Everyday Eye Essentials

If you follow my instagram account (and if not, why not?  You can find it here) you'll notice that I've been posting a daily picture of my eye makeup, with a description of the shadows, liners and mascaras that I've used.  What I never mention are these two products, without which my eyemakeup is incomplete.

First off, if I've learned anything from beauty blogging over the years, it's that an eye-shadow primer is absolutely essential, and, after years of testing practically all of the ones on the market, Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion is the one I return to again and again and again.  If you suffer from wandering shadow, or greasy eyelids, or shadow that just disappears after an" hour or two, then primer will help.  UDPP is a rather  "grabby" primer that can sometimes be difficult to blend over, but I deal with that by adding a layer of flesh coloured shadow over the top of it first, then using any darker colours over the top, you still get a good, bright, longlasting look, but it's much easier to blend shades over the top.  I'm looking forward to trying their new "anti-ageing" primer when that is released.

And to finish off any look, it's imperative to have groomed eyebrows, and an eyebrow gel can help hugely.  My own eyebrows (even though tattooed underneath), would take over my entire face if I didn't keep them under control, so I brush through a little of this lightly-coloured gel through to tame them a little, and keep them in place for the day.

The Eyeko brow-gel has a nice little brush (which could, in all honesty, be a bit longer), and has a lightly coloured gel, which would be suitable for most shades of brows, except maybe for very red ones.  It's nice, and keeps brows in place all day.  I'm a little o_0 about the price, to be honest, as I think £18 for a brow gel is a bit on the high side (frankly, you could use hair gel just as well), but it's a good product if you want your brows to provide the perfect frame for your eyes.

What are your eye essentials? 

The Fine Print: A mixture of PR samples and purchases.
 
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Lippie's Lust List #Twelvety Guerlain Violette de Madam

Oh man.  I need me this collection something chronic.  I was sent the nail varnish in Madam Batifole (below) this week, and now I have a shopping list as long as my arm.  A collection entirely in purple, fuchsia and red?  Oh, I am IN.

 In love, that is.

GIMME!!

 It's on counters August 1st, but don't bother yourselves, as I'll have bought it all.   ALL YOUR GUERLAINS ARE BELONG TO ME.

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Estee Lauder DayWear Multi-Protection Anti-Oxidant Sheer Tint Release Moisturiser

Another day, another punchy-titled product from Estee Lauder ... the DayWear Multi-Protection Anti-Oxidant Sheer Tint Release Moisturiser to be precise (it not concise), is  a tinted moisturiser that I've been using on and off for years, and I was delighted to hear recently that it's been reformulated and re-launched by Lauder.

It is, as it's name suggests, a sheer tinted moisturiser, with a light cucumber scent (which I happen to really love, but your mileage might, as they say, vary), and an SPF of 15, which makes it ideal for a summer where sunshine can't always be guaranteed.

What I do like about it is the colour-adjusting technology in the formula, on squeezing the product from the tube for the first time, you might be wondering where the tint actually is:

As it's decidedly greige on first squeeze, but hold on:

Nope, still a bit grey, but it's beginning to disappear, look:

As you rub the formula into your skin, the microscopic spheres containing the pigment burst, and begin to meld with your own skintone, becoming, eventually, a transparent veil of colour:

And when they say sheer, they're really not kidding.  I left Maurice the control mole there so you can see him in all his glory.  This formula won't cover up imperfections, and doesn't layer to give more coverage, unlike the Chantecaille Just Skin I spoke about on Wednesday, but it will even out your skin tone rather nicely, and give you both a nice glow and a little protection from the sun without ever looking ashy, unless you have a very dark skin tone, that is.

It's a great staple, personally I'd still want to use my regular moisturiser underneath, as I don't really find it hydrating enough on my combination-dehydrated skin, but this is a classic product, and is great for foundation-phobics, as it simply enhances, without masking, the skin you already have.  This new formulation is a little less grey than it used to be, but that's about the only difference I can see to the original product.

The FIne Print:  PR Sample, but I've bought many, many tubes of this in the dim and distant past.

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Current Favourite Blushers

I didn't see the point of blusher for the longest time, and so, for many years I didn't use it.  I've had high-colouring for many years, so the thought of adding MOAR COLORZ to my skin was a scary one, to say the least!  These days, however, I'd rather leave the house without lipstick than without my blusher!

Blush brightens the face, and can add shade and contour to even the widest of faces (personally, I don't bother with all that contouring malarkey because, as has been extensively reported on this blog, I am a cack-handed muppet), but blusher does make such a difference, making my skin look alive, and helping me avoid looking like a trainee goth who forgot to attend the lesson on  not dressing like an accountant.  

After my recent colour analysis, I've found blush difficult, as the shades which are nearest matches to my fan do NOT look good on my skin - NARS Sin is consistently recommended as a good blush for someone with my colouring, but ... well, it's too dark and far, far, far too brown for me, so I challenged myself to find some more suitable blush shades. 

Initially, I didn't think I had any, aside from one, but after digging deep into the recesses of my blusher drawer, I managed to scramble up seven or so ... (may you never know the horrors of saying "But I don't have any like that" only to discover you're lying to yourself about it ... anyhoo, here's my pick of my blusher collection:

Clockwise from top left we have:

Accessorize: Merged Baked Blush in Sensation
MAC: Blushbaby
Stila: Convertible Colour in Lillium
Laura Geller: Ethereal Rose/Sateen Subtle Berry
Benefit: Hervana
Burberry: Cameo
Bare Minerals: Ready Blush in The One 

In the past couple of years, I've been pretty much inseparable from NewCID iGlow in Coral Crush, but I've been trying to use pinker shades recently, and, even though a couple of these have a touch of coral to them (in particular The One by Bare Minerals - bottom left in pic above), I think the pinker look is just a bit more "healthy" to my newly-educated eye.

Accessorize is very pink, and works well as a highlighter, also, it was very cheap!
MAC Blushbaby is an old, old favourite, but it's a little on the brown side, so needs applying with a light hand.
Stila Lillium is a great neutral shade of blush, and one I wear over tinted moisturiser.  You can wear it on your lips too, but that's really not a good look for me.
The Laura Geller has been my day to day staple blush recently.  A slightly berry pink, it has a gentle sheen, and is very pretty without making me look too flushed.
Benefit Hervana is a very pretty cool-toned matte pink.  It's a little on the sheer side, but it's a good shade for just the lightest possible flush of  colour.
Burberry Cameo is another subtle berry shade, which is on the matte side, it's a lot more pigmented than the Laura Geller, so again, needs a lighter hand (or a duo-fibre brush).
Bare Minerals is a heavily-pinked coral, and is a good easy to wear shade, even if it is a little bit warmer than the other shades in this selection.  I LOVE the Bare Minerals "pressed" powder formulations, and need to pick a few more up.

So, what are your go-to blushers at the moment?

The Fine Print: Mainly purchases, ironically.

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Empties!

I don't finish many products in all honesty, and of those that I do finish, I don't often repurchase.  These three products have been through the wringer and then some, and I have backups (multiples in some cases!) of all of them.

Hydraluron

I'll be honest, when I was first using this, I wasn't much impressed.  I'd seen raves - LOTS of raves - about this product in a lot of places, but I couldn't see what, if anything it was doing for my skin, so I stopped using it.  BIG mistake.  Dehydration lines soon started forming, and my skin was taking longer to "plump" up in the mornings.  Now I'm a total convert, and use this on a daily basis, my skin is far more resilient, and feels dewier and fresher than it's been for a long time as a result.  For me, the true sign of a great product is that you see a major difference when you stop using it, and Hydraluron passes that test, in spades. 

Clarins Gentle Exfoliator

I LOVE this stuff.  It's gentle enough to use every day (even though the packaging suggests you use it 2-3 times a week), and it constantly reveals fresh new skin.  I use it every other day, and found the bottle lasted the best part of five months.  Somewhat more than a toner, but less harsh than a full-on chemical peel, it's perfect for sensitive skins who need a bit of brightening.  Wouldn't be without it now - and have purchased a cupboard full of it, just in case!

Chantecaille Just Skin Anti Smog Tinted Moisturiser

This makes my skin glow, to the extent that complete strangers have commented on my "beautiful skin" (which I find hilarious, tbh), it's a bit  more pigmented than your average tinted moisturiser, and it layers wonderfully, meaning that even blotchy-faces and high-colouring can be covered, which is great.  This is also great skincare, and I have been known to use this as my only moisturising product, in an emergency, with no ill-effects.  Yes, it's pricey (£58 worth of pricey to be exact), but my last tube lasted well over a year, as a little bit goes a very long way.  When I need bit more coverage, I simply powder over it with something like MAC's Studio Fix, but mostly I just leave the glowing, healthy finish unadorned on my skin

The Fine Print: A mixture of PR samples, purchases, and re-purchases.  Oh, and re-re-purchases.  

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Boo!

I've not been around much the last couple of weeks, a combination of being away and some bad news over the last fortnight have conspired to make the blog take a back seat recently.  But, rest assured, I've not been resting on my laurels!

Here's a sneaky peek at something I'm currently working on ...

Normal service to be resumed tomorrow ... 

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Lipstick Queen Launches Velvet Rope Collection

I love a good lipstick launch, me.  And, when the lipstick launched is a good lipstick, then so much the better, frankly.

I'm a fan of the Lipstick Queen range (some long term readers might have noticed), and, barring the occasional WTF moment (Jean Queen, invented to tone with your denim, I'm looking at you), the standard of launches is usually extremely high, so I was gratified to notice that the Velvet Rope collection looks like taking Lipstick Queen from the realms of the luxe, to the super-luxury category.

Natural Light

 The gorgeously hefty packaging, which is heavier than Tom Ford, yet less bulky than Guerlain Rouge G, is beautifully deco, and has lovely magnetic fixings giving an extremely satisfying "clunk" on opening and closing.  Left we have Entourage, and right we have Brat Pack (a name that made me laugh quite hard when I noticed it - I guess you had to be around in the eighties to get it though).

With flash

Formula-wise, they're unusual for a Poppy King lipstick, having a faint peppermint smell, but it's not overwhelming, and fades very quickly.  I was a little disappointed there wasn't a rose, or violet scent, to further echo the retro-packaging, but I got over myself very quickly.

The lipsticks are feather-light, literally one the lightest-textured lipsticks I've ever come aross.  They pack a wallop of pigment too:

This is one pass per lipstick, Entourage on the left and Brat Pack on the right.  Entourage is a dark berry shade, with a hint of brown, and Brat Pack is a beautiful, bright, rather neutral red.

You can barely feel you're wearing anything, and I haven't noticed any problems with drying lips out in use.  Lasting time is rather average - and the colour will transfer, they're not designed as a long-lasting formula - but with such a beautiful package, reapplying is barely a hardship at all.

One the lips (both in natural light)

Entourage.  It's a bit goth, but I like it anyway.  The natural redness of my lips makes this more of a dark blood-red on, than it did in the swatch.

Brat Pack - a glorious, happy red. I'm a little addicted.

The sad thing about these lipsticks is that they'll only be available in five shades at the initial launch (which is in September), these two, alongside a pink (which I NEED, frankly!), a nude and a wine-red shade (which I definitely need to see).    The price point will be £32.  Which is, I think, about right.  The packaging is much, much more "luxe" than a Tom Ford lipstick, which I've always thought was a bit ... well ... cheap in comparison to the price point, and the price is comparable to a Guerlain Rouge G, which Velvet Rope gives a good run for its money in both packaging and texture.

Other ultra-luxury lipstick brands should be quaking in their boots, frankly ...

The Fine Print: PR Samples.
 
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