Where art thou, Bitter Cappuccino & Ganache Tart?

So last night -- well, actually, Saturday night -- I emailed the Rabbo people and asked when Palty in Bitter Cappuccino and Ganache Tart would be available. On Sunday, they replied, saying that the colours would be available "by the end of the month" -- I'm not sure if that means this month, April, or next month, May.

It's annoying that I can't find pictures of those who have actually used Ganache Tart -- or even the rough guides at the back of the box that tell you approximately what colours your hair should turn out. At least I've seen a couple of the Bitter Cappuccino results and swatches -- even held a real box and looked at the back of it. (Should have bought it then, dammit! Grr!)

I'm so desperate I'm even considering trying Beauteen!

I seem to have used up a little over half of my Asience conditioner now. I wonder if I should switch brands when it runs out. But Elseve is more expensive (although I think there is also more of it, which should justify the price) and Shiseido Golden Repair comes in a really huge bottle.

The Elseve royal jelly shampoo seems to be running out a bit fast as I wash my hair approximately every two days and need to shampoo twice each time. I seem to have used up a quarter of the bottle now, or almost. Wondering if I should switch to Asience shampoo next. Asience is pretty good but I'm getting sick of it -- the sight of it and the smell of it. I get bored easily.

Cosmetic Rant

First of all, let's address a problem, albeit a small one, that popped up a while ago (this is long overdue): the Mistine Diamond -- the glue that holds the refill in the case seems to have melted a bit and seeped out so that it makes the plastic film that came with it sticky! How yucky and annoying. I would quite like Mistine Diamond if it didn't have this problem -- and if it didn't have that overpowering perfume!

Today (read: Saturday) I went out to Platinum, hoping to get my hands on Palty Bitter Cappuccino and get a look at the three new Palty colours, especially Maple Donut and Ganache Tart. However, Rabbo only had the bleach colours and, I think, Honey Brown. Even the upstairs one only had the bleach ones and I think Orange Biscuit. The shop next to the downstairs Rabbo had more colours. They even had Maple Donut, but that was the only new colour they had. No Ganache Tart. And no Bitter Cappuccino. And the last time I checked MBK, they only had like two boxes of Palty left -- one a bleach and the other one, I think, Caramel Brown or Juicy Peach. I guess I should have bought Bitter Cappuccino when they still had it T^T

Watsons also didn't have the new Majolica Majorca collection. I wanted the solid perfume. It's lucky they didn't release a new mascara because I still have so much to go through.

I want that Palty! I don't want to use the semi-permanent L'Oreal Creme Gloss because I don't have the equipment for it. And I'm reluctant to use Beauteen because apparently the colour isn't as even or as long-lasting as Palty.

I'm impatient, I really want to get my hands on it really soon, but I guess I'd better not buy anything I'll regret later. I'll keep my eyes open. Hopefully the colour(s) I want will turn up later, perhaps closer to the time I actually want to use them.

Oh and still no Mistine Debutant around. And I bought that Axe limited scent -- yay :D

Maybelline Water Shine 3D Collagen in 244 & 204

Okay, so I caved in and bought not one, but two more Maybelline Water Shine 3D Collagen lip colours. First I bought number 244 at the second-floor Watsons at MBK, then when I went to the Watsons on the sixth floor, I realised that number 204 looked more orange -- or darker, anyway -- so I bought that too, as well as Nivea Q10 lip care (which advertises "UV Filter" but doesn't actually say how much SPF).

Anyway after some tests (including photos) I've decided to take back the number 201 from Mum, keep number 244 and give Mum number 204. I don't think she'll notice.

201 is the lightest pink of the three and has mostly gold shimmer, 244 is more orange with mostly purple shimmer, and 204 is darker than both, on the reddish pink side, with gold shimmer.

Gosh, lipstick is so hard to buy! Maybe next time I should opt for nude/beige colours. I actually picked up the MM Honey Pump Gloss testers in the beige tones. 6.5g each @ 220 in Watsons and 200 at Rabbo. Not bad. Maybe next time. (I heard MM lip products are quite sticky though.)

Oh, what ever happened to Moisture Extreme? Well, I picked up Iced Peach Tea, tested it on my hand or forearm (can't remember which) and just didn't like the colour -- too dark red -- and the texture -- nowhere as moisturising a feel as the Water Shine 3D Collagen ones, and going on less easily. The colours available were a bit on the dark or pink side.

Out of all the lip colours I have at the moment, I think the best colour is my Bloom gloss in Amour. The website described it as a barely-there pink, and that's exactly what it is. Not too showy but just enough shine and colour -- and it feels smooth and moisturising.

Anyway back to the Water Shine 3D Collagen. It really is very shiny. And the colour intensifies the more you layer on. It certainly feels moist when on.

Maybe when Moisture Extreme releases its purported collagen range, I'll be brave enough to pick out a new colour. But for now, that's enough lipstick for me. I've already bought three of the four coral shades in the Water Shine 3D Collagen range - -"

Oh -- a little Etude mineral BB pact follow-up here. I put it on once while I was doing my makeup, wiped off excess oil and put some more on before I went downstairs and didn't retouch again for the rest of the night. When we came home from MBK I asked Mum if my face looks less shiny and oily than usual and she said I was right.

Retouching the first time did not cause visible problems but now, so late at night, I can see evidence of caking. But that's okay.

Could this be my HG powder foundation??

I'll have to try it with my other stuff first -- the Mistine BB, the Maybelline Clear Smooth Gel Foundation, the 17 balancing foundation. And later, the Maybelline White Stay Base, and maybe even Kiss base once I get around to trying it (after I've used up the rest ... is that even possible?).

How the hell am I going to get through all this makeup??

I keep hearing ZA is good but the colour I bought is too dark. Gah.

Mistine BB is selling at 99 baht at 7-Eleven. And Watsons nose pore packs are now selling at 69 baht instead of the usual 99. So tempting!

P.S. 10 April: Just tried the Water Shine 3D Collagen number 244 without putting on any makeup at all. It's quite close to my natural lip colour so I think it must be the best colour for me. Still not sure if I should keep number 201 or number 204. One is too light a pink and one is too red.

Blogging away the time ...

So last night I washed my hair with the last of the Sunsilk and started using the Elseve with royal jelly extract. I conditioned with Asience as usual and went to bed with a towel on my pillow. My hair is noticeably softer, but that may be the effect of sleeping on a towel, and maybe because I didn't use Mum's leave-on crap (which seemed to actually make my hair feel drier and fluffier :s).

Funny thing is, my hair seems to be a little less shockingly bright red. On camera-phone with flash it looks the same, though. Maybe it's just the gloomy rainy-day light. But if the colour is indeed less vibrant, it must be my unusually frequent washing.

I've been reading some pointers from Kirari @ Jeban. She did this kind of famous review of sixteen hair colours she's had in the past couple of years and people keep asking her stuff as if she's a hair colour guru, which I think she sort of is. She says she heard from some hairdresser that it's good to change your shampoo every three months or so, which is a good thing because I'm always changing shampoos :-) I think next I'll try Asience shampoo or the Elseve colour care one. More leaning towards the Asience as it's got Camellia/Tsubaki extract, which is good for damaged hair. I'm more interested in making my hair soft and nourished than keeping the colour vibrant.

More tips from Kirari: Palty is indeed better than Beauteen. Its cream is thicker and its colour is more consistent. So I hope to get Palty in Bitter Cappuccino for graduation. Hopefully Rabbo @ Platinum has enough boxes of that, or I'll have to get them more expensive (+10 baht) at MBK. If worst comes to worst, I'll have to get Beauteen in Natural Brown instead. I'm afraid to try Natural Black because I hate the artificial-looking blackness of black dye. I just hope Palty in Bitter Cappuccino is dark enough for graduation -- but not so dark that I look totally ordinary and boring.

Still no sign of the new Etude collection on the Rabbo website. And when will Mistine Debutant hit Boots??? Grrr ...

P.S. Yesterday at Watsons I saw this cheap (about 70 baht) pack of 30 cleansing wipes. Very interested.

MakeUpdate: Maybelline Water Shine 3D Collagen

It feels like such a chore to write now, for some reason. Maybe I'm just in need of refreshment(s).

Let's see ... So today I actually got up at like 8.30 in the morning after half-accidentally drifting off to sleep last night while reading Tuesdays with Morrie. I would have liked to read on but I was so inexplicably tired -- I still kind of am today -- must be the bad sleeping and eating patterns I've adopted. I'm sure my physical condition is tied to my emotional condition, and vice versa.

Anyway so I did the washing and showered, washing my hair with as much Sunsilk as possible, hoping to finish the remaining supply, and conditioned with Asience. After doing my makeup, I put on the green leave-on conditioner Mum brought. I also put on the Sweet Princess SPF50 sunblock with its Strawberry Scent and its tiny glitter. It is easy to put on and not sticky. At the end of the day I feel my skin is still hydrated and soft.

So this morning I had time to cleanse, tone and moisturise my face properly. After doing all that, I used the Boots 17 Balancing Foundation and set it with the Natural Collection Illuminating Loose Powder (even tinier glitter than the sunblock and not over-the-top at all). I wore the orange Sheene blush, Sexy Mother Pucker lip gloss (whose lid cracked -- noez!!! T^T), brown In2it eyeliner, Lash Bone, and golden brown Lash Gorgeous Wing.

I realised there's a trick to applying Lash Gorgeous Wing without getting a load of fibres in your eye. All you have to do is look down while you apply it. I find this really helps. Although I still get some fibres flaking off onto my face during application and fewer fibres during the day, I only get one or two fibres in my eyes at most. Oh and I had to brush on two coats of Lash Gorgeous Wing on each eye today. I must say the effect is not as spectacular as Lash Enamel Glamour Neo or Lash Expander Frame Plus. Maybe it's just the light colour. Lash Expander would, of course, beat it in terms of lash length.

Today I raided Watsons and finally bought Maybelline lip colour -- the Water Shine 3D collagen one. I thought I could use this instead of the Bloom lip collagen. This is pretty much the first lipstick I buy myself, and I think it will be the last. I chose the lightest colour I could find, number 201, which is a kind of young, sweet pink. It is too bright. And the lipstick cream collects in the cracks/creases in my lips! Even if I'd chosen a better colour, this tendency to collect in the creases just will not do -- accentuating my creases is exactly the opposite of what I want!

So hopefully when I get paid for my translation job I'll go get myself a good tube of Bloom lip collagen.

I guess I'm just not made to wear lipstick. I hate their obliqueness. Only glosses and balms for me. I love their transparency.

Oh and I retouched my face with Etude Dream On today. I don't know if it's because the puff isn't clean, but this powder keeps caking up my face, especially my nose! Or maybe it's the combination of moisturiser and foundation that makes it happen. Or is it the loose powder? Not sure. But I think I'll be glad when I've gone through the whole powder pact.

While at Watsons, I checked out the Beauteen Turn Colour in Natural Black and Natural Brown. I think the brown looks nicer. I don't want to go too black. The Caramel Choco also achieves similar results. But I think Palty is supposed to be better. Luckily I saw a box of Palty in Bitter Cappuccino today. I think it looks a tiny bit lighter than the Beauteens, but you never know. And I trust Palty. I don't know, but their packaging with pictures of human models instead of Beauteen's manga models just seems more assuring to me. I know, I know, I'm superficial!

Bases that I'm interested in at the moment:

- Maybelline White Stay UV Base (in green)

- Biore SPF50 (the white, oil-controlling one)

- Kiss Mat Chiffon Base

- Etude Precious Mineral BB Base (the oil-controlling one)

Gosh ... I still have Mistine BB, the Boots 17 Balancing Foundation, and Maybelline Clear Smooth left ...

I also heard, according to Musings of a Muse and Lotus Place, that the Etude Precious Mineral BB Pact is also good and oil-controlling. I'm interested in getting it once Rabbo carries it. No sign yet.

Gahhh so much makeup to get through and get to T^T

P.S. Last night I put on the 17 Teal mascara just for fun. I used about three coats. Pretty good. Long and lush and thick. Slightly dry and clumpy once you start layering though. I fell asleep and woke up and it was still on -- no smudges, but some flaking off (the clumps fell off). In the shower, the water dampened the mascara but it wouldn't go liquid and trickle off. Rubbing wouldn't remove it completely. Cleansing did. But I wouldn't go out in the summer heat and rain with it though.

All dressed up, nowhere to go ...

... or no money to do anything when I go out, more like.

Yesterday I went and saw Milk with a friend. While waiting for her to show up, I raided Boots and Watsons. At Boots, I found that there was a new Mistine powder on sale -- Mistine Number 1 Diamond Bio Skin Complex Super Powder SPF 18 PA+++ (wow, what a long name ... let's just call it the Mistine Diamond). I of course bought it despite the fact that I have many powders already. Mostly the packaging attracted me. The wrapping has a rather nice image of a popular Thai actress and the powder case is made to look like a huge diamond -- rather hi-so, I must say.

I chose number S2 because my previous experience of Mistine powder -- Mistine Number 1 Platinum -- taught me that S1 is way too light. Plus, it was the only number available at that particular Boots store.

This powder is imported from Korea where it was made by Kolmar, the same company that produces Mistine BB cream. This powder claims to have the secret to Korean women's flawless-looking skin. It claims to, basically, have similar ingredients to real skin, thus blending in perfectly smoothly.

Aside from this, my eye was also caught by some new Maybelline mascara -- the Volum' Express Hypercurl Cat Eyes mascara. It caught my eye because of its packaging -- it looks kind of like the usual Volum' Express tube except it is slimmer, and the lid or applicator handle is shiny magenta or hot pink with black tiger stripes! It excited me a bit because it has a comb type applicator -- the first I've seen in Maybelline in this country! The comb has two sets of teeth, I'm guessing to help build lash volume. And yes, it's waterproof! I was tempted, sorely tempted, but I had to remind myself that I have at least two perfect MM mascaras that need my loving. I told myself that Maybelline is lo-so mascara to me now, and moved on.

I was wearing Fasio powder foundation yesterday but I couldn't wait to try the new Mistine powder when I got home, so I put it on top of the Fasio after removing excess oil. It turned out that the S2 looked no different to the Platinum in S1!! Despite the fact that the powder itself looks darker, it ended up making my skin look vampire-like!

I thought maybe it was just the fact that I put it on over another foundation powder, but no! Today I woke up and simply washed my face with water before trying the Mistine Diamond on and it still looks vampire-like! Oh well ... I guess I gotta blame it on the fact that it's Korean-made powder ... Korean powder is whiter than anything ...

Anyway, a little more comment on the packaging ... I love the "glass bottom" look of this thing, I really do ... so much less tacky than the white bottom of Mistine Platinum ...

And the puff is also nicer than the Mistine Platinum one. Gotta hand it to them for the design. It actually looks good and not like a copy of something else ... although I slightly suspect them of taking inspiration from Shiseido's Maquillage case, which is also kind of diamond-like, but pink. And when I think harder, I realise the "D" logo on the front kind of reminds me of Christian Dior. But no matter. This is one Mistine case I really won't be embarrassed to use.

Anyway I really wanted to go out and buy the Skinfood White Grape pact from Rabbo today, as yesterday my friend told me that Skinfood is better than Etude. And I've read enough rave reviews of the White Grape pact to convince me to try it. And even if I don't have enough for it, I thought, I could just get that Palty hair colour that I've been wanting, or maybe even MM blush, as none of the pink blushes I looked at in Watsons or Boots yesterday cut it for me.

A little mascara musing here. Yesterday I wore just the Lash Enamel Glamour Neo. Wonderful, but where did those solid clumps come from?? I'm blaming the Fasio for the clumps. I'm sure Lash Enamel Glamour Neo on its own would never clump until it was nearly out of date.

And today I'm wearing Lash Expander Frame Plus on its own. Two coats, actually. One coat makes my lashes long, two make them longer and thicker too! Yay! But I don't think it's such a good idea to brush the other side of my lashes on the second coat.

So I might stop getting Lash Bone after my current tube runs out. I don't need it that much except to oomph up Lash Gorgeous Wing.

So what am I gonna do with this too-white Mistine Diamond? Use it on my neck, I guess. I would give it to Mum but the case is too adorable!

Oh I also put my new True Match in G5 on top of the Mistine Diamond, hoping to tone down the brightness. It's much yellower, the True Match. In fact, after comparing Mistine Diamond to my other powders, I found it's a bit more pink than the other ones, which are yellower. Not satisfied, I put the ZA on top of that again. Now I think the True Match and the ZA are slightly darker than my real skin, which is actually a kind of pale olive/yellow. Should I be surprised that when, at the end of the night, I tried to wipe my makeup off with my Boots cleansing wipes, it didn't manage to clean up all of the foundation powder? I made sure I was completely clean with the L'Oreal after that.

Oh, when I did my usual OCD-like searches for reviews on the makeup I just bought, I came across this other Korean imitation Mistine powder -- Debutant. It's also got its own line of lip glosses too. Very interesting. The powder case is average but it's got nice Korean Gothic (as I've just now coined it) graphic designs on the front and a Korean-style plastic tray for the puff. Maybe I'll get a Debutant lip gloss instead of Etude.

P.S. It is all too easy to get finger marks all over the shiny Mistine Diamond case. But meh. It's still too pretty to give up.

P.P.S. I just tried re-doing with Mistine Diamond to see if a fellow Thai reviewer is right about its not caking after re-do. And she's right. But then, I haven't been out today so I haven't really faced extreme weather conditions, therefore not much excess oil. This powder is actually so pale -- or good at covering up -- that I have to re-do my Gino McCray blush too! I might have to get a more orange blush and lip gloss to go with it though: since it's a bit on the pink side it won't do with my pink blush and gloss.

I forgot to add that Mistine Diamond does have a fragrance. A very perfumey one. I can only hope it fades soon.

I might start using Mistine Diamond for whenever I go out, both for before going out and for re-doing.

Oh and there are tiny sparkles in it. You have to look closely though.

P.P.P.S. Okay, upon the third re-do, the Mistine Diamond is starting to look cakey. It does make my face feel soft and smooth though.

I hate being poor. I want that Skinfood White Grape pact. And I wanna buy some orangey and pale pink blush. I want that Mistine Debutant powder and lip gloss and maybe even lipstick too. For the blush I might wanna try MM or even Etude, if I can get them cheap at Rabbo. Or maybe there's some nice Mistine blush I'm overlooking down at Boots. I can't get any of that until I have more money :(