A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Hourglass Cosmetics will be holding a special event at their Liberty counter this Saturday, 22nd October.  Gina Brookes, the brand’s Artistic Director will be flying in from the U.S. to hold her first UK personal appearance.

The highly respected makeup artist, known for her work with Madonna and Gwen Stefani will be giving expert insight, offering tips and demonstrating applications on a 1-2-1 basis for lucky attendees!

Appointments will be held between 3-6pm and issued on a first come first served basis.  To book, call 020 7730 1234 ext 2632.

The lucky winner of the set of Boots 17 Magnetic Nail Polishes is…

Twitter follower…

Congratulations Zeby!  I’ll be getting in touch v. soon to nab your postal details so I can get your prize dispatched!

Thanks for taking part everyone and better luck next time!

Please forgive the weary expression, it’s late at night – I wanted to film this during the day but I just don’t get 10 minutes to myself at the moment.  I thought it might be fun to record my thoughts on the new (ish) Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector Daily All-In-One B.B. Cream…

Click play to see what I thought of it.

Ingredient List

Aqua/Water, Isononyl Isononanoate, Isohexadecane, Glycerin, Alcohol Denat., PEG-20 Methyl Glucose Sequistearate, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Methyl Glucose Sequistearate, Cetyl Palmitate, Nylon-12, Cyclohexasiloxane, Propylene Glycol, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Stearyl Alcohol, Argilla/Magnesium Aluminium Silicate, Phenoxyethanol, Parfum/Fragrance, Caprylyl Glycol, Lithium Magnesium Sodium Silicate, Disodium EDTA, Linalool, Benzyl Salicylate, Limonene, Caffeine, Ascorbyl Glucoside, Geraniol, Cellulose Acetate Butyrate, Polyphosphorylcholine Glycol Acrylate, Citral, Ammonium Polyacryldimethyltauramide / Ammonium Polyacryloyldimethyl taurate, Polyvinyl Alcohol, Sodium Chloride, Butylene Glycol, Sodium Hyaluronate, [+/- May Contain CI 77891 / Titanium Dioxide, CI 77491, CI 77492, CI77499 / Iron Oxides]

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Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector Daily All-In-One B.B. Cream is priced at £9.99 for 50ml and available to buy online and instore at Boots in shades Light or Medium.

Inexpensive and YSL.  Not two words that you’d usually find in the same sentence but as I was browsing some of my usual late-night shopping haunts, I came across a lovely beauty bargain.

For less than the price of most high-street eyeshadows, you can scoop a YSL Water-Resistant Cream Eyeshadow in a non-disgusting shade.  £4.99.  Bargain of the week yes?

Let me show you how pretty it is…

It applies wet and blends to a sheer, crease-resistant base of smokey purple/grey.  It’s a great start for building up a smokey eye or worn on it’s own as a subtle wash of colour.  It blends nicely with either a brush or fingertip and is one of those great work-to-night out essentials.

The swatch on the left shows a couple of layers built up, whilst the swatch on the right shows how I wear it most of the time with a slightly darker crease colour.

YSL Water Resistant Eye Shadow in Amethyst Grey is priced at £4.99, available online from DirectCosmetics.com

Today’s FOTD features an Estee Lauder eyeshadow palette called Enchanted Berries*, featuring some beautiful Autumnal, berry shades that work really nicely to accentuate green eyes.

The rest of the FOTD comprises of:

~ bareMinerals Original Foundation in Fair
~ Max Factor Lash Extension Effect in Black
~ MUFE HD Blush in #4
~ MAC Creme Cup Lipstick

I always feel a bit lame that I can’t list a billion products but the truth is, I don’t get time to apply a billion products.  One day, I’d love to learn to apply concealer in a way that makes me happy/comfortable enough to do it daily because every face can benefit from a little light and clever concealing – I only bother for nights out or if I have a huge zit.

What are you wearing on your face today?

* press sample

The budget skincare brand that enjoys a cult following in the U.S. is now available to buy in Boots.  I’ve previously bought the Cetaphil cleanser from my local Lloyds pharmacy but availability was hit and miss – hopefully, with such a major stockist now, those troubles will be a thing of the past.

Despite an ingredient list that consists of mostly fatty alcohols, SLS, parabens and mineral oil derivatives, this somehow works for me.  It’s not perfect but it is cheap and it doesn’t strip my dry skin like most cleansers.  If you’re an organic-loving skincare girl, give it a wide berth.

If you’re curious to try something new to settle your irritated or reactive winter skin, give this a go before spending the big bucks!

Cetaphil is priced at £9.18 for the large 236ml size bottles, available online and instore at Boots.

Luxury spa and skincare brand ESPA are launching into House of Fraser, Westfield with the unveiling of their new counter on the 1st November.

To celebrate the launch, ESPA will be offering their first 100 customers a complimentary on-counter 15 minute HomeSpa facial from one of ESPA’s Skin Therapists as well as an introductory ESPA gift, worth £56!

The gift includes ESPA’s best-selling products: Lift & Firm Intensive Serum (8ml), Pink Hair & Scalp Mud (100ml) and Hydrating Cleansing Milk (60ml), so you can experience the wonders of ESPA at home.  The introductory offer is available until the 30th November, subject to availability.

They say it’s always nice to go away, and it’s always nice to come home again.  I say that it’s even nicer to come home if you’re bringing back some duty-free shopping with you.  Duty-Free is big business and ontop of the great savings over the usual retail prices, brands are now offering travel exclusives to holiday-makers and frequent flyers.  As if it’s not bad enough that they get to go on holiday without us in the first place, they now get beauty exclusives too?!

Pfft.

Just to make those of us who aren’t going away this winter even more jealous.. here are some of the travel exclusives that caught my eye at the recent Heathrow Press Day.  Yep folks, there’s reason enough here to head straight to the travel agents.

A feast for the eyes with huge brands offering baby bundles and limited releases to slip inside your suitcase.  From Guerlain’s beautiful fragrance bottles, La Prairie skincare sets, and Clinique travel exclusives to OPI’s mini country-collections and a super-cute Marc Jacobs Daisy fragrance coffret.  There’s something to get you in the holiday mood before your plane has even left the tarmac.

But my favourite travel exclusive?  Well, it has to be this beautiful palette from YSL…

The Very YSL Palette holds a very pretty combination of colours and comprises: 4 eyeshadows, 2 lip colours and a peachy blush/highlighter.  The palette is ultra-slimline (about the size of an iphone) and includes a large mirror and three applicators.  Honestly, it would be worth forgetting your makeup bag for.  The palette is priced at £37.95 and available at Heathrow from World Duty Free.

Do you sneak a few beauty purchases into your luggage when you go on holiday?

Question of the Week: – What polish is currently on your toes?

Answer: None! I’m too scared of my toenails going yellow like my fingernails have to polish them outside of Summer time sandal-wearing!

Lipglossiping – celebrates World Porridge Day with some oaty-goodness!

Pink Sith – is drooling over her newest Armani Eyes To Kill Intense Shadow #3 in Purpura. Is it Taupe or Purple or both? You decide!

Prime Beauty – gives us a preview of bareMinerals limited edition eye shadow palette, The Cocktail Hour. Make mine a double!

Phyrra – tells you how to organize before they rise, by showing you the Meow Cosmetics Zombie Apocalypse collection!

Vampy Varnish – If you love glitter, you might love these colors from Deborah Lippmann for holiday 2011!

we heart this – you SO need to take the new lip products from MAC Styledriven for a test drive.

Clumps of Mascara – Sally Hansen recently released a stunning collection of jewel toned polishes. You pretty much need them all. Really.

Gouldylox Reviews – My new obsession is the dry shampoo from UNITE. It’s not white, you can put it everywhere and it works better than the others I’ve tried. How’s that for an endorsement?

I haven’t really gotten on board with the whole colour-blocking thing yet, I mean sure — if I buy a dress that makes use of the trend, fine… but as for me putting together my own colour-blocked outfits?  Well, that’s for someone with better fashion intuition than me.  I’m sure there’s a fine line between colour-blocking and colour-clownpants.

These soaps from Fred Butler look a bit color-clownpants to me, but we won’t tell him that.  I can’t look at these without wanting to lick the screen.  They’re not colour-blocked masterpieces, they’re ZOOM Ice Lolly soaps!!

From November, these will be available in three flavours scents: Mojito, Strawberry Daiquiri and Tequila Sunrise  – they inject a bit of 1980s summertime into a miserable slide toward a 2011 Winter.  Now, where did I park my chopper?

They’ll be priced at just £5.50 each (with free delivery) from FeelUnique.com

The lovely Lily from BeautysBadHabit is doing another stint with us today and showcasing Illamasqua’s latest collection: Theatre of the Nameless – take it away Lily!

Illamasqua have been at it again with their Autumn/ Winter collection, ‘Theatre of the Nameless’, being yet another which has had the blogosphere abuzz. Inspired by the dark, decadent creatures of ’20s Berlin who owned the night with illicit acts and wild looks, the ‘Theatre of the Nameless’ is an unapologetic nod towards Illamasqua’s original inspirations.

To my surprise, when Charlotte received a few ‘Theatre of the Nameless’ items to review, she sent them my way since such ‘odd’ shades are pretty everyday for me! Especially lipsticks, with Illamasqua ‘Disciple’ (inky navy blue) being a firm favourite.

‘Kontrol’ lipstick (£15.50) is a medium dark, blue toned purple with a twist of grey and extremely impressive pigmentation. One swipe and this baby is as opaque as they come. To me, ‘Kontrol’ is the perfect ‘night on the town’ colour if you’re a little…um…gothically inclined? Alternatively natured? Heck. If you’re up for wearing something more interesting or ‘edgy’ than primary red or hot pink – this is for you!

I love ‘Kontrol’ with a strong, opaque, sharp application, but it also looks lovely dabbed on and coated with a sheer gloss for a more forgiving finish. This lipstick will last as long as you do, I’ve gone entire days (and then well into the night) wearing this without it fading or smudging – very impressive indeed!

‘Kink’ polish (£13.50) is one of four from this collection, all of which have the same ‘rubber-look’, waxy finish. The new texture (for Illamasqua at least, I recognise the finish as satin/ semi-matte) is bound to be love it or hate it with all who try it. Personally, I’m a fan, though my opinion may have been swayed by the gorgeous, deep green colour! ‘Kink’ was extremely thin (managed to drip it down my jeans – oops), opaque in two coats, fast drying and lasted two days before any chips appeared – which, for me, is average. The best thing? It’s called ‘Kink’. ‘KINK’. Who doesn’t want to say they have a bottle of ‘Kink’?!

All in all, another fascinating and boundary pushing (green gloss – need I say more?) collection from Illamasqua, but by now – would we expect anything less?

Very exciting stuff as always!

Marina emailed last night to let me know that the new issue of MakeUp4All Online Beauty Magazine is now live!

Packed with fab content, beauty advice, exclusive interviews and the hottest trend reports….

Don’t miss it!!