100 Years Of Hairdressing - Andrew Collinge

Two thousand.  At the end of the 80's, that's how many perms that were processed by Andrew Collinge's salons every single week. When I point out that all the salons are based in (and around) Liverpool, you might understand why that particular little statistic brought a smile to my face when I heard it the other day.

I grew up in, and lived in, the north west up until around five years ago. When I was younger, (before the likes of Toni & Guy showed up), you had a choice in hairdressing, you either went to one of the local blue-rinse brigade of salons - usually called something like Bab's or Curl Up and Dye - or, you saved your pennies and went to an Andrew Collinge salon, usually in either Chester or Liverpool.  Having long been a hair snob, I usually saved up, and went "fancy". I must have been to at least half of the 8 salons in the chain, over the years as well as spent quite a few hours in the graduate academy, sitting as a model for the trainees who were learning blow-drying!

I learned a lot about hair from those salons, how to do an easy zig-zag parting, about styling products, that blonde highlights are not my friend, that a "restyle" rather than a trim will cost you an extra tenner at the till, and that salon products are usually better - but not always - for your hair than Vosene.  In fact, the first ever "designer" hair product I bought was Andrew Collinge's Design and Shine.  Lo! An expensive hair habit was borne ...

So it was that I was beyond delighted to be invited to Andrew's house (along with some other lovely bloggers!) to have a chat with the great man himself recently.  Amongst some interesting snippets of gossip which I'm not at liberty to repeat here, Andrew gave us some great tips and hints about haircare, some of which I'll repeat here:

Hair needs to be nurtured, treat it gently!  A cool rinse will work wonders for shine and condition.
Hair doesn't need to be washed every day - every 2-3 days is optimum, he thinks, and I agree - in fact, washing every day can lead to your scalp becoming over-stimulated which will make greasy hair even greasier in the long run, as your scalp gets used to daily massage.
Semi-permanent colours work well on greying hair, used regularly, they can have a staining effect on the greys which will help them blend in better, whereas a permanent colour will just lead to a white-rooted "badger effect".  Not sexy, if you ask me.

Andrew also very kindly demonstrated some simple hairstyling tricks for us - which was amusing as he only had one hair-brush and one hairpin to create most of them with!  Still, the fishtail plait he created was beautiful, and really simple, and the updos he did for everyone else were likewise.  I got a hint of backcombing, and some tricks about how to deal with my "mental" hair.  Andrew actually used the phrase "look at the little baby curls!" when I was showing him why updos just don't work all that well for me.  Thanks, Andrew!

Andrew also reminded us that he still has a haircare range available in most supermarkets - you can have a look at it here at Superdrug - it's recently been repackaged to celebrate the Collinge family's 100th year in hairdressing, and, as I never feature a product without testing it first, I've been using it for the last couple of washes.  Now, I'll be honest, I genuinely can't remember the last time I bought shampoo in a supermarket, so this was a bit of a leap of faith for me. I tried the Smoothing range (pictured above) which is the same as is used in his salons, which promises smooth shiny hair without frizzies.  I've been amazed, my hair has never been so shiny, I was out with a few people yesterday, and I got lots of compliments, which almost never happens!

I'm not, however, a massive fan of the packaging, the bottles are big (500mls for £4.99), and can be tricky to handle with wet hands - a pump dispenser would be great, I'll have to dig a couple up from somewhere - and the range does contain SLS, so I'll have to alternate it with an SLS-free product to avoid the itchies, but this is some seriously good shampoo and conditioner right here, and at such a bargain price!  The range also includes A "Purity" collection alongside the salon range (pictured left) which features more natural products based around quinoa proteins which I'm looking forward to trying too.

Again, the products are available in most major supermarkets, and Superdrug sells it online, alongside the styling range, which still includes good old Design and Shine!

I just want to say a massive thanks to Andrew for being brave enough to invite a load of "nutters from the internet" (MY phrase, not his!) into his home, and for being such a gracious and charming host. Blogging has taken me to some wonderful, random, and unexpected places recently, but this has to be one of the most relaxed, and informative sessions I've been to!

Incidentally, the top picture in this post features me, circa 1990, modelling one of those very perms Andrew was referring to in the first paragraph ...

Organic Weekend - 100% Organics

 A guest review for you this week, please welcome Charlie from Lady of the Lane:

A little while ago Louise asked me if I fancied doing a skincare guest review for her and I jumped at the chance. 100% Organics products are all made by hand on a Cornish Farm. Every oil and extract used is naturally produced and  they don’t use processes that release harmful by-products. Nothing is tested on animals and all products are vegetarian friendly.

The products are designed to be suitable for all skin types.

Given all the above I was keen to give it a go and Louise sent over a full size lip balm plus sample sizes of the cleanser, toner & moisturiser.

The lip balm smells nice, ingredients include sweet orange oil, coconut oil & lavender oil. Sadly though, this isn't for me. It's far too greasy. I just don't like the feel of it on my lips.

The cleanser surprised me when I opened up the tin. It looks just like the lip balm! Unperturbed though I carried on. I didn't find it terribly easy to spread around my face but it wasn't a nightmare either... you then leave the product on for 1-2 minutes and remove using either the toner or water on cotton wool. I'm not keen on the smell at all but there's lots of nice ingredients, like jojoba, lavender, evening primrose & tea tree. I found that it dissolved my make up really well. I couldn't use the toner to remove it though, it would have taken far too much toner and I only had a tiny sample bottle. I used water and a muslin cloth to remove it.

The toner is the only product in the range that isn't 100% organic because it contains water. Ingredients include grapefruit seed extract, witch hazel, chamomile and orange floral water. Sadly I found the smell of this product awful. I simply had to stop using it. I thought it was me until my husband asked me a couple of times what "that funny smell is". I thought it smelled of cowpats and outdoors, my husband didn't agree, he thought it smelled medicinal, so go figure!

Lastly, the moisturiser. Well imagine my shock when opening the tin to find not a cream but another pot looking identical to the lip balm. This was really testing my conventional ideas about moisturisers, but being the game old bird I am I gave it a go. I used a tiny amount and spread it all over. Imagine covering your face in scented grease. Actual grease. It did actually absorb fully eventually but rarely do I have the time to wait half an hour or longer. Plus again I found the smell really awful. Lovely ingredients, jojoba, marigold, rose, evening primrose. I normally love the smell of natural things but not this. Also, just too greasy for me, took too long to absorb.

After three days of using morning and evening I couldn't stomach the smell anymore and I've stopped using it. I'm sorry 100% Organics, I wanted to love you and support a small company but you're just not for me sadly.

www.ladyofthelane.com

Guerlain Rouge G

Ever since I saw a swatch of Guerlain Rouge G in Geisha over at LondonMakeUpGirl's blog recently, I had to have one! But I was thwarted at every turn, it being apparently sold out at every counter I'd attempted to buy it from.  Most annoying!  But, eventually, I got hold of one and was so impressed with it that I immediately went out and bought another.  Yes, I'm like that.  Geisha is a gorgeous brick red, and the other one I have is Georgia, a beautiful bubblegum pink:

Georgia is a very pretty peony shade that doesn't have a blue undertone, very important to me as I find blue-based shades harder to wear than practically anything else ...

Here's how they look on my lips:

At £25 each, there's no denying these are very expensive (and the cases are very heavy!) but the quality shines through, I think.  Certainly, I prefer this formulation to the almost as expensive Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Voluptes - personally, I think YSL RV's are too greasy, and they have a tendency to "sit on" the lips, much like vaseline does, rather than meld with your lip's texture. I own one RV, and can't see me ever buying another, to be honest. 

I swatched all ten of the Tom Ford lipsticks at the same time, there were a couple that I thought were nice, but I'm thinking that the £35 asking price might be a little too steep for me to indulge in a lipstick that I merely liked, as opposed to loved.  Having said that though, I also saw the new Giorgio Armani pink collection lipsticks this week, and I think I might have to indulge in at least one of those ... I think pink is going to be my colour for the summer!

How much is too much when it comes to lipstick for you?

The Fine Print: One of these was sent for review purposes and the other was purchased by me.  With money. And a little wince.

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 ;)