MAD Liquid Foundation

I completely forgot to write an entry about this when I tested it a few weeks ago.

I got myself the 03-W of MAD's liquid foundation since I have medium/yellow tones to my skin. It was a sample bottle for $2.95 good for around 5 applications (or more?). It has been a long time since I tried using liquid foundation (way back when I haven't discovered mmu) so I wasn't used to applying it.

So, I applied it using my clean fingers. It felt a bit heavy on my face, like I was wearing a mask. The coverage however was sheer to medium but I am sure that with a few more layers coverage can be heavier. After around 30 minutes I felt beads of sweat forming on my forehead and upper lip. The weather at the time I was testing was cool and raining so I definitely did not feel warm. I guess it was the foundation and the "heavy" feeling I was describing earlier causing me to sweat.

The effect, however, was what I wanted--> very smooth, flawless looking skin! The color I chose looked a bit light on me so maybe a mix of 03-W and a little bit of the darker 04-W would have made it better. Or a bit of bronzer could have done the trick!

In the pictures I am only wearing the liquid foundation and MAC tinted lip conditioner in Petting Pink.

See the slight demarcation of the face and neck color from the foundation? I need a darker color but there is a slight glow which I like. It isn't shiny or oily-looking.

The liquid foundation also has a lot of benefits as indicated on the website:
-Anti-Aging
-Healing Properties
-High in Antioxidants
-Renews Collagen
-Hydrates
-Nourishes Skin
-Diminishes the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles
-Protects against environmental damage

Maybe if used continuously, these properties could be achieved.

I don't think I will be getting a full size of this one since I prefer my powder foundation which feels lighter on my face. Maybe there are other liquid minerals that feel lighter?

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I went dress hunting the other day for my husband's oath-taking this Saturday. (Actually, he asked me to get myself a dress :-) )

I found a dress I liked on a store mannequin and tried it on . The thing is there were only 2 pcs. of said dress and the other one has been bought a few days ago. I was so lucky that the last piece fit me perfectly! Here's a pic as seen on the website of Grab.


The dress I bought is the short black and white printed one on the left.

Grab is an Australian brand that makes really great-fitting jeans (I don't have 1 yet since it's so expensive) and nice clothes: Grab clothing
Can't wait to wear it this Saturday. I still don't know what mmu I'll be using but I'll take pics for sure.

Palettes & the Christmas Tree

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend (or Thanksgiving vacation)!

Got myself 3 palettes to put my pressed minerals in yesterday. Took me a long time trying to figure out what palette to get and I was going back and forth 2 stores trying to choose. There were a lot to choose from and they weren't exactly cheap (converted into $$$ they might seem cheap???). I ended up with the following:

1. Elianto empty 6-hole palette. There was a 4-hole, 6-hole, 10-hole and 20-hole palette but the 6-hole had solid sides. The others had a hard foam to make or form the holes and I guess they're really for the e/s or blushes in pans that you can put in there. I got this for less than $5 converted.





This also has a big mirror on 1 side and since the holes are big, I could put in 6 blushes.

**Elianto is a popular Malaysian brand for skincare and cosmetics.

Was also choosing between this one and the Makeup Forever palette but that was much more expensive at $13-$14 each for a 6-hole and 4-hole.

2. 24 shade eyeshadow palette

3. 12 shade eyeshadow palette



** Both 2 and 3 are by a local brand called Ever Bilena and cost less than $3 each converted. There was a lot to choose from here and I just ended up with these 2 so I could put in 36 eyeshadows! I'll just remove all the e/s in the palette first since they are not mineral makeup.

The 24's has a big mirror making it easy to put on eyeshadow. Even if they're not mmu, the shades look very nice.

*** I have put in 4 blushes today in the 6-hole palette. It seems that the 20 gram jars I used to press my blushes in before had big cracks all around the base.

Has this happened to any of your 5-, 10- and 20- gram jars of mmu? I found my empty jars with cracks even if they're empty and just inside a plastic tackle box (where I store empty jars).

Still a mystery to me as to why these happened.

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My mom started to put up the Christmas tree last night after we bought new trimmings yesterday. I saw my daughter helping out and hanging the Christmas balls and I was able to get pictures.



Blue was the color motif this year and we got blue and silver Christmas balls, ribbons, silk flowers and other ornaments plus additional Christmas lights.
There was also this pair of very cute blue birds we found which could be added as accent to catch your eye on the tree:



Cute isn't it?

The tree isn't finished yet since we still have to find the Angel to put on top. It's hidden somewhere in the storage room.

Has anybody else put up Christmas decors?

So Many Sales

Happy Thanksgiving to all our US neighbors!!!

My goodness. There are just so many sales right now with different mmu companies that I ended up ordering from them when I'm supposed to be on a no-buy.

Really, I swear not to buy anymore mmu for now until the new year comes since I'm so broke at the moment. Mineral makeup, no matter how very little you use, is soooo addicting that you end up wanting more and MORE!

I just ordered from the following companies:

1. The She Space: Mystic LE lipgloss, samples of eyeshadows- Ghostly Story, Off Balance, Kiss the Frogs, Gothic Glamour, Rockin Egyptian ( I don't think I could finish off full sizes if I ordered the Quads so I just got the samples but all of them x2 baggies each)

*** Free Shipping Int'l

2. UGloGirl - I got full sizes of Hide N' Glo Concealer in Buttercup and Pressed Mineral Blush in True Love. UGG has expensive international shipping rates and in a previous order of mine, they refunded me for a pressed blush that went out of stock so this was a great deal!





*** Free Int'l Shipping for orders $25 and up - 1 day sale

3. Valerie Beauty - A Liquidation Sale is ongoing. All items are in full sizes and I got: Halo powder, Coquette blush, Red Zapper and Pink Champagne e/s plus a 3 pc Eyebrow stencil set.

4. Cory Cosmetics - Well, this site isn't on sale but I still got myself some samples (at $0.35 a piece). I got 3 foundation shades, 4 mica-free eyeshadows, 3 color correctors, balancer and equalizer.

There are still a lot of companies on sale but I'm just telling myself that there will be other sales *thinking really hard*.

Looks like I am obsessed with concealers at the moment since I've been ordering and sampling concealers from different companies. One of my HG's is Ocean Mist's Saffron Yellow concealer. I just discovered Aromaleigh's #5 Pure Concealer and it is GREAT! Covers all blemishes well. Maybe next year I might order a full size of this.

That's it for my online purchases for now.

Pressed Minerals 2

Did another round of pressing my minerals. This time I used palettes and swivel containers from old non-mmu I had. I liked the results so far. Still used my binder from LaBellFemme.
I used a very old Revlon Supereyes Kit I found in my mom's dresser.



From left to right: Silk Naturals Moonstone, Pureluxe Harmony, Golden Sands and Cashmere

Next pics are the swivel containers from cheap eyeshadows I had:





In all the pans I used a full 5 gram jar of eyeshadow. They all fit in the pans with room to spare. I liked the Pureluxe jars because they were packed full and filled up my palettes well.

OCM 3rd day

Just an update:

While I was massaging my face last night with the OCM I felt tiny grain-like stuff on my face. On closer look it was the purged dirt or whiteheads/blackheads from my face. Wow! So I massaged more vigorously and a bit longer, haha.

I changed my OCM mix to 60% Castor oil and 40% jojoba oil since it felt a bit thick before. It feels better now with this mixture. This morning I noticed some of my acne scars fading faster than usual. There were lesser blackheads on my nose, too. Again, I haven't broken out. I hope I never will.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this would be my HG cleanser now. However, I use it only at night and my regular Sebamed Face Wash or Mario Badescu Glycolic foaming cleanser in the morning. Twice a day seems a bit much for deep cleansing.

Peacock Gelliner & Geminisc Lure

I got my MAD minerals order today! The Peacock gelliner looks so pretty! Here it is:







Excuse the eyebrows. I just hurriedly tried on the gelliner so I didn't bother to put on anything else on my face.This is the first time I've tried a liner this bright but I am excited to wear it once I go out. I am so happy I got this shade. Now I'm thinking what eyeshadow shades would go well with this liner.

I also got Geminisc/Susanna's Lure lipstick shade today. Thanks so much!
Here's a pic of it on me:



It's actually more bright pink than it is on the pic. I'll take a photo in sunlight. This was taken inside my room tonight.

I like the shade, Geminisc...it's brighter than what I usually wear (nudes, sheer shades) but this is a good one. You said the base of the lippie will change but not the color and I think it needs to be a bit more moisturizing. I need to wear a lipbalm underneath it so my lips won't dry out, though. Hope I helped out.

OCM?

A few months ago I read about the Oil Cleansing Method on Mineral Makeup Talk. There were a lot of rave reviews on how it helped their very oily or acne-prone skin be less oily. Most used a combination of castor oil and EVOO or jojoba oil. Since I didn't have any Castor oil at the time, I tried using jojoba oil as an added moisturiser at night. I just put 3 drops on my palm then applied on my face after washing. It made my skin softer but did nothing for my very oily skin. Then again, it wasn't OCM.

I came across the OCM a few days ago at a friend's blog where she used Castor oil and EVOO. Since I went to the drugstore the other day and spotted a bottle of castor oil on my way to the cashier, I got a small bottle to try out.

Hmm...I wasn't sure if I should add EVOO but further research I made indicated that if skin is oily, jojoba would be a better alternative than EVOO. So there. I made a mixture of Castor oil 75% and jojoba oil 25%. I put a coin sized amount in my palm and massaged it all over my face. This was followed by putting a warm washcloth on the face a few times then rinsing. until I don't feel the oil anymore.

I've been doing this for 2 nights now and so far, I think, there is less oil on my face. Or is it my imagination? I didn't have any breakouts *knocks on wood* and my face does feel so soft after. I 'll probably see more results in a week or so.

I got another bottle of jojoba oil since I was running low on my old bottle. This time it's Desert Essence. The 1st was Jason's.

Have any of you had any experience with OCM?

Edit to add:
I found this site.
http://www.theoilcleansingmethod.com/

Just not sure if she's the one who made the original article.