Organic Skin Care Blog – Product Reviews & Healthy Skin

Givenchy's Rouge Liquide has just hit Singapore, and this is clearly a pretty big launch here, and is very on-trend with the popularity of liquid lipsticks. All 14 shades are being launched here (yes!!), and the selling point of the lipsticks is that the packing is pretty unique - it looks like an ordinary lipstick when you open it, but what you are seeing is just the flocked applicator. To apply the lipstick, you twist the base, and the liquid lipstick will move up through the hole in the applicator.


Cool, right? Above is the lipsticks when the case has been opened (you can see the flocked applicator and the hole through which the liquid lipstick is pushed up). The applicators all have the same shade of red, so you can't tell what shade the Rouge Liquide is without looking at the base to see the shade name. Just a note of caution though - the applicators can be a bit tricky to use initially. As with most "twist up to push the product out" products, you do run the risk of the twist mechanism going "click-click-click-click - no product - click-click-click-click - no product - click-click-click-click - a whole globule of product emerges that's way too much for one application". So, twist and wait the first time you're using it! You only need a little bit to cover the lips, because the product is pretty dense and pigmented. This isn't an issue after the first time you use the Rouge Liquide however.

Alright, enough gushing about the packaging, let's get to the meat of the post - swatches!
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Chantecaille's Summer 2018 makeup collection has launched, and here are swatches of the entire collection! And close up product photos! I know these aren't exactly the earliest swatches, but I thought better late than never.

The collection is inspired by vacation and beaches, and has an appropriately themed colour selection with limited edition packaging (for the bronzers and eyeshadows). The rest of the collection (Lip Sleeks, Mermaid Eye Matte cream eyeshadows, Les Perles Metallic Eye Liner) are all permanent.


Let's take a closer look at the collection.
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The Marc Jacobs Shameless Youthful-Look 24H Foundation SPF 25 has just hit our shores, and it comes in a whopping 29 (!!!) shades! Obviously, I absolutely just had to swatch it - you guys know that I do love swatching things, so I just couldn't resist!

The Marc Jacobs Shameless Foundation claims to be oil-free, and offers medium coverage, alongside a natural finish. I have to say though, when I swatched it, I felt like it did perform better coverage-wise than your average medium-coverage foundation. The Shameless Foundation shade range also boasts a pretty easy-to-navigate shade naming system. Basically, pink-toned shades start with R, and yellow-toned shades start with Y. And the higher the number, the darker shade. So for example, R440 would be a fairly deep shade with red undertones, but Y130 would be a light shade with yellow undertones.


Alright, so without further ado, here are the swatches! I have to say, I am also so proud of myself for taking such photos in a club (yes, literally in a disco-loud-music-dancing-strobe lights-type club), and I think patience and searching out for good lighting helped!
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Etude House Cherry Moisture Lip Glow was launched in January this year, and it's a really cool product! Basically its sort of a cross between a lip oil and a lip gloss, offering both shine, as well as some colour, while claiming to moisturize your lips. I think it'll be a pretty popular product, owing to both the nice feel and colour, as well as that uber-cute packaging - check out the cherry on the tube!


Well without further ado, here are swatches!

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Su:m37 has finally come to Singapore, with a new outlet in Tangs Orchard, much to the joy of all kbeauty fanatics here! For those who aren't aware, Su:m37 is a luxe Korean beauty brand, with prices that are comparable to other luxe brands, such as SK-II, and the brand's selling point is that their skincare includes lots of natural ingredients, in particular fermented ingredients. The brand has quite the cult following for its skincare items, but I also found that their makeup items also aren't bad.


One of the makeup products the brand has brought into Singapore is the Water-full CC Cushion Perfect Finish, which is supposed to be a hydrating cushion foundation that provides a finish that's more on the dewy side. They have 2 shades, both of which I've swatched, alongside my first thoughts.
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Benefit They're Real Double The Lip and They're Real Duo Eyeshadow Blender are the latest products from the brand, and have been out in the market for about a month now. And, I have swatches of both the Double The Lip Lipsticks and Duo Shadow Blenders!

As you can guess from the name, the Double The Lip Lipsticks are a two-in-one product - there is a complementary darker and lighter shade in the same tube, with the darker shade serving as an in-built lipliner, and the lighter shade serving as the filled-in lipstick colour. The They're Real Duo Shadow Blenders also operate on a similar principle - there are two shades, one light and one dark, in a tray, and you use a sponge applicator to swipe and apply both shades at once.


Anyway, if you're wondering how all this works, and what the shades look like, well, here are swatches of both, along with my quick thoughts!
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Marc Jacobs' Highliner Matte Gel Eye Crayon is the brand's new eyeliner product, and an extension of the existing Highliner eyeliner range. As the name suggests, the main difference is that the new Highliner Matte Crayons are, well, matte, as opposed to the original Highliner eyeliners which had a bit more of a sheen. And as with the original Highliner eyeliners, these are also advertised as being akin to having a pot gel eyeliner, but in pencil form. They're also advertised as having "15 seconds of play time" before they set, so you can smudge out, soften, or otherwise adjust your eyeliner before it sets.


I've never tried the original Highliners before, but they seemed to have really good reviews, so I was hoping the new Matte Highliners would be equally great. And I'm glad to say that after testing out all 12 shades - yes there are 12 shades of Matte Highliner - I think these are actually of really good quality! And as always, this review will look at what makes this product so great - the formula, the colour payoff, as well as the weartime are some of the critical factors here.


Marc Jacobs Highliner Matte Gel Eye Crayon: An addition to the existing non-matte Highliner eyeliner range
So, without further ado, let's begin the review. Of course I've got a lot of swatches and photos for you, but let's start off with something a little bit more mundane - the ingredients list!
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L'Oreal's Super Liner V-Sculptor eyeshadow sticks were launched last month, and yes, I'm only just getting around to swatching them. I wanted to blog about these because they're pretty interesting as far as eyeshadows go. These are powder eyeshadows, but instead of being in a pan and coming with a brush, these are actually in a pen form, with a cushion tip, as you can see below. The idea behind the cushion tip is that it's easier to blend the eyeshadow out to get a natural-looking application. As for the eyeshadow powder, it's stored inside the cap of the pen.


If these look a bit familiar, it's because these are basically the eyeshadow version of the L'Oreal Tint Caresse that was launched last year. Pretty much everything is the same - the pen format, the cushion tip (right down to the cushion material), the storage of the powder product in the cap. So if you've ever looked at the Tint Caresse and thought, "I'd like this in eyeshadow form", well, here we are!
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RMK's Spring/Summer 2017 Color Change makeup collection is officially launched, and I come bearing swatches! This makeup collection also coincides with RMK's 20th anniversary, and RMK's Creative Director, Kaori, selected the two shades of pink and beige to head up the Color Change collection, as they are integral to any make up look. The number of products in this collection is also pretty large - there are 6 eyeshadow duos, 6 lipgloss duos, 7 lipstick shades, and 7 blush shades, and 6 nail polish shades. So you can imagine my arm after all that swatching!


RMK isn't kidding when they say the collection is made up of pinks and beiges - literally every product here is in pink and/or beige, and basically pinks and beiges make up like 95% of the collection. RMK also has a nice quality of makeup, with generally soft textures, and buildable pigmentation, allowing the products to be applied sheerly or packed on for more colour, and this collection does fall quite nicely in line with the quality in the standard RMK products.
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Etude House's Play 101 Blending Pencils were launched some weeks back, and I've finally gotten around to swatching them for you! For those who are familiar with Etude House, you'll remember that two years ago the brand had launched their Play 101 Pencils, which I had reviewed at the time. The Play 101 Blending Pencils are a different product, and an extension to the Play 101 line.


Like the original Play 101 Pencils, the Play 101 Blending Pencils are also little pencil-form sticks of makeup that are multi-purpose - you can use them on your eyes, lips, or cheeks. But the difference is that the Play 101 Blending Pencils are thicker and chubbier than the Play 101 Pencils, and are more like lip/cheek pencils in size, than eyeliner pencils (which is what the Play 101 Pencils looked like). Also, the formula and texture of the Play 101 Blending Pencils on the whole seems to be more emollient, making them much more blendable, and more suitable for lip and cheek use.

I've finally gotten around to swatching all 25 shades above, so without further ado, let's get started!
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Pixi Beauty's Multibalms have been out for a couple of months now, and I've finally gotten around to reviewing them! The Multibalms are basically a stick of cream colour that dries down to a powder, and can be used both on lips and cheeks, for a "quick touch of colour to the face". The Multibalms also claim to be "infused with aloe vera, shea butter, and rose hip oil" as an extra perk, too.


As you know, Pixi has been known for some of their great beauty products for awhile now, and the brand has gained a reputation for its affordable, but still high quality, products. In particular the Pixi Glow Tonic has been extremely popular, growing from its cult beauty status to even receiving praise from mainstream beauty press. So, I was pretty excited about the Multibalms, hoping that they would also be just as worthy of praise.


Pixi Multibalm: With 5 shades covering all the basic colour families
Of course we're going to have swatches of the Multibalms, too. But first, let's look at my favourite part of the product to analyze, the ingredients list!
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Estee Lauder's Pure Color Envy Hi-Lustre Light Sculpting Lipstick has launched in Singapore, and if you're a lipstick junkie, you're probably aware of this already. The lipsticks are supposed to offer "lustrous colour" with "brilliant shine" according to the Estee Lauder website, so finally we have a product that's bucking the matte lips trend that I've been seeing on Instagram. I can't say that I have strong feelings one way or the other, though - as far as lip products go, I'm happy with anything that doesn't have huge chunks of glitter!


Estee Lauder's Pure Color Envy Hi-Lustre Lipsticks do have a pretty neat colour range, and in Singapore we'll be getting over 10 shades. I've swatched all 11 of them (yes I know that only 10 shades are lined up below, I found an extra shade to swatch after taking that photo), and I have to say, these are a range of very nice, wearable shades. We have a number of nudes and MLBB (My Lips But Better) shades, as well as some wearable reds and plums. The finish is nice as well, with a texture that isn't too heavy or thick, and feels moisturizing on lips, and a moist, subtle sheen that is pretty sophisticated - there isn't any overtly "oily"-looking shine or chunky-looking glitter.


So without further ado, let's start swatching!
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Palladio is a US-based beauty brand, that's probably better known for its cosmetics that include vitamin and herb-based ingredients. The brand is somewhat niche within the US due to its limited distribution (when I was there, I only recall seeing it at some Sally Beauty stores), but nevertheless, it still has a good customer base with strong reviews, and some of its better-known products are the Velvet Matte Lip Creams (as well as other lip products), Rice Powder and foundations. Palladio is now coming to Singapore, and fortunately is much easier to get here than the US, with some Guardian stores carrying the brand. So, I figured now is a perfect time to do a review on some of their products!


Since Palladio's Velvet Matte Lip Cream Color is one of the brand's more popular products, having received lots of rave reviews, I figured that these were probably a great place to start! I have three shades, Sateen, Brocade, and Boucle, that I'm reviewing today, and these are probably my favourite shades from the entire range.


Palladio Velvet Matte Lip Cream Color: Since the brand is new to Singapore, I figured I should try these first!
So, let's get on to the review! Unfortunately for some reason I wasn't able to find the ingredients list for the product - the ingredients list wasn't printed on the individual tubes, nor could I find it online. But, I do have lots of swatches for you!
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Shu Uemura has launched over 40 new eyeshadow shades, and I've finally swatched all these new shades at last! If you've seen my a previous Shu uemura eyeshadow swatch post,, then you've seen part 1 of the swatches, and today we'll be finishing up with part 2! In part 1, we swatched mostly colours, so now we're moving onto the neutral shades. So, if you liked browns, beiges, and greys, the swatches for those shades are all here!


For those who aren't familiar with the shade names, the shade finishes are denoted by their names - M stands for Matte, ME for Metallic, IR for Iridescent, P for Pearl, and S for Satin. Generally ME shades have the most shimmery finish, followed by P shades and IR shades, followed by S shades (which are pretty close to matte, in my opinion), and lastly, with no shimmer at all, the M shades.


Anyway without further ado, let's move on to the swatches!
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Shu Uemura is launching 41 new eyeshadow shades as part of their "Colour Atelier" campaign in July. Yes, you heard it right, 41! This will give a total of almost 100 shades of eyeshadow for you to choose from, depending on your location - I believe Singapore gets 41 out of 43 new shades, to give a total of just under 100, but other countries may get the full 100 shades. Of course, Shu Uemura's eyeshadows are something of a makeup cult product, so this is pretty exciting news. Even back when I first got into beauty, they were already touted as one of the brands of eyeshadow that were a must-try for their great pigmentation, multiple finishes, and smooth textures. So, with that in mind, I knew I absolutely had to swatch the new shades being launched!


So, being the obsessive swatcher I am, I basically spent two hours swatching all the 41 shades that were launching here in Singapore, both for myself, as well as for you guys! (You might have seen some of this on my snapchat - I'm musicalhouses there too.) I'm told the eyeshadows are reformulated as well, although to be honest during the swatching session, I couldn't really tell that much of a difference. Which is just as well, because the old textures were already great as they were.


I'm swatching the first 3 rows of the shades laid out above, and the last 3 rows will be in part 2. So, if you're into bright shades, these are all swatched in this post! I swatched these in indoor lighting, and I've done my best to get them as colour-accurate as can be, and I do think the swatches turned out decently! Anyway, without further ado, let's get down to swatching!
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Givenchy's Rouge Interdit Vinyl Colour Enhancing Lipstick was just recently launched in Singapore, and of course, I had to get swatches of as many of the shades as I could for you! The Rouge Interdit Vinyl is supposed to be a lipstick with high shine, medium colour, and also moisturizing to the lips, with black rose oil. There are 16 shades in all, from nudes to reds to brights to vampy shades, so there is something for everyone here.


Anyway, I have to say, I'm super proud of myself for producing these swatches in less-than-optimal lighting. You see the photo above? Yup, that's basically the lighting conditions I had. But, I think the swatches did turn out pretty nicely given the lighting conditions, and I managed to get most of the shades, so without further ado, let's start on the swatches, together with my commentary on them!
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Laneige recently released their Two Tone Collection, consisting of 4 shades of Two Tone Shadow Bar and Two Tone Lip Bar. If this sounds familiar it's because these are an extension of the existing Two Tone Lip Bar shades (which I've previously swatched here), so essentially, this is an addition of 4 more Two Tone Lip Bar shades, as well as 4 Two Tone Shadow Bar shades. The "Shadow Bar" concept is new, but basically pretty much similar to the Lip Bar except for eyes, and is intended to give a nice gradient effect on eyes.


At a recent event, I was able to get a chance to swatch the new Two Tone Shadow Bars and Two Tone Lip Bars, so without further ado, let's get to the swatches, along with my commentary and first impressions! These are actually in natural daylight, so they should be pretty colour-accurate, hopefully!
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The MAC Flamingo Park Collection is the brand's first Spring 2016 makeup launch, and it was recently launched here. I happened to be at the store during the launch, and I managed to get swatches of the products for you! It was quite an ordeal swatching the products, because it was very crowded in the store, with people buzzing around and swarming around the collection testers, so I'm happy to have swatched everything I could!


But before we move on to the swatches proper, I'd like to mention that the lighting in the swatches might be a bit lacking due to the fact that these were all swatched in-store.

Also, as you can see from the above photo of the Flamingo Park setup, it seems like for some reason the collection differs slightly here in Singapore. Not all the "official USA" shades were displayed in the Flamingo Park Collection display, and some permanent shades were put in the display as part of the Flamingo Park Collection although they didn't appear in the US version of the shade lineup. I'm not too sure why this is the case, but in any case, I've just done my best to swatch everything that was on display, so any incongruency with what was launched in the US is just due to whatever was in the display in the store.
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Too Faced's Melted Chocolate collection, consisting of the Chocolate Bon Bons Eyeshadow Palette and 6 shades of Melted Lipstick, is coming to Singapore in March. In the run up to that, I've got swatches of both the eyeshadow palette as well as the Melted Lipstick, and I'm so excited!


The "Melted Chocolate" theme is pretty obvious with the products - the Melted Lipsticks are all varying shades of brown, in a very Kylie Jenner lips-esque sort of way, and the palette smells of chocolate, which is to say, it smells very yummy. In general, the quality of the collection also holds up very well for Too Faced - it's pretty similar quality-wise to their existing Melted Lipsticks and eyeshadow palettes, which is to say, it's pretty good.
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Etude House's Precious Mineral Any Cushion line of BB Cushions is one of their most popular products, and in November last year, the brand introduced the Etude House Precious Mineral Moist Any Cushion - yes, the word "Moist" indicates that this is a new line to the BB cushion range, and the line is new. The Moist Any Cushion is supposed to give you the dewy, moist-looking finish favoured by so many Kbeauty looks, and also, according to Etude House, contains some skincare ingredients too.


Just so you aren't confused, the "regular" line of Precious Mineral Any Cushion is just called "Precious Mineral Any Cushion", and is the original BB cushion launched by Etude House. To this range, Etude House added the Precious Mineral Magic Any Cushion in 2014 (the "Magic" word denoting the line), and these were basically colour-correcting primers/bases in BB cushion form, which I had swatched and reviewed before. And in 2015, Etude House added the Precious Mineral Pearl Aura Any Cushion, where the "Pearl Aura" is supposed to denote a nice, dewy "pearl-like" finish, reviewed before too. So as you can see, although the products are different, they do have similar names, and if you're new to the brand, it can get a tad confusing!


Etude House Precious Mineral Moist Any Cushion: The 3 shades in the Moist Any Cushion line
Given that Etude House already has a "Pearl Aura" BB cushion to help give skin a dewy finish, I was curious as to why they launched a "Moist" BB cushion. Wouldn't it be a bit of a duplication? So, the other day when I was in store, I got some swatches of the Precious Mineral Moist Any Cushion, and although it's a little overdue, I guess it's better late than never to share these swatches!
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