Eye Makeup Remover Challenge - Pt 3 The Final

It's the final week of my eye makeup remover challenge!  The contenders are: Talika (100ml £12.72) - winner of last week's high-end challenge, and Amie (125ml £4.75), the winner of the cheap and cheerful contest the week before. Both removers fared extremely well with my every day makeup, so this week, I've made it a bit more difficult.

The Challenge:

This is a version of my night-time smokey eye makeup, but I've altered it slightly to really put the removers to the test.  Again, three shades of shadow applied over Urban Decay Primer Potion, but I've used MAC Blacktrack fluidliner which is next to impossible to remove once it's really set in, and waterproof mascara.  Max Factor Lash Extension Effect mascara to be exact, which will have it's own review soon.

Round One - the melt:

As usual, I begin by holding cotton wool pads soaked in make up remover on my eyes for 30 seconds:

Both have done a pretty good job of soaking off the first layer of mascara, and there's a fair bit of smudging around the eyes:

There's very little to choose between the contenders at this point, so I'm calling this round a draw.

Round Two - after:

After full make up removal, here's how the pads look:

Just look at that Amie pad (on the right), this stuff eats makeup!  This is how my eyes look at this point:

Again, very little to choose between them, however, I am noticing that the skin around the eye I'm using Talika on feels very tacky, and slightly taut, a side effect that I'm not having with the Amie on the other eye.  I mentioned in my last review that the Amie stings my skin, but, I've had this bottle tested by three other people, and they've had no problems with stinging whatsoever, so I'm ignoring that effect for scoring purposes, as that's my skin at fault, and it's highly unlikely to affect many other people, unlike the tacky skin-feel of the Talika.

Round two to Amie.

Round Three - The Shower Test:

Other cleansers have failed miserably at this point, so let's see how our two finalists fare after a hot shower:

Nothing.  No smudges, no runs, no flakes.

A draw.

Round Four - Cleansing oil:

Once again, I break out the big guns (actually, a bottle of Nude Facial Cleansing oil, which is the straw that broke Chanel's back last week), and here's the result:

Again, nothing, nada, zip, zilch, zero.  These are both amazing cleansers, and they've left not a streak or a smudge of leftover mascara between them, which is just fantastic.  However, it means I'm left to judge them on things outside of just their cleansing ability, which is going to make my final judgement slightly unobjective, so bear with me.

Final Analysis

This is exceptionally difficult to call.  Both products have performed extremely well, and rather better than I expected any oil free makeup removers to perform when I started this trial, but my gut instinct is that if I were to purchase either of these products again, it'd be the Amie (even with the stinging), over and above the Talika.  It's cheaper, for one thing - especially when you compare it on a ml for ml basis - and I prefer how it leaves my skin feeling afterwards, not sticky, not taut, not soapy.  It's an excellent value product, and I think the values behind the company are ones I admire. 

I realise I am very far from the target market for this range (it's primarily aimed at teenagers and women in their early 20's) but I think good skincare is a lesson best learned early.  Certainly, it's one I wish I'd learned earlier. Personally, I think my skin is so sensitive now because there simply weren't affordable products like this around when I discovered makeup, and I spent a long time applying cheap slap - a lot of cheap slap! - and removing it with the cosmetic equivalent of paintstripper as a result. I think it's that which has left my skin needing to be treated a lot more gently now.

There are a lot of other products in the Amie range, if they're all made up to this standard - and I suspect they are - it's a very good skincare range, whatever your age.

Face of the Week - Korres

This little lot was supposed to be saved for a makeover, but when it arrived I fell in love with some of it so much that I had to give it a trial run for myself:

I'll talk more about the foundation and mascara (at the back) later, but I wanted to talk about the shadows today, they're lovely.  I got 77s Plum (on the left) and Base 12s which is a pale taupe colour, with a twist, here's how they look in the pan:

(top -  with flash, bottom - without)

I'm not sure how visible it is in the pic there, but the pale taupe has a gorgeous - and unexpected - hint of iridescent pink, and I was delighted with it.  The shadow had been a little banged up in the post, so I'd had to smoosh it back down into the pan a bit, hence why it's looking a bit bumpy there.  It was during this that I discovered that these are really silky soft, buttery-smooth shadows, much silkier than anything I own from, say, MAC for example.

Here's how they swatch on the skin:

 (Left - with flash, right - without)

They start off pretty sheer, but the colour is buildable. I've swatched them here on bare skin on the left of each pic, and over base on the right.

I used the 12s as a colour wash all over the lid, and added the plum on the outer corners and worked it into the crease, I found them very blendable, and loved how my eyes looked after, so much so, that I've worn this look a couple of times this week already!

The eyeliner is really very soft and blendable too, I got the blue-black shade, and it's very beautiful, but I couldn't pick up the gorgeous colour on these pics for some reason. I'll try and post pictures of it  that actually do it justice next time I use it. Please enlarge the collage to see the colours.

Korres Cosmetics are available from Liberty, or online at ASOS.

Organic Wednesday - Elemental Herbology

A couple of months ago, I was lucky enough to meet with, and have a facial from, the lovely Madhvi at Elemental Herbology, and I was delighted by the results at the time.  I was so delighted that I've been trying to replicate the results ever since with this little kit here.

About the company:

"Elemental Herbology was founded by Kristy Goodger, a spa consultant with over 10 years of practical, ‘hands-on’ experience in treating clients, developing spa treatments and operating and designing spas. Combining her outstanding knowledge of herbal medicine with Oriental physiology and pathology, Kristy worked with a leading cosmetic laboratory to develop Elemental Herbology."

In a nutshell, Elemental Herbology believe that as the seasons change, so should your skincare, and, to that end, they provide both a "cooling, calming" summer range of facial and body products, and a "repairing, hydrating" of winter products.  I do, very often find myself having to switch moisturisers once or twice throughout the year, and sometimes, I find the switching of brands irritates my stupidly sensitive skin, and it's nice to know there's a brand out there that's thought of this too.

About the kit:

The Facial Ritual kit contains three of the brands best selling skin masks:

Facial Glow: which is a radiance peel to remove dead skin, brighten the complexion, and improve skin texture,
Facial Detox: which is a purifying facial mask, based on Amazonian Clay to resolve congestion and blackheads.
Biodynamic Facial Soufflé: an intensive hydration and repair mask designed to provides instant hydration and repair the skin whilst nourishing it.

Alongside these three masks, you also get a muslin cloth and a full set of instructions.


How it works:

Once a week, you cleanse your face with your cleanser of choice, and then use the masks in the order as above,  Facial Glow for four minutes, Facial Detox for up to ten minutes, and you leave the Biodynamic Facial Soufflé on overnight.  In between each of these, you give yourself a little steam treatment with the muslin cloth.

The Verdict

This, whilst fairly time consuming, is a real pleasure to use.  Many times, I've given myself a home facial (and, to be honest, I've had some professional facials that have done this too) and been left a reddened, inflamed, and somewhat greasy-faced monster.  What I like about these products is that they actually do what they say they will, and yet aren't overly chemical-laden or irritating to the skin.

To take the products in order, the Facial Glow is a beautifully citrus-scented mask with some exfoliation beads in it, whilst it was on my skin it made it feel a little cooler, which was an odd sensation.  Once it was rinsed off though, my skin very definitely felt smoother, and it felt a lot more velvety than usual.

The Facial Detox is far more familiar to use, as it's a clay-based mask that Elemental Herbology recommend you use only on your "congested" areas.  I smeared a thick layer on my forehead, chin, and around my nose (classic T-zone application, really) and I found it definitely tingled a bit.  In fact it tingled so much that I rinsed mine off after only six minutes, but it didn't seem to harm the overall facial at all.

The Biodynamic Facial Soufflé applies like a light moisturiser, but it's very matte, and doesn't absorb very quickly, which is why I think you're supposed to leave it on overnight.  It was very refreshing not to have something greasy to apply after the other masks, and it smelt a little more flowery than the other two products.

Immediately afterwards my skin wasn't at all reddened, itchy or inflamed, it felt cool and velvety, and I liked the feeling very much.  When I woke up next day, it was even better, the soufflé had totally been absorbed into my skin, and my skin was SO soft, and SO much smoother than it's been in a long time, it was amazing!  The effects have lasted several days now too, and I'm very impressed.  Best thing: no breakouts!  I estimate with the tube size, you'd get at least four - possibly more - full treatments out of this kit.  It says it's to be used weekly, but I think I'll be saving it as a monthly treat for my face.

I'm definitely going to try other products from this brand, the cell food moisturiser and the cleanser are most likely the things I'll purchase next.  I got my kit from Space NK and it cost £40.

Winter Lips

Yes, winter is definitely settling in, my lips are beginning to dry out. In winter, I normally break out my trusty pot of this:




Sisley Nutritive Balm. It's rich, has no discernible taste and I've found there's simply nothing better for preventing cracked, sore and peeling lips. However, it's very expensive (around £35 a pot). What do you use to keep your lips in pristine shape?

S Factor Shiny Happy People Hair Shine Spray

Catchy name!  I tested this recently, it's from Tigi - I use their products a lot, and swear by their Oat and Honey conditioner - it's meant to make your hair shiny, protect it from humidity, and improve it's overall condition.  It contains silk proteins and panthenol which are meant to protect and moisturise. You spray it from 10-12 inches away from your hair, and  let it do it's work.

I'll be honest, I didn't actually notice any difference to the shine on my hair (and nor did anyone else I asked), but I think it did help me not frizz up completely in the massive rain storm I had to go out in yesterday. Normally if there's so much of a sniff of moisture in the air, my hair puffs up like a dandelion clock!

I'll be wary of using it much in the future though, as this stuff smells exactly like strawberry Chewits, and the smell lingered. For a very long time. Lots of people made comments about sweeties all day whenever I tested this.  It's not a bad scent, as these things go, but it's too sweet, very sickly, and hugely unsophisticated, which I thought was a shame.

Overall, I'll rate it five out of ten, and that's purely for the humidity protection.

You can buy it for £13.30 from Lookfantastic.

Makeover: Donna

Meet Donna:

 

Donna has the most lovely eyes, but she told me that she's got out of the habit of wearing shadow recently, and was looking to learn how to apply dramatic "winged" eyeliner.  When Donna does apply colour to her eyes she uses a lot of teals and purples, but we discussed something a bit different and decided that orange was the way forward!  I broke out my pro palette and got to work:

As always, we start with the base.  Donna has great skin, with some lovely freckling, so we just used a tiny sweep of Lily Lilo powder foundation as a base and left it at that:

Then we got to work on Donna's eyes.  I used this palette:

Mainly concentrating on the second row from the left there, I used the second and third shades down as a colour wash all over the eyelid area, using the slightly darker shade as a contour in the crease:

The peachy-orange really brings out the green shades in Donna's eyes, yet it's not too in-your-face.  However, I'm disappointed with the quality of the shadows themselves, the colour pay-off is pretty poor, and even attempting to foil with them doesn't improve it very much at all.  I was hoping for a much more dramatic look.  Still, the colour wash is pretty, and works well enough, just not quite well enough.

Then, onto the liner.  For this, I used Urban Decay's liquid liner in Roach, which is one of my favourite shades of all time, it's a gorgeous burgundy-brown shade that's flattering on almost everyone, as it's less harsh than black.  For a really dramatic look, I always draw the liner in a tiny right angled triangle shape right next to the lashline:

I start by drawing the upright at the outside corner of the eye, then draw a line from the inner corner to the top of the line, then fill in the triangle with the coloured liner.  It's a lot more simple than this sounds, and I'll bring you a step by step guide to how to do this soon.

Here's how the eyes looked when I was finished, we used two coats of mascara, and I think this is a great dramatic look.  Yes, it could have been a bit more dramatic, but overall I like this look.  Then I made a mistake, attempting to make up for the lack of drama in the orange eyeshadow, I thought a bright orange lipstick would be in order.  All I did then, was gild the lily:

Actually, the lipstick itself is a great shade for Donna (it's a Stila one, I've forgotten the name of, but I'll find out), it's just too much with the winged liner. We toned it down later with a more neutral lip, and it looked much more in balance.

Thank you, Donna!  I'll not gild the lily next time, I promise.

Eye Makeup Remover Challenge - Pt 2

So, here is part two of my eye makeup remover challenge!  Last week, in the cheap and cheerful round, I tried Boots Botanics and Amie makeup removers, and Amie won. This week, I'll be testing Talika and Chanel (my own personal favourite!) make up removers against one another.  Whichever one wins this round will challenge Amie cleanser next week, and be declared the champion of champions ...

(as an addendum to last week's challenge, I've had two independent adjudicators also test Amie, and there was NO stinging in either case, it really is just my horrendously sensitive eyes that it appears to affect.)


The Contenders:

Here we have Talika lash conditioning cleaner (which I got free in a SpaceNK goody bag), and my personal bottle of Chanel BiPhase eye make up remover.  Once again, we have an oil-free formulation (the Talika) and an oil based one - the Chanel.  At this point I'm wondering why all eye makeup removers have to be blue?  A lot of them use cornflower extract, I'm almost certain that won't make things blue, but I digress somewhat.

Talika claims theirs is the first oil-free formulation to work on waterproof mascara, and says it strengthens and lengthens lashes, I'm only testing the first of those claims, but I'm intrigued by the second!  

Chanel claim: that it "Removes makeup perfectly from the lashes and the eye contour, leaving the skin soft and supple. Combines effective makeup removal with respect for the delicate eye area." I'm on about my fourth bottle of this stuff, and I love it.

The Challenge:

 

 

Again, three shades of shadow - over a primer - and mascara.

Round one:

First thoughts: Neither product has a particular scent, once on the cotton wool, but the Talika is actually gel that you have to pump (quite hard!) to get out of the airtight tube.  Here's the cotton wool after 30 seconds on the eye:

No idea what happened to the focus here, sorry!

As you can see, the Talika has got to work straight away on the mascara, but the Chanel has removed more of the eyeshadow.  Here's how my eyes looked at this stage:

  

 

 

Yes, definitely the Talika is ahead here. Round one to Talika.

Round Two:

I then continued and removed the rest of my eye makeup with the pads, here's the guck shot:

 

Results-wise, the products are neck and neck here, it looks like they've both cleaned the eye-area well, but I've noticed that the Talika has left the eye area feeling a little tack-y to the touch, and slightly more taut than the Chanel.  There is no stinging from either.

Round 2 to Chanel.

Round Three: (yes, I've added an extra round this week, as the results were too close to call!)

After what happened last week when I had the shower, I decided to try and replicate that situation. First, I steamed my face a little, then - as that seemed to have no effect - I splashed my face with a little warm water:

 

 

Again, not a lot has happened here, there's a tiny bit of smudging on my right eye, but nothing like as dramatic as last time!  Then, I decided to bring  out the big guns. Cleansing oil.  And this is what happened:

The Chanel has a very definite smudge of mascara!  I'm devastated. Seriously!  I've been recommending it as the best eye makeup remover for as long as I've been using it!  Coco, how could you?

Talika wins!

Next week, Amie Vs Talika  an all oil-free remover final.  I'm deeply surprised!