Guest Post: Less of your Lip

Today's guest poster, Peter Jones of http://www.spogblot.com, explains why less, is clearly more.

Here are the items on the shelf in my bathroom: toothpaste, antiperspirant, aftershave. There’s also a tube of Hydra Energetic, Anti-Fatigue, Instant Action Eye Care. My wife bought it for me. According to the side of the tube I’m supposed to apply it morning and evening, gently patting it into the “eye area”, and smoothing outwards from the corner of the eye to the temple. I’ve gone through this process only once. I followed the instructions to the letter, then stared into the mirror in anticipation.

Nothing.

It had made no visible difference whatsoever! I wondered briefly whether I’d misunderstood the instructions; whether their definition of “eye area” and mine were the same. And then I put it back on the shelf, and never gave it another thought until today. When it comes to understanding makeup, clearly I’m missing some kind of gene.

My wife loved makeup. That same shelf in the bathroom I now use for my four items was merely an over-flow area for all the jars, cans, bottles and sprays which occupied every available surface. Kate accumulated cosmetics faster than she could possibly use them. Much of it via the internet. Much of it from abroad. She had products that were allegedly infused with gold, and others that purported to have liquid oxygen in them.

When Kate died I wasn’t the only one who suffered a loss. Shares in Boots the Chemist dropped several points. The whole cosmetic industry entered a slump that they’ve wrongly attributed to early signs of the recession. In short, she should be the one writing this blog entry.

But I do remember this: Early on in our marriage Kate hired a Makeup Artist and Image Consultant to help her “discover a new look”. Whilst I tapped away in my office I could hear the exasperated sounds of my wife arguing with the woman who’d agreed to take on a challenge from which there could be no victory. And then it happened:
“Well let’s see what Peter thinks,” said Kate. And moments later she was standing in the door-way to my office, looking a little like the clown doll from the old BBC television test card. “Well?” She asked. I considered my reply carefully. By now the Image Consultant lady was standing behind my wife, desperately hoping that I’d come to her defence. But she was going to be disappointed.
“I’m not sure it’s really you,” I said.
“What don’t you like about it?” demanded Kate.
“It’s just.. it’s not.. I kind of prefer it when you don’t wear makeup it.” It was true.
“And that’s my point,” said Kate turning to the lady behind her, “Because Peter doesn’t even realise that he’s never seen me without makeup!”

At the time I was shocked. I felt foolish, and a little hurt. Like I was somehow one of those husbands who wouldn’t notice if my wife had had her hair done, or shaved it off, or was wearing a bin liner, or was actually there at all. But now I realise that’s not what she meant. Makeup, so it seems, isn’t supposed to be noticed. At least not all the time. Sometimes it’s there just to make sure your loved ones don’t miss the natural features you already have.

Which makes me wonder whether I should have another look at that barely used tube of Hydra Energetic, Anti-Fatigue, Instant Action Eye Care.

 

http://www.spogblot.com

Guest Post: Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy – Initial Thoughts

Long one of my favourite bloggers, I'm delighted to introduce you to Sirvinya from Confessions of a makeup Addict today, take it away, Sirvinya!

***

Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy – Initial Thoughts 
Hi everyone! I must say I’m honoured to be picked for one of Get Lippie’s guest bloggers. While racking my brains for something to share today, I had been messing around with Fyrinnae’s Pixie Epoxy. Since I have been talking about this stuff constantly, I thought I’d give you a little “mini-review” of my initial thoughts on this amazing, wonderful, miracle product.

Available on www.fyrinnae.com for $7.00 (samples are $1.50).

I saw reviews for this stuff everywhere for months before I finally got round to ordering it. I’ve got to admit, I was sceptical. As the make up addict that I am, I have tried a heck of a lot of supposed “wonder” products. I ended up over on the Fyrinnae one day to order some of the new shades and added a sample of Pixie Epoxy to my cart. Then I took it straight back out and added a full size.

This stuff is amazing.

Seriously, it’s completely changed the way I deal with mineral make up. You only have to apply the teeniest possible amount. A dot to my lid will spread to cover my whole lid. Applying too much will give a really patchy, clumpy result so apply half as much as you think. You can always add more. Then wait for it to turn tacky (no more than 15 seconds). I then pat on whichever pigment to get a covering on my lid, then sweep my brush over the top to blend.

I’d say this works better than foiling. You know how I feel about foiling (I love it, in case you haven’t seen my blog).

I’ve done some quick and dirty swatching for you!

Urban Decay Primer Potion – grabs the base colour of the shadow, leaving the sparkles loose. After I took the photo, the sparkles just brushed off my arm.

Pixie Epoxy – grabs everything. The base and sparkles were held fast! Nothing budged when I rubbed the swatch. This swatch gave the truest to pot colour swatch.

Foiling – again, grabs the base colour the best. The sparkles don’t move but are overwhelmed by the deep base colour.

I have been using Pixie Epoxy pretty much every time I apply my eye make up these days. It doesn’t prevent creasing on me, so I apply a very thin layer of a MAC Paint Pot to prevent creasing. The Pixie Epoxy will happily sit on the top without creasing.

Pixie Epoxy is very easy to remove as well. It will actually just come off with water but doesn’t seem to budge at all on my lids, even if my eyes have watered. After I removed the swatches on my arm I was left with a dark patch of base colour from the Primer Potion and Foiled swatch, but nothing at all from the Pixie Epoxy.

The best thing is that it works with pretty much anything with shimmer. However, it doesn’t work so well with mattes. I have been experimenting with some of my sheerer MAC shadows (why are they getting more and more crappy these days?) and Pixie Epoxy does amazing things to those.

If you’ve been considering this I’ve got to say it’s absolutely worth trying! Just grab a sample if you’re not sure, you won’t regret it!

Excuse me, I have to go and cover my arm in Pixie Epoxy and pigments...

Guest Post: So what is all this mineral-makeup stuff anyway?

Please welcome the first of my guest-bloggers, today is the turn of  LiAnn, from Sparklecrack Central and she's writing about one of her main passions, mineral makeup:

While the definition of “mineral makeup” can change depending on who you
ask, generally it’s loose-powder makeup with minimal ingredients – most
specifically, few to no preservatives. There is no government guideline or
definition for what mineral makeup is, just as there is no government
definition for “organic makeup” (at least not in the United States). This
makes buying mineral makeup a bit interesting.

People use mineral makeup for a number of reasons: they want to put as few
chemicals on their skin as possible, they want to avoid certain chemicals
altogether (because of sensitivities or personal lifestyle choices, such
as veganism), they want to support companies that don’t do any animal
testing, they want to support small businesses, they want to buy local,
they prefer the way mineral makeup applies/lasts/feels…and more.

The reasons a person chooses to use mineral makeup impacts their choice of
vendor, either a little (want loose-powder makeup with no preservatives)
to a lot (want or need to buy only vegan products). I do not have chemical
sensitivities, nor am I vegan. Instead, I chose to start using mineral
makeup because I liked the idea that this stuff would never go bad. (I had
a tendency to buy a makeup palette, use it for a week or two, then leave
it in the drawer for a year…or three. Since I usually bought the cheap
palettes, by the time I thought of using the palette again, most of the
pressed-powder items were still somewhat usable, but any semifluid items
like glosses were on the verge of developing language skills.) I continued
using mineral makeup because I liked the wider range of available
eyecolors, the relative ease of blending my own blushes and foundation,
and the lack of a “face-submerged-in-axle-grease” sensation that liquid
foundations always seemed to give me. I started with Bare Escentuals,
arguably the grandmommy of the modern popular mineral makeup revolution;
and quickly branched out to buying on Ebay and trying indie MMU as a way
to avoid the high price of BE’s products. I chose some bad vendors, I
chose some bad products, I found some inexpensive suppliers, I found my
Holy Grail foundation, and I learned a lot. Makeup forums and blogs were a
significant help in finding new vendors to try.

Where you choose to get your mineral makeup will depend on your reasons
for trying it, your own preferences in mineral makeup, your budget, where
you’re located, and possibly your own patience in mixing your own makeup
from pigments, oxides, and base mixes available from wholesalers like TKB
Trading. (I have little patience. I’m more than happy to pay someone else
to find the perfect mix of micas, oxides, and bases.) Whomever you choose
to patronize, you should realize that what works for someone (let’s say
me) might not work for you – even if you have similar skintone,
coloration, and general health issues. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t
find a great foundation right away, and have to try several vendors. When
I started using MMU, BE had 15 different foundation shades. Now they have
25, so it’s easier to find an exact match. (I ended up going with a
different vendor, and am quite happy with my choice. Others very much
prefer Bare Escentuals. It’s all up to the individual.)

Wherever you start off, you’ll need some basics:
Good brushes. There are various brush sets available with starter kits,
travel sets, et cetera et cetera. While much of the makeup world
(including mineral makeup users and artists) raves about the quality of
MAC’s brushes, they are pricey…and they’re not the only high-quality items
available. EcoTools’ sets are good basic MMU brushes, some of Sephora’s
travel sets work quite nicely, and of course there are others. Start with
a set, figure out your preferences for tool usage, brush
firmness/coarseness, et cetera, and build from there.
Brush cleaner. Part of the appeal of MMU is the lack of contaminants –
that includes the bacteria from your own skin. Keeping your brushes and
lids clean helps keep your MMU free from contaminants, extending its
lifespan. Clean your brushes after five uses, or once a month – whichever
comes first. Clean a makeup brush the same way you would clean a paint
brush…just be more delicate.
Cleaning wipes. Loose powder spills, drifts, and wafts all over the place.
You may want to have these on hand for the initial small spills.
Artist’s palette. I use this for foiling or for mixing my powders – to go
just a little further toward keeping my minerals dry and uncontaminated.
This isn’t 100% necessary, but it can keep your MMU lids from getting
gunky while you’re trying to figure out that “foiling” thing (applying
eyecolors wet, for more staying power / more vivid effects.) A $1 three-
or four-well plastic palette from your local craft store will work fine –
no need to go out and spend more than that unless you want something
fancier.

Good reading-comprehension. Some descriptions are a bit more artistic than
useful. I had no idea what “a fondness of purple” was, but familiarity
with the vendors’ product line helped me zero in on the eyeshadow’s color
(a cool berry-wine, as it turns out.) Since shopping with most indie MMU
vendors means shopping exclusively online, you’ll have to learn how to
mentally “color correct” for your monitor.

Also helpful, no matter what makeup you use:
Patience to try multiple products, vendors, and techniques. It’s not as
simple as opening the compact, using the supplied sponge applicator, and
spreading on the foundation. Wet application, dry application, mixing with
a moisturizer, using fixing sprays, “finishing powder sandwiches”,
stippling versus swirling…you may have to play around a bit before you get
the perfect application technique even after you’ve found the perfect
product and shade.
Strength to ask for what you want, and to refuse what you don’t need.
Maybe it’s because women are taught to catch more flies with honey than
with vinegar, but we’re just not very adept at asserting ourselves – even
at the makeup counter. If you go in for a makeover and the sales associate
uses a shade that you don’t like, or glosses over a technique too quickly
for you to catch it all, speak up! This is especially true if you’re just
learning to use mineral makeup.

•If you decide that you like the results, but not the storage/travel
issues of loose-powder mineral makeup, there are tutorials on YouTube that
show you how to press your own eyeshadows, blushes, and foundations. You
can also buy pressing media, pans, and palettes from several sources,
including beauty supply stores.
•While a lot of makeup – and specifically, indie MMU - vendors mark
themselves as “cruelty free”, this doesn’t guarantee that their suppliers
didn’t test the raw materials on animals. While the cosmetics industry has
been working – hard – to come up with testing methods that do not involve
animals, they haven’t yet found 100% reliable methods and procedures that
will spot any harmful effects while the products are still in the lab.
Don’t let the “cruelty free” symbol be your deciding factor to buy from a
company.
•While we’re on the subject of labels, “organic makeup” doesn’t always
mean a whole lot, either. There is no US government certification for
“organic makeup”, so something can quite legally be marketed and labeled
as organic even if it contains preservatives or artificial ingredients.
(“Natural makeup” is also no guarantee of perfection for everybody – many
of Sephora’s “natural” line of products contain a substance which causes
skin reactions in quite a few people. But because this substance is a
fatty acid derived from coconuts and not adulterated with any inorganic
substances, it’s counted a “natural” ingredient.)
•If you buy any semiliquid products (lipsticks, balms, cream shadow
bases) from a mineral makeup vendor, be aware that these products will
have a shorter lifespan than your average drugstore lipstick – generally 6
to 9 months, but a good vendor should have the estimated product lifespan
prominently available (on the website’s product page, on the packaging,
somewhere.)
•While a lot of mineral makeup lines focus on naturalistic colors and a
more neutral palette, there are mineral makeup companies that sell
brighter, bolder, more deeply pigmented eyeshadows. I have purchased from
several of them, and I know that there are others out there.

That’s all for now, otherwise I’m going to get accusations that I’m trying
to take over Louise’s blog in her absence :D If you want to see which
makeup companies I use, pop over to my blog. I’ve got a page where I’ve
actually listed out every single eyecolor I own, grouped by vendor. You
can also check out the blogs and forums I link to, and see what vendors
those folks use.


--
Sparklecrack Central - http://www.sparklecrackcentral.com
Twinkle twinkle little jar, look how many of you there are.

What's happening on Get Lippie this week OR Bye, bye Barry!

This post is coming to you via the magic of scheduled posting, because as anyone who follows me on Twitter should know, I'm in hospital right now having a minor operation.  Nothing too serious, but I'll be out of action for a good few days. Now, as I'm cranky at the best of times, I thought rather than subject my lovely blog readers to a few days of my complaining about being too hot/cold/itchy/tired/grumpy/elderly/hungry/not hungry and the like that I'd enlist some people to take over my blog for a few days.

I put out a call for volunteer bloggers on Twitter recently, and what a response I had! I have some great blog posts coming up for you this week, on the magic of mineral makeup, about some wonderful products you might never of heard of, about the perils of too much makeup, about microbes (seriously), about sunscreens, lipsticks, nail varnish and some other great stuff too.  So Get Lippie will look a bit different for the next week or so, but, I hope you'll all enjoy reading the posts that have been lined up for you, as much as I've enjoyed receiving them.

Finally, to all my guest bloggers, thank you so much for helping me out, none of you had to, and I've been very moved by you all making the effort to make sure I had some articles to cover when I wasn't feeling up to it!  You're amazing.

Urgh!

Sometimes, I can't help gilding the lily:

Had a perfectly good Rococo Utility manicure, and I went and added a layer of Inglot flakies to it, and ended up with this hideous mess. Both gorgeous shades on their own, added together just made me feel all "urgh" about it!

Have you ever made any terrible errors of combination?

Nail of the Day - Mavala Mango Orange

Oh, this is just too pretty, it arrived courtesy of the Nail Varnish Fairy and I was wearing it within about 30 seconds of opening the envelope! This will explain - I hope - the rather messy application ...

Housed, as always in one of Mavala's mini-bottles, this gloriously hot metallic orange shade is perfect for summer fingers, although I can see it working beautifully on toes too. The above picture shows two coats over a rather beige base.  It's very sheer, and highly sparkly - almost frosty, if such a hot shade can be said to be frosty - but it catches the light very well, and it's gorgeous in sunlight!

What shades do you love for summer nails? Mavala polishes are available from John Lewis and leading independent pharmacies.

The Fine Print: As there isn't actually a Nail Varnish Fairy - sorry kids! - it should be disclosed that this is a review sample.  I wish there was a nail varnish fairy though, I know a few people who'd keep her very busy ...

He's Baaaaaaack!

Yes, MrLippie is back reviewing again.  And I think he may have been drinking! Take a look at his latest post over on Ape to Gentleman, and don't forget to let him know what you think.  All the filth in the final paragraph has nothing to do with me, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  So there.