Christmas Countdown - Bits and bobs

Continuing my Christmas gift guide, here are some other bits and bobs that I thought might make great gifts for people (including me!).

First of all, one of the more prettily packaged palettes I've seen this season:

Dior Minaudiere

I actually bought one of these for my mum last week, having seen it on a variety of US blogs recently, but if you follow me on Twitter at all, you'll know it was stolen from me when I was mugged last week.  I'm fine, but I'm still heartbroken that I lost this.  Containing three toning eyeshadows and two lipglosses, these are destined to be a collectors item of the future, I think.  They cost £59 from Debenhams, and are well worth the investment, just tuck the Dior bag well away in your shopping!

Jonathan Ward Candles

I mention Jonathan at any possible opportunity, I realise, but for me, his really have become the standard against which I measure all candles.  Clean burning, organic, lovingly presented and always gloriously scented, Jonathan's candles are extremely difficult to beat.  In particular at the moment I'm enjoying the Amber & Spice collection, of which I cleared Wholefoods out of almost its entire stock, recently!  Even the £20 "gift size" candle burns for an extremely long time, and doesn't look at all miserly. Very highly recommended indeed.

Incidentally, Tom Ford has recently introduced a range of candles based on his Private Blend Collection of scents, and I think the Tuscan Leather would be a great addition to my candle wall!

Affordable makeup-wise, ELF makeup is difficult to beat and they've brought out a lovely range of eyeshadow sets for Christmas this year:

I've got my hands on a couple of these sets already, and I think they're astonishing value at £3.50 for the sets of six shadows, to £9 for a set of 32, to £15 for a set of 100!  I adore their Studio line of brushes too, and think that a lot of pro lines will find it hard to compete with their quality at only £3.50 each.

And finally - it's not beauty related, I know, but this IS a beauty, believe you me! - there is this:

Yes, it's a filofax, but to be precise it is the Filofax Gourmet Society giftbox, which contains an organiser (in either the grape that you see here, or Slate Grey), a pen, and a year's membership to the Gourmet Society which gets you up to 50% in thousands of restaurants around the UK.  I was the lucky recipient of one of these a couple of weeks ago, and it has been in daily use ever since, I can't imagine life without it.  This normally retails at £43 (and is a bargain even then, as the Gourmet Society membership alone costs more than that) but is currently on special offer on the filofax website at £38.  I know at least three people who'd love one of these, and probably more!

So, that's it for my Christmas gift guide (for now), I may add to it later ... what are you thinking of getting people?

Elf High Definition Powder vs Urban Decay Razor Sharp Ultra Definition Finishing Powder

You can't move at the moment for High Definition cosmetics. I'm not - entirely - convinced that for day-to-day wear you need cosmetics that provide coverage designed for such a specific purpose (essentially a High Definition cosmetic is one designed not to look dreadful for digital photography), but some of them do have their uses.

I'm a fan of HD powders, they're a lot finer than traditional talc-based powder, and for that reason, on my slightly dry skin, I find them quite easy to wear.  They're also slightly lighter than talc-based cosmetics, so they won't clog your pores, and they're also suitable for summer-wear over a tinted moisturiser.

I own two HD powders, firstly Elf HD Powder:

Mainly consisting of silica, this powder costs £6 and is available from the ELF website.  It's housed in a bulky black box with a sifter, and comes complete with a velvet puff to buff the product into your skin.

I also own the Urban Decay Razor Sharp Ultra Definition Finishing Powder (catchy name!  But it's essentially an HD powder like the ELF above):

This is housed in a round container, which has a built-in applicator, which makes it slightly less likely that you'll end up spilling the powder all over your feet when you're using it.  Not, of course, that I'm speaking from experience!  Their are two major differences between the Urban Decay HD powder (seriously, I cannot be bothered typing the full name out every time) and the ELF, and that is the UD is beige, and it costs £17.

So, given that the major component in both powders is silica, is there much difference between them?  Actually, yes. And no. Both feel silky on the skin thanks to the silica, and both work well as finishing powders, giving the skin a matte-ish, but not flat finish.  In fact, the ELF powder is the one I use as a finishing powder in the vast majority of my makeovers, but I do find that the Urban Decay does, in fact give a finer, softer finish on the skin, and feels a great deal silkier when rubbed between your fingertips. There's not a huge amount to choose between them to be honest.  Both involve patting the applicator over your skin, then I like to sweep away the excess with a large powder brush, to give an even finish.

All that said, which one would I buy again?  The ELF. Most likely. For my purposes, it's just that little bit more versatile.  Yes, it doesn't have the "sexy" packaging of the UD, but I don't think the fancy container justifies a three times higher cost considering the similarity of the contents. I did find, in use that the UD reminded me a great deal of Prescriptives (now discontinued) "Magic Powder", and I think it has some of the same "water-burst" technology, so people who've been yearning for a duplicate, here's your chance! For me though, I'd still buy the ELF, I can always put it into a fancy container ...

Do you own any HD cosmetics, what do you think of them?

The Fine Print: I bought these. A little while ago, admittedly, but I've still got the box the ELF came in.  I really need to tidy up.

Eye of the Day - ELF and The Balm

 (Please ignore the stupid look on my face) 

This is a look I've been wearing a lot lately. I was sent some samples of the new ELF Cream Liner in Coffee, and The Balm Shady Lady 2 eyeshadow palette recently, and I have to say, I adore them both.  A closer look at the palette:

It's BEEYOOTIFUL.  Unlike many palettes, this one is endlessly versatile, and doesn't have any "random" shades thrown in just to make the numbers up, it's enormously flattering and will be suitable for a variety of skin tones. The shadows themselves are silky, buttery soft, and extremely blendable.  This has just become my desert-island palette, I've been carrying it around with me since it arrived.

The look I created above is a very neutral one, I used the pale pink (bottom right) on my mobile lid and brow bone, with the coppery brown (middle right) in the crease, and the taupe (top right) on the outer corner and as a liner underneath the eye.  Very quick, very polished, and very easy to kick up with a pop of any of the blue/purple/dark brown shadows on the left there as liners.

Here's a close up of the look:

Can't really recommend this palette highly enough to be honest, I love it.  You can buy yours from the lovely, lovely girls at Cult Beauty  for £38.  Pricey? Possibly, but you won't need any other eyeshadows for the rest of the year, if you get it, and these are really super-high quality shadows.

And I'm about to rave about the eyeliner as well.  Sorry, this is turning into a hella-gushy post!  I've always found ELF products a bit hit and miss, to be honest, but when they get things right, boy do they... I'm always dubious about cream eyeliners, sometimes they're difficult to use, being a bit "draggy", and then you have the transference problem if your eyelids are hooded at all, as mine are.

I used the shade "coffee" in a very fine line for this EotD, and I applied it with the ELF small smudge brush I bought recently.  It's very soft and smooth, meaning it can be easy to put too much on the brush, but I find just taking the excess off on the lip of the pot works fine.  You will probably need two passes of the brush over the lid to get the depth of colour you'd like, but with a formulation this soft, it's not a hardship!  The liner sets in a minute or two, and it's unbudgeable once it does.  (Is unbudgeable a word?  I guess it is now ...) No transferring to the crease, and no flaking or smudging on the eye, even when you wear it as a thicker, more dramatic line, as below:

As far as I'm concerned, this little baby has outperformed liners costing up to five or six times as much you can get hold of one for £3.50 from the ELF website. I'll definitely be buying the black and the blue, and I'll just have to live in hope that they'll eventually add a green and a purple to the range too, they're fantastic.

Okay, enough gushing from me (I'm really sorry, but you know perfectly well that I'm not this impressed with anything very often, so I hope you'll forgive me), what are your favourite beauty products at the moment?

Makeover: Rebecca

I recently put out a call on my blog for volunteers for makeovers, and the lovely Rebecca from Le Salon de Beaute had volunteered almost before I’d finished writing the post!  Take a look at her blog if you get a chance, it’s a lovely one, and I’m a big fan.
Anyway, this is Rebecca refusing to give me her best “Prisoner Cell Block H” impression.
I was a bit nervous during this makeover, as Rebecca is a talented makeup artist in her own right, so I was really putting my amateur skills to the test here.
As always, we start with the base.  Rebecca has very pale skin, and I had a little trouble matching her up with my small foundation supply, but the nearest match we came up with was – once again – Max Factor Seamless in Porcelain:

It’s evened out her skintone well (it’s a foundation I use a LOT), but I can’t help thinking it’s  just a touch too warm on Rebecca’s skin.
We had a fun time picking out some colours to use, and eventually we decided to do something a bit different, and went for a pink and burgundy smokey eye.  As a colour wash, I used ELF’s Shimmering Facial Whip in Pink Lemonade:

It’s a lovely soft pink shade that you can use anywhere on your face, and it makes a nice eyeshadow base too. 
It’s not as scarily bright as you might think on the eyes, and I thought it was a lovely, brightening shade.  In order to smoke it out, I used Korres 77s eyeshadow in plum, which is a lovely  burgundy, and an eyeshadow that I use very often.  I used it as a liner, and to define the outer V of the mobile eyelid and into the crease:
I then finished off the eyes with a sweep of Bourjois Ultra Care mascara (full review of that coming soon!) and added a little of MAX lipgloss in VI to Rebecca’s lips:

I think she liked it:


Here’s the before and after: 

Thanks so much for taking part, Rebecca! It was lots and lots of fun!

Makeover: Kerry

After a bit of last minute confusion with one of my other volunteers, the lovely Kerry stepped in to have a makeover, and I'm glad she did, as this is one of my favourites!

Meet Kerry:

Kerry is really very pretty already, with enormous green eyes.  Sometimes Kerry thinks she looks a bit young (never an issue as far as I'm concerned!) so was looking to create a sophisticated "grown-up" look, that was hopefully a bit glamorous too.

As always, we started with the base.  Kerry has beautiful porcelain skin, so we used Bobbi Brown liquid foundation in "porcelain" as the main base, and Benefit's You're Bluffing as a concealer on the birthmark on her upper lip.  I decided against using Bluffdust as a powder because Kerry is so pale, and we used ELF HD Powder to set the look instead:

Then, to make the most of Kerry's gorgeous eyes, I made use of a Bobbi Brown palette I have that features mainly chocolate shades, I applied a shimmer wash of colour over Kerry's lids, then defined the crease with a darker shimmery brown shade:

Once they were in place, I lined the eyes with "coffee, and applied just a little more shimmer to Kerry's  lids:

 

 

Once that was in place, I darkened Kerry's brows just a little (with Smashbox brow powder kit), and added a single layer of Clarins Wonder Perfect Mascara, the difference was amazing!

A light touch of Cargo Plant Love's Wind (please note no schoolgirl jokes today, thank you) around the cheekbones and temples to warm the look up a bit, and then I used NARS Sex Machine on Kerry's lips, and finished with a tiny slick of Dior lipgloss (the name of which has worn off, but is a very pale pink with a hint of green iridescence.  Nicer than it sounds, honest!)  Here's how it looked when it was all put together:

And here's the before and after:

Many thanks for stepping in Kerry, hope you liked your new look!

Makeover: Jane C

Another Sunday, and another makeover (or two) today!  Please meet Jane:

Jane's great, and I think she's one of the most naturally gorgeous people I've ever met, so having her volunteer for a makeover was a lovely surprise!  Jane was interested in finding out a simple look suitable for daytime, and trying out a more dramatic look too.  Here's what we came up with - and before we start, I must apologise for the quality of the pictures in this post, we lost the light quite dramatically towards the end of our session, and so some of the later pictures have a lot of shadows which I find really distressing!

So, for the daytime look,  as always we started with the base.  Jane is blessed with naturally creamy skin, so, instead of using a foundation, I used Benefit You Rebel in Light to even out her skintone:

I used a very tiny bit of ELF High Definition powder on Jane's T-zone, but there really wasn't a huge amount of corrective work that needed doing here.  We then moved onto Jane's eyes, I dug out my Bobbi Brown  palette, and used Flesh as a colour wash all over the lid up to to brow, then used Naked as a crease contour:

 

Jane uses a lot of grey shadows ordinarily, but we thought something a little different might work, so, as an eyeliner, we used a Korres pencil in blueblack - I love these pencils, they're buttery-soft and beautifully blendable, perfect for a novice user - to set off the browns in her eyes:

 

 

Then, we finished off with a little Lancome Hypnose, a dusting of Cargo Illuminator in Wind on the cheekbones, and a little beige lipgloss:

For Jane's more dramatic look, we removed the eyemakeup altogether and started from scratch.  I was determined to make this as simple as possible for Jane to be able to replicate at home, so I used a very similar application technique, and mainly just worked with different colours.

As a colour wash over the lid, I used Korres eyeshadow in Base 12s, which is a lovely taupe with a slight pink iridescence.  The iridescence made Jane a bit nervous, but once I explained that it's not actually a PINK eyeshadow, and it would just make her eyes seem a bit brighter, she relented and let me use it.  Then, to accentuate the crease, I use MAC Behold, which is a grey-taupe, and possibly the most useful eyeshadow I have in my kit:

 

 

I then applied an extremely thin line of black powder eyeshadow in place of liquid liner, and accentuated the lashes with a coat of Lancome Hypnose Drama (forgot to take pictures of this step - sorry!) Once the eyes were finished, I applied Ellis Red from Ellis Faas to Jane's lips, and the look was finished:

Personally, I love how this looks on Jane.  If I were to try to re-create this look, I'd probably do a little cheekbone contouring too - probably using Ilamasqua blush in Rumour - and add another coat or two of mascara.  I'd also make sure the lighting was right!

Thank you very much for being my sitter, Jane, I hope you enjoyed the session as much as I did.