A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Thank you for all the Twitter and email entries for my recent giveaway to win one of five Revitalash Volumizing Mascaras (worth £19.50 each)…

… I’m pleased to announce the following five winners, each of whom will receive a Revitalash Volumizing Mascara to add some va-va-voom to their lashes!

@ladytubedriver

@powderedalmond

Dr. M. Karela (via email)

@theladiesuk

@scarie

Congratulations!  I’ll be in touch over the next couple of days to request address details and will get your prize in the post by the end of the week!

My lovely friend Rowena from Cosmetic-Candy sent me a couple of Skin Food Nail Vita polishes last year and after falling in love with both of them (and not having swatched them yet, naughty!), I popped on eBay and picked up another that had caught my eye over on Witoxcity’s fabulous blog.

Puppy Purple is a beautiful, vampy shimmer – perhaps a little too vampy for March but I’m happy to break the rulez for this one.  It’s a little thick, though completely controllable and opaque in a single coat, although I did use two in the above photograph for the neatness value!  The shimmers in the creme base are striking and apparent on the nail, catching the light beautifully.  It’s not the most unique polish in the world but it’s one that I’m delighted to have in my collection and wouldn’t give up!

Perhaps the best thing about this polish?  I paid £3.49 for it, including shipping from South Korea.

You can buy Skin Food Nail Vita in Puppy Purple online from rubyruby76 on eBay.  Shipping was a little slow, but no major grumbles.

Last week, I logged onto one of my favourite online shopping destinations, escentual.com to take advantage of one of their current offers.  Until the end of March, the beauty emporium are selling their French pharmacy brands (including: Avene, La Roche Posay, Vichy and more) at 1/3 off the usual price.  It’s the perfect time to take advantage of some of those purchases you’ve been putting off!  Or was that just me?

I picked up the Avene Cleanance Soapless Gel Cleanser, the La Roche-Posay Effaclar AI (because LondonMUGirl always recommends it), the La Roche-Posay Lipikar Huile Lipid-Replenishing Cleansing Oil, A-Derma Oat Milk Soap Free Foaming Gel, and the La Roche-Posay Lipikar Baume AP.  My order came to just under £31, so I got free delivery aswell!

My order arrived the next day!  I was really tempted by some of hte Klorane shampoo/conditioners aswell, particularly as they do some for sensitive scalps but in the end I decided that they could sit on the wishlist for a little longer, especially as I stocked up on ‘poos during my last mooch around in T.K. Maxx.

What’s your favourite French pharmacy brand?  Have you taken advantage of the escentual.com offer yet?

If you’re a little colour-shy when it comes to your eye makeup, coloured liners are the best place to start.  You can introduce a full spectrum of shades without turning too many heads just by adding a pop of colour to the waterline.  My favourite way to wear brights is with a flash of colour just beneath my lower lashes, it brings brightness to my eyes and makes me look a lot bolder than I feel!

Estee Lauder have released two Intense Kajal Eye Crayons this Spring, a chunky pencil with a creamy formula that lends itself well to both lining and using as a shadow.  If you’re looking for that pop of colour, might I point you in the direction of 03 Dramatic Teal, a shade that I can see flattering most, if not all, skintones.

Not much to look at in their generic stubby pencil-form, these crayons glide without pulling and yet remain firm enough to achieve some truly precise strokes across the eyelid.  The tip stays strong despite pressure and deposits nothing but creamy colour in its wake.

You need to allow around 2 minutes for the pencil to set fast and if your eyelids are particularly oily, you may find these migrate a little.  For normal complexions, these should set and hold throughout the day.  The only time I had any bother was when wearing a moisturising primer, combined with a cream foundation and to be fair – I was an oil-slick by lunchtime everywhere.

Both shades are limited edition, if you pick up one thing from the Spring Collection, let this be it.

Estee Lauder Intense Kajal Eye Crayon in 03 Dramatic Teal & 01 Dramatic Black are priced at £17 a-piece and available on counter and online from boots.com – the teal appears to be sold out everywhere else!

Question of the Week: – Which non beauty sites do you visit daily?

Answer: – Aside from the usual social networking sites (twitter, facebook & pinterest), I’ve been visiting http://www.nordinho.net more or less daily for the past 12 years, which makes me feel very old.

Clumps of Mascara – is an enormous fan of Make Up For Ever’s HD foundation. Just watch this transformation.

EauMG – shares her most worn perfumes of winter. What were yours?

Gouldylox Reviews – If I can use this to make a cute updo with ease, so can you.

Krasey Beauty – has the details on the makeup used on-set for The Hunger Games movie!

Lipglossiping – wants just two minutes of your time to help raise awareness on behalf of blogs who have lost subscribers in the recent Google Friend Connect removal for non-Blogger blogs.

Nouveau Cheap – The new eyeshadow palettes from Milani look so pretty, but it’s the new mascara that has me mesmerized!

Pink Sith – How is the Rouge Bunny Rouge Sheer Lipstick Succulence of Dew in Fluttering Sighs like Scarlett O’Hara? Well, you’ll just have to read the review to find out!

UK brand Barry M persuaded Prime Beauty to change her mind about loose eye shadow, maybe an ol’ beauty blogger can learn new tricks!

Phyrra – is giving away a gorgeous Bali Ha’i dress from Shabby Apple!

Vampy Varnish – loves some of the items in the new MAC Chenmancollection.

we heart this – an ode to BPAL’s Lupercalia, their collection of perfume oils based on love poems.

Beauty Junkies Unite – Blushes and bronzers that adjust colors based on your skin’s pH? Physicians Formula recently launched them—-the pH Matchmaker collection. Does this kind of innovation work, or not? Check out the review!

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What sites do you visit daily?

I received a press release the other night announcing the new China Glaze Prismatic Collection.  Six new shades — a chunky glitter fest, complete with holographic particles.

The shade descriptions:

Optical Illusion – Aqua green glimmers with a hint of purple filled with pink, yellow, silver, orange and green flecks
Polarized – Silver metallic sheen sprinkled with yellow, pink, orange and green glitters
Prism – Grape purple holographic gleams with pink shimmer and glitters with pieces of pink, blue, green, orange, silver and gold
Ray-diant – Greenish-gold shimmer filled with specks of cilver, pink, green, orange and blue
Liquid Crystal – Bright blue holographic with purple tint dusted with silver, gold, green, pink and orange
Full Spectrum – Baby pink bursts into holographic magenta to party with silver, gold, blue, pink and green particles

They sound amazing don’t they?  But honestly, I’m over chunky glitters that claim to be holographic and duochromes that only just make the grade.  I’m really not seeing much that yells holographic in these and isn’t it about time we had another proper holo collection from the big players anyway?  C’mon now…

Maybe it’s ‘cos they’re a bit pastel-ly but I’m just not going to break my neck in the rush to add these to my collection.  I was wondering if I might feel differently once the swatches started to appear.  Here’s some from Scrangie (who can basically make me want anything) and Nail Stories.  I’m still not lemming them, maybe my nail polish lem has been broken?

What about you?  Are you excited for the China Glaze Prismatic Collection?

I’ve started delving into my new acquisitions from Pro Beauty and first up is SpaRitual’s It’s Raining Men – a swirl of pastels that look, at least to me, like a big cupcake-y nebula.

Comprising blue, pink and gold – on my nails, you mostly see the pink throughout the day.  I enjoyed messing with Leila’s head “what colour is it Leila?”

“Pink! No, it’s blue! Wait…”

Three coats will give a solid opacity, I was expecting to need more for this kinda of multi-chrome paleness but three covers admirably.  Any tip wear doesn’t really show too obviously and I didn’t get any chipping after even three days (with a top coat).

It’s Raining Men is available to buy online, priced at £8.50 with free shipping

Thanks to my pale, cool-toned colouring, I’m usually restricted to white-toned jewellery, gold can look quite brassy against my skin tone.  My wedding ring is a plain, silver band… not the most luxurious of metals but I’m not a fan of white gold and platinum stretched way, way beyond our student budget at the time.

A few evenings ago, I was introduced to Tiffany & Co’s new metal.  Yes, a whole new metal – created specifically to mark the iconic brand’s 175th year.  RUBEDO™ (pronounced roh-bay-doh not roo-bee-doo!) is a beautiful, glowing rose with a warm pink hue which promises to be universally flattering on any skin tone.  And indeed it complemented my colouring very nicely, sitting perfectly between the yellow and white spectrum of the usual jewellery options.

Looking at the collection in person, the new RUBEDO™ metal looks to be a little pinker than standard rose gold, perhaps a touch cooler, with more brilliance than I expected and a little less creaminess – if that makes any sense at all.  Each piece from the RUBEDO™ metal collection made in this, the brand’s anniversary year, carries the signature of its founder Charles Lewis Tiffany.

I tried on a couple of pieces, the Tiffany 1837™ wide ring in RUBEDO™ metal (£505) and the Tiffany 1837™ cuff in RUBEDO™ metal (£3,050) – funny story, I couldn’t get the cuff off after I’d tried it on.  And by funny, I mean so embarrassing I wanted to die.  My wrist did the best impression of a sharpei puppy as I tried to wrangle it off.  “Oh sorry!  It won’t come off so I’ll just have to take it home with me”.  Can you imagine?

Anyway, you’ll be pleased to hear that prices for the collection start at a slightly less bank-breaking £160 for the Tiffany 1837 Bar pendant in RUBEDO™ metal but if we’re going to play my favourite ‘price is no object’ game, the most lustworthy piece, in my opinion, is the exquisite Tiffany 1837™ interlocking circles bracelet.

Which is your favourite piece from the new RUBEDO™ metal collection?

Estee Lauder are really hitting the nail on the head (pardon the pun) with the shades recently no?  They’ve revamped their line of lacquers and have blown the cobwebs away with a real injection of colour.  Teal Topaz features in their Spring 2012 collection of Arizona-inspired shades and this one is a corker.  But does the formula live up to the kerb appeal?

Honestly?  Not quite.  The above photo shows three coats, and for a bold creme of this type, I’d usually expect to need only two – and the reason it needed three coats was a patchy application.  Whilst I’d mostly covered the nail bed after two applications, it just hadn’t applied smoothly enough to leave it without a final coat.  The formula is also fairly thick, which contributed to a little drag… it’s nothing terrible, but at its price point – I’d expect not to have these issues.

On the flip-side, it has great shine, dries quickly and hasn’t given me any wear issues.  I do love these teal shades and this one I’d imagine to be particularly flattering on all skintones.

Estee Lauder Pure Color Nail Polish in Teal Topaz* is available to buy on counter and online from Harrods, priced at £14.00 for 9ml

* press sample

Another fun shade from LittleBu making my little boo a very happy boo indeed…

My daughter’s polish collection is beginning to outdo my own!  We picked up another bottle of Emma when we were in London last month to replace her beloved red that sadly met its end when the impatient one sent it flying from the coffee table.  There was no lasting damage to the sofa (thank heavens for water-based formulas!) or that would have been the end of Leila’s foray into mini-manicures.

To say that my daughter got a little bit excited when a bottle of the creamy blue Olivia landed on the doormat is an understatement.  Well, I think that first photo probably gives you the idea – it was like watching a chocoholic discover a Twix in the fridge after the local co-op had shut its doors for the night.  If you don’t have any ishoos with painting your child’s nails (the Little BU formula is non-toxic and completely washes off with soapy water – eventually!) then it is lovely bonding time, and I never realised that L was capable of such patience and stillness!  A perfect treat for Mother’s Day?

The polishes aren’t particularly cheap at £9.95 each but the look on L’s face was pretty priceless!

* Olivia (the colour featured) was a press sample

You know, in the world of internet acronyms I’m a bit of a fail.  I’m an expert LOLer, can tell my PMSL from my ROFL and do a good line in OMGWTFLOL (STFU).  Beyond that though, things get complicated.  Between the years of 2004 – 2008 I was in some kind of acronym void and when I emerged blinking into this new world, I remember firmly not having a clue what BFF meant.  It’s not really my fault, Mr L is my best friend and he doesn’t go around refering to me as his BFF, I was handicapped from the start.

Cacee is a brand I’d never heard of before seeing a selection of their polishes on a stand at Pro Beauty.  I picked up their BFF Nail Polish in Shaina for around £3.50, twirling it in my fingers and coo-ing at the scattered holo particles suspended in a pretty, chocolate brown base.  Excited!

It’s a two-coater and applies smoothly, sadly drying to a gritty finish – I guess those holographic particles just aren’t fine enough to sit nicely on the nail.  You also lose a lot of the holo effect once on the nail, it’s not an ugly polish by all means (two coats of Lumos sorted out the gritty finish) but it just could have/should have been better you know?

Have you tried any Cacee polishes?

Monday saw me dragging my bleary-eyed self up the M3 (via a McDonald’s breakfast), around the M25, and down the M11 to London’s Docklands for a beauty extravaganza of epic proportions.  Professional Beauty is a trade show aimed at salon and spa owners, employees, technicians and therapists across the country.  It’s a place for people in the industry to purchase stock, find new suppliers, uncover the latest technologies and innovations to futher their business and simply network with their peers.

It’s huge.  I had an email from a regular pro beauty attendee who warned me to wear comfy shoes, they weren’t wrong – once you get inside, there is so much to take in, you’ll be there all day!  I’ll apologise in advance for the number of pictures shall I?

Jessica Cosmetics GELeration system

Dadi Oil Nail Treatment (I’ve been lemming a bottle of this since I read about it on SalonGeek but I’d left my purse with my Mr. L and only popped back in to take a final few pictures when I spotted it!)

Beauty cases galore

Poor love must have been freezing!

Mii Cosmetics

The latest in IPL hair removal?

Answers on a postcard as to what these slightly scary-looking contraptions are for!

Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics

Complimentary hand massages at Clarins

Dermalogica

Urban Retreat even managed to get a car in there!

The concourse outside the show floor was heaving all day long

Too tempting to take a nap on!

I’m telling my hairdresser she needs to get one of these bad boys!  Her bookings would triple overnight.

Crown Brush get everywhere!

Nubar

O.P.I

Still quite a few of these about

No thanks!

More hair extensions on display than on a night out in Romford

Too. much. oestrogen.

A little bit of calm at the Spa Ritual stand

Other brands in attendance included Elemis, Jane Iredale, Aromatherapy Associates, Art Deco, Bliss, Caci, Decleor, and Fake Bake, the list goes on… basically forever.  You could put in an order for everything from Garra Ruffa fish tanks to training courses, from laser lipo devices to salon stationary… from the largest machines right down to the tiniest, most delicate eyelash extensions, the floor was heaving with beauty.

The two days saw a total of almost 35,000 visitors pour through the doors and considering the sheer volume, it was pretty well organised.  I never queued for longer than 10 minutes (though admittedly avoided some of the most popular stands), facilities were plentiful and there were enough staff on hand to deal with the numbers.

Are you a salon/spa owner, therapist or technician?  Ever been to Pro Beauty?

* I was invited to attend Pro Beauty as a guest of SpaRitual