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Friday, February 12, 2016

Review : Marina Smooth and Glow UV Two Way Cake, BB Cream and Compact Powder

Hey everybody!

It's almost Valentine's Day! Are you looking for some affordable but awesome base products for that special day (every girls would want to look special on that day, i imagine! Even if you don't have a significant other to spend it with, you can always celebrate with your closest girlfriends or even your family because love is universal and not always have to be romance related!) then look no more because today i'm gonna share with you an awesome series of base products from our very own countery, Indonesia (i'm all about loving local products, as you might already know!) : Marina Smooth and Glow UV series!
I was lucky enough to get sent three out of all four variants from this series by BBlog, the two way cake, BB Cream and compact powder (there's also Powdery Foundation, not included in the hamper) and let me begin by telling you that i didn't have any expectation before trying them out and i ended up loving them a lot! 

Now, a little bit about this series first to get you familiarized, Marina Smooth and Glow UV is a basic makeup series that can be trusted to support young women's appearance in their daily activity. They are enriched with Natural Microfine Powder, Vitamin C, Mulberry and SPF 20 PA++ which functions are to smoothen, brighten, conceal imperfections and also to protect face.

All four Marina Smooth and Glow UV products have been through process that is clinically proven not to cause irritation, therefore it is safe to be used daily. Marina Smooth and Glow UV has been Indonesian' young women's best friend to help them (us!) achieve smooth, bright and protected face, and always looking glowingly beautiful at any age (just like their tagline #SaatnyaBersinar roughly translated into : time to shine).
Before we go into the review of each products, let me start by showing you my bare face. I've just had a facial two days prior from taking these photos so i had some healing scars from extraction-that's actually quite a good thing because i got to test Marina Smooth and Glow series' concealing strength haha!
As you can see here, i have very visible fresh scars on my cheeks and chin area
Let's start with Marina Smooth and Glow UV Two Way Cake, which is my favorite product out of the three!
It comes with a cardboard box with complete information on them, dominated with bright pink and white color
The shade that i received is number 14 Natural, there are three shades available : Ivory, Peach and Natural
The packaging is quite basic, in a rounded pact with deep pink, silver and white color plus a mirror. I like how the plastic material is quite sturdy feeling (you know how some pacts can be super light and flimsy, like it's going to break anytime!). There are two tiers in the compact, the top tier with the actual two way cake and a second tier to keep the sponge that comes with it.

The sponge is actually very nice and works well, it's not those unusable cloth material puff but a real, bouncy and functional one with a nice quality. I am very impressed and satisfied with the packaging considering how affordable this two way cake actually is (around IDR.24.000-28.000 depending on the store), and if i'm not mistaken you can even buy the refill so it'd be even cheaper to just buy the refill when you finish the two way cake!
The shade Natural looks light enough on the pact, but translate a bit dark on the puff-which worried me a little-turned out i didn't have to be because it goes on light enough to blend with my natural pale skin
Once i opened the pact, i immediately smell a light, floral scent coming from the two way cake. I personally prefer scentless base makeups, but the smell is light and non-offensive so i am not bothered by it.

Marina Smooth and Glow UV Two Way Cake has Natural Microfine Powder that resulted in very soft and smooth texture and appearance so the powder attach easier, able to conceal imperfection but still look natural-and it last a long time. SPF 20 PA++ to protect face from UVA ray (very important! Especially for you who are too lazy to apply sunblock like me!) that can cause skin to darken and even aging-also from UVB that can burn skin so that this product is able to protect skin while doing our activities outdoor.

How it looks on my face :
Using Marina Smooth and Glow UV Two Way Cake
I have to be honest, i don't normally use two way cake because i prefer to use liquid base (BB Cream or tinted moisturizer) and top it off with a compact powder, but for the sake of this review i used the two way cake on its own so i can honestly share my experience using it-and like i already said earlier, i love it!

Unlike other two way cakes that i've tried in the past, Marina Smooth and Glow UV Two Way Cake has a very soft, light and buttery feeling that application is a breeze. I have very oily skin so i like to mattify my skin before doing my makeup, this can cause some two way cake not to attach well (and gets really cakey) but i encounter no such problem with this product!

It has a medium coverage, enough to help conceal imperfections (but if you have very noticeable acne scars, using concealer with it would result in even better result) but still light enough for my skin to breathe and doesn't feel heavy AT ALL! I loveee it!
With full makeup on
I also love that the shade Natural is a pretty good match with my skin, and how after a few hours of usage and my natural skin's oil started to appear it doesn't become cakey, instead my skin glows and the powder blends into my skin even better! This is love!

Now let's talk about the other products : Marina Smooth and Glow BB Cream!
I think the BB Cream that they sent me is a sample size so it's quite small, but the ones available to buy contains 28g or products and costs around IDR 25.000
All the information can be found at the back of the tube
Marina Smooth and Glow UV BB Cream comes in a normal shaped squeeze tube made from lightweight material.
I got the shade Ivory (available in Ivory and Natural) which as you can see from this pic, is a tone or two too dark for my skin. Judging from the way the Two Way Cake matches my skin much better, it's safe to say that fair skinned ladies should stick to the Natural shade!
The texture is quite thick and not runny, it's quite easy to apply (although requires a bit of extra blending, but that's probably because the shade doesn't really match to my skin so if i slack a bit then you'd be able to see patches, not a good thing to see!) and i don't really smell anything from the product, and that's a plus (for me).

It has a medium coverage and able to tone down and calm the redness in my acne scars, but not conceal it fully (that's a concealer job, anyway!), i also notice that it's not fully able to conceal my larger pores-but once i set it with a compact powder then the problem's totally solved.

I didn't really like how it looks immediately after i applied it (again, mostly because it's way too dark for my skin so if i use the Natural shade then i'd probably won't face this problem), but i left it be for a bit to go to the toilet, and a few minutes later when i returned to the mirror, i was surprised because the BB Cream sets very nicely! I was left with a natural glow (without being oily) and my skin looks super smooth and soft.

Unfortunately because of it's heavier texture, it turns a bit cakey at some parts of my face hours later (around 4 hours), mainly on my smile line (which normally doesn't appear much) and a small line between my eyebrows. I personally think it suits people with dry or normal skin better because in my experience, it turns a bit cakey on (very) oily skin).

Now onto the final product : Marina Smooth and Glow Compact Powder!
Also comes with a cardboard box
I received the shade 11 Ivory (also available in Peach and Natural), retails around IDR 18.000 only!
Packaging wise, it's very similar to the two way cake, only slimmer and the top's color is paler pink.
Comes with a puff
Has the same soft floral scent as the two way cake
Although i received the shade Ivory like the BB Cream, the shade is much lighter than the BB Cream! It's light enough to match my skin much better than the BB Cream but slightly too yellow for my skin tone. Combined with the BB Cream, the shade kinda works for my complexion, still a bit dark but not dark enough to make me look weird. Unfortunately the BB Cream oxidized on me, so after a few hours my face looks a bit darker than when i first started-to a point where my friends (who are also into makeups) noticed it (and commented that the shade is too dark for me) and it shows on my photos. 

I wear combination of the BB Cream and the compact powder, at looks good at first :
Using both products
The compact powder is very light and soft, which i totally love-and the type that i would keep on using to set my BB Cream/tinted moisturizer with. It has a light coverage but combined with the BB Cream, it can be medium so it's enough to cover any imperfection and blur my large pores (it's too light to use on its own if you like a more polished look, but if you're a very soft makeup kind of person *like maybe you're still a teenager* then it can be used alone)
With full makeup. You can already see here that my face became a tone darker than my neck and hands
But they're so soft and smooth that they gave me pretty much flawless complexion so i'm not complaining!
In all the pictures where i'm posing with the products, i was using the BB Cream with the Compact Powder and it's taken about 4-5 hours after application, you can see the combination of too-dark base and too-yellow powder turned my face a bit dark yellow *LOL*, but i totally feel like the problem lies with the shade and not the products, i love these products enough to purchase on my own and i will be buying Natural shade BB Cream and compact powder in the future and hope they match my skin better.

In short i LOVE Marina Smooth and Glow Two Way cake and Compact Powder while i find the BB Cream to be too heavy for my skin type (but doesn't mean i won't stop trying to make it work for me *LOL*, i will try to use it with mattifying primer and see if it works better), they totally exceeded my expectations and basically are just wonderful for their price range!

I would definitely be recommending this series for all Asian ladies out there (because it's formulated for Indonesia's climate, so perfect for Asian skin!), it's super affordable and it works really well!

All Marina Smooth and Glow UV products can be purchased easily at Carrefour, Giant, Hypermart, Lottemart, Naga, Tip Top, and other cosmetic stores-you can also buy them online here!

For more information, check out Marina's websites and social medias :

I hope you enjoy this super long review, and tell me are you interested to give them a try now?

#Pink


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