Laneige Makeup Brighter - Best highlighter/illuminator EVER!

Hello again lovelies!

Long time no "see", I know I haven't posted anything in sooooo long and I do feel bad about it, but I've moved and started a new job as well, so it's been pretty hectic. As a part of the whole moving process came the whole decorating ordeal, which I have been super excited about! One of my pet projects while decorating the new apartment was my vanity, which I will be doing a blog post about in the near future. It took a lot of planning and work, but I'm overjoyed with the result and can't wait to share it with you guys soon!

Today, however, I'm super excited to share with you one of my absolute favorite makeup products, the Makeup Brighter by Laneige! I had been looking for the perfect highlighter for quite a while when I came across this baby and once I found it, there was just no going back.

This is the box the Makeup Brighter came in. Keeping with the sleek and luxurious theme, the box is simple and elegant.

First, let's talk about the brand a little bit. Laneige is a Korean cosmetics and skin care brand that carry a wide array of products and they really do have a lot of really good stuff. It's a bit more pricy and high end than some other brands, but they have a few products that I really don't mind spending a bit extra on, because they are just that good - the Makeup Brighter being one of these products. I have some other Laneige products that I love as well, I will be posting about them later, so stay tuned for that.

Illuminators or highlighters are used to bring forth something (mostly bone structure) and accentuate where the light hits your face. When this is done right - and especially in conjunction with contouring, the result can be stunning, but when done wrong or when using a product that's just not that great, you might end up looking like a sparkly disco ball or one of those metallic-painted moving statues you see in parks.

A lot of times I find that highlighters are either too sparkly or too metallic for my liking. I prefer a more natural, glowy look - as opposed to the disco queen look. Sometimes I'll find a highlighter that I think is nice, so I'll apply it and merrily go on with my day, only to step outside into the sun light and realize my face could double as a light bulb (not a great feeling). This is where the Laneige Makeup Brighter comes in. The look it provides is of a more natural character and it doesn't have any visible glitters in it. Any highlighters with glitter in them are banned from my makeup collection, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. The Makeup Brighter does a great job at illuminating, but it doesn't leave your face looking metallic - which is fantastic, because I, for one, am not too fond of the tin(wo)man-look.

The beautiful and stylish Makeup Brighter compact in all its glory :)

The packaging, it gets my stamp of approval, for sure. The compact itself is absolutely beautiful, it's round and flat with a mirror inside and the actual compact has sort of a silvery/multicolor "hologram" look to it - I really don't know how else to describe the color of it, I'm hoping the picture above will do it more justice than my words. I find the packaging to be quite luxurious, it has a really clean, classy and pretty look. The packaging itself does look high end.

The packaging again, along with the little "info" leaflet that came with it.

The leaflet again. I can't read Korean, but I thought I would post this anyhow for those of you who can and who are interested in reading what it says.

The compact contains 13 grams (0.4 oz) of product and looks similar to a pressed powder, except more glowy of course. It really is very long lasting, I have been using mine for well over a year - and I use my Makeup Brighter every time I put on makeup (which isn't every day, but almost) - and I have yet to hit pan, or even come close to hitting pan! To be honest, I've only managed to make a slight dent!! To me, this is pretty incredible, so I'm super happy about how little you need to use and how long the product lasts.

The opened compact.

As you can see in the picture above, the compact comes with a hard protective plastic that sits on top of the product, keeping it clean. I've chosen to keep mine, I guess you could just as well get rid of it, but I kind of like having it there protecting the product and also keeping my mirror clean (for when I bring the Makeup Brighter along in my makeup bag for traveling).

As for the price, it costs around $17-$25 (around 12 euros 40 cents to 18 euros 30 cents) , depending on where you buy it. I bought mine on eBay over a year ago and paid $16 (right under 12 euros) for it. I don't feel like it's expensive - I mean I do realize there are cheaper highlighters out there (as well as more expensive ones) - but no other highlighter has yet even come close to the Laneige Makeup Brighter in my book.

Next, the scent. Now, if you are very sensitive to fragrances, this is not the right product for you. I'm not saying that it's a heavily scented product, but still, if you are very sensitive it might cause trouble for you. I usually prefer my makeup not to have any fragrances added, but I have to say I just ADORE the way this smells! I love opening up the box to apply the product because it just smells so heavenly. This and the Skin Food Peach Sake Silky Finish Loose Powder are my absolute favorite make-up scents, they both smell absolutely fantastic! Somehow I feel that the scent sort of adds to the feeling of luxury that this product exuberates.

As for the color, the Makeup Brighter comes in two shades, 01 Pink Pearl and 02 Beige Pearl. I have mine in the color 02 Beige Pearl and I love, love, LOVE it!!! It's a gorgeous translucent color that melts beautifully into your skin.

In these pictures I rubbed my finger on the product quite vigorously to get more product on there so that you can see the color.

In the picture above I rubbed my finger on the product quite vigorously to get more product on it, so that you guys could see it better. In real life it isn't opaque by any means, it just gives you a really beautiful, glowy, sophisticated, almost porcelain-like finish, as you can see in the pictures below.

Here you can see swatches of the Makeup Brighter in different lighting. I absolutely adore the finish!

I absolutely love the finish! It looks natural and glowy -and most importantly, it doesn't look metallic or glittery! I just can't stress enough how important this is to me, I really cannot stand it when highlighters/illuminators you wear in the daytime look metallic or glittery, it's just super off putting to me. So if you're going for a glowy, natural, sophisticated look, the Laneige Makeup Brighter is most definitely worth a try, but for those of you favoring a lot of glitter and metallic shine, this is not the right product for you. Although, to those who do favor a super glittery tin(wo)man look during the daytime, may I humbly suggest rethinking that whole thing and going for a more natural day-time look?

I use mine for highlighting and illuminating (duh) but I also sometimes like to use it on my eyelids on days when I don't feel like applying any eye shadow. It gives your lids a beautiful glow and it really does makes a HUGE difference! I also sometimes apply some in the inner corner of my eyes to open them up and the finish is a really natural and beautiful one. I find this product is so versatile and I just can't imagine not having it be a part of my everyday makeup routine. As I mentioned before, I use my Makeup Brighter every single time I put on makeup and let me tell you, on days when you don't really feel like putting on any makeup but you still want to do a little something, a dab of BB cream and a little bit of the Laneige Makeup Brighter will do all the difference in the world! Oh and as for application, I prefer applying it with a brush to get a light finish. The product feels nice and silky on your skin, it doesn't feel heavy by any means.

The Laneige  Makeup Brighter has become an absolute staple product in my makeup collection and I really don't have anything negative to say about it, this is by far my favorite highlighter/illuminator out of all of the ones I've tried and I can't imagine not having it be a part of my makeup collection.

I hope this review was helpful, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them in the comment section below.

I hope you all have a fantastic day and remember to smile, laugh, love and stay positive!

xoxo,
Tanja

Lioele Real Vivid Matte Lipstick - cute as a button! :)

Hello lovelies!

Today I want to share with you a couple of really cute matte lipsticks. They're by a Korean brand called Lioele, who by the way have a lot of really good and really cute products (there will be more product reviews on products by this brand coming up) and just like with pretty much any Lioele product, the packaging is SO incredibly cute!

Here they are, my two Lioele Real Vivid Matte Lipsticks, in the colors #2 Milky Pink and #3 Peach.

The packaging/container

So let's start with that, the packaging. The lipstick comes in a little shiny black and pink box and inside the box you will find the sleek, matte, black lipstick tube. When you open the lipstick you will find the Lioele carriage and the brand name printed underneath it. As you can see in the pictures below, the packaging is very nice :)

These are the shiny black & pink boxes they came in. They have descriptions and ingredient lists in both English and Korean.

And here are the tops and bottoms of the packaging.

Also, the tube sort of "snaps" shut, so you won't have to worry about the container suddenly opening on its own in your bag/makeup bag.

The tube contains 4 grams of product, which - granted - doesn't sound like much, but it is very pigmented so it will last you a long time nonetheless.

These are the lipsticks twisted up as high as possible to show you how much product you get.

The colors and pigmentation/opacity

The Real Vivid Matte Lipstick comes in six colors: #1 Hot Pink, #2 Milky Pink, #3 Peach, #4 Red, #5 Lavender Purple and #6 Sandy Beige. I have the #2 Milky Pink and the #3 Peach (and I would love to try the #6 Sandy Beige next), both of which are really cute, girly pastel colors. I will swatch them for you in the picture below.

Here are a couple pictures with swatches, the one on the left taken in warmer lighting and the one on the right taken in cooler lighting. The swatch on top is #2 Milky Pink and the one on the bottom is #3 Peach.

I wasn't expecting the lipstick to be quite so pigmented, but is really is very highly pigmented, so a little goes a long way. Of course, you can go a bit heavier with it as well if you're looking for a really vivid color, but you can just as well go lighter and just get a sweet pastel "flush" on your lips. You can easily get a very opaque color with this lipstick if you wish.

Before I always thought MAC had the best/most pigmented lipsticks but this one really does compare in terms of opacity. Also, although most of my lipsticks are MAC ones (and I don't even wear lipstick that often, or if I do, I usually mix it with a balm, I'm more of a balm/gloss/tint kind of girl) I felt I still wanted to try these because the shades are just so delicious and also I haven't seen many similar ones out there.

For the purpose of really showing how much of a pop of color you can get out of these I have gone a bit heavier with the application in the demonstration pictures. Usually, I would just apply them waaay lighter and then sort of blend with a lip balm (or sometimes a gloss).

And here are some swatches on my lips. In the top picture I am wearing #2 Milky Pink, in the middle picture I am wearing #3 Peach and in the bottom picture I applied #2 Milky Pink to my top lip and #3 Peach to my bottom lip so you guys could see the colors right next to each other for comparison's sake.

In the picture above you can see what the lipsticks actually look like on the lips. I did however have slightly dry lips the day I did this review, sorry about that. I was in kind of a hurry as well and I didn't have time to exfoliate my lips and wait from them to go back to normal color from the crazy-after-exfoliation-flush and as I didn't want to compromise the color turnout of the lipstick I refrained from exfoliating prior to application (and yes I am aware of the irony as I do think it's a bit of a no-no to apply lipstick, especially matte ones, onto dry lips :D but oh well). I hope you can still get a somewhat good idea of what the lipstick should look like :)


Staying power

In my opinion, this lipstick has a pretty good staying power. Granted, it's not the same as when you use a lip tint, but then again, no lipstick is. However, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by how well it stayed on, even after having applied lip balm on top of it and drinking water. Obviously you will have to reapply at some point during the day if you want the look of it to stay the same, but that's the case with any lipstick I suppose. I'm not really able to give you and estimate of how many hours it stays on in general, because I'm a bit of a food monster and I'm constantly eating, so I guess the staying power I experience is a bit shorter than for people who don't eat 24/7 :)


Consistency

The lipsticks are, as I mentioned, very highly pigmented and also matte and as the consistency is more on the heavier side (yet still creamy), you will want to make sure that the application surface - that would be your lips - really is nice and smooth. So if you do have dry lips, I would suggest that you exfoliate and moisturize your lips before applying this lipstick or you will end up with flaky looking lips, as the pigment will grab hold of your dry flakes and accentuate them. So make sure your lips are smooth and moisturized when using this particular lipstick (well, any lipstick in general, but usually the matte shades tend to bring out the dryness even more than shinier shades).


Price and where to buy them

I bought mine from a really nice and reliable online cosmetics store called RoseRoseShop, which you can find the link to right here. This is a Korean website, so you just go onto their website, pick out what you want and then they will ship it to you from Korea. The prices are very competitive and overall the price range is very very good. Also, the prices are shown in USD, which - at least to me - makes the whole shopping experience a lot smoother and easier. They carry a wide array of products and the customer service is also really good. Oh and one thing worth mentioning is that they offer international shipping and the shipping really is very fast! I've ordered from them several times and I have always received my packages in around a week or so and each time I have been super happy with the customer service as well. So this is definitely a website worth checking out.

But yes, back to the product, I bought mine at www.roseroseshop.com and one lipstick cost me $8.40, which is around 6 euros 35 cents. I think the lipsticks were on discount when I got them and that the actual price is $12, which is a little over 9 euros. However, I have seen these being sold elsewhere for a lot more, so I would say your best bet for getting a good deal would be RoseRoseShop. :)

All in all I would definitely say this is a product that I can recommend if you're looking for a very sweet and cute lip color, either a peachy one or a pink one. The price is not bad at all and the pigmentation is crazy. It has good staying power, the packaging is cute and practical and the colors are absolutely adorable. So I would say it's definitely worth a try :) The only thing I would recommend you really keep in mind though is to make sure your lips aren't dry and flaky when you apply this, because any lipstick - matte ones in particular - will accentuate the dryness and you do not want that.


Alright guys, that's all for now, I hope this review helped :) I hope you all have a wonderful week and please remember to smile, laugh, love and stay positive :)


xoxo,
Tanja