Vanilla Eyes Eyes Baby

*Takes a moment to appreciate her lyrical genius*

I'm always buying eye cream in an attempt to find one which does EVERYTHING..by which I mean prevents wrinkles, tackles current ones, leaves my eye area feeling smooth and hydrated and a little bit brighter.

I've been using this baby and have also reviewed it here.

Then I decided to buy the Boots Vitamin E Gentle Eye Cream hoping that it wouldn't contain glitter..it doesn't!

What follows is my experience (never let it be said that I'm one to be overly dramatic).

I've had a chequered past with eyecreams, ever since Glittergate.  I now know to swatch eye creams instore before buying them.

On my first use I noticed how easily it sank into the eye area and how it brightened the area right on up without having any horrible glittery bits.  I found that the Superdrug Natural High Brightening eye cream had a slight bit of purple in it which would be the brightening element.  The Boots Vitamin E does not have this purple tinge but it still brightens the eye area.  I'd go as far to say that it diminishes dark circles as I used it when I wasn't sleeping properly and within a week, the dark circles were gone.  I'm not sure it would work if you have super dark circles but it's great for when you're not getting enough sleep and don't have a heavy duty concealer to use.

The cream is not watery thin, nor is it really thick.  It's kind of in the middle and I find that it's perfect consistency for patting in, it sinks in quickly.

It has no smell which is good because your eyes and nose are surprisingly close together when it comes to smelling eye creams.

I love the way in which it moisturises the eye area and leaves it feeling soft for the whole day.

I also feel that my under eye area is looking smoother and more plumped up.

For some reason, my eye area got really dry in the summer and this cream came to my rescue but it wasn't an instant moisture giver, I had to use it for about a week or so before the moisture was back.

Considering the fact that it cost me about £2.50, I'd deffo suggest buying it if you suffer from the ailments I've mentioned.  Plus, it will be my go-to eye cream for the winter.

The Body Shop Summer 2010

This summer, The Body Shop are making some changes and welcoming some noobs to the vast range of products they sell.

Alongside additions to their Vitamin C skincare line and the reinvention of their haircare line, they are  releasing the brand spanking new Baked to Last and Delipscious collections.

I was invited to a bloggers event this past Friday to check out the products.

Me and Karleigh decided to meet up at the station and get to the hotel together..we got there about 20 minutes too early and stood outside discussing Dolly Parton.  Yeah, I know you wish you were cool like us.

We ventured inside and were greeted by the lovely Headstream and Body Shop ladies.  We were whisked out onto the veranda where it was really nice and cool (I mean weatherwise but it still pretty cool checking out the London skyline, despite the million and one cranes dotted around the place).

We were supping our orange juices (can you sup cold things?) and discussing our favourite old school Body Shop bits.  I seem to be the only person who doesn't get on with the banana conditioner but we all seem to love the ice blue shampoo.

The haircare range.

The range is now more benefits led as opposed to ingredients led as it's easier to decipher the benefits of a shampoo which says "shine" on the bottle as opposed to "olive".  The products are now also free of silicones, parabens and colourants. 

The hair butters are what excited me the most as you know by now that I love deep conditioning my hair.  It smells heavenly, looks very thick but feels light..

The Vitamin C range.
Keep your peepers peeled for a microdermabrasion scrub, an eye roll on/brightener combo and a skin radiance powder mix.  The skin radiance powder is, according to me, a skincare renegade as I have never ever seen anything like it in the shops before.

The bottles at the bottom left of the screen are both the powder mix.  You push the white button down, this releases Vitamin C powder into the liquid.  Give it a good shake, take off the white part and fix on the orange pipette thingy.  You're meant to use it immediately for 10 days and it promises to perk your skin right up.

The Baked to Last collection.
We were then introduced to Chase Aston (who I wanted to take home with me) and he introduced the Baked to Last collection and showed how to use the products and take your look from day to night.

The collection consists of baked eyeshadows, blushers and a highlighters.

The Delipscious lip collection.
Apparently, an average woman eats about 281 lipsticks in her entire life..which is why I was glad to find out that the Delipcious lippies were made from 100% food extract.  They're very lightweight and the amount of pigment is just perfect for summer.

Then it was cupcake time! I was going to make my way over to them but got waylaid talking to Chase as I had a million and one makeup questions to ask him.  He applied one of the baked shadows on my eyelids and they looked fantastic..I would never have used pink/red/black on my skintone but the colours worked really well.  I totally forgot to take a photo of them though..

We took our seats and were told about The Body Shop's latest charity partnership.  The Body Shop have teamed up with Epcat..which I won't discuss here but there will be a post up about in the very near future but I will say that if you buy the Soft Hands Kind Heart handcream, £3.45 will go towards preventing child trafficking to the UK.

The Swatch Files: L'oreal Glam Bronze Bronzer and Blusher for Brunettes

I love the fact that L'oreal have made a range of products which have shades depending on your hair colour because I think that usually ties in with the colour of your skin..

Anyway, now that it's summer time, I feel it adequate to finally post this!

It works perfectly on my skin both as a blusher on its own and swirled together.  I seldom use it as a bronzer because I'm not au fait with bronzer usage.

Encounters with Epilators

This instrument of torture was purchased by my dad about 3/4 years ago..I couldn't find it anywhere so I sent Father Bear out on a mission and he found it.


I use it very sporadically.  The last time I used it was January 2008.

I decided this past weekend that it was time to get my skin ready for the summer..this is why he made an appearance.  During the winter months, he lives in the back of a drawer.

The main reason for using it so rarely is the fact that I'm a wimp.  When this thing starts, it makes a crunchy whirring noise which just scares me..then I don't want to put it against my skin because good things come in peace (aliens and the like).

However, once I get it going, it's not that bad. It hurts around my ankles because the skin is thinner there and I find that if you stretch your skin by where you're epilating, it really reduces the pain.

It's important to actually read the instructions and do as it says.  It says to hold it at a right angle against your skin and move it around in small circles.  It hurt me the first time I used it because I used it in the same manner as a razor which pulled the hair from the end and not nearer the tip.

It removes a lot of hair which is something you don't actually realise until you clean it out.  This one also comes with a razor attachment which I haven't used because I prefer old school razors.

The only problem with this one is that the battery depletes itself quite quickly BUT you can use it whilst it charges which is good but the lead might get in the way.

If epilators scare you too because you're a bit worried about them pulling your hair out then panic not! Use them as the instructions say and your legs will be hair free for a lot longer than if you shave.

Does anyone else epilate? I think epilators are a bit like the MiniDisc of hair removal..all set to the biggest thing after razors (Walkman) but then quickly got overlooked by waxing and laser (iPod)..

(I still have my MiniDisc player languishing, funnily enough, in the same drawer as the epilator).

What are you playing at Clarins?!

I got the Clarins coffret for Xmas and I used up the handcream as I really liked it.  I decided to buy it again because it lasted ages and was pretty good.

Well, check out this brand new bottle of their handcream:

That's a 100 ml bottle..with 50ml of handcream in there..

I haven't been back to the counter to return it because I've misplaced the receipt but even still, that is ridiculous.

I haven't used ANY of it and it's nearly half empty? I know that when you buy cream products like this that they aren't full right to the top but nigh on half full is taking the biscuit!

I don't know if this is just how much Clarins fill their bottles..if it is then I'm sure you're not allowed to say it's a certain measurement when you're clearly selling a great deal less than that amount.  If it's a mistake/bad bunch then that's also just as bad because you'd think that a high end brand like Clarins would have a decent quality control set up going on.

PURE makeup

I went to the 99p shop the other day to get some cleaning bits but as per usual, was waylaid by other things they were selling.

I was looking for nose pore strips (my current ones have finished..I'm not a freak who hoards them) and I came across PURE makeup.  This used to be sold in Boots and Debenhams and it wasn't really a High Street brand..but then again, I don't think it was high end? Anyway, the lipsticks used to be £8.  Boots and Debenhams discontinued them.  I wish I had gotten to the 99p shop earlier because I really wanted their palettes but they only had lipsticks, lip glosses, powders and kajals when I got there.

I really like the packaging, very sleek and the print on it grabbed my eye too.  The bullet of the lipstick is kinda angular and reminded me of Kryten from Red Dwarf.

It was pretty difficult to choose a colour which I thought would suit my lips..the genius in me must have been dormant because I didn't realise that the colouring behind the shade was indicitative of the lipstick colour until a lady who was also choosing a lippy told me.  Anyway, I picked Rose Seduction and Iridescent Rose..the former is the one which features here.

It was quite hard to work the colour onto the lips, this is about three coats and as you can see..it looks ok.

 

All in all, I'm glad I didn't buy the lipsticks at full price because they aren't worth it at all.  I wore this for a day and then wore the Iridescent Rose the day after.  They dried my lips out terribly so if you've got dry lips then give them a miss.  If you've got super moisturised lips then you will need to up your lip balm dosage after using these.  Iridescent Rose is a funny old lipstick too, it's far more drying than this one and it really gives your lips an iridescent look, you get pink with gold gliter over the top.  I'm trying to be helpful here and suggest where you could wear it but nothing is coming to mind..I suppose an Indian wedding but with gloss over it? Or you could mix it with another lipstick..put the IR on the centre part of your lower lip to highlight it and then blend in your other lipstick.

An Indian nose pore mask

My nose pore strips all ran out so I decided to have a looksy on eBay and see what they had because I still think I could be using a more powerful one..I just can't bring myeslf to believing that my nose is not as congested as I first thought.

Anyway, I was searching away and saw this product that I KNEW was from the Indian shop so I rang mi madre and she was adamant that she had it so I appropriated it when I went to see her.

I like the fact that it comes as a powder so that you can use as much as you want and you can also fiddle with the quantities until you get the perfect consistency needed for your skin type.

It doesn't peel off but it flakes which I thought was good because sometimes you get those that flake off but get stuck under your nails when you're flaking them.  You only need a very thin layer and it dries within minutes which is brilliant.

I went OTT because I put too much powder in, you need a teensy bit of powder and some water to form a nice, thick paste and away you go.  I still have tonnes of the powder left, I'd say I used about 5% and even that was way too much.

This is way too thick as you can see, next time I'm going to be a lot stingier with water and powder.  And yes, the photos were necessary!

I like this product because it makes my skin really smooth but I think I'll use i t more for my forehead than for my nose.

I'm looking for a good peel off mask so if you know of one, leave a comment or tell me on Twitter!

The Swatch Files: Revlon Colorburst Lipsticks

These babies were released yesterday in the good old UK and the ones featured here came to me directly from Revlon HQ.

I tried to get an artsy shot in here a la this lady but er..you can judge the effort for yourself.

I picked them up this morning and although this is a Swatch Files post, it comes with rambling..I haven't had a chance to trial them to my usual extent so here are my first thoughts about them:

• I love the packaging, it reminds me of packaging that the high end brands tend to favour, it's nice and sleek.
• I'm also suitably impressed with the embossing on the bullet, I'm sure that Chanel used to do this..I can't remember if they still do but anyway..it looks pretty bitchin'
• When you first put the lipstick on your lips, it follows the outline of your lower lip..smack your lips together and it transfers to the top lip..it's easy to fill in your lips and you get a natural looking lip coat.  It's like a lipstick for noobs which suits me perfectly.  I think this is BRILLIANT and if Revlon did it on purpose then they should deffo use this in their marketing because I'd snap up a lipstick that made application a doddle.  If it's totally by accident then they should stick with this bullet design
• My lips are not the same colour, one is darker than the other..which is something quite common for ladies of a darker skin tone..this lipstick manages to make both lips look the same colour which is something I always want from a lipstick
• They're nice and moisturising, I've had one colour on all morning and it hasn't dried my lips out.
• They last for a long time too..once again, I've had this colour on all morning and have eaten a fair bit and it's still going strong!

I'm quite glad I got the chance to swatch these as I find that there is a lack of swatches on Indian skin online, anyway..

Le swatches!

I've edited the pics so that they're as close to real life as possible which is why my skin is different colours in some of them. Also, I just noticed how the camera gets closer to my lips as the swatches diminish, as you can see, form and order aren't words I'm familiar with.

If you want some "on the skin" swatches, Charlotte's got all over them over on her blog.

Revlon Colorburst are on sale now in Boots, they're currently on full price but Boots do have a 3 for 2 dealy on.