A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

£6.49, Superdrug… if you’re lucky.  If you’re not so fortunate… there’s always the Sleek website or eBay but if you know you’re going that route, grab it now before it becomes ‘rare’ and about 3x the RRP.

Have you noticed anything odd about my palette yet btw?

How about now?

I appear to have a duplicated shade… not that I’m massively bothered because the missing “The Mail” shade looks a bit turdy judging by other swatches I’ve seen.  I appear to have doubled up on “Gift Basket” instead.

Having said that, I bought my palette off eBay ‘cos my local Superdrug doesn’t stock the brand…. it probably fell off the back of the conveyer belt.

Have you got this palette yet?  Trying to?  Or just plain not interested?

There’s a new toothpaste in town. It’s lean, mean and err not very minty as it happens.  Featuring the revolutionary bacteria-busting ingredient Stabilised Stannous Flouride, this supposed super-paste claims to be all you need to target the oral issues that affect us daily.

It’s taken 15 years of development and 70 scientific studies ahead of today’s launch because this volatile active ingredient has proven difficult to present in a stable, usable form.  That sounds like me before my morning cuppa.

Finally, the bods at Oral-B reckon they’ve nailed it in the form of the new Oral-B Pro-Expert toothpaste which goes on general sale today.  There’s more sciencey stuff behind it about how they managed to stabilise and tame this chemical but seeing as it involves words like polyphosphate, you will excuse me if I skim over those finer details this early in the morning?

The bottom line is that Oral-B Pro-Expert is proclaimed to be the toothpaste to put an end to forced compromises.  Oral-B say that you really can have your whitening, cavity protection, plaque reduction, tartar control, enamel strengthening, sensitivity repair, gum improving and breath freshening all in one tube.  Phew!

I used it for the first time last night and it’s really a little strange!  It feels slightly gritty on the teeth (although I have been promised that it’s 100% non-abrasive) and the taste!  Oh the taste!  It is EXACTLY like the rinse you get at the dentist.  It’s not bad, I actually really like it… but don’t expect that minty zing because this is something altogether quite different!

Oral-B Pro-Expert goes on sale today priced at £3.49 for 75ml

I’m sure I was a peeping tom in a past life because I love to see what other people have in their baskets when I’m in Boots.  Please, please tell me I’m not the only one who has a sneaky peek when the person infront is getting their basket emptied by the sales assistant.

Infact, I don’t just do this in Boots… I do it in Asda… and I judge other people’s shopping habits while I’m at it.  Not that I’m in a position to judge you understand, the only fruit that transfers to the conveyer belt from my trolley is for L but it always makes me look good while I try and hide the jelly tots and pork pies under the toilet rolls.

Anyway, here’s a peek at my lunchtime shopping basket as I zipped between Boots, Body Shop, Superdrug, Wilkinsons, Greggs… yano, the essentials.

Check out the ugly duvet cover, I think it’s vintage 1998.

So, what did I buy? (this is the lamest of lame posts… apologies, it seemed like a good idea for 5 seconds back when I started writing it).

Pantene Pro-V Style Volume & Body Hairspray (£3.36)

I don’t like hairspray… but my hair struggles to hold curls for longer than 10 minutes so this is my current hairspray of choice for when I’m wearing my hair down but ‘styled’.  I’m not a hairspray connosieur but this one doesn’t add any additional weight to my fine hair, gives a good hold and doesn’t cost a bomb.

Boots Pharmaceuticals Re-Energise Tablets Berry Flavour (£4.07)

While I was browsing the supplement aisle, a man leaned across me and picked up THREE mega packs of Berocca (they’re on 3for2) costing him £30, in one swoop… man, he must be knackered.  Me?  I’m only mildly exhausted, so whilst the simple answer would be to get more sleep and eat properly, I’d rather find solace in a £4.07 tube of fizziness than do the right thing for now.  Not that I know what these are like, they may well be unbearable.

Soap & Glory Flake Away Body Scrub (£6.64)

Yinka keeps bloody going on about this scrub and I thought it was about time I see what the fuss is about.  If I don’t come out of the shower shining like a new penny, I’ll be having words.

Sanctuary Salt Scrub Bar (£4.85)

I picked this up to fulfil the 3for2 that’s currently on in Boots and Mr. L has his beady eye on it already.  Anyone tried it?  Do I need to rescue it back to my side of the bathroom?

The Body Shop Rose Oud EDP (£6.00 in the sale)

This is LOVELY and I almost missed it.  I spritzed it without paying much attention and it was only when I’d left the store that I actually noticed it.  It’s a dirty rose trailing with sweet wood.  The warm, resinous qualities combine with a hint of spice… but to my (uneducated) nose it smells quite, quite unsynthetic, which coming from The Body Shop is a shocker.  If you’re passing a store, do pop in and check it out!

Wilkos Nail Polish Remover sans Acetone (£can’t remember)

Dull but essential, dunno if this one is any good… but it was cheap.

Good Works Good Invigorating Shower Gel (£2.05 in the sale)

On the Boots clearance stand… not much to say about this other than when I read the word ‘ginger’ it went in my basket.

Soap & Glory Hand Food Hand Cream (£4.85)

I’ve been reading good things about this hand cream recently and thought I’d give it a go.  You get a heap of product for not much money but only time will tell whether it’s worth the purchase.  Smells nice though!

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Have you picked up any lunchtime treats today?

There’s not long left if you wanted to stock up on this Impulse/BarryM offer…

Don’t know what I’m talking about?

For a limited period, Impulse have joined forces with BarryM to combine three of their best-selling scents with three lipgloss shades!  Touted as a handbag essential, the body fragrance/lipgloss duos are selling for the quite remarkable price of £3.00 each.

Your choices are…

Very Pink which comes complete with a sumptuous strawberry scented and flavoured pale pink lip gloss.

Into Glamour which comes with a velvety vanilla clear lip gloss.

Tease completes the collection with a nude lip gloss in a delicious caramel flavour.

Now, it’s been a while since I’ve been the target audience for Impulse but I can recommend the nude BarryM lipgloss which is one of my favourites for toning down a bright lip (and that’s coming from a lipgloss hater!).

Available from Superdrug and Tesco until the 6th June, priced at £3.00 per duo.

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Have you picked up a set yet?  Great for storing up as stocking fillers!

Get it wrong and Mum will serve you up the sad, soggy-looking roast potatoes forever more.  That smug brother of yours?  He’ll get your crispy ones.

On a budget?  Never fear… here’s my pick of the best Mother’s Day Gifts for £15 and under!

1. Cath Kidston Cherry Blossom, Jam Jar Candle (£15.00)

Large Jam Jar Candle, fragranced with Cherry Blossom from Cath Kidston’s latest home fragrance collection.   Burn time 40 hours.

I think it’s like… THE LAW… for Mum’s across the land to swoon at the altar of all things Cath Kidston.  There is no way on Earth you can go wrong with this purchase.  Cherries?  Kitsch?  Kidston?  Those tatties are yours.

2. Woods of Windsor, True Rose Perfect Pairs (£13.25)

A fabulous gift for any occasion, featuring Eau de Toilette (30ml) and Hand & Nail Cream (125ml) in a beautiful presentation box, fragranced with our elegant rose petal scent, combining crisp green violet leaves, rose otto and warm damask rose.

I have the hand cream* and it’s a gently-scented, nourishing cream that leaves my hands feeling soft but not greasy.  Not intensive enough for cuticles but a really nice all-rounder with a delicate true rose fragrance.  Tres jolie!

* my hand cream was a PR sample

3. Illamasqua ASOS Exclusive Nail Duo / Viridian & Scarab (£10.35)

Bejewel your nails with the ultimate Christmas duo, deepest emerald and decadent ruby. Talk with your hands and make a statement.

I don’t need to tell you how much of a bargain this is… just don’t tell your Mum it’s a Christmas set and you’re laughing (at your brother) all the way to the oven!

4. Vaseline Pink Therapy Tin (£6.99)

Smelly men. Let’s face it, they’re a real problem.  Stinky brothers, shower-dodging boyfriends and husbands who think that turning their undercrackers inside-out consitutes a legitimate change of clothes.

Thankfully LUSH are on the case and have introduced a whole range of pampering goodies for the fellas in our lives.

The inspiration behind the range comes from the original men’s Dirty scent that was released in 2009 by B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful (LUSH’s defunct sister brand).  The scent proved to be such a hit that LUSH wanted to find a way to re-incorporate it into their current range of products.   That all sounds straightforward enough, launch a range of men’s products that smell like an old favourite cologne and watch the pennies roll in!

Though it gets a bit more interesting than that because Mark & Simon Constantine, otherwise known as The Gorilla Perfumers decided to introduce men to the concept of layering.

Us women know what layering is all about right?  Usually… we get our Xmas gift sets of our favourite fragrances and on special occasions we’ll use the shower gel followed by the matching body lotion before spritzing on the EDP before we walk out the door.  Simple!  A lovely layered scent that has been built up to full intensity and is guaranteed to last longer than our dates.

With the new Dirty range from LUSH, each product contains single notes from the original Dirty cologne.  Thus, instead of layering the same complete scent over and over, you’re actually building the fragrance from the ground up!  How freaking cool is that concept?!?!

Let me show you some of the products available in the new range:

Spring Wash Shower Gel (£4.25 100g / £8.50 250g / £14.95 500g) is a skin-softening and skin-tingling shower gel for the body and hair.  Sodium Bicarbonate works to soften the water and deodorise the skin, whilst the spearmint, menthol and fine sea salt will leave you feeling refreshed and revitalised… like you’ve showered in a mountain spring!

This smells like Spring and Summer rolled into the perfect package… it’s zingy, fresh and invigorating.  Mr. L likes it because he can wash his hair without having to reach for another bottle *tsk*.

Verdict: Steal it

Read the rest of this entry »

L’Oreal Color Infallible* are a newly released set of 8 eyeshadows that pack one hell of a pigment punch!

Housed in squat screw-top pots… are they creams, pigments or pressed powders?  Well… they’re a bit of everything.  A hybrid eyeshadow with the texture of a cream, the density of a pigment and convenience of a pressed powder!

Sounds great right?  Well… they’re fairly awesome but as is usually the way, not without fault.

The lid unscrews to reveal a plastic ‘press’ which keeps the powder compacted inside the well of the pot.

The pigment under the press is a little tricky to reach with fingers (especially if you have nails!) because it’s located a little way inside the pot rather than level to the edge.  If you use a brush, this obviously wouldn’t be an issue but does make for a sheerer application.

The colours are strong and true with a blendable almost creamy texture.  Shimmery without being too metallic, they make for some really easy looks.  Infact, I can blend this easily with just my fingers for a super-quick morning pick me up!

Unfortunately, I found lasting power to be a little disappointing as these had a tendency to disappear from my lids after about 3 hours… congregating firmly in the crease in a strong, greasy line.  They fared better with primer but I still only achieved around 5 hours wear from them on my normal (not hugely oily) lids.

Having said that, some of the shades look amazing in the promo pictures and I’ll still be picking up All Night Blue from the range (a midnight  blue shade).

Talking of shades, here are the current available tones:

All Night Blue (a midnight blue)
Purple Obsession (smouldering purple)
Endless Chocolate (brown shade shown in my swatches)
Time Resist White (luminous, delicate white)
Burning Black (incandescent black with purple shimmer)
Flashback Silver (metallic silver)
Permanent Khaki (green shade shown in my swatches)
Eternal Black (true black)

L’Oreal Color Infallible Eye Shadows are available nationwide and priced at £6.99 / €10.79 each.

* press sample

I do love reading about the things that people pick up in their lunch breaks, so hope mine is somewhat interesting too!  This wasn’t a lunch break… more of a ‘coffee’ break with the lovely Ally.

Since getting my Clarisonic, I’ve turned into a bit of a cleansing freak and there’s nothing I like more now than experimenting with all manner of different cleansers in conjunction with the gadget!  Honestly?  I don’t know how I didn’t get the crap beaten out of me at school.

Not only that, but despite having found a total JOY in the new Elemis Melting Cleanser, I *still* can’t resist picking up these ‘just incase’.  This is my problem though… by the time I’ve finished experimenting to see if I can find a cheaper alternative, I will have spent what it costs to go and by the Elemis twice over!  Please tell me I’m not alone in that kind of nonsense!

So after that rambling… what did I get?

Well, there’s currently a rather tempting 3for2 across skincare lines in Boots at the moment so that’s where I indulged!  I picked up the Boots Botanics Organic Cleansing Balm (£6.63) after reading the on-site reviews.

I also grabbed a nifty looking Boots Botanics Organic Nourishing Eye Makeup Remover (£3.99) (US link – I can’t find it on the UK site!) and the much revered Vichy Dermablend Corrective Foundation in Opal (£14.30) which I’m hoping to use as a redness concealer.

One last stop near the haircare and I grabbed the new Batiste dry shampoo for brown hair.  I’m not sure if this is reformulated or just repackaged from this one.  I’m secretly hoping this can will get me through those days where it takes you longer than it should to realise that you seriously should go buy some more hair dye.  Like now.

I’m in London today and I’ll be doing my best to avoid ‘popping’ into Boots for another look before the offer ends.  Honest!

What have you been hauling recently?

I was quite sad to read this piece of news yesterday afternoon!

After 13 years as a mainstay on the British high street Boots UK is today announcing the phased withdrawal of the Ruby & Millie brand from its stores.  Ruby & Millie led the way for pioneering fashionable cosmetic brands to break into the mass market driving the trend for the fusion of mass and premium cosmetics .

Ruby & Millie were one of the brands I cut my beauty teeth on.  Not quite ‘high street’ (though they are!) but not ‘high end’ either.  To be fair, I wasn’t in love with many R&M products, especially in recent times… but the ones that I did fall for, I still use frequently today!

Where am I going to get my i-writers from now huh?!

The press release went on to say (I’m C&P-ing because I can’t say it any more concisely!)

Ruby Hammer and Millie Kendall stepped down from the brand in 2008 and have since focused on new and innovative brands such as Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique, Scarlett & Crimson and Alex Byrne Beauty. 2011 will also see the launch of Ruby Hammer’s eponymous new range.

I still haven’t tried anything from the Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique…  I need to get into a bigger Superdrug to check the range out after seeing Helen’s nails blinged up to the max with the Trio Colour Layering System!

But it’s not all doom and gloom for the Ruby & Millie brand because…

The duo will also look to reinvest their energy into the Ruby & Millie brand bringing back a classic representation of their iconic products and initial concept of affordable luxury to the global market.

I’m pleased that the duo will be looking at ways to bring the brand back to former glory, it’s one of those brands that seems to have lost its way a little in recent times.  Also looking forward to finding out more about this new range from Ruby Hammer – every cloud has a silver lining eh?

Will you be sorry to see the Ruby & Millie brand disappear from Boots?

Despite her tender age, Leila is becoming quite the discerning shopper.  Not that she has access to my debit cards or Paypal account you understand… but she does have access to the three bottom drawers of my Ikea Helmer (when I’m not looking).

It was here that she discovered my Lanolips Rose Balm Intense a very short while after I’d opened it…

…and now she won’t give it back.

It’s the sheep you see… Lady Lamb has captured her imagination and her heart, everytime I try to steal a squeeze… my attempts are met with tears.

I’ve been using the Lanolips 101 ointment on L since she was a tiny one to dampen the eczema on her face and because she was always swaddled at night as a babe, the thick lanolin used to work wonders at taking the edge off the itch.  Perhaps something in her subconscious recognises this lanolin-based counterpart, the only other beauty product to have awoken her magpie tendencies was a Beauty Blender – and I don’t really blame her for that one.

Still, at such a tender age (and with no offers to do the washing up on the table) she has no need for my Rose Balm Intense, which afterall.. is for very *dry* hands.  Not very *little* hands.

…nor very little teeth.  Grrr.

For the five consecutive nights that I was able to apply the handcream… I formed the opinion that it was certainly softening on my rough bits but not a product that I’d want to use during the day.  It’s heavy and sits on the skin in the way I love my Lanolips 101 to do… but I just don’t love the same feeling on my hands.

It’s strongly rose-scented and you only need the smallest amount to get good coverage.  After 4 days, it was beginning to heal my sore cuticles before it was rudely snatched from my routine.  I’d recommend it for when your usual cream isn’t cutting it.  Combined with a pair of cotton moisture gloves, I think it would make for an intense and quick-fix overnight treatment.

Or yano, a great addition to your toddler’s handbag.

Lanolips Rose Balm Intense is priced at £8.99 for 50ml and available online or instore in Boots.

A quick heads up incase you’re planning on heading into town over the weekend, the new Sandstorm Spring Summer trends collection from Topshop should now be instore for your makeup purchasing pleasure.

The premise of the collection evolves around the theory of warm tones contrasting with washed out neons and there’s a couple of pieces I’m keen on taking a close look at (local store permitting!)

Check out these swatches on RougeDeluxe for a closer look… I’m really taken with the look of the Creme Lipcolour in Daze (£7.50) and the Crayon in Zephyr (£8.50).

Also, if you can’t get into store, Topshop are currently offering free UK standard delivery for all orders until Tuesday 22nd February.

I’m not going to wrap this up in my usual 4348390 words incase I somehow lose the point of this post.  Let me simply tell you that I experienced a miracle this morning (yesterday morning by the time you’re reading this!).

I worked a blob of the new Pantene Colour Seal Concentrate through my hair last night after doing the usual shampoo/conditioner routine, left it on for 2/3 minutes and rinsed it out.  I went to bed with wet hair, fully expecting to regret my laziness the next morning and instead woke up to the softest, smoothest hair I can remember having.

The coarseness had completely disappeared and I was able to gather my hair into a smooth ponytail with ends so sleek that I couldn’t stop stroking them.

It’s now 13 hours later and my hair is sadly starting to feel a little more like it’s usual rough self so I’m not sold on Pantene’s claims of long-term effectiveness… still, even a full day of glossy locks has brightened my mood.  Yes, I’m as shallow as that last statment makes me appear.  I don’t care how it works (probably silicones, smoke and mirrors), I just care that it makes my hair (temporarily) very happy.

Pantene Colour Seal Concentrate should be available in your usual Pantene stockists now as part of the Pro-V Colour Protect range, it’s priced at £3.99 and I really recommend that you stop whatever it is you’re doing to go and buy some.