Althea's 1st Brand Product Launch: Althea Petal Velvet Powder

Starting 1st August, Althea has launched their very first brand product, the Althea Petal Velvet Powder, which is a lightweight, translucent loose powder that gives a silky finish and made with pure and natural ingredients, with one of the main ingredients as Althea flower extracts. 

Infused with oil from Althea seeds, this powder helps to control our sebum production without drying out our skin for a radiant, fresh look. This non-comedogenic powder is also made with micro-fine particles that minimise the appearance of pores and fine lines to reveal a flawless looking complexion. 

Firstly, I have to say I'm totally sold at the packaging! Love how it's a dusty mauve-pink colour and comes in a very handy small tub, which you can easily pop into your smallest make up bag. The tiny powder puff that comes together with the tub is also soft and fluffy, picks up the fine powder from the sifter really well, and also feels great on the skin. 

I like how the powder makes you skin feels so soft and smooth, and doesn't cake up even if you pile it on. There's also a very pleasant floral scent to the powder, which makes applying it all the more enjoyable. 

The best part? This handy-dandy tub of loose powder is only retailing at SGD $6 on Althea's web-store right HERE!

So what are you waiting for? Go grab yourself one and be beautiful! 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia's Review: Laneige BB Cushion [Pore Control]

I know this is a little late, but it's better late than never, right?

Following the cushion craze, the Laneige BB Cushion [Pore Control] is actually the very first cushion I've bought (I have 3 till date), and I love this so so much!

And before I give you my review, I shall show you how to replace the used up cushion with a refill. Hah, yes. I've already used up mine by the time I decided to really settle down for a review. 

To change out the cushion, just pop it out from the back. 

I find that pressing down on the latch somehow helps, probably with giving you some sort of a pivot-action to pop the cushion up. 

The refill comes with a clean air puff and you can just pop into the frame (background) easily. 

With that, let's start off with an eyeliner test. 

This is with 2 layers of the last remains of my old pack, which means very much less product picked up each time as compared to a new refill pack and I'll say it's pretty decent! It doesn't covers everything and just anything (I don't go for high coverage products in the first place) but does a pretty good job evening out my skin tone and covering minor blemishes and redness without the need for a concealer. Can't help my horrible dark rings though. 

Fragrance is mild and very pleasant, and it gives a pretty matte and flawless finish as compared to the whitening range that supposedly gives a very dewy finish. Oil control is the best of the bb/cc products I've tried till date, with coverage on basically my entire face (just some melting on my T-zone) at the end of the day. 

After about 5 hours of wearing the product, without any blotting. 

Without a doubt, this is my favourite bb/cc product thus far. Loves how it makes my skin appear flawless yet natural looking, with such buildable coverage without becoming cakey. My own headache is that #21 is actually a little too light for me (I need to apply the product down to my neck in order to not get a 2 toned look) and #23 doesn't seem to exist in this line. However, it does 'oxidise' slighty through the day so I probably only need to risk getting ridiculed by strangers on the street for wearing 'geisha-make up' in the first few hours of putting it on. #failedattemptofsarcasm

You can get authentic Laneige BB Cushion (and many other Laneige products) from skinwecare, qoo10.com.sg or lazada.sg at a much cheaper price compared to the hiked up pricing in the local retail stores. :)

Otherwise, for my international readers, you can check out amazon.com for some awesome deals too!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia's Review: Blingsome Lip Tattoo

It's been a while since I read other blog reviews about this lip tint tattoo by Berrisome and when I saw this by Blingsome on Althea, I decided to grab one to try it out.

If you're curious, I've already reviewed Skinfood's Pore Fit Cushion Bottle a while back HERE.

The directions for use are all in Korean, but it's still pretty self-explanatory with the pictures. You put on a layer of the product, wait for it to dry completely before peeling them off to get the colour 'tattooed' onto your lips. 

And here's my before and after photos. The colour shows up more brightly in the picture, and the streaky uneveness in colour was washed out. In other words, it looked pretty bad IRL. 

Totally taken aback with the lack of results, I decided to do a hand test to see if it's because of my natural lip colour that's preventing the lip tattoo's colour from showing.

 In a desperate attempt to make it 'work', I've applied an extremely thick layer of the product (so thick it was dripping off) and waited near to 30 minutes for it to dry completely. 

And... Yup, the colour payoff really isn't that great. 

Well, the only plus point is, it is really smudge-proof and doesn't transfer, not that there's really much colour on your lips in the first place to transfer anywhere. 

And there's another brownie point off this product for the horrible taste. It's not that I will love to eat my lip product, even though it does smell all nice and peachy. But do keep in mind that you have to keep a thick layer of the product on your lips for a good 5 to 10 minutes and during that period of time, chances are you'll end up getting a try of its horribly, acutely bitter-sour taste. It's really not that pleasant, especially when you come to realise that after all the hassle (and tasting bad stuff), you get almost no colour payoff on your lips. 

So to sum up, the conclusion is simple. 

DO NOT BUY THIS, ESPECIALLY NOT IN THE SHADE OF HONEY LOVE. 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia's Beauty Haul & Giveaway: Playboy Cosmetics. Beauty Treats, Luv Carat, Cala Brushes

Yeah, I know there's a little too much brands listed in the title. But this is a collective haul. I still have some items from Pixi Cosmetics that's still currently shipping, which will take a while, so I'm going ahead with these products first. :)

First up, from Cala. Their bamboo brushes....

I got their Powder Brush to replace my dirty old flat top complexion brush from Elf Studio and at the same time, decided to pick up another of their Complexion Brush such that I can use them alternately when one is getting dried from washing. 

From Luv Carat, I got 2 tubs of loose powder. Couldn't resist it because their packaging is so bling and so pretty!

 I've gotten the shade in Natural Beige for myself as I've used up my BB Mineral Loose Powder I've gotten from Japan during my Kansai trip last year. 

From Kuu Konjac, I've also gotten their white konjac sponge, which is meant for oily & combination skin, to replace my worn out konjac sponge from Black Paint. 

And from Playboy Cosmetics, I picked up 4 items.

And if you didn't know, I'm obsessed with buying lip products and I've gotten 2 pink lippies for myself: Pink Candy (left) and In the Pink (right).

I already have 3 mascaras (Rimmel, Maybelline, and Dollywink) stashed away in my drawers and I know I don't really need another mascara. But I really dig the packaging and couldn't resist getting this Bunny Black Mascara too.

And this Blushing Bunny Shimmer Bronzing Powder, which I totally impulse-bought it simply because it's so pretty!

And lastly, from Beauty Treats, I got some pretty affordable deals! 

Their Perfect Face Trio, which is a Contour-Highlight-Blush palette. A pretty huge one too.

I also got their Lip Crayon set, which comes with 4 pretty colours in very convenient twist up tubes. 

And I also got this Swag Bag, which comes with 12 eyeshadows, 4 lip glosses and 2 blushes, specially for a giveaway! 

And.... of course I decided to throw in more goodies from my haul to sweeten up this giveaway. 

Follow the steps listed in the Rafflecopter below and stand a chance to win for yourself a total of 4 beauty products:

1. Playboy Blushing Bunny Shimmer Bronzing Powder

2. Luv Carat Celebrity Gold Loose Powder (Great for highlights)

3. Beauty Treats Swag Bag

4. Beauty Treats Lip Crayon (in Bright Red)

Really sorry to my international readers, but this very first giveaway of mine is only open to those with a valid Singapore mailing address, unless you're willing to pay for the postage. :) 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Till then,
Mia Foo

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Mia's Review: Maybeline BB Watergel

Was tweeting briefing with Airmeli about my blog and she asked me to hurry up with the beauty products review. I was too engross in doing food review, so much so that I keep pushing these reviews back even though I've had the pictures ready since I started up this blog.

And so, this entry shall mark my first ever beauty product review, on Maybelline BB Water Gel.

It's a pretty small tube, 30ml, going for $20 ish at Watsons. As stated, it gives SPF 35 and PA+++ sun protection.

Packaging wise, it's a very simple twist-cap opening, which helps to keep the opening clean as the product itself is more liquidy and runny as compared to many other BB creams selling in the market. It also gives the user a better control of how much product to squeeze out as compared to a (supposedly) more hygienic pump head.

 

 And for a hand test, you can see that it blends in very well on the right side of the back of my hand (when applied by rubbing) and has minimal coverage. You can't see the blending line at all, this is how light the coverage is and also how easy it blends. 

The product is of a watery gel like consistency and spreads by itself very easily, Hence, there's no worries of over-tugging on our skin in order to blend the product out, which may give us premature wrinkles. I wonder if it's just me, but the product gives me a slight tingly/cooling sensation upon application, just for that 3 to 5 seconds. I stopped experiencing it after I paired this product up with a primer (maybelline's baby skin pore eraser, going for $19.90 at Watsons). I somehow attributed it to the water bubbles released by the product when I applied it on my skin.

 

(credits to clicknetwork.tv - tried & tested episode 30)

Yes, you didn't see it wrong, those are water bubbles, hence the name watergel. The whole idea of this is to keep our skin hydrated and also create a dewy finish. 

As said previously, the product is extremely lightweight and spreads on our skin effortlessly. I use my fingers to apply the product (directly squeezing out from the tube and slapping them onto my face) and still wouldn't face a problem of streaking even with my haphazardly slipshod blending efforts. The product simply melts into my skin and dries up into a non-sticky dewy finish. This is yet another stark difference from the usual BB cream that gives an extremely sticky after-feeling, which render the application of loose powder necessary in order to set it. With the BB Watergel, I see no absolutely need to set it with powder. Nevertheless, I still do out of habit.

 

And now for the eyeliner coverage test.

As you can see, it pretty much covers nothing, even though I had applied 2 coats of the product by dabbing & patting. In other words, this is the most concentrated amount I can create over the eyeliner (Dollywink liquid eyeliner pencil). 

So, this product will work better for girls without obvious blemishes and just wishes to even out the skintone and brighten up dull skin. For the less fortunate girls with blemishes and horrible undereye circles (like me), pairing this up with your usual concealer is highly recommended.

And now for the oil blotter test. SF stands for SkinFood Aloe Sun BB (Control) and MB stands for Maybelline. Both were left standing for 30 minutes.

As you can see, the skinfood one has significantly less oil as compared to the watergel! Yes, I'm really surprised! Because to be honest, I didn't quite like the Skinfood one as it causes my face to oil up really quickly, and clogged up my pores pretty bad. I developed many tiny bumps while using the Skinfood BB on a daily basis, and it only cleared up after I stopped using it. I've been using the BB Watergel for about 2 months till date and it hasn't given me any significant skin problems. My skin also doesn't oil up as quickly as when I was on other usual BB creams. 

On another note, when I observe both cream samples carefully, I noticed that the skinfood sample has pretty much dried up to a matt surface. The BB watergel, on the other hand, remains dewy and watery. I reckon it's the releasing of water bubbles that has done the trick. It may also be this water releasing technique Maybelline has adopted for this BB Watergel that has kept my skin more hydrated throughout the day and hence, stopped me from oiling up too quickly. Simply amazing! 

So to conclude, the Maybelline BB Watergel pretty much resembles a tinted moisturiser in the aspect of consistency, spreadability, blendability, and coverage, as compared to our usual BB creams. It gives a dewy skin finish instead of a matted one and has the amazing water bubble releasing technique that will help to keep our skin hydrated throughout the day. And so, for those girls who prefer a matt finish and required higher coverage, yet is lazy to pair this up with a concealer, this product is not for you. 

However, just for me, who breaks out at anything 'too rich and thick', this lightweight product shall remain as one of my favourite make up products for quite some time. 

Till then,

Mia

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