Review & Swatches: Memebox Special #56 K-Style 4

I've been away for a while, partially because of a new job, and partially because I felt like the blog was an enabler for me to buy more beauty crap. (Also, I am an enabler.) So here's a pic=heavy post to make up for it.

I ordered this box with non-expedited shipping on 25 Sep; the pre-determined shipping date was 18 Nov; and it arrived today, on 28 Nov.

Inside:

Card:

$37 (after shipping) for six full-sized items doesn't sound bad, but I was disappointed by a few of the products inside.

Product Impressions & Swatches

Item 1: Revecen Volumizing Mascara in some generic black

I didn't open this for photos, because this is just a quick swatch post--and black mascaras basically all look the same. No action photos either, because my lashes are short enough to make mascara application a lengthy, unvoluminous pain in the ass.

Item 2: Shara Shara Petit Friend Matte Lip Crayon in PK01 Pure Pink

I was looking forward to this product--in fact, it was the first thing I smeared all over my post-Thanksgiving fat face--but the shade I got isn't even a shade.

Looks all nice and pretty in the tube, right? Lip swatch:

As far as I could tell, all it did for my lips was give them a faint unhealthy white cast. The stain from an earlier lip product made that look pigmented in the slightest, so maybe an arm swatch would be better:

That slightly shiny spot is supposed to be multiple layers of something 1) matte, and 2) Pure Pink. Instead, I got something 1) mucus-resembling, and 2) useless.
Since it's almost moisturising, I guess I'll be using this as a sub-par lip balm. At least it smells like nice candy.

Item 3: Shara Shara Triple Shine Color Shadow Trio in 03 Cobalt Blue

'Oh! Four options! That means I have a 75% chance of NOT getting... Cobalt Blue.'

To be fair, since this shade probably isn't the best seller, it's not unlikely that my chances were much lower.

I love eye shadows, but medium blue ones clash horribly with my warm skin tone, as I imagine it does with a lot of other girls of East Asian descent.
Sapphires and navies are okay, but as you will see below, the card's photo of darkest shade in the trio is misleading. (As is the arrangement of things in the trio--they go medium shade, then dark, then light in real life; but the order is swapped in the photo. Memebox, you had better not have sent me a knock-off.)

The face is meant to be... cute or something, I guess.

It contains a little plastic insert to protect from drool. IF IT WAS A COLOUR I ACTUALLY LIKED, anyway.

The lid shade actually isn't too bad. It's light enough that I could use it as a highlight, if I ran out of the intended highlight colour.
The darkest shade isn't actually a cobalt blue (or navy), but a medium aqua blue with white glitter. I might be able to use it as an accent in the summer.

Item 4: Revecen Face Control Foundation in 002 Violet

A possibly-gimmicky cream product. Perhaps an oversupply of purple dyes created a demand to make a demand for a novelty product with wide claims.

'RÊVECEN use the best materials':

Finger swatch and finger print:

I tried to get a swatch of a bit of it blended out on my face, but I couldn't find the spot when I went back through my photos. So I guess that goes to show what a difference it made for my skin.

My skin has a lot of redness right now, and this purple cream just made me look slightly pinker. A green product probably would've been better in my case, although no sheer layer of any colour is going to magically cancel out blemishes. Regardless of what advanced insights into colour theory are marketed to you.

Item 5: Beauty People Miss 100 Auto Gel Pencil Liner in Gleam Brown

The English on the packaging says Glam Brown, but both Memebox's card and the Korean text on the packaging say Gleam Brown. The other colour options were Glimmer Coral and Glimmer Bronze

Next to foundation, eyeliner is one of the few colour cosmetic products I use up with any regularity. I'm always happy to get a good waterproof one, and automatic pencils are even better..

Glam Brown is a dark brown with chunks of golden glitter. Kinda like a golddigger's turd.

Item 6: ideeB Real Triple Rouge in 02 Shine Pink

This was the only shade sent out. It's a wearable, sheer coral-ish pink gloss.

It's less neon than in the picture. The tone of gloss stuck to the plastic part of the wand is more accurate.

My lips were still a little stained when I took the below photos; the gloss is not as fuschia as it appears below. The colour reminds me of Nyx Butter Gloss in Peaches and Cream, but not milky.

Overall Thoughts

The products were okay in this box, but some of the shades were disappointing. Unfortunately, there's no way to customise Memeboxes. Based on the box reveals I'd seen of previous K-Style boxes, this one fell a little short; it was also disappointing compared to the Vagabond Youth collaboration box that I'd purchased previously. I think I'll be sticking to Memebox's skincare boxes next time.

Review & Swatches: Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips Shadow & Liner in Warm Nude Eyes (NEW for Spring 2013)

I picked up the new Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips shadow palette in Warm Nude Eyes, from the new Nude Eyes Collection for Spring 2013.

They already have an extremely confusing number of products with unnecessarily long names under the Shimmer Strips line. For the Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Shadow & Liner Nude Collection alone, they have this one (Warm Nude Eyes), Classic Nude Eyes, Natural Nude Eyes and Smokey Nude Eyes. There's also the original Nude Eyes palette, under the Universal Looks line. And that's not including the other Universal Looks palettes; nor the four eye colour-specific original palettes and their spin-offs: the Eye Candy, Pop, Smokey and Bronze Collections.

If you're as confused as any person with a life, this palette is from one of Physician's Formula's new lines for spring 2013. As you can probably imagine, 'Warm Nude Eyes' features toned-down bronzes and coppers. Which I'm a total sucker for.

These palettes retail for US$12.49 at CVS (who do mark up prices). When I was there, CVS was having a $7 ExtraBucks with purchase of $10 of Physician's Formula promotion through the end of the weekend. So if you have a CVS near you, these sales are a good time to buy Physician's Formula products, which usually retail for over $10. I also like their Shimmer Strips eyeliner trio in Nude Eyes, so that's a good pick if you've already got enough shadow.

The palettes are very cute, but also a bit smaller than I'd imagined. The palette fits in the palm of my hand, so this wouldn't be a bad palette for travelling, although it flips open with no latching mechanism.
A larger brush might be a little awkward to use on the three thinner strips. The sponge applicator fits better, but is not the best sponge I've used.

There are nine different strips inside, grouped in threes to match the suggestions on the packaging (leftmost three being for the 'dramatic' look; next three, 'playful'; rightmost three, 'natural').

Swatches

Left four strips:

That right-most one may look like the darkest in the pan, but it comes out as a faint plummy brown. I may need to use these wet, as was apparently the case with the original nude palette.

Next four, going right:

Last one--the white:

Part of this palette, when used dry, doesn't have a lot of pigmentation, which was somewhat disappointing. On the other hand, the muted colour payoff is truer to the 'Nude' part of the name--despite the fact that they're all shimmery I would feel comfortable wearing these to school or work.
They don't seem to be very long-lasting, but I'm sure they'd fare well with primer.

Overall, I'm not in love with this palette, but I do like it. I wouldn't buy it at full price, but I'd pick it up during a sale. I'll continue to be on the hunt for the Eye Candy and Bronzed palettes for brown eyes, since those look more pigmented.

Review/Swatch: e.l.f. Long-Lasting Lustrous Eyeshadow in Soiree

I wore e.l.f.'s new-ish Long-Lasting Lustrous Eyeshadow in Soiree during my single Valentine's Day this year.
These are shimmery gel eyeshadows with a gel-mousse texture. They have yet to hit the UK.

Soiree is a pink that, when applied, leans slightly more red than the site's pseudo-swatch would have led me to believe. I was expecting something closer to a light mauve, than a pink.

As a result, if not applied conservatively, it looks like I have irritated eyes. Which is NOT what I want to look like on Valentine's Day... I want to look soft and feminine, not like I've been crying! (Which is, arguably, also feminine.)

One solution is to use a lighter layer of this shade. Sheered out on the lids, it looks like this:

Not bad. Problem is, this product has a LOT of silver micro-glitter, which can look uneven if sheered out without some care.
I wouldn't say that this stuff is hard to work with; but its softer texture (and glitter) makes application just slightly more finicky than with the thicker Maybelline Color Tattoos.

Other solution: Use other shadows in combination with it.

Over it, I used MUA Pearl Eyeshadow in shade 24, a rosy mauve, to contour.
I also used the shimmery pink eyeshadow from the Tarte Royal Collection from holiday 2010, which I purchased on sale in the summer, as a highlight in the centre of my lids.

(I also used e.l.f.'s cream eyeliner--which also has a softer texture than your usual gel eyeliners--in Coffee; and the thicker Wet 'n' Wild black gel eyeliner to tightline.)

Based off this shade, I prefer the Maybelline Color Tattoo gel eyeshadows. Compared to this shade, Pomegranate Punk (US), a cranberry, is darker, more earth-toned and less shimmery.

As for the product line in general, Maybelline's are more expensive (retail US$7/£5 for .14oz/3.98g, compared to e.l.f.'s US$3 for .11oz/3g), but come in a nicer glass container; are easier to apply; are less glittery; and, because of the thicker gel texture, take longer to use up.

Summary

Price: US$3, online at e.l.f.'s site.

Texture: Pleasant to the touch; slightly less pleasant to work with.

Colour: So-so. Too glittery for daytime wear.

Longevity: Good.

NYX Round Lipstick in Hermes - Review & swatches

90¢ and Up Store on Santa Monica Blvd has two full display stands of NYX products. I've been wanting to buy some of the brand's nude lipsticks, but am waiting until Cherry Culture starts stocking the new spring eyeshadow palettes before I do a haul.

I didn't immediately see Circe, Thalia or one of the other shades at the top of my list. They had Creamy Beige, but I remember Googling a swatch of that one and seeing that it looked far too corpse-like for me. So I grabbed Hermes, which looked pinker from the tube than the other nudes. (The store had all the lipsticks sealed, so I couldn't actually open any up to examine the lipstick cream.)

The lipstick:

Immediately after applying Hermes, it looks like a dark, pink-toned brown. As it sits longer on lips, though, it starts looking more pinkish, possibly due to wearing off (I frequently rub my lips together):

I was looking for a pinky-brown MLBB nude. Applied with full coverage, this shade is a little dark for me. It would look great on deeper skin tones.

The finish is a satin/cream with a slight glossiness. I expected this to be matte, but this finish is more moisturising anyway.

Here, I've layered it over Revlon's Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Honey, a mauve that's my current go-to lip colour:

As with the other NYX Round Lipsticks, staying power is pretty average for a cream lipstick. It will last for a few hours if left mostly untouched, but not through eating--which is why I applied it over a stain in the last picture.

Overall, a decent purchase. However, I'll be looking for a shade that incorporates less dark of a brown.

And if you live in the area, 90¢ and Up is awesome. $1.39 for a dozen eggs. Booyeah.