FEBRUARY FAVORITES: Audiobooks, Tea and Aritaum - Review of Color Lasting Tint #2 Baby Wink

It's been forever since I've done a monthly favorites round-up! I've got a great mix of Korean makeup (one being more of an actual review!), food and book recommendations for you.

Edit 2017.02.07 : This post contains affiliate links (additionally marked with an * asterisk in the blog post), meaning I will make a small commission from anything you buy. View my 'About' page for the full disclaimer and my review policy! All products are purchased by me.

February was spectacularly unspectacular when it comes to makeup. I had so much work piling up that kept me inside, so my daily routine to look more (or less...) presentable consisted mostly of just sunscreen, lip tint, (terribly drawn) eyebrows, maybe eyeliner or eye shadow if I was feeling fancy, and some concealer.

But what a concealer!

THE SAEM COVER PERFECTION TIP CONCEALER - Mini Review

The SAEM Cover Perfection Tip Concealer is quite famous in Korea for being cheap (retailing for only 5,000 Won which is about 4 USD) and very high quality for that price. I caved last year while visiting Seoul and bought a little tub of this magic potion in shade #1.
I love it.
It's creamy enough to work on dry under-eye skin to cover up dark circles, but it's also high coverage (bye, acne scars) and stays in place over the day, no fading or creasing.

FOTD :D 

Also, the shade is really light! Lighter than the lightest shade from most of the other road-shop brands I've tried/swatched. It's the only concealer I own that works on TOP of my foundation without being too dark or beige.

So if you're a #13 for most Korean foundations or cushions, this should be the right shade for you!

Beware: The packaging isn't the best. If you're not careful, some of the product might smear - I clean it sporadically with tissues.

Now on to the lip tint that saved me this month!

ARITAUM COLOR LASTING TINT #2 BABY WINK, REVIEW & SWATCHES

Whenever I'm really busy, I fall back to coral lip tints. They are easier to pull off (for me) than pinks or reds, I can apply them more smudgy because they are basically just a more saturated version of my normal lip color, and they go well with a bare face.

My current favorite is the Color Lasting Tint by Aritaum in Shade No.2, Baby Wink.

Aritaum Color Lasting Tint No.2 Baby Wink - Direct Sunlight

Isn't that name so cute?

I've previously reviewed two other shades from this line. One is a true red, the other one a bright fuchsia. So, both of those aren't really natural, everyday colors. But as I really liked the formulations of the Color Lasting Tint, I went back to get a more neutral shade. This one actually works better than the other two colors, which have a tendency to leave behind irregular, sloppy lip stains. The #2 Baby Wink fades evenly.

(If you want to read more about the packaging, please have a look at the two linked reviews! As this is just a favorites-of-the-month post, I don't want to make this too long)

Aritaum Color Lasting Tint No.2 Baby Wink - Indirect Daylight

As you can see on the swatch pictures, the texture has the same shiny finish as the other shades. Baby Wink is a lighter color, so the stain it leaves behind isn't that strong, but it still stays put for hours if I don't eat. The shine disappears upon drinking or eating, but the color itself remains behind.

One thing I really like about the Color Lasting Tints is the stain color: It's exactly the same as the product color itself. Some tints that are, for example, bright red upon application, leave behind a pinkish stain instead... If you're sensitive about colors and hues and harmony that can be quite annoying, so I love the color permanency of these!

Aritaum Color Lasting Tint No.2 Baby Wink - Artificial Light

Aritaum did well with these! Baby Wink would be in my January Favorites as well, if that blog post existed...

Arm swatching! Isn't the shade pretty? It's a peachy coral hue that makes me look instantly more alive while still looking really natural!

The swatch below the tint is for my third and last February makeup favorite: A cream eye shadow by Aritaum.

ARITAUM MONO EYES SHADOW #112 AIRY PLAY - SWATCHES

Part of the Mono Eyes range, the shade No.112 'Airy Play' is a creamy, shimmery light brown mixed with gold. In any case: It's just about the most natural shimmer eye shadow I've found so far!

Aritaum Mono Eyes No.112 Airy Play

It works really well on a sunscreen-only or bare face, or when used together with cushion foundation that's dewy in finish. The result looks a bit like I just applied my cushion foundation on my eyelids and that's it - but instead of the easily creasing and smudgy mess foundation can make on lids, this cream shadow stays in place for much longer and has some extra shimmer, too!

Tightline and eye shadow, indirect sunlight

I reach for this to brighten up my eyes (thanks, shimmer!), cover up some of the red arteries (thanks, biology!) on my lid and, at the same time, don't need to worry about dryness. Matte shadows can sometimes be a bit taxing on my lids, but this really just feels and stays creamy. It does budge a bit into the crease after some hours, so maybe I SHOULD be setting it with powder - but it's just so easy to re-blend it with a finger, so I don't bother.

Favorite drink this month: MATCHA POWDER TEA

Green Tea Latte! By some strange, beautiful twist of fate we currently own three bottles of green tea powder, and I've made it my mission to finish at least one over the course of the next weeks!

~70C water, add powder, stir until slightly foamy and deep, dark green, add some almond, soy or normal milk aaaand perfection!

Also, green tea powder is supposedly much more potent when it comes to health and skin benefits compared to brewed tea, so this is my counter-move when I hit the fourth or fifth cup of coffee each day.

AUDIOBOOK RECOMMENDATIONS: JANE AUSTEN AND JEAN WEBSTER

So many! Whenever there's a lot of patient but kind of brain-dead drawing to be done, I finish about two or three audiobooks per week... 

That sometimes leaves me out of new books (or rather, Audible credits...) so in February, I was re-listening to some of my all-time favorites: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, as well as Emma... These two books just make me so giddy and romantic (and a bit dramatic), and whenever I re-read or re-listen to Jane Austen's work, there's new details that catch my eye/ear.

Pride and Prejudice on Audible (*)

Emma on Audible (*)

Also listened to Mansfield Park for the first time. I actually enjoyed how loooong and meandering it was, but didn't like the ending. At all. Or where the characters ended up both physically and mentally and all in all, no recommendation for this one. But still:

Sense and Sensibility has to be my least favorite Austen book, though. I just can't with the characters, and not even Alan Rickman (;__;) in the TV series can keep me from wanting to slap or shake people. Especially when re-listening to this. Rah.

The Pride and Prejudice 2005 movie is so, so gorgeously shot.
I want to draw it all.

After my Jane Austen Binge™, I needed something short and sweet, and a friend (on the same Austen Binge™) recommended 'Daddy Long-Legs' by Jean Webster to me.

Still historical fiction, still infused with romance and mundane but lovely details and sentiments, but at the same time very light-hearted. It fit the mood perfectly! The whole book takes only about 4 hours in audio form and is composed nearly entirely of letters, which are so perfectly read by the narrator (Anne Hancock) that I was just giggling most of the time. Can only recommend it (and the follow-up 'Dear Enemy', which was even more snarky and had wonderful Scottish accents thrown in) - these are really perfect as a listening experience!

Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster on Audible (*)

That's it for February! I hope you had a great month and will be back soon with a 'real' review! Thank you for reading! <3

Korean Eyeshadow Review - Aritaum Shine Fix Eyes in #25 Vampire Kiss

Hello everyone!

This post is the start of a little series of reviews. I've got quite a lot of eyeshadows lying around and while I want to review and swatch them all, I want to do it in an *~orderly~* fashion. So, themed reviews. The first part will be a look at red hues.

While I only have one 'true' red eyeshadow, I do lean to buying reddish hues like browns, sienna colors, and the occasional orange or pink. Wearing only red is impossible for me, as my eyes just look swollen and sickly, but combining red-brown hues with a red color as the point of focus works very well for me! (also, there will be one burgundy eyeliner thrown into the mix!)

The brands introduced in this series will be my usual fare, cause I'm just that boring:

Innisfree Mineral Single Shadows (the old formulations as well as the new collection that came out in autumn 2015)
Aritaum Mono Eyes (the 'basic' eyeshadow line)
Aritaum Shine Fix Eyes (the glittery-sparkly eyeshadow line)
Mamonde

Let's start this series of with my very red, very sparkly contestant:

The Shine Fix Eyes eyeshadow line by Aritaum is quite popular in Korea! All shades are incredibly sparkly, but they also have great staying power, which makes them easy to wear when compared to some more fall-out prone glitter shadows.

Them being popular makes it a bit difficult to get certain shades on sale... As soon as they're part of an event (mostly 1+1 sales) all the popular shades are immediately sold out.

The shade I own is: Aritaum Shine Fix Eyes #25 Vampire Kiss or 뱀파이어키스

It's a deep red with gold glitter particles.

I went with this red shade because I figured that, as I don't like to wear glittery eye makeup on a daily basis, it would be great to have a more 'special' color instead of a simple one for daily use.

I'm surprised to say that this IS actually very wearable! I like to combine it with a brown hue, though.

The packaging is very well made. In addition to the screw-on lid, there's a plastic cap to protect the glittery gel-like eyeshadow from drying out or spilling.

I've already used this several times but there's not yet even a dent in the product! This lasts forever!

Shade #25 looks like a bronze color in the pot, but don't be fooled! It's really a red (leaning slightly pink), and the illusion of an orange-bronze color is created by the golden particles reflecting the light.

See? Nothing bronze there. I was really surprised how pretty this looks when swatched, but it's impossible to catch all the glittery goodness on camera...

Swatching on paper (yes, I'm an illustrator, I HAD to do this.) and on my arm.

The beige hue on top is what I'm using in the following swatches on my eye as a base color. Innisfree Mineral Single Shadow (the old collection) in #22 Cashmere 푹신푹신 캐시미어

The second from the top is the Shine Fix Eyes #25. Due to the angle and lighting, the glitter particles aren't visible - you can see the base color clearly!

The swatches below are what I normally would combine with that red shade to give the eyes some depth and definition. I'll introduce them in another blog post (this is a series after all) - they are by Mamonde and Innisfree respectively.

The Innisfree Mineral Single Shadow in #22 is barely visible on my skin, which makes for a great base color.

For the following swatches, I didn't use any primer, just layered the Shine Fix Eye #25 on top of the Innisfree Mineral Single Shadow in #22.

This was my first eyeshadow - bought it two years ago, some time after I'd moved to Korea. It's suffered a lot since then!

A warm beige with very, very, INVISIBLY tiny shimmer particles.

Here we go. Eye swatches!

First, just a tiny smudge near the eyeline. The Shine Fix Eyes are surprisingly easy to blend and use. I didn't use a brush, just my fingers - I seem to generate less fall-out this way.

Blend blend blend! I built the color up gradually, as I'd never used it all over my lid before. It's easy to layer, too. There's definitely some glitter all over my under-eye area and in my lashes, though. Not sure if that's just my lack of practice and precision, or a general feature...

I think it could be cleaned up by applying eyeliner and mascara, though!

The shade changes slightly depending on lighting. Sometimes it's more pink, sometimes a deep, blood-red. I love the glitter! The particles are very small, and the effect all over is delicate and beautiful.

Also: Red shades are great for hazel and green eyes!

Overall:

Especially when used in combination with a primer or fixer, this shadow really stays put! In that, the Shine Fix Eyes shadows are similar to the Mono Eyes shadows by the same brand. Aritaum's stuff just won't budge, or crease. The inital fall-out (if you're as untalented with application as I am...) can be cleaned with a soft brush. Once the application is done, there was no more falling out over the day.

This shade is also great for a night out - it looks good in dim light and, as I said, stays put.

Now I kinda want some more shades, though... I'm falling in love with how the glitter looks both in reality and on camera! Here you can have a look at the shade selection on Aritaum's official website. Which should I get...? (And review, of course.) #22 and #32 are calling to me!

These retail for 8,000 Won and contain 3.5 g of product each. For comparison, the Mono Eyes eyeshadows contain 1.3 g of product - so there's really a lot in these little pots here!


I hope the swatches and my rambling review were useful and I'll be back with more soon!

REVIEW: Aritaum Color Lasting Tint in #13 THE RED ONE

Hello, I'm back with a review - for a product I'd introduced once before and recently got my hands on another color! It's the Color Lasting Tint by Aritaum in the shade aptly named 'The Red'. How red is it? How long lasting is it? Let's have a look!

(That has to be the cheesiest blog post introduction I've written so far...)

First off, EXCUSES:

My parents were visiting me here on Jeju, Korea, which is why I haven't been posting in a while. 

Also, they kind of attacked Innisfree stores for presents (even my grandmothers use Korean skincare by now haha...) which was my excuse for buying way too much stuff.

So of course I tagged along and gave recommendations and used my customer card to reduce prices and collect points and whatnot... which escalated into hauling literally EVERYTHING I'd had my eyes on over the past year. I've got so many new products that just reviewing them on a weekly basis would fill this blog for the next few months, though that could get quite one-sided and boring.

This Color Lasting Tint was an impulse buy from before though.

I was in the mood for something really red and noticed that I actually don't own anything that isn't either orange or pink. I wanted something easily wearable during the day, something long-lasting that doesn't require touch-ups and as the Fuchsia shade of the Color Lasting Tint that I reviewed last time was blindingly pigmented as well as nearly indistructible on my lips, I decided to play it safe and choose something from the same line. 

As shade #13 is actually named 'The Red' it seemed perfect. 

Same packaging as before, with the sleek long black tube, the appropriatly red details and the very convenient doe-foot applicator. As with the Fuchsia one, this applicator really works well for pigmented lip tints, it just makes the application and blending easy, even for a clutz like me.

It picks up the perfect amount of product for one full layer, which in the case of this shade is already enough for a really bright and intense color! I've tried to put another layer on top, and the color blends in nice and evenly while building up the pigmentation. 

I tried to keep the lip swatch as true to how the color looks in reality as I could. It does have the SLIGHTEST cool undertone once the shine goes away (which is after one or two hours) though for some strange reason it looks warmer when first applied. 

On the lip swatch, the top lip was 'tapped' on with my finger, so there's no shine and you can see the underlying berry-hue. The bottom lip was a full-on layer of color applied with the doe-foot applicator, and the shine looks a bit more orange, right? The overall effect is a nice red that could suit both warm and cool skintones as the differences are so subtle. It really suits my skin, being bright red while neither looking too vampy nor artificial.

It's a bit more evident here in the swatches on my hand: Freshly applied it's a bright, slightly warm red, while after blending and rubbing and drying (...it is crazy long-lasting at that stage) it gets pinkish.

Speaking of long-lasting and fading, I do like this shade less than the Fuchsia one when it comes to its lasting power. The stain is there and stays there alright, but it has a tendency to cling to chapped spots and the inner parts of my lips, giving off an effect similar to what I get after drinking red wine. It's not too bad, and if you don't have chapped lips (who doesn't? seriously??) it might not concern you at all. As I wanted something that lasts me through the day without touch-ups, I was a bit disappointed though. 

After about three hours, it looked like this. It's not too evident in the photo, but it settled in patches and in lines, too. Can be saved easily by reapplying something like tinted lip balm on top of it. I actually loved it when applied as a base underneath other lipsticks - just tapping on a bit of the tint for a red hue, then put whatever less long-lasting product on top. Works well with coral or pink lipsticks! The tint doesn't settle into lines and patches when it's applied thinly like that...

As for a full-on picture for comparison:

THE RED is ... red! Very bright! I really love how it doesn't go too dark despite being so pigmented. 

For reference (if you want to compare your skintone or something) I was wearing the Iope Air Cushion XP in the 22 shade that has shimmer in it - I got talked into buying that by the sales assistant last year. She insisted that it would be a better match than the more yellow-toned, darker shades. After using it several times I have to disagree: It's way too pink for my skin (look at my neck for comparison...) and it has actual shimmery particles in it, which I hate with a passion. The finish is gorgeous though, so I use it anyway sometimes. 

The crux of that little story and the whole review:

The #13 Color Lasting Tint "The Red" shade goes well with both the cool-toned pink-ish Iope Air Cushion, my other one (Innisfree #13) and my bare skin/sunscreen. It's really versatile! 

It doesn't look over the top during the day, as there are no dark/burgundy undertones, and the shiny finish makes it look summery! 

The lasting power is, as mentioned, long, though it stains differently in dry patches which doesn't look too pretty in the long run. 

Still looking for the perfect red (I may have found some in my recent hoarding of Innisfree products!) but this one is a nice base color and can look great on its own when properly taken care of!

As always, thanks for reading and I hope to see you soon for more illustrations (I've finished another project~) and whatever review I feel like next. If you're curious about certain products (lips? foundations? skincare?), tell me in the comments! Also, if you have any recommendations for a true red lip tint, I'm all ears! Thank you!

REVIEW : Aritaum Color Lasting Tint and a lot of FUCHSIA

I think this is my first makeup review post! Swatches and favorites are one thing, but actually giving a coherent review? We'll see how that goes.

Aritaum has some amazing lip products (and don't even get me started on their eyeshadows...) and the Color Lasting Tints are among their newest collections. If I remember correctly, they came out at the end of spring, and I waited forever to get one on sale...

I went with shade #7, called Fuchsia Royal, because it was the most eye-catching color and certainly not a shade I already owned.

You can see their official swatches on the aritaum website, but I think they didn't do a particularly great job with those promotional pictures. Like, I KNOW that lip colors aren't really all that different, but I'd like the company that's selling them to at least HELP me justify why I need to buy more than one. Their swatches all look extremely similar, which might be due to the generous use of Photoshop.

... on to the Fuchsia Royal!

The packaging is simple and clean and very sturdy. I've always liked Aritaum's packaging. No lipbalm caps ever got lost, no tint ever leaked, no eyeshadow cracked. It just feels high-quality, despite the lower-range pricing.

(The Color Lasting Tint retails for 8,000 Won and I got it with 30% off...)

It also shows a pretty exact match for the color on those deco elements, so if I ever buy more shades of these, it will be easy to tell them apart. The name and number of the color is printed on the back of the tube.

When I open the packaging, the first thing to notice is the scent. I can't pinpoint it, as I'm terrible with perfumes of any kind, but it's somewhere in between raspberry and candy and shampoo and I have no idea IGNORE THIS PLS. It is sweet, though. The scent doesn't last when the product is applied to the lips.

The doe foot applicator of this tint is slightly wider than the bottle's opening, so when taken out, any excess product gets rubbed off on the inside of the bottle. This makes for really easy application! The amount of tint on the applicator is just perfect for coating the entire lips and as there's no excess product on the sides of the applicator, it's easy to blend out the color near the lipline. Normally I blend using my fingers, which can get a bit messy, but Aritaum did well on this one, seriously!

Swatch time! The tint is really glossy at first, and the shine lasts well into the day if I don't eat or drink. ...... I need my hourly coffee infusion, though, so for me at least, the shine is gone rather quickly.

The color, though. I swatched this in the morning and now it's evening and I've washed dishes and cleaned stuff and scrubbed my hands furiously but that streak of pink is still there.
EDIT: 48 hours and two showers later it was still faintly there. I gave up and used eye makeup remover on it.

This is how it looks just after application. I dabbed it onto the center of my lips and then blended the color towards the lipline. The applicator is very precise (I don't like to have a 'gradient' lip, as it tends to make my lips look ~wobbly~) and the color is easy to blend despite the high pigmentation!

The Color Lasting Tints seem creamy when on the applicator, but when applied, they look rather watery. The Fuchsia Royal one is INTENSE. I'm blinded by the pigmentation.
It also feels really nice, not sticky or drying.

This is what's left at the end of the day, ten hours, two meals, several cups of coffee and tea as well as some distracted lip-rubbing later (I always lean my chin on my hand while working which is a terrible habit...). The color is still there, in the form of a bright pink. It's decidedly cool-toned and fades prettily and evenly, neither accentuating dry patches nor lip 'wrinkles'.

On my lips it's quite a vibrant, dark fuchsia shade. I've got pale lips and tints tend to really show up well! In this case, that's kind of intimidating.

My modus operandi for lip tints is to just slap them on in the morning when I have to work and then maybe reapply once evening rolls around. They are low-maintenance, usually look quite natural, and I normally just pair them with sunscreen and filled-in eyebrows.

THIS ONE, THOUGH. While definitely low-maintenance in that it's long-lasting and not requiering touch-ups, it DOES look strange in combination with my no-fuss makeup. It's eye-catching and a bit of a statement color, and my face is normally not one for ~fashion statements~.

So I feel like this color should be combined with some foundation (or maybe just perfect skin haha), neutral blush, eyeliner, mascara, the whole shebang, so that it doesn't look out of place. It would be perfect for a long day out in the city, eating and drinking without needing to worry about smeared or faded color.

It's perfect for summer, but could be toned down with some lipbalm layered on top or another color as a gradient to fit the cooler seasons.


So, as a fazit of sorts for the Color Lasting Tint:

The shine is high, the pigmentation higher, and the wear-time fabulous. (I need to attack it with some high-duty mascara/makeup remover to get it off.)

The shade #7 Fuchsia Royal is a gorgeous color that DOES NOT fit natural makeup looks, but would look fabulous with some sleek/chic makeup that I'm not able to pull off. :'D

I'd love to buy one or two more natural shades, but I'll have to go to the store to actually swatch them, because the promotional pictures are kind of just one shade of coral, one shade of pink, and some red at the end. It is the most long-wearing formulation I've found among Korean lip tints so far and I'm curious if the lighter colors can keep up with Fuchsia Royal's crazy pigmentation and staining power!

UPDATE: I went and bought #13 The Red and #2 Baby Wink, which I'll review soon!

Also, you can now find some of my makeup illustrations in the form of stickers and prints in my Etsy Shop - I'll add more as time goes by.