Victoria's Secret Very Sexy Makeup Mosaic Blush

After a disappointing try with Victoria's Secret Very Sexy Mosaic Eye Shadow, I managed to stay away from the line's Very Sexy Mosaic Blushes for a long time. That is, until they went on sale for a ridiculous price so I caved and picked up one. Am I a total sucker or what?



The Mosaic Blush is pretty much the same as the older ones, a combination of 5 different colors, only in new packaging, which is a sleek and petite black compact with mirror and no brushes (I use my own brush anyway!). The newer compact feels pretty sturdy and does not look cheap, a big improvement from the older rounded compact from the days of the Mosaic Highlighter and the Mosaic Eye Shadow Palette that felt more plastic-y. Unfortunately the powder blush itself feels a bit rough and not as smooth and soft as it could be. Good thing it is not dusty at all and swirling my brush in it doesn't produce a cloud of fuzzy powder, which can be really irritating.



All the color combinations available looked either too brownish orange (I'd rather it just be orange) or brownish bronze, so I picked up the "safest" looking one - Good To Go. This is a airy pink combination that is supposed to yield a more natural look, which it does, only the blush itself is quite sheer and for some colors you'll have to apply it in a few layers. On me though, one layer gave me a translucent pinkish glow, and with two layers I got a pink flush. I actually like the color a lot because it is so easy to manage - how can you go wrong with something this sheer? Yep, that speaks volumes about my makeup skills, doesn't it? :P



- Top left: pale cloud pink with very fine shimmers
- Top right: shimmery but not glittery sandy beige
- Bottom right: matte bubble gum pink
- Bottom left: shimmery but not glittery fleshy pink
- Center: mauve with very fine shimmers

Anyways, I just recently learned Victoria's Secret is going to do away with the entire Very Sexy and Beauty Rush lines and will replace both with something better, hopefully in quality and texture (but leave the Soothing Lip Balm the hell alone) :P If you like this Mosaic Blush, you should run out to the store as soon as you can because these are on sale for 75% off and they are disappearing rather quickly.

Victoria's Secret Beauty Rush Lip Gloss

*Music cue* Looooong ago, and oh, so far away...Okay, that was corny.

Back in my late high school early college days, Victoria's Secret made these lip glosses in clear rounded tubes with doe foot applicators that had silvery twist off handles. I believe they were called Victoria's Secret Shining Kisses Lip Gloss, or something like that.

Remember these?

***I don't remember where I got this picture. If it's yours and you would like credit, please leave a comment along with your web URL so I can link the credit to your page. Thank you.***

These Shining Kisses Lip Glosses were long discontinued and replaced by the squeeze tubes you see today of course, but I used to own several of them. Although the colors were nice, the formula was horrible! Not only they smelled bad, like something sweet but icky rather, they were really drying and stickier than a fly trap! Even the Stila It Glosses and Lip Glazes weren't as sticky and drying as these! Let's just say I hated these and wasn't so sorry at all when they were discontinued.

Then come these Beauty Rush Lip Glosses in squeeze tubes just like Lancome juicy tubes, only with a silvery screw cap. However, by then I'd already completely ignored the brand and return to the store only to replenish my supply of the beloved Soothing Lip Balms...And yet somehow, I still ended up with a couple of Beauty Rush Lip Glosses via GWPs. So this is my review after having tried only 2 of these, and since texture and stickiness can vary with different colors, take my words with a grain of salt.

With the 2 Beauty Rush Lip Glosses, I've noticed significant improvement since the last generation of the Shining Kisses. The texture is smoother, much less sticky, nowhere nearly as drying, well actually, the gloss did turn a bit tacky and drying on my lips after a few hours, but that only means the staying power is quite good. So yeah, these are decent glosses, but that said, you shouldn't have to pay the retail price of $7 for these. I would imagine there are drug store brands out there that makes equally decent glosses for cheaper. If you want to collect different colors, you should do the 5 for $20 deal or buy only when on sale and take advantage of those coupon/promotion :)

- Strawberry Fizz: smells yummy, like strawberry candies :) Goes on translucent with silver shimmers. It is flavored and has a sweet taste, which I generally dislike.


- Slice of Heaven: smells like hard candy and is also flavored with a sweet taste. Unfortunately this one didn't work so well for me. It looks like an innocent pink, but it's actually an opaque pearly pink with lilac iridescent. So yes, it turned pale and frosty on me and I looked like I was trying really hard. Next.

Naive Olive Deep Cleansing Oil

My affair with cleansing oils goes like this: I started venturing beyond Shiseido Ultimate Cleansing Oil because, well, I got bored of it. Then it was DHC Deep Cleansing Oil for the next couple of years and got bored of it too, plus it was a tad drying. Tried the FANCL Mild Cleansing Oil next and liked it, but eventually went back to DHC for a while because not only the FANCL cleansing oil is expensive, it goes bad within a couple of months because it has no preservatives. This put pressure on me to use it up quickly, and I found that pretty ridiculous and just stop using it altogether :)

Now, in between my OCM days, I use this Naive Olive Deep Cleansing Oil. I spotted this at my local Asian grocery and thought I might give it a try. It's pretty cheap in comparison to all the other cleansing oils I've used, retailing for about $10 for 170 mL. And the bottle comes with a flip top cap that expends the oil surprisingly well, which was neat. They have a bunch of other cleansing oils too though, more from this Naive line, Kose, etc., so my guess is that I'm not going to be very loyal to this one either :P



This Naive Olive Deep Cleansing Oil is decent. The texture is very runny and silicon-y like the Shiseido Ultimate Cleansing Oil, but the main ingredient is mineral oil. It is scented with a strong citrusy fragrance, I would say pretty perfumy, just like the Shiseido one too. I like that it is quite mild despite the mineral oil content and is not as drying as the DHC cleansing oil. The down side is that it leaves a slight film on the skin, which is fine by me since I'm pretty used this by now, thanks to OCM every 2 nights. So if your skin can't tolerate mineral oil, is sensitive to fragrance, or you would rather having your cleanser rinses of squeaky clean, I would suggest skipping this one.

Clinique Almost Lipstick

After hearing amazing things about this Clinique Almost Lipstick in Black Honey, I was so dying to try it I snapped it up right away when I saw it in a GWP. Ultimately, however, I was disappointed.



Don't get me wrong, the formula was wonderful. The Almost Lipstick was more like a lip stain in a stick. It was buttery in texture and glided on beautifully, and although it was pigmented, the color was more of a thin veil than a glossy finish. The problem was the color Black Honey itself. It just didn't work out for me and turned a violet color on my lips. If you've seen one of those costumed drama wherein a victim had been poisoned and her lips turned a violet color, totally fake, of course, but whatever, that was what I looked like. No thanks.

L'Occitane Ruban d'Orange Soap

This L'Occitane Ruban d'Orange Soap smelled amazing! It actually didn't smell like orange but rather bitter tangerine peels. Yeah, peels. The soap itself was actually rather mild and was not drying at all. The only problem was that because this is a guest soap, it was itty bitty and hubby and I used it up within a couple of weeks as hand soap! And I think it goes for something ridiculous like $4 a piece. Will not buy again unless on sale for dirt cheap :P

Etude House Moistfull 3-in-1 Massage Mask

One or two summers ago, Etude House came out with a Moistfull skincare line that is supposed to be super light and non-greasy but super hydrating/moisturizing. I said "hydrating/moisturizing" because I'm not sure whether the Moistfull products are moisturizers or hydrators or both(!). They seem to do both, as least as far as I can tell, but since I can't locate a list of ingredients for any of the products anywhere, I can't really say for sure what they are. Help, anyone?

Whether they are moisturizers or hydrators, I lurrrrv them :D I rarely like more than 2 items from the same skincare line but I have tried several Moistfull items so far and absolutely love them all. The Moistfull toner, lotion, creams (for the face and for the eye area), and serum all seem to have very light, almost gel-like texture. The ones I've tried are absolutely hydrating/moisturizing but at the same time not greasy at all and absorb very easily and completely upon application. When I apply too much, my skin just feels saturated - think how your skin feels when you just step out of the shower and the bathroom is super humid. This leads me to think the line leans more towards being hydrators, because when I overload a moisturizer, usually it will turn me into an oil slick and these Moistfull stuff didn't. But that's just my theory, of course, because without a list ingredients, I can't really jump to any conclusions here. Color wise, the ones I've seen all have this pretty translucent pink color and the ones I have are all scented, although I actually like the scent as it is soft but fresh.

This particular Moistfull 3-in-1 Massage Mask I'm reviewing today came out sometimes last summer or spring or even before then, I don't quite remember. I just remember buying it shortly after it came out and have been using it on and off since, just that it totally slipped my mind to review it after all this time. Oh well, better late than never, right?



The 3-in-1 Massage Mask comes in a giant tub with a whopping 180 mL of products! While that sounds great, I really hate the idea of digging my fingers in that thing every time (eww!) so I scoop some out into a much smaller jar and store the rest away in my cool cabinet to preserve its freshness. Then I store the smaller jar in my fridge - and let me tell you, it feels soooooooo good going on cold! Especially in the heat of the summer, it's like getting a cool wrap on your face that warms up to your body temperature after a few minutes. Ahh...



Of the 3 uses for this Massage Mask, I only use it as a wash-off mask. It's too wasteful to be used as a massage mask, because I'd have to goop on a whole lot, only to wash it off shortly after. I would never use it as a sleeping pack either because, like many other sleeping packs I have trouble using, it becomes quite sticky after drying down and I have a funny habit of smashing my face into my pillow during sleep. Even then, I wouldn't even say I use this Massage Mask as a wash-off mask. It's more like a day/evening pack (as oppose to a sleeping pack) for me, where I would put it on when lounging around and read or watch my favorite J-K-C-T-HK-dramas. I would keep it on for hours before washing it off and go to bed.



The result usually depends on how long I left the Massage Mask on. The longer I keep it on, the more hydrated and comfortable my skin feels. If I were to use it as a true wash-off mask and rinse it off after 30 minutes, I will need a tiny dab of help from a moisturizer afterwards. But if I were to leave it on for 1-2 hours or even longer, I wouldn't need any additional moisturizer.

So really, I would recommend this Massage Mask if you're a regular sleeping pack user and don't mind the tackiness that comes with sleeping packs. But if you can't stand sleeping packs like me, or don't really want to spend the time using this product as a day/evening pack, then you really only have 2 choices left with it: either only use this product as a massage mask, or just skip it altogether.

Clinique Superbalm Moisturizing Gloss Part III

Wow, it's been a while since my last post. Sorry...been working like crazy in the past month or two. Hopefully things will calm down soon in the next several weeks. Uhh...yeah, weeks.

Anyhoo...taking a quick break to play with my toys. I miss them :(

Clinique Superbalm Moisturizing Gloss is now one of my dearest love. It didn't start out that way, but it got that way pretty quickly :D I've tried several different flavors now, and generally I would conclude that the gloss IS moisturizing, thick and super smooth. As with all glosses, there are inconsistencies among different flavors, but again in general, I think these are no where as sticky as other Clinique glosses. After several flavors, I would say these Superbalms are very similar to Lancome Juicy Tubes, only with no discernible scent and definitely no taste. Most of the Superbalms are translucent with the exception of some, and even then those ones only give a hint of color.



Like Lancome Juicy Tubes, it occasionally comes in nifty travel-size sets :D Not only I get to sample different flavors without getting stuck with giant tube I don't quite like, I get the cutest little palm-size bags to put them (or other on the go makeup items) in! If a nice Clinique GWP catches my interest, the first items I will buy are most likely these Superbalm sets.



Anyhoo, I set my eyes on this "Clinique The Kissers" after seeing it online. It includes 4 travel size Superbalms in (from left to right) Apricot, Grapefruit, Raspberry, and Lilac, and a super cute little palm-sized bag to carry them in.



The bag from this set actually has 3 colors for you to choose from: yellow, orange, or pink. This freakin' adorable thing is roomier than you think - I was able to fit a small compact (think Maikohan UV Compact Powder or Estee Lauder After Hours Compact, etc.), a gloss (a travel/GWP size Lancome Juicy Tube and the like), and a few single eye shadows (think T'estimo Color Eyes, etc.). If not makeup, it would hold my phone, ID and credit cards and some cash. Oh, and it's machine washable. Talk about convenient! Now I regret not getting another 2 sets to collect all 3 color bags :(


The down side to these gloss sets is, of course, you can't choose the colors. Also, every set "recycles" some flavors in addition to introducing you to new ones, so you may end up with a few of the same flavors if you purchase different sets, even when they were released at different time. This actually doesn't bother me at all though. I like every flavor I've tried so far, so I don't really mind having a few backups :)

- Apricot: a nude peach, although it goes on pretty much translucent with only hints of color, like my lips but better. No shimmers!


- Grapefruit: a juicier pink that is, again, totally translucent without any shimmers.


- Lilac: my earlier theory of all Superbalms being shimmer-free is proven wrong with this flavor. There are shimmers in Lilac, but fortunately they are pretty much a no-show. Also, like Raspberry this Lilac flavor actually have hints of color. No worries, it didn't turn my lips violet but rather a surprisingly pretty margenta pink. I didn't know I could wear such color and not look like a clown!


- Raspberry: I've already reviewed this flavor here.


See my previous posts:
- Clinique Superbalm Moisturizing Gloss
- Clinique Superbalm Moisturizing Gloss Part II