Vanity in the Dark: Etos All in One Party Colour Kit

Sure, I’ve been making an effort to widen my eyeshadow horizon to something beyond brown, brown and brown. But electric blue?! Blimey, of all the colours to choose from, how in the world did I end up with this?

I bought this at a local drugstore not expecting much and not realising that I already had something similar from NARS. I had swatched the eyeshadows at the store. The blue eyeshadow wasn’t too bad, I thought. It was a dull blue shade. The gorgeous aubergine shade which held so much promise was, however, a total disappointment in the swatch. It was half-dead and lacking in pigmentation.

Still, I bought it, together with a lip gloss. And why? Because I’m a sucker for gimmicks.

Gimmicks do wonders to distort your rational thinking, no?

Blinded by the lights, you could say. Well, you must admit that they do look cool in the dark. I can see the lights coming handy when you need to touch up your makeup while clubbing, or if you’re rummaging through the dark abyss that is your handbag looking for your keys (let’s just assume your phone battery’s dead), or perhaps if there’s a city-wide power blackout.

Now, I will feature the lights...I mean, products, with a bit more detail:

Illuminating Product No. 1
Etos All in One Party Colour Kit
Price: €5.99

Etos (pronounced ay-tos) is a Dutch drugstore chain that also has its own makeup line under the same name. They released this colour kit about a month ago and as you would have noted from its name, it has all you might need to make up your face, except for a foundation. There are two eyeshadow shades, one lipgloss and a blush. On the back of the slide-out box, you are shown pictorially which one’s which.

There are three variations available and the one I bought was for brown hair. Quite frankly, I don’t really care much about that. What matters is that I like the colour combination found in that particular kit.

I know I panned the eyeshadows but I gave it another chance when I got home. Lo and behold, this is what I got with a sticky eyeshadow base (swatches in daylight):

There are hints of shimmer in the eyeshadows. The blue is like electric blue and the aubergine finally showed its worth. The eye makeup pictured at the beginning was created with only these two eyeshadows using the sponge applicator provided and some mascara. I lined the eyes with the aubergine shade using the other end of the applicator.

I must say that this gets quite close to being a dupe for the NARS eyeshadow duo called Demon Lover. Here’s the comparison:

Top row: Etos, Bottom row: NARS Demon Lover

Swatches in three swipes with eyeshadow base and with flash photography

It’s close, but not a total dupe. The Etos shades have a slight hint of glitter. The dark purple shade in NARS which they describe as deep indigo is a tad more intense but the blue shade in Etos is certainly brighter. I don’t know if it is too much for you, but I do like that pop of blue.

Pigmentation aside, I’m quite impressed with the quality of these Etos eyeshadows. They veer slightly towards the creamy side and the best thing is that they don’t crumble, which in turn means that there is hardly any fallout.

The lipgloss (bottom right) is a bright tomato red. Personally, it’s got the consistency of a lipstick and not a lipgloss. It smells rather like vanilla. I usually just tap it on the lips for a hint of colour. I would add more colour for redder lips.

The blush (bottom left) has a creamy consistency and is a coral shade. The swatch above has been slightly blended out. It may look orangey, but once blended out, I think it would give the wearer a subtle glow on the cheeks.

Oh, most importantly, the light switch is right next to the equally handy mirror, on the right, somewhere above the blue eyeshadow.

Overall, I'd say it's a pretty good product. The packaging is basic but, for the price, I can't complain. The lights and the eyeshadows were the reason why I bought this kit and I'm glad that, with a good base, the eyeshadows performed above expectations.

Next up, the illuminating lip gloss. Oh hey, I'm sharing the fun there.........

ELLIS FAAS Cosmetics

Those of you in the know would have no doubt already heard of Ellis Faas and are probably already using her products. If you’ve never heard of this name, well, it’s still not too late.

Ellis Faas is a Dutch makeup artist extraordinaire who has had an extensive career working with just about every who’s who in the fashion and beauty industry. Think Mario Testino and Michelangelo di Battista, Karl Lagerfeld and Jean-Paul Gaultier. Her impressive portfolio also includes work for fashion magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar and ad campaigns for MAC, Chanel and the memorable Trésor with Kate Winslet.....just to name a few.

Ms Faas has had training in both professional photography and makeup, in particular in the area of special effects, in Amsterdam and Paris. She worked in London for several years, doing makeup for music videos and also for medical inserts recreating skin diseases using her talent and training in special effects. Upon her return to Amsterdam, she ran a successful portrait studio in which she put her talent in both makeup and photography to full use.

A major career breakthrough came one day in the form of Mario Testino. As fate would have it, Testino handpicked her to be his makeup artist when he came to Amsterdam for his photo shoot for L’Uomo Vogue. This collaboration turned out to be the first of many collaborations with Testino. One thing led to another and she was soon introduced to Karl Lagerfeld who made Ms Faas the chef de cabine for his Fendi fashion show. She suddenly found herself in charge of the makeup for 60 models. Needless to say, her career went from strength to strength thereafter.

For a long time already, Ms Faas had been experimenting a great deal with creating colours and concocting makeup formulae in her kitchen. Thanks to her background in special effects makeup, Ms Faas came upon the concept of creating makeup using colours that we see in the human body. Just when you thought that the beauty industry might have run out of truly original ideas to keep us ladies enchanted, along comes Ellis Faas with the Human Colours concept.

Everything that exists in the human body – anything from blood and veins to freckles and bruises and even the ear and the palm of your hand – has been used as inspiration to create the shades for her makeup line. Ms Faas’ point of view is that because such colours already exist in the human body, these very same colours as makeup would also always suit people of all ages and skin tones. Colours that will never be out-of-date or out-of-fashion – Ms Faas doesn’t believe in coming out with different colours every season.

In February this year, she launched the first phase of her high-end Human Colours makeup with a line of lip products called ELLIS LIPS. ELLIS LIPS is available in three textures – Creamy, Milky and Glazed. There are a total of 27 lip shades to choose from but her pièce de résistance has to be her ELLIS RED (right), a true blood-red lip colour that is available in all three textures. Early this month, Ms Faas launched the second phase of her line with ELLIS EYES (eyeshadows, mascaras and eyeliners) and ELLIS SKIN (foundations, concealers and blushes). There is still more to come in the future.

What’s unique about ELLIS FAAS products is that they are all in liquid form (with the exception of a powder foundation) and are packaged in very sleek silver bullet-shaped pens. Sleek at its very ultimate, if you ask me. The pen’s design was the result of a collaboration between Ms Faas and industrial designer Arnout Visser. Due to this uncomplicated shape, the display area for ELLIS FAAS products always looks distinctive, neat and streamlined. It beckons you to take a closer look because it’s so different from the rest of the pack. One would be forgiven for even thinking it is a display rack for gleaming luxury fountain pens!

Ms Faas has also come up with an ELLIS HOLDER which is like a canister in which you can store several ELLIS FAAS products. There is space to insert the different pens for the foundation and a combination of the eye/lip/cheek products. As you will see in the image below, in the cover, there is space for the powder foundation and a mirror too. This is way too cool. The ELLIS HOLDER certainly wouldn't look out of place in the hand of some vain makeup-lovin’ android in a sci-fi movie.

The ELLIS FAAS website is certainly worth a visit as it is chock full of information. On the homepage, you would be welcomed with soothing piano music beautifully played (and composed) by Ms Faas’ own daughter, Flavia. Look carefully at the background of the webpage. The healthy pink that you see is an image of human skin! Very appropriate for the Human Colours concept, I must say. Explore further and you will find that the swatches for her products are not flat one-dimensional and usually inaccurate colours. Instead you will find the various colours of ELLIS LIPS on real pouty lips and those of ELLIS EYES on real eyelids. As if that wasn’t enough, ELLIS LIPS can also be viewed with three skin tones – Caucasian, brown and Asian. Given her professional background, it was only logical that Ms Faas did the makeup for these models and shot the visuals herself.

By the way, I was amused when I read that ELLIS FAAS got asked so often if they tested on animals (which they don’t) that they decided to patent their witty slogan: Only Tested on Supermodels.

In the Netherlands, ELLIS FAAS is available at Skins Cosmetics. Please check the website to find out if the products are already available where you are. If they are not yet available in your country, don't fret as ELLIS FAAS has an online shop which also ships internationally.

I purchased a couple of ELLIS FAAS products last week. Resistance was, oh, futile. Why keep lemming if the products were within arm’s reach, eh? More on that very soon.

All images are owned by ELLIS FAAS.

KOH Cosmetics

Take a look at this.

Me thinks it’s a cool logo. At fleeting first glance, it looks rather like an elaborate Chinese or Japanese character, doesn’t it?

When I first saw this logo on some Zen-looking black packaging in a beauty store (in Dutch, we call such a store parfumerie) a couple of years ago, I thought: Japanese brand. I picked up one of the black boxes with simple white prints to have a read. It was a brand of nail care products. The explanation was in English, Dutch, French, German and Japanese. By then, I was convinced it was a Japanese brand targeted for the European market and a quick peek at the price tag told me that it was a luxury brand.

I didn’t think much about it after that but I did regularly notice the products whenever I visited a parfumerie. That’s the irony of being eye-catching just by looking simple! So, one day, I made it a point to check out its website. I was curious about the origins of this brand and guess what I found out: It’s a Dutch brand! How curious that I got it so wrong. Aaah, the power of brand perception! Kudos to the creators!

Ladies, let me introduce you to KOH Cosmetics. KOH was founded in 2002 in the Netherlands by Margreet van Roemburg who was already a very successful entrepreneur. In the early 1980s, she had launched a brand of hand and nail care products called Herôme. Herôme, whose products are in the mid-price range and are easily accessible in the market, proved to be a success. However, Ms van Roemburg wanted to push the envelope and so she launched a premium brand of hand and nail care products incorporating the influences of Japanese lifestyle and rituals, which must explain for the Japanese-ness of the brand image. Expertise from Japan was enlisted in the creation of the products and that was how KOH Cosmetics came into being.

The philosophy behind this exclusive brand is that there is always a strong bond between body and spirit. Our outward appearances reflect our inner emotions and that’s why there can only be pure and true beauty if there is harmony between the body and the soul. Looking beautiful on the outside isn’t complete without also having good health and feeling positive and self-assured. One needs to set time aside to relax and pamper oneself. Self-indulgence – that’s been a very popular theme among brands lately.

This is what KOH says about its role in helping to create harmony:

KOH contributes to your physical well-being through its very specialised and highly effective products.

KOH contributes to your mental well-being through its velvety textures, heavenly fragrances and pure harmonious pampering.

KOH was initially focused on hand, nail and cuticle care products. Gradually, its assortment of products was broadened to include a line of hand and nail care products for men called KOH For Men (right) and a line of body care products called KOH Body Sensations (below). This range of luxurious body care products, also based on the same aforementioned inspiration and philosophy, carries extracts of the Japanese cherry blossom as a central ingredient.

The brand also had several nail colour products but they were mainly neutral colours for a French manicure and straight basic colours like red and black. All that changed early this year when KOH made the leap into the colourful world of nail polishes with KOH Colours! which consisted of a collection of 36 vibrant shades (below).

Yours truly was totally oblivious to this (as usual!) until a couple of months ago when I spotted the display of colourful KOH nail polishes juxtaposed against the minimalistic black and white boxes of its hand and nail care products. Curiousity got the better of me this time and I bought two shades. One was called Rain Forest, a glossy shade of sap green (right) and the other was a limited edition turquoise colour called Douglas. The latter was specially developed by KOH for the parfumerie chain called Douglas whose corporate colour is, yes, turquoise.

I was very impressed with the quality of the nail polishes and in the weeks that followed, I purchased two more KOH products, this time from the nail care range.

L-R: KOH Colours! in Douglas and Rain Forest, Essential Nail Serum, Nail Hardener Bamboo

I would have written a post about this much sooner but I had an issue with one of the nail polish bottles that I had bought. I brought it up with KOH but, unfortunately, the heavenly gods of smooth communication had taken leave and it all turned out to be quite a fuss. I will of course spare you the details. My issue with the bottle turned out to be more the fault of the parfumerie. KOH was however very nice to send a few products to appease this by-then disgruntled customer. Bedankt, KOH.

You might be interested to know that the KOH Colours! nail polishes contain the gemstone topaz which according to KOH, gives a crystal clear gloss and a unique hardness to the nails. Scrutinising the list of ingredients for the KOH Colours! nail polishes, I didn’t find formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and toluene on the list. I don’t think I know enough yet to be able to say the same for its other products.

I’m pretty sure you would have noticed from the photo the lovely packaging that came with the products that I bought. I’m a real sucker for cool packaging and well, I must admit that KOH’s packaging has been a big attraction factor for me. Every Colours! nail polish comes in a beautiful case with embroidery. The case looks pretty much like a lipstick holder, only bigger in size to accommodate the bottle of nail polish. Is that awesome or is that awesome?

Price-wise, KOH is indeed on the higher end. Its nail polishes retail here for a little above the price of OPI nail polishes but are less expensive than those of luxury brands like Chanel and Dior. That’s not bad considering the impressive quality of KOH’s nail polishes.

At the moment, KOH products are exclusively available in upmarket beauty stores in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Further information can be found on the KOH website but please be warned that the English version is less extensive than the Dutch version.

Do stay tuned. You will no doubt be hearing more from me about KOH Cosmetics.

Update: Here's my review of the KOH Rain Forest nail polish.

Rituals

The brand, that is.

Rituals is the brainchild of Raymond Cloosterman, a former bigwig in Unilever. Founded in 1998, it is a Dutch brand offering a wide range of luxurious products for the home and for personal care. Quality and luxury without the high price tag, I would say. The premise of this brand is to transform everyday routines into little self-pampering rituals. It has looked mostly to the East to learn about ancient traditional rituals such as bathing, washing, massage, grooming and tea drinking, and it then developed products revolving around these rituals.

As a result, Rituals products contain all sorts of natural ingredients, some exotic, such as ginseng, rice milk, China clay, sweet almond oil, Himalayan crystal salt and lotus flower, just to name a few. It doesn’t claim that its products are made from 100% natural ingredients though. On its website, it states that it strives to use natural, renewable and preferably organic ingredients and where nature can’t provide, they use safe synthetic alternatives developed through state-of-the-art technology and research. There is also a big emphasis on fragrance in Rituals and the company has worked with world reknowned perfumers to develop the perfect mix of fragrances for its products.

The reason I’m writing about Rituals today is because I was out shopping earlier this week and decided on a whim to visit the Rituals shop. I had only ever been in a Rituals shop once before a few years ago, but it was only for a casual browse. This time, I thought I would take a closer look at the brand and its products. Rituals reminds me a little bit of The Body Shop, only sleeker and having a more extensive concept and philosophy. I’m a sucker for interesting marketing concepts and I believe Rituals has a great unique selling proposition. Impressed, that’s what I am.

I found the interior of the shop very inviting. With the simple, dark furnishings and the back-lighting, there was a calming, warm and cosy atmosphere in the shop. I was quite overwhelmed at first seeing the wide range of products and even the men are not forgotten. There were hand creams, body lotions, shower gels, body scrubs, shampoos and conditioners, hair masks, shaving creams, deodorants, massage oils, lip balms and even bathrobes and wardrobe refreshers, all presented in very sleek and simple packaging. Rituals also has a facial care range and of course, makeup!

It was really the makeup that piqued my interest. In a brochure that I picked up from the shop, Rituals claims to be the first brand in the world to offer cosmetics that incorporates gemstones in its formula. The Pure Beauty cosmetics contain gemstones: sapphire for eye makeup products, ruby for its lip products and nailpolishes, amethyst in its foundations and powders and tourmaline in its foundations. It is said that these gemstones radiate energy and each has a unique effect on the skin such as promoting dermal circulation and improving skin elasticity. I had a look at the list of ingredients for the eyeshadows and indeed, sapphire powder was on the list!

Without any further ado, let me share with you my acquisitions. Call it a haul if you like, but here they are:

Makeup
Eyeshadows
L: Pure Color No. 7157 (turquoise)
R: Pure Color No. 7158 (medium pink)

Lipsticks
L: Lip Jewel No. 7163 (light pink/purple)
R: Ruby Lips No. 7174 Sheer (orange/brown)

Eyeliner
Star Secret No. 7217 scuba (deep turquoise)


Body care
L-R:
Mandarin Shake – energising shower gel (with sweet mandarin & fresh mint)
Massage From Heaven – hydrating & nourishing bodymilk for dry skin (with ginkgo biloba & frangipani)
Gingko’s Secret – extra rich & repairing hand balm (with ginseng & ginkgo biloba)

Your Mini Hammam giftbox comprising:
Hammam Body Mud – nourishing shower mud (with purifying China clay & fresh eucalyptus)
Hammam Olive Secret – ultra nourishing shower paste (with fresh eucalyptus & pure olive)
A Scrub glove
Touch of Hammam – whipped body cream, ultra rich (with fresh fig & rice milk)

I thought the prices were quite reasonable. The products that I bought were in the €6 to €20 retail price range. There was a sale going on, so I did end up paying less for some of the products.

I have been testing out some of the items and I hope to do a review on them in a few weeks.

In the meantime, do have a look at the Rituals website if you're curious to learn more. Besides the Netherlands, Rituals also has a retail presence in the UK, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal and several other European countries. Mr Cloosterman has ambitious plans for Rituals, so I think it would only be a matter of time before Rituals reaches US shores, if not already!

Well, please excuse me, I’m off now to enjoy an energising shower with the Mandarin Shake!

Note: For the benefit of readers in the UK, besides having several stores in England and N. Ireland, Rituals UK also has an online store that you can check out here.