Nina L'Elixer: Fruity, Floral, Girly Scent

It's always unfair that the West gets the best stuff before we in the backwaters of Asia do. Take for instance, Nina Ricci's latest perfume offering, Nina L'Elixer, which has just launched in Singapore. L'Elixer actually launched last year in the West, although to be fair it was in the second half of the year. So much for the "global economy". But anyway, I'm sure you're all wondering - for us in Singapore, is this worth the months-long wait?



Nina L'Elixer targets the younger market very squarely, describing itself as a fruity-floral, and the fragrance is fronted by a 21-year old british singer, Florrie. And in the music video for the perfume (below), she's pouting, singing, and generally acting cute and girly. That alone is going to turn some people off. After all, fruity-florals are a dime a dozen when it comes to department-store perfumes. But if fruity-floral is your thing, and if you do happen to be looking for one that is more complex than the other department-store offerings, this could just be worth a look into.



For one, although I myself am not a girly-girl, I have to admit I do like the visuals behind the perfume, and especially the bottle design. It's in the shape of an apple, complete with metal leaves! I love the apple shape, with its connotations of fairytales, and the gorgeous colour palette of pink, red, and white - very feminine, and appropriate for a fragrance targeted to the younger market. And I don't know about you, but to me the bottle looks vaguely like a bejewelled apple. Sort of like an enchanted apple!



Unlike other similar offerings, Nina E'Lixer isn't lazy in its composition. Unlike other flanking perfumes, this isn't a simple rehash of the original Nina perfume from 2006 - you know, take the original, add in a couple of musk or amber notes, throw in more vanilla, and you're done. And it isn't exactly identical to the other comparable offerings either.

Instead, I dare venture that this is better than the 2006 original (sorry Nina). It's deeper, and the hint of lime and lemon in its top notes makes it fresher than the original, too. I know most fruity-floral-gourmand perfumes tend to be overly sweet and cloying, so it's great to have the lime notes in there to balance that out a bit. It's still squarely and firmly within the fruity-floral genre, though, and is still creamy and sweet, but at least this one shows some semblance of balance.



The evolution of the perfume is also one thing in its favour. I didn't like the initial blast of jumbled fruity citrusness that rushed out at me, but the perfume settled down into something a lot more consistent. On me at least, the scent evolved into a creamy gourmand base with some fruit notes, primarily berries, and a detectable jasmine. At the final drydown, I detected musk and amber.



If fruity perfumes are your cup of tea - they're certainly not everyone's, and usually not mine - then this could be worth looking into. The bottle and the visuals are gorgeous, and this is an offering that's better than some of its competitors. Nina L'Elixer launched in Tangs Singapore yesterday, and the launch will continue until the 16th, so do check it out if you're interested.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Asian Face Powders Haul: Ponds Magic Powder and Bhaesaj Teen Powder

Everywhere I go, I'm always discovering new beauty products and tips. And thanks to friends who travel and are nice enough to buy stuff back for me, from time to time, I get to lay my hands on some of makeup tips, tricks and hot items from other countries!

My friend, Lynn, recently went to Thailand, and bought back these two Asian face powders for me, the Ponds Magic Powder, as well as the Thailand-based brand's Bhaesaj Teen Powder, both of which are extremely popular in Thailand, and have garnered a following in Asia as well.



These face powders look like body powders, but they're actually used as face powders in Asia. Pretty neat, eh? I've actually reviewed the Johnson's Face Powder previously, so these powders are in the same vein as the one.

Here's a photo of my face powders, including the Johnson's one previously reviewed.



I'm so excited to have hauled this, even if in proxy through a friend, LOL! I can't wait to start using and reviewing these!

Sudocrem's Beauty Blogger of the Week: Guess Who?

I just had to pop by to share some exciting news! Yours truly is Sudocrem's Beauty Blogger of the Week! Surprisingly, it was not my previous post on Sudocrem that got reproduced on the Sudocrem blog, but the lipgloss of another brand, BeautyUK! That's pretty cool to me. Anyway, feel free to check out the post, and the Sudocrem blog for skin care articles. I've had a look through it, and it is chock full of healthy-living tips, but also covers skin care and beauty, as well as some general women's lifestyle topics (e.g. fashion). Do pop by to take a look!

And the Winner Is...

Thank you everyone for taking part in my giveaway! There were quite a large number of entries this time round!



Random.org has spoken! The winner is Stavroula @drugstoreandbargainlover! Do contact me via email with your details so you can claim your prize!

Thanks again to everyone who took part, and thanks to Jelly Pong Pong for providing the awesome prizes for the giveaway!

Liz Earle Line Smoothing Serum: Size Doesn't Matter

As the saying goes, size doesn't matter, it's how you use it. Now before you start thinking this is going to be an R-rated, post, I'm going to disappoint you by making this post all about skincare. I've always been a firm believer in the "you don't need to spend a lot to look good" theory, especially so when it comes to skincare. After all, it's really about knowing your skin, and what ingredients work for it, as opposed to chasing after brands or the lastest new thing. The Liz Earle Line Smoothing Serum is tiny, but it does work pretty well.



When I say tiny, I'm not kidding. The product comes in a teeny little box, and you get 10ml of product inside. Well, that's a pretty small amount, although I have seen serums in tubes as small as 15ml being sold as well. The good thing about this product is that unlike some other serums which come in jars, this one comes ssensibly-packed in a tiny plastic bottle with a pump top.



The serum itself is a clear, thick gel with a yellow-brownish tinge. Because the product is so thick, a little goes a long way. It also does take awhile to skin into the skin, so to me this feels more like a night-time use only product, but if you're planning to wear this under makeup, I'd recommend that you let it settle into the skin first.



The first thing you notice is that this product is very moisturizing. I also like that it doesn't contain any ingredients that tend to break me out. On my sensitive skin, a lot of plant oils actually break me out, so a brand heavy on the botanicals (like Liz Earle and a lot of other natural-skincare brands) can have products that are likely to break my skin out, since some plant oils can be clogging on sensitive skin. But this isn't one of them, and I rather enjoyed using it.

Although the Line Smoothing Serum is marketed as a line treatment product, prevention seems to be its strongest suit. I feel like using it has made my skin feel a lot more moisturized and a teensy bit plumper, which I guess counteracts the appearance of any lines (I'm not sure if any product actually helps lines to disappear, to be honest).

If you're looking for a good serum with moisturizing properties, this would definitely be worth a look at. And if you do get this, don't be scared by the small size. Remember, a little goes a long way with this baby.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Kanebo KATE Lipgloss S Swatches

KATE is the drugstore arm of Kanebo cosmetics, the ever-popular Japan-based cosmetics and skincare brand. KATE has been gaining popularity among Asian girls as it is often perceived as being similar to Kanebo, it's more expensive sister, but at a better price point. That, combined with the cutesey marketing and the "it's-from-Japan" hype, has garnered it something of a small following.

One of KATE's latest products is the Lipgloss S, consisting of just five colours. I have to admit, Asian cosmetics naming conventions are so odd that although I'm Asian myself, I've no idea what S stands for. Shine? Shimmer? Sheer? Sticky? Well, the Lipgloss S is all of those, so I guess they picked the letter quite rightly. Anyway, enough of my snark, here are the Lipgloss S swatches.



L - R: PK-2, BE-1, PK-1, BR-1, RD-1

In general, Asian cosmetics naming conventions for lip shades go as such:
PK = Pink
BE = Beige
BR = Brown (although oftentimes in Asian cosmetics "brown" really looks more like "pinky-brown-that's-not-pastel")
RD = Red
PP = Purple (once again, not as purple as it sounds, it's usually used for plummy shades)

And the 1, 2, 3 etc numbers usually denote depth or darkness of colour. So, say PK-1 and PK-2 would be both pinks, but PK-2 could be reasonably be expected to be darker than PK-1. Which in itself isn't saying much, because you know, darker could be one shade darker, or three shades darker, and there is huge variance in shade depth between shades.

Anyway, here's my colour description below:

PK-2 is a pale, purply-pink with big chunk of glitter.
BE-1 is a pale, sheer, peach with glitter.
PK-1 is a pale, pastel pink, that's not as purply as PK-2, and also has glitter.
BR-1 isn't as brown as the colour naming scheme makes it sound. It's actually a gorgeous neutral pinky-brown, a lovely MLBB (My Lips But Better) shade.
RD-1 is the lone shimmer-free shade in the range. It's a sheer red, perfect for girls who want an introduction to the red lip.

As I've mentioned previously, all these glosses are sheer, have copious amounts of shimmer, and are really, really sticky. Like, Lancome Juicy Tubes kind of sticky (and if you're a makeup fanatic like me, you'll know the Juicy Tubes are famed for being possibly one of the stickiest glosses ever to have touched the lips of womankind). As it tends to be with Asian cosmetics, the lighter shades tend to be sheerer and have more shimmer, while the darker shades tend to have better pigmentation and be less glitterbomb-ish.

BeautyUK Lip Lust in St Tropez: Summer Hotness for Lips!

Now that Summer is officially here, all of us are looking for quick, cheap, easilly available Summer pick-me-ups - you know, that cheap and awesome bronzer, that great teal eyeliner, or - in the case of BeautyUK's newer range of lipglosses, the Lip Lusts, the perfect bronzey, shimmery lip. I have to admit, bronze generally isn't a colour I'd wear on my lips, but BeautyUK's Lip Lust in St Tropez looked so hot, I was sorely tempted to give it a go!



The Lip Lusts come packaged in a small, slim squeeze tube with a black cap. Pretty normal, as far as lip glosses go. The applicator, though, is a fuzzy slant tube, which isn't that common.



If I were brutally honest, I'd say I didn't really like these types of applicators - fuzzy tips, brush applicators, etc - because they do tend to get all gunked up with product and clogged up after some usage, and they aren't the most hygenic way of applying the product to your lips. Fortunately, if you're a lipgloss-germaphobe like me, there's a very neat way of getting around this issue.



Yup, you saw correctly! Simply twist off the fuzzy applicator cap, and use a lip brush! The applicator is simply screwed on by a cap, so you can just twist it off!

The St Tropez Lip Lust is packed full with shimmer, so for those girls who prefer shimmer-less glosses, you have been warned. There are small gold and silver glitter bits, which I think go very well with the bronzey, summery feel of the lipgloss - St Tropez is such an evocative colour name isn't it?



Still, although it's glitter-heavy, the glitter isn't too overpowering, because some of the glitter is hidden in the pigmentation of the gloss. BeautyUK advertises the Lip Lusts as being very pigmented, and they are right. What I love about the colour of the gloss is that althought it's bronze-ish, it's not totally unwearable - I'd call it red-bronze, so it doesn't look like you're applying metal foil to your lips. It still looks like the colour of actual lips, just with a bronzey, shimmery tinge.



Here is a shot of the gloss on my lips. Once applied, the Lip Lusts have this tingly, menthol-ish feeling on your lips, which could be a good or bad thing depending on your preferences. Personally, I'd rather not have the tingling sensation, but as long as it doesn't burn I'm indifferent. They're also not too sticky, which is a plus point.



So if you're looking for a cheap, summery gloss with oodles of shimmer, this is definitely worth checking out. With good pigmentation, good texture, and the very cheap price point of £2.99, you could get one of every colour.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)