PREVIEW: Luxola x Alcina Launch in Singapore

MEDIA INVITE

Hey ladies!

Singapore-based online beauty store Luxola is no stranger to many beauty fanatics here. Since it first started in 2011, it has brought countless popular and niche beauty brands from all over the world to the Singapore e-market. Some examples are Sigma Beauty (I was eyeing on their brushes for the longest time), Real Techniques, Sleek MakeUP, Wet n Wild and 3CE which, as far as I know, are not available in any brick and mortar stores. This, no doubt, saves us shoppers a lot of shipping and agent fees because with Luxola, we don’t really need to purchase products by the aforementioned brands overseas anymore! 🙂 (Hmm.. perhaps they should consider bringing Lorac over as well?)

A few days ago, I received an invitation to attend a beauty cafe (or simply put, a pre-launch event with lotsa awesome food) for Luxola’s latest brand partner Alcina. Alcina is a makeup and skincare brand from Bielefeld, Germany. It was established around mid 20th century (If I’m not wrong it was somewhere in the 1970s) aimed to provide skin care for all ages. Prior to its existence here, this brand was pretty much targeted at some parts of Europe, having garnered a huge following in Germany and Russia especially. The launch here marks Alcina’s first step to going global and Singapore is in fact the very first Asian country chosen to stock the brand. *honoured* The products will go live on luxola.com on 11 May 2015.

(Please allow me to interrupt this post with some mouth-watering pictures of the irresistible hors d’oeuvres I had at Club Street Social where the event was held. Sorry, just couldn’t resist!)

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The fruit carving on the right is madness!

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At the event, we had makeup artist Frouka from Germany demonstrate how she did her makeup with Alcina products and I also had the opportunity to test out and swatch some of them.

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Here’s a sneak peek at some Alcina products that will be debuting on Luxola later, beginning with the products from their skincare range. Descriptions are lifted from Alcina.com.

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The premium cleansing foam of the Alcina Cleansing Mousse Nº1 stands for ultimate indulgence and with its mild tenside system and moisturising complexes it ensures deep-down, thorough facial cleansing which is nevertheless gentle. The foamy, creamy cleansing mousse also nourishes your facial skin as part of your daily cleansing ritual.

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Cleansing Mousse N°1 – Premium foam for gentle yet thorough cleansing

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Hyaluron Gel 2.0 for a firmer complexion. This helps to fill out small wrinkles by giving the skin moisture for combating fine lines, leaving the skin looking significantly more vital and smooth.

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Nourishing Capsules with natural ceramides, vitamins A and E and jojoba oil help the skin to store oil and moisture more effectively. They strengthen the skin’s barrier for silky smooth skin straightaway. The light, oily concentrate of these energy-rich capsules leaves damaged skin feeling wonderfully smooth without a greasy sheen.

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Nourishing Capsules provide facial care for a silky smooth skin sensation. To use this, simply twist or cut off the neck of the capsule and press out the oil and apply on cleansed facial skin.

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Facial Cream N°1 is a moisturising cream which provides intensive care to dry facial skin, relieves any uncomfortable sense of tautness and restores the skin’s elasticity and fresh look. Thanks to the carefully combined ingredients in Facial Cream N°1, including urea and the essential amino acid arginine, the skin is nourished and provided with long-lasting moisture. For beautiful-looking, pampered and relaxed skin – 24 hours a day.

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Eye Cream N°1 provides optimal protection for the skin against harmful environmental factors and ensures beautifully bright eyes. This eye cream increases the skin’s moisture content and reduces fine lines and small wrinkles around the eyes. If used regularly, Alcina Eye Cream N°1 helps to prevent the formation of wrinkles and skin aging caused by light.

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Eye Cream N°1 has a tip for easy application. Use this to increase the skin’s moisture content.

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The Alcina Eye and Lip Cream boasts a dual function: it makes the skin around the eyes smoother and also ensures beautiful lips. The linoleic acid in this cream moisturises the extremely dry eye and lip areas. The rich cream can reduce new wrinkles around the eyes and gently soothe lip wrinkles, both caused by dryness, and make stressed lips soft and smooth again.

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Lip and Eye Cream

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The Alcina Day & Night Facial Fluid with allantoin, liquorice and bisabolol balances out excess sebum production on the face and stabilises moisture levels. If used regularly the Alcina Day & Night Facial Fluid ensures a matt and balanced complexion.

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The Alcina Herbal Mask helps to clear impure skin. The combination of the active ingredients kaolin, sage and lavender oil ensures that excess sebum is absorbed and that the facial pores are visibly reduced.

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Herbal Mask: The colour does look very “herbal” to me!

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SOS Stick has an antibacterial effect which dries out spots and impurities more quickly. It’s so small and portable, great for combating pimples before you go for an event!

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SOS Stick comes with a roller ball. I’m planning to get this when it goes live later!

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AHA Facial Fluid 10% nourishes and smoothes stressed skin and is particularly ideal for mature skin subject to natural or light-induced skin aging.

Let me just say that most of the skincare products above smell REALLY good. But fret not, these products are fragrance-free and non-toxic so it’s perfectly safe to apply on your skin.

Moving on to their makeup products. Alcina specialises in skincare products but they believe that makeup can be used to enhance and develop one’s own style of beauty. Thus, that propelled them to launch a makeup line as well!

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Alcina Perfect Cover Make-up offers long-lasting coverage to give your skin a flawless look and semi-matt finish. The soft texture gives it an ultralight and comfortable feel when applied. It provides full coverage for pigmented spots, redness, impurities or an uneven complexion to achieve a perfect finish.

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Alcina Perfect Cover Make-up Swatch! These are the 3 chosen shades (there’s also a Dark shade but it’s not available on Luxola) for the Singapore consumers.

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Silky Matt Make-up leaves your skin feeling silky-smooth. The skin’s pores appear smaller and a powdery light, matt finish is achieved all day long thanks to the light and equalising coverage. Also comes in Medium shade (not in picture).

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Cover Coat Concealer hides shadows under the eyes to give a wide-awake and fresh appearance. The pleasant texture makes minor skin imperfections, pores and lines less visible thanks to its seamless coverage which can be increased as necessary.

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Cover Coat Concealer only comes in light and medium shades.

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Cover Coat Concealer swatch

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Matt Sensation Powder is an innovative wet & dry powder which gives your skin a matt and naturally beautiful complexion which lasts all day long. The novel powder technology leaves the skin feeling wonderfully soft and also fixes your make-up perfectly in place. Apply using a moist sponge, can also be used as a powder. Perfect for minor make-up corrections. Only available in Light and Medium.

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Matt Sensation Powder swatch (hope it’s visible on your end!)

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Sun Kiss Powder gives your skin a summer glow. Light-reflecting shimmering pigments make your skin look fresher, smoother and altogether flawless. As if kissed by the sun. In layman’s term, this is a bronzer. Hehe.

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Sun Kiss Powder swatch! Three different shades in one 🙂 How value-for-money.

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The standard packaging for most of the make-up (powder) products.

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Brilliant Blush adds gentle contours to your face and gives you a fresher-looking complexion straightaway. The multi-shade powder impresses thanks to optimal shade brilliance and creates vivid highlights, from delicate through to intensive. Advanced micropigments guarantee a radiant finish. Comes in two shades.

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Brilliant Blush in Triple Rose 010

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Brilliant Blush in Triple Peach 020

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Perfect Eyebrow Powder intensifies the colour of your eyebrows and makes them appear thicker. The quick and easy way to the perfect eyebrow shape for a finish ranging from natural to striking. Great hold and can be simply and professionally applied using the oblique brush. Comes in Lightbrown and Greybrown.

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Perfect Eyebrow Powder swatch

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Wanna make a guess what these are?

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Pretty eye shadow! The bronze (foreground) is so captivating *_*

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Miracle Eye Shadow adds fascinating colour brilliance to your eyelids for a sensational colour result. This smooth and luxurious eye shadow with its innovative texture is particularly rich in colour pigments and guarantees a perfect hold. It can be used both wet and dry for an individual look – from subtle to expressive. It combines the very best of baked, powder and cream eye shadows. Comes in 6 amazing shades!

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Miracle Eye Shadow swatch. Missing Mocca 070 here.

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Wonder Volume Mascara gives your eyelashes maximum volume, a thicker eyelash base and stunning length. The exceptional microbrush coats and shapes every single lash. For seductive and voluminous eyelashes.

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(My favourite part of the event) Luxola launches two types of Alcina lipsticksShiny and Intense. This picture does not (obviously) show the full collection.

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There will be 8 Intense Lipsticks and 7 Shiny Lipsticks. Intense lipsticks leaves an intensely rich and perfectly opaque colour while Shiny gives a seductive shine.

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What were available at the talk! Scarlet is the only Shiny lipstick here.

The lipsticks (both types) don’t really provide full, opaque coverage as you can see from the swatch above.

In general, the products felt amazing and high-end. Most importantly, the prices would be relatively affordable.

I didn’t get to really try most of these products so I can’t do a proper review for each of them (that’d be crazy I know but yes, I love pushing boundaries!). But I got to take home some of the products featured above 🙂 Shall do a quick review on those that I’ve used.

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Shiny Lipstick in Scarlet 010

I love the lipstick! It has a very nice sheen (though I don’t really find it seductive haha) and it feels really emollient! It gives off a nice stain effect and glides on really smoothly on my lips. It’s slightly sheer and not really pigmented so you’d need to apply multiple times for the colour to really show.

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I like how the Sun Kiss Powder has three different shades in it! They blend to form a really nice gradual tan.

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Sun Kiss Powder comes with a brush!

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With Sun Kiss Powder and Shiny Lipstick in Scarlet on

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Lips close-up

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Contoured my face with Sun Kiss Powder. Turns out great!

And that’s all from me! How do you find the products? Do you use Alcina if it’s available in your country? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below 🙂

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Thanks for having me Luxola!

And thanks for reading! 🙂 Stay tuned for more posts coming up!

Alcina will be launched on Luxola.com on 11 May 2015.

REVIEW: MAC x Mia Moretti Spring 2015 Lipsticks – High Tea & Maria Moretti

Hey guys!

New York-based deejay Mia Moretti seems to be working a lot with MAC lately with THREE collaborations under her belt to date – once in summer 2014 and twice this spring. So far, nothing really new and original has emerged from the partnership which makes me wonder if it’s just a smokescreen for MAC to repromote obsolete products though I’m sure these products would still sell (provided that they were popular in the first place) without the backing of a celebrity.

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This collection includes 2 lipsticks, Who’s the DJ? Lip Palette X6, 2 Mia Moretti Casual Colours (cream blush-lipstick in Puttin’ on the Spritz & P.S. I Like You), Mia Moretti Creme Colour Base (in Desert Roadtrip & Summer Wind), Mia Moretti Makeup Bag and a Mia Moretti Tote.

I almost wanted to give this collection a miss until I stumbled upon an article about a new limited edition lipstick shade – or so they say – that was going to be launched in this collection. And then the rest is history. 😉

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Overview

I also got myself High Tea because as a hoarder, one lipstick is never enough.

A part of me actually also wanted to review the entire set of lipsticks from this collection so that you guys know what to avoid when they’re released internationally this month.

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Official swatch

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My swatch. They differ a lot from the official swatch if you ask me 😦

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Pretty obvious which is the new product here.

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But nope, it’s still in regular packaging and I couldn’t help but feel a little cheated. For a moment I thought there was a glimmer of hope 😦

Unboxing these lipsticks started out as a happy affair and I remember being so excited when I saw the colour on the bullet. They looked pretty and promising, especially High Tea. “It’s gonna be my next go-to nude!” I squealed with delight. Then my joy dissipated and everything inside me crumbled into dust at the sight of the swatch on my hand. *cries* Okay drama much. But yes, as you can see from the pictures above, the colours – both of them – are clearly nothing extraordinary. *cries some more*

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High Tea is a beiged pink with pearl with Lustre finish. (US$16)

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This is another repromote (argh MAC stop it already) but I feel that it shouldn’t be brought back at all! Look, it’s terrible. It’s so sheer, I doubt you can see anything on my lips because I couldn’t even see it in the mirror except for the slight sheen because the sunlight was beaming right on me. It felt a little drying and I tend to lick my lips a lot when they’re dry. So this definitely wouldn’t stay past an hour.

This colour is as invisible as both lipsticks from the Cinderella collection, as well as Romantic Breakdown from Bao Bao Wan. Lipsticks are supposed to complete looks, but these obviously don’t do the job. There have been a lot of nudes with Lustre finish lately and I’m sure many MAC users share the same sentiment as me. Hopefully we’ll get to see less of them in the future!

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It’s funny how these Lustre nudes appear so differently on plain skin but totally camouflages themselves on the lips. So yes, never swatch these kinda colours on your hand before purchase. Instead, wear them on your lips. You’ll be shocked at the difference.

And lastly, the highlight of this review.

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Maria Moretti is a cherry red with Amplified finish. (US$16)

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Decided to spice up the shoot with some props HAHA. No prizes for guessing whose cap I was wearing. (Hint: Gotta catch’em all)

I was really looking forward to this colour because the official swatch looks slightly darker? It didn’t occur to me that it would turn out to be another dupeable red. *face palm* Criticisms aside, this has very good colour payoff and I’m very pleased with the creaminess. It applies very evenly with a single application. It’s also very similar to Cardinal but this has a little more shine and perhaps less opaque.

Of course, choosing this shade over High Tea is a no-brainer decision. Unfortunately this colour is already sold out online. But it’s such a common red, I believe there are cheaper and equally durable dupes out there in the market. I say save the money for upcoming launches like Wash and Dry or better yet, the Giambattista Valli collection!

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Reposting this from the Philip Treacy review because it’s essentially a very common shade of red.

All in all, it’s another disappointing collection. And I kinda regret not getting the lip palette because the colours look really fun to play with. I’ll probably get that when it’s launched here, if that’s ever gonna happen. Haha!

 

What do you think of this collection? Did you get anything? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 🙂

Thanks for reading! ❤

MAC x Mia Moretti Spring 2015 is now available on MACCosmetics.com. Release date in Singapore is not known.

REVIEW: Clinique Pop Lip Colour + Primer

MEDIA INVITE

Hello everyone!

I believe Clinique needs no introduction. Having thrived in the beauty business for the past few decades, it has become a trusted brand to generations for its high-quality and reliable products. In a bid to fight off competition from a string of younger cosmetics startups, more innovative and attractively-packaged products were launched to appeal to the younger consumers. Lately, it has been creating a lot of buzz with the release of their Cheek Pop Blush last Spring in four colours. The vibrant yet natural-looking cheek colours have proven to be a crowd favourite across the globe, spurring the high-end cosmetic brand to churn out six new shades this Spring.

I’ve personally tried swatching the colours at Sephora, and loved how soft they appeared. The colours are drop-dead gorgeous! But I’m more of a lips person (I don’t mind owning tons of blush but I’d prefer having a truckload collection of lipsticks). How awesome would it be if Clinique decides to turn these colours into lipsticks?

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POPS LITERALLY! GIMME!!!!

Well, if you shared the same thoughts, you’d be delighted to know that Clinique is indeed launching Cheek Pop equivalent in the form of lipsticks! YAY. Called Pop Lip Colour + Primer, this 2-in-1 lipstick + primer collection comes with 13 delicious shades. Some of them are really named after the blush colours. 😀

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Clinique Pop Lip Colour + Primer is a rich colour lipstick and smoothing primer in one to provide an intense colour payoff.
Available in 13 fun, flirty and feminine shades in nudes, tawnies, pinks and violets, you can now achieve intense velvet all-day colour in just one application.

“Since Clinique Pop lipsticks are so highly pigmented, it’s best worn as the boldest part of your beauty look. It can also be blotted down to a stain for a more subtle but still signature statement look,” Jenna Menard, Clinique Global Colour Artist.

They will be launching in Singapore on 9 April 2015 and retailing at S$33 each.

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I was invited to the preview to try them out! Here’s my first impression 🙂

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(courtesy of Clinique)

Gone are the days of dry and uneven lips and feather-prone lipsticks. With this new lipstick lineup, ladies can now enjoy primed lips and the look of full coverage lipstick with just one application. Unlike Clinique’s existing lip products, this contains formula with a smoothing complex to prime the lips, create a smooth surface feel that allows colour to lay down more uniformly and look richer. This complex contains elements (including Shea and Murumuru Butters) that actually smooths lips over time.

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13 beautiful chosen shades after surveying all the markets around the world for their best selling lipstick shade. So every shade here is guaranteed a following. But really, this line-up is so irresistible, you’d be spoilt for choice!

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FUN FACT: The colours on the metal piece depict the exact shade of the lipstick. This was achieved after several trials. As a designer/photo editor, I can tell you that it’s not an easy feat at all!

I like how practical the packaging is. The metallic part of the casing is reflective so it can also be used as a mirror. That’s a very essential feature for me because I rely a lot on my phone’s front facing camera when touching up my makeup outdoors.

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Names of all 13 shades. I actually love how they incorporate the word ‘pop’ in the name. It sounds so fun and youthful. And yummy. Wouldn’t it be nice if lipsticks are edible hahahahaha ambitious much.

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The lipsticks are formulated to keep colour vibrantly true all day! They also have staying power that enable them to last once applied, and never really wear off.

The 13 shades are categorised into Nudes, Tawnies, Pinks and Violets. Let’s have a closer look at each of them:

Nudes

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01 Nude Pop, 03 Cola Pop, 04 Beige Pop

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These are designed to cater to different skin tones. Therefore there’s a dark shade in it 🙂 I guess for Asians, we are more suited for Beige Pop.

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One swipe

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Cola Pop on lips. My pick from this category!

I wore this colour to work today and it actually stayed on for a good 4 hours (until I had my lunch). The texture felt really soft and emollient, and it didn’t weigh down my lips. Despite it being lightweight, never once it bled and I didn’t have to line my lips nor powder it down with tissue to keep it in place. Most importantly, my lips were NEVER flaky the whole time! I can’t stand the feeling of roughness on my skin and my itchy fingers would tend to reach for the dry flakes on my lips when I use some other lipsticks, leaving huge patches of raw skin underneath. This didn’t happen today.

Tawnies

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05 Melon Pop, 06 Poppy Pop, 08 Cherry Pop

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One swipe. Gosh, look how pigmented they are?

This group of lipsticks generally have yellow undertones. My favourite here is Cherry Pop which is the reddest shade in this lineup. Got one for myself 🙂

Pinks

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09 Sweet Pop, 10 Punch Pop, 11 Wow Pop

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One swipe

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With Punch PopSomehow it looks more fuchsia than hot pink.

I reckon this category would sell like hot cakes when the sale of this collection goes live because pinks are usually the more popular shades. The pinks are very pretty but sadly, I don’t think I can pull them off.

Violets

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13 Love Pop, 14 Plum Pop, 15 Berry Pop, 16 Grape Pop

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My pick from this category is Berry Pop! Hahaha no surprises here. And oh, here’s me with Vanessa from Clinique 🙂

Easily my favourite category in this release, it has the perfect nudes as well as shades for the more adventurous. Vanessa put on the darkest shade upon my persuasion (like many Asian girls, she was rather apprehensive about wearing dark lip colours because of ridiculous stereotypes which I’ve absolutely outgrown) and was pleasantly surprised at how good it looks on her. So I really, really encourage you ladies to ignore naysayers and try a dark shade! You won’t know if you carry it off until you try it 🙂

That’s all for this preview!

Note: If you’re wondering why there are missing shade numbers, that’s because this collection originally comes with 16 shades (all were launched in U.S.). I guess these 13 colours are what Clinique deemed most suitable for Asian skin tones 🙂

Thanks for reading! ❤

Clinique Pop Lip Colour + Primer will be launching on 9 April 2015 at all local Clinique counters. Each lipstick will retail at S$33.