A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Britain’s Next Top Model Live promises to be a great event this weekend and I’ve got a pair of tickets worth £36 that I want to give to one of my lucky readers.

Watch the ad below to find out more about BNTM Live.

There will be a whole host of beauty exhibitors in attendance including:  Bobbi Brown, Becca, Rebel Nails, Aurifere, Bourjois, Elemis, Fake Bake and Leighton Denny amongst many others!

The event runs from Friday 22nd October to Sunday 24th October inclusive and is being held at Excel London.

I want to send out a big thankyou to Aurifere who allowed me to pass on these tickets as a prize to my readers.

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So… how do you win?  Simply complete the form below and submit!  Tickets will be posted out to the winner by Special Next Day Delivery, so please enter an address where there will be someone available to sign for them.

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NOTES
* Postal address required to allow me to post the tickets to the winner without delay
* Competition will close at 11.59pm (BST) on the 20th October
* Competition is open to UK entrants only
* Winner will be selected at random from all correct entries
* 1 entry per email address accepted
* Addresses only used to contact the winner and will be deleted once the competition is closed
* My decision is final

There’s just under 2 hours to go before Elizabeth Hurley, spokesmodel for Estee Lauder and The Breast Cancer Awareness campaign will literally turn London’s iconic department store Harrods PINK in an effort to raise awareness for the campaign!

The historic facade will be lit pink at 7pm this evening in support of The Estée Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign and to celebrate the Estée Lauder brand’s 50th Anniversary at Harrods.

Also available to purchase this month, the Pink Ribbon Collection 2010:

The collection includes:

The Evelyn Lauder Lip Collection. This divine colour collection contains three shades of Pure Color Lipstick, hand-picked by Evelyn Lauder herself; Tiramisu, Candy and Rubellite.

RRP £25.00

Estée Lauder’s classic Jewelled Pink Ribbon Pin.

RRP £10.00.

The Elizabeth Hurley Lip Collection. This gorgeous lip collection includes two double-ended lipgloss wands, with four gloss shades from the new Pure Color Gloss collection; Nude Rose, Rock Candy, Brazen Berry and Extravagant Pink.

RRP £25.00

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£7.50 from each purchase of The Pink Ribbon Collection in the UK will be donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for its research programme at the UK’s Institute of Cancer Research.

Availablie nationwide throughout October, while stocks last.

I couldn’t resist picking up the Paul & Joe Creamy Cheek Powder in 01 – Marionette last week in the ASOS sale… it was down from £18 to £11 – steal!

This post is a bit picture heavy… simply because it’s so pretty and I got my new camera and I couldn’t stop snapping.

Read the rest of this entry »

Does everyone know what a GWP stands for?  I only found out about a year ago despite having been a regular owner of them for ooooooooooh about 10 years?  I think infact that I may have been the last person in the world to discover what the acronym actually stood for.  Kinda like that time I discovered my ex was sleeping with someone that wasn’t me.

GWP = Gift with Purchase!

Some brands are pretty famous for their awesome GWPs and many shoppers time their repurchases to coincide with instore events that feature these lovely little extras!  With potential bargainous Christmas pressies in mind, I contacted a few brands to find out what they had to offer for the month of October and was pleasantly surprised to find some not too shabby offerings!

1. Estee Lauder (Exclusive to Boots)

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Contents (choice of shades available)

• Take It Away Long-Wear Makeup Remover Towelettes, 5 sheets in travel size pouch
• Daywear Plus Multi-Protection Anti-Oxidant Creme, N/C Skin,15ml
• Advanced Night Repair Syncronized Recovery Complex, 7ml
• Eyeshadow Quad Compact with Applicator
• Pure Color Lipstick
• Double Wear Zero Smudge Lengthening Mascara in Black
• Estee Lauder Pleasures Edp, 4ml
• Purple Patent Cosmetic Bag with cross stitch pattern

Qualifier

Free with any two or more Estée Lauder purchases.

Until

Saturday 23rd October 2010

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2. Help: Clear Skin (online)

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Contents

• Limited Edition Heidi Cannon Purse

Qualifier

Free when you purchase one month’s supply of Help: Clear Skin

Until

While stocks last

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3. Clinique (Exclusive to Debenhams)

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Contents

• Exclusive Learn by Numbers Eye Compact in Neutral, 2.2g
• Rinse-Off Foaming Cleanser, 50ml
• Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion, 30ml
• High Impact Curling Mascara in Black, 4g
• Long Last Glosswear SPF 15 in Kissy Fit, 2.3ml

Qualifier

Free with the purchase of two or more Clinique products (one to be skin care)

Until

Saturday 30th October 2010

I was recently introduced to Salon nail brand Precision during a press event and although not a brand I’d encountered before, my eye was immediately drawn to their new collection entitled Glam Rock.

The overall look of the products is sleek with their OPI-esque packaging, heavyweight bottles and even contoured handles!

The Glam Rock collection comprises of 6 darker, slighty industrial shades which all fit in well with the concept.

R01: Glam Metal – warm charcoal base with multi coloured shimmer
R02: U Rock & I Roll – Industrial dark grey creme
R03: VIP Very Important Polish – Berry purple with multi coloured shimmer
R04: The After After Party – Navy with multi coloured shimmer
R05: Rebel Red in You – Black with Red Glitter
R06 : Party Like a Rockstar – Gold with multi coloured shimmer

I’m really late in swatching these… I’ve been looking at them longingly for about a month, but having been without camera means that I’ve got a hell of a lot of catching up to do now!

I’ll leave you with one swatch shot.  Here’s R05: Rebel Red in You…

The red glitter suspended in a black base is not an original concept.  I’m thinking China Glaze Lubu Heels, Eyeko Vampira, Color Club Red Velvet etc.. etc… but it’s a good idea well executed here by Precision.  I have no complaints about quality, infact the bottle and brush are simply divine.

It did require three thin coats to achieve the above finish… but if you’re a little more heavy handed than me, you would be done in two.

What I will say for this collection is that so far I’ve worn two from the six shades I was given and one of them has just easily jumped into my top 20 Winter polishes of all time.  It’s THAT gorgeous.  I’ll get it posted up later in the week.

Precision is available to buy online from their website or Venus Nail & Beauty with bottles priced at around £5.99 each.

…in Burnished Copper.

So pretty… so, so very pretty.

I’ll admit that Laura Mercier is a brand that I’ve never gotten into before now.  I’m always drawn to the sleek packaging and impeccably made up SAs but the line confuses me a little.  It’s all those powders I think… I once asked about the Secret Brightening Powder and left the counter with the impression that I needed to buy about 7 other products before the Secret Brightening Powder would be able to do it’s intended task.

So now, for the sake of my tiny brain… I ignore that whole “secret” part of the counter whenever I stop by for a look.  I’m probably missing out on something great… but don’t tell me that.

So anyway, I hadn’t even noticed these cute little tubes before… but last time I was browsing my eyes alighted on them straightaway!

I already have a particular fondness for creme eyeshadow formulations and was eager to swatch them all.  I was terribly torn between this one (Burnished Copper) and Alloy (Cool Taupe).  I went with Burnished Copper in the end because I knew it would really pull the green in my eyes to the forefront and just seemed more Christmassy (only 10 weeks away – don’t hate me).

You can either squeeze a small amount of product onto your finger tip and apply like that for a sheerer finish or use a brush to build up the colour intensity.  I would recommend using a primer underneath if you have oily lids… longevity lies somewhere between NARS cream shadows (i.e. none) and Benefit’s Creaseless Creams (good).  With a primer, they last a whole lot longer on me.

Ain’t it purdy though?  Metallic but more of a metallic sheen than robot wars.  At £18 each, they ain’t much of a bargain… but I am such a sucker for beautiful shades.

Have you tried the Laura Mercier Metallic Creme Eye Colours?

Did you know that today, October 18th… marks the UK’s first Anti-Slavery Day?

I had the opportunity to put a few questions to Hannah Pearce from ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) to talk about why slavery is still an issue, what needs to be changed and how we go about making those changes.

How is slavery an issue in the UK today?

We were really pleased that the government decided, in part as a result of ECPAT UK’s lobbying, to introduce a national Anti-Slavery Day earlier this year.  The UK’s first ever Anti-Slavery Day will be marked on 18th October 2010.

Whilst slavery was officially abolished almost 200 hundred years ago a modern version of slavery exists in the form of child trafficking.  ECPAT UK is part of a global network of organisations campaigning against child trafficking.  ECPAT UK has carried out research over recent years which has found that children are trafficked to the UK from a wide range of countries.  These are children who have faced appalling experiences of exploitation; children who have been trafficked for sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, cannabis cultivation, forced criminal activities and benefit fraud.

It’s both sad and shocking to understand this, what would be the single most important thing the government could do to help?

Our campaign with the Body Shop is calling on the government to introduce a system of guardianship to be introduced for all trafficked children.  Children who have been trafficked do not have anyone to look after them and make decisions on their behalf as a parent would do.  Although many professionals can be involved in the care of a child who has been trafficked no one person has parental responsibility. We believe there are substantial gaps in the system of support for trafficked children who need guidance through the welfare, legal, asylum and immigration processes.  A guardian would ensure that these children receive the support they need.

What is it about The Body Shop (other than their High Street positioning) that ECPAT feels makes them the company to help with this campaign?

Anita Roddick was a truly inspirational woman and her commitment to social justice lives on in the Body Shop. Before she died she had decided that the Body Shop would launch a campaign against child trafficking and she made contact with ECPAT to discuss how we might be able to work together.

From ECPAT’s point of view we are really delighted to be working with a company that is renowned for its social values, and the campaign has given us an amazing opportunity to bring the issue of child trafficking into high streets not only across the UK, but across the world.

The Body Shop have been running an online petition to stop the sex trafficking of young people, how many signatures do you currently have and what’s the next step with this?

Hundreds of thousands of people across the UK have already signed the petition either in Body Shop stores or on the website, which is absolutely fantastic.  We will continue to collect signatures until next March.  Then later in 2011 we will be presenting, what we hope will be one of the biggest petitions ever collected, to the Prime Minister.  We will be asking the Prime Minister to acknowledged the massive groundswell of support for trafficked children by asking him to take action and introduce a system of guardianship.

Sounds great, how can we help?

It would be brilliant if you could sign the petition and even better if you could ask ten friends to sign the petition as well.  You can sign the petition in Body Shop stores or by going to the campaign website www.thebodyshop.com/stop

As well as supporting our campaign by signing the petition you can buy the special campaign hand cream, Soft hands, Kind heart.  The hand cream costs £3.50 and all the profits (£2.36 per bottle) are donated to ECPAT.

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Special thanks to Hannah for taking the time to help us understand more about a subject that should be frontpage news today and every day until it’s an issue no longer plaguing our society.

Come on ladies, no matter where you are in the world… if you haven’t signed the petition – please do it now, to mark Anti-Slavery Day.  It will only take a minute of your time.

Click the button below to select your country and SIGN!

You might remember this post from August… I talked about a new serum from Origins that I had been sent for review consideration.  It  contained (amongst other things) mushrooms!  It promised to relieve sensitive, red and reactive skin and I’ve been putting it to the test on those claims.

I won’t go into too much detail on the background and theory behind the product because that’s already been covered in my earlier post.  Today, I want to talk about how it was to use and more importantly, the results.

The pump dispenses a decent sized blob of serum which is light and cooling when applied to the skin.  It has a slight earthy smell but nothing unpleasant.  However, when I had a sniff of the Origins Mega-Mushroom Skin Relief Serum on counter I thought it smelled foul.  Proper, unbearably horrible.  Like rotting compost.  I’m not sure what was wrong with the tester… but it’s something to perhaps be aware of and don’t be too put off if you encounter the same because mine still smells perfectly fine after 2 months use!

It’s quite a ‘wet’ feeling serum and a small amount spreads a long way.  It doesn’t take too much effort before my skin absorbs it and it leaves no residue behind.  I would always apply a moisturiser over this night and morning if you’re prone to dry skin like me.

So how did the trial go?

Well, I didn’t notice instant results.  It’s taken nearly 2 months and it’s only now that I feel my redness has subsided a little.  As I expected, I haven’t seen any results on the broken capillaries around and on my nose… but to my eye, there’s definitely less contrast between my red areas and the areas where I’d consider my skintone to be ‘normal’.

It’s always quite difficult to judge these things and even harder to ensure that a before/after photograph taken 2 months apart retains simillar lighting/poses etc.  I’ve done my best and I’m pleasantly surprised by the difference, it basically confirms what I thought I was seeing in the mirror.  Can you see it too?

Incase the last one didn’t give you nightmares (you can even click to enlarge)…

So overall, my experiences with Origins Mega-Mushroom Skin Relief Serum have been positive.  Perhaps not mindblowing, but for me…. enough to warrant a repurchase in the hope that I will continue to see improvement.

Origins Mega-Mushroom Skin Relief Serum for Redness is available to buy from your local Origins counter or online from their website.  Priced at £50 for 50ml.

If you’ve been unsuccessful in tracking down the polish dupe of the year, then fear not!

I’ve got 2 of these beauties to give away to my lovely readers.

Two lucky winners will win one polish each. What do you have to do to be in with a chance?

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Go to the Lipglossiping facebook page, LIKE it and don’t forget to leave a comment saying ENTER ME! (on FB)

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RULES
~ Open worldwide
~ Two winners (winning 1 polish each) will be picked at random early next week
~ Giveaway closes at 11.59pm this Wednesday (you have 72hrs – ish)
~ If you don’t have Facebook but would still like to enter, shoot me an email via the contact page and I’ll make sure your name goes in the hat!
~ Please don’t send me any personal details (names or addresses). I will contact you via facebook/reply to email if you have won)

When I read on the Perricone MD website that Cold Plasma was “A New Paradigm in Scientific Skincare” – I succumbed to the realisation that I didn’t have a clue what paradigm meant.  I suspected that I might need a degree in something better than Media and Cultural Studies to be able to use that word in company without much sniggering.

I went to Wikipedia to try and make sense of it, but came away even more confused.  Something about exemplars apparently…. so then I got out my dictionary to look up exemplars (whilst wondering how long all this was going to take and couldn’t they have just used the word “breakthrough” instead).  And then I struck gold, the penny dropped, the lightbulb flicked on and I ‘got it’.  It just means something that’s so brilliant, someone else is bound to half-inch the idea soon.

If you all knew exactly what it meant anyway… congrats, you just wasted about a minute of your life reading this.

So anyway, on with the product!

Perricone MD are well-known for their ultra-pricey, ultra-scientific skincare.  They’re like the Hell-Fire club of skincare but without the sex, whips and debauchery.  A pot of Cold Plasma will set you back 120 of your British pounds… that’s a lot of money for 30mls of something that smells like the inside of a fishbowl.

Which is why it was given to me earlier in the year at a PR event… I don’t have the kind of money to drop £120 on a cream that I’ve never sampled before in the hope that it will turn me into Bieber’s younger and more fresh-faced sister.

But that’s also why I was determined to see the pot through to the bitter end and not take this review too lightly.  People out there WILL spend that kind of money because they like to have the best of the best and sometimes, the best don’t come cheap.

I started using Perricone MD’s Cold Plasma around April/May.  The gel texture is cooling, refreshing and beautifully light.  It sinks in leaving me with velvet-soft skin and an almost instantly smoother complexion.  Sadly, this effect never lasted till morning or else I’d be commanding you all to go buy, buy, BUY!  The scent (which has been commented on many times before) is fishy.  Not fish and chips fishy, or harbour-side fishy but aquarium fishy.  There’s a difference…   Have you ever walked into a pet shop?  It doesn’t smell of cats and dogs does it?  It just smells… like a pet shop.  Well, this smells to me like a fish tank, are we clear on this completely unimportant distinction?!

Everytime I used it… I was like “ooooh, there goes £1”, which is quite off-putting when I kept losing about 20p worth under my nails.  Have I mentioned how much I dislike my products packaged in jars?  Squeezy tubes all the way please!

But anyway… I did it!  I reached the bottom of the jar at the beginning of August, which actually means that although I can’t describe this with a straight face as being “value for money” – this stuff did last me a hella long time!  I think because it spread so well over my skin, I really only needed to use a v. small amount each time.  I should downsize that £1 theory.

So, would I actually go and spend £120 on this to repurchase?

Um… no.

Despite it being a thoroughly lovely treat, I just didn’t see enough overall difference in my skin to warrant that kind of purchase.

I mean… Cold Plasma is promoted as helping to combat the 10 signs of aging, which include:

Firmness

Elasticity

Clarity

Radiance

Smoothness

Texture

Redness

Blotchiness

Fine lines and wrinkles

Dryness

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And I just can’t say that I experienced long-lasting differences to these areas.  Yes, for a few hours my skin felt: smoother, softer and I also think it made my pores appear smaller.  But that effect would only last me through to lunch-time and I’m not even 100% positive that I wasn’t looking EXTREMELY hard to notice these things.

I am skeptical about all things claiming to work miracles but goodness me would I have sung the praises of this concoction from the rooves of the blogosphere if it had delivered.  For me, it delivered around £40 worth of good skin.  And that’s the most I’d give you for it.

With all this Chanel vs. BarryM nail polish dupe talk… how could I possibly have resisted CHARGING down my local Superdrug as fast as my fat little trotters could carry me (ok, I drove) before scooping up a bottle of BarryM’s new nail polish sensation Dusky Mauve to compare for myself?

Well I couldn’t.  Hence this post – duh.

So is it?  Isn’t it?

It most certainly is.

BarryM’s Dusky Mauve Nail Paint is a practically perfect dupe for Chanel’s Paradoxal – I’ll let the photos do the talking.

When Bazza met Coco… *cue music*

The only teeniest, tiniest difference between the two is that I feel the BarryM version may have a touch more sparkle in direct sunlight… but I’m not even 100% confident on that.

If you had wanted to indulge in Chanel’s Paradoxal but couldn’t quite stretch to the £16.50 required to do so… put those pennies towards the £2.95 dupe of the year and head down to Superdrug for BarryM’s Dusky Mauve instead.  No one will be able to tell the difference.

If your local Superdrug/Boots are out of stock, don’t forget that you can also buy BarryM’s Dusky Mauve Nail Paint online from the BarryM website which ships internationally.

Estee Lauder’s Sensuous Noir is the original’s sexier, sassier and more mature sister… it was released this Summer as a rich, seductive and ‘after dark’ version of the already popular Sensuous.

After reading that description, I was expecting something heady, dark and sophisticated… and it very nearly is.

I received my bottle from the press officers at EL after attending their Christmas Launch (of which I’ll have more detail on v. soon!).

First, let’s take a look at the packgaing because we all know how influential the bottle can be.  Who wants an ugly bottle on their dressing table right?

The bottle (lightened here by the fact that I photographed it in the window!) is basically the same design as the original fragrance except that it’s been vamped up with a midnight blue colour change.  It’s simple… nothing extravagant or particularly memorable but the ripples make it quite tactile and nice to hold.

The embossed lid is a nice touch but I found it quite hard to remove, I had to clutch the bottle to my chest and really pull to expose the spray nozzle.

The scent is initially as heady as I expected.  With my amateur nose, I can detect a spice that seems almost oriental and immediately disappointed me.  So many ‘night-time’ versions of day-time scents fall back on the old oriental/vanilla trick that I was worried this would be heading in the same direction.

But then the patchouli hit me squarely on the nose!  I’m not usually a fan of patchouli-heavy scents, but this one isn’t really earthy at all.  It’s much woodier, fresher… cleaner.

If I had to describe this in the shortest way possible… I’d describe it as a perfect Autumnal mid-evening scent.  It has notes of Amber which always remind me of Autumn and when mixed with the spice, vanilla and patchouli – I can almost taste the crisp, cool evenings.

After an hour of wear, the Amber really takes over and it becomes a far softer, more feminine affair without being too powdery.  I think that this is where it excels.  On my skin, those lovely, soft and hugely feminine tones linger for hours.  I would reach for this whenever I wanted to simply smell great without attracting too much attention to the perfume.

It’s not a “knock your socks off” sexy, “sensuous” fragrance by any stretch of the imagination, it’s just not exciting enough for me… but that won’t stop it from having broad mass-market appeal.

Estee Lauder Sensuous Noir is available on counter and online now, priced at £32 for 30ml.