Today was the opening day of Ion Orchard so I dropped by to check out the massive new Sephora store, which is supposed to be the second largest in the world. The best part about checking out a brand new store is that most of the testers are in pristine virgin condition :-)
To my surprise, the first thing I saw was a MAC store inside the Sephora! MAC is becoming like the Starbucks of makeup with four counters located within a 200metre radius on this end of Orchard Road (at Tangs, Isetan Scotts, Ngee Ann City and now Ion). I guess the good thing is that there are now more counters to hunt down those limited edition collections that MAC keeps churning out like it's on speed.
The store is very spacious and airy, which makes it a pleasure to browse at leisure. The SAs are also helpful without being pushy or hovering unnecessarily. Aside from the usual department store brands like Dior, Estee Lauder, Clarins, Biotherm, Lancome, Givenchy, the store also carries Bare Escentuals, Smashbox, Nvey Eco, Makeup Forever, Becca, Hourglass plus tons of skincare brands like MD Skincare, Mario Badescu, Bliss, Murad, Kenzoki, Juice Beauty etc. The mark-up in the prices is a bit of a turn-off though. For example Bliss' Triple Oxygen Mask is over S$100. Ouch...
I spent the most time browsing the Pop Beauty counter as this is still the most fun and reasonably priced makeup line in Sephora for me. The counter here had several new products that I had not seen at the Ngee Ann City store before, like the Eyelid Trio Lid Line & Light (S$29) , the Lush Blushes and Eye Shaper palettes.
ASOS has slashed the prices of some Pop products so you can now score the Lush Blushes in Peach Blossom and Rose Blossom for only £2.50! But do bear in mind that Peach and Rose Blossom are more shimmery rather than pigmented so they work better as a highlighter or on top of another blush. Cherry Blossom is the most pink-toned of the three and it's currently marked down to £6. The Eyelid Trio have also been marked down to £2.50 from £12 while the Eye Shaper palettes are 50% off at £7.
Spied plenty of Too Faced Shadow Insurance being sold individually as well as part of a set with a 6-eyeshadow palette. For some reason, Shadow Insurance is perpetually out of stock at the Ngee Ann City store so do get this while you can if you're interested in it.
Also came across Vera Wang Rock Princess perfume which I'd been lemming for the goth rock bottle. This was super pricey at S$103 for 30ml and S$133 for 50ml. The scent turned out to be not that interesting.
This is a range of solid perfumes in the form of small chubby sticks.
The Shu Uemura flagship store in the basement, which basically looks just like any Shu counter in a department store. It's opposite the Korres store in basement 3, near the MRT gantry. The good news is that the Korres store does carry the makeup line and they do excellent lipglosses, lip butters and lipsticks. The staff are also very friendly and helpful. But I was surprised at how pricey the Korres products were with blushes going for S$55, Mango lipsticks were S$40 and lipglosses were S$33. The white tea facial cleanser was S$40. Just to compare, the blush and Mango lipsticks cost £16.25 each (S$38.55) on Asos and the lipgloss is £10.25 (S$24.30). By the way, Asos has marked down some of its Guava Moisturising Lipsticks to £2.75 to £6.75, from the original £13.50!
Also spotted at Ion: Stage is having 20% off storewide while L'Occitane is giving away a Green Tea lotion worth S$35 with S$80 purchase.
Overall, I do highly recommend checking out Ion which has an interesting mix of stores. Surprisingly, it was not too crowded today, probably because the mall is so big. I also recommend the Muji store in basement 4, where there is also a store selling all kinds of Japanese omiyage snacks like mochi, chocolate, crackers and other snacks that are popular as gifts in Japan.
To my surprise, the first thing I saw was a MAC store inside the Sephora! MAC is becoming like the Starbucks of makeup with four counters located within a 200metre radius on this end of Orchard Road (at Tangs, Isetan Scotts, Ngee Ann City and now Ion). I guess the good thing is that there are now more counters to hunt down those limited edition collections that MAC keeps churning out like it's on speed.
The store is very spacious and airy, which makes it a pleasure to browse at leisure. The SAs are also helpful without being pushy or hovering unnecessarily. Aside from the usual department store brands like Dior, Estee Lauder, Clarins, Biotherm, Lancome, Givenchy, the store also carries Bare Escentuals, Smashbox, Nvey Eco, Makeup Forever, Becca, Hourglass plus tons of skincare brands like MD Skincare, Mario Badescu, Bliss, Murad, Kenzoki, Juice Beauty etc. The mark-up in the prices is a bit of a turn-off though. For example Bliss' Triple Oxygen Mask is over S$100. Ouch...
I spent the most time browsing the Pop Beauty counter as this is still the most fun and reasonably priced makeup line in Sephora for me. The counter here had several new products that I had not seen at the Ngee Ann City store before, like the Eyelid Trio Lid Line & Light (S$29) , the Lush Blushes and Eye Shaper palettes.
ASOS has slashed the prices of some Pop products so you can now score the Lush Blushes in Peach Blossom and Rose Blossom for only £2.50! But do bear in mind that Peach and Rose Blossom are more shimmery rather than pigmented so they work better as a highlighter or on top of another blush. Cherry Blossom is the most pink-toned of the three and it's currently marked down to £6. The Eyelid Trio have also been marked down to £2.50 from £12 while the Eye Shaper palettes are 50% off at £7.
Spied plenty of Too Faced Shadow Insurance being sold individually as well as part of a set with a 6-eyeshadow palette. For some reason, Shadow Insurance is perpetually out of stock at the Ngee Ann City store so do get this while you can if you're interested in it.
Also came across Vera Wang Rock Princess perfume which I'd been lemming for the goth rock bottle. This was super pricey at S$103 for 30ml and S$133 for 50ml. The scent turned out to be not that interesting.
This is a range of solid perfumes in the form of small chubby sticks.
The Shu Uemura flagship store in the basement, which basically looks just like any Shu counter in a department store. It's opposite the Korres store in basement 3, near the MRT gantry. The good news is that the Korres store does carry the makeup line and they do excellent lipglosses, lip butters and lipsticks. The staff are also very friendly and helpful. But I was surprised at how pricey the Korres products were with blushes going for S$55, Mango lipsticks were S$40 and lipglosses were S$33. The white tea facial cleanser was S$40. Just to compare, the blush and Mango lipsticks cost £16.25 each (S$38.55) on Asos and the lipgloss is £10.25 (S$24.30). By the way, Asos has marked down some of its Guava Moisturising Lipsticks to £2.75 to £6.75, from the original £13.50!
Also spotted at Ion: Stage is having 20% off storewide while L'Occitane is giving away a Green Tea lotion worth S$35 with S$80 purchase.
Overall, I do highly recommend checking out Ion which has an interesting mix of stores. Surprisingly, it was not too crowded today, probably because the mall is so big. I also recommend the Muji store in basement 4, where there is also a store selling all kinds of Japanese omiyage snacks like mochi, chocolate, crackers and other snacks that are popular as gifts in Japan.
