Essence Tribal Summer Collection

Essence released its Tribal Summer Trend edition at Target just a few weeks ago and I bought a few products to share with you guys. I did not go overboard this time and just bought the products I would use.

The Trend Edition came with

Liquid Blush - 01 Waka Waka $4.25

Pigments - 01 Na-Rock, 02 Waka Waka, 03 Inti Inka and 04 Copper earth $4.25 each

Nail Polishes - 01 Waka waka, 02 Inti inka, 03 Ta-la-ra, 04 Tipi-ya-yeah and 05 Na-rock $2.75 each

Long Lasting Lipsticks - 01 Na-rock and 02 Waka Waka $4.10 each

Bronzer - 01 Inti Inka $5.35

Oil Blotting sheets - 01 Matte Me Pacha Tulum $3.50

Feather hair extension - 01 Inka's soul $4.25

Tip Painter Set - 01 Aztecs Ceremony $5.35

I picked up the 4 pigments and the bronzer from this collection as everything else did not appeal much to me. I used to be a pigment hater almost a year ago because they are messy to work with. But I have found how versatile they are and I love playing with them now. Pigments are not cheap so when I saw these I had to buy them all. They are gorgeous colours and if I don't want to use them I could always press them into eyeshadows (or blush for the pink one)

Pigments in Na-Rock, Inti-Inka, Waka Waka and Copper earth.

What is a trend edition with out a powder, be it highlighter or bronzer. The Tribal Summer edition came with this bronzer which I think would make a better highlighter  for most skin tones. It is not dark enough to be a bronzer and its orange. When used with a light hand it picks up enough colour to be used as a highlighter for the cheek bones for my skin tone.

Bronzer in Inti Inka

Bronzer in Inti Inka

L-R Pigments in Na-Rock, Inti-Inka, Waka Waka and Copper earth. Bronzer in Inti Inka

Available Exclusive to Target in Australia. Did you pick up anything from this Trend Edition? 

❤❤❤

Models Prefer Sweet Shadows and Sweet Kisses Swatches and First Impressions

Hey Guys,

Its that time of the year again where all makeup companies come out with gift sets, Yes!! Christmas is almost here. I had been eyeing this eyeshadow set since the day Priceline posted a picture of it on Instagram. Finally I found it and also found another gift set with face products too. I am talking about the Models Prefer Sweet Shadows and Models Prefer Sweet Kisses. There is another gift set launched by them which is a cute clutch purse with three makeup items in it. I did not buy that as I was more keen on getting these.

*All swatches are applied using a brush

First Impressions:

When I first saw the picture on Instagram it reminded me of Too Faced gift sets. That was the primary reason I wanted to buy these. There were no testers in store so I could not swatch the shadows before purchasing.

Sweet Shadows  $15 at Priceline:

The sweet shadows gift set comes with 12 eyeshadows, 1 eye primer and 1 mascara and brow gel duo for $15.

The eye primer feels smooth and dries matte. It does not have any tackiness to it like most eye primers have. Tacky eye primers help intensify shadows on the eye. I felt this eye primer to have the formulation of a face primer. 

The Mascara wand is a rubber wand with short bristles on one side and longer bristles on the other. I quite like the formulation of the mascara as it is a thick consistency. The Brow gel side has a normal mascara wand with clear gel.

The eyeshadows have cute names and most of them fall under the mauves and purples category. The shadows are very chalky and don't have much pigmentation. You have to layer them 4 or 5 times to get the shadows to actually show up. In the pictures I had to layer the shadows 4 times to make them look close to color. 

Highest Pigmented shades:

Precious

Enchanting

Lowest Pigmented shades:

Innocent

Adorable

Angelic

Sweetened

Overall Verdict:

Cute gift but not a must have. There are other gift sets from Models Prefer under the same price range which have better quality eyeshadows.

Sweet Kisses $25 at Priceline:

When I saw this box I expected some lip products to be in there but there is none. Like the name Sweet Shadows had eyeshadows, Sweet kisses did not have any lip products. Instead it has face products like blush and bronzer.

This box comes with 16 eyeshadows, 1 eye primer, 1 mascara and brow gel duo, 1 bronzer, 1 highlighter, 2 blushes and 1 eye brush duo for $25

The eye primer and mascara duo is the same as in the Sweet Shadows. The duo eye brush is synthetic with one side shader and one side blender. It is quite a stiff brush and I personally will not use it.

The highlighter in Macaroon is very powdery and has a slight sheen. It is not a very noticeable highlighter.

The bronzer in Cinnamon Spice has a nice texture and is warm toned. It is not completely matte.

The blushes in Marshmallow and Peach Parfait are hard and not very blend able. They are not at all pigmented. Even when I used my finger to swatch hardly any color showed up on my skin.

All the eyeshadows are named after sweets and again not very pigmented. The 3rd and 4th columns of eyeshadows seem to have more color pay off than the first 2 columns. 

Highest pigmented shades:

Toffee

Black Forest

Honey Crunch

Dark Cluster

Lowest Pigmented Shades:

Chocolate Whip

Mint Slice

Cherry Ripe

Caramel

Overall Verdict:

Again this is a cute gift but not something that will be of any use because there is no proper pigmentation. The tin boxes that these come in are reusable to store knickknacks. 

I was just looking through some pictures online and these gift sets are exact copies of Too Faced products. In terms of eyeshadow colors, Models Prefer tried to come out with almost exact dupes but unfortunately the quality just does not match up. These are just my first impressions and all eyeshadow swatches did not have a primer or base underneath. Maybe they will perform well with a primer, can't be too sure though. I really liked the quality of Models Prefer eyeshadow quads but these don't look like similar quality. 

Have you tried the Models Prefer gift sets? what do you think of them??

http://www.beautylish.com/p/too-faced-shadow-bon-bons

http://www.beautylish.com/p/too-faced-sweet-indulgence-palette

Beauty Joint Haul feat. ELF Blushes and Bronzers

Hey Guys,

So I did a little bit of shopping online recently and I ordered from BeautyJoint which is a website that stocks ELF, NYX, Milani, Wet and Wild etc. I did buy products from the other brands too but I thought I shall dedicate a blog post for these gorgeous blushes that I purchased. 

The first one on my list is ELF Studio Blush in Candid Coral. I bought this because of the hype that it is a dupe of Nars Orgasm. Sorry to break it to you guys but its not a dupe. Nars Orgasm is more peachy than this one. Nonetheless it is a beautiful colour that will suit light to medium skin tones. It may be a little too light for MAC NC42 and above. Anyways the colour is a light peachy pink with gold shimmer 

The next one I have here is ELF Studio Blush in Twinkle Pink. This is a pretty pink with glitter. Although once applied to the skin the glitter does not last long. It is a very pretty colour, just wish it had a shimmer to it like the candid coral instead of this chunky glitter.

The next one is another most talked about product. It is the ELF Studio Contouring blush and bronzer duo in St. Lucia. In this the blush shade is similar to candid coral with just a little less shimmer, a peachy pink colour. And the Bronzer shade is a warm brown with gold shimmer, again not very noticeable shimmer. I think it is the perfect colour to contour the cheekbones with and also to give some warmth to the face.

The ELF Baked Blush in Rich Rose is a disappointing purchase. The blush looks like a dark peachy pink with brown veining through it and comes out as a beautiful rose colour on swatching. But the product is just very hard. For the swatch below I had to rub my finger in the product more than 5 times to show up on my skin. I have tried all the brushes I own with this product but nothing transfers to the brush. Although it is a pretty colour I just can't use it.

All the swatches.

The ELF Warm Bronzer, a beautiful product to give you that natural sun kissed look. I use it as a blush to give me that natural warm look. You can also use the shades individually as highlighters. Again this product also has a golden sheen to it which looks beautiful on medium skin tones.

Overall I am very happy with my purchase except for that baked blush. All these products were bought from BeautyJoint and ranged between $4-$5 each. You can buy these products here.

Have you tried the ELF blushes and what do you think of them???