The Battle of Cosmetics : Stage vs. MAC

Have you seen or been to Stage lately?

Penang Queensbay Mall: Stage Cosmetics (next to Loccitane/Haagen Dazz)


Interesting huh?

It reminds me of someone... that I used to donate my money to.



Well, I went in twice to Stage, and there are some interesting stuffs I've found there.

Stage's exterior/outlook is similar to our beloved MAC Cosmetics. Let's do a comparison exercise here. Do I smell WAR now?

Stage Cosmetics vs MAC Cosmetics

1. Stage paint their whole shop in black where as MAC does their renovation lately this year and their shop interior is in white with black pillars.
2. Just look at their name, both also have "Cosmetics" in their website link. MACCOSMETICS.com and Stage-cosmetics.com.
3. Just look at their paperplastic bags below. Same design-wor. I wonder who is the copy-cat here.
   

Posterior design

Noticed the website link on both plastic bags (Try to look harder in MACs' and you'll see it).

The Stage MUA told me that Stage cosmetics is made for export market. Manufactured in Malaysia, that is. Just like Silkygirl.

So, I went on and test some random eyeshadows and eyeliners, but I must say I am not impressed with the eyeshadow quality.

I'm sorry for the quality of this (my camera emo-ing at me).

But anyway, the quality of eyeshadows is not good. FYI, their eyeshadow cost RM45 EACH.

Dark colors such as dark blue (top left in the pic) has a better color payoff than the lighter ones. But the staying power is not good. And I feel the eyeshadow and blusher's texture are too powdery. -_-

The Stage MUA did however recommended me the liners and their cream foundation.

Pencil liners are quite limited in color, they have 2 types of greens, 1 dark blue (above), 1 brown, 1 black and 1 white.

Their liquid liners have only 2 colors if I remembered correctly. The liquid tip is unlike MAC's pen type, though. Quite lasting too! But for a shakey-handed like me, I got myself a green pencil liner (greenish-bluey color).

Anyway, their product packaging has quite the same style as MAC's but different shapes and sizes though.

One is Stage Pencil and the other is MAC's technakohl (retractable) liner.




As for the color swatches, I've made a few comparision between some of my colour pencils.
Could you guess which is which?


Answers:
1. Silkygirl
2. Stage
3. MAC
4. Make Up Forever

On my naked eye :)


Ok, now my review for this:-

• The liner glides really well on my lids despite of its creamy texture.

• The texture is quite similar to MAC + Silkygirl's pencils.

• The liner is also waterproof (claims by the MUA), but it does smudge a little bit at the end of the day. If you apply loose powder upon your liner application, it stays on quite well, which it impressed me unlike their eyeshadows.

Price: RM45

Cons: Very limited colours

Overall Rating:


Aside from the liners and eyeshadow colors, the MUA also introduced me their two of their "must have" brushes (Kabuki & Powder Brush).
Their KABUKI brush is so soft! and it cost RM140 (if I remember correctly).
Their Powder brush fur is similar to the Kabuki's which is RM135.

Both are synthetic brushes, and a slight cheaper alternative compared to MAC.

The MUA also informed me that they will be ushering some eyeshadow palletes with blusher colors soon. So what are you waiting for?

NARS Limited Edition Sets

Even though NARS is not available in Malaysia, but I still want to jot this down at my diary.

NARS Safer Set


Wondering what the two packets on the left was?

Take a look at the description of it from Sephora

What it is:
A kit featuring two condoms and a Multiple in Orgasm.

What it does:
NARS Safer Set comes with two condoms (in chicly designed packaging) so you can get sexy safely. It also comes with the cream stick with a cult following, Multiple in Orgasm, that delivers a peachy flush and a shimmery accent to eyes, cheeks, and lips.

What else you need to know:
Get hot n' bothered for a great cause: A portion of the sale benefits Amfar programs to promote global safe sex education initiatives.

The price : $37 for all above

Cool huh? I didn't know the famous NAR's stick can also help to participate in promoting safe sex. This is just too cool!

They have other interesting sets as well:-
Safest Set
Deep Throat Blush & Striptease Lip Gloss Set
Orgasm Lip Gloss And Nail Polish Gift Set

PS: I may be the last person to know this, but this is really an interesting way of promoting!

Fake eyelashes make you pretty!

Dont you just adore long lashes like Penelope Cruzs'

It is frustrating when our lashes won't grow a milimeter longer and it also makes our eyes look like puffy fish whenever there is no mascara on. -_-

Now now my friends, this is when false eyelashes come to save us, just like the cartoon series of Superman. :)

As the saying goes by the man behind Shu Uemura, "the eyes are the most expressive part of a women". Even the latest movie House Bunny emphasized importance of our eyes with the statement "The eyes are the nipple of the face". If you don't get it, do check out this movie. :)

Anyway, the false lashes that I love most is those natural and soft kind of lashes.

Like this.

You can actually get them online from beauty stores such as Fiobeauty. I think you can also get these natural-link falsies at your nearest Sasa shop too.

Nevertheless, Shu Uemura and MAC do have pretty falsies to sell too. A pair of false lashes from them usually cost from RM38 per pair up to RM100.

Shu's Pretty Lashes with Diamante~



MAC's 7 Lash~







Anyway, here's a comparison to show my naked eye (without falsies) and with falsies(my makeup done by Estee Lauder).

Falsies used is similar to this

Look how much changes it does to our look? So, what are you waiting for?

Head down to your makeup store and grab one now! :)

Stage - Cosmetics in Town!

Recently I read about a new make-up line which is similar to MAC Cosmetics called Stage.

I wasn't convinced at all until I saw Stage Cosmetics in Queensbay during my lunch out today.

Stage and MAC stores doesn't look alike, actually. Almost the whole Stage store are covered in Black whereas MAC's shop interior was painted in pearl white (or yellowish white).

However, their makeup line was truely huge decent.

*Source: Stage Cosmetics


I couldn't believe my eyes at first. They had a normal range (or maybe because they are still very new) of eyeshadows, eyeliners and lipsticks. All of their products are placed in line neatly but the store was spacey indeed. I'll try to upload the pictures when I got them.

I didn't get to test their products this time as I didn't bring my camera with me.

Anyway, Stage has their own website where they will be launching them online in another 17 days and 10 hours.

Stage-Cosmetics are brought in by Alliance Cosmetics Group who is the sole distributor of Revlon and other renowned global cosmetics brands such as Silkygirl cosmetics and Elancyl products.

Sounds interesting, right? Here are some juicy details if you havent met them yet:

Stage is located at Lot 4.01.03, Level 4
Pavilion KL Shopping Mall.

or

Queensbay Mall (Located at Ground Floor, beside Loccitane / Key Ng boutique)

Do Visit www.stage-cosmetics.com for more details.

Niu Er: Advance hydrating serum review

Have you ever tried Niu Er's (牛爾) product before?

If you are wondering who he is, this is the man who knows so much about skincare and beauty tips. He also had his own line of products, which *I* felt they were not bad.

One of my first product with NiuEr is the Hydrating Serum was good.

Advance Hydrating Serum
- pic taken from http://www1.payeasy.com.tw/bio/shopping/Ha/01.shtml

Price: 350NT (about RM48 roughly)
Functions:

＊補充肌膚水分 (hydrate skin)
＊抗老化、提高肌膚的防護力 (prevent aging, boost skin moisture)
＊增加肌膚涵水能力

Ok. so I'm not good in traslating chinese. Cut long story short, this item helps to hydrate your skin, prevent your skin from dehydration.

- It is watery form, serum-type.

- Normally use it before moisterizer and after toner.

- This serum glides on smoothly on face. All you need to do is pat it right after you apply it to make sure you skin "drinks" it.I

- This 30ml serum really wears out fast. It last me for about 2 months as I used it everytime I washed my face.

Overall rating:

Anyway, this is one of my 'must-have' hydrating serum whenever I had a bad-flaky-skin-day. :)

Majolica Majorca, so called MJ

I'm not talking about Michael Jackson, btw. :)



Majolica Majorca (or MJ in short)was out way back in 2003 if I'm not mistaken. But of coz, not in our very good old country - Malaysia at that time.

Everyone was excited when they came to our Watson counters in KLCC. But seriously, I was not excited at all. This is because I got them back in 2006 when from a spree.




I had 4 products initially, 2 eyeshadow palletes, 1 lip gloss and 1 MJ spice blusher. I'm not much of a lip person at that time, hence my lip gloss were sold to a forummer. I also got their highly raved mascara which it is still left unopened in my drawer.




MJ was part of Shishedo's line of products.

I've own Shiseido's mascara base, and it was awesome. Hence, I'm sure MJ's mascara formula might be as good as their parent line. I'll post a review on their mascara in the future since I haven't used them yet.

These palletes were their previous LE items. I couldn't find them on their website anymore. Anyway, here's their pallete up close and swatches:
This pallete comes with a cream liner (sort of) on the top part of the pallete.


Color Swatches from the pallete:

I didnt managed to capture the liner's swatch but the liner is not as silky smooth as compared to Bobbi Browns' and Kate's liner if you had one.

Here's another one where I managed to find their original picture from the web.

From the website: I got the one on the Top Right corner.The pallete comes with a cream shadow base (on the top part of the pallete).


Real-life picture:

And the swatches:

After-thoughts:
The colours look really sweet in their photo. However, I personally felt that their colour pay-offs aren't as good as I expected. The two palletes also has quite a lot of shimmery glitters. However, to get the "pop-out" effect, an eye-based is recommended. Not only it will enhance the color pay offs, but also to better well adhere the eyeshadow to your lids / cease.

MJ Spice Blushers are also highly-raved previously.

As seen, they come in a tiny bottle and their blusher are in loose form, or what we called pigments. I got myself Sensual Spice from this collection.


After-thoughts:
Sensual Spice is sort of a plumish pink color. It has to be lightly handled with care. One disadvantage is that the packaging of this blusher is not user friendly. The problem is we wont be able to pick the colors up by using a blusher brush. Hence, pouring out the color certainly will be a mess. However, this blusher color is nice with some shimmery effect.

I dont think MJ still has the same packaging for their blusher color in stores right now. Anyway, I'm sure the blusher pallete that you see in stores should have the same color payoffs as the loose powder blusher.

Here's some eye shadow palletes from their web. I'm sure they are readily available in your Watson stores now.



Ciaoz. =)

MAC Mineralized Skin Finish (MSF) on TV and NST

I was informed that NST was also writing a story on MAC's Mineralized Skin Finishes -MSF.

Here's some picture from their web.

Can't believed their process actually look like as if they are baking a cake....
As quoted from the News here:

The process of making M.A.C Mineralize Powders is pretty tedious. Beginning as a dough containing a special blend of 77 minerals, most of it is done manually, as was demonstrated at the workshop.

With the precision of a fine artisan and eyes peeled on the task at hand, the young woman entrusted with giving the demo measured and scraped just the right amounts of pink and gold-coloured dough before moulding them onto tiny custom-made terracotta tiles and baking them between 24 and 48 hours in a special oven.

Their short video clip which I find it abit hideous to look at. -_-

http://tv.emedia.com.my/videoChangeABP?idvideo=v0843

Go watch them before they take off from their website. :)

MAC Sheer Minerals Collection

Good news or bad news?

Sheer Minerals Collection
16 Oct 2008 [US/Canada]
Oct 2008 [international]
*Credits to Specktra



Colour story details are as follows:

Mineralized SPF15 Foundation - Loose (Repromote) - $29.00USD

• Light
• Light Medium
• Medium
• Medium Plus
• Medium Dark
• Medium Deep
• Dark
• Deep Dark
• Deeper Dark

Mineralize Sheersheen Powder- New Loose Mineralize Skinifinish-like powder -$19.50USD

• Sheerbronze - Soft bronze with gold pearlized pigments (Frost) LE
• Lucent - Faded mid-tone pink with pink and white pearlized pigments (Frost) LE
• Silver Aura - Muted pinky beige with silver shimmer (Frost) LE (Will not be released in Asia)

Mineralize Skinfinish - $25.00USD

• Soft and Gentle - Gilded peach bronze (New and permanent)
• Petticoat - Pale rose with gold and amber veining (Repromote from Lingerie)
• So Ceylon - Rose bronze with golden bronze veining (Repromote from High Tea)
  

Brushes:

• #181 - Mini Kabuki Brush
• #182 - Kabuki Brush

Actually there's nothing to shout about , since most of the items are from the previous collection. But one thing that I'm craving ever since I was infected by MAC was "Petticoat" MSF.

Look at the beauty...
*Credits to mac.larahill.com


Swatches: -


And if I'm not mistaken, this beauty cost RM105 each.

Actually I'm still hesitating, since I saw Northern Light and Petticoat are quite dark on the swatches. I have NL and I looked like I got "sunburn" on my cheeks when I applied it.

Hm, lets wait til it gets down to Penang (*hopefully). Need to keep my mind focus elsewhere now.