Review: L'oreal Telescopic Explosion mascara

Firstly, I’d just like to say that this month has been VERY review heavy on my behalf and there haven’t been near as many FOTD’s from me as I would have hoped. This is all going to change next month as I’m embarking on my face chart mission and I will be putting up at least ONE face a week from the Urban Decay face charts.

Now with the review..

This is going to be a really quick post about this mascara which I’m sure everyone has seen or at least heard of. I originally bought this mascara on the way home from work one day and then decided to return it as I saw and broke a tester model. In my defence I just touched it and the head rolled off.

That’s enough of my criminal damage antics for now...I returned that mascara and bought two Prestige ones which have been reviewed here already.

Fast forward a good few months and I find I’ve won a L'oreal goody bag which contains the aforementioned mascara.

I decided to test it out today and the result are not good.

The pictures will help me explain the point a bit better:

The tubing:

Many apologies for the cackhanded photo, not too sure what happened there. The tube is quite nice in that the shape is conical in nature and I like that, looks like it's eyeliner instead of mascara.

The brush:

I liked this because if you just use the tip, you get no mess on your lids. Be warned though, if ANY part of the brush which has the big black square around it, touches your lashes, it's clump city..

The eyes:

It looks as if the mascara has smeared my lids a bit but sadly that's not the case and my lids look like that naturally, boo! I swear I'm the only one who suffers from that ailment in the whole word.

Good points

The colour is a nice shiny black, it's the colour the Stiletto promised it would be

The lengthening effect is palpable, it's one of the best lengthening ones I've used

It's very easy to use, for those of you who get messy eyelids from conventional mascaras, this is a god send as it didn't mess my lids up at all

Bad points

Only lengthens and I want thickening so I may layer it up

It doesn't get into the roots AT ALL, the way you see my lash roots is the way they are without the mascara

Getting anything other than the tip on your lashes causes clumping and makes the mascara apply unevenly

Lashes feel very hard and clumpy

Purchase?

I don’t think I will buy this as I don’t really look for lengthening mascaras on their own, I have to say that I am quite impressed with how long they looked in the mirror but it’s still a no as it’s rather pricey for me. If it was about £4.00 then I would buy it but I wouldn’t spend £8.80 on it. If you want a purely lengthening mascara then you won’t be sorry buying this one as it does do that. Also, the packaging mentions fanned out lashes, this mascara gives you this so if you want wide looking eyes then purchase it. I, however, am fine with what I have, I think I may team it up with a thickening mascara and see what becomes of it.

Face charts/How to get the look

I never knew how people managed to emulate the makeup looks from collections by companies until I was made aware of these magical things called face charts. Now I've been on Specktra for a little while now and I always see people produce knockout looks and I was bemused as to how some of these people achieved them. That's not saying that everyone relies on face charts, many of the stellar looks I've seen are based on pure imagination.

Face charts are illustrated beautifully by the face chart link up there, they are basically a drawing of a face "coloured in" with products which have been used to achieve a certain look. Now face charts are well known to people who love makeup and do a lot of FOTD's etc but outside of that world I don't think many people know they exist. I only found out they existed when I saw them on Specktra and I was amazed by them.

I've decided to do a series of FOTD's which are directly copied from looks championed by Urban Decay. I found the face charts for the looks on Sara's magnificent blog (thanks Sara!) and I have saved them onto my desktop.

The first look which I intend on doing is this one because I LOVE the intensity of the colour and now I know how to get it so watch out for it.

I hope the look turn out ok and that I manage to translate the looks over successfully to Indian skin so that other women of colour are able to copy the looks as well.

It will be quite a challenge as I have forgotten my Box of Shadows II at my parents' house and have only three shades with me here (Foxy, Chopper and Illegal) so I will be doing the look with dupes and hopefully it will work out ok, fingers crossed!

It appears that the face chart link above doesn't let you click on it so I've uploaded these:

Review: Skin Softeners: Anatomical's Help the Paw handcream and Badger Balm Ginger and Lemon Bodybalm

I've been a handcream fiend for the past few years and I'm always trying to find the best out there. I've tried Johnsons, Champneys, Dr Hauschka and now finally Anatomicals.

I found this gorgeous bottle in John Lewis and decided to buy three of them as they were priced (individually) at £1.95 and there was the small fact that they smelt like sweets.

I've never really had super dry hands but my hands do feel a bit tight after I wash my hair because nothing in South London is soft and the water too followed suit.

I've been using this cream for a week or so and it keeps my hands really well hydrated, a tiny tiny bit goes a long way. By the way, what's the best way to moisturise your hands? I saw on QVC once that it was to moisturise the non palm (sorry, can't think what that bit is called!) first and then the palm? I do it reversly..

I'd recommend it to anyone, it does the job and was relatively cheap.

So, here's the product:


I love the spiel they have on their boxes, it really makes me laugh. Their company tagline is what really gets me because it's so true, they do only want me for my body (join the queue!)

Repurchase?
I would buy this again and again, it's on par with my HG hand cream (Dr Hauschka) and it costs less than £2 but on the website is priced at £4 and delivery is about £4 too. I'm going to use it a bit more before I decide whether I'd spend £8 on it as Dr Hauschka lasted me 6 months though the tube did break.

The next product is Badger Balm. I've had this for quite some time and I'm recently trying to clear out my makeup/skincare stuff so I decided to use this. You can buy this in Boots for about £5 but I got it from my local chemist for £1.

The tin looks like this:

The product itself looks like this:
I used to use this on my lips when I had a sore throat and as the ginger and lemon smell is quite potent, it cleared me up.

I wasn't sure if it would work as a balm to soften skin so I decided to test it on the roughest knees I knew, my brother. I say "knew" because after one application, his knees are no longer as hard as they were. Before his knees were like a grater, it would hurt to touch them but now it's a lot softer. He really slathered it on his knees and then washed it off because he couldn't stand the smell but even after having it on for about 10 mins and washing if off made a difference so I can only imagine the difference it would make if you kept it on until it soaked its way in.

I can't really say anything about buying this again but if you have/know someone who has really rough skin then I would recommend it to you as it really works and you don't have to use a lot to get results. Also, if you get a really rough red nose when you have a cold/flu then this will work a charm, it soothes the redness and clears you up.

Everyone’s a winner baby, that’s the truth, yes, the truth

Today I get home and this is waiting for me (all pics are clickable, the ones with a really small watermark open up pretty big):






I open it and find:

• Wrinkle Decrease Collagen Filler

• Colour Minerals Eyeshadow in shade 3

• Telescopic Explosion mascara

• Glam Bronze (blusher and bronzer in one)

• Visible Lift Foundation in Porcelain

• Age Perfect Intensive Reinforcing Serum

• Revitalift Face Contours and Neck Face Cream

• Infallible Longwear Lip Duo Compact

• 
  
  
  Color Riche in Sweet Tea (I think this is the Lip Gelee)

I didn't even remember entering this competition, the last time I went on the website was a good few months ago to check some hair colour for my mum! I've been on speed since finding this box. There was a little note which said if you have any questions to ring the agency which I plan on doing tomorrow as I'd like to test the foundation but in a shade which is closer to my skin colour, is that a rude thing to do? I've sent L'oreal a gushing email about how happy they've made me and that I plan to review the products on my blog, not so that they send me more free stuff but just because I feel that's kinda the least I can after getting so much for free. Rest assured that I will provide you with honest reviews.

HTML I finally welcome thee to my bosom

Just a really quick post to say that eep! I finally understand how to tinker with the HTML on here. I have nobody to thank for this apart from the man himself who decided last night to teach me so over the many phonecalls that (temporary) long distance lovers make there was one rather steamy conversation about how HTML can change the way something looks and how you can change it.

That's all really, apart from the fact that I miss him as if he was a part of my body which has been amputated and secondly that I'm going to spend a while finding a background that I quite like.

EOTD: 1

I know I've practically killed you guys with blog posts today but this is the last one for today, I promise.

I was going for a natural/she's wearing makeup but doesn't look like a clown look and this is what I got..

Firstly, the products I used:

For eyeshadow, I used the top shade on the left hand side.

• 17 Bronzed and Gorgeous Summer Glow Kit
• Maybelline Colossal mascara in Black
  
• Rimmel Magic Eyes pencil in Magic Black (not pictured because I forgot)
• UDPP
• Stila All Over Shimmer in shade 7

Brushes I used:

• No7 Eye Colour Brush
• No7 Eyeshadow Blend and Contour Brush
• UDPP wand

As an aside, I'd been having a bit of trouble recently applying UDPP with my fingers, you know when you get too good at something and you boob it up? That's what had happened so I dug out the wand and used that today and then blended with my fingers, it worked a charm.

An open and shut case:



Open for business:

Closed to visitors:

I kept my lips bare so I don't think they warranted a photo.

This is a basic FOTD but I feel I should point some things out. Mainly the quality of products which are cheap/free. I got the brushes for £2 total by using my Boots vouchers, those of you who know me know that I have been banging on about how great Ruby and Millie brushes are for years. Well they pale in comparison to these No7 ones, the No7 ones are, in short BRILLIANT, here's a quick review:

• Very easy to hold brushes, the actual brush on the contour could be a bit smaller but that's me being picky
• Nice and smooth barrels
• Brush head picks up a lot of colour and translates it on over to your eyelid
• Both brushes make blending a doddle, even for novices like me
• The brush heads are super smooth, not at all scratchy, I ragged them on my lids and didn't feel a thing.
• I like them but there was a time (about 5 weeks ago?) when I was loving Ruby and Millie brushes so maybe I should feel up some MAC brushes before I get too content!

Regarding the palette from 17, WHAT A SURPRISE! I have never really used 17 shadows before as the colours didn't really appeal to me (I'm like a magpie for the sparkly shadows) but this palette has a sparkly shade in it which I love, I used it today, super super easy to blend and it looks really nice. I will be using this as my everyday shade from now on!

Thanks for reading!

Holy Grail Haircare

A while ago I made this thread:
http://makeuptrialsandtribulations.blogspot.com/2009/08/all-my-hg-productsever.html
about my HG face care products. This is the follow up one for haircare.

This is my HG shampoo, Revlon Flex Clarifying shampoo:

I found this badboy in Poundland. I wasn't expecting much from this shampoo on its own. Let me explain. Washing my hair is a ritual which starts with me oiling my hair up with the desi oil a la mode. That stays on for about an hour and then I wash my hair with clarifying shampoo (usually Pantene) to get the oil out and then a moisturising shampoo which is featured below this one.

I used this and it left me with, for the first time ever, LOVELY NO FIRZZ CURLS! I thought it might be a fluke but every time I used this, it gave me the same result.

Imagine my heartbreak when I went back to buy some more and it wasn't there. I tried for months on end and never found it. This was until last week when upon a random trip to the 99p store (which seem to be eating up all the old Woollies) when I saw my baby on the shelf. I ended up buying 7 bottles for less than £7.

My second HG shampoo is Herbal Essences None of your Frizzness:
I love this shampoo, it smells gorgeous and it makes my hair feel clean and the curls are well looked after.

My hair is currently short but when it's longer I use Aussie Luscious Long shampoo:
It's hard to look after long hair but this badboy manages to make the whole length of the hair look like it's of the same health, you know what I mean. When your hair grows to a certain length and you haven't had it trimmed as often as you should, this shampoo doesn't give you fluffy ends, it makes the whole shaft (I feel so dirty typing that hehe) look and feel nice, healthy and soft like it has been freshly trimmed.

My HG shampoos mainly concentrate on giving me curly hair without frizz as that is easier to straighten. Conditioners are a whole different ball game, depending on the end result I want from my hair I use different conditioners.

Conditioners for when I want straight, soft hair:
Aussie 3 Minute Luscious Long Deep Treatment:
In my world, deep conditioning happens before I wash my hair and not after. I use this when I want sexy smooth hair and I have the time to hang around. Unlike the shampoo I use this all the time, regardless of the length of my hair.

When I don't have the time I use L'Oreal Elvive Nutri-Gloss:
Smells nice and it doesn't weigh your hair down and you get noticeable shine for a low price. The thing I love about this is the fact that the more you use it, the shinier your hair gets which doesn't happen to me with a lot of shine inducing conditioners. I used to use Umberto Gianini before and that paled in shine after the second wash. This makes your hair really soft and shiny but it also leaves your hair feeling thick which a lot of shine shampoos don't do, basically it doesn't weigh your hair down to give you shine.

When I want curly hair I use Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Frizz Remedy Deep Treatment:
This gives me salon hair, it looks as if I have had it curled professionally and no matter how I touch it or sleep on it, I wake up with lovely curls. I've got a photo of how this conditioner makes my hair look, when I find it I will post it up.

I haven't added photos of my desi oils which I use but if anyone wants to know then I can do another post about them too.

We move swiftly onto styling stuff.

I will do curly hair first seeing as I only use two products on it, very easy to style (yay!).

I use these two interchangeably on both wet and dry hair and they don't weigh it down or make it look greasy, I get really nice, bouncy, salon made curls. These two products are the only high end ones I use and even then they aren't too pricey.

L'Oreal Tecni-Art Natural Liss:

This smells like watermelons and is very watery in its consistency but it is nothing like water as it actually controls the curls but leaves them soft, no crunchy feeling. RESULT.

L'Oreal Tecni-Art Liss Control:
As above but not so much watermelon-y in smell, it's another leave in conditioner but I find it a bit heavy so I either use a tiny bit or use it as a wash out conditioner.

For straight hair I use:
I'm heavy handed when it comes to spraying these types of products on and I love this one as it lasts me well over a year even with my heavy hand and if you apply too much it doesn't show and it won't weigh your hair down at all and it's cheap. Ticks all boxes.

After straightening, depending on how my hair looks I will use one of these two:
John Frieda Secret Agent:
If for some reason I'm having a bad hair day and my hair isn't as smooth as it could be I use a tiny tiny bit of this and it smooths everything down and is well worth the money. I have one tube which I have been using for three years and only now is it semi empty. I really like the name because it is like a secret agent, you can't tell it's there but it makes a great deal of difference and a tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny bit goes a long long way.

If my hair has behaved and I want some extra shine and softness, I use Pantene Smooth and Sleek Serum:
I have been using this religiously recently and it still looks full, a tiny tiny tiny bit covers all my hair and it smells nice too.

All photos from Google.

And there we have my HG haircare products, next is makeup!

Review: MAC paint pot in Indianwood

I bought this from a seller on Specktra for the grand sum of £6 and I fell in love with it the day it came through the post. I was itching to try it on that very day but when your brows are growing out the last thing you want to do is bring attention to them.

I applied some UDPP and then the paintpot on top of it and I must say that the jury is still out. On one hand the colour is gorgeous and it looks really nice IRL but in the photographs I took it looks like it has settled into my eye creases. My current HG neutral shade is Heather Mauve Shimmer Wash by Bobbi Brown but with that you can still see my natural lid colour peaking through but I've only tried it without UDPP so it might be different with it.

Application is a bit tricky if you're a noob like me. Firstly, it's a solidy wet eyeshadow and so a normal eyeshadow brush won't do much. I was advised to use a stiff MAC brush but the only stiff brush I have is a Bobbi Brown eyeliner brush so I used that and it worked out pretty ok. The brush became really soft with the product on it so I may retry with the new brush and see if that holds up. I've been out and bought a stiff brush from Boots with my money off voucher and it works pretty well, it's a dupe for a Bobbi Brown brush so look out for a post on that soon.

The only issue I had was that it applied a bit unevenly but that's easy to fix, just swipe the colour more one way with the first bit of colour you put on and the other way with the second bit of colour.

Here's the picturey part:

Both eyes:
This is how my eyes look IRL if you were to see me.

Individuals:
As you can see I should have dragged out the application on both lids but I didn't' but at least they look uniform in that respect. The paint pot creased with UDPP under it but I think that can be solved by applying a bit more UDPP. As I said, IRL you can't tell the difference and the colour is a really nice subtle shimmer improvement on my lids.

Repurchase?
I would rebuy this but I think this pot will take ages to use up as it's not a powder and non powders take me longer to use, I've used to crap out of my Bobbi Brown gel liner and there's still tonnes left in it. The problem of creasing can be solved by using more UDPP and application will improve with the new brush I have.

On another note, there won't be as many blog updates coming from me in the future as I'm back at work now and I have two major cases to work on, both have been in the news recently and my line of work doesn't let me say the name of the companies but those of you who know what I do will soon be able to figure it out.

My next review will be on anatomicals, a range I've wanted to try for ages :)