BYS face products review

When I told David from Fashion Addict that I wanted to not only master the smokey eye but also start with the bare basics of learning how to do my face from primer to concealer (or...blush and bronze?) I had no idea how much it would intimidate me actually staring at the products once I had them. Seriously, why is it foundation comes in so many different types? What does a primer do except for add another layer to your face? Why conceal when it is already concealed? Out of this foursome the blush and bronze compact was the most familiar...

BYS Face Primer with Vitamin E and Chamomile Extract

I have no previous experience with face primers so my knowledge and experience is next to nothing but what I feel a face primer should do is...prime your face. Without giving you the feeling of too much gunk, oiliness or an unworkable surface that will cause what ever else you put on your face to "snag".

(I swear I didn't sneeze on my hand...or..er...no, lets not even go there)

What I felt when using this was a light layer that made my skin feel slightly taut. I didn't really notice much difference when using this prior to foundation nor did I notice an improvement in the longevity of my "fake face". I still think face primers are unnecessary but I liked doing this extra step just for the sake of being thorough.

I didn't much care for the smell, expecting it to smell of a hint of chamomile I instead found it to be a more chemical smell with a hint of chamomile. Or maybe I was deluding myself in believing there was a hint of chamomile. Although I experienced no breakouts or allergic reactions (I fully expected it when I reluctantly used it on my face) I would expect those with sensitive skin to be more cautious with this and instead invest on something more expensive (psychologically it will put them at ease anyway). I think this is harmless and can be trusted but it all depends on your skin and what it is used to.

BYS Matte Foundation in Medium Beige

It says it is a matte foundation and so it is! What I loved was how well this matched my skin tone. Since tanning significantly earlier this year which brought out my darker Sri Lankan pigmentation (prior to that I rocked out a much lighter skin tone, my Japanese side!) and put all my natural beige foundations I owned out of business. Medium Beige on the other hand? Perfect match at the moment.

When I first got this the weather was still warm so I felt like that warped the consistency of this a little as it was almost oily and slicked on my face leaving behind...a face that felt like it had no foundation on. However now that is it cooler I feel like it has settled to a foundation consistency, that is it goes on and leaves behind a more powder-y effect. That said this hardly has a powder-y effect once on my face, it is a nice, light layer that feels barely there. Some may find this unappealing as it does little to conceal blemishes and emphasizes pimples more but I feel that - hypothetically - if I were to use foundation daily I would want something very light and barely there that wouldn't seem to suffocate my face. Although the emphasis on my tiny pimples didn't appeal to me which is why I go bare faced to begin with - less emphasis overall! Plus you don't have to worry about patchy foundation throughout the day, etc.

Also this foundation doesn't really give a smooth appearance to your face like other foundations do but it does its job fairly well and gives you some coverage that is better than no coverage.

BYS Concealer in Medium to Dark

Oh concealer, how I fail to understand you. Seriously, I have never used concealer in my life. Which could explain why the rare times I have had to do makeup myself for a shoot I always have blemishes (especially when my chicken pox scar on my face was more prominent) showing up. This has never bothered me though, and I cannot comprehend how slapping concealer over a pimple is good for you. I rather get rid of the pimple sooner than have to deal with a prolonged, concealer-dirty pimple.

Needless to say, I have no idea how to use concealer. Do you put it on before foundation or after foundation? I see people doing it either way and some people even use concealer just under their eyes to brighten them up - I am so confused but don't really care enough to learn. I'm not sure I'll ever get around to using concealer but it's handy to have one that matches my skin tone.

This concealer blends in really well with the Medium Beige foundation and is easy to apply. As for coverage, unfortunately I need to harvest some pimples and blemishes to tell you that and since my acne cleared up once I moved to Sri Lanka a few years back I haven't exactly been able to cultivate the pesky things as easily. When I get a promising one I'll get back to you - yes, I'll even risk it and prolong the darn thing just for you!

BYS Blush & Bronze Compact Mosaic in Light Glow

For some reason I always assume this will smell like chocolate. And get so let down each time I open it! Of the three mosaics available I chose Light Glow assuming it would be just that - a light glow. However I was not so pleasantly surprised to find that even using it with a light hand would give quite pigmented results! Good product but possibly a little difficult to use if you're a beginner like me in the fine art of make up.

What I did like about this was the fact you could get good results by using it sparingly but what I didn't like so much was how it is more of a bronzer than blush. Also the shimmer doesn't really appeal to me but it is very pretty on - personally I just prefer matte over shimmer, glitter, frosty, etc. You get quite a bit of fall out using this but at least the next time you open the compact you already have product to work with!


I love these face products because...
- They are all affordable
- They do their job even if it is just the bare minimum
- They are easy to use if you are a complete beginner (like me)
- The foundation and concealer come in a variety of shades for all sorts of skin tones

I didn't really love these face products because...
- They don't give you the results higher end brands would give you
- Weather seemed to make them temperamental, for example in terms of texture



You can watch my ramble on this here if you'd like:

BYS 'Glam Rock' and 'Denim in Distress' palettes review

If you want to hear me ramble about it instead


I was so excited when David from Fashion Addict sent these new BYS palettes for me to perfect my smokey eye! They are beautiful and Denim in Distress is out of my comfort zone with all those blue shades whereas Glam Rock just fed my purple addiction. So what did I really think about them?

You might remember when I talked about the BYS Metallics in brown palette as well as the Diamond Shadow palette, maybe even the Animal Instincts palette - to summarize? I loved them all. They were creamy, pigmented, lasted for ages and great for daily wear.

Denim in Distress

Never in my life would I have thought I would own a palette full of blues. I personally think that the color is tacky on anyone and don't care much for it. So I chose it because of that reason! To find a way around the tackiness that I believe it comes with and to go beyond what I'm comfortable with.

I love the selection of blues in this, none of them are that vibrant blue that I dislike with a passion but instead are workable, subtle and deep colors instead. My favorite is that final blue shade on the top above the matte black which has a gorgeous blue twinkle to it, this color works wonderfully as a liner color.

 

Swatched dry and without a primer, I was impressed with how these colors translated on skin. Every color I swatched had me praising its pigmentation! They are all noticeably different and I actually got excited about using them in a smokey eye look. The best part about the palette is the first shade on the top which is a nice shimmery neutral color that can be used as a highlight or in the inner corners of the eye to brighten up any look. This palette shows how thoughtful and more complex BYS has become with their newer collection.

Glam Rock

 

When I first saw this I fell in love with all the purples and knew I had to have this. Plus, I haven't seen very many purple smokey eyes that are dark and edgy, I've always seen lighter versions. Hence why this palette is perfect - it is full of gorgeous, rich shades of purple.

The color that impressed me the most from this was the last shade on the top, a lovely gray-ish purple with green-golden glitter specks. Even the first soft lilac shade is lovely, I really don't think I can choose which purple is the best from all - they all are beautiful in their own way, I seriously love them all!

I fell from cloud nine pretty quickly upon swatching these though, they really came off as faded and almost as though if you blew at the swatches they would blow away. The swatch above is pretty much my finger dab and an applicator dab as I really didn't think much of the initial swatch I made. So make no mistake, that swatch above is really not what I had initially but I built it up so you could actually see the colors...although seeing the differences in them is a bit of a chore.

Disappointingly, although the colors on the bottom are identical to the Denim in Distress colors they seemed a lot less pigmented. As for the purples, well that first lilac shade was barely noticeable when I first swatched it. It makes me wonder whether I have one of those bad batch palettes? I think Glam Rock has the potential to be a popular palette but if this is the quality of all palettes I think it would be a waste of money. So hopefully it is just my palette that's faulty.

That said, when I did use a brush to do a test look I found that it worked better with the colors (and if you use a primer too) so perhaps they are just a little hardened and need to be stirred up.

Unfortunately you cannot see it in my photo (because I still have yet to perfect swatch photos) but that last shade when built up is truly amazing and does have those lovely green-golden glitter specks showing through. All in all the colors are lovely and I look forward to working with them more.


I love these palettes because...
- They are affordable
- The pigmentation is remarkable for such a cheap product
- The complexity of colors has really improved with this collection
- The simple casing which works well when traveling

I didn't really love these palettes because...
- Glam Rock didn't have the pigmentation Denim in Distress had but maybe it is just my palette
- They are a bit chunkier than the usual 8 shadow BYS palettes
- Some shades seem very identical, especially the grays - blacks in both palettes (VERY subtle difference)

Run! Suki is on YouTube!

I started a brand new channel called Suki Chronicles (I know, so unoriginal but better than babygirlz0283208 or something similar) which will feature all my videos for this blog - hooray! Now it is totally new and making videos is alien to me (except for the ones I made for Scott...NO! Mind out of the gutter! I used to just make him update videos when I was abroad and he was working, it makes a twist from writing letters.) so be nice. Or whatever, be mean and I probably might not care. Much.

Now, I had so many issues with my webcam which I cannot be bothered getting into for the life of me now. Instead I will share with you how I combated the problem of lighting with webcam videos as you will always have a shadow-y effect or over-lighting happening. And in my case it was shadowing so one side of my face got barely any light and I looked like Two Face.

(I know, I have a weird bar above my head...I have no idea where it came from...)

See what I mean?

(Oh! Wait!...DUH!...I'm an angel, so I haz halo!)

But then I found a way to combat the problem! And thought I would share in case this works for anyone else. I hope it does, that way I look like a genius.

1: You have your main light source (in my case, plus the ceiling light and my webcam light but this lamp is the main source of light for my videos)

2: You have the object that rebounds the light and throws it across the darkened areas you need light to shine upon! (In my case I used my hundred year old mirror and my diary as extra height)

3: The object meant to be the center of attention will be all lit up!


You can watch my first video here!:

BYS Review: Perfectly Peachy blush

Now BYS can hardly be perfect and I have come to realize they may not be that on top of their colors as they ought to be considering how extreme they can go with neons and the like. So looking at this blush I am thinking how they came to the conclusion that it is "peachy" and why they decided to name it as "Perfectly" Peachy. To me this is a brown, hardly a peach.

What say you? Brown or peach? If you do not believe me when I say it is more brown than peach, look at how nude it looks on my tanned skin:

Peach it is not, evidently. Still, although the name may bug me it is on the bottom of the blush so I do not see it whenever I use it and scoff and plus, when I ordered this from Fashion Addict I was looking for a brown blush.

I like how pigmented the blush is, I only have to lightly dab at it to get a workable amount on my brush and a little does go a long way. I am a person who does not like much blush as well so this works perfectly for me and I am guessing I will use this for a long time before hitting pan. It is smooth and has no shimmer for which I am so grateful, I am slightly fed up of everything containing shimmer or glitter or shine. Matte works for me.

BYS Review: Naked Rose lipstick

Looking for a daily wear lipstick, when I found Naked Rose on Fashion Addict I thought I would try it out. Now this is what I expected, and this is the image of Naked Rose that they have on their site:

As you can see, it appears to be a nice pink shade.

So apparently I most definitely got Naked Rose...

But this is what color I got, more of a naked desert if you ask me. A little disgruntled, I swatched it...

...and actually fell in love and forgot all about huffing over getting a color that hardly matches up to the one advertised on the site. In fact, I am actually glad I got this color instead!

The formula is smooth and applies nicely even without a balm. It is a lovely matte color but does not look drying, instead it is slightly moisturizing. It evens out into a nice finish, looking painted on even if you apply it straight from the tube. I use this daily and although it is a bit dark on me I think now that I have tanned quite a bit it looks more like a dark nude color than an outrageous brown.

With me, I am never sure if I fit into the pink nude category or browns, being half Japanese and half Sri Lankan confuses you like that: you fit into both categories. So at the moment, being pretty tanned I am working with more browns.

Despite getting a wrong color from the looks of it, I still love Naked Rose or whatever the heck it truly is. And I am impressed with the BYS lipsticks and definitely reckon I will purchase more colors. Cheap at AUD$3.95 it is a good throw in for any make up bag. I initially thought the con would be how the lipstick protrudes out and when opening or closing I would nick it but thus far I have not so maybe it is not a problem after all.

BYS Review: Animal Instincts palette

Animals? Check. Purples? Check. Affordable? Check. What more can I say? The BYS Animals Instincts palette in purples had me ga-ga. I first saw this palette on Yumeko's blog and have kept it in mind whenever I encountered BYS products and I was in luck and found this beauty on Fashion Addict!

The BYS shadows I have encountered (the Metallics in brown palette and the Diamond Shadow palette) have been good thus far so I was bit nervous when getting this as it was not one of the 8-shadow palettes and apart from Yumeko's praise I had no idea how great the shadows would actually turn out to be.

And then I did a very light swatch and this is the result. Unfortunately I took these photos at night (I know, silly me) so you cannot see how they differ. They do not differ by much but there is a subtle difference in all of the lighter shades that does not have me grumbling too much.

Plus, I did a very, very, very light swatch of these because...

I realized after swatching that the animal print got ruined! And trust me...these swatches are all I have done with this palette. I am too sad over how I have ruined them and have not even looked at this palette since the day I swatched it. I know, I am hopeless but I suppose I feel in a way I killed an animal?

Is that a bit extreme? Maybe that is a bit extreme...

BYS Order: Overall and Fashion Addict

Tired of only hearing about sites that are based in America or some other place that is not Australia (which is where I currently reside) I did a bit of hunting and found Fashion Addict. I decided to take the chance and placed an order with them and I was impressed, not only with what they offer (which caters to my needs but may not to more hardcore make up enthusiasts) but with their prices (both product and shipping) and most of all, bliss, how soon your order arrives (if you are in Australia, of course). They say it takes 2 business days and it does.

 

I was quite pleased with how they packed everything in a box and bubble wrapped what they believed would suffer the most damage if roughly handled, everything else was sealed in plastic.

After having such good luck finding the BYS Metallics in Brown palette I thought I would try the BYS Diamond Shadow palette which I thought would be an amazing all-in-one palette - look at the colors! You can do a day look, a night look and if you are a purple fanatic like I am in terms of eye make up then there are purples too.

I also picked up the Animal Instincts palette in purples because I recalled seeing it on Yumeko's blog and how it seemed to be a worthwhile palette to pick up. Anyway, it is purple. Enough said.

The other thing I picked up was a blush in a brown. If you recall my last experience with a BYS blush then you can tell how relieved I am that this one is intact!

The only thing I am most displeased about (kind of anyway) is that I ordered a lipstick, Naked Rose and got a lipstick like...

...this. And if you cannot tell, it is hardly the same color as what is shown on the website. Hm, not impressed Fashion Addict. However, I will explain in a review later why I am not that displeased.

Reviews for each separate product coming soon!

BYS Review: Diamond Shadow palette and LOTD

I was really excited when I got a worthwhile palette from BYS previously so I decided to risk it and try another palette to see if I could possibly strike out again and get something I could use without cringing over how much I spent on it.

Having tried BYS ages back and being thoroughly dissatisfied with the pitiful quality of products that although very cheap should at least be usable, I gave up on them and only used nail polishes. However I think my perspective on BYS has changed and now I am more willing to give them a fair chance, especially since I believe they are worthwhile daily products to invest on. Well, the products I have purchased thus far seem worthwhile.

These particular 8-shadow palettes retail for AUD$4.95 from Fashion Addict which is where I purchased this from. If I am not mistaken though, I got my Metallics palette from The Reject Shop for only AUD$3. So there is an obvious price difference but not one that I am overly fussed over.

What I loved about this palette was the idea that if I were going on trips and did not want to take much make up with me, this would be an ideal palette as it has colors for easy, daily looks: you have the blacks for a night look and browns for a neutral day look. The best part are the purples which is usually my go to color for looks and I seem to increasingly mix purples and browns together in looks (gross, I know) so everything is compatible with each other in this palette for me.

So how do they fare when swatched?

First off, I realized I did these swatches backwards. I did not really think about the order but I am sure you can figure it out. I personally am happy with how these swatch, they are pigmented and although some might argue with me on the black I actually prefer my black that pigmented and not any more pigmented as I find them harder to work with. The black can be built up to be darker so it works fine for me and even though in the palette it appears very glittery it does not translate the same when swatched. I think I love that the most about all the colors, how they all vary.

The only downside is the purples look similar. Either because this was taken in the night and I have not exactly checked since (oops) but they look remarkably similar to me. I am not too fussed though, for a cheap product you cannot really expect that much. No, I am just grateful that I got something I can work with!

This is a look I did with all the BYS products I order - the blush, lipstick and this Diamond Shadow palette. So it is a bit of a mismatched mish-mash but at least you can see how they are on me (and this was taken when I had first tanned massively so I look super tanned!).

I love BYS shadows for two things: you do not need a primer and they do not crease. The color will fade if you wear it for a prolonged period of time but considering how slim the palette is (another pro), you can easily tuck it into whatever bag you have for the day/evening and touch up. Only con is the palette has no mirror so you will need to either carry a mirror or find one you can work with (like a reflective glass, or when I am truly desperate I try using my iPhone screen...does not work needless to say).