Hong Kong + Japan CP

Chanel Hydramax+ Tinted Moisturiser review

Hiya. This is Saturday morning and rather than revising my Japanese for my lesson in 5 hrs, I am here blogging. I yet survive another supervision, unfortunately, my supervisor is leaving so this is my last time seeing him in person. But I said I’ll see him in Australia so it should be fine.

This might be an anticipated review as many comments said ooo.. that looks nice! So I have test drive it for 3 days and able I hope to give a honest review.

Price:
£29 for 40ml
P.S. I have checked ebay and HK sellers claim this is £44 retail price. So not true! I don’t know if this is the price from the counter but I paid this price at House of Fraser

Shade Available:
10, 15, 20.
I’m NC30 and I tried both 15 and 20. 20 is definitely way too dark (I think it is for NC37 or darker for no. 20)
I bought No.15 which is called Sunlit

Sun protection :
SPF 15

Direction claimed by the packaging:
Smooth on face each morning.
(wheres applying moisturizer?)

what it claims:
hydration intense. Healthy glow natural effect
actibe moisture tinted lotion for the face

Verdict:

texture:
Very very nice. I can feel my skin sucking the moisturize out from this as soon as I apply., Also it has a cooling effect on the face, so your face feel very cooling after applying this.

Applying method:
I was a bit surprised that it says just apply directly on face. Do you need primer? Do you need more moisturizer before applying? It seems chanel decided this is an alternative to their hydramax moisturizer so you can simply apply this on your face without prep. But this explains a lot to the lack of coverage.

Coverage:
To show you how bad I think it is compare to BB cream. I decided to do a FOTD to show you how lack of coverage it is.

First of all, I need at least 2 layers of this just to cover a bit of redness. I can’t get all redness covered by this tinted moisturizer. But if you think that this is the only layer you’re applying, than it makes all sense. If this is a moisturizer, you won’t hide your blemish, but simply to give your face a smoother texture. The first FOTD only apply this with 2 layers, no moisturizer, no concealer. I apply this with a sponge


Then the second FOTD, I put some L’egere Natural Mineral powder on top, brush with a Bodyshop Kabuki brush. Now, more coverage. But still you need concealer. Unlike using BB cream, This doesn’t give a foundation finish.


If you look at this zoom photo, you can see my acne scar are still there. If I use bb cream, it is all covered and no need of extra concealer.

It is not very long lasting, I think after 4 hours of applying, my face looks bare. Very bare even with powder.

Shade:
I bought 15 when I tried at the counter and 20 is way too dark. But when I come home, I feel that even shade 15 is a little bit tad dark for me. I tried to ‘neutral’ it with my Laneige face powder all over, but then it becomes too light.

I feel that if you are lighter than NC20, don’t try. I think if the lightest shade is 10, and 15 is for NC30, then if you’re a NC15 or a light NC20 this shade don’t suit you.
To illustrate more, my SA who is a Caucasian, boosted that if she used sunbed with 2 session, she’ll use Shade. 20. she is a lot darker than me and I think she’s probably a NC40 or even darker.

Who should buy this?
4 types of people:
1. you’re lazy and you hate putting different things on face. You can just walk out with this on and it has all the function you need. Moisturizer, little coverage and sunscreen
2. If you’re a frequent travel and need something with everything, this is good. I think it will work very well in hot and humid climate because it is a very hydrating moisturizer.
3. If you are having a bad skin day (i.e PMS, acne-prone) then this will suit, because again all in one and non-irritating.
4. You are aware that you probably need to re-apply sunscreen every 2-3 hours, and can’t be bother to take off your makeup then reapply. You only need to slap this on and that’s it.

However, if you are looking for coverage or a replacement of your BB Cream, you can totally skip this. This does not give coverage but a good all-in-one for lazy people. I’ll put this in my travel bag for HK for those days I’m running around and need some sunscreen.

I probably do a travel bag special soon when I start my packup for HK.

Where's dao dao? he went outside to catch birds when I took all these photos. If back by popular demand, I'll do a dao dao beauty special. lol

My concealer secret + more on Clarins haul

I just come back from a trip to hell. Actually not quite. A trip to typing thesis land. (I wrote nearly 4000 words in 5 hours. I'm so impress)

Since I'm in a mood of typing so I thought I'll do this article now

Raise your hand if you have

• fine lines under eye (MEEEE!!!),
  
• dark circles (MEE!!)
  
• acne scar (MEE!!)
  
• redness around nose(MEE!!!)
  

So of course we use concealor. I got a dilemma before I found my solution. I use generally two different concealers for different part of the face, this is more of a stingy Evie working here. I bought a Laneige concealer on ebay (yes! There's a seller selling them half the official price in UK) and then I swapped a brand new Benefit Boi-ing. I find that Laneige concealer is great on scars and Boi-ing is great under eye.

I hate carrying two cases with me, so I dig into my makeup bag. I found my solution…

IPSA Concealer palette, which I hit the pan long time ago, but didn't want to throw it as the brush is soo good. So I put up my gloves with a little spatula and started my operation. Scooped out the old, clean it out with a Q-tip then refill it with my favourite concealer.

So this is how it looks:

On top of that, I thought it is no longer a IPSA Concealor case, so I blinged it. If you're in UK, and thinking of Blinging like Yumeko did to hers, you are best to buy card embellishment and I bought mine from this site:

http://www.cardsandcraft.co.uk/craft-kits/1066-turquoise-blue-inspiration-embellishment-kit.html

hehe.. how cool it that.

So now, you can carrying 3 different types of makeup on the go, and fashionable as well.

Clarins Haul:

I totally forgot to say..

THERE'S 1 more GIFT

a RED Overnight/Beach bag (under the property of dao dao)

The 4 sample deal is happening definitely next week in Selfridges, but I'm not sure if they're doing the take £5 off deal if you spend over £50.

Enjoy!

beautyforaliving Shu Uemura Contest

girls! check this out..

http://beautyforaliving.blogspot.com/2009/05/win-mika-heart-shu-makeup-brush-set.html

it is giving away the shu uemura set and two more gifts for some lucky bloggers

High end makeup haul plus price guide (House of Fraser)

above are the samples I get from my haul, and below is the actual products I bought

Westfields westfields westfields. What shall I do with you? Because you managed to suck money out from me all the time?

It was a bank holiday yesterday (as UK celebrate May Day/International Workers Day a week later than other countries) so taking advantage of the traffic free and 2 hours free parking, me bf and his best friend went to westfields for different purpose.

I headed straight into House of Fraser, consciously looking for Laura Mercier. I had a look at their tinted moisturizer and silk foundation which I thought of buying but the price scare me. (32GBP/49USD For 30ml foundation or 50ml tinted moisturizer)

Headed towards the Clarins counter instead, there’s a lovely Chinese-speaking lady and helped me with picking up sunscreen. I was looking for something for face, body and eye. And surprisingly Clarins got a sunscreen for eye. I immediately picked it up together with the double fix mascara.

Still Thinking about the laura mercier foundation, I ghosted into (yes! I don’t remember why my feet took me there!) into the Chanel counter and immediately spoted the Chanel Hydramax tinted moisturiser. I tried on a few colours and the lovely SA helped to try it on my face for me. I love Hydramax as my mom used to buy it and I always dipped my hand into it (hehe… naughty fingers) and I know it’ll suit me.

Now to the most important price:

Clarins SPF Eye (20ml)– 15.17 GBP / 23 USD

Clarins fix mascara – 13.12GBP / 20USD

Chanel Hydramax tinted foundation no. 15 (40ml) – 29 GBP / 44usd

But!! This is where I save a bit

The clarins counter is giving 4 nearly full size sample out of 8 choices to take away, so I picked a

· Pure melt cleansing gel 75ml (worth 10gbp) full size as 125ml

· Hydraqueen cream 30ml (worth 17.6 gbp) full size as 50ml

· Multi-active day lotion spf 15 30ml (worth 21 gbp) full size as 50ml

· Multi-active nuit 30ml (worth 23bp) full size as 50ml

If you calculate the actual price, they are in total worth 71 GBP!!! That’s 107 USD

If you buy over 50 GBP in total at the beauty session in House of Fraser, they’re giving you 5 pound discount, so I tend to think my chanel tinted foundation is 5 gpb off. Which makes my purchase only 24GBP only.. which is nearly the price of a BB cream, but its chanel!

I did went into Boots and do a price comparison, if you go to Clarins counter, they’re giving you 10 pounds worth of boots point for 2 clarins purchase, which meant if I buy from them, I get 5GBP off each. However, if you look at the value of the clarins near-full size sample, I think I am getting every penny worth.

I shall review the items very soon. I plan to go out with the new purchase today J

Tagged by Jamilla – What do you look like now?

There!

I look groomed. But that's because I'm ready to go to uni to do some hard studying. Oh yes.. lots and lots of studying to complete a chapter in Korean pop music history. So I put on as natural as possible makeup as I think I'll be rubbing my eyes, drinking lots of cola (shh!!! Is not allow but I'm doing it anyway) and typing very carefully on my eeepc.

There's another post today as I hauled. So gimme 30 mins when I type another blog entry.

FOTD: University photoshoot

Hi girls! I think I have been hiding my face for too long and finally I am told I need to show up. My professor asked me to do a quick photo for my personal website in my university. After going through like thousands of photos, there's none I can choose so I ask S to took a photo of me.

Just to let you know, I didn't have dao dao in the photo he's just too clingy and kept climbing up on the table and distracting the shoot. So I carried him a bit to take these photos.

As you can see on my face, I'm having a foundation problem. I'm not sure is it because of my face being in acen and redness, I think I am having difficulty to put powder on. It just highlight my pores and I have nothing I can do about it. I can only put just BB cream (thin layer) and that's all. Even concealer help to enlarge my pores a bit.

I just switch into Lancome Hydra Zen and it seems to calm with the redness (and no new acne) so I'm happy. I got the Lancome when I bought the Pearl cleanser around 1 month ago. it is 15ml and it'll keep me going for 1 month.
Vichy? If anyone wants to try Vichy Aqualia Light (Rich), there's a brand new tube used once for swap...

FOTD:

Face:
L'egere Water Drop BB cream
Ettusais Day Defense Powder No.3

Eyes:
Lancome Hypnose Mascara
Lunasol 10th Anniversary Eye Palette
MM Liquid Eyeliner

Cheerk/contour:
Shiseido Maquillage No.11

Lips:
Mary Quant Peach/Salmon Lippies
Shiru Peach Lipgloss