A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

This one goes out to Charlie from LadyoftheLane.

Eyeko Chi Chi is a rosy pink which leans slightly toward gold.  The glitter particles are chunky and suspended in a sheer pink base.  3 coats to achieve the opacity shown above though you could also layer this over a pink creme to achieve the same effect in less glitter coats.  It’s girlie, but the rosiness (rather than pink) stops it from being too juvenile.

I must be into a bit of S&M with these 3 coats, my eyes are watering at the thought of the removal already (where’s my tin foil).

You’ll need a top coat to even out the rough finish from the glitter.  I did one layer and it’s still rough (though not scratchy) to the touch.  It reminds me a little of Butter London’s Rosie Lee although I don’t think the glitter is quite so dense or the finish so foiled.

Eyeko Chi Chi is priced at £3.50 from the Eyeko website who offer worldwide delivery.

Anyone recognise this funky nail brush?

I freaking love it!  It’s mega wide (well it is pretty much 2 brushes in one right?) and I can do my pinky finger in one stroke!

Hmmm… I’ve just noticed that if you look closely you can SEE who’s brush it is… pop quiz fail.

What are your favourite polish brushes?

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I ‘created’ (ooh get me!) this FOTD using the new Urban Decay Black Palette before I discovered the beauty of these shadows over Fyrinnae’s Pixie Epoxy.. so this is applied straight onto bare skin.

You may be able to make out the gold sparkles in this close up?

It’s nothing ground breaking, it’s one colour… my favourite from the set (Cobra).  Infact, as FOTD’s go… a one-coloured eyeshadow one is pretty lame, but some of you were asking to see how the shadows looked over unprimed skin and I thought I’d upload this to demonstrate the kind of pigmentation you can expect.

Hope you’re having a good Thursday!

Am I talking about the new Chanel must-have?  Perhaps a little something-something from La Prairie?

NO!

It’s none ofther than Lady Lamb herself, FINALLY making that long journey from Down Under (check out those lips and lashes!)

Basically… what I’m saying is… the time has come!

You can now pre-order your Lanolips online from VictoriaHealth!

If you don’t know what the hell I’m getting so excited about (where have you been?), I first mentioned the brand back in the beginning of March.  If you wanna have a read of my thoughts, click here.

You can also follow Lanolips on Twitter and Facebook.

I went to LUSH last week and one of the things that I came out with was this unattractive looking lump.

Looks like something I’d need a poopa scoopa for to be quite honest.

It smells foul too… whenever I have this anywhere near me, I keep getting flashbacks of when I used to empty my ashtrays.  I’m really selling it to you aren’t I?

I can forgive it all this though if it helps my scalp as it claims…

[stextbox id=”custom” bcolor=”b0c4de” bgcolor=”e6e6fa”]Snake Oil treats dandruff and it smells like it means business. Melt it on to your fingertips, then massage it right into your scalp. Leave the lavender, tea tree and peppermint oils to do their work for twenty minutes or so, and then wash it off with Soak and Float shampoo.[/stextbox]

My hair is coloured, if it strips the colour… it’s going in the bin.  I was told in the store that it would be fine with coloured hair… but the SA was a male student with dreads and a vacant expression.  I’m trying really hard not to discriminate.

Have any of you guys tried the LUSH Snake Oil Scalp Massage Bar?  I’m usually a bit rubbish with anything that I need to put on my scalp.  When you have hair longer than a buzz cut, how the hell do you actually get the product onto your scalp and not just all over your hair?

You can buy the LUSH Snake Oil Scalp Massage bar instore or online.  I paid £4.15.

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By the way, I’m on the 4th wash with the Body Shop SLS Free shampoo/conditioner combo and I’ve promised myself 7 washes minimum with each new brand to give it a fair trial.  So far, it’s not looking that amazing…

Yesterday was the 3rd anniversary of the murder of 20 year old Sophie Lancaster.

I watched this tribute video twice last night.  First time as myself and then again as a mum.  I couldn’t breathe for a second when I watched it the second time around.

A statement from Illamasqua who have worked tirelessly with the Sophie Lancaster Foundation to promote awareness and raise money:

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On 24th August 2007, Sophie Lancaster was kicked to death, simply for dressing differently.

As a brand that promotes the right to experiment and self-express, three years after her death Illamasqua remains committed to changing attitudes towards subcultures, and continues to work with The Sophie Lancaster Foundation in the fight for universal acceptance, free from prejudice.

Honour Sophie’s memory today and watch the ‘Dark Angel’ tribute film. So far we have reached 162,000 hits, but we’re hoping to reach over 500,000, so please forward the link to friends and family and help us spread the message.

Alternatively buy an Illamasqua Sophie Pencil, wristband or make a donation, and help The Sophie Lancaster Foundation continue its work. £3 from every Sophie Pencil purchased, and all proceeds from the wristband sales go directly to the Foundation.

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Please forward the video today if you get a moment.

TommyGuns haircare range is currently 25% off until the 21st September exclusively at Waitrose.

I can never see this brand’s name without getting this song stuck in my head the rest of the day:

Incidentally, my fav band ever (you don’t really care do you?)

Moving swiftly on…

Go forth and lather up (unless you’re SLS sensitive of course) 😉

The soon-to-be-released Black Palette from US eyeshadow maestro’s Urban Decay is an altogether darker affair than the recent Naked set…

The Black Palette includes 6, 1g eyeshadows, 1 mini 24/7 eye pencil in zero and a mini eyeshadow primer potion in new ‘shade’ Eden.  We haven’t seen Eden on these shores before so I was excited to be able to take a look when I received this sample last week.

The packaging is compact.  There’s been complaints about how cumbersome some of Urban Decay’s palettes are and they’ve clearly listened to the fans.  There are no hidden drawers or slots for your car keys.  Barely an inch of wasted space… infact, the included UDPP (Urban Decay Primer Potion) sits seperately from the palette once taken out of the exterior packaging.  The Urban Decay Black Palette is thoroughly portable if you need it to be.

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The new Revlon Grow Luscious mascara had me all confused.  It promises to promote stronger, longer lashes and with all these ‘lash enhancing’ products entering the mass market, I initially wondered if we were looking at another one of these.

We’re not.

Revlon’s Grow Luscious incorporates into it’s formula something that it calls unique fibres and phytopeptides complex which it promises will enhance the condition of your lashes thereby enabling them to remain strong and intact right to the end of their natural growth period.  This tries to prevent premature breakage, not grow your lashes ladies.

There’s no real way for me to accurately quantify those claims, but I don’t see any reason why a good balance of lash conditioning agents wouldn’t in some way help to keep your lashes in good condition in the same way a conditioner can keep your hair feeling softer and stronger.

It’s attractively (if rather simply) packaged in a green metallic-looking tube, minimalist in appearance.

The wand is VERY large, larger infact than my Benefit Bad Gal’s wand which is kinda my benchmark for large wands.  Those with smaller eyes or short lashes may struggle with application issues.

The formula is quite thick and perhaps a little dry but that’s a-ok with me.  I can’t stand ‘wet’ mascaras… I make a terrible mess with them and although the Revlon Grow Luscious does seem to attract a little gloop on the tip of the wand, it’s nothing I can’t wipe off on the edge of the tube.

The tips of my lashes are a little out of focus here… but I’m showing a comparison between the new Revlon Grow Luscious (on the right) and Boots 17 Wild Curls (on the left).

Boots 17 Wild Curls seems like a good comparison as a fellow high street offering that’s proving to be the one to beat at the moment.

It’s not so easy to tell in this image… but the Revlon does have the edge in the length stakes.  Not by a huge amount…. just by a whisker an eyelash 😉  It also smells kinda lovely… I know some of you laugh at me commenting on the smell, but some mascaras STINK!  It’s always nice not to have to hold your nose everytime you lift the wand to your eyes.

However, the Boots 17 Wild Curls takes the lead in the definition stakes… it defines each lash with greater precision and has an overall less clumpy appearance.

Final Verdict – The new Revlon Grow Luscious mascara is a nice, solid high street offering.  It hasn’t blown me away with incredible results and I’m not gonna tell you I love it.  I like it.  I’d like it more if it was a couple of pounds cheaper.

Revlon Grow Luscious Mascara is available in most high street chemists (Boots et al.) and online, priced at £9.99

Don’t walk…. RUN to the Barielle website where until the end of the week you can take advantage of the Buy One Get One Free offer that’s ongoing on the Spring/Summer shades.

But… as if that weren’t enough… they’re automatically deducting ANOTHER 20% at checkout which means that you can nab two Barielle’s for £6.40!

Ordinarily retailing at £8 a piece, we don’t need calculators to deduce the amazing value in that offer!

If you want a quick recap of the Barielle shades I’ve featured so far (inc. some of the Spring/Summer offerings):

Belly Dance
A Bouquet for Ava
June Bug
Decadence
Polished Princess
Falling Star
Make it a Latte
Grape Escape

Let me know if you indulge!

When I was in H&M last week, my attention was diverted (as always) by the polishes on display.  I already own Goddess on Stage (a TDF purple) and just looking at the bottle, I could tell this was gonna be a knockout.

I wasn’t wrong!

Envy Me is a beautiful, beautiful, BEAUTIFUL shimmering emerald green.  It practically dances on my nails.

Opaque in one coat, it needs two for a flawless finish – the formula was not that far off being perfect.  All for £2.99 – is that even legal?

My photo is pants, I need to find a window which doesn’t have so many smaller panes of glass in it… the reflection really screws with the overall look.  But anyway…

If you haven’t tried the H&M polishes yet, why not?

I also picked up Spending Cash with Carl which looks like a royal blue version of this and Grey Sky which looks like a shimmery putty grey.

Do you have any H&M favs?

As I look through my collection of cosmetics, I see the same names appear over and over…

and over again…

NARS, MAC, Shu Uemura for the high end stuff.

Bourjois, NYX and GOSH for the high street.

I’m a creature of habit it seems.  It’s not that I don’t love to expermient… a beauty blogger is nothing if not adventurous and as I’ve said from the very beginning… this has never been a quest to find my holy grail items.  If I stopped looking and being tempted by new products, the fun would be gone for me.

However, in a beauty world that promises you the Earth… I tend to fall back on brands that deliver time and time again.  Brands that perform well for my particular needs.

So I’ve started to think about the brands that I haven’t taken the time to explore and get a feel for…

For me, it would have to be:

Laura Mercier, Lancome, Bobbi Brown (though I’m just starting to) and Giorgio Armani (high end)

Max Factor, Milani, Too Faced and Prestige (high street)

I’m curious to see if we get much repetition in brand names…

Which brands remain relatively unexplored territory for you (both high end and high street)?