a couple drugstore / high street grey/gray eyeshadow palettes

Australis Paparazzi Perfect High Definition Eyeshadow in Frock & Roll

Maybelline Hyper Diamonds Eyeshadow palette in GY-1

Review | Australis Paparazzi Perfect High Definition Eyeshadow in Frock & Roll 

This is my very first Australis palette (thanks Cathy!) and apparently it is from Australia (duh!) Frock & Roll contains a pearlescent coral pink, medium grey, cool grey, charcoal and a deep pink. The Paparazzi Perfect HD Eyeshadows are claimed to be formulated with light reflecting photocromatic pigments and enriched with Jojoba and Grape seed oil. As you can see in the picture, the application is consistent throughout 5 shadows. They give a very smooth look without much of fall out, as however not as smooth on the eyes when applied with a brush. The densely formulated texture reminds me of Inglot eyeshadows (see my list of reviews HERE) and this type of sheen is rarely seen in Asian eyeshadows. I'd recommend this for doing intense looks with it, as they are beautifully depicted in pictures. 

Retail for AUD$15.95

Review | Maybelline Hyper Diamonds Eyeshadow palette in GY-1 

This is my one and only Maybelline Hyper Diamonds eyeshadow palette. GY-1 contains a pearlescent grey, dark grey, white, black and grey shimmers. They are all with shimmers, especially heavy in the lighter shades just like most Asian eyeshadows (Asia Limited Edition?). If you are familiar with Maybelline eyeshadows, as I am assuming most of you are, they are of mediocre pigmentation, though deliver if built up. This quad is no exception. As seen in the pictures, the lighters colors are not as pigmented as the dark one in swatches. The farthest on the right actually shows up really nice as a sheen of grey shimmers on the lid. It is not dark so is perfect to layer over other eyeshadows as well. However the white is disappointing in application, I'd say it works so much better with a brush. 

Retail for HKD$79.9

As a frequent traveler, I am really hesitant on purchasing single eyeshadows / eyeshadow palettes of which I cannot fully utilize every single color. In this highly competitive market these days, it is a must for an eyeshadow palette to be able to deliver at least 3 different looks. Otherwise they do not deserve to be called palettes *random anger wtf. 

If you like to see how I use the Maybelline quad in action you can refer to this look I did for Christmas HERE. I will update the post when I come around to do a look with the Australis palette. 

Hope you're all having a great weekend! Today was the second last Sunday before I leave for Boston but I had a great time walking around Hong Kong with my folks. More updates will be posted soon so please stay tuned xoxo.

Review | Kiss Me no.7 lashes

Originally bought them on a whim, I felt in love with the quality of Kiss Me lashes provided. They are just as well designed and lightweighted as Dollywink lashes (review HERE), but a lot more sturdy!

This is after 5 times of wear. You can see the lashes glue (I used Duo Dark) left on the lashes and they also start to crumple up. Not wearable anymore but not bad for $6. The quality are of one of the best clear banded lashes I've tried.

Lashes that look like a fan of seaweed are no longer in trends, I was aiming for that pointy and separated bunchy lashes (more 2012!).

Demo below are of the 1st time of wear | 
Please check out Jacqueline's blog for the lashes' original stage HERE

To further bring out the natural look and being closer to looking like those Japanese eyes shown on the packaging wtf, I tried something new and actually glue the lashes BELOW my own lashes. It is still noticeable that lashes are worn since they are quite long, but wearing them below my lashes not only makes the eyeline thinner and the band less visible, it also gives the eyes more dimension.

Pros:
- Easy to glue on
- Lightweighted
- Affordable US$6 from CitySuper / Log-On
- Natural looking
- Sturdier than other clear banded lashes

Cons:
- Hard to find
- Crumpled after a few use
- Natural but wouldn't look like real lashes

I have been obsessed with lashes lately. Not the seaweed ones but these kinds of natural ones. What do you think?

New Hair Color | Liese Bubble Color in Sweet Pink Review

Liese hair bubble dye has been my to-go self hair dye products for a few years and has never given me any disappointments. Its reliable, affordable and easy to control unlike gel or any other forms of hair dye of which I always made a hell of mess out off of.

Sweet Pink is the color of my choice this time. I am not sure the exact date it came out but it is definitely of one of the newer Liese colors. You can check out the full color range from the official Liese website HERE or my review on Mocha Orange HERE and Glossy Brown HERE.

Everything that comes in the box. Instructions, after-dye leave in conditioner, hair dye color, dying chemical, pump and gloves

The manual is very easy to use. The box I got from Hong Kong has English on one side and Chinese on the other. Not only it guides you through the process, it also provides an example of how you test to see if you are allergic to the hair dye using a small area of skin.

A few goodies for dying hair -
| Vasaline
Since some of the area like back of the neck or behind the ears are hard to be seen, it is always easy to mistakenly drop the hair dye on without knowing. Spreading a few thick layers of vasaline all around the headline can prevent hair dye by sinking into the skin too quickly, and is easy to remove since you'd be washing your hair anyway when washing the dye off.
| Plastic Wide Tooth Comb
It is also a great tool for any form of hair dye. It helps blend the color into any strands of hair evenly. It is also easy to clean.

Procedures |
1 Pour the hair dye in
2 Put the pump cab on
3 Turn the bottle up and down (do not shake!)
4 Squeeze out the bubbles

Demo for Mocha Orange, same procedures, just different color

Sometimes there is more bubbles but sometimes not. I am not sure if it differs based on the color, or it just doesn't have that consistency. This time I'd say I got a mediocre bubble quantity. Not the worst I have come across, but definitely not as the commercial has depicted (like crazy fluffy form, you know what I mean). Anyway, as long as it gets the job done, I don't give a damn (wtf, not sure where the anger is from...). The greatest thing is I really can get a head of even, true-to-color new hair color with just 1 box of hair dye even for my length of hair.

Above is the color after 1 wash directly under the sun. Pretty close to the color on the box, neh? If you wanna read more, don't forget to check out the full color range from the official Liese website HERE or my review on Mocha Orange HERE and Glossy Brown HERE.

The product is widely available in Watsons, Mannings, Bonjour and Sasa if you live in Asia. Or you can get the product from Pretty & Cute for $15.97 if you live in the States (link HERE).

Hope the review helps! 

Unagi Don & Night Market | Taiwan Part 2

If you read Part 1 of our recent trip to Taiwan (HERE) you knew that we had almost too much fun at Kanpai with beef tongues and a few beer. To continue the fun, we were going to go to Spark (Taipei 101's basement) but were stopped by locals. They said Myst is the new thing - of which is a new club that just set its roots across from Taipei 101. What can I say, balcony seats, great view and company.

Myst | Taipei Xinyi District SongShou Road. #12 9th Floor

The next day - having rice is probably one of the best ways to cure swollen-ness from toxic in body, having something solid eh? It was already packed with a line of 30 people when we arrived at 11am but luckily the line "dissolved" really fast. Best unagi don in the world with a wait for about 25 minutes? hack yes. 

 

肥前屋 | Tapei Jhongshan District, Zhongshan North Road, Section 1, Lane 121 no.13

The reason 肥前屋 was made famous was because of its DUH!, Unagi (Eel). Inside the store it looks like an old Japanese canteen food court style desu. Personally not a huge fan of eel rice, I can tell you this was pretty damn amazing and no doubt the best unagi don I have ever had. The eel was thin with just a tad of fat but not greasy, the Japanese rice was not soft with the perfect chewiness. Everything just goes so well together. I can easily swallow 2 bowls, not even kidding.

After lunch we went to 五分埔 (wufenpu) where is a market that has a lot of wholesale stores for retail. The weather sucked the whole time so we gave up on finding good stuff in about 45 minutes. Gigi took me to this place that was across the market to have some hot soups. The logo of this store cracked us up. Call me a noob, but can someone really be named Formosa!? And since when Gigi had an uncle in Taiwan lol?

 The soup however was good. I got the one with white fungus and medlar in a sweet syrup. Its one of my all time favourite chinese deserts. People also said that white fungus functions as birds nest that is especially good for women because it is filled with collagen. Oh i need!

Afterwards we went to walk around Ximending and visited the must-have 阿宗麵線 (Ah Zong's noodles). That's also where we saw our Japanese friends. What a small world and how embarrassing! Both of us just ate the noodles quietly because we were speechless about being so hyper the first night. Its a bowl of starchy soup with really thin noodles and intestines. It was so good you can find no replacements even in Hong Kong.

Ximending is also a fun area to just walk around. It is sorta like Dongdemen in Seoul where is also a combination of night street shopping and street foods. I seized the opportunity to get my hands on a few goodies when we stumbled upon Skinfood and Etude House as a loyal beauty blogger. No worries, reviews soon (as always). After 15 minutes of walking around, we went to get white bitter melon juice with honey and had another meal around the corner. Duck blood, Taiwanese styled tempura and more noodle soup.

As we were walking back to the hotel like zombies, we had this sudden urge to go to a night market. So we went back to the hotel to freshen up and did that! Now when I think about it, I cannot believe we had the energy that night (we stayed out til 5 the previous night). Haha crazy! Since we didn't know any better, we just went to Shilin Night Market that was easily accessed to via subway.

It was a fun walk-around for a couple of hours with some back alley shopping and more street food. We adored the family run waffle shop with 8 flavors. We got drinks at this local store 1000cc for less than $1US wth.

Here is the cool thing about Taiwan that is so different than Hong Kong. Being in a not too overly commercial society, people have opportunities to expand their traditional family businesses and live comfortably sans the superficial judgement by other people. Hong Kong government, if you see this please do something for your society instead of solving problems by stupidly giving out $6000hkd. If you have extra money, spend on either the education, medical, social welfare system. Everything is a piece of shit its only been little more than 10 years that you have been "on your own". Well, thats a topic for a different day but lets end the story with I AM SO JEALOUS OF BEING TAIWANESE!