A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Whilst in Brighton on Tuesday, I went along to check out the BIBA and Beyond exhibition at the wonderfully-quirky Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, situated just behind the Royal Pavillion building. The museum is hosting a fascinating retrospective on the designs of Barbara Hulanicki whose iconic work span the last 50-years. She’ll forever be known as the woman who brought affordable fashion to the high-street back in the 60s with the launch and opening of her first shop in West London.

The exhibition centres around an impressive display of vintage BIBA clothing, donated largely by one Angie Smith, better known as “Biba Angie” for her obvious passion for the designer’s creations. From graphic dresses to flared trouser-suits, sharply-tailored coats to cute swimsuits, the display captures the essence of the polish-born designer’s imaginations and brings them back to life with a narrative that tells the story of the brand from conception to current-day.

Barbara’s work, first as a freelance fashion illustrator is documented via a series of drawings and sketches, most notably the one below of Audrey Hepburn.

The accompanying quote sets the tone for the exhibition that pitches the designer (quite rightly) as someone who was acutely aware of how the “real world” worked, she comes across as someone who has never lost touch with what it means to be a dedicated follower of fashion minus the limitless budget of the modern celebrity.

Her feistiness and determination to provide real-world glamour for the archetypal Biba Girl – feminine to the max but with a tough, untouchable edge – reached its peak in the early 70s when Big Biba, a seven-storey department store opened under the moniker “‘the most beautiful store in the world”.

The hallowed Art Deco building on Kensington High Street housed everything the BIBA fan desired, from trendy clothes to designer furniture, from makeup to paints and wallpaper, you could even buy Biba-branded soup and baked beans!

The collection of BIBA cosmetics on display at the exhibition has been loaned to the museum by none other than the wonderful Lisa Eldridge who has a great demonstration on You Tube dedicated to creating the Biba Dolly look as worn by the girls in the shop. BIBA was the first store that let customers try makeup before buying it, leading the way and creating the blueprint that other stores would follow.

The colours are vibrant and richly-pigmented, vampy Clara Bow-esque lips were the order of the day and smokey eyes with plenty of lashes contributed to the finished look.

The packaging featured the dinstinctive black-and-gold logo and delivered practical performance, something that was almost as important as the contents to the modern BIBA shopper.

I’m going to leave you with the rest of my photos from the exhibition, I’m not great at talking about or thinking about fashion and design… but if you have any interest in learning more about a true pioneer and forebearer to the modern high-street, do check out the BIBA and Beyond exhibition at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery before it closes on the 14th April. Adult tickets are £6, student tickets (with an NUS card) are £4.

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Wanna see some pretty swatches?  OF COURSE YOU DO.

The Body Shop have updated their colour collection with an impressively inclusive range of eyeshadows.  Their new Colour Crush Eyeshadow promises intensely pigmented, pearlescent or matt eyeshadow (dependant on colour) with a silky-soft texture .

I’m a huge fan of the “old” Body Shop eyeshadow range but have always disliked their “baked” (domed) eyeshadow releases.  The brand used to do some amazing taupes in the old silver-potted range and I was rather disappointed to see that this new incarnation of colour is rather lacking in that department.  I was pretty confident that the texture would still be as tasty as it always was (and it is) but I’m gonna need to see MOAR shades before I get super-excited over this new range I’m afraid!

Anyway, let’s get on with some swatches shall we?

All of the above shadows fall into their “pearlescent” finish, and each one is pretty well-pigmented, you wouldn’t need more instant payoff from an eyeshadow.  I can’t comment on the matte range as I haven’t tried.

Golden Girl is a must-have, not only because it makes a great lid-brightener for a neutral eye regardless of your colouring, but it’s also a pretty awesome NARS Albatross dupe for those on a budget.  Multi-functional eyeshadow FTW no?

I’ve worn a few of these over the past couple of weeks and my only caveat is that you do need to wear them with a primer.  The silky-texture is very forgiving on dry/mature eyelids but without primer, they migrate into the crease quite quickly.  The flipside to this is that you’d be hard-pressed to find easier blending from a high-street eyeshadow.

The Body Shop Colour Crush Eyeshadows are priced at £7.00 each and available instore and online at www.thebodyshop.co.uk

* press sample

I received a press release yesterday announcing the upcoming launch of a new BB cream to the UK market from The Body Shop.  Vitamin E Cool BB Cream is set to hit the stands next Tuesday (26th March) and promises to deliver light coverage in a moisture-rich formula.

The BB Cream will expand upon the bestselling Vitamin E range (a range of which, I’m personally a big fan – toner anyone?) and is enriched with wheatgerm oil, one of nature’s richest sources of Vitamin E.  It can’t actually find any other skincare benefits from this one, and with no sun-protection or other anti-aging technology included… it’s not really a BB Cream is it now?  HAI TINTED MOISTURISER!

Launching 26th March – £10.00

Perhaps most interestingly, The Body Shop have dared to release this new BB Cream in only one shade, classing it as a one-shade-fits-all product.  In reality, this can only mean one thing, coverage will be extremely, extremely light.

From a personal point of view (screw you guys), I’m particularly interested in this release because, if you’re a long-term follower, you may remember that my favourite Summer foundation trick is to use a light, moisturising liquid/cream base with just a hint of colour before applying mineral powder foundation ontop to adjust my coverage level until I’m happy with the finish.

Could this be my new favourite thing?  I AM EXCITE!

Will you be trying it?

The Body Shop Vitamin E Cool BB Cream launches next week, priced at a purse-cheering £10.00, available in-store or online at www.thebodyshop.co.uk

As I’m writing this, it’s just gone 1am and I’ve not long got home from Brighton after spending a day enjoying the shops, doughnuts, sights, cocktails, and most importantly, the BIBA and Beyond Exhibition that’s currently being held at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery.  I’m completely done-in!

Although it was bitterly cold today, the sunshine was generous and we spent the afternoon darting between the shadows in an attempt to defrost ourselves in its cautious rays.

I like Brighton but in all my years of living less than 65 miles away, I visited the city for the first time only two years ago.  I could lose myself in the Lanes forever looking at all the antique jewellery, and it often feels as though I have when the higgledy-piggledy back streets play their dastardliest tricks on my memory.

The North Laine area is a bit like Camden used to be, except I grew up paying rural-town charity shop prices for shabbies and can’t bring myself to spend ££££ on an old handkerchief vase or shirt-dress.  Bloody “vintage” ruining it for everyone 😉

Shopping in The North Laine

Typical Brighton tat

The impressive Brighton Pavillion

Doing my annoying shooting-from-the-hip thing at Brighton Pavillion

Brighton Pier

Pier Doughnuts! (om nom nom)

Like the birds were gonna get a look in with the doughnuts, ha!

A trip to Brighton is never complete without…

…a Black Forest Martini…

…or perhaps a Best of British? Gin, rhubarb, elderflower, apple, honey and lemon

Choccywoccydoodah never fails to impress

…amazing cakes!

A lovely, albeit slightly moody seafront

A long but brilliant day!

I’ll do another quick post tomorrow or Friday on the actual BIBA exhibition, I wasn’t sure what I’d make of it but it was so incredibly well executed and I hope you don’t mind me going a little off-topic and sharing my thoughts.

I’m a simple girl. I don’t want much from life: flawless skin, lashes that touch my eyebrows, a bigger bum/smaller belly, and hair that doesn’t look like it’s been backcombed, when it hasn’t.

When I was growing up, I didn’t associate “frizzy hair” with my hair-type.  I thought that “the frizzies” was something only women with thick, curly hair were afflicted with.  You remember the old adverts on the telly where some super-serum would turn a mass of unruly curls into poker-straight silken locks yes? Well, that’s not me.

My hair is pretty straight to begin with but full of flyaways and random sticky-out bits that won’t lie flat?  And let’s not forget the flat-at-the-roots, major poofy stuff going on at the ends which results in my number-one nemesis, triangle hair.

It took me far too long to realise that half my problem was being caused by my hair dryer.  I can emerge from the salon with the hair of my dreams and most of the time, there’s very little “product” in it because the stylist always tells me that… “your hair is fine, you don’t want to weigh it down.”  OK.  Then what VOODOO are they doing to my hair that I can’t do at home?

“It’s all in the blow dry!” they say (as smug as you like), wriggling their fingers at me like they’ve been possessed with the powers of the late, great Alexandre de Paris himself.

“Shut up.”  says me.  OK, I don’t… but I bloody want to.

The Nicky Clarke Hair Therapy 2000-watt Hair Dryer* is a supposed solution for taming the frizz on a daily basis.  It’s far bulkier than my current hair dryer and boasts three heat and two speed settings with a cool-shot button which is great for “setting” curls if you’re using rollers.  Despite its bulk, it’s really lightweight… infact, it feels pretty “cheap” to be blunt.

I guess there’s always a payoff between designing something like this so that your arms don’t ache after 30-seconds of use, and wanting the product to actually “feel” good in the hand.  This doesn’t feel good in the hand… but then, it doesn’t make my arms drop off either.

The 2000-watt motor delivers enough power to dry my hair within around four-minutes.  This is particularly interesting because my old hair-dryer (also rated at 2000-watts) takes around seven-minutes to get my hair dry enough so I can leave the house.  That’s a pretty good time-saver, and I’m assuming that I have the ionic and tourmaline technology to thank for this difference.

Or maybe it’s VOODOO!  Either way, it gives me more time to enjoy my cup of tea that I usually have to leave half-finished… and for that, I’m thankful.

The Nicky Clarke Hair Therapy Hair Dryer is also pretty quiet.  I live in a flat and have washed and dried my hair later than 9pm with ALL OF THE GUILT.  I try to do it as quickly as I can… with all the doors shut and sometimes, if I’ll just do my fringe (absolute essential!) because I’m a considerate neighbour… but this hairdryer is pretty quiet.

I must admit, I didn’t notice it at first and it was my husband who pointed out the difference.  You can imagine the fun I had annoying him by comparing the two hairdryers for noise levels.  Don’t worry, I made sure I did it during daylight hours!

This dryer comes with some freebies, they’re pretty lame.  An unbranded, generic comb and a couple of sectioning clips.  I kinda wish it came with one of those BIG HAIR diffusers as well as the nozzle style for when I’m rocking the curly-haired look but I guess we’re not in the 80s anymore Toto.  Perhaps more impressively, it comes with a loop so you can hang it up if you want.  Ok, it’s only me that’s impressed by that addition.

There’s one final thing that I don’t like about this hair dryer, the cord isn’t quite long enough for me.  I mean, cords have been getting longer and longer haven’t they?  I need a longggggg cord to stretch into the hall so I can use the big mirror sometimes, and this doesn’t reach.

It’s not shamefully short (don’t make me go and measure it) but if you need a hair-dryer with a “long” cord, don’t get this one.

And finally, what about the frizz?  Am I now sporting super-sleek locks?  Well, I sort-of am actually.

Ok, it’s no salon blow-dry, it’s not a miracle but, BUT… there is definite improvement.  No longer am I sporting an equilateral triangle on my head, it’s now more…. Isoceles.  And that’s a good thing people.

The Nicky Clarke Hair Therapy 2000-watt Hair Dryer is priced from (a ridiculously reasonable) £18.00 and available to buy online from very.co.uk

* press sample

See this here…

…that’s my workplace.   Just on the left there near the printer.  The door in the bottom left?  That’s the kitchen.

You can see my problem.  I only have to lean back and I can be in both places at once.  Sort of.

It’s fine… really.  But it does have impact on how I have to plan for weight loss because I can’t use my “workplace” as any kind of sanctuary from food.

In real terms, what this means for me is that I simply won’t let myself have unhealthy “convenience” food in the house.  Sure, I’m greedy… but I’m also kinda lazy and if it takes any effort to prepare, I’m not incentivised enough to go out to the kitchen and create an unhealthy snack.  Heaven help me if there’s a Pepperami in the fridge though.

Having a 3-year old, and a husband who grew up on treats (skinny git) means that I have to find a balance.  Crisps?  I buy Quavers or Skips (2PP a pack), something that won’t break the bank when I do indulge in a packet.  Chocolate?  Sure… but instead of multipacks of Boost and Twix, I buy Tesco’s or Asda’s own-brand Caramel Wafers (2PP each) or Curly Wurlys (3PP each).  This means that when my husband deems it time for a cup of tea in the middle of the afternoon, I can join him with a side of “naughtiness” without feeling any guilt.

There are of course, some immense benefits to working from home.  I don’t have to run the gauntlet of the office “feeder”.  There’s no-one plying me with cakes and biscuits and I don’t have to navigate a thousand pastries on my way to the kettle for a cup of tea.  This ain’t no Starbucks.

The above photo is an example of my lunchtime arsenal.  Err, I don’t eat all of it.  I mean, these are the foods I have in my cupboard to ensure that I can create quick lunches that don’t fill me with dread at the thought of eating them.

I’m just going to list some of the lunches that I’ve had over the past week or so to give you a better idea, sorry I don’t have photos – I only bother instagramming my dinners!

~ Tuna/mayo pitta (I use my sandwich press to heat it) with crisps and fruit (we always have bananas, apples, grapes & satsumas in the fruit bowl).

~ Smoked Salmon/Cream Cheese bagel with cherry tomatoes and a Curly Wurly

~ Egg white omelette (with onion, parmesan, cherry tomatoes, and garlic) plus side salad.  I always try and buy those “living salads” that I can snip a few leaves off when I need them.

~ Pitta pizza, which is a split pitta bread spread with tomato puree and dotted with raw onion, wafer ham/salami and grilled for a few minutes

~ When I’ve made a batch of banana bread, I’ll have a generous slice of that and pare back on the savoury side by filling a plate with a few breadsticks (1PP for 2), some low-fat cream cheese, spicy salsa, carrot sticks and hummous.  But I was getting a bit addicted to hummous so didn’t buy any this week!

I love soups but at the moment, I’m not organised enough to be making batches.  I’m not hugely keen on salad as anything other than a “side”… which is why I’m not talking about putting together chicken/tuna salad pots and munching my way through them in front of the computer.  I would die of unhappiness.

There’s an interesting article up on the Weight Watchers website this week from their research department which discusses the correlation between weight-gain and the workplace environment.

How do you deal with food and weight loss in the workplace?  Do you have an office feeder?  Maybe it’s YOU?!

* I am a Weight Watchers blog ambassador and my links to their website are affiliated.  I have received no payment for this post.

Question of the Week – What’s your current favorite face powder and why?

Answer – It’s this one from Clarins Autumn collection the year before last!  I’ve already secured a backup of it on eBay.  It’s so finely textured for a pressed powder and brightens my complexion without adding any sparkle.  Simply perfect.  In my opinion, Clarins make the best pressed face-powders on the market.

Prime Beauty – dishes on the new Laura Mercier Smooth Creme Lip Colours–there are 14 of them, see two of her favs!

Phyrra – shares several brands from The Makeup Show LA. Check it out!

Vampy Varnish – shows you several options for bright lips in the hotter Spring and Summer months!

we heart this – Stef shares one of her favorite bright eye shadow palettes, AND you can get it for under 5 bucks!

Beauty Junkies Unite – Curious if the new Miracle Blur Instant Line Smoother from L’Oréal Paris really works or not? Check out this review with before & after photos, then decide for yourself!

Clumps of Mascara – tested a makeup remover that just wasn’t up to par. In fact, it just, well…it sucked.

EauMG – The 1920’s are going to be a big trend this year thanks to The Great Gatsby movie coming out this spring. Instead of trying a perfume inspired by flappers, try one actually worn by flappers! Victoria reviews her favorite carnation perfume.

Gouldylox Reviews – Love the YSL Rouge Pur Couture lip stains? Don’t miss these at the drugstore – some of the colors are an amazing dupe!

Lipglossiping – deploys her taste buds as she gets to grips with Jo Malone’s limited edition Sugar & Spice fragrance collection.

Nouveau Cheap – has been testing the new CoverGirl Outlast Stay Fabulous 3-in-1 Foundation for a while, and finally has her verdict.

Pink Sith – has three of the new NARS Satin Lip Pencils to share with you and a question about lip swatches

My Beauty Bunny – shares her cruelty-freee dupe for Covergirl Mascara.

Guest Post of the Week, as chosen by Prime Beauty – I don’t have a discerning nose but love perfume so I go to Cute and Mundane to read fragrance reviews. Dovey doesn’t only review fragrances though, she’s all about the makeup too.

It’s hard to beat a wonderfully-scented candle.  For one thing, there’s something undeniably romantic about how the gentle glow can make even Quasimodo look like Cara Delevigne.  Fire-safety aside, we all know that beauty brands would sell a truckload more product if beauty halls became wick-powered, but as flourescent lighting proves, there are times when candles just aren’t the most convenient option.

Before you reach for the plug-ins, consider another option.  The humble reed diffuser.

Brands do try and make these diffusers look elegant but the reality is that a reed diffuser is basically a pot of scented oil with a bunch of twigs sticking out of it.  Whilst candles can rightfully get all superior about what a great table centrepiece they make, diffusers are better off putting in their hard work from the sidelines.

Thankfully, the continuous and long-lasting scent that this one from NEOM Luxury Organics delivers to the home is nothing short of wondrous.  Sumptuous is a blend of rose and neroli that is both calming and uplifting, albeit in a more tender way than something like their Invigorate fragrance which slaps you about a bit to get the blood flowing.  Sumptuous on the other hand is all about the caresses and telling you that you’re the most beautiful person in the world.  No, really!  Well, sort of…

My reed diffuser has been doing the rounds since I unpackaged it last week.  A couple of days in the bathroom where it’s far too bloody pretentious to actually light a candle, hidden behind my Mother’s chair when she came over for her Mother’s Day dinner last week (“what’s that lovely smell Charlotte?” / “Oh my flat always smells like this!”), and propped up on the windowsill in the kitchen when I burnt some popcorn.  And if you’ve ever burnt popcorn, you know you need a massive scent-intervention.

If you have pets in the house, small children, or clumsy partners… reed diffusers make a great alternative to the mighty candle.

The NEOM Organic Reed Diffuser is discreet too, I’ve seen some that are around 3ft tall and higher… no-one needs that much scented-twig in the house.  Despite its small-size, this one delivers enough fragrance to scent a small room easily.  Bathrooms and hallways are blissfully filled with the perfume and I’d say that it delivers strong fragrance to just over half of my (average-sized) sitting-room.

Remember also, that the scent is continuous, you can control the strength of the scent simply by adding or reducing the amount of reed sticks in the aroma diffuser.  I no longer have to scramble around for a lighter to light a candle after I’ve buzzed a guest in through the intercom!

As for longevity, well NEOM rates their reed diffusers to last for up to 5 weeks, so you’ll be pleased to hear that you can buy fragrance oil refills for £18.00 each, as opposed to forking out the original price tag for the bottle, fragrance and sticks again.

NEOM’s Organic Reed Diffusers are priced at £35.00 each and available in a choice of eleven different fragrances from www.neomorganics.com

* press sample

I’ve just received this striking campaign image for the new YSL Baby Doll collection featuring the ubiquitous Cara Delevigne which will be released at the end of May.  The collection will include: four coloured mascaras (black, brown, blue, and purple), five coloured eyeliners, a new glossy lipstain and a nail polish.

I still haven’t tried any the YSL glossy lipstains (my intense dislike of “gloss” is making me so hesistant) but I always love the promise of a new YSL mascara, one of the few cyclic launches that gets me excited!

Now, am I getting horribly old or is the male “interest” in the campaign image genuinely young enough to be my offspring?  I can’t believe I’m able to say that without a hint of sarcasm.  He looks about what… 14?  I’m 31.

SON?!

Sweet jesus of all things prematurely ageing, I’m off to drown myself in mint imperials.

The new YSL Baby Doll Mascara will be available on counter, and online at yslbeauty.co.uk from the 22nd May, priced at £24.50

Back in January, I gave some initial thoughts on the new limited edition Jo Malone Sugar & Spice Collection and I apologised for any incoherence arising from my hastily scribbled notes and fragmented memories of the scents!  Today, I’m hoping to offer a little more clarification and depth on three of the five new fragrances available.

Let’s just dispense with half of you straight away shall we?  If you’re not a gourmand fragrance lover, give this collection as wide-a-berth as possible.  There’s nothing here for you, not even in the slightly-less-foodie Elderflower & Gooseberry scent which valiantly skirts the sweetness with a lighter touch than the others in the collection.  You will look upon this collection and wonder how such a distinguished brand have managed to create such a food-flavouring abomination of colognes.

Harsh words perhaps, but I can see how they can be applied depending on your personal fragrance tastes.  The Jo Malone Sugar & Spice Collection is unapologetically saccharine.  It is as much brave as it is predictable, setting itself up for a battering from many faithful fans who consider it the absolute height of dumbing down for an unwelcome audience.

I’m on the fence.

When I first started to wear and enjoy fragrance, I was utterly drawn to the gourmand side of things.  Those were the smells that were most relatable to my tender palate and nose.  Ginger biscuits, chocolate oranges, and lemon tarts?  Stuff of dreams.  And Jo Malone have captured these dreams in the most delicious of ways, that is surely impossible to deny.  From the campaign imagery of delectable treats to their beautiful muse who looks more like a macaron than a model sets the scene.  This collection is here to whet your appetite, and if your appetite lies not with the sweet stuff, it’s time to move along.

Elderflower & Gooseberry Cologne*

Surprsingly, it’s not the juiciness from the gooseberries that first makes contact with my skin but a creaminess that’s been tempered with a touch of fizz.  It strikes a nice balance that develops into a full-bodied, soft-fleshed juiciness, from which I detect mostly gooseberry and lychee.  It’s light but warming, fresh but not particularly zingy, like a hug from an older sister rather than a mother.

The elderflower sits in the background, carefully orchestrating the proceedings and provides a tenderness that matures the juicy playfulness of the other notes.  There’s also a powdery note that feels particularly hand-on-shoulder calming.  Out of all the fragrances in the collection, this one is still my favourite.  Surprisingly long-lasting too.

Bitter Orange & Chocolate Cologne*

When I first had the opportunity to smell this at the launch event last year, I was suitable impressed by its foodie rendition.  If I’ve read it once, I’ve read it a hundred times: there is indeed something very true to the Terry’s Chocolate Orange about this scent.  But then it gets kinda bitey.  The chocolate is dark and lacking in softness, this combined with the bitter orange makes me feel uncomfortable after a short while.

I feel like I’ve been lured in under the promise of velvet, only to be whipped with sandpaper.  It’s not that the notes jar or are remotely ill-combined, the chocolate orange is a fantastic rendition, but it’s not for me and not for my skin chemistry.  It feels a little too raw and uncooked, sitting on my skin with far too much front.  Interestingly, I actually quite enjoy it once I’ve washed it off, the main facets of the scent are still completely detectable without screaming for my attention.

Ginger Biscuit Cologne*

Before the ginger has a chance to throw itself into the (cookie) mix, the other spices tickle my nose in the most pleasant of ways.  There is nothing piquant about this scent, just the wonderful richness and true aromatic qualities you’d expect from something that lists nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger as the main party players.  You can feel the warmth of the kitchen, the scents that lift from the red-hot baking tray.  The almost-magical buttery notes create the impression of tummy rumbles that make it so darn impossible to wait for the freshly-baked goodies to firm up before diving in.

The only problem I have with Ginger Biscuit Cologne is that it has been crafted so wonderfully true to its inspiration that I can’t imagine wearing this at any other time than Christmas.  I would happily drown myself in it throughout the month of December, but not now.  Instead, I enjoy illicit sniffs at the nozzle and bide my time patiently.

Do any of the colognes appeal to your sweet tooth?

 The Limited Edition Jo Malone Sugar & Spice Collection is available to buy now on counter and online at www.jomalone.co.uk priced at £38 for 30ml.

* press sample

I’m currently sitting in the middle of a big pile of steaming pooh, otherwise known as “someone forgot that a child might need a passport to leave the country and there are mere DAYS in which to fix this stupidity”.  I have been rushing around like a blue-assed fly in an attempt to gather photos, counter-signatories, and application forms.  I thankfully have an appointment at the passport office on Wednesday to sort my idiotic mess out.

The fact that I have to drive to Wales in order to do this as I couldn’t get a fast-track appointment in London is making my forehead vein throb a little more rapidly than normal.

It’s to this end that I’m asking you to forgive a FOTD post.  In fairness, it features the eyeshadow quad that I reviewed earlier today, so is at least… relevant.

It’s also pink. purple. purplink.

If I do say so myself, how nice is that lip colour?  I do not wear Bobbi Brown’s Rich Lip Color in Mod Pink anywhere near enough.  It’s blue-toned without going all Minaj-freaky-I’m-not-sixteen-anymore on my face.  If you want a blue-pink that doesn’t make you look like a mental deficient, it’s worth checking out.

The eyes are courtesy of the BareMinerals A List palette I reviewed earlier.  I used the purple shade both in the crease, and as a liner.  The pink is on the lid and the white highlight across the browbone.  I used a smidge of the black in the outer corner.

All products used are shown below.

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion  | BareMinerals READY Eyeshadow Quad in The A List  |  Guerlain Cils d’Enfer Maxi Lash Mascara  |  Bobbi Brown Illuminating Bronzer in Antigua  |  Illamasqua Brow Cake in Gaze  |  Bobbi Brown Rich Lip Color in Mod Pink  |  Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Foundation in Vanille Clair

You know, the real irony is that I remembered to get her an E111 European Health Insurance Card.  Who remembers shit like that and yet forgets the passport?

*sigh*

* p.s.  Look again at the FOTD!  This unwanted stress has given me grey hair.  Bitch too busy stressin’ to do her roots.

I remember the first time I visited the Bare Escentuals store in Covent Garden. It hadn’t been open very long and at the time, I think I referred to it as “the candy shop”.  You see, for a makeup lover, there’s something about being surrounded by so many mini pots of jewel-toned pigments that makes it quite easy to lose your sense of decorum.  I emerged from the store, so completely covered in swatches, it looked like I’d had my own private Holi festival.

Obviously, pigments and powders is where it all started with Bare Escentuals and when the brand announced a range of pressed-powder products, I was excited for the convenience that this brings, but also wary that the same kind of vibrancy and pigment quality wouldn’t, nay perhaps couldn’t translate itself so well from the confines of a pressed pan.

Well, I worried needlessly.

My first experience of the new(ish) BareMinerals READY Eyeshadows comes in the form of one of their quads: A List*.  On paper, it’s got my name written all over it, I’m a sucker for a purple-toned palette.  I’d heard about the “incredible” texture of the new READY eyeshadows and I had the highest of expectations as a result.

First thing to note about this particular eyeshadow quad is indeed, the texture which is truly buttery.  You can tell that this product comes from a brand who know their way around a pigment or two because the powders are so softly textured, they feel almost creamy.  There’s a hint of roughness to the purple shade (Swanky) but you have to expect that from the glitter particles.

You’d expect a buttery-textured eyeshadow would blend with ease, and in my opinion, they do.  Infact, above all else, I’d put weight on this being their best selling-point.  It’s not always easy to blend smooth gradients from shadow to shadow, getting that perfectly refined edge to soften to the point of invisibility is a well-honed skill, and anything that makes lighter work of it is a marvel.  On this score, the BareMinerals READY Eyeshadow Quad in A List, is, a marvel.

Where I think some of these palettes could do with a little work is with their combination of colours.  I feel that A List doesn’t quite give me the eye palette that I want to work with.  The highlighting shade (Icebreaker) is very pale, very shimmery, and very…. highlighter-y.  Unfortunately, I feel that the next shade up in the quad, the pink (Fashionably Late), is also playing the same role… albeit in a more vibrant way.

For definition, I need a solid crease colour, and unless I go black, my only option is the glittery Swanky.  The jump between Fashionably Late (on the lid) and Swanky (in the crease) is quite large and on my skintone at least, the palette is not quite there in terms of shade combining.  I would have liked to have seen these pink/violet hues without both extreme ends of the spectrum (white/black) incorporated in the 4-pan palette.  Perhaps something like The Dream Sequence is closer to what I’m looking for.

I had one other, minor, issue with the palette.  In the photo below, I’ve highlighted where one of the pans is raised above the level of the palette.  It’s not quite enough to cause any problems with the closure mechanism but… and perhaps I’m being a touch fussy… it’s not something I expect from a £29 (on counter) eyeshadow palette.  It looks untidy but is hopefully a one-off.  Really not interesting in a sponge-tipped applicator when I’m paying nearly £30 either.

These grumbles aside, I really can’t fault the colour payoff and texture of the included shades.  Black Tie Optional makes a great liner close to the lashline, or smoked out at the edges to deepen and intensify the overall look.  Both Icebreaker and Fashionably Late offer something a little more frosty but both will work as highlighters, although FL is a little saturated to blend too high up the browbone.  Swanky is a really nice purple that’s blue-enough not to deliver the bruised/consumptive look, the added sparkle is a nice touch.

BareMinerals READY Eyeshadow Quad in A List is available to buy online from beautybay.com, priced at a very reasonable £23.49

* press sample

** come back later today for a FOTD with the above palette