Here's a wee review I submitted on makeupalley.com (a site I highly recommend!) about Liz Earle's famous and revered Cleanse and Polish! I hope this is somewhat useful :)
I had high hopes for this product after reading all of the reviews in the press and hearing good things from friends...and I am happy to report that these hopes were met! I use C+P at night to remove all my make up and cleanse my face, simply slathering on 1-1.5 pumps of product over my face, eyes and neck, then soak the muslin cloth in hot water, rinse, and take everything off until the skin is completely clean. This does not remove waterproof eye make, for that I use grapeseed or olive oil.
Before starting use of C+P, I had break outs across my forehead, cheek and chin area after a 2 week girly holiday. I also do get very small bumps across my face at times, probably because my foundation has quite a lot of silicon in it. After 1 week's use, I can see a noticeable difference in my skin. It looks healthier, less clogged and more refined, and I have had no new breakouts.
I have to say I generally do not follow with a splash of cold water, because to me it makes no sense to close my pores prior to applying a toner; if there is any make up, dirt or grease left on the skin and I then close the pores, I am trapping these particles in the pores before my toner has a chance to remove them.
The muslin cloths I think are C+P's magical ingredient. The cleanser is nice, very gentle and smells lovely but I think what you are paying for is the muslin cloth technology. I only got 2 with my starter pack (I have only washed them both once in the week, I don't see the need to wash after every single use if you rinse thoroughly after washing your face) but I think I will buy another pack of 3 to give me more flexibility.
I use this in conjunction with The Sanctuary's Pore refining toner (which I got on offer in Boots for £1.25!) with Sudocrem (which is fantastic and again I have just started using, will also write a review on that) and Dermalogica's Gentle Cream Exfoliant (which again is new but the jury is still out on). I would say value for money for this product is excellent, Liz Earle could easily charge £25+ and people would still snap it up because of all the beauty awards.
So far, so happy!
Monday, 1 August 2011
Saturday, 30 July 2011
Skincare!
Oh skin. I love you but boy, can you bring me down and give me a case of the mean reds. I have made a helluva lot of mistakes when it comes to my skin, and I have gathered some hints, tips, and found some stuff that really works (and some that REALLY don't) along the way. I have already put up a post around cheap and effective skincare solutions, so do read that first.
As I might have mentioned earlier, my skin type is combination: it tends to get oily in the T-zone, but my cheeks and neck are normal. I am prone to spots on my chin particularly around that time of the month, so I need to treat my skin gently for the most part, but when spots come around, I want them gone as quickly as possible with no scarring. So as always, take these tips in the knowledge that while these things suit my skin type, they might not suit yours :)
So kicking off. Some skincare basics. There was an episode of How to Look Good Naked on a couple of years ago and the make up artist, Lisa Eldridge, was testing people to see how they cleanse their face. Once the people had cleansed their faces (or so they thought), Lisa ran a cotton wool pad with some toner over their face, and the amount of dirt, make up and oil that came off of the majority of people's faces was scary. How do we combat this? Pretty simple really! Wash your face twice. I have been doing this for a few months and have noticed a real difference in terms of the clarity of my skin and my likelihood to get spots. HOWEVER, please don't run off and buy a super strength Clearasil cleanser, use it twice when washing your face and expect that to solve your problems! For this to be effective, gently gently is the key. When you wash your face you will strip off some of its natural oils, and if you are washing your face twice AND using the cleanser equivalent of paint stripper, you are essentially doing the same painting your nails, not using a top coat, and then sanding the nails.
Cleansers which contain alcohol, lots of salicylic acid and parabens will dry out your skin quickly, and for a while it will look like your spots are clearing up, and they will in a sense be drying out. However, because you are drying ALL of your skin out, and your protective oils are being stripped, you will actually leave yourself open to dryness, and possibly breakouts. So how to counteract this? Go for super super gentle cleansers that will not strip away these oils, but will leave your face super clean and fresh. The best ones I have found thus far are listed below, but my main criteria for finding something super gentle is:
1) A fairly short ingredient list - and most of the ingredients I can pronounce!
2) Nothing that has scratchy abrasive particles in it (such as Aapri scrubs) as these can damage the protective barrier
3) Nothing that has alcohol salicylic acid or other harsh chemicals listed as one of the first ingredients.
The best ones I have found so far are:
1) The Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth treatment (separate review to follow)
2) Clarins Pure Melt Cleansing Gel
3) Soap and Glory The Fab Pore Hot Cloth Cleanser
4) Boots Essentials Fragrance Free Facial Wash
But I am always on the look out for recommendations :)
Other things I would note that are important when it comes to cleansing are that you should use hot, not boiling/roasting water. Don't aggravate your skin, you are trying to get make up off and remove dirt and built up oil, not scrub the oven clean! I hear quite often of women who wash their face (particularly in the morning) with cold water...I just don't understand it. Cold water closes the pores, so you may actually be trapping in oil, dirt and make up by doing this! Once skin is perfectly cleansed, then you can use cold water to close the pores if you feel the need, but honestly I have never noticed it making any difference.
Don't forget about your neck! Of course cleanse your face but your neck is there too and would love some lovin'! I tend to cleanse my neck in the evening, and use moisturiser on there as well if I feel it needs it.
I think some people get a wee bit puzzled when it comes to toners. Really, they are just a handy thing to use to take off any make up that might be left on your skin. I really like Sanctuary's Pore Refining toner (review to follow), but again, for your toner keep it nice and gentle. Don't undo all your good work with your cleansing by loading stuff on your skin that will just dry it out.
Moisturiser...can be a very useful thing, and god has the make up and skin care industry jumped all over it. Moisturiser is a wee bit like putting a plaster on a cut. Feels great to begin with, but only when necessary. You wouldn't put a plaster somewhere you didn't have a cut, so use moisturiser the same way. If you have some dry skin, or you feel your skin is just a bit patchy, then of course use it where required. But overusing moisturiser is probably one of the leading causes of spot formation. You are essentially putting stuff onto normal skin, that was functioning fine, and you can cause pores to produce more sebum and oils by putting on too much moisturiser, thereby causing break outs. For a time I was convinced I had dry skin, I was using quite a strong Loreal Pure Zone toner and moisturiser at the time, I stopped using the moisturiser, and in a few weeks to a month, the dryness that had been on my face, particularly my chin, had cleared up. It felt odd to begin with as you are inclined to put more moisturier where skin is dry, but by gentle exfoliation of the old skin and letting the skin do its job, it cleared up all by itself. The skin is a clever old thing you know!
Lastly, spots. The buggers have a way of showing up and sticking around for the long haul. However, paired with an effective and gentle cleansing programme, some odd treatments have a way of reducing the length of time spots take to go away. I am not promising overnight solutions here, but these may help you. Firstly, do not pick your spots. Secondly...do not pick your spots! Seriously, to avoid scarring and spreading of bacteria, just do not touch them if you can avoid it. You then need to find something that works for you that helps to shrink the spots. Now, these are things I have found that work for me, but as I said earlier, they may not work for you and you may need to do some further digging around til you find something that is effective. For me, my holy grail right now is Sudocreme.
You know that stuff that comes in a grey tub and is generally used for nappy rashes? Yep, well, it's cheap, smells like lavender, is gentle enough for baby bums, and clears my spots up a treat. It is an emollient but it has a very high zinc content which shrinks spots (for me!). It does feel quite heavy when compared to nice light moisturisers and other spot treatments, and the first time I used it, I put a thin layer all over my face as I had some wee bumps on my face all over that seemed to have occurred from too much silica in my foundations. I left it on over night while I went to sleep, woke up, and honestly I did notice a difference. The wee bumps were generally gone, the other couple of spots I had were not as red and a bit less 'new' looking, and I was very pleased with the results. Now, I will just use it directly on the spot and leave it overnight, but if I get the bump problem again I would do the same thing.
Other things that sometimes work for me are tea tree oil,
again left overnight, Loreal Pure Zone toner applied by cotton bud ONLY to the spots (too strong for the rest of my face), and most controversially... haemorrhoid cream! I don't use this as much anymore as I don't find it as effective as it once was, but my mum still swears by it and applies it when she feels a spot coming on or one has already developed. It definitely does shrink the spot (that is what haemorrhoid cream is designed to do, after all) but in my opinion the scar/mark of the spot stays just as long.
So, hope you guys enjoyed that, as usual please leave some feedback and let me know what else you would like me to write about!
As I might have mentioned earlier, my skin type is combination: it tends to get oily in the T-zone, but my cheeks and neck are normal. I am prone to spots on my chin particularly around that time of the month, so I need to treat my skin gently for the most part, but when spots come around, I want them gone as quickly as possible with no scarring. So as always, take these tips in the knowledge that while these things suit my skin type, they might not suit yours :)
So kicking off. Some skincare basics. There was an episode of How to Look Good Naked on a couple of years ago and the make up artist, Lisa Eldridge, was testing people to see how they cleanse their face. Once the people had cleansed their faces (or so they thought), Lisa ran a cotton wool pad with some toner over their face, and the amount of dirt, make up and oil that came off of the majority of people's faces was scary. How do we combat this? Pretty simple really! Wash your face twice. I have been doing this for a few months and have noticed a real difference in terms of the clarity of my skin and my likelihood to get spots. HOWEVER, please don't run off and buy a super strength Clearasil cleanser, use it twice when washing your face and expect that to solve your problems! For this to be effective, gently gently is the key. When you wash your face you will strip off some of its natural oils, and if you are washing your face twice AND using the cleanser equivalent of paint stripper, you are essentially doing the same painting your nails, not using a top coat, and then sanding the nails.
Cleansers which contain alcohol, lots of salicylic acid and parabens will dry out your skin quickly, and for a while it will look like your spots are clearing up, and they will in a sense be drying out. However, because you are drying ALL of your skin out, and your protective oils are being stripped, you will actually leave yourself open to dryness, and possibly breakouts. So how to counteract this? Go for super super gentle cleansers that will not strip away these oils, but will leave your face super clean and fresh. The best ones I have found thus far are listed below, but my main criteria for finding something super gentle is:
1) A fairly short ingredient list - and most of the ingredients I can pronounce!
2) Nothing that has scratchy abrasive particles in it (such as Aapri scrubs) as these can damage the protective barrier
3) Nothing that has alcohol salicylic acid or other harsh chemicals listed as one of the first ingredients.
The best ones I have found so far are:
1) The Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth treatment (separate review to follow)
2) Clarins Pure Melt Cleansing Gel
3) Soap and Glory The Fab Pore Hot Cloth Cleanser
4) Boots Essentials Fragrance Free Facial Wash
But I am always on the look out for recommendations :)
Other things I would note that are important when it comes to cleansing are that you should use hot, not boiling/roasting water. Don't aggravate your skin, you are trying to get make up off and remove dirt and built up oil, not scrub the oven clean! I hear quite often of women who wash their face (particularly in the morning) with cold water...I just don't understand it. Cold water closes the pores, so you may actually be trapping in oil, dirt and make up by doing this! Once skin is perfectly cleansed, then you can use cold water to close the pores if you feel the need, but honestly I have never noticed it making any difference.
Don't forget about your neck! Of course cleanse your face but your neck is there too and would love some lovin'! I tend to cleanse my neck in the evening, and use moisturiser on there as well if I feel it needs it.
I think some people get a wee bit puzzled when it comes to toners. Really, they are just a handy thing to use to take off any make up that might be left on your skin. I really like Sanctuary's Pore Refining toner (review to follow), but again, for your toner keep it nice and gentle. Don't undo all your good work with your cleansing by loading stuff on your skin that will just dry it out.
Moisturiser...can be a very useful thing, and god has the make up and skin care industry jumped all over it. Moisturiser is a wee bit like putting a plaster on a cut. Feels great to begin with, but only when necessary. You wouldn't put a plaster somewhere you didn't have a cut, so use moisturiser the same way. If you have some dry skin, or you feel your skin is just a bit patchy, then of course use it where required. But overusing moisturiser is probably one of the leading causes of spot formation. You are essentially putting stuff onto normal skin, that was functioning fine, and you can cause pores to produce more sebum and oils by putting on too much moisturiser, thereby causing break outs. For a time I was convinced I had dry skin, I was using quite a strong Loreal Pure Zone toner and moisturiser at the time, I stopped using the moisturiser, and in a few weeks to a month, the dryness that had been on my face, particularly my chin, had cleared up. It felt odd to begin with as you are inclined to put more moisturier where skin is dry, but by gentle exfoliation of the old skin and letting the skin do its job, it cleared up all by itself. The skin is a clever old thing you know!
Lastly, spots. The buggers have a way of showing up and sticking around for the long haul. However, paired with an effective and gentle cleansing programme, some odd treatments have a way of reducing the length of time spots take to go away. I am not promising overnight solutions here, but these may help you. Firstly, do not pick your spots. Secondly...do not pick your spots! Seriously, to avoid scarring and spreading of bacteria, just do not touch them if you can avoid it. You then need to find something that works for you that helps to shrink the spots. Now, these are things I have found that work for me, but as I said earlier, they may not work for you and you may need to do some further digging around til you find something that is effective. For me, my holy grail right now is Sudocreme.
You know that stuff that comes in a grey tub and is generally used for nappy rashes? Yep, well, it's cheap, smells like lavender, is gentle enough for baby bums, and clears my spots up a treat. It is an emollient but it has a very high zinc content which shrinks spots (for me!). It does feel quite heavy when compared to nice light moisturisers and other spot treatments, and the first time I used it, I put a thin layer all over my face as I had some wee bumps on my face all over that seemed to have occurred from too much silica in my foundations. I left it on over night while I went to sleep, woke up, and honestly I did notice a difference. The wee bumps were generally gone, the other couple of spots I had were not as red and a bit less 'new' looking, and I was very pleased with the results. Now, I will just use it directly on the spot and leave it overnight, but if I get the bump problem again I would do the same thing.
Other things that sometimes work for me are tea tree oil,
again left overnight, Loreal Pure Zone toner applied by cotton bud ONLY to the spots (too strong for the rest of my face), and most controversially... haemorrhoid cream! I don't use this as much anymore as I don't find it as effective as it once was, but my mum still swears by it and applies it when she feels a spot coming on or one has already developed. It definitely does shrink the spot (that is what haemorrhoid cream is designed to do, after all) but in my opinion the scar/mark of the spot stays just as long.
So, hope you guys enjoyed that, as usual please leave some feedback and let me know what else you would like me to write about!
Thursday, 14 July 2011
eyeslipsface.co.uk/ELF - the best o' the bunch!
Hey ladies,
So there has been a lot of buzz for the past while around a fairly new name to make up – ELF (aka eyeslipsface.co.uk). The brand prides themselves on their low prices and the fact that they are only able to be purchased online (hence, the low prices). I have had several hauls from ELF, and have been using their products for long enough to know the best products they have to offer. I’ll outline some of their rather genius designs, all of which can be found and purchased on www.eyeslipsface.co.uk :)
1) Studio mineral primer
This is one of the best primers I have had the pleasure of using. It is silky smooth, effective, and a little goes a very long way. Just pump out a pea-sized amount into your palm and spread it over your face. With primer, application is important. Instead of using short strokes to cover your face, use your palms to glide and smooth it on, effectively smoothing your face at the same time so you end up with a smooth canvas to begin your make up on. The only downside of this product is the pump; when will make up companies learn that pumps, generally, ain’t the way forward unless they have something at the bottle of the bottle to push the remaining product up? However, you can screw the pump top off and scrape out the primer with cotton buds. Do this and your primer will go a long way. Only £6 for 14g!
2) Studio Stipple Brush/Powder brush
Flat Powder Brush
Stipple Brush
Before these brushes, I pretty much hated the idea of foundation brushes. I had tried several foundation brushes, and found that the finish was more streaky that sleek, and I ended up with either too much or too little product on my face. I tried another stipple brush from Boots, and I did find it better but again, it had a tendency to streak and make my foundation look quite obvious. But these ELF brushes are different. They seamlessly blend my make up, whether I want it heavy or light, and they work perfectly every time. The bristles are soft and gentle, and excellent quality – they both work far harder than their price tag would lead you to believe. The flat brush I find gives an even smoother finish than the stipple brush, and I find I am using less product than I would be if I used a sponge or my fingers. These are both absolute steals at only £3.50 each– buy several and support ELF and the fact they don’t have a 5000000% mark up like some high-end brands!
3) Brightening Eye Colour
OK so I love Urban Decay and MAC palettes as much as the next girl, but at the end of the day, spending £11 a pop on coloured talc sure does hurt when you’re two weeks away from pay day. These quads are a god-send. They each contain 4 colours, enough to get you a combination of looks, whether you want to achieve the classic smoky eye, or perhaps a more wearable daytime variant. They now come in 18 varieties, which some truly lovely shades. The quads are small and the applicators are rubbish, however any palette you buy these days tends to have crap applicators and ELF should not be persecuted for following the trend, especially when their make up can be so much cheaper than other brands. The eyeshadow, while not of amazing quality, certainly has good colour pay-off and if used in conjunction with a primer, packs quite a punch. There is little-to-no fallout and the eyeshadow does last. The best thing? These babies are only £1.50 each! Experiment and buy a few!
4) Studio Complexion Perfection
It is an eternal struggle to find a powder which is both light enough so you don’t look like one of the cast from the Rocky Horror Show, yet dense enough to stop your make up from slipping down your face as the day ticks on. ELF’s Complexion Perfection does both pretty well. It is not an absolutely perfect product, as I think on some skin tones a light touch would not only be beneficial but necessary, plus the fact that it does only come in one shade is a bit limited. However, the packaging is reminiscent of NARS, the product looks pretty and high-quality, and when swirled, tapped and brushed on top of make up, it definitely does brighten and even the face. The colours may look scary (yellow, pink, green and blue) but in fact on the skin they all pretty much look the same, although my one trick is to use the yellow around the eyes to make them pop, and the green around my nose and chin (my Rudolph areas) to achieve an even face. The fact I have bought 3 in 6 months and am now touching pan on my third is testament to my belief in this product. You’d be hard pushed to find a better powder which doesn’t clog pores, brightens complexion (minus scary sparkles) and doesn’t break the bank. £3.50.
5) Super Glossy Lip Shine SPF 15
So, gloss. It is a wonderful thing, it can make us look healthy, it can make an otherwise bare face look polished, we Brits do love our gloss. However, the price of some glosses is beyond a freakin’ joke. Don’t get me wrong, gloss is pretty, but am I really going to invest £15 into something that, let’s be honest, is either going to be licked or talked off, or end up on my wine glass? I don’t think so! In my eyes, a gloss is a gloss is a gloss, if you are buying it for the colour, why not invest in a good lipstick and wear the lipstick with a slick of clear gloss on top? More economical as the lipstick will last longer, plus you get two items in the bargain! Speaking of bargain, ELF’s Super Glossy Lip Shine does what it says on the tin at £1.50 a pop. They smell good, they’re not overly sticky (if you do a ‘Bohemian Rhapsody head-rock, a few strands will stick, but not your whole head of hair!) and the effect is lovely. The colour range is not fabulous, with 10 colours being offered at the moment. Hopefully as the business picks up so too will their colour ranges expand, but for the moment there are the usual suspects of clear, pastels and slightly darker colours such as latte and mauve shades to choose from. The good thing is the tubes have 10g each which is quite a lot, and product is thick enough to feel high quality.
All-in-all, I urge you all to go on and at least sample some of ELF’s products, they are a great company with speedy delivery times that for the most part, delivery beauty on a tight budget!
So there has been a lot of buzz for the past while around a fairly new name to make up – ELF (aka eyeslipsface.co.uk). The brand prides themselves on their low prices and the fact that they are only able to be purchased online (hence, the low prices). I have had several hauls from ELF, and have been using their products for long enough to know the best products they have to offer. I’ll outline some of their rather genius designs, all of which can be found and purchased on www.eyeslipsface.co.uk :)
1) Studio mineral primer
This is one of the best primers I have had the pleasure of using. It is silky smooth, effective, and a little goes a very long way. Just pump out a pea-sized amount into your palm and spread it over your face. With primer, application is important. Instead of using short strokes to cover your face, use your palms to glide and smooth it on, effectively smoothing your face at the same time so you end up with a smooth canvas to begin your make up on. The only downside of this product is the pump; when will make up companies learn that pumps, generally, ain’t the way forward unless they have something at the bottle of the bottle to push the remaining product up? However, you can screw the pump top off and scrape out the primer with cotton buds. Do this and your primer will go a long way. Only £6 for 14g!
2) Studio Stipple Brush/Powder brush
Flat Powder Brush
Stipple Brush
Before these brushes, I pretty much hated the idea of foundation brushes. I had tried several foundation brushes, and found that the finish was more streaky that sleek, and I ended up with either too much or too little product on my face. I tried another stipple brush from Boots, and I did find it better but again, it had a tendency to streak and make my foundation look quite obvious. But these ELF brushes are different. They seamlessly blend my make up, whether I want it heavy or light, and they work perfectly every time. The bristles are soft and gentle, and excellent quality – they both work far harder than their price tag would lead you to believe. The flat brush I find gives an even smoother finish than the stipple brush, and I find I am using less product than I would be if I used a sponge or my fingers. These are both absolute steals at only £3.50 each– buy several and support ELF and the fact they don’t have a 5000000% mark up like some high-end brands!
3) Brightening Eye Colour
OK so I love Urban Decay and MAC palettes as much as the next girl, but at the end of the day, spending £11 a pop on coloured talc sure does hurt when you’re two weeks away from pay day. These quads are a god-send. They each contain 4 colours, enough to get you a combination of looks, whether you want to achieve the classic smoky eye, or perhaps a more wearable daytime variant. They now come in 18 varieties, which some truly lovely shades. The quads are small and the applicators are rubbish, however any palette you buy these days tends to have crap applicators and ELF should not be persecuted for following the trend, especially when their make up can be so much cheaper than other brands. The eyeshadow, while not of amazing quality, certainly has good colour pay-off and if used in conjunction with a primer, packs quite a punch. There is little-to-no fallout and the eyeshadow does last. The best thing? These babies are only £1.50 each! Experiment and buy a few!
4) Studio Complexion Perfection
It is an eternal struggle to find a powder which is both light enough so you don’t look like one of the cast from the Rocky Horror Show, yet dense enough to stop your make up from slipping down your face as the day ticks on. ELF’s Complexion Perfection does both pretty well. It is not an absolutely perfect product, as I think on some skin tones a light touch would not only be beneficial but necessary, plus the fact that it does only come in one shade is a bit limited. However, the packaging is reminiscent of NARS, the product looks pretty and high-quality, and when swirled, tapped and brushed on top of make up, it definitely does brighten and even the face. The colours may look scary (yellow, pink, green and blue) but in fact on the skin they all pretty much look the same, although my one trick is to use the yellow around the eyes to make them pop, and the green around my nose and chin (my Rudolph areas) to achieve an even face. The fact I have bought 3 in 6 months and am now touching pan on my third is testament to my belief in this product. You’d be hard pushed to find a better powder which doesn’t clog pores, brightens complexion (minus scary sparkles) and doesn’t break the bank. £3.50.
5) Super Glossy Lip Shine SPF 15
So, gloss. It is a wonderful thing, it can make us look healthy, it can make an otherwise bare face look polished, we Brits do love our gloss. However, the price of some glosses is beyond a freakin’ joke. Don’t get me wrong, gloss is pretty, but am I really going to invest £15 into something that, let’s be honest, is either going to be licked or talked off, or end up on my wine glass? I don’t think so! In my eyes, a gloss is a gloss is a gloss, if you are buying it for the colour, why not invest in a good lipstick and wear the lipstick with a slick of clear gloss on top? More economical as the lipstick will last longer, plus you get two items in the bargain! Speaking of bargain, ELF’s Super Glossy Lip Shine does what it says on the tin at £1.50 a pop. They smell good, they’re not overly sticky (if you do a ‘Bohemian Rhapsody head-rock, a few strands will stick, but not your whole head of hair!) and the effect is lovely. The colour range is not fabulous, with 10 colours being offered at the moment. Hopefully as the business picks up so too will their colour ranges expand, but for the moment there are the usual suspects of clear, pastels and slightly darker colours such as latte and mauve shades to choose from. The good thing is the tubes have 10g each which is quite a lot, and product is thick enough to feel high quality.
All-in-all, I urge you all to go on and at least sample some of ELF’s products, they are a great company with speedy delivery times that for the most part, delivery beauty on a tight budget!
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Recent beauty loves!
Recent make up loves
Hey guys, sorry for the terribly long break, things have still been hectic but that's really no excuse! I will be updating this far more frequently going forward as things have calmed down a bit, but anyway – let's kick off with this article!
So, this is all about make up and products I have used over the past couple of months, and basically a wee review of them. There are constantly new make up products and brands being added to the UK high street, some of them quite exciting. Not all of these products are necessarily new, but they are new to me, and possibly new to you, so I hope you find this useful and it gives you some ideas for what to buy on your next shopping trip!
So in no particular order, let's kick off!
Shu Uemura eyelash curlers
Ok, so doubtless a lot of you will have heard of these, but let me introduce them for those of you who haven't. These eyelash curlers are CONSTANTLY raved about by magazines, make up artists, celebs, etc etc...so, they have a lot of hype to live up to. The unique selling point is the shape of the eyelash curlers; instead of the usual, incredibly curved curler, these are much flatter, therefore allowing you to access ALL your eyelashes, and not just those in the middle. Also, they are handmade and apparently the hinge is designed to exert the exact amount of pressure to give you the perfect curl – quickly.
I really hadn't planned on buying these, but I popped into Frasers' to buy some MAC stuff, and they had a new Shu Uemura counter, and I just had to buy them because of the hype. Plus the sales guy was lovely...I'm such an easy target for sales people! Anyhoo, he told me that if I had any problems or I wasn't impressed with the results to come back and ask about their own mascara which apparently works like a hairspray to 'set' the curl. So, my review is based upon using these curlers in conjunction with Max Factor's Masterpiece Max mascara.
The first time I used these curlers, I used them as I do any other curlers – hold them for AGES at the base, and 'squeeze' the curler quickly to kind of pump up the volume, then move from the base to tips to create a curl. Well, this technique did not work with the Shu. When I held it at the base (probably for about 20 seconds), I moved the curlers to see what effect it had had so far...I had ended up with the dreaded 'L' shape, that looked like I had had a run in with an eyelash crimper. Eek.
So, not discouraged, I turned to YouTube for some reliable advice and guidance. I watched a few videos which demonstrated that with the Shu, you really don't need to use the 'squeeze and pump' technique, and it should only take about 10-15 seconds to do each eye; the trick is to flatten the curler against your lid as that is why it is designed that way! I tried this way, starting again from the roots, no squeezing, and moving up to the tips, in total for about 15 seconds. WOW. My lashes were long, perfectly curled and it was so easy compared to everything else I've used. But of course...would it last?
I used only a few coats of Max Factor, using the zig-zag wobble technique (I may post a tutorial on this, as it is a worthwhile one!), concentrating all the mascara at the base of the eyelash, and only when the base is properly seen to do I move through the tips. Basically – about 85% of your mascara should be concentrated at the base – if you put too much on the tips, your lashes will be too heavy, clump, and your curl will fall.
Using this technique and the Shu, my lashes now have the perfect curl, length and separation all day. Yay!!
The Shu Uemura retails for £20, and in my opinion, bloody worth it. Only thing I would say is that they suggest the silicone pads run out every 3 months (you get two with the curler), and they don't sell replacements, so their suggestion is to get a new curler every 6 months...I don't really believe this if you keep your curler clean, don't 'squeeze' it when curling and don't chuck it about in your make up bag!
Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation
Oh this foundation. Oh my god, this foundation. I mean, I have had EVERY type of foundation. Mattifying, dewy, expensive, colour-matching, powder, cheap, liquid, cream, mineral, HD, and so on and so forth. Without exception, there is always something, something that just stops it from being my Holy Grail of foundation, usually falling under one of the 'Three C's': Colour, Coverage or Consistency. Not any longer. This, my dear friends, has after many years of searching, ended my quest for the perfect foundation. It has the best coverage, it covers blemishes but doesn't have that awful tell-tale 'mask' look; my skin just looks its very best. The colour for me is perfect for my pale and pasty Scottish skin, though of course Bourgeois does not have the range offered by brands such as Mac or Nars, but this comes with the territory of drug-store/high-street brands. The consistency is perfection. It is light, incredibly easy to blend (not blend away, which is a big difference!) and after a month of usage, no breakouts. This is taking into account that it does have silica, an ingredient which it is important to be careful with as it can cause breakouts for some skin types, so be careful.
Girls, finding the right foundation is kind of like looking for the perfect man. Tricky, a fun search at times but you can be led astray by those bad guys masquerading as nice guys, and it can leave you looking a bit of a mess. I can't recommend any men for you, however I cannot rate this product highly enough. With a teeny weeny price tag (I bought mine in Boots for £6.99 on offer!), you must give this a whirl.
La Brasiliana leave in treatment
This spray on conditioner is basically LOADED with keratin, which is the same thing used in Brazilian blow dries (La Brasiliana are one of the companies who do the Brazilian blow dry). So easy to use – spritz on damp hair, brush through, and blow dry as normal (works best when used in conjunction with straighteners). I have noticed such a difference in the way my hair looks – healthier, bouncier, and it is SO much easier to style, and I have thick, curly (not wavy – curly) hair that requires a lot of styling. I picked it up from my hairdresser but you can also buy it online, think mine was £11, I bought it in January and still have over half the bottle left. Pick it up!
Boots Facial Wash
I bought this after I heard gossmakeupartist (look him up on YouTube, he is excellent) mention it. I think we girls tend to sometimes use too much product, whether it be cleanser, moisturiser, toner, foundation, primer etc, and so I wanted to get back to basics in my skincare. This is gentle, effective, and when used twice (I tend to do one rinse to take off my make up, then another to really cleanse the skin), this really cleans your face without stripping it of its natural oils – so you are left feeling clean and cleansed, but you can still actually move your face, as it doesn't leave that horrible tight feeling. With this I don't really need a moisturiser anywhere but my (sometimes dry) nose and chin. This is something I would recommend; when trying out a new wash, or toner etc, always see what your skin is like for a few days after it. If your skin doesn't feel like it needs moisturiser...don't use one! If it does then fine, but see WHERE it requires it. Overly moisturising your skin just makes your skin produce more oil, thereby clogging pores and causing more spots. So, use wisely!
Soap and Glory Hocus Focus
I picked this up recently, and it has quickly became a staple. I was looking for something to perk up my rather tired looking winter skin as we move into spring, and this was it. A lot of illuminators have far too much pearl in them, looking (to me) like someone has dunked themselves in a disco ball one time too many. This lotion, when mixed in with foundation and applied with a stipple brush or fingers, just makes your skin GLOW, and I don't mean sparkle, I do mean GLOW! You look healthier, radiant and dewy – which I try to minimise with a brushing of matte powder because the line between dewy and sweaty is a fine line to tread, but it does suit those who are at no risk of getting sweaty during the day! I usually mix in a pea sized amount with my foundation, and once I have done that, I take a tiny bit and reapply to my cheekbone, just to make that stand out a bit more. Lovely product – for me, far better than 'That Gal' by Benefit which they promote as a primer, but for me it is too greasy to use as a primer. I would give this a go, using a primer underneath your foundation and see how you go :)
Thanks for reading as always, please leave comments and let others know about this blog if you think they would enjoy it! And if you have any suggestions on things you would like me to write about or review, please drop me a line :)
Stay gorgeous xxx
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