A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Inexpensive and YSL.  Not two words that you’d usually find in the same sentence but as I was browsing some of my usual late-night shopping haunts, I came across a lovely beauty bargain.

For less than the price of most high-street eyeshadows, you can scoop a YSL Water-Resistant Cream Eyeshadow in a non-disgusting shade.  £4.99.  Bargain of the week yes?

Let me show you how pretty it is…

It applies wet and blends to a sheer, crease-resistant base of smokey purple/grey.  It’s a great start for building up a smokey eye or worn on it’s own as a subtle wash of colour.  It blends nicely with either a brush or fingertip and is one of those great work-to-night out essentials.

The swatch on the left shows a couple of layers built up, whilst the swatch on the right shows how I wear it most of the time with a slightly darker crease colour.

YSL Water Resistant Eye Shadow in Amethyst Grey is priced at £4.99, available online from DirectCosmetics.com

One of the most hyped products of the last decade has been given a long overdue update, YSL’s Touche Eclat* is finally available to purchase in darker-skinned shades, why this has taken so long?  God only knows… it can’t have been due to a lack of interest.

the un-numbered one on the left is #1

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with this little clicky pen.  Many, many years ago I bought shade #1 and marvelled at its pinky paleness… delighted to discover a shade that would suit my skin so wonderfully.  Until I wore it and it made me look thoroughly lifeless.

Then a helpful MUA showed me where I was going wrong and drummed it into me that I was using a highlighter and NOT a concealer.  Huh?  First I’d heard of it… every woman and her cat had been shouting about how this was hiding their dark undereye circles!?  Confusion reigned…

the shade range swatched in the same order as above

Well, turns out that for me… I was applying WAY too much, WAY too close to the lashline.  Nowadays, I only really use it in the area that extends from the inner corner where my eye meets my nose (kinda), along the socket line to about halfway across the eye.  It brightens but it doesn’t really conceal… for me, Touche Eclat is a convenient everyday pick-me-up but no industrial strength fix for mega late nights!

You’ll find so many people telling you where to use it and how to apply it, personally…  I think it’s one of those products that you need to experiment with to find the best way to suit you.  I really don’t think Touche Eclat is a one-size-fits-all number.

the OCD in me wants to CLEAN these badly

For more information on selecting the right shade from the newly available selection, the YSL website has one of those ‘which shade are you’ thingamajigs that you may find useful.

I thought I’d leave you with this official YSL video, you can find it on their website.  I’m just wondering if he could have fit MOAR product on her face?  He should have just filled a bucket and let her dunk herself.

YSL Touche Eclat in all its glorious, new shades can be purchased online from Selfridges or instore priced at £24.50

What’s your take on this iconic beauty product from YSL?

* press samples

Another one of my IMATS purchases from earlier in the year was this Yaby Freestyle palette… ‘freestyle’ because it holds any shape of pan in the same way the more well-known z-palettes do.

Being a Yaby palette, it’s not exactly large… at around 15cm (longest side), it’s smaller than MAC, Z-Palette, Unii and MUFE palettes but as my end goal is to fill it with Yaby products (which are teeny tiny too), I don’t have a problem with the compact sizing.

Mine is currently filled with a few randoms (5 Yaby eyeshadows, a Yaby brow powder, 1 MAC eyeshadow, a Yaby blusher and a Stila eyeshadow to be precise!).

The palette is well-constructed with solid hinges, strong magnets and sturdy housing.  The mirror is large and without any obvious distortions.

It’s pretty much a delight to take away on holiday and I can’t wait to fill it with more baby Yaby goodies!

I bought my Yaby Freestyle Palette from The Makeup Artist Boutique (who were exhibiting at IMATS).  It is priced at £10.99 from their web store.

“He loves me, He loves me not…” is a rhyme that many of us will remember from the days when Summer holidays seemed to stretch an eternity and the biggest worry we had was whether or not we’d be able to sneak a jammie dodger from the biscuit tin before bed.

Of course, that particular rhyme meant very little unless we were clutching a fistful of daisies in our hands (we needed more than one incase we got the dreaded “he loves me not”).

Yardley LONDON, one of England’s oldest fragrance houses, re-launched last September with reformulated and repackaged products in a bid to re-energise the brand.  I would imagine that re-launching a brand so quintessentially English, with 240 years of history is not an easy task.  Obviously they need to stay true to their heritage and their loyal customers but in 2011, they clearly need to look to enhance the image of the brand in the eyes of the younger generations aswell.

Enter the Royal English Daisy Collection…

Perfume house Yardley LONDON have introduced the new fragrance collection to coincide with the imminent Royal Wedding.  Based around the perceived fragrance of daisies (the flowers have no actual fragrance), the limited edition range comprises of three products.

Royal English Daisy Eau de Toilette 50ml (£9.99)
Royal English Daisy Body Spray 75ml (£2.49)
Royal English Daisy Moisturising Body Lotion 250ml (£5.95)

Daisies have long been a favorite of many, as they represent loyal love and innocence. They have the ability to bring a smile to a face or brighten a room like a golden ray of sunshine.

Yardley London’s Royal English Daisy is an elegant dewy fresh, green floral fragrance, reminiscent of flower filled meadows in the spring sunshine. It opens with a burst of energetic top notes in the form of fresh green leaves and apple, combined with a heart of hyacinth and white rose, enhanced with warm base notes of sandalwood and musk.

It seems fitting to me that the brand who (are in possession of 2 Royal warrants), be the ones to commemorate and combine this Royal extravaganza with the classic British daisy.

The fragrance itself, was inspired by the future princess, Miss Catherine Middleton.  Yardley London wanted to create a new youthful, light and fun fragrance and they believe that they’ve successfully encapsluated her beauty, energetic and fun-loving character within the scent.

I find the fragrance in all three products to be light, airy and most definitely spring-like.  Not intoxicating enough for warm Summer evenings but perfect to spritz on in the mornings.  It reminds me of cool linens and long grasses… it’s sharp at first, the EDT… alcohol-heavy… but the dry down removes the acidity and what remains is crisp apple and white flowers.  It’s fresh, floral and a bit fruity.

My particular favourite from the range has to be the Moisturising Body Lotion, though I’d personally describe it as a light lotion.  It contains the same gentle scent that manages to linger on my skin for a surprising length of time.  It absorbs quickly, leaving behind softened skin that also feels slightly cooled.  For me, this product is going to be a Summer essential.  I’ve enquired about whether or not Yardley London have any plans to introduce the body lotion formula to their other scents.  No plans at the moment, but my goodness they must!

The range is available to purchase now from Boots, Lloyds Chemists and online.  Be sure to go and give it a sniff while it’s still available to buy, you may be pleasantly surprised at what you discover from this re-invigorated, heritage brand.  I certainly was.

I was a very nervous girl leaving the house in this YSL Rouge Volupte Red Taboo lipstick…

It’s a beautiful cool-toned red with just a hint of raspberry but it’s a Rouge Volupte.  It threatened to slip like me on ice skates and I feared that it was just as likely to land me on my bum.

You either love or hate the YSL Rouge Volupte range.  Creamy, non-drying, deeply pigmented and scented like a fruit salad.  These are pretty nice properties in a nude or mylipsbutbetter shade.  In a red?  A red that needs to stay put?  Uh Oh.

First things first… this lipstick needs a lip liner, it’s a braver woman than I who attempts to wear this bare-backed.  Application is effortless (nearly)… I applied straight from the bullet to the centre of my lips before pulling the colour outward with a lip brush.  Then I waited for dry-down.  And I waited… and I waited.  Then I checked my watch, panicked and wondered if I should blot and decided on the “bugger it, that’ll have to do” option instead.

A word to the wise (from the utterly stupid)… don’t attempt to eat, drink, lick your lips or indeed breathe whilst wearing this beautiful shade.  It WILL transfer faster than that email you clicked ‘send’ on by accident.

I get about 2/3 hours wear from Red Taboo before needing to stage a lipstick intervention.  On the flipside, because it is so creamy… I can dab a little more on from the bullet and get away with smooshing my lips together.  Obviously, that doesn’t give me the cleanest line in the world… but if you’re on the go – you can get away with it.

CheapSmells.com sent me this lipstick for my red lip series so I’d like to point you in the direction of where you can pick it up on their website here.  This particular shade is selling for £15.90 (a saving of 24% off the RRP).

The ladies at MUABoutique have slashed the prices of Yaby Lip Colours by 33% for one day only!

Get your order in by midnight tonight if you want to take advantage of the deal.

So, last week… or was it the week before?  I’m getting old… they’re all starting to blur.

Anyway… I hit up The Makeup Artist Boutique mid sale and treated myself to a couple of Yaby bits that I’d had my beady eye on.  I’ve heard lots of (mostly positive) things about the makeupartist-designed brand and wanted to check it out for myself.

Here’s what I bought.

for swatches and some quick first impressions… read on…

Read the rest of this entry »

…stays in Lon… usually comes home with me in a lovely iconic yellow paper bag 😉

So, I was up in London on Saturday for the wonderful Aussie Project Angel event (more details to come later..) and saw lots of lovely things to add to my stash.

Ok, well I didn’t get *all* these bits in London.. the Stila stuff I ordered a couple of weeks ago and turned up today so thought I’d throw them in.

I went on a bit of a lipstick buying rampage – and had to be physically restrained from buying another Shu one that I had my eye on.

On the left, the unmistakable Lingerie Pink… and on the right, the lovely Shu Rouge Unlimited BG907.

I had no intentions of buying Lingerie Pink until I tried it on out of pure curiousity at the counter.  Instant love.

I first saw the Shu one when I went to the Maybelline Event last month and have lusted after it ever since.

How pretty?! – L-R: Pound Cake, Strawberry Sorbet, Baby Cakes

Kryolan Supra Color Black Greasepaint recommended to me by LondonMUGirl.  First impressions… wonderful to blend eyeshadow over compared to UDPP, but it starts creasing after 3hrs 🙁

L-R: MAC Woodwinked (been on my wishlist a LONG time), Kryolan Matte Highlight (got this by accident after SA put the wrong eyeshadow in my bag… grrr.)

Well, that concludes my first proper “haul” post… hope it wasn’t too dull.  I enjoy reading about everyone else’s newest acquisitions, but everyone is different so apologies if this was a boring read – move along, I’m done now!

Oh, and the Stila can wait ’till the rest of my order turns up 🙂