purple comparison

Afternoon!

After seeing Ying's post, i decided to pull out my purple OPI "Do You Lilac It?" and try it on to compare. Purple honestly hasn't been one of my favourite colours but every now and then, I get purple fever. So here is my swatch (2 coats, base & top):

This photo shows up quite light, but it is a lot deeper/darker than OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender and less pink. It has a very creamy consistency and if you aren't careful with you application, it can tend to streak. I'd recommend waiting a few minutes between each coat to avoid this.

It's not a colour I enjoy wearing all the time as I'm more of a pink person and so I prefer LLL > DYLI. Let me know which one you like better!

Exams are coming very soon so apologies if Ying and I are MIA in the coming weeks.

jenni&ying xo

MIA

Hi girls,
So I know I've been a bit MIA for a while now but I couldn't keep procrastinating from doing uni work any longer! So to brighten my very dull and depressing days I've bought some new opi colours; unfortunately I've been a tad lazy with doing swatches but I finally tried this colour which is Lucky Lucky Lavender and I have to say, it's fast becoming one of my favourite colours of all time!

Sorry about the bad lighting ... it was quite late at night when I took this photo so no natural lighting :( I'm definitely not as pro as Jen when it comes to nail art so I tend to stick to bright colours with maybe one or two nail art designs - eye catching yet so simple to do.

Also, I finally gave in to temptations and bought the Imju Fiberwig Mascara which lives up to its reputation. It gives great length and volume and oh so easy to remove. I'll have pics up soon but I'm just waiting for my Shu Uemura eyelash curler to arrive as well so that I can give a review and post pics in the same post. 

In the meantime, if you have any questions that you'd like us to answer, or a beauty product you'd like us to review, then just send us an email :)

jenni&ying xo

jenni's mini opi haul & swatches

Hello girls,

I recently purchased OPI "Isn't that Precious?" for my sister's birthday and decided to pick up a couple of others (as you do).

To the left is OPI "Suzi & the Lifeguard" and to the right is OPI "Princesses Rule!" These are both gorgeous shades, particularly if you LOVE pink!!

 

First off, I tried Suzi & the Lifeguard. It is a very sweet creamy pink. Below I'm wearing two coats and, with a base and top coat, it didn't chip once during the 7 days I wore it!

Next is Princesses Rule! This polish has a lot of depth. Under certain lights, it can look like a very Barbie pink while other times, it reflects a very subtle light champagne pink. No matter what lighting though, it reflects light amazingly! Very sparkly (and I love it!). It is a sheer polish. Below is two coats and is still a bit sheer. I'd love to try one coat of this polish over a light creamy beige or pink.

That's it for now! Next time I see my sis I'll have to swatch the "Isn't that Precious?" for you!

Exams are pending...  back to the books

<3

jenni&ying xo

NYX Sale @ Cherry Culture!

Just thought I'd like to share this with all of you who don't know about this already.

Only a few days left, so you'll have to be quick ;) I just picked up a few single eyeshadows and blushes (couldn't resist!).

Happy shopping!

jenni&ying xo

nail art update

Jenni here and uni is all stress stress stress! Solution? Time out and nail art obviously.

Nothing brightens me up more (well, almost nothing) than to look down at sparkling pretty nails :) Here is a few NOTDs I've done in the past couple of weeks.

I wore this to the Smashbox event. It is a simple pink french using OPI A Dozen Rosas as the base and OPI Pink Flemenco on the tip. No guides needed for this one: just start from the side of the nail and sweep a curve to the middle of the nail tip. Finish with a line of glitter to mask those wonky lines!

Here is the plain swatch for A Dozen Rosas. Its a creamy dusty pink.

Flowers! Never tried this before, but they are surprisingly easy to pull off. Just dot five white dots in a circle without them touching. Drag a toothpick or dotting tool from the middle of a dot to the centre of the circle. Finish by adding a pink dimonte to the middle of the flower. Here I've used OPI Cozu Melted In The Sun as the base.

Marble art has always fascinated me and this is my very first try. It's a little more difficult than it looks and takes a lot of patience. 

♥ To do, get a cup of water (preferably a disposable one, or an old glass jar) and drip a drop of polish of a desired colour into the cup. It should spread out to the size of the cup. 

♥ Drip a second colour into the cup and repeat this process until you get what looks like a bulls eye. 

♥ Drag a toothpick or dotting tool through the polish to make a pretty pattern. 

♥ Use sticky tape to cover the bare skin around your nail. 

♥ Dip nail into the cup and keep it emersed in water while gathering excess polish up with a stick. 

♥ Lift nail up, remove tape and clean edges with nail polish remover. 

♥ Finish by adding glitter lines to the design and use a top coat.

This is something that you can't touch up so it's nice for a special event (or to show of to fellow bloggers :P)

The colours I used are OPI Koala Berry, OPI Do You Lilac It? and OPI No Room For The Blues:

Well hope you liked that :) 

Hope everyone had a lovely mothers' day!

Till next time,

jenni&ying xo

a night with smashbox part deux courtesy of ying

Hello Ladies,


So I have to say that the smashbox event as kitcosmetics was wonderful. As Jen said, the night was fun with cupcakes and San Pellegrino in cute little bottles; however the makeup was a bit ... well let's just say at first, I was a little unimpressed with the smashbox range. Other than the primer, I wasn't really keen to try anything else. To say the least, I was hoping for something colourful and attention grabbing but nothing jumped out at me.


That is, until I had a chat to this woman -

Robin Flanagan who is the international makeup artist for Smashbox. She introduced me to a great blush which she was wearing. This colour can only be described as coral or salmon pink (courtesy of Jenni) the actual name of the shade is Paradise. I was very surprised to find a blush I liked from the Smashbox range as just looking at the colours, they were nothing special but when I tried out Paradise, I found it quite pretty. The colour is perfect for the asian complexion as it is slightly orangey and there is a subtle hint of colour without being too over the top. Price: $34.95

The evening only got better from then on. I decided to at least give their eyeshadows a go and dabbed a bit on my hand. Jenni and I found that the colours, whilst very neutral, had great pigmentation and looked lovely on. I was hooked, line and sinker by the shade 24K which (as you may have guessed) is a gold colour. Apparently, this shade has real 24K gold particles which gives it just that much more shine and radiance than just a normal gold coloured eyeshadow. The only problem with their eyeshadow range is the lack of colour choice. They had mainly neutral browns, champagne and black colours and as Jen noted sadly, they had no pink colours. Price: $24.95

I have tried the primer sample that I got, and it does live up to its reputation. The primer glided onto my skin smoothly and everything stayed where it should be for the day.

Verdict: Smashbox does have a great primer however, the prices are a bit steep and as we found out many times that night, the colours in their range are very easily found with other makeup brands such as NYX. I didn't buy a full size primer because I desperately want to try the Make Up For Every high definition primer which is also quite expensive so I'm saving for it. Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on a sample to try out and give you ladies a good review.

That's all from me for today,

jenni&ying xo

a night with smashbox

Morning girls,

Jenni here...

Uni is more than hectic at the moment, thus the lack of posting (sorry!). Just a quick post today to tell you about the great night we had at the Smashbox VIP night at Kit Cosmetics. It was crraazyy!! We were shown a demonstration on how to apply the basics and they had ALL the product for us to try!

We got a tiny sample kit with the original primer, under eye brightener and intuitive O-Gloss.

Our tickets were redeemable on any Smashbox products, so I bought the Photo Finish Primer Light. The light primer is made of 60% water, so it won't make your skin oily and break you out. I tried the sample of the original formula and it definitely feels more oily compared to the light version, which I found to be more creamy. The light primer is white (but goes on clear; the original one is clear) and comes in a pump bottle. I've heard some complaints about the pump system, especially once the product is almost used up. But they've designed it so one to one and a half pumps is enough for your entire face.

  

I've been wearing this for the last couple of days. It makes your skin feel very soft and not oily at all once you apply it (make sure you use it sparingly though: one pump was enough for my face).

So, did it work? Yes! Well, so far so good :) I put my makeup on at about 11am and by 7pm, I still had it on. It is also supposed to reduce pores and fill in fine lines - which I didn't really notice any difference, but that is not much of a concern for me. I'm just glad my makeup can last 8+ hours

Downside? The price! AUD $54.95 at Kit. I was a bit disappointed seeing as though it only cost US $36 in the America.

Repurchase? Probably, but I think I'll look around to find a cheaper place to buy it from!

The other Smashbox product that has caught my eye is the under eye brightener. I tried the brightener sample on my mum, thinking it wouldn't work too well. But I was pretty impressed with the results. It lightened up the area really well, and with caffeine in it, it also helps the puffiness go down.

All in all, it was a fun night: sushi, cupcakes and makeup - what more do you need?

LOTS of posts to come including Cherry Culture haul and more nail swatches! :)

Till then,

jenni&ying xo