A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I’m smitten.  My heart is won.

Move over, make room… I’ve finally discovered Fyrinnae Lip Lustres.

I only own 4… I’ve already remedied that little problem and have another 10 winging their way to me as I type.

Wanna see what I’m going so crazy for this week?

4 mini tubes, each one sample sized and priced at a ridiculously cheap $2.50.

A standard little doe foot wand with an unassuming looking substance…

…produces the most beautiful hybrid between a lip stain, lipstick and gloss that I’ve ever encountered.  The colour is pigmented and glossy yet it feels like I’m wearing nothing more irritating than a slick of water on my lips.

As the day progresses and the initial burst of colour fades, I’m left with a beautiful stain that remains even and true despite drinking and snacking.  Not only that, but I’m not finding these at all drying and I was almost positive that I would need to combine them with lip balm.

I just wasn’t expecting to be bowled over by these little lip lustres quite as much as I have been.

Here’s some swatches of the shades I own, I prefer to do full face shots simply because when searching for lipstick swatches I feel that I personally get a truer impression of the colour if it’s put into context of skintone etc rather than just a pair of lips on the screen!

~ Visual-Kei is my perfect pink….

~ Romantique is a stunning golden peach nude…

~ Lollipop-Pop is a punkier pink with blue flashes….

~ Type A is an almost metallic garnet that cries out for some heavy lashes and winged eyeliner.

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They’re perfect.  Oh and they smell ah-mazing too.

Ok, I need to think of something I don’t like about them… this is so gushy, I’m gonna make myself vom.

*thinking*

Oh yeah, the lead time on the Fyrinnae website isn’t great for impatient types like me.  It took 3 weeks before I had them in my hot little hands and now I’ve got to cool my heels for the same time again to get my new order…

anything else, anything else?  Um… no, I really can’t think of anything I don’t like.

I feel like I need validation after such a sickening gush, if you have them… tell me I’m not a mental and that they really are this great?

I picked this Paris Berlin Eyeliner Pen up sometime late last year when I made an online Kryolan order.  I can’t remember where I bought it from, but I paid less than £5 for it.

I like to have a “felt tip” type eyeliner pen available to me as I find them my favourite to work with when I’m attempting a more structured look.  By structured, I mean one that usually involves a flick, lots of mascara and a bright lip!

The packaging is plain, simple and functional and the pen is solidly constructed with a standard, easy to hold barrel.  The tip is beautifully precise without being too sharp.  I love the way the fibres of the tip flex under pressure which avoids dragging or scratching over the eyelid.  However, they hold together with no splaying… keeping the line straight and true.

I think the formula could do with being just a touch darker, it’s so close to being a true oily black… but close isn’t quite good enough.

Pigmentation is pretty solid, I usually go over twice to build up colour to an optimum level.  I haven’t found a problem with this liner smudging at all – it fades quite evenly over time.

Overall, it’s a great liner for less than a fiver and better than any of the high-street branded versions that I’ve tried.  It’s a pro product which you should be able to find online with a quick google search.  I’ve had this about 6 months now and it’s showing no signs of drying out.

Do you have a favourite liquid liner pen?

Like many in the beauty blogging community, I’ve been trialling a few Liz Earle products over the last month or so and I’d like to offer my thoughts on how they’ve been working for me.

I’m gonna start with the Liz Earle Superskin Moisturiser.

Before I had been contacted by the PR for Liz Earle, I’d had a couple of ‘beauty’ friends on twitter comment to me that I should be trying this moisturiser for my combination/dry skin.  Now I can see why.

Superskin Moisturiser is a deceptively light-feeling cream that packs one hell of a moisturising punch.  Brimming with natural ingredients such as Borage Oil, Cranberry Seed Oil, Glycerin, Pomegranate Extract, Rosehip Oil, Shea Butter and Vitamin E, it’s marketed towards a more mature consumer with dry to very dry skin.  I have combination/dry skin with a slightly oily nose and I didn’t find Superskin moisturiser to be too heavy for my oily areas in the slightest.

It absorbs quickly, leaving my skin feeling supple and replenished.  I haven’t noticed it having any particular softening effects like some moisturisers I’ve tried, but I can happily attest to the fact that my skin no longer feels tight or dehydrated since I replaced my usual moisuriser with this a month ago.

There’s a slight scent that I would class as herbal, it’s not entirely to my liking… but it’s not unpleasant at all, it’s just one of those ‘natural’ smells.  I apply Superskin Moisturiser at night only, prefering a day cream with SPF in the mornings.  The packaging is darling, from the outer cardboard design to the heavy acrylic jar inside.

Liz Earle Superskin Moisturiser doesn’t come cheap at £32.50 for a 50ml jar… in all honesty, I balk a little at that price considering it has no specific anti-aging claims… but now I know how well the cream is suiting me, I think I’m probably forever ensnared into the cult of Liz.

I think this would particularly suit you if you would like a lighter, more easily absorbed product that gives the same level of moisturisation as a thicker, heavier and more uncomfortable cream.

Liz Earle Superskin Moisturiser is available from the Liz Earle website priced from £12.00

These little pots of loveliness are currently enjoying a bit of a resurgence in popularity, and so they should.

I own 4, yes I can count (just about)… but couldn’t find my ‘Flatter Me’ shade for the photos – boo!  Above, from left to right are: R.S.V.P (a peach shade), Skinny Jeans (an oh-so-popular pewter) and My Date’s My Brother (a girly pink).

The heavy glass jars seal well, ensuring that your product stays in the best condition for as long as possible before eventually (like most cream products) becoming a little drier and harder to work with.  So don’t forget to screw the lids on as tightly as possible!  The usual cutesy kitsch Benefit design is apparent on both the outer box packaging and the glass jars.  I think I’m in the majority when I admit to being a perpetual fan of this 50s style design.  A lot of brands try to mimic the Benefit styling, but none pull if off quite so well in my opinion.

L-R: R.S.V.P, Skinny Jeans and My Date’s My Brother.

The creams pick up well on a synthetic brush like a concealer brush or simillar.  I mainly use my creaseless creams as an allover base which is why I prefer the paler, more neutral shades.  I only use Skinny Jeans if I’m doing a smoky eye.  My favourite of all the Creaseless Creams I own is R.S.V.P, it’s a beautiful peach that works well as an allover wash with a taupe shadow (powder) blended into the socket line for some definition.

As their name would suggest, these things don’t crease.  Infact they don’t budge an inch once set, which means that any other shadows you apply ontop also hold fast.  Benefit Creaseless Creams hold a dear place in my collection and I’m always on the hunt to add some new shades!

Are you a fan of cream shadows?  What are your favourites?

A good citrusy scent is unbeatable for those mornings when you just can’t seem to muster the energy to lift your sleepy head from the pillow.  It’s an energising, invigorating and fresh smell and if combined with a hint of spice then it’s in my shopping basket quicker than a New York minute.

However, I’ve come to the conclusion that citrus is a tricky scent to capture… I’ve sniffed many ‘lemon’ products that quite frankly would be better kept under my kitchen sink than by the side of my bath.

The Body Shop have just launched their Sweet Lemon range, I was given two products from the range at their recent presentation and as a veritable grumpy connoisseur of all things lemon-y… they’re up against a tough nose.

Sweet Lemon Shower Gel – £6

A soap-free, non-drying cleansing gel with luscious lemon seed oil. Lathers to leave your skin feeling cleansed, refreshed, soft and subtly scented.

The Sweet Lemon Shower Gel is nice, it definitely isn’t too synthetic smelling – it’s sharp rather than sweet and lathers up nicely.  I’d like it to leave a little more scent on my skin, but for an “in shower experience” it does the job well.  I think it comes at quite a price though… between me and Mr. L we’d get through 2 bottles of this a month easily, and I wish I could justify £12 a month on Shower Gel, but I can’t.  If your skin isn’t sensitive to soap, I’d suggest trying out a bar of the Sweet Lemon Soap at a much more affordable £2 a pop.

Sweet Lemon Whip Body Lotion – £8

Light and fluffy, this quick-absorbing, non-greasy whipped cream lotion, with rich and velvety natural ingredients, smoothes easily over the skin, leaving it feeling well moisturised, soft and supple. Provides moisturisation that lasts up to 12 hours. Leaves skin scented with an uplifting and fresh lemon fragrance.

The scent of the Sweet Lemon Whip Body Lotion (which again is sharp rather than sweet) lingers beautifully without being overpowering.  The formula feels light and fluffy, sinking nicely into my skin without leaving any greasiness.  I’m not sure how much stock I’d put into their 12hr moisturisation claims for this product as I personally need something heavier to keep my skin supple for that length of time.  I’d give the scent of the range a 7/10 but it really appeals to Mr. L’s nose, and he never gives a crap about stuff like this… so it’s definitely a product I’ll be shopping for when my current one runs out.  As it spreads so smoothly, I don’t think I’d need to repurchase too often either… well, not unless I catch Mr. L at my bottle again *side eye*.

Have you tried the new Sweet Lemon range from the Body Shop?  What are your favourite smells to get you going in the mornings?  Bacon doesn’t count.

A few months ago (read 5… yeah, I’m slacking), I started trialling Mavala’s Double Lash that I’d picked up in an effort to improve the condition of my eye lashes which had been breaking and looking a little sparse ever since giving birth to my daughter.

Anyway, how did I get on?

Here’s how my lashes looked back in October:

…and here they were when I finished the trial at the end of December:

I applied Mavala Double Lash every night as directed for around 10 weeks.

They say:

Eye lashes are an essential element of face beauty. Double Lash contains proteins which strengthen, cover and protect the lashes allowing them to become healthy, long and resistant.

It is the natural active ingredients in Double Lash which stimulate growth of the lashes giving them a lovely luxuriant and silky appearance.

I think I see a teeny bit of difference if you use my eyelid crease as a benchmark.  I felt on occasion that my lashes were longer and thicker (particularly when I was wearing mascara) but I just wasn’t convinced that I couldn’t attribute at least some of those feelings to plain wishful thinking.  Unless there’s a significant difference with things like this, I think it’s pretty tricky to judge.

I didn’t experience any irritation using the product, and it literally took seconds to apply each evening.  But, I guess the crux of the trial can be summed up with this simple observation… I haven’t bothered to repurchase it.

Mavala Double Lash is available online priced from around £8.50

Tell me, do you see any differences?

…Or just ‘divine’ according to the packaging.  And yano what?  I think they might be right…

Sleek MakeUP have truly outdone themselves on the design front.  Reminiscent of MAC’s soon to be released (in the UK) Give me Liberty of London collection with it’s whimsical scrolls and monochromatic base design.  Someone in the Sleek MakeUP Art dept. has their fingers very much on the pulse.

When the palette arrived unnanounced from Sleek HQ, I was momentarily thrown by all this new styling!  Ordinarily enclosed in a clear plastic carton, the Sleek MakeUP Bohemian palette finds itself housed in cardboard.  I don’t know if this is a permanent shift in packaging, but it’s one I prefer.  It’s easier to open at the counter to make sure you haven’t managed to pick up the one palette that’s been smashed to smithereens by an over-zealous 9 year old.

The actual palette itself has undergone a bit of a transformation too, no longer a sleek black box I’m undecided on the new look.  It looks a bit cheap, the stark white seems to emphasise it’s overall plastic-ness.  I think if Sleek MakeUP had continued the graphics (or even just the black swirls) from the outer sleeve onto the palette itself, it would have been a knockout.

In fairness though, do we care?  Probably not…

With 12 generously sized eye shadows contained under the lid, the Sleek MakeUP palettes retain their excellent value for money credentials.  Let’s take a closer look at those eye shadows.

Sleek MakeUP Bohemian Palette is billed as being inspired by “antique trinkets, vintage finds” and um… “Sienna Miller”.  Despite this obvious drawback *removes tongue from cheek*, they’ve managed to pull off a fabulous array of strong shades that are sure to pack a punch.  Will I use all of them?  Probably not… but I don’t think I’ve ever used every shade in a Sleek MakeUP i-Divine palette and that hasn’t stopped me buying them thus far.

The Bohemian palette is comprised of 3 shimmers and 9 mattes.  Woah there!  As a shimmer girl, I have to admit to being a little disappointed to see so many mattes…. I mean, go buy the Chaos palette if you want mattes!  Still, I’m nothing if not adventurous (honest!) and do realise that I’m not the only makeup-loving chick in the world… let’s have a closer look…

Oh, but before we do… For the love of God, will someone at Sleek MakeUP please consider naming the i-Divine shadows?  No?  Fine… I hereby christen these shades with some twatty names on your behalf…

Top Row from Left to Right… (S) = Shimmer, (M) = Matte

1. Gilt – Golden Olive (S)
2. Russet – Rust (S)
3. Marron – Maroony Chestnut (M)
4. Calendula (shutup, they’re MY names) – Banana Custard (M)
5. Anaemia (come on MAC, employ me already) – Off-White (M)
6. Neutron – Black (M)

7. Wafer (It SO is, right?) – Pale Tan (M)
8. Sanguine – Raspberry meets Cranberry (S)
9. Clover – Bright Grassy Green (M)
10. Overdyed – Indigo Denim (M)
11. Emperor – Purple (M)
12. Moto-X (yeah, I’m bored of shade naming now) – Dirt Brown (M)

And the swatches…

Bar Clover and Calendula… I think I’m happy to wear the rest of the shades, which is more than I thought when I first looked at the palette.  My only other ‘not sure’ was Wafer which actually works fabulously in the crease to blend out a more vibrant shade.

The pigmentation of the mattes is (as expected) not as strong as the shimmers, but they’re easily buildable without looking chalky and the above swatches show no more than 3 swipes (2 in most cases).

I’ve given Sleek a hard time recently on Lipglossiping.com…. from Eye Dusts that spill to liquid liners that flake, I’ve been disappointed with the quality of some of the brand’s recent offerings.  So it’s just as well they’ve come along and hit this one out of the ballpark.

Sleek MakeUP i-Divine Bohemian Palette is Limited Edition and will be available from Wednesday 17th March at some Superdrug stores (not my local – boo!) and online at Sleek MakeUP priced at £4.99.

International ladies, please note that Sleek MakeUP now accept online orders and offer international postage.

I’m a certified skincare fan, but Mr. L hates anything remotely greasy.  Infact, he doesn’t really understand the concept of ‘moisturising’ or why he would ever need to do it.  Machismo aside, that doesn’t stop me getting him to moisturise my back for me when I get out of the shower.  I’m lazy and it’s always nicer if someone else does it don’t you think?

Aveeno sent me a few bits a while ago, and after giving them my unadulterated attention (not easy to do when you buy as many products as me), I’m back to let you know how they performed for me.

I’ll start with the Aveeno Moisturising Creamy Oil.

Not quite an oil and not quite a cream means that it has a hella confusing name!

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first pumped the lid.  It is a very light, runny cream with a bakewell almondy smell.  I’m not sold on the scent, it’s not offensive in any way… it’s just a bit biscuity for me.

Aveeno say:

• Combines the concentrated goodness of naturally active colloidal Oatmeal and sweet almond oil.
• Provides the benefit of an oil with the convenience of a cream.
• Helps to maintain the skin’s natural moisture level and prevent dry skin.
• Skin is left looking and feeling soft, smooth and healthy without a greasy after feel.

I adored the texture of Aveeno’s Moisturising Creamy Oil, it glides onto the skin with no dragging and I can instantly feel it relieving any tight patches (I suffer from small areas of eczema).  Unfortunately, the cream isn’t rich enough for the effect to last the whole day on me, so if you’re very dry-skinned, I’d look for something a little heavier.

If you have normal skin, I’d whole-heartedly recommend this body moisturiser.  Especially for the Summer and morning applications.  It’s light and absorbs quickly leaving a slight sheen on the skin.  A definite good buy and one that I will be repurchasing.

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Next up is the Skin Relief Moisturising Lotion with Shea Butter 200ml

Shea butter based, it applies thickly and more heavily than the creamy oil.  I’m not a fan of the tube packaging, I seem to consistently dispense too much product.  However, I believe that if you buy the 300ml version of this one, it comes in a pump bottle like Aveeno’s Moisturising Creamy Oil.

My skin feels slightly tacky to the touch after using this and it takes a good 5-10 minutes for absorption to be fully effective.  There’s no doubt in my mind that this lotion is far more penetrating in it’s skin relief than the creamy oil, but it’s not as “light and carefree” to use.  I wouldn’t use this after a shower before getting dressed in the morning… but I have been using it happily before bed where I don’t mind my skin feeling a little tacky.

As for skin benefits, combined use of these 2 products means that I’ve banished my dry scaly bits!  My skin is now Summer ready, so bring on the sunshine (and fake tan).

The Aveeno range is currently £2 off at Superdrug and a 1/3 off at Sainsburys.

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)

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.

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?

Here comes the older, more glam sister…

Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin has been out in the US for over a year now, and I’ve been cooling my heels ever since I saw it pop up on Sephora many moons ago!

It promises all the benefits of the original UDPP with a little added pizazz.

They Say:

~ Use it alone; it’s a crease proof shadow!
~ Maximise it’s potential by using it as a highlighter, dab on brow bone, eye corners and cheeks for a radiant finish.
~ Sin works perfectly with any eye shadow and doesn’t show through, experience vibrant colour all day, with absolutely no creasing!

I received the sample of this last week and as a fan of the original, I was keen to see exactly why I’d want to purchase this one instead.

The new-fangled angled (I’m a poet) wand which promises to reach into each dark primer-potion filled corner of your tube.  I was initially sceptical about how putting an angle on the wand would *really* help, but having had a little play at ‘scooping’ from that very bottom jutting out bit, I think it might just work.  I don’t like how it makes the wand more difficult to remove from the tube though, I keep thinking it’s gonna ping primer at me as it pops free.

Swatched beside the original UDPP you can see that it’s a champagne cream with a metallic looking shimmer.  I instantly liked it… what with being a fan of metallic neutrals with a bit of shimmer n’all  😉

It’s quite heavily pigmented and the first thought that struck me was that it may do a better job at evening out skintone on pigmented eyelids better than the original.  I’m only speculating here as I don’t have a particular issue with red eyelids, but it makes a nice neutral base that sheers out well depending on how much you blend.

I really like this worn as a cream eyeshadow combined with a powder crease colour, as you would imagine, the staying power is rather marvellous.

The two primers blended out a little (not completely).

You can see that Sin retains it’s champagne shimmer whilst the original UDPP is well on it’s way to blending invisibly.

I’m an idiot and forgot to take a photo demonstrating how the same eye shadow looked applied over both primers.  I promise I’ll do it before the week is out and just pop up a quick comparison post.  Basically, if you’re applying a shadow over UDPP Sin… it ups the shimmer.  I <3 it, but it’s important to see as it may put you off completely.

I find that staying power for eyeshadows applied ontop is pretty equal for both primers, if there is a difference, it’s not discernible to me.  Blendability is still hard work over Sin and I’m a bit disappointed about that as it’s the only thing I really would have loved to see changed about the original UDPP.

D’yanowot… I’m on the fence about it with regards to my original question: “Why would I purchase this one over the original?”

Don’t get me wrong… I  really like it, there’s nothing for me not to like.  I like neutral, I like shimmer…

Might I sometimes want some of my shimmer eyeshadows even more shimmery… Possibly!

Do I want all my eyeshadows turned a bit shimmery by using it?  Probably not…

Do I want a lovely champagne cream eyeshadow practically guaranteed not to budge in the summer? Yes please!

Would I purchase?  I dunno!  Stop asking me hard questions!!  What say you?

Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin is due out next month, priced at £11.50.