Get Lippie

Wednesday, 29 June 2011

Guest Post - Bourjois Mascara Madness

Floamia is my latest guest poster, who's come out of her blogging retirement to take a thorough and much appreciated look at a range of Bourjois mascaras. I'm very honoured, thank you Floamia!

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I’d like to start off this post just saying thank-you for the opportunity to write for this blog, which I’ve been a fan of for quite a while. Much appreciated!

So today I thought I’d look at four mascaras from my collection, all from Bourjois! There are a few high-end ‘cult’ mascaras, and I feel like the high-street brands can often become abandoned and forgotten, so I’m here drawing attention to four from just one brand, and doing a compare-and-contrast for all of you. And I apologise in advance for staring at you in all of the swatches. Sorry ‘bout that.

[Left to right – Volume Glamour Ultra Curl, Liner Effect, Volume Fast & Perfect, Coup de Theatre]

Volume Glamour Ultra Curl - £7.99
The first in our line-up boasts of the ability to double the volume of your lashes. Without anything on them, my eyelashes are quite fair and fluffy and nothing-y, the remnants of being a fair-haired child, which now look somewhat out of place with my now dark hair!
This mascara is one of the three I’m reviewing today that can stand up on its own, which I quite like. It’s rounded, as most mascara packaging is, so it could roll away if left horizontal, so it’s nice that it can support its own weight as it were. Nice flat base, always a plus! I’ve owned this mascara for a while now, so the shiny pink lettering and lid has started to fade and chip a bit, which is somewhat less glamorous a “Volume Glamour” mascara ought to be, if I do say so myself, but that is truly just a bit of pedantry on my part.

The spoolie in the product shot on the website actually looks a lot more curved than it is in person. Again, I think this may be in part due to the fact that I’ve owned it for a while, and its bouncy resilience has faded somewhat with me repeatedly taking it out of the tube. If you’re someone who regularly replaces your mascara (and it’s debatable whether or not you actually should), this won’t be an issue.

[Top, bare lashes, Bottom, one coat of Volume Glamour Extra Curl mascara]
In comparison to my bare lashes, the effects of this mascara look quite striking. My lashes are much, much more visible, and seem slightly more curled open, leading to a more ‘awake’ looking eye, I think. This mascara does tend to flake a bit, when worn all day. I’ve found that if I put this on in the morning, by about four or five o’ clock I will have little sooty bits of mascara debris littered on my cheeks.

Liner Effect - £8.99
Our second mascara to be reviewed today is, I know, a firm favourite of a few bloggers I know. I hadn’t actually seen it in my nearest Boots at the time when I was reading such rave reviews of it, but when it suddenly appeared I felt obliged to snap one up.
This is another that stands up independently, but even if it didn’t, it has a silver ridge matching the line in the logo of the name of the mascara (of the brand of the Bourjois of the Paris…) which would stop it rolling away while lying flat, too.

The spoolie has really short bristles on one side, and longer ones on the other. I tend to use the shorter side to get right at the roots, and then sort of top up with the longer side.

[Bare lashes on the top, one coat of Liner Effect on the bottom]

I‘m less impressed by the promises here. For something promising the effect of wearing eyeliner, I’d expect much thicker looking lashes. They still look rather fluffy and sparse, here. The wear is good, though. No smudginess, or flakiness, and it seems fairly waterproof, without running it through a shower.

Volume Fast & Perfect - £11.99

The gimmick-iest out of all of our line up, by far, and to be honest the gimmick is the reason I picked it up! I remember there being vibrating mascaras, but this was the first I’d seen of a rotating one, and while I had little hope, I was abundant with curiosity!

There’s a little switch on the handle of the mascara with options for clockwise, anti-clockwise and off. It wasn’t until I started playing around with it that I realised that I needed the different directions for my different eyes, and opposite directions on the lower lashes to those of the upper lashes. It’s quite clear if you’re using the ‘wrong’ direction, though, as it begins to move over your lashes and run them over, rather than fanning them open. And fanning them open is definitely what happens when you use this correctly. I can place this at the base of my eyelashes and I swear every lash is separated and coated evenly, and they look much thicker. I’ve even got out my italics a lot for this description; I’m terribly fond of it!

Alas, when it comes to wear, this one is a wee bitty bit smudgy, but I will forgive it its trespasses for its application. Would it be bad to say I actually find it slightly fun? It feels like a toy! But for my eyelashes!

Coup de Theatre - £10.49
I believe this came out round about the time of the 2-in-1 mascara craze, started by L’Oreal, if I recall correctly. Along with every other high-street brand, Bourjois came out with its own double-wanded creature, which, looking at the website, seems to have been updated in the form of a single-wanded version with the same formula. How I feel behind the times!

[Double-wandedness. Also, the fact that I have the hands of a child.]

The black end of the spoolie has a similar short-bristles-one-side/long-bristles-other-side thing going for it as the Liner Effect spoolie, but this one seems to be made out of the traditional bristles, rather than the nylon ones.
This is the only one out of our four mascaras that doesn’t stand upright, having a curved base, which thoroughly depressed be when I came to photographing them, as I wanted to stand them side by side. Boo.

[Bare lashes on the top, one coat each of the white end and the black end of Coup de Theatre at bottom]
With the white coat on alone, this mascara looks like it will easily be the most impressive. Lashes look much, much longer, and thicker. Were I in the habit of wearing white mascara, this would come up trumps. Easy.
Alas, I’m not in such a habit, and this mascara becomes much more disappointing once you apply the black coat. It feels like it snags a bit, on top of the white coat, and it takes a lot of careful work to avoid leaving uncovered white patches. This is also the only mascara out of the ones I’ve reviewed here that leaves dots from the wet mascara on my eyelids! And I had had such high hopes to start.

Summary
                 Extra Curl       Liner Effect    Volume Fast & Perfect    Coup de Theatre
Application    8/10        7/10                10/10                                   6/10
Volume          8/10                6/10                  9/10                                   6/10
Length           7/10                7/10                  9/10                                   7/10
Wear             5/10                7/10                  8/10                                    5/10

It is evident, then, that our winner is the gimmick-y rotating Volume Fast & Perfect mascara!
Disclosure: All of these products were bought with my own money

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Get Lippie says: I've tried all of these too, and I have to say that the Volume Fast and Perfect is a glorious mascara, even when you accidentally have worn the batteries down by leaving it in your makeup bag with it running ...

This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Guest Post - A Life in Lipstick

All my favourite people are called Louise, so I was very happy when Louise from LouLouMuses agreed to take a guest slot this time around. She's only been blogging for a couple of months, but she's been on Twitter for a lot longer than that, and she's always a delight to chat to. Take it away, LouLou!

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After the initial blog post mental block when Louise asked me what I wanted to blog about, I decided to go with an idea that I'd been considering for my own blog, inspired by Get Lippie’s own 'A Week in Lipstick' series: ‘A Life in Lipstick’.

My first lipstick was No 17's Clearly Carnation, a sheer rosy-pink. However, that’s long since been discontinued, so in my attempt to skip merrily down makeup memory lane I bought the nearest thing that I could find in Boots: Natural Collection's Moisture Shine lipstick in Berry Sorbet.

This is slightly darker than 'Clearly Carnation' but it will give you an idea. There’s not really much to say about this lipstick to be honest, except that I was completely indifferent to it! I can only imagine that this was my teenage way of easing myself into makeup, but it just felt and looked like I wasn't wearing any makeup, and where's the fun in that?!

From there I moved on to my 15-year old self’s favourite: Rimmel's 'Coffee Shimmer'. Back then it appeared that every other girl was wearing Rimmel lipstick, from 'Coffee Shimmer' to 'Heather Shimmer', to um, 'Coffee Shimmer'. Although these days I'm more likely to accessorise with a heels and a handbag than Dr Marten’s and a Body Shop cotton bag, in the interests of thorough blog research, I added this to my shopping basket.

Recently I've been wearing Revlon's matte 'Strawberry Suede' (an orange-red) and 'Eve' by Daniel Sandler for All for Eve (classic red), so this was certainly 'different'. My initial thought when I applied it was "I look like I’ve smeared chocolate over my lips!”, which is not the kind of look I would usually aim for. And I couldn't really see the shimmer in it, apart from when I wiped a swatch off the back of my hand, and was left with a trail of shimmer on my hand. When I applied it to my lips it just looked flat. My love affair with 'Coffee Shimmer' is definitely best left in the mid-1990s, together with my baggy jeans, shellsuit and Ryan Giggs poster. Yes I admit it, my name is Louise Hartrey and I owned a shellsuit. Although given recent developments, perhaps the last item on the list is the most embarrassing!

When I tried to think of what I wore after 'Coffee Shimmer,' my thoughts got bogged down in a giant slick of neutral pink lip-gloss. I stuck with that for years, much longer than any self-respecting beauty blogger should admit to I’m sure! The fact that I can't really remember any of the brands or the shades shows that none of them left a lasting impression on me or my lips. I still own a few from the tail-end of this period: light pink lip-glosses by Jemma Kidd, and No 7's Sheer Temptation lipstick in Excite (oh the irony given that it is perhaps one of the least exciting shades in my collection!)

L to R: Berry Sorbet; Coffee Shimmer; Jemma Kidd Candy

L to R: MAC Craving; All for Eve; Revlon Matte Strawberry Suede

It’s only in the last 2 years that I’ve started experimenting with stronger and brighter colours. I’m not really sure why, but slowly but surely, the stronger colours in my makeup collection have become my 'go to' lipsticks of choice, and now my idea of a neutral is my MAC Viva Glam in Cyndi! It's safe to say that the 'Clearly Carnation' ship has well and truly sailed.
I hope you've enjoyed my trip down makeup memory lane. I'd love to know what shades other people wore, and their memories associated with them, because, well I'm just nosey naturally inquisitive.

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Get Lippie says: Is there anyone who doesn't have a secret Heather Shimmer in their lipstick cupboard full of skeletons? I nicked mine from my mum!

This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Guest Post - Aztec Inspired Nails

I have neither the time, nor the patience to do nail art, (not to mention my being a total cackhanded muppet) so when the gloriously talented Catherine of Catherine's Loves blog offered to do a tutorial for my readers, I jumped at the opportunity! Here's hoping you enjoy this as much as I did:

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Hello readers of Get Lippie, Louise has kindly let me do a guest post on her blog with my choice of subject, I decided on a nail art post with a little tutorial on how I did it. Nail art is something I really enjoy doing on my blog, so thought it would be the perfect choice of post. I chose Aztec nails, this is my first attempt, I have always loved how they look but never done them myself, here is my interpretation of Aztec nails, and a little step by step guide on how I did them. This is the finished result

One of the most difficult things I found was choosing which colours to use, this involved a rather colourful piece of A4 paper which I swatched various colour combinations, and in the end I went for yellow, orange, two blues, black and white, these are the polishes I used

L-R Models Own Snow White, Models Own Bloo Bloo, Models Own Feeling Blue, Barry M Black, Rimmel Lasting Finish Tangerine Queen and Rimmel Lasting Finish Sunshine.
Now you can chose which ever colour combination you want, its entirely up to you, the tools I used the create this look are from my nail art brush set, I also use cuticle sticks.

Here is a quick step by step guide to create this design

1. First I painted my nails in Snow White

2. I then took my Feeling Blue for the stripe at the base of the nail and used a small brush to do this, now this is a design which doesn't have to be really neat and tidy, as a lot of the colours are painted over.

3. I then took my Black nail polish and again used my small brush to draw another block

4. I then used my yellow polish to create the next block of colour, again using my small brush

5. I then took my orange nail polish but wanted to leave a white stripe in between, so I did the block of colour leaving a section of white polish in between

6. I then took the last colour Bloo Bloo to paint on the tip of my nails, then left them to dry, now as you can see they still look quite messy at this stage, until you paint on the details, then it all becomes clear of what they are meant to be.

7.When dry, I took my white polish and little dotting tool to draw on the lines and dots, you can chose your own designs here, this is the look I went for

With a little tidying up this is the finished result

So there you have it my Aztec inspired nails. Hope you enjoyed this post, and have fun recreating your own designs, thank you for reading.

Catherine x

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Thank you, Catherine! Any nail art that doesn't matter if you're messy or not is a-ok with me ...

This post originated at: http://getlippie.com/ All rights reserved.

Guest Post - Parfumerie Generale Private Collection Cedre Sandaraque

Today I'm delighted to welcome Carrie from Eyeliner on a Cat, who has been one of the loveliest supporters of my Project Perfume this year, and writes evocatively about her scent collection on her own blog, she's created a new lemming for me now with this one ....

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Today was one of those amazing mornings. I woke up to a surprise care package filled with perfume goodies from a friend in Austria (I'm looking at you, Olfactoria!). Inside were many things I'd never tried before, even a couple of those Serge Lutens wax sample books I'd been wanting to see for quite some time. The one sample I sniffed and immediately had to try on my skin was Parfumerie Generale's Cedre Sandaraque. I'm familiar enough with the house to know that it was going to be a slam dunk right away.

notes: vetiver, African cedar, sandarac resin, cereals, pralined amber

The opening speaks clearly of spiced, chewy steel-cut oats, lightened by crisp vetiver- a brilliant move. I really love it when perfumers use inventive complementary notes together. So right off the bat, I'm surprised, and that (almost) always bodes well. There is a beautiful, laser-cut sharpness of cedar backed by the resinous spices. Cedre Sandaraque offers excellent contrast of shapes and shadows; round vs. angular. Here's where the mysterious nature of this perfume really starts to develop. The sillage is quite different from how it smells up close. When I sniff my wrist, it's intensely spicy and sharply woody, camphorous resins abound. As you walk, you leave more of a gourmand trail behind you. Fascinating! I cannot recall another perfume where this is the case (if anyone can name one in the comments-- please do!).

There is somewhat of a boozy effect when the notes are all combined, with a medicinal quality to it, I'm very attracted to that. "It smells like medicine, so you know it's working!" It reminds me of what the town medicine man might mix up for a poultice. The nutty quality of the praline is very rich and toasted, but it never dominates (and I'm glad for that). I don't recognize amber here in any traditional form, but perhaps it's best represented as a "green amber". The spicy resin gets more intense the longer it sits on my skin, and threatens to singe the nosehairs with the fumes. This is not a bad thing for me, believe it or not. I love to eat hot, spicy salsa, I enjoy the burn. It's nice to have a perfume like this that doesn't use pink, red or any other kind of pepper in the notes. What a relief! I am thoroughly peppered out in fragrance. The gourmand aspect does fade significantly as the drydown approaches, and what's left in the final hours is that big, bright cedar note, delicious spiced resin and the fresh, verdant element of vetiver.

I'm thoroughly impressed with Cedre Sandaraque, it's one of those perfumes that really needs to be smelled to be believed. Olfactoria told me that I would like it very much, and she was right on the money. It's worth seeking out for it's unique nature alone: come for the freak show, stay for the churros.

Available at Luckyscent in the US, a 50ml bottle for $105 and at Les Senteurs in the UK for 84.50 GBP

Guest Post - Before and After

I'm kind of hoping that my guest poster today doesn't really need any introduction ... but, if you're not familiar, here's @MrLippie talking about how his life has changed since his beloved became a beauty blogger ...

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At times, I find myself wondering how exactly I've ended up in this position - no, not the position of writing a blog post in a bit of a dozy frame of mind on a Sunday afternoon - but rather the position of having my grooming regime changed to such a considerable extent.

Before:

Source

Now, I've always been very much a 'get up and go' person when it comes to my morning routine, with the philosophy being that the body needs a bit of a short, sharp, shock prior to facing the evils of the outside world. I try not to hang around, even to the extent that I don't generally have breakfast on a workday. So, speed is generally of the essence.

Also, prior to going out with the lovely Get Lippie, I have to admit being not interested at all in the wide range of "stuff" out there. I found a combination that worked, that smelled relatively ok, and that leant itself well to my preference for speed & simplicity. Experimentation was not on the agenda whatsoever.

So, down to the details....Head & Shoulders was the basic shampoo, with a Lynx shower gel (usually Africa) used in combination with that. Well-known brands, with the Lynx being perhaps a touch too aromatic for me these days, but, at the time, it was simple, not bad to the nose, and relatively cheap. I cringed at the advertising (still do, to a certain extent), but it got the job done. A brief spray with a deodorant (again with the Lynx) and then it was on to combating of stubble.

Again, wasn't hugely sophisticated in my choice of brands - I went into Boots, and picked whatever took my fancy - in this case it was generally King of Shaves Shaving Oil, combined with a Gillette razor of some sort - I can't recall the make offhand, but there were only the 3 blades, and it wasn't electric in any way...

And that was it. No shaving foam, aftershave, moisturiser....about as basic as could be. A touch of Brylcreem gel to the hair and I was good to go!

Fast forward a few years, to Lippie Towers and a teeny tiny flat with all the mod cons and the shower/bath that looks capable of providing its' own life support system.

After:

I use Soap & Glory on my hair, a L'Occitane En Provence Shower Gel (although I sometimes switch to Fish for both of these), and another L'Occitane product as deodorant. Much nicer, a bit more variety, and less...predicatable, I guess.

Then, it's onto the shaving....now here's where my habits HAVE changed, there's no denying it. A while ago I was lucky enough to get hold of a proper shaving brush - and I love it. Shaving foam of choice at the moment is Bluebeards' Revenge, which is marvellously cooling, and whilst I still use a Gillette razor, it's a Gillette Fusion, with a Remington Electric Shaver as backup for those days when I'm running extremely late!

I moisturise - using either Bulldog or Rehab London - and I have a wide variety of aftershaves to choose from (partly due to the ongoing perfume project!). Generally I'll use L'Instant de Guerlain or possibly Armani Diamonds....or Code, depending on mood. The hair gets sorted with a touch of Fish wax, and out I venture into the depths of London.

I still don't see myself as completely 'metrosexual' - I have a phobia of man bags, my hair gets cut for less than a tenner in a barber shop, and there is NO way in HELL I'm going to try guyliner - no matter what you all say - plus I'm far too attached to my rugby shirts & t-shirts to start worrying about being some sort of fashionista. Nonetheless, I have changed - and likely will continue to do so, as I'm exposed to more brands & products that genuinely hit the spot or attract my attention.

That's me....how have your other halves changed whilst you've been blogging?

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Get Lippie says: Actually, I think I should show you a picture of what he really looks like now:

Guest Post - Clarisonic? I want one too!

Today I'd like to welcome Cas from Hair and Beautylicious, a great little blog that has been running for a few months now. This is Cas's first ever guest blog post, and I'm very honoured to have her here today.

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Hello ladies **waves**, it's Cas here from 'Hairandbeautylicious', and I will be today’s guest blogger, for the wonderful ‘Get Lippie’. I have decided to blog about a product that we all, lets face it ladies, want and that is the . . .Clarisonic. But I have discovered an alternative! Want to know more? Then read on . . .

A few years ago, as a present from my mum, I received a cleansing kit, which I originally thought ‘’what the heck is this’’. My mum kept banging on about how wonderful this kit was and that it would do wonders for my skin. As a ‘not so bothered’ teenager at the time, I kindly shoved this kit to the back of my wardrobe and thought nothing more of it.

Following blogs, and the trends that seem to crop up from time to time in the wonderful blogging world, I came across a youtube video from a well known blogger discussing a Clarisonic. Filled with curiosity and feeling very intrigued, I decided to watch the video. By the end of it, I thought ‘’WOW, what a great machine’’ and then I had a light blub moment ’ding’. The kit I received a few years was in fact very similar, if not more or less the same as a clarisonic, that every girl in blogging world would like to own. I darted into my wardrobe, and found this neglected product that was looking back at me as if to say ‘’you’ve neglected me all this time, and now you want to use me’’ lol.

This kit is actually called ‘FacialSpa Ultra Cleansing & Microdermabrasion System’, manufactured by Homedics and was released mid 2000s (2005-6 maybe?). Homedics are renowned for selling products that promote health and wellness to its consumers as stated below:

Since its foundation in 1987, HoMedics has worked hard to achieve the number one name in health and wellness. We believe that nothing is more important than looking after yourself and we strive to bring you products that take the effort out of maintaining your wellbeing (Homedics, 2011).

So you’re now wanting to know what came in the kit? well I am just getting onto that bit.
Included in this kit came the following:

·    Rechargeable wand with 2 speeds
·    7 attachments; 2 x microdermabrasion sponge, 1 x large suction cup, 1 x small suction cup, 1 x massage roll
·    Cleanser, toner, moisturizer and microdermabrasion cream
·    Manual
·    Storage case for the attachments, with cleaning brush
·    Storage bag

This kit I thought contained a lot, which really does emphasise on the point that Homedics aim to achieve ‘’ We believe that nothing is more important than looking after yourself and we strive to bring you products that take the effort out of maintaining your wellbeing’’. Unfortunately due to receiving this kit as a gift from my mum, I cannot price it, and she also won’t tell me -_- lol.

After several years of owning this product, but not actually putting it to good use, I decided to try it out, and to my astonishment, it works! YAY J After 16hours charging, reading from page to page of the manual, I decided to give this product a whirl, once and for all. Although the kit came with cleanser, toner and moisturisier and microdermabrasion products, I didn’t want to use them, as my skin is very very fussy, so I took to using good ol Liz Earle products and Aapri facial scrub to replace the microdermabrasion cream.

I won’t detail step by step what I did, apart from name which attachment I used in what order:

1) Cleansing brush – exfoliate
2) Large/small suction cup - deep cleaning of the pores, removing impurities
3) Microdermabrasion sponge - remove dead skin
4) Massage roller – encourage the circulation around the skin

At the end of this process, my skin felt incredibly smooth, soft and glowing. I have to say in the 10+years since I have been battling to maintain my skin and improve it, my skin looks so much better. It hasn’t instantly made it better, got rid of every blemish, but it certainly has rid away all the impurities and improved the general appearance of my skin. (Oh how I now wish I’d started using this product when I first received it lol).

As illustrated in the above picture, this wand also carries a little mist sprayer. What is the point in that do I hear you say? Well once you have completed the process, it is suggested, in the manual to lightly spray your face with the sprayer, as this will close the pores. I have used this function a few times, and I think it works alright. Although I personally like to splash my face with cold water, as it’s less time consuming and then pat dry thereafter with a dry clean towel for face purposes only.

In comparison to the Clarisonic, which if I am brutally honest, is a product that more or less does the same as the product discussed in this review, I can imagine it was good value for money (although I do not know the exact price), and adheres to what the company sets out to achieve. Although I do not know how much this kit cost, I highly suspect that it did not cost in the region of £155 (current amazon clarisonic price), which for that amount of money, could easily go towards shoes, clothes, handbags, make up ;-). Although this product is no longer sold on the high street, and I haven’t seen it advertised elsewhere online, I suspect however there are other products similar to this that do the same task. If not by HoMedics, then possibly by another company.
So I guess it comes to the following questions;

Will I continue using Homedics Facial Spa Ultra Cleansing and Microdermabrasion system? Yes, of course, until my ‘little find’ decides to shout ‘’I’ve had enough’’!
Will I be investing in the Clarisonic in the future? While I have a product that virtually does the same task, no.

However if a Clarisonic ever crossed my path, I’d be willing to, at least, give it a try to see what the difference between the 2 are.

I do hope you’ve enjoyed my review. Don’t forget to check out my blog, which is ‘Hairandbeautylicious’, or tweet me at @H_beautylicious.

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Get Lippie says: I've had a quick look around the HoMedics site, and sadly, I can't see this product listed on there any more, which is a real shame. I can't be parted from my Clarisonic these days, and it strikes me that this would be an excellent replacement if - heaven forfend - the worst did happen ... That whining noise you hear? That's me praying that Monarch airlines haven't lost my luggage, and my Clarisonic along with it ....

This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Guest Post - Le Metier Lip Creme Fraise

A new discovery, but rapidly becoming a favourite, owing to a shared interest in lipstick (and Le Metier de Beaute) is The Black Panties blog. Through her posts, I can live vicariously in Bergdorf Goodman ... and today, so can you!

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My obsession for the past month or so has been Le Métier de Beauté's Fraise lip crème. What makes lip crèmes stand out is their texture because they're a hybrid between a lipgloss and a lipstick. They're slightly reminiscent in terms of texture of the discontinued Dior Creme de Gloss. I find lip crèmes much more long lasting and it just feel softer on the lips. What's also great about them is that I can eat a meal and several drinks and it's still on my lips without any feathering (approx. 5 hours). I was sold on it when the associate was wearing it and she's NC15-20. It's a soft, wearable red with tiny gold sparkles. I know there are people who have their reservations about red because it's too bright or just too much. Trust me, Fraise is one you can wear at the office. It's scented like strawberry crème and be aware that it does have lanolin (to those who have allergies). Otherwise, it is a must have on your makeup bag, because it's truly a unique shade. The price is $36 + tax and it's worth every penny.