May Lindstrom: The Blue Cocoon: Beauty Balm Concentrate

I am always being asked what my "major skin concern" is.  Why, I'm not quite sure, but it is, apparently, one of the perils of being a beauty blogger. I'm not nearly that bothered about ageing as I used to be, having met a few too many over-botoxed harridans in my time, and I now see wrinkles as a badge of character instead of the hideous disfigurements that the mainstream media, alongisde countless beauty product press releases, and the continuing overuse of photoshop in almost every area of life (ever noticed how barely anyone on Instagram has pores, lines or moles?) has lead us to believe they are.

But ... I do get hacked off about my skin being so red all the time.  I actually have pretty good skin for my age (I am well over forty, and no longer care so much), it's smooth, it's fairly unlined, and the adult-onset acne I was plagued with through my late twenties and most of my thirties is now but a distant memory, but oh, the redness!   I long for even skin.

Part of it is because the industrial-strength products I used to torture my face with in years gone by has left me with skin more ridiculously over-sensitive than a teenage goth reading poetry at a Metallica gig, and part of it is because it is now winter, and the cold and the wind and the rain and the central heating, coupled with the fact that I like a glass of wine every now and again, all leave my skin screaming for soothing products.

I discovered May Lindstrom The Blue Cocoon after I got a text from Caroline Hirons saying "Oi, Lippie! You.  This.  Face.  Now", and I was powerless to resist.  Well, I say that, it actually took me a while to save up the cash for this, as it is £125 a pot.

You read that right.  £125 a go. And it is a very small jar.

But I bought it anyway, and the picture you see above is how much I've used in the four or five months (we're nothing if not timely at Get Lippie) of using it several times a week.  I've barely made a dent, as a little bit of this goes a hugely long way. It's aptly named as a "concentrate". I've found that scraping just out the tiniest amount from the surface, literally just a millimetre  or two, is more than enough to soothe even the reddest of inflamed skins.  You simply melt it into an oil in your hands, then press it gently into your face, concentrating on on inflamed areas.  I don't tend to follow it up with any moisturisers, applied over gently cleansed skin, this works double-duty as both a treatment and a moisturiser.

Infused with blue tansy oil, which is a natural anti-histamine and also has anti-inflammatory effects, it soothes redness overnight, and leaves you with beautifully soft skin in the morning.  It is a little greasy, so I don't tend to use this during the day, but it does make a great night treatment.

Has it fixed my redness? No. But I genuinely don't think there is a product yet invented that will "cure" redness, especially redness caused by both genetic and environmental factors as mine is. As such, The Blue Cocoon is no exception to that, but, as I wasn't actually expecting a cure, I'm not disappointed.  I am less red though, and I am definitely red less often, which, as far as I'm concerned, is a win.  Where it does excel though, is soothing environmentally stressed skin, and it is fabulous at that.

Would I buy it again?  Possibly.  Possibly not.  As I've only got through maybe a quarter of a centimetre (not even that) of product in the last four or five months, I have a feeling the jar might just last forever.  And hey, at least that'll give me time to save up again ...

My jar of May Lindstrom The Blue Cocoon Beauty Balm Concentrate came from Cult Beauty.

The Fine Print: Purchase.  

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.


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Cult Beauty: Live at Selfridges

Odd though it may seem, I'm not - actually - a big fan of makeup shopping online.  I like to see, touch, swatch and even smell the products I'm buying!  Also, when I decide I want something, I want it RIGHT NOW. None of which is possible from the comfort of your laptop, alas ...

Despite that, I do, occasionally buy things from beauty websites - usually things which are difficult/impossible to find on the high street - and one of the best ones I've visited is Cult Beauty. I do love their well thought out selection, and it's a nicely laid out site too.

So, with my dislike of online cosmetics shopping, and my love of Cult Beauty, I'm delighted that the CB girls are launching a pop-up shop in one of my real-life favourite stores, Selfridges (honestly, I'd move in, if I could), today!  Hoorah! I'll finally be able to do all the swatching and sniffing of their amazing stock that I need to before, no doubt,  handing over a goodly part of this month's salary for whatever it is I decide I can't live without today ...

The shop opens 27th Jan, and will be at Selfridges until Monday 31st January. For more details please click this link (and get yourself a nice little voucher for some freebies!)



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Guest Review: Tara Smith Feed The Root Shampoo and Conditioner

It's been a while since I had a guest-reviewer on board (why yes, MrL, that is a hint!), so I thought I'd let Sarah take over for the day today.  She's been raving about this shampoo range for a little while, and her she is spreading the joy:



Given that Smith is (allegedly) one of the commonest surnames in the English-speaking world, hairdressers called Smith are particularly rare. Maybe they're told, after they've spent their first day sweeping away cuttings, making tea and learning to make small talk about holidays: "Sorry lovey, but Smith just doesn't say 'Stylist' to me. You'll need to get married or do something drastic to the spelling, my love. Maybe add an extra letter?"

Tara Smith is a brave exception. You can imagine her tossing her perfectly-formed mane defiantly as she folded the towels and vowing that one day, she too would be a vibrant, innovative and respected Stylist to the Stars and yet stay true to her roots and stay a Smith. With an "i". Twelvty years later she has snipped and demiwaved her way to the glittering salons of Hollywood, and now she is ready to join the ranks of the Sassoons and the Friedas with her own range of organic, cruelty-free, locally-produced haircare products. And I bet no-one calls her Smitty...

So, on to the review:

The product

The main attraction for me was the absence of foaming and stuff like parabens, sodium laureth sulphate and something called phthalates. The blurb on the back says "Tested on Film Stars, not Animals" - but it doesn't say which film stars were strapped into a harness and had shampoo dripped into their eyeballs, but I enjoyed making a list of potential testees.
Smith gets extra brownie points for natural, earth-friendly ingredients and local manufacture (well, Sussex is fairly local...). 

Her products also carry certification from the Vegan Society. The shampoo contains five yeast extracts and extract of bamboo, plus tea-tree oil and mint. The conditioner has something called Squalane which is derived from avocado and olive oil. Combined with more yeast extracts and marine algae, the conditioner claims to provide with essential minerals and bind moisture to the hair shaft. Both shampoo and conditioners come in circular 250ml bottles that fit very nicely on the edge of the bath.

To use the shampoo, rub a good-sized squidge into wet hair and leave in for a few minutes. The shampoo is suitably rich-textured and smells deliciously minty, like an After Eight. After about 30 seconds your scalp begins to tingle slightly. This, apparently, is the shampoo At Work, according to the label. With no parabens or foaming agents, there isn't much in the way of lather, but it rinses out easily anyway. The label recommends a second shampoo, but I don't think that makes much of a difference, other than more bubbles the second time around.
 
Squeeze-dry your hair and apply the conditioner in the usual way. The conditioner felt quite light, compared with similar products, but it smelled utterly delicious and worked easily into the hair, leaving no icky residue on your hands. Again, you feel the minty tingle after a few seconds. Rinse out the conditioner after leaving it in for five minutes and style as usual.

After the wash and condition my usually coarse, wiry (greying) hair actually felt quite silky. This doesn't usually happen unless I've applied half a tonne of Kiehls conditioning treatment and slept with my head in a plastic bag. To be on the safe side, I applied a small dollop of Tara Smith's base coat primer before blow-drying and tonging the hair into some semblance of normality. The primer helps to protect the hair from heat treatments, and it comes with a clever little all-in-one squishy pump. One pump is all you need for shortish hair with the texture and manageability of a moody Brillo pad.

So, given it's completely organic, vegan and made by magical elves in leafy Sussex, you'd expect the price to be something ridiculous, but no. Cult Beauty sells this shampoo and conditioner for a paltry £5.50 each. The primer costs £6.50 for 50ml. Half a bottle does for three months of twice-weekly washes on fairly short, thirsty hair, which means you can be green and gorgeous, and have a bit of change for that lovely All For Eve lippie...

Get A Movie Star Hair Cut!

I've mentioned my love of Cult Beauty - and the Cult Beauty girls themselves! - a few times before.  If you've not had a chance to look around the site yet, please do,  there's a treasure-trove of rare, and usually wonderful  beauty items to be found on there, I've filled (and emptied!) many a virtual shopping basket on the site, and there's always something I've never heard of that pops up and arouses my interest, which is no mean feat these days!

At the moment, they're running a competition to win a haircut from Tara Smith, who is legendary in Hollywoodland circles for her skills.  Don't believe me?  Ask Demi Moore, Anna Friel, Natalie Imbruglia, Yasmin Le Bon, Neve Campbell, Rosario Dawson, Marisa Tomei, June Sarpong (how did she get on this list? - Ed), Angelina Jolie, Teri Hatcher, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nicole Kidman, Angelica Huston, Patricia Arquette, Rosin Murphy or Toni Collette, all of whom she's worked with in the past. She's also done the hair for both the Sex and the City movies!  And you have to admit, she has a pretty fine head of hair herself ... Ordinarily, a haircut with Tara would cost £450 - if you can even catch her in a salon - so this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, if you ask me.

The downside?  Well, in order to enter all you do have to do is buy a minimum of  five items from Tara's hair care range (and I'm not going to lie to you, that does seem just a little excessive) but the products all cost less than £5, and, whilst I haven't tried it myself (yet!) I have heard good things about the range generally, and excellent things about the Base Coat Serum in particular. Personally, I've been delighted to notice that all the shampoos are SLS-free, which is great for what is, essentially, a fairly budget-priced range. I'll be picking some items up soon, and I'll keep you posted on what I think.

The competition is running for six weeks, and the prize can be taken in London, New York or LA. But, er, there are no travel costs included, sadly!

Will you be entering?  What would you pay for a movie-star haircut?