Tips: How To Lengthen Your Gel Liner Life Span

Hai!

Kamu punya gel liner tapi sering banget gak bisa dipake sampe habis karena gel-nya udah keburu kering? Atau masih bisa dipake tapi susah banget diaplikasikan karena sudah mulai menggumpal? Bagus, berarti kamu baru saja memiliki alasan untuk belanja eyeliner baru. Tapi kalo kamu cewek atau cowok yang punya kebiasaan pake kosmetik sampe the very last drop (nggak gue banget sih) mungkin tips berikut bisa berguna buat kamu.

Musuh terbesar dari gel liner (dan eyeliner-eyeliner lain) adalah udara bebas. Jadi selagi kamu sibuk mengaplikasikan produknya ke matamu, please deh, tutup kemasannya. Kalo kamu males buka-tutup-buka-tutup, cukup dibalik aja kemasannya seperti gambar di atas. Hal ini untuk meminimalisasi kontak produk dengan udara.

Put your gel liner pot in upside down position whenever you're using it. This is to reduce the chance your gel touched by air.

Jangan malas membersihkan kuasnya setiap kali habis menggunakannya. Kalo aku sih usap aja pake tisu sampe bersih, baru langsung aku tutup. Lalu tiap beberapa hari sekali, cuci kuasnya pake sabun dan air. Jangan sampe ada sisa gel menetap di kuasnya karena begitu gel-nya mengeras, tekstur kuasnya jadi keras dan nggak enak banget pas dipake ulang. Oh ya, aku sih nggak menyarankan dibersihkan pake eye makeup remover karena ada kadar minyaknya. Nanti pas mau dipake lagi, kuasnya jadi agak-agak berminyak, dan akan mengurangi daya tahan produknya di matamu.

Clean your brush after each application with a dry tissue/napkin. I don't recommend using eye makeup remover since it contains some oil that may reduce the staying power of your gel liner on your eyes.

Gambar yang di kiri adalah gel liner Etude-ku yang sudah mengeras.

 Biasanya kita cenderung mengambil produk di satu titik yang sama sehingga menciptakan sebuah 'lubang kawah'. Maksudnya mungkin supaya keliatan tetep rapi dan cantik karena masih ada permukaan yang tetap licin. Namun hal ini dapat memberikan kesempatan bagi udara untuk bersarang dalam lubang tersebut. Untuk penggunaan berikutnya, colek gel liner di titik yang baru. It's ok kok kalo gak ada lagi permukaan yang licin/mulus. Oh ya, sebisa mungkin, colek produk menggunakan kuas dengan gerakan ringan saja, jangan ditekan.

This picture shows a comparison with my old Etude House Drawing Show Gel Liner. As you can see that I already made a gigantic hole on the gel surface, making the product dry easily. I would recommend you make a light stroke on its surface evenly. Don't make a hole since this will make the product dry easily.

***

Okay, I think that is all I can think of. If you have any idea, please leave a comment below.

Thanks for dropping by!

Tutorial: How To Open Your Softlens Bottle With Bare Hand

Sebenernya yah, gue paliiing males kalo beli softlens dapet kemasan yang model botol begini. Soalnya susah dibuka. Ada aja apesnya, antara kuku gue yang cantik ini patah, atau tangan gue yang mulus ini jadi luka. Kan sakiiiit. Hiks...

Tapi itu dulu! Setelah berobat ke klinik Tong Fang, sekarang gue gak musuhan lagi sama botol softlens seperti ini karena udah tau cara bukanya. Yeeeay! And you know what, gue membuka ini dengan tangan kosong loh, gak pake pinset! Hidup jempol!

Having trouble with these stubborn softlens bottles that won't seem to be openned without hurting yourselves? Let me show you how to open them properly, with your bare hands. No tweezer nor scissor nor anything. Just your hand.

Oke, sebelom kita mulai, gue mo bilang kalo tutorial ini sebenernya lebih afdol kalo dibuat pake video. Tapi berhubung gue kaga tau caranya bikin video, jadi inilah usaha terbaik yang bisa gue berikan. Maap yah. Kalo elo ngerasa dengan foto nggak cukup, silakan buka video tutorial di YouTube, banyak. Tapi makan kuota-nya mana tahan.

Pertama-tama elo harus bisa menemukan sebuah tanda segitiga di bagian tutup alumunium-nya.

Gak keliatan?

Find a triangle mark on one side of the bottle. Right on the alumunium part.

Niiih, keliatan kan? Seharusnya tiap botol softlens memiliki tanda ini.

See it?

Kumpulkan segenap tenaga dalam pada satu titik tubuh yaitu jempol, lalu buka tutup plastiknya seperti gambar di atas, tepat pada bagian di mana terdapat tanda segitiga tadi. Kalo jempolnya sakit, boleh dibantu pake kain. Kalo gue sih pake baju aja.

Using your thumb, push the plastic cap open right in the triangle mark. You can use a piece of cloth to cover your thumb.

Masih menggunakan kekuatan jempol, dorong perlahan-lahan tutup plastik tadi hingga lapisan alumuniumnya robek sedikit demi sedikit. Inget ya, pelan aja, jangan napsu. Kalo sampe alumuniumnya patah, urusan berabe.

Push the plastic cap slowly and tear the alumunium cap. Do it really gently and don't break the alumunium.

Yaaak, dorong teruuus.

Keep pushing.

Sedikit lagiiii...

Just a tippy tappy tippy tappy tip tap more...

Naaah, kalo udah begini, udah hampir berhasil deh. Tinggal tarik aja tutup plastiknya dan seluruh bagian tutup plastik akan terangkat. Hmm, idealnya sih gitu. Tapi seringkali pas di titik ini, alumuniumnya putus. Kalo gitu mah gampang, tinggal lapisi jempol dengan kain lagi lalu tarik sisa tutup alumunium yang tersisa.

If you reach this setp, you can just pull the plastic cap and the whole part of the alumunium cap will be opened. If this fail and you break it in the middle, just pull the rest of the alumunium part using your thumb and a piece of cloth.

See? Kalo sisa tutup alumunium udah bisa terangkat, tinggal tarik aja tutup karetnya, dan urusan dengan si botol softlens ini pun selesai.

This time, you'd only need to push the rubber open.

Taraaa! Botolnya sudah terbuka!

Tadaaaa!

Tinggal ambil deh softlens-nya. Hmmm, pas di bagian ini gue sering nemu kendala: seluruh cairan udah ditumpahin tapi softlensnya keukeuh gak mau keluar dan malah nempel di dasar botol. Ya udah, cairannya ga usah ditumpahin, ambil aja softlensnya pake cotton swab. Tapi inget ya karena cotton swab/buds itu berserat, maka sangat dianjurkan untuk membilas lagi softlensnya dengan cairan pencuci softlens sebelum dipake. Gue pernah maen pake aja, gak dibilas dulu. Ga taunya ada sisa serat kapas nempel di softlens, perih booo.

If you find a hard time taking the softlens out of the bottle, simply use a cotton swab to take it out. Don't forget to rinse it with solution water before using it. Or else, some remaining part of the cotton swab will stick on the softlens and hurt your eye.

***

Baiklah, semoga cukup jelas dan berguna ya, adik-adik.

Eyeshadow Base and Eye Primer Differences

Do you ever experience some creases on your eyelids, or eyeshadows that didn't last longer than you expected, although you swear you had applied eyeshadow base before hand? Well, many people tend to generalize the function between eyeshadow base and eye primer. They are basically the same and can be used interchangeably, but there are slight differences between these two. Let's see what they are.

***

EYE PRIMER

Eye primer is used to prime your eye lids to create an even or smooth surface. Thus create a smooth and oil-free canvas for your eyeshadow, preventing it from creasing and makes the eyeshadows easier to blend. 

Eye primer usually contains silicone/silica that covers the eye lines/crevices. It works as a barrier between your skin and eyeshadow, preventing the natural oils on your eye lids. It's like a face primer that fill in your pores and make your face appear smoother. I even sometimes wear my face primer by Revlon as an eye primer (review here) and it really helps to prevent eyeshadow from creasing. 

Aside from their smoothing effect, eye primers can also intensify your eyeshadow color and lengthen their staying power.

Some great eye primers recommended by experts and beauty blogger and sadly are still on my wishlist note, are:

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Urban Decay Primer Potion

NARS Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base

and many other

My eyeshadow primer. Find the review here.

***

EYESHADOW BASE

So, an eyeshadow base is basically used as a color base under your eyeshadow to get greater color pay-off. It really intensify the eyeshadow color but doesn't always helps to prevent creasing nor lengthen the eyeshadow staying power. Although some companies also produced an eyshadow base that can be used as eye primer, but not all of them do the same. 

Basically if you don't have an eyeshadow base, you can use almost ahything sticky or moist as an eyeshadow base, like Vaseline, cream eyeshadow, lip/eye pencil, gel liner, or the infamous NYX Jumbo Pencil. I usually use the same color base as the eyeshadow applied on top, for instance: red lip pencil under a red eyeshadow, but this is not necessary.

Some colored eyeshadow base will create different result. For example, a nude eyeshadow base will erase any skin discoloration, and a black eyeshadow base will make the eyeshadow appear darker.

My NYX eyeshadow base. This is a great color intensifier but doesn't help to prevent my lids from creasing. Read the review here.

***

So, basically, it's really okay to generalize between eyeshadow primer and base. Some people don't have any problem using only either one, but the result may vary from person to person.

Another thing you have to stick in mind is to apply just enough eyeshadow base/primer on your lids. Not too much nor too thin to prevent any creasing, and the right amount is also different for each person.

Hope this article is resourceful. If you have any question feel free to ask by commenting or sending me email. Or maybe if you find something not quite right about this article, don't hesitate to feedback me.

DIY: How to Move Your Dead Lipstick into a Coffin

When you buy a lipstick, you hafta make sure it's not broken or expired yet before leaving the counter or you'll end up regretting it.

That was happened to me a few days ago, leaving the cash register immediately and headed back home without rechecking what I just purchased. I put that lipstick in my drawer immediately for a few days and just found out the stick was broken days later when I unwrapped it. 

So this what was actually happened:

And when I flipped the tube, the stick fell out.

Turned out the stick was broken to its bottom. LOL.

Did I feel sorry? Errrr.... not really. It wasn't an expensive one. And I felt lazy to claim the seller. It was not a severe damage, at least for me.

So I changed it into this:

Well, some of you might already familiar with this DIY process, but I pressume some of you might not yet. So lemme show you.

You're gonna need:

• A metal spoon
• A spatula (a cosmetic spatula would be better instead of cooking utensil. LOL)
• A coffin container
• A lighter
• A candle

How to do it:

1. You might want to soak your container, spatula, and the spoon in a hot water. Not a boiled one since the plastic tools will melt. But hot enough to clean them. Or just wash them thoroughly with soap. Whichever.
2. Take your lipstick using the spatula out of its tube. Up to the bottom. And put it on the spoon.
3. Warm them on the lighted candle until the lipstick melt.
4. When 3/4 part of your lipstick is melted, lift your spoon and leave the rest of the stick melt on its own. You don't wanna burn it since it will change the formula.
5. Pour it into the container using the spatula. Do it quickly or the lipstick might get solid again. If this happen, don't worry. Just warm the spoon again slowly.
6. Leave it rest in peace in the fridge for a couple of minutes.
7. Take it out once it regains its consciousness.
8. Close the cap. And now your dead lipstick is alive again. In its coffin. Yeay!

Lookee, my lipstick have come back from the after life! Does she look pretty healthy... for a Zombie?

p.s.: comments or suggestions are always welcome. Smooch!