Review - L'Occitane Fleur Cherie Make Up

On Friday, I said I was giving away a set of L'Occitane goodies, so now is the time for me to tell you a little more about them.

I'm actually giving you this set:

Which contains a lipgloss locket, full size eau de toilette and soap, plus brightening face-powder pearls.  It's a cute little set, which I've enjoyed using a great deal recently - I adore the smell of neroli (Fleur Cherie is scented with orange blossom), and the scent of the products (except the lipgloss, which is unscented) is light, refreshing and just lovely.

The powder pearls are very pretty:

Lightly scented with orange blossom, the peach and apricot pearls give a light glow to the skin - they're not dark enough to be a fake-tan product, although they will give a lovely golden-sheen on darker skin.  I use these in place of blusher.

The lipglosses that you get in the fob, are essentially clear, with a hint of sparkle, as you'll see in the FOTD later.

But this is not the whole of the range, like the peony range of cosmetics L'Occitane brought out last year, there's a few more colour cosmetics available, and I've been trying those too.  I was sent an eyeshadow duo, an eyeliner and a lipstick to try, and here they are:

This is lipstick in Rose Sequin, eyeshadow in Bleu Damasse, and eyeliner in Noir Velours.  I've actually found myself impressed with them (with some caveats, as you'll discover), the shadow is smooth and velvety, with excellent pigmentation, and very good lasting power, I found that without a primer, the shadow stayed in place for around 10-12 hours, needing only a light smush with my fingers to get rid of the (minimal) creasing. The liner is very black, and very smudgy, however, it's lasting power isn't quite as good as the shadows, and I found it had run a bit after about six hours. The lipstick is a lovely, lovely shade, but it's very sheer, so won't be for everyone, also, I've found that the cardboard packaging, whilst adorable, isn't the most robust packaging in the world.  It's nice and moisturising on though, so while it doesn't last, it's actually nice to reapply quite regularly.

Here's the face of the day I created with the shadows, liner, face powder and the lipglosses from the fob:

Foundation is Estee Lauder Double Wear Light in shade 2.

The Fine Print: samples were provided for review.  You didn't think I'd do a giveaway of untried products, did you?

The Art of Shaving Lavender Carry On Kit

No, I haven't gone entirely mad, but this is just a little heads up to let you know that MrLippie has made his "official" blogging debut over on Ape to Gentleman today!  Please go show him some love.  Er ... you know what I mean, comment on his post. Yes, that's what I meant. He's got a girlfriend, y'know, don't make her jealous, she's a right pain in the bum.

Review - Eyeshadow Primers - The Results!

So, some 13 hours wear later, here's how we're looking:


There's some significant fading on both, but this is an eyeshadow that lasts an hour, maybe two without a primer, so that's only to be expected. Both also have creasing, but again, on an eyeshadow that ordinarily simply disappears into the ether, this is really to be expected.

If I were judging this simply on end-of-the-day looks, I'd have to declare Urban Decay the outright winner. However ... the skin on my left eye (with the UD) simply isn't as comfortable on the right, it feels a bit drier, and tauter, somehow. The MAC eye (on the left there) feels like I have nothing at all on my skin. When I went to blend these creases back in, I found that the UD eye stayed firmly creased, but with the MAC one, it was still possible to get rid of the line. This all makes the winner tougher to call than I expected ...

Urban Decay definitely makes your make up last longer, there's no doubt about that. But, this longevity at the cost of a certain amount of comfort, and there's the fact that you have to be quick, and certain, with your application, as once your make up is on, it's not going to be moved.

So, let's break it down in marks out of ten for the specifics:

Packaging
MAC - 8/10 - cute "oil-paint" tubes!
Urban Decay 6/10 - packaging that makes it impossible to get the last few applications out. I've had to cut tubes open before now.

Application
MAC - 8/10 - Just a tiny dab on your fingertip will do both eyelids
Urban Decay- 8/10 - sponge tip applicator spreads product evenly over eyelids.

Colour Trueness
MAC - 7/10 - Colour trueness was good, in isolation, but ...
Urban Decay - 9/10 - not as good as the Urban Decay.

Blendability
MAC - 7/10 - once colour was on the eye, it was fairly easy to blend in, and add more, if needed.
Urban Decay - 3/10 - colour could be blended, but only with a LOT of effort, and if you added too much, well, you were stuck with it, unless you wanted to remove it and start all over again.

Wear
MAC - 7/10 - Definitely faded, and creased by the end of the evening. But shadow and liner, still visible!
Urban Decay - 9/10 - Definitely kept your makeup (and it's creases!) in place. This baby was going nowhere!

Comfort
MAC - 8/10 - didn't make make up feel heavy, and stayed comfortable throughout the day
Urban Decay - 6/10 - no heaviness, but the eyelid definitely felt drier as the evening wore on.

Overall:
MAC 45/60
Urban Decay - 41/60

So, our winner is:

MAC by a very small margin! MAC's ease of use and comfort just edged it as the winner for me, over UD's poor packaging design, and lack of blendability. Sorry Urban Decay!