Bless My Bag!: April 2010

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Victoria Jackson Survival Kit in Manila

One fine day at work, an unexpected person arrived at our office, a cool, friendly, confident yet not PUSHY (wow) Victoria Jackson Makeup saleslady named Yew ^v^. She wowed me with this. I purchased one from her so I also have my own swatches and photos below. Eyeshadow swatches to follow in another entry, that's how full of content this kit is :)

This is the Victoria Jackson survival kit. I have a feeling this is a good go-to kit for those who fell in love with the Ellis Faas all-in-1 concept but can't afford such a luxury. Their door-to- door price is P1600 pesos so for those interested internationally I'm getting mine for about a US$36.00 promo price? It's a nifty option for those who are into all in 1 travel kits with good product :)

Product Consists of: 10 eyeshadows, 2 blushes, 5 lippies, 2 mirrors, 3 mini brushes, mascara, eyepencil, and lip pencil, and they all swing out or slide out.

BLUSH

Peach Pink

Pink Blush

Peach Blush

which flips to...

Surprise!

5 LIPPIES (highly pigmented balms)

These are kind of in-between lip balms and lipsticks, they hold a lot of color but are not as quite as opaque as lipsticks unless you blend a lot of layers of product together. I'm sorry I skipped 1 shade as I was testing them, the one in the middle which is a metallic coral Pink, i shall update this entry when I photograph that tomorrow morning (I prefer to shoot in natural morning light). Colors from the top down are (as I describe them, they don't have names, how sad is that?):

1. A satin mauve pink

2. A matte vermilion red

3. A metallic coral pink

(to be posted)

4. A semi-matte berry red

5. A satin fleshy pink

EYESHADOWS

Here are the eyeshadows that I will be reviewing in my next entry. They slide out from beneath the lip palette, how cute is that?

and no you don't get only five...

You get 10 eyeshadow colors in 2 drawers beneath the lippies :)

Swatches and test photos to come in my next entry.

Pigmentation of the eyeshadows is reasonable and texture is soft. Admittedly, the payoff of these eyeshadows are not as smooth and pigmented as other high street brands, but with a little more blending effort I find them reasonable. What's nice is on the back of the box (the packaging) is the full list of ingredients for all the products in the kit. Hey, at least they were brave enough to be honest, even though the formulation isn't paraben-free, but hey, I've got trooper lids :)

MASCARA

For me the mascara consistency is reasonable. Results, well I find that it's somewhat of a creamy, not overly voluminous finish, but hey, it's not dry or clumpy! I didn't expect for the mascara to be of any good in a promo package like this, I'm glad I was mistaken. I'm also happy it didn't make my eyes watery or itchy, and I'm so happy it didn't have a strong, fearsome, fumy smell (some mascaras smell as if they could help set your lashes on fire).

EYE and LIP PENCIL

These two I find to be the most cumbersome of the whole lot. They repeatedly

fall out of their slots whenever you open the kit, or even as your applying the blush or lip-colors.

While using the kit's compact mirror, they always fall out towards me. For convenience's sake I'd rather remove them from the kit from now on. However I still have a few minor things to say about their individual quality. Have a peek first.

Lip pencil (left) and eye pencil (right). Ummm, 3 light strokes each to achieve this swatch. The lip pencil I am already fond of as it is a deep fleshy bronze similar to Estee Lauder's Spice writer and Lancome's Le Lipstique in Bronzelle (which I carry in my personal kit). It works well with the lipcolors provided in the survival kit, but is particularly pretty with lippie #1 and #5 :) The eye pencil, ugh, is a soft smudgy black that smears and disappears within an hour or two of application. I am not a fan of it.

Overall, I find this kit really nifty. At the promo price, it's good value for money. However, as I've been told, with the retail price being double the door-to-door value, I would call it overpriced in retail. What's really great is the entire kit is the size of a large cigarette case, fits in your purse! In fact, you actually carry several looks in your pocket when you carry this around in its really neat container.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Glam Goodies from Guam

My 13 year old younger brother recently had a youth soccer tournament in Guam so he and Mom got their U.S. Visas and with his high school soccer team, the De La Salle Canlubang 14&under group, they headed for U.S. Territory. Of course coupled with that was a haul opportunity. It wasn't a major makeup haul but a really significant one for me since it was the first real one which I intended to write about.

First in line, Lancome Le Lipstique Lipliner/Lip Pencil in Bronzelle. What I really like about this is that it comes with a lip brush on the other side. No more reaching elsewhere after drawing in your cupid's bow, simply flip to blend. Originally I wanted to save for Estee Lauder's Double Wear Spice Lip pencil, but Mom alerted me about the Lancome Sale in Guam, so I happily compromised. :)

Second is Lancome Aquatique Waterproof Eyecolor Base in Nude. Simply put, it is a waterproof eyelid primer in cream solid form. I originally asked Mom to hunt for the Ombre Perfecteur lid primer, but according to the Lancome Lady, Ombre Perfecteur has been out of stock for 2 months (good work, Michelle Phan). According to Mom this was a free sample that came with my Lancome Bronzelle pencil and the lady actually reassured her that this product by Lancome was better than Ombre Perfecteur. Will have to do an FOTD putting this to the test (wry smile, rubs hands together). Sorry I forgot to swatch this in the morning light. Mom came back from Guam with some virus so I had to get this over with tout suite.

Lancome was awfully generous. Upon purchasing Le Lipstique, Aquatique was not the only sample they were happily able to provide mom with. We also got 2 sachets of luxurious sunscreen and a travel size bottle of Lancome's gentle eye makeup remover, Bi-Facil, which I prize highly already.

Next item in my cosmetic conga line is Rimmel's highly acclaimed (by the Pixiwoo sisters, Sam and Nic Chapman, thanks for pointing me in this direction) and not so very new Sexy Curves Mascara. Crowned like royalty it is, too.

The mascara applicator is curvy and wobbly , and I can hardly stop myself from beginning to rave about this mascara at the moment. I tried it immediately after I opened it, but I guess I'll save my comments for this product in my next FOTD. All I can say is, it's really, really good.

This is Sam Chapman of Pixiwoo in the video that convinced me I needed to get that awesome drugstore mascara :)

Last,but not the least, is Cover Girl's travel-sized treat, their Shadowblast eyeshadow stick. I did a few simple swatches on my hand. I found it funny that the product was somewhat "sweating" inside the tube, the sudden shift in humidity I believe had something to do with that (90% tropical humidity), well, could be worse, it could have been melting. Don't have solid opinions on this one yet, i'd have to do a look to be able to comment more about this. All I can say is, it is possibly an on-the-go person's go-to eyeshadow. That would be someone with no time or tolerance to use brushes or other tools sold separately to achieve a perfectly blended made-up look. They kind of made me reminisce about my art classes that involved Sakura Oil Pastels. Ok, that's it for now. There's actually one more special item I didn't include here, simply because it's extremely special, I hold onto that one till I've tested and documented it :)