A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Remember this post from last week?  (gawd, was that *only* last week?!)

A couple of you demanded requested swatches, and I do aim to please… (sometimes)…

Pink Icing/Devil’s Food:

L – R: Pink Icing (foiled), Pink Icing, Devil’s Food, Devil’s Food (foiled)

Bewitching Bronze:

L – R: Dry, Foiled – not a huge amount of difference there is there? Amazing pigmentation.

Fire Water:

Sorry, no pan shot (forgot!), check out the very top picture to see what it looks like.

L – R: Fire (Foiled), Fire, Water, Water (Foiled)

The Blue out of Fire Water is indeed beautiful, and the swatch does it justice… but it’s still too glittery and crumbly to be classed as anything other than a pain in the arse.

Here’s a quick EOTD with Pink Icing/Devil’s Food (my favourite):

Very simply: Pink Icing on the lid, Devil’s Food in the crease and foiled as a liner.

Sorry for the manky eyeball shot, hopefully you’re not eating or anything… I woulda shut my eye, but then you’d have had manky creasey eyelids to look at instead.

Thanks for all your recommendations on which other Laura Geller products I should have a look at, I’ve now got *quite* the shopping list!  Enablers, the bleedin’ lot of ya!

Spring is COMING!!!!

After suffering for the past 4 months with flaky, dry lips… I’ve finally found my cure.  Let me tell you a bit about it…

Lanolips is an Australian brand that proudly produces one of the most natural cosmetic products on earth.

The Lanolips lineup currently includes 2 core products:

~ Lanolips Lip Ointment with Colour 12.5ml  (AUD13.95/£8.40)

~ Lanolips 101 Ointment 17.5ml (AUD17.95/£11)

I was sent the range for review consideration over a month ago now and I tell you now without a scrap of embarrassment despite the risk of sounding like I’m gushing…. this stuff has made a big difference to my life.

I could tell you all about how pure and natural the ointments are, I could share the anecdotes about how it’s so safe it can be used on the mouths of new-born babies… but to be honest, you can find all that out by visiting their website.  I wanna tell you why from this day forward, I’m never going to be without a tube of this in my handbag.

But let me first concentrate on the Lanolips Ointment with Colour.

These are fabulous lip gloss alternatives.  They’re sheer, but the colour is build-able.  Thanks to a completely non-sticky formula, you can also apply without fear of errant breezes gluing your hairdo to your face.

The shades:

Rose is a milky-toned soft pink, perfect for paler skin-tones and also works fabulously to tone down bright lipsticks a touch.  I feel it may be a little too pale for darker skintones and WOC unless you apply with a light hand or like the super pale look.

Dark Honey is a true dark nude shade, I would imagine this is flattering to all skin-tones – very easy to wear.  It’s a “your lips but better” shade for me.

Sunshine is a warm, summery coral.  It’s beautiful.. and on paper, is probably my favourite.  But unfortunately, it doesn’t flatter my cool skin-tone quite as well as the others.

Apples is described byLanolips as “the colour of babies lips” and I totally get that decription, it’s a rosebud red.  I’m afraid it looks a touch warmer in my swatch than in real life though, sorry about that!

There’s also another, newly released shade called Rhubarb which has been described as a deep, vibrant pink, but I don’t have that one to show you.

Scent-less and taste-less, I’ll be using these daily in the Summer when I want something a little lighter, a little more natural and glowy.

The main point to remember with the entire Lanolips range is the core ingredient, the fundamental base upon which all this colour frivolity has been added – the ultra-moisturising Lanolin.  It keeps my lips supple and so far is improving tone and texture unlike anything else I’ve tried.

Having sad that, there are still a couple of things that I’d change.

I’d personally prefer a slanted plastic applicator so that I could use the tube to applythe product instead of my finger.  I’d also like to see the packaging include the word ‘tint’ somewhere for clarification.  The colours look SO bright in the tube, I’d be surprised if there weren’t at least a few consumers who were expecting more colour payoff upon application.

That aside, onto my favourite product!

Lanolips 101 Ointment is the DADDY.  It’s the no-nonsense “what you see is what you get” multi-purpose cure-all.

The stand-alone tube, slightly bigger than the rest at 17.5ml, contains nothing but pure ultra medical-grade lanolin.  To be (un)fair, it’s kinda boring… it’s unscented, unflavoured, uncoloured, un…inspiring… yeah, it’s a whole lot of ‘uns’.

But it’s this little marvel that I’m marking up as my lip saviour today.

I’m not new to lanolin.  I was a big fan of Lansinoh throughout the months I breastfed my baby.  Lansinoh saved my poor nips (tmi?) on many occasions whilst me and the babs were still both figuring out what the hell we were supposed to be doing.  I’ve even tried to use Lansinoh on my lips before… but it’s too damn sticky.  I used to be able to bear it for about 15 minutes before having to grab a tissue and wipe it off.  I’ve been told by Lansinoh PR that it’s not as sticky as it used to be, but I only have the experience of my year-old tube to compare to.

Lanolips advise you to use the Lanolips 101 Ointment generously but I haven’t found that I’ve needed to apply it very thickly at all.  Which is just aswell, ‘cos I hate that feeling where you’ve got about 8″ of product built up on your lips.

I use the Lanolips 101 Ointment in a number of ways:

1. On my lips before bed as a moisturiser
2. A thin layer underneath lipstick to moisturise and stop matte lipsticks looking like crap
3. A thin layer above lipstick to add shine
4. On Leila’s eczema
5. On my cuticles at night as an intensive moisturiser.

I think out of all those uses, the one that stands out to me… the one reason that I’ll be repurchasing this product for as long as I can get my grubby little hands on it is #2.

Is that shallow?  Surely I should choose the fact that it’s a fabulous lip conditioner?  Or um… wait, maybe I should have chosen the fact that it diminishes my daughter’s eczema patches… but um… I can wear my OCC Lip Tars without looking like I’ve been mummified!

I can wear my Revlon and MAC mattes lipsticks again – the joy!  I’ve spent months trying different lip balms underneath with no success.  On the rare occasion that a lip balm has succeeded at keeping my lips smooth, the lippie has inevitably slid off my face after 20 minutes.  If anything, as long as I keep my layer of Lanolips nice and thin, it’s almost as if it gives my lipstick something to adhere to!

The cheapest online stockist I can find offering international delivery is MakeUWell who charge 10AUD (about £6) for postage.

Lanolips 101 Ointment *is* my solution.  Now I just need someone to come along and stock it in the UK so I don’t have to pay international postage charges.  Is that really too much to ask?

I don’t generally copy press releases verbatim, but thought this might be of interest…

We love mums here at Lush – they give good cuddles and bake yummy cake, so we think they deserve some serious spoiling come Mother’s Day. With this in mind, on Sunday 14th March 2010 Lush will be opening up their doors to all mums for an afternoon of decadent pampering.

The afternoon festivities will have a 1950s theme and there will be free hand massages, foot massages and facials available, – along with cups of tea, cakes and even some vegan treats. All mums are welcome – young and old – whom their children are treating or who just feel like indulging themselves! And there’s even something to keep the children occupied – while mum is being pampered and preened, the little‘uns can colour in their special Lush Mother’s Day cards.

Lush has also designed a selection of limited edition gifts and products especially for Mother’s Day. Treat her to the new MUM hatbox (£25.95) containing a selection of bath and body products to spoil and pamper; or buy a bunch of MUMS ballistics (£3.50 each) that are short for chrysanthemums and offer a quirky alternative to giving mum flowers!

So if you are looking for the perfect Mother’s Day gift to say thank you to your wonderful mother, what better way than heading down your nearest Lush store and giving your mum the treat she really deserves!

Mother’s Day parties are taking place on 14th March 2010 in Lush stores nationwide. To find your nearest Lush store, please call 01202 668 454 or visit www.lush.co.uk

Ok, press release outta the way, am curious…

Are any of you “Lush Heads”?  I’ve never known (what is essentially a soap company) divide opinion so strongly.  A lot of people seem to love the brand with a passion… and there are equalliy as many who can’t stand it.  Which camp are you in?

Me?… I think it’s mostly overpriced, but there are certainly a few gems in the lineup that I would purchase over and over again.  Plus, I haven’t found better drawer scenters than their bath bombs… Leila always smells like a litle Lushie!

I don’t own anything else like this shade.  Nails Inc. Battersea Park is a true hybrid.  It’s a cross between army greens and olive, and it really does apply differently on the nails to how it looks in the bottle (I prefer it applied).

1st coat is very nearly opaque, but if you hold your hand to the light, it looks a little uneven in patches… so for me, is a firm 2-coater.  Application is smooth with no dragging at the cuticles.  I do love these slightly murky creme finishes, they don’t feel very spring-like (I’m still craving some Barielle’s for that. HURRY UP BARIELLE!) but I’m loving them nonetheless.

What are your favourite greens?  Forest? Olive? Shimmer? Pea Soup? Emerald? – Come on, spill… I need some more green in my life.

Shampoo: Kevin MurphyProtection Wash
Conditioner: The Body Shop Banana Conditioner
Styling products: Clynol Move Massive Volume Spray
Shower Gel: Palmolive Shower Gel Olive
Body moisturiser: Aveeno Skin Relief Moisturising Lotion with Shea Butter
Deodorant: Sanex
Fake Tan: Xen Tan Transform LUXE Gradual Tan
Cleanser: Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish (so far, so pretty darn great!)
Exfoliator: Liz Earle Gentle Face Exfoliator
Moisturiser: Liz Earle Superskin Moisuriser (I’m going for the hat-trick!)
Primer: Inglot Under Makeup Base
Foundation brush: None! Beauty Blender FTW!
Concealer: Inglot Cream Concealer
Powder: MAC MSF Natural
Blusher: Bourjois Rose Coup De Foudre
Bronzer: None
Highlighter: Elemental Beauty – Opalescent
Eyeshadow base: Urban Decay Sin Primer Potion
Eyeshadows: Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Palette (of course!)
Eyeliner: Urban Decay Jabberwocky/Oil Slick
Mascara: Using up my Max Factor 2000 Calorie (finally)
Lipstick: OCC Lip Tar in Hush ontop of Lanolips in Dark Honey
Lipgloss: None or Lanolips worn over bare lips
Nail Colour: Favs: Models Own Red Alert, NARS Purple Rain, Butter LONDON – Knees Up

They’re kind of a big deal.

It’s a substantial thing to grow hair on your face.  Billions of pounds go into the development of products designed to remove facial hair, but I’m not sure we invest so much time and effort in cultivating the hair we want to keep.

Mine are a complete and shameful mess.  I’ve overplucked some areas and I continue to underpluck others…  I have a great natural arch, but no idea how to make the best of it.  Infact, I’ve managed to create total unevenness to the point where I look like I’m permanently raising one of my eyebrows when in reality, I’m not moving a muscle.

Brow powder is my makeup bag essential.  I’ll happily hit the supermarket without a scrap of colour or foundation on my face, but take away my brow powder and I’ll be walking around wih my hands self-consciously hovering near my forehead in an attempt to cover up the offending area.  Eyebrows, for me… are face framers, and KNOW that everytime I see a FOTD – I’m checking out those brows before ANYTHING else.

Obviously, this post is mostly an excuse for me to trawl the internet laughing at celebrities with dodgy eyebrows, but there is a serious message here.  Tweezers are a dangerous implement and I’m not letting Leila near a pair.  As God (or you guys)  is my witness, I’m marching her to a salon when she hits 15.  This house will be a tweezerless one.

I wish mine had been…

What a mess.  I’m a (relatively) intelligent woman who clearly lost control of all mental capabilities when my grasping fingers first touched those tweezers 13 years ago and quite frankly, I haven’t regained them.

I need help, I know that some of my lovely readers MUST be brow experts!  I see so many women with perfectly groomed eyebrows and I’m considering befriending the next one I see in Waitrose, lulling her into a false sense of security with hazelnut lattes and Heat magazine chats before slyly handing her my tweezermans and giving her carte blanche on my face.

Do you feel my pain or mock my affliction?

Where can I go from here?  Professional help?  Hands tying behind my back?  Hair transplants?  Threading?

Halp?!

Back when February was still so new I was calling it January, I blogged about this:

Hei Poa Pur Monoi Beauty Oil, my skin was bone dry at the time and as a fan of most body oils anyway, I was keen to try another.

I ordered from Zuneta and it arrived within two days with a couple of posh samples enclosed as a bonus!

It’s not particularly attractive in it’s solid state, infact… it’s not at all appetising until you unscrew the lid and give it a sniff.  The unmistakable scent of Frangipani fills your nostrils, a beautiful tropical aroma.

So how do you turn it from that solid, waxy-looking state into a warm oily texture ready for use on your skin or your hair?

I fill a jug with hot tap water and simply sit the bottle in the water whilst I’m in the shower.  It takes about 4-5 minutes to melt completely, but you don’t need to melt the whole bottle.  If you only wanted a little, you could be done in 30-40 seconds.

Not a huge thing… but a point of note is that the labelling on the bottle  is waterproof and has so far remained intact despite being submerged countless times!  I hate paper labels on bath products that disintegrate as soon as they get a splash of water on them!

After about a minute in the hot water, I pulled the bottle out and although you can see it’s not completely melted, there’s enough there for one application.

I find the Hei Poa to be a particularly dry body oil, it’s not massively ‘glidey’ and once I’ve started to spread, it drags a touch on my skin.  The flip-side to that is that I’m not left feeling at all greasy.  It’s a trade off that I’m happy with.  The oil leaves my skin feeling noticeably smoother with a beautiful sheen and delicate scent.

I’m a very happy Hei Poa convert!

What to try next?  The ‘golden glow’ version or the shower/bath oil? – decisions, decisions!

Back in December, I added a box of Daniele de Winter Choc Beauté to my Chrismas Wishlist.

Well who says you don’t get what you wish for?

The box is a lot smaller than I imagined.  Priced at €17.94, you’d kinda hope for something bigger than your hand right?

Remember, the USP (unique selling point) for these choccies is the fact that: “Choc Beauté are delicious chocolates designed to make your skin more beautiful”

Wow, take a look in the mirror Choc Beaute!  You look like poo.  Literally.  Rabbit pooh or Sheep pooh I can’t decide, but some kind of excrement regardless.

So basically, the chocs have added anti-oxidants and vitamins that help battle some of the factors that make skin lose it’s elasticity.  Of course, you could just take some multi-vitamins and eat a healthy diet to get the same benefits, but where’s the fun in that?

But how about the taste test?  That’s what really counts right?

Well… let’s just say… next Christmas, I’m gonna be asking for chocolates that make you UGLY.

Jemma Kidd – Midnight Jewels Palette

Featuring:

1 Creme Highlighter (Star)
2 Eye Shadows (Dusk & Midnight Blue – the blue one can be used wet too)
1 Shimmer Dust (Ice Blue)
1 Lip Gloss (Rose Gold)

I had an early start this morning, I’m not very good at early starts.

To enter, tell me… Are you a morning or a night person and what are your top tips for looking alert when all you want to do is fall asleep in a corner!

Giveaway is open to my lovely international readers too and will close on the 5th March at 00:01GMT

I’ve never been fully sold on tattoos, I love looking at the designs and I appreciate the work that goes into creating a successful piece of permanent body art.

But truly?  I can barely decide which socks to put on in the morning.  Choosing something as permanent as a tattoo would send me into some kind of mental turmoil treatable only by electroshock therapy.  It is with pure joy then, that I discovered Jinny Rainbow.

Recently launched in Selfridges, Jinny Rainbow offers beautiful glitter body illustrations that last up to 7 days.  The glitters and powders used are hypo-allergenic promising skin-friendly artwork for all.

You can choose between selecting an on the spot design undertaken by a body artist or if you would prefer attempting a bit of DIY designage (is that a word?) you can purchse handy kits to create personalised designs at home.

Spoiled for choice, Jinny Rainbow carries a selection of over 100 vibrant glitter pigments and shimmers plus 200 exclusive stencil designs.

How beautiful is that?  My inner 4yr old is climbing the walls with excitement and trying to work out if I’ve got time to swing by Selfridges this afternoon for a nosey!

So how much would this kind of frivolity set you back?  With prices starting from £5 for on-the-spot designs and from £30 for starter kits it’s not exactly gonna break the bank is it?

Do you need a bit of glitter in your life?  I’m thinking a sparkly bluebird on my shoulder.. Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah and all that.

Here comes the older, more glam sister…

Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin has been out in the US for over a year now, and I’ve been cooling my heels ever since I saw it pop up on Sephora many moons ago!

It promises all the benefits of the original UDPP with a little added pizazz.

They Say:

~ Use it alone; it’s a crease proof shadow!
~ Maximise it’s potential by using it as a highlighter, dab on brow bone, eye corners and cheeks for a radiant finish.
~ Sin works perfectly with any eye shadow and doesn’t show through, experience vibrant colour all day, with absolutely no creasing!

I received the sample of this last week and as a fan of the original, I was keen to see exactly why I’d want to purchase this one instead.

The new-fangled angled (I’m a poet) wand which promises to reach into each dark primer-potion filled corner of your tube.  I was initially sceptical about how putting an angle on the wand would *really* help, but having had a little play at ‘scooping’ from that very bottom jutting out bit, I think it might just work.  I don’t like how it makes the wand more difficult to remove from the tube though, I keep thinking it’s gonna ping primer at me as it pops free.

Swatched beside the original UDPP you can see that it’s a champagne cream with a metallic looking shimmer.  I instantly liked it… what with being a fan of metallic neutrals with a bit of shimmer n’all  😉

It’s quite heavily pigmented and the first thought that struck me was that it may do a better job at evening out skintone on pigmented eyelids better than the original.  I’m only speculating here as I don’t have a particular issue with red eyelids, but it makes a nice neutral base that sheers out well depending on how much you blend.

I really like this worn as a cream eyeshadow combined with a powder crease colour, as you would imagine, the staying power is rather marvellous.

The two primers blended out a little (not completely).

You can see that Sin retains it’s champagne shimmer whilst the original UDPP is well on it’s way to blending invisibly.

I’m an idiot and forgot to take a photo demonstrating how the same eye shadow looked applied over both primers.  I promise I’ll do it before the week is out and just pop up a quick comparison post.  Basically, if you’re applying a shadow over UDPP Sin… it ups the shimmer.  I <3 it, but it’s important to see as it may put you off completely.

I find that staying power for eyeshadows applied ontop is pretty equal for both primers, if there is a difference, it’s not discernible to me.  Blendability is still hard work over Sin and I’m a bit disappointed about that as it’s the only thing I really would have loved to see changed about the original UDPP.

D’yanowot… I’m on the fence about it with regards to my original question: “Why would I purchase this one over the original?”

Don’t get me wrong… I  really like it, there’s nothing for me not to like.  I like neutral, I like shimmer…

Might I sometimes want some of my shimmer eyeshadows even more shimmery… Possibly!

Do I want all my eyeshadows turned a bit shimmery by using it?  Probably not…

Do I want a lovely champagne cream eyeshadow practically guaranteed not to budge in the summer? Yes please!

Would I purchase?  I dunno!  Stop asking me hard questions!!  What say you?

Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin is due out next month, priced at £11.50.