New Website!

http://www.kokoberries.com

My new website is finally launched!
It's more of a blog format - and I've transferred all my posts from this blog to that one.

On the home page, if you want to read product reviews - simply click on "beauty review" under the Pick One heading.

Enjoy!
Thanks for all the continued support =)

I'm hosting a halloween party @ the Science Center!

Hey guys!
So, totally beauty-unrelated... but I just found out that I'm officially hosting the biggest halloween event in Toronto this year!!

Monsters Ball is going to be held at the Toronto Science Centre, over 3000 people are coming to the party! 3 different rooms, 4 DJ's, tons of people dressed up and having fun! Plus you'll get to see me in a Tricia Takanawa outfit!! (lol!)

Anyway, ticket prices are going up in 3 days apparently! Get it while it's still a little bit cheaper. Here's the link:

http://www.ticketpicket.com/monsters-ball-halloween-2009-toronto/4165

See you there!!

Review - Nic's Sticks by Nicole/OPI - Nail Polish stick

I expected a lot from this product! And... in a way, that's what I got. But not in a good way.

There are 3 major flaws with this nail polish stick.
First, the applicator brush is very flimsy! In a nail polish applicator, the bristles need to be soft yet sturdy so they don't fan out too much. When the brush fans out too far, you don't get the precision you need to paint your nails clealy. Nic's Sticks by Nicole has a fanny applicator brush!

Second, the product comes out through the applicator brush by pressing the other end of the stick (see photo). This would be fine if the product didn't RUSH out in an inconvenient amount of goo, dripping off the applicator brush before the brush itself has a chance to absorb it. I'm sure you know what I mean! It would've been more successful with a twist-end, the kind that click-click-clicks for more product.

Third, which ties in with the First, your nails end up with bubbles on them because the product does not come off cleanly from the applicator brush. This means that your nails get those tiny bumps, and does not end up looking flawless! Because the product doesn't absorb into the applicator brush evenly (possibly due to the excessive amount of product that goops out when you press the end?), the brush itself has a lot of air bubbles in it, which causes the product itself to contain air bubbles.

All in all, not impressed with this product at all! Don't get me wrong, Nicole and OPI are my favourite brands of nail polish. I just figured that this would be a great new addition to my collection of nail colour pots... but I think I'll just stick to the old school style of unscrew-dip-apply!

Review - John Frieda's Spiral Style spray gel

Okay okay, so this is SUPPOSED to be for people who naturally have curly hair, that want to define their curls. Being Asian, do I have curly hair? nooooooot even close. lol. >But! i LOVE scrunching my hair, curling it with curling/straightning irons, etc etc. How to scrunch straight hair? That's a whole different tutorial... Maybe I'll do a YouTube video on it :) (click here for my YouTube tutorial vid log)

Anyway. For people with curly hair, you take your hair damp (just after a shower and a brief towel-dry), spray the Spiray Style spray gel all over, and use a diffuser to blow-dry or simply air-dry your hair into perfection.

For scrunched/manually curled hair, the same applies - spray all over about 6-9 inches away from your head, and let dry. I like to allow my hair to air dry as much as possible - because as "heat resistant" a product can be, heat is bad. No matter what.

The good thing about a spray gel instead of a spray or a gel, is that it gives you the HOLD of a gel without the weight, and the LIGHTWEIGHT of a spray, without the crunchyness. I actually just discovered spray gels recently - when I was on set for a photoshoot and the hair stylist swore by it.

So I went in search for a good spray gel, not really knowing where to look or what brand to look for - since this is a new territory for me. Off I went to Shoppers Drug Mart (the Canadian version of Walgreens or CVS) because I didn't want to spend money on professional salon products when I didn't know what to expect from it. I think L'Oreal, Dove, and a few other brands had spray gels - but they all looked... too watery. I heard that it was supposed to have a gel-like texture to it but not as thick - but it shouldn't be a watery as hairspray. So John Frieda was the winner!

I came home and that night, after my shower, I braided my head in 3 long french braids (watch my YouTube video for a tutorial on french braids), slept with them, woke up and un-did my braids. This gives me the look of soft curls/waves. I sprayed my hair with the John Frida Spiray Style spray gel, walked around the house for a few minutes, and voila! It somehow made my waves WAVIER?? More defined, no frizz! There's usually lots of frizz and fly-aways that come with sleeping with braides in your hair. But with this spray gel, it calmed down the fly-aways without making your hair have a wet look that a gel usually gives you (no need to mention the CRUNCHY hardness a gel gives you too)

Anyway. Highly recommended! When I run out of this one - I'll try a professional salon brand to see what the differences are. But for a product for less than $15 - I love it!

Review - MAC LiquidLast Liner

***check out the video tutorial on this product, on my YouTube channel:) ***
Click here - after reading the blog

You've read me say that I don't like liquid eyeliners with that nail polish-like brush applicators. This is the one exception! Of course I would prefer this product to have an applicator like the Maybelline Waterproof Liquid eyerliner - the felt tip - but you can't have everything!

I'm not a huge MAC fan - I'll tell you that right now. I only like MAC for their colours! Their skin line, like foundation, blush, etc etc... isn't the best in my opinion. But their eyeshadows/liners/lip products have AMAZING colours!!

If you're not a fan of bright popping colours, you're not reaaaaaaaaaaally a fan of MAC! Lol I joke I joke, maybe you like their other stuff.

Anyway. The LiquidLast Liner is poppin! They have plain colours like Black - but I think if you're going to use something like this, you want a eye-popping colour! Like electric lime green, or a barbie pink or something. Eye-popping bright colours are all the thing right now! I bought the colour ElectroLady. Purples, greens, and golds are the best for brown eyes and asian skin - so of course i bought purple! Lol

The only thing about these LiquidLast Liners is that they're like TAR. They stay on better than any waterproof liner I ever knew! The reason I didn't recommend this product in my Liquid eyeliner blog post... was because this is SERIOUS stuff! Hahaha it stays on you through thick and thin.. The only way to remove it is really oil-based eye makeup remover soaked into a cotton ball. Even then you have to rub it. I guess this could be a good thing if you're looking for that sort of thing!! But for every day use... It's a little more maintenance than other regular products.

Overall, if you're looking for some serious colour-popping liquid eyeliner to wear to impress - I'd recommend this one! I'm going to go out and buy the peach coloured one next :)

Review - MAC Palette

Well, this goes out to any makeup palette, really.
It SAVES MONEY! Can you believe it? lol
I don't want to start this blog by giving "economy-wise advise" - not just yet anyway - but really, if you can pay $11 per colour, would you CHOOSE to pay $19?

When buying individual eyeshadow pot things from MAC - they cost around $19CDN. When buying a palette version of it, it's around $11. Surprise, they're THE SAME SIZE!! (say what??)

Everyone thinks the individual ones have more product in them because the case itself is bigger. It gives the illusion of more product. The palette size is simply the metal container that contains the product, and not enclosed in a plastic case with a pretty little see-through lid and everything.

If you want to pay an extra 60% or whatever it calculates to, for the pretty little plastic case - cool. But if you can spend $10-15 on the palette itself, which houses like 15 colours which each cost $11 instead of $19, it sounds like a smarter idea!

Other than that, it's not like the product itself is any better in the palette than they are in the little cases - they're the SAME product. They simply insert the palette size into the plastic case, and voila - up the price.

Once you collect enough colours - you can seperate your palettes into categories! Naturals, Glitzys, Blendables - whatever. The creativity is up to you!

Review - Maybelline Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner

This is one of those things I've been using since I started wearing makeup (way back in juniorhigh!). I think I first bought it because it's cheap! ($6-8)

I, like many other people, foolishly thought that waterproof meant everything proof. But of course, waterproof sincerely means just that, WATERproof. Not TEARproof, not SWEATproof. Anyway.

Why do I like this eyeliner compared to all the other eyeliners out there? Well, we're only fighting in the corner of Liquid Eyeliners.. and when it comes to liquid - it's all about the BRUSH!!

Yes ladies and gentlemen - if the brush failes, the eyeliner fails. And by BRUSH, I guess I should say "Applicator" instead. Some companies (ie Makeup Forever) have application brushes that look like a nail polish applicator brush, but like 3 hairs. (lol does that make sense?) This works, I guess, because it's like plucking some eyebrow hairs, sticking it onto a plastic stick, and dipping it into the eyeliner bottle/tube. Buttttt the problem arises when the hairs start to stick out - and also it's too weak! FLIMSY! Like that pushover kid in highschool who always didn't say jack all when people treated him like a piece of stool.

Using an applicator brush like this (thus dubbed "the eyebrow hairs") can be annoying, since you have to be gentle. Verrrrrry gentle. So when you're in a hurry to slab on some makeup and run - this is not the applicator brush for you.

Other companies (ie Shiseido... i think) use a "pen". It's literally like a ballpoint pen. You take off the cap, click the top (like you would "turn on" a pen) and out pours some product. (maybe not POUR, but you know what I mean)
This works, as the appliator brush is usually sturdy and nice like a felt tip (very similar to Maybelline's Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner). BUT! The method of "clicking" the product out like a pen can be very annoying, it can get stuck very easily, the tip can dry out quickly, and it just overall becomes annoying. And they're usually unnecessarily big, the size of like a pen literally.

Anyway. Maybelline's Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner is small (stand it up straight and its probably the length of your ring finger, with its cap on) and the applicator brush is perrrrrfect. (yup, so perfect you have to RRRROLL the r) It's a felt tip, and it's a "pot". By "pot" I mean that the cap twists off, the cap has the appliator brush attached to it, and you dip the cap into the "bottle". (see picture)

The best thing about felt tips is that they're sturdy. And the harder you press the tip against your skin, the thicker you can draw your line - the more intense you can make the colour. And when you want to make a tapered cat-eye line extending past the corner of your eyes - felt tips are the only thing that works perfectly - because it naturally has that shape!

SOoooOooOooooo.. yeah. Lol that's it. I use it every day that I wear eyeliner (some days I just don't feel like wearing eyeliner) and it's the best. And cheap. :)

*if you don't know what a "felt tip" is - use the google search bar to search for a pic. it's like... an upside down teardrop shape??