A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Let’s face it, we’re closer to the festive season than most of us would like to admit.  Have you made any preparations for the big day yet?  No?!

Well, Boots have devised a cunning plan to get us filling up those Christmas stockings quicker than you can devour the mince pies you were supposed to leave out for the main man himself.  They’re called Star Gifts and include a series of fabulous one-off offers every week during the Christmas shopping period.  And by Christmas shopping period, I mean NOW.

Not only that, but Boots are getting all social with their Twelve Gifts of Christmas campaign.  Once a week from now until Boxing Day, they’ll will be selecting one lucky blogger to receive the Star Gift of the week.  In turn, that blogger will pay it forward by nominating another blogger to receive the same Star Gift.  It’s like a paper-chain of beauty booty!

Seeing as I’m the lucky recipient of this week’s Star Gift from Frontcover pictured above, I’d better tell you a bit about it!

Frontcover are well known for their fantastic releases this time of year and this one doesn’t disappoint.  A one-stop make-up collection for eyes, lips and cheeks which includes hints and tips from Frontcover make-up artist, Leanne Shaw, and all the tools needed to create many different looks for the festive season.

The Frontcover Style Queen Colour Set includes:

~ 6 lip glosses
~ 7 dome baked powder eyeshadows
~ 6 pressed powder eyeshadows
~ 2 fine-line baked powder cheek domes
~ Double ended mascara/sealer
~ 2 iridescent pigments
~ Shadowline
~ 6 make-up brushes
~ Mini lash curler
~ Double pencil sharpener
~ A mirror in the lid

.

For this week only, the set can be snapped up for just £17.00!

(usual price £35.00)

What’s the catch?  You’ve only got TODAY left to buy it!

.

And now for the extra fun bit…

I’m paying it forward and nominating…. my good friend, Cosmetic Candy to receive this week’s Star Gift on me.  Nepotism rules OK.

Keep your eyes peeled because somewhere across the blogosphere, Father Christmas (ok, Boots PR) will be pointing the finger of fortune at another lucky soul to help them count down to Christmas with next week’s ‘Star Gift’ of the week!

Who could it be?  WHAT could it be?!

What is it?

The GREAT LIPS, GREAT CAUSE KEY RING features a heart-shaped ribbon charm, Clinique “C” charm and three mini Long Last Glosswear SPF 15 glosses in best selling Clearly Pink, Air Kiss and Cabana Crush.

How much is it?

It’s priced at £15.00

How much of our money goes to supporting PINK projects?

From every purchase made in the UK, £2 will go to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

How do I get it?

Currently available from Clinique counters at Boots while stocks last.

Three new lip colours have joined the permanent range of Clarins Rouge Prodige lipsticks this Autumn and although they’re new shades for fall, they hark back to the Summer we never had.  Let me tell you why…

Summer 2011 was all about the glossy, sheer look for lips with shades like Chanel’s Boy making the biggest waves across the beauty blogosphere.  Clarin’s Autumn lineup has included three new Rouge Prodige colours* that replicate the sheer, glossy trend but in a more Winter-appropriate formula that’s less balmy and longer-lasting than the Summer offerings.

Rouge Prodige True-Hold Colour & Shine Lipsticks include include the new shades:

#105 Peach Sorbet
#115 Rosy Coral
#123 Creamy Toffee

Here’s a closer look…

The Rouge Prodige formula continues to feel quite different to most other lipsticks.  For a long-wearing texture, it feels moisturising on the lips and fairly tacky, though not in a gloopy, lipgloss way.  These don’t dry my lips at all but you may find the stickiness a little awkward if you’re prefer a matte-r feeling.

Here’s how they look applied and in context with the rest of the face.  You can see here that each shade is fairly transparent with a hint of base colour.  The most pigmented is #105 and I felt that each shade would particularly suit specific skintones: #105 for warmer skins, #115 for cooler skintones and #123 for darker complexions.

The new shades add polish and shine to a made-up face without injecting too much colour.  Balm fans will be delighted to find a longer-lasting alternative to the Summer trends, colour-freaks?  Not so much.

The new Clarins Rouge Prodige shades are available to buy now online at Clarins.com and on counter, priced at £17.00 each.

* press samples

What is it?

This exclusive bareMinerals lipgloss in Pink Prosecco is a unique preservative-free formula, infused with the natural scent of vanilla and chock-full of vitamins, botanicals and of course, dazzling, vibrant colour.

How much is it?

£14

How much of our money goes to supporting PINK projects?

£5 from each sale will go directly to Look Good Feel Better, during the month of October.

How do I get it?

Bare Escentuals Boutiques; Select department stores, spa & salons and online retailers nationwide in October 2011

What is it?

A special edition PINK Cherry ChapStick offering SPF 15, providing protection from UV rays whilst helping raise money for charity.

How much is it?

Available to purchase in a twin-pack, priced at £2.49

How much of our money goes to supporting PINK projects?

20p from each sale will go to Breast Cancer Care

How do I get it?

Available throughout October from most supermarkets and pharmacies.

What is it?

This Serum, consisting of Resveratrol, Glycosaminoglycanes and Calm Complex™, soothes and softens the skin’s  appearance.  It is a powerful, instantly-acting concentrate that reduces the appearance of redness. Darphin Calm Complex™ is an exclusive combination of 5 ingredients developed by Darphin. A combination of Chamomile, Polysaccharides, Hawthorn, Peony and Panthenol.

How much is it?

Darphin Intral Soothing Serum is priced at £47 for 30ml

How much of our money goes to supporting PINK projects?

Darphin will be donating £5 from each sale of their best-selling Darphin Intral Soothing Serum sold in the UK during
the month of October to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s study at the UK Institute of Cancer Research.

How do I get it?

You can purchase Darphin Intral Soothing Serum online or instore at SpaceNK.

When I think of natural makeup brands, I immediately think of sheer, ethereal colour.  Perhaps a bit of pastel, a lot of dewiness and anything that would normally epitomise a harmonious relationship with all things…. natural.

I wouldn’t especially associate grungy, edgy looks and bold colour.  It’s a common misconception and one that I was pleased to see blown away with Dr. Hauschka’s colaboration alongside Louise Amstrup for her Spring/Summer 2012 salon presentation.

But first, a quick look at the collection…

Beautiful prints and pretty pleats that drape gently and soften the bold, patterns.  The presentation was accompanied with a short video that featured makeup created by makeup artist Ayami Nishimura alongside Dr. Hauschka’s range of skincare and cosmetics.

Lithuanian model Egle Jezepcikaite looks androgynous with slicked back hair and the focus placed heavily on the precision liner.  The lips are toned down and some heavy contouring accentuates the model’s chiselled cheekbones.

The second still from the video displays the same precision liner looking a touch more deconstructed than before, mirrored with a vibrant flash of orange over the lids.  Most interestingly, the orange comes from a lipstick(!) in the range and picks up the warm tones in the Amstrup SS12 collection beautifully.

If you’d like to watch the video yourself, click play on the video below and enjoy having a few misconceptions about natural makeup challenged.

Would you associate these kind of looks with a natural brand?

Phew, what a mouthful!

Clarins Ombre Minerale 4 Couleurs Eye Quartet in Rosewood is a new release from the French brand and comprises one palette from the new 6-piece eye collection for Autumn/Winter.

The packaging includes a face chart displaying some useful positioning tips for makeup newbies.

Four mineral shades that can be used wet or dry.  Two satin shades, a darker eye shadow liner and an iridescent highlighter.  The highlighter is very sheer and provides a sophisticated sparkle rather than any real colour.

Swatched dry without base or primer.  Around two/three swipes each.

The Rosewood palette contains four very wearable, neutral shades that would suit most skintones.  It’s a sheer but buildable palette – something that I’ve come to expect from Clarins.  If you want immediate, intense pigmentation – you’re looking in the wrong place.  If you want something that you can wear to work without fear of overcooking it, this could be just what you need.

You can see from this (rather goofy) FOTD that the palette provides a delicate iridescence.  I think it would really suit anyone who feels they might be a bit too mature for sparkle or metallics but aren’t quite ready to go down the all matte route just yet.  I found the shades to be exceptionally long-lasting though the darkest (and most matte) was not quite as smooth as I would have liked.

Clarins Ombre Minerale 4 Couleurs Eye Quartet in Rosewood is available to buy on counter or online at Clarins.com, priced at £30.00

* press sample

Yesterday, I talked about the behind-the-scenes atmosphere at Jean-Pierre Braganza’s SS/12 show which took place last Friday at the BFC Show Space in Somerset House.

Today, I want to focus on the look that makeup artist Alex Byrne created with Benefit Cosmetics to complement the designer’s graphical, almost art-deco tailoring.  She wanted a strong look that remained feminine, working with and not against the strength of Braganza’s designs.

are those new brushes I spy?

Alex in deep concentration (where did I put that brush?!)  Faces were kept light with Benefit’s Boi-ing Concealer where needed and a light layer of You Rebel Tinted Moisturiser mixed with Porefessional.

Loose fishtail plaits from the Toni&Guy team accompany the structured styling of the SS/12 collection

Eyes were kept neutral with Benefit Creaseless Cream in Birthday Suit, Browzings in Light and many, many coats of They’re Real mascara as an alternative to false lashes.

Some gentle contouring with Hoola Bronzer

BrowZings to define the top edge of the brow

ChaChaTint painted heavily onto the top of the cheekbone…

…and blended out with Coralista Powder Blush, the picture-perfect slices of cheek colour mimic the graphical edges in Braganza’s designs.

Benefit’s latest release Watt’s Up was used to highlight and define the top edge of the cheekbones…

…and a sneak peek of the new product in question.

Full Finish Lipstick in Mod Squad completes the look.

Jean-Pierre Braganza looking pleased with the entire team’s efforts immediately after the show

.

Thanks to Benefit Cosmetics for letting me have a sneak peek to see what goes on behind the flashbulbs at London Fashion Week!

I was generously invited backstage on opening day at London Fashion Week with Benefit Cosmetics who were sponsoring the makeup for the Jean-Pierre Braganza show.

I’ll be doing a separate post this week on the makeup the models wore down the runway to complement his SS/12 collection but I wanted to share some backstage shots showing just how much effort and how many people go into making these fashion spectaculars run smoothly.

Remember, this is just hair and makeup.

Makeup Artist Alex Byrne (and is that Benefit Hoola I see?)

How many hair stylists does it take to… *insert punchline here*

don’t forget the nails!

Backstage is hot, cramped, riotous and full of tension.  It’s not a place for shrinking violets and if you want to spectate, you need to be aware of your surroundings so you can get out of the way, quickly.  All eyes are keenly trained on the clock, instructions are given and taken without questioning and there’s a tangible sense of working together to get a million different jobs done.

3 o’ clock.  It’s show time.

Come back tomorrow to see how makeup artist Alex Byrne interpreted a look to complement Jean-Pierre Braganza’s graphical Spring/Summer collection.

Life is taken too seriously and Bootie  Babe Cosmetics are clearly here to remedy that problem.

President and CEO Mark O’Hara wanted to create a humorous, bold and unique beauty product to stand out from the competition and thus, twelve bootie-shaped nail polish bottles were born.

The shades are priced at $9 each and include the enticingly titled: Hella Baloo, Purp Slurp, Mean Tangerine, Lilac Lunatic and Slinky Pinky.

EDIT: Bootie Babe Cosmetics will ship orders internationally, prices are as stated on the website.

There’s no getting around the fact that our mutual addiction to all things ‘beautiful’ is an expensive one.  In an industry driven by fashion, technology and innovation, there will always be new products vying for space on our wishlists but never enough money to tick them all off.

The concept of group-buying has been growing in popularity over the last couple of years and there are many websites out there that offer deals on the basis that they will be supplying a single offer to a group collective at a lower than RRP price. Many of the beauty-related deals focus on experiences rather than material goods: haircuts, spa treatments and manicures (fishy or otherwise) and I’ve enjoyed many of the above at a lower price thanks to these websites.

BuyaPowa.com is a brand new site that enables shoppers like you and me to engage in ‘collective-buying’ and demand the same bulk-buy discounts that retailers enjoy. On initial inspection, these ‘co-buys’ appear to operate from the same starting-point as the other group-buying websites.  But there are some important differences…

1. The final price of any product drops as more people join the ‘co-buys’ and the person who brings the most people into any given co-buy receives their product for free.  A genuine opportunity to drive prices down with the help of those social-networking tools we all spend too much time on.

2. Alternative group-buying deals are generally focused on regional areas served by a particular salon or establishment but because BuyaPowa.com is product-centric, they offer deals to a national audience.

3. BuyaPowa.com have integrated a system into the site that encourages users to submit their requests for products they would like to purchase through a BuyaPowa.com ‘co-buy’.  This request is visible to other members who can join in and offer support for your submission. If enough people give your request a virtual thumbs up, BuyaPowa will set the wheels in motion towards getting a co-buy together.

It’s this 3rd difference that really has me interested in the BuyaPowa.com concept and is what sets them apart from other group-buying websites.  Something that utilises a community’s shared opinion and buying power in a unique and more importantly, useful way strikes a chord with me and is what I want to focus on in the remainder of this post.

Watch this short video for more information on how the BuyaPowa.com concept works

For a current example of a beauty ‘co-buy’, they’ve got a Burts Bees one live right now which is on its way to finishing at a discount of up to 53%.

.

Of course, it would be quite easy for them to go ahead and buy up a bunch of discontinued stock at a low price and flog it on like other online beauty discounters. Infact, I’ve quizzed them on how realistic it would be for them to approach high-end beauty brands and their response showed me that this is precisely the kind of feat they’re trying to achieve.  Of course, they can’t guarantee that every brand will be interested in our requests but to achieve this kind of shopping revolution, they’re going to need our help to convince the brands that WE would buy from them in this way.

Infact, can you imagine how cool this could be for the beauty community online?  Example…

Brand X releases uber new ‘multiple’ at £30 and within hours, some brilliant reader/blogger/you-tuber/twitterer has set up a request on BuyaPowa nagging them to provide a ‘co-buy’.  We all pile in (thanks to the power of social media) and within 24 hours the request receives enough support to elevate it to the attention of BuyaPowa who then approach Brand X to request 100 ‘uber multiples’ before passing on their retailer discount to us.  Get in!

BuyaPowa.com would like to hear our opinions and would love if you could answer one, two or all three of the below questions.

1). What type of proucts would YOU like to buy this way for less?

2). Are there any specific beauty products you love that are over-priced and particularly ripe for bulk-buy discounting?

3). Do you own any products which you now realise you could have bought for less if only something like this had previously been available?

.

* this is a sponsored post