New Year, Old Me

By Tindara:

Happy New Year! If you’re anything like me you will be utterly bored with all the "New Year New Me" nonsense and be wanting to shove anything "detoxing" up the jacksie with a rolling pin. At least, I think that’s what they’re recommending; I tend to switch off after someone mentions a detox. Instead, I’ve decided to do the exact opposite and track down some of my old, and hopefully classic, beauty and fragrance favourites; Thierry Mugler’s Angel,  Mac Spice lip pencil, and Chanel’s Rouge Noir.

I have been longing to try Angel again, ever since I realised it’s in the Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez top ten Classic Fragrances. I felt simultaneously very pleased with myself that it was my signature scent for years, and irritated that I had pretentiously let it go when it became ubiquitous and much copied. Well I started my first Angel day off in a haze of gourmand nostalgia, but after a couple of hours the spicier notes came through and I fell in love with it all over again, more than twenty years later. I had remembered it as a sweet but fresh fragrance with a certain something unusual about it. Maybe that was where I was at with my perfume appreciation at that stage; I certainly feel I have learnt a lot since, not least due to hanging around with other fumeheads and lippie-aficionados. 

This is an amazing scent – the fresh zesty peel notes that appear after the initial sweetness give way and turn into a deep spiciness with a hint of church incense and patchouli. It’s like wandering into a shop that sells crystals and tarot cards whilst wearing a diamond tiara. I suppose it’s no coincidence that I wore this in my grungiest years, but I was a rubbish grebo; my standard issue German army boots were contrasted with little black dresses and deep red lipstick. I always wanted that touch of glamour. Angel now feels elegant and sparkly but with an earthy depth that’s just perfect. I think it might be my new [old] favourite.

I'm sure you’re all familiar with Mac Spice and all its dupes. Like Angel, it was launched in the nineties and quickly gained cult status as the perfect nude shade. It’s a long time since I wore it, or even lip liner at all; I tend to just go straight for the bullet these days. In red, OBVS, as the children say. But the odd cool neutral has made it into my everyday routine so I thought I’d give it another go. Pixiwoo in particular are lip liner devotees and they inspired me to get back on point, so to speak. 

Unable to get hold of a Mac Spice when I needed it, though, I hunted out a Bourjois dupe recommended by them, Crayon Contour Des Lèvres in 12 Facétieuse. It is a perfect nude, and I’d forgotten how great a toffee coloured lip liner can be at giving you a brilliant bee-stung pout. I used to push the edge to the very limit, (not over though, never over…) filling from the outside in, then topping with some lip balm. More recently, I've been using Laura Mercier Lip Glacé in Blush on top, which looks great with a smudgy smoky eye. I've now resurrected the few lip liners I have and am using them more and more as a result. They’re really long lasting and I love the fact that you can use them as a stain of colour not having to reapply as much throughout the day.

I was so excited when I finally got hold of some Chanel Rouge Noir back in the day – I had to go on a waiting list for it. Crazy, but we all wanted the shade that Uma Thurman wore in Pulp Fiction. I had to have it. It also reminded me of Shirley MacLaine in the 1988 film Madame Sousatzka. I was a strange teenager; there was something about the strands of beads, short dark nails and beautiful decorative fabrics in her costume that I adored. So as soon as the short dark nail thing happened I was there, and I don’t think it’s ever really gone away for me. 

I haven’t worn actual Rouge Noir for years though, until my friend got me some as a present a few months back. I still really love the rich bloody-black sheen of it, I couldn't stop looking at my hands. I feel like it goes with anything too, hold it against denim or black lace and it will look fantastic. It is straight up elegance with a touch of bohemian gothic and suits everyone in my opinion. My old [young] self wasn't so bad really; quite a stylish girl. 

What are your old favourites?

The Fine Print: Angel starts at £48, Mac Lip Pencils are £12.50, Bourjois Crayon Contour Des Lèvres are £5.49, Chanel Rouge Nail Polish is £18. All were bought by me, except the Chanel Rouge Noir which was gift from a friend.

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.


This post: New Year, Old Me originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper

Bourjois One Seconde Gel Polish: Shades 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 & 15

(L-R: Shade numbers 6, 4, 15, 5, 3, and 9 Didn't realise they had numbers when I lined them up - sigh)

Whilst hanging around in Superdrug (you know, like you do) recently, I had my eye caught by these colourful little numbers!  Also, they were on 3-4-2, so it would have been rude not to pick up a couple or three.


My nails are horrendously ridged at the best of times, and I was intrigued by the gel-like finish promised by these polishes, I was hoping that they would give me a smoother-looking nail.  Oh, and they're pretty, so very pretty!  I'm not much of a fan of pastels, but Bourjois do a nicely saturated, not too white based selection of pastel shades normally, so I'm always willing to give them a try.

(L-R: 15, 9, 6, 5, 3, 4)

Most of the shades have a cream finish, aside from 15, which is a clear coral (which makes an excellent top-coat, to darken other colours), and 5, which is a coral with golden shimmer.  Here's a closer look at the finishes:

As to my ridge-filling requirements, well, I've been very impressed, I mentioned my nails are very ridged at the moment (no ideas why, alas), but I've found that these polishes have a nice, "cushion-y" finish, which minimises their appearance:

My ring finger in particular has the worst ridge on my left hand, and here you can see how smooth it appears here, I couldn't be happier!  The brush is a wide, flat and has a curved edge, meaning you can cover most of the nail in one stroke, I have a bit of trouble with this brush, as I have extremely narrow nail beds, but, once you get used to it, it's very easy to use.  The picture shows two coats with a topcoat, I found that two coats was more than sufficient to a) colour the nails, and b) cover any ridges.  The formula is a little on the thick side, so three coats might be one too many.

Bourjois have informed me that they're releasing more shades in this formula later in the year, and are including some metallics in the range, I can't wait!

The Fine Print: Some are purchases, some turned up on the doorstep AFTER I made purchases, thanks to the existence of the Nail Varnish Fairy. I love the Nail Varnish Fairy, she's a very nice ... um ... mythical being.


This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Lippie Loves: Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover

Another one in my occasional series of Lippie Loves, and this time it's hardcore:

Launching later this month,  this £3.99 sponge-filled jar deals with even the toughest of nail varnish in seconds flat.  It's not quite the one second that it claims on the bottle, but it's pretty damn close.   The black nail varnish you see in the picture - that I wore purely for testing purposes - was dealt with in around 3-4 seconds per nail, with no mess, and no waste of cotton wool! 

Best of all, it smells great on your fingers too, but please don't stick your nose in the jar, you will regret it*. It's acetone-free, and contains sweet almond oil to nourish your digits whilst it removes the polish.  I freely admit I have no idea how it works (for all I know, it could, in fact, actually be magic), but it does work, and works astonishingly well at that.  Oh, and the sponge is black, so you can't tell just how stained it's getting from the polish, unlike other nail varnish remover jars available on the market ...

Buy some.  You'll never regret it.  Lippie loves it, and so will you.


The Fine Print: possibly the best PR sample I've had this year.  So far.


* I do these things so you don't have to, people!


This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Guest Post - Bourjois Mascara Madness

Floamia is my latest guest poster, who's come out of her blogging retirement to take a thorough and much appreciated look at a range of Bourjois mascaras.  I'm very honoured, thank you Floamia!

*****

I’d like to start off this post just saying thank-you for the opportunity to write for this blog, which I’ve been a fan of for quite a while. Much appreciated!
 

 So today I thought I’d look at four mascaras from my collection, all from Bourjois! There are a few high-end ‘cult’ mascaras, and I feel like the high-street brands can often become abandoned and forgotten, so I’m here drawing attention to four from just one brand, and doing a compare-and-contrast for all of you. And I apologise in advance for staring at you in all of the swatches. Sorry ‘bout that.
 

[Left to right – Volume Glamour Ultra Curl, Liner Effect, Volume Fast & Perfect, Coup de Theatre]

Volume Glamour Ultra Curl - £7.99
The first in our line-up boasts of the ability to double the volume of your lashes. Without anything on them, my eyelashes are quite fair and fluffy and nothing-y, the remnants of being a fair-haired child, which now look somewhat out of place with my now dark hair!
This mascara is one of the three I’m reviewing today that can stand up on its own, which I quite like. It’s rounded, as most mascara packaging is, so it could roll away if left horizontal, so it’s nice that it can support its own weight as it were. Nice flat base, always a plus! I’ve owned this mascara for a while now, so the shiny pink lettering and lid has started to fade and chip a bit, which is somewhat less glamorous a “Volume Glamour” mascara ought to be, if I do say so myself, but that is truly just a bit of pedantry on my part.
 

The spoolie in the product shot on the website actually looks a lot more curved than it is in person. Again, I think this may be in part due to the fact that I’ve owned it for a while, and its bouncy resilience has faded somewhat with me repeatedly taking it out of the tube. If you’re someone who regularly replaces your mascara (and it’s debatable whether or not you actually should), this won’t be an issue.

  [Top, bare lashes, Bottom, one coat of Volume Glamour Extra Curl mascara]
In comparison to my bare lashes, the effects of this mascara look quite striking. My lashes are much, much more visible, and seem slightly more curled open, leading to a more ‘awake’ looking eye, I think. This mascara does tend to flake a bit, when worn all day. I’ve found that if I put this on in the morning, by about four or five o’ clock I will have little sooty bits of mascara debris littered on my cheeks.

Liner Effect - £8.99
Our second mascara to be reviewed today is, I know, a firm favourite of a few bloggers I know. I hadn’t actually seen it in my nearest Boots at the time when I was reading such rave reviews of it, but when it suddenly appeared I felt obliged to snap one up.
This is another that stands up independently, but even if it didn’t, it has a silver ridge matching the line in the logo of the name of the mascara (of the brand of the Bourjois of the Paris…) which would stop it rolling away while lying flat, too.

The spoolie has really short bristles on one side, and longer ones on the other. I tend to use the shorter side to get right at the roots, and then sort of top up with the longer side.
 

[Bare lashes on the top, one coat of Liner Effect on the bottom]

I‘m less impressed by the promises here. For something promising the effect of wearing eyeliner, I’d expect much thicker looking lashes. They still look rather fluffy and sparse, here. The wear is good, though. No smudginess, or flakiness, and it seems fairly waterproof, without running it through a shower.

Volume Fast & Perfect - £11.99


The gimmick-iest out of all of our line up, by far, and to be honest the gimmick is the reason I picked it up! I remember there being vibrating mascaras, but this was the first I’d seen of a rotating one, and while I had little hope, I was abundant with curiosity!
 

There’s a little switch on the handle of the mascara with options for clockwise, anti-clockwise and off. It wasn’t until I started playing around with it that I realised that I needed the different directions for my different eyes, and opposite directions on the lower lashes to those of the upper lashes. It’s quite clear if you’re using the ‘wrong’ direction, though, as it begins to move over your lashes and run them over, rather than fanning them open. And fanning them open is definitely what happens when you use this correctly. I can place this at the base of my eyelashes and I swear every lash is separated and coated evenly, and they look much thicker. I’ve even got out my italics a lot for this description; I’m terribly fond of it! 
 

Alas, when it comes to wear, this one is a wee bitty bit smudgy, but I will forgive it its trespasses for its application. Would it be bad to say I actually find it slightly fun? It feels like a toy! But for my eyelashes!

Coup de Theatre - £10.49
I believe this came out round about the time of the 2-in-1 mascara craze, started by L’Oreal, if I recall correctly. Along with every other high-street brand, Bourjois came out with its own double-wanded creature, which, looking at the website, seems to have been updated in the form of a single-wanded version with the same formula. How I feel behind the times!
 

[Double-wandedness. Also, the fact that I have the hands of a child.]

The black end of the spoolie has a similar short-bristles-one-side/long-bristles-other-side thing going for it as the Liner Effect spoolie, but this one seems to be made out of the traditional bristles, rather than the nylon ones.
This is the only one out of our four mascaras that doesn’t stand upright, having a curved base, which thoroughly depressed be when I came to photographing them, as I wanted to stand them side by side. Boo.

[Bare lashes on the top, one coat each of the white end and the black end of Coup de Theatre at bottom]
With the white coat on alone, this mascara looks like it will easily be the most impressive. Lashes look much, much longer, and thicker. Were I in the habit of wearing white mascara, this would come up trumps. Easy.
Alas, I’m not in such a habit, and this mascara becomes much more disappointing once you apply the black coat. It feels like it snags a bit, on top of the white coat, and it takes a lot of careful work to avoid leaving uncovered white patches. This is also the only mascara out of the ones I’ve reviewed here that leaves dots from the wet mascara on my eyelids! And I had had such high hopes to start.

Summary
                 Extra Curl       Liner Effect    Volume Fast & Perfect    Coup de Theatre
Application    8/10                7/10                10/10                                   6/10
Volume          8/10                6/10                  9/10                                   6/10
Length           7/10                7/10                  9/10                                   7/10
Wear             5/10                7/10                  8/10                                    5/10

It is evident, then, that our winner is the gimmick-y rotating Volume Fast & Perfect mascara!
Disclosure: All of these products were bought with my own money

 ****** 
Get Lippie says: I've tried all of these too, and I have to say that the Volume Fast and Perfect is a glorious mascara, even when you accidentally have worn the batteries down by leaving it in your makeup bag with it running ...

This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Bourjois Little Round Pots

I love me some Bourjois, I think they're actually my favourite high street brand.  I find their products are very high quality for the price point (even as I notice that price point is creeping ever-upwards these days), but it's fair to say that my makeup collection contains a sizeable collection from the brand.

When I discovered they'd relaunched their entire collection of "Little Round Pots" recently - after being astonished to discover they were 150 years old! - I was a little concerned, as sometimes, reformulation generally means poorer quality, but on trialling a few over the last month or two I've had my concerns allayed somewhat, and I'm happy to say that the new, reformulated Little Round Pot is better than ever.

I picked up a selection of shades to try, as you can see above, clockwise from bottom left you have:

02 - glorious mermaid blue (shimmer)
04 - beautiful deep purple (shimmer)
14 - steely grey (shimmer)
07 -  deep blackened forest green (shimmer)
74 - purple-based taupe (shimmer)
13 - lightly pinked-purple (glitter)
11 - concrete grey (glitter) 
and in the centre, there is: 08 - an apricot-beige highlight shade.

Previously, the LRPs might have been considered a little hard, and were occasionally hard to blend, owing to their baked texture, but I've found that they're a lot softer these days, and easier to blend as a result.  If you're applying them dry, however (or without a base) then a lot of these shades can appear muddy if you over-blend.

I swatched them with a slightly damp brush, and I found this was amazing for bringing out the pigment to its full extent, some of these shades are very lovely indeed:

 Also, using a slightly damp brush (swatches are shown without a primer) means you get minimal fallout, and the glitter in the more dramatic shades will stay put!

In slightly different (less direct) light:

One quick note, if you apply the blue damp, it will stain your skin - I found that out the hard way!  I think my favourites are 11, 74 and seven.  How about you?

The Fine Print: PR samples, but I've bought loads of these too ... gotta love 'em. 
This post originated at: http://getlippie.com/ All rights reserved.

My Picks of 2010

Needless to say, you'll have seen a million of these posts already, and I was in two minds whether or not to post my selections too, but some of these products have been life-changing for me, and I thought I'd share them anyway ...

Bath Products of The Year:


Aromatherapy Associates

Early on in the year, I was sent an Aromatherapy Associates Miniature Bath and Shower oil selection, which I adored, and since then, I've been through two - count them! - full-size bottles of the Deep Relax bath oil.  Both heady and relaxing, this stuff has seen me through an operation, a change of job, and moving house, I can't recommend it highly enough.  A capful (or two, in my mega-bath's case) is more than enough to soothe my aching bones, and ease my weary head.  You can also use it as a shower oil, or, in extreme cases, you can dab it on your pulse points and sniff as required. They do great candles too.


Lipstick of the Year

Guerlain Rouge G in Georgia

Adore the packaging, love (love!) the colour, and the fact that it's both £10 cheaper than Tom Ford's Pure Pink, alongside being slightly easier to wear makes this glorious shade my pick of the year.   The Tom Ford Private Collection lipsticks did grow on me throughout the year (to the extent that I now own three of them), however, this is the shade I'll be buying  back up of very soon.

Shampoo/Conditioner of the Year:

Andrew Collinge Smooth & Shine

An oldie, admittedly, but a damn good one.  I found this moisturising, and made my hair behave beautifully.  Easy to rinse, and it left my hair with an amazing shine, and at a bargainous £4.99 for a 500ml bottle, it lasted forever too!  If it were SLS-free, I'd be using it still (I had a keratin treatment at the end of year, so am using SLS-free formulations right now), but I had no issues with colour-stripping whilst I was using this on my dry, colour-processed hair.

Blusher of the Year

Daniel Sandler Watercolour Blush

2010 was the year I really started to get into blusher, it started with Estee Lauder's Bronzed Goddess bronzer, and ended with Nars Douceur, but in between were these little gems. I love them still, and now own three, in Truth, Cherub and Dare (plus I intend to get my hands on Flush and Gentle at some point too), as they're practically perfect.  Long-lasting, buildable and perfectly tinted, after I learned to handle them, I fell in love.

Eyeshadow of the year

Le Metier de Beaute Kaleidoscope in Le Cirque

To be fair, everything I've tried from Le Metier this year has been great, but the Le Cirque Kaleidoscope blew me away a little bit. Beautiful and endlessly versatile, this is practically the only eyeshadow palette I've reached for since I bought it a couple of months ago. Alas, it's limited edition, so I'm glad I arranged a backup when I could.

Foundation of the Year

A tough one, this, so there are two winners (and a runner up ...):

 Guerlain Lingerie De Peau and Bourjois Healthy Mix

Both great for a glowing finish (even though the Bourjois is technically only a "satin" or semi-matte finish), I genuinely couldn't choose between the two.  The Guerlain is a lighter-than-air, dewy finish that I find works best when set with just the tiniest bit of powder, whereas the Bourjois doesn't need setting, but I find the coverage is a little heavier.

Just want to give a mention to a distinguished runner up, which is Armani Face Fabric.  Amazing mousse texture, but for me, I need to be having a really good face day to do it justice.  But this is great stuff:

Nail Varnish of the Year

Deborah Lippmann: Hit Me With Your Best Shot. 

A glimmering steel-grey shade with hints of multi-coloured micro-shimmer, I've reached for this polish again and again since it arrived in my stick little paws, I love it, and it just edged out Dolce & Gabanna's Perfection (which it very nearly is) as my pick of the year.  Unfair as I still don't think House of Fraser have it in stock yet, but when they do, snap this one up!

Candle of the Year

Jonathan Ward Idina's Locket

No competition - unless you count the rest of the candles in this superbly-scented Amber range from Jonathan Ward, of which I bought the entire range of the day it was released!  And I know I wasn't the only person to have done the same, either. Warm and evocative, this candle smells like it was stolen straight from the boudoir of  Coco Chanel herself.  I now have more candles from Jonathan on my "Candle Wall" than I do from any other maker, and the reason for that is because they are wonderful, not to mention very clean burning.


Perfume of the Year

Untitled by Maison Martin Margiela

A possibly controversial choice,  but my blog, my rules, so ... I have to say that out of all the mass perfume releases I smelled this year, this was by far the most interesting, and it's definitely the scent that's responsible for getting me interested in perfume at all during 2010, so for that, it was a very important discovery for me.  Not every perfume in store smells like sweeties, and thank goodness for that.  You're going to be hearing a lot from me about perfume in the coming months, so you can all blame the 'Martin.

Skincare Range of the Year:

 Much like Le Metier above, where I haven't had a duff product from them all year, Alpha H has been the same for skincare.  I've tried practically every product from the range now, and (one exploding eyecream aside) I've liked (at worst) all of them, and loved some of them.  Start with Liquid Gold, try the facial oil, then move onto the masks, you can't really go wrong.  I'll have some more in-depth reviews of a couple of things coming up soon, but this is a great, no-frills brand, and I highly recommend them.

You might also want to have a look at Mir Skincare, which is formulated for sensitive skin, and is a bit of a marvel, in particular I loved the (vegan-friendly) Argan Oil, which I'll shortly be placing a replacement order for.

And finally - if you're still reading!

Overall Product of the Year

Clarisonic

Quite simply, it's a life (and skin) changing bit of kit.  I've banged on about it at relentless length several times before now, so I shan't go on, but suffice to say, I can't imagine life without this now.  Even if it is, essentially, a giant toothbrush for your face.

This has been one massive post, sorry!

Lip Stains

I'm a big fan of lipstains, whilst I don't mind spending time applying my makeup in the mornings, I'm actually very lazy, and re-applying lipstick is something I don't bother doing all that often during the day, so it's nice that there are products you can use that'll stay in place all day.

That said though, I'm always slightly disappointed with products that look a bright rich red in the tube (or bottle) that actually just pull fuschia on the skin.  Yes, Benetint, et al, I'm looking at you!  The Body Shop lip & cheek stain does the same thing, but actually, I kind of like it.

Bourjois Rose Exclusif is actually a lipgloss with "colour-changing" abilities.  Do you remember "Ultra Glow" lipsticks?  They came in green and yellow and blue and brown and the like, and were meant to change to your "perfect" lipcolour in reaction to your body chemistry.  In reality, on me, they just went bright fuschia (no matter what colour I'd started off with) then stained my lips for three days.  Rose Exclusif promises to do a similar thing, only in a gloss.  And hopefully without the industrial staying power.

Here's how they swatch on the hand:

Body Shop tint on the left there, and Rose Exclusif on the right. As you can see, the Rose Exclusif doesn't really stain skin which isn't your lips, which is nice.  Both have a slight scent, and the Bourjois smells very, very sweet indeed.

Remarkably, both go more or less the exact same shade on my lips!  The Body Shop tint is far too pink for my cheeks alas (pink shades on my cheeks tend to make me look like I'm having a hot flush, which isn't a great look, to be honest), but here's the Body Shop tint on my lips:

And here is the Bourjois Rose Exclusif:

I find that if I layer the Bourjois over the Body Shop, then I can deepen the colour, and it lasts all day.  Here's the Rose Exclusif in the full context of my face:

Excuse the mad hair all over the place there, was testing a shampoo that I'll be talking to you about soon.


The Fine Print: One was a PR sample, and one was a freebie with a magazine.  Both are very nice though, regardless.

Organic Weekend - Une Natural Beauty from Bourjois

I do love me a bit of Bourjois, long one of my favourite High Street brands, I was delighted to find out recently that they were launching a new range of affordable organic cosmetics!  Already available in a few Boots stores around the country (London readers, you can find your nearest stand in the Oxford Street branch), it's making it's official debut on the Boots website this week.  Every single product in this line is between 98 to 100%, there are no synthetic dyes or fragrances, and the range is sillicone, paraben, pthalate and petrochemical free, and the ingredients used are sourced as organically as possible.  Pretty impressive for a mass brand, and the prices start at a not too pocket busting £4.99 for pencils, through £8.99 for shadows, up to £11.99 for the foundations.

 I managed to get my hands on a few bits and pieces, so I could give you my impressions:

First of all the packaging, it's clean, it's functional, and it's also pretty stylish, I love the square pencils, and the mirrored tops to the blush and eye packaging, but it's bulky.  They're not really items that are suitable for carrying around with you - but that mirror (you peel the labels off) is a totally nifty idea, and I love it.

A closer look at the items and their formulations:

As you can see, the mirrored sections slide up  on the colour cosmetics to reveal the contents.  A lot of the range is based around creams, from left to right we have: Breezy Cheeks blusher, a cream formulation, which goes on smoothly with fingers or a synthetic brush, and leaves a pretty, stained looking glow.

A matte finish without shimmer, these are lovely, almost foolproof shades which are buildable to the intensity you desire.  Longevity isn't bad, but you will probably need to reapply towards late afternoon time to keep looking flushed and lovely!

There are three formulations of eyeshadow, Sfumato (powder), Glimmer (cream), and Nude Eyes (cream to powder), as seen below in the same order as above:

All of these shadows tend to swatch on the sheer side.  They're great for layering (I like to use the nude eyes cream on the bottom as a base, then use the powder sfumato for definition around the crease and as a liner, then dot a little of the glimmer over the whole thing for a little sparkle), and as I found out the other day, they last pretty well under stressful situations such as crying, and eye-rubbing.  The range of shades tends towards the neutral/sludgy spectrum (which, for me, is a plus!) and they're good for creating natural, polished looks.  I'll definitely be picking more of these up.  Oh, but throw away the dinky brushes, they're worse than useless, if you ask me.  These are ideal for applying with fingers for a quick application, they sheer, so they're pretty difficult to go wrong with.

Pencils: mixed feelings about the pencils, to be honest.  Above is shown one eyeliner (the Sfumato, top) and a "Skin Glow" pencil.  The Sfumato eyeliner I find to be slightly on the hard and crumbly side, gorgeous shades, but I'm not sure they're great for the delicate eye area, as they appear to drag slightly on my skin.  The Skin Glow pencil, I love, even while I freely admit that I'm not - entirely - sure what it's supposed to be.  It's a creamy flesh-toned pencil, which I've used both as an eyeliner (on the water line) and as a concealer for small areas, plus I've used it to highlight my cupids bow, and add a little light to the inner corners of my eyes.  It worked well on all of those tasks - surprisingly versatile! - but ... I'm not sure what it's "official" function is meant to be, so if you know, do tell!   Here's how they swatch:

The lipsticks are probably the standouts of the range though.  A selection of lip-toned (not nudes, please note the difference!) shades, they're creamy and moisturising, and they add a polished finished look to your makeup whilst flattering your skin tones:

Again, they swatch on the sheer side, but, as with the shadows, this is deliberate in order to let your natural colouring through:

I love these, and I think I'll definitely be picking up a couple more when I get a chance, they're delightful!

I was also sent a foundation, but owing to circumstances beyond my control, I've not had a chance to wear it properly yet so I can't give it a proper review!  Long story ...

In essence, this is a good solid collection from Bourjois, some hits, some misses, the colour-range won't appeal to everyone, admittedly, but the textures are generally excellent, they're wonderfully easy to apply, and it's and range ideal for someone who wants to avoid particular ingredients whilst not spending a fortune. Personally, I think it's a great range for neutral, polished looks, and, I'm a fan, what do you think?