Budget beautifiers BeautyUK have released a special charity gift set comprising of three super-PINK nail polishes in support of Cancer Research UK.
The set was developed after one of the brand’s fans (who’s Mum was going through her own breast cancer battle) expressed a wish for them to create a range of pink polishes that would not only make her Mum feel pretty but also help raise money to help battle the disease.
And lo it was born…
Hope, Love, and Strength…
The set is priced at £5.99, with £1 from every sale going directly to Cancer Research UK. The set is available to buy now online and instore nationwide at Superdrug.
In addition to the new long-wear cream shadows, and eye pencils which I talked about here, the Bobbi Brown Intensifying Long-Wear Mascara* is putting in an appearance and promising to deliver results that last for up to 16 hours.
It’s probably fair to say that when I think of long-lasting makeup, I’m not sure that I’ve ever cursed any of my mascaras for not lasting the course of a day? Sure, some are more smudgy than others and then you have the ones that flake a little as the day goes on but I can’t remember ever looking in the mirror and thinking “awww crap, where’s me mascara gone?”. Or maybe they just mean that it won’t flake or smudge… but then again, don’t they all promise that?
If you experience this kind of problem on a daily basis, then perhaps the Bobbi Brown Intensifying Long-Wear Mascara is your next dream come true?
The packaging is particularly sexy with a metallic-chocolate finish and sleek lines whilst the brush inside is teeny, tiny… and for me, its main USP. This fabulous brush reaches every lash from the longest to the shortest. The brush consistently pulls out the perfect amount of product and you can feel the packaging doing its job at sucking back in the excess as you pull the brush from the neck of the tube. As a result, I can’t see this one drying out too quickly either.
You can see how narrow the brush is in the above photo, a really great shape for women with shorter, sparser lashes to define from root to tip. I particularly like this mascara for my lower lashes, it separates nicely, fanning each one out without leaving clumps or excess product in its wake. As for the top lashes, well… it’s not quite volumising, nor lengthening enough for me. My lashes can take a hefty dose of product before they begin to look worse for wear and this doesn’t provide the lash-drama that I’m forever craving.
It does, however, provide a better-than-natural finish that you can build without too much protest. As for longevity? Yes, it lasts the day without smudging – well done. I do see a couple of flakes if I apply more than two coats but nothing that I’d worry myself over. Removal is easy with just warm water, though my cream cleanser (waterless cleansing) didn’t experience any issues with sweeping it away at the end of the day either.
Overall, I really recommend this mascara if you’re looking for a good, solid formula with a fabulous brush that helps create precision definition without missing a single lash.
Bobbi Brown Intensifying Long-Wear Mascara is available to buy on counter and online, priced at £18.00
As the summer approaches, my thoughts turn to bullet-proofing my makeup to last the course of a hot, tiring day. I don’t know about you but despite my dry skin, the first to make a dash for freedom is any and all makeup down the bridge of my nose. Then my eyeliner melts into my tear ducts, developing into hugely attractive eye bogies before the last of my foundation gives up the ghost and literally puddles in the area where my nose meets my face (hello face). If it’s really hot, my eyeliner will also strive for symmetry and create matching lines across my upper eyelid where the “hoods” rest gently on the lash-line. It’s a beautiful sight to behold.
Bobbi Brown’s newLong-Wear Eye Collection promises to stay the distance without letting you down or showing you up. The eye pencils from the new collection are richly-coloured and deeply-pigmented. They’re creamy and have that soft, gel formula reminiscent of my belovedAvon Mega Impact/Supershock Gel Eyeliner (whatever they’re bleedin’ being called at the moment).
The Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Eye Pencils* are available in six shades: Jet, Mahogany, Black Navy, Black Plum, Hunter and Smoke, providing a colour option whatever your personal taste. I really like an off-black range that carries the density of an inky black but without the harshness on maturing features. Not that my features are maturing, shutup.
These pencils haven’t given me any trouble sharpening, the uber-softness of the Avon ones means that I do need to chill them in the fridge for half an hour prior to sharpening, total pain when you need a pencil stat. I didn’t have to do this with the Bobbi Brown pencils.
Mahogany is swatched on the left, Smoke on the Right. You can see the density of pigment is really quite impressive. It’s a teeny bit less pigmented than the Avon offerings (which are insanely pigmented) but as I said earlier, they do provide a little more precision during application thanks to a firmer texture.
Here are the same swatches after scrubbing the back of my hand with soap and water for a good 30/40 seconds. I was impressed that they didn’t smear or transfer as I swiped and rubbed. You can see that the pigment has eroded in places but if you imagine that swatch as drawn across your lash-line, I think you’d be fairly happy to emerge from the swimming pool 3-hours later with that much still intact no?
Unfortunately, whilst I think these pencils are brilliant. This is where the praise ends.
I’ve been comparing these all along to the Avon SuperShock Gel Eyeliner pencils (which don’t come in as many shades admittedly) simply because the Avon ones are my benchmark and indeed, my daily staples. As I swatched both alongside one another, I expected the Bobbi Brown ones to outlast the Avon. They don’t. They wear identically both on the back of my hand and on my waterline, around 5 hours.
The Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Eye Pencils are priced at £17 each. The Avon SuperShock Gel Eyeliner pencils are currently priced at £4 each. And there’s the rub, I’m not going to recommend that you spend extra money needlessly… both are fabulous long-wearing, densely pigmented pencil liners. The Avon ones are substantially cheaper.
The Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Eye Pencils are available to buy on counter and online from BobbiBrown.co.uk
Avon Nailwear Pro+ Nail Shades are currently less than half price, reduced from £6.00 to just £2.50 a-piece. I’ve included some swatches below* so you can pick your next killer colour. Coral Reef is hawt for Summer, one of those beautiful guava shades that will suit both cool and warm skintones equally.
From Left to Right:
Coral Reef | Cosmic Blue | Decadence | Lemon Sugar | Licorice | Pastel Pink | Real Red | Romance | Sea Breeze | Star | Starry Sky | Viva Pink
Avon Nailwear Pro+ Nail Shades are available to purchase online from Avonshop.co.uk
Starting tomorrow morning and lasting for 48hrs only, receive a free D.J.V. Beautenizer Fiberwig LX Mascara (worth £18) with any CultBeauty order over £40. Perhaps now’s the time to plump for the Face Atelier Ultra Foundation I talked about the other week? Or… how about this 3 Custom Color Century in Red Lip Palette that has a permanent place on the Lipglossiping wishlist (alter-ego, can’t blame myself for these wishlists).
Whatever you choose, the D.J.V. Beautenizer Fiberwig LX Mascara has a cult following and even got me rightly told off by die-hard fans when I reviewed it without reading the instructions properly!
The offer ends at midnight on Monday, so be quick!
Here’s one from the archives. And by archives, I mean that I found it in an old photo folder, not that I’m re-posting stuff from a couple of years back. I may be nearly 2200 posts down but I’ve still got plenty to show you thankyouverymuch!
I’m not a massive fan of Ciate… I don’t generally get excited about their releases if I’m honest. The bows (once you get past the cute factor) are a complete pain in the arse to re-tie and the bottle is a really awkward shape to hold for photos (SO not a valid excuse).
Ciate Silhouette is pretty though, it has a delicate shimmer running through the burgundy base and a nice amount of depth that gives a lovely velvety, plush look to the nails. It’s unremarkable in drying time and wear, I have no complaints at all. Definitely one of my preferred Ciate shades, you should also check out Starlet and Velvet Tuxedo if you want some other lovely Ciate polishes.
Ciate Silhouette is priced at £9.00 and available to buy online from PowderRooms
If you’re a fan of sheer formulas that give a hint of colour without the commitment of something too bold, you’ll probably already be aware of the Clinique Chubby Stick formula which achieves just this. I like my lip colour to be a little more in your face, Stace! but I can appreciate that those of you wusses who still rely on stabilizers will probably come over all unecessary over the new shades. I’ve got one here called Oversized Orange (sounds like me after I’ve fake tanned) and it’s actually a pretty nice way to wear a shade that I usually run away from.
It glides on smoothly and despite my attempts at laying it on an inch thick to build colour (old habits die hard), it builds pigmentation only moderately but impressively doesn’t go all claggy or yukky on the lips. It feels moisturising enough and isn’t remotely sticky.
It doesn’t look like it’s made much difference at all in the lip swatch (which is why I always advocate full face shots when it comes to lipsticks!)… because, it actually packs enough colour to finish and polish a look. At least, on my fairly unpigmented lips. Please excuse the fringe, I struggled badly at flattening my cow-lick today!
Clinique Chubby Sticks are available to buy on counter and online, priced at £16 each. The eight new shades (including Oversized Orange will be available from June).
Do you own any Clinique Chubby Sticks? Like a sheerer, more balmy lipstick?
Finding the perfect mascara is much like finding the perfect killer heels. You want something that makes your legs (lashes) look incredible without crippling the wearer. Some mascaras sting, flake, smear, or generally flop halfway through the day. The Clinique High Impact Curling Mascara* is a good choice for anyone who wants impressive lash scaffolding without too many side effects.
My lashes are naturally fairly curly and crave definition and impressive darkening to make the most of them. Curling isn’t high on my list of priorities but even I could see how once this mascara sets, it holds a rock-solid shape throughout the day.
The brush is a curved affair, with a tapered tip to allow you to reach the tiniest of corner lashes. It does offer good coverage with a single pass, which is just as well because the formula has a tendency to go a little spidery if you go back for too many coats. I’d stick with two as a maximum. The formula is a little wetter than some, so be aware of this when applying… I’m always a little heavy-handed which usually results in a couple of splodges of product on my eyelid when using wetter formulas. Avoid this by removing any excess from the wand with a tissue, or wiping it against the edge of the tube opening.
The black is a true, inky black which coats my lashes evenly and offers great definition, curling and lengthening. It also does well to volumise at the roots, but again… with the wetter formula, you do need to be precise here. It’s a little bit ‘bitty’ as it builds, and these ‘bits’ will flake off throughout the day but it’s purely the excess which drops, so again, just take a little more care that you haven’t loaded your brush with too much product and you’ll avoid this. Another issue is removal… you’ll need warm water to remove, so simply hold a wet flannel to your lashes momentarily and the formula will slide right off. If you don’t? This stuff is holding steady – making it a great choice for Summer holidays! Basically, there’s a learning curve with this mascara that’s worth getting to grips with.
All in all, I think the Clinique High Impact Curling Mascara is a strong offering from the line. It does what it says on the tube, and if you’re looking for supreme hold and curl with a long-lasting formula (albeit with a little work on your part to get the absolute best from it), you won’t go far wrong with this one.
Clinique High Impact Curling Mascara is available to buy on counter and online, priced at £16.00
I’ve got two NOTDs to show you today, and I thought I’d bunch them together seeing as they both fit neatly along a theme. Union Jack Black and Saucy Jack… err, you’re getting the connection right?
Butter London – Union Jack Black
Butter London – Saucy Jack
Union Jack Black is a rich black with a patent, high-gloss shine. At three coats, it requires one more than I’d like to reach full opacity but it applies effortlessly and dries rapidly. When I got to meet Nonie Creme, she ranked Union Jack Black as one of her personal favourites from the line.
Saucy Jack is an intriguing shade with its almost jelly-like finish and blood-red hue. It gives a stained glass-like impression that is really intriguing and ranks up there as one of my most vampy shades. Most jellies are quite soft and squishy looking, this is far more gothic in its interpretation.
Talking of Jacks… my brother used to get mistaken for Jack Black a lot. This is not really relevant but watching this clip always makes me laugh. Not only does my brother look a little like Barry. He basically is Barry, albeit slightly less hyperactive. Also not relevant to the post, but my other brother played bass on Dry The Rain, also in the film here. It’s like trufax Thursday right here!
Both shades are available to buy online from Powder Rooms, priced at £11.95 each.
I’ve been trying out the ADesign Skincare Brush Set for just over a month now, and I wanted to see if this one set could ever possibly replace the various skin brushes that I’ve grown to love over the years. I have to say, the set did fare better than I thought it would… but the ultimate answer is that nothing can replace many years of replacing rubbish brushes with marginally better ones until you reach brush nirvana!
But let me talk you through the brushes contained in the ADesign Skincare Brush Set*, with particular reference to my. new. favourite. brush.
I’ll begin by giving you a quick overview of the set, which is available to buy online from Cocktail Cosmetics, priced at £44.95. Broken down, that works out at around £8.99 per brush – which for face brushes, makes it a very good value set. You’d easily pay that on the high street for brushes that don’t come close to even 10% of the quality that these represent.
For your money, you get five brushes housed in a patent mock-croc bag that is fully-lined to prevent damage from spills. The brushes (from left to right) are: Pointed Foundation Kabuki Brush, Flat Top Foundation Brush, Foundation Brush, Medium Concealer Brush, and Pointed Concealer Brush.
You may be asking yourself, why on Earth would you need three different foundation brushes? If you are, get off my blog.
Moving on…
Yes. It’s magnificent isn’t it? Like a silver bullet sent to banish bad makeup application werewolves (or something *shrugs*). I haven’t quite got the hang of how best to use the Adesign Pointed Foundation Kabuki Brush and I’m not keen on the stubby kabuki-handle – the pointed tip is obviously engineered to provide precision and having a longer-handle would complement this more effectively. Of course, if you love the design, you could always opt for something like the Bdellium Tools Bambu Pointed Foundation Brush as an alternative.
The heavily tapered bristles on this brush allows for dual-motion blending… you can swipe both back and forward like a traditional painting motion or apply circular buffing strokes. For me, I’ve found its forte when it comes to applying concealer over a larger area, particularly around the nose as the point gets right into the creases whilst the taper blends the edges seamlessly. I’m not completely sold on it, but I do think I’ve not quite mastered the best technique for it yet. If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears!
The Adesign Flat Top Foundation Brush, a.k.a. my new favourite brush. It’s a masterpiece, so beautifully dense with tickle-me soft fibres. It is not very pliable which allows for a really good buffing motion (rather than flopping about ineffectively on the face) and comes with a small head which I much prefer when compared to a larger size flat-top such as the ELF Powder Brush. I’m going to photograph comparable brushes shortly and reiterate why I prefer this brush to the others. For quick reference, comparable brushes would be: MAC 130 and Shiseido Perfect Foundation Brush (though this one isn’t cut at an angle).
I’ve been using this for applying foundation (all textures), applying cream blush and blending out any edges. When my skin has been particularly dry and all my products have been cream or liquid-based, I haven’t even bothered to use a different brush. This is the stand-out offering from the set. The smaller head also means that it complements my stick products really well (things like NARS Multiples and my Shu Uemura Stick Foundation). Perhaps the ultimate compliment I can pay it though is that it has enabled me to wear my MUFE HD Cream Blushes… those things played me up something chronic, I just couldn’t find the right tool to get the just-flushed blush from them. Until now.
I wish that I could point to a single technical aspect of this brush that suits my needs so well, but all I can tell you is that I’m in brush love. For reals.
After the gushing over the previous brush, the Adesign Foundation Brush doesn’t get me nearly as excited. Again, this is small-headed… comparable in size to the Giorgio Armani Designer Foundation Expert Shaping Brush but mega-bucks cheaper. While the GA brush tapers away quickly, the ADesign brush provides greater density from the base up, which allows this brush to both paint and buff. The fibres have a good amount of spring to them and are densely packed from root to tip.
TheAdesign Medium Concealer Brush is another that didn’t give me an awful lot to flap about. Again, it’s a good-looking brush without any flaws and applies under-eye concealer very gently but one the whole, I prefer my No7 Concealer brush when it comes to painting on the product with a flat edge like this offers. But talking of flat edges…
…the Adesign Pointed Concealer Brush is without them! This is a really good brush for concealing over blemishes. It delivers the product with pin-point precision and blends without dislodging or removing any of the product you’ve just placed! How many times have you applied concealer to a spot, blended and then realised that you’ve blended at least 50% of the product off?! This has worked wonders for my concealer application skillz… now I has some! Again, this is so densely packed, you would think you’d need something with a ‘lighter’ touch, but no… despite my initial scepticism, this really does the job magnificently well. It’s a little too stiff-feeling to use in the delicate eye area, where something like a MAC 224 works well to both apply and blend concealer.
Without exception, each of these synthetic-fibre brushes are high-quality. The ferrules are solid, the fibres are well-cut and dense. Each is perfectly soft, washes well and keeps its shape as it dries. Talking of drying, these do dry more slowly than natural hair fibres…. such is the downside to synthetic brushes but I haven’t experienced any shedding during washing or application at all. Which is more than can be said for most brushes. Whilst I haven’t fallen head-over-heels for every brush in the set, the two that have made an impression on me (Flat Top Foundation & Pointed Concealer) … have made an impression that I want to shout about.
As an aside, you may be wondering why this is called the ‘skincare’ set… well, if you watch the video below, you’ll see that this set was designed for both makeup application AND skincare application. Call me old-school but I’m all about the fingers when it comes to skincare!
Well, not entirely monstrous, but green is not a colour that I can pull off with much success. Mr. L, who never comments on my makeup (other than to tell me I look lovely when I drop enough hints that he ought to be saying something), readily agrees that green is not a colour I should allow into my makeup-playing repertoire too often. About halfway through the day I asked him, “Have you noticed that I’m wearing green on my eyes today?”.
“Yes. *pause* It doesn’t look too bad does it?”
And that ladies, clearly means that it looks amazing. Or not. I’ll go with the former.
Do you ever get the feeling that you’re getting a bit old to wear bright colours on your eyes? I do. I mean, when I was 27…. I thought I was getting too old, but now that I’m 30 and I’m looking at the photo thinking, “I think it doesn’t look too weird” but, I surround myself (online) with beautiful women who love to have fun and enjoy a passion for makeup. What must women who don’t share our creativity when it comes to slap think?
Of course, one totally shouldn’t care what other women think and I’m neither fishing nor asking for validation here, it’s just that being on the cusp of the wrong side of 30 makes me hesitate. Nothing more and nothing less, I guess it comes down to the fact that you can’t really pull off the “cute” thing once you reach your thirties, and so there’s no room for error in the same way as when you were younger.
“Should know better”. I’d like that on my headstone… along with “One Day”, a long-held shot at faith.
I usually only have time in the morning for the basics when it comes to makeup but Mr. L has been super-generous with his time in the run-up to releasing his next game, so you can expect a few more FOTDs than normal simply because it feels lovely to walk out of the house in a proper made-up face once a week you know? The type where you’ve played and pontificated over choosing what to apply rather than reached for the quickest, most fool-proof things you own.
Anyway, I’m really rambling. I’ll do a quick product breakdown.
Face
Face Atelier Ultra Foundation in Ivory
Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage SC-1
Guerlain Terracotta Moisturising Bronzing Powder in 00
Eyes
GOSH Velvet Touch Eyeliner in Green Grass on the upper lashline
Purple Eyeshadow from the Smashbox Muse Artist Eye Palette on lower lashline
Clinique High Impact Curling Mascara*
Illamasqua Eye Brow Cake in Gaze
Lips
Bourjois Sweet Kiss Natural in 09 Sienne Kiss*
What’s your colour nemesis? Do you hesitate when it comes to colour?
It’s like that time I found out about coconut m&ms(did the m&m website really just age-check me?!), I can’t remember where… some foodie blogger who was baking immense cookies with them or something. Oh, how I hungered for the crunch of a more tropical m&m… I thought about ordering online but realised that if I’d ordered enough “candy” to make the postage worth it, I could kiss goodbye to both my diet and ever-decreasing arse. So I waited. And I waited. I contented myself with peanut M&Ms as my weekly treat but it was never quite enough.
Then one day. I snapped. Actually, I think it was about three days later, but whatevs.
I don’t know if I’d dreamt about them but I woke up with a mission, and one that I was going to fulfil if it killed me. We were going on a roadtrip and I WAS going to have my coconut m&ms damnit. We jumped in the car, Leila still rubbing her eyes after being dragged from her bed (don’t worry, I made it up to her with a Tootsie Roll) and we headed up the M3 in search of Shangri-La. Or theStateside Candy Co. in Aldershot as Mr. L called it.
I bought two packets. And some root beer, mac & cheese, cheetos and Vanilla coke… what?
Well anyway, I got back to the car… cracked open my Vanilla Coke (O.M.G) and dipped into the bag of coconut m&ms.
Meh.
A bit like this polish.
I wanted China Glaze Fast Track from the moment I saw it online, I mean… look at the bottle! What in the name of all things sprinkled in gold shimmer could be more beautiful? But on my nails, it just doesn’t translate so well. There’s nothing wrong with it per se, it’s just that the base shade does absolutely nothing for my skin colouring. Infact, it looks a bit fecal in an anaemic kinda way and no amount of beautiful golden sparkle can make a turd look good. Unless, you completely obscure the turd with gold glitter, but this doesn’t do that. I digress. I didn’t mean to talk about turds either, sorry.
So yes, on paper… it’s a wonder, but when you get down to it… like coconut m&ms. it just leaves me feeling a bit, disappointed.
China Glaze Fast Lane is available to buy as part of the Hunger Games collection, priced at £6.59 from Sallys
* I want to live off cheetos and mac & cheese for the rest of my life. Orange food ftw. Oh and these mini-doughnut things that must have been packed with enough preservatives to restore the defunct do-do.
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