Lip of the Day - Studio Secrets 411

Today, I wore my new L'Oreal Studio Secrets 411 lipstick.  It's a lightly pink "nude" shade, and I bought it as part of my ongoing quest to find the perfect nude lipstick.  What I want is a lipstick that'll make it not look too obvious that I'm wearing it, yet give me a polished look.

Here's how it looked on:

L'Oreal have arranged their Studio secrets by hair and eye colour, which is a fad I thought went out in the late eighties.  I'm also bemused by the blurb on the stand that says "light brunettes" should go crazy with colour on the lips, then provide a selection of all nude shades to "go crazy" with.  It's a nice lipstick though, gave a good coverage after just one coat, and didn't wear off too quickly.  It lasted till lunchtime without really needing touching up, even though the transfer onto cups was dreadful. It feels moisturising when you're applying it, but I think after a few hours of it totally wearing off, my lips feel slightly drier than they did this morning.  The colour doesn't quite work for me, I don't think, but it doesn't make me look dead, which is a nice change for a nude.

But we really have to talk about the packaging.  I like the idea of the clear central section - so you can see what colour the lipstick is without taking the lid off- but this packaging just doesn't work for me.  It looks cheap.  In fact, it's beyond cheap-looking, it is cheap.  The plastic feels flimsy and brittle in the hand, and the top just barely snaps into place, so it doesn't feel very secure.  It's a shame, as this isn't cheap lipstick, it's currently £8.99 at Boots, many of the budget ranges do better packaging than this, it's the sort of plastic that will shatter if it gets left at the bottom of your handbag.

All in all, I give it 6 out of 10.  Nice lippie, shame the packaging belies the price.

Makeover: Seona - The Return

This is Seona:

Some of you will have seen Seona on the blog before from when I did her wedding makeup.  Seona's a good friend, and was one of the first to volunteer for another makeover when I had the idea for this series a couple of months ago.

After sitting down and discussing what Seona wanted from this session, it was hard to decide, Seona wanted both a lesson on how to do a smokey eye, but ... wanted to use some "exotic" colours.  She's been using a lot of browns and bronzes lately, and thinks she's been stuck in a bit of a makeup rut.  In the end, we decided to do a bit of both.

Browns and bronzes really suit Seona, but we decided to use purple as an accent colour today, but first, we need to sort out the base:

Seona doesn't need much coverage at all, so we just smoothed in a light layer of Bobbi Brown Tinted Moisturising balm in Light, then followed that with a dusting of MAC Blot to remove shine.  Then, to even out the colour on Seona's eyelids, we added a thin layer of my (recently depotted) Urban Decay Primer potion to her eyelids:

Then, we applied a colourwash of Trish McEvoy eyeshadow in Cashmere (a lovely pinky-purply brown shade) all over the lid:

Then, to accentuate the crease, and add some definition, we added Trish McEvoy eyeshadow in Sugar Plum in a v-shape to the outer corners of her lids:

Once this was blended out, we added Trish McEvoy Definer shadow in Deep Amethyst as a liner to her upper lid:

And went back to Cashmere for her lower:

Again, we smudged that out, and added a layer of Max Factor Masterpiece Mascara, then added blush (MAC Blushbaby) and finished off the look with a slick of Bare Escentuals Buxom Lipgloss in Dolly:

And here's the finished look:

However, when we were finished, I didn't think this was "exotic" enough - it was a lovely daytime smokey eye, but I realised we could take it to a nighttime look very easily by adding a brightly coloured eyeliner, so out came my trusty bottle of Urban Decay liquid liner in Ecstasy:

And presto, the day look became a night-time one!  Here's the obligatory (and specifically requested by Seona) soft focus "glamour shot":

We had great fun, and I'd like to say a massive thank you to Sarah for acting as my photographer.

Lipstick haul

Last week, I may have gone a bit crazy buying lipsticks ... I really shouldn't buy any lipsticks whatsoever, the collection I have already numbers three figures as it is.  I went through my handbag the other day and realised there were 12 lip products in there: 8 lipsticks (including the five you see below), three glosses and a balm.  I guess you could say I'm a lip product junkie, but this is excessive,  even for me.

Here's are my latest haul (with flash):

Left to right we have Ruby & Millie lipsticks in Orange 360c, Nude 840m and Brown 910p  (all a snip at £2.75 each from Boots at the moment!).  I think I may have been having a brainstorm when I bought them though, as I appear to have picked up two of the brown, so look out for the spare in a giveaway soon! Then there are two L'Oreal Studio Secrets lipsticks in 411 and 460, as I'm still on my quest to find the perfect nude lip, after the GOSH disaster of the week before.

Here's how they swatched on my skin (without flash)

The 411 is slightly too pink for my lips, and the 460 is slightly too brown for a proper nude, but I'm planning on mixing these together in a palette, as I love the colour I get from using a mixture of both the colours.  Lip of the Day posts will follow every day from Monday, as I fully intend to wear each of these to work this week ... I'm really looking forward to seeing if anyone will comment on the orange, I think it's a fantastic colour!

How many lipsticks do you  have around at any one time?

Makeover Sunday will actually be Makeover Monday this week, I'm very sorry ... 

Gorgeous?

So, Gok Wan has launched his first body-care range at Boots.   In all honesty, I'm not sure what to make of this, it promises "sassy and seductive" products to make all women feel "gorgeous". Gok says "I feel passionate about my girls and believe you deserve to feel fabulous, no matter how much time you have or whatever your budget is".

Now, I loved the first series of "How to Look Good Naked", I thought that what Gok was setting out to do was admirable, and he did it with such warmth and humour it was practically impossible - not to say churlish - to attempt any criticism of what he was doing.  Women do give themselves a hard time over how they look, holding themselves up to impossible standards, and always, but always finding themselves, and their bodies, wanting.

But ...

I'm finding his decision to launch this range in the wake of his TV series "Miss Naked Beauty" very ... odd. In that show, it required women to remove - and decry - their cosmetic accoutrements, and personally, I found his requirements of what could, and could not be considered beautiful in the context of the series just as prescriptive - and proscriptive - as any "normal" beauty contest.  To be honest, I found it more than a little offensive at times.

So, can you buy "gorgeous"?  Or does beauty come from within?  What's the answer?  I don't know, but I'm not sure a "sassy" body lotion is it ... what do you think?

Holdover Makeover and Foundation Review

Okay, it's a couple of days late, I apologise, but here's the latest pics of the FotW I promised you on Thursday.

First of all, the obligatory shot of me without makeup. I'm shiny, and my pores are ENORMOUS:

It is also 6.30 in the morning, hence the simplicity of this make up, and my dopey expression. First things first, this complexion needs foundation, and needs it quick! 

So, a layer of  L'Oreal Studio Secrets foundation in Gold Ivory, and a dab of Benefit Bluffdust later, here's what you get:

Nice and matte and even. Now, I quite like the L'Oreal foundation, it applies well - and easily - and you don't need to use a huge amount to get good coverage. Admittedly, I really only use it on my T-Zone and to cover up some of the redness I tend to get around my nose. The foundation has a built in brush, but I find the bristles are a little too short for it to be really useful for blending, and I worry about the hygiene issues of not having a separate applicator, but for makeup in a hurry, it's not a bad choice - as far as application goes, it's actually fairly foolproof!

That said, it's not very long lasting.  It gives good coverage for the first two hours or so, then wears off pretty quickly, especially around the nose - where skin tends to be oilier - and after four hours or so, I find it's pretty much entirely disappeared, and/or been absorbed into my skin.  I find this with a lot of High St foundations though, ranges like Rimmel and CoverGirl and the like are cheaper mainly because they use less pigment and setting agents.  However, this is being sold as a "Pro" range, and it's not, as the High Street goes, all that cheap (currently £15.99 at Boots, though I paid about a tenner for mine a few weeks ago), so this lack of durability is very galling. It's not something I see myself buying again, I'll be honest.

However, onto the rest of the makeover ...

After applying my foundation, I usually do my eyes first, and that's what I've done here.  As I'm going for a quick, office-suitable look, I apply UDPP, a colourwash of the Bare Escentuals Bravo, then line the upper waterline only with a smudge of MAC Feline eyeliner, and add a single layer of Lancome Hypnose Drama in Black:

I have hooded eyelids, and it's hard to get a shot of how the eyeshadow looks on my lids from directly in front, but it's a lovely soft, shimmering silvery-brown colour, with a but more depth than you'd expect from that.  It's a loose shadow though, so it really, really, really needs a primer underneath to "lock" it in place.

Once my eyes are done, I add blusher (Chanel Rose Defile - the colour of which I love, even as I HATE the texture of the powder. Chanel are only really getting their act together with regards to their powder cosmetics right now, and the way all their old products dry out, and harden so quickly and have a tendency to be rather under pigmented is infuriating) and Bare Escentuals Buxom lipgloss in Brandi.

Here's how the colours look together:

And here's how it looks from the front:

 Again, my stupid hooded eyelids make it difficult to see the shadow that's applied, but you can see a hint of greyness there. I think I've gone a little too heavy on the blusher there, but that's because the lighting in my room - there is NO natural light in my bedroom at 6.30am on a weekday morning at the moment, so I have a tendency to overapply in the mornings, so before taking this last shot, I blended it out a bit:

So there you go, a simple work look that takes - if you're not trying to photograph it in a dark room! - about 7-8 minutes to apply, start to finish.

I think I need a fringe.

Face of the Week

I'm a very lazy person, and i appear to be addicted to routine at the moment, so whatever makeup I find myself wearing on a Monday is what I tend to find myself wearing for the next few days! Here's the products I've been wearing this week, it's very plain and simple, but quick, and pretty.







Organic Surge Blissful Daily Moisturiser (which I'm trialling for a blog post later this week)
Benefit Bluffdust - which I love for dealing with my red patches!
L'Oreal Studio Secrets foundation in Gold Ivory
Chanel blusher in Rose Defile
Urban Decay Primer Potion (depotted)
Bare Escentuals Glimpse e/s in Bravo
MAC kohl pencil in Feline (inner upper eyelid only - have I mentioned how much I love that look, and this eyeliner? Well, I do!)
Lancome Hypnose Drama in Black (of course!)
and the look is finished off with a tiny slick of Bare Escentuals Buxom lipgloss in Brandi.

Pictures of the finished look will appear tomorrow ...

Organics - A new series

Long gone are the days where I could slap just any old thing on my skin and pay no heed to the consequences.  Too many years of recklessly painting myself with the most chemical-laden and powerfully-perfumed old muck - then using the equivalent of paint stripper to take it off - has left me with a face that breaks out and flares up into welts and red scaly patches if I so much as look at certain skin care ranges these days.

I pay a lot of attention to the labels on my products now, and, chances are, if the label states it contains parabens (particularly in eye creams) or SLS (lauryl or laureth) then it's highly unlikely that I'll be able to give that product the time of day.   Cleansers in particular have been a mine-field, foaming ones burn my face and make me red and scaly, and creamy ones make me break out really, really badly. That's why I'm really happy at the moment that organic ranges of skin care are becoming a lot easier to find - and, as the organic revolution moves on, they're becoming a lot more affordable too.

With websites like Puresha making the more high end "cult" lines such as Pure and True or Pai (they are also the exclusive suppliers of Cargo's Plant Love range of organic make up - which is beautiful, and funkily packaged!) easier to get hold of, alongside a  proliferation of affordable ranges such as Organic Surge coming to the high street it's never been a better time to be a sensitive skinned soul.  So I'm planning on trying out a few products, and bringing you my reviews of them over the next couple of months.  Some of the brands you will have heard of, but some of them might be new to you, but it'll be fun trying them out, and letting you know what I think.  I've already written about Dr Bronner, which I adore, here

Since I moved to using more natural products, my skin has never been better. Instead of spots being a weekly (and multiple) occurrence, I now get maybe two or three a year. Them being more rare never stops it being a drama when they do pop up though, I have to say! And I only get red, scaly, itchy skin when I know I've been really neglecting my routine.  Welts are no longer a fact of life.  Of course, a large part of this is because I'm actually better at taking my make up off before I go to bed now, but, it can't be denied that when I go back to using the - expensive - ranges I was using before, my skin simply isn't as well-behaved as it is when I'm avoiding products with packed with cheap chemical fillers and heavy perfumes.

What are some organic products that you've used, and which really work for you?