Lip service: With its plain packaging and mono-dose concept, Prada Beauty has turned cosmetic minimalism into an art form and its new shop is no exception. Recently opened in the basement of the Landmark, Central, it features a wall of products in white boxes, a couple of display counters and little else. Look out for its Shielding Balm, a super-rich, ultra-smooth lip gel containing shea butter, vitamin E and sun-protection factor 15; fashion and beauty editors worldwide swear by it as the definitive lip-care product. You are supposed to use a single dose a day ($290 for 10), but unless you are applying it slavishly every five minutes or so, each tube will probably last up to a week. Colour therapy: If you want a change from the neat neutrals of spas around town, head for the recently opened Mu-Lan Spa (18/F, Century Square, 1 D'Aguilar Street, Central, tel: 3102 0208). Its reception area is all dark wood, smoked glass and funky fuchsia lighting, while the seven spacious treatment rooms (including one double VIP room) feature colourful finishing touches such as Thai and Indian silks. The spa's range of treatments include aromatherapy facials, slimming treatments, body wraps, scrubs and massages, hydrotherapy, waxing and threading. In the changing room a colour therapy shower, which changes shade every minute, is designed to stimulate your mood. Open from 10am to 10pm during the week, and 10am to 8pm at weekends. Virgin territory: As well as express manicures and makeovers, girls and boys on the go can now pop by Virgin Vie at Festival Walk, Kowloon Tong, for a relatively quick aromatherapy facial ($320 for 45 minutes). Incorporating lavender and rose essential oils and suitable for all skin types, the treatment includes the full facial works: cleansing, steaming, lymphatic drainage, a 15-minute scalp massage while a mask works its magic and the application of moisturiser, eye and neck creams. For bookings, call 2265 7658; Virgin Vie's other Express Treatments (manicure, pedicure, massage and face makeover) are also available at Seibu Pacific Place (tel: 2918 4184). For an even faster beauty fix, try the company's new Brightening Boost ($185/15ml). Containing vitamins C and E and green tea anti-oxidants, it claims to reduce the appearance of fine lines instantly with built-in light reflectors, keep your skin supple and generally bring dull, tired-looking skin back to life. Sound effects: Just when you thought perfumes, after shave and the like were all about smell, designer Tommy Hilfiger has come up with colognes for men and women that add feeling to fragrance. Tommy and Tommy Girl Crackling Colognes ($200 for him, $220 for her), which seem to foam and fizz when you spray them, are absorbed easily and smell great, but the 'crackling' doesn't seem to have any hidden benefit apart from being a novel, if somewhat bizarre, concept. Available from counters in Lane Crawford and Watson's. Star products: The latest colours from cosmetic company with a conscience The Body Shop have hit the shelves. Inspired by the celestial phenomenon of the Northern Lights, the three new lipsticks ($78), lip glosses ($55) and two eyeshadow compacts ($88) contain iridescent particles to make you glitter and glow. Soothing organic olive oil has been used in the products to the benefit of the skin and of the Nuovo Cilento co-operative, a poor olive-growing community in southern Italy, which The Body Shop is supporting. Available from all branches including Pacific Place, Admiralty, and Queen's Road, Central.