Paul & Joe Summer '09

Paul & Joe will release a gold-themed summer makeup collection on 1 May in Japan. The collection includes 3 eye colors, 3 nail polishes and 3 lipglosses with gold spiral swirls. All the items are limited edition. There will also be a new Blotting Case 2009. Pics from Sweet magazine.





But what really excited me is this Paul & Joe Sister gold-plated cat charm which will be available with the May issue of Spring magazine due out on 23 March!

More sightings at Watsons

Dropped by the Watsons in Ngee Ann City today and they had the full Majolica Majorca spring collection on display. The new Pore Cover Powder is S$33.90 for the case and the powder with the refill sold separately for S$22.90.


The new Fasio spring collection is also in, with 8 eyeshadow quads, 4 blushes, 2 mascaras and about a dozen lipsticks. I was briefly tempted by the green quad which had an intriguing emerald shade but couldn't bring myself to spend S$24 on it. There is currently a 20% discount on brands such as Fasio, Canmake, Bourjois, L'Oreal, Maybelline but the discount excludes new and promotional items.




The Love Clover Popchu Lip Gloss display. These cost S$21.90 each, which is just a couple bucks more than the Japan retail price of 1260yen (S$19.68).

Steady & Sweet April '09

The April editions of Sweet and Steady have landed at Kinokuniya in Ngee Ann City. Sweet (S$17.20) comes with a shiny vinyl Jill Stuart clutch purse with a chain strap threaded with a velvet ribbon. This is the 10th anniversary issue of Sweet so it's extra chunky at almost 2cm thick.



Steady (S$16.40) comes with a cute lavender tote bag that fits a lunch box nicely and a matching scrunchy. The scrunchy is made of a soft satiny material while the tote is made of polyester.

Sightings at Watsons

Just a quick post to alert that Majolica Majorca Lash Expander Frame Plus is now available at Watsons in Singapore. But the rest of the Spring '09 collection is not here yet, such as the Pore Cover Powder. Love Clover's Popchu Lipgloss is also available in a hanging display. I spotted both at the Watsons in Toa Payoh Central this morning :-)

Love Clover Website Update

The Love Clover website has been updated with the new Lip Dolce Cafe, Vanish Lip Base and Lip Treatment Butter


The Lip Dolce Cafe (5 shades, 1680yen). is similar to the Maquillage liquid lipsticks that are dispensed through five holes in the applicator. They are formulated with jojoba oil and extracts of rosemary and chamomile.


The Vanish Lip Base is a matte lip concealer that reduces the natural color of your lips to allow the lipstick shade to apply more true while the Lip Treatment Butter is a glossy lip balm.

MAC Grand Duos Mineralize Blushes

I took advantage of the Tangs sale to pick up another 3 of the MAC Grand Duos Mineralize Blushes. Aside from the 12% rebate, I also received a $10 beauty voucher, which makes the $44 price tag of these lovelies a bit easier to bear.

Moon River: Love the name of this as the song as sung by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's is one of my favourite classics. But many SAs have been advising the customers that this does not have good color payoff so it mainly serves as a highlighter. I haven't tried it out yet but I like how it looks in the pot, with the icy pinkish beige, pink and icy light purple swirls.




Hot Planet: This looks like a pinkish plum in the pot but when applied, it shows up as more of a light rosy pink shade. Very lovely! I can see myself reaching for this frequently.




Intenso: This may be difficult for very fair skintones to pull off as it has deeper red tones, compared to the others, but the trick is to use a very light hand and slowly build up the color to the desired intensity. This has swirls of orange, beige, cotton candy pink.



My five Grand Duo blushes.


All of my MAC Mineralize blushes.


Hot Planet, Grand Duo and Gentle (bottom)


Gentle (top), Love Rock (bottom left) and Pleasantry (bottom right)


Merrily (top), Intenso and Nuance


These alone can probably last me for the next 5 years! The only blush I've ever managed to finish is MAC Angel which I bought when I was starting work and I used it almost daily. Even then, it last me about 2 years.

Isetan Private Sale

Isetan Private Sale is on next Thursday 12 March 8.30am to 10pm. 10% Beauty Bonus Vouchers will be given out with purchase of $100 and on every subsequent $50 purchase between 12-15 March. Check out the GWPs from the various brands below for the Beauty Festival which will run from 12-29 March.

Aube Couture Early Summer '09

Here's another pic of the upcoming Aube Couture summer collection and the ad visuals. The limited edition Cream & Liner Shadow (6 shades, 2835yen) are designed for ladies who would like to experiment with brighter colors but are afraid of looking unnatural. The Cream & Liner Shadows are supposed to be extremely natural looking semi-pastel shades that still give a fresh pop of color.

MAC Grand Duos Mineralize Blushes

I decided to give the MAC Grand Duos collection a second go after seeing more swatches online and ended up purchasing Love Rock and Grand Duo.

Grand Duo is the deeper and more intense of the two. As expected of the Mineralize Blushes, the color payoff of the solid color side (without the veining) is excellent and it's easy to over-apply these. I had to wipe some off with a tissue after I got to the office and realised that I had put too much on one cheek ;-p



Grando Duo applies as a plum-toned pink on me, and is not too dark such that it looks unnatural on my MAC NC20 skintone. You can apply it lightly for a pink flush. It has icy pink, candy pink, burgundy and golden bronze veining that look very pretty in the pot but don't add much color, just shimmer.




Love Rock is one of the top two fastest sellers in the MAC Pro store and it's easy to see why. It looks incredibly pretty in the pot, a shimmery bubblegum pink paired with a highlighter side that has light pink, purple and pinkish beige veining.


Love Rock does take more layering to show up on my cheeks, as compared to Grand Duo, and I felt there was more shimmer than actual color. It does give the skin a nice sheen and glow, but have to be careful not to over-do the highlighter part. Of the two, I ended up liking Grand Duo more on my skin but Love Rock is just so pretty to look at in the pot!


I still think these are horribly overpriced at S$44 each. The normal Mineralize Blushes are still only S$37. The MAC SA tried to justify the price difference by saying that one only needs to pay $7 more to get a highlighter, but this doesn't seem that compelling an argument to me as the Grand Duos blushes actually weigh only 3.2g compared to 3.5g for the normal Mineralize Blushes. But the Grand Duos are supposed to be limited so I just sucked it up like a good old MAC addict and handed over my $88. But I've cut down a lot on my MAC purchases, to two or three a year so at least it's not too much damage overall.

Coffret D'Or Website Update

Coffret D'Or has updated its website with the new Spring/Summer '09 base makeup collection and TV CM featuring actress Shibasaki Kou. Check it out here!

Aube Couture Early Summer '09

Aube Couture will release a Cream & Liner Shadow (6 shades, 2835yen) and a Designing Gloss (2310yen, 6 shades) on 11 April in Japan. The Cream & Liner Shadow is limited edition while the Designing Gloss is permanent.

Tangs Rebate Event

Tangs will be running their usual 12% rebate for cardmembers on 5-6 March. And to sweeten the deal even more, you can receive a $10 Beauty Voucher with $100 nett purchase, with a limit of 3 voucher redemptions per cardmember. So that's equivalent to getting a 22% rebate!

On 5 March, the store will be open only to cardmembers with shopping hours extended to 11pm at Tangs Orchard on both days. There will be "special beauty buys" on 5 March but no details on what will be offered by the various brands. This would be a good time to pick up the new Benefit Coralista blush (S$60) which was just launched at Tangs, or the new Maquillage Eyes Creator and Face Creator palettes. And don't forget the MAC Hello Kitty collection launches at Tangs on 6 March (but I wonder how much stocks will be left given that many have already pre-ordered). The rest of the MAC counters will release the Hello Kitty collection on 13 March.



The 12% rebate is applicable to Citibank Tangs Platinum Visa, Citibank Tangs Visa, Tangs Credit Card and any other Singapore-issued Citibank cards but excluding Citibank Paragon, Citi Clear Visa and Platinum Mastercard. Check out other special offers here!

Anna Sui Live Your Dream Launch

Pic of the Anna Sui promotional counter at Takashimaya today for the new Live Your Dream perfume. There is a GWP of a small metallic purple pouch filled with the usual assortment of deluxe sample sized mascaras and skincare for purchase of $150 and you can get an additional cushion if you top up the purchase to an amount that I've forgotten, probably either $180 or $200. You can also get a Live Your Dream notebook and perfume sample with purchase of the 30ml size of the Live Your Dream perfume, with additional freebies like the pink purse thrown in if you get the larger size.


If you purchase any two items that comprise either a loose powder, liquid foundation, face powder or eyeshadow, you can get this black cosmetic case with 3 deluxe skincare samples.


And here are the pics from Kino of the Swak and Cath Kidston mooks!

MAC Grand Duos Collection

The MAC Grand Duos Mineralize Blush collection has launched at the MAC Pro store in Ngee Ann City! I didn't bother to ask the price as the shades didn't knock my socks off when I swatched them although a couple of them do have very pretty veining. The nicest of the lot were Grand Duo (Copper pink mélange / Plum) and Love Rock (Gold violet mélange / Bright blue pink).



Elle magazine had earlier listed the price as S$41 but do ask the counters personally if you're thinking of getting these. MAC Singapore has been known to screw up the prices in recent months with different counters charging different prices for the same product.