Prescriptives is offering it’s 1st Time Ever Friends and Family Discount! 25% off plus Free Shipping at Prescriptives.com and they’ll add in a free sample of your choice!
Awesome!
The Muse wants to try out the new dual foundation sticks for sure…hmm and maybe the Magic Effects Eyeshadows I’ve been lemming..and maybe the potted lip glosses….oh I feel the list getting longer and longer!
Want anything for yourself?
Ok so I finally laid my hands on Pink Horizon which I was moaning about sometime last week (Click!).
Since we were all musing and wondering what the hell the difference was between Pink and Apricot Horizon I decided to do pictures.
I was finally able to locate Pink Horizon on E-bay since it’s still unavailable at Avon’s website yet but after much bitching, moaning, whining, and pissing about how much I wanted it I scored on E-bay and it popped into my mail box on Saturday! I was properly chuffed to have it as I was so utterly in love with Apricot Horizon I knew that the pink variation would be true love as well!
I wasn’t wrong. As soon as I opened Pink Horizon I fell deeply in love once again! It’s perfectly pigmented, beautiful, and gives my face the perfect touch of color. I said it before and I’ll say it again these are well worth the effort of tracking down and purchasing for your own!
Pink is truly pink. After the many musings we had over how Apricot Horizon looked so pink I’m happy to report that pink is truly pink. The pink variation of this is a truer pink then it’s peach sister and you can obviously see when the two are side by side which is the peach version and which is the pink. Apricot Horizon even appears more peachy then pink when it’s beside Pink Horizon.
Color pay off is different from Apricot and I get more of a pinched pink look from Pink Horizon and more of a peachy glow from Apricot Horizon.
All and all the colors are most definately different!
After all that babbling here they are side by side:
Apricot Horizon
Pink Horizon
Have these?
Want ‘em?
Loving the shades?
Tell the Muse!
One of my readers had requested I do an entry on a few brands to look out for in Korea. I don’t purchase many Korean brands but I do enjoy looking out for exciting new Asian Brands as you know be it Japanese, Korean, or Chinese.
Korea is a place that is near and dear to my heart simply because of it’s vast entertainment selection. Aside from Japanese pop culture I’d say that Korea definately holds plenty of appeal for me in the entertainment field. I adore Korean dramas as you may already know and some pop music as well (I’m more of a J-Rock girl but popular Korean music definately gets some of my attention).
Do keep in mine prior to reading this that the post will probably create some hardcore lemmings so don’t hold the Muse responsible 
One of my all time favorite Korean brands which I haven’t be able to locate anywhere aside from Korea would be Clio.
Clio reminds me of Bourjois Paris with it’s cute packaging and baked eyeshadows and blushes. I’ve done an entry on Clio prior to this but it deserves a revisit in this post. Clio is actually made in Italy but distributed in Korea. As I mentioned I haven’t seen Clio distributed anywhere else in the world aside from Korea but I could be wrong! From what I understand Sasa carries the line but I’m not sure where else in Korea you can purchase it.
The line contains plenty of beautiful, funky cosmetics that are sure to appeal to those who love a bit of color. If you’re looking for a natural, neutral look Clio isn’t something you’ll want to look into however if you love a bit of color this will be something you’ll enjoy!
Price is midway in my opinion with blushes running from about $19 USD and eyeshadows at around $14 USD. I’ve had little success locating Clio in online shops or on E-bay so if you want the line you’re either hopping a plane to Korea or asking a mate to pick you up some!
Overall, it’s possibly one of my favorite brands. I own about 6 of the shadows or so and two of the blushes (I wish I had more) and they are all very pigmented, silky, and beautiful more so then Bourjois Paris if possible.
Should you happen to be wandering around Korea another cosmetic line to keep your eyes on would be Laneige. Laneige falls into the luxury group of cosmetics in my opinion but the price is tiny in comparison to some lines. Laneige sells outside of Korea and can be found in Singapore and China however some of the better items pop up in Korea and later are distributed to other countries at later dates. I haven’t seen Laneige in Japan but again I could be wrong.
Palettes are about $23-30 USD some lower. Prices vary from country to country and of course it remains cheapest within Korea.
The line is extensive, covering point, base, skincare, and other bits and bobs. It definately has some very interesting items and if you have access it is worth looking at!
Next up Etude….
Let me introduce you to Etude. Now Etude is truly an awesome line. It’s girlishly sweet with some seriously awesome packaging. It definately falls into a favorite category for me. The brand is available in drugstores and price wise isn’t too bad. The range is very extensive and includes a variety of cosmetics, skincare, fragrance, and other bits.
The beautiful commercials and adverts are especially appealing and cutesy! In the video below I’m especially in love with the makeup from the Peach collection which is a new collection for Spring!
Palettes range from $9 USD and up which isn’t bad at all. The shadows fall into the MJ line in my opinion which means they are pigmented as you make them out to be. It takes a bit of work to build up color but in the long run you can get a beautiful look using them!
The new Pore Erasing Peach Base is something to keep your eyes out for. It quite reminds me of Benefit’s Erase Paste but looks like it’ll work much better plus it’s only $11 bucks!
Etude is definately Muse Approved for purchase! If you’re in Korea you’ll definately want to keep your eyes open for products from Etude’s range!
Banila Co is another girlish brand that I adore! The new Spring Collection looks much like Clio’s dual shadows but the price is a bit lower at about $9 USD per shadow. The highest item cost wise is about $20 USD.
The line also includes a variety of items from base cosmetics, point, tools, skincare, and even body care!
Banilia is available in drugstores and quality is excellent for the price!
A higher end of cosmetics within Korea is Vidi Vici. Vidi Vici is created by Lee Kyung Min a famous makeup artist in Korean. The line for me is a bit unappealing due to the elegant packaging. I’m more for cute packaging which could be why Vidi Vici fails to wow me. The line up is geared more towards the working class lady and has that air of elegance minus the kawaii feel about 90% of cosmetics in Asia incorporate into their collections! As you may have suspected the price range is also geared towards the mature woman.
Last but not least is VOV. VOV for me has the feel of Kose as some of the palettes resemble those in the line even the Spring Collection has the feel of Visee with it’s mirrored compacts! The prices are about the same as Kose as well with palettes ranging from $17 USD or so. The line up is appealing to all with it’s beautiful compacts and color combinations.
The line isn’t as extensive as some brands but does have it’s fair share of point, base, skincare, etc….
Overall, it’s definately geared towards the fresh twenty something but the Muse isn’t twenty and she adores it!
Well…That’s all folks!
I hope you enjoyed this little adventure into Korean cosmetics! Do feel free to share some of your favorite Korean brands!
I’d especially love to hear from those of you within Korea about prices, favorite brands, etc…..
Comment box is open!
A new friend of mine asked me to to get some Essence of Beauty brushes for her this week. She asked for a particular set which was the dual crease brush. As I was doing her shopping I noticed that the brushes looked pretty good and I knew that these are a cult favorite of my sweet mate, ‘Nes, at Nessasary Makeup and that was good enough for me to want to try them!
These cost $4.99 USD and are basically a dual package of mini crease brushes. The style reminds me of Bobbi Brown brushes with the wooden handle.
The size of these intrigued me as they appear to be more a smudger style brush then a crease brush but hey it was worth trying for the price tag! The first brush is a tiny dome shape that reminds me of a Mally Beauty brush I own but the Mally brush is a bit more fuller where as this is smaller.
I didn’t expect this to do much as it was way too small to properly work my crease area. I’m used to using MAC’s 224 and 227 on my crease. Present me with this tiny thing and I’m at a loss how I should be using it. But I happily tried it out and I must say it fits into the contour of my crease brilliantly and works a treat at blending shadows. I found that it actually gave me more management over the brush and bristles since it was far smaller then what I’m used too. I also experienced less fall out because the brush was so tiny. It also worked well on defining the v of my eye and blending inwards.
As you can see I’m used to blending with a much larger brush!
It’s quite a multitasking brush because I can use it on the v of my eye, within my crease, and also to line my bottom lash line with my shadow.
The second brush with the package is even smaller then the first. It’s a step up from an eyeliner brush. This too worked surprisely well. It didn’t do that great a job blending the color completely but it worked fabulously defining the v of my eye and working the my color half way across my crease for contrast.
I felt like both brushes gave me a bit more control over the look I was creating and I successfully manged to create an interesting look by contrasting a lighter shade of shadow all over my eye and a darker shade of shadow across part of my crease and v.
Much to my delight neither brush shed a bristle the entire time I was using them and the brushes are very soft. The handles are mini size but again I felt like the handles being so small gave me much more control over what I was creating! It was kind of like having a pencil grasped tightly between my hands and it was nice and steady as I worked.
As you can see below my outer eye is a shimmering light brown beige that contrasts nicely with the gold amber shadow I used. I created the look using the larger of the two crease brushes and proceeded to line my lower lash line with the smaller of the brushes!
Overall, for the price, these were most definately an interesting little find and I’m generally curious about the rest of the brushes in the Essence of Beauty Collection!
I can’t help but give these a Muse Approved Seal for purchase!
This year I turned 30. OH MY GOD! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Sorry had to get that out of my system!
Moving on……..
When you turn 30 I think maybe you’re faced with your lack of immortality. It’s like suddenly a light bulb switches on the top of your head and you realize you’re not going to be cute forever and wrinkles, a thing of the past, are now part of your present and future life!
JEEBUS NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
So this might be boring for some of you. I find it extremely boring to walk onto a blog that’s discussing anti-aging creams! Keeping that in mind I’m going to keep this as brief as I possibly can!
I’ve been mudding around with at least 20 eye creams lately, seriously. It first started in December sometime when I woke up and noticed that my eyes were puffy. Mmm nothing new there we all have that problem. However, it began to sincerely freak me out when the swelling lasted all day.
I suddenly found myself drinking 30 glasses of water, avoiding more then 10 grams of salt, and looking in the mirror very, very closely!
It was when I was looking in the mirror that the puffy problem was no longer a worry but the fact that I was developing some sincerely fine lines! Where the hell did those come from!? Who put those there!!!!!!!!!!? I demand to know! I wanna talk to the man in charge!
I skipped my way over to the MAC counter and I casually asked about a concealer as my plan of action was to conceal those nasty buggers with industrial strength MAC concealer! Obviously my beloved Benefit Boi-ing wasn’t doing the trick! I needed to get out the big guns!
Of course, my MA wasn’t there at the time and although all the girls know me I ended up getting someone new. Which was fine. But it later became a problem when she was studying my eye area and poking around under there and calmly said…”You’re very dry”!
MY GOD! WHAT?! Puffy, Wrinkles, and DRY!? What the hell else could go wrong!?
She proceeded to tell me about Clinque’s All About Eyes Cream and later told me that it probably wouldn’t work and I’d need something stronger. Gee thanks. Really helpful.
I skipped the concealer needless to say and headed directly across the way to the Clinque counter where I asked after an eye cream. I explained that I was dry, I had fine lines, and I had a bit of a puffy thing going on. I got a snarky reply that went something like this, “SO WHICH is it?!?!?!?”….um all of the above is that a problem? I was desperate otherwise I’d have told her to take the eye cream and stick it up her…..sorry…..
I ended up purchasing the Intense All About Eyes Cream…it’s extra moisturizing or some rubbish like that. She proceeded to throw it in the bag, throw my change at my head, and usher me out so she could help another customer who probably didn’t buy anything ANYWAY!
After using it for a week I decided it was way to thick. This is ridiculous! Did I really need to apply a layer of cream cheese under my eye daily?
I went back and returned it for the normal formula and proceeded to use that a week. It did nothing. I guess I wanted a miracle in 7 days!
Now over the course of my time middling around with eye creams I’ve gotten so many great replies to my questions it’s borderlines on ridiculous. I’m wondering if these people even know anything about what they are selling!
The bad news is I’ve been through to many of these bad boys with absolutely no results!
This is what I’ve tried so far:
Clinique All About Eyes
Clinique All About Eyes Rich
Ole Henricksen Ultimate Lift Eye Gel
Murad Renewing Eye Cream
Dermadoctor Wrinkle Revenge Cream (Testing in progress….)
Patricia Wexler De-Puff Eye Gel (Testing in progress…..)
Serious Skin Care Nanofiller
Dr Denese Restoreyes
Amazing Superfil (Testing in Progress….)
La Mer Eye Concentrate
I’m sure there are more but I can’t remember them all. My main reason for typing this up is I discovered an interesting little tidbit about eye creams.
It appears that eye creams make things worst instead of better! My eyes have gone from having fine lines, dryness, and puffiness to having a sunken in appearance, an exhausted look, saggyiness, milia (sounds like someone’s name), and other problems!
I guess the moral of my story is that you have to seriously be careful how much you use, what you’re using, and be conscious of how you looked before using the cream and how you look after!
We are now in March and I still haven’t found an eye cream that works that great but I have worked out an interesting eye care regime that appears to have helped almost all my problems!
I’ve discovered a miracle product from Dr Denese entitled Hydro-Shield Serum. This contains everything you long for in an eye cream such as soy and retinol. It’s also very gentle compared to other items I’ve tried out. It’s highly moisturizing and although it promises to dry matte I find it doesn’t do that but I use it before bed so I’m not really worried. It’s a clear gel that comes in a pump bottle. One tiny pump should do both eyes because it’s such an amazingly moisturizing gel that you don’t need a ton of it. The formula is a clear gel and I glide it under my eyes. No patting here, at least for me. The formula is so slippery and slides so well you might as well just gently glide it across.
In the time I’ve been using it I’ve noticed a huge improvement with my fine lines and I actually think this has to do with the fact that it moistened my eyes so well. My eyes were so dry prior to using this that fine lines were much more noticeable. Now they are definately looking much better!
If you’re looking to use this in the AM (I only use it in the PM) you’ll have to wait at least 5 minutes because it takes about that long to dry and that could be a deal breaker for some folk! I don’t use it in the morning for this reason! This is a serum so you can happily apply your eye cream of choice over it after dry down! I actually feel so moisturized that I don’t apply my normal eye cream over it.
It deserves to be said that this is great for fine lines and dryness but does nothing for puffy eyes which is why I’m in lust and love with another product to shrink my puffy eyes down to size.
I’m pretty sure you have heard me raving about this product before but it deserves a re-mention. I was experiencing a problem with puffy eyes this Winter in a big way. It could be lack of sleep, eye strain, sinuses, or just general old age but I’ve had a bit of a puff here and there that I found irritating. I tried just about everything in the old maid’s handbook but nothing seemed to work. Cold spoons, teabags, cold compresses…no I didn’t try hemorrhoid cream…there is no way in hell I am putting butt cream under my eyes sorry but I have to draw the line somewhere!
When age old methods failed I turned to a few different gels such as Patricia Wexler De-Puffing Gel and Ole Henricksen Ultimate Eye Lift. The Wexler one just didn’t do anything but the Ole one was successful in sealing my eyes closed for me. I’ve never experienced anything so sticky in my life! Wow.
My mate Rows sent me a package with some Boots Botanicals Ultimate Eye Lift Gel and the first time I used it I didn’t see any results. I’m one of those people that want instant results, right away, NOW DAMMIT NOW! In a “unlike me” way I proceeded to keep using it for a week day and night. I never commit to anything that I don’t notice some results with so this is a rare thing but I was desperate so I decided what the hell. It’s a clear gel that I massage under my eyes every evening and every morning. Within a week’s time I noticed a very big difference and I was no longer sporting serious baggage. Within a month or so of use my eyes had virtually cleared up. I still wake with a tiny amount of puff but it’s pretty much gone after I get out of the shower. I still religiously use this night and day even though most of my puff is gone. It’s very gentle, doesn’t sting, hasn’t caused any milia, and my eyes are looking refreshed and gorgeous!
I guess my promise of not being long and rambling has been broken! Sorry!
The moral of the story is even if you’re 20 years old now is a good time to start treating your eyes to a good eye cream!
Do you use eye creams?
What’s your favorite?
Which have you found effective?
Tell the Muse!
Recent Comments