A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Very exciting stuff as always!

Marina emailed last night to let me know that the new issue of MakeUp4All Online Beauty Magazine is now live!

Packed with fab content, beauty advice, exclusive interviews and the hottest trend reports….

Don’t miss it!!

Did you know that?

No, me neither… but in honour of this clearly prestigious occasion, here’s some OATY goodness that promises to be the best way to start the day!

1. Kiehls Ultimate Man Body Scrub Soap (£14.00)

Ultimate Man… yes please.  This Kiehl’s soap contain lots of oaty bits to slough away the dead skin and leave your man smelling good enough to eat.  Um.

2. A-Derma Oat Milk Skin Care Treatment Cream (£6.00)

A-Derma is a beautiful range developed for the most sensitive of skin.  The Oat Milk Skin Care Treatment Cream contains Rhealba oat milk, made to treat irritated and highly reactive skin.

3. Aveeno Bath & Shower Oil (£8.16)

One of my favourites from the Aveeno line, their Bath & Shower Oil contains naturally active Colloidal Oatmeal and softening oils to thoroughly cleanse, moisturise and condition skin prone to eczema.

4. The Body Shop Honey and Oat 3-in-1 Scrub Mask (£9.00)

A three-in-one face mask containing oat bran extract that promises to cleanse, polishes and moisturise normal to dry skin.

5. Klorane Oatmilk Gentle Dry Shampoo (from £2.98)

Klorane’s dry shampoo contains softening, protective oatmilk extract, corn and rice starch for a thorough cleansing action.

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Do you have any favourite oat-based products?  And how do you like your porridge, sweet or salty?!

…it’s doughnuts.  I don’t care how you spell them or what country they come from, I have no doughnut prejudice running through my veins.  The doughnut world comes in many colours and I love them all equally.  Peace.

Having said that, I quite like to keep my patisserie addiction separate from my confectionery habits.  These two things are quite, quite different and should remain so.  Jelly Tots et al don’t belong on cakes — fact.

Krispy Kreme have teamed up with Glamour Magazine for the 2nd year running to release their latest collection of fashion-inspired doughnuts.  Released in line with London Fashion Week, I’m busy trying to decide if this Krispy Kreme “capsule collection” breaks my doughnut rules by looking a bit like psychedelic polo mints.

This season’s collection features the trademark Strawberry Glaze doughnut, synonymous with the GLAMOUR Glaze line, accompanied by a new Orange Glaze doughnut.  The Orange Glaze has been created from trend predictions of the upcoming season from GLAMOUR’s fashion team, who noted the ‘70s and the bright colour influences as two key themes.

I am loving that this is giving me carte blanche to talk about doughnuts on my beauty blog.  Doughnuts doughnuts doughnuts.  You won’t see that in Glamour Vogue.

The Glamour Glaze collection* (£1.35 ea) is available on counter at all Krispy Kreme UK stores and in-store cabinets from the 29^th August until 2^nd October.

Wanna be a little less glamourous?  How about stuffing your face on 2 doughnuts for the price of 1?  Click through to KrispyKreme but don’t blame me if you can’t do up your high-waisted, colour-blocked, on-trend skirt.

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Tried these ones?  Are they bonafide doughnuts or would they fail my sweetie test?

* press sample bum

Not the classiest way of putting it, but it’s a simple fact of life that people love a bargain.  The killer spring in your step that can only be achieved from walking away with a bagful of goodies you KNOW you couldn’t have afforded at pre-sale prices.  Cheers to that.

My favourite brand for killer sales is Paul & Joe.  Specifically in the Fenwicks store on Bond Street – which in itself, is one of my favourite places to shop in London.  Come sale time, I will physically not leave the city until I’ve walked around it seven times and once more for luck.  I’m still haunted by the fact that some HORRIBLE woman beat me to the last sale bottle of Calamity Jane (JHAG) when I was last in-store.  It all happened in slow-mo — in fact, I think I may have let out a slow-mo “Noooooooooooooo!” as I watched her walk away with my dream.  Bitch.

Anyway… where was I?

Oh yeah, sale goodies.  Some brands are tight as…  while others announce their sales with great flourish.  My favourites are the ones that just silently slip last seasons goodies into a little box on the counter and let you get on with it.  Guerlain are awesome at this.  Lancome, getting better.  The rest?  Well, you can pretty much forget it.

Is it just the case that the brands who don’t put aside last season’s items simply don’t have any stock left?  Or do you think it’s a status ‘thing’.  Do you think it cheapens a brand’s image as ‘high end’ if it discounts their products?

I think it is undoubtedly a question of status but in these cash-strapped times, a real shame that some brands don’t have the foresight to be clever enough to attract new customers in this manner.  There’s no need for all ‘bargain bins’ to look like the ones in Superdrug — you know, you need a hazmat suit to go near those right? — I strongly believe that all brands can do discounts without cheapening the brand image.

And would it pay dividends for the brands in question?  I think so.  From a personal point of view… I started small.  I lived in my local chemist, hoovering up the bargain pencils from Collection 2000, a few months later… as my interest in beauty grew, I moved onto the Revlon.  It’s like drugs.  You know you’re gonna eventually end up on the hard stuff (Chanel) with a bit of puff (BarryM) inbetween to keep you high*.  You just need your dealer to give you that first taste.

And just because drugs and porn** go so delightfully well together (so I’ve heard), I’ll leave you with a little makeup version.  Three exquisite Paul & Joe beauty items, under £25…

Which brands get you running for their sale items and which brands would you give your eyeliner-applying arm to see throw some old stock in a discreet discount box?

* in my experience, brands absolutely love being compared to class A drugs.

** pornography works well too.

Given the choice between packing my makeup bag for 5 days away and the 12 Labours of Hercules, I’d take his job any day.  Infact, he got off lightly, slaying the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra?  Piece of cake.  Try choosing between NARS Torrid and NARS Deep Throat.  That’s what you call a task.

I’m not gonna accompany the photos with review-type commentary but if you have any questions, shout ’em at me.

Lancome makeup bag

Stuffed!

random hairbands | oilatum natural repair face cream (night) | dermalogica active moist (day) | tweezerman tweezers | qtips for eyeliner fixing | cindy crawford wrinkle smooth (primer) capsules

bareMinerals Original mineral foundation | Cosmetics a la Carte Custom Foundation | Cosmetics a la Carte Shine Illuminator | Lancome Teint Miracle Foundation | Cosmetics a la Carte Concealer

Benefit Powder Time Lover | Illamasua Rumour Blush | MAC Soft and Gentle MSF | NARS Torrid Blush

Stargazer Liquid Eyeliner in Black | Benefit Eye Bright | Pixi Fairy Light Solo #2 Champagne Glow | Benefit They’re Real Mascara | Smashbox Soft Effects Powder Eyeliner | Elizabeth Arden Quad in Velvet Plumtones | Inglot Freedom Eyeshadow Palette

NYX Hot Red Lip Pencil | Rouge Baiser #405 L’Authentique | Burberry Lip Cover in #16 Claret | Urban Decay Super-Saturated Gloss in Big Bang | Cosmetics a la Carte Lip Gloss in Vanilla | Shiseido Automatic Lip Crayon in LC4

NARS Yachiyo | Sonia Kashuk Duo Fibre Stippling | Trish McEvoy Sheer Blush | Bare Minerals Flawless Face | ELF Small Precision | Smashbow #3 Blending | ELF Small Angled | Boots No7 Eyeshadow | MAC 217 Blender | NARS #12 Small Dome Eye | ProMakeupBrushes #11 Spoolie | Paula Dorf Sheer Crease | Lancome Lip | Pair of filthy Beauty Blenders

Revlon Cuticle Trimmer | Suqqu Brow Powder in Nibiiro | ROC Fold Up Mirror | Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin

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What do you mean “excessive”?  How easy do you find it to pack a ‘going away’ bag?

I’ve been away!  Did you miss me?  Of course not, because you were kept in extremely good company thanks to my brilliant guest bloggers last week.  In-case you missed their posts you can catch up by clicking through to: Amrita, Robyn, Lily and Liloo.

Anyway, I’m back!  Although, it’s not with the vengeance I would have liked.  Leila has been hit with a mega-cold on-top of a poorly chest so we’ve been sleeping upright at night which as it turns out, doesn’t actually involve much sleeping at all.

Other than that, I have been dodging the piles of emails that amass whenever I turn my back for a second, trying to get unpacked and look after other work (you know, the proper stuff that pays the bills).  What I’m trying to say, in a really convoluted way is this…

Here, please have a look at my holiday photos instead of a proper beauty post.  I’ll get things back on an even keel before the week is through!

Clockwise from Top Left:

1 Kemble Street (a.k.a Space House) – I love the architecture when walking around London.  From impressive Victorian terraces to stately granite-clad frontages.  Futuristic glass walled skyscrapers to concrete, Brutalist obelisks.  The landscape is rich and varied!

Flatbread at Patogh Edgware Road – Just off Edgware Road is a tiny blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Persian place called Patogh.  It has about 7 tables in total and if you wanna get in, you better get in early.  If you do, you’ll be treated to heavenly sesame-seed dusted flatbreads and minced lamb kebabs to make your mouth water.  We paid £16 all in and walked out with full bellies.

Tate Modern Chimney – I’d like to pretend that I’m all cultured and stuff but I’m really not.  I walk around the Tate Modern as a child might, devouring the cool stuff and not bothering to ‘understand’ anything.  Still, I love the building.

Leila and Me in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern – We were contemplating where we could go for cake/ice cream/chocolate – or all of the above.

Clockwise from Top Left:

Leila and the Mega Towers – At Canary Wharf, they’re kinda piddly towers compared to other cities across the globe but they’re still pretty impressive to look up at from street level.  I like Canary Wharf, I like to sit and watch everyone doing busy stuff while I have nothing in the world to do but watch.

Bargainista Afternoon Tea – We didn’t plan to stop for a proper Afternoon Tea and many would be horrified that I even dare call this an Afternoon Tea but tough.  The John Lewis Bistro on the 3rd Floor of the store in Oxford St does a fine spread for less than £10 each.  Attentive service, relaxed surroundings and you barely need to leave the beauty hall.  Good stuff.

Back when Barbie was Cool – At the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, I discovered a super-cool Barbie.  Still impossibly well-endowed, she can work those cat eyes sunnies better than most.

Mudchute Farm – Bang in the middle of the Isle of Dogs, overshadowed by the towers of Canary Wharf is an Urban Farm project.  They have giant pigs that made me rethink my love for bacon, sheep that looked just a tiny bit mutated (perhaps from all those inner city fumes) and a petting corner that included ferrets!  A wonderful green lung in the middle of the city.

Clockwise from Top Left:

The Elgin in Ladbroke Grove – If you are/have ever been a Clash fan, this establishment will mean something to you – if not, it’s just a pub in West London that used to play frequent host to the greatest front-man ever.

Ghost-rider at South Bank Skate Park – I can never walk past this place without slowing down to see if anyone falls off their bike or skate board.  I was treated to a spectacular tumble on Saturday which had the gathered crowds “ooooohing” before a big cheer when the rider jumped up with a wave!

Turbine Hall at Tate Modern – Despite the hustle and bustle, this is such a peaceful place… a huge expanse that plays host to frequent exhibitions.  I remember a few years back, they installed a giant slide… too. much. fun.  Sadly, it was a little sparse when we visited.

Millennium Bridge/St. Pauls – The juxtaposition of the old and the new is around every corner.  Don’t they sit comfortably together?  I love this view.

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Well, now I’ve given myself the post-holiday blues! Sigh. I’ve got a couple of days away to Brighton coming later in the month so I’ll just focus on that instead.  I hope you all had lovely weekends – down with Monday mornings!

We’ve all had them, those tooth-grindingly painful encounters at our local beauty counters.  From the over enthusiastic SAs who turn us orange to the snooty brigade who look like they’d rather cop off with Barry Manilow than grace us with their attention.

photo credit: w578325

Shall I tell you mine?  (Oh, go on then… if you insist!)

I was in a big department store a couple of years ago, I won’t name the counter but they were a new installment.  I approached with a small amount of trepidation and started swatching at the pretties.  Within about a nano-second, I’d been swooped upon and ‘dusted’ with a powder brush.

I recoiled as the bubbly SA introduced the brand and steeled myself for the hard sell but she seemed to calm down once she realised she had my attention and that I *really* did want to hear about some of the products.

I pointed out a couple of things that I was interested in and asked if it would be ok for me to try them.  She squealed and showed me over to the makeup station, signalling for me to sit down.  I realised that we’d clearly had a communication meltdown when she started playing big-time makeovers on my face.  Ontop of my already applied foundation.  Ugh.

In fairness to her, I’m one of those who suffers in silence.  I sit there and suck it up with a semi-smile glued to my face while my eyes search for the nearest exit.  She moved on to the eyebrows, painting them (literally) black with the help of a wet brush and a liberal dose of powder.  I watch in horror as she (all the time telling me about her marriage breakdown and subsequent move to London) transforms me into a cartoon version of my self.

“There!” she proclaims.  I’m left waiting for the “Ta-da!”

I slink away clutching two products, in fairness… one of which is now a HG and find the nearest toilet in an attempt fix the car crash on my face.

I have to return 10 minutes later because the SA had given me the wrong shade for one of my products.  At which point she apologises and confides that she’s still learning the ropes.  Why would that be?  Well, she normally works in the brand’s office but that they were short-staffed on counter that day.

Laugh?  Cry?  I think I did a bit of both.

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I wanna hear about your worst beauty counter experience.  Spill!

This evening, with the UK going to hell in a handcart (I can’t bring myself to watch the news), I thought I’d settle down to a bit of blogging… get back on the bandwagon because it’s amazing how quickly you fall out of sync with things when you have a few days away.

I can always find something that inspires me to blog about but some days, the words aren’t forthcoming.  Today’s been filled with plenty of disappointment in my fellow countrymen and waxing lyrical about lipstick feels somehow wrong.

So let’s laugh at men getting their body hair waxed instead.  That always feels right.

To celebrate the move of feisty and candid female channel Really on to Freeview we created a male waxing viral.  Why?… Men like ladies to be well-groomed, but do they Really understand what this entails?  Can they take the pain when the tables were turned?  Find out what happened when 30 men took Really TV channel’s waxing challenge.  Be prepared for wince-inducing scenes of crotch, nipple and armpit waxes!

With a programming schedule that promises visual delights such as ‘My Big Breasts and Me’ and ‘Hair Battle Spectacular’, I think we can safely assume that you can leave 90% of your brain cells outside the living room door when you tune in.

Still, I think we’re all in need of some distraction and I missed Super Botox Me when it was on the first time round a couple of years ago. (Wednesday at 10pm incase you’re wondering).  OK, I’ve talked myself into a bit of crap telly.  Now, who’s got the Haagen Dazs to complete the stereotype?

No posts for TWO whole days.  I can see a few beads of sweat developing and is that a nervous twitch I can feel tickling the corner of my eye?

Where have I been?  Well, I’ve spent a couple of days in Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace of Mr. William Shakespeare… I’d like to say that I took the opportunity to have a nosy around the town and check out some of the beautiful surroundings but I didn’t get so much as a chance to pop my head in Space NK.

We travelled there for Mr. L’s nephew’s wedding, the weather forecast was a bit grim but as you’ll see, the sun always shines on the righteous regardless of what the Met office has to say.  I’m massively fond of Mr. L’s nephew A, when I first met him he was only 14 years old (I was 19) and I was very nervous meeting Mr. L’s HUGE family.  I still get a bit nervous 11 years later but A relaxed me with good humour and gentleness.  We would play Silent Hill late into the night together… me, Mr. L and A, raiding my MIL’s biscuit tin and consuming endless cups of tea until dawn broke.  Good times.

Anyway, now he’s all grown up and like his uncle, moved away from the North East a few years ago.  His wife C is one of those rare people who can truly light up a room, as a newcomer to the family I remember envying her ability to take everything in her stride with a casual smile.  I’d still be sat there (8 years down the line) with a halo of awkwardness surrounding me praying that nobody was mistaking my lack of confidence for sullenness.

Anyway, enough of that… here’s a few photos from the day.  I wasn’t official ‘tog so tried to stay out of the way, there’s nothing worse than someone trying to get in the way and be all David Bailey when you’ve got a job to do right?!

I love a good wedding.  Especially when there are no punch-ups.

Is your wedding season over or have you gotta dust off your heels for one more outing before Summer’s out?

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Or if you waste quite enough time here as it is, thankyouverymuch, move along… nothing to see here!

With ever-increasing emphasis being placed on design and aesthetics, it’s no wonder that nowadays, we’re inundated with beautiful products to “enrich” our buying experiences.  I will admit that I’m a total sucker for a beautifully packaged object… it all adds to the delight of cradling that new purchase in your hands and feeding…well… kinda ‘good’ about it no?

How horribly shallow.  I will have to feed my soul with some wholesome, profound and worthy thoughts about BINTM to make amends…  <…>  …Ok, I’m over it.

But it’s always good to remember Aesop’s words reminding us that “Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth.”  It’s all too easy to get swept along on a tide of “ooh pretty” and forget about the product inside.  Perhaps more than any other, the beauty industry should be driven by physical results, why else would there exist so many beauty bloggers slathering products on their faces like no tomorrow, eager to share their findings?  So is it kinda ludicrous that there is such importance placed on how products look externally?

Probably.  Case in point…

I want these limited edition Steam Cream Xmas tins from Selfridges… I don’t even really like the product (it’s nice enough but doesn’t rock my boat) and yet, gimme.

And how about those Guerlain palettes… you know the ones, the horribly expensive but atthesametime ridiculously beautiful chrome cut-out ones.  They’ve generally received luke-warm reviews, but I still want to stroke one and make it mine.

And of course, Paul & Joe… well they know how to make a product look nice don’t they?

Whenthey tweeted an image of the lipstick below a couple of weeks ago, I knew I wanted one.  Of course it helps that the shade shown is hawt but still, I reckon I would have bought one even if the shade was a bit boring.  Art Deco styled lipsticks?  GOD yes.

Now, don’t get me wrong… I am admitting to shallowness and I’m admitting to having my head turned more readily by something that appeals to my inner magpie.  But I’m not saying that style overrides content.  It just… helps.

Are you a sucker for beautifully presented beauty products?  What is your most ‘beautiful’ purchase?

…Instagram.

See, I thought it was just like Hipstamatic which I don’t use because it’s kinda slow and kinda clunky and not very social.  On the internet, I’m all about the social.  In real life, I’m all about the social… leprosy.

Combine this with my slowwww iPhone 3G and the fact that I was always too lazy to hook my iPhone up to the computer to download pictures, I just didn’t use it for photos, at all.  I mean… I have my camera anyway right?  Well since Mr. L bought me an iPhone4 for my birthday and I always feel a bit of a tit walking around London with my camera slung across my body, I thought I’d have a go at using it with my photographer (read: girl with a camera) head on when I was in London a few days ago.

It’s clearly all about tilt-shifting the shit out of your images and cross-processing them until they cry out for mercy.  Style over content baby.  But nonetheless, I’m no ‘tog snob and it brought a huge revival of love for snapping what I see and trying to think inside a square frame (easier said than done!)

One thing I am GUTTED about though is that I didn’t realise you had to ‘process’ the photos there and then.  I was taking snaps, then clicking ‘back’ thinking I’d fanny about with the filters later on.  In reality, this meant that I was taking a photo, deleting it, taking another photo, deleting it 4 seconds later.  You can imagine my face when I got on the bus home and realised that I’d ‘apparently’ only taken 8 photos that day.  I spent 2 freaking hours on the Southbank with this thing!  Oh well, lesson learned *sniff*

If you’re one of the last remaining people on earth who owns an iPhone4 without Instagram lurking in one of the folders, you should really consider giving it a go.  A ridiculously satisfying way to take, play with and share your photos!

Do you use Instagram?  Leave your link below if you want!