My friends, I’m afraid to say, that I’ve pretty much outgrown mineral makeup.

*GASP*

Remember when I told you I was having problems with my skin? Using the process of elimination, I found out that the root of the problem was the mineral makeup I was using. To be specific, it was the mineral foundation. For some reason, I started having very dry patches on my chin, which then spreaded to my right cheek. It also started itching badly, and it took me a lot of willpower to not scratch my face off. They then turned into pink welts, which resembled acne. This went on for over a month.

After I came back from my honeymoon, I didn’t change my skincare routine, but started using the BB cream from The Face Shop instead of mineral foundation. I don’t think it was the BB cream that helped, but that I’ve stopped using mineral foundation which cleared my skin up. Come to think about it, it could actually also be the oil-control primer from Silk Naturals that caused the rashes. The problems soon came in after I started using the primer. Hmm. Anyway, I’ve stopped using that and the foundation, and a month on, my skin’s finally smooth once more. Phew.

Digressing a little, not that this has anything to do with my skin, but man, bringing mineral makeup when traveling can be a real pain. Thank God for my ziplock bag, without which I’d have powders all over my makeup in the makeup bag. I really thought it would be easier bringing the small jars along, y’know, for portability sake. Guess I was wrong.

Anyhoos.

I don’t think I’d be going back to my mineral foundation, at least not for now. I still love the mineral blushers I have though, and so far, I haven’t had any recurring problems when using them. But in general, it’s bye bye to mineral foundation, veils, concealers, etc. At least for now.

As for mineral eye shadows, I haven’t developed a strong love for them just yet as I still find them pretty messy to use. I’m waiting for my empty palette and metal pans from Coastal Scents to arrive though, so that I can press them in and test ’em out. Will let you know how that goes when it happens.

Goodbye, oh mineral makeup. You and I have had a good run. It’s been fun. But for the sake of my skin and sanity, I’m going to have to let you go.

There was a lot of hoo-ha about this mascara when it was first launched. The huge brush simply screamed volume, and the tiny bristles promised clump-free lashes. I’ve read many good reviews on it, and when it was finally launched at Priceline, I grabbed one (the waterproof version), just before my holiday.

Description:

Get a blast of lush, volumized lashes! LashBlast’s patented volume-boosting formula and patent-pending brush are designed to max-out each and every lash, leaving you with the ultimate big lash look. Now in waterproof, too!
Instant volume and fullness
Smudge and smear-proof
Hypoallergenic and suitable for contact lens wearers

Unfortunately, this did not work for me. Not at all. I’m afraid I have to say that this does not work for Asian eyes (please let me know if any of my Asian readers who have tried this actually liked it, yeah?). The brush is simply too big to accommodate our short eye lashes. I don’t have very short Asian eye lashes, but they’re not long either. When I tried this on, I had to be very careful not to smudge my face, simply because the brush was so big.

Many a time, when applying the mascara, I did smudge my skin. And I really hate this from mascaras, especially after I’ve done up my face and still have to be very careful in removing the smudge without creating a hole in the foundation.

In comparison with Max Factor’s Aqua Lash

Left brush – Max Factor’s Aqua Lash. Right brush – CoverGirl’s Lash Blast

So nope, I didn’t like this mascara at all. As the brush was freakin’ huge, it did not curl nor volumnise my lashes at all. I’d be better off sticking to mascaras with smaller, normal brushes. Plus the tube is huge compared to other mascaras, thus taking up valuable space in my makeup bag. To those with short Asian eye lashes, I’d suggest you to give this one a miss.

Lash Blast? More like lash blah to me. Who wants to take it off my hands? It’s yours for free :p Just make sure you have eye lashes that go on for miles. If you do, I hate you. Okay I don’t *fingers crossed behind my back*.

Cover Girl’s Lash Blast mascara retails at AUD17.95 and is available at Priceline.

What I like about it: As a mascara on the whole, it’s okay, I guess.

What I did not like about it: Massive tube, massive brush for my Asian lashes. Sigh.

I think I’ve got to be the last person on the whole beauty blogger network thingy to jump on the BB creams bandwagon. Sigh, but can you blame me? I only started hearing of it AFTER I came to Melbourne, and these are either unavailable to me, or ridiculously expensive (what to do, everything is expensive here). So when I went back to Malaysia a couple of months ago, I knew I had to check it out. I bought two tubes of BB creams; the first one was by Skin Food, and the other by The Face Shop. I have yet to open the one by Skin Food, so I’ll review the one by The Face Shop first.

Description:

Formulaed with our enhanced Quick ‘n Clear Complex and Malt extract, this oil-free protective moisturiser soothes the skin while providing natural coverage to hide flaws.

For those who do not know what BB creams are (it can’t be, right, if I’m the last to know about it? :p), the letters BB stand for Blemish Balm. It’s pretty much a moisturiser, foundation and concealer, all in one package. It’s one of the most popular beauty product in Asia at the moment. BB creams are particularly good on those with acne-prone skin. Apparently, prolonged used of the product will also help improve the overall texture of the skin and fade acne scars.

Well, I don’t know about the last bit of that claim, but this is the way I see it. It’s somewhere in between tinted moisturiser and foundation. I find it slightly thicker than tinted moisturiser, but still lighter than foundation, which means it gives better coverage on the skin whilst it evens out your skin tone.

I haven’t used other BB creams before, so I can’t make any comparisons just yet. But I have to say, damn, the Quick and Clean is good. It contains tea tree oil (you can even smell it!), which targeted my blemishes well. I had some pretty bad red welt-like rashes going on on my chin and right cheek, and it’s now gone. This BB cream glides on smoothly on my skin, giving it medium coverage, which I like. It’s also oil-free, which is great for my usually-oily T-zone. In fact, this controls oil pretty well. My nose stays oil-free for at least a couple of hours. And that’s saying a lot.

Now, the problem with this BB cream is that there is only ONE shade available. Actually, that’s pretty much the problem with almost all BB creams; there is a very small selection of shades per cream, if not just one. This, unfortunately, only favours those with fair skin. Ladies with darker skin will find this unsuitable as it would make their skin look ashy. I find this wholly discrimating, I must say. I mean, I’m glad it worked out well for me, but what about the rest of us with darker skin? Hello The Face Shop! Time to make some changes here if you want more customers!

One thing about this BB cream is that it does not contain SPF. Well, okay, no chemical sunscreen ingredients, if you look at the list of ingredients on the tube. This might be good for those who prefer natural sunscreen ingredients though. The Quick and Clear BB cream contains titanium dioxide, and from the position of it in the ingredients list, it looks like there’s a significant percentage of it (the higher the ingredient in the list, the more of it is used). Titanium dioxide, amongst other uses, is also a sunscreen ingredient, which protects skin against UVA and UVB radiation.

Oh, and all that claim about malt extract? It’s close to the bottom of the list, which means there’s very little of it to actually be effective. I mean, whatever it’s effective for. I’m afraid I have no idea.

Having said all that, this still beckons big love from me. It’s not too heavy, which means I could use it in hot and humid countries like Malaysia without feeling as though my face was going to melt. I still use a light moisturiser and sunscreen prior to this though. It’s just part of my skincare routine that I can’t break out of regardless. In spite of that, it still doesn’t feel like I’ve had much products on the skin, which is good.

The Face Shop’s Quick and Clean Oil-Free Blemish Balm is available in The Face Shop boutiques at RM55.90. I’m not sure if this is sold in The Face Shop Australia though. Australian readers, if you do see this, do let me know and how much it costs here, yeah?

Would I repurchase this? Oh yes. It works for me! 🙂

What I like about it: Gives me good coverage, evens out my skin tone, and it’s oil-free.

What I did not like about it: There’s only one shade available, and there’s no proper SPF. Boo!

Update:
I’ve added pictures of the BB cream on my skin.

The shade from The Face Shop’s BB cream is a tad cool against my skin, giving it a very slight bluish-ashy tint on the back of my hand. However, when I evened it out on the skin, it matched back with the original skin tone.

You can’t really tell much difference in the before and after picture shown above, but there is some coverage on the freckles I have on my cheeks. No concealer was used on the blemishes and discolouration to show you the difference.