Taupe polish is this season’s mainstay colour. It goes with everything and is fast-becoming a neutral. Here’s a swatch of Yves Rocher’s Taupe polish. Believe it or not, this was just one coat. One coat gave me rich opaque colour which is amazing!
Yves Rocher polish quality is fantastic, so if you ever have a chance to pick any of their colours up, do so! Taupe is part of their Fall 2011 collection.
Biotherm launches a product just in time for the winter season: an all new body butter that is seriously top of the line.
Rich yet fast-absorbing, chock full of ingredients and so smooth, this is a must have for anyone with dry skin.
Ingredients are at par with the best out there: 20% shea butter, and 5% glycerin so that you get instant gratification. The butter smells faintly of citrus. Yes, I skip my perfume after applying it, but I can’t smell it at the end of the day.
Pick it up at your Biotherm counter for $37.
The CND Plum collection is launching this holiday season and it’s one that will suit a wide range of skin tones. The colours – Plum Truffle Colour and Plum Truffle Sparkle Effect – are nice wine colours that are so wearable. You can wear them out or just to work.
The Plum Truffle Sparkle Effect is pretty muted. The base is basically clear, and the sparkle is a wine colour. It’s pretty but there’s not enough in this to make it wearable on its own.
What do you think of this collection? Would you get it for your holiday looks?
Madonna has paired up with Coty to launch a fragrance named Truth or Dare. The scent will launch next April in the U.S. and will be available globally in May. Apparently the scent will be a mix of floral, woods, and vanilla.
I have had the Clinique Turnaround Overnight Radiance Moisturizer sitting in my drawer for a while now, but other products seemed more glamourous to use, so I just didn’t get around to trying it. Then a friend who used to work at a Lancome counter told me that she used to love the original Turnaround cream when she could get it for free at the neighboring counter. That’s when I knew I had to try this.
There was no doubt that the Turnaround line is good: both the original and the new have salicylic acid in them which helps exfoliate the skin. That’s what makes your skin look like it’s glowing when you wake up. The new moisturizer is for very dry skin, and helps hydrate while you sleep. It has immediate and long-term moisturizers that really work.
All the claims are true, and I love using this moisturizer. It’s the best for winter parched skin, especially when the air is so dry.
Pick it up for $51.50 at the Clinique counter. As always, it is 100% fragrance and oil free making it useful for all skin types.
Fendi’s new perfume smells exactly the way you think an Italian person would smell. The scent is brash, loud, but feminine. It only works if you’re used to crowded Roman cities, and if you take cobblestone roads and crumbling architecture for granted as part of your scene. You need a personality to match the fragrance, and I’m sorry to say that I don’t have such a personality… I would only wear this if it matched my mood. If I wanted people to think that I was louder than I actually am.
The notes are citrus of the orange variety, jasmine, and musk in the drydown. They say that this was supposed to be leathery but it just doesn’t get there. There is a ton of patchouli in the scent, and if you’re a fan of that note, then you will like this.
The scent retails for $88 for 50ml. There is also a perfumed body lotion for $51, and a bath and shower gel which smells absolutely divine for $45.
The scent is available exclusively at The Bay.
Burberry Body is the latest release from the ever-popular brand, and I’m sure you’ve noticed the ads which feature Rosie Huntington-Whitely in a Burberry Trench and nothing else. Body capitalizes on the skin-like scents that are so popular this season, and the name even evokes how they want you to think of this scent. I read somewhere that this scent was supposed to be like cashmere against skin, but I’m not sure they really accomplished that goal.
Burberry Body is wearable, but so loud that it’s really not a skin scent. It’s so strong that it really announces your arrival rather than hinting at your presence.
Body has notes of peach, freesia, rose, anise, musk, woods, and vanilla.
The scent starts off loud and very fresh with the pear and freesia, but slowly dries down to the rose middle notes, and finally the musky-vanilla base that’s not too sweet.
As you can probably already tell, I’m totally on the fence about this fragrance. I don’t like it, but there’s nothing wrong with it either. It just smells too loud for me.
Have you checked out Burberry Body? What did you think?
The newest launch from Prada is Candy, which even had me shaking my head. I hate gourmand fragrances, and I had visions of some kind of chocolaty knock-off in a Prada bottle.
But this is different, it’s lovely, and best of all, it’s a gourmand that’s not for teeny-boppers. The scent is totally wearable, and my mouth didn’t water when I first smelled it.
Prada Candy supposedly came out of a specific request from Miuccia Prada for a scent with a caramel note. So the perfumer delivered, adding Benzoin to a scent that ends up being very similar to the original Prada Amber perfume. Benzoin is a sweet note that comes from a sap, and this scent has 12% of it, reportedly the most ever put in a fragrance.
The scent has woody notes, and those reminiscent of vanilla. It’s not overly sweet on the skin but it still reminds you of candy, which is the point. This is expensive candy, that’s for sure.
Prada Candy is a great scent for the fall. It’s not one that I reach for on most days, but I keep it in the rotation, that’s how much I like it. It’s definitely a good kind of gourmand to have in your collection.
Pick it up at department stores now.
I’m not head over heels for The Muppets, but OPI’s new collection inspired by them is to die! The colours are fun, sparkly, shimmery, and unique!
The colours are:
Animal-istic
This wild bright red cannot be tamed!
Meep-Meep-Meep Missing out on this fuchsia would make you weep, weep, weep!
Wocka Wocka! The popular deep berry makes everything fun and merry!
Pepe’s Purple Passion This deep, decadent shade is the best purple ever, okay!
Designer, de Better! And this light metallic bronze is ready for the runway.
Warm & Fozzie A feel-good shade of metallic copper.
Rainbow Connection The rainbow glitter of your dreams.
Excuse Moi! Ahem! This pink glitter has something to say!
Gone Gonzo! The aqua-blue glitter is taking over the world!
Fresh Frog of Bel Air A glitter that prefers the greener things in life.
Divine Swine The finest, most fabulous magenta glitter ever.
Gettin’ Miss Piggy With It! Red glittery fun for everyone!
I have swatches coming soon!
The collection comes out this November and each polish will retail for $10.95.
Givenchy has a twist on the flanker game: instead of just trying to reinvent its perfumes, it releases something called the Harvest Collection each year. The brand takes a look at specific harvests from the previous years and works them into existing perfumes.
This year’s releases are: Very Irrésistible Givenchy Rose Damascena de Turquie (fruity and fresh, with green and raspberry accents; the rose comes from an organic crop); Ange ou Démon Le Jasmin Sambac de Chine (with apricot and honey accents); Amarige L’Ylang-Ylang des Comores (a powdery floral with the banana accents of ylang ylang); and Organza Le Néroli d’Égypte (crisp and ultra-fresh; the neroli comes from an organic farm).
I have the Neroli, and I’ve smelled the original Organza dozens of times as my mother used to wear it. The twist with the neroli version is that the floral notes are highly amplified. The fragrance has a lush and fresh tuberose note that one can smell right from the beginning. It mellows out, and then you start to smell the original Organza, which wasn’t as heavily neroli and tuberose based. The fragrance is lovely, and slightly sophisticated.
Pick it up for the remainder of the year.
