Sunday Shopping Spree (Clinique, Stila, Holika Holika, Hello Kitty)

Did a bit of shopping in town today!

My first stop was Isetan Scotts to pick up the Clinique Black Honey Superbalm Moisturizing Gloss (S$26, 15ml). According to the SA, each counter received only 20 pieces of the lipgloss, which was selling fast. When I picked up mine in the morning, there were only 10 left. Do also check out Joey's and Sophia's posts on the press event.

Next at Tangs Orchard, I was happy to find that the Stila Striking in South Beach palette had arrived at the Escentials boutique.

It retails at S$29 here, versus US$14 in the US. But thanks to a combination of using my Tangs Citibank bonus dollars and Escentials points, I paid just S$20 for it. Now, I just need Wonderful in Waikiki and Living the Life in Laguna to complete my collection!

At Guardian Pharmacy in Ion, I picked up the My Beauty Diary Aegean Sea Pink Rockrose Mask and Mediterranean Orange Blossom Mask. These were on sale at S$5.95 each for a box of 5 masks. I think the usual price is S$6.95.

Also snagged this BRTC sampler pack of four BB creams at half price for just S$8.90. The manufacturing date is 26 Nov 2009 with the expiry date in November 2012.

At Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City, I came across these Hello Kitty accessories with a cute lace motif.


Since there was a 10% discount on stationery items for members, I decided to get the laptop sleeve.


The case fits my 13-inch white MacBook perfectly.

My Melody stationery with a UK flag theme.

At Holika Holika, the Aqua Petit Jelly BB display caught my eye. The Jelly BB SPF20 PA++, which comes in two shades, has a wonderfully light texture and looks quite natural when swatched.

There is a matching Jelly Starter which serves as an illuminating and hydrating primer. This doesn't add any colour to the skin but instead, gives it an added glow.


The Jelly BB and Jelly Starter retail at S$32.90 each. If you are a Holika member, you can enjoy a 10% discount. (A $100 purchase qualifies you for the membership.) For National Day, Holika is also offering a 20% discount on selected products, plus gifts with purchase of S$40, S$60 and S$80 (see the details on their Facebook page).

With my purchase, I received a pack of Juicy Hawaii Orangeade Lip & Eye Remover Tissue wipes.

Also saw the hoarding of the upcoming H&M store, which will be opening on 3 September. It's probably the most anticipated fashion store opening of the year in Singapore, but I've never had much luck shopping in H&M.

Hope you had a good weekend too!

My Beauty Diary haul from *Scape flea market

While heading to Gongcha to get my bubble tea fix yesterday, I chanced across a stall at the flea market at *Scape selling My Beauty Diary masks. Not only did they have the Hello Kitty Honey Strawberry masks that I have been searching high and low for in Watsons, they also had the Damask Rose Ice Cream Masks (done in collaboration with Cold Stone Creamery) and Earl Grey Tea & Macaron. The flea market at *Scape seems to take place quite regularly on most weekends .

Both the Hello Kitty and Earl Grey Tea were S$12 for a box of ten masks while the Damask Rose Ice Cream was S$7 for a box of five. The stall also sold the masks individually at between S$1 to S$2, depending on the scent. In comparison, Watsons is selling the Hello Kitty Strawberry Milk masks at S$16.90. And yes, I did compare the Honey Strawberry masks very closely with the Strawberry Milk masks that I purchased at Watsons to check for authenticity, and everything matched up (e.g. the Sanrio stickers on the box, the embossing of the manufacturing and expiry dates on the mask packets).

The Honey Strawberry version contains a different mix of extracts from Strawberry Milk, like pineapple, lime, cucumber and strawberry. It is recommended for dehydrated, rough skin. Below is the ingredients list.

Damask Rose is part of a limited edition Blooming of Beauty collection done in conjunction with the earlier International Floral Expo in Taiwan. It is supposed to help hydrate and brighten up skin.


The Eary Grey Tea & Macaron is recommended for restoring hydration and elasticity to dull skin that lacks suppleness. It contains extracts of blueberry, sugar maple, orange, lemon peel, rosa canina fruit, acerola fruit etc (ingredients list is below). It is from the Sweet Tea Time collection, which also includes Chocolate Truffle.

All the masks have expiry dates in 2014, which gives me plenty of time to use them up!

Hello Kitty My Beauty Diary and Crabtree & Evelyn

Crabtree & Evelyn has teamed up with Hello Kitty for the first time on a clutch of tote and travel bags featuring floral motifs from C&E's Floral Fragrance line. From 6-30 June, these bags are available as the gifts with purchase of various amounts at Crabtree & Evelyn stores.

With purchase of S$160 in a single receipt, you can receive the pink Rosewater tote bag.

With purchase of S$260, you will get both the Rosewater tote bag and the Lavender tote bag (below).

And finally with purchase of S$360, you get an additional Iris travel bag and large pouch. While the Hello Kitty designs are cute, I wasn't sufficiently impressed by the quality of the bags to want to splurge on them.

A much more affordable fix for Hello Kitty aficionados would be the new My Beauty Diary Hello Kitty Strawberry Milk masks that are now available at Watsons at S$16.90 for a box of ten masks.

There are three designs for the individual mask packaging but the sheet masks are all Strawberry Milk which is recommended for restoring radiance and luminosity to skin that is dull and rough. Each mask is drenched in 23ml of beauty essence fluid.

The scent reminds me very much of Strawberry Pocky! Fortunately, it's not too cloying for me.

Below is the list of ingredients.

Sightings at Watsons

Spotted some new products at the Watsons in Ngee Ann City, like these Chupa Chups Lipglosses and Lip Balms by Kiss Me.

The scented lipglosses come with plastic spatula applicators and appear to have a bit of shimmer.



There are also new My Beauty Diary sheet mask sets in an Alice in Wonderland-themed packaging. These seem to contain the usual scents instead of new ones. There are 17 masks in each set, with three sets to choose from.


Revlon has released four Custom Eyes Shadow & Liner palettes (S$23.90). The shade combinations look quite pretty but there were no testers so I wasn't able to try them out. You can see swatches of all the palettes on FacesbySarah.

Bourjois' new Bio-detox Organic Foundations comprise 98.8% natural ingredients and also contain chlorophyll to help filter pollution. As usual, the shade selection is very limited with only two shades for the powder foundation. The online reviews for the Bio-detox liquid foundation don't appear to be all that positive though.

As Watsons was having its preview sale for members today at select stores, I took the opportunity to snag the Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Gel Foundation, Correcting Concealer and Healthy-Glow Foundation as there was a 20%+10% discount on Bourjois. I've been wanting to try the Serum Gel Foundation after reading positive reviews about it. I also picked up two boxes of Schwarzkopf Palette Deluxe in Intensive Red Ruby as my earlier hair color by Liese Cassis Berry Bubble Hair Color is looking more brown-toned than red now and my grey hairs are looking quite obvious again (sigh).

My Beauty Diary Chocolate Mask

Spotted this new My Beauty Diary "I Love Chocolate. I Love Rose. I Love Mom" set at Guardian Pharmacy in Ion Orchard yesterday!

The set includes 6 pieces each of the Chocolate Mask and the Bulgarian White Rose Mask. Retailing at S$18.90, that works out to be $1.57 per sheet mask. The set is exclusive to Guardian Pharmacy. The masks were manufactured in January 2011 and have an expiry date of January 2014.

I like to use My Beauty Diary masks when my skin is looking dull and dehydrated. I've tried the Chocolate Mask before and the chocolate scent takes a bit of getting used to but otherwise, it works pretty much like any other My Beauty Diary mask and leaves my skin looking more hydrated and nourished.



Also spotted the new Heroine Make Impact Frame & Curl Mascara (S$23.90) at Watsons. There are only six reviews on Cosme.net for this mascara, which is supposed to provide lush lashes rivalling false lashes. It seems like most of the reviewers preferred Heroine Make's Long & Curl mascara to Impact Frame & Curl. Some reviewers mentioned that Impact Frame & Curl was good at keeping the curl of lashes but not for separating the lashes. The bulky brush also tends to get mascara on the eyelids by mistake. Impact Frame & Curl is priced at 1470yen in Japan, quite a bit higher than Heroine Make's other mascaras which are 1050yen.

The Impact Frame & Curl Mascara has a comb side for adding volume to the lashes (step 1 in the diagram) and a "separate brush" for helping to separate the lashes (step 2). The "compact head" at the tip of the brush is for use on the lower lashes and fine lashes at the inner corners. You can read Lotus Palace's review of the mascara here.

Sightings at Watsons

Spotted some new stuff at the Watsons in Vivocity earlier today. This is the new Nicole by OPI nailpolish line. The range of shades is quite extensive but not really that cheap at S$17.10.



Rimmel's new Lash Accelerator mascara (S$19.90) is supposed to help promote lash growth.

My Beauty Diary set of 21 masks plus a Skin79 Lovely Girl BB cream as a free gift.

There are two sets available, each retailing for S$29.90. The Lovely Girl BB cream is not sold in Singapore. The size of the BB cream is not stated but it is supposed to have a retail value of $99 (not sure if that is in Taiwan dollars).

The Dolly Wink line of false lashes are back in stock.

Also available now are Paris Hilton false lashes, retailing at about S$10.90 for a pair.