Tuesday, May 31, 2011

In Chanel again - Kirsten Dunst.

Kirsten Dunst wore another Chanel Spring white in Istanbul, this time around a stunning concoction of lace, beads and a yummy tulle bow.

She also did wayyy better in the shoe department, pairing the beautiful dress with silver Mary janes. Remember her nearly there appearance in Chanel couture at Cannes?

Kirsten completed her look by carrying a black clutch and accented the white dress with red lips.




Latest Discoveries From Burberry: Copper Lip Mist, Blush Lip Gloss, Midnight Black Eyeshadow


I stopped by Burberry Beauty at Nordstrom South Coast Plaza mid-May to check out the new Lip Mists (see my window shopping snapshots here). I came home with three things: Lip Mist in Copper, Eyeshadow in Midnight Black, and Blush Lipgloss.


The new Burberry Lip Mists are supposed to be a sheer natural formula with a dewy finish. I didn't find them as shiny/glossy as Dior or Chanel's newest lipsticks, nor did I find them really sheer. I would describe them as a medium finish lipstick, the texture is definitely natural but slightly less creamy than their regular formula. I looked at all the shades, the only two that stood out to me were 02 Copper and 09 Feather Pink. I decided to get just one to try, I came home with Copper, a natural brownish-pink.


I also picked up Blush Lipgloss 04 which I find more pinky-rose than most promotional photos show this one as. This one has been repromoted for spring. I've had this on my wishlist for a while, I decided to cave. It's a lovely natural rose blush with shimmer. I would describe it as a neutral-cool shade.


Last, I picked up Burberry's Midnight Black Eyeshadow - a soft sheer shimmery black. This has a gorgeous shimmer with a slight greyish undertone. It is a bit high maintenance in my opinion. It's not as easy to blend as the other Burberry shades I have (I own both light and dark, shimmer and mattes). This one applies streaky, sheer and uneven on bare lids. You need an emollient base like UD's Primer Potion for it to show up well. I applied this with a fine tip smudge brush as a thick smudgey line and then took a lighter shade to apply on top to blend out the edges and then reapplied the black to intensify the color.


Swatched in a few different views:



Overall I love the Blush Lipgloss. The Lip Mists are nice, but I prefer the regular lipstick mainly because the color selection is better. Formula-wise, Lip Mists are less creamy but do have a semi-transparent texture even if the finish isn't really sheer (in my opinion). Copper is a nice basic but not a must-have. Midnight Black is a disappointment, mainly because I think it will be more of a high maintenance black shadow, but when applied over a moist base and packed on (rather than brushed on) it does show up.

I have a few comparison shots for your reference. I did not have time to swatch them all though and most likely will not be swatching in the near future due to time constraints.



Latest Discoveries From Burberry: Copper Lip Mist, Blush Lip Gloss, Midnight Black Eyeshadow


I stopped by Burberry Beauty at Nordstrom South Coast Plaza mid-May to check out the new Lip Mists (see my window shopping snapshots here). I came home with three things: Lip Mist in Copper, Eyeshadow in Midnight Black, and Blush Lipgloss.


The new Burberry Lip Mists are supposed to be a sheer natural formula with a dewy finish. I didn't find them as shiny/glossy as Dior or Chanel's newest lipsticks, nor did I find them really sheer. I would describe them as a medium finish lipstick, the texture is definitely natural but slightly less creamy than their regular formula. I looked at all the shades, the only two that stood out to me were 02 Copper and 09 Feather Pink. I decided to get just one to try, I came home with Copper, a natural brownish-pink.


I also picked up Blush Lipgloss 04 which I find more pinky-rose than most promotional photos show this one as. This one has been repromoted for spring. I've had this on my wishlist for a while, I decided to cave. It's a lovely natural rose blush with shimmer. I would describe it as a neutral-cool shade.


Last, I picked up Burberry's Midnight Black Eyeshadow - a soft sheer shimmery black. This has a gorgeous shimmer with a slight greyish undertone. It is a bit high maintenance in my opinion. It's not as easy to blend as the other Burberry shades I have (I own both light and dark, shimmer and mattes). This one applies streaky, sheer and uneven on bare lids. You need an emollient base like UD's Primer Potion for it to show up well. I applied this with a fine tip smudge brush as a thick smudgey line and then took a lighter shade to apply on top to blend out the edges and then reapplied the black to intensify the color.


Swatched in a few different views:



Overall I love the Blush Lipgloss. The Lip Mists are nice, but I prefer the regular lipstick mainly because the color selection is better. Formula-wise, Lip Mists are less creamy but do have a semi-transparent texture even if the finish isn't really sheer (in my opinion). Copper is a nice basic but not a must-have. Midnight Black is a disappointment, mainly because I think it will be more of a high maintenance black shadow, but when applied over a moist base and packed on (rather than brushed on) it does show up.

I have a few comparison shots for your reference. I did not have time to swatch them all though and most likely will not be swatching in the near future due to time constraints.



Shu Uemura Mini Eyelash Curler!

Shu Uemura Mini Eyelash Curler
Every time I go to ULTA, I usually raid the clearance rack before anything else to see if I find any good deals. I was a little short on time as the store was about to close and I had a 20% coupon that expired that day.. but I managed to find a Shu Uemura Mini Eyelash Curler clearanced to $14.49. Although that doesn't seem too cheap, the 20% off coupon took an extra $3 off, so not bad at all. It was actually missing the replacement pad, which is most likely why it was on clearance (or because Shu isn't even sold anymore in the US - maybe I got lucky?), but I figured I wouldn't need one any time soon. I've had my regular Shu curler for at least four years and the pad is still in mint condition.
Shu Uemura Mini Eyelash Curler, front & back.
Shown next to a dime for scale.
I pictured it next to a dime for scale to show how small it really is (and in comparison the regular Shu below). It's roughly 1/3 the size of a regular Shu.

Left: Standard Shu Curler, Right: Mini Shu Curler
In the past four years or so, my Shu lash curler is the only lash curler I have used. Prior to my Shu, I would purchase a new lash curler from my local Dollar Store every month. By the end of the month, the pad would be slit through the middle and the hinges would most likely be loose. My Shu has been carelessly tossed in my handbag almost every day and has withstood lots of handling and it's still in perfect condition. It's really the best curler I've tried. It doesn't pull my mascara off, pull my lashes out or pinch my lids.

Everyone has a different eye shape, so some may have trouble finding a lash curler that fits to the contour of their eye. If you have very rounded eyelids, or very flat eyelids (not only those - you may have very small eyes, very wide eyes, etc) you may find that your lash curler skips some of your lashes. So, while most of your lashes are sticking up, the ones in the corners may be sticking down.

Whats great about the mini is, you can get to all of your lashes with precision. No lashes left out! In the picture below I curled my lashes with one coat of mascara on. But, with this lash curler, I find it much easier to curl your lashes without mascara on. When wearing mascara, it was a little more difficult to get in between my row of lashes to curl them all the way across.

All you have to do is start out in the beginning of your lashline, clamp the curler, release, and continue working your way across your lashline.

I know Japonesque also makes a similar style curler that is available at ULTA, sold for around $10.

Do you own this curler or similar? Love it? Or was it a complete waste of money?

The London Makeup Haul


One of the brands I was really looking forward to seeing in real life in London was Becca. Since I do not have any access to it, I was impatient to swatch and get a few products.
Unfortunately I didn't get much help. Charles Fox had the testers but not the products I wanted, and the Becca counter at Fenwick was out of stock of a lot of things, including almost everything I wanted.
So the only thing I was able to get was the Sheer Lip Tint in Laelia.
This is a peachy nudey "my lip but better" color.


At the Shu Uemura counter I was brave and didn't get any makeup. Only a cleansing oil. I've been using the pink one (for combination skin) and liking it but I have recently tried a sample of the orange one (for dry skin) and thought it worked great for me. Maybe because my skin has been drier since I've been using castor oil a couple of times a week to cleanse. I don't plan on using this one daily, at least not during Summer time, but alternating with the pink oil and my own bland of almond and castor oils seems like a good plan.



At Nars I got a few pretty bits : eyeshadow duos in Scorching Sun and Surabaya, and velvet gloss lip pencil in Happy Days.
The eyeshadows are all very warm colors: Scorching Sun is a lovely summery mix of warm apricot and sheeny orange colors, and Surabaya is made of a chestnut brown and a gorgeous brown sugar color I fell in love with as soon as I saw it.
Happy Days is a gorgeous peachy color and I love that those lip pencils are so easy to wear.

The biggest haul was at Illamasqua, as we were so enthusiast about having a makeover there and getting the products used on us.  And I got quite a few!





  • Rich Liquid Foundation in #200
  • Mat primer
  • Powder blush in Hussy (bright candy pink, quite a warm one)
  • Lipstick in Maneater
  • Liquid metal in Phenomena (silver)
  • Pure Pigment in Android and in Fervent (I could have gotten them all, they're beautiful!)
  • Powder eyeshadows in Dameon (scarlet red), Vulgar (bright orange) and Gimp (slate grey black)
  • Lashes #17 which are really dramatic (the glue provided with it is latex free but in my opinion not working as well as Duo lash glue)
I will of course review the products as I get to using all of them for a bit.

MAC Bloggers’ Obsessions Collection

MAC Bloggers’ Obsessions Collection.The newest Mac Collection was chosen and created by nine of your favorite beauty bloggers and is available online June21st. The girls were asked to create their own lipgloss and eyeshadow shade. How exciting is this collection! Look below to see what the Beauty Bloggers were able to create.





Eye Shadow:
Beauty Blogging Junkie, Amber Katz
Sparkle Neely, Sparkle - A deep rusty brown with champagne-colored sparkle

Temptalia, Christine Mielke
Jealousy Wakes - Seething emerald green with teal and gold pearl

Lipstick Powder N Paint, Lesley Ellen Mirza
Parisian Skies - A muted grey-blue

The Makeup Girl, Lianne Farbes
Hocus Pocus - Dark sooty grey with silver pearl

Lipglass:
Makeup and Beauty Blog, Karen Monterichard
Evolution Revolution - A warm peachy pink with subtle purple, green and blue micro glitter

Afrobella, Patrice Yursik
All Of My Purple Life - Deep purple/grape with subtle sparkle

Beauty Maverick, Lily Nima
Caqui - Persimmon orange

The Shades of You, Aileen De Los Angeles
Sonoran Rain - Deep coral-red with gold and silver pearl

Nitrolicious, Wendy Lam
Nitro:licious 2046 - Intense shiny red





Summer Hairstyles 2011

Summer Hairstyles 2011. Hair trends, hair ideas, and hairstyles to wear for summer 2011. With winter being long gone, it's time to pull out our tresses and style them with beach friendly looks. There are many hair trends to try this summer, and even classic styles that will always be in trend. Look below to see what summer hair trends you can rock this season.

Top Trends To Wear for Summer 2011
Teased Hair
Feather Accents
Sultry Curls
Big Bun Updos
Red Hair
Braids / Twists
Short Cuts
Blunt Bangs









Ed Westwick - new lead endorser for PENSHOPPE


Ed Westwick and Penshoppe are mentioned at blogs, social networking sites and micro blogs, its a big news for all fans of Ed Westwick and now Penshoppe is on the highlight for the fashion and lifestyle stream and trend. I'm copy pasting the news below on what will Ed Westwick will do for Penshoppe. I also read in Facebook and Twitter that he's here in Manila already.

-press release-

The new face of the Philippines’ leading fashion brand PENSHOPPE is none other than international star ED WESTWICK, better known the world over as Chuck Bass, an overly confident and sexy bad boy, in the popular television series "Gossip Girl," from Josh Schwartz ("The O.C."), based on the tremendously popular book series about privileged teenagers who attend an elite private school in New York City.

The announcement was recently confirmed by PENSHOPPE Brand Director Alex Mendoza stating that, “the selection of (Westwick) was for the British-born actor to headline the brand’s 2011/12 campaign in the Philippines as well as to introduce a fresh new face that will represent PENSHOPPE’s new and revitalized image,” he explained. “We believe it is time to appoint someone on an international scale. It’s time to show everyone that PENSHOPPE is upgrading itself to international levels. Someone like Ed fits the mindset and is admired by our market.”
Since the introduction of his bad boy character Chuck Bass in the popular series Gossip Girl in 2007, his alter ego has made a unique style impression that has since landed him in magazine covers as well as a style copied by men the world over.

“On its 25th year, PENSHOPPE is proud to have actor Ed Westwick as our headliner. His presence and charisma will definitely wake the Philippines to the fact that what is originally Philippine made can also be worn proudly by a worldwide icon as well as people around the world.”

Ed is set to fly to Manila first week of June to shoot the campaign with Australian fashion photographer Darren Tieste in cooperation with international publicity firm PR Asia Worldwide. The actor will endorse PENSHOPPE’s pre-Holiday 2011 to Summer 2012 collection. Mendoza shares, “Ed will embody the free and easy, sophisticated casual style that the brand is known for.”


ABOUT ED WESTWICK
In February 2011 Westwick starred in the romantic comedy “Chalet Girl," with Felicity Jones, Tamsin Egerton and Bill Nighy. Directed by Phil Traill, the story details the story of a young girl from a working class suburb who lands a job in an ultra-glam ski resort, where she's totally out of her depth until she discovers her natural snowboarding genius and the boss's gorgeous son Johnny (Westwick).

In March 2011, he began filming Clint Eastwood’s biographical film “J. Edgar”. Westwick will play Agent Smith, Hoover’s biographer alongside all-star cast Leonardo DiCaprio, Arnie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench and Jeffrey Donovan. This film is set for release in 2012.
In 2009 Westwick had a guest star role on the Showtime comedy, “Californication” as Balt, a vampire-obsessed student of Hank’s, played by David Duchovny.

He was also seen in "Son of Rambow," an independent film directed by Garth Jennings. Westwick played Lawrence, a bully and surrogate father figure to his devoted younger brother. "Son of Rambow," which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, caused quite a buzz at the festival, selling to Paramount Vantage for the highest amount at the festival.

Westwick was awarded the Young Hollywood Breakthrough Award at the 2009 Young Hollywood Awards. An emerging young British actor trained at The National Youth Theatre in London, Westwick has been seen in “100 Feet” starring Famke Janssen and Bobby Cannavale and “S. Darko” a sequel to the hit movie “Donnie Darko”.He also played the role of Alex in Alfonso Cuaron's "Children of Men," opposite Clive Owen and Julianne Moore. Westwick was also seen playing the role of Zoran in Anthony Mighella's "Breaking and Entering," opposite Jude Law, Juliette Binoche and Robin Wright Penn.

Additional credits include guest leads in "Afterlife" for ITV1, "Casualty" for the BBC, "Doctors" for the BBC and "Dream Team" for Sky One. When not filming "Gossip Girl" in New York City, Westwick resides outside London.


ABOUT PENSHOPPE
Known for its fresh but sophisticated take on casual wear, high quality products and affordable prices, PENSHOPPE is the flagship brand of Golden ABC, the Philippines’ leading casual clothing brand.

The first boutique opened its doors in SM City North EDSA in 1991. Since then, PENSHOPPE's network of stores has grown to 300 sites, all strategically located in the key areas where its loyal style-aware patrons shopped, hung out and had fun. In 2002, PENSHOPPE broke Filipino Retail Barriers when it opened its first store in Xiamen, China.

With its 25-year strong heritage in up-to-date, global design and style; innovative marketing and advertising campaigns and strategies; and keen business acumen, PENSHOPPE is poised and rearing to bring its own unique brand of casual wear to the rest of the world.

ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN
PENSHOPPE has signed up international star ED WESTWICK as its new lead endorser for its 25th anniversary. The face of the 24 year old British-born actor will be seen in PENSHOPPE’s Pre-Holiday 2011 to Summer 2012 campaign spanning print, billboards, in-store campaigns, retail outlets as well as digital media including the brand’s official website, Facebook and Twitter pages in the Philippines.

The campaign was originally conceptualized and made possible by international publicity firm PR Asia Worldwide for PENSHOPPE on its 25th year Anniversary celebration.

Over the year, PENSHOPPE hopes that their campaign activities this 2011 as well as the use of social media promotions will generate millions of Filipino fans to support the brand even more.

In Purple - Bipasha Basu & Neelam Kothari.

At the Kolestint promotion, it was a Purple dress memo for Bipasha. Aside from the fact that we love the color, the look had nothing to get excited about.

The fit of the dress seemed a size smaller; the wrap/bandage satin one shoulder dress has been done to death in Bebes and Karen Millens and BCBGs by Bollywood, Bipasha needs to rest that trend. The gunmetal heels failed to bring any upgrade to the look either.

Neelam attended the Kashish Film Awards in a Purple and hot pink dress which she paired with nude heels, although the look had nothing new to write home about, Neelam wore it well and looked good.






LBD Fail! Raveena Tandon.

The former actress attended the Double Dhamal event in a one shouldered black dress and the look is a perfect example of how bad styling can ruin an otherwise decent appearance.

The silhouette did not look too bad on her, but the pagenty hair, the silver sandals and silver drop earrings totally killed the look for me. A sleek pony tail/ pulled back hair, subtle make up ( read less filmy) and simple black pumps would have saved this look from being a FAIL.



Model Watch! Mashoom Singha & Saena Shaikh.

Models Mashoom and Saina attended the Reveilo bash in Mumbai. As far as the off duty, at party sightings were concerned, both were nearly there looks.

Mashoom wore a grey tunic with tangerine belt and tan heels, the combination, in theory had me so excited, but the pairing was off with the length of the tunic and the way the belt was tied.. The tunic a tad bit longer and a well tied belt would have had me singing a different tune.

Saena opted for a printed black dress and red lips; both looked great on her, but brought it down many notches by her not so exciting footwear choice. A pair of pumps, flats or ankle booties and this would have been a winner.

PS: Saena is wearing the ' Dandy Dash Ruffle dress' from FCUK which was also spotted on Achla Sachdev earlier.





Fabulous in Salwar! Juhi Chawla.

How beautiful does Juhi look in this pale green Salwar and off white Kameez!

I think this is the best we have seen her in a really long time and I love it.












pics credit
Pink Villa