Estee Lauder Blue Dahlia

Impetuous, spontaneous, foolhardy.  Mrs Instant Gratification, that's me.  Decide at 7pm on a Wednesday evening that I am a Bright Spring who should only ever wear teal and by lunch time on Thursday I have spent £35 on blue eye shadow and had my hair colour darkened as I have decided, based on nothing at all, that it will look much better with my new colourful wardrobe.  For once my leaping in seems not to have back fired.  

Having decided that I needed colour I spent a considerable time online googling the various options, no point wanting anything from Guerlain or Laura Mercier as neither of those are available in Huddersfield.  Clarins is nice but safe, maybe? Lancome was a possibility but knowing that I love Estee Lauder DWL and having seen that the eye palettes were both beautiful and, comparatively, affordable I created a bit of a yearning for an Estee Lauder palette and given my new found love of colour the only one that was ever going to tick all the boxes was Blue Dahlia.

It wasn't until I got to Huddersfield I thought to consider that perhaps it was no longer available, given that it first appeared ages ago as part of a limited edition.  Luckily I needn't have worried, apparently it was limited ed but proved so popular its now part of the main collection.  Wanna see some pics?!

 

The familiar iconic EL gold case which feels nicely weighty.

I am sure everyone has seen this a million times so these photos are completely self-indulgent.  I fell in love with the teal and the shimmering navy but it's the taupe that pulls everything together and makes it all so wearable if you are a bit colour shy.

 The white isn't white, it is an opalescent shimmer, no frost, no whiteness, just the most beautiful opal glitter.  Not immensely wearable admittedly but to add a little something to an evening eye it's perfect.

The photo above best shows the glitter, especially if you click on it to see the larger photo. 

As you would imagine the colours are a dream to apply.  I very unusually have a morning where I haven't had to get up to do breakfast for guests so I had the chance to play.  Ordinarily for the day I suspect I'd go taupe all over the lid and then use either the teal or the navy on my upper lash line and I would always intend to go all out and use the colour properly on a night out and then would chicken out and never do it.  This morning I decided that if I was going to spend £35 on coloured eye shadow I wasn't going to shy away from using it.

A bit much for Co-op in Elland on a Saturday morning I'll grant you, but I do love it!  I had read that the Estee Lauder way to wear was the teal all over the mobile lid, taupe in the crease and the navy on the outer corner and top and bottom lash line, or something along those lines so that's what I did.  I still have slightly puffy eye lids as a result of a run in with corneal erosion on Thursday night, once they deflate fully things will look a lot better.  I really like how the taupe took away the scaryness of all that colour and of course once I put my glasses on it takes things down a notch as well.  For a night out I would definitely just put a little of the opal glitter in the inner corner just to lift that area and I might be tempted to pull more of the navy up into the outer V, I played it safe this morning so as not to frighten myself! I am surprised at how comfortable I feel in this much colour, I think the darker hair helps a lot and having agreed with Helen that scarves do me no favours I felt the need to wear this one just to pull things together until I stop spending money on teal eye shadow and start spending it on teal clothes!  Just in case anyone is wondering I am wearing ELDWL, Clinique colour correcting powder, Laura Mercier Second Skin Blush in Rose Petal, Dior Addict Extreme lipstick in Paparazzi, Benefit they're real mascara and Benefit Browzings in light on my brows, which are also much better with my darker hair.

And whilst I need no encouragement if anyone has any other eye shadows that they think I might love please let me know.  I did find the most gorgeous teal sweater in Monsoon that is now on my wish list, along with fuschia leather gloves from M&S, also on the list!  As a result of all of this I felt it only right that my much beloved UD Naked palette wasn't left to languish lonely and unloved so I have given it to Emily, needless to say I am currently her favourite mummy!
    

Estee Lauder Idealist - pore minimizer skin refinisher

I decided to lash out and spend £38 on something to reduce my pores, even though apparently nothing can in fact reduce them because they don't actually ever increase in size.  The skin refinisher comes in a lovely aqua coloured bottle and it smells heavenly, so if you like pretty bottles and nice smells this might be right up your street.  Unless you find smearing your face with a tonne of silicone gives you bloody great spots all over your chin. In which case it wont be.

I have on my desk a pre-paid envelope addressed to Estee Lauder, any moment now I will be popping my bottle of skin refinisher into it and sending it off for a refund.

Since I stopped using this I have discovered that my ELDWL actually wears better without it underneath - it seemed to make my foundation look powdery, presumably because I have dry skin and it was very mattifying so any "glow" I might have had was mopped up and whisked away, leaving me cake faced, yuk.

(Whilst I was in Boots trying to hand my skin refinisher to the nice lady on the Estee Lauder counter from whence it had come - no bloody chance! - I made a teeny purchase of some anti-ageing skin care.  Post due soon but so far, loving it - you wouldn't believe me if I told you I could see a visible reduction in my fine lines and wrinkles almost right away would you? Well, I did!)

Estee Lauder Double Wear Light

Just to finish off my EL related blog posts!  I mentioned in my last post that as well as getting a sample of Invisible Fluid I also got one of Double Wear Light.  

I have never sought out long lasting foundation, primarily because I assumed it would be too drying for my dry, 45 year old skin.  It wasn't until I tried ELDWL, as it will henceforth be known on this blog, that I realised what I was missing.  This stuff is teflon for your face!  Seriously, this morning I went to the gym for an hour and came home with my make up intact, which is amazing, a little disconcerting - it can't be good for you to sweat through your make up? - but amazing nonetheless.  I have been using ELDWL for 4 days now, initially I was being too heavy handed and slapping on loads, then I tried applying it with my brush - serious cake face, not a great look.  This morning I decided to apply it with my fingers and to only apply it lightly and that was the winner.  In spite of being quite mattifying, not something I need, I have found that I still have a glow, but no shine.  I am lightly powdering my nose and chin only and the wear is exceptional - it is now 8.15pm and this has been on my face since 6.15am, including that gym session and it still looks bloody good.  What is even  more wonderful is that it seems to lend some of its longevity to the other products that I have put on top - my blusher hasn't faded, my eyebrows that are 90% drawn in with a pencil haven't rubbed off and my eye make up is still looking good.

These pics were taken yesterday when I had applied it with a brush and that is why it does look a bit too heavy.

 Today applied with a lighter touch it is approaching HG status!  One of the other things that I love is that my glasses don't smear this off my nose, it just stays right where I put it.


So decision made on Friday I am buying this and I am also very tempted by an Estee Lauder Idealist serum, rather fancy the pore minimising one - has anyone tried any of the Idealist serums?  Please let me know what  you thought if you have thanks very much.  I am also in need of a Lancome L'Absolu Nu, if I can find one that warrants a £21 spend.  I am also very tempted by the Champneys Watermint shower gel, scrub and lotion spritz.  Again if anyone has tried either the Lancome lippy or the Watermint range please let me know what you thought, it all helps in the buying decisions!

New lipstick! Estee Lauder Pure Color Gloss stick - Honey Pink

I love new lipstick!  I was on a mission on Friday to come home with  something as far away from my usual pinky/browny mlbb shade and had decided I would go as far out of my comfort zone as necessary to get the desired look!   A quick shout out on twitter resulted in lots of great suggestions from loads of people - ladies thank you all.  The only problem I had was that the brand had to be available in either House of Fraser or Boots, so I was fairly limited - MAC, Laura Mercier and Illamasqua weren't happening!

First off I had a look at the Dior Addict Extreme lipsticks - Ruth had posted some pics of new ones not due out yet and they had set me off on my lemming for something out of the ordinary.  Whilst I quite liked the available Dior shades lots of them had glittery bits in them and at 45 I wonder if blingy sparkly lips are just too little girl?  It's probably down to the individual but I prefer cream lipstick to anything shimmery or glittery and there weren't any Dior creams that were floating my boat. 

Next off I visited the Estee Lauder stand after several recommendations that the Pure Color lipsticks were exactly what I was after.  Having had a bit of a play I decided that if I was going out of my comfort zone in terms of colour one way of diffusing the shock would be to go for something sheer rather than too opaque a lipstick.  The Pure Color Gloss sticks are pretty much that, gorgeous colour in a glossy finish but in a stick rather than a lip gloss tube - not a fan of sticky lip gloss.  As soon as I tested Pink Honey on the tip of my index finger - I have been told its the closest in colour to the skin of your lip so a better indicator than the back of your hand, no idea if its true but it usually works out well for me! - I knew it was The One.  

The lady on the Estee Lauder counter in HoF in Huddersfield is fantastic - I have since been googling all things EL and the one recurring theme is that the ladies that work on EL counters can generally be relied upon to be knowledgeable, willing to help, generous with samples and pretty bloody lovely! The one in Huddersfield is all of those things.  

I was having a look at the Double Wear Light foundation as the website foundation finder had suggested that one for me and she said had I heard about their new foundation, Invisible Fluid, I said that I had and was hoping to get my hands on a sample at some point.  She said "go shop, get a coffee and when you come back past here nip in, I have just taken delivery of all my stuff - the samples are in the bottom box, if you give me a mo when you get back I'll sort you out a sample".  She actually offered, I didn't have to beg or feel like some nasty bludger, she actually just up and offered! And before I left she gave me a sample of the Double Wear Light into the bargain! Prior to all this she had handed me a teeny lip brush so I could apply some Pink Honey to my lips, its hard to tell how something works in indoor lighting so I said I was going to see how it felt for a little while and check I was still happy with the colour when I was outside but that if I was I would be back.

When I nipped back 20 minutes later to say yes please to the Pink Honey she had dug out her samples of Invisible Fluid, checked the one she thought would work best for me, 1CN1, and decanted some into a bottle for me to take home.  

Corally pink, pinky coral?

Gorgeous and glossy

The top of this swipe of lipstick is the most colour accurate of all!

So pictures.  It's bloody hard to take pictures that show off foundation isn't it.  In these I am wearing the Invisible Fluid.  I wore it to the gym this morning and a group of ladies stopped me as I got off the bike to ask what I was wearing on my face as my foundation looked so lovely!  I had been cycling at a fair pace for 20mins so had a bit of a glow on!  I can honestly say I have never been complimented by strangers on my foundation before, so that's a pretty huge plus for this one!

 You can probably see that it looks nice, but I don't really think the picture does it justice, it has a lovely freshness to it, so my skin looks dewy without shine.

Jesus, now you can probably understand why, as a rule, Steve does as he is asked. Or else.

 Please excuse scary facial expressions I was more concerned with the light being right than how my gurning was looking!


And finally, the close up of the lipstick.  You'll need a strong stomach for this cracker!

Please ignore crater sized chin pores, fine lines round lip and huge, dark, terrible nostrils. Lippy's nice though, no?!

 As I hope you can see the lipstick is a glossy peachy shade and it completely brightens my face, I am really pleased with it!


In my next post I am going to show some pics of me wearing the Double Wear Light foundation, at the moment I am strongly leaning towards purchasing this over the Invisible Fluid.  I will explain all in my next post!