Paul & Joe Accessories and Elizabeth Arden Pure Finish Mineral Cheekcolor

Aside from Tokidoki bags, Paul & Joe accessories are also on sale at Takashimaya (at level basement 2 of Ngee Ann City). It's an eclectic selection of bracelets, necklaces, rings and anklets with owls, tortoises, butterflies and birds. The sale runs until this Sunday.



The makeup brands on sale include Elizabeth Arden, Fasio, Paul & Joe and Guerlain. I picked up the Arden Pure Finish Mineral Cheekcolor in Sunkissed Rose for S$25, down from the original price of S$40+. This is also available in Sunkissed Coral, which has been reviewed on Makeup & Beauty Blog.

The brush is scratchy and pretty much worthless but I liked the cheerful summery packaging and the shaving mechanism. Sunkissed Rose is a sheer glowy rose pink.

Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Ultra Lift and Firm Makeup & Ceramide Ultra Lipstick

Over the past week, I've been trying out Elizabeth Arden's new Ceramide Ultra Lift and Firm Makeup SPF15 (S$87, 32g). The foundation is designed to help skin look firmer and more lifted, and is suitable for normal to dry skin. I've written about the ingredients in an earlier post so I won't repeat that again here.

As my skin is oily, I wasn't expecting the foundation to work wonders on me. Despite being a cream foundation, it actually feels quite lightweight and gives sheer to medium coverage with a slightly dewy finish. I still need to blot about every 1.5 hours though. The shade 02 Vanilla Shell was a good match for my skintone and it didn't oxidise after several hours of wear but I did notice a little bit of caking. I tried using the sponge-tipped Makeup Blender Brush to apply it but it couldn't give a seamless finish and so I still needed to blend it in with my fingertips, especially over areas with acne scars or enlarged pores

Overall, it's not an amazing foundation for me as I would prefer a foundation with better oil control and which required less effort to blend but one has to remember that the foundation is actually meant for more mature and dry skin types.

I liked the Ceramide Ultra Lipstick #1 Rouge (S$40) much better as it has a gorgeous creamy consistency that glides smoothly onto the lips and is very well pigmented. If I don't eat or drink, it lasts more than 5 hours on me but with some bleeding around the outer edge of my lips. (Using a lipliner would help to prevent bleeding.) When cleaned off with tissue, it leaves a slight pinkish stain on my lips.

Compared to my other favourite red lipsticks like Burberry Lip Cover Soft Satin Lipstick #20 Hibiscus and Tom Ford Lip Color in Smoke Red, Rouge is a slightly brighter shade of red that reminds one of Arden's Red Door. Such a vivid shade can be high maintenance but a classic red lip never goes out of style.

Below is the list of ingredients for the foundation.

And for the lipstick.

Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Ultra Makeup

This season, Elizabeth Arden will be launching its new Ceramide Ultra Lift and Firm Makeup SPF15 (S$87, 32g). The moisturising cream foundation is designed for normal to dry skin and helps to provide a luminous finish with medium to full coverage.

The ultra luxe foundation contains a Ceramide Triple Complex, which is a blend of skin-identical ceramides 1, 3 and 6 enhanced with phytosphingosine to help nourish and plump up skin, making it look firmer. It also contains natural botanical extracts like red clover and alpina leaf, Vitamins A, C and E to help soothe the skin and an Advanced Moisture Complex to lock in moisture. Snap-8 (acetyl glutamyl heptapeptide-1), a powerful peptide, helps to plump up skin while hibiscus seed extract helps to maintain skin's natural collagen, elastin and protein network. Polymer-coated pigments prove comfortable, color-true coverage while mica and alumina reduce the appearance of fine lines and imperfections by creating a luminous, soft focus effect. Octinoxate and titanium dioxide help to protect against UVB and UVA rays.

The foundation will be available in 8 shades. I'm afraid I didn't take note of the shade numbers for the two shades in the bottom row in the photo below but they should be 06, 07 or 08.

Ceramide Ultra Lift and Firm Makeup will be launched exclusively tomorrow (Friday) at Takashimaya before it rolls out island-wide on 20 May. At Takashimaya, you can enjoy a makeover with a photoshoot session with purchase of a $60 voucher that is fully redeemable. Each purchase of the Ceramide Ultra Makeup during this promotional period (13-19 May) will come with a free Makeup Blender Brush. The blender brush usually retails for US$15 in the US but it will not be sold by itself in Singapore. Just call 6735-7605 for an appointment.

There is also a new Ceramide Ultra Lift and Firm Concealer (S$39, 5.5ml) in three shades to help smooth over fine lines and cover dark circles.

Arden is also rolling out a new Ceramide Ultra Lipstick (S$40, 3.5g) in 16 shades. Encased in a sleek gold tube inspired by the iconic Elizabeth Arden Red Door, the lipstick contains the Ceramide Triple Complex and Volulip, an advanced peptide complex with intensive moisturising abilities. It also has Tahitian gardenia extract to sooth the lips, rainforest shea butter to moisturise and Vitamins A, C and E for antioxidant protection.

The shades range between medium to full coverage with a selection of cream, shimmer and pearl finishes. Of the 16 shades, my favourites were #1 Rouge (classic red) and #8 Coral Vibrations (bright coral). Among the Arden staff, #21 Watermelon is very popular.




You can also check out the Arden Facebook page for more information.

To stand a chance to win Arden's upcoming new Green Tea Camellia fragrance, simply visit the L'Officiel Facebook page and share what you like about the Green Tea collection. There are 5 bottles to be won and the closing date is 31 May. Good luck!

Elizabeth Arden Green Tea Camellia and Prevage White Targeted Skin Tone Corrector

For a light refreshing fragrance, one can never go wrong with Elizabeth Arden's bestselling Green Tea perfume. At a bloggers' event earlier this week, we were introduced to the new flanker, Green Tea Camellia Eau de Toilette. Created by Rodrigo Flores-Roux, Green Tea Camellia is inspired by ikebana (the art of traditional Japanese flower arrangement). The most elevated form of ikebana is "chabana"/茶花 ("cha" means tea; while "bana" means flower), which is a flower arrangement for the Japanese tea ceremony. Camellias were called the queen of tea ceremony flowers as the camellia sasanqua flower was often used as the centrepiece for the chabana flower arrangement.

Green Tea Camellia features the following notes:

Top - bergamot, yuzu, lemon, green tea and ume plum
Middle - green tea leaves, camellia sasanqua, white peony, Chinese magnolia, jasmine petals, mandarin tree blossom
Bottom - angelica musk, white birch, moss, sweet spices

On my skin, the sharp citrus notes of yuzu and lemon dominate at first but these fade after about 10 minutes to reveal a more softly floral heart. Compared to the original Green Tea, Green Tea Camellia smells more womanly. The fragrance remains quite sheer and subtle even with 4-5 spritzes so you don't have to worry about overpowering the rest of the room. The lasting power is not that fantastic on me but most fragrances don't last beyond 4 hours on me. After about 3 hours, I can barely detect it on my wrist.

Green Tea Camellia is available in the 50ml and 100ml sizes, retailing at S$59 and S$83 respectively.

Another new product from Arden is the Prevage White Targeted Skin Tone Corrector (S$224, 30ml). This features a combination of Soy Ferulate-C with Idebenone, a powerful antioxidant that helps to improve skin clarity and fight the visible signs of aging. Soy Ferulate helps to shield skin from environmental assaults that can trigger melanin production while Vitamin C helps to disrupt the melanin formation cycle. Most whitening skincare products focus only on the melanin cycle but Prevage White not only helps to interrupt the melanin production process but it also helps to protect from environmental exposure and stresses.

The Targeted Skin Tone Corrector can be used on its own all over the face. Alternatively, it can also be used together with the Prevage Face Advanced Anti-aging Serum: simply apply the serum all over the face and then apply the Skin Tone Corrector over the areas with dark spots and pigmentation. Compared to the Anti-aging Serum, I found that the Targeted Skin Tone Corrector feels more lightweight and absorbs more easily without making the skin feel oily. It still has the distinctive Prevage scent. It promises to make dark spots and discolorations look lighter and less noticeable in just two weeks. I'll be trying out the sample that we were given to see if it lives up to that claim.

For news about product launches and promotions, do check out the Elizabeth Arden Singapore Facebook page.

Robinsons Preview Sale

Here are some of the beauty GWPs that will be available at Robinsons' cardmembers' preview sale from 13-23 January. These GWPs are available to all shoppers. The extra gifts for cardmembers are those marked with "CM".

Elizabeth Arden Prevage Eye

A couple of months ago, I was sent samples of the Elizabeth Arden's new Prevage Eye Advanced Anti-aging Serum and Ultra Protection Anti-Aging Moisturizer SPF15 PA++. Both products contain idebenone (a powerful antioxidant that helps to protect against free radicals that cause skin to age) in a new compatible ester delivery system, as well as I-seryl Complex (acetyl tetrapeptide-5), which is a peptide that helps skin to look firmer and less puffy.

The Prevage Eye Advanced Anti-aging Serum (S$186, 15ml) also contains other powerful antioxidants such as green tea and lypochromin-6, plus marine algae extract and soy protein which help the skin to look firmer. After using this regularly for the past few weeks, the skin around my eyes feels much more hydrated and plump.

It can't cause the fine lines under my eyes to vanish completely but it does help to reduce their appearance. Keeping the skin around the eyes well-hydrated is also key to preventing and delaying the emergence of more fine lines. The serum absorbs well without any greasiness. Here's the ingredients list.

The Prevage Eye Ultra Protection Anti-Aging Moisturizer (S$186, 15ml) has a slightly denser and creamier texture than the serum. This is recommended for daytime use as it has broad spectrum sun protection against both UVA and UVB rays. This comes in a pot packaging with a spatula. It contains an advanced moisture complex that is a blend of hyaluronic acid with other humectants and a polymer to help lock moisture deep within the skin. A botanical blend of siegesbeckia orientalis and rabdosia rubescens extract also helps to reduce the effects of oxidative stress to promote a more even skintone.

Of the two products, I prefer the Advanced Anti-aging Serum as it has a lighter texture and comes in a more hygienic tube packaging whereas the Ultra Protection Anti-Aging Moisturizer feels oily on my skin. Here's the ingredients list for the Ultra Protection Anti-Aging Moisturizer.

The press kit also included this wonderful little photo-book showcasing Arden's products of yesteryear. Arden celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2010.

Sightings at Changi T3

I was at Changi Airport Terminal 3 dutyfree last night and saw some great deals there. First up is the Guerlain holiday collection. The Meteorites Perles D'Or are S$66.50 (versus S$81 at Tangs Orchard) while the Or Imperial Sublime Radiant Powder Face & Body is just S$100 (versus S$121 at Tangs).

The prices are just a few dollars more compared to what I paid at London Heathrow dutyfree for the Meteorites and the eyeshadow palette. I paid about S$64.50 for the Meteorites and S$68.30 for the palette.

The immensely popular Dior Minaudiere has pretty much sold out at virtually all the counters in town. At T3, there was still several pieces of 002 left, at S$81.50 (versus S$100 in town). They did not have the Minaudiere 001. The gorgeous 5 Golds quint has also sold out although Endless Shine is still available.

This is a travel exclusive Lancome set.

The gift with purchase of S$160.

And if you spend S$200 on Lancome, you can purchase this set below for S$160. It includes a 30ml Genefique.

Elizabeth Arden is giving away a Ceramide Cream blush with purchase of a Pretty fragrance. They also had some lipsticks for just S$14 and the Face Powder Brush for S$29 (versus S$41 in town).

I didn't buy anything except for a couple of boxes of bak kwa (roasted BBQ pork) for the hubby, to add to all the other snacks that I'm bringing to him in New Delhi. Yes, he's a total junk food junkie!