Friday, 22 August 2014
Everyday Essentials: Dove Advanced Hair Series - Pure Care Dry Oil
By Get Lippie
I just can't get that excited about expensive hair care, I'm afraid. Give me a £36 lipstick, or a £250 perfume, and I can justify that to myself (not so much my bank manager, admittedly), but a £30 shampoo? Something that just goes down the drain? Man, I have a hard time thinking about that. Ironically, a £20 shower gel (something else that just gets sluiced away), I can get excited about. Rational? Logical? Not really, but, you know, no one ever became a beauty blogger because they were entirely rational about things.
Anyhoo, Dove have recently released their Advanced Hair Series, in three different types. Oxygen Moisture for creating volume in fine, flat hair, Youthful Vitality for ... er ... more mature hair types and Pure Care Dry Oil which gives moisture and nourishment to dry and treated hair. I've been using the Pure Care Dry Oil range for a little while now, and it ticks all my haircare boxes, cheap (£5.99 to £9.99 at the time of writing) simple, and - most importantly - effective.
There's a whole bunch of science behind the Dove Advanced Hair series, which I had explained to me, and now can't remember, but essentially, what it boils down to is that Dove spend a lot on their R&D, and in this range, it shows. In the Pure Care range, there's a shampoo, conditioner, mask and an oil.
You know how some shampoos leave your hair really rough during washing, and you desperately need conditioner to smooth it back down again? Well, I've found that washing with the Dove Dry oil shampoo leaves my hair really soft, and feeling like it has already been conditioned. As my hair currently has plans to take over the planet in this humidity, I've never tried not using the conditioner (anything to keep it tamed, ANYTHING), but I find that the shampoo and conditioner together definitely leave my hair soft and shiny, and less frizzy than usual. The mask is good too for those weeks when my hair is dryer than usual. I love the oil, I use it every time I wash, as it's perfect for those of us with slightly unruly locks, it beats down frizz, and helps keep things under control.
Infused with pomegranate and macademia oils, the range has an unexpectedly beige formula which is refreshing in this age of pearlised white haircare formulas, and it has a pleasant and (in the nicest possible way) inoffensive scent which won't clash with any of your body products or fragrances.
So yes, cheap and cheerful and effective, what more could you want in your shampoo?
The Fine Print: PR samples initially, but repurchases since.
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Wednesday, 20 August 2014
We Want the Funk: Ripe and Ready Perfumes for a Heatwave
This post: We Want the Funk: Ripe and Ready Perfumes for a Heatwave originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper
Monday, 18 August 2014
Revlon Colourstay Moisture Stain: London Posh, India Intrigue, Barcelona Nights, Shanghai Sizzle and Parisian Passion
By Get Lippie
I do love it when a brand releases a new range of lipcolours, particularly when that range of shades is largely composed of brights. Ach, there's a few nudes, but we all know Get Lippie doesn't really get the nude craze, so let's just gloss over that, shall we?
From left to right here we have:
050 London Posh, 001 India Intrigue, 015 Barcelona Nights, 040 Shanghai Sizzle, 005 Parisian Passion |
London Posh is a nude-peach with a hint of gold shimmer.
India Intrigue is a deep cool pink
Barcelona Nights is a watermelon pink (see the skin swatches below for how it differs to India Intrigue)
Shanghai Sizzle is a bright, bright tomato red
Parisian Passion is a lovely warm aubergine purple.
On the skin, you can see how the shades differ:
Application is simple, there is a shaped doe foot applicator, which allows a fairly precise application, and one swipe is great for sheerer finish, but two sweeps will give you a totally opaque coverage. They take a minute or two to set, but once set you'll have lovely glossy lips for a good four, five hours or so. They're not totally long-lasting though, a sandwich will wreck them faster than the thought of Justin Bieber in speedos will destroy your appetite, but there you go.
The packaging is great, I love that you can see at a glance which one is which - though the colours aren't as bright on the packaging as the actual lipsticks themselves are. They are easy to mix, too - personally, my favourite shade is a 50-50 application of both Shanghai Sizzle and India Intrigue for a perfect pink-red effect that I really like.
I generally find the Revlon lip formula extremely drying, and these are only slightly an exception to that. Whilst they're not the most moisturising formula on the market, they're also not the most drying in Revlon's arsenal, which is a good thing. I do find, however, that my lips really benefit from a slip of lipbalm after spending a day wearing one of these. I don't find them particularly staining, and they don't fade evenly when they do - you will get the red ring of doom at some point during the day when wearing these, but they do layer up quite well, and as they don't dry completely you won't end up rolling off the previous layer in chunks if you need to reapply the colour during the day.
At £8.99 each, these are a bargain punch of pigment for your lips. I picked some of mine up in a current offer at Superdrug, where they cost £5.99 each.
The Fine Print: A mixture of PR samples and personal purchases.
This post: Revlon Colourstay Moisture Stain: London Posh, India Intrigue, Barcelona Nights, Shanghai Sizzle and Parisian Passion originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper
Friday, 15 August 2014
GOSH Autumn Winter 2014
Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Golden Touch Intimate Waxing - Soho
By Laurin
- Nobody in the hair removal business seems to bother with the pretence of modesty any longer. It’s all “knickers on the chair” and not a paper thong in sight.
- But thankfully, they do all provide wet wipes for you to “freshen up” before the treatment, which incredibly kind when it’s late July and you’ve just spent half an hour hurtling between underground locations in a sweltering metal box deemed unfit for livestock (known locally as “the Tube”).
- You get special wedge pillows pushed under your hips on each side to prevent lower back strain when you’re asked to open your knees. I’ve said it before, but small concessions to a client’s comfort during a treatment is what impresses me more than any technique. This is one of those small but utterly luxurious gestures.
- If the phrase “open your knees” already has your cheeks burning, fear not. Hannah puts you completely at ease during the treatment. We chatted about restaurants, the correct and incorrect way of holding your friend’s newborn baby and her plans for World Waxing Domination. It felt more like having a coffee with a friend than completely exposing myself to a person I’d met only ten minutes earlier.
- Hannah uses hot wax, which adheres to the hair as opposed to the skin. It doesn’t require the use of strips to remove the product, and it is about 98% less painful than traditional waxing. Which is to say that I barely noticed anything was happening at all.
- When the treatment is finished, it all goes a bit ‘Our Bodies, Our Selves’. You get a hand mirror, and Hannah steps out of the room while you inspect her handiwork. If you spot a stray that her eagle eye has missed, you can call her back in to deal with it. This was appreciated, but unnecessary in my case. I could not spy a hair out of place, so to speak.
- A full Hollywood or Brazilian costs £35. In my experience, this is a bargain for Central London.
This post: Golden Touch Intimate Waxing - Soho originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper
Monday, 11 August 2014
Boots Opticians and Protect Lenses
By Get Lippie
I've been a glasses wearer for nigh on 40 years now, and, I'll be honest, I hate wearing my glasses. Years of being told I was an "ugly duckling" in my smeared pink plastic NHS frames (complete with eye patch for several years, to boot) as a child, followed by decades of movies and TV using "beautiful woman in glasses" as shorthand for "ugly woman in need of makeover" as a trope , has left me feeling far more comfortable when I'm not wearing my glasses. I don't feel "beautiful" in my specs, ever, so discovering long-wear contact lenses was a happy day for me. I know other women don't have this problem, and I see beautiful women looking amazing in their glasses every day, but I feel self-conscious in mine whenever I wear them.
Now, whilst I don't feel beautiful in my glasses, what if you could use your glasses as a beauty aid? Bear with me, it'll make sense, I promise. The skin around your eyes is the thinnest skin on your body, and as such, it's the most vulnerable to sun damage, caused by UV rays. We all know that sunglasses should also protect your eyes about UV rays, but did it ever occur to you that your everyday glasses should too?
I was invited to take an eye test at my local branch of Boots recently, and find out more about their services, and their now-standard "Protect" lenses. It's been a long time since I've had a Boots eye test, and I was pleasantly surprised at how thorough and professional their sight test now is. I've always been a sufferer of both myopia (short-sightedness) and hyperopia (long-sightedness) after a series of operations on my eyes as a young child, but as I've got older, I've developed a touch of astigmatism (where the shape of the eyeballs is slightly irregular - rugby instead of soccer balls, if you will).
This time around, Boots lead me to the - slightly depressing! - conclusion that I can add presbyopia (where the lens has trouble focusing on nearby objects) to that list too. Simply put, this means reading glasses are now a necessity ... I've been having trouble focusing on beauty product packaging for a while now, but reading glasses had totally passed me by as a possibility! I refused varifocals though, I'm not that old.
The Boots eye test also checks for signs of glaucoma, alongside high blood pressure, and diabetes, both of which can show signs in the eyeballs before the patient might notice any other symptoms. They also photograph the optical nerve and the blood vessels in the eyes to check on your general optical health too. All of these tests checked out well for me, which is a great relief, but it's good to know that Boots are prepared for all these eventualities.
New "every day" glasses by Givenchy. |
But, back to all things beauty and UV rays. Boots are now including their "Protect" lenses in the price of all frames. Previously, they were only available for an extra charge of £40. Oh, and how happy was I to see that they now label their prices on their frames as the "complete price"? It makes such a difference - how many times have you picked out some frames, only to drop them in horror when the full price comes up? Or is that just me? Anyhoo: Protect Lenses. They come with a special coating on both sides of the lenses which will stop UV rays getting to the skin around the eyes (which is ten times more susceptible to UV rays as anywhere else on the body) from both the front and being reflected off the back of your lenses from light hitting from behind you. In effect, these lenses offer you an sun protection equivalent of SPF50, whether they are tinted or not! They will also protect you from the UV rays given out from your computer monitors and tablet computers - they're all ageing!
I'm fully dressed, I promise you. |
Yup, fully clothed. Honest. |
I've found the new lenses to be extremely (even remarkably) clear, and very easy to adjust to in wear. The thin and light lenses really are just that, and don't leave red marks on your nose because of the weight of the glass in the frames. I have other, smaller, glasses with so called "thin" lenses in them which I hate wearing for more than a couple of hours at a time because they leave a ridge in my nose! None of the glasses featured here do that. Of course, I may just have picked lighter frames this time ...
An eye test doesn't just test how well you can see, it can give you a health check at the same time. Likewise your new glasses won't just help you see better, they might just help save your skin too. You will still need SPF facecream too though ... You can find out more about Boots Opticians and their lenses here.
The Fine Print: Get Lippie was a guest of Boots Opticians. The sight test and one of the pairs of glasses in this piece were provided by Boots for review purposes. However, several pairs of the glasses in this feature were purchased at the author's own expense. This is NOT a sponsored post.
This post: Boots Opticians and Protect Lenses originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper
Wednesday, 6 August 2014
Leopard Print Nails with Nails Inc, Barry M and Sally Hansen
By Emily
Leopard print nails are a bit old school now…but still a favourite of mine! Every time I leopardize (made up word) my nails I get a huge amount of compliments, and no-one ever thinks they are hand-painted! So if you want to add a bit of Grrrrr to your mani, here’s how!
First up, two coats of polish, you can choose any colour you like, doesn’t have to be traditional leopard colour! I used Nails Inc. Gel Effect Polish in Lexington Gardens: it gives great coverage in two coats.
Once your base colour is dry, use a contrasting colour (I used Barry M’s Gelly Hi-Shine in Blueberry) to create the patches. Simply dab the brush onto your nail, in irregular patches. You don’t need to be neat, but be careful not to have too much on the brush, or you’ll get 3d blobs.
Once your patches are dry use a nail art pen in black to carefully outline each of the patches, and add some extra dashes and dots in-between. You’ll need a steady hand, but I practice on a piece of paper before starting on my nails, to get the right flow from the pen. I used a new pen this time, Sally Hansen’s I Heart Nail Art Pen…and it’s brilliant! It gives a fine line and is much easier to control than any other nail art pen I’ve used.
Finally, after a bit more drying time, slick over a decent top coat (I use Seche Vite ALWAYS!) to give a glossy finish!
Let me know if you give my Leopard Mani a try!
Friday, 1 August 2014
Chantecaille Autumn Winter 2014: 15th Anniversary Palette
You have to have a heart of stone (or at least a deep, deep hatred of taupe, you sick puppy) to be able to resist the annual Chantecaille Charity Palettes. Usually items of huge beauty devoted to a single animal cause, tigers, turtles, butterflies and such, it can be difficult to bring yourself to use them. Out next month, the Chantecaille 15th Anniversary Palette is certainly a thing of beauty, and it's very wearable too. I steeled myself to try it out recently:
Clad in the brand's trade-mark pewter livery, the palette comes complete with a facsmile of Sylvie Chantecaille's signature across the top, and inside we have, instead of the usual three eyeshadow shades and a blush, just three eye shades, which makes this a far more compact and portable option than the larger four pan options:
Three shades, each embossed with a different animal. The deep aubergine liner shade has an elephant, the slightly warm vanilla highlight comes complete with a monarch butterfly, and the elegant coppery-taupe has a turtle. All the shades are very wearable, and are very sheer in use:
This pic is slightly more representative of how the colour appear in the flesh, it's shown alongside a couple more pieces from the collection that I'll show you later. However, here is how the colours swatch:
The colours here are swatched over bare skin. Chantecaille isn't particularly known for its deeply pigmented products (which, if you're over the age of, say, 35 or so, is a bit of a blessing. You'll see), so these swatches shouldn't come as much of a surprise. However, if you swatch over an eyeshadow primer (and I never wear shadow without a primer), then you'll see a huge difference:
The shades are complex and flattering, but admittedly, they're not hugely dramatic, though you could create a great smokey eye with this, it's also a lovely wearable daytime palette too.
Unusually for the normal Chantecaille charity palette, this supports three foundations: The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, the Monarch Butterfly Fund and Widecast, which respectively support elephants in the wild, butterflies, and, of course, sea turtles.
It'll be available from SpaceNK next month - will you be picking one up?
The Fine Print: PR Sample.
This post: Chantecaille Autumn Winter 2014: 15th Anniversary Palette originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper