Sunday 30 October 2011

And now for some calm…

This weekend there was a huge gathering of yoga fans in West London at the Yoga Show 2011.  I try to practise yoga and meditate occasionally so I headed over to the Kensington Olympia with a friend today to see what was on offer for the final day of the three day long show.

We paid £10.50 for our day tickets, but we were really impressed by the great variety and number of interesting stalls, workshops and free classes that were on offer.  Unfortunately we were a bit rushed this year as we could only spend a couple of hours there but we already promised each other that we would go back next year and spend more time there, next time maybe taking a bit of a shopping list and choosing a few classes to attend.

I love yoga clothes but I didn’t buy any this time as they can be a bit expensive (but that’s not to say that they’re not good value if you wear them often as the quality of the goods on offer seemed very high) but I did pick up this cute meditation balm by Badger Balms.

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How cute is the packaging??

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Above: This tin contains 28g so it’s slightly larger than a lip balm tin.  I took a photo next to my Blackberry to give an idea of the size.

Badger do loads of different fragrances, this one just happened to be my favourite.  If you’re interested in organic beauty then this website which is an official UK stockist of Badger is definitely worth a look – not least because I’ve just discovered that the balms are much cheaper online than the price I paid!  Never mind, at least I know where to go to stock up next time.

It’s Body Shop Sale Time Again! Autumn 2011

The Body Shop seem to do sales all the time – but I suppose in reality they probably run them about four times a year, for about a month at a time.

The sales seem to be the time when they try to get rid of their excess stock of discontinued products, so you often see the same products pop up in their sales over and over again.  Well, for me it’s a good opportunity to pick up some Body Shop staples at knock-down prices.  Here’s what I picked up when I popped into one this weekend.

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Above: High Shine Lip Treatment in 01 Pink Cream, reduced from £9.50 to £4.50

I wanted to get a new moisturising lip treatment so I picked up this gloss which was part of a limited edition collection a while back.  It still wasn’t that cheap at £4.50 but you get 14ml of product and it has a brush applicator which is my favourite kind.  On the plus side, I like the peachy smell, the thick and moisturising consistency, and the glowing sheer peachy colour, but I’ve only actually used it about three times and look how empty my tube looks already!  It looks like half the product’s been squeezed out of it it’s so flat.  I’m not impressed.  It was definitely not used when I got it as the applicator was completely clean.  Hopefully I just got a dud one because there’s just no way I can believe that I got 14ml of product in my tube – boo!

I also picked up an eyeshadow quad which was from the same now discontinued limited edition.  It’s called 02 A La Mode and I also have the other palette from this collection in 01 Boho Beauty which I wrote about previously.  The colours in this palette just scream ‘60s smokey to me.

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The quality of these eyeshadows is great and you get a massive 2.2g of each.  The swatches above were one swipe with no primer.  The only colour that’s not true to pan after one swipe is the black, but to be honest that doesn’t bother me so much as for one I hardly ever use black eyeshadow and for another I’ve got loads of other matte blacks anyway.  The palette also contains a generous mirror that fills the entire inner lid and a tiny shading brush that’s of pretty good quality.  The palette originally also came with a mini black kohl eyeliner pencil but neither of the palettes in the shop (there were only two left!) still contained theirs.  Again that’s not something that bothers me though for the exact same reasons as I’m not bothered about the black eyeshadow.

I also picked up some of my bath & body favourites:

top row left – right: passion fruit show gel, £2 for 250ml; brazil nut body butter, £5 for 200ml

bottom row: brazil nut body scrub, £5 for 200ml

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Even though I’m a fan of Body Shop products I hardly ever buy them at full price.  Why pay £6 for a shower gel or £12 for a body butter or scrub when I know that I can wait a couple of months to get them for these great value prices in the sale?

I love the fact that the passion fruit shower gel is soap free so it’s non-drying (I think perhaps all Body Shop shower gels are soap free?  I’m not 100% sure).  The smell is wonderfully fresh and fruity so it’s the perfect wake-me up shower gel for early autumn mornings when all I’m feeling like is zzz…

The Brazil nut range smells extremely sweet, nutty and creamy – so avoid it like the plague if you don’t like any of those qualities!  However if you do then it’ll be right up your street.  I happen to love it but I think it’s discontinued so I have to stock up when I get the chance.  The body butter is very rich and suitable for very dry skin – I think it could be a bit too rich if you have normal skin.  The body scrub is like a thick moisturiser which happens to contain some grainy bits.  You can see in the close up picture that the consistency is thick enough to hold its shape after I’ve scooped some of it out with my fingers.  I quite like this, but probably more because of the smell than for its amazing exfoliating properties.  It’s just OK as a scrub as the scrubby bits are a bit sparse.

So that’s me all stocked up until Christmas now I reckon, when I tend to get some Body Shop treats from Santa every year, hooray :)

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Halloween Mascara

Well…not really, but that’s what I thought when I saw the packaging on the display so I thought it would be a fun addition to my make-up collection for the autumn.

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Scandaleyes mascara by Rimmel, around £7

I thought I’d do a very quick post just to show some pics of the mascara by doing a quick and very unscientific comparison with my hitherto favourite mascara by Rimmel, VolumeMax Bold Curves.  The packaging of both is really bright and garish…I think it does make them look a bit cheap, but it’s also good fun and makes them easy to spot in amongst a big pile of make-up or make-up bag so I have to admit that I quite like it.

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Above: top wand – Volume Max Bold Curves, bottom wand – Scandaleyes

The thing I have to say about Scandaleyes mascara is that the wand is absolutely HUGE.  It’s bigger than my eye!  In the top photo you can see the Scandaleyes wand while the photo below is the Volume Max Bold Curves wand.  Sorry the pics are a bit blurry…I took these photos myself and it proved a bit difficult to hold the camera steady whilst attempting to photograph myself applying mascara.

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The Scandaleyes mascara has a very “elastic” consistency and it does tend to pull out of the tube with a big blobby strand of mascara on the end of the wand which you have to wipe off before letting the wand anywhere near your eyes.  However the performance is very similar to other Rimmel mascaras and I think it’s really not a bad buy.  The picture below shows my lashes with 2 coats of Scandaleyes mascara – the angle of the shot is not great but really there is not that much to show, my lashes are really so puny there’s only so much that any mascara can do for them.IMG_3182

However I think you can still see that they’ve been bulked up quite nicely by the mascara.

My favourite of the two mascaras is the Volume Max Bold Curves though because the brush is such a great fit for my lashes and it really does bulk them up.  I have had it for several months already though so it could just be that it’s performing better with age as my mascaras generally do, as drier, thicker formulas coat and bulk up my lashes better than runnier ones, so I suspect that in a few months when my Volume Max is starting to dry out my Scandaleyes will just be starting to come into its own.

Saturday 22 October 2011

Aubergine Eyeliner + Pumpkin Eyeshadow

This is another look for the weekend which was inspired by my Autumn 2011 colour chart.

The Look

Contrasting textures and colours create a daytime look that’s anything but dull.

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The Products

My favourite priming product at the moment is the Sleek Primer palette.  The primers might not make my eyeshadows last quite as long as some others, but they’re smooth and creamy to apply which means they don’t tug at or dry out my skin at all – which is just as well as my skin has quite enough to cope with at the moment what with the changing seasons.  Today I used the peachy coloured one all over my lids to match the general colour theme that I was going for.

I then blended a bright matte orange on the outer corners of my lids and just above the crease, before adding a glittery nude to the inner half of my eyelids.  I used my Blingtone eyeshadow in Morococo which is fantastic because it’s super shiny and glittery but doesn’t cause any fall out.  The contrast of the matte and shiny textures adds a lovely dimension to the make-up, but it’s a shine that will last all day because it’s a powder eyeshadow, not a gloss.

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I then carefully drew a huge triangular wing using an aubergine coloured liquid eyeliner.  I very rarely line the inner 1/3 of my eyes as they are quite small and I don’t want them to be swallowed up entirely by eyeliner.  Liquid eyeliner is not the easiest product to work with but I used a Gosh Extreme Art Eyeliner which has quite a thick and gloopy texture which actually makes it a lot more forgiving to work with than eyeliners with thinner consistencies.  I love the way this kind of line changes the shape of the eyes and it’s one of my favourite ways to wear eyeliner.

Finally, I finished up with lots of mascara, an orange blush and a stain of brick red lip colour.

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Saturday 15 October 2011

Seashell Grey

This is the second look that I created from my Autumn 2011 Colour Chart.  It’s another super-quick, 2-shade, 10 minute look that I’ve actually been wearing to work most days this past week.  I think the cool silver grey shades go well with my colouring so I’d definitely recommend this look for any other cool-toned gals out there.

The Look

Contrasting textures of eyeshadow create the effect of moss growing on rocks, reminiscent of arctic tundras.

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The Products

I used a shiny grey merged eyeshadow by Accessorize and a satin finish grey by MAC.  I used just one brush for the whole eye look, first sweeping the shiny grey over my lids then adding the greeny grey into the crease for added dimension.  I then wiped the excess shadow off the brush and blended the shadow from the crease to the brow to create a huge, round shape.  The Accessorize shadow was so shimmery that it acted as a highligher as well when it was blended above the crease.

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Working with these shades of eyeshadow made me think of rocks and earth, so I went for an earthy feeling bronzer on my cheeks instead of a pink or rosy blush.  I used a light bronzing duo by Accessorize, pictured below.  In case you haven’t guessed, I love Accessorize cosmetics!

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After taking the first photos I was listening to David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust album and felt inspired to dust some of the silvery Accessorize eyeshadow over my lips – just a smidgeon over my cupid’s bow and the centre of my bottom lip.  I was quite impressed by the amazing dimension it created – could this be the perfect non-sticky solution to lipgloss?

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Cranberry Pumpkin Eyes

This is the first look that I’ve created based on my Autumn 2011 colour chart.  It’s pretty simple; although I used four eyeshadows altogether it was really just to create the two shades I was actually aiming for, I only used two brushes and it only took about 10 min to throw together.

It’s really bright and vivid, but also very wearable as a daytime look.  I’d wear this at the weekends if I were going out to meet friends.

The Look

Burnt orange and red light up the face with a windswept glow (with windswept hair to match!)

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The Products

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Above: I used Pixi radiance powder all over my cheeks, temples, nose and chin and highlighted the apples of my cheek with a light dusting of Scandal merged blush by Accessorize.  It’s the perfect glowing red for faking that “windswept from a country walk” kind of flush on the cheeks.

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Above: I applied two bright oranges from the Sleek Paraguaya eyeshadow palette over my lids and darkened the crease with a bright red, also by Sleek (this one is from the Curacao palette) and a dark red Body Shop shimmer cube (I got this one a couple of years ago so it’s no longer available in the Body Shop but I just mixed these two colours to get the shade I was looking for).

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Above: I only used two brushes: a flat shading brush (front) to pack orange onto my lids and a fluffy blending brush (back) to blend the orange and red above my crease towards my brows.

Chilled Pink’s Autumn 2011 Colour Chart

I’ve been feeling inspired by the changing season and signs of autumn that have been creeping up these past few days to put together a little colour chart for my make-up for the next few months.  It’s always fun to have a rummage around in my boxes of make-up every few months to swap the products in my everyday make-up bag so that I get to rediscover products that I already own. 

The colour palette

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From left – right

Top row: pumpkin, cranberry, gold, black

Bottom row: aubergine, maroon, slate blue, slate grey, sage green

As you can perhaps tell I was mostly inspired by seasonal vegetables and the weather!  I also love the way that the light in autumn changes familiar scenery into something quite different and radiant.  There are surely few sights more impressive than an autumnal sunset making the skyline glow, when even grungy city greys glisten silver and gold in the fading light.

Translated into make-up

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I’m not going to mention any product names here because some are no longer available and I wanted to post something more for inspiration.  For example I discovered that I don’t really have any true maroons so I just mixed a bright red with some darker shimmery shades (2 shades on the right, 3rd row down), so even if you don’t own a certain shade or you’re just a bit bored of the ones you do have you can create something new.  Also now that my make-up is all swapped around it feels like I have a whole new collection to play with!

I’ll be creating some looks from this colour chart over the next few weeks; I’ll link to them here as they go online.  Have a fun make-up autumn everyone!

Autumn 2011 Looks on Chilled Pink Grapefruit

You can click on the pics to read the posts.

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Cranberry Pumpkin Eyes
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Seashell Grey
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Aubergine Eyeliner + Pumpkin Eyeshadow
 
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Both pics above: Black + Gold with Urban Decay
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Illamasqua Lipstick in Kontrol
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Daytime Pumpkin Eyes

Sunday 9 October 2011

Accessorize Merged Eyeshadows in Seashell and Pink Planet

It seems like my last few posts have been about products that I’ve been a bit disappointed by so I’m happy to be able to buck that trend at last by posting about these two lovely eyeshadows.

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These are from the Accessorize cosmetics range and I picked them up in Superdrug for £4.50 each.  They’re great value considering that each shadow contains a massive 3g (that’s twice the weight of an Urban Decay or MAC single shadow).  I think there are eight shades in the range altogether although most are quite neutral – Pink Planet is the only really bright shade.

The colours are shimmery with veins of a contrasting colour running through them – Seashell is silvery grey with copper veins and Pink Planet is pink with indigo veins.  While the veins are too small to pick the colour out individually I do think the effect is noticeable in the colour payoff of the shadows.

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Shadows swatched on bare skin:

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The colours are not really true to the pan which is partly due to the veining and partly due to the texture being quite sheer.  They produce beautiful washes of colour when swept over a base on the eyes, and because they’re shimmery you don’t even need a second shade to create extra dimension – I just used one brush to sweep the colour over my lids then blend it out at the edges, and the shimmer caught the light to create a highlight above the crease.  I’m not wearing any mascara in the pics below.

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If you like shimmery colours then I definitely recommend this range of shadows, they are just so pretty as well as being a great price.  They remind me of the Body Shop Shimmer Cubes so if you’re a fan of those I think you’d like these.  The quality is very good – they apply and blend out smoothly, have good pigmentation and last all day on my eyes over a base.

I think I’ll be getting a lot of use out of these two shades this autumn as Pink Planet is a very wearable alternative to orange and red (I’ll have no qualms about wearing it to work as my everyday daytime look) and Seashell looks great both worn alone or in combination with a flatter grey colour for a very multi-dimensional, textured look.

Bourjois Smile Enhancing Gloss in 05 Framboise Hollywood

I have a bit of a backlog of lipglosses to post about on my blog as gloss is one of my favourite make-up products and one of the first products I pick when I just feel like a Friday night quick make-up treat after work so I’m forever buying new ones.

Last week on just such a Friday I picked up one of the new Smile Enhancing Glosses by Bourjois.  It’s a bit of a stupid name for a lipgloss because surely all glosses are meant to be smile enhancing??  That is why we buy them after all, to improve how we think our lips/smile look.  A better name would have been “Tooth Brightening Gloss” because that is the major claim of this product.  Anyway, I got it on an introductory offer in Superdrug but the normal price is £8.99, which I think is a little on the steep side for a high street brand lipgloss.  I decided to go for a bright ‘n’ cheerful raspberry colour which is shade 05 Framboise Hollywood.

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Mine came packaged in a plastic box which is perhaps designed to make the product seem more expensive but I mean, even more packaging in these days of environmental concern??  It’s just not necessary!  I actually keep my lipgloss in the box just to feel like I’m getting some use out of it!!

As you can see from the illustrations on the back of the package this is a two step gloss with a clear gel designed for use directly on the teeth plus a normal coloured lipgloss.  They are supposed to contain special blue “brightening” particles which are supposed to have a “tooth brightening” effect.  The blue particles can actually be seen a bit in the swatches that I did on my arm.

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The tooth brightening gel has a mild minty flavour but to be honest I couldn’t really see any difference in the brightness of my teeth when I wore the lipgloss.  My friend said that she thought they looked a teeny bit brighter, but unfortunately as I’m not the biggest fan of my teeth in any case I didn’t take any before and after photos including my teeth to post here today so you will just have to take my word for it on that one!

Both ends of the product come with doe foot applicators, which are fine but I really prefer lipglosses that come with brushes (like the Bourjois Effect 3D).  I just find that brushes are better at picking up product and the application is so much more precise.  The packaging is a bit unusual and flat (which actually makes it nice and easy to unscrew) which made me think at first that you were getting far less lipgloss compared to other Boujois glosses but having checked you get 5.5ml of lipgloss in a Smile Enhancing Gloss compared with 5.7ml with a normal Effect 3D lipgloss (which currently retail at £6.99 full price).

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You don’t get a very generous helping of the tooth gel though at only 2ml, which may be a hint that you’re not supposed to use as much of that as the lipgloss.

I really like this colour which I think is lovely.  Here’s a before and after pic.  I’m only wearing a touch of concealer on my skin and no other make-up apart from the gloss.

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(I have a chapped lip above, I think it’s due to the sudden change in weather, ouch!  Time to get out my lipbalms!)

Unfortunately the consistency of the gloss is really quite liquid and runny so it was a bit difficult to get an even application of colour and I had to apply quite a lot of product.  I don’t think it shows up too badly in the photos though so perhaps it’s just because I was looking very closely as I was inspecting my lips in a mirror as I applied the gloss.  So nobody looking at me would notice the colour was patchy, but I know from the other lipglosses that I own that glosses are capable of doing colour so much better than this.

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Above: Not looking too bad here, right?

The gloss is so runny it just does not last on me at all.  I wore this during the day on Saturday and had to reapply it three times – and it faded quite badly between reapplications.  Normally during the week when I’m working I’ll apply a lip product on the bus on my way to work and maybe go for a sneaky top-up after lunch, but that’s it.  I wouldn’t bother reapplying a product more often.  That would even be OK if the colour weren’t so bright and faded away quite naturally, but because this colour is so bright and vibrant it just looked washed out and a bit rubbish once it started to fade.

However I had the idea that this gloss might work better over a lasting formula lipstick, which would provide a colour base for the gloss so that the colour wouldn’t appear patchy once applied and it would also mean that there would still be some colour left even after the gloss began to fade.  Here I applied the gloss over a dark pinkish lipstick.

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Above: Left – liptstick; right – lipgloss over lipstick

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The colour pay-off was definitely better over lipstick, and I think this is how I will be wearing this gloss in future.  I really can’t be bothered with applying so many products during the week though – as I mentioned normally I’ll just pop some lipstick or gloss on while I’m on the bus on my way into work, so there’s no way I’d be going through the rigmarole of applying this gloss over lipstick every morning.  I’m afraid that I can’t really recommend this product because for the price I was expecting a lot better.  Since I’ve already bought it and I do love the colour I will try to get some use out of it, but I really think it’s going to have to be reserved for weekends when I have some time to get ready.

Sunday 2 October 2011

Glam Eyes HD Eyeshadow Quads by Rimmel

Rimmel used to be my favourite make-up brand when I was a teenager but now pretty much the only product of theirs that I buy regularly is mascara.  They are pretty good at bringing out new products very regularly and I do get suckered into mascara hype pretty easily.  Anyway I hadn’t bought any eyeshadow by Rimmel for years but their new Glam Eyes HD eyeshadow quads were just so cute and eye-catching that I had to pick up a couple.  They come in a Union Jack design with the Rimmel crown logo stamped in the centre.

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Glam Eyes HD Quad eyeshadow, rrp £6.99

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left: Green Park

right: Purple Reign

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These cost £6.99 each which I don’t think is particularly cheap for 2.5g of shadow, but I got them on a 3-for-2 offer and got myself a new mascara as well (had to be done!) which I’ll feature in a different post.  The palettes come with a double ended sponge tip applicator and the back features a guide to how to wear the shadows.  It’s not how I’ll be wearing them but still, maybe useful for some inspiration?  I know many people aren’t fans of this kind of sponge tipped applicator, but I have no complaints about the quality of these as they are perfectly useable and you really will need either them or a small brush to pick up the shadows from this palette as the three non-main shades are contained within such small areas due to the Union Jack design.  I did try to swatch them with my fingertips but it was quite difficult to pick up the colours separately that way.

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Above: Green Park swatched

I was pleasantly surprised by the texture of the shadows at first as they seemed much creamier and silkier than the Rimmel eyeshadows I remembered from my teenage years, but I do think they might be just a tiny bit too soft as my green palette crumbled quite badly as I attempted to do some swatches.

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Poor eyeshadow :(

I did manage to swatch Puple Reign with a slightly lighter hand though so it didn’t suffer so much.

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Above: Purple Reign after swatching

The colours are beautiful, but it can be a bit tricky to get to them.  All the shades are very shimmery and I think the colour schemes are perfect for autumn.  Green Park makes me think of Robin Hood films and the navy and lilac of Purple Reign are particularly stunning so the colours are a definite hit with me, but I doubt I’ll be buying any more due to the texture.  If you’re looking for a fun addition to your make-up for autumn though these could be worth a look - they will definitely add a quirky twist to any dressing table or make-up bag.