For excellent pics and swatches of the Lunasol spring 2012 makeup collection, do check out the reports by Love & Beauty, Yuki's Lazy Channel and Iswii.net on the press preview in Taiwan. The lovely collection of pretty pinks and sweet corals looks highly tempting! 
The Japanese online media is now awash with pics of the Ladurée Les Merveilleuses makeup line launching in February in Japan. You can view pics on Yahoo Japan, Kirei no Hone, Fashion Press, Sachiko's Happy Keywords, 25ans, and Miki's Happy Blog.
Face Color Rose Ladurée: Available in 3 shades, these are meant to be applied by simply running a brush over the petals. (7350yen for the refill; 3150yen for the pot)
Cream Cheek Base (4410yen, 5 shades)
Pressed Cheek Color: Available in 20 shades. (3900yen for refill; 1575yen for the case and brush)
The range also includes Translucent Makeup Base (5250yen), Fluid Foundation (6090yen, 3 shades), Face Powder (8820yen for refill, 3780yen for pot; 4 shades), Color Control Base (3990yen), Smoothing Base (3990yen), Stick Concealer (3990yen; 2 shades), Cheek Brush (6300yen), Hand Mirror (3675yen) etc.
Circus Circus, the latest "trend edition" collection by Essence, features rich, glittery hues of gold, hot pink and black gold for the holiday party season.
After spotting it at a supermarket in Switzerland, I couldn't resist picking up a few pieces: the Lip Lacquer 02 My Glammy Acrobat, Stay All Day Eyeshadow 03 My Sparkling Acrobat and Highlighter Powder 01 It's Magic. Essence is amazingly affordable. In total, these came up to just under S$20 with the most expensive being the Highlighter Powder which was 5.95 Swiss francs (S$8.30). Unfortunately, the store didn't have the four nailpolish duos which look amazing (see swatches on Parokeets and Nailderella).
It's Magic feels incredibly velvety and smooth when swatched.
Made in Italy, it looks less bronze-toned on the skin than it appears in the compact. The powder is very finely milled with microfine shimmer.
The Stay All Day Eyeshadow is a longlasting cream eyeshadow in a domed plastic pot.
03 My Sparkling Acrobat is a greyish black with fine gold shimmer. I haven't tried this out yet but it seems quite well-pigmented, judging by the swatches on Beaut.ie.
Lip Lacquer 02 My Glammy Acrobat is a rich magenta pink gloss with a doe-foot sponge applicator. This has quite a strong artificial candy scent fresh out of the tube. It contains a generous amount of product at 5.5ml and is also made in Germany, like the Stay All Day Eyeshadow.
According to UrCosme.com Burberry's spring makeup collection includes four new Soft Satin Lip Cover lipsticks, two Lip Glow Natural Lip Glosses and and a Sheer Eyeshadow #22 Pale Barley. Some of these were used on the models for Burberry's Spring 2012 fashion show. Pretty Addicted has swatches of Pale Barley.
Ladurée, which is famous for their macaroons, is set to launch a makeup line "Les Merveilleuses LADUREE" in a collaboration with Albion (which also makes Anna Sui and Paul & Joe cosmetics). It will debut in Japan in February followed by Europe in fall 2012 and then the US. Their official website and Facebook page are up but without any pics of the products yet.
There are a couple of sneak peeks of the beautifully packaged products on Uematsu Koji's blog. The flower petals in the elaborate round pot are actually face colors. See more pics of the Tokyo press preview on Glam.jp, Takagiwa Kaori, and Osaki Kyoko's blog (but these posts do not have product pics due to the press embargo).
The styling for Anna Sui's spring 2012 collection, Rose Fairy is just pure perfection with their typical mix of fairytale dreaminess with a rock chick vibe.
You can view the collection on UrCosme.com.
Lavshuca hasn't released anything particularly exciting this year but this picture of their spring 2012 collection made me sit up! Due out on 1 February in Japan, it includes the Fairy Candy Cheeks blush and Little Star Glow Rouge (Sweet Pure Line). The latter is a mini version of their Star Glow Rouge, packaged in a ribbon pouch and formulated with silk and sweet almond oil. Both are limited edition and will be available until July.
The Fairy Candy Cheeks is a candy pink blush that comes with a puff in a paper box. It is made up of Meteorite-like balls in 3 shades: a pigmented blush color, a natural beige and a pearly color.
Lunasol will release a new Skin Modelling Liquid Foundation SPF21 PA++ (5250yen; 6 shades) and Control Base (3675yen) on 17 February in Japan. The liquid foundation has a new "W Gel Formula" made up of 55% water for a light texture that melds into the skin. It also contains a "Light Glow Powder" for enhanced translucency and radiance. The Control Base comes in two shades: 01 has SPF27 PA++ while 02 has SPF22 PA++. Both products are formulated with marine collagen, niacinamide and hyaluronic acid for skin nourishing benefits.
The delicate eye area is often one of the first areas to show visible signs of ageing and in that regard, it pays to prevent these signs from emerging through regular care instead of resorting to more drastic measures later. For preventing tired-looking eyes, Lancome has just launched Rénergie Yeux Multiple Lift (S$120) in Singapore.
This nifty little pot contains an eye cream (15ml) and a tinted illuminator (4g) to help the eye area look rested and rejuvenated. Applied with the massaging technique recommended by Lancome, they are supposed to deliver six visible actions thanks to ingredients such as a firming active Argan extract and a plumping GF-Volumetry complex: the eyelids look lifted, fine lines are reduced, dark circles become less prominent, the eye contour looks firmer, the under eye bags are reduced and the eye contour looks illuminated.
Nestled under the flip-top lid is the tinted illuminator which can be used on its own or over a concealer. The tinted illuminator does not provide sufficient coverage on its own to perfectly camouflage severe dark circles but it does add a subtle illuminating effect without any obvious glimmer particles. The mirror under the lid comes in useful during the application process.
The eye cream has a rich consistency but surprisingly, it absorbs into the skin effortlessly without any greasy after-feel. After receiving this from Lancome, I've been using it regularly twice a day over the past month. It worked very well for alleviating the dryness of the skin around my eyes, which has become more pronounced now that I'm in my 30s. The fine lines under my eyes look less obvious too, but they have not vanished completely (and I don't think they will).
The eye cream is protected by a second cap inside. It's useful for preserving the shelf-life of the cream but it can be a tad time-consuming to fiddle with if you have clumsy fingers like mine, plus I always worry about dropping it while holding the pot and the external cap.
The detailed application steps.
According to the box, the product has a shelf life of 6 months from the date of opening. Below is the list of ingredients.
Here's a quick, simply video tutorial by Larry Yeo showing how to create the effect of false lashes by using Maybelline's Volum' Express The Falsies mascara (S$21.80), which was launched recently in Singapore.
This year's Addiction holiday coffret, Sleepless Nights, looked very promising when photos of it first surfaced online. Continuing the aurora theme of the fall collection, the prettily packaged kit looked perfect for creating a smoky eye look for party nights.
The star product is naturally the Limited Compact #104 Sleepless Nights, which contains two powder eyeshadows (1.2g each) and a blush (3.9g), all of which are full-sized. The individual pans are secured in the compact with gobs of glue and so they can be easily popped out through the small holes in the bottom of the case. The compact looks black under most lighting but the plastic lid actually reflects a deep purple when held at an angle.
The blush is a matte cool-toned, slightly dusky baby pink that reminded me of MAC Angel blush (which has been discontinued). These do not have individual shade names. The blush is very sheer and takes quite a bit of layering to show up on me.
The eyeshadows are an icy lilac-tinted silver and a smoky black with violet and blue pearl shimmer. When I first opened up the compact, I was mesmerised by the complexity of the shades with their softly glowing incandescent shimmer. However, I was left disappointed by the sheer payoff of the black shade, which lacked the velvety richness that I was hoping for.
The violet shimmer is also nearly invisible when applied. To create the distinct flash of purple on the model's lids in the promo visual, one would probably need to layer another purple eyeshadow or pigment on top. The silver shade has a much stronger shine factor and applies as a layer of silver shimmer rather than opaque metallic color, much like the Aurora Veil loose powder.
The Eyeliner Pencil #101 Sleepless Nights has a lovely creamy consistency and good payoff. It glides onto the lids with minimal tugging. Made in Italy, it comes with a sharpener inside one end. According to the product description, it contains violet pink pearl particles, but these weren't very noticeable when applied.
Aurora Veil #101 can be used as eyeshadow or face highlighter. This has just two ingredients listed: mica and titanium dioxide.
It is an extremely finely milled pearly white shimmery powder that adds a subtle sparkly effect.
I haven't tried the Nail Polish #102 (5ml), which is a cream burgundy. It contains 4ml, one-third the size of the regular Addiction nailpolishes which are 12ml.
The Lipgloss #102 Sleepless Nights (4g) is a milky baby pink that applies very sheer on my lips with a subtle iridescent glimmer. It contains 4g, versus the regular size of 5.5g.
Here are two looks that I did with the compact. It took quite a lot of experimenting with different bases and application methods to try to get the black eyeshadow to show up well. It shows up the most intensely if applied with a damp brush over a good primer but for easier blending, I still prefer to apply it with a small, dense eyeshadow brush.
For the first look, I also used a light brown shade in the crease and the Eyeliner Pencil #101 on the upper lashline and the outer half of the lower lashline.
For the second look, I used L'Oreal Color Infallible #23 Black Onyx as the base, which worked very well. On the lips, I'm wearing Addiction Lipgloss in Azalea.
The coffret retailed at 9765yen in Japan, which looks like a good deal considering that the compact alone is worth 8190yen (2100yen each for the eyeshadowns, 2940yen for the blush and 1050yen for the case) and the eyeliner pencil is usually 2625yen. While I was disappointed in the sheerness of some of the shades, nevertheless, I don't regret purchasing this coffret as I simply adore Addiction.
If you have friends living in Japan who can help you order, it is still available on Isetan Japan, Takashimaya Japan and Hankyu. You can see more photos of the coffret on Iroha, Cosme Storm and this Japanese blog. Drivel about Frivol also has amazingly extensive swatches of Addiction's products.
