Meet Lily Cole, The Body Shop's new brand advocate - she is an activist, model and actor.  Lily is refreshingly honest, human and up front about how she thinks the world could be a better place.

Lily Cole's Cruelty Free Makeup collaboration with The Body Shop - celebrating TBS's aganist animal testing ethos.  The entire range contains no animal products and hasn't ever been tested on animals.  With ultra-expressive colours, being cruelty free has never been so glamorous.   The entire range is limited edition.

In this entry, I will be sharing the product information, Lily Cole as the brand advocate, and also some background information on THE BODY SHOP's Beauty with Heart movement.

First, the makeup products....

(The colors look a little off in this set of press images I received.  But I will be showing you the actual products in a later entry, so hopefull you get a better idea of the actual colors.  Or you should go check out the products in store for yourself too!)

Puff on Radiance - leaves a pink toned, luminescent finish and is perfect for face, cheeks and decolletage.  Comes with a super soft puff.

Lip & Cheek Dome - A creamy gel in an easy to use, innovative dome format can be applied directly onto cheeks or onto lips.  Available in Pinch Me Pink, and Crazy for Coral.   This is also Lily's fave product among the range.

Pearl Radiance Primer - These radiant, light-diffusing pearls give skin a pure radiance.  Use them before you use your foundation or just on its own.  In just one step, skin is hydrated, and complexion perfected.

Shimmer Cubes - Pick one, two or more shades to blend and create your own look.  Shimmer Cubes come in a range of irisdescent pinks and lilacs.  Think Pink Live Lilac Go Violet and Tint it Pink.  Crease resistant and suitable for contact lens wearers.

Mini Hi Shine - Available in Go Pink, Go Wild, Go Play, Go Naked -- the super shiny lip gloss can be applied straight to the lips, for super sexy hi-gloss lips.  With a fun and fruity flavour.

Liquid Eyeliner - brightest, most dramatic violet - smudge proof and easy to apply, the fine tipped felt applicator delivers a vision in violet exactly where you want it.

Mini Brush Set - A set of four miniature brushes for cheeks, eyes, and lips in a mirrored wallet.  With 100% cruelty-free fibres, these brushes are perfect for making up on the go.  Contains a blusher brush, eyeshadow brush, slanted brush and lipstick/ concealer brush.

Information about Lily Cole & TBS Beauty with Heart global movement:

Beauty with Heart Movement

Sharing a few beautiful shots of Lily Cole in Ghana

I will be featuring the actual products in a later entry as soon as I have time to take pictures, swatch, and create looks to see how they work.  Pricing information will be in that entry too.

There will be several more TBS new products coming up soon on the blog, so do stay tuned!

Hope this has been helpful, and thank you for reading!

p/s information & images extracted from the press file

Earlier this week, I had the chance to be given the official tour of the newly opened beauty department at DFS Galleria.  I had already checked out the place on my own soon after the place opened, but yesterday's visit also included a skin analysis and facial at their Beauty Concierge.  In this entry, I will show you a few pictures of the DFS beauty department - what makes it special from your regular departmental stores beauty departments, and also my Beauty Concierge experience.

The Beauty Concierge is presented as the first ever Beauty Concierge service here in Singapore.  This service is available to all customers of DFS Galleria.  The complimentary beauty services are designed to provide a highly personalised experience for customers to enjoy premium beauty treatments in privacy.  The Beauty Concierge, with plush furnishings and soothing music, allows deep relaxation and a completely indulgent experience for the customers - meeting all aspects of the customers' beauty needs in a private and luxurious environment.

Attending to you are highly trained Beauty Advisors, who will personally assist you with skin type analysis.  Professional makeup artists offer expert advice on colour and technique, perform demonstrations and makeovers.  It's the best in beauty, delivered by the best in the business, with an intimate and individual focus.

So if you need a makeover for a dinner event, some skincare advice and analysis, all in the comfort and privacy of the Beauty Concierge, this is for you.  Because the Beauty Advisors are 'neutral parties' - meaning they don't represent any of the beauty brands there, they are in a position to find products which you think you want to try out, based on your skin concerns and budget.

All services are complimentary, and by appointment only.

To book an appointment, call 65-6229-8107.

The menu on the Beauty Concierge menu includes:

SKIN ANALYSIS - Skin Analysis performed with VISIA Complexion Analysis

Advanced multi-spectral imaging technology captures digital photos of the face and measures wrinkles, eveness, pores and pigmentation.  Skin features are graded and analysis provides you with the comprehensive data needed for a rejuvenation plan and ongoing skin care program based on your specific complexion requirements.   *** This I tried, and will show you more pictures in the entry below. ***

SKIN TREATMENT

Including Moisturising Facial, Anti-Aging Facial, Whitening Facial, Radiance Facial [15 min each, you choose ONE]

I opted for the Radiance Facial using all La Mer products, again more information and details below.

MASSAGE

Hand Massage [20min] - A luxurious hand massage using the client's fave hand cream/ treatment product

MAKEUP

From touch up, full makeover, makeup lesson, Airbrush Makeup, Makeup Trend, Eyebrow Shaping (ranging from 15 - 60 mins)

PERSONALISED SERVICE

Personal Shopping, Events & Workshops, Custom Engraving Service (Personalised a bottle of fragrance, lipstick or selected beauty products with a custom-engraved name or special message)

This is how the Beauty Lounge looks like inside - it is designed to host one client at one time, so the space is cosy, and quite luxurious.  The other side of the room is the facial bed, and there is a curtain which will be drawn when you are having your facial. The loud booming music from outside in the main area drifted in the whole time... so if there is any soothing music inside, I didn't notice.  Still, it isn't a serious enough issue for me personally. Skincare and makeup products are displayed in a discreet and chic manner, kind of like someone's mega makeup and vanity area.  I definitely felt at ease immediately.

This is the Visia Complexion Analysis machine.  I put my face there, for the machine to take pictures and analyse my skin.

It is kind of like those machines where you test your eyesight at the optician.

The Beauty Advisor will explain each aspect of the analysis results to you, such as the causes and how to address a particular concern. At the end of the session (about 30min) you will get a printout of your report (which looks like that in the picture below).   If products are recommended, they will be printed out as well, so you can even start doing your shopping right away outside.

This is a quick snapshot of my skin condition according to the machine.  Any score below 40 is of particular concern.  So as you can see in the picture below, my main concern is the texture of my skin -- meaning the skin surface, due to pimple scars, lack of exfoliation, pores and fine lines. So I basically need to exfoliate my face more regularly, and continue with my Genefique & Visionarie combo which addresses all these concerns. Phew!! I am on the right track.  I am also quite glad to know that my UV spots and Brown Spots scores are very healthy (which is no doubt thanks to the slew of brightening products I have been using).

This is where product recommendations are made.  Each product information is provided, kind of like shopping online!

After the skin analysis, I went for a quick Radiance Facial - using these products below.  It was quick and relaxing, and my face felt really nice after.  I didn't opt for any makeup after the facial... that would totally defeat the purpose of having such a luxe facial treatment!

Overall, it was quite an enjoyable experience, the BA who attended to me, Rachel, is friendly and approachable. She is helpful with explanations, and even assisted me when I decided to make a couple of purchases after my facial.

It would be challenging for tourists to make time for such treatments, but if you have the time, and make an appointment, it is totally worthwhile - because where else can you have such treatments which are independent of brands, and you have some freedom in picking out which items you want to try?  That in itself is a big draw for me.

The little tour of DFS which I had before the skin facial:

The entire Beauty Hall is spacious, bright, chic and very sleek.  It is nice to walk about the place, everyone has a smile for you (it wasn't very crowded when I was there, hardly any tourist in sight).  Lots and lots of products everywhere, but not cluttered.  Several of the makeup brands have counters which are way bigger than what you would see at say, Metro, or Isetan.  The La Mer, Lancome, Guerlain, Dior and Benefit counters are very big, and inviting you to shop!

Some brands which are currently exclusive to DFS Galleria:

The Giorgio Armani counter - pssssss --- the Eyes to Kill intense are running so low on stocks only 3 shades were available when I was there - more stocks are coming.

The huge La Mer space - it is like a shop in itself!

Many brands also offer free add on service - such as these:

What makes beauty shopping here unique --- the exclusive travel sets - you don't need to be jet-setting and shop at the airports with these offers:

Overall, a highly enjoyable and informative visit and experience at the Beauty Concierge.  Make your own appointment, and check it out for yourself.  If you are interested to see what I purchased, I will be updating in a later entry! :)

That's all, and thanks for reading!

Hi!

I had purchased this a couple of weeks back but because of my extensions, I never got to swatching and applying the shade on my own nails.  Now that the extensions are off, there will be a slight backlog of nail polish entries up on the blog. I have a ton of other stuff to slowly feature as well.  Time just seems to be zooming by lately!

Not quite sure what this MAC collection is (shock horror!), but it is a collection of lipglass, lipsticks, and nail polish - they take all their best selling shades, and come up with matching exact shades in the products mentioned.   So you have St Germaine lipglass, lipstick, nail polish, Russian Red, Ravishing, Myth, Angel, etc etc.  If you stalk Temptalia, you would also know that some of  the shades are only exclusive to certain regions (Russian Red, sadly isn't available here, or else I would have gotten that too).

So I got only one nail polish - in the shade Peachstock - which is ironically lost in my drawer of lipsticks, I think I had earlier B2M for a Peachstock, and never worn it.  Anyway, Peachstock is a peachy nude color.  The consistency of the nail polish (at least I know for this shade) is extremely creamy and smooth.  I also swatched St Germaine at the counter, but with all the OPI milky pinks in my stash, I just didn't feel like shelling out the $$ for anymore MAC polishes.

I really like this nude shade - the consistency is really important here - 2 even coats give you perfect payoff, and you have very naturally professional groomed looking hands. It's hard to believe, but I can never ever get enough of nude nail polish, they are all the same.... yet not quite.  As you will see in my comparisons, there isn't an exact dupe.  And I am only comparing with the 'darker' nudes, and not the off-white type of nudes (think Essie Topless & Barefoot, or even beigey nudes like RBL's Grunge or Deborah Lippmann's Fashion).

Bottomline - if you love nude, you need this nail polish.

Photos & swatches:

swatches are done with Nailtek II, 2 coats of color, and Seche Vite topcoat

comparisons - the closest is probably the CND Desert Suede

I hope this has been helpful, and thank you for looking!

Hi!

Last week, I purchased two polishes from Luxola.com, where they re-stocked the new Deborah Lippmann colors.  Since I am only getting a couple of these, it is the fastes and best way to get my hands on them.  The third color is actually a free gift with above $50 purchases, and it is quite a good deal, since you are getting 3 DL polishes for the prices of 2 (but the free nail polish shade is already pre-fixed).

The two colors that I am keen on, are the new summer (or spring) shades - Mermaid's Dream, and Ray of Light.

Mermaid's Dream is a beautiful shimmery, glittery golden teal color.  It contains specks of blue glitter, and finer bits of gold glitter.  It really does look like fish scales, very oceanic, and very unique, IMO.

Ray of Light is a cool toned navy blue (a little sheerish but not streaky) with orange/green/red flakies inside.  It is certainly something interesting...although not entirely unique.  I think you can paint a blue as base, and finish off with a flakie nail polish, and would end up with the same, if not better effect.

Lara's Theme is a nail polish shade inspired/ or perhaps created by Lara Stone (my model girl crush) it is a reddish orange - not orangey red okay!  Heheh.  The formula is great, and creamy, and looks intensely opaque in two coats.

Photos & swatches:

All swatches in this entry are done with a coat of Butter London Flawless Basecoat, two coats of polish, and finish with Butter London Quick Topcoat.

Nothing like the arrival of a monthly BellaBox to remind you that time is passing by so quickly!!

It is already May, and we are almost halfway through the year.  Scary scary how time flies.  It seems like only last week I was writing Christmas entries, and welcoming the new year.

This month's BellaBox is a Mother's Day Theme box, containing pampering products for you and mommy.  Everything is also bundled in this cute little cloth bag (good for containing travel products).

Over the Mother's Day weekend, I spent an eventful two days, Saturday morning was spent doing express manicure with Kim, Amy & Jerlaine at a childcare centre, painting the fingernails of a group of mothers, with their little tods watching side by side.  Saturday evening, I spent with the family, at a BBQ, and painted the fingers of more mothers and aunties, and even my little niece.  Well, since I have my nail polish kit with me, why not, right?   On Sunday, my mom, sister and I went to JB, where we had our manicures and pedicures done.. quite a nice relaxing & pampering afternoon!

But I digress.  So, what's in this month's Bellabox?

The vouchers/ promotions:

Doorstep Luxury - Singapore's Online Premier Luxury Online Boutique (enjoy $30 off with purchase of $300)

Bellabox Spring Spree - Special BellaBox Shop Event (Thursday 17 May 4 - 8pm, BellaBox showroom, 26A Temple St in Chinatown)

$20 Elizabeth Arden Voucher - to be used with min purchase of $100 at the Taka counter

Enavose Cellogist Youth Guard Cream - Pamper your skin with this luxurious treatment.  Nourish your skin cells from deep within, boost its natural restorative processes and fight the numerous causes of premature aging.  (30ml for $99.50 available at Suntec, and Tangs Vivocity)

Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Gold Ultra Restorative Capsules - Restore youthful cushion and ageless skin while visibly fading age spots and the look of fine wrinkles.  These potent and purely intensive single dose capsules deliver breakthrough retexturising results you can see. (60 capsules for $134)

Macadamia Natural Oil 10ml - Pamper your hair with this treatment containing macadamia and argan oils to nourish and rejuvenate.  For ultra-smooth, manageable and shiny hair.  You can even reduce drying time by an amazing 40-50%!  (30ml for $28 at John Little & Sasa)

Dirty Works Bare Necessity Body Lotion - Have some good clean fun with this glamorous and feminine bath, body and skincare line.  You will be the belle of the ball!  (Get Set Go Mini Luxuries mini gifts for $12 available from Bellabox)

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails - The original nail clinic in a bottle!  Helps prevent cracking, splitting and chipping.  Gives your nails a hard, smooth and chip resistant surface.  I NEED THIS RIGHT NOW... having just removed my extensions, and my nails are filed thin and bare.  Heheh.

(13.3ml for $6.90)

BellaBox Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/BellaBoxSG

BellaBox Online Store - http://bellabox.sg/

Hope this sharing has been helpful,  and thanks for looking!!

Hi!  This entry will feature one of the 27 shades of Lancome's Rouge in Love. I picked this shade because it is a 'morning' shade, and being the morning person that I am, it seems quite appropriate.

243M Belle Aurore is a light neutral pink that is very wearable, and one of those shades that will go well with any eyelooks and outfits that you are wearing.  The texture of the lipstick is creamy without being too heavy, and it contains just a tiny bit of shimmer.  I have used it on several ocassions, and each time it lasted a good 3 hours on me.  I don't think it is one of those all day wear long lasting lipstick, and you might need to touch up time to time.  Though, I think it would probably last longer if you use a lip pencil, and apply with a lip brush and all that.  But I am not one to go through with all that, I much prefer to slap on the lip color and go.

The packaging of the lipstick itself is super cute, and sleek. It is compact, and sturdy, seeing as how the packaging is all metal.  No plasticky stuff there at all.  The back of the lipstick tube has a french stocking stitching type of print, and the front bears the words "rouge in love".

very classy & elegant, yes?

and 2 LOTDs featuring the lipstick

I went with my usual neutral defined eyes to go with the lipstick.

I can't remember what I wore on both days, but in the first pic, I was wearing Dior's Aurora (2012 edition) on my cheeks, and my Suqqu palette on the eyes.  In the second and third pic, I was wearing NARS Isolde duo on my eyes, and Guerlain bronzer & blush on my cheeks.

Hope this sharing is helpful, and thank you for reading!

p/s Lancome Rouge in Love lipstick was given to me for consideration.  I am also aware that I left out the accent 'o' in Lancome - this is because somehow the new blog template doesn't show up the accented 'o' and omitted it instead which is a worse error.  Sorry!

VIPS WEARING BURBERRY BEAUTY

AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 2012 COSTUME INSTITUTE BENEFIT - NEW YORK, 7 MAY 2012

On Cara Delevingne (above, first picture)

EYES

• Apply Effortless Mascara in Midight Black No 1 to top lashes
• Apply Eye Definer in Midnight Black No1 to the upper lash line
• Sweep Sheer Eyeshadow in Mulberry No 24 heavily on the lid, winged out for a cat-eye effect
• Add Sheer Eye Shadow in Rosewood No. 09 to blend the edges, and Pale Barley No 22 to brighten the inner corners of the eye

SKIN

• Apply Sheer Concealer to define features
• Apply Sheer Foundation mixed with Fresh Glow onto the face to create an even, radiant complexion
• Finish with a touch of Sheer Powder to reduce shine

GLOW

• Apply Light Glow in Earthy Blush No 7 to gently contour features

LIPS

• Apply Lip Mist in Nude Honey No 211 and Lip Definer in Rosewood No7

Jourdann Dunn [Above Pic, Left]

EYES

• Apply Effortless Mascara in Midnight Black No 1 to top and bottom lashes·
• Apply Eye definer in Midnight Black No 1 to the upper and lower lashline, smudged in between the lashes
• Smudge Midnight Black Sheer Eyeshadow in No18 in over the liner, winged out for a cat-eye effect, also used to give the illusion of fuller lasges on the bottom lash line·
• Blend Midnight Brown Sheer Eyeshadow No 21 into the sockets for the finished look.

SKIN

• Apply Sheer Concealer to define features
• Apply Sheer Foundation mixed with Fresh Glow onto the face to create an even, radiant complexion
• Finish with a touch of Sheer Powder to reduce shine

GLOW

• Apply Rose Light Glow No 03 to bring a glow to the cheeks
  

LIPS

• Apply Lip Mist in Field Rose No213 and Lip Definer in Bright Plum No4

Here is a video tutorial featuring both models in the video - in fact, there is an official Burberry makeup channel on YouTube... check it out!

Hope this sharing is helpful, and thanks for looking!

Available 1 June 2012

Vernis S$37 each

Addict Ultra Gloss S$45 each

Dior creates Summer Mix, a pop collection that complements summer wardrobes and golden skin. The 4 nail vernis glosses in yellow, blue, pink and red give nails a glossy, slightly translucent finish distinct from Dior's classic collections, and the 4 lip glosses in orange, red, pink and gold enhance lips with irresistible shine.

Rouge Croisiere

Gold Sunrise

Orange Pareo

Rose Bikini

Acapulco

Calypso

Cosmo

Lagoon

Available 1 June 2012

Hydra Life Essence-In-Base SPF30 is the quintessential summer staple, protecting skin from UV damaging, while moisturizing, smoothing and enhancing with a fresh, melt-away and delicately rosy texture.

Beyond hydration, vibrant youthful beauty, today and tomorrow  At the heart of the Dior Gardens blossoms the secret of a new, intense hydration that diffuses moisture within the skin to help actively preserve its youthfulness and enhance its beauty.

Dior Innovation: a unique makeup base that combines triple action in a single fluid: youthful hydration, complexion enhancing results and daily UVA and UVB protection with SPF 30.

Results: skin is instantly perfected, smooth and velvety. Completely protected, skin maintains its vitality to reveal vibrant youthful beauty, today and tomorrow.

Hi hi!

This has been a haul entry which has been sitting in my drafts for several weeks.  Since end of March.. I think - when Laura Mercier first launched at Sephora.  I happened to be there, and I kind of needed to spend some $$ to get the next $40 voucher (you know how they suck you in like this) and this explains the purchase.   In any case, base products are things that I would use the most often, so it wasn't difficult to pick out a few items and try out some stuff which have been raved,and I need to try out for myself.

I bought 3 items, a liquid foundation, a cream concealer palette and lastly a eyeshadow base thing. I have been using these products pretty often the past month (of April, fyi) so I can also give you some of my quick thoughts, and whether I would recommend them.

Firstly, we have the oil-free supreme foundation - I got myself the shade Blush Ivory which is pretty much a perfect matching shade for me. To be honest, I chose this foundation because I thought it was the cheapest among their foundations (certainly cheaper compared to their famous creme foundation) but it prolly turned out to be only $4 or $5 cheaper.  I wasn't paying attention to the price tags, and just grab what I though was a $52 foundation.  (I think it cost $68). Anyway...the price is not even important.  The price points of Laura Mercier at Sephora is very comparable to US prices, so you aren't really paying rip-off prices - and that's the most important thing you need to know.

My thoughts:

While the shade is a good match for me, I couldn't help but think that it oxidises ever so slightly on me.  I was at the gym the other day, and I thought that my face look a little dull-ish (note: not worn off) in the late afternoon.  Now this could be due to the hot afternoons, sweaty days, but I have used many foundation combinations that look as fresh and light without any oxidisation throughout the day.  When you spend most afternoons running away on the treadmill - with the mirror in front of you, you get plenty of time to scrutinise your foundation!

I usually compensate the slight oxidisation by using a brightening primer, such as the Shiseido White Lucent Spot Target control (pink), or a pale BB cream (such as the Rachel K light cc cream, etc).

The finish of the foundation is semi-matte, and lasts a decent amount of time on me (8 hours at least). It is great as an everyday foundation - nothing really stands out pow wow to me.  The texture is very liquidy (not watery), reminding me of some of the Bourjois foundations. If you want a good basic foundation, this is great - you can build up coverage as required. It doesn't look cakey at all.

I usually set it with Laura Mercier translucent loose powder, or La Mer powder. If you have existing HG foundation(s), I think it is safe to give this a miss, and go straight for the silkcreme foundation instead since that's really their most highly raved foundation.  I do like it but it's not something I will be raving about unlike other foundations I have reviewed before.

Photos and details of the Oil Free Foundation:

Next, I purchased the Secret Camouflage concealer in SC-03:

This is quite a star product from Laura Mericer.  It comes with two shades in each palette, and for  mine -  one is a pale peachy nude, while the other one contains a more beigy tone. I got this after seeing Lisa Eldridge using it in many of her videos, and a few of my friends swear by this product too.

I only use this for spot concealing.  The texture is quite thick, but it applies rather smoothy on the skin.  I don't know if it is just my item, but the concealer is extremely 'solid' and doesn't seem to 'melt' creamier despite the heat of our weather.  Because of this, I find that it is much better to pick up the product with a brush (since my fingertip can't seem to pick up enough product) and use the brush to apply the concealer precisely on the spot.  Then I use my finger to lightly dab to blend in with rest of the face.  It gives good enough coverage for most of my spots.  I just wish  that it is (or maybe just mine) is creamier in consistency.

Overall, it is a decent product, and if you are looking for this type of concealer, you won't be disappointed.  It isn't my holy grail concealer though (my cle de peau stick concealer still takes the HG spot).  I believe the price is also quite reasonable ($46 I think) for the amount of product you are getting, and the fact that the compact is sturdy and comes with a mirror is an added bonus.

Lastly, we have the Eye Basics in Flax - I think it comes in 4 or 5 shades, all neutral ones like this, I think there is a Wheat, and can't remember the rest.  This is the second lightest shade.  I use this like an eyeshadow primer.

The texture is very light and smooth, and a little goes a long way.  It blends right into the skintone on my lids, and I am sure you might have noticed this product listed in most of my recent LOTDs.  Even on days when I don't use eyeshadows, I slap this on my eyelids, to even out the color, and add just the tiniest bit of sheen on my lids- kind of look fresher.  It also prevents the weird crease line you get from applying foundation all over your face. I would like to get a couple of other colors, but I doubt I would be running out of this anytime soon.  Currently, I am rotating between this, my NARS eyeshadow primer and MUFE primer for eyeshadows.

Here are swatches of all 3 products in different lighting/ indoor shade (natural daylight)

Overall, when I think Laura Mercier, I think good dependable base products and great eyeshadows - it's more like my kind of 'Bobbi Brown' if you know what I mean.  The next product  I am likely to try from LM might be one of her blushes, as I have been seeing quite a few raves online.  It's good that LM is now readily available, and you can swatch and play to your heart's content at Sephora.

I hope this has been helpful, and thank you for reading.