A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I first discovered the joy of Laksa courtesy of an inner-city food court almost 15 years ago.  I was living in Sydney at the time and alternating my lunches between New York Style pastrami sandwiches, Lebanese Fattoush, and Singaporean Chicken Laksa.  Such was the multi-cultural diversity of the city, coming from the British countryside, it was a revelation to taste my way around the continents in such an informal setting.  When I returned, I really missed some of my favourite dishes, and the first one that I had to learn for myself was the Chicken Laksa.

Now, back then… it was practically impossible to find a ready-made Chicken Laksa paste.  There are billions of recipes online describing how to make your own but nowadays, I just buy a jar of paste from my local Asian supermarket – tastes great and much less hassle.  I believe that some mainstream supermarkets stock it now, I’m pretty sure Sainsburys do anyway.

Chicken Laksa is a great dish to serve up when you’re looking to impress.  It’s a warming taste sensation, constructed around a base of chilli and coconut milk, you can customise it to suit your taste for spice just by adding more or less paste.  Not only that but it takes a mere half an hour to put together.

And this is what you need to do it…

Not too many ingredients at all huh?  Just the way I like my cooking!  The above serves 2/3 people.

1 large fresh chicken breast/frozen chicken pieces – I used the meat that I’d pulled from a whole roasted bird after cutting off the breasts.
1 bag of bean sprouts (I use about half a bag for 2 people)
1 bag of noodles (traditionally vermicelli noodles but I’ve used rice, egg, whatever!)
1 can of coconut milk
Roughly 500ml water or chicken stock.  If you’re using water, add some chicken oxo-type cubes to the pan during cooking.
1 jar of Laksa paste (My favourite brand is Yeos – I use a whole jar but this will make it hot, for a milder version, use half a jar)

Apologies that my list is a little vague in terms of quantities, this is one of those recipes that is best judged by the eye as you go along… honest!

Grab a large saucepan or stockpot and add the paste, coconut milk, water+oxo cubes/stock and the chicken.  Bring to a simmer, put the lid on and stir occasionally until your chicken is cooked through.  How long this takes will depend on whether you’re using raw, pre-cooked, or frozen (pre-cooked) chicken… err on the side of caution and make sure the chicken is fully-cooked/heated to safe temperature.

I usually give it a good 15-minutes bubbling away for pre-cooked, frozen chicken.

Take note of the water levels and at this point decide if your “soup” is thin enough… if it feels a little too thick, add some more water.

Throw in your noodles and bean-sprouts and cook for a further 5-minutes before serving.

Done!  How easy is that?  And even though I do say so myself, it looks pretty impressive!

I usually serve it with some crusty bread… completely not traditional.  Not bothered either.

One of the best things about Laksa though is just how versatile it is.  If you’re vegetarian, use tofu instead of chicken (although remember to check the paste ingredients, they vary).  If you don’t like chicken, use king prawns instead!

Have you ever made a Laksa?  What’s your favourite way to cook it?

Hmmm, I only know two Jaspers. One Carrot and one Conran, and I’m pretty sure neither were in mind when Butter London named this polish. The birthstone maybe? But I always thought that was green!

Regardless of where it derives its name from, Jasper is certainly the type of colour I’d usually shy away from… infact, it’s only adorning my fingertips due to the fact that I’ve shop-swatched it for Powder Rooms. I’m not a yellow nail polish kinda girl… perhaps I need a tan to appreicate the effect?!

Butter London’s Jasper is a creamy yellow with a non-too-bright base making it suitable for fingers and toes without looking too… fungal. You could say that it’s a somewhat pastelly number, reminiscent of sun-shades, ice-creams, and all those other lovely things soon to be packed away for the foreseeable future.

Application-wise, it’s on par with most yellows I’ve tried over the years. Patchy at first, developing a full opacity only after 3/4 coats depending on thickness. They’re not the greatest of colours to wear if you’re pernickity about the formula of your polish but this one smoothes out nicely after a wee while.

Butter London Jasper is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online at powderrooms.com

Radox. What are you playing at?

When I think of you, I think of relaxing in a blue-hued bath of wonder.  Sinking into realms of relaxation that I thought only existed in my pre-child lifetime. You don’t give me spendy guilts when I pop into Boots for a top-up and you don’t make me weep with sorrow when I discover that Mr. L has raided my bathroom cabinet.

So, what’s all this new nonsense about?

Don’t you dare try to revive, energise or uplift me! That’s not what I come to you for.

You might think that you need to compete with all those shower and bath products that set your sensitive bits alight and leave you feeling like you’ve been dragged through a polo mint backwards, but you don’t.

You’re perfect just the way you are.

However, if you do get a moment… how about more bath salts in some new and ever more relaxing scents and shades. Bath salts are set for a BIG come back don’tchano?

Radox. They’ve gone all modern n’ stuff with this new Citrus range.  £2.15 ish a bottle… but if I see you buying one, I’ll disown you.

With a name as catchy as that, you’ll be able to reel it off your tongue in no time the next chance you get to pass your local UD counter.  Well, whatever you need to do to memorise such a large chunk of the alphabet, memorise it you must. Write it down, tattoo it somewhere, just make sure you’ve got it committed to memory.

Why?  Let me tell you…

Urban Decay Naked Skin Ultra Definition Pressed Finishing Powder, or UDNSUDPfsfjdkjfksdlfjdklsjfdls…. as I like to call it for short, is marketed as a lightweight finishing powder that blends flawlessly and works to set makeup and cut shine. It promises to deliver a luminous, demi-matte finish and feel invisible on the skin.

The compact is housed in this rather natty purple-swathed pouch, good for keeping scratches off the compact if you’re like me and usually have a powder compact tucked into your handbag.  Finishing powders are a must in my book… my eternal favourites come from Clarins which are lightweight, beautifully presented, and keep the oilies at bay across my t-zone.  How would Urban Decay’s offering live up to an extremely high benchmark?

Well, pretty well actually… let me elaborate…

In true Urban Decay style, the packaging manages to please.  It blends dirty pewter with a high shine finish that gives it a true “Urban Decay” juxtaposition of glamour and grime… inside, there’s a large square mirror and two compartments… one that houses the powder, and another underneath for the sponge.

The sponge?  Uh oh… I did away with sponges for powders back in the 90s.  I wasn’t sure what I was going to make of this method of application.  Not that you’re forced to use a sponge, I mean, Urban Decay don’t have the sponge police hiding down dark alleyways ready to pounce as soon as you get your brushes out, but still… if there’s a sponge taking up half of my compact space, I’m gonna damn well use it.

I forced myself to remember that this wasn’t 1999 and I wasn’t reaching for a Max Factor wet n’ dry powder foundation, soaking the sponge under the tap before smearing greasy powder all over my face.  No, this is 2013 (I had to check then) and things are now far more refined.  I’ve even managed to kick my Hooch habit (although damn the booze industry for bringing them back!)

As promised, UDNSUDPjfkdsjlkk provides a super-lightweight finish over an already made-up face.  This isn’t going to amp up your coverage, something that I was a little worried about it doing… it also doesn’t dull the complexion too much either.  It’s definitely not luminous like my Clarins face powders, so if you’re looking for a light-reflecting finishing powder, this one isn’t for you but it does provide a not-too-deadened look.  I’d say it’s great for normal/combination skintypes and probably super-efficient for oilier types too thanks to the matte finish.

It’s available in a total of five shades, I’ve got the lightest here: Naked Light.  You can see it better for tone against my fingertip below but honestly, this is such a lightweight powder that unless you go wayyyy out of your shade spectrum, you’re not going to have major problems achieving a colour match although darker skin tones should always be aware of the risk of looking ashen with finishing powders.

As far as application goes, I press the sponge onto the powder with a little flick at the end… it always makes me smile when I see people grinding sponges into powder products like they’re digging for gold.  Would you like some sponge with your powder madam?  You can always go back for more… don’t be greedy!  Once on the sponge, I roll the product onto my face… always starting in the oiliest areas, which on me are the usual t-zone culprits.

This method ensures that I don’t disturb any of my meticulously *cough* applied makeup underneath and displaces shine for a good few hours.  I’m not gonna say it lasts all day, on me… it doesn’t.  But I get a good 4/5 hours before I need another touch up.

Do I prefer it to my Clarins finishing powders?  No.  But that’s because I love me a bit of luminosity, and this just ain’t luminous but in fairness, it isn’t supposed to be!  Matte lovers, go forth and swarm your UD counter to try it out for yourself.

Urban Decay Naked Skin Ultra Definition Pressed Finishing Powder is priced at £22 and available on counter and online at beautybay.com, lookfantastic.com

* press sample

I do love a cheap n’ cheerful polish pick-me-up. No guilty spend and the sense of satisfaction that you got something purdy for a few pennies… in this case, I think it was about 99 pennies.

Here’s a little something I dug out from the bottom of my stash, I think I bought it a couple of years ago on a trip to Beauty Base in Whiteleys at Queensway.  I still have a couple more LA Colors shades that I haven’t blog-swatched.  That’s the technical term for “worn” dontchano?

Morning Glory is a blue-toned purple with a strong electric-blue micro shimmer running through the base colour.  It has a fairly watery consistency, the kind you think will never reach full opacity… when all of a sudden, it does.  In this case, it took three coats to achieve the coverage you see above.  I didn’t think we were gonna make it after two but it came good in the end!

I’m not sure if this is still available to buy in-store but I’m pretty sure you’d be able to pick a bottle up from eBay for next to nothing…

What was your last inexpensive beauty find?

Since when have a good pair of tweezers not been a beauty essential? Even before I got into makeup properly, I was well-versed in the art of tweezing… that’s not to say I was any GOOD at it. I was just, proficient at trying. Or in my case, over-trying… as my sparse brows proved.

You’d think that buying a pair of tweezers would be as simple as popping down to your local chemist and grabbing whatever’s on the shelf, right? Wrong. There are so many different styles of tweezers…

Let’s start with the tips…

The most popular style of tweezer tip is the slanted, and for good reason. Slanted tweezer tips offer a great compromise between the precision of a pointed tweezer tip and the grab-all approach of a straight tweezer tip. Slanted tips generally work well on ingrown-hairs without the risks of skin-damage that pointed tips can cause when used by inexperienced tweezers.

So now that you’ve chosen a good all-round tweezer tip, you should know that not all tweezers are created equal. I’ve owned some shockingly bad bought-on-a-whim tweezers in the past. The worst of them are the ones that simply don’t grab the hair properly… and if they do, warp or twist as you press the tweezer together!

All of the tweezers below come from quality brands, none of these will let you down when it comes to tweezing!

01: Tweezerman have been my brand of choice for the last 10-years. They offer a variety of styles, colours and patterns, often with limited-edition releases. They’re not the cheapest brand on the block but they’re pretty accessible and also offer free sharpening for the lifetime of your tweezers, though you do have to send them off to the U.S. for this service. (£22.00 / selfridges.com)

02. Sigma have recently launched their Beauty Brow Tweezer which incorporates some funky angles designed to improve accuracy and ease of use. The hot pink colour should also ensure that they’re easy to spot inside your makeup bag! (£9.95 / cloud10beauty.com)

03. Laura Mercier’s tweezer uses the classic Tweezerman design, indeed these are made for Laura Mercier by Tweezerman. This is the style of tweezer that I’ve used for the past 10-years, the rounded handle ensures that your grip is rock solid and shows those errant brow hairs who really is boss! (£18.50 / spacenk.com)

04. Glamtech’s offering is a multifunctional tool that not only delivers the sharpest of hand-honed tips but also a rather innovative brow comb on the other end. If like me, you’ve been “blessed” in the brow-length department, you’ll find this extra a useful addition in the quest to tame those brows. (£6.00 / glamtech.co.uk)

05: Mister Mascara’s Japanese Style tweezers are another pair to consider if you need a little more security in the grip. The wider handles ensure that you keep utmost control while navigating toward even the most baby-fine of hairs. (£8.95 / urbanretreat.co.uk)

06. For some super kerb-appeal, Shavata’s Heart Tweezers win the prize for cutest eyebrow accessory! Described as both fun and practical, they even come complete with a magnifying mirror, making them ideal for travel. (£18.90 / beautybay.com)

Once you’ve found your perfect pair of tweezers, it’s time to look after them. Baby these things like they’re your first-born. If you drop a pair of steel tweezers on a bathroom floor, more likely than not… when you close the grip, that precision-engineered tip is not going to close squarely anymore and if they don’t close in perfect alignment… you may aswell attempt to pluck your stray hairs with a pair of BBQ tongs for all the good they’ll now be.

You’ll also need to keep the tip as sharp as possible, a pair of blunt tweezers will struggle to grab hairs effectively and can often end up snapping the hair as you pull them away from the skin. Most of the pricier brands include little caps to protect the ends of the tweezers. Use them, don’t just throw your tweezers in your makeup bag without some kind of protection or you’ll end up having to sharpen them on a regular basis.

Now tell me…

Do you have a favourite pair of tweezers, and if so… how old are they? Mine are 7-years old!

“It’s cold!”

“I’m putting the heating on!”

These are two sentences that I read on my Twitter timeline yesterday, truly signalling the advent of September and the end of Summer.  There are many things to feel gloomy about… the darker evenings and shorter days will always be at the top of my list but let’s not get too disheartened.  There is nothing that a chunky knit, leather boots, and an Autumnal lipstick can’t make better.

Seeing as I’m not a fashion blog, I’ll let you go elsewhere for your style fix but hang around for a little while longer while I show you a lovely transitional lipstick that should guide you gently from one season to the next.

Today, I’m looking at a lovely chunky lip pencil from Aussie brand Lipstick Queen.  You’d be forgiven for thinking that the brand have only recently joined the pencil love in, but oh no… The Chinatown Glossy Pencils are the forefathers of the trend, Poppy King released these back in 2009… long before you couldn’t move for chubby lip love.

There are eight shades available and of these, I’m showing you Thriller… the closest to a traditional red.

The package comes complete with an oversized pencil sharpener, I like to think that were these put into production today, Poppy would have designed them as twist-up crayons… having to sharpen pencils is an irritation.

The formula is soft but firm enough to apply withut any issues, the tip glides across the lips and delivers a sheer-but-buildable amount of colour.  Although glossy, the overall effect isn’t one of “gloss”… there’s no “wet-look” lips here and no stickiness either, thankfully.  The product wears comfortably over a decent-enough time period, around 3 hours, needing a topup after drinks or lunch.

The fomula doesn’t dry my lips out but leaves them in the same condition prior to application, a good choice for any dry-lips sufferers in the coming colder weather.

The colour is a sheer, berry red with a hint of pink.  It’s a really comfortable in-between shade for anyone who isn’t quite ready to go all out Autumnal vamp.  I know I always need a little bit of gentle easing into the season… and Thriller is a great shade choice for anyone who wants to explore a red lip without having to commit to full-blown colour.

Lipstick Queen Chinatown Glossy Lip Pencils are priced at £22 each and available to buy online from SpaceNK.com

* press sample

Question of the Week – A $50 gift certificate from Sephora magically appears on your desk. It’s going to disappear from your desk if you don’t use it within the next hour. What are you going to buy?

Answer: – EASY!  I would get a Bite Beauty Cashmere Lip Cream for Autumn… probably Sancerre, leaving enough money to get a Stila Stay All Day Liquid Eyeliner in charcoal grey.  Now, who’s got the money?  No-one?  Oh well, on with the league…

Prime Beauty – issues a GUSH ALERT for the Marc Jacobs Style Eye-Con Eyeshadow Palette in Starlet. She hasn’t been this verklempt since her teen crush on Bobby Sherman in the 70’s.

Phyrra – It’s no secret that Phyrra loves teal. See what she’s lusting after in this week’s Teal Thursday!

we heart this – Glamorous geek? Check out the Digital Nails Companions collection based on Doctor Who (she says while she pushes up her glasses and thigh-highs simultaneously!)

Clumps of Mascara – has gone gluten free and dairy free. No one said it would be fun but she’s putting together all kinds of yummy recipes.

Gouldylox Reviews – Can a washcloth be worth $33? I wouldn’t have thought so, but this one is!

Lipglossiping – contemplates the pros and cons of finding a perfume that bridges the gap between your teenage tastes and your current loves.

My Beauty Bunny – Get beautiful from the inside out by drinking your water! We’ve got a giveaway to add some pizzazz to your H2O and some cash to your wallet – Win $100 Plus All 6 Stur Drinks!

Nouveau Cheap – Pond’s, the classic drugstore skincare brand, has released a new BB Cream. Is it worth your time? Find out right here.

Guest Post of the Week, as chosen by Prime Beauty – Kathryne from TheFabZilla. The majority of her posts are beauty related, but she does mix it up with fitness, lifestyle, and fashion from time to time. Kath says “After all, looking fabulous is beyond hot red lips or sexy smoky eyes.”

I didn’t think it would bother me.  I thought that I was immune from the neuroses of the Mum at the school gates, sniffing into her hanky and waving goodbye to a piece of her woman-hood.  I mean… seriously, I’m better than that?  I don’t need validation through my offspring!  Sure, I’m not the self-validating “woman” I should be… heck, the word “womb” still makes me feel a bit squirmy, stuff of a feminist’s wet dream I am not… but neither am I reliant on other people to make me complete.

And yet, as I sit here… a few nights before Leila starts school, I’m a mess.

You see, I feel like I’m losing my little friend.  My beautiful little creature.  Someone I’ve nurtured, led, and loved for the past 4-years.  It’s not even as though I’m letting her spread her wings to go and fly amongst the clouds.  We’re being parted… unwillingly.  Whenever I ask her about school, she says… “it’s boring”.  She had a couple of trial days, and on the basis of this, has decided that school involves never leaving you chair as you please… putting your hand up to go to the toilet, and being told what to do and when to do it.  And let’s face it… she’s a little bit right.

A wee bit rebellious in my psyche, I think of school as a fast-track to learning how to “sit still, shut up, and listen”.  Ideal for working life.  Wear a tie, wear a blazer… do what you’re told, and conform.  But at the same time, it does give you (in a round-about way) the tools to question our world… the most powerful gift of education.  Leila loves to learn, I watch her confidence grow with every number and letter mastered.  I don’t push her… I’m a huge underachiever myself, quietly disappointing people around me but learning to the beat of my own drum.  She thrives, as most children do, from praise… and the satisfaction that she’s doing a good job.  How could I ever wish for her not to experience that joy?

Of course, I don’t.  But I worry….

I worry that she won’t make friends readily.  I worry that she won’t have anyone to sit with at lunch-time.  I worry that she won’t push herself to make connections… just reach out Leila, please reach out.

She has a good heart, one of the best I’ve come across.  I say that with as much bias as I do earnest-ness.  She has a kindness in her that makes her give pause after a strop… a sense of right and wrong that allows her, despite her young age, to apologise without prompting when she’s done wrong.  I’m not saying that she’s rare… but she is a good egg.  That’s all I want for her… to love, and to be loved.

So my darling girl… as I prepare to leave you outside your classroom on your first day of school.  Shoes as shiny as they can be, lunchbox as imaginative as it is tasty…. show your true colours to your friends.  Let them know that you are good, that you won’t ridicule, that you won’t judge without good reason.  You will go a long way.  A long way.  And ultimately, you will be happy.

And then I will be happy.  And proud to watch you every step of the way.

Good luck Leila, you’ll be grand!