Review: Lush's Rock Star Soap

I went on a tiny lush splurge the other day, well, a splurge because I bought it in Hong Kong and it's almost twice as expensive as it is in the UK. Anyway, I ended up purchasing a tiny piece of the Rock Star Soap (just over 100g, I believe). I cut it up into thin slices, ready for use.

I've heard a lot of great things about the this soap, especially how it smells and stuff. On the lush site, it's described as "sweet vanilla and strawberry". To me, it just smells really girly and feminine. I do like it, but not as much as my 'Honey I Washed the Kids' soap. Sometimes, I feel the smell can be overbearing and if I'm having an off day, it sometime smell like cough medicine, you know, the cherry kind.

I mean, overall, it does smell really good, and it makes my clothes smell good, hehe. I'll write a new blog post about how to store lush soaps and all, eh? It's easier than leaving it all in the bathroom. But that's another story. I find that it lathers extremely well, it's even better than my 'Honey I Washed the Kids' soap. But that's another disad, it just means the soap will disintegrate faster, so make sure you cut small pieces to stick in your shower, or it'll all just disappear and you've wasted your money. It disintegrates fast because the rock star soap, in my opinion, is actually a little more watery than the honey soap, there's more moisture so it's softer and easier to lather. Smell is great, colour is awesome (it is pink, after all!), lathers well. All in all, a great product from Lush.

Review/Swatch: MAC's Viva Glam V Lipstick

Hey all! I've been looking for a neutral pink lipstick that had shimmer in it, and I think I've found my HG. I've always been a lipgloss kinda girl and never really considered lipstick because they seem to be drying (especially for those of us who already have dry skin) and they tend not to have that glossy effect.

Well, the MAC Viva Glam V lipstick goes on like a gloss and but doesn't have that stickiness. Of course, it isn't as glossy as a normal lipgloss would be, but it has the shimmer, which is a plus in my book.  This is because it's a lustre.

Below is a photo of the lipstick. It is extremely true to colour in the photo.

Below are a couple of photos of swatches I did on my hand. I'm a NW20 in concealer, for reference. I'm not matched to a MAC foundation as I have never tried any of them, cos I always think they're going to break me out. I'll edit this if I do decide to try it.

This first image is a photo of the swatches with flash. The swipe on top is layered, and the one on the bottom is only one swipe of the product. As you can see, the colour is extremely buildable. The coverage is sheer at first, as shown in the bottom swipe of the first image. This colour may not show up on your lips if you have pigmented lips with just one swipe, it'll just give you a glossy tint. However, you can layer it on, but it may look a little bit more bronzey cos' there are actually golden shimmers in it. Well, from what I can see, it does.

Without flash:

Overall, I think this lipstick would be suitable for all skintones, and would compliment any makeup look as it is so neutral and sheer. It is moisturizing, which is a definite plus for a lipstick, and gives that slight shimmer. It is a great everyday lipstick. However, I do find that the shimmer transfers and may stay after the lipstick has worn off. This doesn't wear that long, several hours at most. So reapplication is a must, but I'm fine with that.

Please click here for a short video on the Viva Glam V.

Quick Tip: How To Keep Eyeliner Lasting Longer

If you want your eyeliner to stay on for longer, just set it with a matte black shadow! It's the same theory as setting your liquid foundation. It prevents the eyeliner from moving around and will last much longer. It is okay to set your waterline as long as you tap off the excess and place the powder extremely carefully on your waterline. To make it stay even longer? Place your concealer on your lid as a primer if you don't already do so! Again, same theory as primer for shadows, just a stickier base for the liner to stick to.

Review: Clarins Cleansing Milk with Alpine Herbs

I've been using this cleanser for about a year or so now, and it's been great for my skin. I have extremely dry and sensitive skin and this has not broken me out at all. In fact, it actually moisturizes my skin more than anything.

Okay, first of all, the look and packaging. The bottle itself is a tall, oval bottle with a white cap. The product itself is a light pale green. At the top where the product comes out, there is a small hole which stops any product from leaking out unless you squeeze the bottle, in which case the product comes out quite easily. So, gold star for that! :)

Now, onto the smell. When I first started using this cleanser, it smelt a little weird to me, just because I wasn't used to the herbs in the cleanser. It may smell really strange to you if you have a really sensitive nose, but otherwise, it's quite easy to get used to and now I quite like the smell.

What I do is that I take the bottle and squeeze about a dime-sized amount on my fingertips. I dab it on my cheeks, forehead and chin and then rub in circular motions gently. I feel that this cleanser does its job well. After usage, my skin feels extremely clean, not stripped of moisture, and it removes most of my makeup. I do find that I need to use a makeup remover after if there is any makeup leftover on my face leaving me with raccoon eyes D:

It retails at USD29.50 for 7oz or 200ml, so it's quite pricey for a cleanser. However, if you do have extremely dry and sensitive skin like me, then you'll understand that it's quite difficult to buy something which is good for you and doesn't cause an allergic reaction. Well, I guess it isn't that difficult, but it's just that I prefer using more high-end products for my skincare than makeup. A bottle of this baby last quite a while, so I think that it is worth the money.

Review: MAC's Technakohl Liner

I bought this eyeliner on a whim. I needed a pencil liner that I could use on my waterline and I'd heard from a couple of friends that the MAC one is one of the better ones to use. So I got it, since I didn't have any and I only had liquid eyeliner.

I really do like this product, just because it is one of those automatic pencil liners. It isn't an eyeliner that you have to sharpen constantly. Of course, this just means that the end won't be that sharp all the time but that's fine with me, to be honest... I mean, I can always work the pencil until it goes to a slightly pointed edge.

What I've found is that this eyeliner does go on extremely smoothly, but that's because it's a kohl liner. It's meant to be soft. This also meant that it goes on my waterline well, but it also gets off well... I mean, it stayed for a bit, but if I happened to tightline that day it would slip off after a couple hours in need of reapplication.

The good thing is, when applied to your upper lash line, it does stay put for a long time. However, it does slip a bit to your outer v area, where your upper and lower water line meet. It kind of goes into that little crease and a bit below it as well after a couple hours of wear, or if you have teary eyes.

For me, because on most days, I tend to just wear eyeliner, or even no make up, it's pretty easy for me to remove. I just use a cotton pad, soak it up with my makeup remover and place it over my eye for a couple of seconds before moving the cotton pad gently back and forth to get rid of the product. I've found that it works well to use a q-tip, just to get in between your lashes or on your waterline just because you don't want any of that makeup remover to get into your eyes to cause blurriness/stinging.

Overall, I do like this eyeliner, the staying power just isn't that good in my book. But you could always set it with a powder, just be careful of fallouts and please be extremely careful when you place the powder on your waterline, as it could get into your eye and cause damage.

For a short video on this, please click here.

Review: Lush's Honey I Washed the Kids Soap

Hey all! I purchased the Honey I Washed the Kids soap about a month ago because I'd seen all the great reviews on it. You know, the typical 'great smelling', 'caramel-y smelling' reviews? Well, I finally succumbed and bought it.

Now, I had huge expectations for this soap just because everyone has been raving about it. So, I went to the store, took a whiff, and HOLY BAJEEZUS. It smelt absolutely amazing! I went ahead and bought about 400g of this, which is quite a lot considering I live in Hong Kong and this costed me about 200hkd. This is around the equivalent of about 25usd? So, it was quite expensive.

Anyway, I got the woman who was working at the particular lush store I bought the soap at to cut the soap up into roughly four equal pieces. I had cut it so that two pieces had the gorgeous honeycomb pattern on top and two pieces were just the plain pale yellow soap. So I hopped into the shower with this soap, sniffing it along the way just because it smelt that good. It is extremely difficult to describe the smell. It's sort of an extremely sweet, caramel/toffee, but also honey smell, I guess. Haha, well that did a great job...

Back to the shower, so I went into my shower and after I'd used my shampoo and had put in my conditioner I took the soap and ran it under the hot water for a second or two. This was just so you know, I didn't have to put dry soap on my skin and make it, like, skid on my skin if you know what I mean. Anyway, so I ran it under the water, and put it on my skin and started sort of, rubbing up and down and to my surprise, it made bubbles! :D Of course, they weren't like huge, bubble bath sort of bubbles... they were more like tiny little bubbles that you get when a soap lathers really well. I expected it to be more creamy and that it'd be difficult to lather, but this wasn't the case obviously.

Moving on, I found this soap to be slightly drying. Don't get me wrong, my skin felt clean after I'd used it, but it wasn't moisturizing for me at all. Overall, I love this soap just because of the smell and because of how it acts like a soap, but moisturizing? Not so much. I use a moisturizer anyhow so it didn't really make a change in my routine.

Comment below to let me know what you think about this soap!

Oh yeah and check out the review video here.