Advent Calendar Competition

Have I mentioned Wahanda yet?  If not, I should have! I love spas and treatments, and Wahanda have a great selection of pampering treats. You can find anything from a gym session to a haircut to a full-on stress-busting spa day on their website, and  I've spent many a happy hour on the website fantasising about what I'd like to spend my hard-earned cash on,  I find it so difficult to decide though, there's too much to choose from!

I'll be spending a bit more time on the website from tomorrow as they're launching their Wahanda’s Advent Calendar 2009 competition  which runs every day until Christmas day, and offers prizes worth around £10,000!


Wahanda say:

"This year’s calendar has something for everyone to make Christmas merry and bright, whether it’s for some much needed me-time or to tick someone off your Christmas list. Top prizes include spa breaks for two at luxury hotel and destination spas including Champneys, Hand Picked Hotels and Stoke Park, spa days at the exclusive Chelsea Harbour Club and The Sanctuary, and Christmas gift sets from leading beauty and grooming experts including The Refinery, Revitalash, Elemis. And of course the Wahanda Spa, Beauty & Wellness Gift Voucher, accepted at over 500 locations nationwide making it the most flexible and widely accepted voucher of its kind in the UK, will also be sprinkled into the mix."

I'll be checking it out, will you?

Makeover: Sarah C - The Return

It's Sunday, and, as always, that means it's a makeover day Chez Lippie.

Remember Sarah C?

She had a pretty dramatic Theda Bara-style makeover last time, but she also wanted to learn how to use bright colours in a simple, and  subtle way.  We had a look through my entire eye-shadow collection - which took quite some time - and Sarah decided on MAC's Humid, which is a glorious tropical green shadow.  With Sarah's olive skin-tone, and gorgeous brown eyes, it was a lovely choice.

We used the same base as last time, and then primed the eyes with Urban Decay Primer Potion, and used a tiny hint of MAC Behold to define the crease:

Once that was in place, we used Humid as a liner:

 

We added a layer of L'Oreal Collagene mascara, and finished with a slick of Prescriptives lipgloss in Stellar:

Here's how she looked after:

 

Pretty as a picture.

Eye Makeup Remover Challenge - Pt 3 The Final

It's the final week of my eye makeup remover challenge!  The contenders are: Talika (100ml £12.72) - winner of last week's high-end challenge, and Amie (125ml £4.75), the winner of the cheap and cheerful contest the week before. Both removers fared extremely well with my every day makeup, so this week, I've made it a bit more difficult.

The Challenge:

This is a version of my night-time smokey eye makeup, but I've altered it slightly to really put the removers to the test.  Again, three shades of shadow applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion, but I've used MAC Blacktrack fluidliner which is next to impossible to remove once it's really set in, and waterproof mascara.  Max Factor Lash Extension Effect mascara to be exact, which will have it's own review soon.

Round One - the melt:

As usual, I begin by holding cotton wool pads soaked in make up remover on my eyes for 30 seconds:

Both have done a pretty good job of soaking off the first layer of mascara, and there's a fair bit of smudging around the eyes:

There's very little to choose between the contenders at this point, so I'm calling this round a draw.

Round Two - after:

After full make up removal, here's how the pads look:

Just look at that Amie pad (on the right), this stuff eats makeup!  This is how my eyes look at this point:

Again, very little to choose between them, however, I am noticing that the skin around the eye I'm using Talika on feels very tacky, and slightly taut, a side effect that I'm not having with the Amie on the other eye.  I mentioned in my last review that the Amie stings my skin, but, I've had this bottle tested by three other people, and they've had no problems with stinging whatsoever, so I'm ignoring that effect for scoring purposes, as that's my skin at fault, and it's highly unlikely to affect many other people, unlike the tacky skin-feel of the Talika.

Round two to Amie.

Round Three - The Shower Test:

Other cleansers have failed miserably at this point, so let's see how our two finalists fare after a hot shower:

Nothing.  No smudges, no runs, no flakes.

A draw.

Round Four - Cleansing oil:

Once again, I break out the big guns (actually, a bottle of Nude Facial Cleansing oil, which is the straw that broke Chanel's back last week), and here's the result:

Again, nothing, nada, zip, zilch, zero.  These are both amazing cleansers, and they've left not a streak or a smudge of leftover mascara between them, which is just fantastic.  However, it means I'm left to judge them on things outside of just their cleansing ability, which is going to make my final judgement slightly unobjective, so bear with me.

Final Analysis

This is exceptionally difficult to call.  Both products have performed extremely well, and rather better than I expected any oil free makeup removers to perform when I started this trial, but my gut instinct is that if I were to purchase either of these products again, it'd be the Amie (even with the stinging), over and above the Talika.  It's cheaper, for one thing - especially when you compare it on a ml for ml basis - and I prefer how it leaves my skin feeling afterwards, not sticky, not taut, not soapy.  It's an excellent value product, and I think the values behind the company are ones I admire. 

I realise I am very far from the target market for this range (it's primarily aimed at teenagers and women in their early 20's) but I think good skincare is a lesson best learned early.  Certainly, it's one I wish I'd learned earlier. Personally, I think my skin is so sensitive now because there simply weren't affordable products like this around when I discovered makeup, and I spent a long time applying cheap slap - a lot of cheap slap! - and removing it with the cosmetic equivalent of paintstripper as a result. I think it's that which has left my skin needing to be treated a lot more gently now.

There are a lot of other products in the Amie range, if they're all made up to this standard - and I suspect they are - it's a very good skincare range, whatever your age.

Face of the Week - Korres

This little lot was supposed to be saved for a makeover, but when it arrived I fell in love with some of it so much that I had to give it a trial run for myself:

I'll talk more about the foundation and mascara (at the back) later, but I wanted to talk about the shadows today, they're lovely.  I got 77s Plum (on the left) and Base 12s which is a pale taupe colour, with a twist, here's how they look in the pan:

(top -  with flash, bottom - without)

I'm not sure how visible it is in the pic there, but the pale taupe has a gorgeous - and unexpected - hint of iridescent pink, and I was delighted with it.  The shadow had been a little banged up in the post, so I'd had to smoosh it back down into the pan a bit, hence why it's looking a bit bumpy there.  It was during this that I discovered that these are really silky soft, buttery-smooth shadows, much silkier than anything I own from, say, MAC for example.

Here's how they swatch on the skin:

 (Left - with flash, right - without)

They start off pretty sheer, but the colour is buildable. I've swatched them here on bare skin on the left of each pic, and over base on the right.

I used the 12s as a colour wash all over the lid, and added the plum on the outer corners and worked it into the crease, I found them very blendable, and loved how my eyes looked after, so much so, that I've worn this look a couple of times this week already!

The eyeliner is really very soft and blendable too, I got the blue-black shade, and it's very beautiful, but I couldn't pick up the gorgeous colour on these pics for some reason. I'll try and post pictures of it  that actually do it justice next time I use it. Please enlarge the collage to see the colours.

Korres Cosmetics are available from Liberty, or online at ASOS.

Organic Wednesday - Elemental Herbology

A couple of months ago, I was lucky enough to meet with, and have a facial from, the lovely Madhvi at Elemental Herbology, and I was delighted by the results at the time.  I was so delighted that I've been trying to replicate the results ever since with this little kit here.

About the company:

"Elemental Herbology was founded by Kristy Goodger, a spa consultant with over 10 years of practical, ‘hands-on’ experience in treating clients, developing spa treatments and operating and designing spas. Combining her outstanding knowledge of herbal medicine with Oriental physiology and pathology, Kristy worked with a leading cosmetic laboratory to develop Elemental Herbology."

In a nutshell, Elemental Herbology believe that as the seasons change, so should your skincare, and, to that end, they provide both a "cooling, calming" summer range of facial and body products, and a "repairing, hydrating" of winter products.  I do, very often find myself having to switch moisturisers once or twice throughout the year, and sometimes, I find the switching of brands irritates my stupidly sensitive skin, and it's nice to know there's a brand out there that's thought of this too.

About the kit:

The Facial Ritual kit contains three of the brands best selling skin masks:

Facial Glow: which is a radiance peel to remove dead skin, brighten the complexion, and improve skin texture,
Facial Detox: which is a purifying facial mask, based on Amazonian Clay to resolve congestion and blackheads.
Biodynamic Facial Soufflé: an intensive hydration and repair mask designed to provides instant hydration and repair the skin whilst nourishing it.

Alongside these three masks, you also get a muslin cloth and a full set of instructions.


How it works:

Once a week, you cleanse your face with your cleanser of choice, and then use the masks in the order as above,  Facial Glow for four minutes, Facial Detox for up to ten minutes, and you leave the Biodynamic Facial Soufflé on overnight.  In between each of these, you give yourself a little steam treatment with the muslin cloth.

The Verdict

This, whilst fairly time consuming, is a real pleasure to use.  Many times, I've given myself a home facial (and, to be honest, I've had some professional facials that have done this too) and been left a reddened, inflamed, and somewhat greasy-faced monster.  What I like about these products is that they actually do what they say they will, and yet aren't overly chemical-laden or irritating to the skin.

To take the products in order, the Facial Glow is a beautifully citrus-scented mask with some exfoliation beads in it, whilst it was on my skin it made it feel a little cooler, which was an odd sensation.  Once it was rinsed off though, my skin very definitely felt smoother, and it felt a lot more velvety than usual.

The Facial Detox is far more familiar to use, as it's a clay-based mask that Elemental Herbology recommend you use only on your "congested" areas.  I smeared a thick layer on my forehead, chin, and around my nose (classic T-zone application, really) and I found it definitely tingled a bit.  In fact it tingled so much that I rinsed mine off after only six minutes, but it didn't seem to harm the overall facial at all.

The Biodynamic Facial Soufflé applies like a light moisturiser, but it's very matte, and doesn't absorb very quickly, which is why I think you're supposed to leave it on overnight.  It was very refreshing not to have something greasy to apply after the other masks, and it smelt a little more flowery than the other two products.

Immediately afterwards my skin wasn't at all reddened, itchy or inflamed, it felt cool and velvety, and I liked the feeling very much.  When I woke up next day, it was even better, the soufflé had totally been absorbed into my skin, and my skin was SO soft, and SO much smoother than it's been in a long time, it was amazing!  The effects have lasted several days now too, and I'm very impressed.  Best thing: no breakouts!  I estimate with the tube size, you'd get at least four - possibly more - full treatments out of this kit.  It says it's to be used weekly, but I think I'll be saving it as a monthly treat for my face.

I'm definitely going to try other products from this brand, the cell food moisturiser and the cleanser are most likely the things I'll purchase next.  I got my kit from Space NK and it cost £40.

Winter Lips

Yes, winter is definitely settling in, my lips are beginning to dry out. In winter, I normally break out my trusty pot of this:




Sisley Nutritive Balm. It's rich, has no discernible taste and I've found there's simply nothing better for preventing cracked, sore and peeling lips. However, it's very expensive (around £35 a pot). What do you use to keep your lips in pristine shape?

S Factor Shiny Happy People Hair Shine Spray

Catchy name!  I tested this recently, it's from Tigi - I use their products a lot, and swear by their Oat and Honey conditioner - it's meant to make your hair shiny, protect it from humidity, and improve it's overall condition.  It contains silk proteins and panthenol which are meant to protect and moisturise. You spray it from 10-12 inches away from your hair, and  let it do it's work.

I'll be honest, I didn't actually notice any difference to the shine on my hair (and nor did anyone else I asked), but I think it did help me not frizz up completely in the massive rain storm I had to go out in yesterday. Normally if there's so much of a sniff of moisture in the air, my hair puffs up like a dandelion clock!

I'll be wary of using it much in the future though, as this stuff smells exactly like strawberry Chewits, and the smell lingered. For a very long time. Lots of people made comments about sweeties all day whenever I tested this.  It's not a bad scent, as these things go, but it's too sweet, very sickly, and hugely unsophisticated, which I thought was a shame.

Overall, I'll rate it five out of ten, and that's purely for the humidity protection.

You can buy it for £13.30 from Lookfantastic.