Review: NYX Eyebrow Gel (Blonde/EBG01)

This so-called dupe of Make Up Forever Aqua Brows had really stolen my heart a few months back. I first bought the shade Brunette and didn't regret it at all. The only thing I regret was that I only bought one shade.

 

But finally I can have the blonde shade I wanted to have sooo much.

 

 

 

The product was infused in a tiny transparent vynil tube, comes with a box as well. For you who are confused whether any brush included, nope, there isn't. The tube looked small but it contains 10 ml gel, it's quite generous.

 

There are 5 shades available in their color system.

 

My shade is Blonde/EBG01

Ingredients:

 

Water/Aqua/Eau, VP/Hexadecene Copolymer, Isododecane, Isohexadecane, Cyclopentasiloxane, Phenyl Trimethicone, Silica, Trimethylsiloxysilicate, Beeswax/Cera Alba/Cire d'Abeille, Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax/Cera Carnauba/Cire de Carnauba, Dimethicone, Potassium Cetyl Phosphate, PEG/PPG-19/19 Dimethicone, Polyglyceryl-3 Diisostearate, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Ethylhexyl Glycerin, Phenoxyethanol, Triethyl Citrate. MAY CONTAIN / PEUT CONTENIR (+/-):   Mica, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, 77492, 77499).

(source)

 

 

 This product is actually very tiny, only 10ml. It has a small pointy hole and a tiny black cap, which is a bit unpractical. Just like my OCC Lip Tar that has a very mini cap, I fear that I might lost the cap. Sheesh... Btw, I must warn you, that the consistency is runny, so don't squeeze too hard ya, or you'll waste some.

 

Left: Indoor with camera flash.
Right: Outdoor with natural lighting. 

 

The consistency is a bit runny to be called gel. I only squeeze this much to draw my two eyebrows and oftentimes it leaves some excess.

 

Left: Indoor with camera flash.
Right: Outdoor with natural lighting. 

 

To draw those three lines I simply used one dot I squeezed from the previous picture. Isn't it amazing that a very small dot like that can really go along the way. So I must say 10 ml consistency is so generous. It'll take more than a year for me before the whole product has run out.

 

At first, I was afraid to choose this color since I thought it will look too blonde or too light for my skin tone. But judging from the swatches I think they're more like a light taupe shade or light blonde with grey undertone, not that stark bright blonde.

 

 

 

Since my real hair color is jet black, so the result is quite natural although it's light colored.

 

 

Here are how it look like on my face. Using a light colored eyebrow can really soften the look on your face and a great option if I get bored with those ultra thick and dark eyebrows. Please remember to choose eyebrow colorant lighter than your current hair color, not the other way around. But since I wear hijab, I don't really have problem with that. The benefit of hijabers. Yeeaaay.

 ***

 

This is the very first product ever in my entire life that fulfill its promise to be a waterproof and smudgeproof one. I often wear this for working out in my aerobic class, or just use this for going out. It didn't smudge or move at all for more than 12 hours. Even after you scratch your eyebrows.

 

Because of that the gel also dries very fast. So you have to be quick and please don't do any mistake or it'll be a correction nightmare. And just like I said before, a little dot goes a very long way. So be gentle with your brush or you'll end up overdoing it. This is just the right reason for me not to squeeze this product on the back of my hand. I prefer do it with a disposable things lika a tissue paper.

 

To remove this is simply using a cotton dipped in make up remover. For small places I use a spoolie or eyebrow comb dipped in make up remover, and apllied it gently on my eyebrows.

 

One thing that bug me is that I already have my old NYX EYebrow Gel in Brunette. And after using it for about 4 or 5 months, I find out the gel texture thickens overtime. I'm afraid if I don't use it for a long time, it will harden like a gel liner. I don't know why this happens, is it because I stash my make up in an air-conditioned room or what. But do you experience the same thing?

 

Okay, aside from that hardenig texture and everything, this product is ridiculously awesome, I like it! However, I must say that you might not like this if you are still a beginner on drawing your eyebrows. Well, I'm not saying that I am a pro, but applying this product is waaay more tricky than using a regular eyebrow pencil, although the final result you get is to die for.

 

And if you'd like to read my previous post about the Brunette shade, hit this button.

 

My take:

• Blonde is a light taupe shade on ME
• Waterproof
• Smudgeproof
• A little goes a long the way
• Quickly dried once applied
• The consistency is a bit runny for a gel texture
• But it will thicken after several months on the tube
• How much: around IDR 100K to 120K
• Available in USA official counters only
• I got this in NYX Olshop in Facebook, but available in many online stores in Indonesia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Tutorial: Bold Purple Smokey Eyes

Okay, so this time I will show you how I did this:

This is actually my part of previous collaboration with my friends. It's just too many pictures to be posted in one article, also I want to make this tutorial as detail as possible.

Aside from eyebrow tools, you're gonna need:

• Dark purple, light purple, white, and skintone eyeshadow colors
• Black gel/creamy color
• Mascara
• Black pencil
• Eyeshadow base
• Softlens and falsies (optional)

Just for your reference, here are the shadows I used for this look.

You can either use this or find similar ones on your own collections. The products breakdown will be mentioned at the end of this post.

Okay, let's start!

Draw your eyebrows first, then apply eye primer on all over your lids to avoid creasing.

Using a small fluffy blending brush, apply a skintone color on your brow bone to give it more dimension. Blend it upward.

Apply a creamy black color on your upper eyelid, but don't go above your crease. You can also use a black gel liner. Here I just used a creamy black pencil by Make Over. This will be our second eye primer.

Blend that black shit with a fluffy blending brush, up to your crease.

With a fluffy blending brush, apply a light purple color on your brown bone.

With an eyeshadow brush, apply a dark purple covering the previous black color. Blend it with the light purple.

Using an angled brush, apply the same dark purple on your lower lash line. Connect it with the color on your upper lids.

Blend that purple with an eyeshadow brush.

Highlight your brown bone with white eyeshadow.

Color your waterline with black pencil.

Apply falsies.

And don't forget your mascara.

And there it is, you are done!

Final look:

Products abused:

• BH Cosmetics '80s Palette (dark purle, light purple)
• Nonna Eyeshadow Palette No. 3 (white, skintone)
• NYX Eyeshadow Base
• Duo Eyelashes Glue (White)
• Viva Automatic Pencil (Black)
• Max Factor Clump Defy Mascara (Black)
• NYX Eyebrow Gel (Brunette)
• Wet n Wild Eyebrow Kit (Ash Brown)
• Eye Candy Bulle Softlens (Blue Gray)
• Unbranded falsies

 

If you don't have the shadows from the brands I own here, you can use any similar color that you have. Also you can change the color according to your taste.

For complete look of this eye make up, click here. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review: Yukkiyuna Eyelash (Queen Victory)

Sepasang bulu mata ini gue dapet dari giveaway Anggie dan Martalina Thesya beberapa waktu lalu, atau lebih tepatnya menang kontes. Udah lama sih gue pengen nyoba bulu mata Yukkiyuna ini, selain karena kemasannya imut, bulu mata ini juga di klaim sebagai bulu mata premium, jadi lebih nyaman dipakai dan harganya terjangkau. Yaaa meskipun dibanding bulu mata tanpa merk yang ada di pasaran, harganya jauh sih. Tapi untuk kualitas bulu mata premium, harganya cukup bersahabat.

Produk ini dikemas per pasang dalam kotak karton tebal berdesain imut-imut bin unyu, didominasi oleh warna pink dan putih, dengan gambar princess. Shabby chic banget deh.

Harga sepasang bulu mata ini adalah IDR 20K dengan lem dan IDR 15K tanpa lem.

Di sini gue dapet yang tanpa lem, tapi no problem sih karena koleksi lem gue bejibun (tssaah!). Mungkin buat elo yang ga mau repot beli lem, bisa beli paket yang udah ada lem-nya. Pake beberapa kali sampe lemnya habis, lalu buang. 

Biasanya nama varian bulu matanya akan tercantum di bagian belakang kemasan, tapi yang ini kok gak ada ya. But anyway, setelah gue cross check, menurut Anggie dan seller-nya ini adalah varian Queen Victory. So, gue cantumkan sesuai keterangan di judul post-nya. But, oh well, what's a name? Yang penting modelnya cantik. Model bulu mata maksudnya, bukan gue-nya.

Do you know that Indonesia is one of the biggest country that produces false eyelashes? The factories themselves took place mostly in Purbalingga town. Yukkiyuna ini juga terbuat dari rambut manusia.

Seperti ini penampakan dari dekat. Btw, ini termasuk bulu mata yang panjang bulu di tiap ujungnya berbeda. Untuk yang bagian lebih panjang harus berada di sudut luar mata. Jadi gak bisa dituker antara kiri dan kanan. Silakan aja tuker, tapi jadinya culun.

Sekilas varian ini terlihat agak tebal tapi menurutku dia cukup netral. Dipake di acara resmi cukup nampol tebelnya, tapi kalo mau pake untuk acara santai juga gak lebay. I'd say this variant stands in the middle.

***

Itu di bagian watermark sebenernya ada lem yang menggumpal. Hehehe ketauan deh.

Produk ini menurut gue tebalnya medium, begitu juga dengan tingkat kenyamanannya. Nggak terlalu ringan sih, tulangnya masih terasa keras tapi gak sekeras kalo pake bulu mata tanpa merk yang ada di pasaran. Keuntungan tulang bulu mata model gini, dia gak cepet keriting kalo mau dipake lagi. Biasanya kalo habis dipake kan masih ada sisa lem yang harus dikletek tuh, nah kalo gak hati-hati bisa bikin tulangnya jadi keriting dan gak enak kalo mau dipake lagi. Tapi yang ini nggak. Eh tapi gak tau juga dengan varian lain ya. Beda tebal tipis, beda juga tingkat kenyamanannya.

Sampe sekarang bulu mata ini udah gue pake tiga kali dan masih enak dipake. Yah, walaupun bentuknya udah agak berubah dikit. Namanya juga dijepit pake penjepit bulu mata, terus ditemplokin maskara. Belom lagi pas sesi peng-kletek-an lemnya. Apalagi tangan gue tenaganya kayak Rambo. Kesian juga sebenernya dia punya majikan kayak gue.

Nih bonus FOTD, akhir-akhir ini gue emang lagi giat dandanin muka sendiri buat latian. Yah daripada cuma disimpen kan mendingan gue pamerin.

Untuk mata kiri sengaja bulu matanya gue jepit, yang kanan nggak. Karena emang mata gue sipit sebelah, jadi yang sipit itu agak gue "naekin" sedikit. Jadi keliatan sama kan gedenya. Heheheh.

Kalo masih pada penasaran sama koleksi Yukkiyuna yang laen, boleh maen-maen ke Instagramnya di sini:

@Yukkikuna 

Berikut nomor kontaknya ada semua di situ. Asli koleksinya bikin ngiler. Unik-unik en tuthu-luthu. Favorit gue yang seri Sweet. Bisa berlama-lama deh mandangin koleksinya. Oh ya, awas keracunan.

Review: Inez Precious Cool Moist Gel

Hi!

To be honest, this is the first moisturizer I ever bought. Really. The only thing I ever use to take care of my face was a face wash. I never wear SPF cream or moisturizer or serum. I did wear Olay day cream for a few months when pregnancy hormone dried my skin and stopped as soon as I gave birth because that cream had no more benefit for my face. But since aging has been haunting me (thanks to skin care commercials), I began buying more skin care products.

I first saw this product when I browse thru Inez Cosmetic official website. The word 'gel' attracted me. In my mind, 'gel' in cosmetic oftenly used to describe non sticky formula products. Oh, by the way, Inez is a local Indonesian brand categorized as Halal product.

The 'somewhat' gel is infused in a transparent plastic tube with dark blue cap. You will find an extra foil cover glued to the tube for its content extra protection. It wasn't very hard to remove tho'.

These are the ingredients

Considering its Halal label, the word ethanol catched my eye. Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, was usually found in alcohol beverage. Commonly known as spirits in daily usage. I pressumed this product still contain alcohol. And in Islam there are two types of understanding, alcohol is still allowed as long as it's not consumed and the other is: you are only allowed consuming it for medical use. So, for those of you who believe in the second opinion, you might reconsider purchasing this. Kindly correct me if I'm wrong, please.

And as for me, well, I would consume alcohol as long as it does not intoxicant.

The contain comes in a blue transparent gel. And just like I thought, the aroma of alcohol was strongly smelled once you apply this to your face, it was like dabbing pure alcohol directly to your face. For sensitive nose owners, please beware since this might annoy you. And as for me, alcohol smell reminds me of an operating room and I love the smell of operating room hahaha.

The word 'cool' written on the tube means literal. You will feel a cool sensation once it touched your skin. I really love it! On the picture above, I tried this gel on my hand. It was absorbed qiuckly and leaving the cool sensation with no trace of stickiness at all. Well, this is definitely great moisturizer for my normal-oily skin type. Oh by the way, just a small amount of it will be enough to cover your whole face. Do not apply too much or the product will take longer to be absorbed.

I have been using this for about 8 weeks and there is still no issue for me. The product reacts well with my skin. Thank God I don't have to buy any more expensive products. I might consider Inez as one of my beauty haul brand in the future. ^^

Okay, to make it short, here are my verdicts:

- strong smell of alcohol

- cool sensation

- non sticky formula

- works best for normal to oily skin type

- the transparent tube make it easier to see through the content

- the turning cap is not very practical

- generous content (75 gr)

- price: IDR 33K (USD 3)

Will I buy it again? Definitely! It's my HG moisturizer, although I only bought one product in my lifetime. How about you?

Note: this is based on my experience. Result may vary to others.

Collaboration: Bold Eye Make Up Inspiration

Hi!

The looks I created here is in a collaboration with three of my girl fellow from Indonesian Beauty Blogger. Usually we kinda attached to that weird and gory looks for out collaboration, but for now we just wanna create something less unusual and more appealing to the regular human eyes. LOL. So we created this bold eye make up looks for your inspiration.

You can check out my other friends' creations here:

Edelyne V. Oehmke

Rere Dini

They created amazing bold eye looks and tons of others as well!

And as for me, this is the look I made:

I created a purple smokey eyes look. This look is very simple and so easy to recreate. Bold eye make up tends to make your looks more glamorous in an instant, so I think it only suitable for party or wedding. Although you can wear this to do grocery shopping as well if you have enough self confidence. LOL.

The key to a good bold smokey eyes is the blending. Don't be afraid to apply too much eyeshadow, but just don't forget to blend blend blend a lot, also just focus your make up on your eyes. So be sure to tone it down on your lips. Here I chose a nude pink color. Although I kinda regreted it at the end, since I think it suits a nude brown better.

T_T

Orright, so here are the rest of the photos. Spamming alert!

I really love my wide forehead.

Products abused:

Face:

Max Factor Face Finity 3 in 1 Foundation

Maybelline BB Silk Powder (Light)

Kryolan TV Paint Stick (NG1 & Clown White) for highlight & contour

Revlon Powder Blush (Pink Peony)

Eyes:

BH Cosmetics '80s Palette

Nonna Eyeshadow Palette No. 3

NYX Eyeshadow Base

Mac Factor Clump Defy Mascara (Black)

Viva Automatic Eye Pencil (Black)

NYX Eyebrow Gel (Brunette)

Wet n Wild Eyebrow Kit (Ash Brown)

Eyecandy Bulle Softlenses (Blue Gray)

Umbranded falsies

Lips:

Silkygirl Long Wearing Lip Liner (Mauve)

Wet n Wild Mega Last Lipstick (In The Flesh)

Sorry I was over excited by this look that I spam soooo many selfies.
Also, I'm still working on the tutorial for this. So stay tune ya.

See you!