Chanel Ombre D'eau

I don't see these very often around the blogosphere, and I wonder why that is? I find them very easy to use, and  60: Sand (on the right)is very often my default eyeshadow for applying a slick of over the lid for those "can't be bothered" days.  If I want something a bit more sludgy, then I'll pop a little of 100 Torrent over the mobile lid too, and blend them both together. There is a doe-foot applicator in the bottle, and they have a tendency to settle if you leave them alone for a day or two.  It's easily remedied though, just give them a shake, and the ball-bearing in the bottle will re-mix them for you.  They're basically a pigment in a water base, which means they're very cooling to apply, and leave a good depth of colour behind.

These aren't quite as budgeproof as the shadows I showed you yesterday, but they do stay put with a minimum of creasing, without a base, for around 10 hours, which is great. They do contain shimmer though, so if you're looking for a matte finish, they're probably not the shadows for you.  Here's how they swatch:

One word of advice, they do dry very fast, so blend as quickly as you can! What's your default makeup for those "can't be bothered" days?

The Fine Print: Yup, bought these too.  Man, I love me some Chanel.  Wanna see my whole collection?

Waterproof eyeshadows: YSL and Estee Lauder

I had no idea YSL actually did a waterproof shadow until I found this little beauty recently! YSL Fard Lumiere Aquaresistant in #2 Amethyst Grey, which is actually a cool-taupe shade with just a hint of silver shimmer:

This feels very different on the skin to my normal crease and budge-proof shadows (Benefit Creaseless Creams, for reference) they're very cool, and more of a mousse texture than other ones I've tried.  That said, this stuff does not budge once it's in place.  It's still pretty easy to blend though.  But the brush that comes with it:

should just be thrown away.  For a £20 product, the brush is utterly useless.  I've been using my (clean) fingers to apply, and find this helps spread the product much better.

Onto one that's much more familiar, Estee Lauder's Double Wear Eyeshadow cream:

This is the shade Pink Amethyst (spotted the link between the two shades yet?), this feels more greasy in texture, and takes a few seconds to set once you've applied it, but once it's one, it's going nowhere, here's how it looks on the skin:

Now, I love my Benefit Creaseless creams to an almost absurd degree, but this one comes in a poor third in a comparison of those, and the YSL.  It's a nice shade, and it doesn't crease or run, but it doesn't blend as well as the other two formulations, and I find it feels a little "rubbery" once it has set.  Also, I find that you can't apply other (powder) shadows over the top as well. They tend to ball up, and drop off, has this happened to anyone else?  Is there something I'm doing wrong?

Here's a comparison of how the two formulations look on the skin:

What's probably not apparent from this swatch is that the YSL has a matte finish - albeit with silver shimmer - but the Estee Lauder has a more visible cream-sheen to it.  They're both nice shades, but I think I'll get more wear out of the YSL.  The Lauder is cheaper though, at £15 for the pot, as opposed to the YSL's £20 (which made even me blanch slightly, as I don't think it will actually last all that long, being a whipped mousse rather than a cream).

What's your go-to waterproof shadow?

The Fine Print: I bought these and I have the receipts to prove it.  And the overdraft.

Givenchy Parad'eyes

Yes, they really are called that.  Oh well.  These are Givenchy's latest liquid eyeliners, and I have to admit that they are very, very, very pretty:

The long top forms the handle, and the smaller bottom portion contains the liner. I bought two recently, the blue one you can see above, and the nude shade.  I know, nude eyeliner, sounds crazy!   Take a closer look at the brushes:

These formulations are very, very sparkly, and give a just beautiful finish on the skin.  I find them them be very long-lasting, and are slightly more subtle than, say, an Urban Decay Heavy Metals glitter liner. There is a downside however, and I'll get to that after I show you the hand-swatches:

My hand is angled slightly different in the second pic to show that the blue liner is actually lots of blue glitter suspended in a semi-sheer charcoal base.

They apply easily, both of them really needing two passes over the lid to achieve full opacity, but I find that's normal with most liquid liners.  These, however, don't dry down as well as other liquid liners I've tried, staying a little "tacky" on the skin.  It's not really a problem, and these are very beautiful colours - I use the nude shade for highlighting the inner corner of my eyes, blended in with a cotton bud, it really does open the eyes up - but you will be more aware that you're wearing this than you might with a more traditional liner.

Whilst they are sparkly, I have worn both of them to the office before now and not caused a scene, they're very wearable. What do you think of sparkly liners?

Givenchy Parad'eyes liners are available in major department stores and cost around £20.

The Fine Print: I bought these.  My credit card hates me.

Armani Nude Contrast Palette - FotD

New for this summer, Armani have released two nude contrast palettes, one pink, one blue.   I was very lucky to have been sent the blue one to try recently.

That said, some of you will already know of my dislike of pastels – in particular pale blue – and find those sorts of colours impossible to wear, so this one was rather a challenge for me!

The palette consists of stripes of pale blue, a beautiful shimmering “old gold” shade, a thin strip of jet black, and a pure white highlight, this picture shows off the shimmer in the gold shade better than the one above:

 Blue and pure white are difficult shades for me to pull off with my (very) pale olive skin, but here’s what I came up with:

I used the white as a brow-highlight, the gold as a colour-wash all over the mobile lid area, the black as a liner, and the blue to highlight the inner corner. Mascara is Lancome Precious Cells, and the lipgloss is Lancome D'Absolou, I'm also wearing a hint of Cargo Plant Love Illuminator in Wind on my cheeks.

What this picture doesn't show is that I gave myself a double-flick of eyeliner, here's a close up:

I thought it was a good way to make this a little different to my normal liner.  The Armani palette is very nice, and of beautiful quality, it has definitely made me want to discover more about the brand, I can't deny it!

The black is very densely pigmented, it makes a great eyeliner, and doesn't have a grey cast on the skin. It stays very black, I'd have liked a wider strip of it in the palette, actually. I absolutely love the sandy gold shade, it's beautifully shimmery - with an almost holographic sheen - which makes it very beautiful.  However, I'm not entirely sure I'll be using the blue or white again, I kept getting glances of myself whilst I was wearing this (ok, I was looking at myself, I'll admit it), and all I could see was the pale blue, and it wasn't flattering!

How do you wear pastels?

Armani Nude Contrast Palettes are available from Selfridges and costs around £39.

The Small Print: This was sent to me for review purposes.  Gotta love a PR with a sense of humour ;)

Makeover: Laura

Laura got married yesterday, but way back in February she asked me for some ideas for her wedding makeover.  Here's what we came up with.

Please welcome Laura:

Laura was a little too young to remember Prisoner Cell Block H, hence the rather cheery "before" pic this week.  As always we start with the foundation.  Laura is very pale (and yet had been recently colour "matched" as an NC30 by a MAC assistant who obviously needs their eyes testing, and possibly a change of career), we decided to use Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation in 51 Light Vanilla instead, which is a great demi-matte foundation which lasts a whole day, and leaves a healthy glow:

This gave us a great canvas to work from, and we decided to concentrate on the eyes.  In order to make whatever we applied last for the whole day, I used Benefit Creaseless Cream in RSVP as the base for the colour.  A lovely shimmering champagne shade, this does NOT budge, and is great for wedding makeups.

I then went on and added a little Bobbi Brown colours from the chocolate palette to define the eye (this palette doesn't suit me at all, but it's stunningly versatile on other people, I've found):

I lined the eyes - very lightly - with the same shade, and then added Bourjois Ultra Care mascara to define those pretty lashes:

To add some colour, and a little bridal glow, we brushed a little of the deepest shade of Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips in Natural on the cheekbones, then used the lightest shades to highlight:

All that is missing now is a touch of lipgloss.  We used Bobbi Brown in Rose Sugar, and the look was complete, here's the blushing bride!

And here's the before'n'after:

I hope everything went well yesterday for you Laura, and I wish you and Kris every happiness in your new life together!

New hair - new lipstick!

I had a spectacularly crappy day yesterday, so getting my hair done was a real treat, here's the finished result:

Have no idea what's going on with my face there, but here's the before and after:

It's a bit darker, but more of a coppery dark than previously, the layers have been recut, and I had a fringe cut back in.  I like it so far, but I'm looking forward to seeing it in the daylight. I went to the Rush salon in Baker Street, which is a great salon, a little noisy for me after a tough old day, but my stylist Nicola was great, it was so nice to be with a hairdresser who listens!

I went a bit crazy swatching lipsticks in Selfridges afterwards, I tried ALL the Tom Fords, but, I'll be honest, I wasn't really taken with any of them. There were two - Pure Pink and Pure Coral, I think - that I might have considered, but for the price, I couldn't justify either to myself.  I really liked the new Armani pink lipstick collection though, and I think I'll be picking one of those up soon (506 and 507 really caught my eye), has anyone tried them?  I did splurge on a new Guerlain Rouge G amongst other things, I'm wearing in the top picture there, in shade 62, "Georgia", which is a lovely pink shade, but I'll show you that in a bit more depth later ... Didn't have any Rouge G's last week, and now I have two!  Pretty soon I won't be able to lift up my makeup bag ...

Can't believe how much I'm looking forward to the weekend!

All for Eve Finally Launches!

 I was very proud to be invited as a guest blogger to the official launch of the All For Eve range on Monday night. Held in the heart of Marylebone, this has to be the glitziest thing I've done on a Monday since, well, let's face it, since forever.

Before I start to talk about the evening I spent though, I just want to quote a sobering statistic I picked up whilst reading the press pack on the way home: 

"Ovarian cancer takes the lives of 72% of sufferers every year, a figure that has not changed since 1972. Every day 20 women will die from a gynaecological cancer in the UK alone."

I don't know about you, but this fact shocked me, especially when you consider that the 5yr survival rate for breast cancer stands at 80%. I simply cannot believe that the survival rates haven't changed in nearly 40 years! This shocked and appalled me, and it brought home to me why All For Eve actually exists.

The brand has had, so far, a very short history, the initial idea came into being in November 2009, and it's already on the shelves in Harrods, and will shortly be available in Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, Fenwicks, Fortnum & Mason, and the top 50 Boots in the country. It's starting with beauty products, AFE is planning  to expand the initial offering - currently comprising body products, a lipstick and nail polish, alongside a Swarovski crystal nail file - into some currently shrouded in mystery other areas - I'm thinking fashion though! Other brands lined up to join the All for Eve umbrella later this year include Elemis, Alpha H and Emma Hardie amongst others, which is a very interesting line up, and I, for one, can't wait to see what other areas the brand expands into. It's already won 4 CEW awards, and that's a record in the British beauty industry.

I had a brief chat with Sophy Robson, creator of the nailpolish, and we had a bit of a giggle about my twitter habit! But most definitely the high-point of my evening was speaking to Daniel Sandler, creator of the brand's iconic lipstick (which I am, of course, wearing in the pic at right, alongside it's creator!), about how he got involved with the company, and how he went about creating such a great lip colour.  He told me all about the perfect red lipstick he discovered as a teenager (a Lancome shade, but I forget the name, but you bet I'll be speaking to the Lancome office to see if I can track it down soon!), and wanted to come close as possible to that shade within the budgetary constraints inherent within producing a product for charity.  Personally, I think he's done an amazing job, and wasn't backward in saying so, I think it's a great lipstick (and I've seen some dreadful ones recently), and it's definitely on my list of classics.

As for why Daniel got involved, something I didn't know was that he was the man responsible for making Jade Goody look so amazing on her wedding day - say and/or think what you will about Jade, you can't deny that for an end-stage terminal cancer patient, she literally glowed  as a bride, and she single-handedly did more to publicise gynaecological cancer than any woman has in a very, very long time - and she did a lot to inspire him.  He pointed out that there are a lot of people have been affected by cancer, and he's very happy and privileged to find himself now in a position to be able to actually do something. Daniel is an exceptionally nice man, and very easy to talk to - sadly, I think I may have talked his ear off a little bit, if you read this Daniel, I'm very sorry! - and when he found out my mother works in a hospice with cancer patients, he immediately offered some help with fundraising efforts.  I have to admit I was very touched by this, and I'll be getting in touch with the hospice soon to see if there is anything they need.

In the meantime, if there's something you want to do, then make a start and buy a product from All for Eve.  Those survival rates have to change.