Shiseido Top Ten Products

A couple of weeks ago, Shiseido held a counter party to unveil its newly revamped counter at Robinsons at Raffles City as well as its current top 10 bestselling products.

The new counter looks brighter and more inviting with the skincare and makeup ranges neatly laid out to facilitate easy browsing and testing of the products.


The premium Future Solutions range gets its own dedicated corner with a consultation area.

The skincare range for men.


The Maquillage summer makeup collection introduces a new Lighting White Powdery UV foundation (S$60 for refill), two Lighting Eyes Creator quads and two Rouge Enamel Glamour glosses. You can view the TV commercials featuring Sheena Ringo and Emi Takei on the Maquillage website.



Shiseido's current top 10 products (in descending order):

1. White Lucent Intensive Spot Targeting Serum

2. Revital Lifting Mask Science EX

3. Bio-Performance Super Corrective Serum

4. White Lucent Brightening Spot Control Base UV

5. Shiseido Makeup Perfect Refining Foundation

6. Future Solution LX Concentrated Balancing Softener

7. Shiseido Makeup Perfect Rouge in Dragon

8. Revital Whitening Serum AA EX

9. Shiseido Makeup Nourishing Mascara Base

10. Maquillage Edge Free Eyelash Curler

Catrice Out Of Space collection - a dupe for Chanel Rose Platine?

i discovered the new LE display of Catrice some days ago, the new futuristic collection is called Out Of Space. i bought two items to try, a nail polish and a gel eyeliner.

the gel eyeliner is called C03 Silver's Shuttle, a medium shimmery silver. there was one more colour (a shimmery champagne) that interested me, but it was sold out.
it contains 2.2g and cost about 3.95€.
i really like the packaging, it comes in a glass jar with a reflecting silver lid with a holographic design on it.
the consistency is a lot harder than their regular gel liners, it's like a buttery cream. the texture is not very smooth because of the microglitter particles, but when i coat my eyeliner brush well it applies evenly and builds up to an opaque finish easily. i like to wear it a bit sheer on the lower lashline thanks to its light catching qualities, the shade is too light for me to frame my upper lashline. by giving a cool toned shine it really reminds me of Chanel's Rose Platine eyeliner but the Chanel liner is more complex and tan because of its copper sparkle bits so it blends in your skin colour more beautiful. the effect on the lower lash line is almost comparable, though. i think this is a good affordable alternative to Chanel Rose Platine for everyone who missed it. the longevity is good, but not as good as with Chanel - the rub test shows it impressively.

this is how it looks worn:

i'm wearing it on the outer half of the lid and on the lower lashline.

comparison to Chanel Rose Platine

Catrice Silver's Shuttle left - Chanel Rose Platine right

after the rub-test:

Catrice is almost completely faded while Chanel still goes strong.

the nail polish is called C02 Houston's Favourite, a dark navy base colour with tons of teal shimmer and microglitter. it contains 9ml and costs 2.49€. it has the same flat wide brush as the regular nail polishes by Catrice. the texture is good, it applies evenly and streak-free. drying time is average but because of the sparkling bits it dries down to a rather dull finish which requires a shiny top coat. i already had very apparent tip wear after 1 day.

Too Faced The Bronzed & The Beautiful

The Too Faced summer makeup collection has just arrived at Sephora stores in Singapore.

The Bronzed & The Beautiful - French Riviera Edition (S$64) contains three of Too Faced's bestselling bronzing formulas in Chocolate Soleil (matte, cocoa-infused bronzer), Sun Bunny (golden-hued bronzer) and Snow Bunny (pink and mocha gold), plus Powdered Sun (a golden highlight powder) and a deluxe sample tube of Primed & Poreless SPF 20 Tinted Primer. The palette looks very appealing but I passed on it as I don't use bronzers.

The cruelty-free Retractable Kabuki Brush (S$52) feels very silky but I'm not sure why this is displayed instead of the Retractable Bronze-buki Brush. The Bronze-buki Brush is in stock and retailing at S$52.

The Eye Love Palette (S$55) contains eight powder eyeshadows from Too Faced's popular Natural Eye, Smoky Eye, Naked Eye and Romantic Eye Palettes, plus a small tube of Shadow Insurance. Sephora USA had earlier offered this palette as a 500-point perk for Beauty Insiders. It is also available on ASOS.com for £24.

Bare Escentuals

Sephora Singapore is offering complimentary "make-unders" and samples of Bare Escentuals bareMinerals foundation from now till 23 July.

Aftelier Perfumes Cacao: voodoo for your inner child

The power of an original and successful gourmand fragrance cannot be underestimated. It has the ability to entice, boost moods, trigger childhood memories of foods your family used to make for you, comfort the soul and induce amorous feelings in a way that no other style of fragrance can. Gourmand perfumes with tremendous lasting power and a chemical-tinged vanillic background exist in abundance in the open market, with any number of variables used to distinguish one from the next. There are a few synthetic or blended gourmand scents that I think are excellent, namely from Guerlain, but when dealt with in the world of naturals, it is more difficult than you would think to create something that rises above all-- synthetic, blended or otherwise. Aftelier Perfumes Cacao manages to do this.

notes: blood orange, pink grapefruit, jasmine sambac and grandiflorum, chocolate, vanilla


After applying this perfume, the first thing I am struck with is the perfect blending of fruit acids and chocolate cream. I am not actually a person who likes to eat chocolate all that much, but when I do, I love it with orange or raspberry. Not once have I thought to seek out something similar for a personal fragrance for myself, but when it fell into my lap in the form of Cacao, I recognized it immediately: this is my soul dessert. To be honest, I'm much happier wearing it than eating it. I don't even think about it as a perfume; when I smell it on my skin, it betrays any desire I might have to retain ladylike composure and it just makes me want to giggle. Cacao offers up a direct line to the inner child in an impossibly sophisticated manner. I am able to converse with her while my feet are still firmly planted in adulthood. A really good perfume can do that, it is an emotional and psychological bridge to another time in your life.

One of the things that helps Cacao become such an outstanding gourmand is how the jasmine is used here. It brings a certain authenticity to the blend as well as provides a weighted center for the citrus and the chocolate, preventing it from becoming too sweet. I think of it as an olfactory see-saw that is suspended from movement. The natural jasmine stabilizes and grounds the perfume by adding a pinch of rich earthiness. It's much like attending a magic show as a child; you may sense that there is a logical explanation for the mind-numbingly cool things you are bearing witness to, but there's no need to think about it too much. All that's required of the wearer is to enjoy it, which is increasingly easy to do each time I dab it on. Cacao does not come across as complicated in the least, in fact, it would fall under the umbrella of "simple pleasures". Yet, I am certain that creating this seemingly facile, cheerful and satisfying composition was no mean feat. Naturals can be deceptive that way. Mandy seems to work her own personal brand of voodoo, and while I would never dare ask her secrets, I will always be there to enthusiastically devour the spoils. For Mandy Aftel, the Marie Laveau of natural perfumery, mystery abounds and sometimes, things are not quite what you think they are. They're better.

[image: bonappetit.com]

[Aftelier Cacao is available at Aftelier.com in perfume and EDP concentrations, and samples are also available. My sample was provided by the perfumer]

erm... Kosmetik Kosmo.

Kosmetik Kosmo is the online shop of a german youtuber, she also has some own products sold on there. normally i don't sympathise with this youtuber's-shop-thing, especially when i notice intensive self-promotion on the youtuber's social media platforms.
from trustworthy sources i have heard that these particular products i ended up to purchase have a decent quality, so i drifted from my reluctance to order from such shops - well, with cosmetics my flesh is usually weak even when the will is strong :P
when browsing the online shop i was happy to find very good swatches/pictures and thorough information on each product, as well as some videos where the youtuber showed some looks created with the products and how they look applied.
i especially wanted to try their own brand's gold eyeshadows on my search for a good NARS Etrusque dupe. and since i was curious about this brush in particular for a long time anyway, it was allowed to hop into my shopping basket ;)
i paid about 4€ for the delivery, my order came with UPS within 3 working days.

i ordered two eyeshadows in refill pan form, they contain 1.5g and cost 3.99€ each (while the compact costs 4.99€) and are the same size as MAC pans (26mm in diameter). they are not magnetic, so i had to stick magnets on the bottom to keep them in my MAC palette. i ordered the shades "Braungold" (brown gold) and "Grüngold" (green gold) from the metallic line.

Braungold is a very intense honey  gold shade that reminds me of curcuma or curry powder. it has a strong red gold shimmer and is a really really warm shade.
 

here i'm wearing it on the inner 2/3 of the lid:

Grüngold is a cool gold with a green tint, it pulls more like a chartreuse on me. it has a metallic finish.

i'm wearing Grüngold on the inner half of the lid:

both eyeshadows are smooth and have a velvety feel. they are softly pressed and the product pay-off from the pan is rather high. i find that the Grüngold shades tends to ball up a bit more than Braungold. the pigmentation level is high for both shades, although Braungold is especially opaque. both shades apply evenly and blend out well. fall out is very little. on a good base these shades last all day on me without creasing. these are good eyeshadows but i don't know if the non-metallic shades also have the same quality, at least they appear more sheer from the shop-swatches.
oh, and both are NO dupes to NARS Etrusque (but you will get a proper comparison later ;)).

the brush is a blush brush from the KK brand - it's called Rouge Rosi and costs 10.99€. i really dislike the name. it's a limited edition version with pink bristles (these brushes once were limited to 1000 pieces (like a year ago), i have No. 129/1000 but i don't know what the matter is with this when they still haven't sold out yet...). it's handmade in germany - i don't think this should be a major buying argument especially with brushes though.

it's a rather big size for a blush brush, comparable to the size of my MAC 129. it has a round shape which is nice to blend in your blushes with the brush tip in circular motions. i find it too big to place your blush colour precisely.
i only ordered the LE version because i think white goat hair is softer than dark. it's made of pink dyed white goat hair, it's quite soft and feels smooth on the face. it's fluffy but densely packed and has a good flexibility. it's suited for sheer blushes that you can apply on bigger areas since the goat hair picks up a good amount of product (when compared to squirrel hair). i initially wanted this brush to use as a small powder brush, it acts well in that function, too.
i have washed it a few times now, although it fluffed out a bit, it didn't bleed out pink dye. it lost about 10 hairs until now, nothing major. it doesn't smell and the handle quality is also good. so overall it's a very good brush for the money.

pre-wash

post-wash

comparison

to regular blush brushes:

MAC 116 - Kosmetik Kosmo Rouge Rosi - A'Squirrel Pure Squirrel Blush Brush - MakeUpShow Blush Brush H02

MAC 116 - Kosmetik Kosmo Rouge Rosi - A'Squirrel Pure Squirrel Blush Brush - MakeUpShow Blush Brush H02

 

to round brushes:

Hakuhodo 210 - MAC 109 - Trish McEvoy Face Blender #48 - ÍPSA Brush 2 - Kosmetik Kosmo Rouge Rosi - Essence Blush Brush - Hakuhodo Large Pointed Yachiyo

Hakuhodo 210 - MAC 109 - Trish McEvoy Face Blender #48 - ÍPSA Brush 2 - Kosmetik Kosmo Rouge Rosi - Essence Blush Brush - Hakuhodo Large Pointed Yachiyo