Clarins, Lancome, Nina Ricci Haul

Earlier today, I chanced across a Douglas perfumerie in France which was having its annual tax-free event. Douglas carries many of the major beauty brands as Sephora like Dior, Chanel, Sisley, Lancome, Shiseido etc. Since it was a rare chance to save 16.4%, I picked up a few items that I've been lemming. It turned out to be my lucky day as the SA was also incredibly generous in throwing in gifts with my purchase.

The new Clarins Gloss Prodige comes in eight flattering, easy-to-wear shades. I've swatched these several times. Finally caved today and got 05 Grenadine, 06 Raspberry and 07 Blackberry for €14.40 each (about S$24). These are retailing at S$35 in Singapore. You can see swatches of Raspberry, Blackberry plus 08 Papaya on Makeup Stash.

Out of the numerous Clarins trial sets available, I settled on the Eau des Jardins fragrance (30ml) which came with an Instant Definition Mascaral 01 Intense Black (3ml) packaged in a gold pouch. Eau des Jardins is a grapefruit-based concoction that surprises with its relaxing warmth and subtle sweetness, quite a change from the usual sharp citrus scents. This was €13 after the discount.

Biotherm Skin.ergetic and Skin.ergetic Nuit creams (15ml) were just €4.40 each.

This Lancome set of Galatée Confort (400ml) and Tonique Confort (400 ml) is for my mother who has dry skin. At just €37, it was like getting the Tonique Confort for free.

This limited edition Nina Ricci Nina Fantasy EDT was just too adorable to pass up! The fragrance is as sweet as the bottle looks.





The SA threw in a Clarins bodycare set, a massager, plus a bunch of Dior samples, including Diorshow New Look mascara.

Mag of Makeupstash likes the New Look mascara, so I'm looking forward to trying it out.

Thanks for reading!

Leighton Denny Vamp

Described as "rouge-noir, deepest red cream", Leighton Denny Vamp is a recent addition to my lacquer stash. I picked this up for a song as a freebie with Red magazine in London. Leighton Denny polishes usually retail for £11 for 12ml and are made in the UK.

On the first coat, Vamp looked more like a reddish berry but with the second and third coats, it becomes more darkened like how it appears in the bottle. I needed three coats to achieve the desired intense finish evenly but at least the formula does apply quite smoothly. I sealed it with Dior Top Coat.

Vamp plays quite well against my skin tone but the magpie in me decided to experiment by layering other shades.


Max Factor Fantasy Fire adds an even layer of micro-fine shimmer.

Nicole by OPI Top of My World shows up as a sprinkling of fine blue glitter.

City That Never Sleeps from Essence Colour 3 Nail Polish 01 Midnight Date adds irregularly shaped green flakes and micro-shimmer.

Essence Nail Art Special Effect Topper 08 Night In Vegas contains irregularly shaped holographic flakies that shift from red to orange to green.

The yellow side of Essence Colour 3 Nail Polish 01 It's Two Bright (from the Season of Extremes collection) gives it a rich, shimmery finish and greater depth with larger shimmer particles than Fantasy Fire.

Floral Delights of the Spring

Thanks to an unusually warm spring, the flowers are in full bloom over here in Europe everywhere one looks.

Love this "furry" creature!

Primroses are particularly abundant over here, popping out in cheerful bunches randomly across the grass fields. These will now always make me think of the Hunger Games.










My favourite remains the ephemeral cherry blossoms with their delicate pale pink beauty. My mother, a horticulture enthusiast, actually waved goodbye to it when we left the park as the flowers will last a couple of weeks at the most.





Yesterday actually marked the 5th anniversary of Rouge Deluxe, and it feels amazing to have come so far. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read the blog. The past five years have been the best of my life. A big part of it is because of the friendships I've made through the blog, which I'll always treasure. I never imagined that I'd have the chance to do something that connects with so many people, and to be able to have had so much fun doing it. Thank you for reading and I hope you are enjoying a beautiful spring as well!

Catrice feMALE Collection

Another new limited edition collection by Catrice for this spring, feMale celebrates the dandy look with a dash of feminine elegance through contrasting soft nude and apricot shades with masculine silver, blue and grey.



The glittery Mascara Topcoat 01 FEMIman tucked away in the corner doesn't quite fit with the dandy theme but nevertheless, it's ultra pretty with flashes of green and purple sparkle in addition to the silvery richness.


The two Lip Balm Tubes look similar to the packaging of L'Occitane hand creams.

The Eye Aquarelle Duo Chalks 01 Love Me Gender, 02 Tomboy and 03 Boys Are Back resemble the Body Shop's shimmer cubes, right down to the clear plastic cube packaging. These had medium color payoff with a soft gleam. Since I already own several Shimmer Cubes, I didn't find these to be that special or unique.


The collection also includes four nail polishes and a medium rose Cream To Powder Blush 01 A Woman's World.

Below are swatches of the three Duo Chalks and the Cream To Powder Blush (bottom left corner). You can see more swatches of the Duo Chalks on Witoxicity.

The Body Shop Spa Fit

Spotted this new Spa Fit range at my local Body Shop!

It's a home spa collection designed to offer firming and toning benefits with ingredients like caffeine. While I don't believe in firming body products, I did like the deliciously fresh orange and grapefruit scent of the Smoothing & Refining Body Scrub.

The collection also includes a Body Massager, Intensive Toning Concentrade and a Toning Massage Oil. The Massage Oil is a blend of soybean, corn, sunflower seed, tangerine peel, grapefruit seed and basil oils. The prices were ridiculously high though with the scrub going for CHF32.90 (about S$46) so I didn't purchase anything.