What’s not to love about a good old body scrub-down? I am a body scrub hoarder. I have a collection of body brushes, I whip up homemade scrubs in my kitchen, and tend to buy a whole stack of branded scrubs ranging in scrub-strength.

Have you tried UK skincare brand Soap & Glory before? If you are a regular at Boots Pharmacy, it would be hard to miss seeing their pretty pink products on the shelves. Love their packaging and retro-style branding.

I was recently sent 5 of the best-selling body-scrubs, and asked to declare one as my personal favorite. Each scrub is uniquely different and caters to uniquely different needs so it really was a tough choice (oh the perils of being a beauty blogger… lounging in my tub trying one decadently scented scrub after another!). 

Let’s face it, organic skincare is big business these days. Many new brands are coming out of the woodwork banking on keywords like ‘natural’, ‘organic ingredients’ and even ‘superfoods’. Our beauty shelves are exploding with options, but take a good, close look at the labels and you will still find many incomprehensible names on the ingredients list, and only a minute percentage of the key ingredients they boldly print on the front label.

I am a skincare addict. I proudly admit I bought into the ‘natural skincare’ bandwagon well before it was a trend, and have been studying ‘good for you’ skincare ingredients with so much an inquisitive gusto that I’ve been whipping up DIY Face Masks for as long as I can remember. 

Many a makeup palette are created with inspirations of the season, but rarely have I come across ones that are inspired by an entire city.

NYX Cosmetics has come up with the Wanderlust Lip & Eye Collection that are dedicated to seven major cities around the globe.

There’s one for Los Angeles, Madrid, Paris, London, Coopenhagen, Vancouver… and Dubai! 

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It’s one thing to have a loving husband who buys you all the beauty products you crave for, and another to have one who creates an entire brand of gorgeous, certified organic skincare under your name! Proudly a UAE product, this is the real-life story of Goran and Nena, the talented husband and wife duo behind Abu Dhabi-based WoMn Cosmetics.

 

In 2015 Goran, a Master of Pharmacy graduate from Croatia with over 16 years of work experience in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry, decided to experiment with creating his very own skincare concoctions at home. He lovingly called his range WoMn Cosmetics, as ‘WoMn’ stands for ‘Wife of Mine Nena’. What a lucky girl Nena is!

A celebrity tattoo artist turned beauty maven, Kat Von D is a girl after my own heart #girlcrush The highlight of my week was receiving an entire stash of the brand new Kat Von D Everlasting Lip Liners. From basic nudes to perky reds, passionate purples and absolutely craaay colors only Kat can do, the range has something for every kinda girl out there.

 

I was going to swatch all the colors for you (will do… keep watching this space), but this morning I was hit with an absolutely brilliant idea… what better way to honor the Queen of Tatts than a tatt inspired swatch? A dried rose in my vase got me inspired to have a play. Scroll down to see what I came up with…

The feline flick just got a hell of alot easier thanks to the brand new Sephora Dramatic Line Full Intense Felt Liner. Always on the top of the game when it comes to beauty innovations, and very competitively priced at that, the #MadeInSephora range is something I look forward to whenever I’m browsing the shelves of my local Sephora store.

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The Sephora Dramatic Line takes the ease of a pen eyeliner to another level thanks to is clever little nib. This flame-shaped nib resembles an Arabesque calligraphy pen, one that makes fine lines, creative curves and a thick, robust black easily doable in one quick application.

A couple of weeks ago, a mystery box appeared on my doorstep. Inside was a beautifully iced cake, in the form of a pair of leaves, and a miniature sugar-molded top-hat sat in its midst.

No sender id or address, but apt for today’s times, the cake came with a hashtag #IndulgeInWellness Quite a juxtaposition if you ask me, cos this ‘healthful’ looking pair of leaves was infact a rich, indulgent chocolate cake in disguise! Perhaps the cake was loaded with wellness? We didn’t think much of it, and finished it off by the forkful. 

The other day, I was aimless walking around the mall determined to keep my window-browsing firmly askew from the perils of dipping into my wallet. And then I walked into the NARS store in The Dubai Mall, and got introduced to the NARS Sarah Moon Recurring Dare Cheek & Lip Palette.

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It was love at first sight. The minimalist packaging features a mysterious, hauntingly beautiful woman on the cover. She casts a spell on me, and has me swatching and sniffing. I walk around the store weighing out the pros and cons of splashing out from my shrinking wallet.

It costs a whooping AED 320… but its limited edition! And lady at the store said they only have 2 palettes left. Love over logic, the NARS Sarah Moon Recurring Dare Cheek & Lip Palette was coming home with me!

The Koreans have always been miles ahead of the pack when it comes to skincare. They gave us sheet-masks, and the very convenient ‘all in one’ BB creams. BB (or Blemish Balm) creams now have a newer, more innovative little sister; the CC Cream! CC stands for ‘Color Correcting’, and the main premise of this new category of skincare is to even out pigmentation, and work as an all-round moisturizer.

 

Sephora Middle East has introduced a whole new range of Korean beauty brands this year, one of which is Erborian. I was recently sent a full-sized tube of the Erborian CC Crème, and wanted to share my firsthand experience with you.

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