Featuring Setu and Maybelline Lasting Drama Swirl Gel Liner

Hello my Beauties,

can you see the weekend coming slowly around the corner? Yes, it’s already thursday. 🙂

Today i want to introduce you to the lovely Setu Rohini from Mumbai, India – from The nailart and Beauty diaries.
She is your girl next door, who is crazy about nail art, makeup and Do It Yourself beauty.
Setu was one of the first, who was really interested in writing a guest post for Beauty expression by Luchessa. And i was happy to accept, as i love beauty blogger from all over the globe.
She wrote a great review on a daily use product, the Maybelline Lasting Drama Swirl Gel Liner – Black & Silver, which she is totally in love with these days.
So if you are intrigued by the product and want to meet a new blogger, keep reading.

Maybelline Lasting Drama Swirl Gel Liner Black & Silver Review

Hello lovely ladies! This is my first guest post for ‘Beauty expression by Luchessa’ so the barometer of my excitement level is very high. It’s like joining another happening kitty party :P.

Now, coming back to the beautiful Maybelline gel liner review.
Since ages, Woman (especially Indians) has been fascinated by kohls and liners. First came the kohl (kajal), then came the liquid liners and now there is a generation of gel liners; which is more like a hybrid of kohl and liquid liner. I simply love (love is an underestimation, actually I am obsessed with: P) kohls and my tryst with them can be read in my article 
Finding the perfect one!
I have been using the amazing piece of Maybelline Lasting Drama Blackest Black for a couple of months now. I am impressed by its performance so decided to grab the other variant (black & grey) too without even finishing one fourth of my previous one :P.

Product Claims: (From Maybelline’s Website)

• Only our oil-free formula can hold highly concentrated pigments in a clear gel base.
• So color is more intense and lines resist wear for hours.
• Smudge-proof and Water-proof.
• The most intense line for lasting drama.

Usage Instruction: (From Maybelline’s Website) Use gel liner and begin at the inner eye. Extend along lash line, continuing up towards the brow.
What it contains: Not mentioned anywhere
Price: Rs 425 ( around 9.99 USD )
Quantity: 2.8 grams

My Experience with PRODUCT: I was very curious when I bought the gel liner for the first time. I read piles of beauty blogs and reviews but none helped me answer the question if it is good to be used as kohl on lower eyelid. I only got the answer once I started using it. First I bought the black one and then the silver-black followed. I had been looking forward to add some bling in my daily kohl application. But considering my wheatish complexion I just cannot pick up any jazzy liner as they give a washed out look to face. There are plenty of glitter liners floating around in the market but there are two thumb rules when you want to pick one.

–First, know your complexion and its limitation. No product review or beauty expert can guide you here. You are the best judge. What looked marvelous on her may look a dud on me.
–Second, decide on the amount of glitter or bling you want. Is it too dull for a jeweled look or too loud for a decent look? It will depend on the occasion and will.

Having warned about the moderation of shimmer, I must admit that this product has just got the right amount of it. The color and pigmentation is perfect and doesn’t make you out of place wherever you go.
It is decent enough for office when you use the black/grey and striking enough for a party when you use the silver. The swirl of black and silver is not just at the top but it stretches down to bottom which means you have both silver and black till the end.

But let me tell you after few uses you would have all grey around unless you want to dig deep to find the silver. I have not been careful about not mixing the black and silver per say throughout its usage.  I separately own a black gel liner and a silver liquid liner so I didn’t bother much. But with care things may be will be better.

It comes in cute tab packing which will amaze you as soon as you open the magic box.
Beautiful swirls of silver and black along with a close to perfect brush. The length and make of the brush is such that it gives you good control allowing you to be creative. The brush comes with a cap to keep the bristles safe.

Really, since the time I shook my hands with the gel family of liners the journey has been more creative and fun.
The pigmentation is lovely and the staying power complements to the perfectness of the product. Like the black cousin gel liner, it stays for 5-6 hours almost fresh.
It fades away little bit from water line after this but doesn’t give a raccoon look. It won’t smudge or spread or bleed through corner of your eye. Clean exit, I must say. The consistency is like a pressed gel or like a lip balm (not the flowy kinds).

Pros:

• Great pigmentation, dense color
• Gives choice of color (silver, grey or black) to suit every occasion
• Well balanced mix shimmer and color
• Fresh like look for 5-6 hours on waterline, will stay longer if used as eyeliner on upper lid.
• Doesn’t smudge or bleed
• Waterproof
• Doesn’t sting or irritate
• Safe for contact lenses (based on my experience)
• Very little required to get the charismatic look, so will last long
• Comfortable length and quality of brush which gives you good control
• Allows you to be creative with shapes you can give to your eyes
• Can be used as both liner and kohl J
• Can be used to give a smoky eye makeup
• Dries off in seconds unlike liquid liners
• Travel friendly
• Very cute and sturdy packaging
• Affordable

 Cons:

• Touch ups when outdoor can be difficult with this (brush in one hand and tub in another)
• You need more care and attention than a twist up kajal(kohl)
• If you apply heavy on your waterline, particles may dry and fall in your eye
• I wish it stayed more

Will I re-purchase again? I am in love with this. I may try the brown and golden variant next.

Would I recommend it to others?  Yes. It has amazing pigmentation and staying.

Overall Rating: 4.5/5 (-0.5 for micro particles falling in eye)

Availability: Beauty store, Online stores etc

Please feel free to share your experience with this product. Let me know your thoughts about my first article here   😛
Welcome to my laboratory at  The Nailart and beauty Diaries .

So there you have it, my Beauties, hope you like this guest post. Please stop by Setu’s blog and leave her your feedback.

Until next time – stay beautiful!

Review: KIKO – Smoky eyes pencil 01 Foggy

Hello my Beauties,

how is everyone doing today? 

As i was going through my eye liner collection recently, i discovered one of my go-to liners, that i wanted to review for so long, that i almost forgot to do it.
The minute i was holding it in my hand again, i knew i had to put it back on my “blog about list”.

I’m talking about the Smoky eyes pencil in 01 foggy by KIKO make up milano. 

I remember having this conversation back in january with Shannon from EyemasQ about the italian brand KIKO and how excited she was to get the opportunity to try their products, as there are no actual stores in Canada or the States (as far as I know). Back then she got another color from the same ”Lavish Oriental” autumn / winter collection 2012 for the price of 6,90 euros ( about 9 $) and seemed to be happy with the quality.

So there you go – meet my goodie:

I like how classy the packaging looks, without actually being boring. This blue silver greyish look for a single eye pencil gives the whole appearance an exquisite statement. Texture-wise Kiko’s pencil’s are known to be very creamy, with the ability to glide on like a mousse. That for it’s should be obvious to wear an eye primer underneath, especially for those of us with rather oily lids.

But it works also fine as a base liner (like a jumbo pencil) before putting on a really heavy brownish eyeshadow, so it has something profound to stick on.

When it comes to the actual color – i would say, it’s a nice mid-brown with rather orange undertone and contains also green and golden shimmer, which is def noticeable on the lid.
                                                                          (Enlarge the picture with a click on it)
As for me – this is the perfect combination of a noticeable, but not too dark color, with fun shimmer accents for the everyday use.
And you can always make your eye look even more vibrant and dramatic, by applying more product & smudging the corners out with the angled brush, which is on the other side of the pencil. How handy is that?!
Btw: don’t forget to keep your liner sharp, as the creamy texture is going to smudge around in the first place, if it’s blunt.
To get this liner of your lid again, you simply need an oil based makeup remover or makeup wipes. Nice and easy.

I use this pencil for 3 month now and am really happy with the quality.
Have you ever tried a KIKO liner or any other of their products? Let me know, what your most favorite creamy liner is.
Please feel free to share your secrets in the comments below.

Until next time – stay beautiful.

ps: Don’t foget to enter my 300 Followers Giveaway!

Cosmetics around the globe – ♥ Golden Rose Style Liner Metallic ♥

Hello my Beauties.

Wishing you all a very relaxing sunday. Please feel free to grab your favorite weekend mug and let’s start with today’s post.

As you already know, i have a big passion for different kind of cosmetics around the globe. So every time i get the chance to try a new brand or a product line, that i haven’t seen before, i get seriously excited. Well who can blame me on that one?!
Recently i got my hands on some goodies by the turkish brand Golden Rose, that i previously talked about in my review on Golden Rose Paris Magic Color №314. 
As the brand is big not only on nail polishes, i was intrigued on trying some of the liners, mascaras, lipsticks and co. 
Today i would like to share with you my experience with the Style Liner Metallic.
What i loved right away about the packaging, is that you can immediately see what color it is, without having to look at the bottom or taking the lid off.
The liners are available in about 15 different metallic colors, that gives anyone the chance to find the right shade and
you get 6,5 ml / 0,22fl.oz of the products in one packaging. (The prices are obviously going to depend on where you get the products.)

The colors i have (from left to right) are:

• 04 Green Metallic
• 10 Dark Purple Metallic
• 02 Gold Metallic

 As you can probably tell, they’re very shiny and opaque, so you would usually need only one stroke to get a line done.
Apparently it needs about 30 – 40 sec. for the liner to dry on your skin, but it still gives you enough time to correct it, if you feel like you messed up a little.

In my own experience i found it very easy to draw a fine or a thicker line, if needed, since the brush tip applicator is quite thin and easy to handle and the consistency is not too liquid, so there is no problem to get an even cat eye look on both eyes – which can be a difficult job sometimes, when you don’t have the right tool handy.
Another important quality of these liners in my eyes is the staying power. Ones dried on your lid, these liners stay put for the whole day. Literally! As i was doing the swatches for this blog post, i tried to smudge them on my hand and they just didn’t go anywhere. For someone who tend to have a rather oily eyelid, i really appreciate this long lasting formula.
But on the other hand you can easily remove the metallic liners with your favorite makeup removing wipes.

I have not had any allergic reaction to  the liners, both while applying the product and while wearing it throughout the day. 

My favorite of the three is def the gold one, since it “increases the value” of any everyday makeup and it really reminds me personally of those beautiful arabian style dramatic night looks.
I would definitely recommend you to try these style metallic liners in one of the many available colors.
As most of us don’t have an easy access in local stores to Golden Rose, i will leave a few links, where you can find it online.

If you try it, please let me know, i would for sure love to hear from you.
What’s your current  favorite liquid liner? Don’t be shy, share your secrets with me. 

Golden Rose USA online store – free shipping on any order on $25 or more at the moment.
Kosmetik24-shop.de – online store based in Germany (might be an option for the UK buyers, since i couldn’t find any UK stores)
Golden Rose on Amazon  – nice option for everyone.

♥ International Beauty Giveaway ♥ – (closed)

Hello my Beauties!

Yesterday i checked my statistics and noticed my blog has reached over 100 followers. So to show you how thankful i am for all of your support, comments and tips, i’ve decided to do my first giveaway in the history of this blog. 🙂
I really appreciate all the kind words & all the smiles you gave me, my friends, readers and fellow bloggers.

I wanted to have a little ‘theme’ to the prizes in this giveaway. So i decided to go for a brand that probably most of you wont be able to get anywhere outside of Germany, as it seems to be a brand that doesn’t export yet. But as i really enjoy the products by P2 cosmetics, i wanted to share some of them with my dear followers! I picked some of my favorites, that you might want to use for your holiday looks and nail designs! (if you do, please don’t forget to share some pictures!) As you see its purple & gold inspired! 

I hope you are as excited as i am. 

Details to enter the giveaway are:
Please fill out the Rafflecopter below & follow the instructions.
It’s open internationally and one winner will be chosen at random.
(I really hope Rafflecopter will work as an external link – look at the end of the post – as i can’t insert it on my basic wordpress)
I assure you that all the products have been bought with my own money.

All entries from multiple or spam accounts, like accounts set up for giveaways only will be banned!!!
I want these goodies to go to my real followers & readers!

In order to be entered into this giveaway
you MUST be a follower of Beauty expression by Luchessa on WordPress or via email since it’s for my followers only (extra points if you follow me on Hellocotton or Twitter) AND you HAVE TO comment under this post, telling mo how you found this blog. The giveaway will be open until the 14’th of dezember (GMT + 1:00).
 

In the makeup bag you will find:

1. 860 ready to rock nail polish
2. 880 fancy fairytale nail polish
3. glamorous finish holo top coat in 040 just fantastic
4. nail food ananas – nourishing nail tretment for slowly growing nails
5. perfect face pore minimizer – reduces the visibility of pores, evens out imperfections
6. lovely doll eyes mascara (carbon black) in 010 twinkle star
7. khol eyeliner in 090 stylish great britain
8. fantastic chrome khol in 020 wild amethyst
9. fantastic chrome khol in 010 golden amber
10. keep the secret evermore daring lip top coat (extremely pearlized gloss) in 010 golden burst
11. sheer glam lipstick in 090 sex and the city (glossy and balmy with a sheer color)
12. beauty insider waterproof liquid eyeliner in 010 full action black

these four are def my favorites of the bunch!

Don’t forget to spread the word 😉

 Enter here
 open link & scroll down

There you have it my Beauties. Have fun and good luck!
If you have any additional questions, just email me at luchessa7@gmail.com

♥ Sephora NYC haul ♥

Hey my Beauties,

thanks for sticking around. As promised in my previous post, I’m going to talk a little bit about my very first Sephora haul. For a beauty blogger I have been very reasonable and that for proud of myself. I guess each and every other beauty person is going to understand me.

You wont be surprised when I tell you, that the very first item I just needed to get, was the well-known and loved by millions – Urban Decay Naked Palette. Yes I know, I’m very late on this, since the palette came already out in summer 2010. So as you can imagine I had plenty of time to read all the reviews, watch many videos of beauties using the colors and meanwhile also having others compare it with the Naked 2 palette. I decided to go for the first one, since I feel it suits my skin type a bit better.

As I was saying, I had obsessed about this palette for a long time and I finally justified buying it, since first of all it was my birthday and second – I had that lovely gift card.
We all know, the colors are very easy to use and well pigmented, so I’m not going to do swatches at this point. For all those of you, who have never heard of this palette before, let me just say – you wont regret the buy. Nowadays you only need to make the color choice between the two existing palettes.

After putting the Urban Decay palette in my basket, I was looking for good creamy eyeliner pencils. Of course Urban Decay offers you the famous 24/7 liners, but I really wanted to try something out of the Sephora own collection. So i went straight to the display, where I easily found the very creamy, metallic waterproof limited edition eye pencil set. Usually they are sold individually. I really liked the fact, that they are waterproof, so I can finally use a pencil for my water line.

The color selection in this set are just perfect for my taste. I love vibrant & vivid colors. I did some swatches and was amazed how creamy they are, but do not smudge at all. That is something that I expect from good liners.

I decided to go for another well-known beauty item, as i approached The Balm display. I have been looking for a shimmery pinky-coral blush in the drugstore area before, but haven’t really found anything that i would enjoy using. As i found “Hot Mama” I was convinced. TheBalm’s Hot Mama blush is described as “A true all-in-one essential: sexy shadow, striking blush, subtle highlighter, and light-reflecting lip finisher tucked inside a go-anywhere compact.” And I think it’s not bad at all to have a multifaceted item in your collection. I really like how the fine golden shimmer looks on my cheeks. Makes me look fresh and well rested. I think it’s really similar to the Benefit’s Coralista. So if you happen to have one or the other product, you will probably know what I’m talking about.

Is this the kind of blush color you’d wear? Or do you have another favorite blush type?

And the last goodie in my beauty bag was the Fresh Sugar Lip Duo mini set, that i got as a birthday gift for becoming a “beauty Insider”. The packaging is really well made for a lip balm, it has a sturdy metal casing.
Both of them have a really smooth texture, SPF and the smell is a lovely light lemon cake and rose. The first one is clear and the other one gives a very sheer rosy colour.

As I’m not very familiar with this brand, so the little gift gives me a nice way to try the products and see if i really like them. It seems the texture is a little similar to Burt’s Bees lip balms. But the time will show how the quality really is.

Overall I’m very happy with my birthday trip to Sephora. It was a nice experience, which is comparable with a visit in Disney Land for kids. I’m sure I will have loads of fun using the new items.

What did you get last time you entered a Sephora store? Share your story!