Trip to the Make Up Store

Hi *Photo heavy post* - Good if you'd like to see lots of pretty pictures ^_^

Last week the ABBM ladies and I visited the Make Up Store - yes there's an actual place called the 'Make Up Store'! I hadn't actually heard about this store until I read news about October's blogger meet. It's situated in Burnside Village and this was actually my first time being there, so I was a little lost trying to make my way there and to find the Make Up Store xD

... But then I saw the ABBM girls who were already there taking pics in front of the store!

Sneaked in for a shot on the left :)

Thanks Sherry for snapping the picture!

Here's what I found out about the Make Up Store:

• They originated in Sweden and have expanded around the world
• Been in Australia since 2005
• Products contain rich pigmentation and are NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS
• Cosmetics do not contain perfume, making their range allergy-friendly

I've decided to create some collages of photos I snapped around the place just to reduce the photo-heaviness of this post. I'll take you on a little tour of what I saw~

 They've gone with the 'Spellbound' Halloween theme, hence the webbed decoration

Selca time ^^

Ahh I love how everything is displayed! The colours of the pigments/eyeshadows/lipsticks/nail polishes really stands out from their black packaging and interior design. There's definitely a lot on display but don't be fooled - the place is not that big - quite small actually. You could say it was cosy haha, great for our small blogger meet :)

Nibbles! I loved the macarons *_*

And of course the drinks from left to right - portello, grape fanta and champagne

I went for portello! It was really nice :3 Cheers!

Here is the lovely Maria (left) of Make Up Store who did the makeup demonstrations. She had awesome skills

Here she's doing Kate's eyeliner. Kate had already done a fab job with her eyeliner for the day - Maria even complimented her :)

We got to swatch this blue-grey shade of pencil eyeliner and let me tell you about the quality.... IT WAS SO SMOOTH! The smoothest pencil eyeliner I have ever tried. It just glided on and its staying power was pretty impressive.

Neena having sparkly eyeshadow applied

The gorgeous Cally with blue eyeliner on

Vibrant red lippie on Sarah! Matched her hair and jacket

Celeste getting glittery eyeliner put on - it was seriously pretty!

Celeste looking ever so cute, especially with the cat ears ^^

L-R: Sherry, me, Steph aka Jeneara, Suki, Celeste

Credit: Make Up Store Australia

And then I was the last to volunteer as a demo person!

Blue eyeshadow!! As I already revealed in my previous post hehe

I was happy to volunteer as I wanted to make this an opportunity to improve on my makeup application skills, especially on myself... uh conceited much lol. But seriously, I wanted to know what type of eyeshadow application would match my eye shape. I learnt how to apply eyeshadow from watching Youtube tutorials and looking at magazines however they didn't always apply to my eye shape (epicanthal fold, small double eyelid, invisible crease).

I now know to wing my eyeshadow upwards as shown - not something I would have done previously! Awesome, I'm going to do this from now on. Thanks Maria!

We were told that us bloggers got to have 30% off everything in store for the evening. This was really exciting news for us and there were so many things that I had my eye on, like these:

Fancy falsies. I would love to try ones like these for fun/FOTD

These ones especially - just gorgeous

A wild pink brush caught my eye *_*

Liquid eyeliners.... coloured ones too! But I resisted haha, I have plenty of eyeliner

The two hours we had there really did fly by - I think we ended up staying for an extra hour browsing and making purchases. It was so lovely for the Make Up Store to have us and I'll definitely visit again in the future :D

Here's what I took home from the night:

Goodie bag filled with 2 magazines, skin care booklet, mascara, 2 eyeshadows from the Spellbound collection (and I signed up to be a member)

So what did I purchase...?

Under eye concealer for my under eye bags and dark circles T__T Something I desperately need and am not ashamed to admit it!

It smoothes on quite nicely

And now to the gifts in the bag~

Sensitive mascara

For people with sensitive eyes. I have sensitive skin so I know how vital it is to find a product that suits and doesn't give any irritations. I assume this is waterproof but not sure, still trialing it out

Microshadow: Allure and Spellbinding

1. Pan

2. Swatch

3. Swipe

4. Smudge test

5. No primer vs. primer test and smudge test

Result: 

• Faint swatch can still be seen after the smudge test
• Eyeshadow is more vibrant with primer underneath, and resists smudging

High quality eyeshadow + Primer = Perfection

And last but not least, I'm going to share some of my favourite pages from the two magazines:

Eyeshadow colour combination is pretty

Simply beautiful

Her hair *__* It's a wig but still it's so cute

Her hair isn't a wig and it's stunning! Love the pastel pink

Dolly makeup, love it

That's it for my post on my trip to the Make Up Store - hope the pictures weren't too much (I did have a warning at the start!) but if you are keen to see even more pictures from the day, the Make Up Store has a Facebook page and they've uploaded an album of pictures called 'Spellbound Blogger Event - Burnside Village'.

Sadly I will be taking a blogger hiatus for 3 weeks due to exams :( Please anticipate my return as I will be holding a giveaway for my 800 followers ^_^ Thanks once again!

See you in November, take care :)

♥ Jen xx

 

Review: Mimididi 3D Diamond Powder EyeShadow

Hello lovelies! Hope you're all well :) Just want to start by saying thank you as I've reached 800 followers which means... another giveaway soon! Keep your eyes peeled for it ^^

For this week's post I'm going to be reviewing KKCenter's mimididi 3D Diamond Powder Eyeshadow:

This brand is completely unfamiliar to me as most KKCenterHK items are (that's the joy of reviewing their products - I have no expectations about quality etc.) and at the back of the packaging we can see English, Korean and Chinese. Like with my previous KKCenterHK review, I don't know where this product was made in but since the majority of the writing is in Korean... we can assume that this was made in Korea.

I find the packaging to be quite unique and nice~

Comes with a cute sponge tip applicator and mirror. Very handy.

There is also an expiry date at the back: 2014.10

 

Opens out like so - I like the packaging design! Neat :)

This makes a gorgeous base and highlight colour ^^

Also, this could be used on top of matte eyeshadows or for some extra shimmer

I love glitter eyeshadows and I don't own a single matte eyeshadow. I find glitter so pretty and since I'm such a girly girl, I'm attracted to anything sparkly *_* Can't go wrong with sparkly, shimmery eyeshadow!

One swipe with a finger and indeed it's very pigmented

Highly pigmented swatch

It's a very pretty swatch however I noticed quite a bit of fallout. The consistency was smooth which is a plus. The next picture is a test of its staying power without a primer underneath. I swiped over the swatch with my hand and this was what happened...

Most of the pigment is gone but you still see glitter

It's true that staying power does differ from brand to brand but don't let that put you off from getting a certain eyeshadow. All you gotta do is invest in an eyeshadow primer and your eyeshadow will last regardless of the brand. I think pigmentation and no to little fallout are definitely more important when it comes to picking eyeshadows.

Here I have demonstrated how the eyeshadow looks on its own with and without eyeshadow primer underneath:

 No primer underneath. See how the pigment is mostly at the centre? Primers make the eyeshadow smooth on more nicely and the pigment appears more vibrant.

 With eyeshadow primer underneath

Can you see the difference from the first picture? The eyeshadow and the shimmer has spread more evenly across my eyelids

Pros (+) and cons (-):

+ Cute packaging

+ Comes with a mirror and sponge tip applicator

+ Extremely shimmery

+ Decent pigmentation

+ Swatch is true to the pan

+ Smoothes on nicely

+ Stays on with a primer underneath

+ Multipurpose shade

 - Slight fallout of eyeshadow

- Not as pigmented on the eyelid

- Amount of glitter may be overwhelming/difficult to deal with

- Below average staying power on its own

Overall it is a decent eyeshadow. Nothing too amazing besides the pretty shimmer and neat packaging. It's totally suitable for people on the go because of the mirror and mini applicator. As for the colour, I know I'll definitely be using this for my base colour and inner corner highlighter ^__^

Currently the product is listed as sold out so I don't know how much this costs - sorry!

Anyway, that's the end of my review. I would've liked to have used the eyeshadow to create a look (to make this review seem less dull) but unfortunately I was tight on time. Here I am complaining again about uni taking up way too much of my time :(

I do have something to share that definitely isn't dull~ A sneak peek of next week's blog post:

I just uploaded this picture on my Twitter/Pudding!

I had purple and blue eyeshadow put on me today! I'll blog all about my first time having bold eyeshadow on. I'm definitely more of a neutrals girl haha... find out how I reacted to this next week :D

Questjen of the week:

What type of eyeshadow do you like? (Can choose more than one)

• Shimmer
• Matte
• Neutrals
• Bold/bright colours

 ♥ Jen