Beauty - Convenience Store Finds

The Convenience store is my mecca for budget beauty and skin care. Always game for something new, the beauty junkie in me poked around recently and found: Clinelle (at Guardian), Skin Vitals (at Watsons) and surprisingly a beauty product from Revlon (at Watsons), which totally surprised me, as I had long since written off this as the ultimate Aunty brand...

Clinelle's 'Skin Soothing Toner' ($19.95) at Guardian caught my attention because I had just run out of toner. I was drawn to the 'I mean business' look of their sombre teal blue packaging. Made in France, the brand offers a 3-step (cleanser, toner and moisturser) skincare regime for dry and sensitive skin.

Why I liked it?

Pleasant, light fragrance with all natural ingredients ie. marigold extract, horse chestnut herb and licorice extract with aloe vera and allantoin to soothe and heal and pro-vitamin B5 for anti-inflammatory moisturising. Has a fantastic spray-on delivery system - think of how the facial lady does it - just close your eyes and spray onto face and neck or palm if you prefer to apply. Tightens pores and quite refreshing.

Also available: Clinelle Caring Milk Cleanser at S$17.95 and Clinelle Intense Skin Moisturiser at S$29.90. See: www.clinelle.com

I also picked up Skinvitals Brightening Eye Cream (Watson's) to hide my ever obvious 'panda' eyes. I confess that I am the perennial night owl and I love working undistracted into the peaceful wee hours.

Why I liked it:

Instant results! I applied it on to the area under both my eyes and at the left and right hand corner of my eyes where crow's feet have started to take root. Noticeably, the skin did not look so dull and tired. It looked more plump and almost instantly, probably because the product contains Vitamin C and Acetyl Tetrapeptide-5, both work to reduce the appearance of eye bags and puffiness around the eyes. Texture was nice, not too oily and very natural especially when I applied loose powder over it.

Part of a larger range of "brightening" products that includes a C-Brighten Face Mask and Eye Brighten Eye Mask at $4.95 for a single sachet and $13.95 for a pack of three, a Brightening Eye Cream at S $34.90, Vitamin C Concentrate at $34.90, Everyday Illuminating Lotion at S$36.90 and Pigmentation Corrector Pen retails at S$31.90. See: www.skinvitals.com.au

Still at Watsons, I chanced on Revlon and their new mineral make up range. Intrigued, I decided to explore as I had heard all about the wonders of 'going mineral' and especially about a pricey specialist brand called "Bare Essentials" that my girl friend had raved about from Sephora.

Revlon's version of mineral is found in their ColorStay™ range of Mineral Foundations, complete with SPF10. I bought the loose powder as it supposedly is made of pure, lightweight minerals that slides on and stays on your skin when applied, apparently lasting for up to 16 hours.

Not completely true in my case as the I needed a touch up about six hours later, the way I would with normal loose powder. The powder was a bit too lightweight in my opinion. Coverage was also very so-so.

Its twist cap with a built-in-brush applicator was at first very promising. You are supposed to twist the brush into the powder, dust off the extras into the cap to prevent wastage and then brush on the powder for better wear. Was not thrilled with the results, perhaps because I am spoilt for choice having used the best powder brushes from Korea which really caress the skin. The brush here was too short and small and slightly too bristly for my liking. It did not save product because it was rather clumsy to use and instead I felt I used far more than I normally would from using a regular powder puff format.

Think I will just save up and invest in the Bare Essentials range which I hear is pricey but delivers that truly dewy finish.

- Elaine