I love Majolica Majorca

When it comes to cosmetics, I tend to be drawn to those with pretty packaging, like Paul & Joe, Anna Sui, Stila, and Jill Stuart. But the sad thing is that these gorgeous gems are too expensive to indulge in on a regular basis, so I was thrilled to discover Majolica Majorca (MM).

Other affordable brands like Maybelline and Revlon don’t excite me because their colour palettes don’t really offer a wide range of shades and the textures do feel a bit rough as you glide on their products.

But MM is pretty smooth for a pharmacy brand — obviously it is not in the same league as Chanel in terms of silkiness — and I sampled almost everything except their eye pencils and foundation products. The lip gloss was pretty okay, not too sticky, while mascaras are better than L’Oreal in terms of lengthening but it still clumps, so you would have to clean the little comb applicator they provide everytime you use it. I never had to do this with Lancome or Clinique.

1,400JPY

What really caught my attention were their eye shadow compacts. The hues were subtle and wearable, which you might assume otherwise due to the goth packaging. The texture was very smooth and the colour fairly long-lasting. I could go for a lighter look, or choose to have a smokier blue-grey effect — what’s not to like?

500JPY

These lil’ babies are awesome for gals like me who love MANY different shades of eyeshadows. They have a wide range of colours to choose from and they’re so affordable.

I did consider selling MM in Beauty Box but the margins are just too low. When MM was launched in Oct, I got a friend to nose around the counter at Takashimaya’s Watson’s — she took down the prices and they are so cheap in Singapore. I won’t have a competitive edge at all and the Japanese yen climbed yet again this week. Bleah.

Anyway, I’m glad I have a cheap option for cute makeup during these hard economic times. A girl’s still gotta look good no matter what.

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