The Beauty Wolf

Author: The Beauty Wolf (Page 25 of 28)

Coco Park, mismiki nashoba

ROYAL GOLD RADIANT FOUNDATION REVIEW

January 13, 2014 /

ROYALGOLDFOUNDATIONAs my friends can attest to, I’ve always sent them to RoseRoseShop for the best prices and one of the largest selections of Korean cosmetics online. When they gave me the opportunity to review a brand new product, I was elated. When I got the package in the mail, I was floored!

I have an upcoming review for the Royal Gold skincare products, but right now I’m going to talk about the Radiant Foundation.

There is no English on the box aside from the name Royal Gold Radiant Foundation but from what my gorgeous translator tells me (ok, full disclosure: my translator is my husband, but he’s still easy on the eyes) the gist of it is this is a SPF 35 PA+++ , anti-wrinkle, whitening foundation, that leaves with skin with a clean soft feeling.

As you can see this is an elegant looking compact foundation with a typical, albeit lovely, gold sponge applicator, I was in no way prepared for what I discovered underneath.

RGcomWhen I first opened the compact, I literally gasped. In the most opulent display I’ve ever seen, there is a sheet of pure gold leaf covering the foundation. I stared at it for longer than I’d care to admit! It’s just so beautiful! I’m obsessed with metallics, especially gold, so this captured my heart straight away. After I finally brought myself to break through the gold leaf, I discovered a creamy balm type foundation underneath. The gold leaf does not transfer onto your face or anything, it pills up a little but you can just brush it away. It’s not a problem once you’ve swiped through the top layer.RGswatchUpon the first swipe onto my skin, I was sad to see it was a little too dark for me, however once I blended it in it adjusted nicely to my skin tone which is somewhere between a NC15 and NC20. I forgot to mention above, so far this is only available in two shades, 21 and 23. I received shade 21. I would say this would match someone between maybe NC15 and NC25, but would be most comfortable for the NC/NW 20-25s of the world. RGface
This is a foundation, not a bb cream, so it’s medium to heavier buildable coverage. If you like a fuller coverage compared to bb creams, this is definitely an indulgent option for you. The foundation glides on and sets into a semi matte, yet still radiant finish. It has a nice glow so it’s not completely matte, but it’s somewhat of an almost powdery cream feel once it’s set. It claims to be moisturizing and I guess you could say that, I didn’t find it particularly so, but it’s definitely not drying. This foundation has a floral perfume fragrance that’s very nice, it smells like the type of scent a luxe Queen’s products might contain. The wear time on it is really good. Admittedly I don’t have oily skin so I don’t have trouble with foundations slipping off my face, but I put this one on at 9am and when I removed my makeup at 9pm it was still there. As with all foundations, your mileage may vary.

I guess my sole complaint with this product is the sponge puff. It is so basic and does a poor job of evenly spreading the balm type foundation. Despite it’s beauty, the puff’s quality does not at all match up to the sheer opulence of the product contained underneath. However, that’s not too big of a deal and certainly not a deal breaker. If you have any other sponge, puff, beauty blender, or even brush you prefer, that would solve the problem.

 If you fit within the limited two shade range, this would make a wonderful luxurious treat for yourself (you deserve it!). It would also make a great statement gift. It’s perfect for Mother’s Day, or a gift for your bestie’s birthday, or even a Valentine’s gift, especially if you wrapped it up along with a nice gold foundation brush and some chocolates 😉
Royal Gold Radiant Foundation get’s a 4.5 out of 5 sumptuous turtles.

TONY MOLY RELAXING AQUA MARINE SHERBET CLEANSER REVIEW

January 10, 2014 /

TMRASCSherbet cleansers are going to be another one of those products I’m going to have to explain if you’re not already familiar with them.  In an Asian skincare routine, there is typically a two step process during nighttime cleansing that involves two different products. The first one is traditionally an oil cleanser to remove your makeup, followed up by your regular foaming cleanser. Sherbet cleansers are basically a solidified oil cleanser. Liquid oil cleansers work wonderfully, but some people eschew them for the sherbet style cleansers due to their ease of use. The liquid oil type has a pretty messy nature. It also has a tendency to get into the eyes, leaving you with an annoying temporary hazy film. The solid sherbet cleansers are a lot easier to handle and won’t dribble everywhere.

The most famous sherbet cleanser is probably the Banilla Co. Clean it Zero cleansing balm. The second is probably the Tony Moly Relaxing Aqua Marine Sherbet Cleanser, which is what I’ll be reviewing for you today.

TMAMSCCTony Moly Aqua Marine Sherbet Cleaner has a texture that’s something like that lemon ice cup dessert you can get from street vendors, if it were somehow able to be room temperature without melting. Kind of like butter straight out of the fridge before it gets soft. It’s a strange texture and hard to describe!

Once you scoop some out,  you can rub it with your fingertips and melt it down to a more oil like consistency. Next, you apply it to your face in a massaging motion as you would any makeup remover. It has a sort of vaguely citrusy smell that’s very subtle and refreshing. It glides all over with minimal effort, which is exactly what you want when dealing with the skin in the delicate eye area. It does a pretty decent job of removing your makeup. It completely rids your face of bb creams, foundation, base, blush, eyeshadows and even waterproof mascara. I used it here to remove the extremely tenacious Tony Moly Backstage Gel Eyeliner and the remnants of some MAC Fluidline and ELF gel liner. As you can see, it removed all but the very faintest ghost trace of the Tony Moly, which was easily removed with the foaming cleanser afterward.TMASCsw2Excuse my red skin, that has nothing to do with the cleanser, my skin is extremely reactive to the slightest friction, it goes back to normal in a minute or two lol.

Now, your face is most definitely not going to feel clean after using this product. Keep in mind that it’s a makeup remover and not a stand alone cleanser. You’ll be left with a kind of oily film on your face. Not to worry though, that’s where your foaming cleanser comes in and the two step process begins.
After you’ve used the sherbet to gently massage away your makeup, you wash your face with your favourite regular cleanser. It completely removes the oily feeling left by your sherbet or oil cleanser, leaving you with clean skin. I find that the Tony Moly Relaxing Aqua Sherbet Cleanser is removed a lot easier than some cleansing oils I’ve tried. All in all this is a pretty fool proof method for throughly removing makeup and experimenting with two step night cleansing. Using two cleansers might seem like overkill and take some getting used to, but together they do things that neither one could do alone.
Tony Moly Relaxing Aqua Sherbet Cleanser gets  4 out of 5 turtles.
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edit: This cleanser has been renewed and updated! It’s available here

Ebay:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/CLEANSER-KOREAN-TONY-MOLY-Aqua-Porin-Sherbet-Cleanser-Korean-Cosmetics-/251804079859?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3aa0b156f3

TONY MOLY BACKSTAGE GEL EYELINER REVIEW

January 9, 2014 /

tmbeyesI’m not even going to mince words.Tony Moly Backstage Gel Eyeliner should be front and center on your vanity table. I’m lucky enough to live in a city large enough to have a Korean cosmetics store. I’m luckier even still that it’s literally across the street from my building. As you can imagine I’m a constant browser in that store. On that particular day the Tony Moly Backstage Gel Eyeliner caught my eye. It’s unconventional shape was the first thing to grab me. When I picked up the tester and discovered that the unusual shape was due to the fact that there was a built-in telescope brush in the lid, I was very impressed with it’s cleverness. This was pretty much me in the picture below:tmbs
I was a MAC Fluidline devotee pretty much since it’s release. I never even thought about straying because it never made me unhappy. On the day I was at the Korean cosmetics store I had found myself running low on my Fluidline that morning. I was getting to that nasty end of the pot dried out stage where it just drags on your eyes like skid marks. Even though I was skeptical about the performance of the Tony Moly I had just been amused by, I decided why the hell not, and threw it in my basket. I figured at around $10 I could safely give it a shot.

The next morning when I got to the eyeliner step of my routine I broke out my new goodie. Whoa. Daaaaaaaaaamn. Blacker than a vortex and it just absolutely glided on like a dream. No dragging, smooth as hot butter, creamy, and yet drew a perfect defined cat-eye point. Even the brush was amazing. I can’t remember the last time, if any time, that a provided brush really wowed me. I really honestly dig that little brush. I’ll put it this way, I have at least $75 worth of different eyeliner brushes from my professional makeup artist days on hand and I almost always just use the brush that comes with the Backstage Gel Eyeliner. It’s handy as hell, and it works great. It works especially well when you’re doing the Korean puppy eye. I find that this brush shape lends itself perfectly to that look. Here it is compared to it’s counterparts; Mac Fluidline and an E.L.F Studio Cream Eyeliner pot I had laying around. All swatched twice.

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As far as durability? Forget about it. Tony Moly Backstage Gel Eyeliner beats the ever loving dogshit out of it’s competition. I’m serious. Check out these pictures. These are all waterproof gel eyeliners but Tony Moly is so far superior when it comes to the stress test. Look at what happens when we push the limits.tmbewas My thoughts exactly, cat. MTE.  Look at that! Mac and Elf are done. Done. Girl, bye.

What more do I need to say? This is my new holy grail eyeliner. The price is amazing, the product is stellar, and it’s as tenacious as my pit bull with his chew toy. Five totally on point flawless turtles.
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ETUDE HOUSE PROOF 10 EYE PRIMER REVIEW & URBAN DECAY PRIMER POTION BATTLE

January 8, 2014 /
proof10Everyone has been a fan of Urban Decay’s Primer Potion (UDPP) for so long, that it’s just a given. It’s been running unchecked as everyone’s favourite eyeshadow primer. Well folks, a new contender is stepping up to try to take the throne.

Etude House Proof 10 Eye Primer isn’t exactly a new product, but it’s one not too many people might know about in North America. As I’ve written about before, Korean cosmetic houses love to take global fan favourites and reproduce them for cheaper. And I mean cheap only in price point, not in quality, because a lot of times they end up improving upon the original. I think once again that’s the case with Proof 10 Eye Primer.
It comes in a little plastic container with a doe foot applicator in place of UDPP’s squeeze tube. That squeeze tube is sometimes a mess so the wand is a welcome alternative. The doe foot is a much better delivery system in my opinion. If you’re not comfortable with applying it directly to your lids with the wand there’s always the option of swiping it on your fingers first and then applying that way.The texture of the Proof 10 Eye Primer is not as thick as UDPP, it’s slightly more watery. It doesn’t affect it’s performance at all though. In fact, it’s another welcome change for me because I find the thick concealer like texture of the UDPP takes longer to dry than the Proof 10. That being said, because the Proof 10 dries and sets so fast you have to make quick work of getting it on and spread out where you want it before it sets. That may take some getting used to if you’re used to the forgiving nature of the UDPP.
proof10swaOn the left of the Proof 10 and the right is UDPP. I’ve swatched a shadow from the Too Face A Few Of My Favorite Things palette I reviewed earlier. Both primers work pretty much equally as you can see. In person there’s no difference between the two.So here’s the real test, I scrubbed my hand with soap and water and this is what we’re left with. The Proof 10 on the left actually held onto the eyeshadow at it’s first point on contact the best, the UDPP smudged around a lot. I actually rubbed the Proof 10 a lot more than the UDPP just to make sure it was really holding up better so if it looks slightly more faded that’s why. It took makeup remover to get rid of both shadows but the shadow used on top of the Proof 10 took more elbow grease to completely erase.
proof10after
Now if that weren’t enough to sway you over, here’s the kicker. Urban Decay Primer Potion retails at around $20. You can get Etude House Proof 10 Eye Primer for the ridiculous sum of $5.79 here . LOL, bye UDPP.Etude House Proof 10 Primer Potion, you get five indelible turtles.
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TONY MOLY PURE LUMINOUS PURE AURA CC CREAM SPF 30 PA+++

January 7, 2014 /

TonyMolyCCBy now we’ve all mastered BB creams, right? Well, let’s get crazy and throw some CC cream into the mix. Tony Moly Luminous Pure Aura CC cream SPF 30 PA+++ is my first foray into the CC cream trend. What’s a CC cream? Well, from what I can tell, they’re an all in one product with a lighter coverage than BB creams. They’re supposedly formulated with more skin beneficial ingredients and sometimes provide some colour correction. As far as this offering goes, let’s take a look at the description from their promotional materials:

“All in one effect with sunscreen + whitening+ wrinkle repairs + radiance + moisture+ primer + base make-up. Capsule changes color matching to your own skin tone as soon as it’s applied to offer innocent and gorgeous look to bare skin. Creates smooth and moisturized skin. All in one cream that takes care of skin care and make-up at the same time with moisture that remains for hours. Pink flowers complex delivers nutrition to create gorgeous skin. Contains elder flower extract, sunflower oil, centella asiatica extract, cherry blossons extract, water lily flower extract, rose flower extract, lotus flower extract, safflower seed oil, portulaca extract, and macadamia oil“Whew! Ok, well. Let’s work through all of that. Basically this is another one of those “there is nothing like this I can compare it to” situations. It’s a cream that when dispensed from the pump is bright white. If you look closely you can see tiny black dots suspended within the cream. Those are the colour capsules. They break open as you rub the product in and turn the cream into a neutral beige colour that’s supposed to match with your skin tone. It’s made to match with a variety of skin colours but keep in mind, that’s a variety of Korean skin colour, so unfortunately once again my dark skinned beauties might be left out on this one 🙁 I really can’t say for sure though, so if anyone with a dark skin colour has tried this and it’s worked for you please let me know in the comments!Once the cream is all blended into your skin it leaves a lovely dewy healthy look. It doesn’t look oily or even remotely as shiny as the popular Korean sheen look, it’s just a nice subtle glow. As for coverage this is the sheerest of the sheers. I’m extremely fortunate in that I really don’t need to wear a BB cream anymore (thank you Benton!) unless I’m going for a specific look. I don’t have any real need for coverage so this works as a stand alone product for me. That is to say, you could get away wearing this on it’s own if you don’t have any real skin flaws or severe unevenness of skin tone. If you do have those issues this is a great product to layer under your BB cream or foundation. It makes a smooth even canvas to work with so you may even find yourself using less BB cream. It would also pair well by itself but with a little concealer and some powder for days you really want to go for the no makeup makeup look.
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As far as the skin benefits go, it has some really lovely elements in there. It’s also moisturizing like it claims and it goes on feeling more like a skin treatment than a makeup. Of course it’s not a substitute for your regular skincare, but it’s nice that it has that stuff in there for you. Same thing with the SPF 30 sunblock, it goes without saying that I’m always thrilled when a product has any kind of good sun protection in it. Asian brands seem to recognize it’s importance way more than North American brands do at this point. It’s really behind the times and irresponsible not to, honestly. Sorry, that’s just an issue I’m passionate about because it has real consequences both in terms of premature aging and potential cancer risks. Sun protection will always bump up the likability of a product for me so I’m glad that this has a fairly high SPF. All in all I really do like and recommend this CC cream. It has a variety of benefits and functions and works great alone and or in conjunction with your other products!Tony Moly Luminous Pure Aura CC Cream SPF 30 PA+++ gets four and a half turtles.
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