Melissa x Liberty

Being a major fan of Melissa shoes, I was delighted to discover their pop-up store on South Molton Street in London, just off Oxford Street.

The store was offering 20% off all regular-priced styles until Christmas Eve.



These super-bling J Maskrey Ultragirl with Swarovski crystals are a whoppping £250 each.

The Jason Wu collection.

Love the mesh design of the Campana line but unfortunately it does not flatter my feet.

I came home with the new Liberty Ultragirl flats. These are selling on ASOS.com for £65 each, so I was happy to score them at a discount.

The blue version features the Emma and Georgina prints while the pink version features the Margaret Annie print. All are Liberty heritage prints from the 19th century. It's truly rare for Melissa shoes to feature floral prints and these couldn't be more perfect for spring/summer.



The store had free copies of their seasonal magazine, Plastic Dreams. The Summer 2012 and Summer 2013 editions feature Lily Cole and Alek Wek respectively.

Chantecaille Nocturne Lip Chic, Shu Uemura Prestigious Bordeaux Palette and Urban Decay Naked Skin Foundation

Here's another purchase from this season's holiday collections. Chantecaille's Lip Chic line has a wonderfully elegant formula that glides onto the lips. I purchased Nocturne (US$35) from BeautyHabit.com after reading about it on Best Things in Beauty.

It looks quite red in the tube but on the lips, it's a very pretty rosy pink, perfect for virtually any occasion.


There's a slight shine to it, and no frosty shimmer or glitter particles. Made in Italy, it wears very comfortably on the lips, although it doesn't quite have the melting quality of Esprique Mellow Forming Rouge.


For this look, I used Shu Uemura Prestigious Bordeaux from the Karl Lagerfeld collection with the dark purple applied from the upper lashline to the crease, the light purple over the browbone area, the brown shade in the crease and the orangey-gold shade along the lower lashline and over the middle of the upper lid.

The deep purple shade has a very lovely violet shimmer in the pan but it looks much more muted and murky on my lids such that the brown and bronze tones tend to dominate instead. Nevertheless, I still like this palette and have been reaching for it frequently. See more looks on Drivel about Frivol.



Other products used for this look: Urban Decay Naked Skin Foundation 3.0, Lavshuca Fairy Candy Cheeks OR1, Becca The Ultimate Mascara, RMK Super Basic Liquid Concealer EX01, Too Faced Shadow Insurance and K-Palette Lasting 2Way Eyebrow 02.

The Lavshuca Fairy Candy Cheeks OR1 give just a subtle hint of peachy color with a glowy finish, not really discernible in the photos but it's there. It's a pity that this is limited edition.


The Naked Skin foundation is a sample that I picked up a couple of months ago in London.

It has a very light texture that is easy to blend. The coverage is light to medium and it doesn't completely conceal the redness in my cheeks and around the nose, although it does help to even out the skintone somewhat. While the shade 3.0 is a good match, I won't purchase this as Coffret D'Or Silky Fit Liquid Foundation suits my needs better.

Bourjois AristoClash, BB Cream and BB Gloss

Spotted the new Bourjois Aristoclash collection for winter 2013 today at a department store.

The display includes a mix of new and existing shades. From left to right in the pic below: Blush in #34 Rose D'Or, Little Round Pot Intense Eyeshadow #3 and #11 (new). Eyeshadow #11 is a lovely pale lavender with silver sparkles.

So Laque Ultra Shine 63 Purple Fiction and 49 Fashion gris-gris.

Bourjois steps into the BB cream frenzy with a cream compact version that promises 8-in-1 benefits. It is available in four shades. This felt slightly greasy to touch, and seems to give light coverage.



The collection also includes two BB Gloss with 5-in-1 benefits, namely fresh glow, protective, moisturising, smoothing and crystal shine. I love Bourjois but that's just stretching the BB bandwagon to preposterous limits!

Here's a behind-the-scenes clip for Aristoclash, which will be available in the UK in January.

Anna Sui Spring 2013

The Anna Sui website has been updated with the Drama Queen spring collection. The full details of the collection in English are on Rock on! Anna Sui. Most of the holiday collection is now available on Urban Outfitters.

Pic below from UrCosme.

The Maquia editor tweeted this pic of two gift boxes that will be available on 1 March in Japan, retailing at 525yen each, along with the limited edition beauty mirror.

Burberry Lip Glow Bright Plum and Laneige Water Supreme Foundation

Burberry is a brand that I haven't explored much of as the shade range tends to be too muted and classic for my taste. Recently, I ordered the Lip Glow #17 Bright Plum (US$27) from Nordstrom. This was released for Holiday 2011 and is part of the permanent range. Made in Italy, it retails for S$39 in Singapore at Tangs.

I love the sleek lucite packaging with the tapered inner compartment. The subtly textured surface of the box packaging is another lovely elegant touch. The slanted doe foot sponge applicator works well enough and doesn't require much re-dipping into the tube.

Bright Plum is a glossy, well-pigmented dramatic plum red without any visible shimmer, well-suited for the holiday season. It may be a tad intense for the day but I've always had a soft spot for deep berry hues and have no issues with sporting them during the day. With Bright Plum, I usually wear lighter shades on the eyes and cheeks so that the face isn't overwhelmed by too much color everywhere.

The gloss is not as slick as YSL Glossy Stain. It lasts well over more than four hours but there is some bleeding into the fine lines and stickiness after a couple of hours. Given the high price tag, I doubt I'll pick up other shades unless they are truly spectacular. Personally, I still prefer YSL Glossy Stains.

Below is the list of ingredients.

For this look, I used Laneige Water Supreme Foundation SPF15 PA+, which was kindly gifted to me by Larry Yeo.

The shade No.21 Natural Beige looked awfully yellow and dark in the bottle but fortunately, it turned out to be a pretty good match for my skintone and not as dark as it looks in the bottle. It has a light texture that melds easily into the skin for a natural satin finish. I like how it evens out my skintone in a jiffy without pooling in my pores. The only flaw is that the oil control isn't that great and I find myself having to blot quite a few times during the day even though it is now the dry winter season.

Below is the ingredients list. You can read more about the foundation here.

The other products used for this look: RMK Christmas Palette 2012 and Super Basic Liquid Concealer EX01, Lavshuca Fairy Candy Cheeks 01 Pink, Becca Ultimate Mascara, K-Palette Lasting 2Way Eyebrow 02, Cargo Swimmables Eye Pencil in Charcoal.

I was lucky to find the Lavshuca Fairy Candy Cheeks on my trip to Japan in the fall. These limited edition blush balls were released as part of the spring 2012 collection. Composed of three colors, they are nicely pigmented with a soft glowy finish.

Paul & Joe Website Update: Carousel

The Paul & Joe website has been updated with the Carousel spring collection and new Cheek Colors. There's also a new cat-print wallpaper available to download here. Do also check out the P&J Japan Facebook page. The elephant print is so adorable, so I'll probably snag the lipstick case and Eye Color CS 082 Calliope with that print.

The new blush duos also look very tempting!

In Japan, this Happy Makeup Kit (6300yen) will be available starting 1 February. It includes any choice of a Cheek Color and Lipstick, plus a 10ml sample of the Protecting Foundation Primer 01 SPF39 PA+++ which will be released on 1 March.