Sadly, having been too consumed with shopping for clothes and shoes, my desire to go beauty shopping waned. Sure, I did find myself going in and out of numerous beauty stores and counters but I’d often walk away with empty hands.

One of the reasons is that I’ve been bombarded with Skincare stuff that my taste palette had gone dull and immune to the allure of anything beauty. I have to admit I was more interested in hair products, lotions, and other beauty tools. Most of them I haven’t seen in Manila. But I find that my wallet is more generous when it came to buying dresses, tops, shoes and fashion accessories. I only felt the “need” at the last minute esp when I needed to replenish some of my stuff.

This brings us to my purchase of the Tea Tree Oil Cover Stick from The Body Shop over at Westfield Shopping Centre down at West Lakes. Yes, nothing revolutionary. Just needed to buy a new one since I was close to running out.

That’s the only thing I bought in Australia. Sad but true.

The remaining three (3) items were bought in Singapore.

Inspiration for the MAC Lipstick in Modesty and the MAC LustreGlass in Beaux is my inexplicable wanting to give the Nude Lips a go. I don’t normally test products out cuz I would automatically know which shade works for me but this time was different. I had two (2) options for the lipstick. The other one is in Stay in Touch, which is a light yellow brown. It’s much too dull and close to my skintone to satisfy my wanton craving for the Nude. Naturally, since it’s not something special, I opted for a new and different shade then, I went ahead and chose a gloss to steer clear of the matte and ultra pale look.

The need to build on a selection of eye shadows, I opted to try out Shu Uemura’s Pressed Eye Shadow in ME Green 450. I love green! So far, in terms of application, I’m highly impressed with it. It’s easy to layer to achieve the desired shade strength. The finish is impeccable. I feel like kicking myself for not having tried Shu before. Pah.

Anyway, a pretty small beauty loot but this makes up the beauty shopping I did in both Australia and Singapore. I’m happy with my purchases and it actually whetted my appetite to buy more! There are several looks I’m dying to learn and try.

What about you ladies? Bought any new makeup lately? What looks are you looking into trying out this year?

Photo © 2009 Sasha Manuel