the great (upcoming) summer declutter #1

I know it's just May but I need to start packing and shipping stuff because I'm moving back home. Here are some of the things I'm throwing out. Some didn't work for me, others are simply old and smell funky. This is not actually my first declutter but the first one I am writing about on this blog (and hope to continue writing about when I declutter in the future.)

Skincare

Cosrx AHA 7 Whitehead Power Liquid
Q gifted me this, but like her, I cannot stand the scent. I didn't use it at all.

Essence Pure Skin Spot Killer
This dried out and there is still significant amount of (now solidified) liquid in the bottle! It was a decent spot treatment with a heavy alcohol scent. Don't think I will repurchase it. I'm a fan of either using a spot dot or simply let my zit be these days.

Makeup

Wet n Wild Lipstick in Cherry Bomb and Ravin Raisin
These are so horrible. I don't know why the Internet goes bonkers for them. Sure, they're cheap. But the terrible plasticky smell, the dragging drying formula, the ridiculous not-twisting-down-completely packaging?! Not worth my time. I held on to them thinking I need to have these colours in my collection, but nah. I don't need them.

Make Up Academy (MUA) Matte Lipstick in Fawn Fancy and Lilac Belle
MUA, on the other hand, make slightly better lipsticks than Wet n Wild. They are vanilla-scented and have no fuss-packaging and only tug a little. However, they are very patchy. I have other similar brown-nude as Fawn Fancy and while I find Lilac Belle an interesting colour, its patchiness annoys me too much for it to stay in my collection. I won't deny the fact that because they cost merely £1, I have no reservations about throwing them out, instead of y'know throwing out a MAC lipstick that I still can't figure out how to use and dislike its formula (Crosswires, by the way. And maybe I will after I read Marie Kondo.)

Rimmel Moisture Renew in Notting Hill Nude
Dear God, this reeked of terrible plastic smell. I once had Rimmel Kate lipstick in 107 that I gave to Q because I was not using it often and that smelled wonderful (vanilla, I think.) Why can't Rimmel make the Moisture Renew smell not this. Maybe not even the vanilla of the Kate lipsticks, we would settle for no scent! The colour itself is nothing spectacular and the formula is alright.

Top: (L to R) WnW Cherry Bomb, Ravin Raisin.
Bottom: (L to R) MUA Fancy Fawn and Lilac Belle, Rimmel Notting Hill Nude

Vapour Atmosphere Soft Focus foundation in S115 and S125 sample
Vapour Organic is a favourite brand in the green beauty community. Some people swear by their primer, said to be the green-equivalent of the cult favourite Hourglass Veil Mineral primer. Well, I just wanted to try out their foundation. They are very oily and has a strong oil scent, expectedly because camellia, sunflower and castor oil are high on the ingredient list. I actually quite like the medium coverage, but it's too dewy for my oily skin, the scent lingers and the colour is not an exact match. I didn't even use the whole sample.

Rimmel Hide the Blemish concealer in Soft Honey
This was the first concealer I bought, almost 4 years ago! It is your standard stick concealer: slightly dry, good coverage and no fuss. I have since moved on to other concealers and in fact, stick concealers are my least favourite type of concealer now. I definitely used 80% of the product, but it's been in my collection for too long and it's time to go.

Burberry eyeshadow quad in Mocha
I got this palette on Depop for less that £10. I didn't get to use much of the quad because ugh they smell bad. Oh they smell so bad. I'm guessing they are old (the seller didn't disclose this) so into the bin they go.

Left: Burberry eyeshadow quad in Mocha. Right: MUA Shimmer Highligter

MUA Undress Your Skin Shimmer highlighter
I rarely use powder highlighter and even more rarely reach for a pink highlighter. I reckon this would look amazing on much paler skin than mine. The formula of MUA highlighter, at least this one, is a bit hard and it takes quite a lot of work to get the pigment. But they are quite pretty!

Top: MR eyeshadows, ELF St. Lucia, Natural Collection Sugar Plum and Peach Melba
Bottom: MR eyeshadows

Makeup Revolution Iconic Pro 1 eyeshadows
I got this palette ages ago. I wouldn't say it was an attempt to dupe the Lorac Pro palette. I was very new to makeup (I still am, actually) and wanted to try wearing eyeshadow, so I opted for an affordable palette. The shimmers are generally great and I wear the taupe quite often (bottom pic, 2nd from right) and in the privacy of my own room, wore the rustic coppery-red a lot (bottom pic, most right). The mattes are decent, but some tend to be on the drier side.

ELF Contoring Blush and Bronzing Duo in St. Lucia
I don't need to introduce these, the blogosphere has enough reviews of them. I dislike the shimmer in both the bronzer and blush and don't reach for both often. They were soft powders, though.

Natural Collection blusher in Sugar Plum and Peach Melba
If you are in the UK and have not heard of Natural Collection, I highly recommend their blushers! (And mascara if you're into very natural looking lashes.) They are very soft and not too pigmented, so they were helpful when I started wearing blusher a couple of years ago. While I love these, I sincerely think I will not reach for them ever again because I much prefer my Sleek blushers which are as soft, but slightly more pigmented. Although imperfect, I have since learned how to blend my blushers better. (I think. I might be wrong. Sometimes I still have a clown face.)

That's all for now!

discovering cerise

When I first bought Collection 7 Day Wear nail polish in Cerise nearly a year ago, I was sure I bought a burgundy (thanks drugstore lighting!) My initial disappointment was the result of not getting what I expected, but this nail polish introduced me to a colour (a type of colour) that I grew to love. Cerise, which is French for cherry, made me realise I never paid close attention to what colour a cherry is. I think I might have tasted fresh cherries once, but otherwise it's been the sugary and definitely added-with-colour cherries used in baking, and usually they're bright red. So Cerise didn't remind me of cherries because I had the wrong kind of cherries in mind. Whatever little memory I have of fresh cherries, they were more red and deeper than red grapes and for whatever reason, I am also reminded of a bitter aftertaste in my mouth. (Do they taste that way? Man, I'm gonna grab some cherries if I find any after this. I really don't remember what they taste like.)

Anyways, Wikipedia described cerise as a deep to vivid reddish pink, which I agree with. Prior to Cerise, I didn't have the vocabulary to describe such a colour. The reason I'm bringing up Cerise the nail polish is because the colour perfectly describes two new lipsticks in my collection: Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick in Cherries in the Snow and Revlon Ultra HD lipstick in Petunia.

Revlon Petunia, Revlon Cherries in the Snow and Collection Cerise (also on my nails)

Cherries in the Snow is one of the colours I have read so much about from the blogosphere, but this post by brutally honest beauty is the one that made me purchase the colour. I was intrigued: is it a pink? Is it a red? How would it look on me? Off to eBay I went where drugstore lipsticks are more often cheaper (I didn't want to buy 3 lipsticks at Superdrug to get the discount, y'know?) I also checked out other lipsticks on this seller's page and found Petunia. I have been interested and on several occasions, tempted to purchase the Ultra HD formula after reading about it from allura beauty (aka best swatches ever + great Youtuber too, imho!) but constrained myself because #omfgIdontneedanotherlipstick. Described as a pomegranate pink, Petunia seemed like a good colour for spring.

Left: Warmer indoor lighting, Right: Bright outdoor lighting

 Forgive me for the non-crisp photos, btw. As you can see, all three colours are practically identical and they are perfectly described by cerise, no doubt. Cherries in the Snow is has a traditional lipstick shape and packaging, and as a matter of fact, I find the black-gold Revlon lipstick packaging quite classy. Petunia (or Revlon Ultra HD lipsticks in general) is a design failure: 1) the bullet is too wide so I've got lipstick going outside my lip line during application and 2) it doesn't completely twist down a.k.a. you feel like you're in a goddamn thriller to prevent catastrophic mess when you open/close the lipstick cap. Come on, Revlon. It's 2017. Get your shit together. You know everyone hates this kind of packaging.

Left: Multiple swipe of Petunia and Cherries in the Snow. Right: one swipe of Petunia (bottom) and Cherries in the Snow 

Petunia feels gel-like, slightly more solid than Revlon's lip butter and feels balmy when applied. It is scented, not with an unpleasant scent but I dislike it. There is shimmer in Petunia, which at this point, I'm not sure if I like or hate. Cherries in the Snow is creamy, non-scented, non-shimmery and a bit bolder than Petunia. Both has a glossy finish but my preferred way of wearing cerise is as a "lived in" kind of look so they appear more matte. Apply lipstick at the centre, dab it outwards to get an ambient sort-of effect. I was also actually inspired by french kissed look by (apparently) everyone's current crush and #aestheticgoals, violette_fr. I didn't use a brush or anything to fade the lipstick out. I just dab the colour on my lips and more often in the centre.

Oh and in case you are wondering, the nail polish is decent.

My rating for Petunia is a 2/5, with its packaging (and maybe the shimmer) preventing a higher rating. While Cherries in the Snow is a 4/5 as I have found no fault in it at all.

A note on cerise as a colour. When I first wore Cerise the nail polish, my first impression was "Wow, this is an Auntie pink!" and that impression remains till today. Perhaps imaginable only by some from a certain cultural background, an Auntie pink is what I imagine a middle-aged, unmarried Asian aunt who's gossipy, slightly selfish but generally has good intentions would wear as her manicure. If you have a rating from 0 to 10 of the bold & loud scale, she's a solid 7. She's absolutely comfortable in her own skin, jokes about the extra pounds she's gained over the years and shyly ogles attractive younger men although who is she trying to kid with that shyness! I'm not sure if you would love or hate such a character. But guys, I am totally gonna be that Auntie. I also just realised that I don't own any clothing in this colour, but can you imagine a cerise headscarf + black top and jeans + nude make-up?! Fabulous.