Inspiration - The Other Side of Chiling Lin

To contrast with the sweet look Chiling sported in my previous post, here are some sexier pictures of her. I especially like her makeup in the first picture since it is an interesting mix of warmer colors above the eyelids and cooler colors below the eyes. The second picture shows a more generic sultry lined eyes kind of look, though the makeup is still awesome. (Note: I decided to cut off Chiling's body in the first picture since she's showing ample cleavage in the original and I'm not sure if that level of "nudity" is allowed on blogspot =P)

EOTD - MJ Trick On Majolook BR742

Majolica Majorca Trick On Majolook BR742

(A) White line
(B) Yellow line
(C) Brown line
(D) Lime green line

1) Apply B in crease and blending out slightly above crease
2) Apply C toward inner and outer corner of crease, patting on more color toward the lashline
3) Blend A on top lid above color B and on to brow bone
4) Pat D on to middle of top lid
5) Line the inner 1/3 of the bottom lashline with D
6) Line the outer 1/3 of the bottom lashline with C
7) Line the middle 1/3 of the bottome lashline with B, overlapping slightly with C and D
8) Curl lashes

I really love this quad for the basic neutral look with a twist. Without the green trick on powder, it would be very boring, but the very pretty light green (that is unfortunately a little washed out in the pictures) gives the otherwise down-to-earth look a lively touch. It's too bad MJ decided to move on to another series of Majolooks since I think the Trick On Majolooks are really amazing, and I would actually consider collecting them all since I absolutely adore the two that I have so far (BR751 & BR742).

All pictures in this post were taken under natural light.

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Please read the review for this quad here.

Inspiration - Chiling Lin

After Faye from FIR, Chiling is another Chinese/Taiwanese female entertainer who I really love. If I had to pick a person from the entertainment industry, I would say that Chiling is, without a doubt, my number one role model. She is successful but humble, and she almost never gets mad at anything or anyone (at least in public). She is very articulate and has an elegance reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn. Nonetheless, she dresses like chameleon, pulling off sexy, bohemian, and cute on different occassions. Usually, though, her makeup appears minimal but really makes her shine (not literally) in a very natural way. I rather like her makeup in the following picture since she just looks so bright-eyed and awake but not at all overdone or makeupy. Then again, she probably looks beautiful even without makeup *sigh*

Comparison Swatches - Lavenders & Purples

In the final installment of my comparison swatches, I will be showing my growing collection of lavender and purple eyeshadows. Lavender is my favorite color, so it's not a surprise that I have a lot of lavender/purple themed palettes and shadows. Still, compared to the beige/brown shadows I've swatched, my lavender/purple collection is still fairly small =P

First, here are the highlighting/base shades as well as some of the shading colors:


Color D from Maquillage's VI367 looks very white here, but you might be able to see the slight violet tint in the shadow. Similarly, color A from Lavshuca's PU-2 appears beige, but it also has a slight lavender tint, though it's fainter than the tint in color D from VI367.

Next, we have the purple-tinted neutrals, which can also be found in my earlier beige/brown comparison swatch post:


Many say that MJ's single eyeshadow in SV821 is a purple-tinted taupe, but I don't really see the purple in the color so I've chosen to leave that color out here.

It's hard to see the purple-ness of the above two colors just by themselves, so I've also included a picture of the two colors along side some of the purple shading and lining colors. The two purple-tinted neutrals are on the far left.


Following is the labeled swatch of the remaining lavender/purple shading colors as well as all of my purple lining colors:


The L'Oreal HiP shade here is the only completely matte shadow that I have (for a good reason since I prefer shimmer over a matte finish). The Shiseido eyeshadow is little bluer than the Shu Uemura shade shown here, but I wasn't far off in my review of the Shu Uemura palette when I said that the Shu Uemura shade is pretty much a powder version of the Shiseido eyeshadow (which is the only cream eyeshadow shown here).

For reference, all pictures in this post were taken under natural light. All of the Lavshuca swatches here are from a Eye Color Select quad, all Maquillage swatches are from a Eyes Creator (3D) quint, and the Coffret D'or swatch is from a Trance Deep Eyes quad. The Dior swatches are from a 5-Couleur Iridescent quint, and the Shu Uemura swatches are from a LE Winter 2008 palette. Finally, the L'Oreal HiP swatches are from a Concentrated Shadow Duo. For the Shu Uemura and L'Oreal HiP swatches, the colors are numbered from the left (i.e., the leftmost color is Color 1).

Comparison Swatches - Pinks, Reds, Peaches & Corals

I've put off swatching the pinks, reds, lavenders, and purples for so long since I was planning on acquiring the Dior Petal Shine quint before swatching these colors. Now that I've had the quint in my possession for a while now, I've finally gotten to swatching the pinks and reds =P

Without further ado, here are the highlighter/base shades of pinks:


As you can see, I was having a very hard time getting some of these shades to show up as pink rather than white/silver in the picture. NARS' Edie appears more muted and beige than pink when swatched, and the Shu Uemura shade here is probably the only warm pink. All the other shades are various shades of very light to light cool pink. Please refer to individual swatches of the products if that helps you see the color better.

Here are the warm pink/red, peach, or coral shading colors:


I was surprised that the Dior shade here looks so pink since it looked more peachy in the pan and when swatched with other colors in the same quint. On the other hand, Shiseido's Bare Pink is a kind of peachy warm pink that looked more pink when swatched in my original review of the Shiseido Hydro-Powders. It probably looks more orange-toned here because it's being shown with similar colors in the same family. Also, I swear that the Shu shade looks a lot more red on me than it does here in the swatch. I guess just like Bare Pink, it is probably because this Shu shade is being swatched with similar colors that it looks so orange here. I would describe it as a bright copper-ish coral. Finally, I was surprised that the L'Oreal HiP color was so red since the intensity was not as noticeable before when swatched with other HiP duos.

Here is my measly collection of cool pink shading colors plus the lining colors:


NARS' Onidine is really a plummy color halfway between red and purple, though it looks oddly brown here. I decided to include it with the pinks instead of the purples in the next post since the other shades in the palette are also here. The two black colors both have either pink or reddish shimmer, which is why I included them here as well.

For reference, all of the pictures were taken under natural light. All of the Lavshuca swatches are from an Eye Color Select quad, and the MJ Majolook swatch is from a Trick On Majolook. The Shu Uemura swatches are from the LE Holiday 2008 Secret Luscious Rose palette, and the shades are numbered from the left (i.e., the first shade from the left is Color 1, and so on). The Shiseido swatch is of one of the Hydro-Powder Eyeshadows, and it is also the ONLY cream eyeshadow in the swatches. The L'Oreal HiP swatches are of an Metallic Shadow Duo, and I've named the lighter color as 1 and the darker color as 2. Finally. the Dior swatches are from a 5-Couleur Iridescent quint, and the NARS swatches are all of eyeshadows in the NARS Bridal Palette.

Inspiration - Hamasaki Ayumi

How can I do a list of makeup muses without mentioning the one and only Hamasaki Ayumi? She can be considered the icon in Japanese entertainment in terms of makeup and fashion. Though, admittedly, her makeup is pretty much always the same. Nevertheless, the shape of her eyes and how she does her makeup to emphasize the outline is truly iconic in the world of makeup (at least IMO). In addition, despite what many may say about Hamasaki having done plastic surgery, her eyes are truly gorgeous, even if bordering on alien largeness =P

Dior 5 Couleurs Iridescent in 809 Petal Shine

After somewhat of a hiatus from doing any substantial reviewing, I've finally got something new to review: my first Dior makeup item. On that destined day when I touched a Dior iridescent quint at Sephora, I vowed that one day, I, too, will be an owner of some of these beautiful shimmery eyeshadows. And now I am ^^ Before I finalized my purchase, I did some fairly extensive research online and settled on getting Petal Shine because I simply can't resist lavender/purple shadows >< Plus, this seemed like the most versatile palette for me that wasn't brown-themed, and I have too many beige/brown shadows already.


Even though I was dying to own this quint, I could still hear my heart (and bank) weeping when I saw the steep price on my credit card bill. Therefore, I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw this velvet pouch holding my fresh-off-the-rack Dior quint inside the exterior cardboard box. My thinking was that at least I'm getting something extra from the $56 I spent =P Plus, this ensures that the case for the quint is well protected if I put it in my purse or luggage for a trip.


After you open the lid of the quint, you will see a sturdy plastic protective cap covering the shadows (or protecting the mirror from being defaced by the shadows?). This cap is much more sturdy than the usual plastic films we see in cosmetics cases, and it's held in place by this tab that inserts into where the case opens (it's hard to explain unless you see it for yourself). This extra design feature also comforts me a little more; at least the Dior design team are spending some of my money on engineering good sturdy protective covers for my shadows =P


The actual shadows themselves are very silky and fine. The lasting power is also fairly good as long as I apply UDPP underneath with no sunscreen. The pigmentation is sheer but somewhat buildable. The shimmers are, of course, very shimmery. In fact, the reason I fell in love with these iridescent quints in the first place was due to the pretty shimmers that are not over-the-top sparkly but simply give off this nice glow that's absolutely gorgeous. But obviously, if you're a MAC kind of girl, this quint would be way too sheer for your taste.


You can better see the shimmers in the following picture that was taken under more direct sunlight. I would also say that the color of the quint is more accurate in the following picture than in the above picture.


Note that there are two two-sided sponge-tip applicators included. I normally apply shadows with my fingers, but I've found that applying with these sponge-tip applicators increases the intensity of the pigmentation, so I would definitely recommend using the applicators included.

The five shades in the Petal Shine are an off-white (A), a very light beige pink (B), a medium peach (C), a medium taupe (D), and a medium-dark purple (E). Like I've previously mentioned, all of the colors are sheer and very shimmery so I definitely can't use this palette on its own since my eyes would look very puffy. If I had to, I can make do with just this palette and some eyeliner, but if I had a choice, I would only pick colors from this palette to use in conjunction with other palettes. I feel like all of the shades in the quint can be used for highlighting, but obviously, to use as a highlighter, you would need to apply D and E more sheer-ly than you would with the lighter shades.


The following two pictures show the directions in the little booklet included in the box. The makers suggest that you use the lightest shade to highlight, the darkest shade to line and apply in the crease, and a third shade of your choice to apply to above the crease. Pretty simple directions and not at all inventive, but it's something for you to try if you have no idea how to use the palette. I personally think the darkest shade is not dark enough for lining, so these directions don't work for me at all.

All photos in this post were taken under sunlight.

In short: Love the Dior iridescent quint in 809 Petal Shine for the packaging and texture, but wish the the shadows were a bit more pigmented and less expensive ><