Hey guys,
I just came back from Indonesia and of course, came back with a haul. So here I am, doing a review for all of the products I bought. We'll start of first with Etude House. I was actually excited to go to Indonesia because of their Etude House stores, only to be disappointed when I found out all of their stores shut down (we literally went to 4 different malls to track down their store). However, I still came home with a crap tonne of sheet masks. 30 in fact. They range from Green Tea, Tea Tree, Aloe, Manuka Honey and Hyaluronic Acid. I have a normal skin type so whenever I buy masks, I'm always going for hydration. And these sheets masks were ridiculously cheap, like 90 cents per sheet mask. (Usually in Australia sheet masks range fro $2.50 to $4)
Then I bought the Sephora Miniature Palette in the shade Cookie. As expected, the price is the same (just a direct conversion from IDR to AUD). While I do believe it should be priced a little cheaper, it actually works well, i.e. the colours blend nicely and they're very pigmented. My cousin (who is a MUA) used the palette and it worked nicely, which was surprising because I never expected the Sephora Collection to work well. Is it the best palette out there? No, but it gives me a place to start, as an eyeshadow noob.
I also bought the Nyx Powder Puff Lippie. I didn't expect myself buying this product since I was looking for the Nyx Lip Lingerie Lip Gloss (which was surprising since we were in an actual Nyx store rather than a drugstore). When the saleswoman showed me the tester, it was actually very pigmented. But when I opened it up and tried it, it was actually a bit oily with a bit of pigment. I was so confused because the product I bought was different to the tester. It was also a little bit streaky, which was something Tati didn't say when she reviewed it. So now I just happened to have an oily lip product that I'll probably use around the house just so it will eventually run out.
Another product I bought was the Maybelline Hypersharp eyeliner. This was a product my cousin recommended, and also happened to be on discount at the drugstore (there was a promotion where everything was on 30% off for the whole week). I'm not sure if there's a difference between this one and the Maybelline HyperSharp Wing Liquid Liner. I mean, the packaging looks similar (apart from the different colour packaging). Anyway, it was kinda easy to use since it's more like a brush tip than a felt tip. My only problem is that since I was working in an air-conditioned room with poor lighting and a lack of stability, I was taking way too long to apply it and eventually caused it to dry out. So I had to leave the house with kinda-equal looking lined eyes and leave it alone for the whole night.
And finally, I bought the Wet n Wild Liquid Catsuit. This was a product I see a lot of beauty gurus rave about, especially Tati. When I found out Wet n Wild was sold at the drugstore, I was making sure that I was getting my hands on it since Wet n Wild isn't available here. A lot of the products left were either metallics or very bold red lip colours (the shade range I haven't gotten into). When I look at the shades, I thought that I was gonna like the shade Rebel Rose. But when I swatched it (which swatched poorly since it was dried out), it looked a bit too deep and I haven't explored the deeper, bolder shades (I've only looked at the peachy-nude to the lighter browny-nude colours). After some digging, I finally found a different shade, which happened to be the shade Nudist Peach. They didn't have a tester for this shade and my mum was paying for the products so I had to impulsive-buy this product. The shade looked pretty (judging from the bottle) but from what I remembered from the online swatches, Nudist Peach seemed a bit too bright. I was a bit worried that it wasn't the shade for me but once I tested it on my lips, it actually wasn't obnoxiously bright. It smells weird and was a little bit streaky but you can layer it since it dries quickly. Then I did a wear test when I went to a family dinner. It was a little bit drying but not as bad as the Nyx Lip Lingerie Liquid Lipstick. It was very light and transfer-proof. It didn't really start to crumble until they brought out the noodles. The product on the corners of my lips started to fade away and by the end of the night, it did start to crack. That being said, I'd still wear this liquid lip since it was light, comfortable and transfer-proof.
Overall, I was surprised about was that there are a lot of brands I bumped into that have been talked a lot by beauty gurus. I mentioned Wet n Wild, but I also bumped into Catrice, LA Girl and Makeup Forever. I was also shocked to see an actual Nyx store there since we don't really have Nyx stores here in Sydney. I was also impressed by how cheap drugstore makeup was in Indonesia. For example, my mum bought the Maybelline SuperStay Foundation, where the original price was ~$10 (a bit less than $10 due to the 30% discount) whereas it's sold at $18-$25 (depending on which chemist you go to). That being said, there wasn't a large variety of brands at Sephora, which was a bit disappointing. I was hoping to see Tarte or Huda Beauty there but they didn't have it. From the two Sephora stores I went to, they had a large wall for the Sephora Collection and then the brands were on the higher end (Dior, Marc Jacobs) rather than the "moderately priced" brands (Tarte, Zoeva). One thing to point out is that the testers there were horrible, especially the lip products. The lip products were dried out, and this was a common occurrence when it came to cheaper makeup (drugstore, Miniso), whereas the Sephora testers still worked.