All posts tagged: skincare

Three Cosmetics Balancing Lotion and Makeup Review

Published by

Launched in 2009, Three Cosmetics is a hit with beauty junkies because it pays attention to the small details. The texture is fine and luxurious; the scent soothing; while the products are gentle on the skin. Each skincare product contains at least 85 per cent natural ingredients, such as the essential oils of frankincense, neroli, rosa damascena, and eucalyptus leaf. They are also blended with ingredients from Japan: marine silt from Okinawa; bitter melon extract from Kyoto; Apple extract from Aomori; camellia seed oil and mandarin orange extract from Shizuoka; hot spring water of Oita; Yuzu seed oil of Kochi and fossilised coral powder from Yonaguni Island. The simple but luxe-feel of the packaging is another plus.  Besides skincare, the brand also offers base and colour cosmetics, as well as haircare.   The Beauty Gazette reviews four of the brand’s bestselling products. Three Balancing Lotion (S$95): A watery lotion that balances and lightly moisturises the skin. Contains sandalwood oil, frankincense oil, bergamot fruit oil, marjoram and rosemary oils; apple and rose geranium waters; bitter melon, …

Kiehl’s launches Apothecary Preparations in Singapore

Published by

A hundred and sixty-six years ago, the first Kiehl’s formulas were sold out of an apothecary in New York’s East Village. Today, the skincare label is harking back to tradition and offering customised skincare products.  After a consultation with the beauty assistant where you identify your top two skin concerns, you go home with a bottle of Skin Strengthening Concentrate and two tubes of Targeted Complexes. Mix the Complexes with the Concentrate on your own before use. The Concentrate is made up of 35 per cent squalane, and 20 per cent skin lipid complex (oils of apricot, coriander, blackcurrant, echium oils).  The Complexes:  Wrinkle-Reducing Complex with retinol concentrate & pro-retinol (vitamin A palmitate) Texture Refining Complex with an unsaturated fatty acid blend including glyceryl oleate, glyceryl linoleate and glyceryl linolenate; and lipohydroxy acid (a salicylic derivative) Visible Redness Neutralising Complex with sunflower seed extract and vitamin E Pore Minimising Complex with samphira extract and salicylic acid Brightening complex with vitamin C and scotch pine extract Available at Tangs, Tang Plaza; and Takashimaya. Photos: Kiehl’s

Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye Concentrate Matrix

Published by

The latest extension to Estee Lauder’s signature Advanced Night Repair line (created to boost the skin’s repairing function while you sleep) is the Eye Concentrate Matrix. The lightweight serum comes with a round-tipped applicator for quick eye massages so you get brighter peepers. On the ingredient list: glycerin, urea, cucumber, barley, lady’s thistle, soybean and chamomile extracts; lactobacillus ferment; algae, birch, mulberry root extracts, and caffeine. This eye care product is lightweight enough to be used in the day as well, under make-up. It kept the fine skin under my eyes moisturised all day; not many eye creams can do this. If you’ve been staring at the computer all day and want to give your eyes a full-on treat, follow the application of the serum with the Advanced Night Repair Concentrated Recovery Eye Mask. Then of course, rest your eyes.    

Dr Barbara Sturm skincare review

Published by

Popular with Hollywood celebrities, Dr Barbara Sturm is a German doctor who turned her expertise in orthopaedics into innovative solutions for an aesthetic practice and skincare line. She is known for her MC1 “blood cream”, for which a trip to her clinic is necessary. Fortunately, Dr Sturm also has a superb skincare line that is now available on Net-A-Porter. When we met over lunch last week for a tete a tete, she urged me to try only her products for a week, just to see what a difference it would make to my skin. And I’m glad I did. The made-in-Germany line is relatively simple, with all the basics to keep the skin healthy. The Eye Cream is a lightweight creme containing macadamia seed oil, antioxidant-rich purslane ferment extract, glycerin, radish root ferment. It is absorbed easily and immediately plumps up the skin; and leaving it so the entire day. The skin on my undereye area gets crepe-y and dry extremely easily, so I am pretty impressed with this eye cream. The Hyaluronic Serum is …

Three Cosmetics launches in Singapore September 15, 2017 at Tang Plaza

Published by

The cult Japanese beauty label (which Asian beauty junkies worth their salt all love), Three Cosmetics, will be available in Singapore from September 15 at Tangs Plaza. Its first store in Singapore is also the first outside of Japan to offer the signature Three Rhythm Spa, a massage created to stimulate the body’s own rhythm and balance. The brand is available in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan as well. The Tangs store in Singapore marks Three’s seventh location in Asia and 35th store outside Japan.    Three is known for it skincare formulas blended with botanical oils and other extracts. Watch a clip of the press launch and the complete product line that will be sold at the Tang Plaza store. ​​

Dr Barbara Sturm and her skincare line: 6 things to know

Published by

“I’m the Mother of customised skincare,” declares Dr Barbara Sturm, the German orthopaedic surgeon-turned anti-ageing skin expert. Instead of sounding arrogant, she is actually just matter-of-fact. The doctor is after all, the word-of-mouth go-to for some of the most beautiful and ageless in Hollywood, young and older: from Cher and Jennifer Aniston to Rosie Huntington-Whitley, Irina Shayk and Hailey Baldwin.  In 2003, she pioneered a method that uses one’s blood for a customised anti-ageing face cream, the MC1 or “Blood Cream”. In a nutshell, here’s how it works: she puts a vial of your blood through a “mechanical stimulation” process to trick the cells into thinking that it needs to produce wound-healing proteins.  “The resulting concentration of anti interleukin-1 and transforming growth factor (TGF) beta is 140 times higher than what you would have in the body,” says Dr Sturm. She adds the concentration into a tub of moisturiser, and there is the customised face cream. (Primarily, the use of your own blood is for hygiene purposes.) The doctor created the MC1 when she was …

Crabtree & Evelyn’s new superfood-inspired handcare and bodycare

Published by

This whimsically-rustic lifestyle label has released its new range of products inspired by food, herbs, and spices. As always, Crabtree & Evelyn takes pride in its olfactory concoctions infused into the products, that are comforting and soothing on the senses. Clearly, this is why the brand is a mainstay in the bathrooms of those who turn bath time into a daily ritual for melting away the day’s stress.  And they always make such great gifts for every occasion you can think of (birthdays, Christmas, Mother’s Day, etc.). The new Lavender & Espresso line is scented with cypress, citron, patchouli, sandalwood and coffee bean oils. The Rosewater & Peppercorn range is also blended with bergamot, tonka bean, and patchouli extracts. While the Citron & Coriander collection contains lemon, honey and shea butter. The Pomegranate & Argan Oil line-up is blended with pistachio, ginger, grapeseed and argan oils.  Pear & Pink Magnolia products are sweet with frangipani, green ivy and teakwood. Goatmilk & Oat is a cocktail of free range goat’s milk, oat kernel, lavender, rose, geranium …

Project Wellness 2017: For healthy skin, eyes and teeth

Published by

Last weekend, the inaugural Project Wellness panel session that aims to connect doctors to the public was held at the co-working space Trehaus. The Doctors on the panel – Dr Goh Seng Heng, pioneering laser treatment expert; Dr Marlene Teo, periodontology specialist at TP Dental Surgeons; and Dr Livia Teo, oculoplastics consultant at the Singapore National Eye Centre – discussed the effects of sleep, stress, and sugar on the skin, eyes and teeth. The Beauty Gazette reports on their tips. Sleep Dr Goh Seng Heng: When you lack quality sleep, you get dark eye rings, bags and pigmentation around the eyes because the skin in the area is very thin; blood flow is sluggish, and the active pigment cells there go into overdrive to produce melanin. And as the skin is tired, it will lack clarity, smoothness, and glow. Eczema may be triggered too. For those with serious pigmentation around the eyes, try non-ablative lasers that could lighten the darkness by 50 per cent over three weeks of 20 to 30 sessions. Choose competent doctors …

Marie-Stella-Maris on Net-A-Porter

Published by

While quenching your skin this summer, quench the thirst of the underprivilged as well with Amsterdam-based lifestyle label Marie-Stella-Maris. Since 2014, it has been donating a portion of its profits to provide clean drinking water to the underprivileged. So far, more than 18,000 have benefited. For every litre of Marie-Stella-Maris Mineral Water sold, 5 cents is donated; while for every lifestyle product sold, 1 euro is donated. Their raison d’être is to work towards UN Resolution 64/292 – The Human Right to Water and Sanitation. Manufactured in Sweden, the skincare products are made with organic ingredients such as shea butter, cocoa butter, jojoba, sweet almond oil, as well as coconut oil. We tried the No.2 Handcream (lightweight but moisturising with shea butter, sweet almond oil, rosemary leaf oil, lavender oil); No.97 Pillow Spray Eau de Lavande (lavender with hints of eucalyptus and musk, refreshing); and No.73 Liquid Soap (with aloe vera juice, black pepper, lavender, geranium flower oil, gentle and lightly foamy). Good options if you like the concept of “clean beauty” with a social cause, plant-based, with …

Aesop Facial Appointments, Singapore

Published by

In March, we visited Aesop’s Nakameguro store in Tokyo to experience its indulgent face spa.  This month, the brand launches its signature facials at the newly renovated beauty floor on level 4 of Tangs at Tang Plaza in Orchard. As with all Aesop spaces, this one at Tangs is calm, tranquil and cocooning with its dark green accents (the marble is gorgeous), light birchwood shelving, and gleaming brass sinks. Just like the space at Nakameguro, this Aesop spa features a spacious room with a super-sized single bed.  For sure, this is not one of those facial rooms that are sliced up so much that you can barely stretch (or breathe in). The changing area is also roomy, so the experience is complete.  This is why Aesop can only take up to four appointments per day; there is only space for one customer at any one time.  The automated bed that can be adjusted to the curve of your body, is supremely comfortable with warm blankets. Watch for a virtual tour of the space. ​​ About the …