Makeover: Rebecca

I recently put out a call on my blog for volunteers for makeovers, and the lovely Rebecca from Le Salon de Beaute had volunteered almost before I’d finished writing the post!  Take a look at her blog if you get a chance, it’s a lovely one, and I’m a big fan.
Anyway, this is Rebecca refusing to give me her best “Prisoner Cell Block H” impression.
I was a bit nervous during this makeover, as Rebecca is a talented makeup artist in her own right, so I was really putting my amateur skills to the test here.
As always, we start with the base.  Rebecca has very pale skin, and I had a little trouble matching her up with my small foundation supply, but the nearest match we came up with was – once again – Max Factor Seamless in Porcelain:

It’s evened out her skintone well (it’s a foundation I use a LOT), but I can’t help thinking it’s  just a touch too warm on Rebecca’s skin.
We had a fun time picking out some colours to use, and eventually we decided to do something a bit different, and went for a pink and burgundy smokey eye.  As a colour wash, I used ELF’s Shimmering Facial Whip in Pink Lemonade:

It’s a lovely soft pink shade that you can use anywhere on your face, and it makes a nice eyeshadow base too. 
It’s not as scarily bright as you might think on the eyes, and I thought it was a lovely, brightening shade.  In order to smoke it out, I used Korres 77s eyeshadow in plum, which is a lovely  burgundy, and an eyeshadow that I use very often.  I used it as a liner, and to define the outer V of the mobile eyelid and into the crease:
I then finished off the eyes with a sweep of Bourjois Ultra Care mascara (full review of that coming soon!) and added a little of MAX lipgloss in VI to Rebecca’s lips:

I think she liked it:


Here’s the before and after: 

Thanks so much for taking part, Rebecca! It was lots and lots of fun!

Giveaway Reminder!

So, did you enter my giveaway yet? Alongside your choice of either Liz Earle skincare or pefume, I’ve added some goodies from Stargazer (IMATS exclusive!), Clinique and Balm Balm.  The second prize gift includes a skincare set from Jason, and there might be a little something from Lancome in there too … there are

some other little surprises in the bags as well!

So, please, become a follower (there’s a link just over there on the right –>), and add a comment to the post on this link There are only two more days to enter, I’ll be making the draw on Sunday evening!

Thank you everyone for reading, I’ve been at this for six months now, and it’s been amazing!

Technorati Tags: Giveaway,Random

Estee Lauder - Michael Kors

More beige, and yet I want this collection so badly.  Someone needs to talk me down ... I have enough make up! 

... Don't I? I also think I need the Bobbi Brown summer corals collection.  I love me some coral ...

Any things you are looking forward to seeing appear in the shops over the next couple of months?

Nail of the Day - Nubar Oh Baby Pink

In the spirit of full disclosure, I've already said that spring, to me, is all about the brights, right? That I'm not about the pastels?  Okay ... in brief, I love this polish ... but...

This is Oh Baby Pink and it's from the Nubar Hypnotic Valentine's collection (which is available from the lovely, lovely people at Beauty Shed) it's a pastel pink creme, that only took two coats to cover my nails in dense, pink colour.  It was a dream to apply, slightly streaky on the first coat, but fully opaque and shiny on the second. Nubars always wear pretty well, and I'm assuming this won't be an exception to that.

My photos wash the colour out a little here, making the shade a lot more pastel than it actually is.  In the flesh, this shade is more of a candy- than a baby-pink.  If Barbie OD'd on Tipp-Ex, then this is what she'd throw up. It's a real love-it or hate-it shade, this one. I think I'm on the wrong side of that particular choice! That said, I've been wearing the colour out and about the last day or two, and some people really, really love it.  I think it'd be a great shade for people with cool-toned pale skin, or very dark, or tanned skin.  I think on my pale (very pale) yellow-y skin that it just makes me look a bit jaundiced.

I took a picture in different light to see if I could capture the full effect of the colour, and these are the best I could do

In artificial light:

In natural daylight

If you  like soft, girly colours, then you will adore this polish. Nubar say it's a lovely romantic shade - I'm not entirely sold on that, being reminded faintly of Pepto-Bismol every time I look at it) but there's no doubting the quality of the polish itself.

This happened today though.  There may have been a couple of tears shed (ironically, it's also the picture closest to the real shade of the polish):

No flowers please, the ceremony will be a private, family-only affair.  MrLippie has been laughing about it ALL DAY.

Organic Wednesday - A change from our usual programming.

In which Get Lippie goes off on one and hopes she'll be forgiven ...

Here at Get Lippie, I have a lot of organic products, and I read a LOT of pseudo-scientific gubbins about why organic products are better than products that contain ingredients which are not organic. And, by and large, I take most  of these claims with a pinch of salt.  You can tell me that a product works because the contents are  harvested only by the light of a gibbous moon by virgins, then then ingredients are handed to fairies who use angel wings to mix them up (not actually that far-fetched a claim, to be honest) and I'll simply roll my eyes slightly (possibly whilst belming gently to myself) and then go back to smearing it wherever it's meant to be smeared and reading the ingredients list.

From reading that,  I'll know that a product works because it contains ingredients known to moisturise, or perfume, or colour and doesn't contain potential irritants. I'm a big fan of reading the ingredients list of any product I buy, organic or not.  More people should do it!

There are, however, two words which, when I encounter them on an organic product - and it is always an organic product I'm afraid, that will make me go all "HULK SMASH" on the offending article.  Those two words are:

Chemical Free

They make me crazy.  Because I'll assume two things.  That the makers of the products are idiots and, worse, that they think the people buying the products are idiots.  And that makes me angry.  Just because people may want to avoid increasingly synthetic products, it doesn't mean they're gullible.

There is nothing on this planet that is chemical-free.  I am chemicals.  You are chemicals.  Air is so full of chemicals it's astonishing we can breathe at all.  Water - the supposedly one of purest ingredients on earth is ... you guessed it ... chemicals!  ORGANIC INGREDIENTS CONTAIN CHEMICALS.  Everything does, and certainly everything on that pesky ingredients list will consist of chemicals in various guises. There simply is no such thing as chemical free.  Any product that tells you it's good because it doesn't contain "chemicals" is attempting to pull the wool over your eyes in order to get you to hand over your hard-earned pennies.

If a product is free of synthetic dyes, perfumes, colours, additives or preservatives, then that's great - to a point, but that's the subject of a whole other post - then quite rightly the packaging should mention it.  But I do wish organic producers wouldn't be so tricksy at times.   Sometimes you need a degree in double-speak to figure out if the products are entirely organic or not.  I really don't think you should be able to claim that a product is organic if it merely contains a couple of organic essential oils or something.  But again, that's the subject of another post.

What do you think of organic products? Does the provenance of the ingredients in your cosmetic items bother you at all? Did you make it to the end of this post? Are you a cosmetic brand who disagrees with what I've written here?  What drives YOU crazy about cosmetic claims or labelling?

Lip of the Day - Chanel Rouge Coco "Cambon"

This is a sneak preview of one of the lipsticks Chanel is premiering in March, from their "Rouge Coco" range, the shade I have is "Cambon":

Chanel are introducing this range of lipsticks - all named after Coco Chanel's favourite things, this one is named after the Cambon Handbag, hence the picture at the top there - for the spring/summer season.  Highly moisturising, and very pigmented, they're a delight to wear, and there will be 30 shades in the full range.

This is a HOT pink, indeed an almost fuschia shade, but with a hint of orange rather than blue.  I love it.  My All Time Favourite Lipstick of All Time is a Chanel pink (India, long since discontinued, but I never pass a Chanel counter without having a quick look for it, just in case, I miss it so!) so when this baby popped into my grubby little paw on Saturday , I was very happy indeed!  The pictures are making it look very scarlet, which is a shame, as this is very definitely a pink.

They wear well, fade evenly (no ring of doom here!) and last pretty much six or seven hours before you need to reapply - at least, if you don't eat, they do.

This is one of those bright, sunshine-y shades that instantly makes you happier when you wear it, and it's bringing a little cheer to my dingy corner of winter at the moment!

Many, many thanks to British Beauty Blogger for the surprise present, I love it!

Pastels, schmastels, my spring is all about the BRIGHT, how about you?

Lip of the Day - OCC Lip Tar NSFW

So, I'm back in the land of the lap-topped, and I couldn't be more relieved!  I'll do a more full review of IMATS later (I enjoyed it, but I have some serious reservations about how it was organised, to be honest) but I wanted to show these little babies off, as I think they might be my new very favourite things ...

Here's the skinny: "A stunning new innovation in lip color, OCC Lip Tar combines the longevity of a lipstick, with the ease of application of a gloss. Goes on slick and moist, and dries down to a satin finish. Ultra-saturated in color, OCC Lip Tar contains an unprecedented amount of pigment, so a little goes a very, very long way."

They're not kidding, to get full-lip coverage, you need only the very tiniest amount, seriously!  One thing you do not do when applying these is squeeze the tube ... you'll regret it!  You get seriously opaque lip coverage in one coat, and a lovely sheen when you apply too, but it is best to use a brush.  Here's how they look on the skin:

 

Sorry it's out of focus there, but you get a good idea of the colours, I bought Feathered, Katricia and Petty Beige for mixing purposes, I doubt they're colours I could ever wear, but I'm looking forward to trying out Safety Orange!  In case you're in any doubt how far these go, before I removed the swatches, I mixed them all together to see what I got:

 

Surprisingly not bad, I think I'll call this shade Sunburn!  It could have gone a lot further, but I feared I'd be stained all the way up to the elbows, and that's not a good look.

I wore NSFW with just a hint of mascara yesterday, I really, really like this shade, and how it feels on my lips, the product is totally weightless and not at all greasy (unlike say, Rouge Volupte - sorry, I really don't understand the fuss about those!), and lasts surprisingly well.  The really good thing about the application is that if it starts to wear off, you can just press your lips together a little and the colour will replenish itself a little from the movement.

This is how NSFW looks on the lips:

 

Please excuse my lips looking a little chapped there, if you've been following me on Twitter you'll know I've not been well for the last few days, and I've been chewing my lips in a slightly distracted fashion.

Do you have any Lip Tars? How do you wear them?

Technical Difficulties

In a break from our regular programming (sadly, my laptop is out of action for a few days, and I feel like I've lost a limb as a result!) there can be no makeover today, as I am a dingbat who forgot to schedule all of them last week!

It's been a busy few days here though, blogger events, IMATS and swaps (oh my!), so I've got lots to bring you when Gladys (my big pink Dell Of Doom) is back in action.

In the meantime, here is some soothing music and a picture of my recent delivery of goodies from Sephora (courtesy of the gorgeous @OlderGirlBeauty) which I'll be reviewing soon:




Kat Von D! And Sephora by Opi "Brunette on the Internet" nail polish (sometimes judging a polish by it's name is the only way to go!) but there is heaps more, Naked, OCC (but you're going to hear a LOT about them in the next week or so from other bloggers with more regular computer access, so I'll try and restrain myself!), Maelin + Goetz, more Chanel, Eve Pearl, Christopher Drummond, Rimmel (yes, really!), Milani, Embryolisse, and lots of other bits and pieces.

Oh! And I was featured on British Beauty Blogger this week! You can check out my mascara review on her homepage. I love BBB, so it was a great honour to be on her panel of reviewers! Can't do links on the iPhone for some reason but do click the link in my blogroll on the right.

Now, anyone know where I can get my hands on a mallet? Me and Gladys have some "talking" to do …

Chanel Kaska Beige Swatches

It's not often these days that I get excited by an entire collection, and if you'd told me a few months ago that the one collection I would be super-interested in this year would be, well, beige, I'd probably just have looked at you like you had two heads or something.

But recently, I've been going through something of a taupe phase, I dug out my beloved - and sadly discontinued - Clavin Klein makeup collections, which are full of beautiful dusty colours, and have been using those a lot for these "non-colour" makeups I've been craving.

So Chanel's latest collection has really called to me this week, I don't know why, but it has.  I showed you Particuliere the other day, but I caved in and bought these beauties too.  The lighting isn't great in these pics, so I'll redo them soon, and bring you a FotD for those of you I'm not seeing in the flesh this weekend!

From left to right there, we have: Rouge Allure 82 "Incognito", Quadra Eyeshadow 18 "Kaska Beige" and Fluid Iridescent Eyeshadow 100 "Torrent"

To be honest, I'd only gone to pick up the quad, but I had to get the lipstick and the liquid eyeshadow too after swatching in-store.

Shadow swatches:

They're a little sheer here - but that's because I used the sponges in the quad - I've also swatched them with fingers over primer and they're much more intense that way.  Lovely, lovely neutrals.

I love the lipstick, it's a lovely cool neutral rose, which is a good, "my lips but better" shade.  And I fell totally in love with the liquid eyeshadow, which has a hint of holographic sparkle, which the camera hasn't picked up there.  I simply couldn't leave it behind ....

One last gratuitous lippie shot:

Will you being picking up any Chanel this season?

PS - have you entered my giveaway yet?  If not, why not?  I'll be at IMATS this weekend, and picking up some goodies for you!

Organic Wednesday - Naked Bodycare (quickie)

A little bird tells me that Naked Bodycare will be giving their Facebook fans a 50% off code for purchases made between January 29th-Feb 14th!  Go sign up now!


In the meantime, you can check out their range here.  I like Naked products, and will be reviewing some of their range in more detail for you soon, look out for an in-depth Organic Wednesday feature in the near future...

Organic Wednesday - Evolve

Evolve is a brand that's only come recently to my attention, but it's one I like, and the reason for it is fairly simple, the products are good, and they come in recyclable (and recycled) packaging.  A lot of organic brands make big claims about environmental friendliness, but I, for one, would be interested to know how many of them package their products in recycled milk bottles ...

Laura Rudoe, the founder of Evolve was previously involved with Nude Skincare (another favourite of mine) and it's good to see another affordable organic line becoming more readily available.

I tried Evolve's Gentle Cleansing Melt, which is a sugar-based cleansing product, designed not to irritate sensitive skin.


Evolve Say:

Pure pleasure...this gentle soap free cleansing balm melts away make up and impurities before transforming into a rich creamy milk on contact with warm water. It rinses away leaving skin clean, moisturised and soft to the touch. This amazingly versatile product can also be used as a rinse off massage oil, a soap free body cleanser, shaving oil and more.

Lippie Says: 

This is a gel-textured product, which you scoop from the jar, and apply to your (dry) face, then use water to emulsify, and rinse. It's a very firm texture, which I rub between my palms before applying to my face, and then I massage it all over in order to get it to dissolve my makeup. Then I  use the hot cloth method to remove the residue. I find that whilst it spreads easily over the skin, it doesn't have as much "slip" as an oil-based cleanser and, ironically, as a result it feels a wee bit greasier when it's in use than a cleansing oil.  Once you add water though, it emulsifies instantly into a milky lotion, and is very easy to remove.  I find that it doesn't leave my skin dry, but it doesn't remove eye makeup as well as an oily facial cleanser. There's no scent to this product at all, so if you're sensitive to strong-smelling products then this is ideal. I've not found that it irritates my exceedingly irritated skin.

Overall

It's a good general cleanser, and for an entirely organic product, it's reasonably priced at £10.99 for 100mls.  I don't think it would last as long as a liquid oil cleanser as you need to use a little more then you would a liquid, owing to it's lack of slip, but I suspect that a jar this size would last you a good month or two, depending if you cleansed once or twice a day.  I also think you'd need a separate eye makeup remover, but this isn't really an issue.  The only thing I'd change about this product is that I'd put it into a tube, personally I hate having to dig my fingers into a tub of anything and then apply it to my face, but that's my own odd issue ...

Unexpected Nail of the Day - Chanel Particuliere

Don't you just love synchronicity?  I was just thinking this lunchtime that my polish needed changing, and was musing about what colour to do them next, when I noticed that the Chanel counter at my local Boots had the spring range in, and they had Particuliere!  I've been lemming this colour for ages, but instead of trying to assuage my NEED with similar colours, I told myself I'd be good and wait ...

It's a taupe shade - somewhat less grey than I was expecting, and it shades almost to a milky chocolate colour in artificial light, but I love it.  I don't own anything quite like it already, and I can see I'm going to be staring at my nails all day tomorrow ...

 

 

Pictures show two coats with a Seche top-coat, application is fine, a little sheer on the first coat, but it builds up nicely on a second.

Apologies for the appalling lack of cleanup in these pics, but I wanted to show you the swatches as soon as I possibly could ... I like it an alwful lot more than the last Chanel special edition I bought you, which was Kaleidoscope, and I hated it.  Normally I avoid browns - I'm scared of them - but this is one I think works quite well with my skintone.

Will you be buying?

Spots - A How To Guide

We all get zits. Occasionally, we all get those hormonal enormozits that take ages to come to a head and then take what feels like months to disappear. Here's my patented guide to dealing with zits.

Required:
Salicylic acid-based spot treatment
Clay-based face mask
Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream or similar

Notes:
The vast majority of topical spot treatments contain salicylic acid, but I can personally recommend Clinique, and Origins as good ones.

If an emergency zit treatment is required, smush an aspirin (the active ingredient in aspirin is salicylic acid!), dilute with a little water, and dab the paste on your zit as required.

Method:
Dab the affected area with salicylic acid treatment of choice every few hours. Then put a dab of clay based mask on for overnight, to draw the spot out quicker.

Use something greasy - I'm going to recommend 8Hr cream here for traditions sake, but you can use vaseline, or bio oil, as you wish, but it must be something highly emollient - to clear up the inevitable redness and dryness caused by salicylic acid zit-zapper.

If squeezing proves irresistible:

If you end up popping your enormozit, first make sure your hands are clean! Pop, then use the clay mask to draw out all the impurities - leave it in place as long as you possibly can - then cover with grease of your choice (bio oil, 8hr cream etc) to ease resultant redness/flakiness/soreness.

This should help your zit leave quicker and not leave you wanting to tear your hair out waiting for it to go.

Any other spot tips out there?

Multipurpose Products

So, we all have them, those little products that do double duty.  Blushers that double as eyeshadows, lipsticks that act as blushers, the lipbalm that also works as a moisturiser or cuticle cream and so on.

However, I think this one takes the biscuit it's the, er ... "personal product" that also works as a hair serum, and heat-styling protector.  Would you?  Could you?

Warning:  while the link is safe for work (it's from HQ Hair) the product itself might not be something you want on your work internet history ... Many thanks to @muddlinleigh for the link!

What are some of your favourite double-duty products?

Makeover: Helen H

I love Sundays at Lippie Towers, every week there's a different person here for a makeover, and it's always fun figuring out how a person wants to look, and seeing if I can recreate that look for them.  Please meet Helen:

Two Helens in two weeks!  Helen is a very pretty girl, who wanted to learn more about applying foundation, and using colour.  As you'll see, we discovered that Helen's favourite colour is in fact, black, so we mainly used that ...

As always, we start with the base, for this makeover, we used Max Factor Seamless foundation in porcelain, and used a touch of Bare Escentuals in bisque as a concealer on those areas that needed it:

This has evened her skintone beautifully. We were inspired by a  picture of Julia Roberts wearing a smokey eye designed by Kevyn Aucoin:

 

 

And so we went on to define Helen's eyes with a mixture of 2 True number 9 shadow, and Rimmel Jet Black eyeshadow.  First we used 2 True as a colour-was over the whole eyelid area:

The we defined the crease with Rimmel Jet Black, and went on to use that as an eyeliner too:

 

 

Because Helen's brows are a little sparse, I then went on and filled them in with a little Smashbox brow fix in brunette, and added a little Bourjois mascara:

 

 

Then, to finish, I defined those gorgeous cheekbones with a little Ilamasqua blush in Rumour, and covered her lips with Chanel Rouge Allure in No.1: Delight:

Here's the before'n'after:

 

 

A slightly more wearble version of the Julia Roberts look, but achieved with a minimum of products and fuss.  Thanks for taking part, Helen!

Mystery FotD

Trying out some makeup I'll be featuring in my makeovers soon, can anyone guess the brand?  Tiny prize for anyone who does ...

(Almost) Organic Wednesday Liz Earle + Giveaway!

Giveaway is now closed, thank you lovelies!

When I'm asked about handcream, I very rarely have to stop and think, I simply say "Liz Earle Hand Repair", because I truly believe it's one of the best handcreams I've ever tried.  It smells divine, sinks in easily, doesn't leave a greasy residue (it leaves them matte, the first handcream I ever tried that did that!), and it leaves your hands soft and moisturised for hours on end.  I may flirt with other creams whose scent I admire, but it's safe to say that in the handcream race Liz Earle has won my gold medal.

I'm a big fan of the Liz Earle brand, and have been ever since it debuted on QVC back in the mid-90s.  In fact, I think my second ever purchase from QVC was a Liz Earle tester set, and I've liked the brand ever since! Their commitment to  natural ingredients (though they don't claim to be certified organic), alongside a female-friendly profile - Liz is a wonderful spokesperson for the brand -  and a desire to keep luxury affordable, are things I always admire. 

After I wrote a little feature the other day about my dry skin tips (in response to a reader request) the company got in touch and offered to give one of my readers a set of their Superskin goodies!  Perfect for treating  dry, and flaky skin in winter time, the kit includes:

• Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser 30ml
  
• Instant Boost Skin Tonic Spritzer 30ml
  
• Superskin Moisturiser 15ml
  
• Superskin Concentrate 2ml
  
• Sample size of new Superskin Eye & Lip Treatment
  
• 1 pure muslin cloth
  
• Zip-up kit bag

OR, if you're not suffering from dry skin at the moment, don't worry, Liz Earle is offering a bottle of her brand new fragrance instead: Botanical Essence No.1 which is 98% natural, and contains (amongst other things) lavender, patchouli, rose and bergamot which sounds perfectly divine!

Now, because I'm hosting this giveaway, and because I'm a helpless over-sharer, I'll be adding a couple of prizes too, plus I will personally be providing the second prize.  I'm off to IMATS the weekend of 30th/31st January, and I'll pick up some mystery gifts for the lucky winners while I'm there.  They'll have to remain a mystery for now, as, well ... I haven't bought them yet!  Companies exhibiting at IMATS include Ilamasqua, OCC, Crown Brush ... who knows what'll be in the bags?

To enter, all you have to do is be a follower of the blog - click the link on the right there, if you haven't already! - and add a comment to this post telling me what your particular skin-care concern is (doesn't have to be dry skin, it could be something like open pores, or dark circles for example), please leave me a valid email address and say whether you'd prefer the skincare or the fragrance. If you're not a follower of the blog, don't worry, I'll be holding a giveaway which is open to all entrants in the near future. 

This giveaway is open internationally, and will the draw will be held on Sunday 7th February.  We'll do our best to ensure you get your goodies in time for Valentines Day!