I may have very well gotten withdrawal symptoms from not having painted my nails in awhile. I don't change my nail colors too often but somehow when I have something like the Sally Hansen nail stickers on, I have a hundred and one ideas of what I could paint my nails next.

It's also kinda crazy how the nail stickers are still staying on well despite lasting a week already! To think I was afraid it wouldn't even last the first 3 days of chinese new year, laughing at that mentality of mine right now.

So anyway, I got bored and wanted to experiment with some cool nail ideas I've seen and as the title goes, I failed.

PHAILED.

It's not all bad but I'm not citing what I wanted to do because I'll do a proper entry when I try again and hopefully don't fail as much. That aside, my thumb and little finger look quite tolerable so, here they are:

Purple shade is Color Club's Pucci-licious.

I doubt this manicure will last long on me, in fact I might just remove it tomorrow or the day after. For two reasons,
1) I can feel that the nail sticker's time is almost up
2) I cannot stand the fail.

I have some polishes I want to swatch and feature real soon so that will be done once I get these resilient bad boys off. I've read that these nail stickers normally last slightly under a week or so (depending on your 'usage') so now I firmly believe that loading Seche Vite over was probably a good call for making them last, though a little longer then I wanted them to.

Thanks for reading!

Back in late December when I got a sneak peak of the Shu Uemura Celestial Garden Spring Summer 2012 collection, I was also introduced to an exciting new product hitting local Shu Uemura counters in February.

Whitening is becoming a very huge movement in the asian market as it boosts a fairer, brightened and more translucent complexion so without further ado, Shu Uemura is introducing their new approach to this whitening market.

This entry is going to be more informative than anything but if whitening is something you have interest in, I say read on!

❧

Whitefficient 2012 is a combination of using 2 of Shu Uemura's signature products – the Shu Uemura cleansing Oil and the UV Under Base Mousse. These can be used individually of course but it's said to give the best efforts when coupled together.

The idea of Whitefficient is a whitening program that achieves results effortlessly without any additional steps. All you have to do is replace your usual cleansing oil with this and introduce the UV Underbase to your makeup routine without having to use an additional serum or essence which allows you to stick to your current skincare routine.

Whitefficient Cleansing Oil

The Whitefficient Cleansing Oil is a rebirth and reformulation of Shu Uemura's iconic cleansing oil, equipped with the most advanced technology to achieve a brightening effect through cleansing. This has since replaced the previous whitening rendition, known as Brightening or White Recovery, at the Shu Uemura counters from January 2012.

The color theme used is that similar purple-blue tone so if you have always been reaching for their whitening cleansing oil range you wouldn't be too confused with a color change of any sort.

The new and improved formula aims to make the skin look clarified and even in skintone with visible results attainable immediately and more prominent ones after a span of 4 weeks.

There is a little more science behind it but I will spare the details in this entry as I have received a 150ml bottle of this Whitefficient Cleansing Oil so I'll give that a try in due time and report on my thoughts about it. Inputting all that ingredient information here would make this post all-too-wordy.

The Whitefficient Cleansing OIl is available in 150ml (S$55) and 450ml (S$155).

UV Underbase Brightening Mousse SPF30 PA++

I doubt the UV Underbase Mousse product needs much of an introduction but here is another addition to the current range compromising of Beige, Pink and BB Beige.

The new shade, Pink Purple, dispenses a pale purple shade and contains a blue iridescent pearl for an instant brightening effect. Purple, as we know, eliminates yellow tones and helps brighten the overall complexion. Shu Uemura further enhanced this effect by including an inner-glow-agent for added rosiness.

The product feels like it's fellow 'siblings', a firm foam that blends out very easily over the skin while feeling very light on.

I didn't take a shot of the product once it's completely blended out because my camera would not pick up on anything but it blended out perfectly, no purple tinge and the area it is on seemed relatively brightened.

Aside from the aesthetic brightening effect of it, the Whitefficient UVUB Mousse (shortformed name for refering to this product) also consists of an advanced Whitefficient technology. The dual action whitening ingredients found in this, coupled with the cleansing oil's own, makes it why they call this the whitening program without the use of an added serum or essence.

The diagram above shows a visual representation of the active whitening ingredients in this. Precious Vitamin CG is the use of stabilizing Vitamin C with Glucose as Vitamin C on its own is known to be easily damaged by oxygen/heat exposure. The fusion of these ingredients leaves the whitening effect in the Whitefficient UVUB Mousse to be comparable to Shu Uemura's Whitefficient Intense Whitening Essence.

A base/primer product with the same strength as an essence is pretty interesting since it doesn't interfere with having to swap out your current essence or would most probably double the effect if you are using a whitening essence already.

I was quite interested in how it swatched at the preview so I might just drop by the counters and pick one to use in conjunction with the Cleansing Oil, though I'm barely done with up BB Beige and Beige UVUB Mousse.

The Whitefficient UVUB Mousse will be hitting the Shu Uemura counters in February, going for S$80 (50g).

Last but not least, there are way too many words in this post so lets balance it out with a gorgeous promo shot featuring internationally renowned supermodel, TAO - the new brand beauty ambassador for Shu Uemura.

"TAO’s allure is broader than her modern, avant-garde, experimental mood. What is striking is her uncompromising ambition. I am confident that she will be recognized as a legendary supermodel."

- Uchiide

What a super lengthy post and it's a little 'dry' since there isn't much to swatch or talk about when it comes to cleansing oils and a preview of a base product but I hope it has been informative for those with an interest to whitening. For those who aren't big whitening fans and have made it this far, hope it was informative too in introducing this new innovative whitening program by Shu Uemura.

Thanks for reading!

Disclosure:
Preview was hosted by Shu Uemura.
Opinions expressed are my own, I am not affiliated to the company.