FOTD: Purple Smokey Eye + NEWS: Dior Hydra Life BB Cream is Coming to Belgium!

Hey everyone,

Today I’m sharing the look I did on Monday with you. This is a little bolder than what I would normally wear, but since I was on a beauty blogger mission to Givenchy, I thought it was the perfect excuse!

For my eyes, I started out by putting Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on Eyeliner in Rockstar as my base. Since I don’t own a synthetic smudger brush (or any smaller synthetic brush. I don’t think natural brushes will quite rise to the challenge here), I used my ring finger to blend out the edges. It would have been cleaner and more precise with a brush though. And then I blended Urban Decay Purple Haze all over my lids, going lighter the higher I went. I highlighted my inner corners and the inner third of my lids with MAC All That Glitters. I then proceeded to lining my eyes with a gel liner before smudging the line out with the third color from the left in my Clinique Plum Seduction quad (I’ve owned it for about 8 years now. I’m still madly in love with the colors, but the quality of this quad is no longer satisfactory after trying the better eyeshadows I have). Some mascara later I was done!

You can definitely make this more dramatic by using a black base, and/or blending some black eyeshadow into the outer corners. However, it was after all daytime, and I didn’t want to really scare the passers-by!

For my lips I had the most genius idea. Since I can’t really wear Incognito on its own, I layered it over Chanel Rouge Coco Mademoiselle. That turned out to take the color down a notch and gave me nice nude-pink lips!

For the rest of my face, I used some Tarte Blissful and Bobbi Brown Bali Brown. Voila, it is not super tricky, and even though it’s not office-appropriate, I wouldn’t say it’s too shocking to wear this during daytime (or maybe it’s me).

Here are a couple more pictures so you can see it better (psst I saw the fluff in my hair only afterwards. Sorry about that!):

I was wearing my first Lavand dress (which is pretty significant since it started my Lavand addiction lol). The neckline doesn’t work with a necklace, so I wore a pair of earrings instead. I’ve owned them for a long time, but I still love them a lot!

In other news, Dior Hydra Life BB Cream is coming to Belgium! It will be available from April 18th. Here are the promotional images if you’re curious:

According to Dior, the Hydra Life BB Cream targets young women (aged 18-30. *gasps* In a couple of years I’ll fall out of this category lol) who want a one-step product that will give them a radiant glow and preserves the youth of their skin. I can’t really say more at the moment, because I still need to test it out, and base makeup takes longer than for example a mascara. I will definitely let you know what I think though!

That’s it for today, dear peeps! I am going to review the Erborian BB cream and Fairy Drops Platinum Mascara for you before the end of the week since these two are highly-requested. I have many photos that are taken and products I have finished testing, but I still need time to sit down, sift through the photos, and write the reviews out. There are also so much I’m still testing out, so please bear with me. I do also have a work deadline to meet by the end of the month!

Would you wear a colorful eye look like this at daytime? What are the BB Creams you have tried and liked/disliked? If I have very up-to-date PR information about something I will be testing out, would you want to see it or do you prefer to just wait till I’m ready to report my experience? Please let me know. Your opinions are more than important to me!

Sunny, your beauty culture translator xx

FOTD with NARS Paramaribo & Guerlain Coque d’Or (120) Rouge Automatique

Hey everybody,

How’s your weekend so far? The weather feels almost like spring here today, so we went out for a walk and sushi dinner. Since I wanted to test some stuff out, I thought I’d show you an FOTD!

I used NARS Paramaribo for my eyes, with the lighter shade on the inner half and darker on the outer. My inner corners were highlighted with the Browbone shade on the left column of Wet n’ Wild Comfort Zone. My upper lash line was lined with Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Gel Eyeliner in Blackest Black, lower lash line with Urban Decay Bourbon and then smudged out with the darker shade of Paramaribo. I used Tarte Blissful on my cheeks, a bit of Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Bronze, and some Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Soft Matte Bronzer to contour. For some reason, I thought the slightly “retro” Paramaribo would go well with Guerlain Coque d’Or, so that’s what ended up on my lips!

A couple more shots so you can see the eyes better:

I will swatch/review Paramaribo and Coque d’Or soon (expect them early next week), but I can tell you I’m getting a major kick out of both!

One last picture:

I finally managed to keep one post short and sweet! Thanks for reading, folks! For those of you who have stuck around, a big thank you and I will keep trying to keep you entertained 🙂 For those of you who just found this blog, please subscribe or leave a comment if you like what you see, and I promise there are only better things to come!

I hope you’re enjoying a fantastic weekend!

Sunny xx

Swatch, Review, & Comparison: Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Blissful

Hey everyone, happy Saturday! It’s pretty cold but very sunny here, so I’m happily blogging in the sun! What are your plans? Do you have anything exciting coming up this weekend?

Today I’m going to share my Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Blissful with you. I swear these Blushes have some kind of addictive substance, because here is my third one…

Blissful is described as a “warm peach,” but on me it is also a bit coral and a bit pink. I suspect this color will show up rather differently on different people, though I’ll have to say it looks pretty good from all the swatch pictures I’ve seen. It is matte, which makes it perfect for every day. Especially if you want to add a highlighter or even a shimmery bronzer afterwards, a matte blush is the foolproof choice. Like the other matte one I own (Exposed), it doesn’t just lie flat on your cheeks because it’s matte. Instead, it gives this glow that can’t be mistaken to be shine.

The texture is very fine, but not as soft and powdery as Peaceful and Exposed are. The good thing is it’s harder to kick so much product loose with the brush, but at the same time it takes a little building up. I am personally fine with it. Between a blush that is so insanely pigmented and one that I can build up, I prefer one that I can build up. Believe me, building blush up is easier than having to tone it down once you have overdosed on it! I have recently switched to a duo-fiber blush brush (Bdellium 965, which will be reviewed shortly), and of course this could be the thing that makes the difference. However, even when I was swatching with my finger, I had the idea that the blush is a bit more solid.

Now onto the swatch:

Here is the comparison between Blissful and Peaceful, another “peachy” blush:

As you can see, they are significantly different. If you already own Peaceful, don’t worry because Blissful is not even close to being similar!

Here is how it looks on my face. I tried my best to take a picture that will give you an idea how it looks, but it is very hard to capture blushes with a camera so bear with me (I wore Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick on the top of my cheekbones, so that’s where the shimmer comes from):

This lasts better on me than Exposed (Exposed is exactly the color of my cheeks, so I don’t see very well when it fades/disappears), but the 12-hour claim Tarte makes still falls short a little. All Tarte blushes fade on me towards the end of the day, though they don’t really disappear. They don’t oxidize or change color on me either, which is a big plus!

Now that I have accumulated a bit more experience with Tarte blushes, I can say that their fortes lie in strong pigmentation, fine texture, and a good range of shade selection especially when it comes to matte blushes. I have the impression that a good matte blush is harder to come by nowadays, so if you’re looking for one like that, remember to give Tarte a chance!

What do you think? Have you tried Tarte any blushes? What are your favorite blushes?

Sunny xx

FOTD: Snow Bubble Pop K-pop Inspired Look

Hey everybody, it’s FRIDAY! Isn’t it almost the best day of the week? What are your plans for the weekend? Do you have exciting things planned or are you going to chill?

Dr. D and I made plans to go for Thai food tonight, so in the early afternoon I proceeded to take my shower, put on some makeup, and then go work at a cafe till dinnertime. When I got out of the shower however, I saw large snowflakes falling. I heard earlier today that there was a snowstorm in the Netherlands, and I knew my foolish hope of having the weather stay freezing but sunny was over. Since I had more time to spare, I decided to follow a K-pop inspired tutorial by Jen from From Head to Toe. Hyuna’s Bubble Pop was BIG last summer when I was in Taiwan, and despite the fact that the only part I could follow is “bubble bubble bubble pop bubble bubble pop pop,” the song has stuck in my head. It’s just so bright and cheerful!

I largely followed Jen’s tutorial, replacing what I don’t have with the closest shades I have. Here is the list of products and breakdown:

Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in 53 Light Beige
NARS Stick Concealer in Custard (swatch and review coming soon)
Tarte Smooth Operator finishing powder
Bobbi Brown Sable on eyebrows

The middle shade of NYX Rock and Roll was used in a half-moon shape (Jen used Urban Decay Underground which I don’t have, and this one is the only remotely taup-y shade I own at the moment). Darkhorse was used in the same shape closer to my lash line. With the tip of MAC 239, I put the gold shade of L’Oreal Metallic HiP duo in Gilded on my lower lash line (Jen used Urban Decay Honey, which is also a yellow gold), Half Baked in the inner corners and layered a bit on the lower lash line, and Smog to smoke out the outer half of the lower lash line.

I lined my upper lash line with Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Gel Eyeliner in Blackest Black (Jen used a pencil liner for both her upper and lower lash line, but I knew a pencil liner doesn’t stand a chance on my upper lash line so I went with my usual gel liner), but the line doesn’t go up as what I usually do. Instead, it is just slightly extended following my natural eye shape. I was supposed to line my lower waterline with Urban Decay Zero, and then connect the outer corners with the line I created with the gel liner. However, I might have been a little over-enthusiastic with all that gold shadow earlier on, and I found it pretty difficult to line! After some struggle, I ended up with both my water AND lash line lined, and it wasn’t very neat. Oh well…

Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes (review coming soon)
Tarte Blissful on cheeks (Jen didn’t use a blush, but I was testing this one out. Swatch and review coming soon)
Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Bronze on the top of my cheekbones, forehead, and down my nose bridge
Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Soft Matte Bronzer to contour
Chanel Rouge Coco Mademoiselle was dabbed onto my lips, creating more natural pink lips

Here are some close-ups so you can see the eyes better:

This is how the eyes look when they are downcast. You can also play spot-the-kitten with this one 🙂

I took some pictures in the usual bathroom light, but since there was still natural light I wanted to play with that too. It washed my complexion out, and I had to switch to “snow” mode on my camera to deal with the super bright white light, but I kind of like how “surreal” these pictures turned out.

So that’s my snow day Bubble Pop FOTD for you! What do you think? Do you like my regular winged-out eyeliner better or when I follow my real lash line like in this look? I need some input here! Also, are you a fan of K-pop or celebrity-inspired looks in general?

I have recently hauled quite a bit of exciting stuff that I want to share with you, so definitely stay tuned for that! Follow me on Twitter (especially if you want to see more kitty photos) and Bloglovin’. I have plans to start a Mostly Sunny Facebook page soon, and I will keep you posted when that happens!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Sunny xx