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.

These are my new reading glasses made by Kyusu, I went for a slightly bigger frame for these, as you tend to look down when you are reading.  In addition to UV protection, Protect lenses are also scratch resistant and reflection-free, which is good for reading, particularly on backlit screens. However, I went (as I always have to owing to my prescription difference), for the thin and light option on both my reading and distance lenses, for which you do still have to pay an extra charge.

Yup, fully clothed.  Honest.

For my sunglasses (Boots own frames) though, I didn't bother with the thinner lens option, and I've not noticed them being particularly heavy in wear.  I like that you can pick the level of the tint you require, which is good, as I always simply just pick the biggest, blackest sunglasses you can get in the store, and presto, these were the result!

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.

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Chantecaille Autumn Winter 2014: 15th Anniversary Palette

By Get Lippie

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.

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ByTerry Rose Infernal Collection: Eye Powder-Kajal, Rose de Rose, and Baume de Rose Fig Fiction

It's too darn hot right now, and when that happens, my mind always starts to think wistfully about cooler seasons, I'm not a happy summer bunny, alas.  Not to mention that I always prefer the Autumn and Winter makeup collections to the ubiquitous summer bronze (with a splash of "unexpected" blue) that we've been seeing all summer every summer since, well, time began.

ByTerry is one of my favourite brands, and this micro-collection of makeup staples (the wider collection has two fragrances and some really lovely skincare, which I'll tell you about another time) is a lovely one:

Yeah, 'scuse the finger marks, I couldn't wait to try the lipbalm.  Sorry!  Not sorry.

Consisting of a triple-shade blush in Rose Infernal, a powder eyeliner in Oriental Black, and for the first time the iconic lip balm, Baume de Rose comes in colour! There are six shades, and this is number 5 Fig Fiction.

The Rose de Rose contains three shades, a pink-coral, a salmon-peach, and a pearly pink highlight.  It comes complete with a small brush, and a good-sized embossed mirror.  It does kick up a lot of dust on application, but it's really nice - pinker than you'd expect - colour on the skin:

This has been applied with a heavy hand to get the colour to show up in pictures, but a lighter application leaves you with a sheer pink rosy glow that looks almost lit from within.  The different colours are probably too small to be able to get to the individual shades with the average blusher brush, but the pan is a great size for swirling. The powder smells divinely of roses, as does almost everything in this collection.

I do love a powder eyeliner, I own an entire set of the Guerlain loose kohls for example, and this is a good one.  The tip of the applicator is actually a sponge, which is really handy, as it adds a bit of flexibility to the application process - Boots No7 did a limited powder liner with this kind of tip a few years ago, I've always wondered why they didn't bring it back to be honest - and with a black this black (for it is indeed very black.  Indeed) you're going to need all the help you can get when you're putting it on:

It blends out easily, and a little goes a long, long way, so if you want to do a soft but intense smokey eye, this is great.  You can see from the swatch above that there is not much grey in the formulation, so you're not going to end up with a wan, pale grey smokey eye here.  You will get a lot of fall-out with this - it is the nature of the beast with eyeliners of this nature, to be honest, there's no avoiding it - so I suggest you do your eyes first and then do the rest of your make up, and especially your base, afterwards.  It lasts and lasts, particularly on the waterline, and barely fades at all.  I've not noticed any staining, but this is a great BLACK liner.

I'm not a massive fan of the original Baume de Rose, to be honest.  It's actually a great balm, and has a really nourishing formulation, but the milky film of colour it leaves on the lips is, for me, a killer.  With that in mind, I may have given a tiny whoop of delight when I saw the six new shades of Baume de Rose recently.  This is Fig Fiction, a sheer and easily wearable plum colour.

Anything that isn't milky on the lips is a winner for me, and the sheer but not unpigmented colour is great.  With the same gorgeous rosey scent as the original, this feels nourishing and cushiony on the lips, but it IS a balm, and therefore won't last very long.  It's a pleasure to reapply (even though it does come in a pot, a particular bugbear of mine), so this shouldn't be too much of a hardship.

The ByTerry Rose Infernal collection will be instore from September (the blush costs £72, and the eyeliner will cost £29) but the coloured Baume de Rose collection is in SpaceNK now, and they cost £35 each.  I'll be picking up Cherry Bomb and Bloom Berry come payday ...

The Fine Print: PR Samples

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La Roche Posay - Rosaliac CC Cream (Daily Unifying Complete Correction Cream)

By Get Lippie

So, after saying the BB Cream craze has largely passed me by recently, I now find myself reviewing a CC cream, finally.  And, I have to say, that I almost unqualifiedly love this one.

La Roche Posay has become something of a cult skincare brand in the UK. Almost ubiquitous in France, it's fairly difficult to come by in the UK, but it's well worth seeking out (even if they don't import my favourite product in the range: Serozinc to the UK at all), as there are very few skin conditions they don't treat, and La Roche Posay is a godsend for sensitive skin.

Redness is my major concern, and Rosaliac CC Cream is designed for redness prone sensitive skin, like what I have got.  It's a fairly thick texture:

But it spreads very easily, and gives good coverage:

On skin it blends easily, melding nicely with the texture of your skin:

And, it is virtually undetectable once blending is finished:

This gives a fairly light coverage, but it does cover redness well, and gives a lovely, glowing satin finish.  It reminds me a great deal of my beloved Chantecaille Just Skin, which is about the highest praise I can give it, to be honest.  There are a couple of caveats to that, which, as Rosaliac CC cream is only a third of the price, are only to be expected.  Wear time could be a bit longer, I do find I have to powder down in the mid-afternoons, but, for the price, this is very good indeed. Oh, and it only comes in one shade, which is frustrating if you're either very dark or very fair.  I'm fairly pale, and this is good for giving me a glow, but if I were any paler, I'd struggle with it, I must admit.

It comes with an SPF of 30, so if you apply enough you won't have to use a separate sunscreen, but as I always use a separate sunscreen regardless, I'd ignore this, tbh.  It's got a great texture, a lovely finish (provided you use powder), covers redness, feels soothing on inflamed skin, and best of all, it's currently on offer for £16.55 on Escentual.com I can't really recommend a tinted moisturiser more highly than this one, without you paying almost £60 for it, to be honest ...

The Fine Print: PR Sample.  Photos for this piece were taken with a Nokia Lumia 1020 lent to me by Microsoft.

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Bare Mineral Marvelous Moxie Lipgloss in Hypnotic

Lipgloss isn't something I associate with Bare Minerals very much.  Lipstick, yes (their Marvelous Moxie range is very well, and aptly named), and of course, there is their iconic range of mineral foundations and powders, but ... lipgloss?

Look at it.  LOOK AT IT!  Oh, those prismatic pigments, this is so pretty!

And with flash, so you can see how the colour changes in different lights:

:sigh: so pretty.  So very, very pretty.

Here's how it swatches in different lights:

Hmn ... lets try again from a different angle:

Okay, once more?

It's definitely more of a layering gloss, this one, I think.  Here it is over Max Factor Lipfinity Just in Love from the other day:

Can you tell the difference from the original below?

So, Hypnotic it may be in the tube, it's rather ... subtle in the flesh.  Lovely to look at, but simply not that exciting to wear, I'm afraid!  It's a nice, non-sticky gloss, however, with a little hint of peppermint flavour,  just a shame it's a bit underwhelming out of the tube.  Some of the other BareMinerals colours are much, much better in the gloss formulation, I'll show you those soon.

Available from Debenhams costing £16.

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By Terry - Cheek to Cheek: Cherry Cruise and Tint to Lip: Pink Palace

I'm a sucker for a stain.  Well, some stains, anyway - tea, spag bol, toothpaste not so much (I'm a mucky pup) - gimme a cheek or a lip stain, and I'm happy.   Particularly a lip stain.  I love my bright lipsticks, as some of you might have noticed, but it drives me bananas when they don't last.

Enter By Terry, with a couple of stains perfect for the cack-handed muppets amongst us, and I'm happy to report that they're amongst the more affordable products in her range too, which is good news!

First, Cheek to Cheek in Cherry Cruise:

 Such a pretty, bright cherry red!  It comes with an innovative dropper applicator and a pop up lid:

 The formula is bi-phase, one layer is the red pigment (referred to as a syrup in the literature, but it's not as sticky as this might make it sound), and one layer is silver shimmer, you can shake to mix the two, and have a slightly more opaque and definitely more shimmery colour, or you can just leave the shimmer to settle to the bottom of the bottle and use the "syrup" alone.

Best thing about this formula is that it is blendable.  We have all seen cheek stains that stain from the very first instant it comes off the brush - STRIPES! - and have ended up with dolly-cheeks as a result, but with this one, you just drop a drop (two if you're braver than I am), rub it onto the fingers of both hands and blend into your cheeks.  You'll have around a minute to play, and you won't get those little tell-tale circles on your mush.

However, nothing budges this stuff.  It'll look the same when you come to take it off as it did when you first applied it, and that's fabulous. Just make sure you have kind lighting in your bathroom the first time you use it, as it can be easy to overapply when you're still getting used to it.  I warn you!

Now, the Tint to Lip in Pink Palace, in the same two-phase formulation as the Cheek to Cheek above, it's purely for your lips:

Here it is both without the shimmer, and shaken to show the more opaque shimmery formula.  A cooler-leaning raspberry pink, it is unusual for a lipstain in not going completely fuchsia as you might expect on the lips.

It is ... fairly ... long-lasting.  It won't survive a sandwich, but a couple of cups of tea won't scare it completely off.  Personally, I prefer the look of the tint without the shimmer on the lips, I think it looks a bit frosty with the shimmer and that isn't a good look on someone my age, whatever the shade, but the colour, for me is perfect.  One coat is just enough to give my lips a whisper of colour, but you can build up the pigment for a more intense look.

Here you can see the differences between the colours more clearly.  A bright cherry red, and a clear raspberry.  Here's how they apply on the skin:

OBVIOUSLY I've overapplied!  But you can see how the products stay runny when applied to the skin, which is what allows you some blending time.  I wiped half of this off, and blended them out:

Again you can see the (slight) differences between the colours, and the sheen you get from shaking the product up.  However for the cheeks, you really do only need a single drop, I probably applied enough for four cheeks here.  The lips you'll probably need about two dips with the doe-foot sponge, more if you want to layer up.  Both products have the classic By Terry rose scent, but it wears off quickly, and you don't have that nasty chemical after-taste with the lipstain.

Cheek to Cheek costs £29 and Tint to Lip is £22, which, in By Terry terms, is practically pocket change.

The Fine Print: PR Samples.  Pictures for this post were taken with a Nokia Lumia 1020 lent by Microsoft.

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Max Factor Lipfinity Revisited

Lipfinity was launched by Max Factor in 2000, but there was always something rather ... nineties about them, if you ask me.  It was the brown-ness.  They were firmly stuck in that rust rut that I always associate with the late 90's, where blush, shadow and lipstick were usually the same terracotta shade.  Get Lippie doesn't really do brown.

Especially not like this:

She's so beautiful.  I'd look like an Oompa Loompa. More so than usual, I mean.

I'd just look like my face was dirty.  Monochrome brown is a great look for some, but ... well, it's not for me.  Brown is what I think of when I think of Lipfinity though, I can't deny it.

But, I was re-introduced to the range recently (hey, only 14 years behind the curve, never say we're not trendsetters here at Lippie Mansions), and I was delighted to notice they had some really lovely BRIGHT colours! Not a brown in sight!

Here we have shades (L-R):

006 - Always Delicate: beige-peach
024 - Stay Cheerful: lovely cool pink
120 - Hot: tomato red
146 - Just Bewitching: creamy coral
335 - Just in Love: raspberry

Yes, yes, I know, beige is a kind of brown, shut up!  There's nothing rusty about these colours though, they're gorgeous.

Hot and Just in Love have a hint of gold and silver shimmer respectively, but the other three are cream shades.  The shimmer is barely (if at all) perceptible on the lips, but it just stops the colours looking too flat in the tube.

Even thought I'm not at my most comfortable in "nude" shades, 006 Always Delicate is wearable for me because it contains a lot of pinkish-peach, and it's good for adding a polished look to a no-makeup face.  I don't look as much like a corpse as usual in this one.

My favourites, as you might have guessed if you're a long time reader, are the red and the deep raspberry pink, and it's always a delight to have a long-wearing non-feathering formula in bright shades.  Application is the normal two-stage slight faff, the slightly dry pigment layer (which works best if you apply two extremely thin coats, rather than one thick one):

335 Just in Love

And then you follow this up with the glossy silicone layer:

335 Just in Love

Colours apply true to tube (this is one very thin layer - it would have been far more intense with two), and will last through tea, coffee, wind, rain, sunshine, and hail.  But not chips.  Never chips. The pigments in Lipfinity are oil-soluble, so chips, lard, cream cakes, mayonnaise etc will all eat through the colour and leave you with the red (pink/peach/coral) ring of doom if you're not careful.  Most cleansing oils and balms will get rid of them at the end of the day, but you might have to scrub a little with your facecloth to get the final stubborn remnants off.  Oh, and invest in a decent lip balm for nighttime, this will show up every fault on your lips, if you've neglected them. If you're a fan of Lipfinity already, then you'll love these colours.  If you're not ... well, there's nothing new here aside from the pigments.

Well played Max Factor!  Nice colours all, and it's great to have long-lasting colours at an affordable price, they cost £10.99 each at Boots, but there are always offers on ... Compare that to one Guerlain Rouge G, Tom Ford or Chantecaille Lip Chic (all in the £30+ bracket) and you have yourself a bargain.

What have you revisited recently?

The Fine Print: PR Samples.  Photos for this post were taken with a Nokia Lumia 1020 lent by Microsoft.  It's a phone, in case you were wondering.  with a bloody good camera.  I'll review it properly one day.  I haven't used my DSLR since it arrived, I'm *that* lazy.

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