A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I had a little shop-my-stash session and pulled out some things that haven’t seen as much love recently as they should, namely my Face Atelier foundation which is a touch too silicone-heavy for my skin when it’s at its driest in the Winter.  My skin is back in a good place at the moment and I couldn’t wait to see if I still loved it as much as I did last Summer when I bought it.  The answer is a resounding YES!  I’ll do a proper review with before/after shots later in the week, kick me if I don’t ‘cos it makes a great spring/summer foundation for those who aren’t ready to give up ‘propah’ coverage just yet.

My NARS Lhasa got some extra love with a sparkly pairing courtesy of Avon’s Glimmerstick Diamonds Eye Liner in Sugar Plum – it’s a nice way to supercharge a much-loved taupe with a bit of additional colour.  My beautiful Maison Lancome blush* is still pleasing me muchly, especially if I give the brush a good swirl in the darker shades first before building up a little more luminosity courtesy of the pale pink.

Hmm, what else…

Ahh, a Fyrinnae Lip Lustre in Ryo Pinko!  I wasn’t sure if this would still be usable… it’s been a while!  However, it smells and tastes perfectly fine, it’s not quite ready for the cosmetics graveyard just yet!  I love the colour and the metallic finish is a little bit retro (in a good way!).  It inspired me to give today’s FOTD a silly little name though, so it’s all good.

Finally, I layered up two mascaras that I’ve recently been sent and got some epic lashes as a result, I’ll blog them as part of my mascara series shortly.  The Clinique Lash Power Mascara* has a small brush that works well at getting product right into the roots of the lashes before a coat of Clinique High Impact Curling Mascara* ontop sends them skyward.

What’s on your fizzog today and when was the last time you shopped your stash for some forgotten treasures?

* press sample

I don’t do nail art very often, or even… ever, you just need to look back through my ‘nail of the day’ archives to see that.  It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, I look longingly on tumblr at all the cool kids and their striping brushes but the problem is that I’ve got an essential familial tremor.  It’s genetic – you can hear my Dad carrying a tea tray from the other side of town.  Because I’m still (fairly) young, you’d be hard pushed to notice it in everyday tasks but when it comes to something that takes skill, precision and a delicate touch… I get the shakey jakes and the more I concentrate, the worse it gets.

Which is why, I’m pretty damn impressed with my attempt at some Valentine’s themed nail art.  It’s not massively complicated and thank God for being able to play dot-to-dot with a dotting tool BUT, it took me about 3 hours to finish (stop laughing), and I feel like ronseal-ing it to my nail beds to last for all eternity.

So why on Earth am I spending frankly ridiculous amounts of time drawing not very symmetrical hearts on my nails?  Well, because John Lewis sent an email out to some bloggers, challenging them to create some eye-catching nail art using a selection of shades that they would send out for this purpose.  Here are the shades they sent me:

YSL La Laque in Sparkling Garnet | Nails Inc. Magnetic Polish in Trafalgar Square | NARS Space Odyssey | YSL La Laque in Copyright Red

Dudes, I even tried to magnetize the hearts.  Dedication.  Not that it worked very well.

I’m not sure who else is taking part in the challenge (Sophy Robson’s blogging twin knowing my luck) but the participants stand a chance at winning a £150 John Lewis voucher so I am totally trying to bring my a-game!

Good luck to my fellow nail art(istes) taking part and cheers to John Lewis (and the makeup and beauty team) for the polishes and the opportunity to play along.

Do you ‘do’ nail art?  Who are your biggest sources of inspiration?

NARS Holiday Collection didn’t catch my eye as readily as some of the other recent collections, but as a long-time fan of the brand’s Multiples, I have to admit that my curiosity was piqued by the new shade G-Spot.

The name… it’s atrocious isn’t it.  Thankfully though, the product… isn’t.

A rosy flush with a subtle golden edge that applies smoothly and blends effortlessly with either fingers or a brush – it’s a lazy girl’s dream.  I haven’t experienced any issues with application despite trying it over mineral, liquid and cream foundation in an attempt to pick some holes in the formula.

Compared to some of my other NARS multiples, I find my G-Spot (har har) to be quite silky (oh stop it already)…

In all seriousness though, this is a great shade with a solid formula, usefully packaged and easy to use.  I’ve sampled a couple of items from the Holiday Collection and this is the absolute stand-out-if-you-get-one-NARS-item-get-this-one.  Got it?

NARS G-Spot Multiple is available online or on counter, priced at £29.00

Are you a NARS Multiple fan?

* press sample

You may recall my bitter moans last week about how when presented with a rare opportunity to spend an indecent amount of time playing with makeup, I came up with something that looked no different from my everyday makeup.

So this weekend, I grabbed myself by the balls (cough) and reached for my brightest, scariest palette.

NARS Mediteranee.

Innit gorgeous?  And I’m sure it shouldn’t really work against my skintone… perhaps it doesn’t, but hell… I really love it anyway.

Don’t laugh… this is WAY out of my comfort zone nowadays.

I know I look super-snooty in the ‘looking down’ pics but you can’t see the ORANGE otherwise ‘cos of my hooded lids!

I think I scared Leila a bit. (OMG the CLOWNZ are coming!)

When was the last time you stepped out of your comfort zone?

A gaggle of geese, a school of fish, a colony of ants… a… a… a.. nest of NARS?

Whatever you want to call it, here are some of my favourite NARS blushes in all their shamefully dirty glory (I really should give these a wipe over!).

Considering I’m such a cool-toned chick, you might be able to tell I have a fondness for peachy cheeks (no sniggering at the back).  I just find that with a light touch, it warms up my complexion and looks more natural and less doll-like than the pinks.

My latest acquisitions (you may be able to spot them from the fact that they’re less dusty!) are Gilda and Mata Hari.  I picked up Gilda from the ASOS/Groupon super deal, ahhh… I want another one of those!

Anyway, there’s no real reason to this post other than for me to have an excuse to play with my NARS blushes.  Sorry, indulge me!  Here have some swatches…

Douceur - A neutral matte shade that has enough pink in it to be a delightful option for cool-toned skin.  Swatched heavily here, I’d call it a must-own simply because (with a light hand) it will add a touch of colour to your cheeks without clashing.

Mata Hari - This always feels like a proper wintery rose shade.  Another matte, it’s heavily pigmented and a touch powdery.  I haven’t worked out how to make this work flawlessly for me but I want to persevere!

Torrid - A bit scared of this when I bought it but it’s gorgeous.  A proper peach with sparkles!  Used with a light hand I can make this work nicely against my colouring but I do need to double check in different lighting before venturing outdoors (just in case I’ve tangoed myself!)

Gilda -  It’s a gorgeous shade but I haven’t got the application of this one down yet.  Perhaps it’s just a bit too warm and matte for me, either way… it’s another one I want to learn to love.

Deep Throat - My favourite NARS blush.  It’s a pinker, more pigmented version of Orgasm with silvery sparkles compared to the dusting of gold that runs through the big O.  It’s a perfect peachy pink and one that I will repurchase forever more.

Orgasm - The cult favourite is also a hit with me!  Warmer than Deep Throat and a little sparklier, I often pair this one with other blushes (particularly mattes) to give a more 3D appearance.

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Do you own any NARS blushes?  Which are your favourites?

Despite the moniker, lip glosses aren’t really my bag.  I find them gloopy, sticky, uncomfortable to wear and unless careful not to overapply, can make you look like an extra from Saturday Night Beaver.

Admittedly, they’re less high maintenance than lipsticks and are undoubtedly nifty for quick touch ups when your lippie has all but been eaten away.  However, for me… they come a poor second to my faithful lipstick devotion.

So, how about a hybrid?

NARS Velvet Gloss Lip Pencils are still fairly new additions to the market.  Launched in February, they promise the convenience of a pencil with the application of a lipstick in a jumbo-size crayon design.

Well, first things first… you can kiss the gloopiness issues goodbye.  Thanks to this delivery method, you can apply a thin, even layer of gloss over your lips without any thickness or pooling.  Yes, they’re still a touch tacky on the lips but there is no risk of those disgusting stringy gloss strands when you open your mouth… and we’ve all seen too many of those on over-enthusiastic gloss wearers right?

I was sent two shades from the lineup: Hopi (Honey Beige) and New Lover (Strawberry Pink laced with Gold).

New Lover on the left and Hopi on the right.

The texture is soft, really very soft… take care when sharpening these babies.  I would have preferred to have seen them in a twist-up form but alas, they are what they are.

Again, New Lover is on the left and Hopi on the right.  They’re well pigmented with great, natural colour.  I feared that their pencil form meant that they might go down faster than a fat kid on a seesaw but they’re holding up better than I expected on that score.

Because of their convenience, I keep New Lover in my bag for when my lipstick wears off and have been substituting it for quick fixes post-lunch.  I also have my eye on Baroque which seems more to my taste with its bolder, raspberry undertones.

Finally, a lip swatch of both so you can see how they look applied…

They’re pretty, understated shades that dodge my lipgloss-hating bullet well.

NARS Velvet Gloss Lip Pencils are priced at £17.50 a-piece and are available online and on counter now.

So, who’s for yellow nails this Summer?

Every year, the celebs get their banana polishes out of storage to threaten us with canary tips but this year… we’re in for some serious yellow fever!

image credit: MTV Style

We all knew we were in for a trend when we saw Chanel’s upcoming Mimosa polish set to launch next month but Mimosa is just the tip of the yellow-coloured iceberg!

image credit: Polish Police & Fashion Fame

1.  From NARS upcoming Summer collection, Kismet polish, described as a “shimmering sunflower”

2. Deborah Lippmann will be showing us which path to take… the jelly Yellow Brick Road of course!

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Will you be taking the plunge into the IT shade of the season or are you a bit yellow-bellied *groan* like me?

Autumn/Fall… Pavement/Sidewalk… Bonnet/Hood… Tomato… um… er.. TomAto…. whatever you wanna call it, I was going back through some emails before archiving and came across this press release that included some images from the Marc Jacobs Fall 2011 Runway Show.

It looks like Autumn might be all about the blush.  Yes, that’s me you can hear me fist-pumping and whooping from thousands of miles away…

INSPIRATION & LOOK: “The look started with a picture that Marc had of Christy Turlington with really fresh skin and rosy cheeks,” said François Nars, Founder & Creative Director of NARS Cosmetics. “Marc wanted ‘icy cold cheeks’ and so the blush is drawn down in such a way that’s unusual…unusual, but decadent. Like a Renaissance painting.”

Look at those proper Autumnal colours!  Warm reds and ambers… God, it makes me grateful it’s still only April and we have the whole Summer stretching ahead of us!

The key products used in the looks featured here are:

FACE

• Concealer (NEW for Fall 2011; for now, try the existing Concealer £17.50)

• Lokoum Cream Blush £20.50

EYES

• Grand Palais Duo Eyeshadow (for now, try using Lokoum Cream Blush £20.50)

• Larger Than Life Long-Wear Eyeliner in Via Veneto (NEW for Fall 2011; for now try Black Moon Eyeliner Pencil £16.50 )

• Larger Than Life Volumizing Mascara £18.50

LIPS

• Greta Pure Sheer SPF Lip Treatment £18.50

Interrrrestingggg…. so, it looks like we’re getting (at least) a newly formulated concealer range, duo eyeshadow (orange-based?), a new long-wear eyeliner range?  I’m speculating a little bit….

Not too sure on that blush placement… but that’s fashion for you (darling) and I love the heavy liner… oooooh, I’ll be a happy Lipglossiping if we’re all about the heavy liner this Autumn!

But in the meantime, let’s have some bloody sunshine first eh?!

A couple of you eagle-eyed ladies spotted the lipstick that I was wearing in my Bateau Ivre FOTD from earlier in the week.  It’s very, very nude isn’t it?

The NARS shade is new for Spring and called Madère.

How do we pronounce that then?  I’m opting for ‘mah-daire’ – anyone wanna wade in with an infinitely more sensible suggestion?

For a matte… it’s fairly creamy to apply, though pretty unforgiving on very dry lips.  If you have deep furrows, you may need to think about some intense moisturisation and a plumping base before attempting this shade as it will highlight any areas of concern.

Many reviews from last year’s launch of these Pure Matte Lipsticks commented on how the formula of these were more moisturising than normal mattes.  Sadly, I can’t say that I’ve reached the same conclusion with Madère.  I felt that it was just as drying as any other matte lipstick that I wear.

Where Madère does excel is in the density of colour and it’s ability to truly blank out the lip when you want to concentrate attention on your smokey eye.  If you’re a fan of true nude lips (and I know many of you are), it’s probably a shade that you’ll want to add to your collection for nights out.  I feel that it would particularly suit women who feel that nudes often run too orange on their skintone.

NARS Pure Matte lipstick in Madère* is available now from NARS online, on counter and other stockists priced from £17.50

*press sample

If you had told me 5 years ago that I’d get excited over the thought of a blue eyeshadow duo, I’d have pointed you in the direction of this photo and told you not to be so stupid.  So it surprises me to recognise that Bateau Ivre was the duo that captured my imagination when I first saw promo images from the NARS Spring 2011 collection last month.

They say: The Spring 2011 Collection is the epitome of minimalism, reaching a sensual peak with fresh, forward color. Jeweled earth tones for eyes and nails are infused with a metallic finish that lends a subtly sleek finish. Cool compliments of sheer and sparkling lips pair with unexpected accents of parrot green and vivid blue.  It all adds up to a look that’s indisputably modern.

Let’s take a look at those eyeshadow duos:  Bateau Ivre & Nouveau Monde*

Read the rest of this entry »

It was around the same time last year that NARS released the first in their line up of liquid illuminators, the NARS Orgasm Illuminator.  This year, NARS are releasing not one, not two but THREE new illuminators to sit alongside the original.

Due out a little later this month, the three shades will be well-known to NARS fans out there:  Copacabana, Super Orgasm and Laguna.

NARS Copacabana Illuminator is a pale pearly pink shade shot through with a hint of silver sparkle.  The sparkle stops it from being the kind of illuminator that I’d want to mix in with my foundation (at least during the daytime).

It has a thin, blendable texture and like it’s predecessor, a little goes an extremely long way, the 30ml bottle should last and last.

It is such a pretty shade for pale, cool-toned skin and I’m pleased that NARS have decided to extend the shade collection in this range.  Although I was a fan of the original Orgasm illuminator, I did comment that I felt it suited darker skin tones than mine.   This one?  The Copacabana Illuminator?  Made for me.  Not you, just me!

So far, I’ve worn this dotted along my cheekbones and it blended quite happily over liquid, cremes and powder foundations with no clumping issues.  I’ve also dropped a couple of dots into my body cream before slathering over my decolletage.  There are endless ways to wear illuminators… well, 4 or 5.

The illuminator dries down to a powder finish after a few minutes, so although it’s easy to blend… I feel that I have to be a bit quicker than with the original Orgasm version.

I sneaked a peek at both the Laguna and Super Orgasm illuminators as well.  Whilst Laguna looked ah-mazing for darker skintones, Super Orgasm disappointed me a little… it’s uber glittery (as you might expect) and I’m just not sure it was a needed addition when we already have an Orgasm illuminator available.

NARS Copacabana Illuminator will be available from the middle of this month onwards from all NARS counters and online.  Priced at £23.50.

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Are you liking the look of NARS Copacabana Illuminator or are you cooling your heels for swatches of the Laguna version?

For someone who’s scared of bronzers… I own a few.  I’ve also ditched many more.  The ones that I’ve kept work for me, though not without effort.  This isn’t a fault of the products… it’s my unconfidence with application and with wear.

The ones that I’m showing you are my current favourites based on their tone.  With my (admittedly) untrained eye… they all complement cool-toned skin.  I should also point out that I’m not talking bronzer for contouring – these are all the products I use to mostly just warm up my complexion and give it a sunkissed look.

Swatched in the same order from left to right (note that swatches are to show tone, not intensity… some are VERY heavily swatched):

1. Bobbi Brown Illuminating Bronzing Powder in Maui (£23.50)

Is it a blush, is it a bronzer?  Well… it looks a bit like a blush but if Bobbi says it’s a bronzer, who the hell am I to argue?  Maui is a warm pink shimmer that’s shot through with golden sparkle.  It’s an incredibly easy-to-use bronzer because it never looks muddy and on the rare ocassion that I actually do catch a bit of genuine sunlight… it’s much closer to how my skin would naturally colour than the more traditional golden browns available.

2. NARS Blush in Douceur L.E. (£19.50)*

Being a limited edition item <–ignore, am stoopid – it’s not Limited Edition!  I wasn’t going to include this one.  But it’s still available online at HQHair… so I figured it couldn’t hurt?  Now… this is a blush (if I’m not gonna argue with Bobbi, I’m certainly gonna agree with Francois!) but on my skintone, this matte blush works very nicely as a light pink/brown bronzer.  Although it looks dark in the pan, it’s the 2nd sheerest that I’m showing you.  Even I can’t mess this one up.  Just perfect.

3. Becca Pressed Shimmer Powder in Princess (£30)

Again, not a bronzer per se, Becca’s PSP in Princess is just lovely.  It’s shimmery but not AT ALL glittery… it’s very well behaved and grown up about things.  Smooth in texture, it imparts a subtle sun-kissed glow to my cheeks that is never overcooked.  Pricey, but worth it.

4. Illamasqua Powder Blusher in Rumour (£16)

If there were one black sheep in the set, this would be it (being Illamasqua, it had to be the naughty one didn’t it?)  The tone is perfect – devoid of any orange… and being so matte, it makes the best contour shade I own.  The problem is, that’s not saying a lot because it’s the ‘only’ contour shade I own.  I find Rumour a little hard to work with due to it’s heavy pigmentation and it can end up looking a bit muddy.  I want to love it and I feel that it’s my inexperience that stops me rather than the product itself.  Any tips for this one ladies?

5.Guerlain Terracotta Bronzing Powder in Blondes (£31.50)

Finally, a classic.  The sheerest of the lot (and the most expensive!)  Blondes is the lightest of the three shimmery bronzer options from Guerlain.  I also own the lightest in the matte version but reach for this one more often.  I would defy anyone to overdo this… it’s a must-have for pale skintones.

Other honourable mentions: Bobbi Brown Antigua, Bobbi Brown Bali Brown, The Body Shop Warm Glow, Guerlain Terracotta 01 (matte)

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I know that all my bronzers are at the higher-end of the price spectrum… but experience has shown me that if I want to rid myself of orange-toned monstrosities, this is where I have to look.  Please do comment and let me know if things have improved in that respect on the high street because I’ll be one of the first out the door to go check out a bargain alternative!

What are some of your favourite bronzers?

* denotes PR sample.