Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone is planning a lovely Christmas this year - I'm not going to be around much between now and new year as I'm ill, I'm travelling round the country a bit, and I'm starting a new job!  I'll be around just after Christmas though, and I have a post about smokey eyes coming up soon, so look out for it!

See you all soon!

Organic Wednesday - Purity Organic Skincare

Another week, another guest blogger here at Get Lippie. Seona was lovely enough to offer to try out a couple of products for me, and we're looking at Purity Skincare this week. Purity say that less is more in beauty (a philosophy with which I heartily concur), and, according to their website, they have some pretty serious organic credentials.  They say:

"Purity Organic Skincare is a British brand, conceived and created to bring intelligent, sustainable and organic beauty to each and every one of us. Purity Organic Skincare is EcoCert certified, with 98% of the ingredients of natural origin and an average of 82% of the ingredients processed from organic farming."

We were sent some of their facial exfoliator and their anti ageing serum and mask to try -sadly I couldn't try these products as I was in the middle of trying another skin care range, the reviews of which I'll bring you soon - here's Seona's opinions:

"I am an unlikely person to review skincare. I am rubbish at looking after my skin. I manage to take my eye makeup off, but I go to bed with my foundation still on. I do wash my face in the morning and moisturise, but that’s about it. So when my face started breaking out it probably wasn’t surprising. I was therefore very happy to help Get Lippie out by trying some of the new Purity Organic Skincare range.

Facial exfoliator

This is billed as a deep pore exfoliator and contains ground coconut shell to do the exfoliating, with coconut oil, sweet almond oil, glycerine and aloe vera to do the moisturising.  The coconut shell is the first thing I noticed, it’s kind of scratchy. Yes I know exfoliators are meant to be, well, exfoliating, but this is one of the bad boys. The first time I used it I didn’t take account of this and promptly took the top off a spot. Not quite the exfoliation I was after. The exfoliating bits are also quite dispersed, so sometimes it’s very scratchy, and sometimes nada.

However, with a lighter touch I got much better results. It is a little scratchier and more dispersed than I normally like my exfoliators, but it certainly did the job. I am prone to blackheads on my nose and it often feels a bit bumpy to the touch. This left my nose smooth and bump free.

Which brings me on to all those oils. You certainly notice them. In between the scratchy coconut shell, the lotion feels incredibly rich and soft on the face. I loved it, I wanted to take the shell out and just have the facewash. Afterwards my face still felt lovely and soft, without that ‘tight’ feeling some cleansers and exfoilators can give you.

I can’t say I’d rush out and buy it myself, but it certainly does the job. If the exfoliation was a little gentler I would, but I prefer a gentler, every day exfoliator.

Anti-ageing serum & mask

The face mask left me bemused to start with. It’s a thick gel like mask, again fragrance free. The instructions on the pot say to smooth over the face and either rinse off after 10 minutes, or leave on. Leave on? What, not remove? Weird.  It was only on reading the accompanying info that I realised it’s “leave on overnight”. So not forever then. But still, how’s that work then?

Well it didn’t first time. I like to put my face masks on in the bath. I’m relaxing, it’s convenient, I’m all steamy so I figure it must help open the pores. However, I don’t think it’s the right way to do it, as using this mask in the bath means it’s always too wet to leave on. And it didn’t seem to do much to my skin either, except leave it a bit shiny.
So I tried again, treating the mask properly this time. Out of the bath, away from any steam, nice thick layer on the face. Now, this mask is suitable for sensitive skins, so I wasn’t expecting it to dry. But it did. And how! Within about a minute it had dried on my face and I got to do that hilarious “pull funny faces and feel the mask crack” thing. It’s not just me that does that, right? This was fine at first. But it kept getting tighter and I found the sensation quite unpleasant.  Plus bits kept flaking off my face. I couldn’t leave it on overnight as it felt too “there”. So I left it for an hour or so and then washed it off.

I have to say, this worked much better than I expected. My face was exceptionally smooth afterwards. I had an independent tester on hand to verify this, he agreed that my skin was very soft. It didn’t feel ‘cleaner’, but this isn’t billed as a mask for deep cleaning. It says it will help boost your skin’s natural regeneration process, repair the skin, boost moisture retention, and improve the look and feel of your skin. It certainly improves the feel, it plumped up the little lines around my eyes that appear when I’m dehydrated, and left me glowy. Did it improve my skin’s natural regeneration process? I have no idea. I’m not even sure I know what that means. But I liked my super-soft skin and I would definitely buy it myself. But I don’t think I’ll ever sleep in it, too weird."

Purity Organic Skincare is available from Superdrug or online at purityorganicskincare.co.uk and cost between £4.99 to £8.99, but a little bird tells me that ALL purity products will have £2 off during January, so snap some up!

Life in plastic, it's fantastic ...

So ... there's another range of Barbie makeup on the market, after both MAC and Stila have released Barbie collections in the last couple of years, this time New Look are on the case!

I'll be honest, and let you know that this was something I wasn't really that interested in featuring on the blog - I'm definitely not New Look's target market these days - as I wasn't (still not to be honest) convinced that this would be something my readers would be interested in.  It's a budget range, from a budget store, and it wasn't something I'd tried.

Add in that I'm not entirely sure I approve of grown women using Barbie as a role-model for their looks, and you have no small amount of confusion.  I was a Sindy girl (moving onto a Girl's World the second I had a chance - I ruined her, and don't even get me started on the crappy crayons they called "makeup" in those days!) and Barbie's plastic-fantastic looks and lifestyle I always found a little ... well ... flashy. So I was bemused when both Mac and Stila brought out ranges  based on Barbie (what next, Bratz?) and ignored them completely, thinking they were for - frankly - those misguided middle-aged women who are clinging onto their youth like a limpet*. Certainly that's who the price ranges and brands involved seemed to be aiming themselves at.  Retro-irony is not a bad thing, but ... well, Barbie is famous for blue eyeshadow and pink lips, it's hard to pull that look off, even in an ironic fashion!

*No offence intended to the people who bought them and loved the products, it's my own prejudice I'm highlighting here, not the tastes of anyone else!

I have a small policy on Get Lippie that I will only write about products I've actually tried for myself, so I can be honest about them.  The PR company involved in the New Look launch know all about my little quirk, and they sent me a few products to have a play with.  I can't, in all honesty, say they're the best cosmetics I've ever tried, but they're are very much better products than their price tag would suggest - in particular I like the glitter-french manicure nail set, which is £5, and the false lashes are really very nice indeed (also a fiver):

There is also a face pack, a blusher which looks very high end (I didn't see this, so can't speak for it's texture or anything), a mascara, eyeliner and concealer pack which I haven't tried yet, but will have a go at playing with soon.  These aren't products I'd personally buy for myself, but if my niece were a few years older, I'd be happy to buy her some, and have her play with them to her heart's content.  They're nice products, not great products.

What's your opinion on Barbie, and Barbie products for adults?

Makeover: Kerry

After a bit of last minute confusion with one of my other volunteers, the lovely Kerry stepped in to have a makeover, and I'm glad she did, as this is one of my favourites!

Meet Kerry:

Kerry is really very pretty already, with enormous green eyes.  Sometimes Kerry thinks she looks a bit young (never an issue as far as I'm concerned!) so was looking to create a sophisticated "grown-up" look, that was hopefully a bit glamorous too.

As always, we started with the base.  Kerry has beautiful porcelain skin, so we used Bobbi Brown liquid foundation in "porcelain" as the main base, and Benefit's You're Bluffing as a concealer on the birthmark on her upper lip.  I decided against using Bluffdust as a powder because Kerry is so pale, and we used ELF HD Powder to set the look instead:

Then, to make the most of Kerry's gorgeous eyes, I made use of a Bobbi Brown palette I have that features mainly chocolate shades, I applied a shimmer wash of colour over Kerry's lids, then defined the crease with a darker shimmery brown shade:

Once they were in place, I lined the eyes with "coffee, and applied just a little more shimmer to Kerry's  lids:

 

 

Once that was in place, I darkened Kerry's brows just a little (with Smashbox brow powder kit), and added a single layer of Clarins Wonder Perfect Mascara, the difference was amazing!

A light touch of Cargo Plant Love's Wind (please note no schoolgirl jokes today, thank you) around the cheekbones and temples to warm the look up a bit, and then I used NARS Sex Machine on Kerry's lips, and finished with a tiny slick of Dior lipgloss (the name of which has worn off, but is a very pale pink with a hint of green iridescence.  Nicer than it sounds, honest!)  Here's how it looked when it was all put together:

And here's the before and after:

Many thanks for stepping in Kerry, hope you liked your new look!

Onix Blowdry - the aftermath ...

As you probably already know, I had an  Onix keratin treatment/Brazilian blowdry at Compton Hair earlier this week, and I was very, very pleased with it. Well, I let it airdry the other day, and it was with some trepidation I did it, I can tell you!  I was still convinced that the very second I washed my hair, all the FLOOF would be back, and I'd have to break out the straighteners again.

This is how it turned out:

This is my hair, airdried, without any styling product, and just after my having raked it out with my fingers.

Here's a close up of the crown, so you can see how shiny it still is:

Seriously, my hair has been gleaming all week, people in the office have commented on it!

I couldn't be happier with my new hair, it's a whole new lease of life for me!