Month: October 2012

LIKE JEWELS FOR THE FEET

As a firm believer that nothing compares to good quality shoes to achieve maximum personal style, this Autumn/Winter Collection 2012 from Chrissie Morris are definitely buzzing through my current shoes radar.

Just like Diana Vreeland said, “First, I’d put money into shoes. Marvelous shoes.” There’s no second doubt to have these babies, marvelous babies from a Brit designer, Chrissie Morris. She debuted her first collection in Spring 2008, and was named the winner of Italian Vogue’s “Who’s On Next” competition and Best New Talent from US Conde Nast’s Footwear News.

All produced within one country, in this case, Italy, and made completely by hand, her collections are very geometric, sort of Art Deco-ish and every single details seem to push to the extreme. Towering heels, exotic materials, will definitely turn us into the right kind of trouble. 

CAN WE PULL THIS TREND OFF?

Unlike some fortunate ladies who live in a colder climate countries, rocking this dress over pants trend is a bit difficult for us.

Layering. Super cool when you know how, but extra hot (literally) when you live elsewhere (in my case, Jakarta, Indonesia). So when Emma Watson showed up with this black mini dress with a pair of black jeggings, it was a total mind opener. 

Back in the 1990’s dress over pants were huge. Actually it was not only pants, we wore them over jeans and anything as far as I can remember. But can we really pull this trend off now where I live?

Sure can. Here’s how:
– Keep it monochromatic like Emma did.
– Strapless dress is good as top, as it’s less hot, literally.
– Stick to a slim, super slim trousers or jeggings (no leggings please).
– Avoid ballerina flats as they’ll look sloppy, stick to high heel pumps or head for brogues shoes instead.
– As the trend’s name said: dress over pants. Don’t add more jacket or vest over the dress. Enough is enough.
– Less is definitely more for accessories and make up. You don’t want to pile up in this trend case, believe me.

COMFORTABLE FOUNDATION

Seriously, is there such thing? 

Don’t you just hate it when your foundation, especially the one with creme or liquid texture feel so thick and uncomfortable on your skin? As a busy woman, we have to run errands for a long time (it did feel like 24 hours sometime) and we still have to check if our foundation still looks good on us.

Well, if you’re longing for a flawless look that will stand by you all day without the flaking, caking and that thick feeling on your face, you may try Revlon ColorStay Whipped Creme Makeup. The latest addition to Revlon’s foundation family, this mousse like texture foundation with a time release formula promised to give smooth coverage and that flawless look for up to 24 hours. Supposedly to feel like silk when applied, this foundation will be a great company for an all day look that stay flexible throughout our activities. 

Available in 4 shades (in Indonesia): Ivory, Natural Beige, Medium Beige and Warm Golden
Availability in Indonesia: mid November 2012 
Retail Price: Rp 150.000 

TWIHARDS WILL FALL HARD FOR THESE

For those of you who’s getting ready for the final Twilight on November 16, 2012, check this latest makeup collection from Essence. 

Inspired by the movie, the exclusive twilight saga collection will be available also on November, just in time for the release of the second Breaking Dawn.

Expect lots of shimmers just like those scenes when Edward dramatically shines under the sun light, and some blood-red lips. The collection includes Loose Pigments Eyeshadow, Liquid Glitter Eyeliner, Lipstick, Lip Gloss, Blush, Shimmer Powder and Nail Polish. With product names like “Jacob’s Protection, Edward’s Love, Alice’s Vision and A Piece of Forever”, I’m pretty sure that this collection will provide a happy ending for Twihards.

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Alexander McQueen did it back in 2009 with his Faithful Glove Clutch. Now, the glove clutch is back through one of H&M Maison Martin Margiela’s collection.

Out in November 15 worldwide, the clutch is one of over 60 pieces of women’s collection, curated from various Maison Martin Margiela’s collections over the years started from Fall Winter 1989.

The glove clutch made from real leather and will be available in two colors, deep red and black. Sling it over the shoulder our use it like the real clutch if you please. I bet, all the accessories will be sold out in the first hour of the launching day.

PROBLEM: DARK CIRCLES. SOLVED

We can blame it on those late nights, too much staring at the computer screen, smoking, eating the wrong food, or drinking too much alcohol. But why whining if you still have it anyway?

Me? I’ll always blame it on my genetic. I’ve had dark circles since I was 8 years old. No, I didn’t start using eye cream since, but I did when I was about 17. And I always end up looking for the perfect eye cream, until one day I realized there’s nothing I can do with my dark circles, except doing filler injection or any beauty procedures related. Did I? No, as I’m those type which easily bruised whenever injections involved, and it last longer to heal, I don’t think so. 

So, eye cream and under eyes concealer are pretty much it for my beauty routine. Until I decided to try on this. Murad Hybrids Eye Lift Illuminator. It promised to brighten the eye area with its neutralizing violet formula, increase skin firmness and minimize the appearance of dark circles. It contains high concentration of antioxidants, hydrators, botanicals, fruit extracts, minerals, vitamins and amino acids which reportedly ensure optimal effectiveness. 

It’s an automatic pen, so for the first time, just twist around 10 times. As it said, the color is violet, but the light ones, so when applied, there’ll be no sign of purple. The texture is light and easily melt on my fingers when I rubbed them. FYI, I still use my regular eye cream before I pat this gently using my ring finger on clean skin. And I’ll not miss my under eyes concealer after I used this.

Please refer to the pictures above for before and after photos. I assure you that I didn’t do any photoshop for this review. I believe it tone down my dark circles for like two levels and minimize the appearance of fine lines on the corner of my eyes. I can say my problem solved.

OUT OF NAIL SPA IN A SNAP

Firstly introduced to a faster way to dry your nail polish in a zap by OPI through their marvelous Gelcolor, now I’m never coming back to ordinary nail polishes. 

The secret is in everything actually. Not just the UV lamp which will dry everything on each hand in 30 seconds, but also with special base coat, nail polish and top coat which are different than the ordinary ones. They’re specially made to suit the whole system, and it cost more.

I have to be honest, even though I’m not in a hurry, I don’t have the patience to wait until they dry. Most of the time, when I did basic manicure, my nail colors already chipped before I got out of the nail spa’s door, really. That’s why this gel nail manicure is like the answer to my prayer. The application steps are similar with the basic manicure, base coat, nail color and top coat. Until the UV lamp comes to the rescue. For every application from the base coat until top coat, we have to put our hands inside the UV lamp for them to dry. 

Here, I tried CND Shellac for the first time, which promised flawless color for 14 days. Ease of the nail polish with the permanence of gel, it supposed to stay shiny and less prone to chip. My choice of color: Red Baroness, deep metallic red. Even though I dig this gel nail color in the first place for its ability to dry faster, but I do love how they shine more glossy than ordinary nail polish. As for the chipped factor, I don’t really care if they stay on for two weeks, cause I never let my nail polish to stay that long on my nails. 

Every time I use gel color, I will go back to the nail spa to remove them completely, as they have this special trick. They will use the strongest acetone dipped on the cotton pad and wrapped each finger using aluminum foil. They will leave it to soak for 5 minutes or more and later peel the gel color from our nails. Seems easy, but I never tried this at home as I’m too lazy to do it myself. 

Tips: avoid to let your nail polish stay longer than 3 days, as it’ll make your nails look yellowish and dull.

WINTER IN MANGO LAND

Another fashion campaign from the Spanish brand, Mango. This time, the co-host of MTV’s House of Style, Karlie Kloss is one of the three models starred for their Winter 2012 collection.

Personally, I love winter collection even though I live in this so called tropical climate city (what’s so tropical about it? It’s so darn hot). So, I feel entertained whenever I saw fashion catalogue for winter collection. 

Here are the 5 top looks I love from Mango Winter 2012 collection from the work attire to chic evening and night out ensembles. Instead of thick long winter coat, a black biker jacket or a tailored white jacket will do just fine in our hot weather. And I love the black and gold cap toe pumps. I can see myself rocking any style with these pumps.

PERFECT PAIR

This is a serious question: if you’re wearing a fragrance, do you really know who is the real master behind the fragrance? The real genius who created it from scratch based on their own inspiration or others? 

“Perfumers used to be behind the curtain, because the fragrance industry is more driven by the fashion houses. But lately, there are more recognition from the industry for the perfumers,” said Marc Chaya, President &co-founder of Maison Francis Kurkdjian Paris, when he visited Jakarta, Indonesia yesterday. We’re lucky to have Francis’ creations for Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s fragrance collection in Jakarta, as they selected their retailers very carefully. Over 150 premium retailers around the world carry their collection, to name a few: Bergdorf Goodman, Harvey Nichols, Neiman Marcus, Isetan and Joyce. 

Marc who met Francis about 5 years ago, was in Jakarta to launch the latest fragrance from the luxury fragrance house. This time, they come in pair, Amyris. The inspiration behind the name? “It’s a very beautiful name. In French, Amyris comes from the word Ame (means: soul) and Iris. Amyris is an essential oil that grows from a beautiful little tree in Jamaica which have orange powdery scent.”

“Amyris is a definition of effortless sophistication. Amyris can be a fragrance for hard working women, either working as a career woman or simply raising children, who still wants to have fun by the end of the day but have no time to get ready. The idea is just to wear the fragrance and you can feel extra sophisticated in an instant,” he later explained.

In this case, sophistication really didn’t come cheap, as Iris from Florence (used as one of the ingredients) counts as one of the most expensive essential oil in the fragrance industry. “There are only five flowers in the world that can be extracted to essential oil. And Iris is one of them. It’s more expensive than gold. One liter of essential oil cost 110 thousand Euros. And to produce one liter of essential oil, we need 10.000 kg of flowers. Yes, Iris is one of the beautiful and rare flower in the fragrance industry,” Marc added. 

Amyris from Jamaica and Iris from Florence, Californian Orange, Vetiver from Haiti and Amber, created a floral, woody and luminous scent for Amyris Femme. Meanwhile, Amyris Homme retain its luminosity by combining Amyris and Iris with Rosemary from Morocco, Mandarin from Sicily, Tonka Beans from Brazil and sandalwood. Unlike the previous Aqua Universalis that can be share and considered a genderless fragrance, I wonder why divide them into two genders? Marc gave me and some media friends an explanation, “Lot’s of women love to use men’s fragrance. Like you can wear a man’s shirt and look sexy in it. But, the other way around, I don’t think so.”

Being one who doesn’t go with the flow and never in life using a man’s fragrance, or either using my other half’s shirt to look sexy or appear sensual, I’ll stick to Amyris Femme, thank you. Do I like it? No, I love it! It’s ultra feminine and it comes in Eau De Parfum which will stay forever if you spray it on your hair. It melts really well with my skin in this crazy hot climate and yes, it makes me feel expensive. As for Amyris Homme, I can feel the freshness of green notes with just a touch of masculinity, which left me questioning myself, should I begin my experience with a men’s fragrance?