Lancome: L.U.C.I

The other day I walked passed the Lancome counter and caught a glimpse of their new SS08 collection. Intrigued by the pretty shell packaging and vibrant colors, I booked an appointment to try out the new collection the very next day!
The theme of this SS08 collection by Gucci Westman is L.U.C.I, Luminescent Colorless Color Intelligence (And yes, I am aware that Colorless starts with a C and not a U. *shrugs* Maybe its a french thing?). The idea is to have a collection of colorless shimmery make-up that changes color all the time adjusting to different skin tones and the reflections of light. Doesn't that concept sound so awesome???
To begin with, the make-up artist did the whole usual cleaning, moisturizer, toner, pore minimizer (it is such a Lancome thing!) routine with me. Then she introduced me to their new make-up primer, La Base, which she applied to my face/nose (to fill in the pores) and under my EYES! Apparently, this is a special oil free formula that is even suitable as a eye primer! I'm not sure I follow the logic of oil free --> suitable for eye thing, but I LOVE the idea of undereye primer. It is SO annoying when the skin there is dry/flaky (even my eye cream has been applied!) and thus looks AWFUL when you apply concealer there. This product is genius. And it might be my imagination or the foundation, but I felt that my pores did look smaller. After all that base, foundation and concealer, she finished off the face with the Photonic Illuminating Powder, which is just loose powder with the sparkly light reflection stuff that is suppose to help highlight and sculpt your features. I really didn't feel the difference.
Moving on we had the eye make-up, where I daresay is where the whole luminescent thing should be at it's best. One of my favourite products out of the whole collection is the Illuminator, which is basically cream eye shadows. that goes on clear but reflects color when light hits it. How totally awesome is that??? I LOVE it. I got the "ray of pink light" shade. You can also use it as a base before you apply powder, but personally I think the powder would just mask the effect. If you get the more neutral apricot shade, you can also use it to highlight your features. After all, it DOES say it is an illuminator for the eyes and face.

The other eye make-up product is the eye shadow palette in the pretty white shell shaped box, the L.U.C.I EYES light color in motion duo eye shadows. I was really excited about it. I love eye shadow palettes and the colors looked so vibrant! The white shade that comes with the color is not simply a typical highlighting color, but it is a photonic eye shadow that changes color when light hits it. You can use it for highlighting or blend it with the color to create a third shade! The lady did a combination of ray of green and ray of purple (which is really quite blue) for me and let me say, the colors go on VERY sharply. Unfortunately for me what looked soo pretty in the palette did not go so well with me.... it was so overdramatic that it bordered on tacky on me. Maybe I am just unused to it? I mean, vibrant colors looked SO well on the models! Or could it be that Asian complexion doesn't go well with greens/blues? Well, in the end, as much as I LOVE eye shadow palettes, I had to pass on these ones. And a good thing too. I met up with 3 of my friends after and they were all totally horrified to see me as such!
To complete my eyes, she applied the Courbe Virtuose mascara on me (after the mascara booster of course). This one is suppose to make the lash curve and give divine length, but to me it just felt like any old Lancome mascara for me.... like Hypnose. Another thing I LOVE about this collection is the lip stuff. Even though the packaging is a bit bulky, I really like the Color Fever Shine (left). Especially since they came out with THE perfect ice pale pink color (Pink Flora) that I've been dreaming about. I love it. It applies quite smoothly too. They also have a collection of photonic Color Fever Gloss (right). They have this nice sheer shade that gives the perfect shine by itself and over lipstick. But one must be careful with these lip colors though. They have these two shades that are completely white that are loaded with photonic stuff that when you put it on your lips, it becomes a scary glowing alien color- not good.

Over all, I like the concept of the luminescent thing and subtly it works. But I reserve judgment on the super vibrant colors and the photonic overloaded lip stuff- thats just a little too much for me!

Phew~ well that was a lengthy review of a make-up collection. Kudos for finish reading it!

Image Source: Lancome

Stylish Puffers

Lets face it. As warm as layering and cashmere coats are, the comfy cushiony warmth a puffer provides is hard to beat. Lucky for us, this season designers finally came out with stylish looking puffers! I just LOVE the new designs for the collar. They are so refreshing (if not very practical. I can just HEAR my mom telling me how my neck is exposed to the cold and I will catch a cold....). I especially LOVE this one from Add Down (left), with the wide neck and the belt that gives it shape, it was the puffer that inspired this post! To "protect" the neck, there is also this one from Marc by Marc Jacobs (right), where you can adjust the neckline as needed. I LOVE this puffer as well. Also from Add Down, you can convert the wide collar into a hoodie!!! How CUTE! I also love the neat simple cutting that gives a more flattering body shape. Some other cute designs, there is this high necked puffer from Vince (left). Judging from the puff, it may also be warmer. And for a more biker-ish look, there is this one from Theory (right). For something more classic, we have these ones from Burberry. I've tried on the beige one on the left, and the cutting is actually not that bad and quite flattering! And I think the black one over here is perfect if you want something simple but still with a little bit of a twist (double breasted and high neckline)- your neck will definitely be warm!

Stay stylishly warm everyone!

Image Source: Burberry and Shopbop

27 Dresses

Ever since I heard about this movie a few months ago, I've been waiting in great anticipation to see it. After all, this is probably one of the few chick flicks coming out... since Knocked Up!
Just the name 27 Dresses is a selling point for me. And this cute poster with mention of "Devil Wears Prada" helps too! The actual plot is about how Jane (Katherine Heigl) is a professional bridesmaid, who has willingly donned on some pretty horrible dresses in order to "be there" for her friends on their special day.
In fact, she has 27 of them. Usually I'm quite envious of people's overflowing wardrobes in movies (think Clueless), but I think I'll make an exception in this case.... The story revolves around how Jane's sister, Tess (Malin Akerman) comes into town and falls in love with Jane's boss George- who Jane happens to be in love with for a loooong time! I thought it was quite amazing how they managed to make Katherine Heigl (whom I always thought looked quite pretty in Grey's Anatomy) look like the "plain Jane" in this movie compared to Tess.
During that time, Jane also meets Kevin (James Marsden!) the wedding journalist for the New York Journal- and the chick flick romance begins.
I've loved James Marsden since his appearance in Ally McBeal many years ago (where he sang Frank Sinatra...sigh!) and his recent Prince charming role in Enchanted was not bad either (if a bit dumbed down). But I LOVE LOVE LOVE his look here. While in his other roles, he'd always had that clean, preppy pretty boy look, his role in this movie as a journalist is ruggedly handsome and charming...sigh............ :)

Over all I liked the movie. I love weddings. I love chick flick happy endings. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE James Marsden. It was just the light hearted fun movie I was looking for. I know that many reviews have found this movie to be sexist because it portrays getting married as the life goal of women, but personally I think that is just the opinion of the female lead here and everyone is entitled to their own opinions and so its not reflective of a whole gender. What did everyone else think?

Image Source: Yahoo Movies

Haute Couture S/S08 III

Starting with Armani's tribute to Valentino:

This post, like all of the other recent haute couture posts, is all about Valentino's final show. The old-school king of romance is retiring after more than 40 years of designing flowery and lacey dresses. Personally, I've always been neutral about Valentino. To me, Valentino is a well-respected designer who has been around for a very long time. I don't exactly love or hate his designs because I wasn't even born yet during some of his more memorable designer years and because such fancy clothes isn't exactly studentwear. But this is the very final Valentino show, so let's take some time to admire the final work of a master:

Take note of the Phillip Tracey hats -they're so pretty! Isn't the bow on Natalia V.'s head SO adorable? I could totally imagine a red one on Blair (Gossip Girl)!

OK, so I admit I can't tell the difference between this collection and Valentino's RTW line. They just all look very lady-like to me.

The gold, 20's dress on the left is one of my favourite from this collection. It's modern but still very classic-looking.

Flowers in many different forms -a signature of Valentino's.

Chic and elegant.

Gorgeous! Don't the purple/ pink flowers just look like they're growing on a vine on these dresses?

These dresses look so big and puffy, yet still so light and floaty. Just what certain romantic dresses are supposed to look like.

The silver (or is it white?) dress on Vlada (right) is another one of my favourite dresses in this collection. It's SO gorgeous!
Farewell Valentino!

Image credit: www.vogue.co.uk

Haute Couture S/S08 I

'Tis the week for mega-gorgeous, artistic and unwearable couture!

Christian Dior
Haute Couture S/S08 started off with a bang with the ever-dramatic collection from Christian Dior by John Galliano. As per the collections from the last few haute couture seasons, this collection was composed of strong, bright, vivid colours. The theme of this collection was Madame X, which I know nothing about and am not bothered to Wiki it, but do do so if you're interested. To be honest, while these couture pieces are all truly amazing, I'm not completely awed after Dior's Japanese collection in HC S/S07, my favourite yet. Perhaps it looks more stunning in real life.
The jewel colours are SO gorgeous. Gosh, imagine all the work put into constructing the dress and all those little details!
These are great to look at (in an artistic way) and very unwearable.
Don't the models look like they're wearing super-volumous dresses with capes on? And please don't tell me that the grey dress (left) is made of animal skin because that's just scary. (Hmm, maybe I should look up a closer-up photo.)
Aww, these are so cute and girly! (-in an expensive and unrealistic way of course.)

Anne Valerie Hash
I like how this collection feels very delicate, yet still edgy in some ways, (maybe it's the neatral colours or the menswear characteristics.) A very soft and feminine collection, with some current trends incorporated in:
Huge shoulders.
Soft and see-through.
Pencil-dress and menswear.

Giorgio Armani Prive
I think this is the first Armani Prive collection that I have truly liked, (or maybe it's just that I've already forgotten the older collections.) I've always thought Amrani collections as sleek, sophisticated in a slightly outdated fashion. Yet this collection feels more modern and softer.
The suits look somewhat impractical. Good thing people don't actually wear these, but if only we could wear cute, bubbly suitskirts to work!
I especially love the cocktail dresses -so divine! Sigh.
Cocktail dresses as art pieces.
As for the long gowns, they're feminie and glamorous as always.

Image Credit: http://www.style.com/

Kirsten Dunst For Miu Miu SS08 Ads

For people who love to shop, January is a bit of a dry month. But for fashion-lovers, January is pretty exciting as it is when a lot of the SS campaigns are released. One of the campaigns I've been most anticipating is the Miu Miu campagin because a) Kirsten Dunst is Miu Miu's model of the season, and b) I usually love Miu Miu's campaign images. I have to admit I didn't really like Lindsay Lohan's FW07 campaign. Maybe I just didn't think Lindsay suited Miu Miu, or maybe the images just seemed too grown-up for Miu Miu.

The colour scheme of the SS08 campaign seems pretty similar to the FW07 one. But what I like about this campaign is that it really conveys the feeling of the clothing collection - the clothes and bags are very obviously featured, but it still manages to be artistic and dramatic. Also, I think Kirsten did really well. She manages to look coy, theatrical and ladylike while still looking playful. (You have to stare at it for awhile before really feeling the images. Go to the Miu Miu website for larger pictures.)

Now I don't actually love all the images, but I like the campaign as a whole. Plus I may be biased as Kirsten is my favourite actress. And while it would be nice to see Miu Miu use a model to model the campaign, it doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon.

I want to say this looks like a good 'look' for work (minus the red bow on the head,) but the skirt is way too short. If only I could go to work looking this chic though! Even the bag looks big and practical for work!

Hmm, I couldn't decide whether I like this image (top)...

or this image (top) more. But these two are definitely my favourite out of the lot. The clothes are SO cute, girly and quirky. I just don't know where one would wear them. Oh well, it's not like I could afford these clothes.

Do you like Kirsten's Miu Miu ads?

Image credit: http://www.miumiu.com/

Sleeping Before 1a.m.

At the beginning of January, BG and I evaluated our New Years Eve celebration on the phone. (We like to evaluate all our activities in great detail. Sometimes our talks are even longer than the actual events!) Then we decided to set out our new year's resolution. Reading back on my 2007 resolutions, I cannot imagine what I was thinking back then so this year, I wanted the resolutions to be beneficial and somewhat achieveable. I think I should admit here that I write new year's resolutions mostly for the fun of it and not 100% because I spend my whole year slaving over them.

So anyways, I suggested one of my last year's resolution for both BG and me, but we modified it: "Aim to sleep before 1a.m. -For the nights I'm not out." I added the last remark to make it realistically achieveable. And it's not like I'm out much anyways, so it's ok.

Usually I'm not one to broadcast my resolutions, but since I think some of you out there might benefit from it, I thought I would share it and maybe you would consider it too. I take skincare pretty seriously. After washing my face at night, I always put on eye moisturiser, (I'm currently using the two in the picture above.) And while this may seem like the norm to many of you, I know people who actually don't use eye moisturiser. Anyways, so in the past few years, I usually go to bed from 2am-6am -not exactly healthy. There are always emails to check, youtube to watch, Facebook to stalk (uh hum, BG,) random sites to surf, books to read...... You get my point.

And while it was totally fine and not os obvious when I was younger, I've noticed that when I sleep very late now, the skin around my eyes have starting to age. Think dark circles, puffy eyebags and most scarily, fine lines. So in an attempt to stop all these from happening so soon (-I'm not that old!), I have decided to really try sleeping before 1, or erm, maybe at 2.

What are your beauty-related New Year resolutions?

Image credit: http://www.sephora.com/

Light-Coloured Blazer With Black Satin Lapels

Hey, so you may have noticed that the blog has been on a short standstill. BG is currently enjoying a chilled, though rainy holiday in Sydney. As for me, I've been MIA for a week because the thingy that gives off the wireless broadband signal broke down at home! (I feel the need to explain because my friend, J was nice enough to make sure I was alive on Facebook, and to apologise for sending out panicked texts and emails from the library to some friends.) So basically, I've been living in an Internet-less environment for 5.5 LONG days. Very long days. I don't know about you, but I'm extemely Broadband-dependent. After digging out all the wires at home and attempting all possible ways to access the Internet and failing, all I thought was, OMG how am I going to survive? Omg, save me. The situation was somewhat like the situation descibed in this NYT article.

So obviously, I finally have broadband wireless at home, (thank goodness!) and can blog again. Today's post is about one of my favourite item of clothing, the blazer. Specifically, light-coloured blazers with black satin lapels. I'm not 100% sure that the black bits are called lapel but I basically mean the collar and the flap of fabric along the V-neck. (Yes, I know I lack fashion knowledge.)

Even though I only own one black blazer, I realised that black blazers sometimes look too boring or formal for casualwear. So when I saw this Marc by Marc Jacobs blazer I really wanted it. It's so sleek, well-cut and cool. And since it's cropped, the length looks really flattering and perfect. Unfortunately it costs 398USD -well above my budget for a not-too-practical blazer. If you think about it, white jackets get dirty really easily, and this blazer is definitely not one for the worn-out look.

After searching awhile, I found another one. This one is by Lux at Urban Outfitters. OK, so it's not white and doesn't look as sleek as the Marc one. Just in case the picture isn't clear, it's light grey and has grey stripes on it. But at 55 pounds, it's way more affordable and worth it for casual-going-out wear.

What does everyone think of these blazers?

Image credit: http://www.shopbop.com/, http://www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk/

Cozy Gloves

To protect our hands in the chilly winter (they are one of the coldest extremities!) a pair of cozy gloves is an essential investment.
Having grown up in the subtropics all my life, I never really needed to wear gloves. So when I went the States, I got really excited and thought, "Yes! Now I can finally wear all those cute woolen gloves with the matching hats that they sell from Ralph Lauren!" I even bought a matching pink cable knit beanie, scarf and gloves in preparation! Unfortunately, when I finally got to the windy city, I realized that the measley protection that my woolen mittens were not enough. Not only were my fingers numbed from the cold, but the gloves got WET (from the snow) and made my hands even colder! (Above: RL)
And so I finally decided to invest in a pair of more serious gloves. My attention turned to leather gloves, because they were waterproof and they looked fitted enough that I'd be able to kinda utilize my fingers. I finally settled on a pair from Marshall Field's with serious looking lambswool lining (it was fluffy looking). They've served me well for the last three years. Recently, I also bought a pair of leather gloves with faux fur lining from Milan cause it was on sale, it looked so sleek and the fur lining inside felt soo nice and divine (almost real like!). Though they've both served their purpose for me so far, but I have to admit, on occasions when I'm outdoors in the negative degrees for too long, my hands and fingers still get numb from the cold afterwards! (Above: RL)
This made me wonder how people survived wearing those thin lined leather gloves of cashmere, silk and fleece when my very serious fluffy ones don't quite do the job! My friend who owns a pair that is lined with cashmere, claims that the warming properties of cashmere does the trick- even better than faux fur. She let me tried her gloves for 10 seconds and it felt warm enough, but I'm still skeptical. It just doesn't make logical sense for me! I know cashmere is extra warm, but ultimately it is still really really thin. Can it possibly top the job of many many layers of fluff? (Left: RL, Right: Saks)
Oh and if you like to build snowmans, go skiing or have a snowball fight i.e. anything that involves direct contact with snow, a pair of very very serious waterproof super fluffed up North Face style gloves is probably a good idea. I made the mistake of going skiing with my first pair of leather gloves and the leather was positively ruined (in my defense, it was my first time skiing and I didn't see the point of getting a pair just for half a day of skiing). After that, since they were ruined anyway, I tried to build a snowman with those gloves (snowman building is SO much harder than it looks on tv!). After an hour not only did my snowman looked pathetic (the snow just wouldn't pack!), but my fingers were beyond frozen and numb- it was burning! How I wish I had a pair of these at that moment........(Above: North Face)

Image Source: Saks, Ralph Lauren and Nordstrom

SPF Hand Cream

*Gasp* I just read the most horrifying article in this issue of Elle (Feb, p190): Gloves Off, where the writer goes to investigate the newest procedure for hand rejuvenation. The doctor basically injected *wince* her hands with the latest plumpers, Radiesse, which is supposed to be more long lasting. The after effect was her hands looked 10 years younger as it lessened the ropey appearance of her veins and filled out the hollow spaces between her tendons. A few hours later however, her hands were swollen and in pain- which apparently is perfectly normal and lasted for about a week. Apart from that she later found out that if they hit the wrong place, injecting these things into your hands will also lead to permanent swelling *shiver*.

After THAT horrifying article, I realized that in my craze to buy sunscreens for my face, I'd forgotten about my hands- which in all respects are exposed to sunlight as much as my face is! Sunscreens from all sources is after all the one most effective way we can protect ourselves from aging. And so I've decided that it is time I got myself some hand cream with SPF! In my googling I realized that there really weren't that many hand creams with SPF. But here are a few that I've found. On the high end, there is Lancome and Clarins.
In the medium range, there are Kiehl's and Boots. I think I may try the Kiehl's one, because it also claims that it is, "Unusually rich but not greasy at all," which sounds intriguing. But then again it only has SPF 10.
And in the drugstores, we have our ever trusty Neutrogena and Dove brand of SPF sunscreen. I wonder how much SPF is sufficient for the hands...most of the ones listed here have SPF 15 (besides Dove with SPF 5 and Kiehl's with SPF 10).

Image Source: Clarins, Kiehls, Sephora, Boots