Nair Nourish Upper Lip Kit Review

Hello! My name is Get Lippie, and I have a moustache.  If you're reading this, you've probably got one too, man, woman or child.  Don't worry, there's no judgement here, but there is shedloads of judgement out there, this I know.  I had someone recently say in an email that they loved my choice of lipsticks on instagram, but my upper-lip hair was making them feel a bit sick, and could I do something about it? Didn't even say please!  So, I did the right thing, and blocked them on Instagram, so now hopefully my hirsute and ever-so-ugly-as-a-result-apparently mug won't be ruining their breakfast every day.

However,  I do actually occasionally de-forest my upper lip.  I say occasionally, because I am (of course), a big fat lazy bugger, who can't be bothered removing any body-hair on a regular basis (this summer has been so cold, for example, that I don't even slightly begin to remember the last time I shaved my legs.  And the least we say about my armpits the better: I haven't been able to raise my left arm properly for about 18 months, so there's probably bears or raccoons living in there now), but yes, when you take pictures of lipstick on a regular basis, and people start commenting on your facial hair rather than the colour on your lips, then maybe its time to take action.  Or not. Frankly, if this package of Nair Nourish Upper Lip Kit Hair Remover hadn't arrived completely coincidentally a day or two after the aforementioned email, I'd probably have just invested in some moustache wax and had at it.  Hey, it's a look!

But I thought I'd give it a go, mostly because the box promises it only takes three minutes, is designed for sensitive skin (there's nothing worse than removing your moustache hair only to leave yourself with a fluorescent pink skin-moustache that takes a week to die down, in my experience), needs no mixing, and comes with an aftercare moisturiser.  You apply the hair remover to clean, dry, product-free skin, wait three minutes then remove.  I found that my puke-making hair needed just a little extra time, around four minutes in total, but the hair was removed completely in that time.  

And no stinging!  At all!  And NO PINK SKIN-MOUSTACHE! I didn't particularly notice any smell, either.  In fact, my skin was so little irritated by the process that I didn't even bother using the post-removal moisturiser. Truth be told, I'd actually forgotten it was in the kit, and only realised when I came to photograph it for this review ... anyhoo, it's a winner in my book.

Here's hoping it's still as effective the next time I come to take it out of the box, which will be around mid-2018 by my reckoning .... 

The Fine Print: PR samples.


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Murad Hydro-Dynamic Quenching Essense and Ultimate Moisture Review

 It's hard work being a beauty blogger with sensitive skin, sometimes.  I'm a big fan of results-led, science-based skincare, and I have a clear preference for doctor brands that have a philosophy of really caring for skin, rather than just using skincare as line extensions for their other product ranges.  This isn't to say that there isn't good skincare coming from other more nature-based, or makeup-based ranges (there are excellent products in some unexpected places out there), but, when your skin is sensitive, finding products that are both results-led, and yet still bland enough not to cause flare-ups can cause problems.   Essential oils such as orange and lavender, used in a lot of "unfragranced" natural products, are a particular problem for my facial skincare routine, and I've found that I have far fewer issues with lab-based synthetics than many organic ranges as a result.

All of which is a long way around of saying that I really like the Murad Hydro-Dynamic range of products.  I'm both oily combination and sensitive-skinned, and at times I'm also very dehydrated, but I've found that the Hydro-Dynamic range helps on all counts.  The Murad Hydro-Dynamic Quenching Essence is a product I was introduced to last year, and I admit that I was a little underwhelmed with it at the time (it's more of a serum than I was expecting an "essence" to be - not a liquid at all!),  but I think I was a little less stressed and dehydrated last summer than I have been this year - the house move a few months ago took a lot more out of me than I was expecting.  This time of using, however, I like it much more, it adds hydration without loading the skin with too much oil, or that silicone-y feeling or being a gel, and leaves a lovely, velvety texture behind after applying.  It somehow just feels like it lasts longer on the skin than either a liquid or gel hyaluronic acid-based hydrator.

The Murad Hydrodynamic Ultimate Moisture is pretty much how I would describe my perfect moisturiser.  It feels luxurious and rich when taking it out of the jar, but it spreads and sinks into the skin beautifully, disappearing completely, but leaving skin feeling hydrated and supple, and ready for anything else that you want to apply afterwards.  It never overloads the skin, never triggers a reaction (despite what I might have applied first - in fact it's an ideal cream for using when trialling other products that you fear might cause a reaction), and hydrates without being greasy, clogging pores, or causing redness.  I love it.  It's bland, unscented, and inactive (in a good way), having only one job to do (hydrating), and it does it exceptionally well. So for those of us with over-excitable skin, it's a perfect cream.   I don't always get on well with Murad products, they have a habit of being just that little bit too strong for my skin issues, but  in this duo, I've found my happy Murad place.

At £59.50 for the Hydro-Dynamic Quenching Essence and £55.00 for the Hydro-Dynamic Ultimate Moisture, they might not be the cheapest products on the market, but for me and my stupid skin, they're great.  If you only get one, get the moisturiser, it might not set your world on fire, but you won't regret it. Your skin will love you for it.

The Fine Print: PR samples and purchases


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Niod Photography Fluid Opacity 12% Review

Niod has exploded over the blogosphere recently, and, whilst slightly intrigued by the good press they've been getting, the overly-complex names, and overly-simplistic product descriptions have been confusing the heck out of me, so I've largely avoided them.  However, a few people I know and trust on Instagram have had good things to say about Niod Photography Fluid Opacity 12%, so I figured I'd take my first plunge into the brand, albeit in a very small way.
 

Designed to make you look wonderful in photos (I've heard it described as an "instagram filter in a bottle"), it's an opaque white liquid, but it is suffused with microscopic gold particles which both reflect and refract light which lessens visible flaws and gives the optical illusion of "perfect skin".  So, is it a foundation or a primer?  Actually, it's neither, but in practice it turns out that it's a little bit of both.  I use it underneath foundation or tinted moisturiser, but couldn't personally recommend wearing it alone. It doesn't particularly extend the wear of a foundation (something I really expect a primer to do), but it definitely does enhance the look of foundation.  However, if you're a fellow sufferer of redness-prone skin, you might want to read on.

Housed in a an amber-glass apothecary-style bottle complete with dropper (which I despise), the liquid is thick and opaque initially, and oddly, rather dry.  However, three or four drops of the product blends away on the skin fairly easily, leaving a visible golden "glow" behind it.  I am rather pink-skinned, and the yellow-gold of Niod Photography Fluid 12% Opacity hides it beautifully.  Seriously, it might be the best redness-disguising product I've ever tried.  Personally, I find the glow that Photography Fluid leaves, whilst it evens out your skin beautifully, it doesn't actually give nearly enough (in fact, any) coverage to be worn alone without another base product on top. However your mileage might vary on that one - but I'm so pink that the thought of leaving the house without at least popping a smidge of tinted moisturiser on is horrifying to me! - but it is designed to be worn with other products at least. And as a layering product for redness disguising, it's second to none.  Genuinely.

left side, naked skin.  Right side: with Niod Photography Fluid 12% Opacity blended.

 The effect is hard to see in photos - which is pretty much as it should be, otherwise it'd look like a mask, and who needs that? - but skin does look "better", more polished and even than it otherwise would do, with or without other base products.  In person, the effect is even harder to see, there is no actual coverage built into Niod Photography Fluid Opacity 12%, so if you have visible flaws that you would normally see when not wearing foundation, that can't be disguised with refracted light (open pores, for example, or scarring), then they would still be visible IRL, without the "soft focus glow", that a camera lens gives to the product.

Lipstick is Burts Bees crayon in Napa Vineyard.

 And yes, it does photograph beautifully, it can't be denied.  Even on my oily-combination, pink, open-pore-plagued, nearing-fifty-ish skin, it looks dewy and glowing, even whilst I'm scowling in strong sunlight. 

On the downside, the texture is oddly dry and surprisingly thick (lots more gathers on the outside of the dropper than ever gets into the dropper, making replacing it into the bottle a very messy business), and it can occasionally stick on drier patches of skin meaning you have to be careful about blending, and the dropper is beyond annoying because of the texture. All of this would be less of a problem if the product was supplied in a tube.  But for me, the redness-disguising benefits (with or without a camera) outweighs both of those problems.   Niod have also introduced Niod Photography Fluid 8% Opacity which addresses one of those issues (texture), and I'll be reviewing that in a future post, but the glass bottle with the dropper remains a bugbear.

If you don't spend much time taking selfies, you might not need this, but if you have worries about redness and uneven skintone, then you definitely do.  I've certainly been happier with my selfies since I bought this.

The Fine Print: Purchase


This post: Niod Photography Fluid Opacity 12% Review 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