Product Review : Candy Doll Mineral Face Powder

I've been somewhat busy over the weekends so I had to rely on Ringo for her post! She's more of a food fanatic though. I do have some restaurants I can review but truly I don't think I'm good at capturing how the dishes look like in reality and will be unable to do it justice. Hence I did not come up with food reviews. Let me know if you wish to see some!

My sincerest apologies for the lack of posts! Here's one to make up for it, my all time favorite face powder...

Please please ignore all the messy clutter and just focus on the Candy Doll Mineral Face Powder!!! I don't have my own room so the space I have is rather limited and obviously insufficient to store ALL my stuff. And no, that's not my phone either.

This is the packaging and I'm just happy it's cute, purple prints add a nice touch of color to the entire packaging!

The back, I can't really read it though. We do not have an ingredients list either I'm sad to say.

The jar itself!!! The design is similar to the packaging, black and white stripes with purple prints! I love those two candies at the end of the words!

That's what you get when you open it, for those without face brushes, you'll be glad to know that this comes with a really soft velvety puff so you can indeed use this for powdering your face. Of course it'll be more work since you have to use patting motions to blend out the powder.

There was a sticker on this but I tore the entire thing off. If you prefer lesser product spillage, you can poke holes in the sticker instead. Quite a lot of powder comes pouring out if you tip the entire thing over. On the safe side, try the holes suggestion.

To show you what the powder looks like, I had to remove the sift. It's detachable so no worries about that!

A closer look, can you see how fine it is? No?

You should be able to see it now! It's sooo finely milled that cakiness shouldn't be a problem at all as long as you don't use the whole jar on your face. I love piling powder on my face because it's always so oily and I'm glad that this doesn't cake or dry out my face.

I super super adore this powder because of how HQ it is! It's also made with mineral contents so it is less likely to cause any skin irritations. I've used this on Ringo before and her skin had no problems with it either. It's also more of a translucent powder so pretty much all skin tones can use this. Unless you are really EXTREMELY tanned then I may suggest borrowing this powder from a friend before purchasing it. I'm quite sure that it shouldn't post a problem because it really is translucent. If you put an extremely thick layer then I'm not so confident of it not giving you a grey / white cast.

L - Heavily swatched / M - Bare mole / R - Blended

Swatches for you and of course the standard mole coverage test! As you can see, the powder is quite light in color but blends out easily and barely gives you any coverage. Which is why it should match everyone's skintone. It offers very light coverage thus it cannot be used as a foundation unless you have extremely flawless skin to begin with. However should you have pore problems, this powder will cover them up just fine to give you a near flawless finish if you use a good foundation / BB cream under.

It however has very good sebum control and it's the best one I've ever used. Partly because of how fine it is, I can pile it up on my face without looking like a powdery mess. I'll describe it as my second skin. It adheres really well to the skin and looks super natural. This powder has ZERO shimmers in it and will give you a matte finish. If you do not like that I suggest you to use a brush so that minimal powder can be applied.

Once again, after the many positive points about it, there's a negative. It is NOT easily available in SG and if you find it in SG's blogshops, it's WAY overpriced. I sincerely suggest stocking up if you're heading to Japan or you could get your friends to buy it back for you if they happen to be there. I personally will stock up more of this in the future when I return to Japan!

Texture: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (The most fine I've ever seen to date!)

Coverage: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ (Barely covers but this is a loose powder, it's purpose is to set your foundation.)

Lasting Power: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (Superb for oily skin, the best I've seen!)

Overall: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (Why still 5 stars despite the coverage? Because I judge on the fact that L/P aren't supposed to provide coverage in the first place. It's truly the best I've used so far.)

Cheers,
Chiharu ❤

Disclaimer : I bought this while I was in Japan and am in no way related to Candy Doll!

Product Review : OMG IT'S THE MAYBELLINE PURE BB MINERAL MOUSSE!

I demand all my readers to applaud me for doing this at 3.31am!!! Okay, I'm kidding. I love reviewing products and it's my interest. Which is why I have this blog. But then again, it's really 3.31am.

Moving on, remember how I promised this would be up by Wednesday? Yeap you can see for yourself today, the amount of reviews we have decided to spam in one day.

You can see the review for it's sister, Maybelline Clear Smooth Mineral BB Cream here!

Less words, more pictures!!!

*Holy light shines from behind and you hear a heavenly cry~*

Ignore the mess at the back. It's always there! Proudly presenting the Maybelline Pure BB Mineral Mousse that Xuan bought for me from Taiwan! Thanks Xuan!!!

We did this in the morning so say hi to our tired faces. (Yet again)

My eyebags in its full glory

Skin is alright, but overall a little puffy.

Okay weird angle... But I was sleepy!!! ||orz

So after seeing our tired faces... Which I believe you're not interested in... Here's the mousse!!!

I am SHROOM.

Not edible!

Good mousse shouldn't just plop off! SCORE~ Ignore Ringo's hand!!!

I know, it's so cute right? But... Yes, there's a but.

Upper blob - Fresh / Bottom blob - Oxidized

The picture isn't too bad, but in RL it oxidizes REALLY quickly. It's no joke. From a normal BB cream color to one with really strong orange undertones. But! Don't get scared off yet.

Upper - Ringo(NC15) / Lower - Chiharu(NC20)

Same as above sequence but blended out.

If you're super pale like Ringo, the orange undertone will peek through. A little obvious. Don't faint yet. You have to see it on the face first!

After using it....

Can you see how crazily good the coverage is?! All redness is gone from her face! The orange cast isn't super obvious, it's very slight and can be easily countered with powder.

Eyebags gone, don't look as tired! Skintone evened out too.

Unlike Ringo, I'm not super pale. The orange cast is super not visible on me so I'm safe!

MY SAY

Let's talk color. It's quite orangey yellowy but definitely more orange. It won't show if you set it with powder unless you're really ghost pale. The good thing about this color is that tanned babes will love it! It won't leave a whitish cast on your skin. Remember how the Maybelline Clear Smooth Mineral BB cream had two colors? This one is leaning more towards shade 2, the natural shade.

I love the coverage though, isn't it great that you don't have to use another concealer? Also applying this on your face is plain fun because it's not always that you get to put mousse on your face. Precisely because it's a mousse, it's very light in texture, similar to it's sister, the Maybelline Clear Smooth Mineral BB cream! I can't tell you the ingredients in this though because the ingredients list is super puny. I get cross eyed attempting to read it. So yea, I don't know how similar they are to each other in terms of ingredients.

Above were what I can consider the good points. On to the bad...

THIS DOES NOT STAY PUT!!! I swear. I tried putting my favorite loose powder to set it and guess what? It doesn't work. Say you have a runny nose. It'll come off once you blow your nose on a tissue. Or maybe your face felt itchy and you scratched at it. Say goodbye to the BB cream. This absolutely does not adhere well to my face at all! o(╥﹏╥)o

This also goes on a little streaky so I would suggest application with your fingers. It's the fastest way and it will never leave streaks!

A little comparison picture to remind all of you what it does!

I just love the coverage on Ringo!

I like mousse and coverage again~

If you find a way to set it really well, let me know! It's a waste to let this product go just because it doesn't set like I want it. Perhaps dry skin babes would adore this? This is currently unavailable in Singapore so if you want it... Comment below and if we gather enough, we could possibly get Maybelline Singapore to do something about it? :D

Otherwise if you're afraid of it sliding off, stick to the sister!

Texture: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (One star off because of possible streakiness)

Coverage: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (The coverage is amazing! Refer to pictures for evidence~)

Lasting Power: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ (I guess if you don't ever touch or blot your face it might stay?)

Overall: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ (I swear the coverage is the plus point. Super great! But why you slide /.\)

Cheers,
Chiharu ❤

Disclaimer : Given to me as a gift by Xuan!

Product Review : Maybelline Clear Smooth Minerals BB Cream

I know you all want the BB mousse review, but first let me review its sister okay?

I promised that for the review to be up on Wednesday, so here I am rushing this post in the middle of the night, hoping to set this to auto post tomorrow because I have work from 8am-4pm and then afterwards I have to mail some stuff before going to the Watsons member private sale and Rosebullet!

Must make you all feel guilty okay, I have work tomorrow so I have to wake at 6 and here I am just starting to edit the pictures!!! It just means I'll get maybe 2 hours of sleep .__.

Before I continue, TA-DA!

My entry for Maybelline's Face of the Week!

I won! Imagine my surprise when I suddenly saw the news in my FB's feed. I had actually forgotten about it because I was busy settling some disputes with my agent and working! Also you can see the product in the picture xD I'm too lazy to snap the picture now because I forgot earlier on so... Yeah.

Add bonus cause got my face!

Now onto the review. The pictures are going to be quite ugly because we only had time to do it at night and we were feeling tired. Shag. Drained. ZOMBIE!!!

ZOMBIEEEEE~

Did that shock you? No?

ZOMBIEEEEEEE 2!

How bout this? Lack of sleep + dull face after a busy day!

No sleep plus work makes us unhealthy bloggers. Not to mention breakouts o(╥﹏╥)o Mine's above my upper lips, can see that ugly spot there? It's no longer there, just a scar. I'm so tired while doing this review I'm nearly brain dead.

Uneven skintone, breakouts, pores... How do we fix this mess?! The answer to that is either a BB cream or a Foundation or a tinted moisturizer. In this case we chose the Maybelline Clear Smooth Minerals BB Cream!

First an arm swatch to show the color on a NC15 and NC20 skin!

L-Ringo(NC15) / R-Chiharu(NC20)

Problem solved.

Magic~ Can you see how Ringo's face is nearly perfect now? I'm sure you can see a few spots on her chin but still, BB cream isn't a magic wand!

Zombie no more!

I hate the wonky hair. I took it at night after washing off all my previous makeup so my fringe is wet and somewhat lumpy.. See my dark eye circles, it's mostly gone. The few shadows left are either cast by my hair or by my eyebags. Those cannot be concealed.

Oh and my apologies, in our sleepiness we totally forgot to take a swatch of the bb cream blended into our arms. Here's our comparison pictures that we remembered to take! :D

Okay, the lighting is a little different but you can see the obvious difference in skin color right!

Mine's not as obvious but er... Yea my scar is less obvious in RL

To be honest, I quite like this BB. It's really light and the color blends in on not only my face but Ringo's too. I would say it's a light to medium coverage that's buildable. However, tanned babes may not like this cause it will be too pale for you. So let's applaud Maybelline for coming out with a shade 2! I think there are people who would appreciate that.

There's no distinct scent for this, just typical er... Make up scent? I don't like it but it disappears after slapping it on my face so it's not a problem for me. Oh and it's not that we don't want to include the ingredient list for this, it's just sooooo puny I can't even see it with my eyes... I do believe all skin types can use this but the sensitive babes might want to do a patch test first. Usually minerals are face-friendly but there are people who are allergic to mineral products.

You can get this at Watsons/Guardians for only $13.90 now! (On promotion!)

Texture: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (Very smooth and blendable)

Coverage: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (Light to Medium coverage, but can be built upon.)

Lasting Power: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (It can stay for awhile but I will need to touch up or it'll slide off my face!)

Overall: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (Actually it's a 3.5/5 I like it but I still like my products to have a scent =x)

So very tired,
Chiharu ❤

Disclaimer : Once again, I bought it myself!!!

Product Review: Maybelline Limited Edition Spring Blossoms Pure Mineral Two-way Foundation

Isn't the packaging just precious? It even has a Swarovski crystal on it!

I must admit – this was probably an impulse buy for us! I personally have had a few other 2-way foundations lying around, but when you see beautiful packaging like this, you just gotta grab it!

This retailed in Watsons at a ludicrous price of $19.90 for both the casing and the refill. The usual retail price would be $27.90 (refill - $19.90, casing - $8.00), so in essence, this pretty sakura blossom casing comes free.

Chiharu, who is a NC-20, got the OC 1 shade. I’m a NC-15, and I got the PO 1 shade. Let me describe our skin types briefly. Chiharu has oily combination skin and I have acne-prone combination skin with super dry cheeks. Her skin undertone is tanner and more neutral, whereas I have warm yellow skin undertone which turn out bluish in photographs (because I’m so pale my vein colors show! OTL).

It's a little dark on my skin here (bottom), since this is the pale underside of my arm.

But it blends out pretty well!

For me personally, PO 1 was a tad reddish for my undertone, but it blends out rather well. On Chiharu, OC 1 blends out perfectly, I think. What I love about this product is its smooth, delicate texture, as this is a mineral make-up, and the powder is finely-milled.

Those with sensitive skin or dry skin like mine can rest at ease as the product does not contain any preservatives, fragrances or oil. Best of all, it has a light, breathable texture as the lightweight micro-minerals give a smooth satin finish that doesn’t clog pores or appear cakey.

I think it minimizes the appearance of pores, but has a light coverage.

Don't laugh. I don't know what I'm looking so shocked about.
But notice that it reduces my dark eye circles.

However, those looking for a foundation with higher coverage might be disappointed. Maybelline Pure Mineral 2-Way Foundation has a light coverage that is suitable for a ‘no make-up’ make-up, but provides little coverage as a foundation. For me, I use this as a setting powder over a high-coverage BB cream base, so it’s fine by me. You may also want to build up the coverage by putting on more layers, but I do find that to be too troublesome for me.

As for lasting power, for people with oilier skin living near the equator like Chiharu & me, this product will quickly slide off your skin. This calls for more touch-ups, which I personally find irksome. Otherwise though, this is a decent mineral 2-way foundation for its price.

Texture: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (No complains about this – it’s finely-milled and smooth.)
Coverage: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (Light to Medium coverage, but can be built upon.)
Lasting Power: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ (Not its strong point. Especially if you have oily skin type.)
Overall: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (Consider it a 3.5. Love the affordability and texture, but dislike its lack of lasting power.)

Signing off,

Ringo