A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

So you’ve probably all heard by now about the new Make Up Store which has recently opened on Carnaby Street in London.  Make Up Store are a swedish brand, though interestingly the products that I bought state that they are made in Canada.  They also operate out of Westfield in west London and last time I was in the city, I couldn’t resist trying a few products out!

Nice, sleek packaging!

Orion (£15.00) is a cream highlighter with a punch of colour.  It actually reminds me a little of what NARS Orgasm Illuminator could have been if they’d upped the amp on the pigmentation.  Perhaps a touch more peach though…

It’s shimmery, but not too glittery.  As I was browsing through the High Tech Lighters instore, I noticed that many contained enough glitter to render them unsuitable for daytime wear which was a big shame ‘cos some of the shades were magnificent!  I struggled to work out how best to apply it at first and in a fit of WHATEVER I just grabbed a synthetic Kabuki, tapped it on the surface of the cream and buffed into my cheeks.  I’m pleased with the effect!  I think it would be especially lovely ontop of bronzer.

I also picked up an eye pencil.  I’ve been looking for a dark navy with a touch of shimmer… and Deep Blue Sea (£8.50) fits the bill nicely!

It’s nice and dark with a heavy black base, so doesn’t scream “coloured eyeliner”… but there’s more than enough colour there to add a bit of interest to a smoky eye!

Texture is creamy but surprisingly long-lasting.  I didn’t need to warm the pencil up before using (one of my pet hates) so this gets a thumbs up from me!

I also picked up a nice peach blusher that looked true to colour without being too coral hued.

Passion (£14.00) is a fairly neutral peach that my cool toned skin can just about get away with.  It’s far more pigmented than I imagined it would be so I do have to apply with a light hand.

It’s shimmery but perfectly suitable for daywear.

I’m pleased with the pieces I bought and the staff in the store were helpful without being overbearing.  I’ll definitely be popping back next time I’m in town.

Here’s a quick FOTD showing Make Up Store’s Passion blush on the cheeks… I’m not sure why I look quite so crazy-eyed!

Scary lady!

Have you tried any Make Up Store goodies yet?

Another mini splurge from last week!  I know you’ve seen these 100 times now, sorry!

I only bought two things from the range though, aren’t I good?

I was tempted by the chunky lip pencils and the LE eyeshadow trio too (gold,blue,red one)… but I resisted!

At £6 each, I think these blushes are brilliant value for money and there are some lovely shades available.

Flush is a warm pink… I would say Guava, but I keep going on about Guava shades… *whispers* Guava.

Butterscotch is a natural neutral shade… it’s warm without being orange… lovely!

This is heavily swatched and unblended.

My favourite thing about these blushes is the finish… they’re cream to powder and they blend soooooooo smoothly.  I’m crap at blending and I can blend these with my eyes closed.  They’re completely forgiving to makeup incompetence.

I really hope that Topshop bring out some more shades in the blushers… is there a cool-toned pink in the range? I don’t remember seeing one and I want one!

If you don’t have a Topshop that stocks the range nearby, you can purchase online. Prices start from £4.

So… about a month ago, I ordered some Daniel Sandler Watercolour Blush samples online… unfortunately, they took flippin’ ages to turn up and by the time they did, all but one of them had dried out.  Thanks Royal Mail – so. not. cool.

I chose the 6 shades shown above and paid £2.95 for p&p, this sample offer is only available within the UK but it’s a great way to get an idea of which shades would best suit your skintone.

Anyway, when they arrived… I used my Liz Earle Instant Boost Skin Tonic to revive them which worked an absolute treat!  I thought I’d share some swatches so you can get a better idea of how they look applied.

As you can see, they’re pretty pigmented!  A little definitely goes a very long way.

Here they are applied, hopefully it’ll give you a better idea of how they look once blended… I’ve also included the official colour descriptions for clarity.

Life – A delicate, fresh pink shade as fresh as the bloom on a baby’s cheek. Wonderfully sheer with delicate highlights of shimmery pink make this perfect for any woman, any skin tone.

Flush – You will look naturally flushed with this Watercolour. The ultimate, timeless shade that will knock years off you. Used on lips it will give you that bitten lip shade that Hollywood ‘A’ listers love. Great for fair to medium skin tones.

Hail Mary – A peachy, delicate and shimmery shade ideal for fair to light skin tones.

Cherub – Our Number One Best Seller. A delicate sheer, pastel pink that’s perfect for fair to medium skin tones that want the daintiest, youthful flush of colour.

Truth – A barely there nude, peach shade with flattering highlights of peach and silver to brighten very fair skins. Perfect for fair to medium skin toned ladies that get high colour. This shade won’t make you look hot and bothered. In fact, it will help disguise hot flushes.

Gentle – Think Uptown beige mixed with some pretty peach and you’ve got this classy shade down to a tee. This expensive-looking, sheer, nude shade makes a face look Chic and chiselled. Perfect for fair to medium skin tones.

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What can I say about the product?  Well, not much more really… I wouldn’t like to review them as is because by the time I’d received them… the formula had obviously been heavily affected by transit.  First impressions are good though and I hope the colour swatches are useful to anyone in the market for a new blush obsession.

I think my favourites are Life, Cherub and Truth… though Truth perhaps looks a little too warm against my skintone.

Have you tried these?  I know they’re having a bit of a resurgence in popularity at the moment.  I first heard about them a couple of years ago thanks to a Cosmetic-Candy haul and they’ve been on my “should try this sometime” list ever since!

I talked this morning (briefly) about Guava shades… I love ’em and there ain’t enough of them about.  It’s a fabulous shade for a whole variety of skintones and is about as close to coral as I can get before I hit ORANGE!

It reminded me that I hadn’t shown you 2 of my favourite blushers for Summer yet!

These are Bare Escentuals mineral blushes in shades: Promise (guava pink) and Giddy Pink (um pink, pink).

10 points for correctly guessing my nail colour by the way…

Check out the ingredients… hooray for minerals, Boo for Bismuth Oxychloride (replace the damn component with something less irritating to sensitive skins already…)

Both blushes are fairly sheer and build up beautifully.  I tend to use duo fibre brushes to apply most blushers because it just means I never screw it up and walk out the door looking like Bozo.  It takes about 3 sweeps to build up to a natural looking colour with these products.

Promise… see?  Guava.

This is a gorgeous, gorgeous blush.  It’s a matte colour base which has then been liberally sprinkled with golden sparkles, the shade stops short of coral and is simply a stunner for summer.  I had a hard time pinning this shade down… I think it’s discontinued now, but I found it on eBay (at a great price too!).

Giddy Pink is in the current line up of Bare Escentuals products and one that I received at a press day.  It’s a shimmery pink which gives that wonderful glowy illusion that catches the light when you turn your cheek.  It’s pink without being dolly pink… a natural flush.

The problem with all minerals like this?  They suck to travel with.  I can’t be arsed taping over the holes before going anywhere so always end up with about 95% of the product in the sifter by the time I’ve reached my destination.

Hmm… I wonder if they’re pressable… anyone ever tried?  I’m not sure I’m willing to be guinea pig, I love these too much to risk ruining them!

Promise looks matte in my swatch… there is sparkle in there, just no shimmer.  Both are swatched heavily to build up a true impression of the colour.

They last well on my skin and I’m positively addicted to them.  At least until the next addiction comes along right?

One of the most talked about so-called ‘dupes’ is the infamous $5.99 Milani Luminous blush which many say is a dead ringer for the even more infamous $25 NARS Orgasm.

Here’s my take on that theory…

You can immediately see the similarities between them.  In the pan, Orgasm has a little more sparkle, but the shades are a very close match indeed.

On my skin…

I find Milani’s Luminous to be slightly pinker than NARS Orgasm on my skintone, it also swatches a little heavier which was a surprise to me, as I rank NARS blushes up there as among the most pigmented I’ve used.

The Milani only lasts for a couple of hours before fading compared to Orgasm (a.k.a – shit to a blanket).  Once applied to my cheeks, NARS Orgasm has that “Je Ne Sais Quoi”… a slightly ethereal quality that is lacking from the Milani.

Does that relegate the Milani to the dupe bin?  Not at all, I would happily take Luminous on a fortnight holiday with me.  I love it, it’s a fantastic dupe and I’m pleased to own it.  Would I be happy for it to completely replace Orgasm?

No.  On my skin, NARS Orgasm gives me that famed full on post coital flush that Milani Luminous only hints at.

I know, I know… my head is telling me…

“That’s gonna be expensive.  You’re gonna get it and then look at the pattern for a few months perhaps finally drumming up the courage to tarnish it sometime next November”.

But, but just look at it!  Is it art? Is it makeup?  I don’t care… I want it!

Ohhh Bourjois, my favourite high street brand.  It’s impossible to pronounce your name without doing a pouty french expression, it just doesn’t seem right.

I’ve been a big fan of Bourjois’ “little round pots” for years and was beyond excited to see Bourjois’ tweet about this Limited Edition collection of vintage Parisien styled packaging.

Absolute Violet Baked Eyeshadow

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This is quite an image intensive post, to see the other images, please click this link…

I don’t know about Face Stockholm, but I was intrigued when I saw these in the sale at HQHair and couldn’t resist adding them to my basket.

These were a wee bit of an impulse buy for me… a cream blush (shade Tokyo) and a silver highlighter (shade Glamour).

Hmmm… not really sure what to make of them!  The cream blush has a nice consistency and blends smoothly, but the colour is a litle warm and brown toned for me – I just can’t see it working.  Future blog sale material perhaps.

The silver highlighter reminds me a little of Illamasqua’s new liquid metal Phenomena so at least I’m on trend for once… it’s pretty… only thing is, what the hell do I do with it? 

Damn my “see a bargain, snap it up” mentality!

Any ideas of how I might rock the silver?  Perhaps try it as a cream eyeliner? I’d need to get it to spread very finely for it to work for me as a highlighter I think.

…popped my NARS cherry – hoorah!

Angelika is such a beautiful true pink, often described as bubblegum… but it shows up slightly softer on my skin (or perhaps I’m being majorly cautious with the application!)  Either way, I love it – the perfect pink with just the right amount of silver sparkle.

What are your favourite NARS blushes?

So, I’m a big fan of Mineral Makeup and nothing excites me more than getting a jiffy bag full of teeny baggies containing varying shades of sparkly gorgeousness (yes, I am still a sparkle whore).

I’m forever meaning to share these little hauls with you, as I know the swatches can be useful, but swatching is such a time consuming thing – and time is a commodity that has bottomed out since the birth of Leila.

The next best thing I can do at the moment is share my storage solution for my little piggies…

These are great, I believe they’re meant for nail things – but this is how I use them.  I buy these from a seller on eBay who ships from Hong Kong and I pay £4.50 inc. shipping for 24 pots – not bad I reckon!

Any of you collect pigment samples?  How do you store them?

…Why is it when I finally earn enough Pigsback points to get myself a lovely £10 discount on Nars Orgasm (which I’ve never tried and have been lemming like forever) HQ Hair don’t have it in stock.

One day my pretty…

As you may have noticed, I have an eclectic range of cosmetic tastes.  I couldn’t really be much further from a makeup snob if I tried – mainly because my budget simply wouldn’t allow it.  I’m as happy as a pig in shit to trawl both Space NK and Superdrug looking for new products (although I’m always a little happier at the till in Superdrug!)

I quite like it this way, it means that I have to work that little bit harder to find good quality products at great prices, it also means that I have accumulated more crap than the average beauty junkie, but there’s always a friend or relative nearby who is happy to play with my cast offs and vice versa!!  It really works for me.

I’d love to hear about your tastes – the high street/drugstore brands that work so well for you, you haven’t found better value for the money.  Tell me about those higher end products that you’ve been craving for so long that they’re now firmly ensconced on that pedestal and the thought of purchasing them fills you with fear that they’ll never live up to your now exagerrated expectations.

Anyway, to cheer myself up after being so close yet still so far from my pedestal product, I went and bought a Max Factor 2000 Calorie mascara to keep me going whilst I wait for HQ Hair to pull their fingers out!

You’ll have to do for now!