S.T Dupont Royal Amber

Sandalwood and Oud are my most favorite fragrances. S.T. Dupont's Santal Oud is, by far, the best sandalwood fragrance I have smelt in my life. In the absence of the above-mentioned fragrance, the other Dupont Ouds take priority. YSL's M7 Oud Absolu is also the best, BUT, is extremely masculine. I'm the only female I know who wears it. S.T Dupont's Santal Oud is quite unisex, yet it leans towards the feminine side. It is ideal for daily wear, priced most reasonably, and it exudes a genuine, Mysore sandalwood note. All factors considered, S.T. Dupont's Santal Oud is the fragrance I would buy in stock, if only it were still available. However, this post is not about my beloved Santal Oud. This post is about S.T. Dupont's Royal Amber. I'm uncertain as to its exact year of release, yet I venture a guess it intends to replace the Dupont Ouds line. I'm not going to delve into the details on how it comprises top notes of citrus, mint, and violet, etc. I'll just leave you with the two most significant factors of S.T. Dupont's Royal Amber. First, the box and bottle are an exquisitely beautiful, shiny gold, with an elegant, Arab-looking pattern on them. It's worth buying this fragrance just for the bottle. This is especially so in light of its reasonable price. Secondly, the smell is equally elegant; sweet, warm, somewhat gourmand, and the amber carries an oud note. Yet it doesn't measure up to Dupont's discontinued Santal Oud. Nor is the sillage of the former as strong as the latter. S.T Dupont- please create another Santal Oud!!! 

Summer 2015

Hello!!!! Sorry, blog, for having neglected you for so long. 'Nyways, I'd like to share some of my fave, trademark items. These help me stay cool in the summer. First, Naughty Nautical from Essie. It's a gorgeous teal with silver flecks, I love all colors and black, but teal holds a special place with me. Second, YSL Oud Absolu for men. Why do I wear a purely masculine oud for the ultimate, ideal male? Coz it's so me somehow!!!!!! Third, my Guess heels and Guess totebag. Fourth, The Body Shop Green Tea lotion and shower gel. Totally revitalising aromatherapy in a bottle. Will maybe get around to posting some new makeup looks soon enough... P.S- beware the seaweed colored tint all blue,green, n teal nailpolishes leave inside one's nails, and around one's sidewalls, when one removes the color.

I've been busy!

Hello, lovelies! It's been three years since I last posted!!! Going through some of my old 2010 posts made me laugh; i just loved bright rainbow-colored eyes so much! I can't believe I gained professional nails n makeup certifications. While I am obsessed with colors and fragrance, my career ended up as something completely unrelated. Will try to post more regularly now. Got many things to share, including an oud collection n new shoe collection....

Pantone Fall 2013 Color Forecast series- Emerald Green

Today, I'd like to share with you another color from Pantone's Fall Color forecast: Emerald Green. This color also happens to be Pantone's Color of the Year for 2013. I used Diana of London's Starstruck eyeliner (a stunning 100% emerald green, with subtle silver shimmer) and Catrice Intensify #40 eyeshadow to create the looks below. I also had a perfect emerald green dress I wanted my model to wear and I wanted to turn this into a tutorial. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, my camera battery dying, Sweetberry Pie being away, and just fudging up on the hair, I couldn't get a picture of the overall look. Nor did I get a manage to get a picture of the eyeliner and eyeshadow used. Maybe later on I can do a better Emerald Green post. This eye makeup turned out vibrant, but I couldn't capture it well enough. The overall look was just so much more striking in real life, esp with the emerald green dress my model had intended to wear. Pics below: 

Pantone Fall 2013 Color Forecast series- Acai Berry!!!!

Well, the much-awaited Pantone Autumn Forecast 2013 is out  http://www.pantone.com/pages/Products/Product.aspx?pid=1384&ca=4
Below is a list of the colors that will be featuring fall 2013: 

"PANTONE 17-5641 Emerald
PANTONE 18-4434 Mykonos Blue
PANTONE 15-0533 Linden Green
PANTONE 19-3628 Acai
PANTONE 19-1662 Samba
PANTONE 17-1452 Koi
PANTONE 18-0312 Deep Lichen Green
PANTONE 19-2045 Vivacious
PANTONE 19-4215 Turbulence
PANTONE 19-1116 Carafe" 

Some of my fave colors <3 font="">

Al-Karam ready-to-wear lawn (Carafe and Acai berry colors) and grey shrug (Turbulence Grey. I can't remember which brand and I'm too lazy to go check right now)

I was pleasantly suprised to note I've already been wearing maany of the colors lately. Mainly, the Carafe and Turbulence and Acai Berry combo.

Below are some makeup looks I created, mainly featuring Acai Berry and Turbulence Gray. Just btw, I used two Bourjois Little Round Pot eyeshadows (shades 11 Intense and 72) to achieve most of these looks, plus my Body Shop Amethyst eyeliner as a base. 

Bourjois Little Round Pots 11 Intense and 72

The Body Shop eyeliner in Amethyst, second from left

Now, I had already mentioned the Bourjois Little Round Pots in the page (on right sidebar) titled "on my way to the Bourjois counter). While these two shades are beautifully pigmented at first swatch, they are barely noticable when applied properly with a brush or applicator. Number 11 Intense is not intense at all. Disappointingly, the lovely, delicate moonstone-with- palest -lilac color and silver shimmer doesn't even rub off on my eyelid. Bourjois 72 applied alone is a very washed-out grape, but when used over The Body Shop Amethyst eyepencil, it turns into a lovely deep plum! So here are the looks below, hope you are inspired!

Well, that's it for now...more to come on the Fall looks !!!

Feerie EDT Van Cleef &Arpels review

Feerie! What a nearly beautiful bottle you are! What a nearly exquisite scent you are! Feerie Eau de Toilette. Van Cleef&Arpels. 2009. The top notes are lemon, grapefruit, and violet leaves. The middle notes are jasmine, rose, and violet. The base notes are sandalwood, musk, and benzoin.  Feerie was my unexpected blind buy this Spring/Summer of 2013. I saw the GORGEOUS box (irridescent navy blue with trails of beautiful silver fairy shimmer; the pic above doesn't capture the irridescence of the box in real life),) and the maker (Van Cleef & Arpels- the topmost jewelry designers in the world), and bought it.  (Tester was not available). Now, my reaction to the bottle was......it's nearly beautiful. Yes, the light blue faceted crystal bottle is cute, as is the metal, flower shaped cap and the metal fairy sitting on it but...somehow the bottle cap is a bit off. Can't explain...I just expected something more enchanting from the makers.. If you've ever seen Van Cleef & Arpel's fairy and fantasy themed jewelry collections, you'll know how breath-taking they are. I think the bottle cap could have been of crystal, or a better material.  Now for the fragrance: it's quite enchanting. It would be nearly equivalent to my frag love (Starlight) if only it had better sillage and longevity. On me, it's nearly gone 5 mts after it's been sprayed. .  It's such a beautiful and complicated fragrance. To my nose, the first burst of spray is very green somehow ...then it dries down to something violett-y and somehow powdery and also woodsy.  Feerie just smells like a Midsummer's Night Dream. Like a fairyland hidden away in the forest somewhere, complete with mushrooms and tiny lanterns to guide the creatures, and tiny fairy houses made out of flowers.  Only, it's not an immature, childish smell- there is strength and elegance to this fairy. This smell is not Tinkerbell- it's more Titania, the Queen of Fairies. Bottom line: Feerie is a very complicated smell, yet so enchanting ... and yet the fairy flies away 5 mts after she's out of the bottle. It's worth trying out. Also, just btw- I feel Feerie EDT is very different from Feerie EDP. I didn't like Feerie EDP as much, to be honest. 

Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner Part 2- "Blue is the New Black" series

"Cosmic" - a swirl of shimmery ultraviolet and blues

"Cosmic" I'm calling this look

the same mindight-blue Maybelline gel eyeliner used in all these looks

"Cosmic" full look...my usual YSL lipstick

So a few blogposts ago, I told you a bit about my new Maybelline Eye Studio Gel Liner in "Outer Space." Ok, so that's not its' official color name. Rather, it's what I've coined. The offical color names is 03 Blue.  Anyways, this has become my new black eyeliner. As mentioned in the original Maybelline post, the cobalt, ultraviolet, and deep midnight blues have been catching my eye lately.  I promised to post further looks using the aforementioned gel eyeliner and here you go...enjoy Outer Space and do leave me your feedback.

silver inner corner, starry blue eyeshadow, aubergine contour+lower lashline, Maybelline gel liner 

color block eyeshadow. Again, the same Maybelline gel liner plus almost-navy blue contour

cobalt blue eueshadow , bronze contour, gold highlight, Maybelline gel liner

Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama gel eyeliner: blue is the new black series!

Hi, all! Today, I'd like to share my new eye liner discovery and look with you. Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Liner in 03 Blue. Lately, I've noticed lovely shades of cobalt, indigo, navy, and royal blue cropping up everywhere. The next few posts will be about how I'm incorporating these shades into my everyday look.  After all, blue is the new black.  So the Maybelline gel eyeliner in blue- it's a gorgeous shade, somewhere between dark indigo and dark sapphire blue ...somewhere along midnight blue combined with ultramarine in some light. I would name this color "outer space."

 This gel eyeliner has replaced my usual black.  So far, it's been amazing! The brush that comes with the pot is SO good! The texture is very creamy and blendable. It's just too fun and easy creating looks with this particular gel eyeliner. Some people say it dries up after a few months, but I expect I will have used it up by then...this is indeed my new daily eyeliner! 

Parlez-Moi D'Amour John Galliano Fragrance Review

{ note to readers: this blog was feeling a bit cluttered so I'm moving the hauls, perfume reviews, and nailpolish reviews to the "Little Posts" section...the sidebar }
...so here's a fragrance discovery and it's one I'm quite fond of (keep in mind Starlight is my fragrance love).  Parlez Moi D'Amour by John Galliano (created 2010 and named after the famous Edith Piaf song from way-back-when) is just so precious! I could go on and on about how the opening notes are blueberry, bergamot, and ginger, and the middle notes are jasmine and rose and the base notes are musk and patchouli and cypress...but that doesn't really "explain" a fragrance. I want to "explain" fragrances my way. Parlez Moi D'Amour is a romantic smell, and it smells just like beautiful scented stationary! PMDA smells like love letters we used to write in the 90's, before email took over! PMDA smells like Fall to me...new semester of school, passing notes to friends, writing with scented markers, etc! It's lovely! Think ballerinas, floral chiffon, headbands with bows.....I feel this frag is for very young teens and tweens. Apparently, the face for the ad is Taylor Momsen, but I haven't seen the ad and don't want to.   PMDA just smells like beautiful days gone by! Also, the bottle and bottlecap is so elegant, as is the box,. It looks like an envelope with a postage stamp on it. It's so ...not vintage...but maybe retro??? The sillage and longevity of this frag are pretty good...a couple of spurts last for easily three hours...on me, anyways.  Also, for some reason, I feel this smells far better in the Fall or Spring than in summer.  When the mercury rises, this smell fades somehow. Basically, overall conclusion: PMDA is a BEAUTIFUL frag, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to someone over 35.