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Beauty hors d’oeuvres: Getting ready for the Holidays with Laura Mercier

December 5, 2019 Paris B 3 Comments

The year-end festive period is a love-it or hate-it time for many.

On the one hand, who doesn’t love winding down with the year, as people slow down, take time off to spend with loved ones, enjoy the school holidays with their kids, and revel in the Christmas and New Year festivities.

On the other hand, just think of the stress all that brings! LOL! :D

Well, Laura Mercier has a few Holiday releases to create a little oasis of calm and encourage that little bit of me-time, to help you cope with the stress of the year-end holidays and festivities :)

Save & Splurge: Comparing the Hakuhodo and Chanel Retractable brushes and affordable Mini Travel-sized face brushes

May 15, 2019 Paris B 9 Comments

After my rant about the retractable (but not) brush from Guerlain a few days ago, I was reminded of a reader request. Someone had requested my thoughts on the Chanel Les Pinceaux de Chanel Retractable Highlighter Brush as compared to the Hakuhodo Retractable Brush that I bought as a souvenir from Japan last year.

hakuhodo retractable brush, chanel les pinceaux de Chanel retractable highlighter brush

I’d kept the post at the back of my mind, intending to write about it, but never quite getting round to it for various reasons. Well, let us remedy that today! :D

As these brushes also make good travel brushes, I will also show you a few other small/mini brushes that I use for travel purposes, or that are portable. They are affordable so stop cringing! LOL! :D

Wear your precious stones and have a bejewelled Christmas with the Dior Precious Rocks collection

November 6, 2017 Paris B 8 Comments

Hello peeps! I’m back with my nose to the blogging grindstone, and as happens as this time of year, we are going to be inundated with Christmas selections! So, whether you like it or not, you’re going to read about them, so better now than never eh?

I swear Christmas releases are launched earlier and earlier every year. Soon, we’ll literally see Christmas in July! (I’m old-fashioned. Most people call the year-end collections the “Holidays collections” but I call them the Christmas collections) I’ll kick off with Dior – because I must confess, I am quite enamoured with this year’s collection!

I have been quite critical of Dior collections of late, and if I’m to be honest, Dior was starting to get predictable. We expect a gold eyeshadow palette, and we expect to be inundated with sparkly golden offerings and red accents. It’s what Dior has been doing every year for many years. but this year, I have to say, that the Dior Precious Rocks Christmas 2017 collection really perked me up.

I have a small selection from the collection to show you, and I’ll break them down briefly for you below. There is one (maybe two) item in the collection that I am very taken with, that I think is absolutely worth checking out. I’ll tell you which it is (although you can hazard a guess and tell me later if you guessed right! ;) )

The Makeup Brush Collective Part 1 : Brushes I use for the face – Liquid Foundation and Powder

January 9, 2017 Paris B 22 Comments

I received some eagle-eyed queries not long ago about makeup brushes and why I’d stopped writing about them. Well, it’s not for want of owning them. I am still mad about my makeup brushes, in particular Japanese made natural hair brushes, but I’ve reached my optimum satisfaction point – anything after this would be diminishing utility <- economics! argh! LOL

So, I’ve stopped buying and ogling the beautifully crafted Japanese makeup brushes (my wallet thanks me profusely), and am quite content with what I own. Also, I own A LOT. It’s embarrassing for someone who isn’t even a makeup artist, nor wears that much makeup daily. So, instead of pulling them out one by one to feature here on the blog, I’m going to talk about makeup brushes as a collective.

For this week, I’ll be featuring makeup brushes I use most often for face, eyes and cheeks. I’ll show you the type of brush, so you can find other options out there if you like, to see if the type of brush suits your makeup style. I’ll also tell you in gist how I work with these makeup brushes and why I use them and why I like them, if course.

We’ll kick off with makeup brushes for the face and lest I’m left to do all the talking, please let me know what your favourites are in this category too! :)

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