Clinique Moisture Surge tinted moisturiser

I had long given up on tinted moisturiser, on paper it should be perfect for my skin which is incredibly dry and really can use all the moisture it gets.  Sadly as well as being dry my skin is red and blotchy and needs way more coverage than a TM can offer.

That said the minute I saw the adverts for Clinique Moisture Surge tinted moisture is appealed.  I actually think its that big splash of aqua right in the middle of the ad that just makes me think of the comfort of hydrated skin!

Pic blatantly nicked from www.boots.co.uk

I was in a grump on Saturday eve and nipped to Asda for a hair dye and a magazine, would have added chocolate but have  you seen my backside?!  Grabbed a copy of Glamour and had a flick, and there was a sachet of Moisture Surge TM glued between its pages, the perfect opportunity to try it!

I am loving it!  The shade I got is 03 which is possibly a tad dark for my skin but because its sheer its not overly dark, if that makes sense (actually having looked on line am surprised that it appears that shade 01 and 02 are very pale and there is massive leap to shade 03, will have to check this out for real on Weds).  I have huge pores on my chin which have a habit of trapping any powder that might be in my foundation, which looks ghastly.  Because this is so sheer this powder filled pore thing isn't happening.  And oddly in spite of being sheer enough to look really fresh I am getting sufficient coverage on my redness to be totally happy with it, even in broad daylight with a mirror pressed right up to my nose.  Em said I looked "not oily, not sure what the right word is?" I filled the gap with "glowing" and she agreed!  The wear on this is good, have added a bit more at lunch time just to keep things fresh.  The best thing about it has been how comfortable my skin has been, you may have noticed a dearth of lunch time tweets where I am threatening to run my face over with an orbital sander, which was how I was feeling last week!  I am off to the Trafford Centre on Wednesday so will try and make OH wait whilst I pick up a 5 day sample to really put it through its paces but so far so good.  Second thing in as many months that I am loving from Clinique!

This one is nicked from the John Lewis website!

 This is £21 for 30ml so if I am happy after 5 days think I might purchase for the Summer, saving my lovely Chanel for nights out!

PS I am wearing this tinted moisturiser in the hair colour post here, if you want to see how it looks on the skin!

More haul - Clinique Redness Solutions Corrector

Its yellow, creamy and is likely to become my most adored product to date.

I had seen this and the pressed powder reviewed by Ruth's mum over on A Model Recommends and as I had just finished off my Max Factor concealer (having only in the last 3 weeks worked out how you use concealer, I know, I have no right referring to myself as a beauty blogger!) I decided to give this a whirl.  I have rosacea on my cheeks and my chin and nose are always really red, I struggle with foundation as nothing seems to completely cover the redness and I hate it.

I was really impressed when I tested this in Boots, it is incredibly creamy - not far off the wonderful Bobbi Brown concealer in a little pot that I spent twenty odd quid on years ago and had no idea how to use so left it to dry out. Kicking myself now.  I applied this liberally to my chin, nose, cheeks, under eye and eye lid and really buffed it in and then applied my Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua on top and hey presto no more red face for me!  I was really surprised just how much less red my chin especially looks with this under my foundation and would strongly recommend this to anyone with redness issues.  Of course love this so am now convinced I need the compact that goes with.  It is so cute!

Not the most amazing photo ever, FOTD is very minimal at the mo as am going to the gym four mornings a week, get me!, so I have to have enough slap to not scare the guests at breakfast but not so much I look like an scary clown as it sluices down my face in the gym!

Redness Solutions Corrector is £15, couldn't find it on Boots site but it is here on the Clinique site and the pressed powder which is next on my wish list is £24 how cute it this?

Photo nicked from www.clinique.co.uk

The brush sits in the compact underneath the disk of powder which pops up so fab for on the go touch ups and I want it!

Post edit: just realised this post could sort of do with a before photo, am a martyr to my blog so am prepared to post this glorious photo once again so you can see what I am up against with this redness thang.

Holy crap, how hatchet faced do I look in this. So anyway, if you were doubting the efficacy of this concealer; doubt no more!

A work of fiction.

Dont' worry not going to get even more long winded than usual and write you a novel to wade through!  The work of fiction in question is my eyebrows.

Annabella from Skin Scrubs dm'ed me last night to say she wanted my eyebrows. When I stopped crying with laughter I realised she was after the version you all see in my fotd pics and not the really pathetic reality no one knows about.  So I thought I'd share the sad reality of my brows and how I get them to look as enviable (??) as I do!

So here's me sans brows.  

These look much better than they used to.  I have over plucked from next to my nose - they used to meet in the middle and were down to my chin at one time and I over compenstated in my teens!  I have grown them back by having them threaded a few times, which really helped and by learning that when they grow too long rather than pluck them out and trash the shape you can take a pair of nail scissors to them and trim them.  Just comb them upwards and carefully snip off the ends that go over the line of your brow. 


My brows drop down on the ends which makes my eyes look closed in so I have decided to pluck the ends out and just leave the upward flick of the brow and to draw in the bit from the arch down, does that make sense.  Ideally its best to have a full brow but I didn't have that choice!

I use the clinique superine liner for brows in soft brown and as its a waxy, soft pencil I always powder my brows to stop it wandering off half way through the day.  As you can see I extend the brow toward my nose a tad, too much and it looks really obvious.  I then draw a line that runs slightly under my brow and up to the "arch" or end of my natural brow!

Then I extend that line outwards rather than down to keep my eye area open (thats the theory anyway but I did make it up!)  Then I fill in the brow.

The best piece of brow advice I have been given is to remember brows are sisters and not twins - in other words they don't have to be identical and symetrical!  So then I do the other side, same process as before.

And now I have a matching pair!

The End!

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!

Anti redness skincare

Have decided I need to be a bit more proactive in my skincare to try and mitigate the redness that I have on my cheeks, nose and chin. As usual I have spent 40 hours googling what would work best. I am interested in the clinique stuff and the plan today was to buy an eyebrow pencil that I need and request a sample of the moisturiser just to check it would be rich enough for my very parched skin. That all went tits up as I had to take husband shopping. Need an outfit for a wedding on 29th December and every thing I showed him was either "too old" "too short" or just "too ugly". What he seems to have missed is that his old, short, ugly wife is also rather fat and so if you are having to buy a size 20 choice is limited and sometimes you have to go with if it fits buy the bloody thing and get the hell home. You have seen married couples shopping like we were today, hands in pockets, heads down, not speaking. He suggested I look in Evans. I just could not be arsed to explain that A) all Evans clothes are tat and B) for some inexplicable reason Evans make dresses up to a size 60 without freaking sleeves. Nearly everyone that I know that is either past 42 or over a size 16, or god forbid both, seriously needs to cover their arms up so why in gods name Evans make sleevless dresses is quite beyond me and it never fails to pee me off. So in complete bitch fit mode I walked into Evans with him trailing in my wake, stomped up the left side of the shop, crossed over at the top, stomped down the right side and straight back out the door without picking up or looking at a single thing. And do you know what? I think he got the message! So by the time I got to Boots I was so underwhelmed I forgot all about the eye brow pencil and the clinique sponger tactic. I grabbed a facial wax, so that even if I am fat, old and short with a red face it wont have hair on it. I also nabbed an Avene Rich anti-redness moisturiser and a small can of the Avene thermal spa water spray in lieu of toner.

I am going to Halifax for a facial with a friend on Friday and intend to do the brow pencil/sample scam and maybe pick up the Avene extra gentle cleanser too. Cant wait for Friday, Saks in Halifax is 6 years old and they are doing a terrific offer to celebrate, hot stones back of body massage, which I have been dying to try since forever - I have rheumatoid arthritis and warmth on my aged aching bones is just bliss! And then after your hot stones massage you get a mini Elemis facial, had an Elemis facial a couple of years ago with my sister and it was heavenly so this will be a real treat. £55 the lot and you get a gift bag with £40 of Elemis products to take away, far too good an offer to not indulge. So lunch in Halifax, a spot of light retail therapy, massage, facial and home for the Festival of Light in Huddersfield that evening with husband and the kids, the perfect antidote to all the stress of selling the business and moving into our new home and our new life and trying to organise Christmas when you have no idea where you are going to be living!

Life in freefall and a duty free haul

Selling a business and buying a house is exhausting and a complete and utter sodding nightmare, I am totally strung out and don't have the energy for photos of my purchases but have found a couple of great products that I want to share and I need to update on the Clinque eyebrow pencil I bought recently.

First up, best new foundation ever Max Factor Experience weightless foundation, it is billed as weightless flawless foundation and is frankly both and brilliantly. I honestly think it is the best foundation I have ever bought. Had loved Second Skin and was running out when I read this review on the Beauty Bite for this product and whilst on her lovely skin it looked like it might be a bit sheer I wasn't sure that it could be and still claim that all important "flawless" tag. Spent an age slapping it on in Superdrug (its not in Boots yet) and am seriously pleased that I did. I used Creamy Ivory in Second Skin and find that Beige Linen in this is actually a better shade for me. It has quite a dense, creamy texture which is great for my dry skin and gives great coverage, and builds well if needed. It is much less sheer than Second Skin so if you are feeling with the winter coming that you want a bit more between your pores and the rest of the world I would recommend this. I love it with my MAC Uncommon creme blush on top, will try and get some pics when I look less haggard.

Whilst in Superdrug I bought two MUA eyeshadows for £1 each, got shades 12 and 14 and am seriously impressed, Leanne has done a fab review so I recommend having a read of that.

After a week in Ireland stood in a field in the cold and rain, all in the name of earning a living (say it with me Fran "I must get a proper job"!) I decided that I NEEDED a duty free splurge. I got Clarins gentle peeling exfoliant, Clarins Eau Dynamisant shower gel, Chanel Aqualumiere gloss (a real treat!) and a clinique extra fine liner for brows. I also bought Em a MAC lip gloss in Bountiful, because she's my honey.

Having used the new Clinque brow pencil for weeks and struggled to draw my crappy brows into something that looked half decent I decided to go back to the super fine liner. I think the new thicker brow pencil would be great if you have fab brows that you just want to define, if you have crap brows that you have to create freehand then I for my money you'd be better off with the super fine liner. Lesson learned!

Clinique Instant lift for brows.

Spending embargo continues but some things a girl just cant live without. An eye brow pencil being one of them. I have always used the Clinique Superfine liner for brows in soft brown, its a great propelling brow pencil so no need for a sharpener, the only downside is that once it has been propelled up you cant propel it back down again so you never know when its going to run out and I refuse to buy 2 at a time to always have a spare. So was very pleased to find that Clinique have now brought out a new product called Instant lift for brows, its a thicker propelling pencil that goes down as well as up! on one end and highlighter on the other, the idea being you draw in your perfect brow and then highlight the brow bone. Lovely if you are 20 ish. Not so much if you are 44. I took photos of this on my eyes and I am almost too ashamed to show them on here, I have the eyes of a 90 year old. There is nothing like taking close up photos of bits of you to really highlight how utterly knackered you are, til about an hour ago I thought my eyes were in pretty good nick.



Look away now if you don't want to see your future.....


dear god.

Whilst I like the shaper and think I will find it easier to fabricate my eyebrows, which are straggly and patchy, with the thicker pencil I think the highlighter is a bit chalky, although perhaps if you have bouncy plumpcious eyelids then it might be fine.

Here is the shaper


And the highlighter


And here a swatch of both of my hand. Jeez my hand. Took these swatch photos and nearly screamed when I uploaded them. I have the hands of an 80 year old too. It's like Cocoon in reverse round here, bloody awful. So I gave my hands a scrub and slathered on some Soap and Glory hand food before taking the photos again. Now I have the hands of a 60 year old. God knows what the nasty black bit stuck to the highlighter is, probably some other part of me that fell off mid-photo.


And this stunner shows off the chalky highlighter.


Am off to find a photo of me to stash in the loft, Dorian Gray stylee!