NOTD - L'Oreal Color Riche Beige Countess

This is one classy manicure!  Super work appropriate for anyone that's important to, one of the benefits of being self employed is that I can wear any colour nail varnish I like!  Some nudes can be pull out any of the pink tones in your skin, this one doesn't seem to do that on me and I completely love it.  There is a chance that I like this one most of all in fact.

Em and I are heading back to Boots on Friday, I have a fancy for a pale grey cream now, if anyone has picked up and blogged any of these please let me know, I'd love to see how some of the other colours look.

More L'Oreal Color Riche Nail Varnish - Blue Reef, Rebel Blue & Beige Countess

I am obsessed!! sent Emily back to Boots in her lunch break on Wednesday to pick up Rebel Blue and Blue Reef for me.  Have taken pics of both and added the  Beige Countess that Em bought on Tuesday and has worn since, its a lovely "work appropriate" nude!  So enough waffle, on with the pics!

Rebel Blue, Blue Reef, Beige Countess - again all very colour accurate

Numbers and names in same order as above

Rebel Blue has some shimmer to it, which was a disappointment - when I saw it on Tuesday I was convinced it was a cobalt cream but when Em brought it home on Weds it was less cobalt and had this annoying shimmer into the bargain - L'Oreal please please please a bright, gorgeous Cobalt cream the colour of the Hermes Birkin bag would be perfect, thank you!

The shimmer isn't really visible here

The lone bottle pic for this one came out too dark, this is colour accurate.

If you click on this one to enlarge you can see shimmer running up the middle

I wore Rue Monmartre for 3 days with only a very small amount of tip wear, no base, no top coat.  I only took it off because I was sooo desperate to try Blue Reef.  Which looks like this:

Oops nearly forgot - I got a better pic of the brush which is flat and with a curved end and makes application a breeze.



 So gorgeous it hurts!  So hope this inspires some weekend nail splurging, please please let me know which you bought and what you thought!  And if anyone knows of a the perfect, super glossy cobalt cream pleas let me know - I had the Barry M one, but its not glossy enough and Barry M polish doesn't light my fire, sorry!!

FOTD - when bad eye shadow happens to good people

After yesterdays rather dull neutral FOTD I decided today I wanted to incorporate the blue in a more wearable, day friendly eye.

Please bear in mind that I get up at 5.50am. I have to be ready to run Em down the hill at 6.50am and in that time I have to shower, beat my hair into submission and do my "face". Mistakes are not an option. So this morning I slapped on my UDPP and grabbed the blue matte Revlon shadow and whacked it all over the mobile lid. So far so blah. So thought I'd try blending. Now have an eyelid with nasty patchy stains and blue eye shadow all over one hand.  At this point my options were a) do breakfast for guests with one blue eye or b) slap some blue onto 2nd eye and hope applying foundation would balance things out.  Once I had smeared blue eye shadow over 2nd eye decided only way out was to then apply the same blue to the crease.  At this point I looked like the "before" from "Ten Years Younger" as in "Debbie is aware that she has been stuck in an eye shadow rut for 20 yrs and is still wearing the same blue eye shadow she wore in 1986".  In an absolute panic I wiped a smear of Buck from the Naked palette into the crease and attempted some kind of blending action.

see what I mean? Not exactly fab is it but not a bad recovery if you had seen the dire big blue mess I was before adding the brown!
 
Emily came in and took one look at my blue stained hands and masses of tissues all covered in blue matte eye shadow (bloody stuff wont blend but it does get everywhere!) and said I looked like a kid who had nicked her mums make up kit. And she still expected a lift down the hill.

I had a go at mixing some of the GOSH Cappuccino and the Revlon Matte in Mink to make a slightly darker nude lippy.  Off for a facial this pm and need to buy a nude lip pencil, as my Bobbi Brown Cocoa one leans too orange to work with this colour.  Also need to invest in some kind of lip buff and lip primer I think.
Onwards and upwards folks, not a triumphant fotd but I think its good to share the lash ups too! 

Over the Taupe

See what I did there?  Decided to have a play with my recent purchases so inevitably ended up with a blue eye and nude lips. What do you think? It IS over the top for day wear but when I do EOTN its dark and I cant take proper pics so decided to do it in the middle of the day so I could share.


Excuse the hair, it's having a moment all of its own today.
 

Decided to have a go at "contouring" as well. Nicked Em's bronzer and had a swipe about although frankly would putting a brown stripe down the side of a football contour it? I think not but at least the bronzer is better than blush would have been *hello clown face*.


Used Revlon shadow in Peacock Lustre over mobile lid. Revlon Matte in Riviera blue into crease and underneath.  Tightlined with No 7 Gel liner in blue top and bottom. Virgin from Naked brow bone and inner corner.  MUA in bright green inside of mobile lid and the usual L'Oreal mascara and Clinique brow pencil.

Lips are a combination of GOSH Cappuccino and Revlon Matte in Mink - just a hint of this to give it a bit of colour.  Was sure I couldn't do nude lips, am LOVING this! So be kind if you think it looks vile, but for godsake tell me!
 

Took pics with grown up camera with $$ wide angle lens, hope I don't look too melty faced as a result!

Oh and finally quick point and shoot snap of eye in close up.

 As this is a total deviation from the norm for me would really appreciate your feedback!
Post edit: am now worrying about that rather vast ski-slope forehead (savage receeding hair line or wot?!)

UD NAKED - EOTD!

Late to the party doesn't really cover it I know, but hey I'm there now.  A tiny part of me was really worried that this might just not live up to the hype, even if that "hype" is other beauty bloggers raving about it and we all know no-one slates a crapster like a beauty blogger, so if they say it's good, you know it will be.

As you may have anticipated - it's love.  With bells on.  I know everyone that blogs already owns this but I have a couple of friends that don't blog who are interested so please bear with me through a couple of swatch pics before a couple of EOTD's.

So photos:
 
Outdoors, overcast day. 


Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar

 
Buff, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse


Toasted, Hussle, Creep, Gunmetal and Zero (black) and Whisky (brown) eye pencils.
Thanks for the loan of your arm Em!

To paraphrase Forrest Gump "this palette is like a box of chocolates" it was so hard to decide which ones to dive into first so I thought I'd play it safe.

I read on the fab A Model Recommends an interview with MUA Geraldine Shaker and when asked what her single most anti-ageing make up trick or technique was replied " Shade the socket of your eyes with a dark eye shadow – this will knock a decade off older eyes." which sounds like a sound plan to me!  Bearing that in mind I have done a couple of EOTD's.


First up yesterday:

Yikes, someone please remind me in future not to do that scary hair scraped back thing!  This is whisky pencil upper and lower lash line, blended.  Virgin all over lid to brow and Buck in crease.  Frankly I think I have the eyes of a 9 year old!

Now today:

This is whisky upper and lower lash line, Buff all over lower lid, Buck into crease and Virgin to highlight on brow, also used the UDPP on this one, so 13hrs later not a crease in sight.  Have had this palette 24 hrs and already feel like I have got my eye shadow mojo back - first time I have had 3 eye shadows on my eyes in what feels like ages!

I love how smooth all the shadows are, they all blend so easily and wear beautifully.  Sadly think the Bobbi Brown taupe is going to be very overlooked now.  I am dying to have a play around and do something a bit more exciting but think will have to wait for the weekend for that, am thinking might have a go at my first smokey eye!  Oh, one downside the lid on the black pencil, Zero was wedged on so hard had to get Steve to tackle it and in doing so he snapped the pencil.  Which might have been a trauma and I can sense some of you gasped at that! but I don't wear black eye liner and Em does, so I donated her the black and kept whisky (which I am unexpectedly loving, just as you had predicted Fee!) all for myself, so win, win!

 

 

Nails Inc - Cool Caramel

£10 for Nails Inc is just not happening.  Weirdly everytime I have paid full whack the polish has been craptacular, when I get a freebie with InStyle or Diet Coke its never as bad, is that psychological, maybe if we are spending a reasonable amount of money on a product we have expectations that we don't apply when its a freebie??  Anyway, that was in danger of getting deep.

Feast your eyes on this baby:

I have a feeling this could be my mannequin hands nail polish but will be waiting til February to find out.  Em has already used it and it is stunning on her although her hands are either orange with fake tan (bloody vile stuff) or are pale with no pink in them, unlike mine so hopefully it will look as nice on me, will do NOTD pics in Feb when I get round to wearing it!

Update.  I am not sure if there are other people like me?  I am hysterical about my nails and hair - wont leave home if having a bad hair day type of thing.  As  you may know am having a month off from nail varnish to nurture my nails and get rid of all the flakes.  Have Mavala hardener for the tips and Nailactan to smooth on every night and although the tips are still flaked the nail bed is looking much happier and my cuticles are much less trashed.  So why, in the name of all thats holy did I sit and bite my nails on Thursday evening?  I cried, literally sat and cried with my glass file in hand trying to tidy up the damage.  I seem to go into some kind of self destruct mode with my nails.  I did catch myself before they were super hideous, there was enough left to smooth off with the file but I did make 2 of the biggest flakes even bigger, my nails haven't been this short in about 10 years and I cant bear to look at my hands.  Breaking the ban with Scarab could be a lot further off than I had hoped.  Silly cow that I am.

FOTD - 9th January

Am really struggling with this whole taking photos of my face thing.  I am not really a fan of how my face looks and whilst in real life most of the time I do not look as if I am in the middle of some kind of facial spasm in photos I do.  I have a smile that curves off to the left, or is it the right? Don't know but it looks weird.  And whatever I do with my foundation my skin still looks pink.  My hairline is a trauma all of its own - cant handle a fringe, not loving vast expanse of forehead either.   And then there are the technical difficulties, I have a pretty crappy compact digital camera so I cant adjust much and I dont have a macro lense for my slr so I cant do the arms length photo with my proper camera, finding anywhere with the right light has been impossible, so far think the laundry is working as the opaque glass on the door diffuses the light nicely, downside is the back drop of piles of laundry!

Anyway enough waffle, here it is.  My fotd.

 Foundation: Max Factor Experience in Cool Linen
Eye shadow: Une Sfumato Q02 all over lid with Sfumato Q23 on edge and used wet as liner on top and bottom lash line.
Brows: Clinique super fine pencil in soft brown
Lips: Bobbi Brown creamy lip colour in Heather brown (had been wearing Bobbi Brown pencil in cocoa too but that was hours ago!)


I really like the Une Sfumato eye shadows, I was having a trawl round for a brown matte shadow in Boots yesterday and couldn't find anything - was only looking at the cheaper ranges and decided against spending another £9 on a 3rd Une shadow, I also have in Q20, I think - its a khaki shade, and they are lovely and matte and blend really well.  Hadn't thought of using a damp eyeliner brush to use the shadow as liner, seen others do it on their blogs and decided to give it a go and really like it, much less harsh than my usual black pencil which I only ever used on top lash line as my eyes disappear once I put my glasses on.


Am completely loving the Bobbi Brown creamy lip colour, it feels like a balm on my lips and the colour is the exact nude shade I wanted, I also like the pencil and was pleased that the first time I had to sharpen it I didn't end up with a lap full of snarled up pencil - always used the Revlon propelling pencil in Nu which is the exact same shade and about £6 less so should really have had a 2nd lipstick for xmas and not the pencil - yet another desperation purchase at the Trafford Centre!


Anyway first fotd of the year!

NUDE skincare set

Courtesy of The Beauty Bite I recently received a free Nude skincare set, which I was very excited to try!



The cleansing oil was the thing I most wanted to try out, I have really dry skin and the idea of applying oil really appealed. First and foremost I have to say that this week was what the most twee of weightwatchers consultants will want to describe as my "star" week, as in "oh dear, you have put on 4lbs. Do you know why. Is it your star week?" *clutching at straws as she can see the empty malteser packet peaking out of the top of your bag* (always made me want to hit her with a shovel) so yea, that week and as a rule even at 44 when I am on my skin freaks out, lots of lovely red blotchyness enough to make me wonder if rosacea isn't a bit more of an issue for me than I thought. (Ok just spent an hour googling this and think that it may be - am going to see if I can get a tester for some of the clinique anti-redness stuff tomorrow and will have a look at the Avene stuff in boots too. If anyone has similar issues and has tried either would love to hear about your experiences.)

Right on with the review. The cleansing oil. This stuff is heaven in a sachet, it has a light smell not a fragrance as such just a "clean" sort of smell and its a light coloured oil. I used it with the facial cleansing massage I picked up off Beauty Mouth blog recently and it felt fantastic, the oil gave just the right amount of slip to the massage so no dragging. I was almost loathe to dilute the oil with some warm water to rinse off and was tempted to apply another layer after cleansing, it is such a treat for dry skin, and just leave it to soak in. This costs £22 for 100ml which even I, frugal blogger, thought was reasonable for such a great product.

The Age Defence moisturiser was also nice but just not rich enough for my very dry skin, by lunchtime I was starting to feel a bit tight and hot, glad of that though as would be annoying to have found the perfect product only to discover its £54! I have used the Miracle Mask a couple of times, have to say not quite the miracle I would have liked and certainly for £38 I would have wanted to see something a bit more dramatic, basically nothing happened!

On the downside I am completely convinced that the Advanced Eye Complex makes a huge difference, downside being its £62 price tag for a 15ml tube, although I guess you would use it sparingly and you could consider it an investment. My eyes have some fine lines and the lids look crepey and a bit droopy and this really did seem to tighten, brighten and tone the whole eye area. Ok am now talking myself into wanting to add this to my xmas list! Might have to do a scientific test tomorrow morning and apply the last dregs to one eye only to see if there is quite literally a visible difference!

For the 4 days I was using all the products my skin was red and blotchy so much so that even Steve commented and I was concerned that it might have been that the Nude stuff didn't agree with me but as my skin calmed right down as normal hormones regained control I think it was just the usual monthly freak out. This week my skin has looked much better than it usually does and I am now tempted by the Nude Replenishing Skin care set which has the cleansing oil, hydrating water and replenishing night oil, which sounds right up my street and for £18 is a great way of trialing these products. Oh have just had a read up on the night oil and it recommends if you have dry skin that you mix a few drops with the moisturiser for a richer day cream, which would have been ideal for me. Whilst I love all of these products and am tempted to try more of them the cost is an issue; if I was to purchase cleansing oil, hydrating water, moisturiser, eye cream and night oil the price would be £192 which just seems like way too much for my very average face!

Lipgloss love

Never been a huge fan of dense, opaque lipstick, wasn't into gloss either as couldn't be doing with all that gloopy, sticky, slippy yak so tended to stick with sheer lipstick or coloured balms and then, much like the eye shadow thing, I decided that as I am going to be sixty like really soon I only had a few years left in which to experiment and decided to give glosses a go. I now have a frankly awesome collection. Well, five. And the fifth is a vile purple nasty thing I bought for £2.50 in m&s and instantly regretted, if you can actually spend 5 mins regretting a £2.50 spend.



The m&s one is on the end, it makes me look like I have a heart condition. And three of the others are basically the same colour, not exactly adventurous am I?

First up was the Vinyl gloss in snog. Stupid name (if you are 40 odd!), nice gloss not too sticky, tastes fine. Second purchase was the Chanel one. As a careful and sensible traveller with no desire to have to chuck all my make in a bin at an airport I generally stash all make up in my suitcase. So went to Dublin duty free wedged up and ready to spend with no make up to make sure that I didn't inadvertently spend £19 on a Chanel gloss which is a sparklier version of one I already own. Fell totally in love with a Chanel gloss that was perfect in every way and sans sparkle, having decided that maybe sparkle was a bit childish on me. When I was told that the gloss I needed was out of stock I decided not to do the sensible thing and WAIT to get it at home I just bought this one, spur of the moment, no thought at all. When I got home and compared the two I realised they are basically the same thing. I wear the Rimmel one all the time and put the Chanel one in my bag for nights out so that people think I am posh.

The third one is the brighter Rimmel vinyl gloss in foreplay, or shag or something equally purile. It languishes in my back up make up bag as I am not loving it.

Having always known that I couldn't wear nude lips I decided to continue with the boundary pushing and purchased the Bourjois one. Look, no sparkles - I finally managed to by a non sparkly gloss. Of course it is now my absolute go to, wear every day gloss and the only thing I need to change is my lip pencil which is a bit pinky and needs to err more into the brown spectrum. Would show photos of these on my lips but then you would see my 'tache.