First Impression: A·TRUE Black Tea All Day Aqua Sun Gel

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be talking about the A·TRUE Black Tea All Day Aqua Sun Gel! I had one little tester sachet of this Sun Gel, but I was really interested in trying it because I haven't really seen any bloggers talking about this brands skincare. I really liked their CC Cushion, but will I like their skincare?

 What Does It Do?

"A·TRUE only uses Black Tea Water. It is based on ‘Compagnie Coloniale’s' premium black tea. Extracting Compagnie Coloniale’s' finest black tea provides its own natural living energy which is transferred to the skin. Polyphenols from anti-oxidant activity, vitamins and minerals can be obtained from the extracted Black Tea Water helping in recoveries to the skin’s original functions.

Compagnie Coloniale® is the represented black tea from the oldest French tea brands. It brings large assortments of unique blends such as Keemun tea from China, Darjeeling tea from India, and Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka, which specially come with added rose petals.

Benefits
The daily sun gel helps refresh your skin, giving it a more radian look. Simultaneously, it will protect you from any harmful UVA or UVBs. Other types of environmental damage such as dryness and hot temperatures are also acted against. The gel type texture leaves the skin feeling light and fresh whilst softly absorbing without leaving you any feeling of stickiness.

Ingredients
*CAMELLIA SINENSIS LEAF WATER, WATER(12500mg), CYCLOPENTASILOXANE, BUTYLENE GLYCOL, ETHYLHEXYL METHOXYCINNAMATE, ALCOHOL, ETHYLHEXYL SALICYLATE, ISOAMYL P-METHOXYCINNAMATE, GLYCERIN, NIACINAMIDE, DIETHYLAMINO HYDROXYBENZOYL HEXYL BENZOATE, CAPRYLIC/CAPRIC TRIGLYCERIDE, 1,2-HEXANEDIOL, PORTULACA OLERACEA EXTRACT,**CAMELLIA SINENSIS LEAF EXTRACT(148mg),**CITRUS AURANTIUM AMARA (BITTER ORANGE) PEEL EXTRACT(1.67mg),**CINNAMOMUM CASSIA BARK EXTRACT(5.025mg), SILICA, TRIETHANOLAMINE, BEHENYL ALCOHOL, ACRYLATES/C10-30 ALKYL ACRYLATE CROSSPOLYMER, CARBOMER, CETETH-10, ADENOSINE, PANTHENOL, FRAGRANCE"(1)

This sun gel has a really interesting texture, it almost looks and feels like it separates between a gel and an oil which is really odd! It initially smells very alcoholic, though this smell dissipates quickly when absorbed into the skin and leaves a powdery floral scent. It absorbs quickly into the skin and leaves my skin feeling quite soft and a little sticky for about 20mins. This doesn't really hydrate my skin because my skin feels dry after 30minutes or when the sticky soft feeling wears off. It doesn't appear to make my skin look any more radiant than it normally does.

Would I Purchase This Product?

Probably not, this sun gel retails for around $35USD and although there is nothing really wrong with it, I just don't like it as much as I like other sunscreens that are much cheaper. I wish I tried this sun gel out during the summer since my winter skin is dry (and my acne medication makes it even drier) so if I saw it on super sale I would grab it to try again, but only then.

I would recommend this Sun Gel for any Princesses that have oily skin, because I think that it will work so much better on oily skin than it does on dry skin! ^.^

Review: MAC Superslick Liquid Eye Liner; Cockiness

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be talking about the Limited Edition MAC Superslick Liquid Eye Liner in Cockiness from the Riri Loves MAC Collection! This is supposed to be a shimmery rose gold with a Frost finish colour, but there are other colours available still that are not Limited Edition, so I hope this review is still somewhat helpful! ^.^

"A liquid liner so slick it almost describes itself. Water-based, water- resistant, quick and precise to apply. Sets in 60 seconds to provide a sleek, long-wearing, wet-looking, no-smudge line. The superior no-fuss, no-wobble application lies in the "magic tip" of the easy-to-control dip-stick applicator.

Long-wearing, 15 hours
Smudge-resistant
Water-resistant
Ophthalmologist tested
Safe for contact lens wearers"(1)

This eye liner has a lovely precise tip that flexes without being completely soft and floppy. I find that I only use the very tip of this applicator, and the glitter doesn't run down the tip so I need to dip this back into the pot a couple of times for each eye which is really quite tedious.

This colour is supposed to be a shimmery rose gold, but for all intensive purposes it's really a light copper until the light is shined directly onto it (which is not often). The left swatch is 2-3 applications, and the right swatch is what you get on one application. Since the eye liner has such a thin consistency, once the glitter has been used there really is no colour to the eye liner base.

I tried to use it as an Aegyo Sal tear liner, but it feels quite drying and tight when layered too many times. It also looks a little odd because it's quite dark, usually an Aegyo Sal highlight would be brightening.

It looks quite cute as a stand alone eye liner, but as you can probably tell from the photos I had to take these with external lighting as it doesn't really show up during day time at all! It's also hard to build up a solid line because I have to re dip so many times.

It looks pretty cute as a double eye liner with a super thin black line, but like I've said before, it's hard to build up the liner without over doing it and making it feel tight and dry, and to also get a solid line.

What I Love

- Super cute packaging

- Pretty colour in direct lighting

- Long lasting, no smudging flaking or fading

What I Don't Love

- Colour isn't very bold in normal lighting

- More copper than rose gold

- Quite expensive considering how much you use for each application 

- Tip doesn't hold much glitter, need to re-dip the applicator 2-3 times per eye

Final Thoughts

Although this eye liner has adorable packaging, I really don't think you missed out on too much if you didn't pick it up! It's actually pretty hard to control the amount of product being applied when you're constantly dipping the brush back into the liquid. I was expecting it to be a little lighter too, there's not too much difference between copper and rose gold, but this is definitely copper! It's cute in the right lighting, but most of the time you can't even tell I'm wearing a glitter eye liner, and for over $40NZD I would really expect to be able to see it.

I would definitely recommend this eye liner for any Princesses who are after a sheer, copper glitter eye liner! ^.^

Fail or Holy Grail Review: Skinfood Moisture Egg Hair Pack

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be talking about the Skinfood Moisture Egg Hair Pack! I picked up this Hair Mask when I was in Taipei from the Skinfood store, because it was recommended to me buy the lovely sales assistants!

This hair mask comes packaged in a cute little yellow squeeze tube. It's really hygienic and easy to store.

"Rich in essential proteins and nourishing vitamins, the Moisture Egg Hair Pack uses egg extracts to repair hair damaged from frequent dying, perming, or blow-drying.  Make this part of your standard hair care routine and give your hair that beautiful finishing touch of health and resilience.

How to Use:
After washing hair with shampoo, towel dry and apply Moisture Egg Hair Pack evenly onto hair.  Wait 5 minutes to let the pack do it's magic followed by a warm water rinse."(1)

This hair mask works like the vast majority of hair masks, you apply it to damp hair after washing it and leave it in for 5 minutes. The mask is a thick, yellow cream which smells like vanilla. I'm very thankful it doesn't smell like eggs (because smelling warm eggs in the shower is just plain gross) but it does look a little like custard which is also weird.

I decided to apply this mask to one half of my hair to see whether it actually made a difference to my hair or not! While rinsing this hair mask off, my hair feels super silky soft. However, when it starts to dry off I noticed that the side that had the mask applied dried much faster and looked much frizzier than the other side.

Once my hair was dry I noticed very little difference between the masked side and non masked. Using the hair mask didn't make my hair feel any worse, but it also didn't make it feel any better.

What I Love

- Smells lovely

- Inexpensive ($10-15USD)

What I Don't Love

- Doesn't moisturise my dry hair

Final Thoughts

Although this product smells nice and isn't expensive, it doesn't actually do anything at all for my hair! Thankfully it doesn't make it any worse, but until I actually tested it in half my hair I didn't know that it was literally doing nothing. Since this product only really has one function - to moisturise the hair - I definitely think that it is a fail product for me because it doesn't do that. 

I read a whole bunch of other reviews on this hair mask and it seems that people either really love it, or hate it. Thought to be completely fair almost all of the other reviews didn't actually compare the Hair Mask to non masked hair at all and had almost no pictures to back up their belief that the mask made their hair feel softer. Purchase with caution, at least I can use this a conditioner rather than a wash out treatment.

First Impression: Meow Cosmetics Camo Cats Colour Correcting Concealers

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be talking about the Meow Cosmetics Camo Cats Colour Correcting Concealers! These products are really interesting, they claim to provide different aspects of colour concealing for different areas and problems on the skin! Almost all of the colours cancel out redness and acne scars, so they are suitable for me to use on my entire face rather than spot concealing. These only come in one shade which is SUPER pale!

What Does It Do?

"Based on the simplicity of color cancelling pigments and aided by the multiple luxurious properties of Silk, these glorious Color Correcting Concealers are the newest addition to the Meow Cosmetics line up.

Camo-Cats c3  Enriched with the moisture balancing and anti-inflammatory benefits of Pure Silk Powder, our Color Correcting Concealers are unlike any other mineral concealer.  They were specially formulated to color correct for a plethora of different imperfections while creating the purrrfect blank canvas for mineral foundations in the process. 

Their supple texture and blendable consistency makes them simple and quick to apply, while concealing a multitude of color related imperfections in an instant.  Each shade is designed to conceal specific skin discolorations ranging from bruising and redness  to extremely dark undereye circles.  Silk Powder offers numerous benefits for the skin, including it's numerous amino acids,  but it's really it's moisture balancing "wonder" as it can self-adjust to allow for changes in temperature and humidity.  We recommend a 2-year shelf life on this product from the date of purchase."(1) 

Yellow

Covers Acne, Redness, Blotchiness, Rosacea, purple shadows, undereye circles, blue veins, Dark Spots

I was really interested to see the colour differences between my shade of foundation in Angora in comparison to the Camo Cats Yellow shade! CC Yellow is much brighter yellow, very banana like in tone but also much more different in texture, it looks so dry.

CC Yellow is a great colour for my skin tone, but it's so, so dry. So dry. It makes it hard to blend the actual foundation into the skin without buffing away the colour corrector! The CC Yellow shade doesn't cover very much of my acne scarring and my red nose and cheeks still show through.

These Camo Cats really bring out the fine hair on my face, I almost have a full goatee going on! Please excuse the sore looking lips - Oratane is wreaking havoc on my lips but clearing my skin!

Green

Covers Sallowness, Redness, Acne, Rosacea, port wine stains

I initially thought that the CC Green would be my favourite colour, but I feel like the Camo Cat colours are much more prominent than the foundation colour is. This colour makes me look seriously pale and seriously sick, so much so that my sister was very surprised and actually thought I was sick! This colour did cover up my red acne scars really well, but it was so intense that when I tried to specifically spot conceal it was just so obvious. Not a good look.

Blue

When Green concealer makes you appear sallow, try blue as an alternative. Also covers ruddiness

This blue is BLUE. Like with the other shades, I chose to apply this over my entire face rather than spot concealing because I have a lot of redness and acne over my face. I'm glad that I did because the colour is so vibrant that if I did spot conceal I wouldn't be able to blend it into the rest of the makeup. It's so blue that the yellow toned foundation over the top of it literally does nothing and I look really, really sick.

This shade was really hard to blend and left me with non coloured spots and bits that had too much product. It was difficult to use and made my face look blue, it didn't even cover up much of the redness or acne either which was much more disappointing to me.

Lavender

Covers Sallowness, Yellow/Brown Bruises, Pigmentation issues and dark spots on bronze skin tones

This shade doesn't really have any colour concealing properties that I would look for, but I got it just so I could have the set. This was perhaps the hardest shade for me to blend properly, you can see the bare patches where there isn't enough pigment because it's been blended away. This colour makes me look very ill too.

Would I Purchase These Products?

No. I feel like these are so drying for the skin and it really enhances any flakey skin as well as my pores. The shades are too pale for me (say whaat) and the colours are so vibrant that they're visible when spot concealing or just using over the entire face. I'm not 100% sure who to recommend these products to, but if you're looking for super pale colour correctors that are quite vibrant, give these products a go! ^.^