Laneige Snow Radiant Blusher Review

I was browsing around the Laneige site a few weeks ago and I came across the The Secret of the Snow Crystal Snow Radiant Blushers. Sounds like an epic motion picture! Now playing The Secret of the Snow Crystal starring Bai Ling!

I'm not entirely sure if these were from the Holiday Collection or not and after much discussion and debate with a friend we decided that maybe they were something available from the Korean side of Laneige only!





Anyway!

I ended up getting the entire three that were released because they simply reminded me of MAC Mineralized Skinfinish and I rock Mineralized Skinfinish so that meant I'd be sure to shower love all over these!



These were about the same cost as an MSF and honestly they have the potential for converting non MSF users. Some folk hate Mineralized Skinfinish because they are glittery and shimmery. A wide range of the colors released thus far have contained chunky bits of glitter and not everyone likes to hose themselves down with glitter the way the Muse does!

Those of you who may have ranted that MAC's powders have some major shimmer will be delighted to know that these perform the way you probably hoped for from MAC. They highlight, create a soft glow on your face, and enhance your blush minus the shimmer and glitter.

The powder is soft and silky and easy to blend. The effect that these create is what I call a sort of photo finish glow. You can use these on natural bare skin or over your blush. I personally like to use them over my blush. You can also contour areas of your face for extra highlighting if you prefer.

Laneige Snow Radiant Blusher in Snow


Laneige Snow Radiant Blusher in Gold


Laneige Snow Radiant Blusher in Pink Prism


I think they are quite a nifty powder to add to your beauty arsenal and a wonderful alternative if you're not loving the amount of shimmer you get from a MAC Mineralized Skinfinish!

MAC Shimpage vs Laneige Gold


MAC Glissade vs Laneige Pink Prism


MAC Lightscape Vs Laneige Snow




Click here to read my review on Laneige's Darling Big Eyes Palette!

Click here to read about Laneige's Snow Bloom Collection!

Click here to read about Laneige's Slick Sliding Foundation Compact!

My Celebirty Look-A-Likes

I decided to do one of these "Celebrity Look-a-likes" after seeing them on a few other blogs! I'm scratching my head wondering how my celebrity look-a-like falls into the Beyonce and Eva Langoria range!

I thought for sure after putting my picture up it would compile and come up with images of Roseanne Bar, Rosie O'Donnell, and if I was lucky by some chance maybe they'd stick Mia Tyler in there!

But I somehow got lucky. I really couldn't care less about Eva Langoria but hell I don't mind being compared to Beyonce but above all else they went and released my inner Asian and I'm now on par with the likes of Aya Matsuura.

I feel like I've arrived. Aya Matsuura! Am I awesome or what!?

Now another one I'm properly chuffed with is Brigette Bardot. Wow...I'm a sex symbol now baby!

Upload your picture at My Heritage website and tell me who your Celebrity Look-a-Likes are!

Japan's Answer to Benetint

I adore stains! Big time ! I love the natural, flushed look you can get from a stain. I've been a big time user of Benetint for ages but in all honesty I've found far better alternatives. Benetint is a bit sheer for me and I can get a deeper color from other brands. Good quality stains don't come cheap however I'm about to show you an inexpensive, high quality one!

I got this off of JPmon but believe it or not I've also seen it in various Asian supermarkets in the US. Fact is I never knew what it was prior to seeing it on JPmon. When you're in an Asian supermarket surrounded by stuff you aren't familiar with you practice caution when making your selections. My main reason for not purchasing it was the fact that I wasn't sure what it was for. Sure it has a beautiful geisha-like girl on the cover but that doesn't mean anything! This could be dip for chicken or something how could I know it was cosmetic? Seriously have you been to an Asian market before? EVERYTHING has cute labels! Packages of Baby Star (this is a snack) have really cute images on it! The US is not yet exposed to the kawaii packaging of food and just about everything else. Hell, the only thing cute about our food packages would be cereal. America wants to shove cereal down the throats of babes so they showcase cute tigers, tucans, and three strange little elf like chefs named Snap, Crackle, and Pop. Hey, I never claimed we were creative in the US!



Anyway!

I was ordering some Kose Airy Whip on JpMon as the shipping is a bit cheaper for a few cans in comparison to my friends buying it and shipping it over (because you have to stock up on Airy Whip like it's the end of the world as we know it) when I noticed that this same cheek stain that was available in my local Asian market was here at JpMon! Hmm! After being hypnotized by the delightful animation of the cute girl applying this I knew I must have!

So on with the review after all that babbling...!

I can't recall how much I paid for this on JpMon but it was cheaper in the store I believe at $6 bucks or something like that. I just added it to my cart at JpMon as I was doing an order anyway so why not!



This is a bit thicker then Benetint but easy enough to blend. Three dots across your cheeks, smile, blend, and perfect flushed cheeks. A tiny bit lasts all day, literally. As with all cheek stains it's virtually waterproof, smudge-proof, and atomic bomb proof! This stuff isn't going anywhere unless you take it off!

This will work well enough on medium light skin tones like my own and it'll also flatter a medium dark skin tone. My sister is what I call a coffee skin tone and it looks beautiful on her and even more flattering then on my own paler skin!

This is something you might want to nosy around your own markets or small shops for if you have any local ones! If I can find it here I'm positive you'll be able to find it in similar markets! Who doesn't have a local Asian market around?

If anything it's probably the best cheapest brand of tint I've come across and I've tried them all! Works way better then Benetint that's for sure!

Sephora Urban Decay Makeover

Another interesting look from Sephora! I'm a tad bit scared as I believe rigamortis is setting in here!

Are you scared?

I am too.

I just want to know why she's all pale under her eye area? What the hell happened?

I might have to avoid aquas from now on just in case I look like I'm sporting the new Zombie look!



Click here to see other Sephora looks that went seriously wrong!

Kawaii Storage and More!

L@@K! Aren't these darling?



I got these a few nights at this little shop in Chinatown. It's sorta a Sanrio style store that carries all sorts of kawaii bits and bobs plus your run of the mill Hello Kitty stuffins!

I got these for makeup storage as I was running out of room for some palettes I had and thought these would not only store them but also look really sweet on my vanity! They are really slim and long and the perfect height and size for MAC quads! I got them for $1.99 USD because Sue lurves me but they are regularly $2.49 USD which isn't bad either in my humblest opinion!







But of course I couldn't just leave with the boxes! I ended up with these cute pill boxes as well which were $1 USD Each!

I heart Kiki and Lala! Little Twin Stars Rock ;)




Of course I couldn't leave without sampling the Hello Kitty warez!

I got this cute little pencil box that I'm going to use for brushes when I'm away on holiday and such! It's large enough to hold a few and has two trays!









I ended up with this mini perfume atomizer as well! So kawaii!





And finally Sue gifted me with this cute lipstick case! It's a long silver heart shaped tube that'll store one lipstick. Click the little button on the side and it pops open and a mirror is on the inner cap! Cool right? Thanks Sue the Muse hearts you (she reads my blog teehee)!





Anyway that was all rather random I guess but it was all so cute, especially the storage boxes I couldn't resist sharing!

Cheers!

Ghost Hunters Return: Uh Oh Another One of Those Non-Cosmetic Posts

w00t! Ghost Hunters returned tonight!

The Muse has set the Tivo and recorded every juicy minute (when I'll get a sec to watch it is anyone's guess!)!

Don't get me wrong I've been enjoying Ghost Hunters International but I was missing Tango in a major way! The Muse crushes on Tango in a rather strange way! What's not the like? He stutters slightly, he's twitchy as hell, and he looks like he might fall over if I blow on him but hey he hunts ghosts that's enough for the Muse! I met Tango at a geeky Fangoria style convention about a year and a half ago and can I tell you he's as neurotic in real life as he is on the telly but still damn cute! Sadly, I don't have pics as I was being as neurotic as he is when I met him! I may have even developed some sorta stutter! Imagine if I met a real celebrity? I'd fall over and have convulsions!



So an anonymous poster had posted in my Lestat blog and said that "she loves the random geeky bits..." I can't begin to tell you how properly chuffed I was when I read that! I got that warm, fuzzy feeling in the pit of my stomach and I felt like I had accomplished something for the geeks of the world! YES I've evolved and become not only your makeup guru but your geek god! I rock!

Kidding.

Seriously I was super proper happy that she was enjoying content that was geeky in nature minus the cosmetic side.

Thus this particular post came alive after I got her comment because I sincerely want to share the joys of the Ghost Hunters with possible fans in Cosmetic Land.

Granted Ghost Hunters has gone from somewhat scary to "oh my god this is so fake" to "wow Jason looks strange being bald and all and having a beard" to "warning: Purely for entertainment purposes only".

I'm saddened by the fact that Ghost Hunters has taken the commercial path and choose endorsement over science. I'm not a big believer in ghosts in all honesty (I am a believer in aliens if that counts?!) but during the first season of Ghost Hunters they had me slightly believing that maybe just maybe it was true. But it slowly went downhill soon after and I was unable to take much of it seriously. Over the course of it's run I'd say it was from being sorta believable to being hopelessly full of bologna!

Anyway even if it is for entertainment purposes I still enjoy it in a major way! I'm actually quite saddened the team has dwindled down so much and all the awesome people I enjoyed laughing at (Brian anyone?) are long gone.

However, at least I get to see Brian and Barry make fools of themselves in England, Scotland, Etc...Seriously what's better then Brian in England running around like an idiot!

The team has since added that Kris or Chris chick who I find deeply annoying! The original cast is pretty much null and Jason, Grant, Steve, and Tango are all that remains but I get my kicks where I can and enjoy it even minus half the originals.

Personally the Muse wants a show named Ghost Hunters Dave Tango Style but I doubt it'll happen but if you want to start a petition give a yell!

Love GH?
Hate it?
Heart Tango?

Tell the Muse!

I Heart youTube!

I thought I'd share with you some of the really hysterical comments I get daily on youTube. I literally laugh myself silly sometimes at these comments and I can't help but show you some of these because they may just amuse you too!

In order to be a video blogger you need to have really tough skin. People are brutal. I've had people tell me I have fat hands, I talk too much, and worst! Lucky enough the positive outweighs the negative in my entire time on youTube however I've never seen so many people so interested in where I get the money to buy cosmetics. I've taken to telling them I sell organs and rob banks! Seriously, when did it become anyone's business where I get money to pay for anything I might own? Lordie! I guess these people didn't have a Mum like mine growing up! If I dared ask such a question I'd get hit over the head with a broom stick or a wooden spoon (My mum's Italian!). My mother instilled some serious manners into my sister and I and asking people where they got the money to buy something or how much it costs is a number 1 offense! That's like seven years to life in my mother's book!

I'm not ranting here I'm just generally amused! At first I was shocked but as I got used to youTube I realized that this was something I'd face daily and now I'm not so much shocked or hurt but just plain amazed at what people say!

Mind you these are NOT children! These are grown adults ranging from 19-35 or more! The funny thing is on a rare occasion some of these, as I dubbed them, "strange ones" follow me over to blogger and make generally rude comments. Mind you I really dislike taking away a person's freedom of opinion and I generally want people to say what it is they are thinking but somehow these "strange ones" think it's their god given right not only to insult me on youTube but waltz on over to Musings, pop a squat, and insult me here!

After all that babbling allow me to paste a few of my personal favorites:

Comment:
OMG you breath so loud you talk and then it sounds like your gasping lol.

My reply:
sorry 'bout that. I hadn't noticed I was gasping or breathing loudly.

I doubt she noticed the sarcasm in my "sorry 'bout that..." This particular gem comes to us from a 23 year old young lady.

In my travels through youTube everyone is VERY, VERY fond of telling me about infections, eye damage, bacteria, germs, etc....as if I didn't already know all this.

This particular comment was in reply to the fact someone had said that powders are good for at least three years. I assume she wants me to use an eyeshadow once and throw it out after 2 months!

Once you open them though, you're supposed to throw them out wayyy earlier than that; otherwise, you're just setting yourself up for any eye infection.


Update: No Pink Eye Yet! Phew!

As I was saying earlier people are positively fascinated with my income!

Comments:

ooo mmmyyy ggooosh!!!..loopove your collection!!!!...

how mcuh money do spend on makeup??.. i mean just for 1 eyeshadow or blus..etc..cause u said u don't buy cheap makeup liek the bodyshop..and i can't even afford body shop cosmetics...=)..

man! u talk alot at the beginning...

where do u get all that money to buy these stuff.. u must be rich!..

anw, its quite an awesome collection

cheers~

so what do you do for a job to afford all this makeup? lol

I felt like replying None of your damn business LOL but I was nice! I thought the LOL at the end was a nice touch!

woahh.....i want your makeup. each of those eye shadows are like 13 dollars!! your probably broke huh. ahahaha.

How do you afford all your goodies?! They amaze me! x

Wow! How do you afford all that stuff? Do you have a mac pro card? Either way, that is still a lot of money! I saw your stash videos. I would love to just have like a fraction of what you have!

No I don't but damn I WISH I did!

How mutch money did all the stuff cost must have been really expensive? But everything looks so yummy and delicious!!

How do you afford to buy high priced cosmetics at one time? and do you have a mac pro store near you?


They are equally fascinated with how much I talk and aren't shy of telling me in rude terms how much I talk:

Comment:
you really do talk a lot. :|
but great stash


This one has a an irritated smiley at the end! I guess my talking really pissed her off! The nerve of me! Talking in my own videos!

Comment:
WOW u talk alot!!!

Folks are also very fond of telling me that I giggle too much, I say ummm too much etc....

Comment:
u sat "ummm" alot in this video omg lol

Well I guess you get the idea! And you can imagine that one of the main reasons I don't do videos (and am slowly fading out FOTD pictures) anymore is because of all this drama! It's sincerely too much of a headache to monitor comments on youTube and take out time to reply to what I consider some seriously weird comments. I'd much rather spend that time here with you guys interacting, discussing cosmetics, and just having a generally good time!

Strangely enough this post wasn't inspired by youTube. It was actually taken from the fact that I've made a guest starring appearance on a few forums this week. Pictures of my stash and my self were taken from here and placed on a forum. Some of the comments were good ones but some were downright scary from what I saw. I actually wasn't upset by anything that was said (I've been dubbed the "fat girl" on the forums it appears) because over the past year of blogging the written word and blogging video I've grown such a tough skin that none of this fails to shock me anymore or hurt me for that matter. It interests me that people find me so fascinating that they want to rip me a new a**hole without every getting to know me as a person! But oh well..to each his or her own! My take on it is I'm still the same old person I was yesterday and I'd personally never say or do anything that these people do and I take pride in that. I'm a generally nice and good person and I sadly fail to expect the same in people lately but I defiantly treasure those who have the same type of heart that I do!

Hope you enjoyed my foray into youTube!

Do feel free to comment minus the OMG WHEREZ U GETZ TEH MONIES FOR DAT!?

Hehe!

Cheers!

PS Do remember that I love each of you and 99.9% of the comments I get on Musings of a Muse are awesome so do keep chatting to me and commenting! I love hearing from each and every single one of you!

Jewelry Paper

Oh baby I'm all bling'ed up today thanks to my Jewelry Paper! Dontcha love it?



My friend Mayu sent me a package recently and inside was a few packages of "jewelry paper" Now I had never heard of Jewelry Paper and when I first opened this up I wasn't sure what to do with it. It looked like fancy blotting paper so I took a sheet out and proceeded to rub it across my forehead to soak up any access oil. It worked a treat as far as I was concerned with one problem. The paper started off a deep bronze color but after I blotted my face it had seemed the bronze rubbed off. I just shrugged and went about my business. About an hour later I happened to glance in the mirror to notice my entire forehead was covered in fine shimmer. Oh lord! At least I was at home at the time imagine if I was at work or a public place and blotted my face with this? Disco Diva Baby!



Duh!

The moral of this tale is that Jewelry Paper is actually little sheets of paper that contain a healthy spray of fine shimmer on them. You can take a sheet and rub it across your eyes, cheeks, arms, or any part of your body and you'll have a super sweet layer of shimmer that's left behind after you rub!





Cool right?

Thus the name comes into play as you'll shimmer like jewelry!

What a neat concept.

The Muse loves shimmer so having an arsenal of cool "sheets" of shimmer whenever she wants to apply a bit of bling is ultra nice!

Mayu purchased these for me in a few colors so I'll be twinkling for the next few months!

Jillian Dempsey For Avon Horizon Blush

You may recall my babblings about Jillian Dempsey's new blush from Avon a week or so ago! Having temporary memory lost? Click here!





The Muse was lucky enough to test out this new blush and can I just say one thing, AWESOME! Oh my god it's my holy grail blush *holds it close and never lets it go*.

OMG isn't it pretty?




Ok you shouldn't be sitting here reading this anymore! RUN! NOW! Get to Avon and order it! It's awesome! It's on sale this week...am I tempting you yet?

Avon and I have a strange relationship. I pretend to hate it and it surprises me with sweetly awesome products!

This blush is sincerely amazing. I'm shocked and delighted at the quality, the price, the pigmentation, and the awesome packaging!

Let me start by saying that I'm hyperventilating a little bit because it appears that Avon only has this in one of the two shades. I could be in panic mode at any given moment if I'm unable to get the other color! In my possession I have Apricot Horizon but the blush is also available in Pink Horizon and I needs it, I needs it NOW!

I'm not sure if Pink Horizon sold out but I sincerely doubt it as it just hit the Avon site not a few days ago. Maybe it's just not yet in stock? Believe me I'm at a stage where I'm searching E-bay for it so you know I'm seriously into this blush right?

First of all let's give props to Jillian Dempsey for not only having a super hot husband but for also creating killer blush! I love you Jill, I love your husband more, but I definately have love for you after trying out this blush!

The blush is a gradation blush that gradually goes from a lighter shade to a darker shade in the compact. This basically means one side is really vibrant while the other is very soft. You can go from a daytime look to an evening look with a quick swipe of your blush! Both sides are extremely pigmented, silky, and beautiful on. Whether you want to use one side of the blush or mix it up and swipe across both sides you'll get a gorgeous splash of color. When I was testing this I felt like mixing the colors up gave me the best look. The color is entitled Apricot Horizon but I get more of a pink feel from it with a tiny underlay of a deep, sunset coral. If I use the left hand side of the palette I end up with a rather subdued natural look but if I use the right hand side I get a vibrant, yummie flushed look that I favor! As you know the Muse prefers her blush "popping"! If I mix the two up I feel like the lighter shade really calms the darker shade and I get the near perfect color that makes me look like I just stepped inside from a cold Winter's night! This is a look I favor so it's pure perfection for me!

Swatchy! (My cam takes crummy pics when it comes to swatches but hope this helps some!)




The compact is quite a lovely slick affair and when opened it has a large mirror with Jillian's signature on it. The blush is pretty large for the price of $7.99 USD (regularly $10 USD) so you do get quite a nice bit of product for under 10 bucks! It comes with a brush but it deserves to be said that the brush isn't all that great. It sheds and it's just too small to really work the blush correctly. If you use this to blend you must be a master artist because I ended up looking like a clown when I applied with it! A big, poofy brush is recommended for use with the blush in the Muse's humble opinion!

I have one very tiny minor rant about this. It's pure perfection in a compact however I found that when using my MAC 129 (or even the brush it came with for that matter) I ended up with major powder burst overload. Swiping the brush across the blush caused a major cloud of blush to spill everywhere! I'm saddened to think how much product I am wasting each time I use the blush :(

Now I'm going to tell you something that'll knock your socks off. Get two. Seriously I'm totally ordering another one of these bad boys. I dunno if this is LE but it's a safe bet to say in a month or so you probably won't find it on Avon so might as well get two while the going is good. It's rare I do backups on anything. I have far too much product to enjoy and buying doubles in my case is ridiculous. But I highly suggest grabbing two! I'm all over ordering another one and please for the love of cosmetics can we please see that Pink Horizon in stock soon? I'm dying here!

All I can say is fab job on this Avon and Jillian! I hope to see Jillian create more products for Avon like this one in the future!

This blush is most definately Muse Approved for purchase!

theBalm Sexy Mama, Two-Timer Mascara, and to the Rescue Lip Treatment

theBalm has updated it's collection with a few Spring releases that may interest you!

I was particularly impressed with the new mascara they released which is very close to the design of Fairy Drops Mascara (Click!) that I had previously reviewed. This is a dual sided mascara which offers an end for volume and end that will separate and plump lashes! The mascara is $19 USD and available from Sephora right now!





Also introduced is the Sexy Mama Translucent Powder which is an invisible blotting powder to absorb excess oil! I love the cute retro print on the cover! Cute right? This is $18 USD and available now as well!



Lastly is to the Rescue Lip Treatment which is $14 USD. The gloss is completely vegan and the sale of each balm goes to the rescue of Pugs. The gloss is a clear lip treatment that conditions and protects lips!



All in all some very nice releases from theBalm. I'm a sucker for their cute packaging!

Want any of these?
Love them?

Tell the Muse

CVS Sales

I have to do a bit of shopping today for my good mate Rows from Mostly Make Up. I was snapping shots of the CVS flyer for her last week and as I did I thought maybe I'd post these up for the international readers so you can see some of our drugstore brands, sales, etc.....

As you know I'm not much of a drugstore makeup fan but lately I've had moments where I am tempted! Kinda a weird, random post I know and my stateside readers won't be too interested but I definately thought those of you in different parts of the world would dig it!

Behold the CVS Sale Pamphlet for the Week (Everyone Oooo and Ahhhh all at once now):