Catrice Sun Glow Matt Bronzing Powder

Paloma recently added a new cosmetics line in their shop and it was none other than Catrice, the popular European cosmetic brand in which MissChievous on youtube often raved about. If I'm not mistaken, she mentioned a few times about their products and how it's a really affordable drugstore brand where she came from. Either way, from the packaging alone it's pretty obvious that Catrice and Essence cosmetics have the same manufacturer. 

Paloma at The Mall is stocked full of Catrice products 

I can't help but pick up a few things myself because they are just so darn cheap. It's the perfect price range for younger teens who are just starting to get into makeup and wanted to experience with colors. Anyway I'm also glad to see the extended range of neutral colored eye shadows they are selling.

Catrice Sun Glow Matt Bronzing Powder

 Catrice Sun Glow Matt Bronzing Powder

There are two bronzing shades and I picked up the darker colored one called 020 Deep Bronze only because I have medium skin and any bronzing powder lighter than this shade will probably not show up nicely on my skin. 

I really like the packaging of this stuff! It comes in a compact plastic case with a clear cover which snaps shut and it has quite a bit of product in it too at 9.5g. To compare, a MAC bronzing powder has 10g of product. The Catrice bronzing powder retails for B5.90 whilst a MAC bronzing powder costs about B$38! Also, you have to admit the imprint on the bronzer itself is gorgeous! Basically the whole packaging looks way more expensive than it really is! And to think that it'll cost you only 1/6 of what MAC is selling is just mind blowing.

 Catrice Sun Glow Matt Bronzing Powder

  Catrice Sun Glow Matt Bronzing Powder

 

 The good thing about this is that it's Matte!! I remembered The Body Shop came out with bronzing powder a few years ago and they are really shimmery with glitters in it and I just don't know how to work the product with all the shimmers and glitters. Some people like to use the bronzing powder all over the face for a bit of color but I prefer to use them to lightly contour my face. 

This product is pigmented too so I always make sure to use a light hand when working it onto my skin. I have to say the color doesn't complement my skin 100% but nonetheless it works. For contouring, I like using either my Sigma tapered highlighter brush F35 or the large angled contour F40. Depends on which one is clean lol

Before and after applying the Catrice Sun Glow Matt Bronzing Powder 

I dropped by the shop again yesterday and noticed that their products are selling really good! I remembered back in the days when I just started getting into makeup how hard it was to find affordable makeup products, even simple things like brushes, primers and bronzing powders! Now they're almost everywhere (if you knew where to find them, of course) and I can't help but feel relieved. haha

Skyfall's bond girl inspired look

I watched Skyfall a couple of weeks back with my siblings and ever since I watched it, the makeup look that bond girl Sévérine wore when she met Bond is stuck at the back of my mind! It doesn't help that beauty gurus all over youtube have been uploading makeup tutorials on the latest bond girl's makeup look. Yes, including Michelle Phan! However, my favorite out of all that I've watched is by beauty guru Chelsea aka xclosetoreal.

Bérénice Marlohe as Skyfall's bond girl, Sévérine 

I was browsing Bérénice pictures and I noticed that she is always seen on the red carpet with her signature smokey eyes. Sometimes with a dark lips, and other times she left them nude. Either way, she looks stunning!

Bérénice Marlohe at the Paris premiere of Skyfall

 Chelsea's tutorial 

I decided to try out this tutorial which luckily for me is pretty simple to follow but looked very put together like you've spent a good hour on it. Chelsea even opted to use makeup sponges at some point in the 3 minute tutorial instead of makeup brushes. I don't have any of the items that she used in the video so I compensated with the makeup that I currently have. It's fun racking through your makeup collection looking for shades you can use to recreate a look!

What I came up with in the end

Ok I have to admit part of the reason I wanted to do this look is because I wanted to use that lipstick lol 

In the picture, her eye shape is elongated using a black shade and they had it exaggerated both at the inner corner of the eyes as well as the outer corner which is winged outward and upward. This somehow reminds me of the movie Black Swan. I have to say this look is pretty dramatic and is not something that I find comfortable enough to wear out, not even during the night time. Bérénice, on the other hand, really rocked those dark eyes + dark lips! If only I can look half as good as her!

On my eyes:

UD Naked palette eyeshadow in Creep, 

Second darkest shade in Essence 'Over the taupe' quad, 

Maybelline Volum' Express waterproof mascara,

Revlon Grow Luscious lashliner in Onyx,

MAC Paint Pot in Blackground

On my lips:

 

Revlon matte lipstick in Wine Not

On my face:

MAC blush in Desert Rose,

MAC MSF in Sunny by Nature,

MAC MSF in Gold Deposit,

SkinFood eyebrow powder cake,

Garnier Light BB Eye Roll-on,

Revlon PhotoReady concealer in Medium,

Essence Soft Touch Mousse in Matt Sand

Side note: So I've been watching a few episodes of That F Word on ClickNetwork recently and I think it's one of the best shows they've produced so far, if not the best. Others are nice too, like Budget Barbie, Tried and Tested, and also Chick vs. Dick which is darn hilarious but I personally like watching other people's thoughts on fashion and it's interesting to see what sort of styles are trending in another country. So thumbs up to That F Word!

Essence Kajal Pencil: Black & White

I'm always on the lookout for an all-round good eyeliner. There are so many options out there to choose from but I tend to go for blacks simply because I use black eyeliner almost every single time I do my makeup! It's a good staple item in my makeup collection and it's probably one of the things that I buy the most; apart from lip products lol

Essence Kajal pencil in Black and White

I picked these up a while back at Paloma for only a few dollars each. Essence is probably the cheapest makeup brand I could find here locally and I actually prefer this brand to Silkygirl. If you're a student on a budget, Essence will be perfect for you. Their products are pretty decent for the price you're paying and I think it's totally worth repurchasing some of their items!

Essence Kajal pencil in Black and White

I wouldn't say that these Kajal pencils have the longest staying power. They smudge after a few hours of wearing them so if you want maximum wear out of these I suggest setting them with a black/white eyeshadow. I haven't tried the other colors but both of these that I have are surprisingly creamy! But unfortunately, not creamy enough to glide on the waterline as smooth as I wish it had. Especially the white one ugh. I've been wanting to own a white eyeliner pencil for my waterline for a while now but I haven't found a good one yet! The ones that I currently own are not creamy enough and I don't wanna drag the liner on my eyes if you know what I mean.

Swatches

If you are thinking of trying out new eyeliners, check these out at Paloma, The Mall. I believe these Kajal eyeliners apply smoother than their regular eyeliners. They are easy to blend out if you prefer the smudged look and if you're a guy who wanna try using an eyeliner but don't wanna spend too much on one, you might wanna pick this up. I'm so glad I invested in these, they are worth every dollar.

Essence Silky touch blush

I am very much into blushers but I think it's kinda hard for me to find ones that I really like here locally. Many of the korean branded ones are too powdery for my liking and many are super light it just doesn't work with my skin tone. which is kinda sad because I wanted to like them so bad lol Every time I walk into a korean beauty store here I always thought to myself Okay, I will just swatch the blushers one more time. Who knows it might actually work this time. Well... it kinda never does.

I bought these two blushers a while back from Paloma.

Essence Silky touch blush in Adorable and Natural Beauty

 

Essence Silky touch blush in Adorable

Essence Silky touch blush in Natural Beauty

These are super cheap as well, just like all of the other Essence products. The pigmentation of these are decent, not as good as I'd hoped for but I guess I get what I paid for lol Good thing is with these you can layer them on if you want a stronger pay off. They are also not as powdery as the korean branded ones. 

I don't know about the other blushers but these two that I bought have a slight shimmer to them. However they are so subtle it's hardly noticeable so it doesn't really bother me at all. From the swatches below they even came out looking pretty matte!

Swatches 

If you are looking for affordable blushers I'd recommend you to try this out. May not be the best ones you can find out there but it definitely gives you plenty of bang for the buck!

Essence Stay All Day cream eyeshadow in Coppy right

This is another one of Essence's products that I bought a few months ago but never really had a chance to try it out. I've used it a few times since then and I think it's enough for me to tell you my thoughts on it!

 

 Essence Stay All Day cream eyeshadow in Coppy right

 Essence Stay All Day cream eyeshadow in Coppy right

I think they have around 4 shades of these cream eye shadow. And of course, they're not very expensive at all. I don't remember exactly how much I payed for this but I'm pretty sure it's less than B$5! I guess the downside of buying from essence is that some of their products don't have the testers and I think when I bought this one there's no tester as well. 

  Essence Stay All Day cream eyeshadow in Coppy right

   Essence Stay All Day cream eyeshadow in Coppy right swatched

The color payoff is not very pigmented to be honest. It swatched beautifully on my fingers but when I applied them on my lids, they don't really transfer :/ I even dipped my (clean) fingers in the jar and swirl them around like there's no tomorrow just to see if I can get the colors on my lids but ah... it's just not pigmented enough. But it does have glitter to it so I guess if you want some glitter on your lids after applying eye shadow you can use this to glam up the look.

The good thing about this is it pretty much lasted the whole day without settling into the lines of my crease. You can also use this if you want a really 'light' look especially when you feel super lazy to wear makeup that day this is good for an overall lid color!

 

Used Coppy right on my lids. 

Can't really tell it's there right? I even put a white base underneath hoping it would show up better! Oh well.

  

  Love the lip combo! I'm using Stage's Lush Lotus lipstick + Tomato Jelly Latte roll roll gloss by Etude House

Essence Quattro Eyeshadow - Over the taupe

I went over to Paloma a couple of weeks ago to take my VIP card but it wasn't ready yet (Jessie told me it took them 6 months to do them!). So I browsed my fav shelve there which is also the shelve which holds the cheapest makeup stuff in the store lol Picked this up.

Essence Quattro Eyeshadow - Over the taupe (feat. a sleeping Wikkie!)

Essence Quattro Eyeshadow - Over the taupe

There are other quads too, I think I saw a brown one but I think I have enough browns so I picked up the taupe quad. I have always had a fascination with the color taupe. It's always tough to describe them but I like to call them greyish brown lol These are super cheap too, as usual. Got them for B$5.90!

Essence Quattro Eyeshadow - Over the taupe swatches

These aren't as pigmented as I hoped they'd be but I think it's pretty good for the price. Let's just say you get what you paid for ;) No biggie though, this quad is perfect for those who just wanna do something quick and easy on the eyes. I have yet to use this on campus during classes but I think I should do it. Next week. :D The colors are definitely toned down enough for an everyday look!



It blended pretty easily and I think it's also easy to over-blend the colors so they would end up looking muddy and messy. I normally just pack on the eye shadow using a patting motion and blend it lightly. Other than that, I quite like this quad! Check them out if you're in Paloma!





Life at UBD is super hectic this semester! I think it was the breadth course that I took. LOL I know fellow blogger Jesmine will know what I mean. ;) Apart from that I also took this course called Stress Management with Complementary Therapies. It's pretty awesome! One of our coursework was to write up a reflective journal depicting the most stressful event in our life. That's already 50% of our coursework. The other 50% is the assessment on the activities that we did throughout this semester and that include Qi Gong, Makko Ho exercises, Meridian Tapping and even Foot Massage! And guess what. Tomorrow's the assessment! Better get back to my practice!

Essence Soft Touch Mousse Make-up

I was walking through Paloma at The Mall a couple of weeks ago at their new store and this caught my eyes:

Something new for us~! I think they are sold in Watsons as well? I'm not sure but these Essence cosmetics are darn cheap! Each of the products here if I'm not mistaken go for less than BND$10 each? Was really happy to see that they offer mousse foundation as well so I picked it up.

Essence Soft Touch Mousse Make-up in 01 Matt Sand

Essence Soft Touch Mousse Make-up in 01 Matt Sand

The moment I read that it gives a 'natural and matt finish' I knew I had to try this out lol If you don't already know, I have oily-combo skin. My skin gets dry sometimes above my lips but very oily on the rest of my face. Anyways for the price it wouldn't hurt as much as getting for example a Revlon foundation.

Essence Soft Touch Mousse Make-up in 01 Matt Sand

Essence Soft Touch Mousse Make-up in 01 Matt Sand swatched

The texture is a little bit of a mousse texture (doh) and is really soft! It blends quite well into my skin. They come in four different shades and I think the one I bought, 01 Matt Sand is kinda light on my skin especially now as I have gotten darker from walking under the sun on campus. Gah!

Before and after applying the Soft Touch Mousse
(CLICK the image to enlarge!)

My face is darker than my neck so I guess the lighter shade kinda helped in a way to even out my skin tone. #win

I have been using Sigma's duo fibre brush to spread the mousse on my face and buffing it in. It works pretty well but because the brush isn't dense enough, it takes time for me to buff the product into my skin and blend everything together. Also, you'll need to dip your brush/fingers into the product to take out the product from the jar which can be unsanitary especially when you're dipping into the product repeatedly with an unwashed brush.

Other than that, I'm really enjoying this product! It dries down to a matte finish as claimed and stays pretty smooth on the skin I'm impressed! I don't even need to apply a finishing powder after applying the mousse.

I'm really glad Paloma stocked this brand up in their store! I'm totally psyched about trying out other products by Essence! The Soft Touch Mousse Make-up retails for BND$7.90. Very affordable, right? Right?!! :D

After applying Soft Touch Mousse