I adore these collector face palettes that Clarins release, I don’t know how they manage to create such softly luminous powders but whatever it is, it’s working. Really, really well. I can speak only for my combo/dry skin type but for me, powders are a tricky thing. I want something that will set my foundation, concealer and cream blush but I don’t want it to mattify too heavily. Sure, I need to take the edge off the shine on my t-zone but I also want it to impart a luminosity to my complexion. Basically, I want it all.
Clarins’ Spring 2012 offering is more warm-toned than their Autumn face palette. I find it perfectly wearable on my cool-toned skin though, so don’t let that put you off. The Colour Breeze Face & Blush Powder* imparts the same kind of luminosity whilst setting both liquid and creme products well. It’s sheer and it’s flattering. Ultimately, it’s everything I’m looking for. Again.
It’s not quite as pretty as previous versions but I’m not afraid to use my makeup and take off the oversprays etc, so that doesn’t bother me. Between these and the Guerlain Meteorites, I just don’t think that I need to explore any other powder options for dry skin. Holy Grail people, holy. grail.
Also, just to be super-brilliant, Escentual.com are currently offering this at a saving. You can buy online for £25.00 (that’s £5 less than RRP).
For some of us, makeup brushes can amount to a big investment and it pays to look after them. It’s only fairly recently that I’ve bothered – to be honest, I’m a little bit easy-come-easy-go as my Mum used to tut at me whenever I was being less than careful with my possessions.
(foundation size – good for foundation and small powder brushes)
I use Brush Guards to protect my favourite brushes. The mesh slips over the handle and cradles the bristles tightly, it’s not the perfect solution for travelling but I love them after washing my brushes as I can simply stand them on end (brush guard down) and this protects the ferrule whilst ensuring that the bristles dry to a perfect shape. Infact, they’ve even recovered some of my domed brushes that I thought had lost their shape for good. A worthwhile investment!
(blush size – great for large(r) eyeshadow brushes)
Brush Guards are priced at around £5.95 a packet and come in various sizes from eyeliner-brush sized right up to kabuki. I bought mine a long time ago from Cocktail Cosmetics.
Do you do anything to protect your brushes? (or have you got better things to do with your life? haha)
NEOM’s latest fragrance to join their impressive lineup of natural-wax candles is simply called Happiness* and strives to create an atmosphere of calm and contentment wherever it’s placed. The North Yorkshire-based brand is stocked in hotels and spas nationwide and prides itself stripping products back, cutting out the chemicals and re-imagining the notions behind truly natural and organic brands.
Too many times, ‘natural’ means that we have to compromise on the things that make products so instantly appealable. We sacrifice the wow-factor for the knowledge that we’re using products that are kinder to the Earth. Rustic packaging is all well and good until you want to gift it, natural scents can often be uninspiring without a little help from the lab, and the overall impression leaves you wishing you could have your cake and eat it too.
This is where NEOM excels, it doesn’t overlook all the little things that allow a natural brand to feel as luxurious as your usual high-end alternatives. Infact, I’ve just bought my mother-in-law’s Mother’s Day gift from them, so it’s just as well!
This three-wicked candle offers up to 55hrs of burn time, the wax melts evenly across the surface and burns cleanly, creating no soot to darken the heavy-glass container (or indeed your ceiling!)
The scent is a little hard to describe. It’s a fresh, floral scent which ultimately gives an impression of space. White space, open airiness with a touch of sweetness. Like standing in a gallery that’s had its windows opened for the morning, letting the freshness breathe through without actually being out there, in it. This clean scent is bolstered with a hint of lemon, sweet – not tart. I sometimes struggle with white flower scents, I’m not the world’s biggest fan of jasmine and yet when done right, it can barely be beaten.
The scent lingers impressively… walking back into a room, I noticed it staunchly clinging to the ether a good couple of hours after extinguishing the flames.
This would make a wonderful house-warming gift for a loved one, it’s perfect for communal areas and entrance halls to lighten the atmosphere and give a home that freshly-aired feeling.
NEOM Luxury Organics Happiness Home Candle is priced at £37.50 (single-wick 75g versions – £13.00) and available to buy online from neomorganics.com
What are you scenting your home with at the moment?
Or… sweety nails as I like to call them. What is it about these punchy corals that make me want to bite off my fingertips in the hope of a sugar high? They’re just edible.
I think I should start a tag: nail polishes that make me want to self-cannibalise. This one also does it to me. As does this one.
As much as I love Macbeth on my nails, the fact that the above photo shows a single coat means that I may, MAY have to save this one for my tootsies. I hate painting my toenails but it has to be done in the Summer and a one-coater coral with a beautiful formula is pretty much holy grail for ladies with short arms, big boobs and a belly. You know what I’m talking about.
Buy this one, buy it now – it’s a fabulous shade for Spring with a brilliant formula to boot (even if it’s not the most original shade in the world).
Butter London Macbeth is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online at PowderRooms.
Late last year, I talked about a Brenda Anvari candle that I’d been burning, it was full of spice and citrus and all those wonderful Christmassy things that we get heartily sick of by January. Well, I’m back with another product from her Persian Rose range of scented bodycare products.
Last weekend, I scraped the last few grains from the jar of Persian Rose Body Scrub* and howled a gentle “nooooooooooo” into the air as I replaced the lid. You see, it’s a really freakin’ beautiful scent.
The rose isn’t the most complex of fragrances, I think of it as pretty universal – it’s kinda safe, being both inoffensive and rather lovely. Brenda has taken the classic rose and whipped it into a headier form. Persian Rose takes on a dirtier, naughtier vibe with altogether more earthy qualities.
What I’m saying is, there are two types of people in this world. Those who like the thought of walking in to find a scattering of rose petals on their bed, and those who like the thought of being physically whipped with a rose, thorns and all. I’ve always hated the thought of waking up with a rose petal stuck up my nose. You know?
I also like a good scrub. And this is a good scrub. It’s got just the right amount of grrrr going on, it rasps a little at the skin and feels like it’s working some proper skin-smoothing magic. But if all that sounds a little too intense for you wimps, don’t worry because the salt granules sit in a base of beautifully-scented Persian Rose-infused oil that ultimately leaves your skin feeling nourished and kissably-smooth.
I haven’t mentioned the body moisturiser* or the bath oil*, because… well… they’re ok. There’s nothing about them that makes me not want to recommend them, they make great flankers for layering the scent but there’s nothing that screams “buy me above everything else available on the market” either. It’s a tough world out there.
If the thought of Persian Rose doesn’t float your boat, other scents available from the Brenda Anvari bodycare range include: Ylang Ylang, Sandalwood & Black Pepper, Lime, Mandarin & Grapefruit, Orange Blossom, and Pomegranate, Raspberry & Patchouli. Prices start from £8.95 and you can shop online.
What bath-time scents are you loving at the moment?
It’s like Kajagoogoo (oh children of the 70s/80s) but pusier. Why does the word pusier never translate to text very well? Pus. i. er. as in yellow stuff, not… oh, nevermind. Look, I’m talking zits. Spots, pustules, pimples, blind boils, are you eating? Sorry.
I’m talking about the ones that grow their own head (arms, torso and a pair of legs) overnight. You can often feel them brewing in advance… and of course, knowing that the last thing you should do in. the. world. is touch it, you spend all day picking at it, poking around it and generally coaxing it to come out and sing too shy, shy, hush, hush, eye to eye.
So what are your options? Don’t say toothpaste or I will mock you.
Well, you could cover it with a big granny-tights coloured plaster and just pretend it’s not there. This is fine if it’s somewhere discreet, like on the soles of your feet but not so good if you can a). see it or b). reach it. Basically, it’s a rubbish option because you know that within five minutes, you’ll have that plaster off and will be digging around with it again until you get the skin-picking guilts.
How about some topical treatments? Some people swear by Sudocrem but the only tub I have in the house has actually been used for it’s intended purpose and I just don’t fancy it.
Then you’ve got your topical treatments. In all manner of guises…
The ones that I’m dabbling in at the minute are The Sanctuary’s Blemish Serum* which helps to calm the redness and general rage that accompanies the facial intrusion. BareMinerals Blemish Remedy* which comes in a powder form and contains sulphur to draw the bugger out more quickly and finally, La Roche Posay’s Effaclar A.Iwhich keeps making me think of that film with Jude Law in it which works both as an anti-bacterial and exfoliator to promote faster healing. It feels hugely comforting to have a dedicated blemish-buster to tote around in your handbag.
And finally, you’ve got the ever-faithful aspirin mask. I actually put quite a lot of stock in the value of this remedy, especially as a way to get the blighter to look a little less inflamed before an evening out.
But I wanna know, what do you do when you feel a particularly unholy zit brewing?
I don’t talk enough about hair on here, mostly because I’m pretty rubbish at taming my locks. Not only rubbish but also a little bit intimidated by hair looks, styles, accessories… the whole kit and kaboodle. Anyone else feel like this?
Anyway, I wanted to share with you my new favourite blog; Hair Romance, because if anyone can inspire me to reach for my kirby grips, Sydneysider Christina can.
And on another hair-related note, I thought you might be interested in seeing some of the hair-madness that goes on backstage during London Fashion Week. I already experienced first-hand just how crazy it gets behind the scenes… but throw in a bunch of styling tools and I bet it gets even hotter in the hair corner!
You can see some more Fashion Week videos from ghd including some great how-tos from their creative director Kenna on the ghd youtube channel.
You wouldn’t haven’t seen this beautiful polish from Max Factor. I did a quick search and couldn’t find any other bloggers talking about it, so I thought I should put that right immediately.
I know right? I think I’m on to something with this scoop.
The lovely Liloo picked this up for me and sent it halfway across the country because my local Boots seems to stock every Max Factor Max Effect Mini Nail Polish shade except this one. I’m not actually going to bother talking about it, I was about to write “this is a pretty good dupe for…” (finish that sentence) and I just couldn’t be bothered because even Leila knows what this is a dupe for. If you’re the one person left in the world who doesn’t know? Hai Google.
So, instead… just enjoy a little bit moar Fantasy Fire nail p0rn. Swatched here over Estee Lauder Teal Topaz because on its own, it’s kinda shit.
Max Factor Fantasy Fire is priced at £3.99 and available (probably) to buy instore at Boots or Superdrug. Also online.
Listen up, ‘cos you’re about to learn something really important. If you ever find yourself stranded in the wilds of Africa, you’ll thank your lucky stars that you read this post.
If you see a cheetah lurking in the bushes and he’s giving you the eye, run for the nearest tree. If it’s a leopard, don’t. Cheetah’s can’t climb… leopards actually like to drag their prey up the nearest tree, so you’d be doing half the hard work for him.
But how can you tell the difference between a leopard and a cheetah? They’re both cat-like and spotty right?
Study. Those are cheetah spots. Or at least, they’re supposed to be.
BUT THEY’RE NOT!!!
As cute as those new Tweezerman tweezers undoubtedly are (you know how I love my wild prints!)… those are, in fact leopard spots. For shame Tweezerman, you could’ve got a beauty blogger eaten in the wild!
Behold.
The cheetah (on the left) has oval, regular shaped spots whilst a leopard (on the right) has rosette shaped, irregular spots. Now, you tell me… are those new tweezers leopard-print or cheetah-print?
Yeah, no need to thank me. It’s all part of the service. You wouldn’t get this in Cosmo.
.
Tweezerman Safari Print Cheetah *cough* Slant Tweezers are available from next month, priced at £22.00
p.s. I really love my Tweezerman wide grips, I’d even take them on safari with me to catch mosquitos a la Mr. Miyagi – sort of.
Jo Malone have released a trio of floral fragrances this month to celebrate the classically British country garden, a much-loved place (which often exists more in our national pride than reality!) awash with well-cultivated flora grown in haphazard and slightly eccentric ways. The combination of notes within the three fragrances are purposefully juxtaposed, resulting in a playful take on the classic floral fragrance.
The first thing to strike you about the new collection is the departure from the signature Jo Malone look, the beautifully illustrated, botanically-inspired bottles are quite something and tell the story of the scent that awaits you inside. With the Olympics and the Queen’s Jubilee, the idea of “Britishness” is something that will undoubtedly feature heavily as the year progresses and Jo Malone are clearly striking while the iron is hot on this score.
I received a sample of Iris & Lady Moore* which at first sniff, is all about the Iris. It’s a powdery, traditional floral which initially fails to transcend the expected until just a couple of moments later when the Lady Moore (geranium to you and me) slices through the nobility with a blast of spicy freshness that my nose reads as a tingle with a citrus-kick. All well and good, but then things get truly delightful on the dry down as the vetiver raises its aromatic head. It adds pungency, masculinity, and earthiness laced with freshly-cut grass and delivers just what is needed to introduce a modern twist to the conventional genre.
I would class longevity and sillage as average and do wish for a couple more hours wear, particularly as the longer it warms against my skin, the more deliciously earthy it becomes.
As for the other fragrances, I haven’t had the pleasure of sniffing them yet but have been convinced that I sadly won’t be finding the particular brand of rhubarb that I’m looking for in White Lilac & Rubarb (which by all accounts offers the more acerbic, vegetal kind). I really should stop procrastinating about it and simply purchase Comme des Garcons Rhubarb Sherbert which has been on my wishlist for a very long time.
Peony & Moss promises a beautiful mix of a delicate floral, with a hint of juiciness from the cassis kept well-rounded with an earthy base. I hope that the moss adds something a little dirty and damp to counteract the lightness in the floral, that’s a contrast I’d love to smell.
All three of the London Blooms fragrances are limited edition and stock is already selling fast. They’re priced at £72 for each 100ml cologne.
Before I close this review, I’d like to draw your attention to easily the most breathtaking Mother’s Day gift to grace my inbox this year. Jo Malone have created a beautifully-presented gift in partnership with Wild at Heart, one of the country’s most inventive florists. Costing more than just a pretty penny (but worth almost every one of them), you can choose to have your chosen scent (any of the Jo Malone fragrances qualify) cushioned on a bed of fresh flowers. This is available on the 16th, 17th and 18th March only, instore at Harrods in the Beauty Apothecary Hall.
For such a lavish gift, you can expect to pay £115 – perhaps for only the most deserving of Mums, I suggest deducting £1 for each time your mother made you eat your peas.
From pale to dark, teal is the perfect blue/green combination and it’s everywhere this season. I thought I’d swatch the cream teal nail polishes in my collection to give you some alternatives to Estee Lauder’s Teal Topaz spring sell-out polish.
From left to right: Estee Lauder – Teal Topaz | Misa – Dirty, Sexy, Money| Barielle Shades – A Bouquet For Ava | American Apparel – Peacock | Ciate – Superficial
If shimmers are more your cup of tea, don’t forget that March is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and Lena White are donating £1 to Ovacome – the ovarian cancer support network – for every sale of OPI’s Teal the Cows Come Home.
Are any of these shades catching your eye? What’s your favourite teal?
