A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

One of the most talked about so-called ‘dupes’ is the infamous $5.99 Milani Luminous blush which many say is a dead ringer for the even more infamous $25 NARS Orgasm.

Here’s my take on that theory…

You can immediately see the similarities between them.  In the pan, Orgasm has a little more sparkle, but the shades are a very close match indeed.

On my skin…

I find Milani’s Luminous to be slightly pinker than NARS Orgasm on my skintone, it also swatches a little heavier which was a surprise to me, as I rank NARS blushes up there as among the most pigmented I’ve used.

The Milani only lasts for a couple of hours before fading compared to Orgasm (a.k.a – shit to a blanket).  Once applied to my cheeks, NARS Orgasm has that “Je Ne Sais Quoi”… a slightly ethereal quality that is lacking from the Milani.

Does that relegate the Milani to the dupe bin?  Not at all, I would happily take Luminous on a fortnight holiday with me.  I love it, it’s a fantastic dupe and I’m pleased to own it.  Would I be happy for it to completely replace Orgasm?

No.  On my skin, NARS Orgasm gives me that famed full on post coital flush that Milani Luminous only hints at.

My latest NYX eye shadow acquisitions for your viewing pleasure!

Sparkle Cedar is a weird one, it really is as ‘gritty’ as it appears in the photo.  It’s the only disappointment in the bunch though.

These are such great value for money, but I’m a bit NYX’ed out now and can’t decide if I want any more…  Have you made any NYX purchases recently?  Re-inspire me to buy some more!

Ruby & Millie make some decent brushes at reasonable prices, and this one is my favourite.  It’s great for gel eyeliners and brow powders… firm but supple.

The Ruby & Millie I-Define brush is priced at £6.00 in Boots, but is currently available for a recession-busting £1.00 with a No7/Ruby & Millie till spit*.

I’ve bought a couple since the offer’s been on and plan on getting some more of the Boots No7 Eyeshadow brushes which I enjoy using alongside my MAC 239.

The Boots No7 Eyeshadow brush is priced at £5.75 rendering it a 75p super-bargain with a till spit.  Only larger stores appear to carry these brushes though.  You can usually find them on the bottom shelf of the No7 stand (rather than amongst the general makeup brushes) housed in cardboard boxes.

*till spit = a voucher automatically printed by the till when you spend over £5 in a transaction.  I’m a geek and purposefully split my transactions into roughly £5 amounts to maximize my till spits *blush*

Till spits are valid until the 31st January, so get shopping!

Have you tried either of these brushes?  Do you recommend any other ’till spit’ bargains?

Do you have any SUPER budget items that you enjoy using?

Waitrose sent me a few items from their newly extended “Essentials” range and I’ve been enjoying using their goodies.  One of my favs are the new 3in1 facial cleansing wipes.  They’re soft, nicely fragranced and do a good job at removing makeup in a rush.

Unlike other wipes I’ve tried, these also feel quite moisturising on my skin without leaving that tacky, sticky feeling behind – and all this for £1.45!

The “Essentials” range also includes hand wash, bath foam. bath crème, shower gel, soap bars, shampoo and conditioner.  Most products are priced at 99p.

My inner bargainista has been satisfied with this find!

You can pick these up in your local Waitrose or online.

A few weeks ago, Cherry Culture tempted me with another 20% off sale (I think it was 20%, I can’t remember exactly)… anyway, my goodies arrived at the end of last week, packaged impeccably (as always).

Here’s what I got this time:

~ NYX Round Lip Glosses in: Ballerina Pink, Doll Pink and Whipped
~ NYX Round Lipsticks in: Electra, B52, Power, Paris and Snow White
~ Milani Blush in Luminous (supposed Orgasm dupe)
~ NYX Single Eyeshadow in: Dune, Herb, Sparkle Cedar and Golden Bronze
~ NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in Cottage Cheese

Reviews, swatches etc coming up shortly but this little lot set me back £26 inc. postage (not bad huh?)

Have you been partaking in any hauls in the run up to Christmas or are you being good and spending your money on presents for other people?

I’m a big fan of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, they’re multi-use and an absolute must have for travelling.  Fantastically, they’re Suphate-Free and you can use them for washing, laundry, dish washing, cleaning, shampooing and even toothbrushing!  Although I’m not too sure about that last one…

My favourite use for this little bottle of rose-scented magic has to be cleaning my makeup brushes.  You just need the tiniest amount.  I’ve washed my brushes at least 3 times using the bottle above and it’s barely made any impact at all.

It leaves my brushes feeling soft, clean and conditioned, gets out all the crud and all that remains is a gentle rose-scent.  What more can I ask for?

More varieties?  Well… you can have: Peppermint (nice), Eucalyptus (bleh), Almond (yum), Rose (yay), Baby Mild (boring), Citrus (zesty!), Lavender (bleh) and Tea Tree (meh).   Please excuse the childish running commentary that accompanied the variety listing… sometimes I just can’t help myself.

Oh yes, they don’t test on bunny rabbits either.

INGREDIENTS: Water, Saponified Organic Coconut, Organic Palm and Organic Olive Oils (w/Retained Glycerin), Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Essential Oils, Citric Acid, Vitamin E

You like?

I purchase mine from EcoHamster ‘cos they offer free delivery and I like hamsters. £4.95 for 236ml.

I’ve mentioned these maybe once or twice (or 7 or 8 times)…

When I first tried a GOSH Velvet Touch Liner, I was genuinely amazed at how they performed.  They just work.  They’re creamy and smooth to apply.  Once applied they don’t budge from the waterline on me for around 6 hours and if applied along the lower lashline, they don’t move until I remove my makeup that evening.

They come in an amazing array of colours and each pencil will set you back around a fiver.

I realised a few weeks ago, that since buying these I hadn’t reached for any of my other pencils (and eyeliner is kinda my ‘thing’, so I had a few!).  I ended up giving away, selling or binning my eyeliner stash and am now on the wonderful mission of hunting these down in every shade available.

Have you ever ‘purged’ your stash in such a way?  Now… if only I could do the same for mascaras…

GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liners are priced at £5 each and are available from Superdrug (instore & online).  Don’t forget, there’s a Superdrug 3for2 promotion going on at the moment aswell!

George at Asda I mean…

They must be? How else can they possibly be knocking out such awesome shades for £1.50 a bottle?

This is hmmm… how can I best describe.  A gilded olive?

I hate greens, but this I love.  So if you hate greens too, try it…. seriously – it’s beautiful!

It’s a metallic, so there is some evidence of brush stroke but no more than my higher end metallic polishes and even less than some.

It’s called Superstar and really is something special.

Application and longevity are in line with the rest of the George shades I’ve tried.

Unfortunately, this will go down in history as the “last shade”.  The “last shade” before stump-gate.  No matter, it’s beautiful.

STOP PRESS!: Check out Janice’s review on the Eye Transformer too, her photographs demonstrate the whole ‘smoky eye thing’ better than mine and really give a good idea of what I was trying to explain (lamely!).

http://seekforbeauty.blogspot.com/2009/08/review-elf-studio-eye-transformer.html

The new (to the UK) ELF Eye Transformer is another product that was lurking at the bottom of my goody bag from a recent E.L.F event I attended.  It’s an unusual product, I’ve only ever seen one other like it and I think that it fits in very nicely with the rest of the E.L.F Studio lineup.

It has one main function.  Applied over a dark coloured eyeshadow base, it will have the effect on transforming the base into a new and wonderful shimmering iridescent shade.

Make sense?

Let’s look more closely…

Oh there you go, it says what it does on the back of the box… and for bonus points it gets straight to the point.  Unlike me.

Packaging is identical to the Shimmer Palette, it’s good stuff… solid and sleek.

There are four powder shades: Green, Orange, Pink and Blue.

The powders are quite dusty and I’d recommend giving your brush a quick shake or blow before applying the powder ontop of your base.

First, I laid down 4 black base swatches.  I used a black eye shadow from one of my Sleek Palettes, then I layered each Eye Transformer powder over the base…

Let’s see them in action…

As you can see, from left to right… the powders create green, bronze, purple and blue hues when layered ontop of black bases.  Very pretty and much more interesting than plain old black!

This by itself is pretty cool, but I’ve discovered an even better use for them!

I’m rubbish at true smoky eyes, I look like a panda, I find it hard to blend very strong colours.  It’s a shame then that smokey eyes are *everywhere* at the moment.  Hell, Sleek and GOSH have even brought out palettes in celebration…

Let me demonstrate my crapness…

That’s my best effort!  It’s harrrrrrrrrd!

The variations between the black in the crease and the grey on the lid are obvious to me… I just can’t get a smooth blend when I use black, which is why I usually shy away from the shade, favouring greys and browns for crease colours.

However, let’s go over the whole lot with the blue shade from the Eye Transformer Palette…

What do you think?

It’s not *so* visible in the photo as it was in person, but adding the Eye Transformer shade seems to bring the other shades in harmony with one another.

My blending isn’t the best, and I should have definitely gone over that outer edge with my blending brush.  But focusing on the actual lid, don’t the colours seem to flow better?  Am I imagining things?

Anyway, all I can say is…

The ELF Eye Transformer is not the best quality product in the world… the powders are pretty chalky and dusty.

Having said that, I’m a sucker for novelty products like this and usually a little disappointed when I try them.  But I’m really enjoying using this combined with the Sleek Graphite palette.  They simply work as they’re supposed to, opening up many more opportunities for colour.

What are your thoughts?  Have you tried the ELF Eye Transformer Palette? Want to?

Heather over at The She Space/About Face Cosmetics had a blowout sale in honour of turning the big 4-0! (Happy Birthday!)

How could I not take advantage with full size eyeshadow pigments reduced down to $2.50 each?

I went for mainly wintery shades that work well on my cool skin:

Aren’t they beautiful?

Stand out shades are: Female Soldiers…, Inspired Meltdown, Anybody Seen Erin, Touched By Truth.

Those 4 blow me away by how achingly beautiful and unique they are.

Driven by Instinct was described as a “smoky purple shimmer” but unfortunately, it just looks blue on my skin.  A lovely shade nonetheless, but blues don’t really suit me.

Shipping time from The She Space is *always* slowwww.  I ordered on 20th October and it took very nearly a full month to arrive.

Are you into your pigments?  I’m hoping to press these when my pans arrive from Hong Kong – I don’t know how they’ll turn out, but I’ll share my method and results!

The She Space Holiday sale has now kicked in and full size pigments are reduced to $3.50 each from $4.50.

Have a great Monday xx

So, the ELF Studio Line has burst onto the scene with a variety of affordable makeup and the most interesting thing about it all to me is some of the innovation it’s brought with it.

I’m talking genuinely new, innovative products… that, and trying to knock high-end products down from their pedestals (HD Powder anyone? – p.s. how are you finding that?)

Introducing the Shimmer Palette.

It’s a palette of 4 shimmering iridescent cream shades that can be used to highlight wherever you choose to apply!

The ELF Studio Line packaging has been consistently good, more than slightly reminiscent of NARS… everything I’ve bought or been given has a solid feel to it and this is no exception.

The 4 shades included range from white through to a couple of peachy/gold colours ending with a pink.  All are very wearable shades.  Although I have no idea how they would look on deeper skintones.

The consistency of the creams are slightly greasy which means that they blend very easily but need setting to stop them sliding.  The colours are also surprisingly pigmented until you blend them out into a nice sheen.

You can see the iridescence in the shades in this swatch, I’ve tried using them on my cheekbones… I like.  I’ve tried using them on my eyelids… um, not so much like (too greasy).  I’ve yet to try them on my lips… I don’t really see the point.

Someone give me some more ideas of how to use!

You can see the colours a little better here.

So, overall ELF’s Shimmer Palette is a nice, fun product.  It’s easy to use and does what ELF intended it to do… add a bit of shimmer an sheen wherever it’s used.

I’m not sure that I’m going to reach for the palette that often, I don’t really have much need for it… however, I will be buying some as Xmas pressies for a couple of young teenage girls in the family.  I think it would be awesome for that “too young to wear full on slap – but wants to play with makeup regardless” age.

Have you tried ELF’s Shimmer Palette – what say you?

I’ve been playing with Sleek MakeUP’s new Luminous Pressed Powder which I was sent just over a week ago.

It’s designed to be swept all over your face for a glowing, illuminated effect.

The powder, which is available in 4 shades is packed full of tiny light-reflecting mica pigments.  These are visible in the pan, and whilst very fine – are indeed pretty sparkly!  Unfortunately, the pigments are too fine for my camera to pick up on.  I did try!

I received shade 02, which is far too dark for me to use as an all-over powder – not that that stopped me from trying of course.

Unfortunately, the shade just looked unnaturally dark on my skin.  I can however say that the mica pigments are just about subtle enough to be used all over without looking like a disco ball.

It’s ok!  You can put the dancing shoes away!

I found that it absorbed oil effectively and didn’t clump down the side of my nose as some heavier powders will.

As it’s a golden tone, I am currently using it as a light bronzer just to warm up my skin a little where the sun (if we had any) would touch.  I was a little nervous about putting an illuminating powder on my nose fearing that it may be seen from out of space, but so far visibility is staying below the stratosphere.

Packaging is nice for a budget item, other budget cosmetic companies could learn a thing or two from Sleek MakeUP’s consistently good quality casings.

You can dispense with the silly little powder puff and just use a large fluffy powder brush to pick up the product.

If shimmer ain’t your bag (baby), then I’d refrain from applying it all over and use it more as you would a MAC MSF.  Ooh, actually… bet it would look lovely swept over your decolletage too, it’s a bit more subtle than some products designed to draw a bit of attention to the old boobies.  Make you look less like a slapper and more like a subtley shimmery ladee.  Innit.

It’s a nice addition to the Sleek MakeUP line, it fits right in and is fairly priced at £5.99.