Tag Archives: review

Shu Uemura x Karl Lagerfeld Rouge Unlimited lipstick in Mon Shu Red review

Christmas is normally my favourite time of the year for make-up – lots of glitter and lots of gift sets! However, this year’s collections are kind of lacking for me, and so far, the only item I have actually bought is this Karl for Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited Lipstick in Mon Shu Red.

I’ll admit now, this was an impulse purchase based TOTALLY on packaging! For his collaboration with Shu Uemura, Karl Lagerfeld created this super cute ‘mon shu girl’ drawing combining Japanese pop with European chic, which adorns all the items in the holiday collection. I wasn’t too impressed with the quality and colour selections of the palettes, the metal make-up box I wanted was out of stock and I already own Shu’s eyelash curler, cleansing oil and UV under-base mousse sans fancy packaging, so I ended up picking up one of the lipsticks in Mon Shu Red.

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MAC Endless Night nail polish review

Sometimes I fall in love with a polish because of the colour. Sometimes I fall in love with it because of the name. And sometimes, it’s a little bit of both in just the right amount – and such is the case with MAC’s Endless Night. It originally came out with Daphne Guinness’ rather underwhelming collection earlier in the year, but as since been re-released in MAC’s holiday Glamour Daze Collection – making it the perfect opportunity for me to pull out a polish that has been haunting me for months with its soft intriguingly understated beauty.

Endless Night is a beautiful work-safe neutral – a pink/lilac leaning greige that’s the perfect palette cleanser (yes even I need one once in a while!). But this is not just your average boring beige… oh no! This stunner has the tiniest flash of pretty pink shimmer hiding beneath its deceptively calm exterior. Of course, it’s an absolute bugger to photograph, so you can see it more in the bottle than you can on my nails in the pictures, but trust me – it’s there in real life and it is awesome.

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bareMinerals Pure Night Transformation Treatment review

As a hardened beauty blogger and crazed make-up addict, it’s not often that I find a product that totally takes me my surprise. Yet bareMinerals Pure Transformation Night Treatment is just that!

Pure Transformation Night Treatment is a sleep mask… in powder form. Weird, right?! Even weirder – I think it actually might work!

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Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap @ HKAPA review

It has been a long-time dream of mine to go see Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, the longest running play in the world ever, in the West End. Given I have now upped sticks and moved to Hong Kong, this ambition was seeming ever more unlikely… but luckily for me, a production decided to come over here to the HKAPA instead!

I say ‘luckily’ but actually I’m now not too sure. This 60 Year Diamond Anniversary touring show by Lunchbox Productions (the chief stagers of global productions in Hong Kong, including Grease and Chicago) turned out to be rather average with precious little West End sparkle – and now I know ‘whodunit’, if I should ever make it back to the British original in St Martin’s Theatre, it just wouldn’t be quite the same as seeing it for the first time.

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Mac Mean & Green nail polish review

DUOCHROME ALERT! DUOCHROME ALERT!

Today, I have one of the most beautiful nail polishes ever to show you – MAC’s Mean & Green. Originally released with their Disney Venomous Villains Collection, and promptly selling out quicker than you can say ‘Mirror mirror on the wall’, this beauty was one of MAC’s most highly coveted polishes, much-duped and much swindled for on eBay after it was consigned to the deep dark depths of the MAC vault.

But rejoice! MAC have just launched a permanent nail polish line of thirty lacquers, bringing back many of their much-loved favourites to sit on the stands full-time… and Mean & Green is one of them! That’s right, this iconic duochrome is now available permanently for your purchasing pleasure (a pleasant change from cosmetics companies discontinuing items for them never to see the light of day again) – so suck on that, eBay hawkers!

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MAC Stay By Me Pro Longwear Blush & Coral Bliss Cremesheen Lipstick review – going coral cray-cray!

There are a couple of colours that I think you all know I’m obsessed with. Turquoise. Purple. Glitter (oh wait… glitter isn’t a colour?!). However, there is one minor obsession that I had managed to keep under the carpet – until now! Step forward, coral!

Coral is my unsung hero. I wear it nearly every day in the form of Benefit’s pale peachy and sadly discontinued Georgia blusher, a little box of powder that takes me from rough to radiant in a matter of seconds. I have worn it occasionally on my nails (see here… and here). And over summer, I wore the hell out of it on my lips (reviews for which will filter through eventually, but basically MAC’s Watch Me Simmer = WIN). So I think it’s finally time to give coral some love on my blog with this all coral look, courtesy of MAC’s Stay By Me Pro Longwear Blush and Coral Bliss Cremesheen Lipstick.

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Fiat Caffè restaurant review – start your engines!

UPDATE: Fiat Caffè has now moved to Shop B1018 & B1023, B1, Miramar Shopping Centre, 132 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, 2808 4777

My friend Mirander and I are engaged in on-going quest to check out every café in Hong Kong… and latest to make it on our radar was the Fiat Caffè in Causeway Bay. And yes, that is Fiat as in cars.

Cunningly disguised as a car showroom in Leighton Centre, I must have walked past countless times before realising that there was actually a menu pinned outside… and not just a basic café menu of perfunctory espressos and sad-looking sandwiches, but a mouth-watering menu stuffed with interesting Italian dishes.

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Estée Lauder Nouveau Riche nail polish review

Nail polish by non-nail polish specialists (other than Chanel, of course!) is rarely worth bothering with. Easily dupe-able colours but at insane prices means that the big brand lacquers are usually worth bypassing… but then in comes Estée Lauder, ready to destroy my theory!

For Fall 2012, Estée’s creative make-up director Tom Pecheux has unleashed an awesome array of new nail varnishes inspired by Paris’ classy but dazzling night lights. The result? Annoyingly unmissable nail polishes that are a hell of a lot more expensive than the ones procured during my Cher2 trips!

Nouveau Riche is an absolutely stunning bronze-gold, with a duochrome shift that takes it to rosy pink, champagne gold and even a hint of olive-green thrown in there too! Again, it has that awesome glowing metallic finish made up of lots of teeny-tiny glittering gold flecks and flakes but that is resolutely not a glitter (think Chanel Graphite or Butter London Wallis); seriously, this finish is totally rocking my world right now, it’s just the perfect look for a really refined sophisticated metallic, but which still has enough complex shimmer to shake a sock at.

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Butter London Wallis nail polish review

I’m never one for following the seasons with my nail polish (I mean… have you seen how often I wear glittery “holiday” colours?!), but if you’re looking for a perfect fall colour, you can’t go far wrong with Butter London Wallis.

This beauty made its way to me thanks to my lovely make-up mule Justine after many months of lusting – but it was definitely worth the wait. Generally, I don’t lose too many sleeps over Butter London’s limited (and stupidly expensive) availability in Hong Kong as their colours aren’t really that special (their British slang names which have been confusing American bloggers for years with hilarious consequences, are pretty priceless though), but Wallis is definitely one of their smash hits and unique enough to warrant pursuing across the oceans!

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Clinique Chubby Sticks in Two Ton Tomato, Mighty Mimosa & Pudgy Peony review

When it comes to my make-up miracles, Clinique already has two in the bag (their Cream Eyeliner and their Anti-Blemish Solutions Cleansing Foam). Last year, their Chubby Stick lippies joined the hall of fame – and now they’ve unleashed a series of fantastic brand new shades (and they really are fantastic), my love has only lifted higher and hiiiigher!

Although I love Clinique (I know I sound like a broken record but: stringently allergy tested, 100% fragrance-free, dermatologist and ophthalmologist tested i.e. a GODSEND sensitive skin), their make-up can be a little… whisper it… boring. Work-safe colours, neutral shades, workmanlike branding – their cosmetics very rarely got the pulse racing, even if they worked wonders. The first round of Chubby Sticks in Hong Kong were lovely, pretty, perfect everyday colours – but this latest set of shades really pack a gorgeous punch.

Even the names – Two Ton Tomato, Mighty Mimosa, Pudgy Peony – have me sort of salivating. You just know they’re going to be as fun, colourful and cute as the name “Chubby Stick” deserves.

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