January-March Carousell Beauty Haul

Hey guys! Before the next school term begins next week (and things start getting crazy again), I want to post about my hauls from Carousell! Yes, my addiction didn’t seem to wear off *guilty* but I think I bought lesser stuff this time.

Recently I’ve been obsessed with lipsticks because I find my lips really pale and lacklustre. It wasn’t my first time wearing lipstick excessively though as I used to own lipsticks from Silkygirl (running on a low budget last time as you can see) and Maybelline. Somehow I stopped using them altogether because they made my lips really dry and they didn’t last very long. I got tired of wearing it for an hour and then seeing it on my serviette after meal. I’m also one who doesn’t have the habit of touching up my make up outdoors so I felt putting on lipstick a little pointless.

That was until I discovered Urban Decay’s Revolution Lipstick! I heard and read so much great reviews about it that I knew I had to get it. Back when it was first launched, no one sold the lipstick on Carousell so I went to shop at Sephora for one. I wanted Turn On though but it was out of stock at the Jem outlet. In the end, I got myself Catfight instead. I tried it for the first time on the day I was supposed to attend a friend’s wedding.

And I was blown away!

The lipstick is not only moisturising (bye to dry, chapped lips!), it is also very pigmented and long-wearing! I was pleasantly surprised to see my lips still stained with the lipstick colour after wiping my mouth. Having said that, it also means that it can be rather difficult to remove it entirely.. which happens, but I don’t mind at all. Furthermore I have make up remover wipes which work pretty well so this is no biggie! Since then, I had gone on a search rampage for more Revolution Lipsticks in other shades.

Urban Decay Revolution Lipsticks

My Revolution Lipsticks collection.. crazy I know. BUT IT’S SO WORTH MY EVERY PENNY!! Every one of these was gotten from Carousell except Catfight. Price range between $15-20 each (U.P. $33)

Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick Swatch

My Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick Swatch

I particularly love Protest because it’s the ideal MLBB (My Lips But Better) shade for me. I’m always very worried that I’d look too caked for school but Protest tones down my make up a little. On top of that, my anti-lipstick (for obvious reasons) boyfriend also felt that the colour isn’t too exaggerated and he warned me to only wear this colour when I meet him or else he’ll wipe the lipstick off my lips on the spot -_-

Before I took a picture of the swatches on my hand, I did something really crazy (and silly now that I think of it) but I am still going to include it in this entry anyway because of all the effort I put in…

Swatch on my lips!

… getting all 7 shades on the lips. Well, at least you know how they look like on real lips now. Sadly I can’t really remember which are which LOL. Maybe except for F-Bomb which is obviously the darkest one, and Protest the lightest one.

Urban Decay Protest on me!

(Pardon my eyes) Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Protest on me! It goes really well with my lips.

Protest again

Protest again but without sunlight this time. Somehow it looks a little darker.

Apart from Urban Decay, I also tried lipsticks from other similar high-end brands like Benefit, Anna Sui and Dior which I absolutely adore! No offence to anyone but from this experience, I learn never to buy drugstore lipsticks again! They really pale in comparison in terms of quality. But I guess if money is an issue, you could try lipsticks from Revlon as I’ve also read good reviews about that brand. (And their speciality is supposed to be lipsticks, I heard?)

Benefit Hydra-smooth Lip Colour in Juicy Details

Benefit Hydra-smooth Lip Colour in Juicy Details, at $18 (U.P. S$24 on benefitcosmetics.com)

Benefit Hydra-smooth Lip Colour in Juicy Details

Benefit Hydra-smooth Lip Colour in Juicy Details – swatch

Juicy Details on me!

Juicy Details on me! The wind made me look good LOL.

As suggested on its name, Benefit Hydra-Smooth is a really moisturising lippy which never dehydrates my lips. As you can see from the picture above, Juicy Details is a translucent nude shade which is perfect for dress-down occasions. However it’s not very long-wearing so I’d apply a layer first, then dab my Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder (in Translucent) with my foundation brush through a facial tissue over my lips and then reapply the lipstick again to make it last longer.

Rouge Dior Nude in Shade 418

Rouge Dior Nude in Shade 418, at $20 (U.P. S$48 on sephora.com). As you can see I’m constantly looking for nude lipsticks.

This lipstick by Christian Dior is very creamy and pigmented! The shade complements my slightly-tanned skin tone. I know, I only have a pair of lips but I have so many lipsticks! Honestly I’m spoilt for choice but I enjoy trying out new stuff. Trust me, I rotate my lipsticks everyday.

No real-life pictures for the Dior one as I just received this last Wednesday and I was in a mad rush when I wore it on Thursday! By the time I remembered, it was already in the evening and the stain was partially gone. -_-

Anna Sui Lipstick in Shade 301

Anna Sui Lipstick in Shade 301, at $18 (U.P. US$30 on beautylish.com)

Anna Sui has become one of my favourite cosmetic brands for its scented products and floral designs (my weakness). Some of the make up products I own have this strong chemical smell which makes me feel so paranoid about putting them on my face.

This Anna Sui lipstick shade is also approved by my boyfriend but is slightly pinker than my other nude lipsticks (i.e. Protest). Still, I LOVE IT because it gives me healthy-looking and nice-smelling lips. I feel so much happier whenever I use Anna Sui’s products! What’s worse than looking caked? Smelling like make up!

MAC Cremestick Liner in Softwood

MAC Cremestick Liner in Softwood, $7.50 (U.P. US$15)

MAC Cremestick Liner in Softwood swatch

MAC Cremestick Liner in Softwood swatch

On top of lipsticks, I also wanted to own a lip liner to save the trouble of having to manually draw my lips with lip brush (I use the one from Sephora) and lipstick. Then one day I saw someone selling this like more than half of its retail price and I immediately bought it! (I reiterate: I am 100% sure what I bought on Carousell are authentic because I’m like a secret agent on the app who scrutinises every user’s profile)

MAC Cremestick Liner in Softwood on me!

MAC Cremestick Liner in Softwood on me! Lined my Protest with it.

I absolutely love it! It gave me fuller and a more complete-looking pair of lips. It also acts like a guideline for lipstick application LOL. Without my brush, you don’t know how many times I had to wipe off the excess lipstick that bleeds out of my lips. (Blame my shaky hands). Also, can you see that it gives me ombre and two-toned lips? LOVE.

Now, moving on to other parts of the face…

Benefit Benetint

Benefit Benetint, at $25 (U.P. $51 at local Sephora stores)

Benefit Cha Cha Tint

Benefit Chachatint, at $15 (U.P. $51 at local Sephora stores)

Benefit Posietint

Benefit Posietint, at $15 (U.P. $51 at local Sephora stores)

Benefit Posietint and Cha Cha Tint

Benefit Posietint and Chachatint

The “tint” range from Benefit isn’t just for the face but also for the lips as well. It has a dual function as it’s both a lip and cheek stain – like blusher and lipstick in one. I bought Benetint first and I fell in love with it because firstly it’s ROSE-SCENTED (shut up and take my money!!) and secondly it stains really well on my cheeks and lips. If you’re always in a hurry and have no time to apply blusher and lipstick separately, this is the product you need to get! Benetint is in a redder shade and smells like bandung LOL.

Since I was so satisfied with Benetint, I bought the other two tints. They were in funkier shades – pink for Posietint and orange for Chachatint. Not sure if it’s me but both tints aren’t scented 😥 Anyway, Posietint looks rather weird on my tanned skin tone so I reckon it’s meant for fairer people (as Google Image implies to me) but I see myself wearing Chachatint in the future! It’s in this rather oriental orange shade which is perfect for Chinese New Year! 😛 But really, it surprisingly complements my skin tone!

Benefit (Singapore) is launching Lollitint. The name itself is already so appealing please, and it’s in a purplish shade! I’m so gonna get my hands on the new product.

Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow in Shade Honey

Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow in Shade Honey, $35 (U.P. $55 at local Sephora stores)

Remember I had a sample size of this in my previous haul entry? I received compliments from my hairdresser that my skin looked flawless when I was wearing it. WOW! (no pun intended) That compliment meant a lot to me because as you guys might have already known, I have troubled skin. So I knew I HAD to get the full-sized one. It wasn’t easy finding this shade on Carousell because Singaporeans are generally very fair so most of the time only the Petal/Ivory shade is put up for sale. This is probably the ONLY full-sized Honey shade that was on Carousell so far.

Anna Sui Liquid Foundation in Shade 103

Anna Sui Liquid Foundation in Shade 103, at $25 (U.P. US$38 on beauty.com)

I received sample sizes of this Anna Sui liquid foundation in shade 102 in my Love, Bonito goodie bag last year at their sale event and had already used up both bottles! Same reason as the Anna Sui lipstick, I love the foundation coz it’s scented and somehow covers up my pores and blemishes rather well. I wanted to get a full-sized bottle in a shade darker at Taoyuan Airport last December but they ran out of stock for it 😦 It’s fine though, because Carousell had it at a waaaay lower price hehehe.

Benefit Agent Zero Shine shine-vanishing PRO powder

Benefit Agent Zero Shine shine-vanishing PRO powder, at $30. (U.P. $47 at local Sephora stores)

I got this from a fellow Carouseller who works at Sephora *yay* so this is guaranteed authentic (I had no way to verify it since it was the newest product from Benefit). I participated in Benefit’s Guess-The-Price for this new product on Instagram but didn’t win because I over-estimated it by $2! It’s quite strange though, that both POREfessional and Agent Zero Shine are priced at US$30 on benefitcosmetics.com but the former is $2 more expensive than the latter here. So I guess S$47 is only a promotional price and will eventually inflate as time goes by.. just like POREfessional (was S$48 last year but has gone up by a dollar the last time I checked last month).

Anyway, I was looking for an alternative to my Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder (from ASOS) so the launch was a timely one. I haven’t tried it yet but looking at the reviews, I don’t think it’s gonna disappoint me!

Anyone wants a review on this? Drop me a comment!

Benefit Dr. Feelgood

Benefit Dr. Feelgood, at $28 (U.P. $49 at local Sephora stores)

Benefit Dr. Feelgood with sponge

Benefit Dr. Feelgood with sponge. I accidentally deleted the pictures of its brand new state. The balm was actually covered with a seal before it was broken my me.

I have been raving about this face balm ever since my previous haul entry and I had already finished TWO sample tubs. When benefitcosmetics.com had a sale a couple of weeks ago, I contemplated carting this out because Dr Feelgood is really pricey here. But I removed it in the end as my total bill had already come up to close to US$100 T_T See that huge hole in my pocket? THANKFULLY, it was a blessing in disguise because about 2 weeks later, some kind lady sold this BRAND NEW piece at a lower price (only a few bucks cheaper than that on benefitcosmetics.com but meh.. still money okay). The full-sized one comes with a sponge which I find totally redundant.. Maybe it’s just me but the sponge made me feel that I’m not applying any product on my face so I tend to apply numerous times ’til I feel something y’know :\ So nowadays, I just use my fingers.

TheBalm NUDE'tude

TheBalm NUDE’tude, at $33 (U.P. $50+ at local Sasa outlets)

TheBalm NUDE'tude close-up

TheBalm NUDE’tude close-up

Many people say that this is a dupe for the Urban Decay Naked palette but I beg to differ. The Naked palette is obviously better but this is also awesome in its own way because it has very pretty and usable matt colours (love Sultry and Sexy)! However when I first opened it up to inspect the colours, I found the mirror dusted with the eyeshadow (I can’t remember if it came with a protective sheet. Highly unlikely). Cleaned it and it happened again the next time I opened it, as you can see on the above picture. Zzz! I’m one who uses the mirror that comes with the palette (minus points for those that don’t) because I’m lazy to walk to my full-length mirror which is attached behind my wardrobe door sometimes (and I don’t get the best lighting behind the wardrobe door) so this is definitely unacceptable to me. Furthermore, the packaging is made of paper so I’d have to be extra careful not to touch it with my wet hands. On the overall, it’s a pretty decent palette to own and definitely more travel-friendly than the Naked palette since it’s lighter and thinner. If you on a tight budget, this is definitely a good alternative 🙂

Urban Decay Vice Palette

Urban Decay Vice Palette, at $30 (U.P $88 at local Sephora stores)

I know Vice 2 was already released but I feel that the shades on the first Vice palette were much prettier. Okay yeah actually I prefer the first Vice because of Noise, the electric punch pink colour because I love pink. But don’t you guys agree that the shadows in Vice 1 are more exciting? Anyway, I’ve dipped into every shadow already and I’m relieved that I could pull off the look (or so I thought) because I’m always worried that shimmery colours would make me look 2 times my age :\

UD Love NYC Palette

UD Love NYC Palette at $25 (U.P. unknown but should be around $88 locally back then when it was launched. This is no longer available in stores now)

UD Love NYC Palette Pop-up DIsplay

UD Love NYC Palette Pop-up Display

UD Love NYC Palette shadows

UD Love NYC Palette shadows

The palette is SO GORGEOUS! I’m a design junkie and I wouldn’t mind paying just a little bit more for pretty packaging! This definitely is the prettiest palette I’ve ever owned (the next being Book of Shadows). The pop-up display lights up (you can’t really see from the pictures) when opened and the shadows are really amazing! My go-to shadows from this palette are Perversion, Loaded, Rockstar, Smog, Bordello, Radiuh, Suspect and Psychedelic Sister. Oh yeah, if you haven’t realised, most of the shades here part of the permanent range of UD’s 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil.

Urban Decay Oz The Great & Powerful Palettes (Front View)

Urban Decay Oz The Great & Powerful Palettes (Front View) at $35 each (U.P. $78 in local Sephora stores)

Urban Decay Oz The Great & Powerful Palettes (Back View)

Urban Decay Oz The Great & Powerful Palettes (Back View)

Urban Decay Oz The Great and Powerful Glinda Palette

Urban Decay Oz The Great & Powerful Glinda Palette. Also includes a Super-Saturated High Gloss Lip Color in Glinda which I forgot to take out from the box at time of photo-taking.

Urban Decay Oz The Great & Powerful Theodora Palette

Urban Decay Oz The Great & Powerful Theodora Palette. Also includes a Super-Saturated High Gloss Lip Color in Theodora which I forgot to take out from the box at time of photo-taking.

We have to give props to Urban Decay for coming up with palettes inspired by fantasy films. If I remember correctly, these Oz The Great & Powerful palettes were released alongside of the Disney’s movie. They also tied in with Disney/Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland 4 years ago to launch a palette with the same name.

I bought both limited edition palettes (yup, no longer in stores already) because of their different functions though I have to admit that the packaging plays a part as well (Theodora’s one is really nice). The Glinda palette leans more towards the neutral and innocent look while the Theodora one gives a more dark and sinister appearance. I personally prefer the Theodora palette because I like Mila Kunis it flatters my darker skin tone better. Also, both palettes come with a step-by-step instructions booklet for you to recreate Glinda’s and Theodora’s looks! AWESOME!!

Urban Decay Black Market 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil Set

Urban Decay Black Market 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil Set, at $26 (U.P. $60 at local Sephora stores)

One of Urban Decay’s latest products and I’m so glad I chose to wait instead of getting it off the shelf at Sephora when it was released. As compared to the Ocho Loco set, this comes in shades that I would use. I love the eye pencil series from Urban Decay (already have 2 regular-sized ones in Demolition and Rockstar) because they glide on smoothly and no matter how much I sharpen them, they do not poke nor hurt my lids. I have an eyeliner-cum-eyebrow pencil from Wet N Wild and it pricks! So I had no choice but to use it as an eyebrow pencil. My favourite colour from this set is Desperation.. and can I have another one? Okay, and Black Market.

Benefit They're Real! Mascara

Benefit They’re Real! Mascara

This isn’t my first They’re Real! mascara as I previously bought a deluxe-sized one. It really volumises my lashes and opens up my eyes. With this, falsies are totally pointless (saying this coz I don’t wear falsies myself at all Hahaha). However being mascara, it also has the same problem of clumping. When oh when will there be a non-clump mascara? But anyway I learnt that if you apply a waterproof mascara on your lower lash, it will solve the problem of clumping. So I tried the other day with my Urban Decay Cannonball waterproof mascara and IT REALLY WORKED like magic!

New addition to the brush family!

New addition to the brush family! Sigma Eyeliner E05 brush at $5, Tightline Liner (E16) and Waterline Liner (E17) brushes at $9 each. (All retail at US$12 each on sigmabeauty.com)

I first learned about Sigma brushes from Frmheadtotoe but I didn’t really bother as I thought they were only available in the States (silly me, nothing is impossible with the internet these days) but I was surprised to see people selling them on Carousell! They usually buy in a set from US and sell those brushes that are of no use to them (but have to be careful too because apparently, there are also FAKE Sigma brushes -_-) I personally have an angled eyeliner brush from Sephora but I felt that it wasn’t doing its job well after some time. Perhaps it’s only good in drawing cat eyes but not in lining my upper and lower lids.

Apart from make up, I also ventured into fragrance. I’m not really a heavy perfume user to begin with but I’ve been using Body Shop’s Dreams Unlimited EDP for a longggg time (ok la only 2 years hahaha) and I grew sick of the scent already. That was also my first expensive one as I had never paid more than $15 for perfumes. Boyfriend also recently bought me Marc Jacobs’ Daisy Perfume EDT (tsk, wrong kind) at Changi Airport when he arrived from Bangkok and I totally fell in love with the floral scent!!

I’m not being a snob here (for the record, I still use Rexona deodorant on days when I have to run errands. Rexona okay. Sometimes Dove) but there’s some truth in the Chinese saying “一分钱一分货” which means “the more money you pay, the better quality you get”. Just like how Silkygirl products pale in comparison to my Urban Decay babies. It’s the same for perfumes. If you’re too broke to get from retail stores like me, just Carousell.

Juicy Couture EDP Spray Vaporisateur (50ml)

Juicy Couture EDP Spray Vaporisateur (50ml) at $25. (U.P. $Idon’tknow)

The above EDP was left out from the previous haul post! It was actually bought last year, brand new and sealed. Look at how much I’ve used it already! BECAUSE IT’S AWESOME. I see people going crazy over Juicy Couture (*cough*Xiaxue*cough*) products and I didn’t know why until I bought this perfume. It’s really damn nice sia. I wore it almost everyday until…

Benefit Ring My Bella EDP (30ml)

Benefit Ring My Bella EDP (30ml) at $18 (U.P. US$36 on benefitcosmetics.com)

THIS came into my life! I haven’t personally tried all the Benefit scent but this has all the smell I’m looking for: baby shampoo, sensuous, womanly.. As it’s only 30ml, I’m trying to reduce my usage of this perfume but I fail very miserably every morning. LOL Heck it, finish then finish lor. I’ll buy a new one from the flagship store at Westgate if this empties. (*prays someone sells this on Carousell before it really happens*)

This is off-topic but I believe the name was derived from this song:

RING MA BELLLL

Okay that’s about it! Hope you guys enjoyed my second haul post. Maybe Carousell should appoint me as their ambassador haha.

Before I sign off, here’s another #muotd picture from me:

#muotd

#muotd but not of today. It was like a few days ago LOL.

Thanks for reading!

Exposed: Urban Decay Palette Counterfeit Preorder

Hello guys! 🙂

This is a little late but, thank you for all the support in my How to Spot Fake Urban Decay Palette 2 on Carousell post. Honestly, I had my reservations about posting such a controversial entry because I knew it would stir up anger in the sellers, especially those that I featured (and censored). But your encouraging comments made me feel that posting it was a right decision. Hopefully it had prevented many people from being conned on Carousell, the recently-launched Duriana as well as other online marketplaces like eBay and Groupon (if it did, please do let me know in the comments! 🙂) I do see more sellers stating their uncertainty in the authenticity of their UD palettes in their listings instead of blatantly declaring that they are genuine without first verifying them.

Today’s topic is going to be somewhat a continuation of the fake UD Palette 2 post. I believe this is a prevalent problem not just in Singapore and Malaysia but in other parts of the world as well so I hope I’m doing good for the community.

As you guys know, I’m pretty active on Carousell. Recently I noticed some sellers (can count with one hand) carrying out preorders for all sorts of Urban Decay palettes such as the Basic and Flushed palettes and also outrageously claiming to have a certificate to prove their authenticity.

orly

Soooooooo certain ah?

As those listings were posted quite some time back, I had to do a search for “Urban Decay Authentic Cert” and “Urban Decay Authentic Preorder” to retrieve them. I will be censoring the usernames so if you’re interested to know who these people are, feel free to search for the same keywords. It’s usually the first few results with many likes.

Example 1

Example 1

Example 2

Example 2. This particular listing makes me rage because of the price.

I knew from the start that their palettes were fake but I was really curious about the certificate. So I private messaged one of the sellers above on the pretence of being totally interested in their stocks and I received this image upon request:

The so-called "Certification of Authenticity"

The so-called “Certification of Authenticity”. Never mind if you can’t read chinese because a NAKED 3 stamp is sufficient to make it “authoritative”. And sigh, I want to protect her identity also cannot ‘cos it’s all over the image! I’m sorry, I tried.

Let me get this straight: I can understand and read Mandarin. But I wanted to know what is stated on this certificate personally from the seller so that I won’t come across as being a bully who goes around accusing the innocent and saying mean things about these people on my blog (*cough* refer to one of the comments in my previous fake UD post). So according to the seller, this certificate is “from the china authority certifying that our factory is the only factory outsourced by urban decay to manufacture & distribute their products. Which (sic) includes the ones selling in sephora & several asia country“.

Wow, very convincing hor. Sadly girl, I can’t just listen to one side of the story when it’s also from YOUR factory. Plus, China is such a HUGE country. I’m sure the Chinese authority has better things to do than to meddle in the beauty business. Furthermore, why is the Chinese authority doing the verification instead of Urban Decay themselves?

Thus I shot an e-mail to Urban Decay (yes, as in urbandecay.com, the headquarters) to clarify and this was what they replied:

urbandecayreply

Their official reply. They were very kind enough to respond to my question but please don’t go and disturb them and ask them questions like if your palette is authentic. If you didn’t get them from authorized resellers, chances are they are not.

I guess their reply is self-explanatory. This also means there’s no such thing as “REJECTED GOODS” or “FACTORY SECONDS”. People who had bought their palettes from these sellers and are still very insistent that they are authentic, you can bring your palettes down to Sephora to get them verified.

I have to laud Urban Decay for their VERY swift response to my query too. I got a reply within 3 hours of sending my first e-mail which also showed how concern they were regarding this matter.

People say imitation is a form of flattery which I guess is pretty true for popular and widely-used brands like Urban Decay, Benefit, NYX, MAC and Bobbi Brown. Sadly this flattery results to great loss in profits and misconceptions among consumers who use counterfeits without realising that they pale in comparison to the real ones. Please don’t believe counterfeit sellers who claim that their fake products work as well as the real one (and that using a fake one is a good way to decide if you should buy the genuine one) because obviously they don’t! I mean c’mon, comparing a fake which costs $10 and an authentic one which costs 8 times more, you dare tell me they give the same results?!?

Also, before I conclude this entry, never believe testimonials especially those that “vouch” for the authenticity of the products. Frankly, only the ones who work for Sephora or Urban Decay are able to tell, not even myself. Trust your instincts. Many times, your intuition doesn’t fail you.

*Updated*
Some websites that you should be wary of when purchasing branded cosmetics:

1. Groupon.sg and other deal websites
2. Honeybay.com
3. eBay.com and other online marketplaces
4. Carousell and Duriana
5. qoo10.com and Taobao

These sites MAY have authentic products for sale. You just have to be extra careful when purchasing them.

I don’t know how to put it but no proper beauty sites would explicitly indicate that their products are “AUTHENTIC” in the description if they are really authentic. Look at ASOS and Beautybay, do you see them making their products’ authenticity known?