A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

…another cheeky Fyrinnae haul, mostly lip lustres… wanna see?  Don’t say no… ‘cos you don’t actually have a choice.

I said I was going back for some more and I did!

The formula is great for me… not so opaque that I feel like a clown in bright colours but with more than enough coverage to make it worthwhile.  A couple of these are slightly gritty in texture which I didn’t notice with my first order, but this doesn’t bother me… Infact, I don’t even notice it after a couple of minutes, I’m not sure if the warmth of my lips dissolves the grittiness.

I ordered sample sizes of: Pink Guitar, Mege-Hold, Glitter Kittiez, Ryo-Pinko, Meloncholy, Trickster and Devil Horns and full size versions of: Shangri-La and Visual Kei

I’ve hand swatched because I’ve not long lip-swatched the new Revlon Colorburst Lipstick collection and to be honest, I was kinda bored of swatching!

If there’s any of these shades that you did want to see a lip swatch for though, please tell me ‘cos I’ll be happy to make sure I include it in a FOTD.

Fyrinnae Lip Lustres are available from the Fyrinnae website and are priced from $2.50 each.

Which of the shades above are your favourites?

I swear… I will stop doing “greige” soon… when HELL FREEZES OVER! Bwuhahahhaha!

Bored of reviewing Eyeko now…. are you bored of seeing ’em?  Thing is though… they’ve got some rather fashionable polish shades out now and this is one of them.

Also, this one’s got a formula comparable to that lilac that I liked, which means that I owe it to people who don’t like the thicker Eyeko formula to let them know that Eyeko Posh Polish might be a good’un for them!

Opaque in two coats and not only that… but this mani is lasting and lasting… I’m actually on my 4th day (at the time of writing this) and um… I don’t have any tip wear.  I don’t usually get much chipping with any polishes but as a chronic keyboard user… tip wear IS something that I usually suffer with.

Again… £3.50 from the Eyeko website, free UK shipping… cheap international shipping… yada yada yada…

Do you wanna see the rest of the shades (I’ve got a coral, tea rose and a pink sheer left) or are us bloggers doing Eyeko polishes to death now?  Be honest… I don’t mind and whilst it’s nice to feature new product releases, I don’t want you coming here rolling your eyes at reading your 16th Eyeko NOTD yano?

… Rachel! (QueenofTurquoise)

Thanks for offering your self up in the name of beauty Rachel!

I’m sorry I don’t have more things available for you lovely guys to review, it’s wonderful to get some alternative opinions on Lipglossiping!  Stick around, I’ll hopefully have something else for you guys soon.

Rachel, please email me your address details and I’ll pop the kit in the post.  Can’t wait to hear your experiences with it!

Put down the broccoli and head for the Beauty Aisle ‘cos there’s a new brand in town!

Dirty Works is exclusive to Sainsbury’s and incorporates a range of body scrubs, body butters and bath products to leave you feeling pampered but not penniless!

The comparison to Soap & Glory has to be made though right?  Is this an even more budget-friendly option?

I was sent a little trio of goodies called “Get Set Go” Mini Luxuries which includes:

Bare Necessity Body Lotion
Buff Your Stuff Body Scrub
All of a Lather Body Wash

I’m a little over the whole kitsch packaging thing now that it’s been done to death… but I can see it still appealing to many and this set in particular would make a great little gift set for a bathing belle.

Each product in the set is 100ml, so considering it’s mini… is pretty darn generous!  The products are all quite highly-scented… I smell cocoa butters, fruity scents and vanilla.

They’re not the most luxurious products I’ve used, but they do what they say on the tin and they do it well.

Most products seem to be priced around the £5 mark, check them out next time you’re doing the weekly shop!

…introducing INM’s Out The Door quick-dry top coat.

Recommended to me by the lovely Jamilla from Makeup for Professional Asian Women which, btw is a must-read for her inspiring and regularly updated posts.

INM’s Out The Door is a serious contender to the Seche Vite crown… firstly, I’m gonna come right out and say that this stuff doesn’t dry my nails as fast as Seche Vite.  I’ll be surprised if anything does.  But, it does dry them respectably quickly.  I also find the texture of the product makes it far easier to apply.

I know that Seche Vite suffers from thickening, but even comparing this to a new bottle of the Seche, INM’s Out The Door applies beautifully smoothly… it’s as if I’m coating my manicure with water rather than polish.

In the time it takes me to ‘top coat’ all my nails, the first will be touch dry by the time I’m finished.  Not dent-dry however…  this takes about another 10-15 minutes to fully harden.  Which is fine for me, I just take a little more care and haven’t had any problems yet.

Where the INM Out The Door blows Seche outta the water is with shrinkage.  I haven’t experienced even a millimetre of unnecessary tip wear with this top coat.

Less pungent smelling and easier to apply makes for a happy Lipglossiping.  I often decide to paint my nails about half an hour before bed, and I haven’t had any problems with duvet imprints!

Availability and price is also an issue as this seems to be a little easier to get hold of in the UK than Seche Vite.  Price varies but I’ve found it here for a bargain price of £3.95.

Have you tried it?

Listen up, this is exciting stuff!

One lucky person could win the job of a lifetime…and a prize package worth up to £50k!

.

Are you a Social Media superstar?  Have what it takes to be a marketing genius?

Whatchu on About?

Simple are looking for an online spokesperson and marketer to join their team.  And it could be YOU!

Simple, the UK’s No. 1 Facial Skincare brand, are inviting people across the country to promote themselves to gain support and crucial votes – similar to any election campaign – as a stepping stone to secure a place at Beauty Boot Camp.

Group Marketing Director for Simple, Alex Pike, said:

“It’s really important for Simple to own online marketing. We don’t want to hire someone the conventional way, as we don’t want them to be constrained by text-book theories. We have developed this unique recruitment process to give applicants the chance to showcase their flair and creativity – which proves they have a natural aptitude and passion for marketing – but means qualifications are not necessary.

This is a real opportunity for someone who has no marketing qualifications to follow a life-long ambition into a dream role or change their current career.

We’ll be looking for someone who really embodies the brand – is down-to-earth, honest and confident, and believes in natural beauty.”

Think you’ve got what it takes to be a Simple Star?

Log on to the Simple website and answer some questions explaining why you think you should be the person selected to represent the Simple brand.  Don’t forget to submit a video or photo of yourself.

Entry opens on 4th May and closes on 3rd September 2010.

The 50 applicants with the most votes will be selected to go through to regional heats, with the final 10 being sent to a beauty bootcamp where you will be put through your paces by a judging panel.  Winners will be announced in October.

Long, long overdue is a review of my Deep Skincare – Rewarding Facial Mask.  You may remember I reviewed their Splendid Smooth Legs balm a couple of months ago when they sent me a couple of products for review consideration and I meanly laughed at their product names.

Well, I’m gonna do it again… Rewarding Facial Mask? *snort*  Someone’s gone through the dictionary looking for adjecives ending in -ing and added them to each product name.

If you were to order from Deep Skincare, you could choose from…

Balancing Toner, Uplifting Serum, Sanitizing Face Mask, Smoothing Scrub, Embracing Day and Night Cream, Empowering Rinse, Revitalizing Peel, Penetrating Balsam, Tenderizing Srcub… and so on…  don’t believe me? Go see for yourself.

Anyway, enough scorn for one day… what’s the stuff like?

It’s rather lovely.  You can usually tell the quality of a product just by using your senses and this one is no exception.  It smells heavenly, feels luxurious and looks creamy and substantial.  I stopped short of tasting it, but if the rest of the senses are anything to go by… I’d be expecting white truffles.

It applies and spreads easily onto my skin without glooping up like some face masks tend to do.  It feels more like a heavy, heavy cream than some of the usual more sticky masks that I’ve used in the past.   Once applied, it feels cooling on the skin with the slightest of tingles.  Not painful or irritated tingle… just cooling.  The scent is gorgeous.  It’s a kaolin clay based mask with the added benefits of aloe vera, sesame and almonds.

I leave the mask on for around 15 minutes and watch as it transforms from a white cream into a transparent veil.   Washing it off with lukewarm water leaves my skin feeling softer and somewhat firmer.  I haven’t noticed any other long-term benefits from using this product but as a quick pick-me-up, it’s fabulous.

Rewarding Facial Mask is available from the Deep Skincare website and is priced at £13

Looking for some on-trend nail polishes to srpuce up your collection?

Then look no further!

Win these new Boots No7 Nail Polishes in must-have shades Beanie and Beautifully Black.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply “like” the Lipglossiping Facebook page and I’ll select a winner at random.

Open to my lovely international readers as always, winner will be chosen on the 20th May.

So… about a month ago, I ordered some Daniel Sandler Watercolour Blush samples online… unfortunately, they took flippin’ ages to turn up and by the time they did, all but one of them had dried out.  Thanks Royal Mail – so. not. cool.

I chose the 6 shades shown above and paid £2.95 for p&p, this sample offer is only available within the UK but it’s a great way to get an idea of which shades would best suit your skintone.

Anyway, when they arrived… I used my Liz Earle Instant Boost Skin Tonic to revive them which worked an absolute treat!  I thought I’d share some swatches so you can get a better idea of how they look applied.

As you can see, they’re pretty pigmented!  A little definitely goes a very long way.

Here they are applied, hopefully it’ll give you a better idea of how they look once blended… I’ve also included the official colour descriptions for clarity.

Life – A delicate, fresh pink shade as fresh as the bloom on a baby’s cheek. Wonderfully sheer with delicate highlights of shimmery pink make this perfect for any woman, any skin tone.

Flush – You will look naturally flushed with this Watercolour. The ultimate, timeless shade that will knock years off you. Used on lips it will give you that bitten lip shade that Hollywood ‘A’ listers love. Great for fair to medium skin tones.

Hail Mary – A peachy, delicate and shimmery shade ideal for fair to light skin tones.

Cherub – Our Number One Best Seller. A delicate sheer, pastel pink that’s perfect for fair to medium skin tones that want the daintiest, youthful flush of colour.

Truth – A barely there nude, peach shade with flattering highlights of peach and silver to brighten very fair skins. Perfect for fair to medium skin toned ladies that get high colour. This shade won’t make you look hot and bothered. In fact, it will help disguise hot flushes.

Gentle – Think Uptown beige mixed with some pretty peach and you’ve got this classy shade down to a tee. This expensive-looking, sheer, nude shade makes a face look Chic and chiselled. Perfect for fair to medium skin tones.

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What can I say about the product?  Well, not much more really… I wouldn’t like to review them as is because by the time I’d received them… the formula had obviously been heavily affected by transit.  First impressions are good though and I hope the colour swatches are useful to anyone in the market for a new blush obsession.

I think my favourites are Life, Cherub and Truth… though Truth perhaps looks a little too warm against my skintone.

Have you tried these?  I know they’re having a bit of a resurgence in popularity at the moment.  I first heard about them a couple of years ago thanks to a Cosmetic-Candy haul and they’ve been on my “should try this sometime” list ever since!

Channelesque is a discontinued China Glaze shade… it’s still available on eBay at the standard price so I thought I’d it share anyway.

It’s a dusky mauve with more than just a hint of grey.  Quite frankly, it’s gorgeous and one of my favourite China Glaze shades.  I *would* liken it to Sephora by OPI’s Metro Chic… but as I don’t have it to compare, I won’t 😉

My bottle is getting a bit old now and could do with thinning… despite this, application was still pretty dreamy.  Two coats to achieve a solid, glossy finish.

For those of you hatin’ on my beloved taupes 😉  Is this a bit less concrete for ya?! x

…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.