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Thursday, February 23, 2017

Review: BCL's IT's Skin Foundation, Concealer, Powder

FULL DISCLOSURE: I received these for free from Kay Collection, however,  I am under no obligation to review these & all opinions are mine.

So, thanks to Kay Beauty, I got to try out 3 products from BCL's Skin Flat line:

I did two video reviews of these products, a first impression video:




As well as a more thorough review:




I thought I should do a written review too, where I can go even more in-depth (and help those of you who don't have the attention span for videos, like me :P). For a summary of my skin condition as well as reviews of all the foundations I've tried, you can head here




Skin Flat CC Powder (01 Light Beige)  



  • Type: Powder
  • Coverage: Heavy
  • Finish: Matte
  • Good for: Oily skin


Oooh...flawless...
As you can see from the picture, this is a very, very heavy coverage matte foundation that really does a great job of hiding all my pores. It's advertised as a multi-tasking powder that's a foundation and a setting powder as well, but I personally strongly advise against using it as a setting powder. It gets very, very cakey that way. The coverage is already thick on its own, and I can comfortably go concealer free when I wear this. My face does get that powdery, made up look, but it doesn't look cake-y and I think it's a great trade off for that flawless coverage.


After 9h of use, the foundation is starting to streak on my nose since I have a really oily nose, but it's holding up relatively well. My blush and highlight still stayed since the foundation gives such a good base. I noticed that as I get oily, I can see pinpricks of oil forming on the foundation which makes my nose look "dotty", but once the oil spreads out, the foundation ends up looking like I'm just wearing a dewy, liquid foundation. Definitely great for oily skin.

One of the downsides of this is that it doesn't take cream products that well. I added a cream blush and it ended up messing up the coverage and looking kind of chalky and patchy:



Then again, it's not a deal-breaker for me. If I need the heavy coverage the Pore Camouflage Powder gives me, I won't be wearing cream products.

Would Repurchase? Yes


Skin Flat CC Gel (01 Light Beige) 

  • Type: Liquid
  • Coverage: Light
  • Finish: Matte
  • Good for: Clear, blemish-free skin

Extremely light coverage...
This has extremely light coverage, and dries down fast to a matte finish. You still get a very skin-like finish because it's so light, but personally for me, it's so light that I don't see the point of wearing it. I rather go foundation free.

After 9h, there's barely any coverage left on my face:

I noticed it streaks like crazy as my nose gets oily. Compared to the Pore Camouflage Powder, this definitely didn't survive the day as well. As you can see, most of my blush and highlighter is gone. In fact, I'm not sure if those are traces of highlighter on my face or just face grease.


 Would Repurchase? No

Skin Flat Pore Concealer




Despite what's advertised, you can't apply this straight from the tube. You'll end up with a streaky mess. You definitely need to apply this with a brush, a sponge, or at least your fingers. Ok, so it does do a good job of filling up and smoothing out my pores. But that's it. You can't really use it as a regular concealer since it doesn't build up well and tends to slip and streak.

The coverage is thick enough that you need to blend well to avoid it becoming cake-y, but it's not as great as the Pore Camouflage Powder. Personally, I rather go with the Pore Camouflage Powder since it's the same level of heaviness, but with better coverage and oil-control. I tried applying the Pore Camouflage Powder over this to see if I'll get a wax doll, pore-less finish on my face, but I ended up with Cake City.

Would Repurchase? No
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Monday, February 20, 2017

Guide to what a monolid is, and how to apply makeup if you're in between




Every now and then, I get people telling me my makeup tips for monolids don't work for them at all, and a lot of times, it's because they don't have monolids at all. There's this misconception that all Asian eyes are monolids, and while usually only Asians have monolids, not all Asian eyes are monolids. 

So what are monolids? Here's some pictures that may help!

 Monolid


Image courtesy of revlonlashes.com
Image courtesy of www.makeupandbeautyblog.com/

Han Hye Jin..found on many sources, not sure which one to credit


Photo courtesy of ChenMan


Not Monolid



Image courtesy of fashionlady.in/

Image courtesy of yesbeautyfashion.com/
Image from this Buzzfeed article. Unfortunately, I'm not 100% sure whose eyes are these. Let me know if you know!
Song Hye Kyo, various sources


"I don't have a monolid, but my crease is super tiny! What do I do?"


This is usually the most common makeup help request I get. If you have a tiny crease, there's several ways you can do makeup, and it depends on the size of your crease. If your crease is super tiny, it's best to go with:

Treat the crease as a space to be filled up with liner, fill it up, and use the monolid make up trick of just applying everything higher



Examples:

Image courtesy of cateyesredlips.wordpress.com/

Image courtesy of mamiskincare.net

Image courtesy of thestylecircle.com

Image courtesy of destinationfemme.com

This is also very helpful for monolid girls who suddenly get creases in only one eye on certain days. This is a pic of me with a monolid on one eye, and a crease on the other eye. With this trick, it's not that obvious that my eyes are different when I open them, but when I look down or close them, it's a bit more obvious.



If you have a larger crease, this is another trick you can use...

Treat the crease like a regular crease, and just do everything "flatter". The eye look will look more like a "pancake"/"mochi" rather than a "half-moon" when you close your eyes, but it'll still be pretty!

Image courtesy of Tuan Tin Par
Image courtesy of makeuphairstylesweb.com
Image courtesy of @jlinhh

Image courtesy of @colorpunch

Hope this helps and feel free to contact me if you ever have more questions!