The Beauty Bible are looking for testers!

God, I love Beauty Bible, and I've been a member of a number of their testing panels for about ten years now.

Currently they're looking to recruit ladies over 35 for their latest version of the Natural Beauty Bible (the last one of which has a couple of my - anonymous - quotes in!), all you have to do is click here to apply to take part: http://beautybible.com/email-us/id-like-to-be-a-tester/ they'll be putting their panels together soon.

Bear in mind: it costs £30 to take part (only payable if you're selected for a panel - it's free to apply), but you do get ten products to trial, and they guarantee that the value of your parcel will be at least £100.  And you might get your comments in the book too!  Through testing over the years, I've discovered amazing products from the likes of Paul Mitchell, Bobbi Brown, Kanebo, Sensai and other brands that I wouldn't have heard of if I hadn't been a Beauty Bible tester - they're partly responsible for me being a beauty blogger in the first place!

I'll not mention the moisturiser that was like trying to rub cheese into my face, however ...

Whoops

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Bliss Fuzz Off Facial Hair Remover Review

Now, I don't have a moustache, but, if I did, I like to think I'd rock it a bit like this:

Sadly, as the moustache I most definitely do NOT have is a little wispy thing, I can't rock it with this kind of panache on a daily basis, so I generally leave it be.  Waxing your face is painful and can leave you with bruises if you do it wrong (allegedly - this cack-handed muppet doesn't wax anything without several glasses of wine and a panadol beforehand, so it might not, now I come to think of it, be the wax's fault ...) and bleaching is time-consuming, smelly and fraught with the dangers of mixing the chemicals yourself (is it just me, or is it simply impossible to know if you have twice as much cream as powder with that stupid little spatula you get in the pack?), so I don't bother with my facial topiary, frankly.  Life is too short for moustache-care, and fake-tanning if you ask me.

However, being a beauty blogger, particularly a beauty blogger interested in lipstick, like what I am, means you get to see your face in  EXTREME CLOSE UP very often.  You know the kind of close up where a tiny line becomes the Grand Canyon, and your pores look like craters of the moon?  Like the strongest magnifying mirror you can find, times a bajillion? Well, you don't really want to know what lip-hair looks like under those conditions, frankly ...

So, when Bliss unexpectedly sent me a tube of Fuzz Off, I was slightly bemused.  As I don't have a moustache, and bearing in mind that the aforementioned moustache I do not have is left in a state of benign neglect for approximately 50 weeks of the year, I wondered if I'd ever use it.  Then I was cropping some lipstick swatch pictures, and realised that there's no time like the present, and decided to give it a go.

It promises to work in three minutes, and to smell nice, which is about all you can ask for, really.  Oh, no chemical burns would be good too, and Fuzz Off delivers on all three counts.  It's quick, easy to use (you basically spread it on the affected area with the nifty spatula built into the tube, then remove it three minutes later with the other side of the spatula), and doesn't make you wonder who's been at the rotten eggs whilst you're about it.

However, it's £12 for a tiny 15ml tube.  I'm not sure how long it would last (although, I will say you don't need a huge amount, and, as you're getting rid of hair from the root, I don't think you'd need to use it all that often, to be honest), but that seems a bit pricey to me.  That said though, if I DID have a moustache (which I don't, remember?), then I would buy it, as the design of the tube is excellent and easy enough for even the most cack-handed of muppets to use, and it works very, very quickly.

I wouldn't, however, recommend it for extremely sensitive skins, as there's a chance of irritation, I did find my skin was a little pink after using, but this didn't last long, and hey! No moustache!


The Fine Print: PR Sample.

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Pink Grapefruit Sugar Cookie Recipe

I don't bake very often, but I've been sitting on this recipe for a while now, and today I just had to get my bake on! I got inundated with requests for the recipe when I posted the pics on Instagram, so I thought the best way to get the recipe out was a blog post.  Normal makeup-based service will resume soon, I promise...

Ingredients:

300 grams granulated sugar
114 grams butter
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons pink grapefruit juice
1 tablespoon pink grapefruit zest
256 grams plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
half teaspoon ground cinnamon
quarter teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of salt

Sugar for dusting

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, 180 celsius, or gas mark 4

Cream the butter and the sugar together, then add the egg, vanilla, juice and zest, and mix thoroughly.

Sift together the flour, spices, baking powder and salt, then mix into the wet ingredients, and mix till you have a soft, sticky dough.

Place tablespoon sized balls of dough onto a lined baking sheet, approximately two inches apart (cookies will spread a great deal), and sprinkle the tops with a little sugar, then bake for approximately 10-12 minutes, removing from the oven once slightly golden, and the edges have set.

Cool on a rack. Makes about 24 cookies.

You get a very crisp cookie with a slightly soft centre, and just a hint of zingy grapefruit.   Enjoy!

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A Week in Eyeshadow ...

In a change from my normal "Week in Lipstick" posts, I thought a week in eyeshadow might be in order.

Man, I need to step away from the taupe a bit, eh?  All mascara is YSL Babydoll (full review coming soon) and most eyeliner is Tom Ford Noir Absolu except at bottom right, where it's Illamasqua Havoc...

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Lippie's Lust List #5 - Urban Decay Eyeliner Vault

Released on May 2nd, this set of 40 of Urban Decay's eyeliners is stunningly beautiful.  I want it very much.

However, it's £240 so it can sod off.


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Jo Malone London Osmanthus Blossom

The latest beautifully packaged fragrance from Jo Malone London is Osmanthus Blossom.  A delicate, fresh floral, this is gorgeously spring-like, with hints of apricot and cashmere wood in the base.

The bottle is etched, and comes with a coloured back panel too:

The scent is lovely and light, very simple and crisp, gently floral without being too granny-like.  It's easy to wear, and perfectly suitable for spring.  I've been wearing it layered over Jo Malone London Blackberry and Bay - which I always think of as a very autumn-like scent, and the pairing works really well.  The Osmanthus softens out the rather masculine bay, and the soapy-blackberry note sweeten up the floral tendencies of the Osmanthus.

In what is increasingly looking like an over-saturation of Jo Malone launches this year (I ignored the "English Desserts" collection of a month or two ago, as they were all, frankly, disgustingly over-sweet and very definitely aimed at a different market to myself) this is a fragrance I'm surprised to find myself writing about to be honest, but it's very definitely a "nice" scent, and will make a wonderful gift thanks to the fabulous packaging.

Osmanthus Blossom will cost £38 for 30ml, or £78 for 100ml when it's released in May.

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Becca Sunchaser Ultimate Eye Colour Quad

Something a little less bright, but no less pretty, on the blog today.  The summer palette from Becca is the Sunchaser set this year, and it's a lovely one.

So many summer collections are either too orange or contain a bright that is less than useful, so for us who prefer to stay pale year-round (you will never see me write about a home fake-tanning product on here), a lot of summer collections are pretty much unwearable.  This was a really lovely surprise when it arrived, for it's a beautiful selection of nude shades, which has very quickly gained a place in my heart

The four shades are: (clockwise from top) Matte Buff, Softly Metallic Peach, Metallic Tweed and Metallic Sienna.  I wouldn't really describe any of these shades as a "metallic", they're soft shimmers, and I can't really tell the difference between the "soft metallic" and just plain "metallic" either.

This, for me, is an almost perfect "nude" eyeshadow palette - I don't get along with the Urban Decay Naked palette too well - I've been away a couple of times this month, and this palette has come away with me on each trip, as you can create a "no-makeup" look quite easily, but by changing the amount of Tweed and Buff that you use (Tweed as a liner, and Buff in the contour), you can make a softly smokey eye very easily too.

Swatches don't show much (they've been done with a finger over bare skin) but that's kind of why I like it, it's the perfect summer collection for the pale as the dead, like what I am.

The Sunchaser Quad will be available from SpaceNK soon for £32.

The Fine Print: PR Sample

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Body Shop Colour Crush Eyeshadows

As spring has allegedly sprung, I thought I'd break out some colours on the blog - well it makes a change from sludges and reds, I guess!  The redeveloped Colour Crush Eyeshadows from the Body Shop have been on counters for a little while now, they're really pretty and I've actually been impressed with the texture, so I thought it was about time they made an appearance.

As you can see, I was sent quite a collection, here we have:
Top row: Sweet Pea, Boyfriend Jeans & Berry Cute
Middle: Grape Expectations, Berry Cheeky & Blackcurrant Affair
Bottom: Golden Girl & Caramel Flirt

This is a really nice set of colours, they're fairly pigmented, and are soft and velvety in use, I've not experienced much fallout with them, either.

I've swatched them here with my finger over bare skin, so you can see how pigmented they are in normal use - the colours are brighter over a primer, of course, but I know a lot of my readers don't use eyeshadow primers:

Bright, eh?  And even brighter with a primer!  My picks from this set of shades would be Grape Expectations, and Golden Girl (as a highlighter), and possibly Blackcurrant Affair, but that's just me.

The shadows last quite well, but if you wear them on bare skin they will fade rather quickly (within a couple of hours).  At seven pounds per shade, they're fairly bargainacious too ...

The Fine Print: PR Samples.

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What's in my makeup bag?

It's not very sexy as makeup bags go, is it? However, it's large, strong, and squishy, which is all I really ask of my cosmetic carriers, frankly.  Anything too rigid means I won't be able to fit some things in.  I don't, in all honesty, carry a lot of makeup around with me, but these are the basics that I can't bear to be parted from:

Clockwise from the bottom:
Clarins Instant Light Lip Perfector in 06 Rosewood Shimmer
Illamasqua Generation Q handbag mirror
Bare Minerals Correcting Concealer in Medium
Gwdihw First Aid Skin Balm
Clinique Even Better Compact makeup in 04 Creamwhip
Aftelier Perfume sample Tango
Bare Minerals Soft Focus Eyeshadow Brush
Bliss Handcream in Blood Orange and White Pepper
Jo Malone London fragrance in Lime, Basil & Mandarin
Orange Blossom lip balm
Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge in Pretty Powerful Pink
All for Eve crystal nail file

Not a huge amount, really - and, I've just noticed, there's a distinct lack of eye products, really.

A closer look:

I use the eyeshadow brush to apply the Bare Minerals concealer, it gives a soft application, and blends as you go, which I really like - there's nothing worse than a too heavy application of concealer, as that tends to actually draw attention to flaws rather than deflect it.

I like the Gwdihw First Aid Balm for those little accidents that happen during the day, paper cuts, scrapes, bites and stings, it's really good and very healing, I've not been without my pot since it arrived. Cheap and cheerful, but all-natural, and there's a whole host of different balms on the website, I really like the cuticle balm, and the pineapple lipbalm too.

Aftelier's Tango perfume.  I carry this everywhere with me.  When I need an evening-time top-up of fragrance, this is what I'll be wearing. Smoky, mysterious, sexy and just plain gorgeous, one day I'm just going to splash out and buy a full bottle.

I carry the Even Better compact around with me as it's more portable than the bottle (the finish of which I actually prefer, to be honest), but it's extremely useful for top-ups, if I'm wearing a foundation that day that hasn't lasted the distance.  If I get to three pm and my foundation has disappeared (it does happen), I use this to fill in any patches.

The Bliss Handcream, is rather basic as handcreams go, which is fine by me, as I'm not plagued with particularly dry skin, but this has an amazing spicy orange scent which I really love.  It's a limited edition every Christmas, and I was very put out this year that they only released it in this mini-size. Morons.

I carry the Lime, Basil & Mandarin round with me in case I need to top up my fragrance during the day.  I've been wearing a lot of terrible fragrances recently, which luckily haven't lasted too long, and I use this to hide the last lingering bits of them later on ...

I love the scent of orange blossom, and in this random lipbalm I picked up in a pharmacy in Paris, it makes an unusually scented lipbalm.  Not sure, entirely, that the scent works in a balm, but, hey, it's unusual and I like it.  I think.

The Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge is a limited edition in an extremely wearable shade, it's rather pale on my lips, but it's great for adding a little pink colour to my cheeks when I'm having a pale day.

The Clarins Instant Light is a "my lips but better" shade that I carry around, just in case ... stupidly named (it's about as shimmery as ... hmn ... well, let's just say it's NOT SHIMMERY, shall we), but it gives a polished look that won't clash with any eye makeup looks.

And that's it!  It usually has a couple of lipsticks in there too, as I just add whatever shade I'm wearing on the day to the bag, but these are the staples that never move out of the bag.

So, what do you carry around with you on a day-to-day basis?

The Fine Print: Mixture of PR Samples and purchases.

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Lipsticks of the Week: Soft Reds

  

It's been a red kind of week, but I couldn't face my usual bright "in your face" kind of shades, so softer, gentler, easier-wearing kinds of reds (and a pink) have dominated my look this week:

From left to right we have:

Revlon Colourburst Lip Butter in Red Velvet - I've largely ignored the Revlon Lip Butter hype, as the colours have all been too pale and milky for me up till now.  This is a gorgeous soft red, easy to wear, and comfortable on the lips.  It's about the only shade from the range I'd wear though.
Lanolips Apples - You might remember this from my post last week.  Please don't stand on your lanolips tubes, peeps.  This is a conditioning balm, and I own the full set of colours, I'm a bit of a Lanolips addict.  This is the brightest of the lot, I think.
Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Lipstain in Romantic - hate the taste, love the shade

Jouer Tinted Lip Enhancer in Shiraz - This is another conditioning balm with a hint of colour, it has a slighly floral taste, but leaves my lips in great re-hydrated condition, it's a really lovely shade, too.
Clinique Chubby Stick Intense in Plushest Punch - It's pink.  I know.  But it's gorgeous. Shut up.
Lipstick Queen Saint in Wine - Possibly my most-used lipstick of the year so far.  Gives the lips a gorgeous blood-red stain.  Love it.
Clarins Instant Smooth Crystal Lip Gel in Crystal Plum - Not sure this is blue enough to be a real "plum" shade, but it's a soft sheer, clear red on the lips, with a highly fruity scent that is extremely reminiscent of Lancome Juicy tubes.

Swatches (in same order as above):

Whilst I can classify all of these (except Plushest Punch) as a soft red, you can see some of the differences quite clearly here: Red Velvet is a slightly deeper red with hints of blue, Apples is a sheer bright red, Romantic has more of an orange hue, and Shiraz definitely has hints of wine in there.  Plushest Punch is, well, pink! Wine appears browner on the skin, but the natural colour of your lips counteracts this, and it's definitely a red in wear, and Crystal Plum is definitely a sheer (and extremely glossy) red.

So, what've you been wearing this week?

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