My first impression was that the shop smelled wonderful – like a spa, thanks to the essential oils they sell. So I was naturally ‘enabled’ into picking up something to try in the form of their Pomelo Aromatic Room & Pillow Spray. Their sprays are touted as one of the Top 5 best selling products.

My room in Singapore tends to be a wee bit stuffy because it’s not positioned to catch the breeze unless there’s a really strong wind blowing. Thus, smells do tend to linger on for some time. That’s where the Pomelo room spray comes in handy! I usually spritz the room spray onto my curtains and lightly onto my sheets and immediately get the delightful aroma of freshly peeled pomelos. Citrusy scents do wonders for uplifting the senses.

The only thing I would like would be for the scent to remain longer as it dissipates quite quickly – within 15 minutes of spraying. I usually don’t spray too much at a go as well, because my sinuses don’t take kindly to scent. I figure it will take me some time to finish up my bottle as I got this in October 2011 and have only used up about 1/10th of the bottle thus far.

For those who are interested, Lemongrass House claims that this spray is sulphate free and paraben free and it’s never been tested on animals. Yay for an eco-friendly brand!

Yes factors : Refreshing scent, variety of scents to choose from, eco-friendly
No factors : Scent doesn’t linger on long enough, only available in Singapore

Ingredients : Orange peel infusion, stearyl alcohol, tween 20, pomelo essential oil

Directions : Lightly spray these all-natural botanical mists on bed linens, in the car, or any place that needs a fresh scent. It naturally relaxes and uplifts your mood.

Packaging : 120ml

Recommended retail price : SGD 15.00

Being a total newbie (it was my maiden trip to HK), I was totally unprepared for the bright lights and myriad stores. But I was lost the moment Kahani introduced me to Bonjour.

When she showed me the section on sample/travel sized products, I was completely sold on the concept and there was no turning back. The majority of the stuff you see in the picture below is from Bonjour, with a purchase each from Sasa, Harvey Nichols Beauty Hall and duty-free at Changi Terminal.

In no particular order, I came back with :
1. Revlon Colorburst Lipgloss in Rose Perle
2. Steam Cream
3. Lanvin Marry Me perfume miniature
4. Talika Lipocils Expert eyelash serum
5. Lancome Hydra Zen Neocalm detoxifying moisturising multi-relief anti-stress gel essence
6. Lancome Hydra Zen extreme soothing moisturising cream-gel
7. Lancome Genifique Youth Activator serum
8. Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex serum
9. Estee Lauder Hydrationist Moisture Barrier Fortifier ultra-hydration serum
10. Dior Capture Totale One Essential skin boosting super serum
11. Diorsnow White Reveal essence
12. Shu Uemura UV Armor high protection face cream SPF 50
13. Shu Uemura Deepsea Hydrability moisturizing gel cream
14. Clarins Beauty Flash Balm
15. Kiehl’s Ultra Facial micro serum
16. Laniege Water Sleeping Pack_Ex
17. Guerlain Orchidee Imperiale exceptional complete care serum
18. Clinique Take The Day Off makeup remover

Whew! That’s a lot of miniature stuff, methinks!

And did you notice anything about the list above? It’s mostly skincare with a heavy slant towards hydrating stuff and anti-aging stuff.

I’ve been lemming quite a number of these serums for some time now, so yes, I am one very happy camper. Let’s hope that my sensitive/problematic skin takes kindly to me experimenting in the next few months!

How I wish I had access to these miniature pretties in Singapore or Malaysia all the time…

Read other blogger notes on shopping in Hong Kong here :
Kahani
Paris B

As the picture says, you can get deals on cosmetics and fragrances from Lancome, Biotherm, Shu Uemura, Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, Cacharel, Guy Laroche and Diesel.

I’ve never missed a sale since I found out about it two years back, and if you shop carefully, there are likely bargains to be found especially if you know the usual recommended retail price. It is interesting to note though that prices at these ‘warehouse/clearance’ sales have been steadily increasing and while still cheaper than the average over-the-counter price, it is no longer a steal by any means. Still, as the savvy shopper who can suss out a good deal from an average deal, you’ll be fine.

Happy shopping!

I picked up DKNY’s Be Delicious eau de parfum at the Estee Lauder Staff Sales in July. At first I was a bit hesitant to buy it; not because I didn’t like the fragrance, but because the box and bottle appearance was different from what I remembered. As it turns out, this was a limited edition bottle design but the fragrance contents were the same. Keeping the same shape as the normal Be Delicious perfume, the only difference is that the lower glass half of the sphere is “wrapped” in designer art. My only gripe about this is that due to the limited edition art, I can’t see how much (or how little) of the perfume is left in the bottle.

As for the fragrance, it is refreshingly light and decidedly fruity, so if you don’t fancy smelling like fresh fruits I wouldn’t suggest that you pick this perfume. I was first attracted to this scent in a shopping mall because it smelled like apples! I have a decidedly low tolerance for strong/heavy scents so this is light enough for me. A single spritz of Be Delicious and I can smell it (for a minimum of 8 hours) all day long! I’m not too sure if others can smell it, but hey, perfume is a personal thing in my humble opinion. So for a light user like me, perfumes are very cost saving because they can last almost forever.

I would like very much to find a signature fragrance that represents “me” and for me, as nice as it is, Be Delicious is not IT for me. It is a nice weekend or pick-me-up fragrance though.

Recommended retail price : MYR 220.00

Read other blogger reviews on DKNY Be Delicious :
Pretty Beautiful

When I’d first heard of this warehouse sales, my first thought was that of dismay as it was a 1 day only sale. I had a scheduling conflict in terms of an exam scheduled for that very day at 10:00am, which happened to be the time that the warehouse sales began. I figured that all the good stuff would be snapped up before I could even possibly hope to get there. Luckily, I was proven wrong.

After insanely rushing through my exam in record time (I wonder what the results will be like?) I drove over to the Parkroyal Hotel, which was where the warehouse sales was being held. Saw a number of people evidently leaving the sales with plastic bags of stuff, and my heart sank. The lack of any queue as I headed up to the first floor was even more discouraging! Apparently the organizers only opened the doors every 20 – 30 minutes or so, and I arrived with perfect timing to get in without even having to wait. Yay!

My colleague was a bit disappointed because she’d asked me to get her Ralph Lauren Romance perfume, but there was only Ralph Lauren Rocks available then. The Biotherm stocks rapidly dwindled too, but there was plenty of Lancome skincare around. Pity that my favorite Lancome mascara was not available in black, but only in odd party/funky colors. Still, I got my hands on some Lancome lipsticks and grabbed a couple of Lancome skincare items for mom and myself, plus a Biotherm moisturiser.

It was a far better set-up than the previous warehouse sale I’d attended just a week earlier and I was pretty happy with what I got. Definitely one of the warehouse sales to put on my list for next time!

Image credit

Like the flyer says, brands on sale are : Givenchy, Ferrari, Paul & Joe, Esprit, Loewe, David Beckham, MNG, Versace and others. I targeted to check out Givenchy and Paul & Joe as I wasn’t too interested in the other brands.

Even though I was there at 12.00pm on the first day of the sales, already some brands had sold out. Givenchy makeup was available in limited quantity only, as was Paul & Joe and some of the better shades available were finished. The more well known brands of perfume were selling out fast but there was still ample stock of lesser known branded perfumes (I can’t remember any of the names, that’s how unknown some of the brands were).

I was there only out of curiousity but I still ended up getting something anyway. Here’s a shot of my stash below – I Loewe You perfume (50ml) and Paul & Joe eyeshadow in a pale nude-y pink (09).

I’ve been to other warehouse sales held at Corus Hotel before and I have to comment that the organizers could have put more thought into the whole setup. Firstly, instead of having the entrance immediately as you come up the stairs, they made that the exit instead. Inside the ballroom, the setup was very spacious and quite well segregated. I would like to suggest that the organizers make coffee beans available as after less than 5 minutes in the area, I couldn’t really tell the difference between perfumes – they all smelled the same! However, the cashier queue area sucked. There were three cashiers but the processing took too much time and the queue snaked its way into the browsing area. It is not very fun to try to see what products are available because the payment queue is blocking your path.

If you don’t mind the selection of brands available, this is a good sale as far as the price goes. But if you’re picky about the brands you use, you may as well skip the sale and save your time.