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Monday, 16 April 2012

Spring has Sprung with Bare Minerals at John Lewis

With the changing of the seasons, sometimes it's really nice to get a change of look to your makeup too. I popped along to John Lewis on Oxford Street last week, and treated myself to a Bare Minerals "makeunder" tutorial, which I enjoyed very much indeed. Bare Minerals is new to John Lewis, and to celebrate, until the 27th April they're inviting people along to undergo makeunders of their own.

If you're new to to mineral makeup, or just need a new look, the format is excellent, the makeup artist will do half of your face in easy to follow steps, and show you how to recreate the look for yourself. The makeup artists are friendly, and easy to relate to, and won't leave you looking like a drag queen!

I opted for a blue smokey eye, which I adored - and for reasons beyond my control, which I can't show you here today, but I'll recreate it for you soon. Here's the products they used though:

Just felt like giving a bunch of stuff away this week, so I got my people to speak to some people and see what I could offer to my wonderful readers, and there's some fabulous stuff coming up. I'm doing a different giveaway every day, so make sure you keep checking back to see what's on offer!

Don't worry there will be some regular posts in between too, so there's stuff to read as well ...

My first giveaway is a goodie bag of three So...? fragrances, one each of So ...? Kiss Me, So ...? Brit, and So ...? Sinful. The So...? fragrances are fun and fresh, and they have a scent for almost every occasion, so why not get yourself entered into the draw?

With that in mind, let me introduce you to Rafflecopter, which I'm hoping will make running the giveaways easier, let me know what you think. Primary entry terms is for you to leave a comment on this post, but you can gain a bonus entry for liking Get Lippie on Facebook too, if you like. Rafflecopter will show you how ...

A Week in Lipstick Teaser - Chanel

Yeah, it's not a normal Week in Lipstick today - there's too many of them! But, I was wandering through my lipstick collection the other day (like you do), and I realised I have a few Chanel lipsticks. Just a couple, you know:

Expect swatches by formula starting later this week:

Just ONE Chanel lipgloss. I'm appalled at myself, I really am.

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

Facebook Easter Giveaway!

Want to win the latest box of wonderful blush goodness from Benefit this Easter? Then head on over to my Facebook page and find out how to reach Hervana ... http://www.facebook.com/GetLippie

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

Lippie Loves: Stylfile

I know! Two "Lippie Loves" in one week! I spoil you people ... [ahem] ... anyhoo, I thought these curved nail files and buffers from former Apprentice contestant Tom Pellereau were going to be a complete gimmick, and I was all ready to write a deeply sarcastic review of them, but I used them, and, well, they're brilliant.

Regular readers will know that I regularly refer to myself as a cack handed muppet. And the reason for that is because I am ... well ... a cack handed muppet. I am so cack handed and useless that I don't really file my nails (or pluck my eyebrows for that matter, but that's a tale for another blog post) because I always, and I mean always mess it up. Surer handed people reading this will be boggling, I'm sure, but it's true.

Anyhoo, I'm digressing, but these are really brilliant. The curve of the files is perfectly calibrated to make them easy to use, and I found getting a great shape on my nails (I prefer a curved shape, personally) was very, very easy. Basically, you just make one or two sweeps from the edge of the nail towards the centre and your nails are shaped and filed in one easy motion. No sawing, and they're very quick. The buffer takes a little more getting used to, but the curved surfaces work really well on that too.

The file has two usable surfaces, one rough, and the other a little smoother, and the buffer (incidentally, has anyone else ever noticed the proximity of the F to the G standard QWERTY keyboard before? Just asking ...) has the traditional four surfaces. I didn't find the buffer worked particularly well on getting rid of nail ridges, but it does give an excellent shine.

The files are reasonably priced at £4.49 each, and they seem quite durable, the packaging states that they'll last up to 12 months. Personally, I hate the spelling of the name - anyone who knows me knows I'd have an issue with it - and I could definitely live without the inventor's face being all over the packaging (I always find it a bit creepy, to be honest, and, as I don't watch The Apprentice, it's almost entirely redundant) but the product itself is, in my opinion, a complete winner.

I'll be buying myself the travel version asap. It's cute in its little pink spiral to protect your stuff from getting scratched. The files are available on Amazon, in Sainsbury's, and they'll be launching in Boots later this year. You can take a look at the official Stylfile website here.

The Fine Print: Sample. Get Lippie is not affiliated in any way with Sir Alan Sugar, but I did used to own an Amstrad emailer phone. Oh, those were the days. I binned it after a week. Anyone remember Betamax?

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

Lippie Loves: Bourjois Magic Nail Polish Remover

Another one in my occasional series of Lippie Loves, and this time it's hardcore:

Launching later this month, this £3.99 sponge-filled jar deals with even the toughest of nail varnish in seconds flat. It's not quite the one second that it claims on the bottle, but it's pretty damn close. The black nail varnish you see in the picture - that I wore purely for testing purposes - was dealt with in around 3-4 seconds per nail, with no mess, and no waste of cotton wool!

Best of all, it smells great on your fingers too, but please don't stick your nose in the jar, you will regret it*. It's acetone-free, and contains sweet almond oil to nourish your digits whilst it removes the polish. I freely admit I have no idea how it works (for all I know, it could, in fact, actually be magic), but it does work, and works astonishingly well at that. Oh, and the sponge is black, so you can't tell just how stained it's getting from the polish, unlike other nail varnish remover jars available on the market ...

Buy some. You'll never regret it. Lippie loves it, and so will you.

The Fine Print: possibly the best PR sample I've had this year. So far.

* I do these things so you don't have to, people!

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

Makeover: Sharon's Wedding.

It's been ages since I did a makeover, eh? Well, this one is from a while ago too, but I thought I'd show it to you now. Sharon's appeared on the blog a couple of times since it started, and she's a good friend, so, when she asked me to do her wedding makeup last year, I couldn't really say no. Then, when I found out she was getting married at the Houses of Parliament, and there was going to be a beauty editor of a national daily newspaper present, I had an attack of the collywobbles, I won't deny it. But, I bit the bullet and got on with it, despite being a little out of practice, and here are the results:

I wanted her to glow, with beautiful, flawless skin, and to look like all she'd done was added a slick of red lipstick to her lips. Sharon doesn't normally wear much makeup at all, and I didn't want her to look too "overdone".