Quick review: Anti-spot & Sebum Control 3-Step Facial Treatment by Watsons

I'm back with another quick review and this time it's for Anti-spot & Sebum Control 3-Step Facial Treatment by Watsons. 

Before I proceed with my quick review, I would like to thank my regular readers. This space hasn't been updated as frequently as I would like it to be and that's because my iPhone 6 doesn't take high-quality photos for review posts. I have A LOT of new products but my trusted camera gave up on me (stuck lens or something like that) and so I only have my iPhone with me for photo-taking. The usual food and daily photos using iPhone are fantastic, but for review posts, the iPhone is still not as stellar as the normal camera. So yes, I have slacking a lot because of that. But fret not, I'm going to buy a new camera this week!! I'm getting a Canon G7X and I'm very excited to get back on track with my blogging after my Japan trip :D 

Ok lai, review time. 

I bought the Anti-spot & Sebum Control 3-Step Facial Treatment by Watsons in Bangkok and it was definitely less than 25 baht. I think there was a sale going on hence I picked it up. It's very intriguing to me - 3 steps?! Overkill or genius? 

This is available in Singapore as well, but it's definitely much more expensive here. A quick Google search reveals that a pack of 5 will cost around S$17.50. 

I gave it a try last night and to be frank, I was more excited about the application than the results. 

Step 1: Gently apply serum over cleansed face. 

• I didn't know 3ml of product will be SO MUCH. I applied all 3ml on my face and it took me almost 10 minutes to massage the product into my skin. Super thick consistency that was initially very sticky. After close to 10 minutes, the serum wasn't so sticky and thick anymore and it gradually felt very light and refreshing on the skin. This serum is used to prepare for the melting films in step 2. 

Step 2: Gently stick melting films to the specific areas requiring treatment. 

• This can be quite tricky to apply. The melting films are really thin and if you have short nails, you may not be able to remove the melting films from the plastic base properly. My tip is that you should wash your hands after massaging the serum. Your hands would still be sticky from the serum and any attempt to remove the melting films with sticky fingers will only make it much more challenging. Start with dry fingers and the melting films should be easier to remove. This was very strange to me because I had to apply a thin layer of plastic-looking film on needed areas. But it's supposed to "melt" (hence the name) into my skin so okay lah. 

Step 3: Apply mask onto the face (over the melting films). Leave for 15-20 minutes and then remove. Gently massage face until the remaining essence is fully absorbed. No need to rinse. Discard mask after use.

• Yes, you need to apply the mask right after applying the melting films. This is the type of mask that has a denser and thicker essence. No problems with essence-dripping with this mask. Mask application was as per normal, and of course I left it on for more than 20 minutes because I always forget LOL. After mask removal, I was so surprised to find that the melting films had "melted" into my skin! I couldn't see the plasticky films anymore! Very interesting indeed. 

And this morning, I woke up with less oily face. It was quite obvious actually, and I'm very pleasantly surprised. Very solid mask from Watsons! I'm still thinking about whether I should get the 5-pack from local Singapore Watsons but a bit expensive for 5 masks hmmm. Well, definitely a great mask in all and if I do buy the 5-pack, the masks will be reserved for special pampering occasions. 

Have a great week ahead guys! :D 

Review: ZA Impact Lash Mascara (VOLUME)

Whenever a drugstore brand launches a new mascara, something stirs inside me. It's like I have to collect EVERY SINGLE MASCARA out there in the market. It's a weird excuse to come up with to defend my lack of shopping control, but I assure you guys, such things are REAL. 

ZA launched the Impact Lash Mascara quite a while back, and unfortunately I didn't get it then because alamak I only have one set of eyelashes so how many mascaras can I use right (A round of applause for my excellent self-control please)? So what do I do? I made sure I used my other mascaras like crazy, like three-coats crazy. Then two of my mascaras got a little bit clumpy, and SCORE! Time to get new mascaras. HEHEHE. 

The ZA Impact Lash Mascara (VOLUME) retails for S$17.50 at any ZA counters nationwide and the mascara is available in the (LONG) and (WIDE EYES) versions as well! I already have fairly long lashes (thank you to the mixed Malay-Chinese genes HOORAH) and so I am all for a volumising mascara. 

The ZA Impact Lash Mascara (Volume) promises:

• Thick lashes that are clump-free from base to tip
• Lashes that hold the curl
• Waterproof and smudge-resistant application for hours

SO HOW DOES IT FARE? Sadly, not very well. It's not THAT bad but I wouldn't buy it again. 

This insert came with the mascara. Cute but ohwell it's obvious how much Adobe Photoshop participated in the procedure, so come on now...

However, the model fronting this mascara is Jun Hasegawa and she's my most favourite Vivi model (sadly no longer a Vivi model now), so YAY PLUS POINTS.

Basically to get the gyaru look, you need to get all 4 mascaras. I shall...just stare at the gloriousness of Jun Hasegawa.

Packaging: Ever since ZA revamped its product packaging, I always thought that the brand looks more professional while still maintaining the youthful vibe. The packaging for the ZA Impact Lash Mascara embodies just that. Professional but still hinting a little bit of youthfulness. I like.

Brush design: The ZA Impact Lash Mascara (Volume) has a slightly curvaceous brush. The bristles are very dense, which makes sense because this mascara is supposed to give volume. It does not have those rubbery, bendable brush head that I really loathe, so everything's still looking perfect at the moment.

Application: If you notice from the next photo, there's a slight build-up at the tip of the wand. This was quite frustrating for me because I had to get rid of this build-up before I apply to avoid too much product on my inner eyelashes.

After one coat of mascara

After two coats of mascara

After one coat of mascara

After two coats of mascara

Volumising? It is no doubt a volumising mascara. Perhaps it volumises too well? By the second coat of mascara, my eyelashes were full of clumps. It was just horrible. I think one coat is more than enough! Unless you have those metal eyelashes combs that can separate your lashes after application...

Waterproof and smudge-resistant? No complaints about both. However, I notice that after a few hours of wear, I have little bits of mascara product on my upper cheek area. It's like as if the mascara is shedding! *gasp* More infuriatingly, some of these "products" made their way into my eyes which irritated the hell out of them. I have never experienced this with other mascaras before so I'm rather confused over this situation. The only thing I can think of is that this mascara is too dried out, but erm I just bought it, so that shouldn't be the case right? WEIRD.

Holds the curl? The only positive trait of ZA Impact Lash Mascara (Volume) is how well it holds the curl. Usually after curling my lashes and applying mascara, my lashes go back to their sad, straight states after a couple of hours. With this mascara, the curl was evident even after a full day! So hooray to  holding the curl, ZA Impact Lash Mascara!

Will I buy it again? ERRR not really. I don't like how I can't apply two coats without clumping my lashes and how I have weird black things IN MY EYES. Next mascara please!

Review: CLIO Gelpresso Pencil Gel Liner Mini Set

CLIO has been in Singapore for quite some time but I have yet to try any of their products because the CLIO booths at Watsons were always so heavily vandalised! Poor Lee Hyori! I felt the sudden urge to get one of their eyeliners (highly raved!) but couldn't decide on which to get, so I settled on the CLIO Gelpresso Pencil Gel Liner Mini Set. You get 5 mini gel liners in one neat packaging for S$25.90. 

I heard great things about CLIO eyeliners so I was extremely looking forward to trying the pencils out. 

Packaging: The metal box is nicely designed. It's not outlandish, but simple and straightforward. I was quite disappointed when I opened the tin though. A cardboard thingy was inserted on the left (see photo below) to fill in the empty space. Can't they just give us more mini gel liners instead?

Colour variety: This CLIO Gelpresso Pencil Gel Liner Mini Set consists of a nice highlighter liner colour in Beige Shine. Of course, there has to be a universally-flattering black eyeliner (Golden Black). For those who prefer a softer approach but still want some dark pigmentation, there are Dark Choco and Golden Khaki. Finally, the set also includes one purple liner (Star Purple) for those who fancy a pop of colour. Overall, it's a good mixture of colours. The set included more wearable colours than fancy ones, so that's always good for the women who are not so adventurous in terms of makeup application.

Beige Shine No. 1: pinkish beige colour with silver and gold sparkles. Great for inner eye application.

Golden Khaki No. 2: dark navy green with fine gold sparkles. Gives a bit of colour but still verging on the neutral side.

Star Purple No. 3: standard purple with pink-gold shimmers. Great for days when you feel like you need oomph!

Dark Choco No. 4: brown with a wee bit of brick red undertone. Bronze shimmers add more dimension to the otherwise boring shade.

Golden Black No. 5: Love this alternative version of a black eyeliner. The gold shimmers really give it much more character!

Swatches taken with camera flash.

Swatches taken under normal sunlight.

Swatches after one finger swipe - basically no smudging.

Swatches after being swiped under running tap water - smudge-proof and waterproof.

Swatches after one swipe with a makeup-remover-soaked cotton pad. 

Swatches after a few gentle swipes using a makeup-remover-soaked cotton pad. 

Pigmentation: Great pigmentation for all 5 gel liners. I have no complaints whatsoever regarding the pigmentation of the liners.

Smooth application? Not really. I thought maybe because the liners were new, that's why the application wasn't so pleasant. I thought wrong. Basically, application is not smooth and you have to draw the line on your eyelids quite strongly. When I compare this with Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners, the difference is too huge to ignore. The leads in the CLIO Gelpresso Pencil Gel Liner Mini Set are not as soft and smooth, hence application can be a bit tough.

Smudgeproof? Definitely. I tested the swatches after around 5 minutes of swatching, and swiping them to and fro for a few times still didn't cause any smudging. Two thumbs up for this!

Waterproof? Yes. I'm quite impressed by how waterproof the liners are actually. Even swiping and rubbing to and fro under running tap didn't ruin the swatches!

Content: Each liner has only 0.3g of product, which is quite measly. I know it's a MINI set but to be honest the auntie in me expected a wee bit more product. 0.3g of gel liner can be used up within weeks, even faster if you are a religious eyeliner user.

Will I buy it again? Even though the gel liners are amazing in terms of smudging and being waterproof, I wouldn't buy the entire set again. Instead, I will either just get the Golden Black or just invest in another Urban Decay eyeliner.

Watsons Members Sale Haul (27 March 2013)

When I found out that there was going to be another Members Sale at Watsons on 27 March 2013, I had to plan on what I needed straight away. For one, I had to stock up on some necessities. However, the bigger motivator was the fact that that day was also the day when all the YR4s submitted their Final Year Projects. I felt like I had to reward myself! :D 

So yes, I went with Huiling, my fellow Watsons sale maniac, and we got ourselves some pretty good deals! 

Both of us managed to be the first 100 to spend over S$30 in a single receipt too, so we both received early bird gift packs! 

I  only bought four items, the rest were included in the gift pack! YAY! 

First up, I needed to stock up on my ZA two-way foundation. This has been my go-to foundation since my secondary school days and it is still my holy-grail foundation. The set was going for 2 for S$50, so now I have 4 refills! :)

This set of KATE gel eyeshadows retailed for S$9.90. I'm a sucker for brown/neutral eye shadow colours so I just grabbed this. A review on these will be up soon!

Also had to pick up a couple of the Bio-essence BIO Spring Water. They are amazing for setting your make-up, especially when you don't want to look too cakey and made up! They were S$1.45 each (!!!) because there was an additional discount for cardholders!

My final purchase was the Maybelline Magnum Volum' Express Cat Eyes Mascara. Wanted this previously but it was too pricey. During the sale, the mascara retailed for S$14.90! SCORE! :)

I will review this soon too!

I generally get really excited whenever Watsons holds a Members-exclusive sale. However, I think I will stick to going to the branch at Bukit Panjang Plaza in the future! Less crowded and less messy!

THANK YOU WATSONS! :)

Review: KATE My Colour Pencil in SV-3 and PK-3

The KATE My Colour Pencil set was also included in the KATE Cosmetics Bundle sold during the Watsons Members Sale (the bundle was S$9.90!). 

It's quite a nifty product because KATE sells the casing and the eye pencils separately! So for those of you who love getting the adrenaline rush from DIY products, maybe you will get some from this? :) 

At the moment when I was at Watsons, the package that was sold at Bukit Panjang Plaza's Watsons included only these colours - SV-3 and PK-3. I saw some related haul posts by other bloggers and some of them got the navy one and some the dark brown one! 

Packaging: Quite a fun and reasonably thoughtful product. Fun because you get to "build" your own KATE My Colour Pencil and thoughtful if you have all the pencil colours. So, if today you feel royal-ish, you change the pencil heads to purple and gold and you have your eyeliner/eyeshadow and it's portable for touch-ups! Of course, the point is you have to have more than two pencil heads to be able to enjoy this function, which I don't, so boo. :(

Colour: SV-3 is a gorgeous, almost festive looking silver shimmer. It's an excellent colour to apply on the inner eye corners to make the wearer look more awake and of course give the illusion of larger eyes. I think SV-3 is going to be a staple in my eye makeup routine. PK-3 is a less glittery hot pink, with more shine than SV-3. I don't normally wear pink on the upper eyelid, but I figure this is good for times when I want a pop of colour on my lower lids.

Pigmentation: PK-3 is more pigmented than SV-3 and it's reasonable because SV-3 contains a million times more glitter than PK-3.

Swatches under camera flash

Swatches under camera flash, after smudging

Smudge-proof? Definitely not. As seen from the photo above, I smudged the swatches just slightly and the swatches blended with each other. Hence, my tip is to use a similarly-coloured eyeshadow and apply it after KATE My Colour Pencil's application. This way, it will not be so easily smudge-able.

Water-proof? Nope nope nope. Hence, don't use it on a rainy day or on a day when you know you will feel emotional.

Longevity: This product needs touching up, for sure. Not that I'm complaining about it. I think one application will last around 4 hours? Longer if you apply a similar coloured eyeshadow above it. SV-3 definitely needs more attention in the touching-up department because the colour fades away quite quickly.

Will I buy it again? I'm still thinking about it. I don't fancy the pink colour and if there's a really good taupe/brown/mauve colour available, I might get them! The silver is a great product for my inner eye corners though and a back-up will be needed.

Thank you for reading and have a nice weekend! Hoorah first weekend of 2013! :)

Review: KATE reflect mirror eyes palette in GY-1

I have always wanted to try KATE products ever since they were launched at Watsons, but hesitation always kicked in because of the hefty price tags. I'm a poor undergraduate so splurging on cosmetics is quite a challenge. This is why I love Watsons Members Sales! In their latest Members Sales, they had a KATE product bundle and the bundle was only S$9.90! 

Included in the bundle was the KATE reflect mirror eyes palette in GY-1 and I think it originally retails for close to S$30 or slightly more. 

Just to make sure that everyone is on the same page, Japanese eyeshadows and eyeshadow palettes usually consist of mostly shimmery and glittery colours. It's very rare to find a matte or even a semi-matte eyeshadow colour in a Japanese line. Also, the lighter colours seem to be more glittery than pigmented. The dark colours are usually shimmery and well-pigmented, across all Japanese brands. With this knowledge, you know what you are getting into when buying Japanese-brand eyeshadows! 

Ingredients List

Colours: KATE reflect mirror eyes palette in GY-1 is a very curious palette. I still cannot fathom which colour group it really belongs to. At one glance, the colours look greyish, but after a close inspection, taupes and browns start to appear before your eyes. It is very curious indeed, but I like it! The middle shimmery white is gorgeous, and the gun metal (with a hint of blue under camera flash) is an amazing crease or eyeliner colour. 

Swatches under camera flash

Swatches under normal day lighting

Pigmentation: As warned before, pigmentation is not something that should be highly expected. The thing about Japanese-brand eyeshadows is they are buildable. You can layer as much as you want and not risk looking like a clown, but still can have your glitter fix. The middle shimmery white is a gorgeous shade (as said again and again haha). I can spam this colour on the inner eye area to make myself look more awake, and I think I'm going to overuse it. 

Application: I'm most happy and most pleasantly surprised by the application process. Usuaully with glitter eyeshadows, application's a bitch since the glitters will start transferring everywhere as you apply, and at the end of it all, you like a discoball panda. It's just not nice. With the KATE reflect mirror eyes palette, NONE of those glitters came tumbling downnnn downnnn downnnnn. I'm so impressed I"m going crazy with my words. NONE, ZILCH, NADAH, NOTHING. Even when I was blending the three colours together, I see no fall-outs. MAJOR IMPRESSED, YES I AM. 

Longevity: It's definitely a long-wearing palette. Colours stayed put throughout the night, with no signs of melting or fading. Amazing quality, really. Still majorly impressed with the no-glitter-fallout fact. What an amazing palette! 

Above is a look that I created using the palette. I do apologise for my deeply hooded double eyelid because you can't really see the colours, but I really do love this palette! Definitely going to be a staple! :)

Hope the new year has been great and thanks for reading! :)

Watsons Members Sale (27/12/2012) Haul

I woke up and dashed to Bukit Panjang Plaza for the Watsons Members Sale today! Didn't even apply my war paint, just specs and bare face. 

Watsons Members Sales are always a must-go for me because I can then stock up on my necessities but at lower prices! 

This time, the sale was also quite good, with quite a few of cosmetic bundles - my favourite because I get to try many products for S$9.90 per bundle. 

Here is what I bought! Other than the two cosmetic bundles which were S$9.90 each, the rest were going at 30% off their retail prices! I bought the Fisherman's Friend (S$1.60) to top up my entire purchase to S$50 so that I can get more points for my card. Heehee. In total I spent $51! 

Kate Cosmetics bundle includes an eyeshadow palette and a double-ended eye pencil.

ZA Cosmetics bundle contains a lipstick, a mirror, an eye & lip makeup remover and an eyeshadow palette.

I spent more than S$30 and I was the first 100 in the store, hence I was entitled to redeem a free goodie bag! Yay Watsons! :)

LOL at this TVXQ mug.

I just took photos of all the cosmetic products and I can't wait to do product reviews! Hoorah Watsons! :)