A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

My enjoyment at admiring my latest Body Shop haul was short lived when…

…to my horror, I opened up my Oui, Oui, Oui lip butter only to discover that the lip butter goblin had swiped the lot.

The greedy little bastard had even somehow managed to get the plastic wrap back on the pot ensuring it was hygenically resealed (just to mess with my mind some more you understand).

Um, do you think The Body Shop will believe me?  Or will they think I’m some kind of sick desperado who goes around buying Oui, Oui, Oui lip butters… painstakingly scraping out the contents, washing up the pots and returning them for a new one?

I wouldn’t mind SO much, but sods law dictates that I didn’t haul from my local Body Shop… oh no, I had to get this from the store 15 miles away didn’t I.

Anyway, onto the rest of my haul…

Olive Glossing Shampoo & Conditioner: Have heard such good things about this.  My scalp is a mess at the minute, I always suffer from soreness this time of year so I’m hoping something a little more natural than my usual products will help.

Mandarin Orchid Shower Gel: Love my bathing products to smell fruity or tropical and citrusy scents are at the top of my list!

Vitamin E Face Mist: Replacing my last bottle which I find essential for giving my mineral foundation a more dewy appearance.

Rich Plum handwash: This was in the sale, and now that I’m a full time nappy changer – I’m always washing my hands, so thought I’d indulge in something a little more luxurious than Carex!

Almond Home Fragrance Oil: I already own this one (I collect them), but it’s one of my favs so grabbed another bottle while I saw it.

Chamomile Essential Oil: My super bargain of the day, I usually drip a little of this into some milk and add to the bath, it’s normally over £11 a bottle, this was reduced to £1.75 – very happy!

Simply Purify Rejuvenating Bath Soak: Another sale item, contains wasabi extract… love wasabi!

Was sorely tempted by the Coconut Body Scrub too, but I’ve still got a Nirvana Spa one I bought at The Vitality Show to use up.

What are your Body Shop favs?

I’m loving these Mavala Minis (5ml), so great for impatient types like me who never see the bottom of a standard sized bottle before it’s gotten too thick and unuseable.

This is Glasgow #29 a fab silvery lavender metallic shade.  It’s a little streaky (as with most metallics) but not enough to bother me in the slightest.  It applied as easily as a creme with no dragging at all.  This was 3 thin coats.  Drying time was decent aswell.  I’m very, very impressed with this range and will be checking out some other colours!

These Mavala Minis are on offer at £3.19 a bottle at Richard John at the moment (although they do that annoying p&p thing where they think it’s a good idea to charge you higher p&p the more money you spend with them *sigh*)

This is my first experience with the Mavala brand, anyone else tried their products?  What are your thoughts?

Just another boring neutral FOTD…

Eyes:

Body Shop Shimmer Cube in Warm (Thanks Tali!)
Sleek Ink Pot in Black (Dominatrix)
Rimmel Sexy Curves Mascara
GOSH Velvet Touch eyeliner (Black)

Face:

Gale Hayman Youth Light Foundation (Porcelain) – A Direct Cosmetics cheapy I’ve surprised myself by liking!
Earthen Glow Minerals Matte Blush (Emotions)
MAC MSF in Perfect Topping

Lips:

GOSH Darling Lipstick

My hooded eyelids make things really tricky for a novice like me… I can hardly ever achieve a decent eyeliner flick, and getting my shadows to appear above the crease without looking plain odd I find really tricky.  Help!

…confession time.

Looking back through my posts over the last couple of months, my skin has improved 110% since I started making an effort to not go to bed with my makeup still on.

Told you I was a scab.

So, here’s £150 (around $245)…

…it’s burning a hole in your pocket, what would you be rushing out to spend it on?

I love a bit of virtual shopping me!

Cargo – Catalina Blush (lovely ballerina matte pink) – £16

Dior – Capture Totale Foundation (I have half a bottle left, the best liquid foundation I’ve used) – £59

Nars – Angelika Blush (I’m over Orgasm since I’ve discovered that peaches and warm pinks are never gonna look as good as cool toned blushes on me) – £18.50

Ruby & Millie – I-Writer in Purple. (read my HG Liquid Liner) – £10.50 (ea)

MAC – Creme d’Nude Cremesheen Lipstick (gorgeous creamy nude I’ve been wanting for a while) – £12.00

MAC – Mineralize Blush in Gentle (love this cool toned raspberry shade) – £16.50

Korres – Cherry Gloss in Beige Pink – £11.00

Jurlique – Lemon Body Oil (I adore anything lemon scented in body products, so I’ve been lusting after this for a little while!) – £21.00

Total: £153.50

*scrabbles around the back of the sofa for the extra £3.50!*

Anything you’re craving at the moment?  Please feel free to carry this idea onto your blog, would love to hear what you’re getting excited about!

…my prizes from Tali’s awesome contest!

Thank you SO much Tali!  Your generosity blew me away and I spent the rest of the day lovingly stroking the goodies, completely neglecting my family so that I could ooh and ahh over all these pretty things instead.  I’m completely in love with everything and can’t wait to try it all out!

The beauty blogosphere is buzzing right now with nail junkies across the UK enjoying Collection 2000’s “Hot Looks” range of polishes.

There are some fab 80s inspired shades and seeing as Button Moon was one of my fav shows as a tot, I had to pick up it’s nail polish counterpart!

Button Moon is a mint green creme that randomly reminds me of Rennie Soft Chews.  It’s a fun colour and fairly chalky in appearance.  Application wise, it achieves opacity in one coat, but needs two coats to even out the streakiness it suffers thanks to it’s pretty crappy brush.

The “Hot Looks” range claims to be fast drying, a claim I would take slight issue with.  Yes, the surface doesn’t stay tacky for very long at all… but the risk of smudging remains for a good half hour after application – not one to apply 15 minutes before bed unless you want lovely imprints from your bed sheets on your tips!

The picture shows the streaking fairly well, but I believe the culprit of this is the brush rather than the formula, so can easily be remedied by using another brush instead.  I should also note that the picture was taken without a top coat applied.

At £1.75 a bottle (they come in a super fab mini 8ml size) and despite the faults I’ve noted, I still think the range is a bit of a steal – ideal for trying out some funky colours.  They’re also currently on offer in Superdrug at the moment (2 for £2.99) – get ’em while they’re hot!  *snigger* Hot, “Hot Looks”, gerrit?

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Apologies for this post, it’s random, pic heavy and barely touches on makeup at all *shock horror*

I’m sharing this pseudo-post ‘cos I still can’t be arsed to formulate a proper review on ANYTHING.  My recent hauls are scattered around the house and I’m too lazy to get off my fat bum and round them up for a group photo and I keep forgetting to write down what I used when I do a FOTD which makes it about as useful as a chocolate teapot to anyone but me.

Without further ado…

Look!  Gratuitous pics of my baby girl!

She’s 10 weeks old now and learnt how to grasp and hold onto things this weekend – Einstein I’m telling ya.  Still not giggling though.  I suspect she thinks her parents aren’t very funny, well not ha-ha funny anyway…

Ooh, I’ve also turned into Fanny Cradock and can’t stop baking – maybe it’s a long repressed maternal thing.   Here’s my latest success:

Apple and Cinnamon Cake (with a little bit of ginger thrown in aswell!) – I’m planning on doing a Banana and Baileys one tomorrow (a chopped up Mars bar might fall in to the mixture too!).

What else have I been up to?  A random makeup tidbit, I wore a red lipstick today for the first time ever, well… not the first time ever, but the first time I’ve ever worn it outside the house.

Revlon’s new Colorstay liquid last forever thingamibob in Top Tomato (incase you’re interested) which may be a bit warm for my skintone.

That’s all folks, hope you’re still awake and indeed haven’t died of boredom after reading the post of random capriciousness*

‘Till next time xxxx

*attn. grammar police – Do those two words make sense together? I just wanted an excuse to say ‘capricious’ really…

Love.

Longwearing, 1-2 coat opacity, smooth application, quick drying, non-staining, cool-toned suiting, hot & striking.

Only thing I don’t love is the application brushes, which I find a little on the thin side, requiring up to 8 strokes to cover the nail evenly and smoothly – but thankfully it’s not SO quick drying that it starts to drag if you go over it a few times.

Another thing I love is the price!  £2.89 each or 2 for £4.99 at the moment in Superdrug.

I’ve never understood cleansing in the traditional cotton wool pad and white cream sense…

I just don’t feel like my face is clean unless it has come into contact with water at some point during my getting up/going to bed routine.

Being a confirmed ‘washer’ doesn’t stop me from being tempted by lovely smelling cleansing lotions and equally fresh smelling bottles of toner – but in general, I just don’t get it?

It seems to me that ‘cleansing’:

a) takes longer
b) involves wiping chemicals on your face and then not washing them off
c) is more expensive
d) involves more waste (cotton wool pads)
e) is less ‘portable’ when travelling

I don’t even own a bottle of make-up remover… although, wait… does cleansing oil count? No, I’m discounting it because it doesn’t involve cotton wool pads and you still need water to use it.

Any of you ‘cleansers’? If so, tell me why! Has no-one let me in on the big secret? I know it’s a personal preference thing and that there are no right or wrong choices, but I would love to undrstand the motivation behind it!

…of liquid eye liners?

I have a real problem with most liquid liners.  I either love the tip, but find the product too thin and unpigmented (yano where the blacks come out as a watery grey) or, I love the product but daren’t put the tip within 2 feet of my eye without risk of blinding myself.

I’ve finally found one that applies like a dream and is also a gorgeously pigmented black.

Ruby & Millie’s I-Writer is an odd looking contraption.  A few of their products utilise this futuristic x-ray type design.  It’s novel, interesting and pretty functional.

As you can see, the tip is VERY fine.  It’s also flexible and soft fibred, which means that it’s not gonna drag on your eyelid.  The brush has a wide enough base to offer some support to the tip which gives it just enough stiffness.  It tapers into a lovely sharp point for precision lining and the product disperses itself fairly evenly along the fibres when you give the other end of the pen a little twist.

I love the brush so much that when I run out of product, I’m gonna can use it with my gel liners.

The I-Writer retails at Boots for £10.50 and is available in a few different colours (I also have this in green, but don’t recommend it.  the formula is a bit too sheer for an eyeliner).

Next time I use this in a FOTD, I shall make a note of it in the products used so you can see it in action!

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Nails Inc still isn’t a favourite brand of mine.  I find the formula a little too thick – great for achieving opacity in 2 coats or less, but not so good for clumsy types like me.

Belgrave Place is a beautiful inky blue and although I love the colour, this polish isn’t a keeper for me.  Despite use of a base coat (I’m obviously not using one good enough), this stained my nails quite nastily upon removal.

Will I ever find a Nails Inc. polish I’m in love with?  The search continues – recommendations very welcome!

Sorry for so many NOTD posts, it feels like a bit of a lazy cop out as they’re much easier to do than full on reviews.  I have some MMU haul posts as well which I really need to be doing and I have a HG to share with you all – ‘citing!