Illamasqua Magenta Muse Collection for Summer/Fall 2011

Set to transform perceptions of beauty this summer, Magenta Muse is the daring new color collection from cult British beauty brand, Illamasqua.

Magenta Muse is a fearlessly eclectic blend of textures and finishes, spanning from gloss to matte, metallic to opalescent.

Draw all attention to you, on those heady summer nights, with an urbane gathering of cool, alternative hues in grey, mauve, magenta and teal that mix effortlessly with flashes of coral and offset by matte black.

Cream Pigment

Bring out your bold side with this gloriously rich, extremely pigmented cream. Use to adorn eyes, face and body, and apply with fingers or a brush for a buildable, matt, water-resistant finish. Layer under Illamasqua Powder Eye Shadow for an added intense effect. A highly pigmented new matt formula that can either neutralise or dominate. Create the ultimate in textures whether it’s on your face, eyes, or body, bringing a flash of colour to a subtle contour. This formula provides coverage and adhesion for Powder Eye Shadow and Pure Pigment intensification.

Dab Matt lilacMould Matt grape

Pure Pigment

Made to be played with. A metallic, high-shine, pure-colour powder that highlights eyes, cheeks and brows. Mix with eye shadow, powder blusher or use it on its own to intense effect.

Android Shimmering gunmetal

Liquid Metal

Prepare to dazzle with this gloriously rich and highly pigmented metallic cream. Use to adorn eyes, face and body.

Enrapture Metallic copper

Powder Blusher

Illuminate and enliven your complexion with the color and drama of Illamasqua Powder Blusher. Color intense and highly pigmented, it can be used to shade, brighten, enhance, and define the shape of your face.

Excite Vibrant coralHussy Bright petal pink

Precision Ink

Create looks with attitude. The Precision Ink’s fine tip allows for defined application, making it perfect for use anywhere – on the face or on the body

Abyss Gloss blackGlister Opalescent nude

Lipstick

Indulge in colour-intense lipstick with a highly pigmented formula.

Test Matt pinky beigeUnderworld Iridescent violet

Sheer Lipgloss

Super glossy, with a sensual, sheer colour designed to enhance your lips.

Electrify Baby pink sheenTantrum Deep violet sheen

Nail Varnish

Leave your mark with bold, rich, vibrant colours. Hardwearing and chip-resistant, apply two coats for intensity.

DWS Cement gray with a glossy finishJo Mina Electric lilac with a glossy finishLament Bright coral pink with a glossy finishMuse Deept eal blue with a glossy finishPoke Bright violet purple shimmerScorn Matt black
Tags: blusher, body, copper powder, face, metallic copper, powder

Stila Sparkle & Glow Summer Collection 2011

Stila Sparkle & Glow Summer Collection 2011

One Step Bronze ($36)

Stila’s new One Step Bronze is oil-free and melts right into the skin and dries down, creating a gorgeous glow. This revolutionary new formula contains three illuminating bronzers:

Matte Bronze with Copper undertone – to bronzeBronze with Pink undertone – to enhance skintone and illuminateKitten – to brighten, illuminate and help diminish the appearance of sun spots

Sparkle Waterproof Liquid Eye Liners ($22.00)

Introducing Stila’s new Sparkle Waterproof Liquid Eye Liners, color-rich, vibrant, easy-to-use waterproof eye liners infused with twinkling multi-pearl micro-glitter that stays on all day and night.

Shades are:

Royal – Purple sparkleCuracao – Bright blue sparkleBora Bora – Electric blue sparkleElectric – Bright green sparkleFlash – Olive sparkleRock Candy – Brown sparkleStarry – Charcoal grey sparkleSequins – Black sparkle

Lip Glaze ($22.00)
Turn on the shine and you’ll be turning heads with Stila’s most popular lip gloss.
Shades are:Amaretto – Deep, reddish-brownCotton Candy – Cotton candy pinkBubble Gum – Purple-y pinkMulberry – PurpleHoneysuckle – Caramel brownAngel Food – Peachy pink

Forever Your Curl Mascara ($22.00)

Stila’s NEW revolutionary Forever Your Curl Mascara “perms” your lashes immediately and over time! You no longer need an eyelash curler.

Tags: charcoal grey, Collection, eyelash curler, night shades, Step, Stila

Sleek Mediterranean Collection

Sleek released a new makeup collection collection that includes the Santorini blush, Monte Carlo lip conditioner and Monaco palette.

The Collection consists only 3 products:

Monaco Eyeshadow Palette

A perfect eyeshadow palette from sunset oranges and browns, or breezy turquoise to highlight your holiday tan.

BanbooAquamarineMidnight gardenSuntsetWashed ashoreMagenta madnessSummer breezeSand walkerKiwi zestLotus flowerHumming birdMoors treasure

Santorini blush : bright pink

Monte Carlo Pout Polish : bright pink

Tags: Collection, eyeshadow palette, lip, makeup collection, mediterranean collection, Sleek

In Milan, Calvin Looks Hot And Keeps Cool

The Calvin Klein man—at least as Italo Zucchelli, Calvin Klein Collection’s creative director, sees him—is a sporty hunk. No waifs on the Calvin catwalk. And few, either, at the lavish party the label threw at its European headquarters last night to celebrate the new collection. CK models, including former label face David Agbodji and upcoming campaign boy Dmitry T. (who also opened and closed the Spring show), mixed with Joe Jonas, Alessandro Dell’Acqua, Francesco Scognamiglio, and Francisco Costa. Agbodji and Dmitry had the night off, but a troupe of hulking dudes were on the clock: Entertainment was provided by a dozen CK-clad dancers, who swayed on balconies to the sounds of DJ Stretch Armstrong. Zucchelli himself paid homage to the archetypal Klein muscle boy, Mark Wahlberg, a picture of whom (from his nineties-era, Herb Ritts-shot Calvin underwear ads) was emblazoned on his T-shirt. Between the gogo boys and the company (like swimming champion Nicolò Ossola), you’d expect the temperature to be rising, but not here. The party was unnaturally cool—at least by Milan standards—thanks to the gusting AC. “It’s a piece of New York in Milan,” Zucchelli said with a laugh.

Photos: Courtesy of Calvin Klein

Wayne Goes Seaside For Her First Resort Collection

Wayne Goes Seaside For Her First Resort Collection

Celebs Celebrate Joseph Abboud Watch Collection In LA

On Thursday, June 16th, luxury menswear brand Joseph Abboud and Esquire magazine hosted an intimate cocktail party to celebrate the launch of their watch collection at the Sunset Tower Hotel in Los Angeles.

Guests included Ryan Phillippe, David Arquette, Joe Manganiello, Kevin Jonas, AnnaLynne McCord ,Trevor Donovan, Samantha Ronson, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Colton Haynes, and Amber Rose.  The tunes were provided by DJ Paul Sevigny and a musical performance by special guest Hugo.The Joseph Abboud watch collection will debut Fall 2011 at better retailers of fine men’s watches throughout the US. We are huge fans of the brand. We even got a chance to interview its Creative Director, Bernardo Rojo, not too long ago!

Govt claims bullseye on tax collection target

Meeting the target may help restore the suspended IMF bailout programme.

ISLAMABAD: 

After missing most targets in last year’s budget, the government took its critics by surprise on the eve of the financial year’s end – claiming that it had hit the bullseye on perhaps the single most important target: Tax collection.

In a hurriedly called press conference on Thursday, the tax authorities announced that they had surpassed the revised tax collection target for fiscal year 2010-11, after missing it for the last three years.

Meeting this target has also revived hope that the suspended $11.3 billion International Monetary Fund bailout package may be restored.

“Against a revised target of Rs1,588 billion, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has so far collected Rs1,590.5 billion in taxes and more receipts are coming in,” announced FBR Chairman Salman Siddique at the conference. The 2007-08 was the last fiscal year when the government achieved its tax collection target.

The recent collection brings Pakistan’s tax-to-GDP ratio to 9.2 per cent, the second-lowest in the region after Bangladesh.

The chairman said the ratio can only be increased if the government brings all sectors into the tax net.

Bona fide collections

Amid apprehensions of jugglery in figures and concerns of alleged arm-twisting, the FBR says it has achieved its revenue target in good faith.

The tax authorities collected Rs1,406.4 billion on account of income tax, sales tax and federal excise duties and Rs184 billion on account of customs duties.

The customs duties’ target was surpassed by Rs12 billion, said member customs Mumtaz Haider Rizvi.

The Rs1,590.5 billion figure, however, is Rs77 billion below the original tax collection target of Rs1,667 billion that was approved by parliament last June.

“It is bona fide collection and we would conduct an audit along with private auditors”, said the chairman in response to questions of soliciting advances from banks to meet the target.

Even the IMF would put this figure in its own auditing process, he said.

The chairman, however, admitted that the government took an advance of Rs5 billion last year from the Trading Corporation of Pakistan.

Sohail Ahmad, the then-chairman FBR, has recently been appointed Secretary Establishment Division.

Restoring the IMF programme

The provisional revenue collection figures provides a sigh of relief to economic managers who have been struggling to keep the budget deficit below six per cent of the total size of the economy.

“The collection would help restore the IMF programme as the government would now be able to restrict the budget deficit at 5.2 per cent (excluding 0.6 per cent of circular debt payments) along with curtailing expenditures”, he added.

Siddique said the collection would allow the policy makers to tell the world that Pakistan could achieve its targets.

The target was only achieved after Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani provided an environment of “no political meddling in tax affairs,” he added.

Amnesty scheme

The amnesty scheme also played a part in meeting the target, said Siddique.

The government had waived off all penalties and surcharges on late payment of taxes. The chairman announced to discontinue the amnesty scheme with immediate effect.

Broadening the base

The chairman said that efforts to broaden the tax base would continue and in the next fiscal year, the government plans on  collecting Rs106 billion simply through broadening of the tax base.

This would help achieve the next year’s collection target of Rs1,952 billion, he added.

Regarding tax evaders, Siddique said that out of 71,000 prospective evaders, as many as 18,000 have filed their income tax returns.

Some of them have declared their source of income to be ‘income from abroad’ and that claim will now be probed, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1st, 2011.

Wayne Goes Seaside For Her First Resort Collection

Wayne Lee is packing up her city sidewalk-ready aesthetic and taking it shoreside with a debut capsule collection for Resort that will be sold exclusively at Barneys. “Barneys is really where Wayne got its start,” said Lee of the her namesake label’s partnership with the retailer. (Literally, in this case: Lee was a buyer for the store before her co-workers encouraged her to turn her self-designed work outfits into a full-fledged label.) “Barneys has always supported my career and vision. This just made sense.”

A recent vacation the designer took to Saint Martin gave rise to the 18-piece lineup, which features Caribbean-inspired shades of cerulean and cobalt blue, as well as black and white stripes reminiscent of beach umbrellas. Keep in mind that Lee is seven months pregnant (read: those tropical climes felt even hotter), so it was all about super-lightweight fabrics and easy silhouettes. There were simple silk rompers with pockets that peek out from the bottom hem, a shrunken white jacket with a mesh back to show off a cute bathing suit, and plenty of matte jersey halter looks. Lee noted she’s been focusing on showing off the back “because it’s the one part of you that always looks good when you’re pregnant.” You don’t need to be expecting to wear her clothes, but it’s nice to know it couldn’t hurt.

In Milan, Calvin Looks Hot And Keeps Cool

The Calvin Klein man—at least as Italo Zucchelli, Calvin Klein Collection’s creative director, sees him—is a sporty hunk. No waifs on the Calvin catwalk. And few, either, at the lavish party the label threw at its European headquarters last night to celebrate the new collection. CK models, including former label face David Agbodji and upcoming campaign boy Dmitry T. (who also opened and closed the Spring show), mixed with Joe Jonas, Alessandro Dell’Acqua, Francesco Scognamiglio, and Francisco Costa. Agbodji and Dmitry had the night off, but a troupe of hulking dudes were on the clock: Entertainment was provided by a dozen CK-clad dancers, who swayed on balconies to the sounds of DJ Stretch Armstrong. Zucchelli himself paid homage to the archetypal Klein muscle boy, Mark Wahlberg, a picture of whom (from his nineties-era, Herb Ritts-shot Calvin underwear ads) was emblazoned on his T-shirt. Between the gogo boys and the company (like swimming champion Nicolò Ossola), you’d expect the temperature to be rising, but not here. The party was unnaturally cool—at least by Milan standards—thanks to the gusting AC. “It’s a piece of New York in Milan,” Zucchelli said with a laugh.

Photos: Courtesy of Calvin Klein

Umar Sayeed’s collection: And then there was light…

Sayeed employs chiffon, silk and pure cotton in his latest collection. PHOTOS: PUBLICITY

KARACHI: 

Designer Umar Sayeed launched his collection labeled Umar Light, at The House of Ensemble on 3rd June. Umar Light — the designer’s third label — comes as a successor to the designer’s previous collections, Umar Psyche and Umar Batool, which are also in stock at The House of Ensemble.

Sayeed employs chiffon, silk and pure cotton in his garments and each of his outfits has a unique look. The designer apparel incorporates the same cuts, flairs and style that Sayeed is well-known for.  Additionally, the colours used in this collection are mainly black, white and fuscia — the Karachi-based designer’s trademark colours.

“I have named it ‘Light’ because firstly the word ‘light’ alludes to shine and secondly because the dresses are literally light, because they are flowing,” explained the renowned couturier. “This is a limited collection because it has only 50 pieces and thus is it definitely a very different one.”

Shezray Husain, co-owner and director of The House of Ensemble, described the repertoire as a “global collection”.

“Sayeed has created a fantastic look for local and destination weddings. The Pakistani expats who live abroad can wear it to weddings and fundraisers and also to other formal events. It’s a complete summer and evening wear,” she explained.

Each piece from the assortment has been priced at Rs45,000. The designer justifies the exorbitant pricing by saying that his outfits can be worn on many occasions — weddings, dinners and evening party events — and thus do not have limited utility like exclusive bridal or pret wear.

Although several outfits from the collection have sold out, many pieces are still on display at The House of Ensemble.