Althea Addiction #5: Santa Althea is here to save my hair

A little late to share this with everyone but guess who came home to a christmas present from Santa Althea the other day? 

Yup me. In case you're wondering how to get these super pretty Christmas boxes, all you have to do is place an order now at Althea.kr ! The boxes are available in S, M, L and will only be here til 31st of December, while stocks last! So hurry up and shop shop shop, it's not too late yet! Plus, Althea has just launched their mobile app available on both iOS and android! Check out the promo they have for it below! 

Cool right! You get a pretty christmas box and new beauty products to utilize + an RM30 discount too! (Use the code: MOBFIRST30) If you don't know what to get, here's a sneak peak of what I'm about to order haha

I don't know why but I've only came across the 24k gold mask recently so I'm itching to place a new order asap to get another one of those pretty boxes! Then I could also save on gift boxes/bags too in 2017!! Just put the gifts in an Althea box then I'm done, no wrapping required too haha. Now without anymore delays, let's see what santa Althea gave me!

As usual all Althea parcels will come in this hot pink packaging.

Bubble wrapped nicely so your goodies will be in tip top condition :)

Really love their special boxes because it comes with these cute and pretty cards

The polar bear postcard came with a promo code you could send to your friends or family. I'll just share it with you guys reading this ba~ This code expires on the 28th of February so you can utilize your MOBFIRST30 first then only use this HAPPY2017 next year haha! 

So from the looks of things, the goodies Santa Althea sent me is from their 'Good Hair Day Box' which is perfect because the only hair care I have is my one year twice salon visit for hair treatment! This box has the perfect combination of products to refresh, repair, moisturize, and add shine to your hair. Exactly what I need omg. ((because I own literally 0 hair care products, that's why we've never talked about hair on this blog until today!!))

In fact I'm actually writing this right after my second hair treatment of the year. That way my hair will be able to absorb these hair products from Althea better kan. Before that if you ask anyone about my hair, they'll tell you I have one of the worst hair conditions ever and I have not even went blond yet! So thank you so much Althea for sending me this box of hair care products so my hair can look prettier and not like a broom T v T

First up we have this green tea mint fresh shampoo(300ml) from innisfree. The closest "personal care" product that I use which has a mint flavor to it is my toothpaste so maybe I'll get a cooling feeling when I wash my hair with this? I know my friend Sam just ordered this from Althea the other day, we have matching shoes and laptops and now I guess we're using matching shampoo too!

Next I got is this Scalp Scaling-Program from RiRe. This is a product for us stress-ed out college students. It helps in relieving scalp itching and will also increase the thickness in your hair. Every time I look back at my old photos, the only thing that comes to my mind is how much I've loss since entering college T_T 

These three round massage balls will help spread the product evenly into your scalp

This big bottle here is Piolang's Raspberry Treatment Vinegar. It is known to help fix the balance of oil and moisture in your hair. To use this, after shampoo, sprinkle a small quantity of raspberry treatment vinegar onto the scalp, lightly massage it then rinse it off with water :) 

Containing a number of natural blending oil, keratin, HG-70, this Perfume graphy leave-on treatment from MERIT will help protect your hair from damage and also leave a pleasant fragrance on your hair. Directions is to apply a decent amount of this leave-on treatment onto your hair after shampoo. This can also be applied onto wet or dry hair. 

Next I got is Kocostar's GGONGJI Hair pack. I feel like this is a hair mask I've seen many bloggers raved about so I'm really excited to try this out to see how well this goes on a one time use. This is an intensive self care hair pack exclusively for damaged hair ends. Perfect for those with damaged ends from excessive bleaching + perm.

This one here is Hello Everybody's Biotin oil. This Biotin oil will keep your hair protected from UV rays and up to 230 degree Celsius of heat protection. Similar to most hair oils, this Biotin oil will help improve damaged hair, replenish nutrients in your hair, as well as restrain moisture loss. Proper usage of this oil is to pump 3 to 4 pumps of product onto your palm, and apply it onto dry or wet hair, then massage it gently. 

Last present I got from Santa Althea is this Senseful Lady Hair Mist from Missha. In a scenario where you want your hair to smell extra good but you're running late and you don't have time to wash your hair, use this. After going for a sukiyaki lunch with your friends and you don't want your hair to smell like yummy beef, use this. You're in a public washroom and the washroom doesn't smell good, use this everywhere. Anyhow, this is a hair mist you can use any time and any where. Also, this isn't just a hair mist that will make your hair smell good, this hair mist will also help prevent static and frizz to your hair. Win win kan? To use this product, spray 10-15cm away from your hair and distribute the product evenly using a brush or your fingers :) 

This sums up my gift unboxing from Santa Althea! Once again, thank you Althea for the lovely set of hair products. Remember it's not too late to get your hands in one of those gorgeous christmas boxes! Start shopping now now now! 

Ending this post with a pic of me holding all three sizes of the Althea Christmas boxes! Also for your information, the box Santa Althea sent me is the medium size one and as you can see, there's so many things you could fit in it! So can you imagine how many things I've managed to kept inside the largest christmas box? ^^ 

Until next time! Happy holidays!! 

Canmake Tokyo 30th Anniversary Best Collection Makeup Set [ Unbox + Review + Demo ft. Spring Makeup look ]

Merry Christmas everyone! To those that had read my old blogs you've probably seen my attempts on "makeup tutorials" and if you're new here, I'm sorry but those posts has been long gone from the internet. So for Christmas this year, I wanted to do something I haven't done in a long time. A full face makeup review + first impression + demo post sort of thing. If I did not recall wrongly from going through my old blog posts (yes I'm a crazy lady that has decided to screenshot all her old blog posts before deleting the blog haha), the last time I actually did a makeup tutorial was back in 2013! :O

The star of this post is Canmake Tokyo's 30th Anniversary Best Collection set. I've seen and heard so many good things about Canmake's products but I've never tried it before. So when I was given this goodie bag, I was super excited! 

Can we just take this moment to admire how sweet and cute this whole collection is? Also, if by chance you're wondering what looks you could get from this set, over on the bottom right of the box there's a QR code that might come in handy for you ;)

Here's all the products you'll be getting in this collection. If you ask me, I think this is actually a great selection to include in their "Best Collection" Personally, I do think it would've been better to include something for the brows as well as an eyeliner. That would actually make this the perfect full face makeup set! 

First product in this set is Canmake's Day & UV Lip Serum. This is a translucent lip gloss with a hint of colour, available in pink and red. I got the red one. This gloss is formulated to act as a day serum for your lips with anti-UV agents in it. It is great against UV rays as it has SPF 14 PA+ in it. While keeping your lips look plump, it also contains a moisturizing beauty ingredient called astaxanthin. Another good thing about this gloss is that it's silicon-free :) This product retails for 380 yen. 

Next in this collection is Canmake's Stay-On Balm Rouge. Retailing for 580 yen, this is a tinted moisturizing lip balm available in 12 shades? (On the english site for canmake, they had shades up to number 12 but only 9 shades were available on the site) The shade I got is 02 Smily Gerbera. I would describe this as a sheer tangerine coloured balm. For 580 yen, I do think that you get quite a decent amount of product. This balm has SPF11 PA+ in it and can be used directly on dry/chapped lips. A few beauty ingredients in this product are: honey, shea butter, squalene, and royal jelly extract. Several emollient agents to help soften your lips are jojoba oil, olive oil, rosehip oil, grapeseed oil, macadamia nut oil, and pomegranate oil.

Here's a swatch on both gloss and balm. 

Now this one here is a pretty cool product. Something new to me at least. This is Canmake's quick lash curler. It can be used as a clear mascara for a natural look after curling your lashes, a top coat for your usual mascara or even as a tool to freshen up your lashes that's loosing its curl throughout the day. This product retails for 680yen and is available in black or transparent. I got the transparent one. The product also features a duo-sided wand. The short side helps lift the lashes while the long side (sparse bristles) helps separate the lashes. 

Another beautiful product in this collection is Canmake's Glow Fleur Cheeks. This is a powdered blush available in 8 shades retailing for 800 yen each. The shade I got was in 04 Strawberry Fleur. I don't have many blushers in my makeup collection so I was really happy to see this in the set. The shade I got is a very wearable soft pink shade suitable for a subtle flush of colour on the cheeks. Apart from its colour, I actually really love the pattern on the blush as well as the simple clear packaging it came in. Apart the blush itself, it also comes with a small compact brush so I think for 800 yen, this is actually quite a steal! 

It took me forever to get a photo of this because for unknown reasons, my camera just refused to pick up these swatches so I had to turn to my trust iphone 5s camera on hdr mode instead haha. Also don't be afraid of the darker shade like A, these shades are actually very build-able and sheer when first swatched. The swatches above is actually the blush's shades at its full potential ahaha

One last product in this set is Canmake Marshmallow Finish Powder. This is a powder foundation with SPF 26 PA++ in it to help provide some UV protection. This product comes in 3 shades and the shade I got is [MO] Matte Ochre. On the site, it states that this shade would give the skin a brighter finish. This product retails for 940 yen and the refills are sold at 700 yen. 

This product is a very light-weight compact suitable to bring on the go for touch ups as it does come with a mirror as well as a puff. The coverage for this foundation is quite sheer so I would use this foundation on top of a liquid one to set + give an extra layer of coverage. Several points I like about this powder foundation is that to remove this product, only ordinary facial wash is required. It is surfactants, tar-based pigments, alcohol, and fragrance free :D

 Powder foundations could be pretty drying for our skin so Canmake has used 10 beautifying agents to tackle that issue - Moisturizing: aloe vera leaf extract, rosemary extract, chamomile extract, perilla (shiso) leaf extract. Toning: Horse chestnut extract, perilla (shiso) leaf extract. Emollient: Squalene, olive oil, jojoba oil, grape seed oil. 

A swatch of the powder foundation. When applied with a powder blush, it does set my face makeup but I don't think it gave too much of a brightening effect. For more coverage + visibility of brightening effect, I'll suggest using a puff instead. 

Now let's put these new makeup I got to test! And what better way to test it out than to show a mini full face tutorial right? Personally I prefer doing my eye makeup first then only moving towards the face so we'll begin with priming our eye lids with any primer of your choice. I've only ever used a glittery eyeshadow primer previously from Kate so I've pretty much turned every single matte eyeshadow I own into a glittery one. I got my hands on a few of Urban Decay's highly raved Eyeshadow Primer Potion from Sephora USA's sale the other day and I don't think I'll ever switch out of this for a looooooonnnnngggggg time. Feel free to use any primer you're comfortable with though!

This set does not come with an eyeshadow, but the blush is super pretty right??? So why not we have fun with some pink eyes for the day. Plus I think this combination is pretty good too! I'll say this eye makeup is actually pretty spring appropriate kan? 

The last time I did something like this was 3 years ago!! Alright so on the areas with the green dots (a.k.a the outer 'v') I've applied the shade A from Canmake's Glow Fleur Cheeks. The shade is pretty sheer at first but definitely buildable. Don't forget to bring that colour to your crease as well as the outer half of your bottom lash line then blend it out for a soft dusty pink smoky effect. 

Not included in the photo, I've also added a very soft touch of B+C underneath my brow to blend the dark pink better. 

Next on the yellow((it was cream coloured at first though!!)) area, well anyways more like all over the lid, I've used B+C. Then on the blue area, I've applied a subtle highlight shade like D to it. Finally, soften out the transition between D and A by combining E+A and applying it onto the cyan dotted area. Once's you're done, top it off with any liquid eyeliner of your choice. I'm using a burgundy liquid eyeliner from the brand K-Palette. Let me know if you'd like to see a review on it! :)

Next would be the base makeup. As usual, I'll be combining both of these brightening + pore minimizing primer together. 

d o t . d o t . d o  t . d o t

Using Shu Uemura's concealer. Since I wanted to keep this look as lightweight as possible, I'm skipping on the liquid foundation and just using more concealer on troublesome areas.

Set the concealer. Using the Marshmallow Setting Powder with a fluffy powder brush for this. Love the gold packaging so much T v T The powder actually feels pretty nice on the skin, left my makeup on for a couple hours and I didn't have the urge to remove my face! :O

Back to the beautiful blush, with a smaller fluffy brush, I've swirled it around the whole pan of pink and applied the blush onto my cheeks. Don't forget to tap off the excess product though :)

Was aiming for a very very subtle flushed cheeks look

Here's how Canmake's Stay-On Balm Rouge in 02 Smily Gerbera looks on me. It is pretty moisturizing and I actually really like the colour of it. Do take note that although it's fine to apply directly onto dry/chapped lips, I do recommend exfoliating your lips first for an even application. 

The sun literally died on me so I had to start using flash. Added a little bit of Canmake's Day & UV Lip serum for a hint of shine. 

Here's how the gloss looks like on it's own. 

Both sides of eyelashes are curled but on the left side, I've applied Canmake's quick lash curler. In my opinion, I find that the best results is to apply the quick lash curler first then only curling your lashes as it does act as a base, however you have to be pretty careful when doing so as your lashes do stick onto your eyelash curler a bit. 

Finished the look with Benefit cosmetic's They're real mascara on my bottom lashes. 

In case you're wondering the contacts I'm wearing are FreshLook Colourblends' monthly coloured contact lenses. The one I'm wearing right now is Amethyst. Here's a closeup without flash. 

More closeups of this look (because I haven't played around with a full face of new makeup in a very long time!) Fun fact kinda thing: Prior to writing this post, I actually had no idea how are Canmake's products priced at but after some price research on this collection's products, Canmake's products are really worth every buck you spent on it. They're beautifully packaged and also pretty affordable too! 

A huge thank you to Canmake for making this review possible. I got this set of makeup from the Butterfly Project's Xmas party in goodie bag #2 and I had so much fun putting this very simple look together + crafting this post, I can't wait to do more makeup reviews + demos again like the old days! ♡ It's about 7 minutes past Christmas now whoops! Check back tomorrow night to see another beauty unboxing post alright! (I'm updating my blog like crazy these few days and I'm not used to it either, but hey, I'm getting my 3 years ago pace back and I'm actually super happy about it haha) 

Until next time! 

♡  C a n d y  ♡

 * all opinions stated are 100% my own *