I recently placed myself on a bit of a spending ban where makeup is concerned… After all, a chest of drawers full of the stuff, plus the kit I use for jobs is more than enough for several lifetimes, and there’s rarely a shade I can’t dupe these days. So I’ve taken to rediscovering some of the forgotten treasures in my collection, in a bid to entertain myself, and appreciate the goodies I already have rather than wasting moolah on pointless duplicates…

In my makeup bag this week…

It seems this weeks stash selection is something of an homage to mineral makeup, and this is no coincidence – I often find when I go to work with anything higher coverage than tinted moisturiser I get a lot of comments and compliments, which is nice, but my main aim at work is to look human, rather than overdone…. a no makeup makeup look if you will. Secondly, my skin seems to have had a flare up recently, so I opted for minerals as they seem the least irritant to my skin. Finally, it gave me a chance to try the new mineral bronzing foundation from Bourjois…

On the subject of the Bourjois foundation, I’ve been really happy with it and I’ve been using it for about two weeks now for work. I love the packaging, which has a clever twisty shaker, which enables you to customise the shade of foundation, as well as eliminating the horrors of messy mineral foundation…

This gives light to medium coverage, depending on how much you apply and buff it in, I’m pretty impressed with the longevity too – it seems to survive a full shift at work on most days, which for mineral foundation on my dryish skin is impressive… Topping it with the ELF mineral booster pictured above seems to boost its longevity too.

Bare face before foundation application...

Face after application of foundation and light contour using the bronzer...

Have you tried this foundation? What are your thoughts?

Another Bourjois product has also found a place in my makeup bag this week as well – their healthy mix concealer (I use shade 51), which deals with undereye circles and blemishes well for everyday use – I have a host of MAC concealers which I keep in my kit, but this one seems to work well on me without looking cakey or overdone for day to day use.

I’m also loving these two items from the Body Shop’s past baked mineral collection – blusher in “Coral Nuance”, and eye colour duo in “Copper”, although I usually leave the eyeshadow off for work…

Finally the lippie I’ve been using the most is my trusty Estee Lauder Crystal Baby, which is probably my all time favourite lip colour. Definitely worth a mention though is Sleeks True Colour in the Shade Liqueur, which is a very close high street match for Crystal baby;

Top - Crystal Baby, Bottom - Sleek Liqueur.

As you can see, the two aren’t exact dupes, but when applied to the lips they are pretty darned close – Crystal Baby is slightly more peachy pink toned than the Sleek shade, but in terms of wear and feel on the lips, they are very comparable, so this is well worth looking into for those interested in Crystal Baby but want a more affordable option…

Finally a quick snap of the whole lot applied;

Apologies for the ungroomed brows and seen-better-days hair…

What are you loving at the moment?

Estee Lauder seem to have a bit of a reputation for being the stately duchess of the makeup world. In a way thats a good thing – after all, it’s nice to know that amongst the fashion and innovative brands there’s always a reliable and well put together lady of class just waiting in the beauty hall for you to come along and give you exactly what you pay for.

However the downside of that reputation is that younger “clientele” have found the brand a bit inaccesible – Lauder have done sterling work in addressing the balance however since the recent appointment of Tom Pecheux as Creative Makeup Director. One of the things I loved  about his inaugural Blue Dahlia collection, was the new layout of the eye palettes – they retained the luxe feel you want when you spend £34 of a palette, yet the new layout and unexpected colours of the Blue Dahlia palette appeal to twenty-somethings as well as the more traditional Lauder customer.

So I was pleased to see that they carried the new design through in their Christmas collection…

When I first saw the images for this collection, I did a bit of a double take, because I initially thought that the collection contained two eye palettes, however – the more vibrant looking palette is a lip collection (£34) of lipsticks and glosses. Clearly more glam to whip out of your bag at a christmas do than a traditional lippie, yet the colours are appealing too, offering a choice of neutrals and more dramatic shades.

The rest of the collection lends itself well to the current trend of strong lips – it’s a trend that recurs most years during the colder months, and one that I love. The eye palette is fairly neutral, making it a good addition to any collection, and also a great gift.

The four outer shadows have a satin-like finish with a slight shimmer - they verge more on a metallic sheen than a glitter-fest though, and the central dark chocolate shade is a matte – perfect for a liner, althought this might also work as a crease colour with a light hand for a more dramatic eye.

All of the shades are pigmented and smooth, and blend very well…

As well as the eye and lip palettes, there are the more traditional lippies and glosses, but as it’s Christmas they have an added sparkle!

I was given the berry shades – Extravagant Berry(£17) is a pure colour formula. These are glossy looking, pigmented, comfortable to wear, and wear well, which is important with these richer shades… I love the formula of the pure colour lipsticks and I’ve  bought several over the years. They have a delicious fig scent which Lauder have in most of their lip products and I personally love it.

Both the berry and red shades in the collection, have a glittery appearance when you open the tube, however this is the lipstick equivalent of an overspray and doesn’t translate to the lips…

Both lipsticks have matching Pure Colour glosses (£16) - again these are lovely to use and they have that figgy scent to them which I really love. The shade “Extravagant Plum” is a rich well pigmented gloss which contains shimmering micro-glitters which reflect a multitude of colours – greens, blues, purples, pinks and golds…

The shimmer this time does translate onto the lips, but gives a really pretty effect either alone or over the lipstick. It has a doe-foot applicator.

As with the Blue Dahlia Collection, there are also some nail polishes (£12) in the Christmas collection – Extravagant Pearl is a pearly grey-mauve neutral shade great for everyday. I recieved the other shade Extravagant Night, a plummy purple shade  with microshimmer which gives a real dimension to it…

The base colour of this polish is fairly sheer – I found that 2-3 coats were needed for  this polish to get “bottle colour”, however this means it would lend itself well to layering over other dark shades. It also had great lasting power – I applied it to toes and i
t was a good 10 days before I noticed any wear and tear to the polish. Although a little sheer I do like this polish and find the formula of Lauder’s polishes a lot more hardwearing than other more expensive ranges – Chanel for example may be known for creating cult colours, however they are notorious for chipping, which is a shame at nearly £17 a bottle…

Keep an eye out on counters too for some fab Christmas GWP sets – Lauder will be launching a set which is free with a number of purchases, containing a really large eye palette, brushes, lipsticks and glosses, which is well worth a look…

Disclaimer – Products swatched and shown in this post were provided by PR, for review purposes. I haave not been paid for this review, and all ideas expressed are my own and based on my own experiences with the products.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and in celebration of the fact, Liz Hurley has been doing a series of PA’s to publicise the cause as well as raising awareness by turning building’s pink (she uses lights, not the power of a vulcan mind meld or anything sinister like that!).

Check out this latests vid from fellow blogger/you tuber Mill Moll Mac, AKA blogger Beauty Blogging Blonde, who attended one of the recent BCA events in Scotland (her blog and you tube channel are WELL worth checking out!);
http://www.youtube.com/v/gC-iJs8knKs?fs=1&hl=en_GB
Another of these events is happening tomorrow (Tuesday 19th October) in London, so if you can get to Harrods, it’s well worth popping along to see Liz – According to MillMollMac, she’s a stunner in real life, but even more importantly, you’ll be able to find out more about the breast cancer campaign.

Lauder have supported the breast cancer campaign for some time now, and you can purchase items in “the pink ribbon collection” nationally. Two lip sets are available this year – each retail at £25 and £7.50 is donated from this to the charity to further breast cancer research.

The London event starts at 1pm, and Liz will be taking part in a “spectacular 3D Global Landmark Illumination ceremony” later in the evening. If you are very lucky, you might even meet Colin and Justin too and get some design tips. 

If you do happen to see them, can you beg them to do one of those home makeovers for me? I’m on the verge of giving up on this shack!

Another quick and easy look today… for some reason everything is rather washed out today on photo’s… but hopefully, you get the idea!

I used Bourjois healthy mix foundation, Chanel Bronze Universal (or Soleil Tan De Chanel as its know nowadays… *tut*), and Inglot liquid blush in shade 87 on the face, with The Body Shop Bronzer in Warm Glow over the top of the cheeks. Highlight was MAC msf in Perfect Topping…

On the eyes the Body Shop eye colour in Jade from the “Baked To Last” collection, and a black kohl on the water line. 

On the lips, I have Estee Lauders Crystal Baby – its probably one of my top five fave lippies of the hundreds I have! A definite repurchase!

I also did a quick dye job on my hair today as well – I used a L’oreal Herbashine which I picked up in Boots recently for around a fiver. I have chucked the box away but it was a medium mahogony brown shade and had a picture of Bar Rafielli on the box (I have no idea who she is). The Herbashines are one of those new generation ten minute jobs – non permanent, so you get a shiny refreshed look without damage. Not dramatic but it looks a lot better than it did this morning!

The new LE collection from Estee Lauder for February is perfect for a treat either for Valentine’s Day, or just to treat yourself… (I hate all the hype that surrounds Valentines day, but collections like this are worth noting!)

The collection is a Debenhams exclusive, and only available for the month of February, and consists of twelve lipsticks and 4 lipglosses. 

The lipsticks are Lauders “signature lipstick” formula, and are creamy, but long-lasting. They are packaged in a classic gold bullet, and priced and £17.50, or 23 Euros for 3.8g.
They also have a pretty “Love” design embossed into the actual lipstick;

The glosses come in pretty vials with the same “Love” design over the tubes… They retail at £15/ 20 Euros for 3.8g

 

I recieved four glosses from the range, as shown above – shades from Left to Right are – Pink Kiss, Cherry Kiss, Sweet Kiss and Coral Kiss. They all contain small glitter/shimmer particles, in the colour of the gloss, as well as silver and gold shimmers… 

There are corresponding lipsticks to the glosses, and they can obviously be layered for a more intense look. 

 

 

This might be an odd thing to observe, but these lipsticks feel nice and “weighty”, without being too heavy. The packaging is nice quality – you line the ridges up on the lid and the base, and it shuts with a satisfing clunk… 
The embossing is a nice touch…

Above – Cherry Love – this Berry shade correspoinds with the Cherry Kiss gloss. A definite “Night-time” shade for me…as it is much richer in reality than the picture shows… I’d love to say I do, but I doubt I would have the nerve to wear shades like this during the day…

 

 

I haven’t done one of these posts for aaaggggeeeesss, and I really miss doing them and seeing what people think (or otherwise) of my efforts…

So, I decided to dig out a shadow I haven’t actually tried yet, from The Body Shop – the mineral eye trio in Moonlight Lustre, and tried to create a bit of a daytime suitable smoky… (nice little blemish there , on the left side hey?)

To create the look, I used an Estee Lauder Doublewear Cream shadow in Precious Jade (shade 03), as a base, applied to the lid and blended out to a fine layer. I really love using these as bases – they are stand up eyeshadows on their own, and really do stay in place on me. The paler and shades are obviously more versatile, but it never hurts to have a coloured base (or 20) in your arsenal (least thats what I tell myself)….

I then applied the green shade from the body shop trio over the lid, and blended. The lilac shade was applied to the inner corner, and used the slate blue shade as a crease colour, and blended this out with a clean MAC217. In terms of pigmentation, the colours in this shadow did not blow me away, I had to build it up quite a lot – the slate blue wasn’t too bad, but the lilac in particular was not great, and I needed to wet my brush to get a decent result – has anyone else found this with these shadows? The result was pretty enough though…

I then tightlined and waterlined with an Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on pencil in the shade “Stash”, a dark brown shade.

I finished off by applying a couple of coats of Estee Lauder Sumptuous Colour Mascara in Amber (LE). I wasn’t too sure about these mascaras at first – having seen Pixiwoo’s video using the blue version, I was expecting major colour payoff, however in reality, the ones I have come off a lot more subtle that the blue one. On reflection though, this is probably a good thing – the result is subtle, but very nice, and the amber works very well with blue eyes.

I really like the brush and formulation of this mascara, and found it gave good lenthening results, and buildable volume without clumping. I applied two coats here, but I felt fairly confident I could have continued applying and got thicker and more dramatic lashes. Even though the coloured versions are LE (and I’m not even sure they are still available), I’d consider buying up this mascara in regular shades in the future…

I used my Clarins eyebrow palette to tidy the brows as best I could (yes, they do need plucking/threading, but I’m trying to grow out the patchy bits at the moment…) I also used the Maybelline mineral concealer as an undereye concealer. I like this product, it was one of the surprisingly good products from the Maybelline goody bags we were given at the recent bloggers event.

The Clarins Palette is a daily staple for me, and again this was given in a goody bag from the Clarins event – the powders are very well pigmented, and I can either use the dark or medium shades, depending on the result I’m after. The pink powder is supposed to be a highlighting powder, but on my skin tone, I find this just disappears – the one bit of the palette that I can happily do without. I use this most days, and I’ve barely dented it, so I’m happy it will last a long time.

One thing I wish I had done was line the upper lashline with a brown liquid or gel liner, as I think this would have really finished the look off, but you live and learn.

I’m really liking the few bits of Estee Lauder I have at the moment – do you know of any must haves from the range?

MizzWorthy xxx

So, this product has stood the test of time and has been around for thirty years apparently – it has recently been relaunched with the addition of chronolux technology, which we’ll come to later (pens and pads at the ready for that – Its gonna get “sciency”!)

I was recently sent a little sample bottle of this – similar to the sizes you sometimes get free with magazines etc. This was meant to last a week, however I can safely say that a little of this goes a long way – I’ve been using this at night for about a month now and I’d barely used a quarter of the bottle, so despite its hefty price tag (£36 for 30ml or £49 for 50ml), I’d expect a bottle to last a long time! The product was sent with no press info for once – a good sign in my book, when companies dont try to dictate the content of blog posts lol… I also enjoy doing a bit of research myself from time to time!

The Science Bit…
The theory is that environmental assaults (pollution, stress, smoke, sunlight and even stress) cause DNA damage, which in turn causes ageing. Now we all know that skin does much of its repairing and renewing at night while we sleep – the old adage of “beauty sleep” is definitely true!

Apparently though, our skin cells contains clock genes – if these are “in sync”, then this night time repair occurs optimally. However, the problem is that environmental assaults mean that the clock genes are frequently knocked out of sync, so aging occurs.The Advanced night repair contains “chronolux” technology, which sets to work on clock genes, synchronising them, and therefore making the skins natural defenses against ageing more effective.

So does it actually work?
I’ve seen reviews on you tube making claims that this serum heals blemishes overnight, and other such miracles. While it didn’t do that for me, I can say it did seem to speed up the process significantly – After a blemish I often get a red area on the skin which can take a few weeks to disappear completely. I noticed while using this serum that such marks were reduced within about a week to ten days. My skin also feels very smooth and soft in the morning, and I definitely look quite “well rested”

The serum is also easily absorbed too, and easy to use – I’d say I apply 3-5 drops at night (thats a rough estimate – the proper sized product comes with a dropper, which my sample does not have…) prior to my night cream (Clarins Multi Active).

As for long term anti-ageing results, I think this would only be possible to really assess over the course of a few months, so I’m not really prepared to say yay or nay to this. So far though I’ve been impressed enough to say I’m likely to pick up a bottle when my little sample runs out. This also comes in an eye cream, which I’m interested in trying when my current eye cream runs out too…

Have any of you tried this or any other products from the range? I’m feeling that I’ve neglected to look at the Estee Lauder skincare products for a long time – for example, the Daywear range sounds right up my alley – SPF 30 and antioxidants? Fab!

MizzWorthy xxx