Tokidoki Bellina Blush

Tokidoki's Bellina Blushes are new powder blush duos from their Sodashop collection. There are two duos available, called Siberia and Skate Girl. They retail for $26 each, and are available exclusively through Sephora. Both blush duos go on smoothly and blend out beautifully. They contain Japanese rice lipids to help hydrate the skin, and result in a more radiant finish. There is a fair bit of shimmer, though, so these duos aren't for those who like more matte blushes. And, of course, as they're made by Tokidoki, the powders are packaged in sturdy plastic containers with ridiculously cute character graphics all over them (the Siberia character is, obviously, on the Siberia duo, and the Skate Girl character is on its respective blush duo).

Siberia includes a light bubblegum pink with micro-shimmer on the left, and a mid-tone peachy bronze with micro-shimmer on the right. The pink shade goes on fairly sheer, so you have to layer it on to get significant colour, but it does get there and I can see this working beautifully as a blush on paler skintones or cooler undertones. It does go on slightly powdery, though, so I prefer blending it out to use as a highlight colour instead or to diffuse darker pink blushes. The peachy bronze shade goes on much more pigmented so you don't need a lot of it to get good colour. I can see this working very well on pale skintones as a bronzer, light-medium to medium skintones as a blush, and on dark skintones as a highlighter. It adds a gorgeous glow to any complexion, though. I did find it a little odd that they'd pair a cooler shade with a much warmer shade in the same duo, but I can see some people swirling them together to get a more neutral shade.

Skate Girl features a light peach with micro-shimmer on the left, and a mid-tone pink-coral with micro-shimmer on the right. The lighter shade, like Siberia, goes on much more sheer and can be built up in colour as a blush for paler skintones or blended out as a highlighter for light to medium skintones. It can also be used to diffuse more intense peach or coral blushes. The darker shade in this duo, like Siberia, goes on much more pigmented and adds a beautiful pop of colour to light-medium to medium skintones. It kind of reminds me of Nars' Orgasm blush, or a cross between Benefit's Coralista and Bella Bamba powder blushes. I see this duo working better on warmer skintones, but cooler undertones shouldn't have a problem using these, either. I feel that Skate Girl as a whole is more universally flattering than Siberia, though.

Tokidoki Sodashop Palette

Tokidoki's Sodashop Palette ($64 CAD) is a new and limited edition make-up palette that includes twelve Cromatico Eyeshadows, a Perfetto Eyeliner in Carina, a SANDy Nail File, and a sheet of super-cute magnets that conveniently sticks on to the huge metal keepsake tin that the palette comes in (as well as, you know, any other metal objects). The tin also comes with a (slightly distorting) mirror on the inside. This set is valued at $293.

The Carina Perfetto Eyeliner is a deep eggplant purple liquid eyeliner. It's a marker-style eyeliner with a hard chiseled tip to create different line styles, from thin to thick. I personally like my liquid eyeliners with a more pointed tip, like Lancôme's Artliner, MAC's Boot Black Liquid Eyeliner, or MAC's Penultimate Eye Liner. The Perfetto Eyeliner does have a long-wear time (from morning until night), but I feel like it's not as precise as the aforementioned eyeliners. The ink is also rather sheer as far as liquid eyeliners go, so you do have to layer on the eyeliner for perfectly opaque colour, but the ink never "runs out" as you're applying (like some other marker-type liners). The liner isn't waterproof or water-resistant, but it doesn't smudge or budge at all on me, either. It's not an exceptional eyeliner, but it's decent. Ultimately, though, there'd be no point for me to buy this eyeliner over any of the other ones except for a particularly unique colour.

From left to right: Skull Donut, Patatino, Riposino, Ciccio, Mummetto, and Mozzarella

From left to right: Tulipano, Nancy Rocks, Romeo, Ciotolina, Arrosto, and Furbina

The Sodashop Palette includes twelve shades of Cromatico Eyeshadows:

• Skull Donut: a metallic pale vanilla white with micro-shimmer
• Patatino: a pale peachy-gold with gold micro-shimmer
• Riposino: a metallic taupe-brown with micro-shimmer
• Ciccio: a metallic gold bronze with micro-shimmer
• Mummetto: a matte deep chocolate brown
• Mozzarella: a metallic deep plum-brown with micro-shimmer
• Tulipano: a matte pale lilac purple
• Nancy Rocks: a frosty cool-toned purple with micro-shimmer
• Romeo: a metallic reddened plum with micro-shimmer
• Ciotolina: a metallic moss green with gold micro-shimmer
• Arrosto: a satin black with green-gold micro-shimmer
• Furbina: a satin blackened plum with purple micro-shimmer

Most of the shades were quite pigmented, blendable, and easy to work with. The exceptions would be Patatino, Tulipano, and Nancy Rocks, which required a lot more layering to get the colour to show up. Skull Donut, Riposino, Mozzarella, and Romeo were especially smooth and buttery with amazing colour pay-off, and reminded me of MAC's Veluxe Pearl finish eyeshadows or, more recently, the Mega Metal Eyeshadows from their Peacocky collection. Even the non-metallic eyeshadows (Mummetto, Arrosto, and Furbina) had surprisingly good colour pay-off. Each eyeshadow is 1.8 grams (or 0.06 oz.), which makes them bigger than the average eyeshadow (for reference, MAC's single eyeshadows are 1.5 grams or 0.05 oz.). Overall, I think Tokidoki's Sodashop Palette is absolutely worth the $64 price tag, just for the eyeshadows alone, which is definitely the star feature of the palette as a whole. And the cute packaging is a nice bonus, too.

Tokidoki Adieu Cromatico Palette

Tokidoki's Adieu Cromatico Palette is a limited edition eyeshadow palette that includes four shades. Carina is a frosty silver-white with silver, green, and purple shimmer; Ciao Ciao is a metallic magenta pinky-purple with a lavender-blue sheen; Adieu is a metallic amethyst purple with micro-shimmer; and Al Dente is a blackened plum with magenta and purple micro-shimmer. The four shades in this palette do work really well together, and they're wearable in any combination with each other.

Generally, the pigmentation was decent, except for Ciao Ciao, which I found I really had to layer on to really get much colour pay-off. It can get there, but it takes a lot of packing on. It reminds me of MAC's Stars 'n Rockets eyeshadow, but much less pigmented. Aside from Ciao Ciao, the shadows go on very smoothly. Adieu was especially buttery. They blend fairly well, but I do recommend using an eye primer underneath to extend the wear time and prevent fading, especially since Carina has some fall-out. Each eyeshadow is 1.5 grams (or 0.05 oz), which is the same as MAC's single eyeshadows, so the palette is a great value at $33, since it equals to $8.25 for each shadow.

Underneath the eyeshadow is another compartment, where they've included a super-cute complementary zipper pull/key chain (featuring the character, "Adieu," who is also on the front of the palette). My only problem with this is that once you've taken out the zipper pull, you're just left with this big empty compartment and a needlessly bulky container. I feel that Tokidoki could have designed the container better, with a thinner palette holding just the eyeshadows and a space in the outer box to hold the zipper pull. That aside, I found this Cromatico Palette to be worth the value, but if you don't like the shades in this quad, you might find one of the other ones worth checking out.

Tokidoki Gelato Lip Balm Stain

Love the long-wear of lip stains but hate the drying factor? Or think the marker-type applicators and the accompanying smell are off-putting? Have no fear, 'cause Tokidoki has come out with Gelato Lip Balm Stains! They come in four different shades, though one of them is clear, so I'm really sure why it'd be catagorized as a stain at all, and thusly I only bought the three other shades. Donutella is a melon-scented bright coral stain, Pink Martini is a cherry-scented bright watermelon pink stain, and Skeletrina is a grape-scented bright berry pink stain. They are all true to the colour in the tube, except for Skeletrina, which looks like a super, super dark purple in the tube, but comes out as almost a hot pink. All of them are supremely wearable because they go on very sheer. It does take a heavy-handed application to really get a lot of colour, but it does get there.

The best part about these stains is that they wear very long, but still keep lips fairly moisturized. I wouldn't say that they're supremely moisturizing, but they definitely aren't drying, and I have really dry lips, especially in the winter. The Gelato Lip Balm Stains last about twelve hours on me before even fading a little, and this is after eating, drinking, and smoking. I tried on Skeletrina before I went to bed and even wiped it off with a tissue and a make-up wipe, and there were still traces of it on my lips when I woke up. Point is, these are a great option if you want the staying power of a lip stain, but the feel of a balm. At $11 a pop, you won't break the bank by buying one (or three), either. And, hey, the tubes are pretty damn cute, too.