February 4, 2008

Laneige Spring Collection 2008: Snow Bloom

Laneige’s Spring Collection has launched in Korea and is making it’s way across the Asian board. Most of the Laneige sites haven’t yet been updated with the new collection but it is out and available in Korea (lucky you if you live there!)!

It’s quite a beautiful collection!

Although, I want some of it I may refrain as I haven’t even dug into my Winter Collection from Laneige yet!

The collection consists of a loose powder, eyeshadow palette, and blush palette! The packaging is quite beautiful and I’m having a hard time not purchasing all of it!

I’m not sure which Asian countries are getting the update aside from Korea and China. I’m also unsure what the import to Singapore will be and if available the price range as sadly Singapore gets hit with a bit of a price jack.

The Loose Powder 30,000 KRW (approximately $31-$33 USD or so). The blusher carries the same price tag while the eyeshadow palette is a big lower in price at 28,000 KRW (approximately $29-31 USD).

Expect to pay a raise of about $9 -$11 USD per item online. I’m noticing the powder popping up online for $39-40 USD and the blush and eyeshadow palettes at around the same.

Point makeup instructions are available on the Korean site if you want to know what was used on the model and how to achieve the look.

Overall, another beautiful offering from Laneige!

11 Comments

February 4, 2008

Longing for a Clio Update

One of my fav brands in the cosmetic world is a little Korean brand that goes by the name Clio (Actually it’s an Italian brand thats sold exclusively in Korea! Go firgure!).

Clio hasn’t updated it’s site since it’s Fall 2007 Purple Collection and I’m longing rather badly (and hopeful) for a Spring Collection of some kind!

I thought I’d drag you all into my melancholy and let you relive some of my old Clio posts!

Enjoy!

Click here to read my review on Clio Blushers!
Click here to see some Clio Eyeshadow Duos in an old haul post!
Click here to see an FOTD using Clio Blush!

2 Comments

February 1, 2008

New York Times Slams Beauty Bloggers

Someone had sent me a link to the New York Times article that is basically slamming beauty bloggers far and wide.

Click to read!

I thought I’d address some of what was being said in this article because I don’t want Musings of a Muse to end up slandered by any of this.

About 99% of the products I review on Musings are items I purchased with my own sweat, blood, and tears. I work a daily 9 to 5 job as a self employed insurance broker where I make money. I proceed to take my money and splurge it on cosmetics! I do not give myself the title of beauty editor, beauty reviewer, or any other important title simply because I don’t think of myself in such a manner. I’m more your average, everyday girl that’s sincerely and seriously addicted to cosmetics in a major, sickening way!

It’s rare I get products for “free” from companies and if I do you’ll only ever get my truest opinion on those items. A majority of you already know that if I don’t like something I’m definately not cutting corners when I give my opinion or review! I imagine some PR companies are scared to touch me because of my brutal slandering of a product when I hate it!

The moral of the story is I’m not here for free swag nor am I here to pimp products I don’t even like. I am, however, here to interact with each one of you and tell you my truest opinion of items I purchase with my own money not products I’ve gotten free from companies.

I am not affiliated with cosmetics companies nor do I endorse them!

The Muse is and always will be simply an everyday girl that loves cosmetics with a passion! Getting to know each of you and talking to you daily about products and life is what Musings of a Muse is about for me. I think of each of you as a close friend and it saddens me many of you are far away (most of you are in different countries) and we can’t sit down like normal folk, have a cup of tea, and chat.

Musings of a Muse started out as a silly form of entertainment for myself and to this day I am always flattered when I look at my traffic and I see how many girl’s (and guys) come to visit me here!

This is my two cents on that article. It hurts and saddens me to think that the Beauty Blogging World is portrayed in such a shady light. The fact that this article is in the New York Times really disappoints me as it’s a newspaper I read daily with great glee (especially the weekend edition).

The truth of the matter is that I’ve talked to many of bloggers across our blogging sphere and each one I’ve chatted to and become friend’s with have always been sincere in their intentions to bring readers good, solid content about items they love to use or hate!

The next time you stop by Musings or any of your favorite Beauty Blogs think of all the hard work the writer does to keep you updated on current beauty finds!

Musings of a Muse will always stay true to it’s origins, A Blog of Musings from a Cosmetic Whore.

Cheers!

30 Comments

February 1, 2008

Aube Winter Collection 2007

At the rate I’m going I could have reviewed Aube’s Holiday/Winter Collection next season! Sorry about the delay getting this out!

I’ve had this collection for a while and I haven’t yet tried any of it but last night I decided to finally crack it open and take a peek at the colors!

When the collection came onto the scene I wasn’t too tempted but later on I decided that I needed to add some of it to my beauty arsenal!

They released a pressed powder with this that a friend of mine was unable to locate sadly so I missed out on that! Out of all the goodies I only ended up with three items which were the newest Jewerly Shower Eyes and the two loose shimmering powders!

The palette is quite gorgeous although not what I expected. Upon seeing the promo images it appeared the model was sporting a white sparkling baby blue look but upon getting the palette I learned the colors are a tad bit different and it left me slightly puzzling over the best way to get her look but that hasn’t swayed me from loving it!

The main color in the palette is a cream gold sparkle followed by a beige bronze color and a dark chocolate liner color. The Shower part of the palette (and star of the shower in my opinion) is the light blue gold infused cream color! It’s a beautiful shade and it really sparks up the main colors of the palette! I’m not going into detail about application here but if you’re interested in understanding how the palette works do click here to review my main review on Aube’s Jewelry Shower palettes! My sole rant about the palette was the packaging. I was slightly disappointed that the packaging wasn’t the standard shiny metallic style. It seemed they changed the compact to a matte finish instead of the regular shiny metallic compact! I really liked the pretty pink shimmer to the old compacts!

Old Packaging vs New Packaging

The palette sold very well in Japan from what I understand as my mate had a difficult time locating it upon it’s release!

The other two items I got were the loose shimmering powders which come in a nice glass bottle. I really love the presentation on these and the packaging is ultra cute however application is a bit messy! The powders come in a nail polish style bottle but they do not have an attached applicator. I thought this would come with a spatula applicator or a brush of some sort attached to the bottle topper but that’s not the case sadly. In order to apply you have to tip the bottle while stopping it with a finger tip and then lightly dab the powder where you want it! It’s a wonderful silky, sparkly powder that can used on your face, cheeks, or body however application is a tad bit messy with just a fingertip for applying. I guess you can use a really slim brush to fit into the bottle and take a little powder out at a time but I’m still wishing these came with an applicator of their own! The two shades available were gold and pink and both are well worth getting as they are truly beautiful shimmering shades!

Overall, I really like this collection and I’m glad I decided to get some of it! I highly recommend at least nabbing the palette if you have the means of locating it!

Have this collection?
Love it?

Want it?

8 Comments

February 1, 2008

K-Drama Ramblings

My evil readers recommended I try out Sassy Girl for size! Sadly, I believe it’s no longer available stateside as I couldn’t find it anywhere so I ended up buying a rather shady copy of it from an Asian video store in Queens. I really hate buying versions like this because the subtitles are awful. I normally wait and buy the English Version of K-Dramas but since Sassy Girl is so new an English DVD Set is unavailable. I believe the official release was available from YesAsia upon it’s release in October or November but it’s since sold out and it takes ages to get back in stock! Impatient as I am I wanted it now thus I ended up with this set!

So I got it!

Yay!

I just finished Coffee Prince and I’m happy to say it was rather awesome! As I was telling a reader in comments Coffee Prince isn’t your standard K-Drama! All the normal ho-hom elements are definately in Coffee Prince. Example: Girl meets Boy. Boy is rich, Girl is Poor. Girl and Boy fall in love. Boy treats Girl kinda harshly. Boy’s family strongly disapproves Girl’s background. Yada yada yada etc..etc…typical Korean Soap! However, even though Coffee Prince follows the same old story plot as every other K-Drama I’ve seen it does have redeeming qualities that sets itself apart from your standard drama! The twist of the main character pretending to be a boy is one thing that makes the drama really different and interesting! Plenty of comic relief from a great supporting cast helps relieve the tension in the story! Quite a few sexy, romantic moments really add a nice touch of sweetness to 17 hours you’re wasting on this! The beginning, the middle and the ending is very fulfilling thus when it’s over you’re actually feeling like you’ve lost some new found friends instead of wanting to bawl your eyes out that you wasted time on a soap that killed off one of the main characters!

Anyway! That’s my little mini wrap up and review of Coffee Prince 🙂

YAY my copy of Coffee Prince’s Soundtrack! Tis awesome you need it!

I’m now looking forward to watching Sassy Girl after all the rave reviews! I just ordered Witch Yoo Hee, SOS, Sweet Relationship, Foxy Lady and Heavenly Forest…so I guess this means my Resolution to NOT buy K-Dramas until I watch what I already have has gone out the window? Sigh. Oh well! I don’t have enough hours in the day to watch all these but it’s sure fun trying to watch at least an hour a night and failing miserably!

What are you watching right now?

Click here to read my past ramblings about Coffee Prince!

19 Comments