A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

is…

AlicatAHL

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

Please email me your address details and I’ll pop the sample in the post.  Can’t wait to hear your experiences with it!

I picked this up on a recent expedition to one of my local Boots stores.

Prestige are originally a US brand, now sold in over 45 countries globally.  Over here, they’re available in larger Boots stores.

When I saw the Skin Loving Minerals Brozing Powders, I was surprised to see one of them so pale in tone… infact, sad old git that I am… I got quite excited and practically skipped to the checkouts.  Although, not before adding half the Bourjois stand to my basket.

Anyway, shopaholic tendencies aside, how does this stack up?

It’s a baked, marbelized pressed powder with a lot of shimmer, but no glitter.  Texture is smooth enough, but not as smooth as some…. I’m thinking of the LE No7 Highlighting Powder which glides like velvet onto the skin (I don’t own it – I think 4 pale gold powder highlighters are quite enough for one makeup addict’s collection – at least that’s the mantra).

I really like the packaging, it’s not fancy… it’s not even particularly pretty, but it feels quite modern and I can’t think of too many producs that are housed in little clear perspex-esque boxes like this.  It’s functional and clean. Thumbs up.

You can see how shimmery it is (maybe the shade name “Pure Shimmer” should have given me… yano… a freaking clue!).  You need a  fairly light touch and I use it as a highlighter not a bronzer… I’m not a discoball.  I think it’s even too shimmery to use on the crests of your facial contours… I wouldn’t want a strip of this running down the bridge of my nose for example…

But, as a highlighter, I really like it.  It imparts a healthy glow and does all that lovely shimmery stuff when you turn your head slightly.  Compared to NARS Albatross, it’s not a bad dupe at all really colour/shimmer-wise.  Mr. L couldn’t tell the difference.  But before I start shouting DUPE Alert left, right and centre… I’ll have a proper look at both under some natural light, I think the Prestige may be a touch more golden…

Prestige Skin Loving Minerals Bronzers are available in 3 shades and are currently on offer in Boots stores nationwide, priced at £6.99 each (a saving of £2 on the RRP)

No idea when this is coming out over here… or even IF it’s coming out, I’m still sulking over the missing Wildflower Collection.  Maybe we can expect this next Winter, who knows? *shrugs*

That aside… High Steppin’ is Barielle’s Summer 2010 offering.  Mostly metallics which aren’t generally my favourite finish unless they’re formulated well enough to avoid streakiness but I’m pretty keen on some of the colours and I like that they’ve included some of their glittery numbers too.  I’m a big fan of those.

Enough chatting, have a looksie…

So here’s the lowdown, shade by shade…

Electric Boogie: Inky Blue with teal glitter (yes please!)

Slow Motion: Light metallic Lavender (possibly… if it’s edgy rather than sugary…)

Freestyle: Metallic mint with Silver Glitter (hmmmm….. not sure… maybe)

Passion Pirouette: A grape metallic purple (I’m nodding furiously)

Night Moves: Sparkling metallic silver (meh….)

Belly Dance: Nude taupe with shimmer (ewwoooogah! as Leila says in a fit of enthusiasm!)

So that’s half the collection in my shopping basket if and when it ever gets released over here.

What do you think?

The lovely liloo is in search of a potential nail polish delight.  She’s looking for a wearable (ie. not too bright or shocking) blue-based pink.  Think MAC Snob in a bottle.

I’ve been through my collection and can’t find anything suitable.  This was the nearest.

I picked Mavala Miami up when I raided the Debenhams sale last summer, it is blue based… perhaps not strongly enough to fit in the ‘Snob’ category, but it’s getting there.

As for my polish requirements.  I LOVE it. It’s pink and girly, but stops short of being sugary thanks to it’s definite brightness.  I feel all summery wearing it and I may even have to reapply before moving on to another shade (high praise indeed!).

Application was tremendous.  3 easy, easy coats achieved a perfect finish, but as with a lot of Mavala’s, it doesn’t quite have the high-gloss finish I love, so I added a top-coat to get that glass-like sheen.  Longevity is average, a bit of tip wear towards the end of the 2nd day, but it’s not too noticeable thanks to the forgiving shade.

I’m really pleased I picked this Mavala Miami shade up and I may have to start dragging myself into some more spring/summer-like shades!

Anyone have any nail polish “Snob” suggestions for Liloo?

Anyone up for doing a guest review for me?

I have been given a sample for review consideration but it’s too dark for me.

This is the bareMinerals SPF30 Natural Sunscreen.

They say:

Our breakthrough head-to-toe sun protection will change the way you feel about sunscreen forever.  This 100% natural, micronized Titanium Dioxide mineral creates a physical barrier on your skin, providing UVA/UVB protection and defending against premature skin ageing and sun damage.  It’s weightless, breathable, non-greasy and won’t clog pores or cause breakouts.  Available in Light, Medium and Tan.

Available from April 2010. RRP £25.00

I’m looking for someone with a medium skintone (NC/NW 25 – 35) please. UK only.  Oh, and it lists Bismuth Oxychloride in the ingredients, so don’t apply if you’re sensitive to that ingredient – don’t wanna be responsible for scabby, itchy faces now do I?

If you’re interested in being my guest reviewer, leave me a comment below and I’ll choose someone on Wednesday.

Thank You!

My last foray into ELF’s eyeliners was not a successful one.  About a year ago, I picked up a couple of the liquid liners they do and HATED them.  Scratchy and lacking in pigmentation made them a huge fail for me so I was ready to be disappointed when I accepted the offer to try a liner from the new ELF Studio Cream Eyeliner range.

I chose Coffee, a medium brown shade.  There are currently 4 shades in the line up: Coffee (medium brown), Black, Midnight (dark blue) and Ivory (off white pearl)

The packaging fits in nicely with the rest of the Studio line, the jar is plastic with a solid, chunky feel.  The lid screws on with a satisfying click when it’s fully tightened.  Lightweight and portable, it’s not the sleekest eyeliner in the world, but it’s fully practical.

The texture of the liner is *incredibly* soft, perhaps a little too soft.  When I dip my brush, the fibres sink downward straight into the product which makes it a little hard to stroke across the surface without picking up too much product.  A couple of times, I’ve picked up a whole clump of eyeliner on the brush instead of an even coating.

You can see the tip of the brush sinking straight into the product in the shot above.  Whilst this might mean it takes a little more care to load your brush, it makes for the smoothest application of any liner I’ve ever used.  And I’ve used a lot.  Note, that this only applies to this particular shade as I know texture can vary between products in the same line.

Pigmentation is medium, I needed to go over the line twice to build it up to my desired strength, but when a liner glides as smoothly as this one does, it’s not a problem.

The above swatch shows 3 swipes of the liner.  It takes about a minute to set before becoming truly transfer proof.  Even on my hooded eyelid it stuck fast for hours, by bedtime the line had faded to about half it’s original intensity, but the fading was even.

I’ve also used it as a cream base which worked really well thanks to it’s super-soft texture.  Blending was a delight and I love wearing it under greens to create a more ‘old gold’ kinda shade.  I haven’t noticed it partcularly increasing longevity on eyeshadows though, so I still combine with a slick of eyeshadow primer underneath.

I’m amazed by the quality of my ELF Studio Cream Eyeliner, and at £3.50 you really can’t go wrong.

Just a quickie to show-off my lovely new Sugarpill loose eyeshadows (proper review and swatches coming VERY soon!)

Eyes:
Sugarpill Cosmetics in Starling on the lid and lower lashline (dry)
Sugarpill Cosmetics in Goldilux in the crease and inner corner (dry)

Cheeks:
NARS blush in Angelika

Lips:
Lanolips 101 Ointment
OCC Lip Tar in Pageant

In March 1976, the late Dame Anita Roddick founded The Body Shop in Littlehampton – a small seaside town on the South coast of England.  Fast forward 34 years to the present day and The Body Shop now boasts the second largest cosmetic franchise in the world.

I went along to The Westbury Hotel in Mayfair last week to hear a presentation on behalf of The Body Shop who are currently celebrating 22 years of community trade across the globe.  From India to Namibia, Guatemala to Samoa the world is their garden and as a company, they want us to know that they’re taking measures to protect it and the lives it supports.

It’s currently Fairtrade Fortnight (22nd Feb – 7th Mar) and The Body Shop were keen to highlight and explain exactly what Community Trade (CT) means and what it involves.

4 of the 6000 women that make up the Eudafano Women’s Cooperative (EWC) in Namibia.  The EWC supplies  The Body Shop wih Marula Oil (used in nearly all their cosmetics).

Community Trade works along the same principles as Fair Trade, but was established back in 1987 before the Fair Trade mark was available or had indeed become fashionable.  From what I understood, the main difference is that the foundations of fair trade are laid much deeper in the CT program and work to support the producer’s whole community, not just the producers themselves.  The Body Shop also made it clear that they never enter CT relationships for the short term and only commit to sustainable trading relationships that help affect real social change.

Click play on the video below to learn more about The Body Shop’s involvement with Community Trade:

Two of The Body Shop’s major CT suppliers were in attendance and it was a rare and interesting opportunity to hear how their involvement with The Body Shop affects the communities and co-operatives they represent.  It became clear very quickly that the democratic relationship between the ‘industries’ was a precious one to both parties.

Whilst I was sitting there, the antagonist in me kept thinking “What do The Body Shop get out of these CT arrangements when it means they have to pay more for their ingredients?”.  Thankfully, Christina from The Body Shop didn’t shy away from that subject and explained that it is simply expected of them to uphold the core values that, as a company, they’ve always claimed to represent.  Community Trade allows them to continue their commitments to trading with a conscience whilst benefiting from the (often ancient) knowledge of real experts and assured quality products.

I’m willing to admit that in the past, I’ve accused The Body Shop products of being overpriced and in comparison to products I can buy in other high street stores, they are.  I still may only be able to afford to treat myself to my Olive Glossing Shampoo & Conditioner when I’m feeling flush, but I will now hand over my money with a degree of contentment.  It’s good to know that every purchase made contributes to making a real and sustained difference to communities.  Communities that without the CT backing by The Body Shop would be powerless to break into global markets or risk plundering by unethical industry.

Barielle Wildflower SPRING Collection…. c’mon c’mon c’mon it’s nearly Summer already… hurry the *bleep* up!

Remember this post from last week?  (gawd, was that *only* last week?!)

A couple of you demanded requested swatches, and I do aim to please… (sometimes)…

Pink Icing/Devil’s Food:

L – R: Pink Icing (foiled), Pink Icing, Devil’s Food, Devil’s Food (foiled)

Bewitching Bronze:

L – R: Dry, Foiled – not a huge amount of difference there is there? Amazing pigmentation.

Fire Water:

Sorry, no pan shot (forgot!), check out the very top picture to see what it looks like.

L – R: Fire (Foiled), Fire, Water, Water (Foiled)

The Blue out of Fire Water is indeed beautiful, and the swatch does it justice… but it’s still too glittery and crumbly to be classed as anything other than a pain in the arse.

Here’s a quick EOTD with Pink Icing/Devil’s Food (my favourite):

Very simply: Pink Icing on the lid, Devil’s Food in the crease and foiled as a liner.

Sorry for the manky eyeball shot, hopefully you’re not eating or anything… I woulda shut my eye, but then you’d have had manky creasey eyelids to look at instead.

Thanks for all your recommendations on which other Laura Geller products I should have a look at, I’ve now got *quite* the shopping list!  Enablers, the bleedin’ lot of ya!

After suffering for the past 4 months with flaky, dry lips… I’ve finally found my cure.  Let me tell you a bit about it…

Lanolips is an Australian brand that proudly produces one of the most natural cosmetic products on earth.

The Lanolips lineup currently includes 2 core products:

~ Lanolips Lip Ointment with Colour 12.5ml  (AUD13.95/£8.40)

~ Lanolips 101 Ointment 17.5ml (AUD17.95/£11)

I was sent the range for review consideration over a month ago now and I tell you now without a scrap of embarrassment despite the risk of sounding like I’m gushing…. this stuff has made a big difference to my life.

I could tell you all about how pure and natural the ointments are, I could share the anecdotes about how it’s so safe it can be used on the mouths of new-born babies… but to be honest, you can find all that out by visiting their website.  I wanna tell you why from this day forward, I’m never going to be without a tube of this in my handbag.

But let me first concentrate on the Lanolips Ointment with Colour.

These are fabulous lip gloss alternatives.  They’re sheer, but the colour is build-able.  Thanks to a completely non-sticky formula, you can also apply without fear of errant breezes gluing your hairdo to your face.

The shades:

Rose is a milky-toned soft pink, perfect for paler skin-tones and also works fabulously to tone down bright lipsticks a touch.  I feel it may be a little too pale for darker skintones and WOC unless you apply with a light hand or like the super pale look.

Dark Honey is a true dark nude shade, I would imagine this is flattering to all skin-tones – very easy to wear.  It’s a “your lips but better” shade for me.

Sunshine is a warm, summery coral.  It’s beautiful.. and on paper, is probably my favourite.  But unfortunately, it doesn’t flatter my cool skin-tone quite as well as the others.

Apples is described byLanolips as “the colour of babies lips” and I totally get that decription, it’s a rosebud red.  I’m afraid it looks a touch warmer in my swatch than in real life though, sorry about that!

There’s also another, newly released shade called Rhubarb which has been described as a deep, vibrant pink, but I don’t have that one to show you.

Scent-less and taste-less, I’ll be using these daily in the Summer when I want something a little lighter, a little more natural and glowy.

The main point to remember with the entire Lanolips range is the core ingredient, the fundamental base upon which all this colour frivolity has been added – the ultra-moisturising Lanolin.  It keeps my lips supple and so far is improving tone and texture unlike anything else I’ve tried.

Having sad that, there are still a couple of things that I’d change.

I’d personally prefer a slanted plastic applicator so that I could use the tube to applythe product instead of my finger.  I’d also like to see the packaging include the word ‘tint’ somewhere for clarification.  The colours look SO bright in the tube, I’d be surprised if there weren’t at least a few consumers who were expecting more colour payoff upon application.

That aside, onto my favourite product!

Lanolips 101 Ointment is the DADDY.  It’s the no-nonsense “what you see is what you get” multi-purpose cure-all.

The stand-alone tube, slightly bigger than the rest at 17.5ml, contains nothing but pure ultra medical-grade lanolin.  To be (un)fair, it’s kinda boring… it’s unscented, unflavoured, uncoloured, un…inspiring… yeah, it’s a whole lot of ‘uns’.

But it’s this little marvel that I’m marking up as my lip saviour today.

I’m not new to lanolin.  I was a big fan of Lansinoh throughout the months I breastfed my baby.  Lansinoh saved my poor nips (tmi?) on many occasions whilst me and the babs were still both figuring out what the hell we were supposed to be doing.  I’ve even tried to use Lansinoh on my lips before… but it’s too damn sticky.  I used to be able to bear it for about 15 minutes before having to grab a tissue and wipe it off.  I’ve been told by Lansinoh PR that it’s not as sticky as it used to be, but I only have the experience of my year-old tube to compare to.

Lanolips advise you to use the Lanolips 101 Ointment generously but I haven’t found that I’ve needed to apply it very thickly at all.  Which is just aswell, ‘cos I hate that feeling where you’ve got about 8″ of product built up on your lips.

I use the Lanolips 101 Ointment in a number of ways:

1. On my lips before bed as a moisturiser
2. A thin layer underneath lipstick to moisturise and stop matte lipsticks looking like crap
3. A thin layer above lipstick to add shine
4. On Leila’s eczema
5. On my cuticles at night as an intensive moisturiser.

I think out of all those uses, the one that stands out to me… the one reason that I’ll be repurchasing this product for as long as I can get my grubby little hands on it is #2.

Is that shallow?  Surely I should choose the fact that it’s a fabulous lip conditioner?  Or um… wait, maybe I should have chosen the fact that it diminishes my daughter’s eczema patches… but um… I can wear my OCC Lip Tars without looking like I’ve been mummified!

I can wear my Revlon and MAC mattes lipsticks again – the joy!  I’ve spent months trying different lip balms underneath with no success.  On the rare occasion that a lip balm has succeeded at keeping my lips smooth, the lippie has inevitably slid off my face after 20 minutes.  If anything, as long as I keep my layer of Lanolips nice and thin, it’s almost as if it gives my lipstick something to adhere to!

The cheapest online stockist I can find offering international delivery is MakeUWell who charge 10AUD (about £6) for postage.

Lanolips 101 Ointment *is* my solution.  Now I just need someone to come along and stock it in the UK so I don’t have to pay international postage charges.  Is that really too much to ask?

I don’t generally copy press releases verbatim, but thought this might be of interest…

We love mums here at Lush – they give good cuddles and bake yummy cake, so we think they deserve some serious spoiling come Mother’s Day. With this in mind, on Sunday 14th March 2010 Lush will be opening up their doors to all mums for an afternoon of decadent pampering.

The afternoon festivities will have a 1950s theme and there will be free hand massages, foot massages and facials available, – along with cups of tea, cakes and even some vegan treats. All mums are welcome – young and old – whom their children are treating or who just feel like indulging themselves! And there’s even something to keep the children occupied – while mum is being pampered and preened, the little‘uns can colour in their special Lush Mother’s Day cards.

Lush has also designed a selection of limited edition gifts and products especially for Mother’s Day. Treat her to the new MUM hatbox (£25.95) containing a selection of bath and body products to spoil and pamper; or buy a bunch of MUMS ballistics (£3.50 each) that are short for chrysanthemums and offer a quirky alternative to giving mum flowers!

So if you are looking for the perfect Mother’s Day gift to say thank you to your wonderful mother, what better way than heading down your nearest Lush store and giving your mum the treat she really deserves!

Mother’s Day parties are taking place on 14th March 2010 in Lush stores nationwide. To find your nearest Lush store, please call 01202 668 454 or visit www.lush.co.uk

Ok, press release outta the way, am curious…

Are any of you “Lush Heads”?  I’ve never known (what is essentially a soap company) divide opinion so strongly.  A lot of people seem to love the brand with a passion… and there are equalliy as many who can’t stand it.  Which camp are you in?

Me?… I think it’s mostly overpriced, but there are certainly a few gems in the lineup that I would purchase over and over again.  Plus, I haven’t found better drawer scenters than their bath bombs… Leila always smells like a litle Lushie!