Plenty muchos NYX haulage (part 3)

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I love buying make-up. Especially when you buy it from NYX – although there are a few products that, after purchase, make you question your own sanity, the vast majority of the ranges are both of decent quality and also at fantastic prices. I would NEVER buy any other “drugstore” lipgloss – for the superb level of quality you get, why would you? To be honest, I’ve got a couple of Chanel Lip Glossimers and the NYX ones are even on a par with those – amazeballs.

Moving on to the rest of my purchases, firstly the eyeshadows.

Wow.

Just……. Wow.

I bought these eyeshadows in the sale, so paid the princely sum of £3.00 each. To be honest, even at the full price of a fiver, these are an ABSOLUTE STEAL.

I bought four – kicking myself slightly now though, for that price I SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT THEM ALL – the complexity of shimmer in the four that I bought is phenomenal! No disco glitterballs here (although some of the NYX eyeshadow finishes can be like that), these ones lend a moderate twinkle on the eye under certain lightings which adds a fantastic depth – which means on those lazy days when you just frankly can’t be bothered to spend five minutes blending two colours together, a quick 30 second application to the eyelids makes you seem as though you spent hours on your look.

The shades I went for are below:

L-R: Eucalyptus, Herb, Dune, Burgundy Pearl

Eucalyptus is a shimmering, light tauped-silver (I think I’ve in love!). Herb is a twinkly dirty olive. Dune is a charcoaled dark silver, also with shimmer. I did suffer with a little bit of fallout with this one, but nothing a primer wouldn't fix easily. Burgundy Pearl is a medium-dark muted maroon with distinctly cool undertones, which suits my cool-blue eyes perfectly.

Eucalyptus makes a great “wash-of-colour-when-I-can’t-be-arsed-in-the-morning” for daytime, as does Herb (although Herb is slightly more dramatic due to the darker tone). Herb also seems to also be a great pairing with a little bit of Burgundy Pearl in the crease – I didn’t think it would work as I thought the colours would just blend together and go “muddy”, but with a little care and attention you can keep them discrete and it makes a great alternative daytime smoky eye.

And finally, I also went for a couple of blushers. Now, I already own three of the powder blushers and already know that they are premium quality with a tiny pricetag. 

The one I added to my small collection was Angel – a light coral-peach with neutral to cool tones, which is non-overpowering to my fair complexion, so is lovely to couple with either bright lip or smoky eye for an effortlessly natural look – this one seems to be impossible to over apply, which is great for those of us (like me) who tend to be a bit hamfisted when tired in the mornings……!

I also decided to try out one of the Cream Blushes for the first time – especially with dry skin, sometimes powder blushers can creep into fine lines and pores and look a bit weird, and I am reliably informed that using cream formulations take the edge off a bit.

CB02 (Natural) is a slightly darker coral peach than Angel, with more neutral-warm undertones in the pan – on me, this actually leans quite warm on the cheek and gives me a slightly porcelain doll-like look – great if the eye and lip is natural/neutral looking, but can be clown-like unless you use a careful, light hand. I tend to just lightly dip my middle two fingers into the pot, pat onto the back of my hand first then apply with light patting motions to the apples and bones of the cheeks. Less is definitely more, here – you can add morem but it is difficult to take excess away. Although if you owned a Beauty Blender I suppose that would help you to blend away any “mistakes”. 

Left: Powder blush in "Angel        Right: Cream Blush in "Natural

Angel; Natural (note, these swatches are super-mega-heavy so you can see the true colour)

I definitely like the look of the Rose Petal and Tickled cream blushers, so I feel another purchase coming on pretty soon……..

Pick yours up at NYX Cosmetics. The sale continues, with cut-price bargains as well as a 3-for-2 offer on certain ranges. Plenty of bang for your buck.......!

Jen

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Plenty muchos NYX haulage (part 2)

Right then, as promised - let's get busy with the swatchy.

Now I've had more chance to play with the lip liners, it's not quite as bad as it could have been. I bought three colours; Citrine, Rose, and Cabaret.

L-R: Citrine, Rose, Cabaret

Citrine is a muted rosy plum with a hint of shimmer. As is typical of the NYX lipliners I already own, the shimmer means for better slip (and therefore makes me less inclined to feel the need to tear my lips off my face in a fit of scabby, itchy, moisture-sapped rage). But you definitely pay for it in longevity - but to be honest, I'd rather have to reapply something that doesn't give me the rage, than have a lip product last for ages but be perpetually irritating.

Rose is frankly AWFUL. Not just the colour (a lightened, milky, Barbie pink), which is terrible (on me anyway), but the intense matte-ness to the finish made it actually painful to apply. This would need lashings of lipbalm underneath, which kind of defeats the object I think. 1/10, and only because it was so bloody cheap.

Cabaret is one of those potentially hit-or-miss shades which I think will actually work out ok for me - it's a slightly darker version of Deep Red (which I already own, swatched here), and is also matte and therefore quite painful to apply, but not as bad as Rose - and because of the colour I would be more willing to work a bit harder for this one. The only other problem is that the colour isn't very forgiving on application (as you can see in the lip swatches below - it's like I'm back at primary school learning how to "colour in the lines").

Bare lips, for reference

Citrine

Cabaret

Rose

Finally, the lipgloss. This is one of NYX's Megashine Lipglosses, which is my favourite gloss formulation bar none. And now, imaghine my delight to find my favourite lipgloss colour in my favourite formulation. The gods of lipgloss were smiling on me when I added this to my shopping basket entirely in error (I actually wanted a pink one, thank god that didn't happen)......... MUST BUY SEVEN BACKUPS IN CASE OF ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

Megashine Lipgloss in 143 - Plum

My husband (not pictured, obvs) photobombed this picture when I took it, hence the smirk

This is a beautiful muted rosy-plum, which would actually look pretty good layered over the Citrine lipliner, now I come to think about it. The formula is completely non-sticky, has decent lasting power of around 1 hour (which is pretty damn good on me, inveterate tea-drinker that I am), but to be honest it's easy and fulfilling to reapply anyway. It also doesn’t seem to go gloopy in tube after a month (unlike MAC's infinitely more expensive Dazzleglasses, the barstewards).

Think that's all for now, folks - eyeshadows and blushers next.

In the meantime, here's the full version of the photobombed lip swatch photo........

Jen

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Plenty muchos NYX HAULAGE (part 1)

I love getting unexpected little brown parcels through the post - I really do. It invariably means I've been sleep-shopping, or someone has had a Super-Duper -Mega-Sale-Never-Shall-We-See-Its-Like-Again and the "sale mist" has descended, sending me into a frenzy of credit-card maxing and frantic website clicking until I have to recline on the sofa, exhausted. 

This time round, it was the latter - and the website in question was NYX Cosmetics.

I am a great fan of this brand, god knows. How they manage to make such fantastic quality products for so little money is frankly boggling. Don't get me wrong, they have also make some corking mistakes on occasion, but generally I find that the majority of products I try are keepers.

This time, I tried to temper myself and self-restricted to purchasing stuff I genuinely have had my eye on for a while. I work on the premise that one can never have too many eyeshadows, and I think in purchasing these four babies, I've hit the jackpot. The colours are fabulous, and also work effortlessly together (which was definitely more luck than judgement). 

The blushers are of a similarly high quality, as is the lipgloss - ah! such a fantastic formula! - so the only thing that let me down really were the lipliners.

I have bemoaned about lipliners before, but one out of the three pictured below is definitely not going to work for me, either in colour or in formula. The other two aren't bad though, so to only have one bad egg amongst the group (which to be honest is probably more the fault of my scabby lips than the product itself) is a pretty decent proportion, methinks.

More posts coming soon to go through the products in detail....... first stop, lip products!

Jen
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She's back - and raving about Embryolisse skin care

Firstly, an apology is in order. I have been missing in action for some time now, but hopefully you don’t mind too much – house move went well, our first Christmas in our new gaff was perfect and, more importantly, I have found my make-up mojo again.

I must admit, I have a confession to make – over the past few months, I have not really been bothered about buying make-up. SHOCK! HORROR!!!!

Don’t get me wrong, I have dug my hand into my pocket in Boots just as many time as I would do normally, but it has mostly been for re-purchases of tried and tested favourites, rather than buying the latest new and radical thing. I have not really had the time (nor the inclination, frankly) to get excited about stuff like that when there have been curtains and cushions to buy and flat-pack furniture to put together. Inorite, ROCK AND ROLL!

Anyway, that is all behind me now – a momentary blip in history which I am not ashamed of, but am now feeling ready to move on to shiny pretty things!

Before we do so though, please let me draw your attention briefly to a serious subject – something that has plagued me daily for many, many years. I’m talking about dry skin.

Not just dehydrated skin – although that’s something I do also suffer with, I know full well that it’s because I don’t eat properly or drink enough water (although over the past couple of years I have been infinitely better at remembering to drink!) so frankly that’s my own damn fault. I mean the itchy, sensitive, flaky, scaly horror that comes from all manner of things – a gift from my mother I suppose (stupid genes!), but aggravated by the environment, air-conditioning, hormones, you name it.

Believe me, I’ve tried every lotion and potion going. But now, finally, I think I’ve nailed it, and I am as happy as Larry. So let me share with you firstly the Holy Trinity of skin care, in the form of a trio of products by Embryolisse.

Left: Baume Riche; Middle: Lait-Creme Fluide; Right: Lait-Creme Concentre

The big bottle in the middle is Lait Crème Fluide, and it’s a lighter, daily use version of their Lait Crème Concentre (to the right of this picture in the battered tube, sorry!). The Fluide is my go-to moisturiser after washing my face in the evening, taking make-up off with wipes, just splashing my face with cold water, anything. If my skin feels as though it needs it (particularly after facewash, which can be moisture-stripping) I then top up with a thin layer of the Lait Crème Concentre.

The silver tube on the right is Baume Riche, which is the daddy of all moisturising balms. I don’t use this every day – although you definitely could – but rather use it sparingly on certain areas of my face than need a little bit of TLC for whatever reason. I typically use it at night on the sides of my nose, around my mouth, and above my eyebrows which is where the flakiness generally tends to occur most often. This is now my favourite alternative for my beloved Origins High Elevation Dry Skin Relief (which I still love, but only really buy when there’s a special offer on in Boots – it’s HELLA PRICEY).

The Lait Crème Concentre is also a fabulous make-up primer, just let it settle in a bit before beginning to apply your base products. Admittedly it hasn’t managed to tear me away completely from my Clarins Beauty Flash Balm in that respect, but for travelling it’s a great multi-tasker, which doesn’t take up much space in the suitcase (leaving more space for extra lippies!).

So that’s what shove on my face whenever it needs moisture. In terms of cleansing products, I only have one that I use, really. It has never let me down, and although I get lured away occasionally by promises made by other products, is the only one that I go back to again and again and again.

Clarins Gentle Foaming Cleanser for Dry/Sensitive Skin

If you’ve got dry skin, be sure to get the one with the shea butter in. There are other versions for oilier skins which I have bought by mistake in the past – and a mistake I will never make again (it was like putting foamy meths on my face).

The pathetic little sponge you see to the right of the pic is actually the main reason my skin looks half decent. It looks innocuous enough, but trust me – once you start using an exfoliating sponge in your skincare routine you will never go back to any other way! This is what I tend to use in the evenings, once I have taken off my make-up with a baby wipe (nothing fancy), I then lather up the Clarins face wash onto my face, and use the exfoliating sponge (this one is a Botanics one I believe) to work it in nicely, before rinsing off with warm water. Then moisturise as normal. That’s it!

I tend to find that I only need to wash my face once, sounds a bit minging but in the mornings I just give my face a once-over with a hot flannel, leaving it on there a few moments to open up the pores, rub over the face gently, then splash with cold water to close the pores back up again and encourage blood to the face for that natural rosy glow, then a little bit of moisturiser and I feel awake and ready to face the world! (Once my make-up is on, of course!).

Are you a dry skin sufferer? Want to share any horror stories that might make me feel a bit better about the times I actually FELT BITS OF SKIN FALLING OFF MY FACE?

Jen

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NB I bought my Embryolisse products through Love Makeup, but you can also get them through the Guru Makeup Emporium website.

A little bit of luxury with Burberry lipsticks

Finally finally finally finally, they have arrived. They turned up at work this lunchtime so I have been champing at the bit to get these beauties home and give them a try.

Please note: I have yet to try them on my actual lips, so these are just my initial thoughts before giving them a more thorough and rigorous testing.

I really wasn't sure which ones to get - on the Burberry website they all look so goddamn gorgeous, it was hard to choose....... but I had to limit myself to a measly four - so I took the plunge with two Lip Velvets and two Lip Mists, to test the water.

The Lip Velvets are a relatively new addition to the Burberry lipstick collection, and are billed as being "velvety matte radiance, inspired by the most opulent of English fabrics". My initial impressions are one of amazement - Burberry seem to have genuinely got their description right, as the finish is a lovely satiny-matte finish which felt gorgeously soft to apply on my arm, but it also felt thick. This one could go one of two ways - my immensely dry lips tend to suffer with matte finish lipsticks, but this one feels like it could be the one my lips fall in love with, as it seems pretty non-drying (maybe not actively moisturising but then again what mattes are?).

The Lip Mists on the other hand are slippy, unctuous, balmy wonderment.  But don't be fooled - although the Burberry website describes them as having a "sheer illuminating finish with a subtle hint of colour", these bad boys still pack a punch when it comes to pigmentation. Again, I have yet to test them for wear, but I couldn't resist seeing how the darker shade (Blueberry) looked on my lips - I felt as though this would be a step outside of my comfort zone but I'm glad I went for it, it looks amazeballs.

Pics:

Lip Mist - 206 Blueberry

Lip Velvet - 310 Military Red

Lip Mist - 212 Nude Peach

Lip Velvet - 302 Peony Rose

L-R: Lip Velvets in Peony Rose, Military Red; Lip Mists in Nude Peach, Blueberry

Burberry cosmetics are available directly through their UK website at £22.50 each, or over the counter at Selfridges/Harvey Nichols, if you're lucky enough to have one near you.

Has anyone tried the Burberry cosmetics ranges? Anything you recommend that I try? I essentially just want you to validate my incessant need to spend money on shiny, pretty things.

Jen
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