I wandered into Sephora at Ion today and was surprised to discover that Sephora had brought in Tokidoki's blinged-out 24 Karat holiday collection! Aside from the Pittura Brush Set (S$59) and Medium Bag (S$39), there was also the Rollerball set (S$25) of six mini fragrances. The 24 Karat Skate Deck Eyeshadow Palette is not in stock yet. There were also holiday sets by Kat Von D Tattoo Chronicles Candelabra Edition, Rollerball Set and Painted Love & Foiled Lipstick Set, Hello Kitty Noir Eyeshadow and Lip Gloss Palette, Too Faced and Urban Decay holiday palettes plus tons of Soap & Glory bodycare gift sets.
I was most excited about the Pittura Brush set, which I've been wanting ever since I saw them online. Initially, the Sephora staff said that it had already sold out but subsequently, one of them managed to find just two sets remaining and very kindly passed me one! Needless to say, I was immensely overjoyed and grateful.
The set contains Ciao Ciao Star Powder Brush, Latte Eyeshadow Brush, Adios Star Smudge Brush and Unicorno Eyeliner/Lip Brush, all of which are made with synthetic hair.
Love the charms dangling from the brushes!
There were still plenty of the makeup pouches in stock. The pouches all have different placement of the characters, so it took me awhile to select one which featured my favourite characters like the pegasus and less of the tattooed girls.
The interior is lined in a cheery bright pink.
I also picked up the POP Beauty Glitz Blitz Kit of three eyeliners in Black Blitz, Brown Brilliance & Wine Wink, after reading about them on Lovely Day. This was priced very attractively at S$23, which means you are getting three eyeliners for the regular price of one.
Yesterday, I visited the Pixi store in Soho, London. I had chanced across it on my last visit but didn't explore it due to lack of time. Established about 11 years ago, this is the only Pixi store in London. In the US, Pixi is carried exclusively at Target.
Created by Petra Strand, Pixi is all about creating a naturally radiant and flawless look with multi-tasking products infused with botanicals and skin treatment ingredients.
Tended by a very sweet and friendly SA, the elegant store has a charming apothecary feel with the products neatly laid out in a way that encourages leisurely browsing, unlike the Pixi displays in Target which sometimes do not have testers.
I liked the shade selection offered by Pixi and its cool mint packaging. Everything looked immensely wearable and flattering.
The store also carries Pop Beauty, which is created by Sara Strand (sister of Pixi's founder). The store is due to be revamped in March and will carry more brands thereafter.
These two Custom Palettes caught my eye in the store. According to the SA, these were released for last Christmas and have been selling incredibly fast ever since. Both do not appear to be listed on the Pixi UK website.
This 8-eyeshadow palette was the very last piece in the store. It was very affordable at just £15. Considering that Pixi eyeshadow singles usually retail for £10 each, it was just too irresistible a deal! Each pan is 0.74g/0.026oz, so that is close to a total of 6g of product (equivalent to about 4 MAC eyeshadow singles).
The second palette contains 8 shimmering eyeshadow trios. Again, this was an incredible steal at just £20! As I purchased two products, I also received a full size Lustrous Eye Primer No. 1 Gold Lustre as a gift, plus a sample of the Flawless Beauty Primer.
The SA also showed me a gorgeous 8-blush palette (in the same slim case) that will be released around March. If you're interested in it, you can contact the store about the possibility of a mail order (probably available only for within the UK).
Yesterday, I read on Sephora Singapore's Facebook page that POP Beauty creator Sara Strand would be appearing at the Ngee Ann City store from 7pm to 10pm so Kas, Mag, Debbie and I popped by to meet her. Having collected several of POP's eyeshadow palettes, I was excited to meet Sara, who was on her second trip to Singapore.
You can still catch Sara at the Sephora in Ion Orchard today (Saturday) from 12pm to 3pm. She will be doing makeovers on the spot. You can also ask her for product recommendations and makeup advice. There is no need to make an appointment in advance. This is a rare opportunity so don't miss it!
For the smokey eye look that Sara did on Debbie, I especially liked the sexy cat eye liner that she did with the In Liner #1 Black. You can also read Mag's account here.
I pulled out my favourite POP Smokey Rose Wallet for this look yesterday.
After prepping with Testimo Eye Bright Up Base, I applied the baby pink shade (4th from left) over the browbone area, the deep plum shade (4th from right) from the inner corner to the middle of the upper lid, the deep burgundy shade (2nd from right) from the middle of the upper lid to the outer corner, the peachy pink shade (5th from right) in the crease and along the lower lashline, and the pale blueish white shade (5th from left) at the inner corners.
Then I finished with Clinique High Impact Mascara and Heroine Make Smooth Liquid Liner.
The rest of the products that I used were: Cosme Decorte AQ Cream Foundation Supreme 201 and Rouge Supreme BE355, Jill Stuart Loose Powder #1 Natural, Benefit Erase Paste #1 Fair and K-Palette Real Lasting Eyebrow 24h 01.
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.
