Estee Lauder - Bronze Goddess

After my utter disaster with the Estee Lauder Michael Kors collection, I made darn sure I got my hands on this one! I think Estee Lauder are doing really interesting and exciting things at the moment, and this collection confirms it.

Let's have a look at some swatches, I'll start with the eyeshadows:

There are four eyeshadows in this collection, Sand Shimmer, Ultra Violet, Aqua Flash and Molten Bronze.  Sadly, I didn't receive Molten Bronze, so that's why it's not swatched here.  These are intensely pigmented, and will cover your entire eyelid in one swipe of the does-foot applicator.  They can, however, look a little crepe-y if applied too heavily, so I recommend a light hand on the application, and you can sheer them out with your fingertips if you prefer.  However, these last and last, once they're in place!  You will not need a primer, as these shadows are not going anywhere!  I washed this hand three times with soap and water and it still bears traces of the swatches! They will come off very easily with an oily cleanser though, don't worry, you're not going to be stuck with aqua eyelids till the end of time ...

LOVE these lipglosses!  Gloriously fluorescent in the tube, they give lovely sheer brightness to the lips.  The pink (Wild Orchid) has a beautiful blue micro-shimmer to it, and the orange (Wild Coral) has golden micro-shimmers, both of which you'll be able to see more easily if you click on the picture to enlarge it.  Neither feel gritty on the lips, and they last about as well as your average lipgloss.  One thing I will say, is that you don't get as much in the tube as it looks like you do, as you'll see from the top right of the pic - the label fell off mine!

I think, however, that this is the piece I'll be going back for backups of - at least two, I think.  This is the "Exotic Bronzing Blush" and as well as being really cute - have to love those zebra stripes of colour! - it's actually great for giving you a touch of sunkissed colour, without being as "flat" as a traditional bronzer.  Slightly (but not overly) sparkling, it's a real gem.

This is very pretty, a deep, dark purple shade of polish, with pink glitter, it's really very lovely ("Oh, that is super!" MrLippie), it's a trifle on the thick side, almost gloopy, but it's very glossy and beautifully sparkly on the nails.  The wear isn't the greatest I've ever seen (two days maximum without chipping) but it's one of those shades that keeps catching your eye, and just demands that you look at it.  I forgive it all the problems for that.  And I, for one, love the Lauder polish bottles!

I'll be honest, I've not actually plucked up the courage to use this on my face yet (and anyone who read my last post on Zuneta last week will know why!) but it's a wash-off bronzing gel, which, as you can see from my hands there does leave you with a natural-looking glow.


I'll see if I can actually get over myself a little bit soon, and use it in a FotD!




So, as you can see, a wide range of products, some good, some great, but all useable, I think.  W|hat's caught your eye?


Small Print: These products were provided by PR.  Opinions free and unsullied, yadda yadda, yadda. No cake was harmed in the making of this post.

Lifesaving Lipstick?

Might seem a silly question, but some products can help save lives.  This lipstick is brought to us by All For Eve a brand new beauty brand who are donating all their profits to help fund research into gynaecological cancers.  So, not only will this lipstick help you look good, it will do good too. 

I'm posting this tonight, as I've been really pleased and delighted to see that All For Eve won FOUR (a record) CEW Beauty Awards earlier today, Best Beauty Brand,  Best New Bath and Body Product (for their body butter), Best Hand and Nail Product (for their hand cream) and Best Beauty Product for the lipstick I'm showing you right now, which was designed by Daniel Sandler.

And, what a beauty it really is, a blue-based red with wonderful staying power, it's moisturising and beautifully pigmented, and absolutely everyone I know who has one has raved about it.



Here are swatches on my hand, and my lips (as always, pictures are clickable to enlarge):

Other products in the range have been designed by Urban Retreat, Sophy Robson, and Swarovski, here's a little peek:

These products mean business, the people behind this project have worked hard to make these releases as good as they can possibly be (not, sadly, always the case when it comes to charity beauty products) and I think their four awards today show that beauty experts in this country think they've done a bang up job!

Support a charity, save a life.


All for Eve products will be released officially on Monday 26th April.  Will you be checking them out?

Highlighters that double as blushers

When I was featuring (some of) my highlighter stash recently, I mentioned that I owned a few that doubled up as blushers, and I thought I'd show you those too. If you've followed my makeovers in any great detail, then at least one of these will be very familiar to you!

This is my Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips in Natural Glow which I won in a giveaway over at London Beauty Review quite recently. on the peachy side of natural, this gives great glowy definition where you want it, and is great for pure highlighting when you just want sheen.  The swatch on the right shows all the shades swirled together, but the darker two strips at the bottom are ones that I've used very successfully as a blush shade too.

Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Apricot.  This isn't one I use much, as I think it needs a bit of tan to make it work properly, so it's one I'm going to make massive amounts of use of this summer, being coral is massive this year!  It's the same quality as my BB Beige shimmer brick, which I never miss an opportunity to use, and I'm sure this one won't let me down either! It's a little more on the gold-y side than the Physicians Formula above, not too sure if that's visible in the pics.

Finally, what is probably my favourite highlighter of all time, Cargo Plant Love Illuminator in Wind.  A swirled (baked) mix of bronze and two shade s of pink, this is something that I find never fails to lighten and brighten even the dullest of complexions. Plus, mad packaging aside, it's also very pretty to look at.  Applied with a light hand, it gives a very pretty flush of colour to the cheeks, but you can also use it to give a sunkissed look, as in this makeover here.

Do you have any multi-purpose blushers and highlighters?  What are your favourites?

Makeover: Helen S

 Gosh, it's been a few weeks since I posted a makeover, I'm really sorry! I hope you'll all make Helen very welcome, she's a great friend of mine, and we've been makeup shopping A Lot over the years. Mainly because it took me a very long time to cure Helen of her frosted mauve lipstick fetish .... Here she is, all fresh-faced, and only slightly apprehensive about what the day is going to bring.

Helen popped along on Valentines Day for some chocolate, a girly gossip and a brand new look, we've worked on her "polished neutrals" for work before now, but this time Helen wanted something completely different and dramatic, suitable for a night out.  Having a look through both our makeup collections, we thought grey would be a great option to bring out the beautiful brown of Helen's eyes.  But, as always, before that, we started with the base, which in Helen's case was a mix of Bobbi Brown tinted moisturiser, and Mac Studio Fix powder:

Initially we had decided on Bourjois Liquid eyeshadow in Platinum Gris, but once it was on the skin, I realised that although it was certainly dramatic, it really wasn't dramatic in the right kind of way. So, immediately after applying it, we took it back off.

We replaced it with Benefit Creaseless Cream in Skinny Jeans, which has long been a favourite eyeshadow of mine, it's slightly more pewter, and as such tends to be a little more flattering on pale-olive skintones.

A dramatic evening look seems to demand lots of eyeliner, so we took the skinny jeans around the eye, and used a little black liner to define the top row of lashes.  Next stop, mascara:

We used Bourjois Ultra Care mascara - which is one of my all-time faves for makeovers -  and here we also added a pop of Bourjois Rose Coup de Foudre blush to Helen's cheekbones. Helen had never worn mascara before, but I'm reliably informed she's been out and bought one now!

 Breaking all my own rules (I wouldn't normally put pink with this look, but we were going for different) a slick of Lipstick Queen's 15 Minutes of Fame gloss in Minute 3 finishes off the look,and Helen's all ready to party!


















Here's the before and after:

Guerlain Summer Editions

Oh, I love Guerlain, I love how their powders are always delicately scented with violets, which somehow makes the products feel more genteel and otherworldly, ladylike, I guess. Speaking of ladylike, their summer editions are something rather special too:

 Bad beauty blogger alert - I'm a dingbat, and forgot to take off the plastic cover that protects the eyeshadows!  

Guerlain are famous for their bronzers, so I was interested to see that this is a summer collection that will work well even if you don't have a tan, and if you have cool tones-skin.  So many summer collections assume that we're all off to the Caribbean for a month ... here's a closer look at the shadows:

Pretty - and matte! - gorgeous peaches and taupes, with a sparkly brown added for defining.  The white rosette you can see isn't an overspray, it's actually the white shade from their Les Meteorites pearls, and it goes all the way to the bottom of the pan.  Swatches:

Swatched rather heavily here, so you can see the different colours. I've done a FotD which I'll show you soon, which has them rather more sheered out.  Shadows are buttery soft, and really very blendable, sadly, the swatches make them look a bit chalky (wasn't expecting them to be so pigmented when I stuck my fingers in!) but I think these colours are perfect for a Faye Dunaway/Brigitte Bardot-esque, sixties-style look too.


Here are the two KissKiss Baby balms which are being released two, one a coral (So hot right now! - Zoolander) and one a pink:

These are very sheer, and beautifully moisturising - I've been wearing the pink (top) every day since it arrived! They're very lovely for a sheer veil of colour, when you don't fancy full on lipstick.  SPF 10 too, which is nice.  Swatches:

This is a nice alternative take on the summer coral/tanned trend, what do you think?

Guerlain Summer editions will be released Nationwide on 5th June - Ombre Eclat Palette will cost £36 and the KissKiss Baby Balms will be £20.

The Small Print: Items in this post were clandestinely handed over in a tea-shop by the Guerlain PR people.  They forced me to eat cake, however, this has in no way affected my review of the items in question.  My opinions cannot be bought with sponge.

Lime Crime Launches in the UK

A picture paints a thousand words.  With that in mind here's an entire essay about Lime Crime:

(click to enlarge pics)

Lip swatches of My Beautiful Rocket, and D'Lilac are after the jump:

Duckface!

Okay, I promised yesterday that if this post got enough comments, I'd post the Duckface That Went Astray pic.  Well, here it is.

After the jump!

Zuneta Tuesday

It's Tuesday, so that means it's my last day blogging on Zuneta for a couple of weeks, please pop by and say hello!

Lippie rambles at Zuneta

Be lovely to see you, I've made a right idiot of myself this week, let's see what you think! ;)

Clarins Instant Sunlight Quad

I popped into Debenhams last week for some shampoo, and I got myself distracted by some of the new summer collections that have come out.  Clarins in particular, really caught my eye, and I really liked the look of this eyeshadow palette:

I'm always a sucker for a slinky silver compact - not entirely convinced about the suedette pochette, to be honest - but the contents of this one are lovely (first shot no flash, second shot with):

Looks to me like it'll be pretty versatile,  here's some finger swatches:

Do you have your eye on any of the summer collections?  What's caught your eye?

The Small Print: I bought this, with money.  I didn't get any shampoo.  I'm not fit to be let out in a shop alone.

Highlighters - Pressed Powders

Whoo, got here eventually!  Now, pressed powders are my favourite kind of highlighters, I just find them easier to apply, and they're more forgiving when you accidentally overapply.  first off, let's take a look at a highlighter I recently rediscovered as a result of my rummaging:

Trish McEvoy Blush Highlight: Oh, this is a pretty one.  Yes, it's a bit sparkly in the pan, but it applies very silkily (is that a word?), and it adds a very nice hint of colour to your cheekbones.  This one is especially good swirled over your blusher, or over a bronzer to bring it to life a little. Now I've rediscovered it, I'm going to use it more and more often.  I love the colours in my charger, and digging it back out has reminded me that there are a couple of slots free, and I'm thinking I might fill them with some more eyeshadows.  Trish McEvoy is a great brand - if you can avoid being sold the ENTIRE RANGE whenever you step near their counters - and I'll talk to you more about the rest of the things I have from her soon.

I've posted about this one before: YSL Y-Mail Palette.  Shall we play a game of spot the swatch?  It is there, I promise you, first one to tell me where it is gets a prize! Ironically, even though it hasn't photographed at all well, I do still like this one a lot, as you can tell from where the lettering has been wearing off! It's a subtle (if you avoid the glittery bit) brightening powder that just adds a hint of glow to your finished makeup, and stops your foundation looking too cake-y, in the same way a spritz of toner is meant to.  I don't do the toner thing, being a non-believer in it, and also, having a mild paranoia about spraying things on my face.  But yes, be wary of the glitter if you go for this one.

Saving what is probably my favourite for last: Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Beige. I don't know if you can tell from the pic but this is one battered piece of kit!  Several of the strips have fallen out over the years (and it is several years old), have been pushed back in, it's been dropped - a lot - and it was used practically every day for about three years, as a highlighter and an eyeshadow (can't do that with a liquid illuminator, alas!), and it's still going strong.  I thought it wouldn't be versatile when I bought it, but I was very wrong - I remember thinking "Urgh, beige, how boring!"  at the time, but it's great on most skin-tones, and the addition of the more pinky-golden shades mean you can use the individual strips as brow, cheek or eye colours, should you want to.  Highly recommended.

I'm away this weekend, so there won't be any posts - sorry! - but I'll be back on Monday with some Illuminators that double up as blushers.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Great Customer Service?

Let's face it, sometimes beauty counters aren't places where we can particularly expect good customer service, are they?  From the pushy-pushy OFLs (Orange-Faced Ladies), to the OFLs who treat you like a criminal for daring to even look at their products, to the OFLs who just want to "warm you up a little",  and then there are the ones who just ignore you and chat amongst themselves, the ones who make you look like drag queens, the ones who want you to join them on the Orange side, the ones who recommend colours your granny wouldn't be seen dead in, and the ones who insist your colouring is warm when it's actually cool (and vice versa) they're all irritating.

But very little is more irritating than being sold a dud product (we've all done it, bought something to get away) and then not being able to return it once it's left the store.  Until I wised myself up, and learned to stand my ground, I bought more orange foundations and too-pink lipsticks  than I could count, and I was always, but always just stuck with the useless things.

Which is why this is a nice post to write because on Tuesday night I popped into Givenchy at Debenhams and bought a couple of their limited edition Parad'eyes  No5 Poetic Lavender (singularly misnamed, as it's black with gorgeous blue spangles in it) and No 9 Nude Impression (which is a nude shade, with white and gold spangles in it).  However, when I got home, I discovered I'd actually been given No 6 Pearl (I didn't know the names of the shades until, of course, AFTER I'd checked).  Now, this might not have been such a bad thing, but No 6 was pink.

Baby pink liquid liner.

Seriously, a lovely way to make yourself look like you have an eye infection, don't you think?  Unusable, if you ask me, plus I look like DEATH in pastels of any description anyway.  I was dreading taking it back.  Cosmetics companies are notoriously crap at accepting returns - even on unused, still in the shrink-wrap products - and I was expecting to be turned down flat.  I was very pleasantly surprised, the SA took the blame completely (remembering my purchase of the previous evening, to boot) and swapped the products over without a murmur, or accusation of being too pale, even once. I was, it has to be said, gobsmacked.

So thank you nameless - and shame on me, there - Givenchy counter assistant at Debenhams Oxford Street, your good service is much appreciated!

Swatches and a FotD will follow, the Parad'eyes liners are really gorgeous, even if the package is a bit ... well, stupid.

Organic Wednesday - Jurlique

I first discovered Jurlique about ten years ago, after getting myself a nasty bruise whilst on a trip to Brisbane.  My host smothered the affected area with their arnica cream, and I've been interested in the brand ever since.  Once exceptionally difficult to find in the UK, their products are becoming easier to track down over here these days, which is a good thing as they've also massively expanded their product range in the last couple of years too.

An Australian range - why is it that there are so many Australian organic brands, does anyone know? -  dedicated to organic, biodynamic and natural ingredients, I tried a couple of things, some new, some not so new, just to see how they were doing:

First off: Fruit Enzyme Exfoliator:

This isn't your normal scrubby-type exfoliator, this one, you apply a thin layer to your face, leave it in place for five minutes then rinse it off.  No massaging, and no potential eye-irritating beads or seeds. It's basically a mask which contains a mix of enzymes which will make your skin softer.  And, it really does. Several fruits (papaya and pineapple spring to mind) contain an enzyme which soften skin - and, if you'll excuse me for mentioning it, they will also tenderise meat - and this mask makes the most of that softening effect.

In use, I found that this gave me a very definite tingling sensation, which means I'd use it far less often than the 2-3 times a week recommended on the packaging (and in all honesty, I don't think anyone needs to exfoliate this thoroughly more often than once a week anyway), but once rinsed off, skin was noticeably softer and more than a little smoother, I liked the effects a lot.  Skin also had a rosy glow after, but that could have been from an increased blood-flow to my face from the tingling!

An important thing to add about this product is that several of the ingredients are a natural source of Alpha-Hydroxy-Acids (AHAs) and they will increase your skin's senstivity to the sun, so if you do use this, please ensure you use a sunscreen for at least a week after, otherwise you may get sunburned, even in cloudy conditions.

Fruit enzyme exfoliator costs £33 at the official Jurlique website here.

I also tried their Soothing Herbal Recovery Gel, which in all honesty, I can't rave enough about. I have a couple of allergies which have a tendency to cause hives when I come into contact with particular irritants, and this little bottle has been a godsend. Ostensibly, it's a moisturiser for sensitive skin, and as such it works fine, it's pleasant and refreshing to use, and, while I don't like it as much as a more traditional cream or lotion moisturiser for that purpose, it's nice to use.

However, on hot, irritated, or blemished skin, this stuff  really comes into it's own. On hives, this instantly soothes the burning, itching sensation, and helps to reduce any swelling. Plus if you suffer from headaches, a thin layer of this left "mask-style" on your forehead and temples really helps to soothe and cool a hot head. I love this stuff, and keep my bottle of it handy at all times! My skin doesn't normally tolerate gels all that well, but I had no issues with this one at all.

Soothing Recovery Gel costs £45 at the official Jurlique website.

Finally, I also tried their Moisture Replenishing Day Cream, which is a thick yellow ointment with a faintly dusty, herbal smell. The dusty smell is from the chamomile which is a major ingredient of this cream.  Specifically formulated for dryer skins, this  does give a nice moisture boost to the skin without leaving you feeling too greasy.  I'll be honest, I like this cream, but I don't love it.  It does what it says it will, with no frills and furbelows, but let's face it, I think I like a little luxury - or at least a little multi-tasking - from my face cream.  To be fair though, it doesn't promise to do anything outside of making your skin soft, so on that count, it really delivers!

Moisture Replenishing Day Cream costs £27 at the official Jurlique website.



Have you tried any Jurlique products?  What did you think?  You can also find Jurlique products at Zuneta (where the Soothing Herbal Recovery Gel is on sale for an amazing £5.88!) and Being Content.

The Small Print: This post features a mixture of products I bought myself and items sent for review purposes.  It doesn't matter which is which, I like what I like, and I don't what I don't, where it came from is not of any relevance to that.  So there.

Highlighters - loose powders

Following on from yesterday's post, here's some loose powder highlighters I have.  To be fair, there's only two, but there is a reason for that, as we'll see:

Revlon Skinlights highlighter: I'm not sure if this one is still available or not, but it's one I'm not that fond of, being a bit, well, gravelly, and exceedingly glittery. A little bit of it does go a very long way though, this pot is a couple of years old (it has seen regular use) and it's still very full.  It's great if you want to dress yourself up as a fairy, or need something with a little more pizazz. Subtle it isn't. It's also useful dusted very lightly over a matte eyeshadow look to give it a shimmery, glittery effect, which is what I mainly use it for. But it's far too glittery for use as a cheek highlight on my pale-custard coloured skin, alas.

Bare Escentuals Clear Radiance: I've had this little pot for a while, and I'll be honest, I don't use it very often.  It's not actually meant to be used as a highlighter proper (or what I think of as proper highlighter use, anyway, which might not be the same thing), it's more meant to  be used as an all-over "brightening" or radiance powder.  I find the lightly pinky peach shade is fairly flattering, more so than the more usual silvery pinks, but even so, I can't figure out a way to use this without it making me feel like I'm wearing a gauze-y mask.  Anyone else have this problem?

Am I missing a trick here?  Are there any loose highlighter powders around that are amazing? What are your recommendations?

Zuneta Tuesday

Hello!  Today I'm blogging over at Zuneta again. Come say hello! 

Lippie rambles on over here

Pop in, and  discover what's disgruntled me this week.

Reader Request - Highlighters

When I wrote this post about the YSL Palette Y-Mail highlighter a few weeks ago, one of my lovely readers, Renata asked about my favourite highlighters, and what I'd recommend.  Well, my first thought, I have to admit was "I don't have many highlighters, I'll never get a full post out of that!".  I was wrong.  A quick scout around my makeup collections (yes, I have more than one) turned up 13 of the shimmery little suckers.  And, since I rounded them up and took pictures of them, I found a few more too.  Clearly, I have too much makeup.

I thought instead of one mahoosive post of various shiny strips of skin with barely any differences between them, I'd break up the posts into the different textures.  Today, it's liquids and creams:

Nars Copacabana: Much as I love my Nars multiples (and I do!) I have to say that this one doesn't really do much for me.  It's a little frosty on my skin, even when blended in really well.  A beautiful shade for cooler skintones, perhaps, but I end up looking a little metallic, which is never a good look. I've since swapped this one for something I love far, far more, and I'll show you what that is very soon.

Prescriptives Cream Highlight: Apologies for talking about a discontinued product from a discontinued brand, but this was, for a very long time, my very favourite highlighter!  The label has worn off, so I can't even tell you what it was called when it was available.  As you can see, it's a little more peach than the NARS, and so melds more with my skin-tone, rather than sits "on" it.  It's still, it has to be said, a little too metallic for my tastes these days.

Benefit High Beam: Again, another frosty one, I flip-flop  on Benefit products at the best of times (when they're good, they're very, very good, but when they're bad, they're infuriating!), this is one I like, the packaging is good, it's a nice texture, but the pinkish frostiness isn't one that suits as many people as Benefit always say they will.  It's nice to apply, but again, can make you look a little metallic.

No7 Skin Illuminator: This is one I picked up the week before last, and I really, really like the product. Unlike many highlighters, this actually comes in two shades, one pink, and one peach.  This one is peach.  As you can see, the colour of the highlighter almost disappears into my skin - or when it's not swatched this heavily for photographic purposes, it does, anyway!- I'm not, it must be said, a massive fan of the packaging, it seems purposely designed to make you waste the product (indeed, even the box states you should wipe the "excess" off onto your hand before using the brush to apply it to your cheeks) but the liquid inside is a good one, not metallic, not frosty, and not glittery.  It's a very glow-y natural kind of highlighter, and it's one I'll be getting back-ups of at the earliest opportunity.  It's also the cheapest highlighter on this page at £11, £6 if you have any Boots vouchers.

If you're unsure about how to use liquid or cream highlighters, then I suggest you watch this Lisa Eldridge video, she's amazingly talented, and gives great advice:

Tomorrow, loose powders. And I'll be guesting over at Zuneta again too!

The Small Print: I buyed dese.  I haz munny.

Lancôme L'Absolou Rouge Creme de Brilliance Lip Swatches

When I last featured the Creme de Brilliance liquid lipsticks, I had a lot of requests for lip swatches, so here they are - apologies for it taking so long, had to wait for sunny times to get the colours right!  They're swatched in numerical order as per this pic:

Please click on either shot to enlarge.  Which are your favourites?