Free Beauty Blender :O

Luxola, you really want my wallet to cry...

Luxola.com

I recently made a purchase so I can't ( ;-; )
Such a shame because I'd really love to try the famous Beauty Blender (although the dupe I have is good enough, I rarely use it...such a hassle to clean and make sure no bacteria is growing!)

Considering the Beauty Blender itself is BND30 on Luxola (here), it's really a good deal.

I don't have anything I'd want to buy right now from there as I've just ordered something.

It is of limited stock though, so if you're interested, I'd say go and buy something now :D
Don't wait!


I hope they'll have a similar deal in the future, I'll definitely make use of that!
They always have good deals going around, you can always make an account and get notified of the deals via e-mail here.


For now, I wanna ask:
Do you use a Beauty Blender?
Do you like it? Or do you prefer using brushes or your hands?

I love using my Real Techniques Buffing Brush or just my hands. If the foundation is a bit thick, I'd even it out with a damp sponge. It works :)


I'll write some reviews soon, I've been testing a lot of products, I just can't form an opinion of them lol. I've been using certain things for a while and I'm still undecided :T


There's also a giveaway soon, hopefully.

I might host it on Instagram, what do you think?

'til then.

Take care!

-Nisah-

Sasa.com Haul Video~

Hey everyone~

I decided to do a video of my recent Sasa.com haul!

I'll add photos later :)

I tried out the Peach Lipbalm I worked so hard to open and it turns out that I may be allergic to it. I'm not sure what I'm allergic to though.

I should try it out again maybe tomorrow :/ such a bummer.


Only my top lip kinda hurt.

Well, that's about it.

Take care, yeah?

-Nisah-

Review: Sleek iDivine Au Naturel Palette

This is going to be a review of Sleek's iDivine Au Naturel Palette.
I've had this for a while, my cousin who's studying in the UK bought it for me. I think it was last year. I really forgot when. It could be 2011 or 2012.

Comparing mine to the new ones on Luxola and also the main website here, I'm guessing mine is the old packaging, first generation one lol. My cousin already warned me that the mattes in this particular palette aren't that pigmented, but back then neutrals are the only ones I really bothered with using!

Looking it up also, I think the crisscrossing pattern on the eyeshadows are smaller and are almost invisible on the mattes! A simple act of Googling them would show you two different kinds of Au Naturel Palettes.

Moving on~

Description (For the new generation):

The Au Naturel i-Divine provides an array of matte and pearlescent eye shadows that you can use to create a subtle yet contoured effect for day, or build it up for a smoky glamorous evening effect using velvety browns and shimmering fawns. These shades are highly-pigmented and have a velvety consistency that gives full coverage on the eyes with serious staying power. Modern slim packaging make it easy to carry a full range of shadows conveniently and the full size mirror on the lid allows you to get gorgeous eyes on the go.

I don't know about the old ones, but I have to say, other than Nougat (which looks really white), the others look quite similar.

The back of the palette.

I tried to take a photo of the front but it was just too dirty. You could see the handprints and stuff even when I tried to clean it. Plus, you can't really see anything.

Here's the inside of the palette:

Names of the eyeshadow shades.

Sorry about the dirty sponge-tip applicator. Contrary to popular belief, for this one, the applicator is quite nice. Really. I use it to pat on the shimmery shades. However, I think I'll ditch it after this photo.

Texture of the eyeshadows on the pan.

The size of this palette, is the EXACT same like the Makeup Academy (MUA) palettes. Call me blond but it didn't occur to me until I put it in comparison LOL.

Don't believe me?

Take a look:

Top: Sleek iDivine Au Naturel Palette
Bottom: MUA Heaven and Earth Palette

You get virtually the same amount of product, in a slightly more classy looking palette WITH a mirror, for about £4 more! It didn't occur to me at all.

Heaven and Earth is also all shimmer and Au Naturel has 8 mattes and 4 shimmers. So basically, if you're a fan of mattes, by all means, go with Au Naturel. If you prefer shimmers, I'd say save yourself £4 and go with H&E. My review of this palette can be found here.

Au Naturel Palette taken with flash.

There's a catch though. I personally think that Au Naturel lasts a lot longer on the eyes without primer than H&E. I've tried Au Naturel without primer and it didn't crease. Although, if you want vibrancy, especially on the mattes, DO wear primer.

For the matte shades, I suggest a sheer finish primer like UD Primer Potion in Original or even e.l.f's Eyelid Primer (there are many similar ones, MUA has one too!). You can also use a skintone base, like MAC's Paint Pot in Soft Ochre or essence's I ♥ Stage Eyeshadow Base. With these, especially the skintone coloured ones, the lighter matte shades will pop more.

My favourite shades to use on Au Naturel are: Nougat, Honeycomb, Toast and Taupe.

I rarely use the shades on the bottom row until quite recently.

Here are the swatches:

On plain white paper.

While I was swatching these, the textures really got to me.

All the eyeshadows were buttery soft except one.

Noir.

It was dry as hell!

I was really surprised because I always used a brush to use these shadows nowadays.

The swatches down here are with one swipe of the finger, with no eyeshadow base.

Nougat, Nubuck, Cappuccino, Honeycomb, Toast, Taupe

Conker, Moss, Bark, Mineral Earth, Regal, Noir

As you can see, you can barely see some of the colours on my skintone. I didn't swatch these with a primer, obviously, so you can see how pigmented they are (or not). Just by looking at it, I'm sure you know that the shimmers are obviously MORE pigmented.

The bottom row obviously wins if you were to compare the two.

But I can vouch for the top row that as all over lid colour, with a nice primer, they work pretty well. Nougat and Honeycomb work well as highlighters.

PROS:

- Beautiful neutral shades for everyday or even smokey eyes.

- The shimmery shades are all pigmented and soft.

- Doesn't crease on me without a primer.

- Has 8 matte shades for those who love mattes.

- Packaging is sturdy and posh.

- Has a large mirror.

- Compliments most skintones.

- A good beginner's palette.

CONS:

- You can get a cheaper alternative for the 4 shimmery shades with MUA.

- The matte shades don't really show up.

- Matte shades can easily disappear if you blend too much.

- Needs an eyeshadow base for some of the colours to be able to show up.

- A bit pricey.

- Not that easily available.

- There are other better alternatives (slightly more expensive).

Rating: 3.5/5 (The matte shades are a downer despite having beautiful colours)

Will I buy this again?

No, simply because I'm not all that impressed and I don't go through the eyeshadows that fast. I have other palettes.

Do I recommend this?

I wanna say...no. But if you don't mind working with the mattes, be my guest. DO remember that this is a review of the first generation palette. I'm pretty sure the new ones you can get have better pay-off. Just make sure you get the new one!

---

Where can you buy this?

You can get this palette on Luxola, here. 

It's priced at S$20 normally, but you can get 15% on orders above S$25.

Apparently they have a pretty nifty bundle that includes Au Naturel AND the more lauded Storm Palette for S$37, here.

There's one more bundle that includes this palette, Storm and also the V1 Palette, here for S$54.

You save 6 bucks plus 15% discount too. 

And you can get free shipping to Brunei on orders above S$40.

I'm not so sure if the official site does international shipping.

---

So, basically, those are my thoughts on this palette.

Again, do remember that I have the first generation palette.

Yeah?

Okay then!

Take care!

-Nisah-

P.S: It's been brought to my attention that the one I have is the new packaging. Then Sleek fails because it seems like the old one was far more pigmented. Damn.

eBay Seller Review: f2plus1

Hi, everyone!
How's everyone doing?

It's May, can you believe it? Time flies by so fast~

Anyway, I was thinking of maybe making reviews on online sites or eBay sellers I've ordered from...but then again, everyone would have different experiences, right?

I should have done this before, lol, but yeah, maybe I should start doing so from now on!

Anyway, I ordered some items from this seller, f2plus1!
I ordered two items:

Etude House Sweet Recipe Baby Choux in Peach Choux and Tony Moly Latte Art Milk Cacao Pore Pack !

As per usual with Korean sellers, some sell it cheap, some sell it slightly more expensive BUT what I love most about them is that their shipping is almost always free!

This was also the first time I bought from their shop properly (you know, where you put things in carts) because apparently you can get extra bonuses or something (I forgot haha) but well, you'll just see from photos.

I've ordered from Korean eBay sellers a few times, maybe 3-4 times I think and I'm always amazed how they pack everything well, in a brown box and this time, it's no different!

Btw, I asked them to mark my item as "gift", just to see if they would LOL.
And they did.

But then again, I think most sellers would do this?

And here's my package!

Well, kinda.

Just tossed it all back in for the photo.

I rarely get to open my packages myself at the customs because my dad picks it up for me.

So I dunno how it was packaged but nothing came broken, in fact, the boxes were perfection :D I love my boxes!

My dad also told me the customs thought I ordered chocolate.
...I'm not that desperate to order food online D:

When I first got it from my dad, I smiled seeing the number of samples I got XD Then I saw the cuteness and the tiny-ness of the items.

You know, I just realised something.

I always somehow order things in twos! I never noticed that.

Anyway~

FOOD BASED SKINCARE OVERLOAD!!

Well, kinda. It's more like food-themed makeup/skincare overload XD

These two were in my wishlist :D

....in my head I think.

The Sweet Recipe Line's not in Brunei yet and it seems like Peach isn't coming out here :O I hope I'm wrong.

I'm not sure of the price in Brunei yet though.

The mask though, I think it was BND21.90? Correct me if I'm wrong.

And wheee :D

Samples I got!

There's 7!! That's a lot more than usual. LOL usually I get 4 :D from two items so whee!

I'm so excited for these items and some of the samples :)

I can't wait to try the Choux Base and the mask!

So, my verdict?

Pros:

- Seller ships a day after payment (Made the order on the 10th, shipped on the 11th of April)

- Items arrived safely (packed nicely in a sturdy box)

- Shipping didn't take long (17 days + A few days marinating in the Post Office)

- Generous amount of samples (7 instead of the usual 4 for two items)

- Items as described (yep, yep)

- Prices are reasonable (all you gotta do is compare and compare)

Cons:

- I paid extra 2 dollars for tracking BUT the tracking didn't work D: (Cannot track in Korea, cannot track when it arrived in Brunei also! So basically what's the use??)

- Some items in the store might not be as cheap. (Especially if you wanna order from just one shop)

So, do I recommend this seller? Yes!
Would I purchase again from this seller? Yes!

Have you ever ordered anything from this seller?
How was your experience? Do share!

*All items were purchased with my own money and I found the seller after some comparing :D*

Take care, everyone!

-Nisah-

theBalm.com ONE DAY 50% Sale

It's just a ONE DAY sale! This is the site!!

If you have USD40 to spare of international shipping, I say go for it ( ;w; )

I don't, unfortunately. 

Maybe. I DUNNO.

I have no chance to think it through, personally.

Since I love the brand's eyeshadow and creaseless cream shadows, here are the ones I recommend!

I have 2 of these, remember which ones?

NUDE'tude is popular with a lot of people! It's USD18 after discount.

I do like it but it's not my go-to palette.

It has nice wearable colours and the eyeshadows are buttery (at least the one I had before my exchange)

BalmJovi is a nice palette, unfortunately it's too bulky for everyday use.

It has their popular highlighter and blusher in this palette too.

If you're new to theBalm, BalmJovi is nice :D It's USD19.75 after discount.

As for the shadylady palettes, I have my eye on Vol.1, but I've swatched Vol.3 in shop. 

Buttery, lovely shadows.

I think I might prefer it over Urban Decay :O

I'll see if I'll buy it later or not.

HG Shadow Base, right here.

These babies, I'd recommend forever.

I'm actually tempted to buy Base Hit Kit again.

They never crease on me, they stay put and bright for 12 hours (for me)!!

I only have 2 of these, the pink and the gold. I LOVE the golden one.

After discount, these babies are USD9 each.

If you just wanna try the texture of the shadows, do consider the single shadows~

Look at these pretty babies!

USD8 after discount.

I have Mischievous Marissa and I LOVE it.

These are beautiful shadows. If I had the money, I'd buy them.

I really love their shadows.

theBalm even has skincare and haircare!

Can you believe it?

Anyway, I'm actually feeling under the weather and my mom is having an operation later, so I should sleep.

If you do decide to buy from them, do tell me what you decided to order :D

Take care then~

-Nisah-

Maybe This Would Help?

When I posted about the scam dealings of Wholesale-dress.net, my friend commented and told me about this website called Scamadviser and how that awful site doesn't really have good reviews? Just look at the screenshot here:

Well, lookie here.

Wholesale-dress.net is NOT that safe.

So I looked up some other sites too~

Sites that I think are safe, and sites that are deemed not safe:

WOW. 

Really not safe!

VS. some sites that I trust:

SAFE.

Look at the analysis details though.

However, due to it being around the area that has fraudulent activity and stuff, you can't be totally sure. The site is safe, yes, but can they guarantee 100% authentic products, for example.

Basically, this might help you make decisions on whether or not you'd buy from a certain shop.

I'm not gonna say it's 100% reliable since I just discovered the site but hey, it won't hurt to check before you commit to a site to buy stuff, you know?

Better safe than sorry.

I thank my friend for showing me this site :3

So yeah, take care!

-Nisah-

Wholesale-dress.net Review (A Bad Experience)

*WARNING, lots of pictures ahead*

Inspired to warn people of this site by SusieVibes' post on her bad experience with SammyDress.com, I got reminded of my bad experience with Wholesale-dress.net.

I don't even WANT to link them to you guys. The things I had to go through was so stressful.

Basically, if you remember this post , I was ranting about the Post Office officers.

THIS. MEANS. WAR.

I ran up to my room, took out my laptop, loaded the website I ordered from and opened live chat customer service.

I wanted to know, I needed to know if they sent it all in one parcel.

After a while of chatting, we found out that they only delivered one parcel. Everything was sent already.

We told them the parcel was prematurely opened.

We could not find the necklaces, and some of the accessories from my costume dress was missing.

They told us to take photos, we did. And then we were referred to a person under Customer Tech.

After a while of checking, they reaffirmed that they sent it all in one parcel. The person even told us to check the pockets, but trust me, I looked. I burned HOLES into the parcel with my eyes.

There was nothing.

Nothing at all.

Out of the 8 items, 6 were missing.

The thing with this is that the parcel ACTUALLY arrived, it got to my hands but items were missing.

It was not missing, whatsoever.

They told us to take photos, and after a while, they concluded that someone must have opened my parcel and took some things.

This was what actually occurred with the Wholesale-dress.net (WDN) people. What did they ask me to do?

1) Take photos. Check!
2) Do a thorough search. Check!
3) Made me assume as much that somebody opened the parcel and took them. Check!

What they told me to do was to check with the post office first. While they promised to check with their shipping company. They also told me that since it was Chinese New Year, they would delay it a bit. I was fine. It didn't occur to me about their plans.

I was naive, and I believed every word they said.

So, I did my part, I wrote to the newspaper, my dad kinda met with the Post Office head honcho and the dude in charge of parcels got transferred (or suspended) and they told me they'd do their investigation. Nada. Nothing at all. I'm so tired of dealing with them.

They never told me whether it was received like that or what.

So yeah, this was my order process:

Jan 18 (Yeah, congratulating me on my future shady deal)

The receipt for PayPal was also received on that day.

Then, they were packing:

Jan 19

I remember thinking "Oh wow! They pack fast :O"

Received my ass >_>

And this was my order, a total of 8 items.

Only 2 were received (incomplete, too)

WHERE ARE MY ITEMS??

How much I had to pay.

$15 something for shitty shipping and packing. JOY.
(I frequently order from another site with free-shipping and have no problems with them >_> there was one item missing and they gladly refunded me, fast)

So anyway, I received the item around Feb 6, had a session with live "help" and got this random email:

What the hell does that mean?

So anyway,  I remembered that the dude hasn't contacted me. So I contacted them again.

Feb 8

Feb 20 (Wow, I was that dense and forgetful)

Feb 21

Feb 20 (Whut)

Feb 22

And so, I did my research around this time. I mean, with the Post Office.

There were already warning signals and stuff. My bro said "The Post Office is not gonna say anything so tell them that it was received opened. There's nothing more you can do!"

I was adamant, I really hated how the Post Office was treating it.

There's a difference between a lost parcel and a parcel received in a shitty condition, okay?

Finally used up all my energy dealing with the Post Office, I sent them another email:

Mar 5

Then, here comes the golden email from "Customer Service":

Mar 5

Who the hell uses that language to a customer??

Mar 5

I was pissed off. It's quite obvious someone else was corresponding with me now. And this person IS ANNOYING.

Mar 6

Well, someone fucking can't read, can they?

Seriously man D: (Mar 6)

I was really so pissed off then.

OH HELL NO. (Mar 7)

So yeah, after this lousy response, I responded:

Mar 7

So, by this time...I was just so annoyed, even waiting for their email stressed me out.

Oh God, wait for it, look who's back:

It's the fucking 'Dear' Correspondent. Yay. (Mar 7)

So yeah, I was appeased.

I replied:

Mar 7

Me being nice, even wished them a good day. Even when I wished them real slow deaths in my mind.

THEN:

It's fucking PLZ Correspondent again. (Mar 8)

Are you fucking kidding me?

The bewildered response is from yours truly.

I kinda went all homicidal on my next email:

Mar 8

And sooooo to conclude my fucking "Customer Service" drama:

Yeah, I was still so nice. (Mar 13)

By the time I finished trying to work it out with them, it was then that I was bugged about not knowing what to do.

Feeling scammed (3 dollars, yeah, laugh, but the way they treated me was bullshit) and feeling like sending curses their way.

So yeah, I counted the days, finally realizing that it was past 45 days.

Wrote and email to Paypal in the form of an essay....that I doubt they even read. I sent it on the same day I sent this email.

They said "YEAH GO AHEAD AND DISPUTE" (in a shorter way than their fucking automated response)

When I clearly said it was past dispute.

NOW Paypal was getting on my nerves.

I think after I replied them for not actually READING my email, they finally told me to contact "Internet Crime Complaint Centre" (IC3)

But looking it up, it was such a hassle, I just wanna send curses to both WDN AND Paypal.

---

So yeah, to conclude, don't buy from this site.

If you had good experiences, good for you.

I had to deal with shit.

Not only did they told me to do MY part of the investigation, they didn't even own up to anything in the end. Yeah, they offered to send the items for free FOR MY NEXT order but I am NOT gonna pay shitty shipping fee anymore!!

It was clearly the shipping company or themselves that packed the fucking parcel poorly.

OR the fucking Post Office for all I know.

Either way, in this case, I was stupid, naive and trusting and too patient for my own good.

I let them order me around like a fool, when I could have just asked for a refund.

Sadly, what is not included in this post is my conversation with them live.

That was precious.

Oh yeah, I'd have the photos here maybe later but the dresses I ordered? They didn't look the same.

But still cute nonetheless.

So yeah, last but not least.

DON'T BUY FROM THIS SITE, PLEASE!

Take care then.

-Nisah-

P.S: I even blocked their site from appearing on ads. Although I still see them from time to time on other sites >_>; ugh, how much do they pay for advertising....

MUA's 3rd Birthday Sale~

Just gonna inform you guys that MUA (Makeup Academy) is having a sale right now, in conjunction with their 3rd birthday. As tempted as I am to buy, I hauled too much makeup recently ( u__u ) and then my order from their 50% Sale never reached me (they have refunded though, although it's still saddening) so I don't wanna risk it.

Unless I send it to my sister's address in the UK but then again...it's not necessary!

It's until the 2nd of April~

Only some items are on sale but I think they're worth getting if you wanna try them out.

Some of the items on sale~

I just wanna cry~

Because most of the items on here, I actually ordered during the 50% Sale....

Anyway, if you guys wanna try them out, here's your chance!

Oh yeah, here's the site LOL

MUA Store

Happy shopping~

*cries*

-Nisah-