Beauty Asia 2015

Beauty Asia, the premier regional beauty trade show, is currently taking place at Suntec City Convention Centre from today until Friday 30 January. While admission is free, it is only open to trade and beauty professionals (entry is by registration with your name card). The exhibitors run a diverse range from the major nailpolish brands, OEM manufacturers from Korea and Japan offering to help design your own skincare/makeup brand, to salon equipment vendors.

Most beauty bloggers love to visit Beauty Asia primarily to scope out the great deals on nail polish brands including OPI, China Glaze, Zoya and Orly. OPI was going at just S$6.50 a bottle, with 5 free bottles for every 36 purchased at the Ella International booth. Zoya was S$9 for the regular shades and S$11 for the Pixie Dust shades.

Peanuts seems to be everywhere this year, due to their 65th anniversary. The display was eye-catching but the nail polish shades were not that stunning.



Naturally, I spent the most time at Hakuhodo, which was offering a 5-piece brush set and a few other select brushes that are not available at their Takashimaya counter in Ngee Ann City. The current location in Takashimaya is actually temporary, and they are looking to get their own permanent counter sometime after the summer. There are no price discounts at Beauty Asia, so if you're a Takashimaya cardholder, you're better off purchasing the brushes at Takashimaya during their cardmember sale days for a 10% discount.


I could not resist picking up this set! Pity there was no sign of the new Hello Kitty set.

Brushes that are exclusively available at Beauty Asia include B232 pine squirrel (S$46), B133 Canadian squirrel (S$48), and B524 water badger (S$67). According to the Hakuhodo staff, the range at Takashimaya includes blue squirrel brushes but not that many Canadian or pine squirrel brushes.

Shown below are more Beauty Asia exclusive brushes: SJ100 goat (S$192), S105 blue squirrel (S$220), G503 ($92), B512 blue squirrel & goat (S$96), B5521 blue squirrel & goat (S$54) and J4005 synthetic fiber (S$54).

The luxuriously sleek Kokutan (ebony wood) handled brushes are one of the most popular series made by Hakuhodo. Feel up one of these and you'll understand why. I splurged on a Kokutan brush set at IMATS London in 2012 and it was worth every single penny. Just forgo your daily Starbucks for a few weeks/months if you have to in order to own one of these (although be warned that once you've experienced Hakuhodo, you'll find it hard to go back to brushes by mainstream makeup brands like MAC or Bobbi Brown).

Next is the Vermilion series, which are often sold out for some reason. I prefer thinner and lighter handles so I usually pass over these.


Two extra premium brushes for those who are really in the mood for a splurge.

I wanted to get these Silver Care brushes for my toddler but alas, they were not for sale yet.

At Skinestica, the Korean-made facial sheet masks were going at 13 for S$10 (usual price is S$1.80 per piece) so I picked up an assortment.

The only interesting makeup brand on display was Cailyn, which is from the US and sold in India. In Singapore, they are only available in salons. The gel pencil eyeliners are S$25 and made in Germany (where else?). These swatched quite smoothly but I still prefer my Pixi pencils.

The Cocoon Lip Stain was rather unusual, in that one is supposed to apply the stain and then wait 10 minutes before peeling it off to reveal the stained lips. I doubt if many women have the patience for that!


Cailyn's O! Wow Brush looks like it was modelled on the MAC Masterclass brushes introduced in 2013. This was selling at $30 and did a pretty good job of applying their BB foundation.

IMATS Purchases: Hakuhodo, MUFE, Velour Lashes etc

Yesterday at IMATS, I spent the most time at Hakuhodo checking out their makeup brushes. These are truly top of the line hand-crafted brushes with uncut hair that feel incredibly soft against the skin.

After much deliberation, I settled on a Special Kit of six Kokutan brushes plus another five individual brushes. There was actually no discount on Hakuhodo, which was charging the US retail prices, so the main advantange of buying at IMATS was saving on the shipping fees.

The special kit comes with a zip pouch with a shimmery midnight blue finish. The brushes in the set did not have individual numbers, so I'm not sure of the model or type of hair used. The glossy black metal ferrules paired with the ebony wood handles give these brushes a lovely classic feel.

I also picked the G5519BkSL Blush Brush (blue squirrel), B021BkSL, G5528BkSL round eyeshadow brush (blue squirrel), J0305 small eyeshadow brush and G5520BkSL pointed eyeshadow brush (blue squirrel/horse). Again, these are not printed with the model numbers. B021BkSL and J0305 do not appear to be listed on the Hakuhodo website. I picked mostly squirrel hair brushes as these feel amazingly luxurious with a good density.

A reader asked for Hakuhodo brush recommendations but I honestly can't provide any as this is my first time purchasing their brushes and I have not used these yet. The most useful blogs for Hakuhodo recommendations are Glossed in Translation and The Non Blonde.

While searching for a flat-top brush for applying foundation, I settled on the Bdellium #957 Precision Kabuki brush (£7). I haven't heard of this brand before but they take part regularly at the IMATS in the US.


At Guru Makeup Emporium, the Make Up For Ever Wild and Chic Aqua Cream and Aqua Eyes kit was going at just £17.50, down from the usual price of £34.95. Nestled inside the chic violet snake print metal case are two full size Aqua Creams #1 Anthracite and #15 Taupe, plus two mini Aqua Eyes pencils in Matte Black and Pearly Brown.

Velour 100% mink hand-made lashes in You Complete Me (£15). On the Velour website, it is listed at US$29.99.



I've been looking for a brush roll for a long time and finally found one that I liked at Paris Berlin. This was £16 at IMATS, slightly cheaper than the Paris Berlin website where it is listed at €25.


And finally, I also purchased BeautySoClean Cosmetic Sanitizer Mist (£15) for quick disinfecting of powder and cream products.

For me, IMATS was great for getting to see brands that are not widely available. Not all brands offer generous discounts though, so it's worthwhile to do research beforehand to know if you are actually getting a good deal. MAC, Illamasqua and Sleek all offered attractive deals but I wasn't eyeing anything from them in particular, so I could safely pass them by.

Day out at IMATS London 2012

Braved the sub-zero temperature in London this morning to attend IMATS at Alexandra Palace. My husband's eyebrows leapt to the ceiling when I told him last night that the plan was to wake up at 6am so that we could be there at 8.30am. He accompanied me there to make sure that I didn't get lost as we had to take three different buses to get to the venue, and then made the one hour journey home while I took my time exploring the trade show. On the third bus, I spotted Charlotte of Lipglossiping, but was too shy to say hello, to my regret!

It was my first time ever at an IMATS show, so I was looking very much forward to it after having read so much about the previous shows around the world. Upon arriving around the opening time of 8.30am, I was able to pick up my entry bracelet very quickly.

The event was held inside a large, airy hall. There was usually plenty of room to move around without feeling congested.

The MAC stand before the crowds descended.

Inglot had one of the largest booths.

Illamasqua was probably the most crowded booth, even more so than MAC.




Sleek did not have any new i-Divine palettes on offer, which was a bit of a disappointment for me.

At Make-up Atelier Paris, I was actually standing next to Gossmakeupartist but didn't manage to work up the courage to say hello. He is the only makeup artist that I watch regularly on Youtube, and it was just surreal seeing him in real life.

Bdellium Tools

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics

Make Up For Ever

Hakuhodo brushes, where I splurged the most. After playing with the Hakuhodo brushes, the brushes by other brands just felt so much less plush and soft in comparison.





Crown Brushes

Royal & Langnickel brushes.


Velour lashes made of 100% mink. These were retailing between £10-£20 for a pair that can be re-used up to 20 times.

It was great fun walking around watching the various makeup demonstrations, which ranged from incredibly intricate body paint done by air brushing to special effects makeup of the monster variety.








All in all, it was a splendid experience. My only regret is that I was too shy to say hello to Gossmakeupartist and also Charlotte of Lipglossiping. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!