A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I picked this up at the start of the week from the Inglot store in Westfield.  I was impressed with the super-fluid texture that I knew would combine nicely with my foundation.  I tend to use liquid highlighters to give a boost of radiance to my foundations rather than as ‘spot’ highlighters.

There are a few colour options available, I didn’t take not of exactly how many… but something like 6?  I chose the pale gold which looks remarkably yellow.  Infact, truth be told… I didn’t choose it.  The SA told me I should choose it over the two that I was contemplating (a white/silver and a rose gold).  I was unsure because this really is pale GOLD gold.  She argued that it would tone down the pink-tones in my skin for a more even complexion.

Yeah, that sold it.

I’ve been mixing a single pump into my foundation before applying and I really like it.  It’s not glittery but gives a nice amount of radiance to my complexion.  I also agree that I’d been steered toward a good colour choice… it doesn’t give me a more neutral-toned complexion but it compliments what is already there without exacerbating the pink undertone.

I can’t find my receipt but I think it was around £11, a bargain compared to similar products like the Armani Fluid Sheers (love those too).

Do you mix highlighter in with your foundation?

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

Australian brand Becca is one of my favourite cosmetic lines, I love almost everything about the brand.  The shades, the packaging, the beautiful campaign imagery that sets my pulse racing not to mention the products that deliver polished and understated results time after time….

But there’s one thing I don’t like about the brand, infact… it’s such an issue for me that I’m on the verge of throwing my toys out of the pram and boycotting.

My Pressed Shimmer Powders keep disintegrating.

Now, I don’t carry my makeup around with me.  I don’t need to… I work from home and if I’m out and about, I’m usually too laden down with either L’s things or my camera – a makeup bag is not an essential in my life.  These powders are treated with kid gloves and they sit in a drawer on my desk.

So why the hell is this the SECOND time one of my Becca Pressed Shimmer Powders has started to lift from the pan in this way?

You might think that I’m one helluva unlucky madam… I must admit, I was contemplating resigning my online account with Lotto too until I googled the issue and realised that I’m not the only one experiencing this quality concern.

Let’s do some maths here… I’ve owned a total of 5 Becca powder products and 2 have disintegrated – those stats aren’t good.

On the Becca website, I see that the Pressed Shimmer Powders are in the ‘last chance’ section so it looks as though they’re going to be discontinued.  I’m not sure whether to whoop or sob.

As for my beautiful, broken Nefertiti Pressed Shimmer Powder that I got for Christmas?  Well… I just shed a little tear.  And at £30, it was an expensive one.

Have you experienced any crumbling issues with Becca powder products?

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?

A dead camera has meant that I haven’t been able to get a review up on the Illamasqua goodies I was sent from the Art of Darkness Collection until now… apologies that I’m so late with this.

I was sent the Powdered Metal in Ether from the recent Art of Darkness collection and am sharing some pics and quick thoughts on it with you today.

(I was also sent the new nail polish in Scarab).

The product comes in a large mineral powder-esque tub and includes an application sponge for decolletage (booby) application.

I do like Illamasqua’s simple, sleek and stylish packaging.  I can always find their products quickly in my collection thanks to the unique bevelled edges and glossy blacks.  Lovely.

The sifter dispenses quite a substantial amount thanks to the large holes.  The powder is extremely soft and finely milled… a product you most definitely wouldn’t want to sneeze in the general direction of!  You’d be seeing sparkles for months!

Ether is a pale yellow/gold shimmering highlighter.  It’s packed with sparkle that’s refined and non-chunky.

The yellow tone doesn’t show up on my skin or alter the colour of my base at all once blended.  It’s incredibly subtle and just gives a warmer rather than cooler highlight.  I tried my hardest to capture an image of the actual sparkle once blended and failed pretty miserably.

The above image was taken as the sun was setting… hence the super warm tone to my skin.  Can you make out the sparkles?

So what do I think of Illamasqua’s Powdered Metal in Ether?  **rambly stream of consciousness alert**

I think it’s an extremely versatile product but I’m just not sure how often I would reach for it.  Out of sheer laziness, if something’s gonna sparkle… I prefer it to be in a more controllable pressed form.  I’m not giving Ether enough credit by admitting this though because in truth, I think it might be more beautiful than my NARS Albatross (of which I’m a huge fan).  So that’s saying something.

And then I start thinking about the benefits to providing the powdered metal in this form…

I could add a small amount directly into my foundation to create a softly luminous base.  Heck, I could even mix some into my body lotion…

I could mix a little directly into my sealing gel for an allover wash of eye colour, I could even dip a lip brush into it to glam up my lipstick.  The possibilities are generally far greater with a loose powdered product.

At £22 for 15g of product compared to £19.50 for 4.8g of NARS Albatross… Ether is ticking all the right boxes in all the right places.

I’m thinking that perhaps I should lose the lazy approach.

I’m gonna try some of the options I listed above and will attempt a FOTD with the foundation option.  It probably won’t show up… but I’ll give it a go!

Illamasqua Powdered Metal in Ether is priced at £22 and available on counter or online

The comparisons have to be made don’t they?  At just £3.50 for the pale gold E.L.F Gotta Glow compared to £19.50 for NARS iconic Albatross highlighting powder… who isn’t hoping for a remarkable dupe?

The NARS on the left.. E.L.F’s Gotta Glow, on the right.

I’m not gonna talk about the differences in packaging.  They’re there… NARS is annoying and icky sticky, E.L.F’s is sleeker but hella cheaper looking.  Do you *really* care?  I don’t.

But what about the product?

E.L.F’s Gotta Glow is slightly more yellow toned in appearance and the gold shimmer is less refined looking in the pan… chunkier.  This is pretty much what I expected.  On close inspection, you can see a visual difference in quality.

The texture?  Again… this lives up to expectations.

NARS Albatross is smooth and very finely milled… there’s no flaking when you brush the surface of the pan and no fall out upon application.  The E.L.F version can’t claim the same.  It’s powdery and there is fall out if you don’t give your brush a tap off before applying.

But how about this?  Please look past the hairy arms… I have enough hair elsewhere on my body to frankly give a crap about hairy forearms.

That’s pretty simillar no?

Take a guess before reading on… which one costs £3.50 and which one costs £19.50?  I’d love for you to tell me if you got it right in the comments…

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Ready to find out?

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Sure?

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Oh ok… Well… E.L.F’s Gotta Glow is on the left and NARS Albatross is on the right.  I think that I can tell the difference between the swatches… the E.L.F one looks slightly less pigmented and a bit ‘chunkier’.  But is that *really* a £16 difference?  Not when you take into consideration that once applied and blended… I truly struggle to tell the difference on my face at all.

Before I get really excited though… there is one point to note that although not an issue for my skintone, may make ALL the difference on someone else.  I see a slight ashiness with the E.L.F incarnation that I’m not seeing with the NARS original.  It’s only noticeable when I swatch on my fingertip… but I’m thinking that on a darker skintone, the E.L.F Gotta Glow may leave a slight white cast along with the golden sheen.

Has anyone tried it with a darker skintone than mine?  How are you finding E.L.F’s new Gotta Glow highlighting powder?

E.L.F Gotta Glow is available online and priced at £3.50 – a bargain if ever I saw one.

I’ll be honest, Spring looks usually do very little to inspire me… the pastels… oh the pukey pastels.  Great if you have that 14yr old fresh faced androgynous model look.  Not so great on a somewhat hefty big boned 29 year old who left her teen years behind with the closing credits of Heartbreak High.

However…

I’ve surprised myself because I’m actually really enjoying the overall look from the Erdem Show, LFW S/S 2011!

All images property of St. Tropez

All images property of St. Tropez

St. Tropez skin-finishing expert Nichola Joss explains the skin…

[stextbox id=”custom” bcolor=”b0c4de” bgcolor=”e6e6fa”]“The inspiration for the skin comes from Cate Blanchett in The Lord of the Rings, when she has a hint of rose in her cheeks, It is as though the girls are outside running about in the woods. We are first spraying the models very lightly with the new Dark Mist; and then applying the mix of gold and pink illuminator over the skin. I love the combination – gold represents the golden light, which comes through the trees in the forest; and the pink is the pink blossom that grows within.”[/stextbox]

And the makeup?

[stextbox id=”custom” bcolor=”b0c4de” bgcolor=”e6e6fa”]Make-up artist Andrew Gallimore matched the face to the body with a very lightweight foundation that is almost a tinted moisturiser. “Then for the eyes,’ he said, beckoning the girl he has just demonstrated make-up to his team on, ‘there is a sort of day-glow plastic yellow colour. The face was super simple with a nude lip and no mascara. He then finished with a touch of St. Tropez Illuminator on the cheeks, down the bridge of the nose and in the cupid’s bow of the lips: ‘the whole feel is spring-like and Easter-y, in colour.”[/stextbox]

You can keep your day-glo yellow (though in fairness, it doesn’t look THAT day-glo to me)… but I AM loving the iridescent illuminator combined with those *just* pink cheeks.

For me, it’s all about that skin… I mean, no mascara? really? PAH.

There are so many illuminators and highlighters on the market and they are indeed one of my ‘downfall’ products.  And by ‘downfall’… I simply mean, I have way TOO FREAKING MANY of them.

The major problem that I encounter with these kinda products (and the reason I keep buying more) is thus:

a). They ensure that my pores can be used as ground markers for low flying aircraft

b). They tend look more metallic than naturally glowy

and

c). They often try to impart a heavy colour with the sheen.

If those photos are anything to go by… St. Tropez’s Skin Illuminator looks like it may be a pretty natural solution.

Oh and the hair’s kinda cute too!

St. Tropez Skin Illuminator is priced at £15 for a 30ml handbag sized tube and can be bought online from St. Tropez, HQ Hair and ASOS

If matte orange lips for Spring isn’t your kinda thing… how about some coral for Autumn?

These new inclusions from New CID Cosmetics… I could handle nicely!  It’s that guava-y coral that usually works well on both warm and cool skintones!

Perhaps a touch summery, but the general consensus last week was that we don’t *really* go in for all that trend stuff anyway…

They say…

[stextbox id=”custom” bcolor=”b0c4de” bgcolor=”e6e6fa”]

New CID i – glow in Coral Crush (£23.50) offers a perfect ‘pick me up’ for dull and tired skin. The beautiful marbleised baked powders offer an easy, silky smooth application, while the light reflective pigments mimic the skin’s natural radiance. Build up the shade to use as a blusher or sweep across the face and décolletage for a beautiful warm glow.

New CID i – gloss in Coral Candy (£15.50) is the perfect companion to keep some sunshine in your life. This pretty shade is suitable for all, creating high-glam shine that really lasts. Featuring built-in lights and mirror for easy on-the-go application, you won’t be fading into the darkness this season!

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I’m wondering if the i-glow is a more wearable version MAC Stereo Rose for cool, pale skintones.  Any thoughts on New CID’s i-glow range?

On an unrelated note, I’m positively itching for my new camera to arrive (hopefully tomorrow!)… hurry up!

I picked these Sue Moxley Famous bits up in Superdrug sometime this Summer, I’ve forgotten exactly when – sorry!

The eyeshadows were on offer because the range is being updated… the shimmer brick thing was full price… £7  I think.  It hardly breaks the bank, but the packaging isn’t exactly enticing is it?  Tack-tastic.  Thank god it’s being updated.

The eyeshadows aren’t my cup of tea at all.

They’re very frosty and have that slight oily feeling that reminds me of the Superdrug MUA ones.  The colours aren’t too bad.. but the frosty over-shimmer kills it for me.  This is coming from someone who doesn’t mind shimmer!

The Shimmer Brick in Pink (which has obviously been inspired by a certain Bobbi Brown version) accentuates my pores in a way that the Bobbi Brown shimmer bricks just don’t do.  The brown tone in this also creates a unnatural shade for my skintone when swirled together.

Finally, to add insult to injury… a great chunk of product broke away from the pan a couple of days later.  I don’t have a picture of how it looked after it crumbled… but flicking back through my shots from before I started using it, I came across the potential culprit.

If you’re browsing in store and want to pick one up.  Make sure that the edges are fully intact.  Along that top edge is where mine broke away.

Overall, not a very positive experience with the brand.

I thought it might be useful if I did this post ahead of the upcoming MAC In The Groove Collection which is due for release on the 1st July.

The rather lovely Karleigh wanted a shot of my pale arse wearing it. Well, not my ‘arse’… that would be enough to send global MAC sales plummeting. I mean… oh, you know what I mean.

Anyway, I’m gonna show you my FOTD and then I’m gonna link you to one of my fav bloggers who’s got a fabulous shot showing the shimmer far better than I was able to… so read on!

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s my other recent purchase, I’m currently hiding the invoice email in a folder I never venture into.  Out of sight out of mind right?

Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Rose (£29.50)  is a much cooler toned blush/highlight.  It’s slightly less pigmented than Nectar and also a touch more metallic (though equally beautiful).

The white shade is opalescent… it has that pearly pink thing going on, very pretty!

I’m still working out how best to wear these, if you have any tips or blush combinations that work for you… be sure to let me know!

I paid £16 for my Rose Shimmer Brick (unboxed) from StrawberryNET.

My StrawberryNet order arrived on Saturday, super fast shipping from Hong Kong… incredibly fast actually, took about 2 days.

Anyway, here’s my first Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick…

Nectar…

Isn’t she lovely?

I’m pale enough to pull this one off as a blush if I wanted… it might be a bit frosty for that, I think it’s a product I need to experiment with before I work out how best to put it to use.

The texture is pretty smooth and the shimmer although very obvious, isn’t too chunky.  I’m pleased with my £16 bargain!

Next on my ‘play with’ list is Rose – can you see me?  I’m doing a happy makeup dance!