Victoria's Secret Eye Shadow Quad in Plenty | Swatches & Review

I've always loved Victoria's Secret, it's a must-go stop for me whenever I travel south to Bellingham, Washington for shopping trips (no matter how short!). So when they finally opened up in downtown Vancouver and Metrotown, I was ecstatic! However, I noticed really quickly that Victoria's Secret in Vancouver did not carry products from their "Professional" Makeup line. There were still the lipglosses and nail polish, etc, that was found at the checkout line, but it wasn't until about a month ago when I was browsing the Metrotown location did I notice they've finally introduced the rest of their makeup to Vancouver!

Actually, I have never puchased ANY Victoria's Secret makeup products. I tend to focus my spending in that store on clothing, lingerie, and shower gels (which are absolutely amazing). Fun fact: Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Works are actually owned by the same company! But today, this little eyeshadow quad really caught my attention:

Victoria's Secret Eye Shadow Quad in Plenty

One of the reasons why I stay away from VS makeup products usually is the price. This quad that I bought was priced at $24.00, which it QUITE pricey considering this is not really an actual makeup brand.  Also, VS products are often hit-or-miss according to majority of the reviews out there. However, that day I had a 20% off coupon from email so I though, why not? If it's good then I'd love for you guys to know, and if it's not I hope I can help you guys save money :)

So let's take a look on the inside.

The packaging is nice and sleek, simple snap closure in the front is sturdy and tight. The entire quad fits into the palm of my hand, more or less, so I can even consider taking this in my purse for touch ups. This packaging reminds of me drugstore eye shadow quads because it comes with a clear window on the top instead of a mirror on the inside. 

The colours are neutral and very easy to style. One of the best features for this quad that sets it apart from others, same brand and other drugstore brand, is that it includes TWO matte shades. More often than not, small eyeshadow palettes that contain 6 or less shades are all of similar finish, and hardly ever includes matte shades. This VS quad in Plenty gives us a matte "Highlight" and "Lid" shade. 

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"Base": A light, cream-coloured, shimmery shade. It doesn't lean too cool or too warm. The shimmer is not an overspray and continues to be present as I keep using it, it is not chunky glitter and looks delicately sparkly on the lids. At the same time, it doesn't come off as being obnoxiously light-catchy so it's great for everyday wear as well. 

"Lid": A warm-tone medium brown matte shade. The texture is smooth and buttery, pigmented yet blendable. Even though the designers of this quad likely assumed this shade to be used all over the lid, I love using this type of colours as transition colours in my crease, and being that it can be nicely blended out, it's a great colour for that purpose.

"Highlight": A skin-tone matte shade. This shade actually blends in with my skin almost completely, and I do not have the lightest skin tone around. I imagine people with any skin tone that is lighter than my typical asian skin would likely not be able to use this for any "highlighting" per se, as it would be too dark. The texture of this shade is very similar to the "Lid" shade in that it is smooth and blendable, so I actually use this to blend out any harsh edges and it works beautifully for this purpose. For my daytime eyeshadow looks, I can often get by without applying any browbone highlight, but when I do, I need to find something else lighter (i.e. Foxy or Venus in Naked Basics palette).

"Crease": A deep, chocolate brown shade with larger bits of gold glitter. The base of this colour has some subtle shimmer to it, and the gold glitter is quite noticeable in the pan and in the swatch, but doesn't really translate to the eyelids. I don't get glitter fallout from using this colour but there is usually a bit of deep brown colour fallout if I don't tap my brush out first. I do not use this shade in my crease, because that would be too dark and smokey for my liking on a day-to-day workplace appropriate look. Instead, I use this shade in my outer-V corner to add definition to the eyes. It's not as pigmented as it may seem in the pan so this is probably the more disappointing shade out of all 4. 

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Now, this quad really interested me because as a whole, it was a neutral palette which I love, plus when I swatched the medium brown "Lid" shade in the store, it was pigmented and very smooth. It's often common to find matte shades that swatch patchy, uneven, and unpigmented, so I was pleasantly surprised by the quality in this little VS quad. So naturally, I proceed to swatch the matte highlight shade, very smooth once again; the "Base" shade was shimmery but quite pretty. That was enough to interest me enough to purchase and the following is a picture of all four colours on my arm without a primer underneath.  

 

As you can see, the colour payoff is not too bad, but I was hoping for better payoff on the "Base" shade and "Crease" shade. So next I tried them on top my daily staple: Too Faced Shadow Insurance, and here is the outcome:

I think all four colours performed much better but the result was especially apparent with the "Base" and "Crease" shades and I'm quite pleased with the result. "Crease" shade is still not as intense as I would like it to be given what it looks like in the pan, but overall it is alright for what I use it for. 

Overall thoughts:

Texture: Three of the four shades in this quad performed well in the texture department. As a whole, the powders run on the dry side, there are definitely many eyeshadows that are even more buttery than these VS ones. Of course, the brands that immediately comes to mind are high end ones, such as Urban Decay, Too Faced, Lorac, etc. Compared to the majority of drugstore eyeshadow offerings, the VS shadows performed a bit better than most BUT I think Wet n' Wild actually still comes out on top. 

Pigmentation: Again, all shades did well and yielded close-to-pan-colour except the "Crease" shade. As a whole, they translated well to the lids, but could be better. I often find myself reapplying the "Base" shade to the lids after some blending because it seems that I've blended too much away. "Crease" shade was not as deep and dark as it appeared in the pan. 

Blendability: All shades were smooth and buttery, so they are very easy to blend out on the lids. No complaints here!

Staying Power: I had no problems with creasing or fading throughout the day, which is usually well over 10 hours of wear time. However, I always use a primer underneath so perhaps it may not do so well if I didn't use a primer. I think in terms of staying power, these shades performed as well as my other high end eyeshadows. 

Value: So here comes the final and biggest question answered on this post...Is this Victoria's Secret eyeshadow quad worth the $24.00 price tag?? And my answer is....nope. As well as it did perform during this past month that I have been using it, I think it is way over priced for what it is. The colours are very practical and usable, but are definitely not unique. At a fraction of the price, Wet 'N Wild offers an amazing 8-pan eyeshadow palette and trios that gives slightly smoother texture and colour payoff. If you are willing to venture a bit higher in the price points, then you will find great eyeshadow palette options from Urban Decay and other brands found at Sephora.

I'm glad I picked up this one quad to try out, but I highly doubt I would be back for more eyeshadow quads from Victoria's Secret any time soon. I still think I will get a lot of use out of this quad because it's quite convenient for those mornings when I have limited time to make myself presentable. I find for myself that I take too much time deciding what shades to use if I had too many options in a large palette; in this little quad I have 1 shade option for each area of the eye and that eliminates choosing. I'd say skip this eyeshadow quad from Victoria's Secret and save that money towards better eyeshadows from higher end brands, and satisfy your cravings with drugstore options like Wet 'N Wild in the meantime. :)

Until the next post, 

Cheers!    

  

L'Oreal Sublime Soft Micellar Solution VS Bioderma SensiBio Micelle Solution

Hello there! Today's post is going to be about cleansing waters! Specifically, I am comparing a new drugstore product to the oh-so-popular (but pricey) Bioderma Micelle Solution. If you are interested to see the new product and how it compared, please keep reading!

Last week, I spotted the L'Oreal Sublime Soft Micellar Solution at Wal-Mart when I was grocery shopping. I have seen mentions of this product from European beauty videos and blogs quite a few months back, so I kind of guessed that this product will eventually show up in Canada. The list price was $10.99 at Wal-Mart, not on sale, and I felt that was a bit too expensive of a product, considering it is from the drugstore. The next day I was perusing the aisles of Shoppers Drug Mart and found the same item on sale from $12.99 to $7.99! So as you can tell, the price of this product has quite a bit of a range depending on when and where you find it.

 A quick rundown of both products:

L'oreal Sublime Soft Gentle Micellar Solution
Price: $7.99 - $12.99  at various drugstores
Amount: 200mL
Claim: "In one step, this solution cleanses and removes all traces of makeup from the face, eyes, and 
lips. So gentle, it is suitable even for sensitive skin."

• Removes makeup and soothes
• No Rubbing, no rinsing
• Fragrance free, hypoallergenic
• Dry and Sensitive Skin

Bioderma Sensibio H2O Micelle Solution

Price: $22.00 for 250mL or $33.00 for 500mL (only available ~2 times per year) at Shoppers Drug Mart

Amount: $22.00-$33.00 depending on size

Claim: "[...]gently cleanses and removes make-up from face and eyes. The micelles contained in its formla effectively micro-emulsify impurities while maintaining the cutaneous balance. Soothing active ingredients prevent the skin feeling irritated. Excellent cutaneous [skin] and ocular [eyes] tolerance." 

• For sensitive skin
• Cleanses, removes make-up, soothes
• Non-Rinse, Fragrance Free

So far it's quite clear that both of these products are very similar in terms of what they claim to be and claim to do. I have been using the Bioderma on a daily basis for over a year now as my first step to removing make-up. Although I know the product itself is meant to be used alone and does not necessarily require a second step to cleansing, I personally prefer to go in afterwards with a cleanser of some sort (which I do in the shower, HG product is Philosophy's Purity Cleanser!). I will admit, I am a huge fan of the Bioderma, have not planned to go a day without it since I started using it, and genuinely believe it will be very hard to replace it with another product.

The Test

To test the L'oreal Micellar Solution against my beloved Bioderma, I've decided to go with the "half-face" test. 

Step 1: Soak 1 cotton pad with the tested cleanser, then cleanse half of my face. Repeat with the other cleanser on the other half of my face.

Step 2: Soak 1 more cotton pad with L'Oreal Micellar Solution for each side of the face and compare the amount of residue left from the first cleanse

Step 3: Soak 1 cotton pad with the test cleanser, then hold over eye for 10 seconds and proceed to cleanse off eye make-up. Repeat with the other cleanser on the other eye.

Results 

Aftermath of cleansing! I apologize for the mess :)

At first glace, it does indeed look like Bioderma did a lot better than L'Oreal. However, I would like to point out that that is not necessarily the case, and here is why: The answer lies in the packaging of the product. While both micellar solution comes with a plastic flip-top lid that has a simple hole to dispense the solution, the stream is much more controlled with the Bioderma (i.e. not as fast out of the bottle). With the Bioderma bottle, I feel that I can direct the stream of product easier to where I want it on the cotton pad. In this case, majority of the cotton pad was soaked on the top left hand corner, so that is where all the makeup is concentrated during the removal. On the other hand, I found the solution came out of the L'Oreal bottle much quicker, so my cotton pad was soaked through much faster than I expected (prone to wastage) and therefore the makeup was removed more or less evenly by the cotton pad and looks less concentrated. 

The second pad from the top is the one soaked with L'Oreal Micellar Water, used for the second rinse. As you can see, the amount of residue from the first cleanse on either side of the face was pretty much the same, so it seems the drugstore product is holding up well at this point on the comparison test. 

The third pad is from removing eye makeup. For this, I was able to find a difference between the two micellar solutions. The Bioderma did indeed remove more of my eye liner and mascara and was able to do so in less swipes. On the eye where I used L'Oreal Micellar Solution, I was not able to achieve quite the same amount of clean, and it felt more difficult to remove my mascara.

For the record, I do not use waterproof eyeliner or mascara so I do not know how either of these will do if used to remove those.

Final Thoughts

Since the initial experiment, I have been using the L'Oreal cleansing solution every single day, and I found to be very very similar to Bioderma in terms of its ability to remove my make up. The overall texture of the products are very similar too. The L'Oreal Micellar Solution did not leave my skin feeling dry or tugged at all, although I would always follow up with my Purity Cleanser in the shower right after, I feel that I will be comfortable enough to leave my skin as-is after if I was pressed for time (i.e. tooooo sleepy...), just like I can with Bioderma. Also, I experienced no irritation to my eyes when I used the L'Oreal Micellar Solution to remove my eye makeup, good news!

Scent-wise, the two are not the same. While both claim to be "frangrance-free", Bioderma has the slightest ever sweet scent, whereas L'Oreal smells a teeny bit plastic-y, but it's not too unpleasant. 

As a whole, I would recommend the L'Oreal Gentle Micellar Solution for anybody who has been interested to try Bioderma but hasn't because of the price. I think it is a great alternative to Bioderma, especially because it is much more accessible! Because of the bottle design on the L'Oreal bottle, I would personally not recommend it for heavy-duty travelling, since the flip-top isn't as secure as Bioderma's flip-top, so it may be a risk for leakage. Other than that, I am very happy with my bottle of L'Oreal Micellar Solution and it may very well be something I will continue to repurchase! :)

Rimmel Lasting Finish Colour Rush Lip Balm - Swatches & Review!

Hello there! It's certainly been a while since I last posted...and I'm slowly trying to get back into the swing of things :)

Today I wanted to bring to you one of my most recent finds in the drugstore that was personally quite exciting. Rimmel London joined on the "Chubby Lip Crayon" trend and released its "Colour Rush Lip Balm" as part of its new Lasting Finish collection in UK towards the end of 2013. A couple weeks ago, I finally spotted them at Shoppers Drug Mart! However, the price tag of $6.99-8.99 (different Shoppers Drug Mart prices varies slightly) was bit high for my liking, so I decided to wait until Target or Wal-Mart stocked them in hopes that their price will be lower.

The waiting did pay off (sort of)! About a week later I found the display at Target for $5.99 each and I was able to purchase with my Target RedCard for another additional 5% off, so I picked up the following 4 colours:

L to R: 120 All You Need Is Pink // 220 Rumour Has It // 300 Viva Violet // 200 Keep Mauving

This product is your standard twist up jumbo crayon, packaging look and feel is basically identical to the Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain, Jordana Twist & Shine, etc. It contains 2.5gm (0.095oz) of product, just slightly under Revlon's 2.7g, so there is hardly a noticable difference. The colour of tube is more or less an accurate representation of the lip balm so that's certainly handy.

The full display consisted of 10 colours in the range, apparently that's 3 more colour's than UK's original release of 7 colours.

Permanent display found at Shoppers Drug Mart

Let's jump right into the colours that I picked up :)

120: All You Need Is Pink: Originally I thought this colour was going to be more red because of the colour of the tube, however, once it is applied to the lips it becomes this bright pink colour. It is not a type of barbie pink, it is more like a muted hot pink colour but still carries a hint of fuchsia to deepen it slightly. This colour is definitely one that I will reach for often during the summer months because it alone does such a good job of brightening my complexion, perfect for when I want to keep my makeup to a minimum. Creamy colour with no shimmer particles.

220 Rumour Has It: Everytime I see this shade name I can't help but start humming Adele's awesome song...anyone with me? Anyway, because of its undeniable tie to the famous tune, I imagined this to be a deep dark red colour. But nope, it's still a pink colour, just deeper than "All You Need Is Pink", definitely more opaque lips. This pinky red colour is rather blue-based, and in general can make your teeth appear whiter, which I love. This is one that I'd reach for on a night out :) Creamy colour with no shimmer particles.

300 Viva Violet: A pinky violet/purple colour. Usually these colours, once they have too much purple tones in them, becomes a tad bit too dramatic for me to where on a regular basis. However, because the pink tones are much more prominent in this shade, this colour compliments wintery makeup trends beautifully. Perhaps I will not wear this much during the summer season, but as we are still in the Winter months here in Vancouver, this colour pairs beautifully with my smokier eye shadows and neutral tone cheek colours. It hasn't left my makeup bag in my purse since the day I got it! Creamy colour with no shimmer particles.

200 Keep Mauving: This colour is one of the more neutral in the line up. For myself, my natural lip colour is quite pigmented so this colour perfectly deepens the natural tones of them becoming a great "my lips but better" shade. For people with lips that are less naturally pigmented, this colour leans brown with hints of pinks that I think will be very appropriate for school or work because it's not such a bright colour, but rather able to help achieve the put-together look. Creamy colour with no shimmer particles.

Texture: These lip crayons are very comfortable to wear! They feel light and thin, but the colour payoff is amazing. It glides nicely on the lips with no tugging. However, it does tend to become patchy on any overly dry places on your lips so if you happen to have any of those you might want to add a basic lip balm underneath. All the colours applied creamy and shiny without any detectable shimmer or sparkly particles. I did not find that these dried my lips out at all, but don't expect them to be able to hydrate your lips if they are feeling a bit dry.

Scent & Taste: Straight from the tube I can detect a very faint but distinct sugary sweetness on the product, but it is not quite noticeable once you apply it on your lips. There is no minty scent or tingly feeling to these, so all in all I find them very comfortable to wear.

Colour Payoff: I would have to say colour payoff is perhaps one of the most impressive feature of these lip crayons. Even the light colours that I tested out at the store were able to provide opaque colours in one swipe! I don't have to go over the lips again and again to achieve the colour in the tube for any of these.

Lasting Power: These are not necessary advertised to be super long lasting, but the darker colours did leave a stain on my lips. Wear time is normal, most likely it will need to be reapplied if you were to eat and drink. Without eating or drinking, the original shine wore off in about 30 minutes but the colour was around for about 1.5 -2 hours. Again, because the darker colours do give a teeny bit of a stain effect so you can likely get away with not reapplying until after the 3 hour mark if the lack of shine doesn't bother you much.

Overall: I think these are great value for your money in terms of the amount of product and the quality of the product! I am very happy with the colours that I chose, however I wish the colour range did include one that was more of a true blue-based red. The overall colour range leaned quite pink, even the neutral colours were pink based. That kind of limited the selection of colours so perhaps Revlon still wins in the shade selection department, especially since they added a matte (very impressive) and super shiny line to their chubby lip crayons not that long ago. I say give these Rimmel Lasing Finish Colour Rush Lip Balm a try if you are one who enjoys lip colours that feels almost weightless on the lips but still provides shiny full-on colour in a single swipe :)