Asos Paints by Ciate Winter Collection Bottle Pics

Ciate is a UK-based brand of nail polish founded by celebrity nail technican Charlotte Straughan, and is hard to find, even within the UK (or at least in Central London, where I'm at). I end up ordering most of mine online. They also aren't very well-known or popular (unlike fellow UK-based nail polish brand Nails Inc), but those who are in the know will have at least heard of them. They also have the cutest bottles ever. I don't have enough Ciate to form a good opinion of their quality in general, but I've heard raves from some, and I've also heard from others that it's a hit-and-miss brnad (like every other). In general they seem pretty good though.

Ciate also has a line of nail polish specially created for ASOS, called Asos Paints by Ciate, kind of like how Sephora has their Sephora by OPI collection. These have a similar packaging, but it's not exactly like the regular Ciate collection. The bottles are smaller, being 9ml instead of 13.5ml, and the bottles are also square instead of rectangular, and have a shorter handle. Each season, ASOS also releases a limited edition Asos Paints by Ciate. I just got the Winter 2009 Asos Paints by Ciate collection, because it was on sale at Asos, so that explains why I'm reviewing these after the fact. I'm sorry, but I'm not gettin' any swag down here, so everything I review either comes from my own pocket, or me squatting at counters and swatching their testers. What can I say, it's tough being a small-time blogger, LOL.

Anyway, the Asos Paints by Ciate Winter 2009 collection consists of 3 pretty exciting colours that are awesome all-year round. I haven't gotten around to trying them out yet, but here are bottle pictures! I know bottle pictures aren't preferred, and most people would rather see on-nail swatches, but I couldn't wait (and not just because I'm overdue). This collection's pretty cool - it's a good digression from the usual pale pinks and sheers. Without further ado, here are pictures!



Here's the entire collection altogether. This photo isn't very great, the individual bottle pictures are more accurate.



First up is Pixie, a emerald-jade green, that's NOT a Chanel Jade dupe. It's a darker, deeper and more jewel-toned green, more emerald and less pastel. I LOVE this colour, and I don't even normally like greens! This is a creme finish, very smooth looking.



Next up is Agyness, a medium-to-dark royal purple with multicoloured shimmer. I love purples, so this is right up my alley.



Lastly, we have Mary-Kate, which is a really awesome black with fine glitter. I can't really discern all the glitter in this colour, but from the bottle it looks to be gold, but it also has hints of orange and green. Super cool. It's hard to tell if the black is opaque or jelly-ish, but I'm hoping it's a jelly! I totally want to try this one out. This is probably my favourite of the bunch! It kind of reminds me of $OPI 212, except that 212 has bigger chunks of glitter. The glitter in this one isn't too big.

So that's it for today, and when I do get around to trying this out (my untrieds list of nail polish is so long right now), I'll be sure to do an NOTD post!

Shiseido to Acquire Bare Escentuals: Cystic Acne coming to Asia

You can read all about it HERE@WSJ.

I first found out about this from JeweledThumb, and I imagine it's been all over the blogosphere since then.

I'm so ambivalent about this move. I mean, Shiseido has some really good products, but why are they buying over a brand as crappy as Bare Escentuals, the provider of statewide cystic acne?! I mean, come on, Bare Escentuals made bismuth oxychloride the ingredient of every skin-conscious girl's nightmare, as well as its mineral foundations. I know it makes good business sense - Asian company wants to break into America, so acquires American company - but my little makeup mind just can't take it. I love Shiseido, and I hate Bare Escentuals, so how dare they merge!

Which reminds me of a time when I was in college. This girl was visiting my room, and she was told by my roomate that I'm a makeup fanatic. Wanting to brag, she promptly starts talking about how she spends $200 a month on Bare Escentuals sets and makeup and foundations without fail. Every month. $200. Now I do haul, and I haul plenty, but but if I did spend $200 a month on makeup, it's definitely not going to be Bare Escentuals - you'd have to drag me away from the Dior and Chanel counters first! But anyway, she was bragging about how much she spent on her makeup, until she caught sight of my stash in my drawers. Once she saw all the makeup crammed into the drawers, she started screaming, "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!" over and over again until I started thinking that maybe we should call a doctor, but before I could she promptly excused herself, and never visited my room again. Yeah, I guess that's the life of a makeup addict. My stash freaks civillians out. The good thing about that incident though, is that I never had to hear her bragg about makeup again.

Anyway, I note with interest that Bare Escentuals plans to use the deal to broaden their reach in Asia. So this means, Asian girls, look out! Cystic acne, bismuth oxychloride-filled makeup that claims to be healthy, and not to mention, the etheral Star Trek glow, are all coming to a counter near you! Muahahaha...

Majolica Majorca Single Eyeshadow Swatches!

Today, I bring you swatches of all the Majolica Majorca single eyeshadows that are avaliable in Singapore. Majolica Majora is a subsidiary brand of Shiseido, and is of Japanese origins. Mmmm. Yummy. That's like Shiseido for the drugstore! Anyway, they're available in most Asian drugstores in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, and of course, Japan.

Anyway, I think Singapore must be getting the short end of the stick or something, there are only 8 shades (I'm pretty sure there are more than that), and we don't have SV821, the cult favourite. However, SV821 is in my personal stash, and I'm totally planning to do a swatch and review on that, so swatches, pictures and reviews of SV821 are coming soon!

Anyway, on to the rest of the collection. As is typical of Asian brand eyeshadows, the texture is very soft, even softer than Shu Uemura. That's a good thing - swatching these, they felt gorgeous on my fingers and skin. Ooh, soft and silky. However, as is also typical of Asian brand eyeshadow, the level of pigmentation is also highly variable. In general, the lighter colours are really sheer, and as you can see from my swatches, some of them were barely visible on my arm despite my attempts to build them up. The darker colours, however, are totally gorgeous, soft, silky, pigmented, and a dream to apply. So they're a little hit-or-miss, but I still quite like these. I'd love more colours, however - a couple more taupes never hurt anyone! :P

Another thing I noticed is that the lighter colours tend to have chunkier glitter

Anyway, without further ado, here are swatches:



L - R: WT963, BR665, VI113, GR162, GD822, BE121, BR784, BE286

WT963 is a sheer, sparkly white with chunky glitter.

BR665 is a beautiful metallic neutral brown with golden shimmer. It's a beautiful shade, and one of my favourites.

VI113 is a very very sheer light purply lilac colour that is very glittery and did I say very sheer? I couldn't build this one up very much although I tried.

GR162 is a bright yellow green of average pigmentation and average sparkliness.

GD822 is a golden bronzey brown.

BE121 is a sheer sparkly beige, and as the swatch shows, this just wouldn't build up on me.

BR784 is a deep neutral brown with a slightly metallic quality to it. Very pretty, and very good pigmentation. This is also one of my favourites.

BE286 is a peachy pink colour with gold shimmer. It also looks to be NARS Orgasm in eyeshadow form. This one also had good pigmentation, and not much chunky glitter.