Category Archives: Beauty

Christian Louboutin nail polish launches in Hong Kong – head over heels for designer lacquer

louboutin nail polish hong kong

Would you pay HK$450 for a nail polish? (International readers – that’s approximately US$58 or GBP£36!) Well, now’s the time to find out as Christian Louboutin’s nail polish line has just launched in Hong Kong.

First things first, these are no average nail polishes. The bottles – with long pointed caps reminiscent of a sharp stiletto heel, and chunky geometric cut-glass bottles – are practically works of art in themselves. The signature polish in the collection is the Rouge Louboutin, which is of course based on those all-iconic red soles and boasts a longer black cap (designed to be the same height as Louboutin’s tallest ever heel, the Ballerina Ultima) with a beautiful ombre tinted glass bottle.

louboutin nail polish hong kong rouge louboutin

Fashion legend has it that Louboutin’s very first red soles were created by him painting red nail polish directly onto the shoes… so it’s kind of cool that things have now come full circle and the brand is actually producing the lacquer itself!

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The Peninsula Spa Five Elements LaStone Therapy treatment review – ‘cos you’re hot then you’re cold…

Peninsula Spa Hong Kong

Mention Tsim Sha Tsui to most of us jaded Hong Kongers and we’ll inevitably start to grumble: “Too many crowds… too many shops… too many Mainlanders!” However, if all our visits to TST were to begin with a visit to The Peninsula Spa, I’m pretty sure we’d be feeling much more zen about the neighbourhood.

I was recently invited to try The Peninsula Spa’s new Five Elements LaStone Therapy treatment… and it was the happiest I’ve felt about Tsim Sha Tsui in a long time.

Peninsula Spa Hong Kong Asian Tea Lounge

The Peninsula Hong Kong is something of an icon here and its spa is every bit as luxurious as you’d expect. Spread over the seventh and ninth floors of the hotel, it’s got a contemporary Chinese vibe to it with bamboo, marble and dark wood details – plus plenty of water features to appease those feng shui masters! My favourite area is the Asian Tea Relaxation Lounge (above), which is surrounded by cascades of glowing rushing water. Tranquillity and serenity rather than “Need a new watch, Madam?” are totally the words of the day here.

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MAC Mineralize Rich Lipsticks in Be A Lady and Lady At Play review – drinking the coral Kool-Aid

mac mineralize rich lipsticks lady at play and be a lady

Cometh the summer… cometh the coral.

In some weird beauty blogger version of Pavlov’s Dogs, as soon as the sun starts poking its head out for any prolonged period, I find my fingers automatically itching towards my stash of coral lipsticks – and usually, the brighter the better! There’s just something about coral in the summer… It feels younger and more fun than red, breezier and easier to pull off than orange, and juicier and happier than pink – instead being some exotic, eternally flattering love-child of all three.

mac lady at play and be a lady mineralize rich lipsticks

This summer, MAC’s Mineralize Rich Lipsticks in Lady At Play (above left) and Be A Lady (above right) have been on higher rotation in my make-up routine than One Direction and Taylor Swift on a tweenager’s Spotify playlist. These lipstick ladies are definitely for turning… turning heads that is!

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YSL La Laque Couture Bleu Celadon nail polish review

ysl bleu celadon

Short review of YSL Bleu Celadon: It’s pretty damn perfect.

Slightly longer review of YSL Bleu Celadon: No really, it’s pretty damn perfect.

OK, just in case you need a couple more words…

ysl bleu celadon la laque couture

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Aussie is coming to Hong Kong – the 3 Minute Miracle is here!

Aussie Hong Kong 1

Yes, I am shamelessly using a half-naked man to get your attention – but with good reason!

Clearly, all my wishes on stars have finally been noted by the beauty powers-that-be… because amazing haircare brand Aussie is FINALLY launching in Hong Kong!

Aussie Hong Kong 3 Minute Miracle

Here’s all you need to know:

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Sabon opens in Hong Kong – Lavender Apple Shower Oil and Delicate Jasmine Body Lotion review

sabon shower oil body lotion

UPDATE: Sabon has since opened lots more stores in Hong Kong – full list of locations at the bottom of this post!

Beauty junkies in Hong Kong are enjoying something of a purple patch (insert preferred colour of choice here) right now. Whilst the influx of new beauty brands here has included many I was already familiar with (like Kate Somerville or the new arrivals at FACESSS), there have also been plenty popping up that I hadn’t heard of – including Israeli skincare brand Sabon, who have just opened their first stores in Hong Kong, in Tsim Sha Tsui’s Harbour City and Tai Koo’s Cityplaza.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to make the store opening (which has its very own wishing well made from Jerusalem stone… skincare was definitely never this swanky in Nottingham, I tell ya!), so Sabon very kindly sent me a few of their goodies to try – and on the basis of these, I’m already sniffing out my next Sabon purchases.

sabon hong kong

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MAC Shimmerfish nail polish review, Alluring Aquatics Collection

mac shimmerfish nail polish

Couldn’t get enough of the a-ma-zing packaging for MAC’s Alluring Aquatics Collection? Yeah, me neither… so I thought I’d bring you another shamelessly covet-worthy post on the collection’s other nail lacquer, MAC Shimmerfish, for you to drool over! [Polish geek side-note: the third lacquer from MAC’s Alluring Aquatics Collection, Neptune, was not released in Hong Kong.]

mac shimmerfish

Shimmerfish is a super shimmery (surprise!) silver with teeny-tiny flecks of light copper also swimming in the mix. It has the same kind of mottled glittery foil finish (a la Chanel Graphite, OPI Warm & Fozzie and Butter London Wallis) that is absolutely my favourite kind of complex molten metallic; in fact, it reminds me of OPI’s Designer De-Better, which was from the same Muppets Collection as Warm & Fozzie – check out my friend Eugenia’s swatches of that here for comparison.

Just like the sun sparking on ocean waves, Shimmerfish totally dazzles when the light hits it – resulting in brightly glistening flashes of silver at your fingertips. But those coppery flecks keep things equally awesome in the shadows too, delivering a coolly complex shade that you just can’t quite put your finger on – is it a silvery bronze… a bronzy silver… a rusty rose-gold… a champagne-taupe… or some equally intriguing new shade that doesn’t even have a name invented for it yet?

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THANN Eden Breeze Collection – Aromatherapy Shower Gel, Body Oil, Body Scrub and Body Butter review

thann eden breeze collection hong kong

Now I love me a spa day as much as the next lady-of-leisure, but sometimes time – let alone bank balance – simply are not willing. In which case, don’t listen to that Mohammed fellow and simply let the mountain come to you… via some lovely spa-tastic skincare products instead! Case in point: the THANN Eden Breeze Collection.

THANN is a Bangkok-based beauty brand that boasts award-winning, uber-relaxing THANN Sanctuary spas dotted all around the world, including Hong Kong. But for a little taste of spa-style luxury in the “comfort” of your own home (i.e. smaller, nowhere near as nice smelling, and with inquisitive puppies often crashing your zen), their line of body and skincare products totally do the trick at injecting a luxurious dose of pampering into your general beauty regime – even if they don’t come with your own personal Thai masseuse (rats!).

THANN’s beauty products are largely based around essential oils and aromatherapy properties, meaning they all smell blooming gorgeous and nicely evocative of a sensuous spa day – and the latest Eden Breeze Collection, based around jasmine and rose essential oils, is no exception.

thann eden breeze shower gel

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MAC Submerged nail polish review, Alluring Aquatic Collection

mac submerged alluring aquatic

As soon as I saw the amazing packaging for MAC’s Alluring Aquatic Collection – turquoise (squee), metallic (double squee), gorgeous pretend water droplets sprayed onto the casing (stop, seriously, can’t breathe) – I already knew I needed all of it in my life. In fact, I barely even bothered to look at the colours of the make-up itself before snapping each piece up, as every single synapse in me was squealing “BUY, BUY, BUY”.

Thankfully, the colours are all actually very nice, and my top nail polish pick – MAC Submerged – very much leads the flotilla of fabulous!

mac submerged

Submerged is absolutely the kind of stunning colour you would hope to find in a collection inspired by all things seductively sea-like. A deep metallic ocean-blue that flashes brilliant teal and dark indigo-violet in different lighting and angles, it’s what us nail polish folks call a duochrome (or more accurately here, a multichrome) – lacquer geek speak for a polish that shifts colour in a similar way to an oil slick. For Submerged, I’d say the colour shift is a bit brighter and more obvious in the bottle, but it’s still very pretty on the nail too.

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HARE Polish Bisbee 2.0 nail polish review

hare polish bisbee 2.0

So, I have a confession. Last weekend, I painted my own nails for the first time in over a year. For a blog practically founded on a passion for all things polish, this was not ideal. However, if ever there was a polish that was going to get me out of my lacquer blues, it was going to be HARE Polish Bisbee 2.0!

For those not on-board the indie nail polish train yet – come join us on a trip to wondrous faraway lands of glittery, multi-coloured uniqueness! These mysterious places may occasionally be hard to find, but that just makes reaching them all the more sweet… and such is the case with Bisbee, which I had lusted after for about four years before finally getting a taste of its turquoise-and-golden goodness.

hare bisbee 2.0

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