A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Is it just me or are we seeing a bit of a theme emerging? 😉

First up…

Hot.  Hotty Hot Hot.

Blush – Scandalous (£4.29)
Pout Polish – Scandal (£4.29)
NAILED – Geisha’s Seal (£3.89)

Due to be released exclusively to Superdrug on February 14th.

All For Eve and all for a very good cause indeed.

All For Eve have joined forces with London florist OnlyRoses in time for Valentine’s Day.  Above is the “ultimate in red” package.  Priced at £90, it includes a dozen red roses, an award winning lipstick from celebrity make-up artist Daniel Sandler, the Sophy Robson Nail Polish and the clutch bag essential of a Swarovski Crystal Nail File.

Orders are being taken online at allforeve.co.uk and www.only-roses.com from 27th January with 100% of All For Eve’s net profits going directly to The Eve Appeal.

If you haven’t seen or read about this collection 100 times already then you truly are in love and should stop snogging your beau before your lips drop off.  C’mon, the makeup’s this-a-way!

Illamasqua Throb is their nod to the season of lurve and the cheekily-named pieces reflect this.  I picked up the lipstick in Sangers last week and can’t wait to give the true red it’s first outing!

Nail Polish – Load, Scorn, Throb (£13.50)

Lipstick – Sangers (£15.50)

Intense Lipgloss – Succubus (£13.00)

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Any of those take your fancy?  They’re less maintenance than a fella!

I received a few bits and pieces from Screenface before Christmas and have been putting them to the test.

I love the idea of using ‘professional’ makeup in my day to day life.  It’s no secret that us consumers pay through the nose for pretty packaging and the immense marketing budgets of the high street brands.  So I’m always curious about whether going for professional products really will give more bang for our buck!

Let’s start with the Screenface Shadow Magnet Eye Primers…

The Screenface Shadow Magnet Eye Primers (£8.95) come in two shades, light (left) and natural (right).  They’re both hard-textured with less slip than the likes of UDPP.  The shades can be mixed to create a good neutralizing base (should your eyelids need it) and they promise to deliver true colour and long lasting eyeshadow results.

I’d agree on the true colour… but long-lasting?  Not as much as the other eye primers in my collection.  I did a side-by-side comparison with UDPP and the Shadow Magnets were beaten by a good few hours.  I was surprised that these didn’t deliver in the way I’d anticipated from a pro-brand.

Moving swiftly on…

Screenface Cremewear Blush (£9.95) – Small, but perfectly formed.  These 2.8g cream blushes glide on effortlessly with a good deal of slip, making blending a dream.  The shades are sheer and glowy with a hint of sparkle (just a hint mind)… I couldn’t be more sold on these and am finding it very hard to pick fault with them.

L-R: Crush, Afterglow

They last and last without sliding down my cheeks or transferring… the colour payoff is great, yet they remain buildable for the heavy-handed among us.  They remind me a little of the new Urban Decay cream blushes (due out soon)… but I prefer these.

Just buy one.  Or three.

Lastly, Screenface Creme Shadow (£12.95) – Available in 6 shades, above is Moss… which looks more like an Antique Gold to me, strange considering they do a shade called Antique Gold!  However, 7g gives you a hefty amount of product for your money.  Deeply pigmented and spreads like a dream.  Longevity isn’t that amazing on this if worn on it’s own but it does make a lovely base for intensifying powder shadows.

I usually apply this with my finger for a sheer wash of colour and achieve around 5 hours wear before it disappears upward into the crease of my eye socket.  It blends beautifully without setting too quickly and is a quick-fix for time-pressed mornings!

If you find yourself in Covent Garden, I recommend taking a look around the Screenface Store on Monmouth Street.  It’s a charming shop and I defy you to walk out empty-handed!

The thoroughly lovely Annabella from SkinScrubs kindly picked this up for me from her local T.K. Maxx, I’ve been wanting it for quite a while and was really pleased when I finally got to lay my grubby hands on it!

The packaging is kinda cute… I guess… I dunno, I think I’d prefer a scantily-clad fella on it.  Actually, I don’t really give a shit if I’m honest.  The cardboard housing it comes in is thankfully solidly-constructed and has already survived a clumsy drop.

It looks scarily orange in the pan… a pink/bronzed orange.  My kinda nightmare.  Thank heavens for blogs and swatches that have shown me not to fear the Hot Mama!

Texture-wise, this blush is quite beautiful.  It’s silky, smooth and doesn’t create masses of dust when I pass my brush over the surface though it is quite soft and easy to nick with a fingernail.  It’s shimmery without being glittery unlike it’s famous dupe counterpart; NARS Orgasm which has a fine textured amount of glitter running through colour.  The shimmer in The Balm’s Hot Mama! may be a little too much for those of you with particularly large pores though, definitely something that needs considering.

The Balm’s Hot Mama! wears a little pinker than NARS Orgasm on my skintone but the simillarities are plain to see.  The swatch above shows one swipe from Hot Mama… the NARS Orgasm swatch took a few goes to build up to that intensity.

I love both… they’re sheer but incredibly buildable and probably some of the easiest to wear blushes I own.  I can pair these with any look and it just gives me a flush of colour that brightens up my NW15 skin.

I would say that I get an extra hour or two wear from the NARS and the cardboard sleeve surrounding Hot Mama! is a bit finickity to remove and replace everytime I want to use it… but it does have such a delightfully blendable texture.

You get just over 7g of product from The Balm, compared to 4.5g from NARS and unless you can spot one in your local T.K. Maxx, Hot Mama! will set you back around £15 in the UK.

Are you a shimmer, glitter or matte girl when it comes to blush?

Browsing the Sephora website late at night is a dangerous pastime.

I’ve talked before about how Too Faced is a brand that tends to skim under my radar… it’s all rather cutesy and whilst I have nothing against cutesy per se… I just never feel quite so inclined to pay good money for ‘cutesy’ as I do for ‘sleek’.  Catch 22, I mean I might adore it all right?

I think I may finally be forced to indulge this coming Spring (or whenever the hell the UK imports this stuff).

I’ve admired the Too Faced Shadow Collections from afar and I think this might be the one that gives me the shove I need to purchase.

Too Faced Romantic Eye Collection – quite possibly the worst stock image ever.  If you go onto Sephora you can use that fancy zoomy picture feature to get a better idea of what the actual shadows look like.  A top down view would have been nice though.

I’m a sucker for purples and cool toned taupes.  In the Summer, I’m a sucker for copper… but Winter/Spring it’s all about these cool-toned shades.  I’m also excited to be so delighted by ANYTHING makeup-wise in the Spring.  Usually it’s all too pastelly/corally for me.

Another Too Faced release that’s got my interest piqued is this little Glitter Glue number…

Is a brand finally jumping on the Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy bandwagon?

They Say: This colorless cream formula is designed to grab and hold loose glitters, pigments, and shimmers so they won’t come off until you take them off.

I’m not sure when we’re getting this in the UK or how much it will retail at but I’ll guess… around £11 (the same as the original primer).  Roughly the same quantity of Pixie Epoxy is cheaper (despite international shipping) but that won’t stop me from comparing especially as the availability of the Fyrinnae website seems to be conspiring against me recently.

Either of these two products making you stop in your tracks?

I’ve always thought that The Body Shop Golden Pink blush (04) was considered as a reasonable dupe for NARS Orgasm?  But when I swatched the two… they were quite different.  TBS’ Golden Pink seemed a darker and far more intense.

Then I dug out my NARS Deep Throat blush and got a much better match!

What d’ya reckon ladies?  Dupe or Poop?

…this year are two great homegrown brands.  Both The Body Shop and LUSH have commissioned their own festive videos for interwebz consumption.

If you haven’t seen them already, you can check out their festive video offerings below:

But which is your favourite Christmas video?

In the words of Harry Hill’s TV Burp… The Body Shop vs. Lush?  FIGHT!

I was a bit naughty… I bought my first red for the series.  I’ve been wanting an RMK lippie for ages and you know what it’s like when you want something… any old excuse right?

I’m very pleased I did buy it though!

RMK Irresistible Lips in 29 Red is a vibrant, slightly pink red.  I actually expected it to be a little sheerer than it is… I’m used to Asian lipsticks coming out less pigmented but this is a cracker and a really balanced lipstick in terms of texture being neither too matte nor too glossy.

One swipe (as with most lipsticks) will give an uneven finish but if I blend the colour with my finger I get one of the best deep pink/red lip stains I’ve worn.   A couple more swipes and you get a finish as in the photo above.

I find pink/reds quite hard to wear as they often clash with my skintone… they have to be spot on or they just look “off”.  This one is pretty good, it’s neither too guava nor raspberry leaning… neutral.

RMK Irresistible Lips also gave me great wear and faded evenly after a few hours…. because it wasn’t completely matte, I was also able to smoosh my lips together to replenish the colour a couple of times before reapplying.

RMK Irresistible Lips in 29 Red (£15) is available to purchase online from LookFantastic

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If anyone wants to join me on my red lip crusade, please email me a photo of your lovely selves rocking your favourite red lip – I’d love to post a collage with your photos!

Please keep your photos coming in – perhaps we can inspire one other to carry on rocking the reds over Christmas!

I’ve been dying my hair since the age of 14… first pillar box reds and harsh blacks – anything to be different which was ironic really, considering I used to simultaneously do anything I could to fade into the background.

At the age of 17, I discovered my first grey hair… and since then, they’ve been coming in thick and fast.  I now dye my hair (roots) every 8 weeks or so to keep on top of it.

I attended a masterclass at the Schwarzkopf Academy back in October.  It was focused on their Palette range of home hair colourants and aimed to demonstrate the very best way to achieve great results at home.

Let me show you a video from the afternoon (if you spot me, please ignore the horrendously unflattering camera angle… it’s not my seven chins, it’s the bloody angle alright?)

I’ve found the Schwarzkopf Palette dye gives a beautifully natural and glossy result.  It’s not particularly different to anything else I’ve tried in terms of application although I found that it was a tough cookie in terms of staining… definitely a little harder to remove than my normal product.  It was also a lot less ammonia-stinky than my normal Superdrug hair dye… a welcome discovery!

My favourite thing about the Schwarzkopf Palette formula though is that I don’t get the “Lego Hair” thing that I usually notice with home hair dyes.  Are we all familiar with “Lego Hair”?  That horribly obvious single block of colour that screams “I’ve just given myself a cheap home hair-dye job!”.  The Schwarzkopf Palette range appears to melt into my own natural highlights and lowlights instead of overwriting the lot.

Freshly coloured hair, what a lovely feeling!

Some tips I learned from the day:

– Wash your hair if it’s greasy or full of oil-based product (hairspray/mousse is ok)
– Apply your hair dye to the point of saturation (one of the biggest mistakes people make is not using enough product)
– Custom mix your colours – it’s far easier than I imagined to create a personalised shade!
– You can’t lighten pre-coloured dark hair
– Grey hair needs extra processing time
– Use moisturiser to protect the skin or vaseline, but don’t get any vaseline on your hair or the colour won’t take.
– There’s no need to shampoo after dying unless you want to.
– To protect your clothes, use a bin liner with a hole cut in it for your head!
– Section off your roots and concentrate the colour there.  You can smoosh the ends in to ensure they get even coverage later.

Schwarzkopf Palette comes in a range of 12 shades from a light natural blonde right through to black.  It’s available instore at Boots, Superdrug and some supermarkets priced at around £3.49 – bargain!

You know I’m a sucker for Elemis and on Sunday, they’re launching their brand new Melting Cleansing Gel to the fanfare of one of QVC‘s legendary TSVs.

I get excited when TSVs like this come up.  They sometimes include products that I’m less likely to use which reduces the value of both the TSV and the set for me.  This one?  Love everything in it and the new Melting Cleansing Gel sounds exciting! (you know you need to get a life when you genuinely get excited at the prospect of cleansing gel).

But because I know you lot are as tragic as I am… have a listen…

This gorgeous cleanser is suitable for all skin types and transforms from a gel to a milky cream when it is mixed with water. (Love cleansers that emulsify like this and am sorely tempted to give it a try whilst ignoring the 4 half full bottles of cleansing oil still in my bathroom)

key ingredients include :

~ Argan Oil to tense the skin and support the skin’s fibre networks.
~ Rice Silk to eliminate shine.
~ Assai Fruit to protect the skin’s lipid barrier to avoid it getting dry.
~ Rosemary Leaf a powerful antioxidant to stabilize oil flow and the sebaceous glands.

Will you be checking out the Elemis TSV on Sunday (sky channel 640)?  What’s been some of your favourite TSVs to date?

Five names have been drawn at random and I’m pleased to announce the lucky winners who will each receive a set of The Body Shop Originals products are….

1). Rose

2). Konni

3). Nicola Abbott

4). Viv

5). Suzanne

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Congratulations ladies, I’ll be getting in touch this evening to get your details so that I can have the prizes sent out to you ASAP.  Also, don’t forget that The Body Shop are running their own Originals competition which closes tomorrow!

Thanks for taking part everyone!

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The Lipglossiping annual Advent giveaway is starting this Wednesday!!

Be there, or miss out!

It’s FRIDAY!!!!  And if you ain’t spending the day pleading with MAC to sell you a lipstick, then you’re probably doing more important things like working… or picking your toes.

But stop what you’re doing right now!  Come and enter my giveaway…

I have sets of 6 Body Shop Originals products to give away to FIVE lucky readers… the image above is just me messing about in photoshop… I dunno what ones you’ll be getting, consider it a retro pick n’ mix!

To enter my giveaway, simply leave a comment and let me know… which is your favourite Body Shop Originals product?

Have a flippin’ lovely weekend chicas!

Oh god… I can’t stop talking.  I’m so sorry!  Condense… condense!

SK:N Clinic Laser Hair Removal Final Video Review from lipglossiping on Vimeo.

I shall take some well lit after photos in the next few days and show a quick before/after comparison too.

Is it Friday yet?