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Buy it now: the best beauty and fashion gifts for Chinese New Year



Beauty and Fashion gifts for Chinese New Year include Giorgio Armani's monkey-themed Illuminating Powder

When is it not gift seaason somewhere in the world? Between Christmas and Valentine’s comes the Lunar New Year, AKA, an opportunity for stores to promote some full price product in festive red and gold. Unsurprisingly, it’s the luxury stores who are pulling out the stops to present enticing, Chinese-friendly gifts, especially with monkey-themed motifs or in editions of lucky number eight.

In truth, I’m not seeing a huge amount of innovation. The beauty brands get my vote for gorgeous jewel-like compacts in lovely packaging – for example this Estee Lauder compact and the Giorgio Armani Illuminating Palette – but for leathergoods brands like Jimmy Choo and Mulberry it’s a case of merchandising all the reds and golds together for a simple (but probably quite effective) pick-n-mix offer.

In China, Burberry is doing what it does best, using social platform WeChat to let users digitally unwrap gifts and create personalised digital Lunar New Year envelopes to send to friends and family. But elsewhere, it’s about slapping a monkey on anything and everything and hoping for the best. Here’s my edit.

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WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla



New and improved: YSL Touche Éclat Le Teint foundation



A new version of ysl Touche eclat Le Teint Foundation has just launched

This new iteration of YSL Touche Éclat Le Teint Foundation (£32.50, launching today), is so much better than the original. I remember getting very excited about it when it first launched four years ago, but the reality was that it was a little too shine-inducing.

Don’t confuse this with its predecessor, (more…)



What to buy from Ines de la Fressange X Uniqlo SS16



Ines de la Fressange X Uniqlo

Ines de la Fressange continues to crank out accessible Parisian classics for Uniqlo. In the latest collection I’ve spotted a great grey sweatshirt*, the perfect indigo jeans*, a very nice blue Oxford shirt and countless iterations of slim-leg chinos. There’s also a long sleeve prairie dress that I can’t image Ines (or me) wearing but it’s super-cool nevertheless.

If you want easy basics under £50 and have similarly Ines-like proportions (all the cuts do seem very slim and the trousers tend to be quite low waisted), then have a nose below…

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*Update: Grrr, a couple of things are now sold out online but hopefully are still stocked in store. Otherwise, well y’know, eBay…?

WORDS: Navaz Batliwalla/Disneyrollergirl
IMAGES: Uniqlo



Buy it now: mid-month pick-me-ups



McQueen embellished clutch

Meh, January is dragging is it not? Time for some prettiness in the guise of a mid-month pick-me-up or two. Olympia Le-Tan’s rose candle for Diptyque is a good one to start with, the feelgood rose scent should lift spirits without the need to leave your nest. (more…)