Hi peeps! I’m safe and well in Taiwan – arrived on Tuesday and have settled into our new apartment right in the middle of Taipei.  The apartment is an older style apartment and comes with minimal furniture, so Mr Ronan and I have been busy cleaning and getting some of the essentials we need.  I can’t wait until our place become more homely… so there will be exciting months ahead!

On the weather front, I’ve flown away from the freezing Melbourne; and landed into the hot and humid Taiwan weather.  I much prefer hot than cold, but I tells ya, the humidity here right now is rather unbearable.  Sweat just pelts out my pores, and having air-con on 24/7 is playing havoc with my skin.

It’s the worst when it comes to my eye makeup.  I’m prone to the dreaded panda eyes as it is with my oily skin, and the heat + humidity combo is making the matters worse.  Luckily, I brought with me the Mirenesse Vibralash 24 Hr Mascara.

This mascara features the tube technology, which Mirenesse was one of the pioneers of.  But what’s different, is that it has a built in battery to vibrate it – and there are 3 speeds to choose from (Slow – 8000 oscillations per minute; Medium – 10,000 OPM; Fast – 13,000 OPM).

The button to control the speed is on the top ie. the handle of the mascara, hence the vibration actually travels from there through the wand.  So does that mimic the wiggling of the mascara brush by hand?  I don’t think so, but it does make distributing the formula better, as I found it to be thicker than a regular mascara.  I also found it necessary to have the vibration at the highest speed; any less and the vibration stays only within the handle, and does not travel down the wand and to the brush where it’s needed.

However, when applied at the highest speed, the Mirenesse Vibralash 24 Hr Mascara coats every lash from root to tip, and gave me thicker, longer and curvier lashes.

The stand-out point for me, is just how great the tube mascara formula is.  It wraps the lashes, forming a waterproof and oil-proof tube around them, which then is easily removed by warm water.  So I can still have great looking lashes that withstand the humidity, but won’t be in the bathroom for hours trying to remove it at the end of the day.

I also love the brush – conical rubber brush with very short bristles.  I didn’t think it’ll work but it’s great for catching every single lash – not my very short bottom lashes but great for the inner upper lashes!

All in all, the Mirenesse Vibralash 24 Hr Mascara is a great choice for those of us with super oily lids that are prone to panda eyes.  You may also find Mirenesse’s other no-vibrating 24 Hr mascaras cheaper options (unless their formula is just as thick, in which case the vibration is necessary to disperse it).

Mirenesse Vibralash 24 Hr Mascara retails for $49.95 and is available in selected salons/pharmacies Australia-wide, and on www.mirenesse.com.

*This product was provided for consideration, for my disclosure policy see here.

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I have quite an obsession with makeup.  Okay that came out wrong… what I meant to say is, I’m the most obsessed with base makeup (whilst obsessed with ALL makeup).  Whether it be foundation, primer, powder, BB cream – anything that promises my-skin-but-better complexion without oiliness, I’ll be jumping up and down and all over it.

The Mirenesse Invisible Fill Makeup was a part of the goodie bag for ABBW.  Yet again I am soooo late with trialling it, but a big part of it is because of its outer packaging:

Like most of Mirenesse products, the Invisible Fill Makeup is packaged in a paper sachet.  I do appreciate the prettiness of it , but have to say I don’t love it, as it create unnecessary paper waste that our planet can do without.

Greenie me aside, let’s move onto the product itself:

What they say:

Invisible cream of pure natural mineral makeup for perfect, lineless, poreless airbrushed skin.  Corrects imperfections, blurs their appearance and lasts matte all day. Universal  Adaptive Colour technology adapts to any skin tone.

Forms an invisible barrier that provides continuous hydration and seals in active ingredients from treatment products while protecting from harmful environmental elements

Ingredients:

• 3D Halo Spheres Soft Focus Pigment
• Botanical Moisturisers
• Vitamin E+ Hyaluronate
• Formulated For Sensitive Skin
• Free From Parabens/Alcohol/Talc

My experience:

Mirenesse Invisible Fill Makeup is packaged in a pretty peach tube, which on first impression is lovely:

But upon removing the cap, I was horrified.  If you’re a germaphobe – look away, LOOK AWAY NOW!!!

I’m not going to go through how unhygienic a sponge applicator is again, so I’m just going to ask cosmetic companies to abolish this packaging for good (please!).  I removed the sponge shortly after taking the above pic, which reveals a nozzle.  Luckily, the tube is quite squeezy, so I can squeeze out the exact amount of product required.

The formula is a tinted silicone base primer.  Unbeknownst to me, Mirenesse says that this product can be used under or over makeup.  I’ve been using it alone like a foundation, and find it to offer quite a good coverage for me.

You can see how well the product smooths the surface of the skin, filling in the lines and pores.  The coverage is enough to reduce the scarring on my hand (bite marks from one of my cats, when I had to take her for pre-export vet checks), so is just right for my non-scarred face .

I did have to put a little concealer for some redness under my eyes and sides of my nostrils, but that’s common for me even when using a full coverage foundation/BB cream.

Like a silicon-based primer, the Mirenesse Invisible Fill Makeup leaves a slippery finish, which needs to be powdered over before applying other makeup items eg. brow powders, eyeliner, blush, eyeshadows.  But the great thing is, it doesn’t reduce its dewy appearance.  My complexion is glowy, luminous, and best of all, looks non-oily for majority of the day!

I’ve been complimented so many times on my skin the last few days I’ve been wearing it.  And I have not broken out either (YAY).  A bit of a miracle product here?  I say YES!

Mirenesse Invisible Fill Makeup Airbrush Pore & Line Filling Mattifier SPF10 retails for $59.50 and is available in selected salons/pharmacies Australia-wide, and on www.mirenesse.com.

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Out of all the makeup items, eyeshadow is my “thing”.  The eyes are truly windows to the soul, and different eye makeup can really change your whole look.  So I love experimenting with eyeshadows – neutrals, brights, matte and shimmer.  I say a big “Bring It On!” to all of them and pack them onto my eyelids

I was super super excited to receive a box full of Mirenesse products in my ABBW goodie bag.  Mirenesse is best know for releasing the first mascara in Australia that utilises the tube technology – meaning that it coats your lashes for maximum lengthening effects that is smudge proof, yet removes easily with warm water.

This is one of the 5 mineral Mirenesse trio eyeshadow palettes: Conch Pearls:

What They Say:

Pure crushed natural minerals blend seamlessly to create a flawless eye with the latest fashion colours and eye defining effects.  Use them wet or dry.  Infused with a powerful rejuvenating peptide.  Apply wet for dramatic colour.  Apply dry for a soft or smoky look.

Long lasting 3D minerals.  Formulated for sensitive eyes.  Free from paraben/talc.

Ingredients:

My Experience:

You can see from the first picture that I received the palette in a pearlised printed paper bag.  This is really cute and adds to the size of the product, but the bag actually states Rich Girl (another shade within the range) when the palette itself is Conch Pearls.  This is quite problematic as it would cause unnecessary customer dissatisfaction when they don’t realise they’ve purchased the wrong shade until they’ve gotten home and broken into the packaging.

I’m hoping that this error is limited – from a sales and logistic perspective this is a very costly one to rectify and not good for the brand image.

Anyway, onto the product itself and the all-important swatches:

• The pigments are amazingly smooth and pigmented.
• Pearlised finish making them easy to blend with each other.
• Harmonising shades great for simple eye look – I do prefer 4 rather than 3 shades as that offers more flexibility in the number of looks that can be created.  However this is good for people who are more accustomed to using 1-2 colours.
• For me, this is a great palette for day (ie. work) wear.
• Great portability: this compact measures only 3.5cm (length) x 5cm (width) but contains 4g of eyeshadow which is reasonably substantial.
• The pigments are solid – ie. they don’t fly away even when applied with a brush. This means that you don’t need to worry about drop-offs when applying your eye makeup, and that it’s smudge proof and great for sensitive eyes.
• Great colour pay-off even when used dry.  I personally can’t be bothered wetting the brush when getting ready in the morning so I find this is to be the best thing about this palette.
• Silky formula – so you don’t need to drag or pat the applicator on the eyelids harshly to put the colour on.  Another great thing for ageing/sensitive skins.

In terms of its crease-ability, I find it to be quite crease-proof on my lids but would suggest that it’s different for every individual.  I don’t have too many creases on my eyes so most powder eyeshadows perform well on me, I would still use a eye primer to ensure that it does not transfer to my lower lashline as my eyelids are quite oily.

Mirenesse Pearl Crush Creaseless Shadows retail for $29.95 and is available in selected salons/pharmacies Australia-wide, and on www.mirenesse.com.

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