A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Hmmm, I only know two Jaspers. One Carrot and one Conran, and I’m pretty sure neither were in mind when Butter London named this polish. The birthstone maybe? But I always thought that was green!

Regardless of where it derives its name from, Jasper is certainly the type of colour I’d usually shy away from… infact, it’s only adorning my fingertips due to the fact that I’ve shop-swatched it for Powder Rooms. I’m not a yellow nail polish kinda girl… perhaps I need a tan to appreicate the effect?!

Butter London’s Jasper is a creamy yellow with a non-too-bright base making it suitable for fingers and toes without looking too… fungal. You could say that it’s a somewhat pastelly number, reminiscent of sun-shades, ice-creams, and all those other lovely things soon to be packed away for the foreseeable future.

Application-wise, it’s on par with most yellows I’ve tried over the years. Patchy at first, developing a full opacity only after 3/4 coats depending on thickness. They’re not the greatest of colours to wear if you’re pernickity about the formula of your polish but this one smoothes out nicely after a wee while.

Butter London Jasper is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online at powderrooms.com

Radox. What are you playing at?

When I think of you, I think of relaxing in a blue-hued bath of wonder.  Sinking into realms of relaxation that I thought only existed in my pre-child lifetime. You don’t give me spendy guilts when I pop into Boots for a top-up and you don’t make me weep with sorrow when I discover that Mr. L has raided my bathroom cabinet.

So, what’s all this new nonsense about?

Don’t you dare try to revive, energise or uplift me! That’s not what I come to you for.

You might think that you need to compete with all those shower and bath products that set your sensitive bits alight and leave you feeling like you’ve been dragged through a polo mint backwards, but you don’t.

You’re perfect just the way you are.

However, if you do get a moment… how about more bath salts in some new and ever more relaxing scents and shades. Bath salts are set for a BIG come back don’tchano?

Radox. They’ve gone all modern n’ stuff with this new Citrus range.  £2.15 ish a bottle… but if I see you buying one, I’ll disown you.

With a name as catchy as that, you’ll be able to reel it off your tongue in no time the next chance you get to pass your local UD counter.  Well, whatever you need to do to memorise such a large chunk of the alphabet, memorise it you must. Write it down, tattoo it somewhere, just make sure you’ve got it committed to memory.

Why?  Let me tell you…

Urban Decay Naked Skin Ultra Definition Pressed Finishing Powder, or UDNSUDPfsfjdkjfksdlfjdklsjfdls…. as I like to call it for short, is marketed as a lightweight finishing powder that blends flawlessly and works to set makeup and cut shine. It promises to deliver a luminous, demi-matte finish and feel invisible on the skin.

The compact is housed in this rather natty purple-swathed pouch, good for keeping scratches off the compact if you’re like me and usually have a powder compact tucked into your handbag.  Finishing powders are a must in my book… my eternal favourites come from Clarins which are lightweight, beautifully presented, and keep the oilies at bay across my t-zone.  How would Urban Decay’s offering live up to an extremely high benchmark?

Well, pretty well actually… let me elaborate…

In true Urban Decay style, the packaging manages to please.  It blends dirty pewter with a high shine finish that gives it a true “Urban Decay” juxtaposition of glamour and grime… inside, there’s a large square mirror and two compartments… one that houses the powder, and another underneath for the sponge.

The sponge?  Uh oh… I did away with sponges for powders back in the 90s.  I wasn’t sure what I was going to make of this method of application.  Not that you’re forced to use a sponge, I mean, Urban Decay don’t have the sponge police hiding down dark alleyways ready to pounce as soon as you get your brushes out, but still… if there’s a sponge taking up half of my compact space, I’m gonna damn well use it.

I forced myself to remember that this wasn’t 1999 and I wasn’t reaching for a Max Factor wet n’ dry powder foundation, soaking the sponge under the tap before smearing greasy powder all over my face.  No, this is 2013 (I had to check then) and things are now far more refined.  I’ve even managed to kick my Hooch habit (although damn the booze industry for bringing them back!)

As promised, UDNSUDPjfkdsjlkk provides a super-lightweight finish over an already made-up face.  This isn’t going to amp up your coverage, something that I was a little worried about it doing… it also doesn’t dull the complexion too much either.  It’s definitely not luminous like my Clarins face powders, so if you’re looking for a light-reflecting finishing powder, this one isn’t for you but it does provide a not-too-deadened look.  I’d say it’s great for normal/combination skintypes and probably super-efficient for oilier types too thanks to the matte finish.

It’s available in a total of five shades, I’ve got the lightest here: Naked Light.  You can see it better for tone against my fingertip below but honestly, this is such a lightweight powder that unless you go wayyyy out of your shade spectrum, you’re not going to have major problems achieving a colour match although darker skin tones should always be aware of the risk of looking ashen with finishing powders.

As far as application goes, I press the sponge onto the powder with a little flick at the end… it always makes me smile when I see people grinding sponges into powder products like they’re digging for gold.  Would you like some sponge with your powder madam?  You can always go back for more… don’t be greedy!  Once on the sponge, I roll the product onto my face… always starting in the oiliest areas, which on me are the usual t-zone culprits.

This method ensures that I don’t disturb any of my meticulously *cough* applied makeup underneath and displaces shine for a good few hours.  I’m not gonna say it lasts all day, on me… it doesn’t.  But I get a good 4/5 hours before I need another touch up.

Do I prefer it to my Clarins finishing powders?  No.  But that’s because I love me a bit of luminosity, and this just ain’t luminous but in fairness, it isn’t supposed to be!  Matte lovers, go forth and swarm your UD counter to try it out for yourself.

Urban Decay Naked Skin Ultra Definition Pressed Finishing Powder is priced at £22 and available on counter and online at beautybay.com, lookfantastic.com

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I do love a cheap n’ cheerful polish pick-me-up. No guilty spend and the sense of satisfaction that you got something purdy for a few pennies… in this case, I think it was about 99 pennies.

Here’s a little something I dug out from the bottom of my stash, I think I bought it a couple of years ago on a trip to Beauty Base in Whiteleys at Queensway.  I still have a couple more LA Colors shades that I haven’t blog-swatched.  That’s the technical term for “worn” dontchano?

Morning Glory is a blue-toned purple with a strong electric-blue micro shimmer running through the base colour.  It has a fairly watery consistency, the kind you think will never reach full opacity… when all of a sudden, it does.  In this case, it took three coats to achieve the coverage you see above.  I didn’t think we were gonna make it after two but it came good in the end!

I’m not sure if this is still available to buy in-store but I’m pretty sure you’d be able to pick a bottle up from eBay for next to nothing…

What was your last inexpensive beauty find?

Since when have a good pair of tweezers not been a beauty essential? Even before I got into makeup properly, I was well-versed in the art of tweezing… that’s not to say I was any GOOD at it. I was just, proficient at trying. Or in my case, over-trying… as my sparse brows proved.

You’d think that buying a pair of tweezers would be as simple as popping down to your local chemist and grabbing whatever’s on the shelf, right? Wrong. There are so many different styles of tweezers…

Let’s start with the tips…

The most popular style of tweezer tip is the slanted, and for good reason. Slanted tweezer tips offer a great compromise between the precision of a pointed tweezer tip and the grab-all approach of a straight tweezer tip. Slanted tips generally work well on ingrown-hairs without the risks of skin-damage that pointed tips can cause when used by inexperienced tweezers.

So now that you’ve chosen a good all-round tweezer tip, you should know that not all tweezers are created equal. I’ve owned some shockingly bad bought-on-a-whim tweezers in the past. The worst of them are the ones that simply don’t grab the hair properly… and if they do, warp or twist as you press the tweezer together!

All of the tweezers below come from quality brands, none of these will let you down when it comes to tweezing!

01: Tweezerman have been my brand of choice for the last 10-years. They offer a variety of styles, colours and patterns, often with limited-edition releases. They’re not the cheapest brand on the block but they’re pretty accessible and also offer free sharpening for the lifetime of your tweezers, though you do have to send them off to the U.S. for this service. (£22.00 / selfridges.com)

02. Sigma have recently launched their Beauty Brow Tweezer which incorporates some funky angles designed to improve accuracy and ease of use. The hot pink colour should also ensure that they’re easy to spot inside your makeup bag! (£9.95 / cloud10beauty.com)

03. Laura Mercier’s tweezer uses the classic Tweezerman design, indeed these are made for Laura Mercier by Tweezerman. This is the style of tweezer that I’ve used for the past 10-years, the rounded handle ensures that your grip is rock solid and shows those errant brow hairs who really is boss! (£18.50 / spacenk.com)

04. Glamtech’s offering is a multifunctional tool that not only delivers the sharpest of hand-honed tips but also a rather innovative brow comb on the other end. If like me, you’ve been “blessed” in the brow-length department, you’ll find this extra a useful addition in the quest to tame those brows. (£6.00 / glamtech.co.uk)

05: Mister Mascara’s Japanese Style tweezers are another pair to consider if you need a little more security in the grip. The wider handles ensure that you keep utmost control while navigating toward even the most baby-fine of hairs. (£8.95 / urbanretreat.co.uk)

06. For some super kerb-appeal, Shavata’s Heart Tweezers win the prize for cutest eyebrow accessory! Described as both fun and practical, they even come complete with a magnifying mirror, making them ideal for travel. (£18.90 / beautybay.com)

Once you’ve found your perfect pair of tweezers, it’s time to look after them. Baby these things like they’re your first-born. If you drop a pair of steel tweezers on a bathroom floor, more likely than not… when you close the grip, that precision-engineered tip is not going to close squarely anymore and if they don’t close in perfect alignment… you may aswell attempt to pluck your stray hairs with a pair of BBQ tongs for all the good they’ll now be.

You’ll also need to keep the tip as sharp as possible, a pair of blunt tweezers will struggle to grab hairs effectively and can often end up snapping the hair as you pull them away from the skin. Most of the pricier brands include little caps to protect the ends of the tweezers. Use them, don’t just throw your tweezers in your makeup bag without some kind of protection or you’ll end up having to sharpen them on a regular basis.

Now tell me…

Do you have a favourite pair of tweezers, and if so… how old are they? Mine are 7-years old!

“It’s cold!”

“I’m putting the heating on!”

These are two sentences that I read on my Twitter timeline yesterday, truly signalling the advent of September and the end of Summer.  There are many things to feel gloomy about… the darker evenings and shorter days will always be at the top of my list but let’s not get too disheartened.  There is nothing that a chunky knit, leather boots, and an Autumnal lipstick can’t make better.

Seeing as I’m not a fashion blog, I’ll let you go elsewhere for your style fix but hang around for a little while longer while I show you a lovely transitional lipstick that should guide you gently from one season to the next.

Today, I’m looking at a lovely chunky lip pencil from Aussie brand Lipstick Queen.  You’d be forgiven for thinking that the brand have only recently joined the pencil love in, but oh no… The Chinatown Glossy Pencils are the forefathers of the trend, Poppy King released these back in 2009… long before you couldn’t move for chubby lip love.

There are eight shades available and of these, I’m showing you Thriller… the closest to a traditional red.

The package comes complete with an oversized pencil sharpener, I like to think that were these put into production today, Poppy would have designed them as twist-up crayons… having to sharpen pencils is an irritation.

The formula is soft but firm enough to apply withut any issues, the tip glides across the lips and delivers a sheer-but-buildable amount of colour.  Although glossy, the overall effect isn’t one of “gloss”… there’s no “wet-look” lips here and no stickiness either, thankfully.  The product wears comfortably over a decent-enough time period, around 3 hours, needing a topup after drinks or lunch.

The fomula doesn’t dry my lips out but leaves them in the same condition prior to application, a good choice for any dry-lips sufferers in the coming colder weather.

The colour is a sheer, berry red with a hint of pink.  It’s a really comfortable in-between shade for anyone who isn’t quite ready to go all out Autumnal vamp.  I know I always need a little bit of gentle easing into the season… and Thriller is a great shade choice for anyone who wants to explore a red lip without having to commit to full-blown colour.

Lipstick Queen Chinatown Glossy Lip Pencils are priced at £22 each and available to buy online from SpaceNK.com

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False nails have long been overdue a bit of a comeback.  Remember when you used to stick a set on for a big night out and then wake up the next morning with one glued to your cheek?  Ahhh, happy memories….

In recent times it’s been all about the stickers, foils, decals, and whatnots… the poor old falsie has taken a bit of a back seat!

Things are set to change with a new collaboration between Elegant Touch and House of Holland. The British fashion designer’s creative eye has been cast into the beauty realm and you’ll soon be able to sport some of his eyecatching creations on your fingertips.

I know it’s not something I should be fixating on, but I love the packaging very much indeed… perhaps even more than the nails?  That’s so wrong, isn’t it?

Shy, retiring types need not apply but I do have a bit of a nail crush on Heart Breaker, that painted tip shape is something I could only dream of being able to apply with actual polish.

Ambre Gris is the latest addition to my fragrance wardrobe, which by the way, is steadily growing larger than my actual wardrobe. Exposing my horribly shallow heart to you, I will readily admit that I was first enticed to this fragrance because of the bottle.

It’s a thing of beautiful contrasts with its smoky-grey, monolithic-looking flacon, simply labelled yet topped off with an outrageously camp discoball-esque cap. It’s lovely. It feels heavy, like you could bludgeon someone with it should that urge take you. It’s impressive, it makes a statement… and that’s just how I like my perfumes.

Launched in 2008, the notes include: pink pepper, cinnamon, tuberose, immortelle, myrrh, gaïac wood, benzoin, white musks, and ambergris.  On paper it looks like a spicy oriental with a heavy helping of wood and a dusting of sweetness.  In reality… well, that’s mostly accurate.

Opening with a sharp exhalation of pepper, the fragrance delivers a punch of spice with the kind of brusqueness you’d expect from a mean, elderly Aunt.  This isn’t your usual youthful pink pepper, fruity concoction but something with a little more heritage to accentuate its spiky manner.

Before long, the fragrance warms up on the skin and the cinnamon turns sweeter while the tuberose gets down to business knocking away the sharp edges left, right, and centre.  I’m not the world’s biggest fan of tuberose, it’s a note that often leaves me feeling as though I need to come up for air and there is a certain synthetic sickliness to this fragrance that I’m blaming on the tuberose, but thankfully… not enough to require a snorkel.

Up until this point, I like Balmain’s Ambre Gris… but I can’t say that I love it.

All this begins to change roughly twenty minutes after application.  The smoother tones ushered in by the tuberose make way for something warmer and more comforting still.  The scent wears ever more closely to the skin as the vanillic benzoin curls around my wrist and the ambergris imparts a soft, animalic property that tempts me back to my pulse points over and over.  At this point, it feels more like a unisex fragrance but with an inherent sweetness that glazes over the woody notes and gives the scent a gourmand grounding.

It’s less smoky than I’d like, cleaner than I’d want, and sweeter than I’d usually crave but it feels like a bridge between my old perfume-loving tastes and the new.  In that respect, it really does feel like a comfort.  Take Dior’s Hypnotic Poison (my old uber-fav) and throw some curveballs at it.  It’s not as sexy as Hypnotic Poison, nor is it as overachieving… but it is a nice interpretation of a classier, more grown up woody-oriental that keeps its edge and lasts long, long into the night.

Balmain Ambre Gris is priced from £42 for 40ml and is available to buy in-store at John Lewis and online at Escentual.com

Who doesn’t love the added incentive of a great gift-with-purchase when you’re doing some online beauty shopping?  Well, Urban Retreat’s Beautique have got a lovely one at the moment in the form of an Omorovicza travel set which includes a nifty makeup/toiletry bag and some fairly generous sample-sized goodies.  Take a look…

The set includes the following items:

Omorovicza Deep Cleansing Mask 15ml
Omorovicza Queen of Hungary Mist 30ml
Omorovicza Cleansing Foam 30ml
Omorovicza Illuminating Moisturiser 4ml

To qualify for the free gift you need to spend £50 or more on Omorovicza products.  I’ve heard great things about the Deep Cleansing Mask… but what are your top Omorovicza picks?

Rooney Mara is the face of Calvin Klein’s latest fragrance release: Downtown.  I’ve just spotted the ad for it on You Tube and it’s so brilliant, I wanted to see what you guys thought of it too.

I think it does the whole “aspirational” perfume ad thing really well but keeps it a bit more real than most, along with being impossibly glamourous, the ad also shows Rooney swooning over a puppy and playing with a bunch of kids on the set.  She’s got that 21st century Audrey Hepburn vibe down to a fine art and…and…and… why can’t I be her again?

Anyway, tell me what you think…

The fragrance itself sounds interesting, Downtown is described as an everyday scent with notes that include: Tunisian neroli, gardenia petals, and Texan cedarwood.

On paper, I should like it but the few reviews that I’ve read talk about sweetness, pink pepper, and being aimed at the yoof crowd.

Damnit Calvin Klein, she’s wearing a kick-ass leather jacket and embracing the rain… you can’t disappoint me!

What do you think of the ad?  The fragrance went on counter in the UK yesterday and is available online at escentual.com… have you tried it yet?

I’ve got another classic polish on the blog today, can you tell I’m starting to make some headway through my stash of untrieds?  I’ve got a long way to go but it’s been fun reminding myself of all those impulse purchases that got bought… moved from place to place before being lost and relegated to the back of the drawer!

Essie’s Glamour Purse is from their Fall 2011 collection, and while some may call it a taupe… I’ll stick to my usual description of greige.  I tend to favour these cool-toned greiges over their warm-toned taupe counterparts, they simply suit my skintone better.  Essie is probably one of the least-represented brands in my collection, I used to hate the stick-thin brushes that took an age to cover the nail bed – thankfully these were changed to a wider style sometime last year but I’m yet to have a love-affair with the brand.

The formula was ok, a little thin perhaps, and it needed three coats to fully eliminate some streakiness.  It dries to a beautiful finish… reminds me of a milky hot chocolate.  And when has that ever been a bad thing?

Essie Glamour Purse is priced at £7.82 (in the sale) and available to buy online at beautybay.com

Whenever I write a post or a review about a lipgloss, I start it off with the words: “I don’t like lipgloss”. This is an absolute. It cannot be changed.  I don’t like lipgloss, I think it’s a horrible lip-covering that puts me in mind of windy days/sticky lips scenarios…. lipgloss lips that create strands of gloop as the mouth opens and closes, you know what I’m talking about.

For you, as a reader, it means that when I do review a lipgloss… I’m reviewing it because it delivers something that makes it more interesting than your bog-standard tube o’ lip-jizz.

The BareMinerals Marvelous Moxie range… (btw, “marvelous/marvellous”.. you say tomayto, I say tomahto – obviously I’m right and you’re wrong) does deliver something in addition to the norm.  It packs a fair-to-middling amount of lip-plumping goodness in that little tube.  It’s not as good as the old crew mind… do you remember the old Pout Lip plumper that used to feel like you’d actually been punched in the face to achieve the trout pout of your dreams?  Those were the days…

Anyway, Marvelous Moxie contains enough peppermint oil to deliver that satisfying tingle and pleasing fullness to the lip-line.  As I’m getting a wee bit older, I’m appreciating things like this more readily.

The formula is fairly typical though thankfully, not too thick or heavy in texture on the lips.  It spreads nicely and the applicator allows for some precision without overloading the doe-foot tip.

Game Changer is a somewhat cool-toned red, quite dense in its opacity (for a gloss) and will layer up on your lips, building in pigmentation as you apply.  For me, I can’t bear more than a single swipe, so the photos below show just that.  The texture isn’t too bad… it’s tacky but not to the extreme, just enough to ensure some longevity during wear.

If I’m honest, I begrudgingly like it and I’ve reached for it a couple of times in recent weeks.  Usually when I want something to brighten my look without screaming “bold lips” in your face.  That’s not to say that I don’t inevitably end up wiping the back of my hand across my mouth after an hour… but still, I’m always tempted to reapply.

Excuse the fringe…

One coat delivers semi-sheer coverage that, on my pale lips, delivers a fairly impressive amount of pigment.  It’s enough to give a hint to my love of red on those days when I’m not quite feeling brave enough to go the whole hog.  Red lips for wimps?  Absolutely… but with the added benefit of some super-sexy shine and a plumped-up lipline.

Bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie Lipgloss in Game Changer is available to buy online from feelunique.com priced at £12.80

* press sample