Bourjois South Beach Souvenirs and Summer On The Riviera

Bourjois had a couple of new collections for summer on display at Monoprix.

Summer On The Riviera is a colorful collection of lipglosses and nailpolishes with Manicure Toppings, little beads that you can use to top off your manicure. Bourjois seems very late to the party with this trend, doesn't it? There's also a dotting tool with a cute polka dot print.


Summer on the Riviera features a slew of tanning/bronzing products, like a Fabulous Bronzing Mousse for an instant tan, Maxi Delight powder bronzer, and what looks like an intriguing first - a BB Bronzing Cream with not just eight benefits but also an "addictive fragrance".


Maybelline has also released a new Dream Pure BB Cream with 2% salicylic acid, which should be good for acne-prone skin types.

Physicians Formula Happy Booster Glow & Mood-Boosting Illuminating Bronzing Veil

Enticed by the cute candy hearts, I recently purchased Physicians Formula Glow & Mood-Boosting Illuminating Bronzing Veil in Light Bronze from Drugstore.com, during a buy-one-get-one-half off promotion. Drugstore.com is offering 30% off its entire makeup department until 22 February.

The cheery pink plastic packaging reminded me of a yoyo. There are two shades available (Light Bronzer and Bronzer) but based on other online reviews, there is hardly any difference between them.


These violet-scented hearts are supposed to provide a warm luminous glow and also boost your mood by using a blend of natural plant extracts that mimic the effect of endorphins. Made in Taiwan, they are paraben-free.

The hearts come in two bronze hues with a soft glowy finish.



Also included is a brush and a powder puff. Both were not great at picking up the product, so I switched to using a Body Shop powder brush instead which is more efficient at swirling across the hearts.


Compared to the Etude House Princess Etoinette Hearts Blusher which has only 10 hearts (12g), the PF version is more generous with 18 hearts (20g).

The PF hearts are more compact and tightly packed, without the visible fissures in the side of the Etude House hearts.


I swatched the hearts directly on my skin without primer underneath. These are extremely sheer and it took quite a bit of layering to show up.

As adorable as the packaging is, ultimately these were a disappointment due to the lack of pigment. While these are designed to be used all over the face for a glowy veil, the effect was almost too subtle to be distinguishable. They do add a light glowy sheen. In the pic below, I applied it with a large powder brush to my cheeks. This usually retails for US$13.95. It's not a wallet-breaker but I think PF makes better bronzers and glowy powders than this.

Nevertheless, it's a nice addition to my collection of hearts-themed makeup products!

List of ingredients.

Guerlain Terracotta 2012

The new Guerlain Terracotta bronzing collection for this summer has just arrived in Sephora stores in France.

The star product of the collection is the Terracotta Sun In The City Gold Glimmer Powder (€55.50), which comes in a very large round compact. The refined gold powder has a velvety soft texture and a gentle gleam, without any obnoxious loud glitter. It has an undulating surface like gentle sand dunes, which seems to be a recent trend amongst makeup brands like Estee Lauder. The price is hefty but it does contain an extraordinarily generous amount of product (around 15g, if I recall correctly).


The Terracotta Light Sheer Bronzing Powder (€41.50) with the mosaic pattern comes in four shades. (Some of the shades had duplicate testers.)

The Terracotta Sun Blondes SPF30 and Sun Brunettes SPF15 (€35) are supposed to be tan boosters. The Terracotta Blush 02 Sunny Pink (€35) is a rosy pink sun shimmer highlighter. The other shade Spicy Coral was not available (see swatches of both shades on British Beauty Blogger).

Like the Sun In The City highlighter, the Terracotta Blush is very pricey but this is made up for by the generous amount of product (15ml), which is more than double that of the Clarins Instant Light Blushes from the spring 2012 collection which are 7ml each. The Terracotta Blush is more shimmery with a much more sensible pump packaging, unlike the messy sponge applicator of the latter.

Quick swatches of the Terracotta Blush Sunny Pink and Sun In The City.

Giorgio Armani Mediterranean Palette

I stopped by Bloomingdales today to pick up the Armani Lasting Silk Foundation. After getting color matched, the summer collection display sitting quietly behind the counter caught my eye.

The new Mediterranean Palette (US$85) looked much more interesting than any of the recent Armani releases thanks to the pretty array of greens. After swatching these quickly and discovering that they had an incredibly dreamy texture with excellent colour payoff, it was simply a no-brainer that I had to get it. The stellar service by the male Caucasian SA also helped, as I tend to spend more when I get great service!

I usually don't use bronzers so I was worried that the bronzer in the top layer would be a dud for me but it actually applies quite sheer with a lovely glimmer, and so I can use it as a blush. It's been a long time since I hauled any Armani so I can't wait to try out the palette and the Lasting Silk Foundation!