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The Beauty Spotlight Team: Get to Know Mostly Sunny!

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It's Mostly Sunny's turn to answer the Beauty Spotlight Team's questions! Did you know she has a pretty flexible (read: weird) schedule? Or that she used to teach? Head over to Mostly Sunny and find out!



Skincare for Pigmentation: HABA and Dr Wu

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I've been sitting on this post for over three months, and had meant to do so for a while longer before letting it hatch, because I have a horror of jumping the gun on skincare, raving about something that turns out to contain an ingredient shortly to be banned worldwide which BURNS A DEAR READER'S LIKE WHOLE ENTIRE FACE OFF, talking up the miraculous effects of an unguent that turn out to be all in my own head, or just plain transfiguring a magic potion into mere sugar water by speaking its name without a salt circle laid down widdershins...

^Let the above function as the standard"I am not a scientist" and "ymmv -- these products may indeed burn your whole entire face off, so do your own research" skincare post disclaimers.

But as the recent question most frequently asked of me by readers, commentators and makeupalleyers alike has been along the lines of, "Dude, your skin looks amazing. And where did your freckles go?" I will dare to believe that this time, the miraculous effects are not only in my own head, and risk jinxing the potions by outing them:

Dr Wu Intensive Renewal Serum with Mandelic Acid 18%  HABA Triple White Brightener HABA VC Lotion HABA White Lady
Dr Wu Intensive Renewal Serum with Mandelic Acid 18%
HABA Triple White Brightener, VC Lotion and White Lady


I began using the Haba White Lady and Dr Wu Mandelic Acid Serum last November (after finishing the Avène Eluage mentioned in the last update) primarily to address pigmentation: most obviously my freckles, which had faded just enough thanks to two years of layering high ppd sunscreens (currently still Ducray Melascreen SPF50 and Sunplay Super Block SPF50) to be a possibly-further-addressable rather than a no-hope issue, and just that general flat, sallow dullness that seems typical of my skin in winter.

By December, I was so pleased with the results I was maybe making up all in my own head seeing I added HABA's VC Lotion and, in January, their Triple White Brightener.


Here's a highly unscientific comparison of my bare face in November 2012 (this post), after I'd begun to layer sunscreens, and in Feburary 2014:
Apart from the whole thousands of miles apart, different cameras, different lighting conditions thing, now-with-added-minus-14ºC-frostbitten-zombie-lips! can you still see a significant-beyond-all-that difference in the freckles (fewer, fainter) and general evenness (much improved)?

The physical-over-chemical sunscreen layering alone had taken me from this (June 2012) to this (Oct 2012):

But while the doubled-up sunscreens actually prevented me from developing any new freckles in the year since (sweltering E. Asian summer sun notwithstanding), the fading of existing ones had slowed down to an absolute crawl. See how slight and subtle are the differences between Oct 2012 and Nov 2013:


Effects of the new products only: from November 2013 (here) to February 2014 again (bare).

^^Sorry, I know these pictures are hugely variable. D: I chose ones in which I was wearing no foundation, and no concealer over my freckles, though in the made-up ones I'm wearing undereye concealer and the usual other garish clown accoutrements.

Variation in my skin colour are due entirely to lighting and season -- none of these pigmentation-fading products are skin-bleaching ones -- if my facial skin's lightened by about half a shade or so (owing, I think, to the sunscreen layering) it's only to now match the skin on the rest of my (less exposed to the elements) body e.g. my fishbelly-coloured er, driveller belly. Targeted spot-application also wouldn't result in hypopigmentation of any kind.


Ten billionty pics of my faaace later, let's remind ourselves of the products and look at them individually:


Dr Wu Intensive Renewal Serum with Mandelic Acid 18% (made in Taiwan, 15ml for HK$220) 
Mandelic acid is an AHA whose molecules are larger than those found in glycolic or lactic acids -- this means it's a less penetrating, but also less irritating*, way to dabble in the texture-refining, pigmentation-fading benefits of alpha hydroxy acids for those with sensitive, rosacean skin. I use this once a week all over my face, and also apply it to individual freckles with a q-tip on an evening in the middle of the week -- for me this level of frequency results in no irritation/peeling, but is still effective at keeping my skin smooth and fading pigmentation. I've also spot-applied to the freckles on my eyelids without problems, but note that the instructions do advise avoiding the eye/mouth.
While I'm not sure how well documented this is, I've also read on various rosacea sites/communities that mandelic acid isn't just less-irritating for rosacean skin, it can actually actively help reduce redness and strengthen the skin barrier; I've personally noticed less redness in my own skin since using this serum in combination with the HABA products, and haven't felt the lack of Avène's retinaldehyde Eluage gel (as a barrier-strengthener) since replacing it with this in my routine.
While this serum does contain moisturising ingredients like propylene glycol, butene glycol and hyaluronic acid, it's not enough for my dry skin. So, as with the Avene gel, I apply this slightly viscous liquid with bare hands onto clean dry skin and wait half an hour (for the acid in its base with a pH of ~3.5 to work unimpeded) before moisturising as usual with my mix of The Organic Pharmacy oil + REN cream.


*Reported studies deal in likelihoods, but you know your own skin best. As previously mentioned, mine is very physically sensitive -- it can't tolerate even gentle wiping with a rich lotion-soaked cotton pad or a soft muslin cloth used used to remove cream cleanser without coming up in raised, irritated, dry-skin bumps -- so I rely on chemical exfoliants and, have built up some resistance. If you're sensitive to AHA's, tread with your usual care.



HABA White Lady (made in Japan, 30ml for HK$ 440)
Haba White Lady ingredients (translation)
Known as Fair Lady in the US, White Lady is HABA's flagship product, watery pre-toner serum that features 6% of sodium ascorbyl phospate, a gentle and stable water-soluble vitamin C derivative that works to fade and prevent hyperpigmentation without the exfoliating effect of L-ascorbic acid. I know as well as anyone that skins can be very picky about types and concentrations of vitamin C, but for me this serum has been a miracle combination of non-irritating and extremely effective and I really appreciate the inclusion of hydrating hyaluronic acid and soothing liquorice root extract (dipotassium glycyrrhizinate) in a very clean formula.
I use White Lady twice daily (unless it's a Dr Wu night), patted on with clean hands, onto bare, just-washed skin; one pump is enough for both face and neck and it sinks in immediately with zero stickiness.
HABA White Lady -- one pump
This serum is fragrance- and alcohol-free and highly recommended, especially for other sensitive skins, even if you're just looking for a good preventative antioxidant rather than a specific product for hyperpigmentation. Because SAP is stable, I plumped for the larger 30ml rather than the smaller 10ml size. Used daily, you should be able to finish it easily within the one-year-after-opening expiry.


HABA VC Lotion (made in Japan, 180ml for HK$460)
Haba VC Lotion Ingredients (translation)
(This is my second bottle, and I opted for the limited edition giant 360ml pump version for HK$555 -- the regular 180ml capped bottle retails for HK$460 and looks like this.)

VC Lotion is an alcohol-free, fragrance-free toner which shares actives with White Lady (liquorice root extract and a lower concentration of SAP -- 2%) with the addition of nano-sized rice bran ceramides meant to provide very effective, long-lasting moisturisation. Er. Anyway, though I hear it works well as solo hydrator for oily skins / humid climates, it's about on par with the Hada Labo Gokujyun lotion for me (which it replaces in my routine) and requires further layers on top.
VCL has a slightly thicker texture than White Lady, but is still best described as a liquid -- it's more watery than Hada Labo, for example. As you might expect, it's a 'booster' for White Lady, applied (HABA recommends patting with hands again) after WL, and while likewise sinking in without tackiness, it does leave my skin feeling a bit more moisturised/comfortable afterwards than WL alone. For a more intense treatment, you can use VC lotion on cottons as a five-minute 'sheet mask' over particularly dry/pigmented areas; I'm too lazy to do this regularly, but having tried it (for science!) can report that even used this way the toner doesn't dry out prematurely or make my skin feel tight / irritated.
HABA VC Lotion -- you probably need less than this for face&neck but the big pump is enthusiastic :P
The best answer I can give to the question of whether the extra layer is really worth it / makes a difference, is to point out this giant fracking bottle wot I just repurchased. :P
It really seems to me to enhance the brightening, skintone-evening effects of White Lady rather than just sealing it in as Hada Labo or any other moisturising toner would. It'd also be a good one to try if White Lady's 6% SAP proves too strong for you.



HABA Triple White Brightener (made in Japan, 20ml for HK$620)
Haba Triple White Brightener Ingredients
Haba Triple White Brightener ingredients
My translation: Water, glycerin, butylene glycol, arbutin, pentylene glycol, squalane, dipotassium glycyrrhizinate, ascorbyl tetraisopalmitate, hydrolysed rice bran extract, pearl barley oil, rice bran glycosophinogolipid, phytic acid, trehalose, glucosyl hesperidin, violet root extract, diphenylsiloxy phenyl trimethicone, polyquarternium-61, carbomer K, xanthan gum, polysorbate 70, lysolecithin

Triple White Brightener contains a different form of vitamin C from White Lady and VC Lotion's SAP, the oil soluble ascorbyl tetraisopalmitate (read more here and here) which I was eager to try as another stable, non-exfoliating form of vitamin C. Further brighteners in this serum (a light milky coloured gel-cream texture) are arbutin, hydrolysed rice bran extract, and glucosyl hesperidin, which is meant to address the kind of dullness and discolouration caused by poor blood circulation -- frequently found around the eyes and mouth, and to which I am definitely prone (haz Raynauds and v poor circulation).

As this tiny bottle was so pricy, I've been restricting use to undereyes and just around my mouth (a half-pump, applied with fingertips after White Lady and VC Lotion), and think I've seen slight but consistent improvement (scroll all the way back up to the first comparison pic -- can you see it too?) in evenness of tone in those areas over the past month, which has involved quite a bit of stress, poor sleep, and freezing-my-arse-off-in-ye-Siberian-wastes (okay, maybe that last one's a bit idiosyncratic :P). I've found myself concentrating foundation more on my nose and inner cheeks rather than on my chin and around my mouth, as in the past, and haven't reached for my 'secondary' concealer (Tarte) once in that time. We shall see whether this continues or whether it's just a passing thing -- if you're a regular reader you'll have heard me complaining about my yellow goatee popping up at random over the years :P

HABA Triple White Brightener
Like VC Lotion and WL, the Triple White Brightener has very light, cosmetically elegant finish, and leaves skin feeling smooth and unsticky. For me, it's again strictly a serum that requires topping with more emollient, occlusive moisturisers -- Sisleya Global Eye + Lip Contour around my eyes, and my mix of The Organic Pharmacy oil + REN cream on the rest of my face and neck.



So there you have it. My anti-pigmentation arsenal :D
I've tried to stay fairly cool and balanced throughout this post (which seems to involve much pedantry and laboured Miltonic sentences, hmm) but I am officially thrilled to find actives that work so well for my skin without thinning, drying or sensitising it -- my usual reasons for discontinuing the heavy hitters before they can have any truly impressive effects. As always, your mileage may vary. If you have experiences with these products, recommendations (I actually have an impressive stack of HABA GWP samples in desperate need of triage) or further questions, feel free to leave a comment!


PS for those with sensitive noses: all four products are fragrance-free, not scent-free, so they do smell very faintly of their ingredients.


PS A quick breakdown of my current skincare routine:

MORNINGS
Splash face
HABA White Lady patted all over face
VC Lotion, likewise
serums: Triple White Brightener under eyes and around mouth // Mandom Barrier Repair serum elsewhere
eye cream (Sisleya) and day cream (Décleor Éxperience de l'Âge Rich)
sunscreens (Ducray + Sunplay)

EVENINGS
Remove makeup/sunscreen with Fancl Mild Cleansing Oil
HABA White Lady patted all over face
VC Lotion, likewise
serums: Triple White Brightener under eyes and around mouth // Mandom Barrier Repair serum elsewhere
eye cream (Sisleya) and night cream (The Organic Pharmacy Skin Rescue Oil + REN Vita Mineral Emollient Rescue Cream)

SUNDAY EVENING:
Remove makeup/sunscreen with Fancl Mild Cleansing Oil
Dr Wu Intensive Renewal Serum with Mandelic Acid 18%, wait half an hour...
eye cream (Sisleya) and night cream (The Organic Pharmacy Skin Rescue Oil + REN Vita Mineral Emollient Rescue Cream)



Disclosure: I purchased all these products personally.

Enduring Loves and Current Obsessions

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Happy galentine's day to all my frivolous readers :D

I had planned to do a 'drugstore favourites' post this year to match my posts on lip loves last year and favourite red lipsticks the year before, but I'm still working through a recent Visée haul* which is playing havoc with my drugstore rankings (spoiler: it's AWESOME), and still re-evaluating some earlier forays into Korean high-street brands, and people, sheets don't spread themselves! I NEED TO PROCESS.

So instead, please take a look at some enduring loves, YSL's Effet Faux-Cils Long-Wear Cream Eyeliners! My absolute favourite potted liners ever, for their:
-- smooth creaminess (I know it sez it right thar in the name, but that's not always a guarantee)
-- impressive pigmentation and rich colours which stay true even as they dry and wear (no dulling)
-- workability (I get a good minute to place, blend, smudge and tweak, which means everyone else, with the capacity to produce sebum, will have even longer!)
--total bombproof indelibility once set (these are the first products I reach for when I do eye makeup on oily-lidded, crease-prone folk, and they inevitably come back to me raving and addicted; on dry lids like mine there is absolutely no flaking throughout the day) but still easily removed with cleansing oil, and non-staining.
-- longevity (in the pot as well as on the lids): these stay creamy for years longer than Bobbi Brown or MAC gel liners and mine don't clump / ball up at all even at three years old.

YSL Effet Faux-Cils Long-Wear Cream Eyeliners 3 Bronze Black, 4 Sea Black, 5 Cherry Black, 6 Jade Black

I own the four more vibrant shades: 3 Bronze Black, 4 Sea Black, 5 Cherry Black, 6 Jade Black; there's also a blackened gunmetal shimmer and glossy, inky black in the line.


Close-ups of my shades
3 Bronze Black: complex deep olive-patina-ed bronze with lighter topaz shimmer
YSL Effet Faux-Cils Long-Wear Cream Eyeliner 3 Bronze Black

4 Sea Black: a deep but vibrant navy, with lighter sapphire blue microshimmer (less visibly shimmery than Bronze Black)
YSL Effet Faux-Cils Long-Wear Cream Eyeliner 4 Sea Black


5 Cherry Black: blackened plum with ultra-fine copper and ruby microshimmer (the least shimmery of my four shades)
YSL Effet Faux-Cils Long-Wear Cream Eyeliner 5 Cherry Black

6 Jade Black: the brightest of my four, and secondmost shimmery (behind only Bronze Black): a deepened emerald with tonal microshimmer.
YSL Effet Faux-Cils Long-Wear Cream Eyeliner 6 Jade Black

Heavy swatches, in the same (should be obvious :P) order:
swatches YSL Effet Faux-Cils Long-Wear Cream Eyeliners 3 Bronze Black, 4 Sea Black, 5 Cherry Black, 6 Jade Black

Light, one-stroke swatches: reveals how soft and un-blingy they can look worn more sheerly, without collapsing into that indeterminate murky grey as so many darker liners can:
swatches YSL Effet Faux-Cils Long-Wear Cream Eyeliners 3 Bronze Black, 4 Sea Black, 5 Cherry Black, 6 Jade Black

These have been (positively) reviewed extensively throughout the blogosphere, and from my blogroll are beloved also of The Non-Blonde, The Unknown Beauty Blog and Mascara Magic!, so I highly recommend you have a play with these next time you're near a YSL counter, even if you've had poor experiences with potted liners in the past.


Want some liner inspiration? Watch this, the video for Spica's "You Don't Love Me," which is my totally over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek, silly-sexy, retro soul jam this Valentine's day! (link)

Because I have a penta-tentacled crush of epic proportions For your viewing convenience, I have screencapped each gal's makeup:

Jiwon: liner extended out then sharply flicked up, curves added by eyeshadow shading
probably my favourite, on Narae: the smoky, open wing, broken along the lower lashline
Juhyun: the fat, curvy, inset-flick retro cat-eye. Plays really nicely with the angle of her lashes.
Bonus Juhyun gif
source

Bohyung rocks the sly, elongated version
Boa also has an elongated wing, but with a dropped topline and heavier outer corner (again, playing off her falsies really nicely)
Just in case you need another angle of Boa's liner... I have no other reason for posting this pic *giggles like a schoolgirl* For srs, watch this video. The visual metaphors! The deadpan butt padding! *dies*

Thanks to spending all day stalking these beautimous ladies coolly scientifik research, I've discovered that the artist behind these looks is none other than my best beloved Jung Saem Mool herself! Here are some backstage 'making of' peeks (source):


May your Fridays be likewise filled with the delicious, bouncy things of your dreams!
source

...wait, what was this post about again? I have become confused. Be off with ye and let me enjoy my gif.


*Ze aforementioned Visée haul, reviews forth...coming....soon...*mumblemumble*


Disclosure: everything in this post was either purchased by me, or a personal gift from a friend.

The Beauty Spotlight Team: Weekend Links

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Have you been wondering about the em cosmetic line from Michelle Phan? Beauty Info Zone has explored some of the products and wants to share whether em cosmetic’s eye primer is a winner or a wanna be.

Are the new Tom Ford Lip Color Sheers In The Buff, Pink Dune and Summer Fling worthy of all the hype? See whether Helen from Lola's Secret Beauty Blog thinks this is a hit or a miss?

Ever had one of those buys where it looked so pretty in the container but not so much when applied? Lets have a look at Topaze Dore from the Lancome Spring French Ballerine Collection with Visionary Beauty.

Any Valentine's Day stragglers will want to check out Carrie from eyeliner on a cat's list of her Top 5 cool and covetable Valentine's Day gifts!

Do you find orange lipsticks intimidating? They don't have to be! Mostly Sunny followed Lisa Eldridge's advice and had a blast with Givenchy Glamorous Orange Rouge Interdit from the upcoming Miss Interdit Collection!

The Pink Sith - has six NEW lip glosses that she is in love with, all thanks to Armour Beauty!

Who doesn’t love a good Before & After picture? Or even a shoddy, highly unscientific, variably-lit one? Head to drivel about frivol for Kate’s magical transformation from freckle-face to…er… slightly less freckled…face.

Cindy over at Prime Beauty is smitten with the soft, romantic look from Laura Mercier’s Spring Renaissance Collection and she thinks you will be too.

Makeup Wars bloggers share their favorite foundations! See what Pammy Blogs Beauty picked for her recent foundation favorites!

Christa from Perilously Pale is learning that the Sephora Collection brand is not one to be ignored. These new Rouge Infusion Lip Inks are simply AMAZING and for such a great price.

Missed out on NYFW nail coverage? Jessika from polish insomniac has the full scoop from OPI, Essie, butter LONDON and JinSOON.

15 Minute Beauty is sharing the items Makeup Artists feel are beauty essentials. Are these in your collection?

YSL Gloss Volupté 204 Corail Trapeze and 206 Fuchsia Oran

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While I try to keep a balanced stash, the formula that dominates my lip wardrobe is YSL's revolutionary lacquer-stain hybrid, Rouge Pur Couture Glossy Stains: I own six shades, one of which (1 Violet Edition) I'd repurchased after completely finishing, and test each new released colour, ever ready to acquire more.

So news of a new lip formula from YSL always gets my attention, thanks to their always on-point colour sensibility -- though admittedly much of it is spent in willing the pigment to come with with a 'Pur Couture' prefix and accompanying rose scent, rather than the dreaded 'Volupté' and mango combo.

....Yeah. Say hi to the Gloss Volupté, new to the core line, currently available in 23 shades at all YSL counters, otherwise known as some of the best damn glosses I've ever tried. With that unfortunate kicker: the extremely strong mango scent.

YSL Gloss Volupté 204 Corail Trapeze and 206 Fuchsia Oran
YSL Gloss Volupté 204 Corail Trapeze and 206 Fuchsia Oran
My shades are 204 Corail Trapeze (a soft coral peach) and 206 Fuchsia Oran (a gloriously bright neutral pink-red), both from the shimmer-free 'Pure' 200-subrange, and flattering to my vertical liplines while feeling comfortably cushiony and un-tacky on my lips, and being sufficiently actively moisturising (rather than just non-drying) to be worn without balm in the bitter depths of a Siberian winter. They also leave my lips feeling noticeably softer the day after.

One-swipe swatches straight from the applicator:
YSL Gloss Volupté 204 Corail Trapeze and 206 Fuchsia Oran swatches
Can you see the smooth balminess? The swatches may look a little streaky because the applicator is curved to fit around the lips, rather than the flat back of my hand, but I didn't go back to even up because I wanted to show how well pigmented both shades are and also how un-messy, with absolutely no too-slick liquifying and running down my hand. Fuchsia Oran also shows a bit of translucent stained-glass jelliness, while Corail Trapeze has a creamy liquid-balm finish.

In practice, I find the somewhat controversial ('lip'-shaped, many-curved, fuzzy sponge-wi'-a-hole-in!) applicator works well on my small-but-fullish lips, even around the cupid's bow and mouth corners, which I prefer quite well defined. I use the outer (convex) side first for more precise areas and then sweep the inner (concave) curve around the centre of my lips. The lip swatches are applied in one coat in this way, over bare lips, with no redipping.


 204 Corail Trapeze
Its pink tones come through more strongly on the lips vs on my hand to give a soft-but-not-pastel coral. I had thought this was an effect of my very cool-toned mauve lips but Temptalia's Christine experiences the same shift, and she has warm-toned lips -- do weigh in if you've tried this one on.
YSL Gloss Volupté 204 Corail Trapeze swatch


206 Fuchsia Oran
YSL Gloss Volupté 206 Fuchsia Oran swatch
This one is utterly true-to-tube on me, from the shift between cooler hot-pink and warmer red-pink notes visible depending on how the light hits the contours of lips and the applicator both.

While Corail Trapeze and Fuchsia Oran are both sufficiently pigmented to wear alone, the lip-hugging, stable (i.e. not prone to clumping, running or going patchy) formula means that these also layer excellently over every lipstick formula I own without disturbing the already-applied pigment beneath, and are translucent enough to evenly meld with while tinting the lipstick, without sitting on top like random oily goop. This isn't as mean a feat as it sounds -- a post is in the works on my surprisingly difficult quest for gloss topcoats that don't mess with lipsticks (er,  that's the working title...)

Wear-time for both my shades is good for glosses and on par with that I get from sheerer lipsticks -- they'll slowly and evenly fade over the course of much talking and sipping to balmy tints, and definitely require reapplication after eating. While absolutely unsticky, the Gloss Volupté do feel noticeably balmy/cushiony on the lips over hours, although much lighter than my beloved Chanel Extrait de Gloss formula.

Unfortunately for me, the lasting power of the mango scent is also impressive; I have a fairly acute sense of smell and can still detect it at least 2 hours after application, albeit faintly. And unlike the Rouge Volupté lipsticks, it's not deodorizable D: In an otherwise excellent formula, the scent's the only thing holding me back from acquiring all the other 'Pure' shades in the line, beginning with 209 Smoking (a fabulous layering black -- I've played with this in store and love its vampifying-but-not-muddying effect on all kinds of lip colours) and 207 Rouge Velours (a deeper pinked-red to Fuchsia Oran's vibrant reddened-pink, as shown on The Non-Blonde). Dear YSL, we can haz a rosy Rouge Pur Couture line of glosses?

Raeview has swatches of the full range, while The London Beauty Review features a shade from each of the four sub-ranges.


Disclosure: samples acquired free of charge.

Femme Boulevard: Nude for New Beginnings

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Ahoy, my beauties!

I am thrilled to announce that I am to join the fabulous girl group blogger coalition known as Femme Boulevard! In which I will be the pirate drummer. Wait, I seem to be confusing my blog fantasies with my Spica fantasies. Anyway, it's all Lily's fault. As usual.

Lily is of course Lily of ChloeAsh: a working mother of two who blogs for passion.

The other femmes on the boulevard are:
Teri, who considers her latest beauty findings over at Bellachique.
Joey, who shares her journey through life at Joey's Space, a beautiful lifestyle blog from Singapore.
Lilit, of Makeup & Macaroons, beauty blogger, DIYer, wife, mummy, daughter, corporate slave.

And now, me! Kate: easily influenced. Fond of red, glitter, and commas. Mighty pirate. 'About me' in the right sidebar, and my most recent free-associative personal blahblah post is here.


Femme Boulevard unites us all once a month to share our various interpretations of a chosen theme. This month, my fellow femmes are experimenting with monochromatic looks: be sure to check them out at ChloeAsh‎ and Makeup & Macaroons!

As my initiation into the group, I am presenting a 'no makeup' makeup look, which also happens to be monochromatic. Because TEAM.
My single colour is actually a single product, the rosy-reddened coral-pink (as I think I described it in my original review :P) Suqqu Bright Up Lipstick 02 Hanabeni, which I then mixed with various things:
...such as my peachy undereye concealer, Burberry Sheer Concealer 01; the palest lavender-white satin of Dior Skinflash Radiance Booster Pen 005 Shimmery White; and my sheer pink-tinged primer, Suqqu Makeup Base Creamy.


Starting off with the creamy Suqqu primer all over my face to diffuse any visible veininess and redness and smooth my skin texture, I then blended one click of the Burberry concealer under my eyes as usual, and used the Dior Skinflash 005 highlighter lightly on the centre of my forehead, down the centre of my nose, on nasolabial folds, and on brow bones.

The lipstick+highlighter mix created a slightly deeper, pinker and subtler highlighting shade, and I diffused that over my inner cheeks, then used it to highlight the inner corner of my eyes (blended up) and below my lower lashline -- both to cut the redness/darkness in that area and to amp up my 'aegyo sal' as an eye-framing device (this post shows how effective it can be).

Lipstick+concealer made a light peachy-rose that I blended over my lids up through the socket; I then added a little extra lipstick to the mix to darken the shade and concentrated it closer to the lashline for some more depth. This idea -- which sparked the other mixes -- came from Jung Saem Mool's ultra-natural makeup tutorial for Spica's Tonight music video and it gives a barely-dewy sheen to my lids that, unlike my paper-dry bare lids, produces a natural highlight wherever the light hits, without looking too glossy or obviously made-up.

The last mix, lipstick+primer, produces a somewhat translucent dewy rosy cream blush, which I applied over the apples of my cheeks as usual, but also over the bridge of my nose and centre of my chin (can you detect it?) to create a more natural and unified see-I'm-not-really-an-undead-bloodless-fiend healthy-glow-from-within effect rather than a flushed one.


The look:

For reference, you can find a recent picture of my actual (far more drab) bare face here.


Other things:
Suqqu brow pen02 Brown through brows and used to tightline -- this gives a softer, sketchier line than even a hard eyeliner pencil, while still defining the lashline.
Fasio Full Dynamic Long mascara -- the wimpiest formula I own, juuuust touched to the base of the upper lashes, then combed through well with a clean spoolie. Lower lashes left bare, just brushed.
Rouge Bunny Rouge Sweet Dust Seriema eyeshadow used very lightly to deepen aegyo sal line, and as contour on the outer edges of my face -- another Jung Saem Mool-style application.
Paul&Joe bird balls dusted all over, for further undetectable texture-perfecting.
I applied the Suqqu lipstick as usual, blotted it off with a tissue, then pressed a little RBR Kiss Elixir lip balm over the remaining stain.


All products:



GIANT closeup:


Have I made sufficient mockery of the word 'nude' yet? :D I had fun trying new techniques and placements for this 'no makeup' look, but it was HARD to rein myself in (especially with blush) and took far longer than my usual sparkly smokey eye + obnoxious lips quickie (example) while making something that would still register on camera. So thanks to Femme Boulevard for prodding me out of my comfort zone! And if you have any further suggestions, tips and constructive criticism, please do leave a comment :)


Disclosure: Suqqu Makeup Base Creamy was a GWP.
The other items were all purchased by me or personal gifts from friends.

The Beauty Spotlight Team: Get to Know Cindy of Prime Beauty Blog

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The Beauty Spotlight Team is asking each of its members to reveal a little something about themselves through a series of questions. It’s my turn, I hope you don’t find me too boring! I love to engage with my readers so please leave me a comment and let’s chat! Here goes…

Beauty Shopping in Hong Kong

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A recent comment from Amy reminded me that it was high time I collated some of my shopping for frivolities blahblah in my temporary home from home, Hong Kong! Apologies in advance for vague directions (I don’t usually navigate by compass points or street names so much as hopping from one cosmetics shop to another like lily pads); do feel free to ask for clarification or about any other specific brands in in the comments! And if you’re a local, please feel free to throw in your own HK$2 :)


Bearing in mind that Hong Kong changes rapidly, with shops sometimes closing or moving within months, currently (Feb 2014) I would recommend Causeway Bay for a one-stop beauty shopping destination. And, if you dislike crowds, make your visit on a weekday morning/early afternoon.

Right out of the Causeway Bay MTR station, you have a plethora of enticing options already:

Exit A takes you up to Times Square, and in the underground B2 station complex are shops for: Biotherm, Chanel, Dior, Erno Lazlo, Etude House, Fancl, Jill Stuart, Kosé (Esprique), Laneige, Make Up For Ever and RMK. 
On the B1 level, opposite CitySuper, is a big Log-On, which sells all kinds of Japanese-import stuff including adorable stationery and clothes, and, for our purposes, beauty stuff, including some brands I rarely seem to find at Sasa:  CandyDoll, LineQueen liners, ClearLast, Brigitte, Sana, and Nanocé BB creams — the best textured BB creams I’ve ever come across, sadly only available in shades for NC15-25. In Log-On’s nail section, you can also find &Nail ‘Organic Blend Oil,’ the cuticle oil which has ranked no.1 on @cosme for years and which I highly recommend.
Heading up to the ground floor will bring you to a Lane Crawford, with counters for Armani, By Terry, Chantecaille, Clé de Peau, Deborah Lippmann, Laura Mercier, Nars, Paul&Joe, Pola, Shu Uemura, The History of Whoo, Tom Ford, and Vidi Vici, as well as the usual department store brands (Lancôme, Dior, Estée Lauder, Chanel, Shiseido, YSL etc.)

Leighton Centre is a two-minute stroll away from Times Square (leave by the Salvatore Ferragamo corner and walk down Matheson St) and contains a Sasa Supreme, a new, posh and unusually spacious branch of the chain, and I’d advise heading straight here instead of squeezing in and out of the dozens of other smaller Sasa’s in the area [you’ll see many as you just wander around, but store locator just in case]. There’s also a Caffe Habitu next door with great coffee (I highly recommend the Rose, Oolong and/or Pu-Erh lattes) and delicious truffle-mayo chips and pear&chocolate fondant, if you want to put your feet up or park any non-makeup-obsessed companions while you browse Sasa itself….
In which you can find makeup brands including: BCL, Canmake, Dollywink, Fasio, I Nuovi, K-Palette, KATE, Lavshuca, Majolica Majorca, Media, Palangtong, Pupa, Rose de Versailles, T LeClerc, ZA etc. This branch also has special counters for Anna Sui, Banila Co., Bobbi Brown, MAC, and an Aveda salon.
For skincare, all kinds of Asian and Western brands are available, from Hada Labo, My Beauty Diary, For Beloved One, Mandom and Dr. Wu to Dermalogica, Institut Esthederm, Lierac, Nuxe, Peter Thomas Roth, and various designer ranges from Clarins to SK-II. Most of the high-end products are shelved by brand, often with dedicated SA’s for each, while there are category displays for drugstore/mid-range ones e.g. ones dedicated to BB creams, lipbalms, sheet masks, or sunscreens.
Many beauty tools are also available, including the mascara guards/combs I love, along with dozens of eyelash curlers, puffs, pill cases for decants, nail gizmos etc.


[In between Times Square and Leighton Centre, you might want to pop into the Lee Theatre building, which houses a three-storey Muji flagship — Muji makes my favourite makeup storage, and this branch also stocks clothes (I adore their pajamas and sheer cotton layering tees), beauty products (including lots of bath salts, the refills that fit my Chanel lash curler, and my travel cleansing oil), and snacks *_*]

Also near Exit A is Cher2 on the first floor of Po Foo Building, 84-94 Percival Street, which has very extensive ranges of OPI, Essie, China Glaze, Orly, Zoya, Jessica, Color Club polishes etc. at around HK$60 a bottle for OPI, less than half the UK retail! The staff speak good English, so if you're buying a few bottles, ask if you can join their membership club for extra discounts at checkout.



It's time to leave the surroundings of Exit A, but no worries, we're not going far :) Exit F2 of Causeway Bay station is actually only another 2 minute walk away from Times Square, but you can chose this exit if you want to head straight up to Hysan Place, one of the newer shopping malls in this area, and my most frequent haunt, because of the big Eslite bookstore within <3 If you're walking, just ask directions to Hysan Place, the Apple Store (on its ground floor) or Forever 21 (just across the street).
On Hysan Place's ground floor is a T Galleria / duty free shop, which is a bit odd, because Hong Kong doesn't tax cosmetics anyway... but you can find some DF exclusives here (like sets of miniature Meteorites and various travel palettes and bundles) and the usual high end brands as well as Benefit and Givenchy.
On the first floor is a small Joyce Beauty boutique, which stocks a SpaceNK-ish lineup of skincare brands, By Terry makeup and Deborah Lippmann polishes, as well as scents from Annick Goutal, Diptyque, Frederic Malle etc.
The next main cosmetics cluster is on the sixth floor, with Korean brands Dr Ci:Labo, Holika Holika, the saem, and too cool for school, as well as Dermalogica (British) and Ettusais (Japanese), and a few organic lines like Amika, Beyond Organic, EcoG, VC etc.
Eslite (floors 9-11) will usually have some kind of indie/greeny Taiwanese brand on display as well -- currently exquisite handmade soaps by Monga -- as well as lots of tea and edibles, and a great selection of magazines and mooks, with discounted older issues; the staff are happy to take books/mags out of their plastic wrapping if you ask, so buy a big cup of bubble tea, find a comfy seat, and browse away.

Leaving Hysan Place by the ground floor Yun Ping Road exit, you'll see the tree-lined Innisfree shop on the corner right across the street, with my beloved soybean eye cream, and plenty of nail polish and makeup to play with, as well as the rest of their skincare.



The next lilypad is SOGO, separated from Hysan Place by the double-crossing of Hennessey Road, or reachable directly from Causeway Bay MTR Exit D, which leads into its B2 level. I've written about this Japanese department store before, but it's not usually that heaving -- the layout is dated, but it's worth the trip for Cosme Decorte / AQMW, Kanebo brands (Coffret D'Or, Lunasol, Impress), Sofina (including Aube Couture and Primavista), IPSA, Borghese, HABA, and Burberry makeup, all on the ground floor. Upstairs on the second floor are counters for Anna Sui, Shu Uemura, Paul&Joe and Jill Stuart, while the eleventh floor bookshop is another good source for Japanese magazines and books.

Just opposite SOGO (Shiseido/MAC-store side) on the same strip as Island Beverly, is a violently pink Etude House shop, and if you follow this path as it curves around SOGO, you'll also come across shops for Missha and SkinFood on Lockhart Road.



General notes: you'll probably see several branches of Bonjour and Colormix on your travels -- both are cosmetics chains similar to Sasa, stocking a wide range of brands. Small branches of all three can be found on Lockhart Road, just behind SOGO (Gucci side). I personally never seem to find anything at Bonjour that I can't find in Sasa, but Colormix is worth popping into for Korean/Taiwanese brands like Naruko / AMPM, CLIV, Vitacreme, Baviphat, Shills, Lioele, The Face Shop, Hope Girl, Lotree etc. If you're specifically looking for these brands, the most conveniently located Colourmix is in the Central MTR station complex (diagonally opposite Fancl).
The two major drugstore chains are Watson's and Mannings -- branches vary but the big ones will have a good selection of makeup brands (from Ettusais to KATE, and from GOSH to Max Factor) along with lots of French (Avene, LRP, Bioderma, Uriage etc.) and Asian (Dr Wu, Hada Labo, Shiseido Senka etc.) skincare.
Also, note that most shops in Hong Kong will charge HK$0.50 for paper bags, so if you plan to haul, make sure you bring plenty of reusable totes with you!


Finally, a few things that can't be found at Causeway Bay:
Dolce&Gabbana makeup is sold exclusively at Harvey Nichols in Pacific Place (Admiralty MTR). This is also where to head if you want to find By Killian perfumes (and for other UK expats, their basement foodhall has a lot of Waitrose stuff, randomly).

Kowloon-side:
3CE has a store in I.T. at Silvercord (on Canton Road), down one floor from Din Tai Fung -- which is reason enough to visit this mall, as you have no hope of ever reaching the end of the queue at the CWB branch of the xiao long bao joint.
Opposite Silvercord is the Harbour City mega-mall, which rivals Causeway Bay as a one-stop shopping destination. The beauty epicentre features FACES (a cosmetics-only department store with the likes of Kose, Innisfree, Paul&Joe, RMK etc.) opposite another large Lane Crawford (for Chantecaille, Cle de Peau, Fresh, Tom Ford, etc.) while Laneige, Shu Uemura and Fancl are just some of the brands with standalone shops within the compex. In the LCX zone are various high street Korean brands, along with a Donguri Republic with giant cuddly Totoros <3 and over by City Super, there's another branch of Log-On with various Japanese imports and a PageOne bookstore again well stocked with Asian magazines.
A few streets away in Tsim Sha Tsui, the Granville RoadSasa was the biggest, most well-organised, and quietest branch before the opening of Sasa Supreme and well worth a visit if you're in this area -- especially as it's only a block away from Lab Made, home of liquid-nitrogen-frozen ice cream in flavours such as Hong Kong Custard Bun and Gingerbread Man&Milk.


WALL OF PROSE. I know. If you have bricks you'd like me to add (or indeed if you'd like to hurl a brick at me) leave a comment :)

Saturday, Smatterday...

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Being a smattering of randoms, because the combo of lingering death lurgy flu (srsly, body, it's been two weeks, do you even know how much I need to use my voice to squeal over k-dramas impart valuable information and discourse upon weighty matters and suchlike...) and the intense blanket of perma-smog covering NE China have left me unable to get up proper posts recently, and possibly for the next month, until I finally head home. :(

1. The k-drama in question: My Love From Another Star
To which I've succumbed, like, oh, the rest of East Asia (can't go to a counter these days without overhearing another customer asking for one of the lead's -- inevitably already sold out and with a waiting list -- lip colours, usually reading off this kind of list), despite the fact that this show is full of the tropes and tricks that annoy me in k-dramas, totally unlike Miss Korea's deconstruction/side-stepping of them. I mean here's dooooomed love and much attendant noble self-sacrificial bs. Reincarnation of the spirit of the beloved. Much melodrama mined from the fact that characters are idiots and can't just have a conversation that would resolve the idiotic misunderstanding in 5 seconds flat. Cartoonishly EBIL antagonists. A flashback every five frames. MOAR drama generated by the flimisiest handwavey 'because doooooooom' storytelling -- this is NOT how I like my spec-fic, people!
And yet, it's also bloody addictive and involving and fun and I've squealed and shrieked and swore and legit wept+tore my hair in highly undignified manner, that would've had the neighbours complaining if my voice wasn't such a phlegmy croak. Mostly due to the charisma of its super hot lead, Jun Ji Hyun, who is ever willing to make a total fool of herself in the interests of making me fall 1. off the bed laughing and 2. head over heels in love with her.
Fun meta like this helps:

Then, in front of the cameras...

And both the clothes and makeup in this show are so on-point. Or do I mean FIERCE?
dat red = IOPE Colour Fit Lipstick 18
Also, I need to know WHO MAKES THESE SUNGLASSES? *weeps afresh*
source ; lip here is YSL Rouge Pur Couture 52 Rosy Coral
While JJH's lip colours are getting all the buzz, I'm also drawn to the petally shades and textures often seen on the male characters, especially this dewy youthful pout on our leading lady's younger brother:
Ahn Jae-Hyeon as Yoon-Jae
Our villain often can be found in ironically pretty pink shades, esp. while he's playing innocent victim:
Shin Sung-Rok as Lee Jae-Kyung
And, testament to the makeup artist's work, I'm SURE (based on far too much pic-googling) that our second male lead is wearing something more than balm on the centre of his lips here, subtly corrective of his darker mauve lip tone, but it's almost texturally invisible:

Great makeup is also to be found on the other female characters (though I have a problem with the lead woman exceptionalism in this show, so unlike Miss Korea's surprising twists of sister/motherhood and greater sophistication in dealing with even female rivals' relationships with each other, but anyway):
Yoo In-Na as Se-Mi (amusingly, this is the third time I've see YIN play a meta actress role in a drama)
And another example of fab wings on an older lady:
Lee Il-Hwa as Han Sun-Young -- some more milk in your saucer, ma'am? ME-OW.

2. Other ingestibles
I find thoughtful slice-of-life manga very comforting when recovering from illness -- Chica Umino's latest series March Comes In Like a Lion is a quieter work than her previous Honey&Clover, but also explores her favoured themes of child prodigies and art vs life, the families you make and those you lose, the redemption of ordinariness, all in her inimitable style, a mix of luminous/numinous, quirky and quietly realistic.
The Feminine Middlebrow Novel and Quicksilver are old favourites of mine, reread while brain was at its lowest ebb -- I recommend the first for fans of Persephone/Virago presses and the second to anyone who perks up at the idea of a spec-fic Foucault's Pendulum.
The bottom three came in the most thoughtful package sent by a friend who I met through blogging -- which basically makes all this worth it. Wait, I have some dust in my eye. It's those damn k-dramas opening up the floodgates I tells ya. <3


3. Yet MOAR ingestibles
Along with my books came some wonderful chocolates -- TCHO Milk Chocolate Cacao (a rich, dense, 'dark milk' bar) and Recchiuti Sesame Nougatine (take some sticky Chinese sesame candy squares, smother in bittersweet chocolate *_*) which are supplementing my predominantly matcha ice cream diet. Ice cream is good for sore throats! And chocolate is good for morale. So there :P


4. Wait, what kind of consumption is this blog about, again?
Ah yes, makeup hauling. It has occurred. To whet your appetites until forthcoming posts proper:

Burberry Lip Glow in 19 Mallow Pink, nail polish in 420 Sage Green, Complete Eye Palette (also in) Sage Green:

I adored the quad on Sara and knew I owned no greens like it, but in person it was the inclusion of unusual wheaty sheeny neutrals (with no bronze, khaki or olive tones, as in so many other green/brown/yellow combinations) that sealed the deal. The nail polish's green is also an unusually well balanced, elegant yet springy tone -- different enough from my only other green cream (Essie Pretty Edgy) to justify. Testing the gloss formula with another coral-pink-red :P So far, I like this cushiony rose-scented feel!
Terribly-lit flash pics:

In other I-can-never-resist news, Chanel releases a new Illusion D'Ombre (Rose des Vents, limited edition and part of the Jardin de Caméllias collection) and I throw my money at them.

It is so pink and sparkly I don't even. See Silverkis for more. Atrociously lit flash pics:
Rose des Vents all over lid and under the eye. The purple satin from Suqqu Mizuaoi quad over it on the lower lashline. Rose de Versailles black liquid liner, Kiko white eye kohl and plenty of L'Oreal FLT WP mascara. On lips: Innisfree Colour Glow Lipstick 06 Maple Burgundy Pink.

Speaking of which, I think I only posted my epic Lunar-New-Year-Gift-Card Innisfree haul on makeupalley? Here goes: Creamy Tint Lipstick in 15 Apple Red, and matched pairs of Colour Glow Lipstick and Glossy Lip Lacquer in 05 Deep Plum Burgundy, 06 Maple Burgundy Pink and 10 Daisy Coral [worn layered here].


Further Korean explorations have led me to 3 Concept Eyes -- lip pigments in Wild Yellow and Issue (which I also like to use as and mix into cream blushes) and creamy waterproof eye liners in 11 Orancia and 9 Wow Pink -- both pigmented neon mattes I'm wearing frequently as accent wings<3 Incidentally, 3CE has the best makeup website EVAR, with inspiring looks, excellent swatches and slick organisation -- do take a look if you have the time and willpower.


Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

The Beauty Spotlight Team: Weekend Links

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This week, The Beauty Spotlight Team welcomes Phyrra, she of the awesome rainbow hair and makeup, to our lineup! <3


Find out what Carrie from eyeliner on a cat's picks are for her Top 5 Pre-Spring Fragrances list!

Lola's Secret Beauty Blog is throwing caution to the wind and going nude with Tom Ford Lips!

Do you love decadent and luxurious bath products? If so, you will love this review and giveaway from Pammy Blogs Beauty! Find out more about the new English Honey & Peach Blossom line from Crabtree & Evelyn. Plus, enter to WIN!

Take it from Mostly Sunny: 2014 is going to be the year of hybrid lip products. Take a quick peek at one of the first versions, Lancome Lip Lover !

The Pink Sith tells you if the new lip balms from Nivea called A Kiss Of Care & Color are worth the purchase.

Come to drivel about frivol to marvel at the Great Wall! of prose about beauty shopping in Hong Kong! Remember to load up your camel with fortifying snacks.

Phyrra brings you the Hottest Hairstyles for Spring 2014!

Perilously Pale has a real sweet spot for the new Clinique Cheek Pop Blushes . See why she considers these a Spring 2014 must have.

Prime Beauty shows you a creative way to make a bucket list. Share yours and enter to win $1,000 from Bufferin to get you started crossing things off it!

Beauty Info Zone wonders what your favorite Primers are. They've shared 10 along with more from the Top Ten Blogger Team.

Fall in love with Rococo Smitten on polish insomniac.

How many times have you walked by the Burt's Bees Tinted Lippies and wondered what they are like? 15 Minute Beauty is answering that question for you.

The Beauty Spotlight Team: Introducing Phyrra

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The Beauty Spotlight Team has a new member. Find out how she got into beauty blogging and what's on her kindle!

Magazine Monday: DIY Interwebs Edition!

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The smog outside my window lingers yet, likewise my post-flu brain fog, but I miss blahblahing to all of you! So, despite the fact that I've actually not bought any beauty mags for months, I thought I'd cobble together my own version of magazine monday with some inspiration from around the interwebs.

1. Tutorials
Get It Beauty, a Korean cable tv show dedicated to, erm, beauty. I'd linked to their dohwa makeup episode previously, but since then have been working through all the English-subtitled videos I could find (mostly here and also here) and enjoying myself immensely. Even though most of the guest artists can't hold a candle to Jung Saem Mool's* school of ultra-refinement, I just like seeing them work, and the scrappier (even all-out messy) approaches can feel very refreshing -- it's just makeup, after all, and it washes off. Despite their individual differences, I think all the makeup artists featured share a few things that make my beauty geek heart go pitter-patter: intense attention to detail and the dorky too-specific terminology to go with it (the Engrish just adds spice); sensitivity to trends and new textures and ways of doing things; and readiness to make the most of products by multitasking and mixing and of unconventional tools like spoons and toothpicks. The models are generally members of the audience, which means a wider range of features and skintypes/tones than one usually sees in makeup tutorials.
Note: as is common in E. Asia, the tone is often highly prescriptive with much emphasis on the one ideal standard of beauty for all kinds of inconsequential things (the goal: must give everyone a complex about the shape of the triangle formed by their earlobe-to-nostril-to-third-brow-hair), but as I'm not subject to them I can just sit back and marvel at the different cultural connotations of, say, a down-turned eye-shape all dilettante-like, and gigglesnort at the '3D face scanner' they like to trot out. Still, prepare to twitch occasionally as the panel break down all the 'flaws' in a perfectly attractive face, and make sure anything you have to hand to throw at your screen won't break it :P

*JSM has also worked on the show, and I got a kick out of hearing her own "pok pok pok" sound effect for those signature tapping motions :D

Disclaimers done, have some pick'n'mix of my favourites:

For those still suffering withdrawal symptoms after the ending of Miss Korea, here's GIB's take on nineties vs 2013's nineties revival makeup [link]:


Tips and tricks for face-shaping, using mostly matte / skin-like textures, well blended [link]:
(The inbuilt smile thing looks a bit dodgy at the end of that video, but I can't nitpick the final results shown in part 4.)

 Some wackier blush shapes to play with [link]:


A trio of videos on K-pop girl group makeup, with a fascinating glimpse into the current connotations of single vs double lids in K makeup, influential on but at a slight angle to the Japanese and Chinese discourses with which I'm more familiar -- interestingly, there's a meme in J and C circles I keep coming across that Korean makeup artists work 'best' with monolids, and at least in these videos, it seems to be due to the fact that monolids aren't seen as a problem to be corrected right off the bat:
Part 1 [link]

Part 2 [link]

Part 3 (annoyingly/mysteriously only on vimeo) [link]

Blind Test is GIB's version of VoCE's 10-item deathmatch. With less SCIENCE (and fewer oranges and random sweeties stuck to lips :/) Here's an example, on primers. You can flip through the Blind Test archive here.

Finally, for Korean-speakers, the latest season has just begun, with the first episode on March 5th introducing new emcee Yoo In-Na (uh, luhv huh!), with guest stars like the adorable IU, and my gals from SPICA :D Seriously, does this show know how to EAT MY WHOLE ENTIRE BRAIN or what? The episode pits two spring 2014 lip trends against each other: 'lovely' pink vs 'stylish' orange -- with the inevitable segue into My Love from Another Star :D Here's SPICA Juhyung's pink makeover.




 2. Themed Collages
(shamelessly recycled from my pinboards :P)

I've always loved blue accents, and am pleased to see them all over the catwalks for yet another season. Whether in partial or ombre wings:
backstage at David Koma SS '14 (L)  and  Kenzo AW '14 (R)
...or in modern soft-graphic frames at inner or outer corners:
Alice Temperley AW '14 (L) and Jean-Paul Gaultier Haute Couture SS '14 (R)
Sharper accents, peeping from upper or lower inner corners, especially effective against warm metallics:
Versace Haute Couture SS '14 (L) and Zoe Jordan SS '14 (R)
...and two twists on the vibrant contrasting waterline -- a clean line against a clean eye, and a smudged lower lashline against a grungy grey haze [which I've helpfully placed in reverse order :P]
Giles AW '14 (L) and Creatures of the Wind AW '14 (R)


A newer thing I've been playing with on my newly less-freckled face, naive blush placements. Mostly centralised, kept fairly rounded on the apples of the cheeks rather than blended up and out, especially in warm tones from peach to cinnabar:
Alexis Mabile SS '14 show (top left),  Factice Magazine #15 (top right),
Dolce & Gabanna AW '14 show (bottom left),  Yen Magazine Oct '12 (bottom right)
Though also very pretty diffused more widely in rose-tones:
Allure Korea Aug 2013 (top),  Glow Magazine Feb/Mar 2008 (bottom)
The first look is a way dialled-up version of what I was trying to do with my no-makeup makeup, no?


3. Upcoming Releases
I'm currently on a soft no-buy while working my way through the last season's worth of purchases, separating the keeps from the goats. Er. You know. But my fabulous/evil blogroll keeps brandishing tempting new things -- brandishing, I say! -- so it is clearly my duty to spread the infection further. With my blush and eyeliner wardrobes pretty much complete, I'm mostly eyeing up new-gen, everything-but-the-kitchen sink lip formulas, hybrid challengers to the YSL Glossy Stain throne:

Dior Fluid Sticks, reviewed on Colour Me Loud:

Lancôme Lip Lover, tested by Sunny:

YSL's own latest offering, YSL Baby Doll Kiss & Blush, which seems to have affinities with the Addiction Cheek Polish I tried and liked last year, as seen on Really Ree and Temptalia:

And, as the spring release sold out in record time in Hong Kong, I hope to at least be able to test the three new (and piiiiink, and hopefully jellyyyyy) shades of Jill Stuart Lip Blossom due for summer, as previewed by Rouge Deluxe:

Finally, despite having had ill luck with 3CE lip products thus far, I continue to be drawn in by their obnoxious colour palette and hilarious shade names :D The new hybrid serum Creamy Lip Colourlipsticks seem a promisingly glossy bet for my desiccated lips, appearing much more flattering on their models' lip textures than any of their previous formulas:



4. Your turn! 
Inspire me with your comments and further suggestions for topics you'd like to read about until I get out from under this cloud....

Anyone for a Cuppa? Tea Perfumes

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As you may know, I love tea. British and Asian.... is it any wonder? My current favourite brew: Wang De Chuan osmanthus oolong, with additional floral notes both heady (Favols rose-petal jam) and musky (blue mallow). 

It brews up (85ºC water, two minutes) clear honeyed amber, and ridiculously fragrant -- subsequent infusions (with longer steeping times) are progressively richer and earthier, and I sometimes *whispers* like to add a splash of milk to round out the later ones. British, remember D:
mmmmmmmmm tea

Some of you also know that I love perfumes. (Actually too much to blog about them -- like books and music, it's an interest I share with lots of people in my offline life (an interest in these is kinda sorta a condition of having them in my life, in fact :P) so I need no additional outlet for drivel.)  But, as 'perfume' was proposed as a topic for my current all-smog-no-pictures bloggy state, here's an idiosyncratically organised list of my favourite tea fragrances, inspired equally by Gaia and Sei Shōnagon.

Smoke
Comme des Garçons Series 1: Leaves: Tea is bracingly harsh, like taking a big whiff straight from a caddy full of tarry lapsang souchong, metallic tang of the tin included.. Sadly (for me, because I find the almost chokingy smoky opening quite addictive) it almost ‘brews’ as it wears, softening into a warm, abstract vanilla & woods composition. Annick Goutal Eau De Fier is a more naturalistic take on this theme, lightened and brightened by citrus.


CB I Hate Perfume Russian Caravan Tea is another black-leaves-and-citrus brew, and my most-worn Goldilocks choice in this category (and from among CBIHP’s tea lineup too: his Cedarwood / Rose / Lavender Tea scents are too simplistic for me — more Demeter-literal than CB-evocative). There’s a gentle Lapsang smokiness here, but closer to comforting steam rather than acrid tar, moderated further by smooth, full-bodied Assam; bergamot adds a soft glow (this is an autumnal bergamot, no shrill too-bright citrus zing) and dusty woods bring a dry, refreshing quality that saves this scent from too-lush steaminess and makes it incredibly moreish. (This is a CB I prefer in the water perfume rather than the oil — the absolute is sweeter and softer, and less tea-ish.)



L’Artisan’s discontinued(!) Tea For Two does sometimes tip over into too-lush, almost chewily sweet territory, so I tend to reserve it for scarves on frosty winter days; wearing it on my sweetness-amplifying skin can be overkill. But even through the blended sweetnesses of milk, marmalade and spiced cake, the clear-as-amber tea note (supposedly Lapsang, but more Ceylon-with-tobacco to my nose) still predominates, and rings true right through to the drydown, with no over-steeped fading or muddying; Olivia Giacobetti’s genius for transparency guaranteeing clarity even in such a golden borderline gourmand. Serge Lutens’ 5 O’Clock Au Gingembre is a simpler, less quirky (so probably more likeable) evocation of the afternoon-tea-and-treats-in-a-wood-panelled-nook thing, worth a sniff if you can't get to grips with (or ahold of) TfT.




Steam
Without one of the more obviously identifiable smoky black tea notes, for me, the key element that gives a fragrance a unified tea-ness (vs remaining a more abstract composition of light floral, citrus, woods and spices) is a certain kind of luminous warmth, that evokes the airy (rather than sultry) steam curling from a freshly brewed cup. I'm not sure exactly which combinations of aromachemicals trigger the 'tea' light in my brain (some alchemy of rounded citrus+dry woods, I think), but fragrances that seem to perfectly evoke the simultaneous refreshment and comfort of tea steam include: 
Dior Escale à Pondichéry, clean India tea and optimistic jasmine;

Ava Luxe Thé Blanc / White Tea, all spring florals and first-flush silver tips, airy but never insipid, a uniquely warm, clear (rather than soft or powdery) white in my sniffing experience;

and Made In Italy Sardinia, a zippy oolong grounded by drily aromatic touches of honeysuckle, broom and ambrette.

Bvlgari's tea series also fits into this category -- highly abstract compositions once deconstructed, but reliably evocative of 'tea' even when tested on blindfolded muggles. (Yep. I did. FOR SCIENCE.) I'm not very fond of the iconic Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert (can't shake the '90s changing room associations, sorry), but often reach for my bottles of Blanc (musky woods that smell like fluffiest darjeeling mixed with dry, powdered milk) and Rouge (a husky rooibos). 

Bvlgari BLACK is another sneaky tea scent in the line: contrary to its omg so edgy innit!! marketing, it wears as an offbeat but cuddly, bergamot- and vanilla-rounded Lapsang.

Something else that unites all these fragrances (and contributes to their tea-ness for me) is a combination of translucent linearity, impressive lasting power, and subtle sillage; however light or dense the scent itself. they all sit close to the skin, but they do so all day on me.



Wisp
These are all lighter and cooler than the last category and (perhaps not quite coincidentally?) require frequent reapplication, but are lovely enough for me to persevere:

Delicately radiant: Hermes Osmanthe Yunnan -- its osmanthus all gauzy petals, abstracted from its edible creamy apricot facets, and its tea the rare silvery Yunnan biluochun rather than the more robust blacks or pu-erhs associated with the region. I much prefer it (constant re-dousing and all) to Parfum d’Empire’s Osmanthus Interdite -- the latter's greater throw and lasting power comes at the price of too much heaviness, dissonant with its notes to me. On my skin, Rose Ikebana, another Hermessence, is OY's sister scent -- more rose tea than tea rose.

L’Artisan Thé Pour Un Été, is another cool tea (supposedly green tea, but a lightly minted darjeeling to me), this time blended with jasmine -- again, all ethereally pretty petals with nary a hint of an uncouth indole.

Guerlain Tokyo is sweetest of all -- violet-spiked sencha lit from within by a glowing heliotrope-heavy rendition of Guerlain's signature base.


Nectar
Since we've run from smoking hot to elegantly cool, here are some unarguably summery iced-teascents. I'm not usually a fan of this much unadulterated sweetness 'n' light in my fragrances, but have been finding them indispensably refreshing in humid E. Asian summers, with more character than the ubiquitous 'clean, posh-shampoo' scents or ironically acrid ozone/marine colognes.
Heeley Oranges and Lemons Say The Bells of St Clement’s is a fruity earl grey with enough petitgrain astringency to save it from orangeade. Still nowhere near as serious and gentlemanly-cologny as its bottle would have you think -- more fluffy Wodehouse fop.
Rosine Rose d'Été is a full-on girly afternoon tea on a gingham picnic blanket, with macarons and millefeuilles and and lashings of late-summer apple compote. Its marigold tassels say it all. Tommy Hilfiger Tommy Girl is its lighter, defrilled, sporty sister.
Moschino Funny! is a frosted jug of Lipton's with fresh ginger and vibrant orange -- both zest and juice.


Aaaand that's about it :) And only one product is discontinued! Some kind of record for me, I think :P Keen eyes/noses will have noted an absence of chai or maté in my selections: I'll drink both, but prefer not to smell them all day long. Though maybe I just haven't found the ones yet. Suggestions and comments as always much appreciated and adored <3

And rewarded with cake: Houjicha and cranberry roll from Muji (I told you they made snacks!).

The Beauty Spotlight Team: Weekend Links

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Warm weather is just around the corner which means that it's time to put your best skin forward. Lola's Secret Beauty Blog recommends the Ellen Lange Retexturizing Peel as a fantastic at-home Peel Kit that will effectively reveal gorgeous glowing skin!

Lisa from Beauty Info Zone was intrigued when she found a product named Whoopie and now we're sure you will be too.

Prime Beauty finally found the bareMinerals True Romantic Collection and it's THE perfect soft, feminine mix of makeup for spring and the romantic in all of us.

Carrie from eyeliner on a cat is singing the praises of New Zealand skin care brand Obiqo-- and she's hosting a fabulous Giveaway for two full-size products! You have until Monday evening to enter.

15 Minute Beauty shares some great neutral lippies for spring, which are on her shopping list. Which should she buy first?

The Pink Sith shows you three of the new L'Oreal Paris Color Riche Extraordinaire Liquid Lipsticks and reminiscences about being a band geek all at the same time.

Love multichromes? Phyrra shows off her current favorite ILNP Washing Ashore.

China Glaze will be launching its Spring speciality collection, Surprise, in April. Check out swatches now on polish insomniac!

Mostly Sunny has been enjoying the new Chanel Les 4 Ombres. For those who enjoy smokey eyes, Tissé Gabrielle is definitely worth a look!

Do you love intensely pigmented cosmetics? Pammy Blogs Beauty checks out new line additions to the Prestige Total Intensity collection!

Come have a cuppa at drivel about frivol with Kate's selection of favourite tea perfumes. There will be cake....

Do you have a memory of Dippity Do? Perilously Pale would like to change that memory to a 2014 memory.

Visée Creamy Lipstick PK804 and RD401

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Visée is a Japanese drugstore under the Kosé umbrella; its relaunch in Autumn 2013 caught my attention, and having been impressed with their eyeshadows in the past, I couldn't resist the urge to dabble. Just a bit. As the haul was on the *cough* epic, I'm-being-comprehensive-for-Science! side, I'll be splitting up the reviews into three categories:
1. Visée, Vis-nay. :(
2. Visée, Vis-yay! :)
and 3. Visée, Vis-eh... :|

Spoiler: today's is a Vis-nay.

To recap / as a teaser, here's the haul, thanks to a colleague travelling to Japan, whom I persuaded to raid a drugstore:
clockwise from left: Lip Balm and Gloss OR20,  Smoky Rich Eyes GY-7, Glossy Rich Eyes PK-3,
 Nudy Rich Eyes BE-5, Blend Colour Cheeks OR-6
To which were then added, thanks to the lovely Liz, Creamy Lipstick in shades PK804 (a limited edition release for this spring) and RD401 (part of the core range):
It's always a bit laughable for this compulsive depotter to talk about packaging, but I really do appreciate the sleek, black-on-black stuff in which these products are clothed. It's plastic but not at all flimsy or cheap-feeling (the lipstick cases and blush palette in particular have impressive heft and shut with a very posh click indeed) and I like that the lace details vary between each range of products while still creating a unified feminine-but-not-tooth-achingly-girly aesthetic for the brand.

Enough lip service, let's move on to the actual lipsticks. (See what I did thar.)

Wondegondigo's rave review sparked a frenzy on makeupalley, and many others on my blogroll have succumbed, including Project Swatch, Swatcharama!, and The Consolations of Vanity. Unfortunately, I part ways with my pals on these: the high-slip, almost liquefying-upon-application formula sinks into my liplines and brings up flakes I could've sworn I'd exfoliated away. Despite being so slick that even a very thin coat creates a gloopy line between my lips whenever my mouth is closed, it's also very drying, leaving my lips painfully chapped, cracked, and peeling off in sheets within a few hours, even worn over balm. Even Creamy Lipstick's excellent pigmentation and scent-free qualities can't redeem a product that inflicts actual physical pain and bleeding, and requires days of no-lip-colour purgatory recovery time after a wearing.

Bitterest of ironies -- both PK804 and RD401 are wonderful, so-hard-to-find-in-Japanese-lines brights. One swipe swatches on bare skin:
indirect sunlight
These formulas are similar but not quite identical -- PK804 has a lighter texture and even more slip than the already very slick RD401: this seems to translate into 'will catch on even baby-fine hairs like craaaazy'. Seriously, does it not look like I'm cultivating that one particular strip of armhair as some sort of postmodern radical fashion statement?

On my lips, it's a case of (sorry, Byron) all that's worst of creamy and dry: gooping where my lips meet, and exhibiting a desire to wander outside my lip contour, but also worsening the appearance of every line, bump, and flake, and already starting to look patchy at the edges as it sucks all the moisture from my skin.
one coat of Visée PK804 in (overcast) natural light

Sun came out for full-face shots:
eyes: Visée Smoky Rich Eyes GY-7  |  cheeks: Canmake CL04 Clear Pink Joy

Comparison swatches with some of my bright, cooler pinks: Addiction Amazing cheekstick is more blue, Laneige Serum Intense LR08 Flare Magenta is warmer, rosier and sits on a clear base, Guerlain Rouge Allure Reflex is brighter and warmer.


RD401 is slightly better in appearance (both because it has slightly less slip and because it lacks PK804's white base, which always tends to make textural faults more visible), but unfortunately kicks off the same cracking-peeling-bleeding-pain cycle. I also want to point out another quirk of this lipstick formula: it photographs really well -- deceptively well, in fact, looking far smoother and more even in pictures than it does to my naked eye. So please don't think I'm crazy for complaining about faults that are very much minimised in photos! I hope you can still see in this shot that RD401 also exhibits a tendency to wander outside my lip contours, goop between lips, and sink into every vertical lip line, and can extrapolate:
Visée RD401 in  angled sunlight

In the minutes it took for me to transition to full-face shots, RD401 also begins to exhibit unevenness of pigmentation (darkening in patches on my lower lip), as the apocalyptic drying process begins in earnest:
eyes: Visée Nudy Rich Eyes BE-5  |  cheeks: Canmake CL01 Clear Red Heart

The full-face shot is a bit more true-to-colour (i.e. deeper and more muted) for the lipstick as it wears: while bright in the grand scheme of lipsticks, RD401 looks noticeably softer and less vibrant than some of my favourite cool red lipsticks: Suqqu Creamy Glow 18 Karakurenai, Guerlain Rouge G Gala, YSL Rouge Pur Couture 57 Pink Rhapsody:

I think the difference between the Visée and YSL is subtlest but especially notable -- even though the YSL shade is both lighter and less saturated, it's got a clarity and brightness that just glows against my skin, while the Visée's subtle mutedness dims and sits slightly apart in a slightly jarring rather than 'popping' way. It looks much more face-brightening on Belly (whose Suqqu red preferences are also diametrically opposed to mine) and Lisa, with slightly darker, more muted skintones than mine -- and I wonder if any readers have thoughts about these minute undertonal distinctions and preferences :)

The Beauty Spotlight Team: 20 Questions with Lola's Secret Beauty Blog!

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The Beauty Spotlight Team wants you to get to know each of our members better by asking them a series of personal and blogging questions, but will Helen from Lola's Secret Beauty Blog reveal anything interesting about herself? Click here to find out!

Midweek Miscellany: Packing for Home

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I'm off home! :D This has been my longest stint yet in Asia, and packing is proving a nightmare, so I'm taking a wee break and thought to share some quick snaps of the kinds of things I like to stock up on and bring back to the UK. Beauty-related things, anyway. The sack o' snacks being too gargantuan / bulgy to show...

Unsurprisingly, sunscreens take up the biggest slice of the suitcase...pie? mmmsuitcasepie, as I run through them so quickly. Here, backups of my favourite body sunscreen (which I also use as a secondary physical layer on my face over Ducray Melascreen Emulsion) Sunplay Super Block SPF50+ PA++++, and two bottles (white and lavender) of L'Oreal's new, alcohol- and zinc-free PA++++ offering (ingredients here), which seems to have a stellar combination of filters that will hopefully obviate any need for layering :D Sadly, these L'Oreals are currently only available in Japan, but they're garnering such high ratings in magazines and on @cosme that I hope they'll be rolled out to the rest of Asia soon, as traditionally has been the case with the made-in-Japan L'Oreal ranges.


More skincare, testament to my ongoing affair with HABA:

A second bottle of White Lady as my current one looks like this:

And a backup too of Triple White Brightener -- three months is long enough for me to realise this really is making a difference, not only to skintone-evenness in the sometimes-sallow areas around my eyes and mouth where I apply it, but as a bonus, to the nasolabial folds and emerging tear duct hollow also in those areas, which appear plumped out :D Also, it was on sale at SOGO's Spring Beauty Fair for HK$458 (vs the usual $620) so how could I resist?

The clear bottle contains HABA's flagship moisturiser/sealant, Squalane (which is, as advertised, simply pure squalane oil) a clear winner from my stack of HABA samples, and it replaces The Organic Pharmacy Oil I've used up. Giant VC Lotion tub from original review still going strong, and may yet outlive me, so no need to back up :P


Other skincare essentials (only one of each shown): Mandom Beauty Barrier Repair Super Moist sheet masks and serum, Sisley Sisleÿa eye cream (actually purchased at duty free on my way out), Fancl Mild Cleansing Oil (they reformulated/repackaged again; here's hoping my luck holds and this 5th? incarnation of my holy grail also won't burn my face off), Dr Wu Mandelic Acid serum, and various dark shades of the Kao Liese bubble hair dye that's permanently tinting (but more importantly giving some body to my pathetically limp, fine) hair.


Moving onto makeup! Kinda. Three tubes each of my beloved Fasio Full Dynamic Volume mascara and of Kiss Me Heroine Make mascara remover to take it off, which has been saving my lashes and delicate eye-area skin for years.

Are you stultified by these boring purchases yet? I kind of mentioned being on a no-buy, right? Hmm, well it lasted a full month. And then I broke it / celebrated my progress! with this Koyudo BP034 brush, a kolinsky paddle bearing many similarities to my go-to Shu Uemura Natural 10, at a fraction of (to be precise, less than half) the price. (Koyudo had a pop-up stall right next to the HABA one at the SOGO beauty fair and I was stressed and hormonal and doomed.)


Also, armed with gift-cards-which-would-expire-before-my-next-trip and accumulated store points. So, having beencoloured loud by Sara, this also happened. Just-released-in-HK Dior Fluid Sticks in (T to B:) Wonderland, Pandore and Mona Lisette. Because I'd read that they're not out until May in the UK, which is frankly monstrous. And alliterative.


To salve my conscience, here are some of the things that won't be making the return trip with me: Canmake Clear blushes in CL01 Clear Red Heart and CL02 Clear Sunset, as since this picture was taken I've finished both (having run through CL04 Clear Pink Joy even earlier).

Less satisfactorily, my Guerlain Samsara made a bid for freedom one night by melting off its base and falling onto the unspeakably grimy (simultaneously grainy and gooey, people, and I'm not alliterating for alliteration's sake any more) floor of a delicious hotpot restaurant (which, like the best of them, probably relies a bit too much on the fact that boiling chilli oil will kill most things actually going into the customers' mouths and so skimps on the basic hygiene aspect) and rolling off into the depths under the table. It's awfully demoralising to activate the dinky Rouge Auto push mechanism, only to have this sad little stump emerge D:


To cheer us after that harrowing vision, K-pop video of the week (possibly K-pop video of the YEAR, for me) is Orange Caramel's latest, Catallena, which manages to be hilarious, wacky, inventive, fun and actually kinda surprisingly pointed a feminist statement. With polkadot lashes. I've attempted an OC look before, but declare myself baffled as to how to achieve these :P Any ideas?

Femme Boulevard: Hollywood Goddess

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This month's Femme Boulevard has us tackling a 'Hollywood Goddess' theme! The idea was Lilit's and it made my head explode with possibilities when we discussed it way back in January. But such are my delinquent ways, I found myself an hour before deadline still without a final look chosen, but with a hefty dose of jetlag and also plenty of '...but where is all the makeup hiding?' thanks to my ninja laws-of-physics-defying packing skillz.

Times like these, the obvious choice is the only choice.

Can you guess which Hollywood goddess I chose to emulate? The blue's the clue...
Kiko white kajal on waterline and Rose de Versailles Oscar (black) liquid liner as lid-liner.
A not-quite monotone blue eye built around Rouge Bunny Rouge Mysterious Tinamou with Catrice Smokey Eyes Pencil 040 Petrolling in the Deep for depth and the icy blue-white from Suqqu EX-12 Hisuidama for lift. Fyrinnae Newcastle, mixed with water and messily patted on, as a patchy old gold highlight.
Rouge Bunny Rouge Sweet Dust Seriema to shade around eyes and under cheekbones (not that I remotely manage to approach my goddess's bone structure...)
Chicca Flush Blush 01 Baby Girl for up tilted, edge-of-cheekbones shading blush, Addiction Day Trip is the peachy nude lip.
A lot of brow was involved: both Shu Uemura H9 pencil in Stone Grey and Suqqu brow pen in Moss Green.

....Have you guessed yet? Okay, foine:


Inspiration ofc, is Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra (1963), that lavishly glamorous yet bombastically baggy monster so perfectly representative of Hollywood excess (er, the film, not Liz. Although....). On the set of which she met Richard Burton, the rest being Hollywood history. I would've loved to have recreated her look from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? but, y'know, no haz the makeup skillz.

Or photography ones! The only head-on-ish shot I got came out slightly fuzzy. Um, it's GLAMOUR? And usual apologies/discaimers for my yellow bathroom lighting.

Perfect for a Friday night in watching DVDs on the couch, no? :D  


Remember to check out my fellow femmes' takes on this theme!
Teri's
Lilit's
Lily's

Until next time! Have a lovely weekend, everyone, with a minimum of asps or Roman invasions.

The Beauty Spotlight Team: Weekend Links

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Lola's Secret Beauty Blog has fallen madly in love with African Botanics Marula Résurrection Eye Crème because it is an antioxidant rich anti-aging cream that gives real results. It is truly amazing!

Carrie from eyeliner on a cat reviews Sage Lifestyle's newest perfume called Diamond-- a lovely gem 10 years in the making!

Everyone's buzzing about the OPI Sheer Tints and the Nicole by OPI Roughles Check out how polish insomniaclayered them to create a match made in heaven!

There are some gorgeous blushes in Giorgio Armani's new Maestro Mediterranea collection. Mostly Sunny has a sneak peek of a bright Maestro Fusion Blush for you!

Phyrra shares her Top 10 Cruelty Free Spring Beauty and Accessory Items!

Spring means new fresh lip colors to Beauty Info Zone and we have some from Senna that are so so Pretty in Pink.

Prime Beauty brightens up your spring with her Top 10 Spring Beauty and Accessory Picks!

Are you short on time yet you still want a high-end, results-oriented, and spa-like treat for your skin? See why Pammy Blogs Beauty loves reaching for these Age-Defying Exfoliating Pads from Radical Skincare. From the effervescent feel to the amazing results, these are totally worth checking out!

Get a sneak peek at the new Dior Addict Fluid Sticks and see why Perilously Pale is so enamoured with this new lip product.

15 Minute Beauty asked the experts, and they responded! Here are the favorite eye creams of dermatologists! Is your eye cream listed?

Dior Fluid Stick: 575 Wonderland, 754 Pandore, 872 Mona Lisette

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Hello my dears! It's been hectic round ere, so apologies for the absence of new posts and blinding you with Cleo all week.

Dior Fluid Stick 575 Wonderland, 754 Pandore, 872 Mona Lisette
moar blindings. different blindings.
I've spent the last fortnight enjoying a torrid affair with my three Dior Fluid Sticks (pause for snorting & horking from the peanut gallery) and am ready to declare this my NEW FAVOURITE LIP FORMULA.

Such excellence actually doesn't call for a long nitpicky review, so I'll try to keep the rave brief and to the (bullet) point.

  • Formula: A genu-wiiiine liquid lipstick with a true-to-copy lightweight feel. A few heavy lacquered coats feels like a light balm, while a thinner coat is as almost-weightless as a satin lipstick. Manages to hug the lips closely (no messy smearing/migration/goopiness) without any stickiness. Even a thick glossy coat doesn't goop up where my lips meet.
  • Finish: Can be built up to an incredibly glassy shine, but also blotted down to a satinny (not flat matte) stain. Either way, very flattering/plumping on my very dry, vertical-lined lips.
  • Pigmentation: Very pigmented! But also versatile -- the formula is sufficiently 'self-contained' [if you attempt to make a long, dragged-out swatch you'll see the formula wants to 'hold together'] to allow for multiple coats to be layered up without streakiness / mess, or to be sheered out into a barely-there veil of pigment while remaining perfectly even without patchiness.
  • Lasting power / wear: As it hugs the lips so closely, wear-time is on par with that of a good, pigmented satin lipstick. Lasts through multiple drinks and snacks, losing a little glossiness on the way; fades to an even stain after a meal. Even in its stain form it retains a little satin/balminess and never does that dead matte sinking-into-liplines thing.
  • Scent/taste: Dior's usual synthetic -- slightly rubbery -- vanilla. More revolting to me than YSL's boozy rose Glossy Stains*, but admittedly much fainter, and fades within half an hour even to my acutely vanilla-loathing nose. Faintly sweet taste.
  • Applicator: Chubby spade-shaped sponge, fairly dense with only a little fuzz at the edges. Small/precise enough to be usable even with the bright/dark shades in the line, though I prefer to work with a lipbrush to establish shape, reserving the sponge for a final top coat if wanted. 
  • Colour-range: sixteen shades ranging from nudes through brights and vamps. The shades differ between markets -- Asia didn't get any of the darker 800-900 shades, for example, but had two midtone offerings (coral 552 Jolie Rêve and mauve 669 Rose Tricheuse) I haven't seen on US/European product listings.

*Regular readers know how I adore the Glossy Stains. I like these even more. Because what the Fluid Sticks sacrifice in lasting power, they make up for in versatility/controllability of pigment and comfort -- I can wear them even with lips freshly torn up and then healing from my Visée Creamy Lipstick adventure, and they didn't irritate or catch on flakes/chapped areas. Fluid Sticks also apply smoothly over all kinds of lipbalms, whereas I find bare lips work best for Glossy Stains.


Time for some pictures! My shades: 575 Wonderland, 754 Pandore and 872 Mona Lisette (the last available in Europe/Asia but not the US).
Dior Fluid Stick 575 Wonderland, 754 Pandore, 872 Mona Lisette

All are the bright, clear, hyphenated reds which I wear most frequently: Mona Lisette a rose-, Pandore a coral- and Wonderland a pink-red.
Dior Fluid Stick 575 Wonderland, 754 Pandore, 872 Mona Lisette

Heavy swatches:
Swatches: Dior Fluid Stick 575 Wonderland, 754 Pandore, 872 Mona Lisette

Sheered-out swatches (made with lip brushes) show the differences in their bases better:
Sheered out swatches: Dior Fluid Stick 575 Wonderland, 754 Pandore, 872 Mona Lisette


Worn as I most frequently would -- one coat (i.e. the exact amount dispensed on the applicator without redipping) applied with a lipbrush:
872 Mona Lisette
Dior Fluid Stick 872 Mona Lisette


754 Pandore
Dior 754 Pandore


575 Wonderland
Dior Fluid Stick 575 Wonderland


To display the versatility of these shades, here they are again with (left) two coats layered straight from the applicator and (right) blotted down into a satin stain -- this is also what they look like after a meal.
872 Mona Lisette
Dior Fluid Stick 872 Mona Lisette


754 Pandore
Dior Fluid Stick 754 Pandore


575 Wonderland
Dior Fluid Stick 575 Wonderland


Lookit how they all go from soft'n'pretty to bright to truly obnoxious :D Is it any wonder I am head over heels for these?  Also, I meant what I said about them being balmy and flattering even in 'stain' form. Closeup of worn-down Wonderland (Worn-Down Wonderland is coincidentally also the name of my hipster steampunk travelling circus):


In conclusion: J'adore, Dior! Have already earmarked 373 Rieuse, 753 Open Me and 995 Intrigue for when my no-buy ends. See all the (European) shades swatched by Sara here.

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