A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Urgh, I wish we could get Helena Rubinstein stuffs in the UK.  I’m holding out for when I hit up Prague in the Autumn.  I spotted this loose eye shadow and couldn’t resist a dabble with the discounters, it’s probably about 7 years old or something – I’m not thinking about it.  Just look at the pretty.

The bronzy-plum blend flatters my eye-colouring and the metallic sheen isn’t too much on my eyelids, it’s a beautiful shade that really needs primer to make it stick.  The first time I wore it (without priming), it slid off within the hour!  I like the decanting method with the teeny hole, I just tap a tiny bit into the lid and it seems to make far less mess than when I try to just touch the brush to the powder a la MAC pigments.

I bought this from Direct Cosmetics, priced at £6.99

Curious about Helena Rubinstein?

Remember this post?  The mystery brand conducted a huge facebook-driven campaign involving over 500,000 secret samples being sent out to households across the UK.  Feedback on the mystery product has been pretty positive with 91% of testers saying that they would recommend the product to a friend.

Well, I can finally reveal the brand behind The Big Skincare Mystery (and some of you guessed it!) as Clearasil!

The new Clearasil Vitamins & Extracts range has been packed with superfruits known for their antioxidant properties and soothing plant extracts, and the flagship product in the range is the new Clearasil PerfectaWash.  A face wash dispenser that automatically dispenses the perfect dose of cleanser to ensure effective cleansing without over-drying.  This is available in two variants: superfruits or soothing plant extract.

In addition to the PerfectaWash, Clearasil’s new range includes the  2 in 1 Vitamins & Extracts Wash and Mask (the one we’ve all been trialling), Vitamins & Extracts Scrub and Vitamins & Extracts Cleansing Wipes.

As for how I got on with the 2 in 1 Vitamins & Extracts Wash and Mask*?  Well pretty good actually.  I didn’t experience any of the dryness that I would normally associate with using a product aimed at problem skin-types.  Literally, none at all but I wasn’t keen on the scent and as a result, didn’t enjoy using this as a mask – I prefer something that feels and smells a little more luxurious on my skin!  Having said that, I will be repurchasing this to use as a daily wash (used after oil cleansing) simply because it left my skin feeling freshly cleansed without being stripped and it’s cheaper than my Bare Minerals cleanser.  If it goes on to do effective battle with my blemishes and breakouts, then even better!  I think combination skintypes are going to really enjoy this product.

The new range is already available to buy instore and online at Boots.com with prices starting from £3.49

* press sample

Just a quickie to share the new Boots 17 Spring Fling Eye Palettes that showed up today – I don’t think I’ve seen much about these online yet?

Two limited edition eye palettes with super, super pretty styling.  What with it being the weekend and all, I don’t have the release info but I think it’s safe to assume that these will be out very shortly (I can’t see them on the website).  Here’s some photos and swatches taken this afternoon.

Texture-wise, the shadows are very soft and a little crumbly but they blend effortlessly and subsequently afford better pigmentation than most pastels.  The colour combinations are cute… I can see a distinctly traditional fair/olive divide going on!

Any first impressions?

* press sample

This month sees a new foundation release from Rimmel London which promises to instalntly re-awaken skin with a healthy, radiant looking glow.  Otherwise known as Wake Me Up Foundation.  We could all do with a bit of that no?

The formula contains tiny ‘radiance pearls‘ to help illuminate the complexion… but I can’t see them, so they really must be erm, tiny.  It’s not one of those sparkly foundations that luminize by turning your face into a disco-ball, put it that way.  It’s medium/full coverage and conceals an uneven skintone brilliantly… I can also feel some significant silicone going on with a primer-y slip that effectively conceals larger pores better than many foundations I’ve tried.  And I’ve tried a lot.

I’m using the lightest shade (Ivory), which as you can see above – is a hair too dark and a hair too warm for me.  This isn’t groundbreaking stuff… when you only have six shades in your range, you’re not going to have a shade for everyone.  Something to bear in mind if you’re on the pale end of NW15 (I’d class myself somewhere inbetween NW15/NW20).

It claims to last 10hrs, I’d say it gets close to that for me, a little bit of slip down the bridge of my nose but it wasn’t sliding off my face by lunchtime.

Infact, I think this is pretty darn amazing for an £8.99 price tag.  Except for one thing.  It hates dry skin… if you have any flakes, no matter how invisible they may be when you’re bare-faced – once you’ve applied this, you’ll be scratching at them in an attempt to dislodge.  I can’t comment on how this would work for oily skin types, I think you may experience a little too much slip as I didn’t feel this was particularly mattifying.

On my cheeks, where my skin is ‘normal’ – this foundation worked flawlessly, better than flawlessly thanks to it’s pore-busting properties but over my problem (dry) areas, it struggled.  In other words… I’m coming back to this when I get my dry skin under control and I may not stray for a while.

Rimmel London’s NEW Wake Me Up Foundation is available instore now from Boots, Superdrug, etc. Priced at £8.99 for 30ml.

* press sample

You thought you’d seen the last of these right? Wrong.

A thoroughly decent 2-coater, the duochrome effect is more apparent on this one in the bottle than it is on the nails but the lovely, almost flakie-effect makes up for any shortcomings.

It irks me that W7 are clearly capable of such lovely polishes… most of their shades are completely blah.  How awesome would it be if they stepped up their game in the shade stakes!

The site I bought mine from now appears to be out of stock on most of the shades, but W7 Metallic Mercury is still available to purchase from FragranceMad (albeit at inflated prices).  Make the most of the 3for2 and Free Delivery to soften the grumbles.

I’m back with another W7 cheapie for you!

Today’s is Metallic Saturn, one of those green/gold combos that come out all mossy/gold and beautifully patina’ed on the nail.

You’ll be pleased to hear that this one is a glorious 2-coater with smooth application and heaps of shine.  I haven’t used a top coat in the above photo, it just didn’t really need it!  I’m finding these W7 polishes quick-drying but very solvent-y and recommend ensuring you’re in a well-ventilated room when using them!

I purchased W7 Metallic Mars online from www.nailpolishdirect.co.uk, priced at £1.95 – I believe that it’s a discontinued shade so don’t hang around if you fancy adding it to your collection!

Another humdinger of a polish today with W7’s duochrome delight that is Metallic Venus. A gorgeous purple/blue combination that sings on the nail and doesn’t do to badly in the bottle either!

This one is less sheer than the Metallic Mars I showed you last week, fully opaque in three coats with no application issues.  Again, I paid £1.95 for this shade, bargain of the year I reckon.

W7 Metallic Venus is available to buy online from www.nailpolishdirect.co.uk, priced at £1.95 – I believe that you may also be able to get these in Savers? (thanks Nargis)

I love a good bargain and this W7 polish, purchased for the princely sum of £1.95 is a very good cheapie indeed!  Sure, it’s sheer (4 coats minimum) and it stinks so badly that I was worried my husband would phone NHS Direct for advice on solvent abuse.  But look, for less than £2 – it’s a pretty, pretty subtle duochrome.

Wear was great, I often find this with sheerer polishes… perhaps a side effect of those multiple thin coats?  Either way, I have no complaints on chipping or any of that nonsense.

I purchased W7 Metallic Mars online from www.nailpolishdirect.co.uk, priced at £1.95 – I believe that it’s a discontinued shade so don’t hang around if you fancy adding it to your collection!

I’m a total sucker for a bit of leopard print, much to my mother’s amusement.  Or is it disgust… sometimes it’s hard to tell.

Batiste have introduced a new scent to their legendary lineup… we all know that some of the Batiste ‘fragrances’ pong more than others *cough* Blush *cough* but I’m intrigued to try this new one described as: A feminine and daring Oriental aroma with top notes of cocoa, a floral heart and sensual vanilla, musk and wood base notes.

Batiste has become a bit of a staple in my haircare routine since the beginning of the Summer.  I seem to have developed a sorry case of the greasies (thanks hormones) and this stuff stops me from having to wash my hair every morning.  Does that make me a bit of a grot?  Whatever, bet you do it too.  Do you have a favourite Batiste scent?

Batiste Dry Shampoo in WILD is exclusive to Boots and priced at £2.99 for 200ml

Superdrug have been raising the beauty stakes lately.  First with their new beauty card, some great new brand exclusives and now a new range of affordable makeup brushes designed for the more makeup-savvy among us.

The Superdrug PRO Make Up Brush range contains eight new brushes in total.  Each brush is hand-crafted with 100% natural hair and as you’ve come to expect from Superdrug, all are BUAV approved (bunny friendly).

I have a few of the brushes from the new range and have been putting them to the test over the past week or so.  My feelings on each brush vary, so I thought I’d do a quick speed-review of each one.  Let’s get started…

PRO: 02 POWDER BRUSH is a fluffy, domed brush with a softness that belies its price tag.  I would have liked to see a little more weight to it and there is a tiny hint of scratchiness but nothing that would particularly bother me.  It grabs product well and disperses evenly across the face.  The fibres are dense but fairly loosely packed ensuring a light but buildable application.  I didn’t experience much shedding either or on my face, or when washing.  Good stuff.   £9.99

PRO: 11 EYE SHADOW BRUSH – WIDE is a nice tool for applying a wash of colour over the lids.  Again, it’s not the most densely packed brush which means that you’ll be able to build pigmentation with this effectively but it may end up frustrating you if you like to pack colour on quickly.  It also works well to blend harsh lines in a pinch, easily soft enough not to irritate the delicate skin around the eye area.  I have quite small lids and did end up wishing that it were a touch smaller.  £7.99

PRO: 13 EYE SHADOW BRUSH – ROUND isn’t one of my preferred brushes.  It’s nicely shaped with an excellent taper that really allows for some precision work but I just found this one a little too scratchy to use comfortably.  A real shame  because it has some nice resistance to the fibres that will allow you to get right into the corner of the eye and underneath the lashline with confidence that the head won’t splay.  £6.99

PRO: 14 SLANTED EYE LINER BRUSH makes for the 2nd disappointment in the set.  I simply find it too large and soft to give enough precision to line my eyes.  As I draw the brush across my eyelids, it tries to find its own path of least resistance, buckling under the weight of the drag.  Not great.  £5.99

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Overall, I think the range is a useful but not outstanding addition to the store.  It’s always nice to have more choices where budget brushes are concerned but none of the ones I’ve tried above hold a candle to my favourite ELF Studio brushes.

If you want to check these out for yourselves, you’ll be interested to learn that Superdrug are offering the entire collection at a special introductory price until 22nd November with prices starting from only £3.99 (concealer, lip) and ranging up to £8.49 for the most expensive (foundation, powder).

Have you tried the new Superdrug PRO Make Up Brushes yet?

* press sample

How late am I on this trend?  I’m like your Gran when she discovered the button for the interwebz.

OK, well I’m not really late… but I’ve only just got around to photographing a mani with the Boots 17 Magnetized Nail Polishes.  I’ve decided that my favourite way to wear them is with a matte top coat which decreases their lasting power by about five years… but I dunno, they just suit the whole matte finish thing quite well.

I get some real inconsistencies with these magnetic polishes, one hand will often come out perfect… or even just three fingers in a row.  Then I completely get a dud one, despite not doing anything different.  Does anyone else experience that?  So frustrating!

Also… as an aside, I’ve been re-organizing my nail polish collection, which, let me tell you, is far less fun than it sounds.  I originally had them arranged by colour but I’ve changed it to brand and it’s made me realise that Essie is a very under-represented brand in my stash.  Better get myself in check and start nail-blog hopping to find some gems to lust after!

Boots 17 Magnetized Nail Polish in Grey is priced at £5.99 and available online or instore at Boots.

Another supermarket, another vintage-inspired bodycare range… all I can say is, these must sell really well!  Sainsbury’s have Dirty Works, Asda have Ella & Rose and now Tesco have jumped on-board with the new Along Came Betty!

These ranges all look a bit samey (I guess that’s the point) but I can totally see the appeal for those who can’t afford to fill their S&G addictions and I bet Grandmas are forever picking them up for younger, female members of the family!

The lineup features a range of body and skincare products inspired by 1950s screen stars and beauty icons. It includes:

~ So Much Bubble Skin Softening Bath Soak (£3.99)
~ To the Skin and Beyond Ultra Rich Body Butter (£4.00)
~ Hey Sugar Sugar Easily Spreadable Body Scrub (£5.99)
~ Clean Around the Clock Soft Skin Shower Wash (£2.99)
~ It’s a Skin Thing Ultra Light Body Butter (£3.99)
~ Say you Scrub me Scrubby Skin Polish (£3.99)
~ The Big Scrub Mitt (£2.00)

Along Came Betty will be selling at 1/3 off from 16.11 to 06.12 and also available on 3for2 from 7.12 to 03.01 January making it ideal for stocking stuffers and hamper builders alike!