A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I was just having a clear out, and thought I’d scan and upload these incase they’re of interest.

Click on an image to see the full size version.

Derek Lam:

Marc Jacobs:

Marchesa:

Phillip Lim:

Thakoon:

…is my hair dye.

I’ve been using Superdrug’s Colour Performance for the best part of 5 years and simply haven’t found anything better for the price.

It’s a permanent dye which is gentle on my sensitive scalp.  A few others that I’ve used in the past *cough Excellence Creme cough Nutrisse* have irritated and left my scalp sore despite patch tests.  Colour Performance leaves me with no irritation at all.

I generally either plump for the shade shown (3:0 – Natural Rich Darkest Brown) which is a very dark brown or (4:0 – Natural Dark Brown).

One of the reasons I give these hair dyes so much love is because the browns are ashy in tone.  Red or mahogony based browns tend to clash with the pink tones in my skin, so I’m happier with these ashier shades which are surprisingly hard to find on the high street.

Dying my hair is a chore I hate the thought of, but once I’m done… I’m always left wondering why I left it so long.  This dye is foolproof and has consistently returned great results for me *whispers* even over my dodgy grey roots… I’ve unfortunately been going grey since I was 19 *sniff*.

And then there’s the price… I usually buy 2 of these at a time when they’re on offer. 2 for £5.  I think individually, they’re around £3.20.  Amazing.

I actually had a mini panic attack when I saw these new packs on the shelf:

Colour Radiance 10. I emailed Superdrug, worried that it meant they were discontinuing my beloved Colour Performance.  “Of course not”, was the reply… “they’re very popular!” Phew!

Have you ever tried Superdrug Colour Performance or Superdrug Colour Radiance 10?

Deep Skincare are a fairly new Dutch brand that I hadn’t heard of until they contacted me in December to ask if I’d like some products for review consideration.  Taking a look at their ‘about’ page… they seem quite hippy in a love each other, love yourself kinda way.  Which is nice!  Not enough people love me and I could do with some more harmony in my life.

Anyway, enough of all that!  Looky looky leg balm!

Splendid Smooth Legs.  What a rubbish name.  It’s like one of those bad Japanese translations isn’t it?  I think they should have added a “silky” in their somewhere to really tip it over the edge.

Housed in a heavy dark glass jar with a fairly plain label, the product has a nice simple look.  Understated.  I like it.

The first thing you notice when you unscrew the lid is the smell.  Immediately recognisable…  Taking a look at the ingredients confirms the source of the scent: Camphor and Menthol.  Vaporub anyone?  I love the smell of Vicks, but I know some people hate it, so beware!  Once on the skin, it takes about 15 minutes for the scent to fade completely.

The cream is thick but lightweight, a beautiful texture, it feels instantly cooling as it makes contact with the skin, fantastic for weary legs.

Looking more closely at the ingredients, the cream contains Arnica which is widely believed to help reduce inflammation, bruising and encourage the dilation of blood vessels and capillaries under the skin.  Witch Hazel also puts in an appearance on the ingredient list, a natural astringent often put to use as a treatment for varicose veins.

Exactly the ingredients I want to revive and massage into my legs after a full day on my feet.

They say:

Deep: Splendid Smooth Legs sports an invigorating and active formula. A delicious treat to pamper weary or swollen legs. Due to the purely natural ingredients, this balm has a very wholesome effect.

Rather than every-day use as suggested on the jar, I’ve been using this a few times a week.  A small amount goes a long way and leaves my legs feeling refreshed, cooled and less ‘heavy’ than before.  In the Summer, I do a lot of walking and I can’t wait to put it to good daily use as part of a post-bath routine!

While I remember, I also applied this in the middle of the night a few days ago after waking up with cramp in my calf, it really relaxed the tightness in the muscle and for once I didn’t get that limping you get the next morning when you don’t catch cramp in time.  I’d really recommend this as a hugely useful gift for mamas-to-be.  I suffered horrendous leg cramps in my 3rd trimester and would have loved a pot of this.

Do you neglect your legs? I’m ashamed to admit that mine don’t generally get much attention other than a nice shaving gel.  I don’t know why I’m so lax, varicose veins ain’t pretty!

You can purchase Deep Skincare online from their website. Splendid Smooth Legs is priced at £14.21 for 250ml.

If you want to learn more about taking good care of your pins, check out The Leg Room.  What Kate doesn’t know about legs, isn’t worth knowing.

Check out Nonie Creme from Butter LONDON working feverishly in preparation for Jen Kao’s show at New York Fashion Week.

So, I downloaded the Cosmetifique app for the iPhone about a month ago and am back to share my thoughts on it.

Firstly, it looks and feels kinda clunky.  It takes a large amount of effort to manually enter all the ingredients from a product ingredient list into the app and out of the 7 different products I tried, Cosmetifique’s database was missing at least 2 ingredients from each product, so after all that effort, I didn’t feel like I was getting the full picture anyway.

I was actually expecting to be able to simply enter the name and brand of the cosmetic item and watch as the app downloaded all the relevant INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) info from it’s own database.  I didn’t realise I had to manually enter each ingredient into the app myself.  What a palaver!

The app is designed to be used whilst shopping, so that you can input ingredients into the program and in a matter of seconds discover the quality of the INCI rating.  This sounds promising, but the app uses a hugely simplified traffic light system to rate the quality of the ingredients where RED = BAD, GREEN = GOOD and YELLOW & AMBER = somewhere inbetween the two.

This over simplification doesn’t appeal to me, I want to know *why* Limonene is a YELLOW, even just a small paragraph would do.  I also compared the results from Cosmetifique to Cosmetics Database and got conflicting results on some ingredients, which confused me further.

Let me give you a working example using my Revlon Colorstay Foundation:

There you go. Any wiser? No, me neither. Apparently my foundation is a bit bad and it’s a bit good… even Cosmetifique describe it as:

Quality of Ingredients: So so… be careful.

So So? That’s useful, thanks.  What am I being careful of? Skin Irritation? Tentative links to cancer? Not blending my jawline adequately?

I just don’t really ‘get’ anything from this app and the sketchy knowledge it provides me, it doesn’t give me enough information to make any informed choices and the lmited information that it does display on my screen is often incomplete anyway. What’s the point.

I give Cosmetifique a big fat

Who’s Wearing What is a discontinued China Glaze shade that I picked up on eBay.  I do like my greyed out purples and this fit the bill perfectly:

It reminds me of a more muted version of OPI’s ever popular Done out in Deco.  I love my durgy colours and this one fits nicely into my ever-growing collection.

It’s a 3-coater to look it’s best and unfortunately it’s a slow-drier, definitely needing a coat of Seche Vite to finish off.  The creme finish is gorgeous, very glossy and smooth.  I’m pleased to have picked up this shade while it’s still available!

It’s stronger and less pastelly than Orly’s Bon Bon, so may suit you well if you’re darker toned too!

I was sent a tube of this to try after I couldn’t fit in a proper salon tan job on my last London visit.  I’ve bored you all senseless MANY times moaning about my uber paleness.  I know that pale is kinda ‘in’, but that’s porcelain pale… smooth creamy ivory skin. Which, I don’t have.

I have blue pale.  Blue pale with red blotches.  Combine that with bingo wings and you have some sexy upper arms right there.

Having said that, I’m scared of anything that darkens my skin.  Bronzer, fake tan, eating chocolate biscuits without a plate… soooo I’ve kinda put off using this.  Every time I went to crack it open, I’d remember some important thing I had to do in the next few days and screwed the lid back on terrified of appearing in public looking like a satsuma.

Well, I couldn’t put it off any longer. ‘Cos I have nothing to do for about a week. Enough time for any hideosity to fade if something went wrong.

Xen Tan is widely regarded as one of the best faux tanners on the market (don’t you prefer the word ‘faux’ to ‘fake’?), The manufacturer’s say:

Transform has been developed especially for today’s growing gradual tan market, giving the same delicious daily dose of moisture you’ve come to expect from Xen-Tan but with an extra boost of tanning ingredient to deliver a silky smooth olive glow. With a wonderful fresh vanilla scent, its advanced formula means fewer applications are needed. Apply just like an everyday moisturiser for sun-kissed skin that’s streak-free, sumptuously soft and never ever orange.

Can’t go wrong then can I?….

I did it. I grabbed the bull by the horns, or the um bottle by the lid and just. did. it.  I’d bought a tanning mitt in preparation and used that to apply.

The cream goes on smoothly and does feel quite moisturising.  The scent is heavenly!  True vanilla with no biscuits in sight!

I finished in less than 10 minutes and washed my hands like I was supposed to.  Unfortunately, I then forgot to apply he stuff to the back of my hands after washing them (what a n00b).  It’s ok though, it just means you guys get to see how natural and un-orange the colour is on me.

I went to bed slightly sticky, but still smelling full on like a tasty vanilla pod.  I woke up, bronzed, gorgeous healthy looking and stinking of a 1 year old hob nob.  I jumped in the shower and emerged all clean-smelling again!

I love the tan.  It’s a beautiful golden olive tone with no hint of orange.  I keep catching sight of myself in the mirror (oh ok, *looking* at myself) and it seems very strange not to see a big pasty face looking back at me.  I really look about a 100% healthier.

I need to get this application malarky down.  For a first attempt, I’m happy.  I exfoliated and moisturised the day before tanning and that seemed to work well to avoid dirty looking knees and elbows (Thanks to Saskia for the tanning tips!).

I think I’ve shamed myself enough this week with my dodgy hair… but… here, have a pic of a bad tan line.

I dunno what’s with the perfect v… but anyway, the photo is more to demonstrate the lovely shade of tan I am rather than my inability to remember simple bloody instructions.  And incase you were wondering, I’ve worn foundation on my hand today to minimize my mark of stupidity.

See, S.M.U.G

I was nervous putting it on my face, really nervous!  I waited till the mitt had a small even covering of cream and I don’t think I used very much at all.  Infact, for the most part I think I over applied.. considering how little product I applied to my face and how even it’s come out, I probably need to use about 1/2 of the product that I initially applied to achieve a good result.

I’m so happy with Xen-Tan and I’ve shocked myself by how good a job I’ve made of it (forgetting the hands for a moment) there are no streaks, blobs or any other tell tale signs of tanning fakery.  I may well become a bit of a tan addict, although I’m intrinsically LAZY, and self-tanning takes dedication.  Regardless, I’ll be buying a bottle of this for the summer!

Xen-Tan Transform LUXE is £23.95 for 236ml.

Xen-Tan is available from Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and House of Fraser stores or visit www.xen-tan.co.uk

…. Ceona!

This traumatic episode in Ceona’s life had me and Mr. L wiping tears from our eyes.  Sorry Ceona, we were laughing WITH you.

14 year old me: Muuuuum. I want a perm. Muuuuum, I really want a perm. Pleeeeeaseeeeeeeee!

Mum after years of my begging: Ok, we’ll speak to the hairdresser.

Hairdresser: No. No no no. It won’t work. Your hair is too thick, it will fall out. No.

Me: Hairdresser, I want a perm. Oh please, please, pretty please. I won’t blame you if it falls out.

Hairdresser: Oh fine. I’ll do it.

Hairdresser gives me a trendy spiral perm. Hairdresser repeats through the whole thing that it will fall out. Hairdresser uses extra perming solution.

Result: I end up with the tightest spiral perm you have ever seen. I am, in fact, Spuggie from Byker Grove (google it youngsters). I am mortified. The hairdresser is delighted and thinks it’s fabulous. I retreat home and burst into tears.

My sister, bless her, does me a french plait. And I wait for the perm to drop. All my friends have bad home perms that drop into cute waves.

Mine does not. Mine grows out very, very slowly. I use industrial quanitites of mousse to control it. I have crispy hair too. At one point I have straight hair to the tops of my ears and tight curls underneath. I do a home dye. I neglect to read the bit about permed hair taking dye more strongly. I have two tone hair.

Eventually, I get a bob.

You’ve won some lovely Aussie products, please can you email me your details so that I may pass them on to the lovely bods at Aussie?

Thanks for sharing everyone xx

I picked this little set up at IMATS (I gave up on the collective haul post – they’ll be coming at you one by one I’m afraid!) from Guru Makeup Emporium who were offering a very decent discount!

5 mini versions of the very popular Aqua Eyes Pencils housed in a litle collector’s tin.

Colours included are: Matte Black (0L), Pearly Brown (2L), Blue with Green Highlights (12L), Shimmering Plum (4L) and Champagne (23L).

The pencils are heavily pigmented and apply smoothly on the waterline.  The champagne will make a lovely eye-brightener, and the blue is simply to die for.  They don’t budge from my lashline and sick to the waterline for a good few hours.

These are my first ‘pencil purchase’ since I went through my stash binning everything that wasn’t GOSH. I won’t be binning these 😉

Do you wear coloured pencils?

I paid £10 for the set.  MUFE Aqua Eyes Pencils retail in the UK for around £11.95 each.

If you like your purples, get ready to put a padlock on your purse.

NARS Purple Rain is such a beautiful, beautiful colour.  A warm-toned purple that has that ethereal ‘lit from within’ quality with it’s blackened edges and glowing centres.  Packed full of grown up shimmer (I can see red and blue in there).  2 coats for full opacity with no formula issues at all.  I’m deducting one point for the handle.  I had to do some major q-tip clean up because I found that huge chunky square handle a nightmare to wield with any accuracy.

Longevity is great so far… 3 days with barely any tip wear and not a chip in sight.  I guess I should be going for some lighter more spring-like shades now…. too bad I still have loads of dark polishes I haven’t played with yet!

…apologies for this break in regular post scheduling but a couple of things…

1). I’ve noticed I’ve been missing a couple of questions by you lovely lot, I’ll be going back through comments this evening and answering any that I’ve missed!

2). It seems that my international ladies are finally receiving their Advent Giveaway prizes – wahoo! Hope you like them!

3). I’m going to London Fashion Week, please tell me that it doesn’t matter what I wear right?

4). Not only have I been missing questions, but my emails have been haywire too!  My hosting company has switched my account to a new server in the hopes that the problems settle down.  Either that, or just to shut me up… If you’ve emailed and I haven’t replied, I probably didn’t get it.  Please resend!

5). I’ve got another giveaway coming up, don’t get too excited.. it’s nice but not amazing… however, free stuff is free stuff right?

6). Was there a 6?

7). Oh yeah! My hair mare post… thank you for all your jeering, sniggering and downright bitchiness 😉  I have loved reading your stories and will be re-reading them tonight with Mr. L.  Together we’ll pick the worst (or is that best?) and get in touch with the lovely Aussie ladies. If you’ve yet to confess your hair shame… do it now, or forever wear a hat!

8). Leila is poorly, the little mite caught my cold.  It’s all my fault, but babies shouldn’t be allowed to catch colds until they’re old enough to know how to blow their noses.  My baby-nose-picking finger is getting a work out!

She’s doing her ‘monkey face’ but you can see her eyes are a bit watery. Can I get an “awwww”?  She’s 9 months old on Tuesday… I can’t believe how quickly time has flown!

Follow Nonie Creme, co-founder of Butter LONDON as she shares her daily video diary from behind the scenes at New York Fashion Week Fall 2010.

Nonie is already setting trends for AW/10 fixing up the Vena Cava ladies with what has been described by Style.com as a “curious shade of cloudy, sparkly eggplant”.

Is it bad to be excited for Autumn when Spring is still in hiding?