Nov 21 2010

Review: Canmake Nudy Glow Rouge Lipgloss

I want to start with a disclaimer that I am not a lipgloss expert. When I review other products on this blog, I am usually pretty au fait with the strengths and pitfalls of the product type and similar products on the market. With lipgloss I am most definitely an amateur, so take this review as that of a lipgloss rookie.

A while ago I bought two Nudy Glow Rouge lipglosses in shades 01 (Rose Macaroon) and 02 (Strawberry Whip). As I’ve said before, I am not a lipgloss person: usually I find them sticky and a little too high maintenance for daily wear. I bought the Canmake Nudy Glow Rouge glosses because when I swatched them they actually seemed very creamy and hardly sticky at all.

subheadappearance

The Nudy Glow Rouge glosses come in a pretty standard bottle, much like the MAC dazzleglass packaging. This is good because you don’t have to squeeze for ages to get the gloss out but it does mean that the top can end up being kind of goopy. The gloss is applied with a brush applicator. The bristles of one of these applicators are already starting to splay out so that’s irritating, but I’m not sure if there’s a way to prevent that…?

Product Open

Applicator

The glosses have no detectable scent. I say this with some trepidation because sometimes my brain fools me into thinking a scent is natural/coming from somewhere else, but I think in this case I’m right.

These lipglosses – while they are ‘nudy’ – are not sheer. In fact they are very pigmented and when I use them I just apply a little bit in the middle of my lips and then blend out with my finger. If you used the applicator all the way round your lips would end up with a thick, shiny-plastic finish.

As for how they look on lips, I’m still undecided on whether I like it or not. Some days they look great: shiny but not in-your-face-oh-my-god-I’m-wearing-pvc-pants-covered-in-glitter shiny. Other days I feel they highlight every single thing wrong with my lips. Despite exfoliating my lips before hand, it still seems luck of the draw as to how they’ll behave. They seem to highlight imperfections in my lips that I didn’t even know were there. This happens more often with the paler shade (Strawberry Whip) than Rose Macaroon.

Here are close-ups of both glosses. As you can see with Strawberry Whip, it makes my lips look kind of bad, and they’re actually fine to begin with.

Strawberry Whip

Rose Macaroon

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In general: the lasting power is really good if you’re not doing anything mouthy (don’t be crude). I wore Rose Macaroon for a while without drinking or eating and 4 hours after applying my lips looked the same: shiny and tinted. After this I had to eat. But I think the effect would have lasted longer, and even when this lipgloss starts rubbing off/fading it still gives a pleasant sheen for a long while.

After food: these glosses stand up to food surprisingly well. After a meal a lot of the gloss had been rubbed off but I could still feel it on my lips and a tint (with a slight sheen) still remained.

After drink: they didn’t fare so well against liquids. I could still feel the creamy texture on my lips but hardly any visible trace remained.

Some people have said the glosses tend to settle into the tiny vertical lines on your lips. I have noticed this once and haven’t noticed it since. It seems these lipglosses are unreliable in terms of daily performance: one day there’s no trouble at all but the next the lipgloss is all stringy when you put it on.

Here are full-face pictures of both glosses because I find posting disembodied mouths a little creepy, and also unhelpful in the whole context of how the gloss looks.

Strawberry Whip

Rose Macaroon

I like Rose Macaroon much more than Strawberry Whip because I am not too enamoured with skin-like gloss colours. I’d guess colours like Rose Macaroon, Brownie Chocolate and Sugar Milk Tea would make nice MLBB colours, and the others (Peach Milk, Honey Latte and Strawberry Whip) would be better if you’re looking for a pale lip.

I’m not sure I would buy any more of these, but not because there’s anything wrong with them per se, just because they haven’t managed to convert me over to wearing lipglosses daily. In general though, I think they are quite nice as lipglosses go: they have good lasting power and they’re not sticky. The colour range is pretty limited, but wearable.

So: Lasting power is good and when the gloss does wear off it does so without leaving any marks or lines. On rare occasions the lipgloss settles into lines so 16/20 in all.

Application can be tricky depending on how the lipgloss is feeling that day, so that’s about a 10/20.

While the glosses don’t hydrate, they also don’t dry out my lips, but like I said before: if you have any lip issues to begin with (dry-ness, flakiness etc) these glosses should probably be avoided.

So altogether that averages to 13/20.

I’d say that’s a fair score, but I am a little biased against glosses I think. It seems I’ll have to stick with my illamasqua sheer lipglosses as they are more like a gloss/balm hybrid.

Nov 7 2010

Review: Canmake Cream Cheek 01 Peach Dream

Following on from my post of Canmake Cream Cheek swatches, here is my review of Shade 01, Peach Dream.

Appearance

Canmake Cream Cheek comes in a small, slim and see-through case. The lid and pan are attached by a hinge, but this hinge is a little flimsy (the lid just came off in my hand yesterday, but it was easy to reattach). The case’s size makes it great for carrying around in your bag for any touch-ups in the day.

Canmake Cream Cheek

Here is how Canmake describe the shade:

[01] Peach Dream☆

A delicate pink like a fairy.
For an innocent look.

which isn’t very helpful. So here are some comparison swatches with Ben Nye Powder Rouge in Dusty Pink, and Bobbi Brown Illuminating Bronzer in Antigua.

Product Comparison

While Peach Dream and Dusty Pink look almost identical in the pan, the swatch shows that Peach Dream is a lot more pink than Dusty Pink. It also has blue tones. Antigua also looked similar in the pan but it is much more of a browny peach. Peach Dream is definitely peach (see the full face pictures below) but it leans towards the pink side of the spectrum. It’s a pretty shade, hardly unique but it adds a natural tint of colour to your cheeks.

It also has glitter in it that you can see if you click for a full size version of the swatch. I’m really not a fan of glittery blushes- I just don’t see how that could ever look natural, but when Peach Dream is applied on my cheeks I can only see the shimmer if I look very closely and turn my head really slowly. (I’m lucky I live alone…). This cannot be said for a few other products from this range: shade number 2 showed up as very glittery in my swatches and I read recently on Lotus Palace that it was too glittery to wear.

Application

I apply this blush with my fingers. It is quite easy to blend, not as easy as the Illamasqua Cream Blushes but it comes close. You don’t have to be too careful when applying this: of course with all blushes you can go overboard, but with Peach Dream you can use a decent amount and still look human.

This is shown in the photo below – I applied a lot to show the true colour of blush. After this photo was taken I patted the blush down with my fingers and now it looks natural. (Excuse the no-makeup face – it’s Sunday!)

Full face closeup

Lasting Power

This blush lasts a really long time when applied on bare skin. A few times I’ve powdered my face beforehand (which I think is a no no with Cream blushes?) and the colour only lasted a few hours. On bare skin, however, it stays on until you wash it off.

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Overall I quite like this blush. It lasts a long time and it’s really easy to use. While the glitter only shows up if you look closely in some lights, I’d rather it wasn’t there at all.

So Application gets 19/20 (it’s super easy but not quite Illamasqua standard)

Appearance gets 11/20 (the shade is pretty but it doesn’t have me excited to wear it, and the glitter is unnecessary).

Lasting Power 20/20

Overall: 16/20

Oct 31 2010

Swatches! Coffret D’or Beauty C Curve Eyes and Canmake Cream Cheek Blushes

I took some swatches of the limited edition Coffret D’or Beauty C Curve Eye palettes: Smokey Brown and Plum Wine.

You can find a review of the Smokey Brown palette here.

(As always, click for full-size)

And you can find out more about the product on the Coffret D’or Website.

These swatches are of the Canmake Cream Cheek products – you can find out more about them here.

I was so taken by these that I bought one in shade number 1 (Peach Dream) and I will post an in-depth review of it this week. So far I really like these cream blushes!

If you click for full-size you’ll see the colours are a tiny bit shimmery. Shades number 2 and 8 have quite noticeable shimmer, the others are more subtle. I think almost all these shades are great – I’m not too keen on Vitamin Orange or Nut Cream – and I may buy more in the future.

Here are the Canmake descriptions of the shades.

[01] Peach Dream☆

A delicate pink like a fairy.
For an innocent look.

[02] Cherry Pink☆

A cute pink that will make your cheeks look slightly flushed. For an angelic expression!

[03] Strawberry Whip☆

A sweet dolly pink that will give you the cheeks of an innocent baby. For the ultimate girly look.

[04] Vitamin Orange☆

A bright orange that will make everyone feel full for vim and vigor. For a lively expression like the sun.

[05] Sweet Apricot☆

An apricot orange that will give you the impression of a cute, free girl. Increase your impishness?!

[06] Nut Cream☆

A caramel brown with a delicate hint of orange that will give you a classy expression. Also good for those with a tanned complexion☆

[07] Coral Orange☆

A coral orange that will make others want to brush their cheek against yours make you want to touch it You’ll share a little happiness when you smile like a princess ♥

[08] Marshmallow Pink☆

A pure pink that will give you warm cheeks which will make him want to protect you. Enslave him with cheeks that he’ll be unable to resist wanting to kiss?!

That’s right. Enslave him.

You can buy these at A Pop of Kawaii.

Oct 7 2010

Swatches: Canmake Melty Nude Lip, Nudy Glow Rouge, Coffret D’Or Beauty Essence Gel Foundation

Hello! So after yesterday’s heavy post I thought I’d lighten things up with some swatches I took at the drug store – I know it’s difficult buying online so I thought if I tried to swatch as much as possible it’d make everyone’s shopping a little more fun. If you have any requests email me or comment.

First off, Coffret D’or Beauty Essence Gel Foundation (seriously, I’m surprised they didn’t have to make the labels bigger to accommodate this massive name).

Okay so I don’t know much about gel foundation, I’ve heard some people say it doesn’t settle into pores as much as liquid foundation and so it looks more skin-like but that’s all I know really.

Anyway I’ve had a lot of requests for swatches of this Coffret D’or Beauty Essence Gel, so here they are.

First: My skin with some MAC shades on it. This was taken in different light (at home) so it’s not totally foolproof but it gives an idea of how pale my arm is (very- paler than my BB Alabaster face). I tried to adjust the white balance so that the swatches would be more comparable.

These are all the shades, sorry it’s quite blurry but I hope you can get an idea of the colours.

These are just the lighter shades, I included this picture because it’s sharper than the other one and so it might be more helpful.

Okay so none of the shades are light enough for my skin, and I would say if you’re NW15 you probably won’t find a match either. As a cool-toned girl, none of these tones match me at all. The Ochre shades are supposedly neutral but, while they were cooler than the Beige shades, I would still say they were warm overall. There is one tone, Soft Ochre which is more neutral but for some reason the only shade they have is ‘C’. The Beige tones are a strange colour. They’re warm but they have a kind of olive tint to them as well, I think if you were very warm you could wear these shades, and for those with olive tones they might be of interest to you too. The B shades are the lightest and D shades are the darkest. The difference between shades is quite small, and I wouldn’t consider the D shades to be that dark at all.

You can find this product on sale here.

Now, requests for Canmake lip swatches were pretty common too, so I’ve swatched the Canmake Melty Nude Lip (lipstick) and Nudy Glow Rouge (gloss) products for you.

Melty Nude Lip

I only realised after swatching that the testers hadn’t been in the correct order, oops! I wasn’t too impressed with these lipsticks, they were just ok. Then again I am not a fan of the ‘nude lip’ trend so I guess I was kind of biased against them in the first place. On lips (one of the testers had just been put out) they are VERY nude (what can I say I like to point out the obvious). On skin they look much darker and more vibrant than they actually are when applied on lips. Oh also, you may be finding it difficult to tell the difference between shades 1 and 2, I also have no clue. In the shop they looked so similar I could only see a tiny difference when I held my arm at different angles. 2 is ever so slightly more pink but other than that the difference is negligible.

I had to copy in the descriptions from the Canmake website because I thought they were cute:

[01] Baby Beige

A bright light beige. For a casual look that emphasizes your eyes.
Everyone will be fascinated by your lips, which will look perfect, yet somehow vulnerable!

[02] Creamy Nude

This is true nude-look make-up – a skin-tone beige that will suit everyone! For natural-looking lips ☆

[03] Baby Pink

A cute milky pink the color of cherry shells. For sweet-looking lips like an innocent young girl.

[04] Peach Beige

A pinkish beige that creates lips in a sophisticated skin tone.
For criminally beautiful lips that combine an adult sophistication with a certain impishness!

Canmake Nudy Glow Rouge

I have to say I was really impressed by these. As you know from last week’s Friday Round-Up I hate sticky lipgloss and Japan had yet to show me any formulae I hadn’t seen before. Enter Canmake Nudy Glow Rouge (overly-verbose naming seems to be a trend here). These are a bit like the Illamasqua sheer lipglosses in texture, but they are much more pigmented. They do have a little stick (there has to be SOME) but they actually feel quite creamy. I’m really tempted to get one of these, I just can’t decide on a shade right now. It seems like all of them would be good (though I’m not too keen on Honey Latte myself) but I’m leaning towards Rose Macaroon.

Here are the colour descriptions from the website.

[01] Rose Macaroon

A pinkish beige that gives your lips a gentle rose-pink color. Creates a gorgeous countenance that will make your skin look one tone brighter. Contains silver pearl

[02] Strawberry Whip

A lovable milky pink like a pink shell. For dainty-looking lips like those of an innocent young girl. Contains silver pearl × large gold light-polarizing pearl × large red light-polarizing pearl

[03] Brownie Chocolate

A deep beige that will accentuate the paleness of your skin. For grown-up yet sweetly neat-looking lips. Contains large gold light-polarizing glass pearl × large red light-polarizing glass pearl

[04] Sugar Milk Tea

A versatile milky beige that creates lips with a sophisticated skin tone. Very handy when you want to ensure that your eye make-up stands out! Contains large gold light-polarizing pearl × large red light-polarizing pearl

[05] Honey Latte

A bright beige close to your natural complexion.
The exquisite color calculated to blend in well with your skin is the perfect shade to make you look like a classy girl!

[06] Peach Milk