Amazing Cosmetics Concealer in Light Beige

A concealer so good even my bathroom clock is smiling ...

I don't really use concealer. There.  I said it.  I'm really lucky in that I don't get zits very often any more, and that was all I ever really used to use concealer for in the past.  In the last couple of years, however, sleep issues alongside ongoing health and stress issues mean that I do need just a little extra help in the mornings in the eye area.  I don't particularly have bad bags or circles, but I am a little more hollow in that area than  I used to be, and so a convert to concealer I have had to become, as a result.  Once in a while, anyway.

I've tried hundreds.  Thick ones, thin ones, brush ones, pot ones, pencil ones, highlighting ones ... you get the picture, and they either look totally unnatural (I'm trying to avoid the reverse panda, thanks), or they settle into dehydration lines throughout the day, or they simply don't do anything.  GAH.  The ones I hate most are the ones that look fantastic for five minutes and then the second you leave the house, they suck all the moisture from under your eyes and make you look one hundred years older than you actually are.  I am naming no names, but I HATE them.  Anyway, Amazing Cosmetics Concealer in Light Beige fell into my sticky little dehydrated paws last year and it has been the only concealer I've used from that day to this.

It has an incredibly light, incredibly spreadable texture, and you need, literally, about a pinheads worth (if that) to cover both undereye areas. But you will need a brush - don't even dream about using your fingers with this one, you will apply far too much.  I shake the tube well, then just dip my brush into the concealer you can see on the mouth of the tube there (or into the dot inside the lid, if there is nothing in the mouth of the tube) once, dot that under one eye, then dip my brush back onto the tube (or lid), dot over the other eye, then blend over the area I'm trying to cover.  You can actually see the brush marks where I've done this previously on the neck of the tube there.

Here you can see it swatched and blended (to the right of the swatch) on my skin, it's a little yellower than my hand, but my hands are both paler and cooler than my face for some reason, so this is actually a really good match for my skin tone.

I find it needs setting with powder (I use Hourglass Ambient Light in Diffused), as it can retain quite a slippery texture for a while after application, but I have never found that it settles into lines or cakes.  And for me, that is perfect.  I've had some conversations on Instagram about it which suggest my experience isn't universal - and I repeat, less is more with this product - but overall, I couldn't be happier with it.

There isn't a huge amount in the tube, admittedly, around 6ml, but you need to use so little, it isn't an issue.  I've never even squeezed the tube, apart from when I took these photos!  That tiny drop you see in one of the above pics would be enough for my to conceal my eyes for a fortnight ... Amazing Cosmetics amazing Amazing Concealer is available from M&S Beauty for £19.50.  I think a tiny tube would last at least a year, it'll probably last me two ...


The Fine Print: PR Sample

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.


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Clinique Turnaround Revitalising Instant Facial

For me, Clinique are really knocking it out of the park at the moment - you might have noticed I've reviewed a fair few of their products recently - and they've just added an entirely new skincare range: "Turnaround", to their line. To me it looks really interesting, as it is for skin with has lost some luminosity through stress or other factors.  Well, colour me right into the stressed category ... I haven't had a chance to try everything from the range yet, but currently the bits which stand out are  the Daytime Moisturiser, the oil (which has one of the lightest textures I've ever come across in an oil product) and this, the Instant Facial mask:

A gently pale blue cream that dries to a clay finish on skin, this is designed to give you both a manual and a chemical exfoliation (or peel if you prefer that term, personally, I hate the term "peel" in skincare, I am not an orange!) at the same time.

It has a slightly gritty texture from the "Diatomaceous Earth" (literally powdered sedimentary rock) added for a manual exfoliant effect, but other ingredients include salicylic acid - which provides the chemical exfoliant - alongside rice bran, clary, caffeine and chestnut, all of which either promote cell turnover, or soothe stressed skin.

You apply to clean skin, leave for five minutes (it dries to a clay on the skin), then wet it, and give it a little massage over your face before removing with a damp cloth.  Pay special attention, both when applying and removing, not to get any of this anywhere near your eyes, you will not want this in your eyes. At all.

I was worried that the double exfoliation would cause redness or irritation on my fairly sensitive skin - the mask does have a slight tingling effect when it's on, but it is very slight, and passes quickly - but my skin was left smooth and clear, and not in the slightest bit pink or irritated.  I was ill last week, and used this prior to some of my usual skincare picks for knackered skin, and was pleasantly surprised at the effects.  My skin was dehydrated and grey before using, it felt like sandpaper to boot, and this mask very definitely dealt with that all of that, I definitely looked less like Shrek than usual afterward.  I like the fact that it's a quick product too - 20 minute masks don't work for me, unless I'm paying for a facial - and the effects were visible after just one use, which is amazing.

Clinique Turnaround Revitalising Instant Facial will be in stores from 17th April, and will cost £35.  I'll be keeping it for emergency use only at that price, but if you want instant results from a product, then this is a good one.

The Fine Print: PR Sample

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.


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Elizabeth Arden Sunkissed Pearls Cream Eye Shadow Stylos

Now, if you had asked me recently what my favourite cream eyeshadow stick/wand/pencil/crayon/whatever was, I'd have answered the Laura Mercier Caviar Sticks I featured yesterday, but I was incredibly pleasantly surprised by these limited edition "stylos" from Elizabeth Arden when they arrived a little while ago.  These babies last.  And last, and last ... it is safe to say I definitely saved the best for last this time.

Available in three shades, (from L-R), Fresh Water Pearl: a gilded pink, Bronzed Pearl: a warm metallic brown, and Blue Pearl, a golden deep turquoise. these are part of the incredibly pretty summer collection from Elizabeth Arden.

Trying - and failing miserably - to capture the lovely holographic effect on the packaging

These are crazy pigmented, but can be blended out easily for a sheerer coverage. and the colours are well chosen for a summer look.  The cool Fresh Water Pearl is my particular favourite, as it blends well with my skintone, but Bronze Pearl works well with it, if you fancy wearing two shades together.  I like Blue Pearl as an eyeliner too.

They are very creamy, and soft, and there is no dragging whatsoever.  The creams spread easily, and blend together beautifully, and look good either together or alone.  The shades are gorgeously multi-dimensional, and not flat at all.

Oh, and when I say these last, these really last - this is a picture taken 24 hours after swatching (which encompassed showers and doing dishes):

They do remove easily with an oil-based cleanser though, don't worry!

The other thing that endears me to these is the sharpeners, not only do they come with the pencil, they're part of it, so you can't lose them, the base of each pencil detaches and forms the sharpener.  Cute and practical!

They're also probably the cheapest pencil I've featured in this series, at £19 each, but they're limited edition, so hurry, hurry, hurry, they're in store now ...


The Fine Print: PR Sample

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.


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Laura Mercier Caviar Stick in Rose Gold

I'm still on an eye pencil kick I'm afraid, but I've saved my absolute favourites for this week.  This is Laura Mercier's Caviar Stick in Rose Gold.  I may be wrong, but I think these were the first "cult" shadow sticks on the blogging circuit, and I've always had a soft spot for them.

Rose Gold is a lovely easy to wear fleshy shade, perfect for a polished, but barely perceptible makeup look.

I like this paired with a simple smokey liner for a really easy and long-lasting (but not too glittery, unlike some of the others I've featured recently) daytime look.

It is a smooth and creamy formula, that glides on over the lids easily without any dragging.  I find it blends easily, and sets quite quickly, and it lasts for hours without creasing.

It's basically idiot-proof, and I'm just the idiot to prove it.  Laura Mercier Caviar Sticks cost £22 each from SpaceNK.

The Fine Print: GWP 

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.


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Charlotte Tilbury Colour Chameleon Eye Pencil in Amethyst Aphrodisiac

I'm on a lazy makeup roll this week, and a bit of a pencil kick too, which brings me to Charlotte Tilbury's cult range of "colour morphing" pencils, the Colour Chameleon range.  They are gorgeous pencils, but I did find the "colour morphing" claims a little incomprehensible until I figured out that the colours that were "morphing" were your eye colours, not the pencil shades.

My eyes are rather an unusual colour, being brown, green and yellow plus having hints of blue in the limbal ring, so first off picking the right colour of pencil for my eyes was difficult.  They're based on the colour wheel principle of complementary colours, and I couldn't figure out if you'd class my eyes as green, or brown or hazel, as there's a day and a night option of pencil for every eye colour (but not, it seems, for eyes of every colour).  Eventually I picked the purple Amethyst Aphrodisiac to play up the green in my eyes.

These are glitter city!  I must mention it, because they are the most glittery things I put on my eyes these days, and I can find glitter in the oddest places even after a very thorough cleanse!  Do not, under any circumstances, use these to line the inner rim of the eye, I think they could definitely scratch your cornea, and no one needs that.

It's a good and murky purple:

Creamy, and easy to blend, I apply this as a thick line of eyeliner, then blend it out towards the crease.  It sets after around 30 seconds or so, and is pretty hard to budge after that time.  I'm quite happy to wear it during the day, but for a more dramatic look, it is great with very black eyeliner too.  The colour lasts well, even on unprimed eyelids, I only experience creasing after a very long time in wear (after around ten hours or so), and on primed lids it will probably last even longer.  I rarely prime my lids if I'm in a hurry though.  The glitter will remain though, I warn you!

You will need a pencil sharpener for this as it is not retractable, and they are sold seperately.  Colour Chameleon pencils are available from Selfridges and Charlottetilbury.com and cost £19 each.


The Fine Print: Purchase

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.


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Laura Mercier Lipliner in Plumberry

 

I'm not much of a one for lipliner, and I am definitely not much of a one for matching my lipliner to my lipstick, I much prefer to match my liner to my lips, after all, you're not supposed to see lipliner anyway, are you?  My lips are a pale rosy mauve naturally, but I do have a fairly strongly pigmented natural lipline (particularly on the top lip), which is just one of the reasons too pale or too sheer lipsticks aren't for me:

Plumberry Lip Pencil is, for me, a nude colour, being a slightly greyed pink/plum shade.

The pencil is slightly dry, so it is best to apply after using lip balm, but this does mean it provides a good, slightly grippy surface for applying lipstick over, particularly lipsticks with a very sheer slippery texture - it's good with YSL Rouge Couture, for example, a lipstick I can't stand wearing alone, because I swear the only thing that lipstick wants to do is COVER YOUR ENTIRE FACE, but I digress - but this will help with any lipsticks that have ideas above their station.

It does spread easily, and the point doesn't wear down too quickly, but it gives excellent coverage, and evens out lips beautifully:

I only wear lipliner once or twice a week at most, but regardless of the lip colour I'm wearing, this is the lipliner I reach for.  If I'm feeling lazy, I can just throw a bit of sheer gloss over the top, and hey presto, "nude" lips.

Laura Mercier Anti-Feathering Lip Pencil in Plumberry is available nationwide and costs £18.50.  It comes complete with a sharpener too.

The Fine Print: Purchase.

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.

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ByTerry Ombre Blackstar eyeshadow sticks

I mentioned yesterday that my makeup routine takes me around five minutes, and it does.  Some days, I can barely be bothered applying makeup at all, and so a little liquid liner and a bright, bright lipstick is all I do, over a CC cream, or something. On the days when I want a stronger look, I increasingly find myself reaching for eyeshadow sticks, as they're pretty foolproof, and I am both lazy and a cackhanded muppet.

Here we have ByTerry's cult favourite Ombre Blackstar eyeshadow sticks in Midnight Forest, a deep, deep blackened green, plus Ombre Mercure, a greyish taupe, and Black Pearl a shimmering softly glittering black.

Closeup of Ombre Mercure

I like these because they give a multi-dimensional glow to the eyelids, making it look like you've spent a lot more time on your eyeshadow than you actually have done, and, whilst I might be lazy, I don't want to look sloppy.

Here you can see there are subtle hints of bronze in the green, but the taupe is pretty much a universal shade.  I like to use Black Pearl and Midnight Forest as thick liners, applying close to the lashes, then smudging out over the mobile lid.  Ombre Mercure I use more as a traditional eyeshadow, and wear with a separate liner.

They're gloriously smudgy, and blend beautifully, but they do eventually set, and will stay in place most of the day.  I do experience some creasing after a particularly long day, but that is easily rectified by just re-blending with a fingertip.  You can wear them over primer too, which increases their opacity, and decreases smudging, but I rarely bother.

However, they are glittery, especially Black Pearl.  You will end up with glittery lids. I normally abhor glitter - especially on nails for some reason, and bar glitter actually makes me feel a bit sick - but eye crayons like this are about the one thing I'll make an exception for, convenience trumps sparkle!

byTerry Ombre Blackstar eyeshadows are £29 each and are available from SpaceNK. I am just miffed they never EVER have the purple one in stock whenever I visit ...


The Fine Print: Purchases.  Look there was a sale on, okay?  And I had a voucher.  Any rumours that I had to sell a kidney to buy these are completely unfounded.

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.


This post: ByTerry Ombre Blackstar eyeshadow sticks originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper