…. But I think I can get away with bright blushers…

I love a cheery and bright blusher shade.

They look as intimidating as hell in the pan, but applied carefully with a decent amount of blending (the look often favoured by my fellow scousers of two bright red unblended stripes atop and orange fake tan is one which fills me with horror – and I know not all scouse girlies do that, but why is it always the ones who do that get featured on the “Lets All Laugh At The Scouse Birds at Aintree Ladies Day” newspaper articles?) they brighten up my pale complexion and makes me feel a lot less like I’m one of the undead…

I’ve applied a teeny amount of my new favourite bronzer from Bourjois (see review HERE) to contour a bit, and then used Sleek’s blusher in “Scandalous”, a bright bright red which looks as scary as heck, but looks lovely and fresh when applied and blended with a stippling brush…

Oh, and once again I’m wearing another current favourite – Sleek’s True Colour lipstick in “Liqueur”…

How about you? Are you a bright blusher fan? Which shades are your faves, and which brushes are your favourites for applying them?

xxx

I knew nothing about this palette, having been unable to attend the recent Sleek MakeUp event, so when I came home to find this waiting on the doormat for me, I was extremely pleasantly surprised.

I have to say I have always been a fan of the Sleek palettes – they are great value, and I also love the quality and pigmentation in the shadows. Some palettes are obviously going to be more to your own particular taste than others though. The “Acid” palette for example, whilst well made, is never a look I’m personally going to be able to rock – at the grand old age of 32 I think it’s sensible to leave neon yellow and pink shadows to the “yunguns”.

Anyway, I babble, onto the palette, which as I said really is quite spesh in my opinion. I don’t own the world famous “must have” Naked palette from Urban Decay, but I’ve read claims on twitter and the like that this is good budget version…

Packaging wise this comes in the standard black Sleek casing with a jazzed up cardboard outer packaging. I feel I’m going to have to get one of those label making machines from off of the ’80′s for all my black Sleek palettes… They are so worth rumaging through though.

I’m loving the fact that Sleek are now naming their shadows… And in this palette one of them is named Gateau, which is also a bonus, for the gateau is the queen of any buffet… unless it’s black forest - I don’t like those wierd fakey cherries that come in those… *shut-up Jen for God’s sake and get on with the frigging review*

As you can see, there is a good mix of matte and shimmer shades, and a lovely combo of neutrals with a few more interesting shades thrown in for good measure – “Gateau” is actually one of the more interesting in the palette, and reminds me of a shade by MAC called Trax, which is a purple shot though with gold. “Organza”, “Glintz” and “Celebrate” are also a bit more complex and interesting than they look in the pan, while “The Mail” and “Boxed” would possibly make good brow shadows as well as crease colours…

All the shades swatch well on my skin  (the only reason the shade “Bow” seems not to is because it’s pretty close to my own skin tone). If you have darker skin, and want to see how these swatcch, I’d highly recommend taking a pootle over to Vex And The City’s post HERE where she has some fab piccys…

I have had a play with the palette too, and did a bit of a daytime smoky, and I’m pleased to report that the shadows lasted well (used over an Estee Lauder doublewear cream shadow as a primer), with no creasing or loss of colour… Apologies for this not very good and shadowy picture, but you get the point!

Wow, that really is a bad picture isn’t it? You wouldn’t think I had a half decent camera would you… well, let’s distract ourselves from that by talking about the fact that my “sources” (ie Twitter) tell me that this is a permanent palette – Hurrah!

I’d highly recommend this palette, which is going on sale in Superdrug and Online at £6.49, and is available now.

The disclaimer bit – this product was sent to me for review purposes/consideration. Honest review as always peeps!

The My Face range, formulated by Charlotte Tilbury (whose MU style is synonymous with perfect dewy skin), has been available for some time now in Boots. It’s one I’ve skirted around for a while because of a combination of disliking the iPod-esque packaging, and the overuse of the word “Bling”. Also I do find some of the range to be quite overpriced, given that it’s marketed as a high street range.

However this review by Ruth Crilly at “A Model Recommends” made me hanker after the foundation. My foundation addicts anonymous group was on a break, and so it seemed like the perfect time for a relapse… I picked this up in Boots for around £12-13… which as I said is a lot I feel for a high street brand, but hey ho, you pay’s your money, you takes your chance.

 The foundation is actually one of the few items in this range that really initially appealed to me – the whole range being split into fair, medium and light skin tones made picking the right shade easy, and I was also fortunate in that the Boots I picked this up from had a good stock of samples to swatch. I ended up going for Fair 2, which is a pale shade with a neutral/yellow undertone, and is a great match for my skin.

A cursory glance at the other shades on offer suggests that most skin tones would be covered however very pale and very dark skin may struggle as always seems to be the case…I’m also pleased to notice that the range offers corresponding concealers which perfectly match the foundations, although I have yet to test these myself.

 The foundation itself gives a light to medium coverage, and gives a lovely dewy glowy look to the skin. If you like a full on matte look I’d say to steer clear of this, but if you are into a more fresh-faced look then this may work for you. To me this has a feel on the skin similar to a tinted moisturiser, but carries a higher level of pigmentation. It is buildable to a point as well. 

Bare Skin

Skin with My Face Foundation Applied

I also like the way this foundation settles in to the skin over time, and seems to look better in a way as the day wears on. It does require a light powdering after a few hours wear to stave off any t-zone shine on me, and for that reason I’d say this wouldn’t work too well on oilier skintypes. The photo’s above really don’t show the full effect of this foundation, which when seen on the face as a whole, really does even out the skintone, in a natural way – however what the pics do show is the natural skin like finish, as well as the good colour match.

 This has become a firm favourite for everyday/work makeup – I apply this with fingers, and find it gives my skin just enough pep to look like I’ve had a decent nights sleep, and has just enough coverage to get rid of any blotchiness.

Overall I’d say this would be a good one to try iof you have normal to dry skin, and are looking for a dewy finish. Those with oilier skintypes who want a fuller or more matte coverage might be disappointed.

Would I repurchase? Yes – It works well as an everyday foundation for me, but I’d want something with higher coverage for night time or more dramatic looks… Would recommend for drier skin types with not too many blemishes, but if you need a higher coverage or like a matte look, I’d say this might disappoint.

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

Don’t ever tell Mr MizzWorthy I told you this (he might get smug), but sometimes its good to be proved wrong.

My first foray into Laura Mercier makeup at the recent Selfridges beauty night
was somewhat hackle raising, and I was so riled about that, that I took against the foundation I bought, and slapped it on fully expecting (and maybe a teeny tiny bit hopeing?) that it would be yet another let down to be consigned to the dusty realms of my “expensive mistake” face product drawer along with MAC studio sculpt and NARS powder foundation (which should just be sold as a pressed powder in my humblest of opinons…)

Anyway, I had to eat major humble pie when I realised that the foundation is actually really rather good and I like it lots goddamnit! The wannabe undercover journalist in me started thinking that maybe I should take the MUA up on her offer to teach me “how to do my makeup properly”, so I waited until the “Trafford Centre Urge” came over me, and hotfooted it down to Selfridges, where the same MUA was on counter, and as luck would have it, the beauty hall was extremely quiet for once…

Firstly the MUA actually remembered me from the beauty event – a good start!
She also seemed to be happy to spend time taking me through an entire face routine “lesson” from cleansing and prepping the skin, to creating a base and doing (natural) eyes/lips/cheeks. She was very chatty and friendly throughout, and far less insistent that if I bought product A I therefore HAD to get brush B to apply it etc etc. I even commented that I wasn’t really happy using the sponges she sold me with the foundation as application took too long so I was using my fingers instead, and she didn’t get pushy over that either – just advised me that if it worked for me then it was the right thing…

I asked to be shown how to create a natural “work suitable look” as I can easily whip up a night-time or dramatic look, but have less of a knack with understated looks. She started off by taking me through a cleansing routine and prepping the skin, followed by applying a moisturising primer. She then applied the foundation I’d picked up the other day with her trusty sponge (she did this lightening fast by the way – possibly practice makes perfect with a sponge then!?), and applied secret concealer to the undereye area and showed me how to use the secret camouflage kit to conceal a few blemishes. She then took me through the “LM” Method of powdering – ie using a powder puff to “press” loose transluscent powder into the foundation rather than swirling a brush over it (which effectively just dusts the fine hairs on your face, and can streak foundation). This is not a new technique to me – I was shown how to press-set with a brush by the lovely Illamasqua MUA’s and it works an absolute treat…

She then applied a very natural shade of Second Skin blusher in, Winter Bloom a shade I’d never have chosen in a million years, but I was genuinely surprised by how lovely it looked on – Just a really natural hint of colour on the cheeks with zero drama but maximum effect. Again, not a mention of having to buy any special brushes – a very positive thing in my eyes.

When it came to eye makeup, I played dumb and made out I didn’t even know how to hold a makeup brush (OK, I’m exaggerating, but you get my point…). I was walked through a basic eye shadow layout and shown which colours would make the most of my eye colour, with the MUA doing one eye and me doing the other. Ok, so I didn’t learn anything new, but she was really patient and helpful, and managed to make me feel comfortable tightlining the upper lash line etc in front of her.We finished off with a slick of moisturising lipstick in a rosewood shade…

I was then added to the customer database so she could let me know about up and coming events etc – and furthermore there was ZERO pressure to buy any of the products what-so-ever – I mean seriously, I would have felt entirely comfortable walking away with nothing.

Although obviously I didn’t…

I picked up the blusher and the Camouflage pot (a mini version of the secret camouflage concealer duo and secret brightening powder)

So my thoughts – I liked the look she/we created – perfect for work etc, and like I say, the MUA seemed a lot nicer and more approachable this time around – I’d happily go back again.

If you are a fan of natural looks done well, and you fancy a change from Bobbi Brown etc, Laura Mercier is well worth checking out – the products are very good quality, and it seems if you catch the MUA’s at quiet times you get a much more enjoyable service/experience. I’ll obviously post my thoughts on the concealer and blusher after I’ve given them a decent test…

So, anyone else had any exeriences with Laura Mercier – good or bad? We the public need to know!

MizzWorthy xxx

If you are anything like me, the only experience you will have had of this brand is the people in Debenhams trying to get you to have a makeover there – the Debenhams near me has a blow dry bar and the makeover counter is near there… So I was intruiged when I was offered some to have a try of, having never got past the “sidewards glance” stage before… Everytime I tried to have a look at the goods i’d be set upon by an over-enthusiastic lady offering me/ coercing me into a makeover… eek, now’t guaranteed to send me running for the hills faster!

From what I can gather, the range seems to be available in selected House of Fraser and Debenhams stores… They also have an online site, where you can peruse the goodies without fear of the sales ladies lol.

As with a lot of ranges there are some definite stand out products (In my humblest of opinions…), the first of which being their bronzer – “i-bronze”, which costs £19.
Upon first glance this looks like another MAC MSF copy, however, this is totally 100% Matte – ie zero shimmer, zero glitter, zero sheen effect. Result? Natural looking bronzer… The other difference is that the areas of marbling seem quite large, so this means that you can focus your brush on different parts of the bronzer at different times of the year – so winter time the paler bits get more action, summer means you can focus on the darker parts. This means a totally adjustable range of bronzing shade from one product. In addition to this, the bronzer has no naff orange undertone… Pretty good hey? Below is a range of swatches I got from the one bronzer…

Second great product I got to try – their “i-smoulder” smoky eye pencil and shadow – one end is a liner, one end a smudge tip with a cream eye shadow at the other end… So far so good, but the best bit it the shape of the liner end – its slanted, so it does the work of a slanted brush and gel liner in one easy step – Available in 6 shades for £16 each. I used these to create a couple of day time looks – the black one would be good for a great night-time smoky…

The liners are slightly less long-lasting than gel liners I have tried from MAC etc, but the shadow wnd sems to “set” the liner, so this is a really good one if you like smoked out liner.

I also recieved their foundation to try – “i-perfect”.This basically looks like a massive Touche-eclat, ie click one end, foundation deposited from other end into brush, and then apply to the face. The foundation is supposed to adapt to the colour of your natural skintone – for once, this did actually work, and tined down nicely to my skin tone. Its a low to medium coverage foundation, which dries down to natural looking semi-matte finish, and it wore well on my skin… only drawback seems to be the applicator, which might prove difficult to keep clean, as this is not a foundation you can “switch off” like YSL touche-eclat…This might not suit those with oilier skin and obviously those with very dark tones. £26.50 for £17.5mls – so not a cheap foundation either. Here is a serious looking snap of me demonstrating how the foundation looks on my skin – I have the bronzer on too, but lightly, as is befitting of my current pale state…

(The lipstick is Summer Angel from Rimmel’s summer range…)

Hope this is helpful – let me know if you have any questions about the products? Oh, and I’d be interested in any other products from the range you have tried… thoughts?

MizzWorthy xxx

Well, its about that time again… lets get carried away with our creative sides and play with colour and have a lot of fun in the process… It’s my absolute pleasure to announce that the theme for the next Illamasqua contest is (drumroll please!)…..

So dig out your comic books guys and girls, and lets play!!!

Without further ado…

The rules

There will be two categories for the contest – ie Superheroes and villains. You can enter either or both categories. After a lot of discussion, we have decided to continue to allow people to enter as many times as they like, however, please remember that your favourite look that you have created may not necessarily be the one that myself and Krystle choose to go through to the finalists. If similar issues arise as did with the last contest as a result of our decision, we may be forced to reassess this, and limit everyone to one entry, which we really don’t want to do!
The contest is about makeup, not costumes – you don’t need to go out hiring a costume or anything like that!

Your entry may either be in the form of a blog post or a video on you tube – if you decide to do a video entry, then please also email me stills for judging purposes

Your entry should be your interpretation of a hero or a villain, your look must be original. In your entry, please tell us a bit about your hero/villain, about any superpowers that have and what led you to the look you have created. You don’t need to go into massive detail, but we love to know about what inspires people!

When you have completed your entry, please post a response below to let me know, and make sure I acknowledge your entry by commenting back – feel free to harass me til I do this! I do not want to miss anyones hard work!

Use any products you like, and tell us about what you used (ie you do not have to use Illamasqua!)

Its fine to use a willing volunteer if you do not wish to be photographed yourself, however, the look MUST have been created by you.

The contest is open internationally

Please make sure you subscribe to the blog.

The contest will close at midnight UK time on friday the 4th September (which is slightly more than 1 month!).

Finalists will be selected by myself and Krystal – the winners will then be chosen by Alex Box, who has kindly agreed to be the final judge! Winners will be announced approx a week later. Judges decisions are final!

Final prizes to be announced, there will be ONE winner in Each Category – ie one SuperHero and one Villain, but each will win some lovely makeup of their choice from Illamasqua… Winning looks will be published on this blog and the Illamasqua blog

Remember – BE CREATIVE, HAVE FUN AND BE ORIGINAL!

Well, I may be completely incorrect, but I think the bronzed look is often thought of as a look for those of us with slightly more colour in our cheeks that I do naturally… Well, I like a challenge so I decided to have a little play today with my bronzer, and some metallic shadows and try to create a bronzed look that works on the pale girl…

This is what I came up with…