Topshop Sandstorm Collection

Met up with Mag for lunch today at Ion after which we headed to Topshop to check out the new Sandstorm makeup collection.


I had picked up Zephyr Eye Crayon, Tundra Eyeshadow Mousse and Perpetual Liner during my trip to London back in February. At that time, the baked Duo Eye Shadows and Cheek Duo were not available yet so I was delighted to find them in Topshop today. You can see swatches of the collection in this earlier post.

After seeing how well the baked Duo Eye Shadows swatched on Mag's hand, both of us were immediately sold on the two duos.


The eye shadows can be applied either dry or wet for greater intensity. These feel velvety smooth to touch and have a lovely metallic finish. At S$19 for 2.5g, these compare quite well to MAC's Mineralize Eyeshadows which were S$35 for 3.2g (for the Venomous Villains collection) and the Body Shop's Baked Eye Colors which are S$22.90 for 2g.

The packaging is typical Topshop, very lightweight and simple albeit a tad bulky. The rose gold and beige scheme make for a nice change from the usual white plastic packaging.

The pic below shows Meteoric (silver x burgundy) and Solar Cell (blue x stormy grey) swatched dry without any primer underneath. The extreme right of each row is the darker shade of each duo applied over Zephyr Eye Crayon (jet black).


Desert Sun Cheek Duo (S$29) has a dryer texture and is less pigmented than the eyeshadows. When brand new, there's a faint honeycomb-like pattern across the surface which makes it feel rough to touch but this gets evened out quickly with use. The tester in the store was much smoother to touch. As it is not very pigmented, Desert Sun is likely to work best on fair skintones. It adds a very subtle healthy glow.


The Topshop makeup line is available only at the Topshop stores in Ion Orchard and Knightsbridge.

Here's the look that I did today with Zephyr Eye Crayon (along the upper lashline) paired with some green Sleek eyeshadows. Zephyr is intensely pigmented and glides on quite smoothly with minimal tugging at the eyelid. It sets quite fast so one has to be quick in blending it.

Of my earlier purchase, the only item that I didn't really like was Perpetual Liner, which proved tricky to apply smoothly. I'll do some looks later this week with the Duo Eye Shadows and Desert Sun.

Topshop Sandstorm Collection

Topshop's Spring/Summer 2011 makeup collection, "Sandstorm", has just arrived in stores in the UK. The eclectic collection of molten metallic hues contrasted with bright neons, showcased in ad visuals with a bohemian tribal vibe, is an unusual take on spring but most of the products are actually very wearable.

Here are swatches of most of the makeup products (missing the Liner in Infinite and baked eyeshadows and blush which would arrive later in March). The collection also includes two sets of nailpolish duos.

The Lipgloss Sticks (£8) had a nice glossy finish and needed just a couple of layers to show up.

The Creme Lipcolours (£7.50) are creamy opaque mattes. These looked a bit difficult to pull off.

I loved the Eyeshadow Mousse (£8), which felt softer and less dense than MAC Paint Pots. These applied very smoothly and glisten very prettily under the shop lights.

Tundra is a lovely pale gold-tinged olive.

The Liners (£8) are very well pigmented and once they set, they are completely budgeproof. It took several minutes of scrubbing with a Topshop makeup wipe to get it off. A cleansing oil should be able to melt it off much less effortlessly.

The Crayons (£8.60) were equally tenacious and my hand was red by the time I managed to scrub Zephyr off with the wipe. These are basically like MAC Shadesticks and would work well as an eyeshadow or as a base for powder eyeshadows.

Both glided on smoothly without dragging and had good colour payoff, especially Zephyr (below) which would be perfect for doing a smoky eye look. The Crayons have a more intense finish than the Eyeshadow Mousses.

I came home with the Crayon in Zephyr, Liner in Perpetual and Eyeshadow Mousse in Tundra. The gold metal packaging of this collection is a classy upgrade from the white plastic of the permanent line. I liked the splatter print with tiny hearts on the Lipgloss Sticks and Crayons. The products are made in Italy.

A charming Topshop window display featuring a waterfall of teacups.



The video tutorials for Sandstorm.

Topshop Future Nails

Last week, I was sporting Topshop Nails in Future, a limited edition shade from the Heavy Duty Fall 2010 collection. This was quite affordable at just £6 for 8ml. In Singapore, I think the nail polishes retail at around S$13.

I love the rich midnight blue shade which worked well with my skintone. A number of friends also complimented it!

The nail polish applies smoothly and two coats was sufficient to produce an opaque finish. With a Sally Hansen topcoat and Paul & Joe base, the polish lasted on my nails for a week with just a teensy bit of tipwear and no major chips.

Visee Glam Nude Eyes N6 Rose Pink Fur

A few readers had asked for a review of the Visee Glam Nude Eyes N-6 Rose Pink Fur that I purchased during my recent trip. Rose Pink Fur is a limited edition palette from Visee's fall collection, which was produced in collaboration with a Japanese fashion brand, Royal Party. The collection also includes N7 Blond Fur and a Lash Blossom (Volume) mascara in BK002 Brown Black Fur. I skipped N7 Blond Fur as it is a beige/brown-themed palette that just did not appeal to me. The wonderful Kathi has reviewed the whole collection on Lotus Palace so do check out her review as well!

Visee makes some of the most affordable and good quality palettes that you can find in Japanese drugstores. The Glam Nude Eyes palettes are 1890yen each but it is quite common for Visee to be discounted by 25% to 30% in the major drugstores in Japan. I paid only 1323yen (about S$21) for Rose Pink Fur. I like the slim lightweight packaging, which makes the palette very convenient for travel, as compared to palettes from higher end brands which tend to be bulkier and heavier. The included applicator is alright although I found the sponge end to be a tad small.

The light beige shade in the top right corner is a cream base while the other four shades are powder eyeshadows with a bit of a glimmer, nothing too frosty or metallic. For ladies who are not sure about the order in which to use the shades, it is actually quite simple. Simply start with the light beige cream shade as the base, and then work your way through the shades in a counter-clockwise fashion, ending with the pink-toned beige which is meant to be dusted over the rest of the shades for an added glow.

Using Beauté de Kosé Eye Fantasist PK857 Sugar Glazed Pink as the base, I used the brush to sweep the medium pink shade over the eye socket area and the light pink shade over the browbone area. Next, I used the sponge applicator to apply the dark mauve shade along the upper and lower lashline.

I finished by using Laura Mercier Black Violet Khol Eye Pencil along the upper lashline and the outer half of the lower lashline and applying the Visee Lash Wide Impact (Curl Long) BK002 mascara.

For the rest of the look, I used Skin79 Lovely Girl BB Cream topped with a Paul & Joe face powder, Topshop Crushed Berry cream blush and Gloom gloss, Lancome Teint Miracle Natural Light Creator Bare Skin Perfecting Corrector Pen #1 and K-Palette Real Lasting Eyebrow 01.

Overall, I think Rose Pink Fur is a nice palette to have for the daytime/office, when you prefer to keep your eye makeup simple and just want to make your eyes look more defined and alert without having to bother with complicated shading techniques or colour combinations. The shades tend to blend into one another, so you may have to use shades from other palettes or a separate eyeliner for greater contrast. I don't find the shades to be particularly unique but they would be very easy for most ladies to wear.

The Gloom lipgloss is from Topshop's fall Heavy Duty collection, which is now available at the new Topshop flagship store that has just opened in Knightsbridge (next to Paragon and opposite Mandarin Hotel). I read that several items from the collection has already sold out though. Gloom looks like a gothic blackened plum in the tube but actually it applies quite sheer and gives a lovely berry tint of colour. It feels quite moisturising but the applicator tends to come out of the tube with just a teensy glob of gloss at the end, so it takes about six or seven pumps in and out of the tube to get enough gloss for one application.

The Skin79 Lovely Girl BB Cream is actually a freebie that was included with this bumper pack of My Beauty Diary masks that is currently available at Watsons. The Lovely Girl BB Cream itself is not sold in Singapore. It comes in 5g tube that can be attached to your bag/purse much like the deluxe sample tubes of other Skin79 BB creams that you can purchase now at Watsons in a set of four.


Of all the Skin79 BB creams that I've tried, Lovely Girl has the lightest texture. If you have tried BB Creams before, you would know that most tend to have a thick, rather dense texture. Lovely Girl felt more like a traditional foundation and it was a breeze to apply. It's not watery but rather, it's a very light cream that virtually melded into my skin without any streaking or caking. The shade was also a perfect match for me with fairly good coverage and helped to even out my skintone.

Here's the ingredients list.

Thanks for reading!

London Trip Photos Part 2

On my London trip, I spent most of my free time at the Regent Street and Oxford Street where most of the major stores can be found. One of my first stops was naturally the massive Topshop flagship store at Oxford Circus. I was surprised to find that it actually opens from 9am to 9pm on most days.

The Heavy Duty fall makeup collection was on display so I did quite a bit of damage there :-)


One of my favourite UK fashion brands, Oasis, which is sadly still not available in Singapore.

Liberty was also high on my agenda thanks to my recent fascination with Liberty prints. I didn't explore it beyond the beauty section on the ground floor previously. This time, I spent the most time on the third floor exploring the Liberty prints.


I didn't get any photos of the interior of the store so below is a pic from the Liberty mook. Liberty is a very charming and entirely unique shopping experience unto itself so I highly recommend checking it out if you visit London.

There's a colourful flower shop at one of the entrances!





I also stumbled upon Carnaby Street where there were a number of makeup stores including Benefit and the Make Up Store.




Several brands like Benefit, Estee Lauder, Guerlain and Laura Mercier already had their holiday collections on sale in London.

The Pixi store.



Over at the Lush store on Regent Street, the window was done up for the Mexican Day of the Dead.


And finally, I was quite excited to find the Superdrug on Oxford Street near Marble Arch as I was on the hunt for Sleek after reading tons of rave reviews about their eyeshadow palettes. There is another Superdrug in Bond Street Station which also stocks Sleek.

Next up, my shopping haulage!