out to about $5 per application)
Available now in Priceline stores nationallyÂ
All Violent Lips product testing was done on supermodels, not animals
