Sleek iDivine Primer Palette: Photos, Swatches and First Impressions

This palette arrived a little over a month ago but I haven't been able to give it a try yet (but I'm excited to). After my first 2 palettes, I felt like getting more.

Click here to check out product photos, swatches and first impression of

the Original and Storm eye shadow palettes here

One of the things in my second purchase is the Sleek iDivine Primer Palette:

Sleek iDivine The Primer Palette (box packaging)

Sleek iDivine The Primer Palette (opened palette)

PRODUCT INFO

The palette comes with 12 creamy colors and a double ended brush in a sleek black plastic case which includes a mirror on the inner lid. Each pan offers 1.1g/0.03oz of product.  This product is specially designed to complement the eye shadows in their iDivine palettes for added intensity and longer wear.

I'm not a big fan of the flimsy loose plastic film with the color names though.  I felt that they could've done a much better job at that by either having the names printed on the palette itself above the top row and below the bottom row or have a diagram at the back of the case with the names printed.  Not too keen on the brush included either.  The bristles are of poor quality and badly cut too.  Definitely use your own brush or a clean finger to apply.

Make Up Basics: Concealer & Corrector

Everyone's skin is different and there may be certain areas that require extra coverage or neutralizing.  Foundation alone might not be able to assist with these needs and hence a concealer -- and sometimes a corrector as well -- is applied.

CONCEALER

Concealers does pretty much exactly as the name suggests, it conceals.  Similar to foundations, concealers are available in a variety of forms:

• liquid - often packaged in click pens, tubes with doe foot wands, pumps or squeeze tubes
• cream - commonly packaged in jars, pots, metal pans, palettes, pencil or stick form
• powder - packaged in a sifter jar and mostly found in mineral make up lines

The most common usages for concealers are to mask darkness under the eyes (mainly caused by sleep deprivation but is sometimes hereditary) and to hide acne, zits/pimples, birthmarks, scars, redness and dark spots.

Perfumes & Mists: GUESS (New) for Women

Those close to me are very much aware of my inability to resist scents.  I'll be the first to admit that my perfume collection is insane but I love them all!  Lately, I've been into body mists/splashes as well and thought this would be another nice series to add to the blog.

Starting off this series is GUESS (New) for Women:

This is one of the first perfumes that I bought when I started working.  I hadn't planned on getting it at all but after a whiff, I was sold.  I typically steer clear of musky scents but the combination of all the other notes makes this one a personal favorite.  The scent lingers throughout the day (read: long lasting), is youthful, edgy and undoubtedly sexy.  Despite my obnoxious perfume collection, I'm almost done with my second bottle of this with a back up in store.  I bought a smaller version for travelling and a pendant version of it as well.  The full size packaging is considerably durable but for one of my bottles, the cap detached from the plastic mould insert somehow.  I love that it comes with a cute drawstring pouch too.

Notes
Tangerine, green apple, freesia, pink peony, muguet, peach, red fruit, cedar wood, amber and musk.

Type
Eau De Parfum (EDP)

Retail Prices
30ml (1oz) - AUD$19 (Bought at Priceline ~RM62)
50ml (1.7oz) - US$45
75ml (2.5oz) - RM215 (Bought for S$49 in Singapore at a wholesaler ~RM120)

NOTE: Online retailers and discount outlets may offer lower prices.

Special Deals on Sigma - Save US$10

There's currently a US$10 savings (no coupon required) on the Sigma website for selected items as pictured below for those interested.

Click image to go to page

The only coupon code I could find at this time is LEESHA2011 which takes off 10% from your entire purchase.  The coupon is only valid until August 4th, 2011 (EST).

For a limited time, Sigma is offering a sample of their latest eye shadow palettes for purchases of US$75 and above per order:

Photo source: Sigma Facebook page

The sample includes Reveal, Act and Oversee from the Dare, Bare and Flare palettes respectively.  This is the same mini palette they were giving out during IMATS LA in June and is definitely a fun little palette to tote around in your purse or just to try out the quality of the eye shadows.

For every purchase of US$30 and above, you'll still receive a free gift -- a travel sized silver handled E25 (previously the SS217) brush:

Photo source: ACW

This has to be one of my favorite eye brushes.  It's an ideal size to contour my eyes and blend out color.

Jewelmint Picks: August 2011

August is here and Jewelmint has already come out with brand new pieces for their showroom.  Selected pieces from previous months' collection are still available for purchase on the site but here are some of the new pieces that I caught my attention:

Here To Eternity Set

I felt this was a beautiful elegant set.  It's rare to find jewelry integrating both yellow and rose gold in one piece.  The earrings are cute and demure all in one, and perfect everyday studs.  The multistrand necklace looks delicate and romantic with a knot, the word "Love" and a horizontal bar filled with crystals on each strand respectively.  This piece was one of the pieces included in my August showroom.  Jewelmint is slowly beginning to capture my style.

Krishna Diamong Earrings

I could be wrong but I think this has appeared in previous months before but aren't they just a beauty?  These stud earrings are double layered and is such a classy piece to be worn for formal events and functions but yet is still wearable enough for regular days to glam up a more relaxed T-shirt and jeans outfit.

New Wave Ring

I've seen similar armadillo type rings before and gives an edge to any outfit.  YouTube gurus such as Jessica Harlow and Michelle Phan have often worn rings that look like this in many videos and photos.  I'm not sure where they bought their rings but I know Karmaloop has a few to choose from:

Photo source: Karmaloop

Jewelmint is a subscription based service providing personalized jewelry suggestions for US$29.99/month.  The subscription gives you 1 credit for use to purchase any one piece of jewelry item from your personalized showroom (or you can add other pieces not in your showroom that were not suggested to you).  Additional pieces can also be purchased at US$29.99 each.  This service is currently available in the US and US territories only.

First Impression: Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush

While in the States a month ago, I got to see up close and swatch the Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush.  I had relatively high expectations for this blush and was already thinking of getting one or two (or more) especially after hearing such good things about it and seeing it on one of emilynoel83's videos awhile back.

Photo source: Sephora

Here are some keywords from the product review on Sephora.com:

Excited lil ole me went swatch happy at Sephora when I spotted the Tarte display.  I know a lot of people have been singing praises for this particular product but sadly for me, it completely did not meet my expectations.  I was rather disappointed at the color payoff from the swatches and ended up buying none.

For every color that I had swatched from the display, I could barely get any product on my skin.  And for the swatches that I did managed to pick up some color, it completely disappeared when blended into my skin.  The texture was hard and powdery and not at all buttery or creamy.  Of course it being clay based I guess I should've expected it though.

I might eventually try an order a color in the future to re-evaluate the product and try picking up color with a brush instead.  I imagine if a brush would be able to pick up the color, it would look beautiful and natural blended on the skin (maybe even with a cream blush base?).

The blush comes in 8 shades in Sephora and retails for US$25 each.

Have you tried this product? Love it or hate it?