The Body Shop Honeymania Lip Butter review

Dear Beauty Diary,
Look at this cute little pot of honey. Just look at it. Isn't it simply adorable? ^_^ Its the new limited edition Honeymania Lip Butter from The Body Shop! This lip butter consists of 10ml, or 9g, which I think is a super huge size for a lip butter. However, it costs $10.90 ($8.71 USD), which is pretty expensive for a lip balm. I guess its worth it though, since you get such a huge lot of product.

I also did a review for the Honeymania body butter and body scrub. Click if you want to read my reviews! :)

You should have guessed by now, I totally love the packaging of this lip butter. Its such a small pot, but it contains so much product, and has such a beautiful vibrant shade of orange-yellow. Perfect for dumping into your purse (and showing it off, haha). Doesn't the honeycomb on top of it look so enticing? Yums. The cons of having the product in a tub is that contamination can occur easily. But the good thing about a tub is that you can use up every single bit of product in it.

Since the tub does not have any product description, I got one off The Body Shop website:

This luxuriously sweet lip butter contains Community Fair Trade honey made from the nectar of wildflowers. It has a sweet, floral scent and leaves lips feeling kissably soft.

• Sweet, floral scent
• For softer-feeling lips

How the lip butter looks like. However, it is of a lighter golden shade in reality.

This lip butter is unlike the other lip butters that The Body Shop has produced. Even though The Body Shop calls this a lip butter, and groups it under the other lip butters it has produced, I personally feel that this is a lip balm. It has a harder texture that is more like a balm compared with the other more buttery lip butters. It is also clear, instead of the white colour of the other lip butters. While the other lip butters leave a white opaque layer on my lips, this lip butter applies on clearly, and has a beautiful lip gloss finish. I love the Honeymania lip butter much more than the average lip butters The Body Shop produces.

The lip butters and the tinted lip balms of The Body Shop have dried out my lips. My lips were left totally sapped of moisture. They made my lips flake out, and I could actually peel off the hardened layers of dead skin cells from my lips. It was so gross. It took days of using my toothbrush to exfoliate my lips to get it back to its original condition. I am so disappointed with The Body Shop lip butters and tinted lip balms. It was especially disheartening, since the Shea butter lip butter smelled like vanilla pudding and all sorts of sweet desserts, and yet it was so drying. And even though they smelt really good, they tasted horrible. :(

I was really shocked by the Honeymania lip butter, since it has a different formula that is packed with honey, and does not dry out my lips at all. I love it. It has a hard texture, so its pretty hard to get it out of the pot. I use a cotton bud (Q-tip) to scoop it out, before applying onto my lips. It smells and tastes exactly like honey, people, not kidding here. The honey is of supreme quality, and tastes so good and sweet, I always end up licking off the excess lip butter I applied. I know you're not supposed to consume it, but its so hard to resist. It tastes delicious. If only The Body Shop sold edible honey, I would go and buy some jars, since the honey in the lip balm tasted so good.

This is a moisturising lip balm, but it does not provide a whole ton of moisture. It moisturises my lips and leaves it soft and supple, which suits my needs. I don't have very chapped lips (not counting the times when The Body Shop lip butters and tinted lip balms dried and chapped them out), so I can't tell if this lip balm helps if you have very chapped lips.

Usually, brands do not suddenly go about totally changing the formula of a product. Because that would mean a lot of money invested into the research, and changing its image, etc. Advertisements that say products have made significant changes are just advertisements. Changes are made, but the base structure is still there. Which means that if you don't like the old product, it'll be very hard to like the new product. So here are 2 reasons for why I think The Body Shop's Honeymania lip butter has a totally different feel to it:
1. The original formula is still there, but the ingredients are present in lower concentrations or in lesser amounts, since there is a lot of honey in this lip butter. On your lips, you can totally taste the honey.
2. After receiving feedback and realising half its customers don't like the formula, The Body Shop really went to make changes to the formula of the lip butter.

I can't think of any other reasons, and this is just my guess, they may not be true at all. However, no hard feelings, I love the Honeymania lip butter, and am using it daily. I am just surprised at the different texture and moisturising abilities.

You can apply as much of this lip butter as you want. Just don't keep licking your lips if you apply too much. Who can resist the taste of honey on your lips for hours? Yes, this lip balm takes about half an hour to sink in. However, even though majority of it sinks in, not all of it sinks in, which leaves a delicious honey taste behind. I like lathering it on in the morning and at night.

Ok that's all for this review. I know there are many out there who have experienced the same problem with the other ranges of The Body Shop lip butters. You may dislike those lip butters, but give this little honey pot a try. Its so delicious, and the formula is so good. Its different from the other lip butters. Tried it? Do share!

The Body Shop Honeymania Body Butter review

Dear Beauty Diary,
I love The Body Shop and I love honey too, so when I read about The Body Shop coming up with a honey range, I raced to grab some of its products. The official launch date was 18 September, and I got the products immediately. Which explains for the early date of this review.

The Body Shop's products are quite expensive... Not expensive like high-end brands, but more of the mid-range brands type of pricing. This body butter, like all the other body butters The Body Shop has come up with, is $30.90 ($24.68 USD). However, The Body Shop does have frequent sales, and during these periods, the items become relatively cheaper. For example, right now (so go and grab your body butters), The Body Shop has a sale of buy one body butter and one body exfoliator of the same range for $39.90. The original price would be $61.80, so I think its very worth it. In the end, I grabbed a body butter, body scrub and a lip balm, all from the Honeymania range. You can click here to read my reviews on the body scrub and lip balm! By the way, Honeymania is a limited edition range.

I love the packaging of the body butter. Its in the same tub as all the other The Body Shop body butter. This tub is a bright yellow-orange colour, which is super attractive. The plastic also feels really nice to touch. The lid is a screw off type of lid. The only cons of a product being stored in a tub is that contamination can occur easily. But a tub also means that you can use up all the product in it. This body butter comes in a huge size of 200ml. Many people say that 200ml is too small, but I beg to differ. With beauty products coming in and out of your life so fast, how is it guaranteed that you will finish up one whole product before the expiry date? Unless you are a hardcore The Body Shop body butter fan. Sorry for the moment of snottiness there, I got a little carried away.

The tub doesn't have any product description, so here's the one I got from The Body Shop website:

"This luxurious Body Butter has a rich, floral scent. Each pot contains Community Fair Trade honey made from the nectar of thousands of wildflowers. Dip in for skin that feels silky soft.

• 24-hour hydration
• Leaves skin feeling softer and smoother
• Buttery texture
• Rich, floral scent"

The posters at The Body Shop store claims that lots of honey is used in this product. Well, the body butter does have a very distinct honey smell. However, I would like to clarify that one honeybee can only produce 1/10 of a teaspoon of honey in its whole entire life. So even if the advertisements sound so good, and make you think half your body butter is made up of super luxurious honey, think again. But that doesn't mean I don't like the body butter. In fact, I love it. Just wanted to make it clear about the advertisements.

The texture of this body butter is medium-firm. Those who love The Body Shop body butters will understand what I'm talking about. There are firm and hard body butters like the Coconut and Shea ones, and there are also those, like Mango, that are of a runnier texture that feels like whipped cream. This Honeymania one feels soft and a little firmly squishy on the surface. If you gently push your finger into the body butter, the cream underneath it will feel softer. I love this texture, and this is my dream texture of The Body Shop body butters. I wish they made more body butters of such texture.

Many people say that the texture of The Body Shop body butters are affiliated to their moisturising abilities. I am not so sure about this... However, here's the theory. People say that if the body butter is of a firmer texture, it means that its more moisturising. If its of a creamier and runnier texture, its less moisturising. These body butters are made for people with normal to dry skin. If you normal or oily skin, you can check out The Body Shop body lotions. So, if this theory is true, it means that the Honeymania body butter is for those is normal-dry skin, since its texture is somewhere between firm and creamy.

Its up to you to chose how much product you want to apply. For me, I feel that a thin even coat on my arms and legs are sufficient, since I feel that the Honeymania body butter moisturises really well. This body butter leaves my skin feeling soft and supple, giving it a nice, bouncy texture. I did not experience any dryness, dry patches, redness or flaking. After application, most of the body butter sinks into the skin, but not all of it sinks in. Some of it remains on your skin for the entire day. Well, I guess this is good, since it means that your skin will be moisturised for the whole day.

I don't know why, but I always leave scents to the last part. Oh well. Anyway, I absolutely love how this body butter smells. It smells of really good quality honey, along with a sweet, floral scent. The floral scent does not smell artificial, it smells like a garden full of sweet floral flowers. You know, you can tell if a type of honey (the edible kind) is of good quality by smelling it (and if you eat honey regularly). The Body Shop Honeymania honey smells so divine and of super good quality. Together with the sweet, floral scent, it makes this body butter smell so delicious.

Here's a little trick for you guys. The Body Shop also released a perfume with the Honeymania range. The perfume and the body butter smell very similar, the perfume just smells a tad bit stronger. When I took a whiff of the perfume from the bottle at The Body Shop store, I didn't find it too pleasant. However, when I sprayed it onto my skin, I smelled like a walking honeycomb with flowers growing on it. It smells that good. So if you're tight on your budget, I recommend you to just get either the perfume or the body butter. I prefer the body butter, since I get both the moisture and the delicious honey scent. As mentioned above, not all of the body butter sinks into the skin. Some of it remains on your skin. Which means that you'll smell like honey and sweet flowers for the whole day. ^_^

If you're not into honey, I recommend you to get Brazil Nut range from The Body Shop. It smells super divine. The Brazil Nut body mist and body butter smell very woody and nutty, with notes of chocolate and caramel (according to my nose). I love The Body Shop Honeymania range, I feel that its one of the best ranges The Body Shop has. I recommend everyone to get something from the Honeymania range, its worth it. :)

Sukin Hydrating Mist Toner review

Dear Beauty Diary,
I finally bought the Sukin toner and moisturizer, and I am extremely delighted with how organic it is (it is not 100% organic, but still mostly organic), how budget friendly it is, and how great its results are. By the way, I have already done a review for the Sukin Facial Moisturiser, click on the link to read my review.

Sukin packaged its toner in a 125ml mist bottle. I got this for $14.90 at Watsons. There's the toner for sensitive skin and another for all skin types. I picked up the one for all skin types.

As mentioned above, this toner comes in a mist bottle. I don't mind the idea of mist toners, but I must say that I don't like the pump for the mist in the bottle. Its a very unstable pump. Most of the time, the mist comes out in spurts, and its like water droplets. On the rare occasions that the pump works, the mist is very heavy. And the pump is very short, so only small sections of the face can be sprayed at one go. Sighs. Well, at least the toner still gets onto my face.

Here's the product description:
This alcohol-free, skin hydrating mist combines chamomile and rosewater to help soothe, tone and cool tired skin. Use after cleansing or whenever your skin feels tired or stressed. Perfect for hot days, long flights or long days in an air-conditioned environment.
[Application] Close eyes and spray onto face and neck area for an instant refreshing feel. Can be used on face and body, over and under lotions, creams, oils, gels and make-up. Use throughout the day to refresh and hydrate dry skin.
[Ingredients] Aqua, Rose Damascena Flower Water (Rose), Glycerin, Chamomila Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract (Chamomile), Phenoxyethanol, Citric Acid.

Organic lovers. Look at that ingredient list. Its as simple as that. Its as organic as that. Ok, the only non-organic things there are Glycerin and Phenoxyethanol, which is something like alcohol. But this toner is only $14.90! Its very cheap for a toner of 125ml, and purely organic skincare like Suki is super expensive.

Suki and Sukin. They sound the same. They are not related though. Suki is the 100% purely organic skincare and cosmetics brand, where everything there is super duper expensive. Its like mid-range to high-end pricing. Sukin is almost 100% organic, but the price is so cheap and its totally worth it. I recommend Sukin, if you happen to come across anything from Sukin, just buy it (if you have the money with you at the moment).

This toner is a water-based toner. It feels exactly like water. If not for the strong scent of this toner, I would have mistaken it for water. When sprayed onto face, it feels refreshing, leaving a cooling sensation behind. However, because of the little amount of product dispensed with each pump, I usually give myself 6 pumps of the bottle. When patting the toner into my skin, I find that there is a slightly sticky feeling. Its a very very slight sticky feeling. However, if you chose not to pat it in, you won't be able to feel that sticky feeling.

This toner wears very comfortably on the skin. It absorbs really quickly too, and you feel nothing after the toner has absorbed into your skin. It also leaves no residue behind, there is no sticky or greasy feeling as a result.

I don't feel that this toner gives a whole load of moisture. I don't get my moisture from this toner, I get it all from my moisturizer. Therefore, be careful not to use this toner alone, you must follow up with a hydrating moisturizer. But this toner does not dry out your skin. Sure it is not very moisturizing, but it does not suck away the moisture either, so its ok as a toner. Throughout the day, you can apply this toner. However, I feel that this effect is just for giving your skin a nice refreshing touch, and definitely not a nice boost of moisture. It calms down your skin nicely.

This toner has a very strong scent. But after looking at the ingredient list, and knowing that Sukin does not add any artificial fragrances, I know that this scent is from one of those plant extracts used in this toner. After unscrewing the cap and giving the contents a nice good sniff, I can say that the Sukin Hydrating Mist Toner smells exactly like a strong good cup of chrysanthemum tea. Even though chrysanthemum is not one of the products used. Still, I love the smell!

As a toner, this Sukin Hydrating Mist Toner gives a great refreshing touch to the skin, prepping it for my moisturizer. It also calms my skin and has really helped in managing my acne. It reduced redness and has smoothed out my skin. I spritz this on quite frequently, since it has natural and healthy ingredients that keep my skin happy. I recommend this toner to everyone! :D

Etude House Dear Girls Be Clear Moisturizer review

Dear Beauty Diary,

I have a little review on the Etude House Dear Girls Be Clear Moisturizer, which is part of Etude Houses's Summer 2013 collection. Its a day moisturizer with SPF30, PA++, and its main function is to whiten and protect the skin from UV rays. Its also somewhat organic, since the cover has this "5-Free, 5-Vitamin, 7-Organic" label, but its all in Korean, and I can't read it. Its retail price is fairly cheap, since its $10 ($7.84 USD). There's only one type of this moisturizer, without others made for other skin types, or without other shades. However, the packaging, as usual of Etude House, is super cute and girly.

Close up of the cutesy design :)

This moisturizer contains 50g and comes in a pump tube form. Here's the product description:

Formulated with a non-sticky gel type moist base, this whitening + UV protective moisturizer lightly glides onto skin, promoting a milky-white bright complexion.

[Directions] Every day after morning cleansing and toning, smoothly apply along skin texture. Lightly pat to finish.

Firstly, I don't agree with the product description. This moisturizer is a white cream that doesn't blend well into your skin, so it looks white, chalky and pasty on your face. If you layer a BB cream or foundation on top of this moisturizer, it'll make your face look super white, because of the white base of the moisturizer. However, this depends on what type of product you layer onto your skin. If you're lucky, your foundation may work well with this moisturizer, thus giving your face a healthy and radiant glow.

By the way, I know that many people love whitening products and products that make your skin look whiter. I don't feel that this moisturizer whitens, it just makes you look super pale. And especially for Asians, who have darker skin tones with yellow undertones, looking white (not the natural kind of peachy pink white), pale and chalky is not nice. I know, because I am Asian, and this moisturizer just didn't look nice on me. Sighs, oh well. Good thing about the moisturizer is that its very lightweight, even though its in a cream format. And well, I guess you really have to have very fair skin in order to look good with this product.

Swatch of the moisturizer

Ok, this is a moisturizer, but to me, it doesn't moisturize well. However, its not drying either. For dry skin types, this mositurizer may prove to be a little drying. So I suggest using a moisturizer before using this cream. I guess this cream will just become your sunscreen. And yes, I used to use this cream as a sunscreen, since it has SPF in it.

I feel that you need to apply quite a lot of product in order to cover your whole face. For me, I used to use 3 pumps of this moisturizer. However, I realised that no matter how much or little product I use, this moisturizer turns very oily after around 3 hours. I don't really like that.

I keep saying I used to, because I stopped using this moisturizer... Along with many other cosmetics or skincare products that I bought in the past. Its because I have gotten very jittery lately, and keep insisting to myself that I have to use products that are as organic as possible. Pure organic products, such as Suki, is extremely expensive, and I can't afford to haul the whole collection. Shall share in another post which almost 100% organic products I use, for all you organic-loving fans out there.

Etude House says this moisturizer is organic, but after looking through the ingredients list, I could still find ingredients like metals (eg. titanium dioxide), fragrance and a whole lot of polymers. All of these are getting absorbed into your skin and bloodstream. Heavy metals cannot be deposited out of your body, they will just remain in your liver, and may lead to problems with your liver after long usage. Fragrance irritates your skin, and artificial fragrance are made out of esters, a combination of alcohols and carboxylic acids. Polymers are many carbon chains linked together, and you never know the sub-groups or linkages, which may contain harmful products.

I learnt all of these in Organic Chemistry. Not that I am trying to point out Etude House's flaws, since many many many cosmetics include such ingredients. Which is why I got the chills after learning Organic Chemistry a few months ago. If you think all of these are a load of crap, no one's stopping you from continuing to use non-organic products. After all, loads of women use such cosmetics daily, and they haven't died of diseases linked to the long usage of such products. As for me, I just like taking precautions.

Mixed feelings about this moisturizer now. Want to share your thoughts about organic/ non-organic cosmetics?

Cure Natural Aqua Gel (exfoliator) review

Dear Beauty Diary,
I have an awesome product to share about that is widely loved by many! Its Cure, a famous Japanese exfoliator. Now, this exfoliator is a little on the expensive side. But I still think its very worth it, since this exfoliator contains 250g of product, and one pump is about 1g, so this exfoliator will last you for a long time! ^_^ I got this in Watsons for $49 ($38.48 USD). This exfoliator comes in only one type. Usually, you see brands that give a whole choice of moisturizers, toners, cleansers, exfoliators, etc, stating things like "for dry skin", "for oily skin", "for trouble skin", etc. However, there is only one type of this exfoliator, and its supposed to work for all skin types. For my combination normal-oily skin, I find that it works really well.

First up, in case anyone doesn't know what's an exfoliator or why its good to exfoliate, I shall do a little introduction on that. With exposure to the sun (or basically any other factors), your dead skin cells will form a hard layer at the outermost layer of your skin. There's nothing bad about this, the dead skin cells are protecting you from UV rays and all. However, if you wanna look pretty... Exfoliate using an exfoliator to get rid of this upper layer, which reveals the new and young layer of skin beneath it, which is very fresh and looks wonderful. Then use sunscreen instead to protect your skin from UV rays of the sun. So much effort for beauty, but we girls still do it. An exfoliator, as you can guess, aids in removing the upper layer of skin.

Now that you know more about exfoliators and exfoliating, take a look at the Cure Natural Aqua Gel exfoliator!

Very simple packaging and hygienic packaging, everything to love about.

The product description is all in Japanese, so I can't provide much information, so sorry about that. >.< From what I can read in Japanese though (picked a little Japanese up from watching anime), I know that the product is made up of 90% hydrogenated water, natural ingredients, and there is no added colour or fragrance.

To use, wash face and towel dry. Best to be used twice a week, and this exfoliator can be used on the whole body. Be careful not to get the exfoliator into your eyes, if it does, wash out immediately. Don't store in high temperatures. If allergies occur, stop usage. Umm I think it says best to finish using within 6 months.

Whew, reading all that Japanese and trying to figure out what it meant was tough. All that information is based on words that I can read, so of course there are some things that I didn't address, because I don't recognise all the words.

The packaging is very simple, but its really the best form of packaging for this product. The product has a jelly-water base, not really like the gel that the product description claims to have. This would be totally unpractical in a squeeze tube, because everything would keep leaking out. In a pot? No way, since its so hard to scoop it out, as the product is watery. But remember to clean the remaining product off the pump after every usage. Because when in contact with air, the gel hardens, thus clogging the mouth of the pump.

This gel is quite watery, and has a sort of jelly texture to it. Its also sort of an opaque white colour. I think the product description says that you need to rub it into your skin gently for about a minute. When I tried that out, small white balls appeared, and apparently, that's your dead skin cells. What I love about this exfoliator is that its made for even sensitive skin, because its 90% hydrogenated water (which just means that its water based, and that water makes up most of this product), and unlike so many scrubs and exfoliators which contains micro beads for exfoliating, this exfoliator does not contain any of that.

Normal exfoliators have chemicals which work by dissolving protein in your skin to remove the outermost layer of skin. This is actually very harsh and bad for your skin! Can you bear having all your essential proteins on your face and skin being dissolved? No way, so I got this exfoliator, since it works by lumping all your dead skin cells together, which forms the upper layer of your skin. Oh by the way, micro beads in normal exfoliators are bad for people with large pores, acne and sensitive skin. The beads irritate the pores and cause them to expand. The beads also irritate pimples and cause them to pop sometimes, which is bad too, as the bacteria is exposed and it'll spread around, causing even more pimples. For those with sensitive skin, allergies and inflammation may occur.

Basically, here's the difference between the Cure Natural Aqua Gel exfoliator and normal exfoliators.
Normal exfoliators work by using chemicals to dissolve your upper layer of skin. This means the good and fresh skin cells, along with the dead skin cells, are removed and damaged.
Cure exfoliator works by lumping all your upper skin layer dead skin cells together. Then you wash off the residue, which is your dead skin cells.
Conclusion, Cure is a much healthier and safer choice.

When I use this exfoliator, I always pump 2 pumps for my face. I apply small dabs to different parts of my face, before gently massaging with my fingertips. Since this exfoliator is quite pricey, I don't think I can afford to use it on my whole body. So I usually pump an extra pump, the third pump, for any other parts of my body that has loads of dead skin cells (usually my heels). I use it twice a week, and its really effective for getting rid of my dead skin cells. Oh, remember to wash your face with warm water after exfoliating!

This is an exfoliator, you won't expect moisturising abilities from it. I really don't know how to tell the moisturing ability of this exfoliator. I mean, I won't leave it on my face for a long period of time. But it doesn't dry me out at all, so it should be fine.

There's absolutely no scent to this product. The product description already said that there are no added fragrances.

Tried the Cure Natural Aqua Gel exfoliator? Share your thoughts!

Maybelline Mineral Pure Concealer review

Dear Beauty Diary,
Sorry for the lack of updates! >.< Going to kick start more reviews with a concealer from Maybelline~ I got this quite a while ago, so I forgot how much it actually cost. All drugstore makeup in my country is expensive, because of the shipping fees I guess. So this concealer cost about $14 ($11 USD). I'm not sure how much product there is in it, since I don't see the grams anywhere on the product. There are 2 shades for this concealer, no. 1 in Light and no. 2 in Natural. Since this is a concealer, it should be about 1-3 shades lighter than your skin tone, depending on your preference. Therefore, I got shade 1 in Light. This concealer is in a liquid form, and as a liquid concealer, I think it works really great. Psst, this concealer is a great dupe to the Shu Uemura one, they work really similar!

I don't see any product description on the packaging, so sorry I can't provide information on that. I shall just write what it says on the bottle.

Pure Concealer Mineral, Healthy Natural Concealer, with micro-minerals.

This concealer comes in a little tube. The cap is a screw-off lid, where you will find an applicator attached. I'm fine with this packaging, as you can dab the concealer directly onto your face without using your hands. However, you need a brush or your hands to blend out the concealer. Plus points for hygienic packaging, since this is so much better than the product being stored in a tin or pot. Even though it does not come in a pump form (which I feel is the packaging that would offer the most in terms of hygiene), not many concealers come in a pump form, as there's only a little product for each concealer.

Here's the applicator, the concealer is in a liquid form

In terms of application, a little goes a long way. I only need 3 dabs for each of my dark eye circles. When I applied more than 3 dabs for each dark eye circle, I ended up having so much product, I had to blend it to my cheekbones, and I was left with a super pale cheeks. I feel that you can use this concealer on any part of your face, but I think that cream concealers would work best, as it provides more coverage.

Its really up to you to pick which type of concealer you want. Liquid for less coverage, but has easier application and requires easy blending; cream for more coverage, but you really have to blend it out, and I find blending creams a bother, as they are quite hard to blend. Rubbing your eyes are bad, because you introduce bacteria to your eyes, and also tug on the fragile skin there at the same time, leaving you with an earlier development of wrinkles and lines. So I like using this concealer on my dark eye circles, as it greatly lessens the chances of you having to tug on your skin the way you have to to blend out cream concealers. 

I like to blend this concealer with my hands better, as the heat from your fingers will melt the concealer, giving you flawless and natural looking skin. With a brush, the stray hairs would create streaks and cause an uneven application to your face. That's what I feel at least.

This concealer is quite buildable. Why quite? Because you have to wait for the concealer to settle on your skin, before you can apply another layer on top. If you just apply layers over layers, you will have to keep blending, and you will end up with a face full of concealer. Wait for it to settle (or sort of dry to a matte finish) before applying another layer.

Somehow, I realised that this concealer has yellow undertones. But I'm Asian, so this works well with my skin. If you have pink undertones, you can try other concealers I guess.

This concealer has a runny texture, and dries down to a matte finish. Its super runny, with no sort of consistency of any kind, nor does it have a gel or cream type of texture. Its also very lightweight.

This concealer has good coverage, and is definately buildable. It may appear quite sheer at first, but you can build it up for more coverage. Hmm there is no SPF in this product. But since most people apply foundation or BB cream, those will provide your SPF, so all's well.

I don't think this concealer is very oily. I mean, it doesn't break me out, nor does it dry out my skin. It also does not have those irritating gritty particles when I'm trying to blend it out, so less chances of skin inflammation, especially if you have sensitive skin. I don't feel that this concealer is very moisturising, but good enough, since I don't get flaky or dry skin after application. Maybelline dubs this as a natural and mineral concealer, which, of course, is really great.

Maybe its my nose, but this is weird. This concealer smells of strawberries dipped into cream. O.o I mean, it definitely smells like Maybelline's liquid foundation, but I also detect a sweet, delicious smell in it. Its not very strong, nor is it very sweet. But I love this faintly sweet smell! Haha or maybe its just my nose that's tricking me.

Hope my little entry has given you some insights on how to pick a concealer. And if you liked what I've described about the Maybelline concealer, why not give it a try? :)