A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Happy Bank Holiday you lovely lot. Hope you’re all still in bed or at least indulging in some kind of guilty pleasure on this fine (probably raining) Monday morning!

I’ve got a super giveaway for you today courtesy of deal connoisseurs Groupon!

Fancy winning a £100 voucher to spend on the site? You can fritter it away on all manner of wonderful things… my latest purchases have been a six-session IPL deal which I’ve just phoned up to book and two Odeon tickets for some cut-price cinema viewing!

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1. Victoria from Victoria’s Makeup Secrets smoulders in Wet n Wild’s Stoplight Red.

2. The inimitable Anita from Pleasureflush positively shines in a glossy Guerlain Rouge G in Garconne

3. Lovely Lauren from A Lauren to Herself is clearly celebrating how great her lips look in Avon’s Charged Cherry!

4. Kelly from MusingsofaSlightlyMadMother is letting her lips do the talking with L’Oreal’s Made for Me Colour Riche in Cassis Passion.

5. Stacey from AddtoCart has fashioned her own moisturising brand of red combining Estee Lauder’s Signature Hydra Lustre lipstick in Rich Red mixed with Lanolips Lip Ointment in Apples – beautiful!

If you want to join in with the fun and submit your red lip look, please email me a photo of your lovely selves with the following info:

Small portions at restaurants, a child that can’t complete a sentence without repeating the word “Mummy” over and over before getting to her point, and body lotion that slides ineffectually over my skin for all eternity without actually sinking in.  These are the kind of things that get on my tits daily.

E45 have released a trio of new body creams that dodge my irritation-o-meter, they’re light, pleasantly slippy, cooling on the skin and quick to absorb.

The three varieties are best suited to normal/dry skins as a daily moisturiser, if you’re looking for something more nourishing for brillo-pad elbows and shins, look elsewhere in the range for heavier formulas.  My favourite of the three and the one that I’m classing as my “inexpensive beauty find” is the E45 Silky Radiance Body Lotion* (the one on the far right in the above picture).

This is going to be a particularly good choice for the summer months as it contains a really subtle shimmer that makes you look all glowy and healthy.  I can’t even emphasise just how crucial it is to have shimmery limbs right now – I mean, I can’t turn on the telly without being blinded by some s’lebs shiny legs and this is a far more appealing version which doesn’t like you’ve rolled around in the butter dish.

E45 Silky Radiance Body Lotion is available to buy instore and online at Boots.com, priced at £3.99 (also available from Supermarkets and the usual places)

* press sample

As the summer approaches, my thoughts turn to bullet-proofing my makeup to last the course of a hot, tiring day.  I don’t know about you but despite my dry skin, the first to make a dash for freedom is any and all makeup down the bridge of my nose.  Then my eyeliner melts into my tear ducts, developing into hugely attractive eye bogies before the last of my foundation gives up the ghost and literally puddles in the area where my nose meets my face (hello face).  If it’s really hot, my eyeliner will also strive for symmetry and create matching lines across my upper eyelid where the “hoods” rest gently on the lash-line.  It’s a beautiful sight to behold.

Bobbi Brown’s new Long-Wear Eye Collection promises to stay the distance without letting you down or showing you up.  The eye pencils from the new collection are richly-coloured and deeply-pigmented.  They’re creamy and have that soft, gel formula reminiscent of my beloved Avon Mega Impact/Supershock Gel Eyeliner (whatever they’re bleedin’ being called at the moment).

The Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Eye Pencils* are available in six shades: Jet, Mahogany, Black Navy, Black Plum, Hunter and Smoke, providing a colour option whatever your personal taste.  I really like an off-black range that carries the density of an inky black but without the harshness on maturing features.  Not that my features are maturing, shutup.

These pencils haven’t given me any trouble sharpening, the uber-softness of the Avon ones means that I do need to chill them in the fridge for half an hour prior to sharpening, total pain when you need a pencil stat.  I didn’t have to do this with the Bobbi Brown pencils.

Mahogany is swatched on the left, Smoke on the Right.  You can see the density of pigment is really quite impressive.  It’s a teeny bit less pigmented than the Avon offerings (which are insanely pigmented) but as I said earlier, they do provide a little more precision during application thanks to a firmer texture.

Here are the same swatches after scrubbing the back of my hand with soap and water for a good 30/40 seconds.  I was impressed that they didn’t smear or transfer as I swiped and rubbed.  You can see that the pigment has eroded in places but if you imagine that swatch as drawn across your lash-line, I think you’d be fairly happy to emerge from the swimming pool 3-hours later with that much still intact no?

Unfortunately, whilst I think these pencils are brilliant.  This is where the praise ends.

I’ve been comparing these all along to the Avon SuperShock Gel Eyeliner pencils (which don’t come in as many shades admittedly) simply because the Avon ones are my benchmark and indeed, my daily staples.  As I swatched both alongside one another, I expected the Bobbi Brown ones to outlast the Avon.  They don’t.  They wear identically both on the back of my hand and on my waterline, around 5 hours.

The Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Eye Pencils are priced at £17 each.  The Avon SuperShock Gel Eyeliner pencils are currently priced at £4 each.  And there’s the rub, I’m not going to recommend that you spend extra money needlessly… both are fabulous long-wearing, densely pigmented pencil liners.  The Avon ones are substantially cheaper.

The Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Eye Pencils are available to buy on counter and online from BobbiBrown.co.uk

* press samples

About a billion years ago (ok, 4) a friend lent me a Canon A-1 35mm SLR and a 24mm lens.  My first taste of a film camera that pulled no punches when it came to working without technological stabilisers.  I loaded up a Neopan 1600 film (with some help from the internet) and took it off to London with me to shoot a couple of frames.  This was four years ago.  When I got back, I put the camera in a cupboard and to my shame, forgot about it.

My friend found himself getting back into film and about a month ago and I got a gentle nudge in the direction of “Oi, gimme my camera back”.  Remembering the film that was still in there, I headed out to Winchester and finished off the roll before sending it off for processing with my fingers crossed that the film hadn’t spoiled too much over time.  I got the pictures back yesterday and it seems so strange to look at those first photos of London that were taken long before Leila put in any kind of appearance…

London, Summer 2008.

Oh how things had changed by the time I’d browsed through to exposure #11 of a 36-frame film, taken 4 years later.

The exposures are all over the place and my focus is off on a few but now I want a film SLR to call my own and I want to learn how to develop my own, a project for the Summer perhaps!

Avon Nailwear Pro+ Nail Shades are currently less than half price, reduced from £6.00 to just £2.50 a-piece. I’ve included some swatches below* so you can pick your next killer colour. Coral Reef is hawt for Summer, one of those beautiful guava shades that will suit both cool and warm skintones equally.

From Left to Right:

Coral Reef | Cosmic Blue | Decadence | Lemon Sugar | Licorice | Pastel Pink | Real Red | Romance | Sea Breeze | Star | Starry Sky | Viva Pink

Avon Nailwear Pro+ Nail Shades are available to purchase online from Avonshop.co.uk

* press samples

There are a few things that are genuinely hard to beat in this world. A beautiful smokey eye, a toddler’s podgy hand searching to find yours, a pint of pear cider on a Summer’s afternoon… and an amazing curry.

This isn’t an amazing curry, but I’m doing my best!

Whenever I order anything from the Indian takeaway, it has to be accompanied with a side of Sag Aloo which I usually come to blows over with my husband. “YOU TOTALLY HAD MORE THAN ME!” And this, from the man who doesn’t like spinach. But anyway, I digress….

Since I found a tired-looking cauliflower in my fridge a couple of months ago, I’ve been perfecting my Aloo Gobi recipe… but in the end, I gave up and went on eBay to buy some spice mix. So should you, it’s like… really, really nice and 100x easier when you’ve finished a day’s work and you all you want to do is slump infront of Eastenders with some tasty grub. Yes, I know… slattern.

You’ll need (serves 4):

200g of potatoes, cubed (you can leave the skins on)
1 very large cauliflower (or 2 small), floretted into bite-size pieces
2 onions, diced
4/5Tbsp Bombay Potato Spice Blend from spiceworks.co.uk
2 tins peeled plum tomatoes
1 large handful of frozen peas
1kcal spray cooking oil
100ml low fat soured cream

Cover a baking sheet with tin foil and arrange the potatoes and cauliflower over the surface. Spray generously with the 1kcal spray (about 30 sprays). Roast in the oven for around 30 minutes at 200 degrees celsius. You want the tips of the cauliflower to just start turning black.

Fry the onions in a couple of sprays of the cooking oil and once translucent, add the tomatoes and spice mix.

Simmer gently until the cauliflower and potatoes are ready to come out of the oven.

Whoops, mine are a little too well done… probably by around 5 minutes. It’s all good though, they didn’t actually taste burnt. Add the roasted vegetables to the frying pan.

Add a little water (about half a cup) to the frying pan and combine all the ingredients to ensure they’re well-coated with the sauce. Simmer on a low heat with a lid on to ensure that the cauliflower is cooked through. Continue to add a little water if the cauliflower requires longer cooking.

Add the frozen peas and remove the lid to reduce any excess water. Take off the heat and stir in the soured cream.

Serve! We ate this wrapped in a couple of chapatis with a salad on the side. Delicious it was too! I think that roasting the potato and cauliflower makes all the difference to this recipe, it concentrates the flavours and greatly improves the texture (imho).

* For WW, I pointed this (per portion) at 13 Pro Points, this includes the two chapatis.

If you’re in central London tomorrow, it’s well worth your while taking a pot of unloved face cream along for the ride.

Say what?

Elemis are doing one of their much-loved Pro Collagen Marine Cream amnesties! Infact, it was one of these sneaky initiatives that got me hooked on the stuff in the first place!

The amnesty is only available in John Lewis, Oxford Street and is in celebration of the branch’s re-launched beauty hall! If you want to get your hands on a free 15ml tube of the legendary Pro Collagen Marine Cream (worth £26.60), simply pop along to the new Elemis counter with your current face-cream and make the swap!

Just don’t blame me if you get hooked ok?

The offer starts tomorrow and is available while stocks last. Hurry!

It doesn’t matter how many billions of blades your razor has, they all have one thing in common – they go blunt.  It may be after 7 shaves, it may be after 15 or even 20 but you can bet your bottom dollar that before you’re ready to chuck it in the bin, you’ll be sporting the freshly corned-beef look on your shins.

The Razorpit is an ingenious solution to prematurely blunting razors.  Its objective is to clear the razor head of the tiny hairs, dead skin and shaving soap that inevitably builds up in there over time.  Yeah, gross – hope I don’t come back as a Razorpit in another life.

It works quite simply, thanks to the power of friction.  We all know about the power of friction don’t we?  I’ve seen enough carpet burns over the years (not on me, obvs) to appreciate the impressive force that a bit of friction can create.  In order to fire up this power on the Razorpit, you need to apply some shaving foam or liquid soap to the flat plane of the gadget and push your razor over the lubricated surface in the opposite direction to the regular shaving motion.

My razor wasn’t particularly gunked up but it did remove a couple of stray hairs that I’d checked were firmly wedged between the blades just moments prior to testing it out.

Overall, my feelings on the Razorpit are mixed.  I think it’s a great gadget that seems to do exactly what it says on the tin, and I’ve no doubt that it will prolong the life of my razor.  I think my hesitation lies in the simply sexist fact that I think this one is more for the boys in the household?  I just feel that I can live without something like this in my life… Mr. L on the other hand is now sporting a very pink new accessory.  And loving it.

My recommendation?  Get one for the man who has everything.

The Razorpit is priced at £19.99 and available to buy online (in either pink or black!) from presentsformen.co.uk

* press sample

Essie Limited Addiction came out a couple of years ago and I picked it up alongside some of it’s partner releases, Sew Psyched and Merino Cool, you remember that collection?  Lush wasn’t it?

I don’t own very many Essie polishes, and I don’t really like this one.  As a red, it just misses for me.  It’s darker-toned with a not-entirely-creme finish.  You may be able to tell that despite the three coats shown in the photo above, the overall look isn’t quite uniform?  It’s a little sheerer and more jelly-ish in some places and whenever I look down at my fingers, it just looks a little… untidy.

If you’re looking for a more work-appropriate red that isn’t all shouty and screamy though, this may well be the one for you.

Essie Limited Addiction is priced at £8.50 from BeautyBay.com

How much do we love a beautiful duochrome nail polish? Almost as much as a cracking holo, that’s how much.

Love it even more if I can browse and pick it up during my weekly shop.

Oh, hai Eye Candy London… I don’t believe we’ve met but I’m liking the look of your Colour Flip polishes very much indeed!

Well, they’re a bit pretty aren’t they? Also available from this brand are some crackles (yawn), a magnetic range, a rainbow flaky and a graphite (think chanel-inspired).

The Eye Candy London range is available to buy instore at Sainsburys (yeahhh!) priced at £8 each.

I popped into one that I was passing yesterday but couldn’t spot them yet. Keep your eyes peeled ladies!

Have you spied these new instalments in the beauty aisle yet?

I’m not a body lotion type person but I have about four bottles open, each at various stages of emptiness… I slather them on and wander aimlessly across the landing and back, waiting for the icky feeling to subside.  I have to use them because underneath my skin, I have scales.  After showering, the water seemingly dissolves the upper epidermis leaving me feeling more horny toad than supple and soft.

The worst bits are typically in those hard to reach areas, namely that horizontal line that connects both shoulder blades.  As the water evaporates, my skin tightens and I feel a familiar tingle that has me running for the body cremes.  When I say “me”, I actually mean Mr. L… I’ve already said that I can’t reach.  It’s a daily ritual… and one that I’m very grateful that I have a husband to help me with.  I’m so high maintenance.

Enter LUSH’s latest innovation, Ro’s Argan Body Conditioner*.

Taking the hair conditioner theory and applying it to the skin, it’s basically a tub of sweet-smelling, oil-infused skin conditioner that you smear over your body after washing, then rinse off prior to stepping out of the shower.  Towel dry your skin gently and you’ll feel as if you’ve just smothered yourself in a rich body creme.  And unlike last year’s innovation, Toothy Tabs… I’m a massive fan.

A). It smells completely delicious, like a mixture of cocoa butter and roses… truly edible.

B).  It really works.

It feels odd on the skin whilst you’re still in the shower, like you’ve just waterproofed your skin with a slather of grease to be honest.  Deliciously-scented but lardy nonetheless.   As I patted my skin dry with the towel, it felt simply amazing and still does, sitting here 5 hours later. *strokes arms*

A little goes a very long way and the trick is to increase its ‘spreadability’, work with a small amount and don’t be afraid to really eke it out over the skin’s surface.  It’s generously rich in oils and although some parts may feel like you have more product on than others, have faith that you’ve done a good job in spreading the conditioner.  It’s not the cheapest outlay but it will easily last twice as long as my regular body moisturisers PLUS, I don’t have to stand around shivering as I wait for it to sink in!

LUSH Ro’s Argan Body Conditioner is priced at £15.50 for 225g and I highly recommend it for post-shower lizard people.

* press sample