A YouTuber made me do it! Except I can’t remember which one. One with pretty lips.

A month or two ago a YouTuber mentioned one of her favourite lip glosses ever is Chanel’s Brilliant Extreme in Giggle.  With a name like Giggle, I had to order one (I think Debenhams had 10% off), and I generally have faith that even though I was buying blind, Chanel comes up with the goods. 

So it arrives and it looks lovely, as Chanel does, but rather serious.  Not very giggly:

What do I mean by that? Look at it. This is a serious lip gloss colour. No shimmer, no sparkles, not perky.  It’s sort of a mauve-brown that could definitely look quite nude on my pigmented lips, not sure about paler girls.  My usual Chanel lip gloss collection is all about the pretty sparkle which they get so right…

On the wand – it still looks pretty serious to me, and a bit brown. Urgh brown lip gloss.

You know when you’re growing up and you think certain things are chic? Mine was brown lipstick and lip gloss. We all wore it for our final year photos at High School.  There’s a hideous photo of me somewhere in burgundy brown lipstick, looking like I’ve been eating nothing but SMASH potato for the last year. 

 But I digress….

Swatch! We are till look serious but now it looks more mauve to me. 

I generally find non shimmer lip glosses somewhat dull on my lips, and where the gloss is a pricey one, I feel like it could easily be duped by something from No. 17 or something. 

So then I put it on the lips and the first thing I think is…livery. It reminds me of a fine slither of liver and I hate liver so much. 

But then it settles, and it looks a bit purple, then more rose, then purple again, then it settles into a nude-brown-mauve very pretty and relatively pigmented elegant shine. My point is, despite my above moaning, I actually like it. A lot!

It’s actually quite an unusual nude gloss because of the brown and purple tone in it – or perhaps it’s my natural lip tone (which is quite pigmented) bringing it out. Either way, I like. I’ll wear this when I have to fire someone. 

I think I paid about £16 for this (can’t really remember) but it’s around that ballpark so not cheap.

Would you buy Chanel Giggle Lipgloss? What is your favourite Chanel Lip Gloss? 

I thought that this Illamasqua Naked Stranger’s release was very lovely looking so thought I’d share these images with you!

Naked Strangers to me implies nude colours – which this kind of is but it’s been styled in quite a dramatic way. They say:

A place where alter egos are laid bare and naked flesh is a source of unashamed inspiration. In this delicate tipping point between intimacy and pleasurable detachment, we revel in the unknown; exploring the distance between pure Monogamous, gilded Faithful and uninhibited Swinger. Exposed nude tones, adorned with rich licks of gold, leave you gasping for more. Don’t restrain yourself. Unless, of course, you enjoy it. 

This includes 3 new nail polishes (£13.50) in Monogamous (creamy matte pink), Faithful (coppered metal) and Swinger (Gold).

The lipglosses (£13) are my favourite! There are 2 of these, Stranger (gold) and intimacy (nude brown). 

There are 2 new blushers (£16.50) a powder one, Naked (beige brown) and a cream one (nice idea!) in Zygomatic (naked pink brown).

More imagery:

I love the look of the cream blush and nude lip gloss in particular.  This is quite a small but lovely release from Illamasqua. 

Anything catch your eye?

I popped down to the Illamasqua counter near me a few weeks ago for reasons I will explain next week for a make over with one of my favourite make up artists – Leena who is a Key Artist for the brand.

One of the items I purchased and can’t wait to review because I have so many mixed thoughts about it, is Illamasqua’s Skin Base Foundation (£25):

They say:

Inspired by the cult Asian market Beauty Balm creams, Skin Base Foundation is a brand new, refined formula unlike anything on the UK market. Easily blendable, it effortlessly creates a perfect complexion, and like the entire Illamasqua foundation range, is undetectable in a professional HD environment. Suitable for all skin types, it smoothes, softens and conditions your skin whilst providing natural, buildable coverage.

I have been wearing this base every day for the last few weeks! 

First off this foundation is reasonably priced I think, compared to other high end end bases.  

The bottle is a squeezy one, plastic, nothing fancy but hygienic and compact:

There’s a really impressive range of shades that come in different base tones so you can get a good match. I think with so much choice I would go to a counter to get matched with this base because it’s quite hard to tell on the site – there are a good handful of hues that I think could’ve suited me!

In the end I went for shade 11 which is a mixture of yellow and pink and I think it’s a brilliant match. People tend to stick me in yellow foundations right away when in fact I am also quite brown and beige!  Shade 11 also has a peachiness too it that matches my skin but brightens it too (I am usually a MAC NC30-35).

The foundation has a nice sweety scent to it – I usually hate perfume in bases but I don’t mind this one because it fades away quickly.

So, foundation pros:

1. Longevity. This foundation stays put beautifully on my skin and even after a very long day, there’s a fair amount of base that comes off when I wash it 14 hours after it was first applied.  My skin is quite dry I’m not sure how it would last on oily skin.

2. Covering redness and blemishes. Considering that the base has a gel like texture to it, it covers remarkably well – redness especially which I usually need some extra concealer for.

3. The foundation doesn’t bunch up on my skin which many many bases do, and it’s super easy to blend in. No streaky finish!

Foundation cons:

1. For me, this base makes my skin looks really even and I’m happy with that for every day BUT, it lacks glow.  I do love glowy, radiant finish foundations and on me this base is more of a semi-matte so can look dull.

2. This foundation makes my pores look bigger – perhaps it sits on the surface a little and also clings to any very dry patches I have, although to be fair, most foundations will if used without a good primer. 

In terms of breakouts, I have noticed I had some weird white bumps on my face HOWEVER I started using this base and new cream at the same time so I am going to try some swapping to check which product is doing it!

Before & Afters – I am super tired at the moment so small pictures so not to scare you:

Ingredients List:

Kudos to Illamasqua for saying this base is inspired by BB creams but unlike lots of other brands, avoided naming it a ‘BB Cream’ for the sake of it. I would agree that this is a multi tasker as it works well as a concealer too, and since it dries to a semi matte finish it’s almost like powdering too (I didn’t like the look of this base WITH powder on top as well, it just looked crusty).  

I do like this base a lot, and if you want something that is long lasting with good coverage, that feels nice on this skin Illamasqua’s Skin Base is well worth trying.  I paid £25 for this – full range is on their website. 

Have you tried this foundation?

I have a NOTD for you from eye CANDY London – a Colour Flip Nail Polish (£8) which supposedly has a ‘metallic colour flip particle technology’.

In different light and at different angles, this polish should give you different effects!

There are 4 shades in this range, Green with Envy, Regally Yours (the one I have here, a royal blue) Liquid Gold and As You Know It.

I have to say – of the 4 shades I think I got the weakest one because this metallic blue, whilst pretty and looking slightly purple from one angle, is largely…well, blue.

The other shades – a purple and gold, a green gold, a rich green with a lighter hue running through it look more interesting and more ‘duochrome’ quite frankly than this one.

This aside, the polish is nice and easy to apply, I didn’t have any problems getting good coverage in 2 coats and getting a shiny fairly even finish. I wish I had a more interesting colour to show you though!

eye CANDY polishes are available in Sainsbury’s.

I have had my fair share of hair dye disasters  and have often reached for the RUSK Eliminate hair dye remover which is a. expensive and b. hard to find as there aren’t many Sally’s stores near me (well the last time I went to one they wouldn’t let me buy anything!). 

They do a hair dye remover in Boots called Colour B4  by Scott Cornwall which works well, is cheaper than RUSK and is designed for home use (whereas Rusk is a pro product).

Well, soon to be released on the 21st May are some new products for colour correction and enhancing!

This is veryyyy interesting indeed; there aren’t any other products that I can think of on the high street that does these things! In the range:

Decolour Remover £12.99 – removes unwanted artificial hair colour to reveal your natural hair shade. This product uses the latest technology and contains no ammonia, bleach or peroxide.

Decolour Stripper £12.99 – removes both natural & artificial hair colour pre re-colouring – allows you to change from a darker (brunette) shade to a lighter (blonde) shade, or add a vibrant fashion shade to your hair. With no ammonia.

Colour Restore £11.99 – revives and replenishes fading hair colour & tone without the need to re-colour. Wash in, use as frequently as required.  Available in three shades: Deep Red to enhance red tones in hair, Cool Ash to disguise orange tones & Iced Platinum for disguising yellow tone.

Shine On £12.99 – salon glazing technique for use at home, delivers dazzling shine that lasts up to 6 weeks. Shine On will initially be exclusive to Boots.com and www.keepmeinspired.co.uk and is suitable for all hair types.

The colour restore in cool ash sounds like just what I need for toning down my highlighted hair especially as I am keeping away from hair dye for a while!  The Shine On Treatment also sounds great too.

Would you use this range?

Inika Cosmetics has an interesting back story; the founder Miranda Bond struggled with endometriosis and thought shouldn’t wouldn’t be able to conceive naturally.  She decided to change things in her lifestyle, like her diet (very important of course) and eliminating products that contain potentially harmful chemicals that can be found in cosmetics. 

Once she began to detox her life she fell pregnant naturally and eventually Inika was born, a 100% natural beauty brand that is vegan friendly, and free of synthetic chemicals. 

I am all for eliminating harmful toxins from beauty products, although it’s pretty hard to tell what is actually natural and what isn’t – a lot of ranges sell themselves as ‘organic’ but still contain obviously dubious ingredients.  Also it’s quite hard to find anything that is completely natural on the high street.  

I was sent 4 products from the range to try out…

 i. Pure Primer

ii. Liquid Mineral Foundation in Honey

iii. Medium Perfection Concealer 

iv. Lip Whip in peach

I’ve been testing these products for a while now and have got a good grasp of them.

The range is well packaged and comes in sleek black. It’s a fairly expensive range, with the liquid foundation costing £29.90 on their website at the time of writing (but coming with a foundation brush).  

I have to confess my first few uses with the base products did not get off on a good start. Clearly, I am used to high street and high end base products that have a number of preservatives in them.  So the main differences I noticed were:

1. Strong Smell – these products have more natural extract in them so they did (especially the primer) have a strong herbal scent.

2. Texture – I noticed the base and the concealer especially has a habit of separating.  I had to squeeze out quite a lot of concealer which ran out as liquid before it became a cream!

3. Reactions – Just because something is natural doesn’t mean it suits everyone skin. Mine is sensitive and because this stuff must have a lot more active ingredients in it, I did find it tingling a lot to begin with. 

I like the primer – it creates a nice base for foundation, possibly the mineral powder foundation would work even better with it than the liquid, but bear in mind it is quite strongly scented.

The liquid mineral foundation is nice, it leaves a sheer glowy coverage. Honey is a bit too yellow and warm for me though – there’s not a ton of colour choice in the range but it blends ok.

The concealer is also decent, with a cream texture that felt good around the eyes but fell into the creases somewhat.  If you can roll this one around for a while to mix up the product as it’s prone to separation. 

The Lip While was nice, there wasn’t much pigment once it was on my lips, it looked quite sheer and shiny.

Overall, this is a new experience for me and it’ll take some getting used to but it’s well worth a try if you want to eliminate a lot of toxins from your body – it totally makes sense to me which is why I’ll keep trying things from Inika.  It’ll just take a while for me to wake up from a silicone-paraben induced coma!

A selection of Inika products (including the foundation) launched at QVC in this April.

*PR Sample

If you’re looking for a cheap thrill, walk up to that Sisley make up counter then turn back round again cos Sisley is an expensive, luxurious, high end beauty thrill.  It’s one of those ooh and ahh brands up there with SKII et al.

If you can get over this then let me show you my lips of the day, Sisley Phyto Lip Shine in Sheer Peach! 

They say:

This glossy, ultra-luminous lipshine is creamy, imperceptible and ultra-comfortable. Extremely light and nourishing, with a treatment formula combining: Kokum and Mango butters to hydrate, protect and comfort (experience a +31% increase in hydration within 30 minutes); shiny and sheer polymers to smooth, contour and plump; sugar esters to comfort and shine. Leaves lips soothed, softened, hydrated and repaired, protected from environmental damage.  

I have this in Sheer Nude too which has little pigment. I’d love to try one of the stronger pigmented lip shines one day. 

Sheer Peach is indeed a very pretty orange peach the kind of lip shade I would go for day to day as I am not as keen on pinks.

The Sisley Lip Shines are strange in that they look really dense (opaque) and sold when you look at them but then melt into a super shiny glossy texture on the lips.  Like – if you were to look at a Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited lipstick which is also a very shiny lip colour, you’ll notice it looks wet in the tube.  The Sisley doesn’t, it looks like…matte butter. 

I think this lipstick will last a long while because of this odd hard but glossy texture. My soft sheer shiny lipsticks disappear the fastest (that’s if they don’t snap first) whereas this one is as solid as. 

It is very hydrating, I really like it! It reminds of Revlon Lip Butter a bit but the texture is thinner, and the colour is a bit more sophisticated. Packaging is lovely, heavy, expensive, comes in a red velvet pouch which my cat will find and hide in about 10 minutes but if I was anal like my mother, I would replace the lip stick into the pouch every time I used it.

For some reason I didn’t remember to swatch it on my hand but here it is on my face instead! 

This is £26.50 which is actually less than I though It’d be so is not *that* unreasonable if you consider how many £30 lipsticks are around. On sale at House of Fraser.

*PR sample

How is everyone today?

I have a very busy Thursday with various appointments, some important ones, some medical and finally ending with a haircut and hopefully a massive fajita. I am in one of those moods…people do not get in my way!

How about a quick giveaway? I have 10 GOSH Intense Eye Liner Pens on offer.  There are 6 shades and you can pick one colour!

I love liquid eyeliner! I still have to review these which I will add to the to do list! 

Wanna win?

Answer this question. Beginning the week of 6th May 2012 – what are the best things that’ve happened this week so far and the worst?

Also with your answer include if you want: Black, Brown, Blue, Green, Grey or Purple as a prize if you are picked.

My Answer:

Worst thing – can I name two? Thieving estate agents who I still have to deal with because they’re quite frankly keeping money they shouldn’t be and the tram system (which I use to get around) falling to a complete stand still because someone they had cables stolen…because there’s no such thing as CCTV.  Additionally there was no adequate back up for the failed tram system apart from a crappy bus service which came every 35 minutes that didn’t take you on the route you were supposed to go, no, it took you to a tram stop further away where the lines *were* running.

Then we had a bus driver that told me to get off because I didn’t buy a ticket from the tram machine but why would I do that when the trams weren’t technically running?! Oh my god…it’s all flooding back!

Taxis FTW – but I don’t want to get a taxi to work, you’re supposed to get a taxi when you’re going somewhere fun! 

Oh, oh can I also say the postal prices went up a week ago and I went to send some parcels which I guesstimate would normally come to £30 and it was £53 and I nearly started convulsing on the floor of the post office.

The best thing…this is all in the future as I’ve had a crap week so far, so I am hoping that -

My web hosts will actually fix my emails as at the moment I can’t read any lovely (or horrible) comments I’m getting on my phone I have to keep logging in but I don’t always have much time for that.  

I hope these estate agents will do the right thing or at least the fair thing – very snarky letters are going in the post.

I hope we find a new place to live otherwise it’s cardboard city.

I hope this discounted hair cut I’ve got at Trevor Sorbie today finally sorts my frizzy mop out today.

I hope I have a good medical check up at the hospital – this is probably the only one that really matters when all is said and done.

** You don’t need to leave an answer as long as mine. I just wanted to have a moan. But you can if you want, life is hard I know  **

1. I’ll pick winners within the next 2 weeks

2. Open internationally

3. Something else I can’t remember

Have a lovely day!

Diorskin Nude is one of my top 3 foundations (my review here) – it’s glowy and easy to blend, it almost has a paint like texture to it because it dries fairly quickly on the face and leaves this pigmented stain (is that a good description?!) which I like! A lot. I’ve realised that I can’t substitute a long lasting foundation for a glowy one if if the long lasting one makes you look ‘dead’.

Anyway I have 3 of the Diorskin Nude foundations at the moment. 40 Honey Beige was sent to my by PR eons ago but it was too dark.  31 Sand is a yellowy beige I got to mix with honey beige and medium beige is my most recent purchase as sand has run out:

They look very similar lined up next to each other I have to say! So…

Can I just say Dior foundations are pretty poor when it comes to shades.  I have to mix this, none of them are 100% right.  

If you have a medium skintone then you may end up choosing from one of these 3 colours.  30 is medium beige, I’d say it’s a neutral beige shade which is more brown than yellow.  I am quite happy with this base on but on it’s own it looks a little too ‘beige’.

31 is Sand which is the most yellow shade.  Applied on it’s own it is too yellow for me but a good option for other Asian women perhaps – I am as much brown as I am yellow so very yellow bases don’t work for me. 

40 is Honey Beige which is a very warm toned almost slightly orange golden brown.  It is a good few shades too dark for me on it’s own and I think it better for people with very olive skin.

Yes..it’s quite random. 

By the way you can pull the lids off these foundations although it is very snug and you will need a knife to do it! Once prized off there is extra product on the sides and a bit at the bottom but to be fair to Dior, this isn’t a Urban Decay Primer Potion situation where you end up throwing away 50% of the product because you can’t get it out of the tube…the foundation was more or less empty.

Have you ever tried this foundation? 

Do you ever find some foundations have poor shade choices?!

High Beam (pink), Moon Beam (gold) and now Sun Beam…could it be called anything else?!

I like all the Benefit ‘beams’ but this is going to be my favourite I can tell!  It looks like a soft golden bronze on my skin will look like a highlighter that doesn’t look garish and on paler skin tones could look like a light bronze? We’ll see when it comes….

Love! This will cost £18.50 and is launched in the UK in June 2012.