Burberry Spring 2012 Collection

I can't wait to try the Burberry Beauty Spring 2012 collection; esp the eye (pale barley) and lip colours (nude pink)! Oh the blushes seem so pretty too! I love the Burberry line, which is typically matte shades without too much glitter. I'm not a huge fan of glitter make-up. So if you're a matte fan, prepare to check this out too! Enjoy, I'll post what I end up with after my Burberry make-up workshop in 3 weeks time!

Gelish Manicures

Hello ladies! Happy Lunar New Year! A season of festive, blessings and joy for all Chinese folks around the world! In Singapore, we get two full days of public holidays but well, its back to work on the third day (there's 15 days of Chinese New Year, herein referred to as CNY). So in anticipation of CNY, I did my nails!

Typically, one would choose a red family (pink, brown, red, purple etc) color to celebrate this festive season marked with red as the auspicious color. But, I've decided to go with a favourite with all ladies - the tiffany green in gradient! What you see there is gelish by NailHarmony. 

Why choose gelish?

(1) They last for about 3 weeks without chipping or becoming very dull

(2) They dry almost instantaneously (30 secs - 1min) with Gelish UV Lamp -- may be longer with mass market UV lamps

(3) makes your nails harder, at least for the 3 weeks!

(4) Perfect for people who have to do household chores yet would love pretty nails for a special occasion!

Why NOT gelish?

(1) the application and removal process requires the buffing of nail beds which may thin your nails and cause brittle nails after gelish soak-off if not done correctly or over-filing occurs

(2) the soak off process is inconvenient and contains longer exposure to strong nail polish removers for a good 5 to 10 minutes

(3) Exposure to UV lamps may be harmful if used too often

(4) Its thick and you'll realise that your nails can't "breathe" with all the gel - a pale dull whitish nail bed color is what you get when you remove it all. It could be due to the removal process too.

(4) It is so expensive!

My recommendation is for you to do gelish for approximately max 3-4 times a year (that'd last you a good 3 months at least!) 

Here's a few tips to choosing your gelish manicure:

(1) choose a bottom color shade your nail bed color, this will allow your color to last a little longer without being too obvious that your nails have grown! 

(2) Don't just choose 1 color due to the nail growth reason and of course try something different since its not going to chip. Choose something that you'd want to see for at least a month! 

(3) Some designs are not as nice with Gelish due to its limited color and texture of the application. It requires more application skills than your normal nail polish! Do consult your manicurist and choose an appropriate design.

(4) If you feel the top coat is too rough due to glitters or shimmers, you can request for the manicurist to file the ridges of the top coat and reapply the gelish top coat until you are satisfied. However, do bear in mind that the more times this step is repeated, the thicker and more unnatural your nail becomes.

Shellac vs Gelish?

Shellac does not require the buffing of nailbeds and the soak off is a little easier and faster than Gelish. However, it is not as hard wearing as Gelish and has lesser base colors.

Now, you've probably read enough, do enjoy your gelish manicure and mail me some beautiful nail pictures that resulted from your gelish manicure and I may share with the rest too! 

-enjoy a little pampering-

All about the under eye

Eye creams, Eye Gels, Eye concentrates? What's the difference? Which to choose?

Ever wondered about the differing terms and exactly how different could they be? Which under eye treatment is better for you?

A variety of reasons contribute creating dark eye circles, puffy eyes and wrinkles around our eyes. These reasons ranges from lifestyle impacts like smoking, alcohol consumption to other habits like sleeping late, congestion problems or stress related issues. There are some others which are inherited or some others come with age. 

There are tonnes of over-the-counter products available in the market; in fact, every counter you see in the big departmental stores will generally carry at least 1 under eye product. So what is better for you? Unfortunately, I am still in the midst of searching for a suitable under product and I believe that each of us will have a different ideal product. 

(1) Garnier Caffeine Roll on

So fundamentally, gels are lighter and easier to apply than cream. By and large, younger folks may generally prefer to use gels as they are lighter, more soothing and refreshing to the eye. An eye cream which is too rich may cause milia seeds to occur. An extraction of milia seed often requires laser day surgery or some I heard, via a needle. I've tried neither before and due to a rich eye cream, I am left with some milia seeds under my eye. They seem to be amplified when I'm tired or stressed. 

Creams are generally richer and suitable for older skin or very dry under eyes. Serums and concentrates are often known to be a combination of creams and gels or otherwise, a thicker gel which is apparently more moisturizing. 

Before I list some of the eye products I've tried, let me just highlight my undereye issues. I have dark eye rings which have been with me since a child (I've seen my kiddo pics), puffy eyes at times and eye bags when I am lacking sleep. Recently, I was appalled to discover some wrinkles at the inner bottom corner of my under eye area! I'm horrified and trust me, I've been reading up alot about the various under eye products and I know I'll be purchasing one soon!

To date, I've tried several brands of under eye product, of which none had really worked. To list, I've tried: 

(1) Garnier caffeine roll on which seem to left a "plastic" layer feel everytime it dried up. Caffeine is suppose to aid dark eye circles but I did not benefit from a consistent day-and-night application over 3 months. However, the roll-on applicator was soothing and comfortable, especially if you keep your tube in the fridge! (but do make sure that your fridge temp is not far too cold)

(2) Biotherm Aquasource Eye Perfection - I received a small sample with my moisturizer purchase but it proved to be disappointing. A little stinging and discomfort was felt with every application, perhaps I am allergic to some chemicals or ingredients used in the formula. Upon drying, it does feel powdery and it doesn't work well when you apply your concealer or makeup. In addition, it didn't aid my dark eye circles. The only good point I might raise was that it was soothing as well. 

(3) Lancome Repositioning Eye Cream -  Too rich a cream for my liking. Perhaps something suitable for older/more sun exposed and dry under eye area. 

(4) Kose Infinity Eye Cream - Rich, suitable for age 30-40 ladies I believe. A little too rich for me but it did aid a little of my dark circles.

5) Bobbi Brown Eye Repair Cream - Very thick and hard to spread across the under eye area. I bought this as I was so intrigued that it could cover my milia seeds before applying my concealers. However, halfway into this little tub, I started to release it also added more milia seeds contrarian to what the sales assistant tried to sell the product by alleging that it has ingredients that help heals them. I was naive, stick to BB for make-up. 

6) Shu Uemura Deep Sea Replenishing Eye Gel - awesome little tube, very refreshing and helps hyrdation + mild puffy eyes. Otherwise, don't expect too much. A disappointment in the results as compared to the hefty price (>SGD 50)

7) La Prairie Skin Caviar Luxe Eye Lift Cream & Cellular Eye Contour Cream - This is one story I must share. I fell madly in love with La Prairie products after trying the cellular eye contour cream. It was the first ever cream which lightened my dark eye circles! To me, it was simply amazing. I was barely 1 week into the tub and I already experienced the difference! Unfortunately, I believe it was also the same cream which gave me my milia seeds but I refused to believe and continued until I've finished the tub. It was when I went back to the counter that I was convinced that the cellular eye contour cream was no good, and was advised to try the luxe eye lift cream. I thought for abit but got put off by both the milia seeds that had formed and the price. Subsequently, I was given the Caviar Luxe Cream to try by my mother. It was rich and well, caused more milia seeds. Try this again when i'm older and might really need a rich eye cream. 

I've received a box of Elizabeth Arden Prevage Eye Cream as a gift. I might just give it a shot despite the mixed reviews. I've got a hunch that it might not suit my skin, and it'll be too rich given shea butter being its 4th highest ingredient. I'll prolly try it for abit and see how it goes, if unsuitable will likely pass on to my mom for usage. I did read in several places that this line suits 40s to 50s ladies better! 

Meanwhile, let me continue my hunt for a suitable eye cream!

My soothing balm has finally arrived!

I received my Eczema & Psoriasis Balm from Moogoo finally! It took them almost 1 month, which seemed a tad long due to lost mail. Thankfully they replaced the shipment promptly!

Moogoo's Eczema Solution suitable for both children & adult

As mentioned in my previous entry, I do have a case of eczema after returning from an overseas trip to my hot and humid country. Doctors do not know the exact cause but prescribed me dosages of anti-histamine and a hydrocortisone cream (i.e. steroid cream). When I was younger, I had some bad experiences and some side effect from using steroid creams which causes skin thinning and discoloration (darken parts of your skin which the cream is applied on). So I went in search of an alternative and came across Moogoo. I'm also using Moogoo's Soothing MGM cream as a complement.

I did also explore several other options such as Aveeno's cream for eczema, Renew intensive skin therapy etc but they were all unsuccessful. In particular, I felt Aveeno's cream was really thick and left a "sticky" unfinished feel on my skin no matter how much I tried to massage the moisturizer in. However at this point, it is worthy to note that whatever works for me may not work for another. It's all a trial and error processs. So yes, its important to find out what works for you and if you are even mildly allergic to anything!

Eczema & Psoriasis Balm

The Balm is also known as "Irritable Skin Balm" in some countries. It sells for AUD 16.90 on their website - www.moogoo.com.au - and also in malaysia for RM 69.00.

There's a "herbs" smell that comes along with the cream and generally leaves a soothing feel to the inflamed skin areas. It is also easily absorbed into the skin and does not leave a sticky or uncomfortable feeling.

My Parcel!

On a side note, this is my first time ordering form the website and it was nice to see my tubes of balm came in this cute box!

By the way, I'm currently residing in Singapore and I normally buy in bulk. So if you're also located here and want to try the product, I'm willing to let go of some of my purchases (in full unused tubes/tubs) at the cost which you can buy on the website + my import postage fees + postage fees to deliver to you. Do drop me a message at dollypalettes[at]gmail[dot]com if you are interested in just trying out a tube/tub. I'm only doing this out of goodwill cause I understand that we, people with sensitive skin, want to try the products for some time before deciding that yes, this is the cream! 

Good luck!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Lets start off my new beauty hoards and skin care treasures blog with some beauty quotes!


Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


“It's beauty that captures your attention; personality which captures your heart.” - Anon

This blog came about as I started to pay more attention to the stuff I was using on my face, my body and my hair after an eczema breakout upon returning from an overseas trip! I noticed that certain chemicals were bad in general but formed major portions of various skin care products and even in make-up. So well, this blog will remind me which products are good and which I have found to be bad for my skin. I'll probably also add in some two cents about make up brushes, or any other beauty hoards like nail polishes and other random buys! I may also share about my eczema experience and dealing with it since I live in hot and humid Singapore and I personally feel that there's a lack of eczema skincare support in this little island as compared to Aussie, UK and USA where there are formal associations formed and many many creams and non-steriod topical creams developed for eczema healing. 

So yes, I've got loads to share with you and I'm really excited about sharing and hearing from you guys! Meanwhile, please also be patient with me as I'm just a newbie starting out in this new area. I'll probably be using alot of layman terms as my knowledge of jargons and lingos in this area is far and limited! 

For my inaugural post, I'd just like to share my purchase today - Shiseido's foundation brush! I've yet to use it but I've read/heard so much about it that I couldn't resist it; especially with it priced at SGD 40! I was in luck, it was the last available piece at the counter! 

Here's some pictures, my commentary will be up after a few tries at it! It is not a huge brush nor your typical expected foundation brush size but its handy and I do like the bristles alot! They are well angled and yet soft at the same time, obviously they do not prickle as well! However as you can tell from my picture on the left, it is really tiny. The small picture on the bottom right compares my sigma F40 large angled contour blusher brush; the shiseido brush ended up about half the size! 


However, I did hear that there's a certain way to use this brush well. It can used for both liquid and compact foundations. Enjoy the video (unfortunately it is in cantonese)!

Update after 1 week of use: This brush is awesome! I typically deep cleanse my brushes on a weekly basis and sometimes my brushes will accumulate the amount of make-up over the days and application performance would obviously deterioriate throughout the week. However this foundation brush does not have this issue! I use it daily with my liquid foundation. It not only spreads evenly even on Day 7 of the week but the bristles continue to feel soft and comfortable! I love this brush and if you're using liquid foundation and sick of using sponges, do turn to this, its the perfect foundation brush as the name calls it! Remember to learn the correct way of using this brush though, otherwise you'll not see the pure goodness and beauty of this sweet little thing! 

Unfortunately I don't use any compact foundations but during the demo by the sales lady when I bought the brush, it did apply equally well! I'm labeling this as a "must-have"!! 

My Summarized Review: At only SGD 40, this is a relatively affordable foundation brush which is totally worth it. Look forward to smooth and flawless applications to set a good base for the rest of the makeup! Absolutely hearts this product, its going into one of favourite items category! 


I give this 5 out of 5 smooches! Score: ♥♥♥♥♥/♥♥♥♥♥