Review: CANMAKE Day & Night Lip Serum (Holy Grail)

Lipsticks and lip glosses are never my thing simply because I have super dry lips! The first application would look amazing, but after a couple of hours, the application would look like a terrible mess. I don't know how else I can rectify this problem of mine other than constantly looking for the best lip balm!

I think I may have found the best lip balm for my annoyingly dry lips! It's the CANMAKE Day & Night Lip Serum! It retails for 380yen (before tax) or around S$5, and it is available in Singapore. The problem is this costs a hefty S$15.90. 

DAYLIGHT ROBBERY LAH! 

But whatever, luckily I got it in Japan for one-third the price. =___= If you have friends going over to Japan, or if you are in Japan now, I suggest you get some of this because it is AMAZING for those with dry lips! 

The CANMAKE Day & Night Lip Serum is not only a lip balm, it's a gloss and a serum as well! 

Since everything is in Japanese, I visited the CANMAKE website (http://www.canmake.com/en/elip/item_lip020.html) and according to the page, the CANMAKE Day & Night Lip Serum:

• is silicon-free
• is packed with plant and food derived agents
• is free from synthetic colourings
• has a non-sticky texture
• can result in plump, pillowy lips (WOWOWOW)
• can be used as a lip mask after you're done removing your makeup at night (can also be worn to sleep! AW YEAH! Now I understand why they used a photo of a sleeping baby haha)

Packaging: A delicately-coloured packaging! I really like the pale pink shade which has a beautiful gold sheen when it catches the light! The CANMAKE Day & Night Lip Serum comes in a squeeze-tube packaging and personally I'm not a fan. If you directly apply the lip serum on your lips from the tube, there's a high chance you're going to apply too much. I normally squeeze a little bit of the product on my middle finger and then use my finger to apply the lip serum on my lip. Much easier to gauge the amount that you are going to use!

Colour: The lip serum looks really orange when squeezed out of the tube. However, when you apply it on your lips, the colour fades away, leaving you with natural-looking and healthy lips!

Texture: I was quite apprehensive when I first squeezed some CANMAKE Day & Night Lip Serum on my hand. It looked really really sticky and glistening. To be quite honest, the lip serum is quite sticky when you apply it. However, after ten minutes or so, the product will get absorbed by your lips and the stickiness will get more bearable. The impressive thing is when I walked out of the house, my hair didn't stick to my lips despite the crazy wind! AWESOME.

Swatch taken with camera flash

Swatch taken with camera flash

Application: I cannot deny that this lip serum will take some getting used to, especially the sensation that you get after your first application. I don't understand how the chemicals work, but your lips will feel this strange tingly sensation. So, don't apply too much at first!! I'm not sure why my lips felt this sensation because my lips definitely did not look plumper or fuller after a few days of usage (some plumping lip products do give your lips that weird tingling sensation!). After the first application, I didn't feel it anymore and all's well! No allergic reactions or anything (I feared for this!).

Does it work? Holy cow YES. The first time I used it was in the day, so I didn't really see huge difference; maybe my lips didn't crack as much, but that was it. Then, I realised I could use it at night as a sleeping lip mask! So I tried and OHMYGOSH when I woke up the next morning, my lips didn't feel sticky but my lips were SOOOOOOOOOOOOO SMOOTH!! CANMAKE is not joking with the claim "pillowy lips" because my lips definitely felt pillowy after that mask session!

I thought it was going to be a temporary thing, but no, my lips felt awesome THE ENTIRE DAY. Simply amazing.

Will I buy it again? HECK YEAH. I'm gonna recommend this to everyone I know because it simply is an amazing product that delivers whatever it promises. I hope someone I know goes to Japan soon because I need to stock up on this amazing CANMAKE Day & Night Lip Serum! CANMAKE Singapore, why you give this product such a crazy pricetag (relative to Japan's pricing)? :(

Free Sample: Lip Ice Sheer Colour

I'm on a roll today. :D Discovering so many free samples, it's certainly making my Saturday an exciting one!

Redeem your Lip Ice Sheer Colour now!

Here's how:
1. Click this link: https://www.facebook.com/lipicesg?sk=app_213564948660624
2. If you haven't, like Lip Ice Singapore facebook page first.
3. Fill in your particulars.
4. Wait for your sample! :)

More free samples coming soon! :D

Review: Fresh Sugar Rose Tinted Lip Treatment

At first when I saw this product, I thought the brand was SUGAR. How silly. I guess bigger fonts captured my attention more. But nope, this is actually from Fresh! I have never heard of this brand before and that is why I love the Sephora Summer Set! It introduced me to so many new amazing brands! :) 

The Fresh Sugar Rose Tinted Lip Treatment is certainly a product with a stellar performance! It's available at Sephora.com for US$22.50 (0.15oz) and there are many colours available, like Sugar Coral and Sugar Plum. The one included in the Sephora Summer Set was Sugar Rose and it's described as "sheer berry rose in pink case". 

You can get it on the Fresh's website too! (http://www.fresh.com/skincare/agedelay/sugar-rose-tinted-lip-treatment-spf-15) 

This is the description to what it does from the Sephora website:

Sugar Lip Treatment SPF 15 blends reparative oils and waxes with real sugar, a natural humectant, for delectable and dependable moisture. Sweet and tart black currant oil, rich in plumping essential fatty acids, cushions the lips while antioxidant grapeseed polyphenols and vitamins A, C, and E provide protection from wrinkle-causing free radicals. It also provides essential, year-round protection from damaging UV rays. 

So how does it fare?

Packaging: This is one pretty product. I looked at all the other packagings (different colours have different packaging) and I still like this Sugar Rose one the best. So simple and delicate, yet it oozes a certain profesional vibe. Lovely!

Smell: The smell of vanilla mixed with licorice is very faint but definitely present. I have no problem with such a concoction.

Pigmentation: You can't really expect a majorly pigmented product since this is supposed to be a tinted lip balm, and I enjoy the slight berry tint from it! Adds a little health to my otherwise deadly bare complexion. :)

Longevity: This lasts a good 4 hours on me. Without food and just some water. Pretty good but definitely did not live up to the 6 hours that they promised on the Fresh website.

Moisurising? Definitely moisturising and the moisture factor lasts! Some lip balms dry your lips out. Irritating products. But this! This was moisturising through and through, until you need another application! Yay to this! :)

Swatch with camera flash - I like this berry tint! :) 

Will I buy it again? Perhaps not. This costs US$22.50 for 0.15oz, which is quite pricey. I will stick to my more mediocre lip balms for now and maybe will splurge when I have the means.

Thanks for reading! Hope this has been helpful! Woots! :D

Review: Maybelline Baby Lips Lip Balm

The Maybelline Baby Lips Lip Balms have been highly reviewed and highly raved by beauty bloggers worldwide, and I could not pass on them! I think Maybelline did a fantastic job with the packaging of these babies. It's so bright and cheery, you need to get them ALL! 

I noticed that Asian markets are getting different packagings of the Maybelline Baby Lips Lip Balm? The American and European markets introduced the lip balms as the usual sticks with transparent plastic covers, like the picture below... (update on 9th Aug 2012: apparently there's no European version! Sorry for the wrong info here!)

However, the Asian markets have these instead? No transparent plastic covers. The designs are emblazoned on the product itself. I know I'm being highly picky but I prefer the transparent covers more? 

By Asian markets, I meant Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. No idea how the rest of Asia sells this product. 

Also, I think Asian markets only promote the usual lip balms? Usual meaning the translucent lip balms with no tint at all. I read a lot of blog reviews and the American market has them in all sorts of pretty tints. :( BRING THEM HERE MAYBELLINE, I WILL BUY THEM ALL! (Please do correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks!)

Yes, I have a lot of complaints. However, I cannot resist these lip balms!! They are currently retailing for S$5.90 at Watsons (Cold Storage had a promotion a couple of months ago, and I got the mint one for S$3.90!) and I'm planning to GET THEM ALL. 

I recently purchase these two during my Johor Bahru trip - Energizing Orange and Mango Pie. I think Mango Pie is a recently added flavour and GOOD MOVE THERE, because I will purchase anything that's mango scented! 

These lip balms promise:

• Supple, smooth and cushioned lips all day long
• Instant 8 hours moisture
• After 1 week, AMAZING LIPS. 

Ingredient List

I now have three of the Maybelline Baby Lips Lip Balm line, and am I happy with them? To be honest, I'm kind of on the fence here.

Packaging: Amazingly attractive. I still prefer the American edition, but these are really lookers. HOW CAN YOU NOT BUY THEM WHEN THEY LOOK LIKE THIS?

Smell: One of the huge motivatoris as to why I buy these lip balms. Mango smells EXACTLY like mango, and orange smells EXACTLY like orange. I hate it when certain products label their products as to be of a certain smell, and they will smell dubious in real life.

Product texture: Extremely likeable. It's not sticky at all, and upon application, I can feel the product working instantly. I don't necessarily have dry, chapped lips, so they are good enough!

Do they provide moisture for up to 8 hours? This is the part where I was quite taken aback. In a negative way. After 3 hours or so, the lip balm dried and actually made my lips dryer than before. I had to quickly reapply the product and if I did not, I would have drier lips than before! It's not very pleasant, but I guess you have to keep reapplying before the first application dries out and makes your lips worse than before. Yikes. My tip will be to just have this with you all the time. I made the mistake of not bringing it out after I applied, and my lips were SO DRY.

Will I still buy them? Yes actually. I have no idea why since they don't really provide 8 hours of moisture. But I guess the attractive packaging is a huge win for me and reapplying every now and then doesn't seem so taxing after all.

[HG Product] Review: Tony Moly Berry Berry Magic Lip Tint

I'm not a fan of lip products because of how troublesome they are. You apply, you eat/drink, you re-apply - it's a cycle that I really hate to administer. Thankfully, my natural lip colour is quite pinkish red to begin with, so I can make do with lipsticks. However, they get really dry sometimes and so I love looking out for lip balms or lip tints! 

I recently purchased this Tony Moly Berry Berry Magic Lip Tint off Qoo10 out of curiosity and also just simply because the price was too hard to beat - S$5.50 including shipping from Korea! 

Here's the link in case you're interested in purchasing too: http://list.qoo10.sg/gmkt.inc/Goods/Goods.aspx?goodscode=405158871

This lip tint has officially achieved Holy Grail status in my beauty book. 

• Extremely reasonable price-tag
• Highly moisturising
• Pigmented without being too in-your-face
• Smells like heaven (I bought the grape flavoured one!! I WANNA EAT MY LIPS SERIOUSLY)
• Not sticky - I hate it when I go out with pretty lips, and then the wind blows and I have hair stuck to my lips. UNGLAM. 
• Cute and compact packaging

NO QUALMS WHATSOEVER. This product is freaking amazing!! 

Currently, the seller has the lip tint in 3 flavours: strawberry, green apple and grape. Grape is too good and now I'm tempted to get the other 2. Just like Pokemon, gotta catch'em all!!! 

Packaging: Compact and quite easy to put inside any make-up bag. I like how Tony Moly's products are designed to look professional. Makes you feel like you are getting more than you should be. Haha.

Texture: This lip tint has a gel texture that I quite adore. Some lip balms are so horribly sticky that I used them not on my lips, but on my blistered feet (YAY TIP OF THE DAY! That's right! You can use your lip balm on any blistered areas, works like magic!!). This, however, is not incredibly sticky. It moisturises without being greasy.

Colour: The product itself has a purple tint. However, according to the website, all three flavours will come out as the same pinkish colour after application. I actually love how subtle this lip tint is. It does give colour to dead lips but you don't look like you need major attention on your lips. You just look healthy and cheery!

Here's how the colour looks like on a piece of cotton cloth! It looks damn pink, but trust me, it's realy subtle on your lips!

Longevity: Of course you can't expect this to last more than 5 hours right? It's a lip tint, not a lip lacquer. I think this lasts a maximum of 2 hours on your lips, maybe more if you are not drinking at all. I don't find it troublesome to reapply though because of how nice smelling the lip tint is!!

Will I buy it again? DEFINITELY. I hope the seller keeps restocking this product. I need it for every single day of my life!!