A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I bet there are generations reading this post right now who grew up without ever using an old-fashioned bar of soap as part of their daily cleansing routine.  I think I just missed the moment that soap became thoroughly unfashionable because throughout my 80s childhood, we never did a monthly shop without picking up a couple of bars.  Wrights for my Mum who adored the smell, Pears for us kids because we all loved the fact that it was see-through (simple things, simple minds…), and Imperial Leather for my Dad, because, after all… he is a man, man!

Soap was kind of a big thing in our household and looking back, I can’t remember when this changed.  But change it did, nowadays… the only time soap gets bought is when I spot something on the shelves at TKMaxx that smells (or looks) so damn good, I just can’t leave it behind.  I never purchase bars of soap as a bathroom necessity, simply because it’s not as convenient as its liquid counterparts.

The decline of mass-market purchasing of soap bars isn’t without its benefits though.  Moving into more of a niche market means that manufacturers have been able to really concentrate on turning the humble soap into an indulgence rather than a necessity and nowhere is this more apparent than with a brand like Crabtree & Evelyn.

Now, the truth is… there’s just not an awful lot I can say about soap.  Even soap that’s as beautiful as this Crabtree & Evelyn Heritage Vetiver & Juniper* one.  It smells amazing, it lathers, and it cleanses.  I don’t use it on my face… my skin would never forgive me, but I do have fun chasing it around the shower.  But most of all, you’d pick this up because of its scent, “Incroyable!” as the French would say.

I don’t mind admitting that I called in a sample of this purely because I adore masculine Vetiver and/or Juniper smells… I wanted that gorgeous clean MAN smell near my nose, and I wasn’t disappointed.  It’s warm and woodsy, outdoorsy and a little bracing… Mr. L has taken to shaving with it, and I’ve taken to sniffing him regularly.  Soap just got interesting again.

The British brand do an entire range of Heritage Soaps including: Avocado & Olive Oil, Black Sea Mud & Seaweed (tempted), Milk & Honey, Crabapple & Mulberry, and Verbena & Lavender, priced from £6.00.  Your nose should check them out as a matter of urgency.

This one, the Crabtree & Evelyn Heritage Vetiver & Juniper Milled Soap is priced at £7.00, and is available instore and online at crabtree-evelyn.co.uk.  It’s also currently online a little cheaper, at escentual.com.

Do you appreciate a good bar of soap?  Do you ever buy it?

* press sample

** I can’t stop singing “soap, perfect soap, is the gift of Christ our Lord” – huge kudos if you remember changing the lyrics during assembly too!

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Have you seen the square crumpets that Asda do? Oh my… they’re huge and fill the toaster to the edges…crying out for a slathering of butter, jam, nutella or whatever gets your taste buds excited in the morning!

I can’t have them at the moment because anything that tastes deliciously carby in the mornings makes my obstetrician shake his head at me.  And so, instead of a hot, buttery treat… I’ll have to make do with this tasty morsel of another kind…

Butter London’s Crumpet was released last year as part of the brand’s Starkers collection, a trio of nudes to suit most skintones.  Of the three, crumpet is the middle-toned shade… and as you can see, looks fairly happy sitting against my uber-cool skintone.

The brand describe this one as a “warm caramel creme” and it’s opaque in a couple of coats.  I find wear to be pretty standard throughout the Butter London range and I easily get 5-days before the tip wear begins to appear.  Of course, with shades such as these, this isn’t hugely noticeable even when it does set in.

Butter London Crumpet is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from powderrooms.com

* press sample

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This February marks 10-years of the KISS IT BETTER appeal with Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.  The appeal is the brainchild of ex-beauty director Carmel Allen whose daughter Josephine was treated at the London hospital for Neuroblastoma, the appeal helps to raise awareness and funds for children suffering from cancer.

For this special, 10-year anniversary, the Clinique team have partnered up with retail giants House of Fraser and throughout the month of February, £2 from every Clinique lip product (lipgloss or lipstick) sold on counters in House of Fraser stores will be donated to the charity.

In addition to this, you can also purchase the Limited Edition A Different Nail Enamel For Sensitive Skins in the shade ‘Kiss it Better’.  A purchase of this vibrant, hot pink with its skin-friendly formula will guarantee that 50% of the £12.00 RRP goes directly to the appeal.  This polish is stocked exclusively on House of Fraser counters for the month of February.

For further information on the KISS IT BETTER appeal and ways to donate, visit www.gosh.org/kissitbetter

After approximately 4hrs of sleep last night, I’m not feeling particularly blissful about my bump today.  Chronic heartburn that jumps so high it singes my ears and a hyperactive breech baby, keen to explore its Irish roots with a bit o’ dancing on my cervix ensures that the only bliss I’m likely to find in my expanding bump for now is my new-found ability to rest a cup of tea on it.

Having said that, there’s something to be said for my current condition.  Mostly based around the opportunities to stuff my face with gleeful abandon and use all manner of lotions and potions in the name of baby-bump pampering.

Of course, there are many companies out there only to happy to help us ladies nurture our bumps in the way in which our beauty-loving souls desire.  One of these brands, better-known for their health and spa resorts are Champneys.  Their Blissful Bump* range features a host of preggo-belly indulging goodies that make great gifts for Mum’s to be.

The brand sent me a few bits from the range to have a look at, and I’ve welcomed the bonafide opportunity to tell the rest of my family to bugger off away from my shower treats.  Did I tell you that my 4yr old has genuinely stolen my NEOM tranquility bath foam and even offered up her Matey bubble bath like it’s a legitimate replacement?!  I’ve created a monster.

Anyway, back to the range from Champneys!

My favourite item in the range is the Ginger Inspired Room Spray… which wasn’t the most obvious choice but any kind of obnoxious smells are like Kryptonite to my preggo-nose and I’m ridiculously sensitive to the fact that our car smells a bit like a turnip.  Of course, I’m the only one who can actually detect this aroma (unless my husband is messing with my mind and does actually have a turnip concealed in the glove compartment).

I usually swear by a tin of California Scents Coronado Cherry to make the car smell amaze but my sensitive nose has gone into overdrive and the Champney’s Ginger Inspired Room Spray is the only scent room/car fragrancer that I can handle.  I’m sure Champneys actually intended far more sophisticated uses for their product in the boudoir… but disguising turnips in my Citroen Picasso will have to do for now.

My second-favourite item in the range is the Blissful Bump Shower Cream which delivers a rich, creamy lather and delicious scent.  It’s a skin-softening wonder and leaves me feeling lush and pampered.  At £6.00, it also happens to be the cheapest item in the range.  Who says I’m high-maintenance?

The spa brand also offer a couple of bump-moisturising products in the form of a stretch-mark oil and a body butter.  If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you’ll know how terrible I am at bothering with body-moisturising but what you might not know about me is that I have a solid belief that nothing will prevent stretch-marks, nothing that can be applied and rubbed in anyway.  In my opinion, you’re either genetically destined to get ’em, or you ain’t.

That’s not to say that moisturising your bump like a loon is a thankless task, but I just don’t believe that it will achieve anything other than soft skin.  So knock yourself out… but don’t bother telling me that religious use of Bio Oil on your bump saved you from a road-map of the Swiss Alps across your belly ‘cos I just won’t believe you!

The entire body range has been formulated to be free from parabens, paraffin oils, and SLES, focusing on the importance of conditioning and soothing the skin.  The scents used are beautiful, the packaging… divine.  The prices are high-street friendly and make the perfect gift for family and friend’s who are expecting.

The Champneys Blissful Bump Range is available to buy instore and online at boots.com, prices start from £6.00

* press sample

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Don’t panic!  I’m not really saying goodbye to the much-loved micellar craze!

Au contraire (Rodney), I haven’t found a better complement to my skincare routine in years.  For me, the micellar has replaced the oil cleansing method… my maturing, dry skin just doesn’t appreciate the amount of tap-water I have to use to emulsify the oily liquids.  I still use them occasionally because old habits die hard and I love how an oily skin massage feels.

On the whole though, my first step in makeup removal has been revolutionised by a cotton pad and a bottle of makeup-remover; Oh! I’m such a revolutionary!

My post title actually refers to the fact that I’ve just welcomed two new micellar waters into my little collection!  As you can see… my backup bottle of beloved Mixa Expert has almost reached the end of its life – a brand that I haven’t been able to find outside of French supermarkets.  It was with a heavy heart that I turned to the internet for a replacement.

Thankfully, I needn’t have worried… there is indeed much life outside of Bioderma, which I’m slowly coming to realise is a little bit expensive for what it is…

I directly compared my Bioderma bottle with the Mixa Expert in a review a little while back, so if you’d like to see how a French supermarket cheapie compares to the holy grail of micellar waters, click on through – you might be surprised!

Back to my new acquisitions for a moment though!

Mustela is a brand that I’ve been familiar with for a few years but basically ignored, dismissing it as a brand for baby skincare… it was only after a late-night MakeUp Alley trawl that I discovered people were using the brand’s Physiobebe Cleansing Fluid (500ml for £12.93) meant for a post-messy clean up cleanse on babies bottoms, on their faces.

Now, as a well-behaved beauty blogger… I appreciate that products designed for baby’s bums are not necessarily suitable for lady’s faces (sudocreme, wipes, et al. Caroline Hirons is looking at you).  However, in this case… for my first step in removing the day’s makeup… I’m going against the grain!

The Physiobebe water cleanser does a sterling job at dissolving much of my makeup, mascara and all.  It takes one pump on one cotton pad to do half of my face and neck.  My only caveat with this product is that it is highly scented and you will smell like a (clean) baby’s bum when you’re done.

My other potential long-term replacement is one that you will probably have already heard about.  The B. Pure Micellar Water* (150ml for currently £2.47).  It lacks the convenience of a pump but does an equally effective job at removing the day’s grime, scoring extra points for being much easier to throw into a weekend bag and let’s not forget… being far more accessible than most, from your local Superdrug.

I feel the slightest of residues with the B. Pure but as I use my micellar waters as a first-step in my cleansing routine, this isn’t an issue for me.

Ultimately, I know I’m going to keep replenishing these until I can restock my Mixa Expert the next time I’m in France.  Both are cheap enough to allow this to happen and I will always be grateful for a super-size micellar in the bathroom and a more portable version to take on overnighters and holidays.

Are you a micellar cleansing fan?  Who makes your favourite?

* the B. Pure Micellar is a press sample

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Autumn 2013 saw Butter London release Giddy Kipper, a vibrant blue polish with a hidden shimmer that seemed somehow better-suited to Summer than Fall (as did the rest of the Autumn collection).  It reminded me of the blue seas and skies that us UK’ers could only dream of at that time of year.

On paper, it should have been beautiful… in other people’s swatches… I’m still mesemerised.  But both times I’ve worn it, I’ve been a little disappointed!

Now, don’t get me wrong… it’s a beautiful blue.  But, BUT… I’m really missing out on the extra dimension from its hidden shimmer.  In order to appreciate this beauty in the same way that other (U.S. bloggers) have been able to do, you need a good sprinkling of direct sunshine.

There’s nothing wrong with that, a delicate holo will only show its true colours when the sun has got his hat on!  But I think I’ll be putting this one away for the Winter and Spring and bringing it back out for an outing once June rolls around, then… and only then will I really be able to appreciate this little number for its hidden surprises!

Application was fine, a two-coater… nothing unusual to report with the formula, your standard solid Butter London fare!

Butter London’s Giddy Kipper is priced at £11.95, and is available to buy online from powderrooms.com

What’s been your favourite blue this season?

* press sample

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Had I not spent the day trying to find a quiet little hole to climb into, I would have blogged this within seconds of it landing in my inbox this afternoon.

But as things stood, what with Leila trying to cough up her knee-caps all night, I didn’t get much sleep.  Excuse my tardiness, infact I should be in bed now, catching up on my beauty sleep… but I couldn’t bring myself to leave this unblogged any longer… because ladies, Crabtree & Evelyn are presenting us with an offer that will send us scrabbling for an unloved tube or pot of hand-cream!  On your marks, get set…

…GO!

It’s only a mother-funking Hand Cream Amnesty!  Who doesn’t love a beauty amnesty?  Don’t know what one is?  Let me give you a little insight…

Basically, take any old hand cream (not a C&E one, that would be stoopid!) into your nearest Crabtree & Evelyn store before the 12th March and – while stocks last – a kindly sales assistant will swap your surrendered hand cream for a free Crabtree & Evelyn 25g Hand Therapy worth £5.00!  That’s all there is to it but do check out the T&C in the image above just incase.

Do you have any half-empty hand-creams that you’re willing to part with?  I know I do!

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New for this season, Clarin’s Mineral Eyeshadow in Smoky Plum is a beaut.  But then I would say that, it’s a gorgeous, mauve-toned taupe… just the kind that gets me far too excited about eyeshadow.   Clarins make some of my favourite eyeshadows, they’re generally on the sheerer side… something that I’ve grown fond of as I’ve gotten a little older.

They also do light-reflecting without any of the over-the-top-shimmer that you’d expect from a more metallic finish.

Smoky Plum delivers a nicely-textured formula that can be used either wet or dry.  To be honest, I rarely use my eyeshadows wet… for a day to day look, I almost always use a sheer wash of colour over the lids with a staple darker matte in the crease for a little definition.  Nowadays, I don’t get much more adventurous than this, so I look for longer-lasting formulas that deliver a subtle sparkle.

This little Clarins number does what it says on the tin, in a shade that I’d wear day in-day out with no grumbles at all.

You should be able to pick up on the sparkle in the above swatch, this is one swipe… it can be built up in intensity… but not by a huge amount unless you apply it with a damp brush.  If you’re looking for some power-pigment, my advice would be to steer clear of Clarins but if you’re looking for something eminently wearable, non-aging, and long-lasting… do give the Clarins Mineral Eyeshadows a second look, this one particularly if you want a beautiful cool-toned neutral.

Clarins Mineral Eyeshadow in Smoky Plum is priced from £13.60, available to buy online from escentual.com and on Clarin’s counters (£17.00) nationwide.

* press sample

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Is there room in your collection for a pale apricot creme nail polish?

Butter London’s Shandy from last year’s Starkers collection delivered a trio of nudes and this one is an extremely pale hue which leans warmer than neutral.  It would make a great nude shade for fellow sun-dodgers who have less pink in their skin-tones than I do.

On me, it’s a little stark because it’s yellow-tones stand out against my skin but it’s not unnervingly so and thanks to a great formula, it was easy to build this one up to full opacity in three coats.

The only thing I wasn’t sure about was that as wear-time increased, it began to look a little dirty in a nicotine-kinda way.  However, as an ex-smoker, I may well be a little more sensitive to this than others!

Butter London Shandy is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from powderrooms.com

* press sample

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I haven’t really explored the B. range at Superdrug since its launch, to be honest… I just can’t say that any of the brand’s releases have inspired me to make the trip further-afield to a better-stocked Superdrug.  I saw a press release for their new B. Vibrant Lip & Cheek Colours, and for one moment… I thought I might well be converted by the look of these chubby lip crayons.  But was I?

Along with one of the new B. Vibrant Lip & Cheek Colours in Fandango* – a hot pink, I was sent the new B. Sculpted Contour Kit in shade Dark*.  I’ll start with the Lip & Cheek Colour first…

It’s packaged in a traditional, crayon-style format with a twist mechanism to raise and lower the waxy nib, perfect if like me, you hate having to sharpen anything!  It feels well-made and the colour glides over the lips effortlessly.

Perhaps a little too effortlessly, you see… it feels quite greasy and to achieve anything like the kind of vibrancy I was expecting, you need to layer up.  More layers = more grease.  It’s not a great combination.  I wasn’t expecting a matte formula but there’s just something about the way this feels that doesn’t appeal to me.  It’s not sticky and it’s not overly heavy, it’s just… not quite there.

Once I’ve built up the pigment to a medium-high finish (the swatch above shows about 5 swipes with the crayon), I tend to grab a tissue to blot.  That’s the only way I can enjoy wearing this shade on my lips.  To be fair, this doesn’t take down the pigment too much and possibly increases overall wear time but I just wanted something more instantly vibrant from a product that calls itself… vibrant.

As for my cheeks?  Perhaps the multi-use function of this product has something to do with why the formula feels the way it does… but you know about my distaste for sharing my lip products with my face and if I saw someone smearing their lip crayon around on their cheeks after I’d just watched them apply it to their mouth, I might be forced to spit on a tissue for them.

The B. Vibrant Lip & Cheek Colours come in five shades, ranging from a soft pink through to a rather striking mandarin.  I’ve only tried the one shade and would be interested to hear your thoughts on the others!

The other new release from the brand is a Sculpted Contour Kit that is available to buy in light, medium, and dark.  This is the “dark” shade choice.  The kit is split into two pans containing just over a total of 10g of product.

The powder, the contouring side of the pan feels finely-milled with a nice, soft texture and a good amount of pigment pay-off.  The cream highlight shade is an oddity.  When I first saw it in the pan, I angled it under the light, expecting to see some mica particles glimmer back at me.  But no, either mine is defective or it’s just a translucent white cream.  Much like a thin, theatrical greasepaint.  On my skin, it doesn’t do an awful lot other than look… greasy.

Once blended, it reminds me of putting a slightly more-refined version of vaseline on the high points of my face… there’s nothing wrong with this, women have been using vaseline as a highlighting trick for years, it just wasn’t quite what I anticipated.  It’s best applied at the end of your makeup routine, otherwise any setting powder that you apply will ruin the effect.

All in all, I’m not excited or enthused about these two releases from the budget high-street brand.  In 2014, I expect better formulas for the not unsubstantial RRP price tags of these products.

B. Vibrant Lip & Cheek Colour in Fandango is priced at £7.99 but currently a third off at £5.32 for a limited time.  B. Sculpted Contour Kit in Dark is priced at £11.99 but currently a third off at £6.99 for a limited time.  Available to buy instore at Superdrug and online at superdrug.com

* press sample

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Despite having lived through all but the first year of the 1980s, I struggle to think of myself as a child of those iconic years.  Perhaps we don’t become acutely aware of our surrounding popular culture until we hit our double-figures or start secondary-school, either way… I definitely relate more as a product of the 90s than the decade of power-dressing, boom-boxes, and very, very large shoulder pads.

However, were I to need any kind of instant appreciation for those 10-years preceding my cultural awakening, Clinique have provided this in the form of Calyx*, their new fragrance that hit counters last month.

I say “new”, but there’s an interesting story behind Calyx, originally an old Prescriptives scent.  Now, my memories of the brand Prescriptives are fairly limited, they were a company already on their way out as I was only just beginning to get serious about the cosmetics that lay beyond my local Boots and Superdrug.  Anyway, to all intents and purposes, Prescriptive’s Calyx was a hugely popular fragrance which achieved cult-status, nay, notoriety… particularly – of course – once it had been pulled from the counters.

When it was originally launched, Calyx stood out like a beacon of light, a fruity-floral among an army of heady and downright brazen scents including the likes of: Poison, Opium, and Obsession that the 1980s were famous for,  Calyx was the fragrance that offered something for those who were craving a different olfactory experience.

Operating under the same Estee Lauder Companies umbrella, Clinique have now relaunched the iconic fragrance with a much wider distribution, remaining faithful to the original’s notes and exhilarating freshness.  Calyx is a mood-setter; An uplifting, ignore-me-if-you-dare type of fragrance that throws a tart fruit-bowl in your face, mouth-wateringly juicy and gourmand but not in the recognizable (read: overdone) berries and vanilla kinda-way.

There’s no creaminess here, instead it’s all about revitalisation with a citrus kick up the arse, you know… that one you were crying out for when you dragged your weary bones up for work this morning.

As you first spritz Calyx onto your skin, you might worry that it will never settle down.  That instant gratification of grapefruit, and all those other slightly-sour fruits are great for breakfast, but you don’t want them for lunch, dinner, and supper too right?  Well, worry not because Calyx isn’t a one-trick-pony after all.  It takes about twenty-minutes for the florals to come to the fore on my skin, and when they do… I get mostly Lily of the Valley and a bright sense of cut grass on a sunny day.

The verdant qualities of this perfume leave me feeling clean and well-groomed… dispensing an impressive but not too overwhelming sillage with a long-lasting hold on my skin’s chemistry. Calyx will be too crisp for some, simply too sharp and fresh… but if you’re looking for a truly “happy” scent, something that will carry you along with its composition, do take a sniff the next time you’re passing by a Clinique counter.

Clinique Calyx is available on counter and online now, priced from £46 for 50ml.  Also available in 100ml.

* press sample

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I’m watching the poor postman out the window in his flourescent orange windcheater. He’s got an armful of a envelopes and is being blown all over the place… I’d have even more sympathy if he’d already passed my flat but I’m guessing that a couple of those envelopes might belong to me… so hurry it along mister.  It’s wild out there today, truly horrible and from what I read on Twitter, our capital city has gone into a transportation meltdown thanks to a number of tube strikes across the network.  Nice week for it.

So, in a bid to inject a little calm and tranquility into an otherwise turbulent week, let me introduce you to a polish from Butter London’s Summer 2013 collection.  A collection that was based mostly upon metallics, except for this little odd-one-out.  Butter London Poole is a dusky aqua blue with a hint of green… it’s namesake, a town not far down the coast from me, is an absolutely beautiful place to go in the Summer and the birthplace of LUSH Cosmetics dontchano?

What a lovely shade eh?  Not entirely undupe-able but very pretty nonetheless.  The formula was ok, not one of Butter’s best… it needed a bit of smoothing and lacked the nice, even flow that most of their polishes provide.  Opacity was good in two coats, I thought it might need three but the second coat pulled it all together.

Butter London Poole is priced at £11.95 and available to buy online from powderrooms.com

What shades are  you loving at the moment, do I need to prise your fingers away from your Winter staples yet?

* press sample

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