A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Now that I’ve had some time to play with the products I chose to bring home with me from the Une Natural Beauty blogger unveiling, I thought I’d share my thoughts on some of the pieces and a little FOTD with them.

Une Natural Beauty is a new brand with “natural formulas for a natural result, for a natural style”.  It boats impressive eco-credentials and with prices ranging from £4.99 – £13.99, it’s accessible to all.  This is all well and good, but how do the products perform?

I chose 2 eyeshadows, a creme blush, a lipstick, 2 eye pencils, a brush and a concealer.

I didn’t like the shade selections for the base products, so I left those alone.

Let’s start with the Une Multipurpose Brush.  It’s goat hair, and a little scratchy.  It’s densely packed and the most perfect shape for sweeping blush onto the apple of the cheeks and outwards.  It just fits my cheeks brilliantly and totally stops me from applying too low or too high.  I’ve also experienced only one or two shed hairs.  Priced at £7.99, I’m pleased with it.  I’d love it to be a little softer, but hey, it’s less than a tenner.

Glimmer Eyes Shadow G02 is a neutral cream shadow with shimmer.  It feels greasy and although the shimmer is indeed beautiful, it invariably ends up in the socket line less than an hour after applying.  I’ve tried with UDPP underneath and setting with eye shadow ontop.  I’ve decided that the best way to work with this is to pat a tiny amount near the tear duct for a subtle sparkle and resign yourself to a bit of creasing.  I’m cool with that, but I just can’t work with this as an allover lid shade.

Sdumato Eyes Shadow S23 is a matte aubergine.  It’s quite… powdery and kicks up a lot of dust when picking up the product with a brush.  It’s not the best matte I’ve worked with in terms of pigmentation but it’s buildable and the texture is pretty soft.  Lasting power over a slick of eye primer is fair.

Overall, I think the eye shadows that I’ve tried here are overpriced at £8.99 each.  That’s a lot for a high-street mono eyeshadow, at least £2 too much in this case.  Though you do get a fairly generous 1.8g of product, they just haven’t blown me away.

Une Natural Beauty’s Breezy Cheeks blush in B02 (£8.99) on the other hand, has.  It’s a beautiful mid-toned pink (leaning towards mauve) cream blush to powder formula.  Applies like a dream with my fingertips and blends beautifully, leaving a subtle colour that is pink without being too flushed.  It doesn’t have the most amazing staying power, but I can get through most of the day without needing to reapply.  I’d absolutely repurchase this product.

A quick note about the packaging…

Slidey mobile phone of 3 years ago-esque.  I reckon it’s a brave choice… love it or hate it, it does what it’s designed to do which is be easily recyclable.  It’s a little chunky, but not particularly cumbersome.  I’m a fan.  It has that slidey satisfaction thing too… yano when you close a drawer?  And the last couple of cms glide to a satisfying stop?  This does that.  By the way, I’ve left the peel-off stickers on… underneath, the surface is mirrored… generously so!

All the eye pencils from the range are reasonably priced at £4.99 each.

The Sfumato Eyes Pencil in S23 is a color match to the Sfumato Eye Shadow I mentioned earlier.  An earthy aubergine shade.  One thing that I adore about the Une Natural Beauty range is the colour selection.  I’m all for creating a collection based solely on natural and muted colours, and I think that this has been done exceptionally well here.

However, some of the formulas, just don’t work for me.  I understand that a lot of the products are sheer in support of the natural beauty ethos, and I commend that.  Infact, I’m often a fan of more sheer products (especially in darker shades) as I can be heavy handed and prefer the option to build colour rather than desperately try to remove it once overdone!

Unfortunately, I’m finding the Sfumato Eyes Pencil is just too hard and sheer.  It drags across my lashline and doesn’t deposit enough colour to make the uncomfortable application worthwhile.

The Glimmer Eyes Pencil in G13 is sadly even harder.  Such a shame as it contains the most beautiful and fine-particled glitter… I adore how it looks.  Infact, once on… it’s more comfortable than my NARS glitter eye pencils, but what a total drag it is to apply.  Pun intended.

The Skin Glow Pencil in G01 is slightly more expensive at £6.99 and is the most perfect colour match concealer for pale cool-toned ladies I’ve seen on the high street.  It’s creamy and soft and applies really nicely.  I’ve been using this around my nose and in the corner of my eyes to highlight and lift areas where I’m naturally more shadowed.  It’s a great pencil that fills a void in my collection.

My only wish is that it were chunky.  I’ve only used it twice and already it needs sharpening.  I’m literally gonna go through one of these every few weeks if I use it daily.  Bigger please!  More product for the same amount of money, thank you!

Finally the lipstick, Une Lip-Toned Colour in L02.  Love it.  It’s a beautiful nude… a proper nude, not one of your concealer-lip nudes.  It’s creamy and glossy without being too sheer.  No hint of frost, just proper ‘my lips but better’ goodness.  A makeup bag staple done well.  Priced at £7.99, it’s what I’d expect to pay.  Another definite repurchase!

Finally (are you still with me?!), my Une Natural Beauty FOTD.

Eyes

~ Une Natural Beauty Sfumato Eyes Shadow in S23
~ Une Natural Beauty Glimmer Eyes Shadow in G02
~ Une Natural Beauty Sfumato Eyes Pencil in S23
~ Avon Super Shock Mascara in Black

Face

Une Natural Beauty Breezy Cheeks Blush in B02

Lips

Une Natural Beauty Lip-Tined Lip Colour in L02

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Une Natural Beauty is a huge brand launch and I’ve only delved into a tiny percentage of the 25 new products and 148 shades.  It’s a varied review with a couple of stand outs and a couple of disappointments with one or two “OMG this could be awesome if only they…” thrown in.

Une Natural Beauty is available in the UK online and in selected stores at Boots.  It should be rolling out into Superdrug from September 2010 and launching in Irealand sometime in August.

Let me know if you’ve tried anything from the range yet!

Today will go down in history.

I finally reached the bottom of my seemingly bottomless bottle of Soap & Glory Clean on Me.  Usually, when I get bored of something shower-related I tell Mr. L to use it up for me.  That way, I don’t feel guilty cracking open something new when I’ve still got half a bottle/tube/whatever of something else on the go.  But Mr. L wasn’t playing ball with my S&G – too girly smelling apparently *eye roll*.

I picked the Boots No7 Luxurious Foaming Shower Oil up a couple of months ago and it’s been gathering dust ever-since.  Just as I’d turned the shower on this morning, I realised I was all out and hot-footed it across the landing, dripping water as I went.  Once I’d remembered where I’d stashed it, I dripped my way back into the shower only to realise that I hadn’t taken a photo of it for the blog!

I left the shower again and drip, drip, dripped my way into the bedroom, grabbing my camera as I went. Plonked the box on the windowsill and started snapping away.  3 minutes later, I’d finished snapping and glanced up to see my neighbour’s curtain twitch.

So now, not only does my neighbour know that I have one boob bigger than the other.  He know’s WHICH FREAKIN’ BOOB IT IS.

Dedication.  This review had better be worth it.

Oh yeah… the review…

I didn’t like it.  It barely lathered.  Wimpy, weak lather that didn’t smell of anything much at all.  Very, very lightly scented.

I tried again… and used enough to bathe Geoff Capes twice over and still…. it just gave me a thin surface layer of bubbles.  Didn’t feel much like luxury to me.  Being an oil and all… did it make my skin feel smoother or softer?  Nope.  Nothing more than any other moisturising shower gel.  It didn’t strip me of any moisture…. but let’s face it, this stuff is £8.75 a bottle (cheaper with a No7 till spit) but still… it’s a MEH kinda product.

And that’s my official rating.  At least my neighbour enjoyed it.

So, I’ve had this pot of Eyeko Cream for a disgustingly unhygienic length of time, at least 18 months I reckon… and I still haven’t figured out how best to use it.

I mean, thanks to it’s shimmery-ness… it’s obviously best put to work as a highlighter, but the intricacies of application have so far failed me.

Mixed with my moisturiser?  Hallo disco features!

Dotted along my cheekbones and blended before foundation?  Holy huge pores!

Dotted along my cheekbones and blended AFTER foundation? Just, no.  Foundation seems to disagree with this product and the whole lot starts “balling up” under my fingers if I apply it ontop.

So you see, I love the shimmer, scent and creamy texture…. but I just can’t make it work for me.

Eyeko Cream is priced at a bargainous £6 and available online from their website.

I’m sure lots of you already have this… any tips ladies?

Stargazer are a budget brand that I’ve had some real success with in the past… infact, one of the first things I ever reviewed was a Stargazer cake eyeliner that I still enjoy using to this day.

I received a couple of their liquid eye liners to have a play with and initially… I was mega OVERLY excited.

Look! I thought they were gonna be huge chunky felt tip type liquid eye liners.  The idea really appealed to me in theory (in reality of course, great big sharpie-type liquid eyeliners would ensure I made even more of a mess than I usually do).

Anyway… this is how they look:

The ‘nib’ is a flexible nylony bristle type affair.  It holds together well and doesn’t splay or flop about during application.

It produces a substantially pigmented black line that’s thin enough to tightly line the lashline.  The above photo shows the line after I’d built it up to get the kinda thickness that I usually like.

I received two shades, black and blue.  Both are true to description… the black is pure with no charcoal ashiness.  The above swatch shows one swipe from each shade.  Impressive huh?  My only negative is that drying time was a little slower than I’m used to thanks to a wetter formula.  I’d estimate that it took around a minute before I felt comfortable enough to let my (hooded eyelid) droop back over my lashline.  However, once set… this stuff isn’t budging or transferring ’til makeup removal time.  It doesn’t flake and it doesn’t fade.  Phenomenal.

If you’re looking for a purse-friendly “does what it says on the tin” liquid eyeliner… I’d wholeheartedly recommend these from the Stargazer range.  They do a host of shades and I’m gonna check out the violet and red (though I could probably use an intervention… I’m not gonna use a freakin’ red eyeliner am I?).

You can buy Stargazer’s Liquid Eyeliners online or from New Look at the ridiculously good price of £3 each.

…for pale, pasty types.

So, another thing I often reach for in the summer is a bit of powder foundation.  I don’t use it all over, just on the t-zone as an alternative to pressed powder.  It gives me that extra bit of coverage for areas where I suffer from a bit of redness.

I thought this quick photo comparison between a couple of the Illamasqua Powder Foundations that I own might be useful to some.

PF120 and PF145 are both fair shades.  Of the two, PF120 is paler and pinker.  PF145 is a fair, slightly more neutral shade.  I can wear both quite easily without fear of going too dark or too orange.

I love the packaging, although some may find it a touch cumbersome.  Whilst I am enjoying using these, I don’t think I’ll be repurchasing… there’s nothing about them that particularly stands out to me over other great coverage powders.  Infact, I prefer my MAC MSF Natural to both of these.

Illamasqua Powder Foundation is a sheer/medium coverage powder.  If pressed (no pun intended) my favourite thing about this product would be it’s ‘softness’.  It feels forgiving to any drier patches I have on my skin and never seems to go cakey, no matter how heavy-handed I get.  But for me, the coverage and longevity doesn’t live up to my MSF Natural.

Anyway, that was short but (hopefully) sweet.  Illamasqua Powder Foundation is priced at £21 each and available from counters nationwide or online at ASOS and Debenhams.

What are your favourite Powder foundations?

I picked up this Caudalie Lip Conditioner whilst I was on holiday a few weeks ago… I’d left my Lanolips at home and was after something fairly inexpensive and easy to apply.

I can’t detect a strong scent nor taste from this rather minimalistic-looking balm, it displays an impressive list of ingredients including beeswax, shea butter and grapeseed extract topped of with an SPF of 8.

Caudalie is a French brand that I’m not hugely familiar with  but I know that they place an emphasis on natural beauty and this product is no exception having been formulated with 99.5% naturally-derived ingredients.

It keeps my lips in check under normal circumstances, but I haven’t needed to put it to any serious dryness tests as my lips are in OK condition thanks to my Lanolips.  I do love how convenient and solid the Caudalie Lip Conditioner is… it makes for super quick on-the-go application with no risks of looking like you’ve dipped your mouth in goosefat.

I think I paid around £6 for my Caudalie Lip Conditioner, but you can buy it online for £5.50

Recommended!

I love this packaging!  It allows me to dispense just the right amount of product.

And *what* a product it is…

Illamasqua‘s Halcyon Illuminator is a creamy ivory highlighter that would suit both dark and pale tones beautifully.  It’s just about neutral enough to be kind to most complexions and imparts a “lit from within” shimmer.

With a smooth texture, it blends effortlessly wherever it’s placed.  This is (if you haven’t already noticed!) one of my favourite highlighters in my collection and I reach for it often.  Which reminds me, next time I’m near a counter I need to pick up Poised (it’s cool pink counterpart!)

Priced at £13, I consider this to be good value for money when you realise just how little you need to use to achieve a great result.

Illamasqua’s Illuminator in Halcyon is available from counters nationwide or online.

Woah… neon lip & face paint.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with this when it popped through my letterbox courtesy of Models Own last week.

Once I had re-read the pot and realised that I could use it on my lips, I set straight to work!

I really didn’t expect very much from this product… languishing in the knowledge that in general, multi-use cosmetics are pretty cruddy, I was expecting to have a total fail of a product on my hands.

Not so.

This is smoooooooth and lends itself beautifully to a lip product.  I’m not gonna tell you if this works well on your face ‘cos I haven’t got a clue… I’m not a face painter and I have nothing to compare it to.  It’s one hell of a lip paint though.

Bright and true to it’s neon credentials, it applies more like a cream than a paint.  I think that’s what I was most impressed with… I really expected something quite dry and difficult to work with and got the opposite.

Combined with a flick of black liquid liner and not much else, Models Own Neon Pink Lip & Face Paint is a winner.  It dries matte on my lips and does leave them a touch drier which to be fair, I expected.  As with any matte lip product I’d make sure your lips were well exfoliated and possibly combine this with a slick of balm before applying.

I love how completley weightless the product feels on my lips, one thin layer gives great colour payoff and when it fades, it leaves a naturally bitten stain.

Priced at a bargainous £5, if only the other colours were more lip friendly!

I was starting to run out of things to spend my £5 No7 vouchers on when I spied these unassuming little tubes on the No7 counter.  I’m a total sucker for cream eyeshadows and when I swatched these, I knew I had to have them!

They’re a very light mousse formula and although the tubes are teeny tiny, a little goes a very long way.  I keep squeezing out too much!  Easy to apply and blend, I usually use my finger before running a brush over the edges just to make sure that they’re softened.

I bought them without doing any blog research and was concerned that they’d last approximately 5 seconds before creasing on me.  In general, I’m not a HUGE No7 makeup fan… there’s definitely some real stand outs from the line, but it’s not usually a brand I purchase from without doing a bit of research beforehand.

I have to say though, I made a good choice with these!  They last a decent 5/6 hours when used with no base before they begin to travel upwards… combine with a slick of UDPP and I can get about 7/8 hours wear out of them.  I haven’t tried setting them with a light dusting of complementary eyeshadow… but I think that would prolong wear even further.

Not too shabby really.

The colours are beautiful and what attracted me to them in the first place, there’s one more (a bronzey shade) that I like the look of aswell, but I’ll wait ’till the £5 off No7 till spit comes round again before adding it to my collection.

£8.75 each from Boots instore or online.

Have you tried these?

Despite the ill-thought out blog name… I’m not actually a big fan of lip gloss.  There, I’ve said it.

For one… is there anything more irritating in life than battling the sticky gloss/errant flyaway hair pairing from hell when you’re doing your utmost to look nonchalant and breezy?

No.

What about when you see a hawt lipgloss shade and apply it only to see ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE WHATSOEVER.

So it was with curiosity that I accepted this Jemma Kidd Lip Gloss Trio from their PR recently.  I mean, not everything I get sent ends up on here… I like to have an opinion about a product one way or another if I’m going to feature it on Lipglossiping.  We all know that there are many, many ‘meh’ products out there…. and if something is so utterly ‘meh’ that I can barely bring myself to photograph it… then I don’t.

And in my world… lipgloss is kinda ‘meh’.

But wait!  This Jemma Kidd Air Kiss Gloss Trio is kinda caaaa-ute!  It’s a trio of mini lipglosses that snap into a handbag-sized holder.  I’m not sure why you’d need to carry 3 lipglosses around with you… but shush, I don’t like to be caught up in practical details when I’m presented with cute cosmetic presentation.

You slide the chosen gloss up and out of the holder…. no wait, I’m gonna call it a ‘holster’.  Like a gun… it sounds wayyyy cooler now right?

So, you slide the gloss up and out of the holster and it’s primed and ready for action!

Jemma Kidd have chosen three of their best-selling shades to include in the Air Kiss Gloss Trio and I like 2 of ’em.  I think the 3rd should have been a red… but that’s personal preference.  Do you like the colour combination?

The shades are sheer… not so sheer as to be un-noticeable, but they’re more for layering than wearing alone unless you’re going for a natural, simply polished look.  Which actually, is probably pretty apt for the Summer season no?

I’m wearing Rendezvous (on bare lips) in the above photo.  Once applied, the name makes sense… these glosses feel very lightweight on the lips.  They’re not gloopy and they’re not sticky, they’re just shiny with a hint of colour.  Oh and they smell ah-mazing too.

I’m also pretty impressed with the price too!  Ever since the Jemma Kidd line left the shelves of Boots many moons ago, it’s been a brand that has steadily risen in price.  So £9 for a trio of lip glosses makes pretty good financial sense.  Alsooooooo… they’re $19 in the US, so let’s celebrate in a very rare occurence.  Something’s cheaper over here! Woohoo!

Jemma Kidd Air Kiss Gloss Trio is priced at £9 and available from ASOS.

As previously threatened, I went and picked up the new Bourjois Elastic Mascara yesterday. I ended up going to Superdrug to make the most of the £2 off promotion and ended up paying £6.99 for mine.

I know some of you think it’s daft.. but I kinda love the packaging! I have a billion mascaras, so being able to spot the one I want immediately is always useful. It does look a bit like a toilet brush holder though (well spotted Rhamnousia!)

The brush is one of those spikey bristle affairs… ideal for separation and lengthening, not so good for volume. The emphasis on the Bourjois Elastic Mascara is on lengthening, so I wasn’t surprised to see this brush design.

What I was surprised to see was the amount of product the wand picked up in those reservoirs. Too much. Combine this with quite a wet formula-ed mascara and I knew I was going to have issues with application before I’d even lifted the wand past my nose.

I was right. It actually reminded me a lot of the issues I had with the last Bourjois mascara I bought (1001 Lashes). Admitedly, 1001 Lashes has actually grown to become one of my favourites… but it took 3 months for the formula to dry out enough for me to fall in love.

I love the brush on this Bourjois Elastic mascara. It actually ‘grabs’ my lashes. I can feel the pull as I drag through from root to tip. It keeps hold of them like no other brush I’ve tried. So if that formula thickens up a bit after a couple of months, I could have an winning combination on my hands!

Having said that, once dried… it’s a slightly crusty mascara, this doesn’t really bother me – but I know some of you prefer more flexible and soft finishes. It doesn’t actually *look* crusty… but you can feel the crispiness going on!

The weird handle is actually another thing I love about the Bourjois Elastic Mascara. It makes me more ‘light handed’ with the wand and I find myself applying with fluttery light but sweeping strokes as opposed to my usual ham-fisted, poke yourself in the eye efforts.

Another cool thing about the handle is that you can ‘twizzle’ the wand whilst applying to get maximum coverage. Didn’t think about that did you?! Rolling the wand between my thumb and forefinger feels quite a natural action as I’m pulling the product through the lashes. Unfortunately, the action just encourages this damn formula to clump… I’m still clinging to the hope that with a bit of age, the formula transforms into something amazing.

Definitely lengthening… not volumising or even very defining (I’m blaming the formula).

I’m on the fence with this one.

Something I’m not on the fence about?

This promo image:

Seriously? Just. Sod. Off.

Bourjois, you may be my favourite high street brand… but you hands down win the sucky Photoshop bs eyelash promo image award.

EDITED TO ADD:

The above promotional image shouldn’t be on the website under Elastic Mascara apparently, some kinda mistake as it’s a few years old.. here’s the correct model image!:

Pro Makeup Brushes are one of the UK’s leading suppliers of makeup brushes.  They offer wholesale, customisation and supply to brands such as Elizabeth Arden and The Green People.

and they kindly sent me a few from their range to trial and report back on.

I would call their selection of 16 tools fairly exhaustive for your average makeup user.  The price is low/mid range.  Brushes start from £5 and work their way up to £15.

The white goat hair brushes feel fairly soft, pliable and densely packed.  There’s a faint whiff of wet dog about them which is common with the more budget friendly natural hair brushes.  This is accentuated when I give them a wash but as they dry, the smell fades once again.  Similarly, the other sable brushes are soft and densely packed.

The brushes arrived with this rather fabulous booklet which describes itself as an ‘educational booklet for makeup application’ and it’s really rather fab!  It manages to cover all the basics in plain and simple English.  Definitely a worthwhile inclusion and great for novices.

Onto the brushes…

#14 Blush Brush – £13

Though described as a blusher brush, the hair is cut with a slight angle so it’s perfect to use for contouring those cheekbones aswell.  It’s a lovely brush, densely packed, soft enough not to scratch and well cut.  Unfortunately, that’s where my praise ends.  This sheds like a mofo.

Amount collected from running my fingers through the brush after 2 washes… this amount of shedding is kinda unacceptable from a £13 brush.  I pick white hairs off my face every time I use it.

#1 Round Ended Concealer Brush – £6.50

I’ve never used a long haired concealer brush like this before… but it works fantastically well at applying concealer under the eyes and around the nose…. all those little crevices are covered quickly and smoothly with this brush.  I didn’t expect much from this unassuming little tool, but it’s made it’s way into daily use for me.

#2 Fine Angled Brush – £6.00

A nicely made brush that picks up brow powder well.  I wouldn’t use this for gel liners as the hairs are a little too bushy for precision lining.  This has replaced my usual GOSH brow brush simply because it seems to work the powder through my brows more evenly.

#12 Large Eyeshadow Brush – £10

Another disappointment.  I was hoping for a reasonable MAC #239 dupe, but the quality falls way short.  Most noticeably, the ferrule on this particular brush is loose.  I can hold the brush at the end of the handle… give it a gentle shake and watch the whole thing rattle.  Perhaps connected to the loose ferrule… but despite gentle washing, I can’t get the brush to hold it’s original shape… it’s now a splayed mess.  I’ve obviously received a faulty brush, but have to review on what I find.  The goat hairs however are pretty soft and non-scratchy.

#11 Mascara Brush – £5.00

Again, I’m going to have to raise an eyebrow at the quality of a brush that arrives like this.  You can see in the photo how some of the fibres are straggly.  I’ve since cut them with a pair of nail scissors to avoid poking myself in the eyeball.

Aside from this… it’s a useful tool and is designed well.  It does a good job at separating the lashes once mascara has been applied.  It’s an extra step to the routine and one I wouldn’t normally take… but I can’t deny that it’s worth the effort for special occasions.

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Overall, Pro Makeup Brushes offer a good range of products at a reasonable price but I’m disappointed with the overall quality of the samples I received.  The sable brushes were mostly of good quality, but I’m afraid that I can’t recommend the goat hair brushes based on my experiences with them.