Eye of the Day - ELF and The Balm

 (Please ignore the stupid look on my face) 

This is a look I've been wearing a lot lately. I was sent some samples of the new ELF Cream Liner in Coffee, and The Balm Shady Lady 2 eyeshadow palette recently, and I have to say, I adore them both.  A closer look at the palette:

It's BEEYOOTIFUL.  Unlike many palettes, this one is endlessly versatile, and doesn't have any "random" shades thrown in just to make the numbers up, it's enormously flattering and will be suitable for a variety of skin tones. The shadows themselves are silky, buttery soft, and extremely blendable.  This has just become my desert-island palette, I've been carrying it around with me since it arrived.

The look I created above is a very neutral one, I used the pale pink (bottom right) on my mobile lid and brow bone, with the coppery brown (middle right) in the crease, and the taupe (top right) on the outer corner and as a liner underneath the eye.  Very quick, very polished, and very easy to kick up with a pop of any of the blue/purple/dark brown shadows on the left there as liners.

Here's a close up of the look:

Can't really recommend this palette highly enough to be honest, I love it.  You can buy yours from the lovely, lovely girls at Cult Beauty  for £38.  Pricey? Possibly, but you won't need any other eyeshadows for the rest of the year, if you get it, and these are really super-high quality shadows.

And I'm about to rave about the eyeliner as well.  Sorry, this is turning into a hella-gushy post!  I've always found ELF products a bit hit and miss, to be honest, but when they get things right, boy do they... I'm always dubious about cream eyeliners, sometimes they're difficult to use, being a bit "draggy", and then you have the transference problem if your eyelids are hooded at all, as mine are.

I used the shade "coffee" in a very fine line for this EotD, and I applied it with the ELF small smudge brush I bought recently.  It's very soft and smooth, meaning it can be easy to put too much on the brush, but I find just taking the excess off on the lip of the pot works fine.  You will probably need two passes of the brush over the lid to get the depth of colour you'd like, but with a formulation this soft, it's not a hardship!  The liner sets in a minute or two, and it's unbudgeable once it does.  (Is unbudgeable a word?  I guess it is now ...) No transferring to the crease, and no flaking or smudging on the eye, even when you wear it as a thicker, more dramatic line, as below:

As far as I'm concerned, this little baby has outperformed liners costing up to five or six times as much you can get hold of one for £3.50 from the ELF website. I'll definitely be buying the black and the blue, and I'll just have to live in hope that they'll eventually add a green and a purple to the range too, they're fantastic.

Okay, enough gushing from me (I'm really sorry, but you know perfectly well that I'm not this impressed with anything very often, so I hope you'll forgive me), what are your favourite beauty products at the moment?

Organic Wednesday - Melvita

After it's unscheduled two-week break, Organic Wednesday is back!  And it's back with some lovely treats, so sit back and have a look ...

Melvita are a French skincare brand - in fact they're the sister-company to L'Occitane - and they've just recently launched their products into the UK market.  They're Ecco-Cert compliant, and they promise that their products  contain:

■ No paraffin and no silicone.

■ No PEG (polyethylene glycol) and no PPG (polypropylene glycol).

■ No ethoxylated products.

■ No parabens or phenoxyethanol.

■ No formaldehyde or chlorine derivatives.

■ No synthetic fragrances or colouring agents.

■ No di-ethyl phthalate or nitromusk.

They also use no animal based products (aside from honey, in a couple of products), and do not carry out any animal testing, under any circumstances, as they are BUAV-approved.  Good news for my vegan readers!

There is a massive range of products to choose from, so I picked a few to showcase:

First off, the absolute star of the range - in my eyes at least: Naturalift.

Containing extracts of hibiscus seeds, chestnut, buddleia and beech buds, my (normal/dry, and fairly sensitive) skin just drinks this up, and is left smooth, silky and velvety as a result.  The cream has a faint scent of rose geranium, and sinks in very easily.  I adore it.  The cream is  of 99.11% natural origin, and 29.91% 0f the ingredients are organic. It claims to help with fighting wrinkles and signs of ageing, I've seen no evidence of that in my two week of using it as a night-cream, but it's still been a pleasure to use, and it's something I'll definitely look into purchasing again. Naturalift costs £30 for 50ml.

Rose Nectar Day Cream

Again, another cream that's a joy to use, scented as it is with rose oil - reminding me greatly of Ren Rose Otto bath oil - this is the cream I've been using as a day cream for the last few weeks.  It sinks in easily, and, as it's slightly less hydrating than the Naturalift, it makes a very good base for foundation.  The product contains rosehip oil, and an extract of rose seed, and is very gentle on even the most sensitive skins.  I find it very soothing, and love the scent.  This cream is 99.68% natural origin and 57.37% organic.  It costs £24 for 50ml. 

Apricosma Fondant Balm

This is a gloriously sweet-smelling body cream, that's rich and thick, and leaves you smelling a little of apricots, or other stone fruit.  Made of cocoa and shea butter, with hints of honey and thyme, it soothes your dry body parts, without taking a huge amount of rubbing in.  It is very sweet-smelling though,  and this scent lingers (it was a little to sweet for me, if I'm being completely honest) and if you're sensitive to smells, that might be something to take into account. The cream is 99.15% natural, 20.34% organic, and costs £19 for 150ml.

Two products I didn't get on so well with were the Eye Contour Gel, and the Foaming Facial Scrub, but this is because my skin is stupidly sensitive, and doesn't do well with gel formulations, or anything that foams, no matter how gentle.  I thought, rather than give you a negative review of a product that I know doesn't suit me, I'd ask one of you to review them for me, what do you think?

If you'd like the chance to review these products for me, please leave a comment on this post telling me why you'd be the best person for the job, and you MUST leave me your email address. Winners will be picked at my discretion, and two winning entries may be selected.  I'll make the decision on Monday 15th March, and products will be despatched by Wednesday 17th at the latest.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Melvita products are available to buy from the Melvita Home Page or from Lookfantastic who currently have a special offer, where if you buy any two Melvita products, you will get a free discovery pack worth £15!
 
The Small Print; Some of these products were sent as samples to review, some of them were presents.  Reviews are honest yadda, yadda, yadda, regardless of source, and so on.

Review – Lancôme Precious Cells Mascara

I’m a massive fan of Lancôme mascaras, and have been ever since they first introduced the Hypnôse range! I always have one on the go, and one as a back up around.

Despite the occasional misfire – Hypnôse Onyx anyone? Seriously I thought that one was innovation purely for innovations sake, it was literally no different to the original formula – they’ve always been my “go-to” mascara brand, as well as being the standard I judge other mascaras by.

Discovering that Lancôme had yet another version out at the end of this month, and that there is a waiting list for it at Harrods, I - on your behalf, lovely readers - begged, pleaded, cajoled, threatened, and just basically harassed the bejebus out of Lancôme till they sent me one to try.

(Actually, none of that is true, I merely cried at them till they gave me one to shut up and go away)

I’m glad to say that I’m a big fan of this one.  I loved the Hypnôse Drama formulation, but found the curvy brush a bit of a trial. Being the cack-handed muppet that I am, a thick curvy brush is not my friend, especially not first thing in the morning …

Anyhow, the new brush irons out those wrinkles, being flat, and having short bristles on two sides, alongside longer bristles on the other sides (see illustration)

What this means is that I can pack on the mascara with the shorter side, then use the longer bristles to tease out my lashes, all just by turning the brush through 90 degrees! So simple, even a cack-handed muppet can use it. You get the benefits here of both a thin, and a thick brush, meaning you can use it whichever way suits you.

Here’s how it looks on my eyes:

Now, I’ll be honest, it doesn’t – quite – give the full-on false-lash effect I love so much – though it’s pretty darn close - but I do actually have high hopes for this little tube.  And this is because this is Lancôme's first mascara to incorporate both skin, and haircare, technology into their formulation.  It is, in effect, an anti-ageing mascara.

Yes, I am aware of how silly that sounds, thank you. There are, however,  a few mascaras around making similar claims at the moment, but they’re all two-stage systems, Hypnôse is the first that does it in one step, with no fussy serums, and no two brushes first thing in the morning!

Here’s what Lancôme themselves have to say:

From 28 days, the formula enriched with our patented Lash Densifier Complex helps regenerate lash condition. With a visibly denser looking fringe, lashes appear longer, as though regenerated. Each day, Hypnôse Precious Cells helps you to reveal your lash potential.

I’ve been using the formula for two weeks now, and I’ve yet to see any particular difference in my lashes, but Lancome claim that this will stop my lashes falling out as often– something I’ll be delighted with, if it happens. I have much thicker lashes on my right eye, and much longer lashes on my left, and if this mascara helps even things out, I will love it for ever and ever, and ever, and ever … I’ll report back in a couple of weeks.

Lancôme Precious Cells will be available from Harrods on 28th March, nationwide from 1st May, and will cost £22.  Will you be investing?

The Small Print: I was sent this to review.  All opinions are honest, regardless of the source. No one reads these do they?  Hugh Jackman, naked! Told you.

Foundation Week Finale – Liquids

I love liquid foundations, and have amassed a fair collection of them over the years. There are very many different formulations, and with liquid foundations, it can be a case of trial and error getting the right formulation for yourself.
There are two main kinds, ones that leave you with a dewy glow, and matte ones – but, of course, there are all kinds of gradations in-between.  Me being a dry-skinned kind of gal, I tend to favour more glowy kinds of foundations over the matte ones, but I’ll have a look at some good examples of both in this post.
Dewy
Foundations that give you a dewy finish can be heavier in oils, and therefore they’re better for drier, or more mature skins.  My absolute favourite foundation in this category is Chanel Vitalumiere, which I find leaves me with a lovely “glowing” effect, without making it look like I’m either sweaty or greasy.  It last pretty well, too, but the shade range isn’t all that wide (I find the pale shades pretty dark, and they don’t really cater for darker skins at all, which is a shame), but I like the air-free pump bottle, which means no messy spills!
Bourjois 10 hour sleep effect foundation is another good one, but I find it can my my (only slightly) dry skin look a little too shiny, and so I find that setting it with powder takes the edge off that.
Nars Sheer Glow is one that a lot of people swear by, but I found in my recent Nars makeover that it just made me look sweaty, even after a good powdering!  However, if you have really dry skin, it might be a good one to try out.
Matte
I’m not the best person to ask about matte foundations, as I find that many of the “oil-free” formulations that abound, like Lancome’s Teint Idole Ultra (which is actually an excellent foundation for greasier-skinned people) suck all the moisture out of my face after a couple of hours and leave me looking a little desiccated.  I also recently tried Bourjois Mineral Matte foundation recently (which is cutely packaged with it’s own tiny kabuki brush) but again, it just dried my skin out that little too much to be comfortable.
So, can dry-skinned people use a matte base without resembling an Egyptian mummy by lunchtime?  Surprisingly, the answer is yes! 
I recently discovered Rimmel’s Stay Matte formulation (okay, I may not have been the first person to ever have bought this one) and I absolutely love it!  Now, the reason I love it is probably because it’s not really as matte as it claims to be.  Personally, I’d describe the finish as a “satin”.  It doesn’t give me as dewy a glow as Vitalumiere, but there is definitely a lovely sheen to my skin when I’m wearing this.  Over the winter, Rimmel Stay Matte has been my default foundation, and currently, it’s the one I use as a benchmark for ALL foundations, it’s that good!  I also purchased a couple of back-ups …
Another one with a great satin, or “semi-matte”, finish is Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation, which I like a lot, but the texture is a bit more liquid than the Rimmel, and I think doesn’t last quite as well.
Application
With all my liquid foundations, I pour a little onto the back of my hand, and dab a flat-topped Kabuki brush into it, and use that to spread the foundation over my trouble spots (nose and T-Zone), then use the slightly denuded brush to blend it over the remainder of my face.  I then use my fingers to add a little more in place of concealer where I need it.  Sometimes, I finish with powder, sometimes I don’t, it depends on what I’m doing for the day.
That said, there’s no real right or wrong way to apply your foundation, the right way is simply the way that works for you.  For my makeovers, I usually use a disposable foundation sponge, but sometimes I use my fingers.  As long as you don’t end up looking like you’re wearing a mask, it’s all good!
What’s your favourite liquid foundation? How do you apply it, and what finish do you like?

Makeover: Isobel

Another very quick makeover this week, featuring the lovely Isobel, who came to visit Chez Lippie recently.
Meet Isobel:

Isobel wanted a very simple evening look.  One that looked polished, and elegant, but that wasn’t too dramatic.  We had a chat about colours, and discovered that muddy purples were the order of the day.
As ever, we start with the base.  Now, Isobel is 60 years old, and has skin that many a thirty- or forty-something would envy, barely any pores, and very minimal lines, I was in awe!  With this in mind, we used a very, very light base of Benefit You Rebel in Lite:
Then, onto the eyes.  We wanted to make them the focus of the look, so we picked out a Laura Mercier eyeshadow (one of my own personal favourites) in Twilight, and used that all around the eyes:
I also used the same shade as a liner – applied with a liner brush – and followed this with a touch of Bourjois Ultra care mascara in black:


To highlight those lovely cheekbones, I used Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips as both a blush and a highlight.  I love these US-only versions of Bobbi Brown’s shimmer bricks, the quality is astonishing for a “drugstore” product, and they’re very flattering.

I added a touch of lipstick (sorry, very, very sorry, I can’t remember which one) and used MAC Behold eyeshadow to darken Isobel’s eyebrows a touch, for added definition.
Here’s the before and after:

Apologies – as always – for the terrible photographs in this makeover, this was a nighttime makeover, and we struggled with the lighting.
Thank you, Isobel for taking part, it was great fun, and I really hope you enjoyed your new look!