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Thursday, 31 December 2015

Review: Etude House My Beauty Tool Brushes

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be talking about some of the Etude House My Beauty Tool Brushes from the original collection. I purchased these two years ago so they're looking a little less sparkly than when I purchased them, but at least it shows that I've been using them! ^.^
This is what they looked like initially, so fluffy and smooth looking! I paid around $2-3USD for each brush two years ago, though they're now a little more expensive.

Oblique Shadow Brush
This brush is really handy for applying shadows to the outer V of the eye and blending that inwards. I found with both of the fluffy brushes that they did shed a fair bit which isn't ideal, and they also lost the silken look and feel they started with which makes them feel a little scratchy on the eyes.


Eye Contour Brush
This seems to be the most similar brush to the new and improved 310 Eye Brush Base! This brush is really good for packing colour onto the lid and blending it out gently. Again, this brush did shed and become a little scratchy over time.


Concealer Eyeliner Brush
I don't find this brush so helpful because I don't generally use gel liner or use angled brushes for concealer, but I have used it with a gel liner and it worked perfectly fine.


Oblique Line Brush
This brush has been replaced with the 351 Eyebrow Brush! This one looks so well loved because it's the brush that I used the most. I used this to fill in my brows for almost a whole year until I got another brush that just had a more convenient longer handle. It worked really well, I just preferred to have a longer handle on my brushes.
 What I Love
- Very inexpensive at $2-3USD each
- All brushes work as intended
- Quite cute, of course!


What I Don't Love
- Mini size (short handles)
- Shedding on fluffier brushes
- Fluffy brushes get scratchy


Final Thoughts
These are brilliant brushes for beginners! Since they are under $10USD a brush I personally find them quite inexpensive (even better since mine were under $3) and they are a great way of trying out what brush types you like for different applications before perhaps moving on to some of the more expensive brushes, rather than just going in blind and whipping out $40-50 per brush. I found that these brushes did their job really well, but the did get a little scratchy after washing them a few times. They'll do the job for maybe a year, but then they probably need replacing if you've used them enough.

I would definitely recommend these brushes for any Princesses that are looking for inexpensive brushes for beginners, or looking to try out some different types of brushes and don't want to waste money trying expensive brushes. :3

I hope all of my Princesses have had an amazing 2015, and I'm so excited for all of the new adventures to come in 2016! 

Wednesday, 30 December 2015

Review: Skinfood Rose Cheek Chalk Blush

Hello Princesses!
Today I'm going to be talking about the Skinfood Rose Cheek Chalk Blushers! I swatched these while I was in Taipei in February, and was so intrigued by the texture and vibrant pay-off that I grabbed one then and there, and have collected the other shades over the past year.
"Containing moist, soft rosehip oil, this cream-type pearl blusher provides a sheer, gorgeous makeup finish. Its creamy texture allows for easy application, so it can be applied well over powder. A variety of contained pearls reflect light in different directions, creating the appearance of depth and radiance.

*To Use:
For a natural, vibrant look, pat gently onto cheek using fingers or contained puff, then finish with powder.
For a cute look, after applying powder, pat gently onto center of cheeks using fingers or puff." (1)

The packaging of these blushes is super cute, it's very compact and there isn't any excess packaging (meaning that it's pretty full of product) and comes with the cutest, itty bitty puff you've ever seen! This is not a fluffy puff, but more of a rubbery puff. It works well to apply blush, but it does apply it a little heavily.
These blushes come in three different shades and are all shimmery. They are cream blushes and have a really interesting texture since they are chalk blushes!
Rose Pink
Rose Pink is a gorgeous pink with silver shimmer. When blended out, it gives my skin a really lovely rosy flush.
This is a really subtle colour on my cheeks and I think it's a colour that really suits my skintone! These blushes are so easy to blend out on the skin and they are quite flattering for Princesses with larger pores. I really love that these are so easy to blend, I don't end up rubbing off half of my foundation trying to blend the blush out nicely!
Rose Peach
Rose Peach is a beautiful Peach shade with gold shimmer. This is the shade that I picked up in Taipei because I just thought it was so beautiful when I swatched it and I had to have it!
This is an absolutely gorgeous shade on my skin, it's peachy enough to suit my warm toned skin but pinky enough to give me a warm flush. This is one of my go-to blushes, it never looks bad!
Rose Orange 
Rose Orange is a vibrant orange with gold shimmer. This is quite an orange shade, it almost reminds me of a pumpkin colour!
Orange is not my favourite colour on my skin, but this is still a lovely shade! Like the previous shades, this is super easy to apply and doesn't make my pores look like the craters of the moon - lovely.
What I Love
- Great shade range
- Vibrant colour payoff
- Not ridiculously shimmery
- Flattering on larger pores
Easy to apply


What I Don't Love
- Nothing really!


Final Thoughts
I absolutely adore these blushes, the Rose Peach shade is one of my favourites (and I dare say it's a Holy Grail shade!). They make my skin look lovely, the colours are really nice, they have a very vibrant colour payoff and they're super easy to apply, there really is nothing that I don't like about these blushes!

I would definitely recommend these blushes to any Princesses who are looking for a soft cream blush that contains shimmer (but not ridiculous amounts of shimmer) ^.^ 

Tuesday, 29 December 2015

Store Review: Ebay Seller BGH8988A

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be talking about my shopping experience with the Ebay Seller BGH8988A. I have done a reviews on a couple of other Ebay sellers in the past, and I find it helpful to document who sells genuine products and who sells fakes!

Website Practicality
This is a seller with the site Ebay, which I'm sure I don't need to review! ^.^
Price Comparison
This was pretty much the only place I could even find the Version 2 lipsticks any more! I couldn't add the other lipsticks to the cart because they aren't in stock, so I don't know how much it would have cost including the shipping.

BGH8988A
Etude House Lipstick $12.45 + Shipping $0 = $12.45

KollectionK

Kokocolor

Shipping and Packaging
I placed my order on the 8th of September and my item was shipped the same day. My order arrived on the 3rd of October, a fairly long shipping time. My lipstick was bubble wrapped securely, but was left rolling around in quite a large box. As soon as I opened the box I knew I wasn't going to be happy.
Products
I decided to purchase the Etude House Etoinette Crystal Shine Lips PBE102  because it is the last shade I need to complete my collection! This Ebay seller was advertising the white version 2 packaging of this lipstick, so I snapped it up as quickly as I could!

When I opened the box I was immediately very irritated. This seller sent me the right lipstick bullet in the pink packaging. They had also updated the listing to show the pink packaging!
Luckily for me I'm not stupid. The listing clearly says that it's been updated and I can view the listing that I originally purchased from. Sweet, sweet proof that I was intending to purchase the lipstick in the white packaging (because after a month I do tend to forget what I actually purchased!).
I contacted the seller through Ebays dispute page with the proof that they had not sent the item that I was intending to purchase. The Ebay seller agreed to refund if I sent the lipstick back, fair, but irritating as shipping from NZ is quite pricey. The seller seemed to want me to send the lipstick back via the $2 postage option, though failed to understand that it's $2 for the postage envelope and an extra $15 for postage, or an extra $49 for tracked postage and got quite irritated with me. They refused to ship with tracking and told me that they would refund both the postage cost and the lipstick cost once the lipstick was back with them.

I doubt that the lipstick would have made it to Korea (and suspicious that if it even did they would admit that it did) so I decided to sell the lipstick instead to recoup my losses. I don't want to pay another $15 to send a lipstick into space without the knowledge that I can know for sure if it got there or not.



What I Love
- Free shipping
- Quickly sent out 
- Free sample


What I Don't Love
- Slow shipping time
- Wrong items sent
- Belligerent/suspicious about returns
- I don't TRUST YOU


Final Thoughts
I didn't have a very good shopping experience with this seller and wouldn't really recommend purchasing from them. It is quite common nowdays to sell the version 2 Etoinette lipstick bullets in the original Etoinette lipstick packaging, but this isn't want the seller advertised, and it wasn't what I was intending to purchase. I'm not 100% sure if this is a fake because I don't have anything to compare it to, but I surely don't trust this seller with my money.

Shop with caution Princesses!