A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

…this Alhambra eyeshadow duo from NARS.

I wanted something that was soft, fairly pale and neutral… and I found exactly what I was looking for the last time I went to the NARS counter at Liberty.

Alhambra is a soft, romantic nude duo.  It’s perfect for daytime wear or if deepened with a darker crease colour you can create a beautiful smoky look.

I reach for this when I’m feeling lazy… admittedly I usually reach for one side or the other rather than wearing both together.  A sweep of the ‘pink champagne’ side paired some brown eyeliner and mascara gives me a fresh, wide-awake look that’s polished but not at all overdone.

The shadows are soft, pigmented and shimmery with a metallic look rather than glittery or frosty and I imagine the shades would easily complement many skintones.

NARS Alhambra Duo is priced at £23.00 and available at counters nationwide or online.

Do you like?  Or is it a bit plain for you?

Take a stroll through Soho and you’d be hard-pressed not to end up in Japanese store MUJI…  There’s something about that small store on Carnaby Street that draws passing foot traffic like bees to honey.

Inside, shelves are packed from floor to ceiling with countless arrays of practical and simply-designed products that are guaranteed to make your life a little easier.

One of the latest installments in the “making life easier” category is a new range of skincare that I first talked about a couple of weeks ago.

As a bonafide cleansing oil addict (I currently have 6 bottles on the go) I was keen to see how the new MUJI Cleansing Oil stacked up against some of the more established market leaders.

MUJI were good enough to send me out a couple of pieces from the new range, and I’ve been using them for nearly a month now.  I know there’s been a lot of interest in this product particularly so I wanted to get my thoughts ‘out there’ without too much delay.

MUJI’s offering is cheap.  Not the kindest way to open a review, but I am talking money!  In a world where you can easily pay £35 for a simillar sized bottle of  cleansing oil, this is a bargain.  Hand over a tenner and expect change.

MUJI’s Cleansing Oil comes in a standard, no frills bottle… the emphasis is on functionality rather than aesthetics, although many would argue that the minimalistic design is more aesthetically appealing than many alternatives.

The biggest draw for many will be the fact that this cleanser contains no mineral oils.  A plus point indeed!  Mineral oil is one of the world’s cheapest substances and is a cause of skin irritation and dryness for many.  I’ve moaned previously how one of the most expensive cleansing oils in my bathroom cabinet is full of mineral oils, to see that MUJI (with such a low price point) has taken the care to avoid such fillers, impresses me.

So what does it contain?

Well, the most active ingredient is Hydrogenated Polyisobutene which from my (very limited) research (thank heavens for Google) appears to be a far more sensible alternative to mineral oil. It’s colourless, odourless and tasteless. Non comedogenic, non-irritant, non-toxic, emulsifies in water and is also used in many emolliating products for it’s hydrating qualities. This is all sounds good to me. The other less active (but more recognisable) ingredients include olive oil, jojoba oil, peach leaf extract and orange flower water. Unfortunately, it’s one of the (few) products in the range that does contain parabens, so if that’s something you’re trying to avoid, the MUJI Cleansing Oil won’t be for you.

It’s a light feeling oil, practically colourless and certainly odourless.  Two pumps is plenty to cleanse a heavily made up face.  The oil spreads smoothly over my skin thanks to a fairly thin texture, dissolving my foundation as it goes.  It’s easily as good at removing all powders and lipsticks as any I’ve tried… mascara takes a touch more work, massaging it gently into my lashline does the job after a little while.

The first couple of times I used the MUJI Cleansing Oil, I did feel a little bit of eye-irritation which was very disappointing.  I experienced a slight sting and eye cloudiness as I was cleansing, which although didn’t last longer than a couple of minutes, left me feeling thoroughly disappointed.  However, it’s important that I state that I haven’t experienced any irritations since those first few days of using.  I can’t explain what caused them, perhaps my eyes were suffering from some irritation already without my knowledge.  It’s something I want to make you aware of incase you have particularly sensitive eyes.

The product emulsifies nicely in warm water, though not completely… I need to follow this up with a cleanser (which I always do anyway) and there’s only ever been one cleansing oil that I would happily use without double cleansing (and I must review it soon!).

This is also one of the least drying cleansing oils I own aswell.  For the price and availability in this country, I’d put this in my top five cleansing oils quite happily.

MUJI Cleansing Oil is available in store and online from MUJI.  It’s priced at £9.95 and quite frankly, is a jolly good buy.

…I was talking to a friend on twitter last night who happened to mention that she was about to request a couple of Pop Beauty Eye Cakes in an international swap…

I practically shouted DON’T DO IT!

I can generally work with most products, but these Eye Cakes are probably one of my biggest cosmetic disappointments ever.  I mean, look how beautiful they are in their tins… From left to right: Violet Eyes, Naked Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes.

What a fabulous idea too, naming the pans by what colour eyes they’d suit best.

So what’s to hate, Pop Beauty have a fairly decent reputation, you get 12g of product for an original RRP of £12 and you can often pick these items up for a great price (around £6 ea) on discount websites, which is exactly what I did…

And there’s the problem.

That’s Violet Eyes, swatched heavily.  3 passes on those darkest colours and about 5 on the white which you can’t see at all.

The other two I have are simillar, the best of a bad bunch is the Naked Blue Eyes tin ‘cos that matte brown is a beautiful crease shade.

None of you will ever want to buy these off me in a future blog sale now will you?  Doh!

Have you been disappointed with any purchases recently?

Free on the cover of next month’s copy of InStyle magazine (£3.60)…

Choose between three shades of this season’s must have polish colours created exclusively for InStyle by popular nail brand Nails Inc.  Worth £10.50 each!

And as if that weren’t enough of an incentive… readers will also be entitled to 20% off all Nails Inc. online purchases, plus 20% off manicures and pedicures.

The June issue of InStyle is on sale from today (28th April).

A word to the wise, these sell out pretty quickly!  No prizes for guessing which one I’m nabbing tomorrow!

Will you be picking one up?  Which shade will you be going for?

Just a few of the products so you can see how they look applied (badly as always!)

Face

~ MUA Blusher – Shade 3
~ MUA Pressed Powder (used as contour) – Shade 4

Eyes

~ MUA Eyeshadow Shade 9 (on the lid and under the lower lashline)
~ MUA Eyeshadow Shade 4 (blended into and sligtly above the crease)

Lips

~ MUA Lipstick Shade 5

Do you think you’ll be picking anything up?  Or if you already have, what did you buy?

So the new MUA £1 range has been out in stores for almost a week and I’ve been playing with a couple of items that I was sent.  It’s quite hard to review such bargainous products… it’s difficult to decide whether I cut them a break on the quality front because afterall.. they’re a £1 each… or do I just review them based on whether or not I’d use them again?  I vote in favour of the second option… hard luck MUA.

I’ll start with some of the face products…

The MUA bronzer (I have shade 1) is a sparkle fest, and as a result… quite gritty in texture.  It’s definitely more bronze toned than golden and if shade 1 is the lightest I can’t see it suiting pale tones too well.  I have tried it lightly brushed across my cheeks, but the glitter fall out has left me cold and I won’t be reaching for this again.

A staple for any cosmetic line up is a pressed powder.  I have shade 4, which on my skintone… actually makes a fairly decent matte contour shade.  It’s quite silky to the touch in an old-fashioned Cornsilk kinda way.  It’s also highly scented… powdery, like an old pharmacy.  When I brush over the surface…. a lot of the product is kicked up and sits ontop of the pan which means you need to give your brush a bit of a shake before lifting it to your face to avoid fall out.  It blends quite smoothly though, I’ll certainly be putting this aside for another play next time I can be bothered to contour.

Ahhhh blusher… such a great product for a quick skin pick-me-up.  The best way to describe this is… draw a line between the bronzer and the pressed powder… the blusher lies halfway.  It has the sparkle and the silkiness.  Unfortunately this stuff really flakes when you brush at the surface… I had more product sitting ontop of the pan than ever I did on the brush.  It also suffers a bit when blending, it has a tendency to blend away to nothing if you’re not careful.  The 4 available shades are really rather pretty though.

It’s worth noting that none of the face products contain mirrors in the packaging, I’m sure for obvious cost cutting reasons.  No applicators are included either, which I totally welcome with the eye shadows, but you’d be hard pressd (no pun intended) to achieve much with a pressed powder on the go without a little puff or mirror.

Talking of eyeshadows…

I was sent two of the pearl eyeshadow shades.  One a duochrome purple/blue and the other a pink/lavender shade.  You get a generous 2g of product for your money and these two shades look particularly stunning in the pan.

They’re soft, smooth and well pigmented.  The packaging is cute (prefer these to the face products packaging) and in my opinion a must have if you’re thinking of checking out the range.  I’ve already used the darker shade a few times this week and it’s lovely blended along the lower lashline for a pop of colour.  Thankfully, these don’t appear to be fragranced either.

See that duochrome effect in Shade 9?  Lovely!  I will say that I find these shadows don’t pick up too well with a natural haired brush… so I’ve been using my Aurifere or E.L.F synthetic concealer brushes to apply!

The lipstick packaging remind me a little of the NYX Round Lipsticks with it’s transparent bases… unfortunately, that’s kinda where the similarities end.  These feel greasier and just not as comfortable on the lips.  Shade 1 is a stonking confident creme shade but it wears very unevenly so a lip liner as a base is a must.  Shade 5 is promising in the tube, but delivers very little on the lips.  It’s frosty, but also contains glitter particles… I guess it might work quite nicely as a layering product to take a nude lip from daytime to night time.  Other than that, these are a pass for me.

Ok, what next…

Eyeliner… a beautiful, vibrant blue, almost metallic in appearance.  The applicator is too stiff and scratchy with very little flexibility.  This means that as you’re drawing the line, the product is only really applying at the edges of the applicator… multiple passes are necessary to achieve full opacity.

Once dry, a gentle swipe of my finger lifts great flakes of product from my skin and if that weren’t bad enough… underneath the line?  I’m left with stained skin.  This is a poor product and such a shame because that colour is so pretty and summery.  Let me know if you make this work for you but I’m sure there are much better alternatives on the high street for not much more money.

After those damning comments, I’ll finish with my favourite…

The Eye Dust.  I have Shade 5, which I’ve artfully typo-ed.  First things first, these aren’t going to last longer than 46 seconds on your eyelids without a base of some sort, and you better make it a good one.

But look, how beautiful is this shade?

Combine this with a slick of UDPP or a coloured cream shadow base and you’re gonna get great payoff and a beautifully shimmering neutral shade.  Packaging is irritating, but I’m not gonna let that overshadow what is a lovely eye dust for the money.

Overall, the new MUA range is a bit of a mixed bag… pretty much what I expected it to be.  My tip though?  Go and check out the eyeshadows and eye dusts, I’m delighted with them!

Following on from the NARS Summer Collection, have you guys seen these yet? (probably, I’m not too quick with the old releases).

Available in 6 shades, these are lip treatments that as you may have guessed… are sheer colour washes.

SPF 15, Mango Butter, moisturisation and protection are the key words to take from this little line up of safe but rather lovely colours.

Due out on the 1st May, there’s already a waiting list at Selfridges.

Shade 1…. catchy…

Naming them must have ran the risk of breaking the budget for this new £1 line of makeup from Superdrug

Ok, enough sarcasm…

Shade 1 is a blackened blue.  The best way to describe it is opalescent… a darker-than-navy base with royal blue glitter particles.  The glitter isn’t chunky and a top coat isn’t necessary to smooth the finish.  I had to go and stand in direct sunlight to capture the sparkles for the photo which is why you can see my conservatory roof reflected in my tips!

For a £1 polish it’s a good looking finish.  Formula isn’t the best… it dragged at the cuticles and if I look carefully there’s still a couple of streaks visible after two coats.  However, it’s not horribly gloopy or difficult to actually paint with which is an irritation I often experience with high street polishes.  Yes, I’m a nail polish snob I know (bar Asda!) *hangs head*

Ohh that’s a good comparison actually…. I’ve tried two from the MUA line so far and quality isn’t as good as the George formula.  The MUA polishes that I’ve tried have a denser, thicker formula, but they are fairly quick-drying.

Tip wear is a little worse than average, not by too much though and I haven’t experienced any chipping after 2 days, so I’m very pleased with that.

I think I’ve covered most things… for a £1, you know you’re not gonna get OPI quality… but I think this is a stonking shade and if you like your blues, definitely check it out next time you’re passing Superdrug!  Alternatively, the entire range is now available to purchase from the website.

Do you like it?

Oh Francois…

I can’t hear anything over the sound of my rapily beating heart *insert melodramatic music and excessive swooning*… it’s a new collection… and it’s coming very soon!

Do you care what I think? Probably not… but I’m a sharer…

Burn It Blue Duo Cream Eyeshadow – Iridescent ocean blue / turquoise

I’m not crazy for NARS Cream Eyeshadows…  they absolutely HAVE to be set with an additional shadow ontop to avoid creasing and even then, I only get a maximum of 6 hours wear out of them.  But I freaking love these colours…. if it were a powder duo, I would have been all over it like an embarrassing rash.

Coup de Coeur Lip Gloss – Sheer apple-brandy

Apple-Brandy… is that like a red/brown?  Hmm… It doesn’t sing to me… but I’m often surprised by NARS Lip Glosses, it’s a swatch job ‘cos I guess it could really take a nude lip to another level.

Versailles Nail Polish – Opalescent, champagne-gold

Sheer? Not Sheer?  That is the question… I’m reserving judgement, but it sure looks beautiful in the bottle *swoon*

Love Devotion Lipstick – Sheer guava

Looking at the promo image, it’s not for me.  It looks coral and bright.  Reading the description… I love the sound of it.  I adore guava shades which seem to work beautifully on my pale pink skin… the perfect pink/coral combination.  Not only that, but I adore my NARS Cruising semi-sheer lipstick from the Spring collection so I’m definitely going to be having a closer look at Love Devotion before writing it off.

Cayenne Cream Eyeshadow – Spicy, deep brown

I’ve already said why I’m not sold on the NARS Cream Eyeshadows, it needs to be a stonking shade for me to bother picking it up… and this… isn’t.  It’s reliable and it’s magnificently wearable, but if I’m gonna go to the effort to layer a powder over a cream for a stunning effect… it won’t be for this shade.

Lamu Multiple – Fresh, glazed apricot

I have a love/hate for Multiples… I love their multi-use aspect and I always take my Antibes with me when I’m on holiday but I find them quite hard to work with.  “Fresh, glazed apricot” sounds like it may be a bit too warm-toned for me anyway.

Enchanted Cream Blush – Soft-peach

OK, now this I’m on board with – woo woo! *makes train noises*…. I love cream blushes in a pan like this… cream blush + stippling brush = blush heaven.  Soft peach? Yes please!  I’m insanely excited about this release.  Can you tell?

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Quite a mixed bag of thoughts then, please excuse what is essentially an internal conversation between me and my makeup buying alter ego spilling out over the keyboard.  There’s definitely a few pieces that I want to see in person before passing final judgement… overall, promising!

The NARS Summer Collection will be on counter from the 1^st May.

Anything there that you’ll be paying some extra attention?

I know some of you don’t dig the grey/beige thing, but every greige polish I’ve picked up thus far has suited my complexion beautifully, so I’m hooked.

This is Nails Inc’s latest offering: Lennox Gardens (£15)… and I’m in lurrrrrve.  Well I would be… if they took the stupid ‘crystals’ off and lowered the price by a fiver.

Sludgey poo in a bottle or the epitome of understated elegance, what d’ya reckon?

I first read back in January from the inimitable BeautyWooMe that kings of minimalism Muji were introducing their skincare line into the UK and as a huge fan of Japanese skincare, I was chomping at the bit for the release.

Comprising of two core product ranges:

Sensitive Skin: A hypo-allergenic skincare range formulated for delicate, sensitive skins.

The range is:

• Alcohol-free
• Paraben free
• Unperfumed
• No artifcial colouring
• Free from mineral oils

High Moisture: An intensive moisture rich skincare range formulated for dry skin.

• No artifcial colouring
• No added synthetic fragrances
• Free from mineral oils

The High Moisture range also contains Hyaluronic acid known for its moisturising properties and Lipidure ® (Polyquaternium -51), for locking in moisture, protecting and softening the skin.

In addition to the two core ranges, the skincare line also offers a Cleansing Oil (yippee!), a Cleansing Milk and a Cleansing Gel aswell as some rather nifty facial tools such as a Massager, Face Masks, Eye Masks and ever-useful Cotton Pads.

The skincare range starts from a very reasonable £7.95 and combined with the aesthetically pleasing packaging and somehow satisfying experience I always get from shopping in Muji, I’m gonna be making a beeline for the store every opportunity I get.

Or I could just be lazy and order online.

I have a couple of items that I’m testing at the moment so expect a review shortly!

A very beautiful pale greige that I was sent a while ago by the lovely Liloo.

Shown here is 2 coats, and I think it probably needs 3… looked fine indoors but a touch patchy in direct sunlight.  Country Club Khaki is a gorgeously sophisticate creamy greige and definitely in my top 5.  If you’re into the trend, you need this polish in your life!

I find Orly’s brushes a touch on the narrow side, but the formula was completely forgiving and I didn’t have any issues to speak of.

Are you a fan of the trend? I personally love it.  There’s a great looking new Nails Inc shade aswell that I need to tell you about soon!

£6.99 from Beauty4Nails-Body.