The Body Shop Holiday 2015 Swinging Silver Palette (and Frosted Plum)

Whether you're into bath and body products or not, you have to hand it to The Body Shop for great holiday makeup.

I'm quite a fan of their eye-shadows which were reformulated about 2-3 years back. And Christmas is the season where they come up with annual limited edition eyeshadow quads that are perfect for the party season, and won't break the bank. If you're not sure how to use the shades, there are instructions and a diagram on the back of the package.

I received the Singing Silver eye palette (below) for review, and had to immediately dig in when I touched the shadows.

This is a cool-toned palette, but there is a little warmth (a peach pink) to add some soft, prettiness, and also prevents the look for being too harsh and cool. You get a warm peach pink, a soft grey, a blackened navy and an aluminium silver.

The swatches are done with fingers, but the eye look is done with brushes, so you can see the quality is pretty consistent. If I have to nit-pick, I would say the grey shade has a bit more fallout than the rest, and as is normal for most brands and formulas, the dark black-navy tends to come off more like charcoal than blue when applied sheer with a brush. But these are slight, and not major problems.

Tip: To get the deep sapphire blue tones to come out more, I would apply with a brush and blend first, then as a last step, dab on a little extra navy with a clean finger to intensify the color. But if you prefer a more neutral look, just use a brush and it will look like a smoky charcoal tone.

But really, the quality is great overall, and the peach and silver are fantastic.

The best part for me is probably the versatility. The peach shade itself can be used as a warm transition color in the socket if you have pale to medium skin. You can wear the peach and grey for a simple warm-neutral day look, just the navy and silver for a dramatic night look, or skip the peach if you want a very cool-toned Rock'n'Roll smoky eye with cool greys and blues.

The packaging is no-frills. Eco-friendly cardboard that won't weigh down your makeup bag. If you care about luxe packaging this won't be for you - but as a reasonably-priced gift for someone who just wants good quality makeup or step out of their neutral comfort zone and try different colors for the holidays, I recommend checking this palette out.

For the eye look here, I had

1. peach all over the lid
2. grey in the socket and blended up and out at the outer corners
3. navy in the outer half of lids
4. silver in inner corners and down the center of the eye

I used a metallic navy pencil from Urban Decay to accent the lash line, then used the sponge tip in the palette to run the navy shadow over the pencil. This sets the pencil and brings out more of the navy blue in the look. You can use any other navy liner you own. Or stick with black for a more neutral look. 

P.S. aside from the makeup, I do want to quickly show some products from the Frosted Plum body range as well because I really liked the scent a lot more than I would have expected. It is juicy and fruity, but also quite perfume-y and quite grown-up; you won't smell like candy or a can of juice if you know what I mean.

I wouldn't call it "fine fragrance" but if you enjoy fun girly scents from Bath and Body Works, Victoria's Secret etc, this would be perfect for you.

The range includes full-size body products like body butters and shower gels, but there are also fizzy bath melts and a shimmering perfumed body spray to "frost" your skin. But the cutest thing is probably the Frosted Plum Feel Good Tin. This big metallic reusable purple tin contains mini sizes of the shower gel, lotion, body butter, scrub, and lip balm.

Perfect for sampling the full range - or for making someone's eyes pop out when you gift it to them.

Jo Malone Orange Blossom Cologne and Bath Oil

Few things brighten my day as much as a be-ribboned bone and black Jo Malone box.

I'm a fan of white florals, and Orange Blossom (sometimes also called Neroli) is one of my favorites. I would consider the gorgeous girl-next-door, alongside the king of plush white florals - Jasmine - and the more loud and busty Tuberose, or the more virginal Lily of the Valley.

So it's kinda odd that I've never actually decided to buy Jo Malone's bestseller Orange Blossom until now.

Top notes: Cedrat (a fragrant citrus fruit used mostly for perfumery), Green notes, and Clementine leaf

 Heart notes: Orange blossom, water lily

Bottom notes: Orange blossom, lilac 

The odor of orange blossom is slightly tangy and fruity, aromatic and only slightly sweet. It also smells soapy and clean, but with an idolic edge of animalic pungency, like many other white florals. Think of a fruity gardenia.

Jo Malone's Orange Blossom is very linear. What you smell at the start is pretty much what you get towards the end. Maybe a bit more powdery and clean, as the lilac starts to peek out, but mostly translucent and fresh throughout. It smells - pretty. That's the only word I can think of. It manages to bring out the delicate sweetness and aromatic nature of orange blossom, but mutes the fruity pungency that often characterizes orange-blossom laden fragrances. It's still indolic, but is not as rich and "ripe" as Maison Francis Kurkdjian's version, so it's great for a quick hit of freshness.

I've been in the mood for a Jo Malone so I decided to pick it up.

1. Blue Agave & Cacao - my oldest Jo Malone; this smells almost cakey and like chocolate frosting but minus a lot of sugar, and with a translucent melon-like facet to it. Very strange and interesting to me. 
2. Vanilla & Anise - this is a like but not a love; this spicy warm ambery scent is quite deep and interesting, but not quite as complex and faceted as I usually like my amber/spice scents to be, so I only wear this occasionally.
3. Red Roses - a gorgeous basic rose soliflore. It's not too sweet, not too green, and has enough complexity to not smell like rose essential oil, so I enjoy it.
4. Blackberry & Bay - possibly my absolute fave for hot days; this is so addictive and fresh; like sipping fizzy non-sugary blackberry soda water with a bay leaf floating among the ice cubes. 

The problem with Jo Malones is their lasting power. Most of these do not last that long, unfortunately. Especially not on my dry skin. And because I don't like to bring perfume bottles out to touch up in the middle of the day, I always buy the matching bath oils in the scents I love. If you smooth a little of the oil on and then let it sink in for a moment before spraying the cologne over, the scent lasts for hours and hours.

So of course I got the bath oil version for Orange Blossom as well. The only 2 of my JMs without a matching oil are Vanilla & Anise which I like but don't love, and Blackberry & Bay, which I love but can't find an oil for. (I regret not purchasing a bottle in California last year; it's not stocked in Singapore.)

Sounds extravagant, but owning any Jo Malone cologne is an extravagant thing to begin with, and the bath oil is really the best way to extend and maximize the scent - and your money. (I'm not always a fan of layering scents over lotions because there's more of a tendency for the scent to get distorted or change on the skin. Oils are a more stable medium for scent, so I love this option.)

Plus, you can sometimes just dab on the oil and just wear it like a light perfume oil, skipping the cologne altogether. For Red Roses and Blue Agave & Cacao, this method of layering gets the colognes to last like eau de parfum for me. 

Sadly, the lasting power for Orange Blossom, even layered, is probably about 4 or so hours on my skin. Very fleeting. Without the oil it's probably about 2-3 hours. Similar to other fresh scents like Blackberry & Bay. Still, it's large enough a bottle that I don't feel too bad about re-applying. 

Poppy Fever: The Body Shop Spring 2015 Collection

The Body Shop Spring 2015 Shimmer Cubes Palettes 31 Yellow Poppy (left), and 32 Pink Poppy

The Body Shop is kicking off 2015 with fun, Poppy-themed face and body collections from 5 Feb. The makeup products include:

• 2 colorful Shimmer Cubes Palettes (SGD39.90) - 31 Yellow Poppy, and 32 Pink Poppy.
• 4 coordinating nail polishes (SGD12.90) - Apricot Kiss, Cupid Pink, A Sunny Affair and Mad About Blue.
• 6 chubby Lip & Cheek Velvet Sticks (SGD29.90) - there are 5 colors - nude, peach, red, pink and coral, as well as 1 Universal color-changing shade which is really interesting. 

I did quick swatches for the shimmer cubes without any base or water, so you can see the pigmentation levels. They're all quite smooth and pigmented, although I have to say it's unlikely that most of us would wear all these colors together on the eye at any given time.

The Body Shop Shimmer Cubes 31 Yellow Poppy swatches

The Yellow Poppy palette was not the one I grabbed for first when I saw both. I'll say up-front I like the Pink Poppy one more because the colors are so unique. But I do have to say that Yellow Poppy has 2 neutrals (dark brown and white) that help make the palette a little more "complete".

The Body Shop Shimmer Cubes 3 Pink Poppy swatches

If you were to get Pink Poppy on the other hand, you would probably need to add a darker neutral color to anchor the shades because they're all accent shades. There isn't really a "definer" shade unless you want to use the red around your lash line, and not many people are brave enough to do that!

I like this palette more but I would just use the colors individually or 2 at a time, and pair them with neutrals. 

I somehow can't look at Yellow Poppy without the Simpsons' theme song running through my head. 

The Body Shop Lip & Cheek Velvet Stick in 40 (left) and 50 Universal (right)

The Universal Velvet Stick is like a matte color-changing balm. The textures of these sticks are quite smooth and blendable, so I wouldn't hesitate to use them on the cheeks.

I do like the colored ones more than the color-changing black one, because depending on the pH level of your skin, if the color doesn't "bloom" completely, you end up with slightly grey-ish pink lips, which is an effect, but maybe not quite what you were going for. 

Still, most times I seem to end up with at least a nice berry color on the lips so it's not too bad. I just feel I'd rather know exactly what color is going on than play guessing games, even though color-change products are kinda fun.

And let's not forget the poppy-red brush. 

The Body Shop Spring 2015 Poppy Blush Brush

 Technically you can use this for mineral powder, regular powder, bronzer or blush. It's 100% synthetic and cruelty-free; plus it's very soft and good quality.

Aside from the face products, there's also a line of body products with the Forbidden Flower scent, which is centered around poppy (from which opium is made btw). I only have the shower gel to sample for a review so I can't speak about the perfume version, but if the gel is anything to gauge by, it's quite a powdery, musky, spicy floral that's not exactly very "flowery" or sweet. It's quite dark and soft and I think the lacquer black bottles with the red poppy visual are quite fitting.

The Body Shop Forbidden Flower Shower Gel

 The range includes the requisite 30ml eau de toilette (SGD24.90) shower gel (SGD14.90), lotion (SGD21.90) and the body butter (SGD32.90), but not a fragrance