the celebrity action: February 2010the celebrity action

I needed a new foundation like a hole in my head but for some reason or another the Shiseido Aqualabel Moist Liquid Foundation SPF20 PA++ appealed to me so I decided to try this out - especially since I am totally new to Aqualabel so this is the first product I tried out from their range.

The foundation comes in a small 25g cherry red squeeze tube. I think this is a good size for traveling (and it will not take too much space in your 1l Ziploc bag if you need to take foundation in your hand baggage).

The Aqualabel Moist range (red packaging...there are also a blue whitening, a turquoise acne-care and a purple anti-aging line available) contains the "Aqua Synergy" complex which is good to soften old keratin so that the good moisturizing ingredients (hyaluronic acid, trehalose, rose extract and collagen) can nourish your skin from deep within.
The "Lift Synergy" formula is good to cover pores, fine lines and uneveness (according to the seller I purchased this from, alphabeautyuk on eBay)

The foundation has a very pleasant lightweight moist texture. It dries to a soft smooth, almost powdery finish with medium coverage.
Applied with my MAC 187 brush (just started using this 3 weeks or so ago?) the finish is nearly flawless.
The staying power is good though I noticed a bit of caking around my nose after some hours of wear.

Which brings up the only negative of the foundation: The color choices.
I am usually a 00 (yep, I am Bond, James Bond), most of the time OC-00 is the best match. The OC range is usually the most neutral one but still with noticable yellow tones.
Since there is no 00 shade in the Aqualabel range I settled on PO10 which was described as "Fair pink ivory" which sounded like it should be a great match for me (the swatch was also super pale).

Actually the color looks good when on, it's only very slightly dark and a little bit orangey if I apply too much but can be adjusted with a lighter face powder. It looks more orange/dark on the swatch but when blended it looks quite fine. However, if they did a PO-00 shade it would probably be perfect as the pinky tones of the PO shade work well with my naturally rosy skin.
And after all a foundation that doesn't match is not of use =X

All in all the foundation feels really comfortable to wear, doesn't irritate my skin and is moisturizing. The color is not perfect which is a shame as it's such a nice product!

The Aqualabel Moist Liquid Foundation cost me US$17.95 from eBay which is a fair price. However the tube is small =)
It's lightly fragranced but it's just a really faint perfume you can smell.

This comes in quite a lot of colors for light-medium skin-tones (from OC-10 to 30 and some BO and PO shades I believe), I might give a try to OC-10 but it would be just great if they came up with a 00 shade.

I know it took me some time to write up this review but I somehow had to make up my mind a little before posting this.

After being so thrilled with my first 2 eyeshadows from Addiction (review here) I decided to pick up 4 more colors so I could fill up a 6-pan case and have my own Addiction palette.
This time I was not as lucky with the colors I picked as 2 of the colors aren´t really my thing but the other 2 are just as great as the first 2 I got.

I wrote about the overall texture of the shadows and the different finishes in my previous post so please click here to read more.

I got the following 4 colors:
Snow Venus (S), Nostalgia (P), Keshil (P) and Stardust (P).
Snow Venus (S): To my horror this turned out to be a cream shade. There was no indication anywhere that this would be a cream! It´s a very sheer off-white with a slick and a bit greasy texture so I only use this just below my brows as I am afraid it would crease. The color itself is pretty but I am just disappointed that it´s a cream shade!

Nostalgia (P): To me the online swatch looked like this would be a lighter pink-tinged taupe brown shade. On me it turns into a golden brown, almost on the mustard side so wearing this on my lids is impossible. I can blend it into my crease but I am not overly happy with this color. Also this lacks luminosity compared to the other P shades I tried so far!

Keshil (P): This is probably the best color of the lot. It´s a gorgeous deep gray bordering black with a nice metallic finish. Finding such dark color with such nice finish is something rare in my opinion as most deep grays and blacks look rather flat.

Stardust (P): This is similar to Keshil however it does have some micro-glitters and a barely noticable purplish tinge to it. It´s also a good highly-pigmented color but Keshil is just better.

Here you see the compact case. I filled it with my 6 shadows.

Top row (from left to right): Snow Venus, Nostalgia, Flash Back
Bottom row (from left to right): Sandcastles, Keshil, Stardust

You know it often happens to me that I like ceratain eyeshadows or lipsticks very much but then it ends up that only the first batch was great and I am disappointed with the 2nd one I might order enthusiastically. I think I should just keep what I like and not order more if I am not 100% sure it will turn out great!

Overall I only love 3 of the shadows in my 6-pan case...not a good thing really

Kosé Addiction Natural Veil Powder in 01 & Blush in Amazing

I hauled a few more goodies from Addiction among them the Natural Veil Powder in 01 and the Blush in Amazing.

Natural Veil Powder:
The powder comes in a thin plastic case as it´s meant to be put into either the Compact Case I (alone) or Case II (together with a blusher or 2 eyeshadows).
I was a bit disappointed when I received it as from the picture it was not noticable that this would not come in an actual case. Also for the hefty price I thought it should not just come as a refill. I eventually ordered the Compact Case I though as I just dislike to have it in the ugly thin plastic thing.

The Natural Veil Powder is a very light-toned finely milled silky powder that evens out my skin perfectly. I really love this powder as it doesn´t look overly powdery or chalky at all but still offers light coverage. It sets my foundation and doesn´t feel dry. I am not sure if 01 is supposed to be translucent but this is definitely best suitable for fair-light skin-tones as it definitely does have a bit of a tint to it.

Really, this is a superior quality powder however I must say I have other cheaper powders that perform almost as good at a fraction of the price. I think I will still repurchase this though as I seriously enjoy using this.

This is not scented and I don´t have any irritation or adverse reaction when I am using this.

You can get this on Ichibankao or Mihokoshop so you can check out the price yourself. There is also a color 02 available.

Blush in Amazing:
I saw this color shown on the pamphlet and fell in love with it right away. The perfect cool hot pink!

Oddly this comes in an actual case but without a mirror. I don´t know why the cheaper blush comes in a hard plastic case whereas the more expensive powder comes in a flimsy refill case! After all the blush is also meant for depotting =X
Anyway the blush color is gorgeous! It´s really a very bright cool pink but deep enough not to look clownish!

The blush has a very smooth fine texture and is only very lightly shimmery, almost matte.
The only little rant I have is that the level of pigment is actually much less than I expected for such an expensive makeup-artist-like brand. Actually for me that´s not that bad as I can overdo blush very easily but still I think this should have a bit more pigment. It takes about 2-3 layers to achieve the soft pink flushed cheeks I like =)

You can fit 2 of the blushes in the Compact Case I or 3 pieces in the Compact Case II.

Overall both items are great albeit a tad expensive. Next time I´ll review the 4 eyeshadows I picked up =)

First venture into Kosé Addiction by Ayako

My interest in this brand was peaked when my friend Iris from Rouge Deluxe introduced the new brand called "Addiction" on her blog.
To read about the idea behind the brand and other interesting info please check out this post and this one as well!!
Here is the official website: Click

Addiction is produced by Japanese cosmetics giant Kosé so I expected great quality as I am very fond of Esprique Precious, Jill Stuart, Beauté de Kosé and Magie Deco who are all under the Kosé brand. In addition there are many haircare, bodycare and skincare items from Kosé (e.g. from their drugstore brand Cosmeport) of good quality!

Meanwhile I somehow forgot about the brand as I didn´t find it in any of my usual online stores.
But recently I found this excellent review on Birkinbagbeauty and knew I had to pick up the shadow she featured and when I browsed their selection on Mihokoshop.com I ordered a few more items (placed another order already which should hopefully arrive next week!).

Addiction is a department store brand and price-wise about the same as Jill Stuart but the packaging is pretty much the opposite of JS as it is probably targeted to another type of customer. Well I love all sorts of Japanese brands but I am not a typical customer I suppose hehe =D

Honestly their model and featured looks don´t appeal to me at all. Too artistic NARS-like in my opinion. I would have pretty much preferred a pretty Japanese model with a more appealing makeup look.

-Eye Shadow:

The Eye Shadow comes in a huge array of colors, mainly focusing on very dark colors and light shades, there are some colors, too, but the majority is on the muted side with just a few brights standing out.
There are 4 types of shadow finish: M (matte), P (Pearl), ME (metallic) and S (sparkle). I love that the finish is noted as this means I will not get a matte color when I expected a shimmery one and vice versa.

Each shadow has a number, a name and the finish noted so it will get to a quite long name for each color =) But the name makes it easier to remember the shade! Some Japanese brands drive me crazy with their color codes!

The case the eye colors come in is a sleek little square compact made of black shiny plastic with the Addiction lettering engraved. The shadow pan itself is actually a decent size but it must be rather shallow as each color only contains 1.2g.
The shadows can be deotted and plugged into any of the 2 available compact cases. Case 1 can hold up to 4 shadows and Case 2 holds up to 6 colors. Both cases can also hold blushes or the face powder so you can mix and match. Some examples are shows at the end of this post!

The retail price is 2100 Yen however I paid US$31 but EMS shipping was included (as my order reached a certain amount) so the price is good for me.

I got 1 shadow from the ME range (the one from Birkinbag´s review) and one from the P range. To my surprise the P range is much more luminous than ME giving it a very interesting finish I rarely found in an eyeshadow so far.
Both colors have a very nice velvety texture which almost feels a bit wet to the touch. The color pay-off is excellent and the blending quality is fantastic. Both shadows are pretty much the best shadows I have purchased in long time.

-Sandcastles 009P: This is a light yellow gold with a very luminous and intense finish, almost like glazed. This looks gorgeous as a wash or highlighter. A light layer of this is enough for a very pretty look!

-Flash Back 030 ME: A beautiful neutral metallic taupe, right up my alley!

Swatches:

Overall as you see I am very impressed with the shadows. I ordered a few more colors so a review of these will follow soon.

-Lip Stick:
I also purchased 2 shades of the Lip Stick.
The packaging is sleek and simple, just like the shadow cases.
There are 3 finishes of the lipstick: C (Cream), S (I am not sure if this is for sheer, shine or sparkle but I guess sheer) and P (Pearl).
The colors I got are both from the P range.

Kosé always made and still makes some of the best lipsticks in my opinion. The Addiction Lip Stick is no exception as it has a creamy moist texture and a pretty glossy finish.
Both lipsticks are sheer with a good dose of fine shimmer so they´re exactly the kind I like.
The lipsticks are not fragranced and contain 3.8g each. Retail price 2940 Yen (about US$31). I think I paid US$38.50.

-Crush On You 017P: This is a pretty neutral pink with very fine pink and golden shimmer.
-Sweet Jeart 008P: This is a lighter slightly cooler pink with very fine silvery shimmer.

017P is on the left, 008P on the right. First pic with flash, 2nd without flash.

Other colors I like are Gold Fish, Desert Rose and Day Trip.

The color swatches on the Addiction website are rather accurate in my opinion so I am very happy with all the colors I picked out.

Here are several ways to combine the various products in the compact cases.