CandyDoll Powder Foundation review and some beauty magazines!

I've always felt Japanese beauty magazines blow the likes of Glamour/Cosmopolitan out of the water, but not being able to read Japanese other than kanji it's a bit pointless for me to buy magazines to look at pictures. Having said that, I do buy Ageha now and again for the pretty makeup photos :P Plus Japanese magazines have far more actual content unlike Glamour & Cosmo which consist of ≈60% adverts on flimsy paper.

So when I discovered some Japanese magazines had been translated into Chinese, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try them. I'm sure there must be some content lost in translation and the Chinese versions are always a month behind, but they're still better for me than the originals.

I think these will keep me entertained for the rest of the month! It's great that they're all individually wrapped in cellophane to keep them pristine, because I can't stand creased up magazines or books (I'm odd like that lol)

Quisy April 2011 (quarterly Taiwanese beauty magazine)
S Cawaii June 2011
Popteen June 2011
Body May 2011 - not really a beauty magazine but it has some diet/exercise tips :P and comes with a bunch of freebies.

I ordered from Books.com.tw on the 3rd, and they arrived today via Fedex - if that's not speedy international delivery I don't know what is! I used to buy from Kingstone but had to wait 2-3 days before my order was even sent out, however Kingstone's shipping charge to the UK is a bit cheaper for 3 magazines or less.

P.S. If you know of any other good beauty magazines, please leave a comment!

And now for the powder foundation...

CandyDoll Powder Foundation 01
I previously reviewed CandyDoll Liquid Foundation and to summarize, it is a little too yellow/dark for me and gives quite a light coverage.

The CandyDoll Powder Foundation comes in a little pink compact with black stripes and is only available in shade 01. I personally like the pink compact, but not those black stripes.

The powder itself is velvety smooth, but the quality of the included sponge isn't great and can make some areas look blotchy, so a decent brush or sponge applicator is a must. Using my egg shaped SUQQU foundation sponge gives a much more even result.

What I really like about this foundation is that I can either use a powder brush for a very light coverage, or a sponge when I want more coverage. One sweep and blend (with SUQQU sponge) covers up my pores, reduces the appearance of blemishes/any redness and gives a perfectly smooth "my skin but better" poreless finish. It doesn't make my skin look powdery or dry it out, and hasn't given me any breakouts so far.

It's a bit lighter compared with the CandyDoll Liquid Foundation, and is therefore a much better match for my skin tone (swatch below). As for the shade depth I think it's suitable for NC15-NC20, maybe NC25 but I'm not sure how good of a match it will be.

I must say this is possibly my favorite (paraben free too, hooray!) powder foundation to date, and one I fully recommend. One minor annoyance is that when worn on its own after a few hours my tzone area (particularly around my nose) can look a bit shiny as I have combination skin, but this is easily fixed with some touching up.

Retail price is ¥2100 (≈$26) for 10g and I got mine through FromJapan.

List of ingredients from the official product page.

CandyDoll Liquid Foundation, Concealer & Makeup Base SPF30

A couple of posts ago I wrote about my recent purchase of some CandyDoll products. I've since been using them almost daily, except for the Powder Foundation and Mineral Powder as I was in the mood for a lighter coverage.

The problem I have with most western foundation brands is that even given the correct shade depth, the foundation undertones are either too yellow or too pink. My previous favorite foundation was by SUQQU, but it contains parabens so that's now a no go.

For references purposes the last MAC foundation I owned was Mineralize Satinfinish in NC15, but it's been over a year since I've used the brand (booted out for containing parabens). When I purchased it I remembered the MAC MA using NC15 and NC20 on either side of my face, both shades blended in but NC20 made my skin look slightly duller so we agreed I should go for NC15.

Now on to the CandyDoll products!

CandyDoll Liquid Foundation
Currently available in shades 01 and 03, with 02 to be released soon. 03 looked quite a bit darker than 01 so I chose the latter.

It comes in a little 30g tube and retails at ¥2310 (≈$28)

Coverage wise wise it's quite light, somewhat buildable and between tinted moisturizer & foundation. It evens out my skin but doesn't cover up any noticeable blemishes, which is where the concealer comes in. I would have preferred some sort of SPF but it's not a big deal.

Foundation swatch

It looks rather dark swatched on my arm but after spreading it out a lot it's a good match, albeit a little too dark. However I do like its matte and slightly glowy finish, how it doesn't settle into pores and that it's long lasting. Not my HG foundation, but a good substitute.

CandyDoll Makeup Base SPF30

Comes in a 30g squeeze tube and is only available in shade 01 right now.

Swatch of the Makeup Base

It contains super fine shimmer particles to brighten the skin either under foundation or when worn on its own. Makes my skin look brighter, smoother and gives it a dewy boost when used under CandyDoll Foundation, plus it minimizes pores. The SPF30 is also a nice addition, makes me feel safer about being in daylight :P

It's difficult to take a photo of but as you can see below it brightens my skin.

It's very light (almost watery), not at all sticky and so sheer that I think it's suitable for all skintones. Very happy with this purchase!

It retails at ¥1890 (≈$23)

CandyDoll Concealer
I picked 01 out of the two available shades 01 & 02. I wanted a concealer that completely covered up blemishes, and it must be creamy enough so it won't flake - surprisingly most concealers I've tried did not fulfill these simple requirements.

But fortunately for me, the CandyDoll Concealer does meet my standards! It is very moisturizing without being oily and the convenient doe foot applicator makes it easy to apply.

I only need to dab on the tiniest amount on individual blemishes, pat a little, and job done. I don't get dark circles so can't comment on how well it conceals them.

Concealer swatch

A few layers of the concealer will even cover up freckles. As I'm quite pale the few freckles I have are super obvious (at least to me) so on my makeup days I like to use some of this on the freckles =P

There's no indication of how much product is in a tube, the container is a little shorter than regular lip balm (4.25g) but approximately the same diameter, so I'm estimating just over 3ml which at a price of ¥1260 (≈$15) is very reasonable in my opinion.

Next to tube of lip balm

Review of the powder foundation and mineral powder to follow!

Review of CandyDoll Lip Gloss Macaroon Pink

Out of the CandyDoll items I received yesterday, naturally the first thing I tried was the Lip Gloss in Macaroon Pink.

From the official product picture (below), I was expecting a pale milky pink gloss, but the actual product is more of a sweet candy pink.

Official image of Macaroon Pink, retails for ¥1260 (≈ $15)

Actual product color

This fragrance free gloss is available in 6 shades and comes in a tube with slanted sponge applicator, which makes application a breeze. But as much as I like sponge applicators, I prefer a squeeze tube as it's more hygienic.

It feels quite sticky but not uncomfortably so, and doesn't dry out my lips if I wear it alone. However, I have to make sure my lips are well exfoliated and smooth before using this, otherwise its opaque texture means it'll highlight every single tiny flake (ugh) and it's also difficult to get an even coverage unless I use the applicator to pat on small amounts of gloss.

Swatch on my arm

On bare lips

Overall I really like the color, but I don't think I'll be trying out other lip glosses from CandyDoll as I tend to prefer sheer glosses.

Arrival of CandyDoll!

I've always wanted to try CandyDoll's Face Powder but never got around to adding it to my stash. Recently I read about their new base makeup range and, with the help of google translate on the official CandyDoll site, I decided to purchase a few products that do not contain parabens - I look out for パラベン in the ingredients list :P

I bought these through FromJapan which is a Japan shopping/auction service. My order was shipped out on the 15th and arrived today (20 minutes ago to be precise) as I chose EMS.

CandyDoll Makeup Base SPF30 in 01
CandyDoll Concealer in 01
CandyDoll Lip Gloss in Macaroon Pink
CandyDoll Mineral Face Powder
CandyDoll Liquid Foundation in 01
CandyDoll Powder Foundation in 01

Looking forward to trying these soon! :D