CLE DE PEAU

My Picks for the Best Base Makeup 2011

January 5, 2012

This post is inspired by some of my favorite bloggers who have done an extensive summary of the beauty products they loved the most in year 2011. I thought it was such a good idea to show you some of the amazing products that I came across last year (or years before..). As a beauty junkie I have way too many products to showcase so I will be breaking them into several posts, and today’s post is all about the best base makeup products that I have absolutely been in love with, and I am pretty sure my appreciation for them will be carried over to year 2012.

Unfortunately I haven’t had the time to review many products in this post yet, but I am sure they will appear sometime in the near future!

Best Makeup Primer: the award goes to By Terry Teint De Rose. The most luxurious primer I have ever used – the hydrating texture, the scent and the pink rosy color just blows me away every time I use it.

Best Illuminating Makeup Base: the award goes to Dior Radiant Base. It gives a “your glow but better” effect.

Best Tinted Moisturizer: the award goes to Sunday Riley Effortless Breathable Tinted Primer. One of their signature products. I was at Barneys shopping for Sunday Riley skincare, and I noticed there were so many (gorgeous) girls dropping by just to purchase this primer over a short time! So I had to have it and it is my holy grail makeup base now on a good skin day.

Best BB Cream: the award goes to Dr Jart Blemish Base BB Cream, love the hydrating yet lightweight liquid texture.

Best Liquid Foundation: the award goes to Giorgio Armani Designer Lift Firming Foundation (reviewed here). I don’t know one single person who doesn’t love this foundation?!

Runner up: Chantecaille Future Skin Foundation. This was my first high end foundation that I got it when I was in High School, and I was hooked on to it ever since. There is always a backup in my vanity drawer.

Best Compact Foundation/Powder: the award goes to Tom Ford Translucent Finishing Powder. My new discovery and this is THE most finely milled powder I have ever used!

Runner Up: La Prairie Cellular Treatment Powder Foundation (old packaging). A little goes a long way and it gives a flawless coverage.

Best Contouring Powder: the award goes to Suqqu Balancing Cheek in OSHAGECHA (the shade on the right). Provides a perfect subtle contouring that just blends in with my natural skin color.

Best Concealer: the award goes to Cle De Peau Concealer (have discussed in this post)

Best Under Eye Brightening Concealer: the award goes to YSL Touche Eclat (have discussed in this post)

Best Loose Powder: the award goes to La Mer Loose Powder. The most finely milled loose powder inthe market and gives a soft focus finish. This is my second tub and my first one lasted me a few years!

Runner Up: Cle de Peau Loose Powder. It has a slight pink tinge to it rather than totally translucent. Provides a brightening effect and a flawless finish.

If you haven’t read the 2011 picks by these beautiful bloggers yet, please do check them out.

Atelier Beauty’s 2011 Picks.

Delicate Hummingbird’s best picks for the foundations/powder/concealers 2011

Rouge Deluxe 2011 Loves and Thoughts

Miss Elaine-Nio Year 2011 Favorites, I am VERY sad to hear that she will no longer be blogging…

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Labels: BB Cream • BY TERRY • CHANTECAILLE • CLE DE PEAU • DIOR • FOUNDATION • Giorgio Armani • LA MER • Makeup Base • My Favorites • POWDER • Sunday Riley • SUQQU • Tom Ford • YSL

My Best Concealers

December 15, 2011

I’ve been meaning to do a concealer post for a long time. I can live without foundations but I can’t live without a good concealer, because I would never leave my house without wearing one hence I have collected many… My concealers are mainly for highlighting the under eye areas. I don’t really have visible dark circles but I find that brightening the under eye areas makes a HUGE difference to my complexion, as it just instantly makes me look more awake and my face looks more lifted.

I am a little lazy doing a proper review on each concealer that I own (you know as a beauty blogger once in a while you lose the blogging mojo!…), so I thought I’ll just quickly share what I have with you now.

THE BREAKDOWN:

Chanel Corrector: It’s a good concealer but not the best, will not repurchase.

Shiseido Natural Finish Creamy Concealer: Nothing special about this one, will not repurchase.

SANA Make Essence Concealers: One is a yellow based concealer in an essence (serum) consistency to cover dark circles, and the other one is a pink based concealer with silicone to cover pores. Best value for money as they only cost less than $10 each.

ColorScience Eyes Wide Open Eye Brightener: Strictly speaking it is an eye cream with a baby blue color made of all natural botanical ingredients. It has a lotion consistency that sinks into your skin straight away. When it is first applied it has a cooling sensation, then quite magically it brightens and takes away the dark circles very effectively. A great alternative for those of you who don’t like to wear makeup. I bought it on skinstore, and you can find more reviews on this product there as well.

Ellis Faas Concealer: My most recent favorite! The texture is creamy but not heavy, easy to blend and provides very good coverage as well as brightening. For those of you who prefer a lightweight concealer that has a better coverage than the YSL Touche Eclat, this is the product to try.

YSL Touche Eclat: My all time favorite concealer for the under eyes! It just has a perfect formulation to diffuse light and create a soft illumating effect. The texture is neither too creamy nor too silicony, which makes it perfect for the delicate under eye areas as it will not enhance any fine lines. In the meantime it is great for retouching your makeup any time of the day, as it glides on smoothly without rubbing off your base makeup.

Estee Lauder Ideal Light: A cheaper dupe for the YSL Touche Eclat.

Bobbi Brown Corrector: Very creamy and emollient and it covers the dark circles well, I don’t feel the need of applying another concealer on top of it as recommended by Bobbi Brown. My only gripe is that it doesn’t last the whole day and it makes my mascara smudge.

Shu Uemura Pro Concealer: A heavy coverage and dryer concealer that I use to cover occasional spots.

Cle de Peau Concealer: Another holy grail concealer for me. This is my third tube! Formulation is perfection and it is versatile enough to cover both the dark circles and freckcles/blemishes in a natural way.

Benefit Powderflage: My HG setting/concealer/illumating powder for under eyes.

To conclude, my favorites have to be the Cle de Peau Concealer and the YSL Touche Eclat. What is your favorite concealer?

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Labels: BENEFIT • CHANEL • CLE DE PEAU • ELLIS FAAS • ESTEE LAUDER • SANA • SHISEIDO • Shu Uemura

November Favorites – Flawless Complexion

December 7, 2011

For the month of November I was mainly focusing on achieving a flawless complexion. If you have read my previous posts you would know my skin was breaking out more than usual over the time in US, so I have spent a great deal of time on finding the right skincare products that can clear up my skin as soon as possible (I have zero tolerance for them!), as well as fading the acne scars. For makeup I opted for base makeup that offers a slightly more coverage than what I would normally go for, so they can help me to ‘fake’ a flawless complexion on a bad skin day.

Let’s start with my favorite skincare of the month. After I was let down by Tanda Zap that failed to clear up any blemishes, I went back to my trusted formulation – Alpha and Beta Hydroxy Acid. I started with the Peter Thomas Roth AHA/BHA Acne Clearing Gel, which contains potent AHA and a high strength of BHA (2%). Then I couldn’t help but buy the MD Formulation Vit-A-Plus Clearing Gel which has an even higher concentration of salicylic acid (5%), and it also includes retinol. Combined with MD Formulation Vit-A-Plus Clearing Complex Masque, I saw visible results within 3 days, after 1 week my blemishes were almost all gone and they also prevented new blemishes from appearing. All of these products are extremely harsh to the skin, so I needed an extremely gentle cleanser to neutralize the harsh effects. The Bobbi Brown Extra Balm Rinse is the savior.

At the moment I am focusing on having my skin repaired as I was left with some acne marks. The Creme de la Mer The Concentrate has recently been voted as the Best Skin Secret by Harper’s Bazaar Australia, and I can’t agree with them more. La Mer has always been marketed as a miracle for anti aging, but little did people know the healing power of their products. If you are familiar with La Mer’s signature ingredient – the miracle broth, it was initially developed by the founder to heal severely burnt skin, and I believe this is what some of their products are best used for. The Creme de la Mer The Concentrate contains the highest concentration of miracle broth, and is mainly used for treating scars, not for anti aging. It is the best I’ve used for repairing damaged and irritated skin, as it heals wounds, and fades scars quite miraculously!

The weather was somewhat dry in the States, and now it’s cold in Sydney. So I have been using Laura Mercier’s Moisturizing Foundation, finished with either Cle de Peau Beaute Translucent Loose Powder or La Mer The Powder. For concealing, I love using the Bobbi Brown Corrector in light bisque. If I want some extra luminosity, I topped it up with YSL’s Touche Eclat, of which I have now lost count of how much of this I have gone through. The Shiseido Foundation Brush made me fall in love with compact foundations again, as I have been using this brush with either Laura Mercier Mineral Powder or Edward Bess Sheer Satin Foundation (not in the picture) whenever my skin needed more coverage, and they have worked their wonders to fake a flawless complexion.

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Labels: BRUSHES • CHANEL • CLE DE PEAU • FOUNDATION • LA MER • Laura Mercier • MD Formulations • My Favorites • Peter Thomas Roth • SHISEIDO • YSL

Clé De Peau Teint Naturel Fluide Cream Foundation Review

September 15, 2011

Clé De Peau Teint Naturel Fluide Cream Foundation is a new member to my family of Holy Grail foundations. It’s the latest foundation released by Cle De Peau that was to replace their previous cream foundation . I have always wanted to try their foundations as they are famous for their base makeup. When I was in Hong Kong last time I took the opportunity to visit the Clé De Peau counter and sampled all of their foundations, rather than risking ordering it online. The service was second to none as the girl who served me was extremely patient and not pushy. She pretty much did a free facial on me using their deluxe skincare products before sampling their foundations on me. In the end we both thought that this foundation looked the best on me – it also happened to be the most expensive foundation out of all, which set me back a record of AUD$128 (around USD$130) for a tiny bottle of foundation (25ml).

Clé De Peau Cream Foundation is the most finely milled foundation I have ever come across. It spreads and glides on my skin like the finest silk – the fingertips are the best way to apply this foundation because it doesn’t require any blending. It blends seamlessly and just melts into your skin like your second skin.

As opposed to their claim that it “gives a flawless coverage”, in my opinion the coverage of this foundation is sheer to medium. It doesn’t fully cover any visible blemishes and pigmentation on my skin but it really enhances my complexion to the best it can whilst still looking completely natural. It provides a semi matte finish with a natural radiance that seems to come from within. It maintains for about 5 hours with a “just-applied” finish then it starts to wear off.

I have been extremely picky with foundations lately ever since I bought a 5 magnification vanity mirror. I really can’t detect any trace of foundation on my face when I look into the magnified mirror. Even around the edge of nose and mouth, it does not collect up.

Applied only the Clé De Peau Cream Foundation on my face – my shade is 010.

It still has some flaws as I noticed that it flakes a little on top of some gel moisturizers, so I had to switch to a lotion underneath it. The texture almost absorbs into the skin too well – I need to use a pearl size amount of it which is more than what I would normally use with a foundation (normally it’s pea sized). For such a tiny bottle I can go through it within a months time which is really not cost effective.

Bottom Line: If you already have relatively good skin and you are after a foundation that gives “your skin but much much better”, then this is the one for you! When it is used in conjunction with their award winning concealer it almost warrants a flawless complexion. The foundation is available here and here.

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Labels: CLE DE PEAU • foundation

Foundations Reviews Part 1 – Coming Soon

May 25, 2011

Being a self proclaimed foundation addict, I am quite ashamed I have yet done any foundation reviews. So I have set myself a ‘tough’ challenge. I am going to get through the reveiws for all the foundations shown in the picture by the end of June! I am hoping I can do at least 1 foundation review a week.

These are a subset of my foundations collection, they are mainly relatively new or my recent favorites.

Becca Luminous Skin color

Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua – ultra light skin perfecting makeup

Dior Extreme Fit – extreme wear flawless makeup

Cle de Peau teint naturel fluide cream foundation

Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation

Shu Uemura UV Under base Mouse BB Cream

The rest of my foundations (not in the pic) will be covered in part 2 and 3.

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Labels: BECCA • CHANEL • CLE DE PEAU • DIOR • FOUNDATION • Giorgio Armani • Shu Uemura

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