La Prairie Cellular Swiss Ice Crystal Eye Cream

In 2014, La Prairie launched their Cellular Swiss Ice Crystal Collection, featuring Cellular Swiss Ice Crystal Cream and Cellular Swiss Ice Crystal Dry Oil, which use rare and exclusive extracts from the Swiss Alps including Purple Saxifrage, Soldanella Alpina, and Swiss Snow Algae, to help skin protect itself from premature aging.

I've tried the Dry Oil and Cream, and they're really luxurious and silky, but I did reserve those for traveling in drier climates, because they can feel a tad rich for our weather, even with my dry skin.

This year though, they've launched a lightweight Emulsion (SGD500) for those with oilier skins, or anyone who prefers a fresher-feeling product for warm, humid weather.

What I'm reviewing today is the new Cellular Swiss Crystal Eye Cream, which uses the same key ingredients to hydrate and brighten the eye area. Now there aren't any noticeable mica pigments which are often used by brands to "instantly brighten and illuminate" the skin temporarily. It contains a plant extract from a plant called White Bird of Paradise, which reduces the amount of bilirubin (the by-product of hemoglobin breakdown under our skin, which causes the discoloration found around our eye areas).

Like many other popular eye creams which contain Haloxyl (which essentially has the same function), these extracts work only if your dark circles are caused by these leaky capillaries (many people who have sinus allergies or rub their eyes often, etc), and then only if you keep using these bilirubin-clearing creams. If your dark circles are caused by skin pigmentation (hereditary for many), these creams will not do much for you other than hydrate and condition the skin under the eyes.

It is supposed to also depuff the eyes, but I fortunately/unfortunately have not suffered from puffiness since I started trying this so I can't say how effective it is in that regard. But to be honest, if puffiness is your main and only concern, you should probably invest in something cheaper and more caffeine-laden. This product is more one for anti-aging.

Texture-wise, Cellular Swiss Ice Crystal Eye Cream looks and feels just as luxurious as you would expect an eye cream from La Prairie to be. Given the fact that a 20ml jar costs SGD370, you would do well to expect quality. I've used this for a few weeks and it does do a great job of hydrating the eye area without giving me milia. 

Apply AM and PM.

La Prairie Cellular Swiss Ice Crystal Eye Cream launches mid-Feb in Singapore at all La Prairie counters. 

Bobbi Brown Hot Collection Lip Color Swatches and Makeup LookPictorial/Tutorial

Bobbi Brown's Spring 2015 Hot Collection features soft neutral eyes and lots of strong vibrant colors on the lips. My favorite kinda combination for most days. 

I've got a quick makeup look here for you using items from the collection!

The main star of the show is one of the amazing Art Sticks. Now I haven't tried any of these before now, and I'm quite blown-away, even though I usually find Bobbi Brown's lip products to be among some of the best on the market. 

Bobbi Brown Art Sticks in (from left) Hot Orange, Hot Berry, and Hot Pink

Bobbi Brown Art Stick swatches

The pigmentation is completely opaque, and you get very vibrant intense color once the product goes on. They aren't dry like liners, so I wouldn't recommend them for that purpose. They're more of a rich satin texture. Not quite matte.

For this particular look, I used Hot Berry, which is a gorgeous deep magenta.

If you're not sure about such an intense color, go with the Sheer Lip Colors.

These are cushy glossy bright colors in softer shades than the Art Sticks so you can have bright lips without all that intensity.

To complement the cool magenta lips, I went with a cool pink blush. These Cheek Palettes from the collection are just GORGEOUS. I was so excited to see them. You get 3 colors, one a soft shade to apply as a base color, one a stronger shade to apply as a pop in the center of your cheeks, then finally, you use the center highlight shade along your cheekbones.

But there is nothing stopping you from using these as 3 separate cheek products.

These blushes look soft but believe me they can build up quickly to very intense colors, so use a light hand - and a soft brush. 

Because my lips are the focus for the look, I kept the blush very soft and subtle, using only Pale Pink blush and then Pink highlighter for a bit of a glow. 

On the eyes, I used the amazing Hot Nudes palette, which I swatched yesterday. This palette has 8 shades, and I wanted a glowy lid, but nothing too dramatic so it wouldn't fight for attention with the lips.

So I picked 2 of the shimmer shades in the palette, Nude Glow, and Bronzed Beige, for the lids. Then I used Nude Petal in the socket to blend out any edges, and Smoke as a soft brown liner shade. 

The step by step look is below!

The finished eye, after applying mascara, should look dewy and defined, but not take too much attention away from the lips.

And here's the final look!
The Bobbi Brown Hot Collection launches 6 March in Singapore at Isetan Scotts, 13 March island-wide. 

P.S. To win an SGD200 hamper from Bobbi Brown Singapore, or 1 of 5 pairs of passes (worth 2 x $100) to their Look of The Season workshop in early March, hop on over to fb.com/bobbibrownsg, Like the page if you haven't, and comment and say which of the 3 products used in this look is your personal favorite. 

Winners will need to be in Singapore to receive the hamper and attend the course!

Hello Gorgeous: Bobbi Brown Hot Nudes Eye Palette Swatches and Review

Bobbi Brown's Spring 2015 Hot Collection looks like an entire collection of "MVPs". In the midst of so nany beautiful things, I am guessing a lot of people would gravitate towards the Hot Nudes Eye Palette first of all. 

This is a neat 8-shade collection of neutrals (plus a pink) and the colors range from matte to satin to shimmer to outright sparkle. There's also a dual-ended applicator with a nice (but rather small) packer brush on one end, and a flat, synthetic liner brush on the other, if you want to use the darker shades for lining with. 

Colors-wise, I'm very happy to say that this palette is a winner.

I remember from some past collections that the eyeshadow palette shades tended to be inconsistent in quality. Some would be smooth and pigmented, some would be patchy and chalky. In the Hot Nudes Eye Palette however, they're all pretty smooth and easy to work with.

The only shade that might be slightly trickier to work with is Blackest Brown, the darkest shade. But in my experience, these very dark black, blue or brown matte shades contain a lot of oxide pigment, which tends to be naturally very tricky to work with. All that considered, this shade does perform pretty adequately as a definer color around the lash line or socket, although I haven't tried it full on as a smoky lid shade.

I've got a full eye, cheek, and lip makeup look done with the collection coming up, so stay posted!

Tom Ford Spring 2015 Eye Color Duo Eye Looks

 

Tom Ford's Spring 2015 eye makeup colors are iridescent, rich, mysterious and smoky. Similar to what we saw on the Tom Ford runways, these eye color duos will give you intense smoky rock'n'roll eyes. But despite how pared down and possibly dull they look in the pan, they are actually very pretty on the lids. 

This is because each of the 3 duos, Raw Jade, Ripe Plum, and Crushed Indigo, have a white "interference" shadow paired with a deep jewel-tone. This interference shade shifts to a duochrome pearl color when applied. 

In Crushed Indigo, it is an icy blue, in Ripe Plum, a sugary pink, and in Raw Jade, a mint green.

Tom Ford Spring 2015 Eye Color Duo duochrome swatches

Out of the 3, I had the opportunity to pick out 2 duos to try out for myself, so I went with Raw Jade and Ripe Plum, just because they looked more unique to me.

All I did for these eye looks is apply the dark shade to most of the lid, smoking up to the socket line, and running along the lower lash line as well. Then I packed the pale iridescent "white" shade into the inner 1/3 of lids and along the lower lash line. 

To finish the look, I went with what the models wore on the runway. Black khol along the inner rims of their eyes, and lots of black mascara. 

Tom Ford Spring 2015 Eye Color Duo in Ripe Plum

As you can see, the shadows look quite different on the lids from what you might think in the pan. They are very rich and dimensional, and easy to blend, as with all Tom Ford shadows.

Ripe Plum is the closest to a smoky neutral out of the 3 because the deep burgundy is very brown. But once the shimmery pink iridescent shade goes on, the whole thing transforms to a gossamer pink/plum.

I do love all 3, but I daresay I'll get the most wear out of Ripe Plum. I do love a rich wine-brown eye as an alternative to the standard neutrals. 

To recreate the look, just follow the simple steps below!

Step by step guide to achieving this look with any of the 3 palettes!

Guerlain Météorites Light-Revealing Powder Compacts

Guerlain Meteorites are something of a recent obsession for me. If you can even call it an obsession. I am not one of those people who hunts down every single limited edition release. But I do own about 5 of them in various tones (3 permanent, 2 limited editions), although I never just buy them 'cos they look good in the tins. They have to look good on the face too. 

02 Clair, and 03 Medium in the permanent line are fool-proof favorites. 02 as a bit of ultra-subtle illuminator on high points of the face after makeup. (I wouldn't apply it all over - it's too cool for my yellow-toned skin.) 03 Medium is the one that melds beautifully into my skin and subtly corrects and perfects. 

And while I love how cute the little pearls look in the tins, they're too bulky for traveling with, and are not the most portable. And it sometimes takes some shaking and rolling to get all the colors on your brush. Plus, if you accidentally tip these over, the little pearls go all over. 

So cue the Guerlain Météorites Compact Light-Revealing Powders. These are available in 3 shades - 02, 03, and 04 - which correspond with the regular Météorites shades in the tins. 

Guerlain Météorites Light-Revealing Compact in 02 Clair

02 was provided to me for review, but I immediately went out and bought 03 myself. It's my favorite shade after all. Do note that the color corrective properties of the powders work much better if you get a shade that fits your skin tone.

Guerlain Météorites Light-Revealing Compact in 03 Medium

A lot of people ask me what Meteorites powders are for.

Are they highlighters? 
Not quite. Except for some limited editions, most Meteorites are not pale or shimmery enough to serve as actual highlighters.

Are they setting powders? 
Sorta. They impart a soft-focus luminosity and to the skin and improve its tone, so they do more than set makeup. And they do not have strong oil-control properties so if that's what you need, stick with an absorbent powder. 

Do you apply them on top of foundation or after setting powder? 
I prefer to use them in place of setting powder in areas where you need a bit of illumination or subtle color-correction. It has luminosity but it doesn't make you shiny (unless you bought alimited edition   Holiday version that's meant to sparkle) or emphasize pores so it does work great as a setting powder for those with dull sallow skin. 

What's the finish they give? 
Satin. Not dewy/shiny, but not matte either. There is a very subtle glow that is not obvious to the naked eye.

Are they all the same? 
No. Some seasonal releases are blush pearls; some are more shimmery highlighters, and some are bronzers. But my top recommendation if you have to pick one is to find the one that fits your skin tone best and use it as an all-over brightening powder. (You can get good blushes and bronzers easily.)

Do the compacts perform the same as the tinned Meteorites?
The compacts are a bit easier to control in my opinion. You can be sure you get every shade when you swirl your brush, and there's less fall out. But of course, some people can't imagine buying a Meteorites compact that isn't in pearl form!
The tin form also smells stronger than the compact. They smell like a vague powdery iris/violet/rose. Like a rich lady's boudoir or makeup might have smelt decades ago.

Tom Ford Spring 2015 Makeup Look and Swatches

Tom Ford Spring 2015 Makeup Look; photo credits: Style.com

Tom Ford's Spring 2015 Makeup Collection features a collection of deep velvety colors looks more like Fall makeup. But it's such a refreshing change that he's proposing a return to an almost grungy "anti no-makeup makeup" look in contrast with the usual pastel, flower-inspired Disney-tones of the typical Spring collections.

If you're more into smoky kohl-rimmed eyes and jewel-toned lids, get yourself to a Tom Ford counter come March 2015 (Singapore).

Aside from 2 colored mascaras (plum and teal), there are 3 nail lacquers and also 3 Eye Color Duos.

The Eye Color Duos look like a pairing of a dark shade and a white, but the whites are actually "interference" shades. Duochromes that look white, but go reflect back a different color.

Tom Ford Eye Color Duo in Crushed Indigo

To show you what I mean I've swatched all 3 duos, ombre-style, so you can see how they look blended together.

Tom Ford Spring 2015 Eye Color Duo Swatches: Raw Jade, Ripe Plum, and Crushed Indigo

The 3 duochromes come in coordinating tones to the shadows they are paired with. Icy blue with indigo, pink with a brown-plum, and a pale mint with the deep forest green.

 The nail polishes are worth checking out as well.
One of the shades, Bitter Bitch, is a permanent shade. But the other 2 are limited editions in dark sludgy midnight tones.

Tom Ford Nail Lacquer in 33 Black Jade

Tom Ford Nail Lacquer in 34 Indigo Night

 The colors are coordinated with the eye duos, but not too "matchy-matchy".