A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

As you may have guessed from the title, I’m totally blaming the pregnancy hormones for this one.  Whether or not they are actually culpable remains to be seen but it feels slightly less shameful to rest the responsibility upon my ever-increasing levels of hormonal angst.

Some women eat coal, crave the taste of rubber and leather… me?  Well, I just want to smell like all of those things instead.  You can keep your girly florals, sweet fruits, and vomit-worthy vanillas… give me all of the MAN SCENTS.

Were my pockets big enough, I’d carry the above candles around with me 24/7, pausing regularly for a sniff before continuing on my way.  My Jonathan Ward Woodstock candle, which I picked up whilst scouring the shelves at T.K. Maxx is the least masculine of the trio and perfect for the season, reminding me of a dampened but very-much-alive forest floor… woody and aromatic.

My Mum picked up the Rigaud Cuir de Kyara candle for me after spotting it nestled on a tabletop at her local Emmaus in France.  She said that the smell of pure, unadulterated leather “nearly knocked her head off” and thus, knew instantly that I would fall in love with it.  She was right.  It’s a blinder and I’m now obsessed with finding other candles from this Parisian brand.

Finally, and thanks to a Zuneta/Amazon bargain, I’m pleased to finally be able to add this Malin + Goetz Vetiver candle to my collection!  I haven’t been able to walk past the display of M+G candles in Liberty for ages without stopping to sniff this one in all its earthy, woody and downright sexy glory.

But my obsession with man-scent doesn’t just stop at candles.  Oh no!  It gets far more serious…

I bought L’Artisan Parfumeur’s Tea for Two during their Summer sale a couple of years ago and it was love at first sniff but recently, I just can’t get enough of it and have upgraded to a massive 100ml bottle in order to get my fix.  The perfect blend of smoky embers, honeyed tobacco and warming ginger to keep all thoughts of frostiness at bay this Winter.

Ahhh, Molton Brown… I remember when I first came across your distinctively delicious Re-Charge Black Pepper scent (now called black peppercorn) a few years ago whilst staying at a hotel in Basel.  To this day, I kick myself for being good and not stealing all the hotel toiletries, it just felt too naughty to take the ones that I hadn’t actually opened to use during my stay!  Instead, I scoop up other people’s spoils on eBay and long for the candle version!

My final fragrant craving is one that Mr. L is less than impressed with.  He can cope with sharing most of his scents with me, infact… many times, we purchase a fragrance under the certain knowledge that we’re doing so in order to share the bottle (it makes a £70 splurge so much more palatable split two ways).  My desires to wear his smells-just-like-a-freshly-wet-shaved-man Floris Santal*, however, are falling on deaf ears.  I’ve been allowed a quick spritz, twice.  Only twice.  I actually think that might constitute domestic abuse.

Are there any “boy” scents that drive you wild?  And, question is… are you wild enough to wear them?

* press sample

Morning all, here are the lucky winners of my recent competition to snaffle a bottle of Face The World Cleanser…

Leanne M. (@LilMissStylish)

Charlotte G.

Peter G.

I shall be in touch with the lucky winners later today!

If you weren’t lucky enough to win a bottle this time around, you’ll be pleased to hear that Face The World are currently offering a BOGOF promotion on their mini gift kits and cleansing lotion – no code needed, just in time for some bargainous Christmas shopping!

Have a great week everyone x

*tap tap* is this thing still on?

Oh, hello!  Remember me?  I’ve been poorly, I’m not quite there yet but I’m feeling a bit better… and I’ve missed you.  I’m not declaring the return of regular posting just yet but I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’m over the worst of it.

Anyway, let’s get back to it, shall we?

Are you feeling Wintery yet?  I’m still struggling under my 4.5 tog duvet, rubbing my icy feet up and down the back of my husband’s calves… he likes it when I do that in the middle of the night.  We’ve got the heavy duvet out of storage but I need to take it to the launderette for a freshen up and I’m a bit scared of launderettes, I don’t know how to make them work.

One thing that has definitely left summer far behind, is my skin routine.  Gone are the morning cleanses with melty balms, rinsing off with splashes of warm water… nuh uh, my skin won’t play those games now.  I still use water when I’m removing makeup but in the mornings, I’m all about the cleansing lotion/toner combination.  My skin barely tolerates water, perhaps it’s these extreme southern climes in which our water seems to contain more calcium than the actual wet stuff but I’m always left feeling taut and parched post-cleanse.

There are a few cleansing lotions that I love, mainly by French pharmaceutical brands including: Uriage and A-Derma but they do always feel a little like a compromise between luxury and the sensible choice.  Damnit, I want my luxuriously-scented cleansing routine without compromising on comfort!

Enter a relatively unknown British brand by the name of Face The World.  I first used their Refresh & Soften Cleansing Lotion just over a year ago when I received a mini-sample through the post.  It was love at first wash… but there was a problem.  It was only available to buy in-person, via the company’s practitioners and salons, of which there weren’t a huge number.  I don’t know about you, but I’m always tempted toward the path of least resistance and when I ran out, I continued to buy my cleansers online.

However, I’m pleased to announce that Face The World now retail all of their salon-quality products online for the general public.  Including my lovely Rainforest Refresh & Soften Cleanser!

So, what makes this cleanser such a winner?  Well, let me break it down quickly…

1. It’s got a beautiful lightweight slip and spreadability that means you only need a couple of pumps to cover the whole face.  It doesn’t evaporate on the skin during application, so you can massage away to your little heart’s content and then wipe clean once you’re happily cleansed.

2. It removes my makeup and lets me wiggle my mascara’ed eyelashes between my cleanser-covered fingers without causing searing eye pain.

3. It leaves my skin feeling softened and plumpy.  I sort of want to say “tacky” but that’s not a good description… it just feels, treated…. moisturised and cleansed at the same time.  I still slap on some pure hyaluronic acid afterward but I’m not left running, screaming for my moisturiser.

4. It smells heavenly.

5. It comes in a great big 250ml pump and at £21.60, offers good value for money for a salon-quality product.

I really think this is more suited to drier skin types like mine… those that benefit from an emollient face wash… whether your skin is maturing or you’re just looking for something less stripping for the colder months ahead, it’s worth checking out.

So, now you’ve read about it… how would you like to win one?

Face The World are offering three of my readers the chance to win a bottle of Rainforest Cleanser, so to be in with a chance of winning, follow the Rafflecopter instructions that are loading below…

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you aren’t as social as all that, you can also just leave a message below and I’ll make sure that your name is in the hat for one entry!

T&C
1. Start date for this competition is 15th October 2013
2. Closing date for this competition is 23rd October 2013
3. Winners will receive 1x Face The World Rainforest Cleanser (worth £21.60 each). No cash alternatives.
4. Competition is open worldwide.
5. Lipglossiping.com is the sole promoter of this competition.
6. Personal details will not be kept or forwarded and are only used in the context of this competition to inform the winner(s) of their prize status.
7. Three winners will be selected at random from all entries received.
8. Winners will be notified within 5 working days and will be expected to reply to an email sent to the address used to enter the competition within 5 working days or risk forfeiting the prize.

Sometimes technology baffles me.  I’m not talking the kind of bewilderment that leaves my Dad staring blankly at the DVD player for hours on end until someone finally takes pity and shows him where the eject button is; I mean the type of bemusement that comes from trying to understand something that employs so much science, you need a minimum of a BSc to know where to start.

Let’s just say then, for simplicity’s sake, the new Guerlain foundation is really rather technical.

It’s pretty much an unspoken rule that for a foundation to be long-lasting, I mean… truly marketed on its long-lasting qualities, it will generally suit one particular skintype over another.  Oily-skinned ladies, this one’s for you.  Except, it’s not.  Well, it is, but it’s not just for you alone… supposedly.  Confused?  Me too… stick with me…

Guerlain’s Tenue de Perfection Timeproof Foundation makes no bones about being a wear-proof foundation, it’s been designed to provide the kind of longevity that will see you through the day, and then some.  It sells itself on “unfailing perfection”, an “infallible formula”, and “16-hour hold”.  These are no meagre claims.

The thing about this foundation is that, it doesn’t feel like a traditional longwear foundation.  It feels exceptionally lightweight on the skin, delivering a classic velvety texture without immediately seeking out my dry patches (although in fairness, I’m not winter dry at the moment), and coverage-wise, it offers a medium, buildable formula.  This is what I mean about the rule-breaking… this isn’t really how long-wearing foundations are supposed to feel or look.

With regards to how it feels on the skin, for those who are familiar with other formulas, I would say that this feels somewhat similar to the recent Armani Maestro Fusion foundation… it’s a barely-there product with a lot of slip.  Except this one has more pigment, more coverage in a single sweep, and doesn’t highlight dry flakes within seconds of application.

I’m not going to try to explain, question or debunk the science behind this foundation because I don’t understand it enough to pretend that I do!  Let me instead, present the information to you as it is written in the press release.  Perhaps between us… we’ll share a greater understanding of the technical aspects.

The formula forms a complexion-enhancing film over the skin through the use – a first for Guerlain – of three volatile oils that evaporate one after the other.  Three different volatilities create a flawless complexion in three stages.

The first masterstroke: the first oil evaporates instantly under the fingers, to ensure perfect wear for the product and allow it to melt into the skin, which immediately appreciates its softness.

The second key step: the second oil coats the skin, more completely and evaporates just after helping the foundation to glide evenly over the skin, providing perfectly uniform coverage.

The third highlight: the final oil is then released to apply and fix the Timeproof complex, ensuring irreproachable correction and all-day hold.

So, my understanding of this is that the first two (of the three) oils, exist to provide a kind of “inbuilt primer” for the foundation.  Encouraging greater glide and skin prep… but that, the key to the success of this foundation is in the fact that these oils “evaporate”, therefore ensuring that they don’t interfere with the formula’s longevity later in the day.  The third oil, I’m not entirely sure about.  As I said, it’s a bit beyond me!

Now, back to my trialling…

Well, you can see from the before/after pictures above that the colour match was not good for my skintone.  I used shade 13 Rose Naturel.  I count nine shades available on the retailer’s websites, which appear to be grouped according to undertone: beige, rose, and golden (dore).  Although the rose undertone is obviously correct for me, it looks as though I would need the “clair (light)” version rather than the “naturel (natural)” which I have here.

It appears that there may only be two depth-stages in the rose undertone (the aforementioned clair and naturel)… so I’m not entirely sure how pale this foundation actually goes.  Definitely do some counter-swatching and don’t buy this one blind.

You can see that the foundation evens out the skintone quite nicely but doesn’t eliminate the need for a concealer… this doesn’t provide heavy-duty coverage for blemishes but is buildable for areas of discolouration or uneven skin-tone.

You should also be able to detect that it doesn’t mask any natural luminosity either, both photos were taken within 2-minutes of each other and my skin displays similar highlights without any additional dullness after applying the foundation.  Basically, my skin still looks like skin.

I think that in the colder months, as my skin becomes more parched, I might uncover some issues with this foundation.  After wearing this for around five hours, I did notice that dryness had become more apparent when looking closely in the mirror.  Although the foundation hadn’t slipped from my t-zone – infact it lived up very well to its claims of longevity – it had gathered slightly on the dry patches around my mouth and nose.  Just enough to highlight them.

All in all, I’m intrigued, if not completely sold on this foundation.  It doesn’t help when you don’t have a colour match because your eye is instinctively drawn to the flaws that this accentuates but from the time that I did spend wearing it (indoors), I can vouch for a longlasting, lightweight formula that evens the skintone in a natural way without masking luminosity.  As for the technology, well your guess is as good as mine!

Guerlain Tenue de Perfection Timeproof Foundation is priced at £37 and available to buy on counter and online at debenhams.com, harrods.com and feelunique.com now.

* press sample

Hermes Eau de Merveilles is a bottle filled with sunshine.  Not the kind of sunshine that you’d need a bikini, the latest Lindsey Kelk book, and a Flake 99 to make the most of but the kind of sunshine that comes out after the rain, refreshing your senses and reminding you that there’s more to life than drizzle.  It won’t warm you, stifle you, or make you feel inappropriately dressed in your new Autumnal knits because there’s a briskness to it that fits perfectly with the falling of the leaves.

Although the fragrance has been around a number of years now, the luxury brand have – just a couple of days ago – released this limited-edition bottle version…

Water of Wonders as it translates into English, is marketed as a feminine fragrance but to my nose, it’s perfectly unisex.  Infact, I think it would take a woman who really appreciates a masculine scent to fall in love with this one.  Beginning with a blast of orange zest (no juice in sight), it’s invigorating and fresh… oceanic even.

Picture yourself stood in a Mediterranean orange grove, a couple of miles inland from the sea with the wind whipping around you, carrying the kind of saltiness that catches you by surprise each time you absent-mindedly lick your lips.  You can smell, taste, and hear the ocean… but you can’t see it.

An off-centre bottle for an off-centre perfume, this is probably one of the most skin-loving scents I’ve ever worn.  It’s sheer but resolutely there and rather than blend in with your own chemistry, it takes charge… mutating your own “smell” to suit its subtle agenda.  Once it feels it’s achieved this pitch-perfect takeover… it clings.  And then it clings some more, wearing close to the skin and giving gentle but reassuring hints as to its presence.  Beautifully dry, a wee bit mossy, it feels like an uncomplicated absolute.  It just is, it just exists…

Perhaps you don’t want to smell floral, perhaps you don’t want to smell juicy… instead, you want to smell lightly spiced…. a little outdoorsy without the heaviness of a typical woody fragrance.  Salty and fresh, clean and unsullied.  In that case, Hermes Eau des Merveilles has you covered.

The Limited Edition Eau des Merveilles is now available at selected department stores Nationwide, priced from £65.50 for 50ml.

* press sample

False nails have long been overdue a bit of a comeback.  Remember when you used to stick a set on for a big night out and then wake up the next morning with one glued to your cheek?  Ahhh, happy memories….

In recent times it’s been all about the stickers, foils, decals, and whatnots… the poor old falsie has taken a bit of a back seat!

Things are set to change with a new collaboration between Elegant Touch and House of Holland. The British fashion designer’s creative eye has been cast into the beauty realm and you’ll soon be able to sport some of his eyecatching creations on your fingertips.

I know it’s not something I should be fixating on, but I love the packaging very much indeed… perhaps even more than the nails?  That’s so wrong, isn’t it?

Shy, retiring types need not apply but I do have a bit of a nail crush on Heart Breaker, that painted tip shape is something I could only dream of being able to apply with actual polish.

I’ve got another classic polish on the blog today, can you tell I’m starting to make some headway through my stash of untrieds?  I’ve got a long way to go but it’s been fun reminding myself of all those impulse purchases that got bought… moved from place to place before being lost and relegated to the back of the drawer!

Essie’s Glamour Purse is from their Fall 2011 collection, and while some may call it a taupe… I’ll stick to my usual description of greige.  I tend to favour these cool-toned greiges over their warm-toned taupe counterparts, they simply suit my skintone better.  Essie is probably one of the least-represented brands in my collection, I used to hate the stick-thin brushes that took an age to cover the nail bed – thankfully these were changed to a wider style sometime last year but I’m yet to have a love-affair with the brand.

The formula was ok, a little thin perhaps, and it needed three coats to fully eliminate some streakiness.  It dries to a beautiful finish… reminds me of a milky hot chocolate.  And when has that ever been a bad thing?

Essie Glamour Purse is priced at £7.82 (in the sale) and available to buy online at beautybay.com

If you’re starting to feel some early Autumnal blues creeping in (where did the Summer go?), you’re not alone.  I’m already hyperventilating at the thought of losing my beautiful long evenings… aren’t they just the best thing about summer?  I love being able to take blog photos at eight in the evening, sit on the balcony after Leila has gone to bed, and enjoy the thought that, at lunchtime, I have more than three-hours of light left in my day.

Winter, you suck.

Well… let’s push those gloomy thoughts to the back of our minds and concentrate instead on this rather cheerful hue.

Headline Colors (used to be Killer Colors – remember the name dramas?) released this beautiful shade as part of their Spring/Summer 13 collection.  Poolside Party is a crystal clear blue with excellent opacity and a smooth formula that will bring a smile to your face in just two coats.

It’s simply cheerful.  Would look fabulous on toes (while you’re still brave enough to bare them) and makes me wish that Summer could go on forever.

Headline Colors Poolside Party is priced at £9 and is available to buy online from headlinecolors.com

* press sample

Beauty is such a personal experience, it’s subjective… it’s intimate… but as a blogger, I know and appreciate the importance of sharing a connection with others over something that many of us feel shouldn’t be quite so laced with mysticism.  Making oneself feel more beautiful shouldn’t be a cloak and dagger operation but often, it’s treated that way.  Whatever makes me feel more beautiful, I want to share with you and I never stop hoping that you’ll enjoy the same experiences that I have with a fresh technique, or a new product.

Launching today is Estee Lauder’s latest contribution to the world of beauty, a global campaign aimed at connecting women through personal experiences.  It’s called The Beauty of the Night and it invites you to upload a personal thought, story or experience relating to the night-time in an effort to connect, across the globe, with another woman simultaneously sharing their experience.

In doing so, both participants will also receive instruction on how to get their hands on a sample of Estee Lauder’s new Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex II.  You’ll also be able to read and rate other people’s shares and discover exactly what it is that makes everyone’s nights that little bit more beautiful!

Go ahead and spread those messages of night-time beauty!

Loves me a good duochrome I do!

The problem with some duochromes is that no matter how delightfully galactic they look in the bottle, once on the nail… they require about a billion coats before reaching full opacity.  I mean, I know that I’ll have some extra time on my hands once Leila starts school in September (oh God, I’m not ready) but, five fucking coats is pushing it somewhat, no?

And that my friends, is why you need this H&M cheapie in your lives…

H&M Wintersky is a swoon-worthy polish.  It looks like it’s majorly accentuating my nail ridges in the second photo… but it’s quite an unkind photo to this poor polish which applies beautifully in just. two. coats.  The brush has a tendency to overload so you do have to be careful to scrape the excess back into the bottle but the formula is one of the fastest-drying (without making any application sacrifices) that I’ve yet to encounter.  Fastest-drying yet.  It’s like pixie-pee or something.

You should be able to tell from the photos that the duochrome shifts from a silvery green/blue to pink/lilac gorgeousness.  I’m also not wearing a top-coat in these shots because I was having a major swatch-session.

H&M Wintersky is currently available in H&M stores… it’s also online (if you can navigate their abomination of a website).  Priced at £2.99, it’s worth picking up next time you’re instore.

If you follow my new tumblr account, you would have seen this particular beauty pop up on there last week. When I challenged you to guess the shade from the swatch most of you said China Glaze Ruby Pumps… well, you were wrong! Glitter Gal Hot Chilli is just as sparkle-tastic but with the added bonus of some major holographic loveliness.

Non-gritty and richly-pigmented, the warm slightly wine-y base will be perfect for autumn and has enough of a jelly type of quality to make it look all squishy and scrummy on the nails.

Application was a dream, two easy coats later and the colour is fully opaque with a strong holographic effect in sunlight. In my experience, the Aussie-based brand (now available in the UK exclusively at PowderRooms) has always made some of the most beautiful holographic reds available and this one is no exception.

Glitter Gal Hot Chilli is priced at £10 for 10ml and is available to buy online at powderrooms.com, this one’s a limited edition shade so if you want to get it in your collection in time for Autumn, be quick!

* press sample

I love wearing warm colours on my cool skintone.  They impart a sense of vitality and freshness that I just don’t get from my more traditional cool-toned favourites.  It can be tricky to paint a “cool” face with “warm” colours and unless you’re also blessed with plenty of freckles and red hair, there can be an immediate juxtaposition between face and hair/face and makeup.  I must admit that I generally only go for a warm face when I’m having a good skin day (which I wasn’t!).  The creamier my complexion (read: less ruddy), the more success I have with painting a warmer canvas.

When I first started wearing makeup, I adored all warm-toned eyeshadows… gold being the pinnacle of that adoration.  Infact, I still have so many beautiful gilded shades that just don’t see much love because as I’ve gotten older, the redness in my complexion has increased and I’m less concerned about making my blue/green eyes “pop” against the shadow and more concerned about not looking like I have a drinking problem.

I find that nowadays, if I do go for a wamer look, I tend to stick to soft peaches (never apricot), guavas, and rose-gold.  Anything that has a slightly pink base is a winner… it can be shot through with a ton of golden sparkle just so long as it has that complimentary base.  Orange and brown-toned golds rarely wear well though I love a good champagne-gold (think NARS Albatross/MAC Femme-Fi).

I’m completely in love with Boots No7 Stay Perfect Foundation* (I’m shade Calico – link) at the moment.  I’m a late-comer to this one and assumed that it would be too drying on my combo/dry and dehydrated skin… most things that claim any kind of longevity, usually are.  I find that aslong as I’m well-moisturised (which I always am anyway), I can wear this one without exacerbating any flakiness.  I haven’t tried it in the Winter yet… but I’ve been wearing this around 70% of the time since mid-June and it delivers a confidence-boosting super-smooth look if I wear it with a primer underneath. I didn’t wear a primer in the photos below because it was ridiculously hot yesterday and I just wasn’t up for all those layers!

One of the reasons that I’m loving it (and it seems like the faintest of praise) is down to the simple fact that the pump dispenses exactly the perfect amount.  Do not underestimate the power that getting the right amount of coverage can have.  Although I love my lovely Bourjois Healthy Mix, it dispenses far too much and I always have to physically restrain myself from applying the entire pump’s worth.  I’ll try to remember to do a before/after foundation and primer routine with the Stay Perfect soon because it really has been one of those rare “ohhhh SKIN LOOKS GOOOOOOD!” revelations.

Other products included in the FOTD run with the rose-gold theme…

Dainty Doll Cream Blusher 002 – link (or try NARS Deep Throat or Sleek Rose Gold)
MAC Rubenesque Paint Pot – link (or try Laura Mercier Caviar Stick in Rose Gold or Benefit Slippin’ n’ Dippin’)
Laqa & Co Fairyblood Lip Pencil* – link (or try MUA Shade 7 or Avon Ultra Colour Rich Lipstick in Sparkling Warm Rose)
Estee Lauder Intense Kajal Eye Crayon* – discontinued (any black liner will do)
No7 Exceptional Definition Mascara – link (any mascara will do)

Also…. only six products, check me out being all minimalist n’ stuff!  Or that other word for it… lazy.

Are you a Rose Gold fan?

* press sample