SHINE, SHIMMER & SPARKLE

Hola!

KOSE Singapore has been busy revamping its product lines available here - while it is with a heavy heart I bid goodbye to Beaute de Kose (I learnt about the wonderful Eye Fantasists WAY TOO LATE), I was excited to see what the new range, ESPRIQUE, would be all about. (PS: ESPRIQUE is different from ESPRIQUE PRECIOUS altogether!). ESPRIQUE is set to launch in KOSE counters by the end of this week (the last I heard, the launch date was set for 19 Aug 2011)

The essence behind ESPRIQUE is this concept of "ONE STROKE BEAUTY" - a survey in Hakuhodo found that women spent an average of 17.73 minutes on weekdays and 21.68 minutes on weekends - looks that are quick, uncomplicated and natural yet elegant are what is in vogue.

ESPRIQUE was thus inspired by this demand and developed the "ONE STROKE" concept - multi-dimensional eyeshadows that can be blended and applied with one stroke, lipsticks and glosses that melt and apply easily and so on. The idea behind most of their products is to create elegant, dramatic looks with the least amount of fuss.

In general, ESPRIQUE has 2 themes - MELTY MODE (sweet) and MELTY ELEGANCE (elegant)

MELTY MODE (SWEET)

Mellow Forming Rouge (Glow) - BE310

Blend Dimensional Eyes (Deep) - B1

Crayon Eyeliner - BK001

Full Impression Mascara - BK001

Liquid Eyebrow - BK300

Melty Fix Cheek - PK800

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MELTY ELEGANCE (ELEGANT)

Mellow Forming Rouge (Colour) - RD420

Blend Dimensional Eyes (Deep) - B4

Crayon Eyeliner - BK001

Full Impression Mascara - BK001

Liquid Eyebrow - BK300

Melty Fix Cheek - RO600

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In this post, we'll just check out the CHEEK and LIP products first, with the eye products in another upcoming post :)

MELTY FIX CHEEK (SGD$32 each)

These are swivel-up cream blushes which apply rather smoothly - while they are creamy when first swiped, they don't feel overly greasy or too slick. I wouldn't say these dry down like a cream-to-powder product but they seem to be able to blend easily without streaks. Given our humid weather (and especially if you're prone to the oilies like me), I'd prefer setting this with a light dusting of powder blush just for stronger staying power.

Here are the swatches of all 4 shades.

Personally, for deeper skintones like mine, RD400 seems to be the best shade - the 2 pinks are a little too cool and pale.

While I don't read Japanese and don't quite understand the details, it appears that the Melty Cheek is an award-winning product, according to the Esprique website

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AQUA DRAPE ROUGE (SGD$35 each)

These lipglosses are similar to the one I tried from the Esprique Precious line - smooth, jelly-like texture and non-sticky (in comparison to the tackier-feeling MAC Lipglasses).

Together with the smooth formula, the doe-foot applicator does a great job of smoothing out the gloss on skin as you can see from the swatches - application is smooth and relatively streak-free

RD470 and RO 670 are particularly attractive, with BE370 coming in next - the shimmer is so fine and yet so noticeable!

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There are 2 variants of the MELLOW FORMING ROUGE (SGD$39 each) - GLOW and COLOUR. Glow is the sheerer, shinier version while Colour is more pigmented.

The thing to note about these lipsticks is that they appeared to be less hard and dry than regular lipsticks (at least the testers I was playing with) - sort of like a cross between lipsticks and lipgloss. The beauty of these is that they deliver colour while imparting a juicy, glossy pout and the micro-pearls in the formula catch light beautifully.

I have swatched a couple from the Mellow Forming Rouge COLOUR range

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A rather extensive range of point makeup for eyes, lips and cheeks and at rather affordable prices - from what I saw of the price list, none of the products appear to be priced higher than SGD$40.

A wide range of soft and deeper shades also means that there's bound to be something for everyone - there are some notions of Japanese (and even Korean makeup) being sheer, pale, shimmery and lacking in colour choices but the cheek and lip products in the ESPRIQUE range certainly reflect a well-thought out colour range that look that they might suit a good variety of skintones.

Has anything caught your eye?

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DISCLAIMER: All opinions are my own and have not been influenced by anyone. I am not affiliated to KOSE.