Archives for January 2009

Sneak Preview: Kanebo Coffret D’or Spring 2009 Collection

Paris B 17 Comments

I came across the upcoming Kanebo Coffret D’or Spring 2009 collection yesterday and my eyes lit up immediately. It was a collection I had been keeping an eye out for because the Shine Accent eyeshadow palettes looked so pretty online.

Just look at them. Don’t they look lovely and shimmery and pastel – just how Spring colours usually are?

Coffret D'or Spring 2009

Unfortunately, I was quite bummed after I’d played around with them for a while. The texture of the eyeshadows are lovely – typical Coffret D’or – smooth, shimmery and silky. In fact, I might venture to say that they are even silkier than the 3D Lighting Eyes palette that I like. More pictures below.
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Review: Asiatic Beauty Pegaga Soap Bar

Paris B 7 Comments

Courtesy of Julea of Asiatic Beauty, I received a bar of Pegaga body bar soap.

Pegaga bar soap

Pegaga (also known as Pennywort leaves, gotu kola, centella asiatica) is a herb popular in Malaysia for its medicinal properties and has a reputation for boosting mental activity and for helping a variety of systemic illnesses, such as high blood pressure, rheumatism, fever, and nervous disorders (Read more here and here) The Pegaga bar soap contains extract of pegaga leaves and is supposed to clean and condition, gently exfoliating without damaging the skin.

The Asiatic Beauty Pegaga bar soap is a largish translucent glycerin soap bar made with pegaga extract. What makes this soap bar a little special and out of the ordinary is the inclusion of ground apricot kernals into the soap. This transforms the soap bar from a mere cleaning agent to a scrubbing and cleaning agent. Quite clever!
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Benefit Coralista Blush is love!

Paris B 26 Comments

If you like peachy-coral-pink toned blushes, look no further than Benefit Coralista – the new blush from Benefit Cosmetics. Mine just arrived today all the way from the US of A and I couldn’t wait to tear right into it – ooh! Animal! :P

Absolutely befitting the jungle cat look that Benefit has given to the Coralista box. I’m not quite sure why they went with a jungle theme. The name “Coralista” brings to my mind swaying palm trees on a deserted island beach and margarita in hand, definitely not a wild jungle cat.

Benefit Coralista

So, here’s Benefit’s Coralista – a lovely peachy-coral-pink blush in a box that is really pigmented. If you found Dandelion and Georgia too sheer, be careful with Coralista. One swipe produced this swatch on the back of my hand.

Benefit Coralista blush

Yes, its very pigmented so I’m going to have to be careful with this one. The packaging is the same as other Benefit box blushes – I’m not too crazy about the cardboard packaging nor the fact that the blush is embedded so deep. But I’ll live :P

There is a sweetish scent accompanying the blush. I’ve read many reviews that liked it. I’m not too crazy about it. My office now smells of the sweet scent of Coralista – slightly peachy and sweet. I’m going to leave the box open for a while and see if the scent dissipates some.

There are also reviews that have compared Coralista with NARS Orgasm. I’ll update when I go home and swatch the two, and see what other blushes it comes close to.

I bought mine from Benefit Cosmetics online for US$28 and I’m not sure when we will have them at the Benefit counters in Malaysia (or if its out already – I haven’t been around). It should retail for RM129 here, similar to the other blushes in a box.

I can’t wait to try this one on. I love peachy-coral-pink blushes and they bring out the best in me!

Stay beautiful,

Paris B

MAC Dame Edna Wisteria Eyeshadow Trio dupes?

Paris B 10 Comments

Most of the new MAC collections have not excited me. I’m just not a MAC girl, sorry to say. This explains the lack of posts about MAC on this blog. However, when I saw the Dame Edna collection, I had to laugh. I remember watching Dame Edna on comedy skits on British tv on cold winter nights and he/she was hilarious!

I love that MAC put the trademark Dame Edna spectacles on the case of the Dame Edna collection – It is just fitting. Since I’m not a MAC girl, I can’t bring myself to buy anything from there. However, having seen pictures of the collection, the Wisteria eyeshadow trio seems to call my name. Over the weekend, while I was passing a MAC store, my eye was drawn to the bright red words “DAME EDNA” over the store front, and I knew I had to walk in to take a look.

MAC Dame Edna collection

To my surprise, I actually had a good shopping experience at MAC Cosmetics! I enjoyed chatting to the makeup artist/sales person at MAC Pavilion Kuala Lumpur and I enjoyed playing with the Dame Edna collection and talking about the upcoming MAC collections with him. He was friendly and helpful and showed me various items without once being rude or dismissive – it made me rethink my earlier impression of MAC – seriously. If you are thinking of buying MAC, I recommend Stephan from MAC Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. Tell him the lady who was discussing Hello Kitty with him sent you ;) That is, if he remembers LOL…

Anyway, after seeing the Dame Edna collection and the Wisteria eyeshadow trio (RM125) in person, I knew there was no chance of me buying it. I have owned MAC Lustre eyeshadows before and after playing with the trio, I was reminded that MAC eyeshadows are just not my style. So, I thought to myself, “Hey, why not dupe it since you won’t be buying it anyway?” And you know what? I agreed with myself in a split personality sort of way, and went off to trawl through my stash.
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