Gels from L'Occitane, Ioma and Champneys.

Confession time: I am not doing well in this heat.  I am exhausted to the point where I've actually considered getting myself admitted  to hospital just to get some damn rest (and I'm not even slightly joking), sleeping in this humidity is proving next to impossible, and when you add in that July brought some bad tidings, and well, it's not been my favourite month this year, not by a long chalk.  Things are, however, getting better as the heat starts to lessen.

These gel body products have also been helping.  Ordinarily, I don't use body lotion (I have normal skin from the neck down, so I don't need body lotions very often at all), and I definitely don't get along with gel products as a rule (up until recently, you couldn't have paid me to use a gel product on my face, however, that's a topic for a different blog post), but in this heat, these three have been a godsend.

First of all, L'Occitane Lavande Body & Massage Gel.  Ostensibly a product designed for massage, this lavender-scented gel is thick and rather viscous, but rubs in nicely and is gloriously cool in the doing so.  I like this rubbed onto the back of the neck and over the forehead to both cool and soothe on stressful days. £20 from L'Occitane stockists.

Next is Ioma Soothing Gel for Legs.  A menthol-scented gel that is simply THE most cooling thing on the planet.  It's wonderful on your feet if you've had a hard day wandering around all over, refreshing and feels cleansing, and really cools down hot limbs and extremities.  The bumpf that goes with this product claims that it is great for all kinds of skin and leg concerns (including varicose veins). Sadly I haven't been using it long enough to test any of those claims, but this feels magnificent on the skin, and the added menthol zing really adds to the cooling sensation.  On the down side, this is £55 from Harrods.

And finally, the cheap and cheerful option, which is the Champneys Energising Lime Hydrating Body Gel.  Deliciously scented with lime and peppermint (reminiscent of a mojito), this rather thin and runny gel is great for cooling chests and arms, where you can smell and enjoy the refreshing scent.  It's not quite as cooling as the Ioma gel owing to the lack of menthol in the mix, but it is a good moisturising product, and the smell is lovely.  Cheap as chips too,  it's available at Boots for £8.  Get some in!  Anyone for a cocktail?  Anyone? Anyone?

How are you managing in the hot weather?
 
The Fine Print: Mixture of PR samples and purchases.

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Sneak Peek! QVC TSV 02/08: Ego Boost Pod

 

I love a TSV, don't you?  And I love beautiful packaging too, luckily for me the Ego Boost Pod is both.  What's an Ego Boost Pod? I hear you ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  It is, essentially, a set of heated rollers, but with a bit of a difference, one not limited to the lovely package.

Inside the box is a "pod", a set of 14 rollers, and clips to hold them in your hair.  They're extremely simple to use - you just pop a roller into the pod, wait till it beeps (it'll take just four seconds), then roll it into position in your hair.  Then you simply pop another roller into the pod to heat up, and repeat until you're done. You can get all of them both heated up, and into position in about five minutes, or even less if you've already combed and sectioned your hair ready to go.

Best of all the rollers don't burn your fingers! The heat is on a bit of a delay, so they only really start warming up once they're already in position, very handy if, like me, you're a bit of a cack-handed muppet.  You take them out once they're cooled (which takes about 15-20 minutes), brush through, and presto! Lovely hair.  I've tried them out a few times this week, and my hair has been great, full of body and bounce, and not having to wait for the rollers to heat up has been a blessing.


The pod is a beautifully designed bit of kit, I especially adore the way the back of the pod pops out to give you somewhere to store the cable - so useful! Hey, I'm easily pleased.  It means you can keep it out on your dressing table without having a tangle of messy wires all over the place.  I have an Ego hairdryer which has been going strong for nearly five years now, they're a company I like (well, I'm a big fan of burgundy, I would).  Whilst I'd say the purchase price was high, on a cost per use basis, they're as cheap as chips if the use I get from my hairdryer is anything to go by ... one handy hint though, you will need some extra rollers if you have a lot of hair, so if you get a chance to buy some supplemental roller packs, do so.

The Ego Boost Pod set of heated rollers will normally retail  on QVC at £120, but on Friday 2nd August, it will be the Today's Special Value on the channel where you will get the pod, alongside fourteen rollers alongside clips, for an extra-special price - look out for it!  EDIT: Today's price is only £99.99, and is available on Easy Pay for three instalments of £33.33.

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Butter London Summer 2013 Collection

 

  
Yawn.  Summer collections, eh?  Chuck in a gold, a bit of brown, a bronze, an orange, and OH! a bright blue no one in their right mind would ever wear, and VOILA! You have the summer palette of your dreams.  In eyeshadow terms, this is so overdone as to be cliché, but somehow, translate it into nail varnish instead and I'm sold.

Butter London's summer collection manages to take the stereotypical "summer" palette, and makes it fun which is unexpected.  There's a turquoise, platinum, a really yellow gold, a bronze glitter and an almost neon orange, all of which I really like.

Although, if someone wants to explain what "Bit Faker" actually means, I'd really appreciate it.  There's one creme (Poole = soft turquoise), three shimmers (Champers, Marbs & Sunbaker) and one glitter.  I tried out two coats of Champers:

Which was really frosty, without being too brush-stroke-y, and I jazzed it up with a little Bit Faker on the ring finger.  Then, I very quickly got bored of it (yes, it's nice, but ... well, it's a bit dull), and covered it all up with two coats of Bit Faker, just to see what it would look like:

I surprised myself by really liking the glitter! In fact, I liked it so much that I've still got it on, and I've not even bothered swatching the others.... 

Any favourites?
  
The Fine Print: PR Samples ...
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Guerlain Autumn 2013 Rouge Gs - Madame Reve, Madame Flirte, Madam Batifole

I recently posted that I was really looking forward to the new autumn collection from Guerlain, and last week, I was lucky enough to be able to pick up the Rouge G's from the Violette de Madame collection a little bit early.  There's very little that makes me happier than a brand new Rouge G ... 

There are three new shades, Madame Reve, a soft, sheer medium pink, Madame Flirte, a soft, slightly warm red, with a light dusting of gold shimmer, and Madame Batifole, a fuchsia pink.   As soon as I saw the promo shots, I knew these were for me!

They're clad in the same classic housing as the regular Rouge G lipsticks, this time with a "fishnet" effect. 

Daylight

Flash

The texture is the same soft, rich and creamy formulation  that I've come to know and love, not as firm as a Tom Ford lipstick, but not quite as balmy as a Chantecaille Lip Chic, these are moisturising, and (Reve aside), fairly pigmented.

Daylight

 

 

Flash

 

 

They're softly glossy, and easy to wear.  By far the most pigmented is Madame Batifole (which, not entirely coincidentally, is my favourite), but Reve and Flirte are both great everyday shades.  Batifole is rather dramatic, and if your tolerance for dramatic lipsticks is lower than mine it'll make a great evening shade.

Here's how they look on my rather unevenly pigmented lips:

Yes, at £31 each, they're not cheap, but a Rouge G is a thing of beauty forever.  They'll be on counter August 1st.

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Narcisco Rodriguez Musc Oil for Her

  
Musk-based fragrances have really, really grown on me this year, I came within a whisper of wearing Serge Lutens Clair de Musc for my wedding (choosing to wear Khiel's Musk body lotion with L'Artisan Safran Troublant instead, but it was an extremely close-run thing), and my musk obsession started with re-discovering the Body Shop White Musk Oil around this time last year.

Narcisco Rodriguez Musc for Her is a new range from NR, and there's a  musc oil released too (limited edition), which I was sent to try.  Now, I wasn't a particular fan of the original For Her fragrance, so won't be bothering comparing the two scents, but this is a very pretty, lightly floral scent, which I've enjoyed wearing a great deal.  

It's a warm scent, which stays very close to the skin. Clean, and slightly sweet-smelling, that isn't entirely a million miles away from the slightly more diffusive Clair de Musc (the two layer extremely well, in fact, the RM anchors the CdM to the skin, making both last longer), it's exceedingly pretty.  I find it also makes a good layering scent for other fragrances too, like the Tom Ford Plum Japonais that I'll be telling you about on Friday.

Narcisco Rodriguez Musc Oil for her is a limited edition (the rest of the range is a permanent line), and will cost £66.

The Fine Print: PR Sample.

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Becca Cosmetics - An Introduction

Becca Stuff by getlippie featuring a sheer foundation

I am really enjoying rediscovering Becca Cosmetics at the moment - every product I've tried has been great, and I am deeply glad they're making a proper re-entrance into the UK via SpaceNK

Loving the Beach Tint in Raspberry in particular (bottom row, second right), the shade, on me, is very much a "my lips but better" colour, but on people with paler lips, it's a gorgeous "just bitten" berry shade, perfect for adding a little colour without being too scary.  All you need is a tiny pin-head size amount, and it layers up nicely.  If you squeeze too much out, you can always pop the excess on your cheeks as a blusher, where it works very well.

I've reviewed the Sunchaser palette before (bottom row, second left), and I'm happy to report that I love the AstroViolet Eyeshadow Quad just as much, same great quality shadows, but this time in a selection of purple and taupe shades that is hard for me to resist. And I love the dinky packaging!  Much less of a waste of space than some other quartets I can think of.  I find the eyeliner in Belle Epoque (bottom right) goes very well with both palettes too. A slightly greyed brown, it lasts well, and is very easy to apply without dragging.

Becca Base products are very good too - I've been using, and liking, the Matte Skin Foundation  (Top left) a fair bit recently, and it's good for giving a matte finish to the skin. On the days where I can't face foundation, I've been dotting a little of the Ever Matte Poreless Priming Perfector (top right) over a tinted moisturiser, and this has helped soak up any greasy spots without having to resort to powder.

Possibly the most famous Becca product is the Shimmering Skin Perfector, made into a cult by Lisa Eldridge, these are liquid highlighters, which give a beautiful glow to the skin, without making you look greasy, or as if you've rolled yourself in lard and glitter, a la some cheaper "highlighters" I've seen and rejected over the years!  I have Opal and Moonstone, which see me through the year (one's slightly paler, the other is a pale gold), neither of the shades are too stark or bright, which is great.

Finally, I adore the Matte Lip Colour in Antoinette, a deep cool raspberry (I'm a little obsessed with raspberry shades at the moment), which lasts and lasts without drying my lips out:

L- Flash R-Daylight

The lipglosses are a little sheerer than I'd like, but I have Palm Breeze, which is a warm fuchsia, which works well layered over Antoinette.  They're not sticky, either, which is lovely!  Now I think I need Hummingbird ...

Have you tried Becca products?  What are your raves?

The Fine Print: Mixture of PR samples and purchases.

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Hot Weather Helpers

Knowing my luck, by the time you read this, the weather will have broken, and we'll have been plunged back into the perma-winter we've known this entire year.  In which case, please accept my sincere apologies, and hopefully this will come in handy for the four days of summer we're likely to get next year ... 

I'm addicted to sprays in the summer, and two of the best I've found this year are the Melvita Damask Rose Floral Water:

 
Lightly scented, yet highly emollient, this is good for those days where you need both cooling down, and a hit of moisture in your skin.  This is lovely, and I really like the new packaging.

And, for those days when your skin is either pumping out the grease, or you just want a super-refreshing spray, you need Suti Peppermint Toning Water:

Like a tube of polos in liquid form, this refreshes the parts other toners cannot reach.  I have a bottle on my desk, and a bottle in the fridge at all times.  Handy hint, it's great for spraying on your feet both to cool, and neutralise any nasty niffs.

And finally, an oldie, but the best summer helper EVER is this:  Bodyglide:

For when your sandals rub your feet, or when your straps rub your skin, or where any bits of your skin rub against other bits of your skin (yes, thighs, I'm looking at you) this is the business.  Stops rubbing, chafing and blistering on any part of your body.  It's ACES.  Get some.  I've found the big tubes on Amazon for around £12 or so, but one should last you at least a year (you don't need much), and it's the best investment I make every single summer.  Get one.  Get two, in fact, and carry one round with you at all times.  You'll never regret it.

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